MARCH WEATHER IN JUNE

48F and 8C during a late May morning = cold!

Right now, as I type this, it's about 50F / 10C outside. Although that temperature is warmer than 30 or 40F, it feels cold for this time of year.

It is early morning, and it's raining. In fact, it's been raining for the past 24 hours. It was raining yesterday, and the days before that have been grey skies, with mostly rain. Generally, we get a lot of weather like this in March and April. In fact, there have been years this is typical March weather.

Not this year -- not by a stretch. Although it's mid June, it feels like March or early April.

A local flowerbed with some bright, beautiful daisies. Some gardens have quite a few flowers, others not so much. And with fuel prices going up, up, up, a lot of folks are cutting back on landscaping.

TREES AND FLOWERS WERE LATE

The trees were about two weeks late in leafing out on the nearby hills, as I have stated in previous blog articles here. But not only have the trees been late, the flowering bushes are about a month late. Where I used to see rhododendron bushes full of beautiful blossoms of all colors in mid-May, it's already June and what little blooms there have been seemed mediocre at best.

I am including some pics I took a couple weeks ago during a morning bike ride, of some of the flowering bushes alongside some of the streets. If you look at previous blog posts from 2016 and before, you'll see that some of the same bushes were loaded with blooms, and the weather was sunnier. But the past couple years we've had cold Springs, and the plants are growing differently.

A local bed of iris flowers. Some people in the area have said their irises don't have many blooms, because of the cold Spring. This gardener's irises seem to have done well, though.

And, like the trees on the hills, they all seem to be two to three weeks late -- late in leafing out, and late in blooming as well. Some local people who are really into growing flowers have commented online about their irises not developing many blooms.

In past years, the frogs would be croaking and chirruping in the ponds in March. I didn't hear them this year until some time in mid to late April.

The nearby Trestle's Frog Pond, which used to have a lot more frogs croaking earlier in the Spring. This year they were late in croaking and chirruping, and even now, in late June as I write this caption, there are a few frogs that chirp at night in a pond closer to my house.

It's been weird weather this year in the NW US, at least in my little sector of it, and I don't know if it's part of a greater trend, or just an anomaly. In the Eastern part of my state, which is desert-like and usually dry and brown by Summer time, it's green and wetter than normal.

So, we've had an odd year for weather so far, starting back in October.

The irony is that while we here in the NW US have had about six months of mostly rainy weather, they really need the rain in the Southwestern US, where there has been drought for the last 3-4 years or more. Large reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead are down by over 100 feet, and agriculture depends on that water.

In the Southwest they need the rain even more than we would need it here. California, Nevada, and Arizona in particular depend on water for agriculture as well as for drinking and other uses. But the Colorado River, which supplies most of it, is slowly drying up. In parts of Northern Cal the reservoirs are even lower than they are in the Colorado River system.

The United States gets much of its food from California and Arizona in particular. They could use the rain we are getting. Unfortunately, that is out of our control.

Memorial Day was just about a month ago, the last weekend in May. When I was a kid we used to go to the cemeteries and put flowers on the graves of relatives, but people don't generally do that anymore. I haven't visited the grave of my dad (or mom) in ages. Too many memories. I put my flags out, though. They brighten up the otherwise grey weather, and look nice on those holidays when it's sunny out.

So, it seems that Global Warming isn't really kicking in here in my section of the world. In fact, as I type this -- even though it is presently mid-June -- I have the heater on. Because it is cold.

Otherwise, life has been pretty much the same. I have been sleeping a lot -- I had to take care of a relative just over a year ago and I wasn't getting much, if any, sleep. I am making up for it, I guess. I work, I write, I practice my guitar work, I work out with dumbbells, I ride my bike, I make sure I pet my cats every day, too.

Someone's Rhododendron that I've photographed in years past. This year it bloomed OK, but wasn't as bright looking with flowers as it was 5 or 6 years ago when I used to take photographs of it for this blog. I think the cold Springs we've been having are at least partly the reason.

