HF AERO VOICE LOGS Dec 24

 Hi all,

Selection of December aero logs:

  

Air Ocean Maroc Challenger 604 heard in West Africa en-route from Ouagadougou to Rabat 

8891.0 Bodo, USB wkg Emirates 30Y over Svalbard at 00 long QSY Iceland 8864 (18DEC24 0753) (AJT)

4675.0 Iceland, USB wkg Iceair 623 checking in at 30W (17DEC24 1817) (AJT)

8861.0 Dakar, USB wkg TAM8070 with level change (16DEC24 0703) (AJT)

8894.0 Nouakchott, USB wkg Air Ocean Maroc Challenger 604 QSY 133.0 (16DEC24 0701) (AJT)

8894.0 Algiers, USB wkg Turkish 538 crossing Algierian border next 123.8 (14DEC24 0650) (AJT)

8894.0 Algiers, USB wkg Algerian Air Force IL76 7T-WIQ upon departure (02DEC24 0745) (AJT)

Location: Dawlish, UK

50.5823N 3.4644W

Tecsun PL660 and telescopic whip 

The Algerian and South Atlantic voice tfc can be silent for days, and then suddenly propagation conditions open up and it is quite active for a few hours or days. Still no LDOC traffic for months and months, aside from Stockholm. I've been monitoring my last known active freqs for Saudi Ops and Iberia amongst others, but can only presume LDOC voice is really infrequently used these days. I'll keep at it and post anything of interest. Thks. 73 Adam 

 

Russian Vega VEF-206 repair

Radio working perfectly again

  

I have a Russian Vega VEF-206, bought a few years online for the nostalgia of once again owning the first shortwave set I ever bought as a boy in 1983/4 from a local electronics shop in my hometown of Callington. Reception and audio quality is superb. And so when it recently developed intermittent very low audio and signal levels which could be remedied by a gentle slap on her head (!)  I eventually discovered this solder joint that had come away from the PCB. I have just resoldered it and she is working as good as new again. 

I thought at first it was a component failure, but after posting a question on the UK Vintage Radio Repair forum and needing to more carefully clarify the symptoms, I discovered the intermittent nature of the fault. So as well as a small degree of technical skill and patience which I learnt in abundance over the few years it took me to eventually get my vintage Swinburne CR600 airband scanner working, this weekend I have also discovered that carefully clarifying the symptoms is also key. 

But more than any of these things, I have learnt that without the help and kindness of other people us beginner repairers would be lost. Not sure it would have been possible in the pre-internet days to ask for and receive help and guidance from technical experts and other hobbyists and enthusiasts from around the world. So if I'm ever tempted to think ill of the internet and complain about the time it wastes and how we'd be happier without it, I shall remember this!

I actually sent my airband scanner from Swinburne Electronics, a 6-channel, crystal-controlled scanner from the 1980s, off to several "professional" repairers advertising their services online. At huge expense. One even charged me £50 just to tell me it was completely broken and no longer repairable due to the age of parts! Can you believe it. You pay to send it off, you pay to have them look at it, you pay to have the *hopeless radio" returned. And then....... with the kindness and patience of other people who offer their services for nothing, you work on it together over the months until it is fixed and working just as it did when your parents first bought it for you, some 40 years previously. Some of these "repair" people ought to be ashamed of themselves. But of course, none of it is regulated. 

No wonder so many of our belongings end up in landfill and few people get anything repaired.

I'll post a video of my own VEF-206 radio receiving a shortwave station in the next few days.