DXing (long distance listening to MW and SW radio) has been mostly el-dullo the past couple of weeks. We're entering the summer doldrums for MW DXing and SW has been iffy since 2017. For a while I thought the San Diego / Tijuana region station XEPE 1700 had gone off the air. It usually is decently audible at night. In 2012 and 2013 I was able to hear it during late mornings, sometimes as late as 11 a.m. here, playing ESPN.

For two or three weeks I heard nothing but Mexican Ranchero music on 1700 Khz at night -- and sometimes just a hint of talk or music buried in the static. The ranchero station is probably a station in the Fort Worth area of Texas. Finally, two nights ago, XEPE reappeared! They play a lot of 80's pop music at night -- including a lot of rare gems, and frequently ID with the phrase "Heraldo Radio" -- which is the network that now seems to own XEPE. Around 5 a.m. or so local Pacific time they switch to talk, in Spanish, as they relay a station out of Mexico City.

It was nice hearing them again.

Lately most of my SW listening has been to my Grundig G2, off the whip. Sometimes if I place the end of my indoor wire antenna beneath it, it adds a little ot the signal. Other times -- not so much.

Early morning DXing on SW has been variable. I have had some mornings where I've heard broadcasts to Africa, and other mornings where I've heard different broadcasts to and from Asia, including jammers. Other mornings? Mostly static and traces of China's CNR-1, their national, powerful broadcaster which is also used to jam some broadcasts beamed towards that country.

Most of my SW DXing has been in the 31 and 25 Meter Bands, as those bands seem to have more promise for me to hear something from Asia, Africa and deeper in South America.

I have been hearing a bit more activity on the Shortwave bands, so perhaps the sunspots are indeed picking up a bit. The new Solar Cycle #25 is set to peak in about three to four years, so it should be improving the Shortwave and Medium Wave propagation. Time will tell how well it improves. :-)

A STORE CLOSES, AND AN ERA PASSES

The Cedar River Market, a small roadside store that stayed in business for over 60 years.

I'll end this article with a pic of a small, roadside neighborhood store which recently closed down. The owner, whose father ran it for years, apparently retired and her kids either couldn't or didn't want to take it over. It's always sad when a neighborhood store closes. This store had a lot of canned food, a small produce section, and some dry goods. They also had pop and beer. And there was a popcorn machine near the front door, and the popcorn was good, as well as inexpensive (a big bag for a dime or quarter).

A lot of kids in the area used to ride their bikes down to the store to get candy or soda-pop. I met people out front who either had just bought something there, or re-met old friends who stopped in when I happened to stop by to get something. It was the closest thing to a business district in the three mile stretch of valley where it was located.

I bought my first can of beer at this store -- a golden colored can of Tooth's KB Lager, an Australian beer that you can't get here anymore. It was still the best tasting beer I ever drank, and although I quit drinking alcohol in 2011, I was mainly a beer drinker when it came to alcohol, and the Aussies definitely know how to brew beer. :-)

The store closing is another case of the economy hitting the little guy hard. This store survived for more than 60 years before it finally shut down. I imagine the land is worth as much as the store was, when it closed. With property taxes and business taxes, it's not easy for these small operations to stay afloat. Another store closer to town is still operating, as it is right next to a massive apartment complex where a lot of single people live, so it probably stays in business for that reason alone.

They call this part of "progress". I'm not so sure that disappearing "mom and pop" stores is progress, but it's a trend that doesn't seem to be stopping or slowing down, unfortunately.

You had a good run, Cedar River Market. You served us all well.

With that, I'm signing off for now. Keep your chins up, stay safe and stay healthy, and see y'all next time, folks.

Peace.

C.C. Mid-June, and June 23rd, 2022.

SPRING has SPRUNG

There is nothing as awesome as a nice, tell, 20 ounce Latte and reading the newspaper during a moderately warm Spring afternoon.

As I write this, I am winding down from my workday at the office where I am an assistant in the legal profession. We're starting to get a bit more work now that the Coronavirus Pandemic seems to be over, or at least next to over.

The weather lately has been mild, amazingly enough. Last Spring -- March-May 2021 -- was cold. This Spring has been colder and rainier than "normal", but during the past two weeks I haven't had to switch up the heat at home, and the past few nights I've been able to crack open my bedroom window and sleep with some fresh air -- without freezing.

This particular morning when I took my camera with me during a bike ride, it was a rare sunny day. We've had basically over seven months of clouds, 40F weather, and rain.

Still, there are days when it's 40-45F (4-5C) and it's wet out. Cold, cold rain. And the fact that it's still this way in May is disheartening, at least weather-wise.

There was even some frost one morning the last week of April, but mostly the daytime temperatures have been around 50-55F (10-12C) and nighttime temperatures have been above 40-45F (around 5C or so) so I am not complaining.

My St. Patrick's Day treat -- a soft taco and some 'tater-tots', with salsa.

In my radio hobby, I haven't been DXing all that much, because MW has been so-so for that, but usually I switch on my Grundig G2 when going to sleep or waking up and listening to whatever is on the SW bands -- usually the 31 and 25 Meter bands, and sometimes the 21 Meter band also. Some mornings and nights are decent, others are horrible with just static. I think the sunspots are very slowly improving, and we still have a year or two until the SW bands open up -- I just hope there are still some SW stations to hear when they do.

My Lotus L520, a Les Paul copy with a short tail (the tailpiece is closer to the bridge than nearly all other Les Paul style guitars), which I've been re-adjusting for slide playing, by gradually dropping the height of the tailpiece and increasing the height of the bridge by thousandth-of-an-inch increments to get it just right for Slide guitar playing -- without popping strings.

As for the rest of life, I still do some fiction writing and slide guitar playing -- I am still nailing down my abilities with a slide on my finger, which is quite a process, as you're creating your own notes, and it's easy to screw up. I'm miles better than I was two or three years ago, thanks to practice time during the Pandemic. I also finally got my two 'backup' guitars (an Ibanez Gio and a Lotus L520) to 100% for slide -- increasing the string tension gradually to where the guitar works with a slide a lot better. It's taken some time because I have been incrementing the string tension by raising the bridge or saddles by thousandths of an inch at a time to keep from popping strings.

My main bicycle, a Ventura -- a steady and easy rider. 

A nearby Frog Pond. At night, if you stand near the center of it, you can hear the frogs croaking and chirping in stereo.

The Cedar River from one of my favorite spots to photograph it. I usually take a pic here every season... Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... On this day it was just a few days after the trees budded, two weeks later than normal. The trees weren't fully leafed out for another week or two after this pic was taken.

Although there isn't a ton to talk about this blog post I am throwing in some pictures of Spring in the Renton and Seattle area to liven the blog up a bit, and show people in other parts of the world what it's been looking like around here -- just more than half of my readers are on other continents, so I figure it might be fun for them to see what it looks like in my region this time of year.

Spring, of course, over the past three years or so has been cold, and mostly wet. In other words, if the trees didn't leaf out and the daffodils didn't come up at all, you wouldn't know it was Spring. But it is what it is.

C.C., May 10, 2022.

Edited May 19 -- some formatting was messed up. Woops.

Shortwave Logbook, February-April 2022

A few weeks ago I posted a blog article here about the demise of a popular Shortwave Radio site (the Shortwave "Daily Logbook", one of several associated DXWorld.com pages that were taken down two months ago), where SW listeners and DXers could post their loggings -- listings of the stations they had heard.

I also mentioned that I would start posting some of my own loggings here on my blog, using the format that the Shortwave Daily Logbook used to have. Although sometimes I'll add my SW loggings to a regular blog post, I decided to periodically have a separate blog post that only has a list of SW (and some MW) stations that I've heard. The loggings aren't a complete list, by the way -- they're just a few highlights, as I get used to this idea of having an online Logbook.

I'm not doing it because I'm a terrific DXer. It's just a snapshot of what can be heard on SW and MW on a regular, but decent performing radio here in the rainy half of the NW US.

In the loggings, I don't use the old-school SINPO code -- instead, I use the SIO reception code -- Signal, Interference, Overall. As you can tell, I don't use the SINPO "N". It's useless, as most RFI and noise is local. The SINPO "P", for Propagation, is useless, too, as generally it's reflected in the Signal level (the "S"), and propagation can change from minute to minute, and I usually mention that in the description of the logging anyway.

If there is an F after the SIO, it means there was considerable fading, and two F's (FF) means it was fluttery fading, or polar fading. Two small t's in front of a station's name ("tt") means I am certain of what I heard, but did not catch an ID or enough ID'able info to verify the station's reception 100%.

I don't always use an SIO code on my MW loggings, I usually use S units -- S3, S4, etc.

And every blog post that deals with SW and DXing probably should have a pic of a radio on it. :-)

So here is the pic, of my trusty 1989 Realistic DX-440, followed by few of my recent loggings.:

SHORTWAVE DAILY LOGBOOK for FEBRUARY to APRIL, 2022:

13710 khz - 2037 UTC -- MVG Radio Feda - Madagascar - (Arabic) - SIO 1-252F - I tuned into sad sounding singing in a minor key, in what sounded like Arabic. The signal was S1-S2 with considerable fading. Then there was a liner with two people talking in what sounded like Arabic or an Eastern African language. Then there was talk, including a couple mentions of Russia (possibly talking about the war). At 2050 UTC there was a mention of "Radio Feda dot com" and "Radio Feda". Radio Feda is a religious broadcaster aiming its signal towards the Middle East from Madagascar. (Grundig G2, whip antenna + wire; Panasonic RF-B45 and 25 ft indoor wire). 20 April 2022.

13870 Khz - 2058 UTC - US NAVY Stanag - USA, California - (N/A) - SIO252 - The US Navy has a STANAG transmitter on this frequency, and several others, that can be heard even on a Grundig G2 in AM mode. You can still hear the burbles and bubbly sounds. The transmitter in this case is located in Dixon, California, about 900 miles south of me (1000-1200 km). (Grundig G2, whip antenna + 25 ft indoor wire). 20 April 2022

12050 Khz - 2024 UTC - tt Radio Ndarasan Int'l - Ascension Island - (Kanuri) - SIO252F - I tuned in at 2017 UTC (around 1:17 p.m. local time) and heard what sounded like a woman speaking in an animated, unidentified language. As the signal strengthened gradually from S1 to S2, the language sounded more and more African. At 2028 UTC there was African sounding folk music, with some wild sounding African flutes. The signal gradually improved over the 15 minutes or so I was listening.  When a man started talking it sounded definitely like an African language. At 2033 UTC there was a 'wild' sounding African chant with percussive instruments in the background. I tuned out at 2036 UTC. According to EiBi, Radio Ndarasan broadcasts to West Africa from Ascension at this time period, in the Kanuri language, which is spoken in Northern Nigeria and Chad. (Grundig G2, whip antenna + 25 ft indoor wire). 20 April 2022

9800 Khz - 1347 UTC - China Radio Int'l - CHINA - (English) - SIO354-3F - I tuned in to news in English, with mentions of the NBA, Phoenix Suns, spoken by a man using English with a US accent. He mentioned Melbourne, Australia, pronouncing it wrong ("Mel-born"). There was some talk about the Beijing Winter Olympics, and a few other mentions of Beijing. Then, at 1352 UTC, there were two mentions of the "Beijing Hour", with a woman now doing the talking. At this time of day, CRI broadcasts in English to Oceania from Kunming, in Southern China. (Grundig G2, whip antenna). 20 April 2022

9800 Khz - 1601 UTC - KNLS - USA, Alaska, Anchor Pt. - (Russian) - SIO354F - I tuned in to KNLS's interval signal, which was a short series of bell like tones. Then there was a Christian pop song in English, "I Got Over You", which sounded like a pop-rock that was popular in from 2000-2006 or so. Then there was a woman speaking in Russian, including a mention of "KNLS, Anchor Point, Alaska", followed by a man talking, mentioning God ("gospodin") and also mentioning the church "tserkve". Another ID ("Radiostansiya KNLS") followed, with a woman talking in Russian, the words reflecting the Christian religion, including the Russian word for "spirit" -- "dukh". There followed another Christian pop song by a guy sounding a little like the famous pop singer Sam Smith, with a lot of piano in it. The signal stayed consistent throughout. I also heard KNLS on April 16 during a similar general time slot (1521-1537 UTC), with stronger signals (SIO454), and a man gave KNLS's internet address, and then a woman spoke, mentioning the Russian words for Angel, spoke, and she said 'slava boga' (Praise the Lord). I enjoy listening to KNLS if they are strong, because I like picking out the Russian words. (Grundig G2, whip antenna + indoor wire). 29 April 2022

11830 Khz - 1637 UTC - Deutsche Welle - Germany (Tx. in France) - (Amharic) - SIO354FF - I tuned in at 1637 UTC to a chick singer in a song that had African rhythms, with call-and-response going on. Then a man and woman were talking, with classroom sounds in the background. Then there were some young people, kids, talking in what sounded like German. The signal was choppy, with polar flutter, and so it was hard to ID the language 100%. Then there was an announcer in a language that sounded either Arabic or East African, with lots of 'ah' sounds in the language. EiBi says that the Deutsche Welle broadcasts in Amharic at this timeslot, from Issoudun, France. (Grundig G2, whip antenna) 25 February, 2022.

[For pictures of the Radio France International antenna complex in Central France, where many other broadcasts are also transmitted to the world, check out the Wiki on Issoudun, France, here.:]

Issoudun - Wikipedia

1180 Khz - 9:54 p.m. PST - KERN - California (Wasco/Bakersfield) - S3-S4 - I tuned in to 1180 to see what was on, and heard a mix of KERN, Bakersfield (Wasco, actually -- it's a nearby town) and KOFI, Kalispell, Montana (which usually dominates 1180 here). The mix was oldies and some talking. The oldies music was the "Top 40 Coast To Coast" show on KOFI, and the talk programming was on KERN, which had an ID for their AM and FM translator at the top of the hour -- "K-E-R-N News-Talk 96 point 1.... K-E-R-N". KERN is a rare station to hear in the Seattle area. I've only logged them 3-4 times since the late 1980s. Nearby KNZR 1560, also from Bakersfield, generally comes in much better. (Sony ICF-38, crate loop) 26 February 2022.

9675 Khz - 1847 UTC - Saudi Arabian Radio Int'l - Saudi Arabia - (Arabic) - SIO 2-352 FF - I tuned in to a polar signal, very fluttery and choppy, of a woman speaking in what sounded like Arabic, with a lot of "ah" vowel sounds and "-alam" syllables here and there. There also was a mention of "Islam" at 1854 UTC. At least one online SW list says this broadcast is in Turkish, but this definitely wasn't Turkish. It appears to be Saudi Arabia's broadcast to the Middle East in Arabic. (Grundig G2, whip antenna) 28 February 2022.

11590 Khz - 1831 UTC - Firedrake - China - (Chinese) - SIO455F - I tuned in to hear lively Chinese opera and classical music that was almost S5 in signal strength except for the fading, which was considerable with about 2-3 fades a second. There was a lot of drumming and chime sounds, with the other instruments, like an organ, coming in a few minutes later. Firedrake is an instrumental channel that the Chinese government broadcasters often use to jam other broadcasters, keeping them from being heard inside China. When I was a kid I thought this was regular Chinese radio on shortwave, and even tuned it in when doing homework during the morning, while in college. I usually have heard Firedrake in the morning hours, when the "Asia Pipeline" kicks in. (Grundig G2, whip antenna) 28 February 2022.

9420 Khz - 0121 UTC - Voice of Greece - Greece - (Greek) - SIO453FF - I tuned in to a sad sounding ballad sung by a woman, with an electric cittern accompanying her. at 0123, a man announced something in Greek. If I knew Greek, it would have been 80-90% readable. Then there was another sad sounding ballad with a cittern playing, sung by a man, and then a male/female duo singing harmonies. The Voice of Greece is my #1 SW preset on my G2, and I usually tune in to 9420 every night or morning to see if the station is on the airwaves. If I do hear it, it's usually fluttery, as most of the signal goes over the Pole to reach the NW US. Before the sunspots dived in 2016 I heard Greece nightly, with some of the saddest sounding female ballads one could hear, sung by soulful singers. After the solar cycle dived in late 2016 the Voice of Greece became harder to hear -- if I did hear the station it was usually S1-S2 and choppy. There have been reports it may be taken off the air, which will be a sad day if/when that happens. (Grundig G2, whip antenna). 4 March 2022 UTC.

9395 Khz - 0150 UTC - WRMI - United States (Florida) - (English) - SIO354 - I tuned in to WRMI's music hour, hearing Alan Parsons Project's "Eye In The Sky" at 0139 UTC, followed by an early album track by Duran Duran, "Anyone Out There". Then they played Tears For Fears "Change". The tracks all reminded me, of course, of being in clubs during the 1980s. A guy talked at0155 with a "WRMI" ID, and then he played a country track for a couple listening in Maryland. (Grundig G2, whip antenna) 4 March 2022 UTC.

670 Khz - 6:18 p.m. PST - KMZQ - Las Vegas, Nevada - (English) - S2-S3 - I tuned to KBOI, Boise, Idaho, on this frequency, and nulled it as much as possible, and heard KMZQ, a talk station out of sunny and warm Las Vegas, Nevada. Usually KMZQ is fluttery and barely readable in KBOI's very tight null, but this evening it was fairly readable, with an ID for the Rob Carson Show, and a station ID at 6:18 p.m. "AM 670 KMZQ Talk Radio done right!". KMZQ used to be Yahoo Sports Network (I think), and then they were part of the SB Nation Sports talk network. Now they are a 'second tier' or 'third tier' conservative talk station. This was the best quality reception I've ever had of KMZQ. I always love to hear Las Vegas. Sometimes I also hear KXNT Las Vegas on 840 Khz, with talk shows and Las Vegas news reports. (Panasonic RF-B45, crate loop). 4 March 2022 UTC.

11610 Khz - 1802 UTC - Voice of America - United States (Woofferton, UK) - (Amharic, English) - SIO251-2FF - I tuned in to hear what sounded like Middle Eastern style singing, with unison strings, sung by a tenor. The signal weakened a couple of S units, and there was an announcement "...This is ....A... News", in English, by a man. Then there mention of Ukraine, and a President Biden soundbite, and then a mention in English of "VOA News dot com". The deep fading made it difficult to read what was being said. Apparently VOA broadcasts in Amharic to Africa at this timeslot, but some of what I heard -- mainly IDs -- were obviously in English also. Either way, it was definitely the Voice of America. (Grundig G2, whip antenna) 10 March 2022.

11790 Khz - 0534 UTC - NHK - Japan - (Russian) - SIO151F - I tuned in to a woman speaking in an unidentifiable language, with a mention of "NHK" at around 0528 UTC. Then there was a symphonic music piece before a man spoke. The signal got a little better and I heard a woman speaking what was clearly Russian. The signal was so weak I maxed the volume on my G2 to hear it before I tuned out. (Grundig G2, whip antenna) 12 March 2022.

9740 Khz - 1121 UTC - tt Radio Taiwan Int'l - Taiwan - (Japanese) - SIO 252F - I tuned into a man talking in Japanese here, with weak signals and deep fading. Taiwan broadcasts to Japan in Japanese at this timeslot, so I've marked this one as tentative. (Grundig G2, whip antenna)  14 March 2022.

11725 Khz - 1203 UTC - Radio New Zealand Int'l - New Zealand - (English) - SIO345F - Down Under accented announcer talking about the Cricket World Championships in South Aftrica, followed by a spot for another show on Radio National. Then there was weather by a woman, mentioning Waikato, Hawkes Bay, Marlborough, Nelson, Canterbury, with some mentioning of showers. There was also a mention of 101 FM, which may be a relay for Radio National in NZ somewhere. I think RNZI relays their Radio National the same way Radio Australia sometimes did in the 1990s and 2000s. There must have been some QRM from a nearby station, as I gave the "I" part of the reception code a '4', but I didn't mention what the interfering station was. RNZI usually comes in very well here in Seattle, whether it's on the 25, 31, or 41 meter bands. (Grundig G2, whip antenna). 14 March 2022.

15360 Khz - 1923 UTC - Adventist World Radio - Madagascar - (Hausa) - SIO353-4F - I tuned into a man talking in what sounded like and African language, speaking over a music bed of soft sounding music. Then another guy was speaking, mentioning "Allah". Then a man mentioned "A...WR... Nigeria.... dot com..." followed by a mention of "...Radio....Adventist Radio Nigeria....AWR... Hausa..." Then there was some folk style music, followed by a brass fanfare, followed by some reggae style music, and then the signal cut OFF abruptly at 1927 or 1928 UTC. (Grundig G2, whip antenna + wire) 18 March 2022.

15355 Khz - 1936 UTC - tt Adventist World Radio - Madagascar - (Igbo) - SIO252-3F - I tuned into a Fanfare, and the signal was weak and fadey. then a woman spoke, but I couldn't read her speech well. Then another fanfare. Then a man spoke in what was clearly an African sounding language. The fanfare I heard was very similar to the one I heard on 15360, so it was obviously AWR again. (Grundig G2, whip antenna + wire) 18 march 2022.

15730 Khz - 1913 & 1936 UTC - Voice of America - Botswana - (French) - SIO252-3FF - I tuned in around 1913 UTC to hear a man speaking in French. When I added my 25 ft. wire using the proximity effect, the signal boosted by a DB or so, and the French became more readable. After tuning elsewhere in the 19 Meter Band I returned to the frequency at around 1936 UTC and a woman was talking in French about Ukraine, Xi Jinping, Joe Biden, and then a man began talking, and he was mentioning Xi. (Grundig G2, whip antenna + wire) 18 March 2022

13670 Khz - 1939 UTC - Radio Feda - Madagascar - (Arabic) - SIO454F - I tuned in to what almost sounded like tropical style music with singing by a woman in what sounded like Arabic. Then I heard what more definitely sounded like Arabic by a man and then a woman, and mention of "Radio...."  The signal level varied a bit. Around 1945 UTC, a man spoke, mentioning Facebook, SoundCloud, and "WWW ... Radio Feda... dot com..."; "contact... at Radio Feda dot com..." and another mention of "Radio Feda". Around 1958 UTC there were more mentions of "Radio Feda" and their internet contact info, and then someone said "Bye Bye". It was the strongest I'd heard this station, and the most readable signals. (Grundig G2, whip antenna + wire) 18 March 2022.

...AND THAT'S IT FOR THIS INSTALLMENT OF SW LOGS

These are probably a third to a half of my decent, SW loggings the past three months. There were other stations I heard that I could only ID by looking up the lists online and coordinating languages heard. If I didn't have enough notes on programming to make the logging interesting here I decided not to add it here. There also were duplicates, where I'd hear the same broadcast three or four times during the month, and sometimes more often than that. Oftentimes during the early mornings here I can hear several copies of China's CNR-1 which blasts over the Pacific to the NW US. 

Corned Beef and Cabbage -- the traditional, Irish-American meal for Saint Patrick's Day. And no, I didn't have corned beef and cabbage this year. Just a taco.

AND OUTSIDE OF RADIO, LIFE GOES ON

And so goes my first installment of my SW Radio Logbook. I don't know how often I will post this sort of feature, but I may do it every other month or so -- depending on how many stations I hear on SW and MW. I may repeat some loggings -- i.e., if I hear a station again, I may note it down here even though it's a repeat log, as it will give some radio aficionados in other parts of the world an idea of what can be heard nights and mornings in the NW US, with modest SW and MW equipment.

In other, non-radio related things, work has picked up a bit, and I've been trying to get rid of writer's block on my latest fiction novel that I've been working on terminally for the past few months.

The March 17th St. Patrick's Day holiday came and went. I got my Corona vaccine booster shot on St. Patrick's Day, and 'celebrated' the holiday by having a soft taco and tater-tots at a local taco restaurant chain. Even though it was early Thursday evening, the inside of the restaurant was spare -- I was the only customer inside for most of the 45 minutes I was there either waiting for my food or eating. 

In times past, the place would have had a lot of people inside. I think effects of the pandemic on restaurants are still being felt. A lot of people were using the drive-through window to pick up their food, but no one was going inside the restaurant. Very strange.

It was fun for me, nonetheless, as I don't eat in restaurants very often -- whether it's fast food, a diner, or something in-between. Generally a latte from a latte cafe is the closest I get to 'eating out'. There is a latte stand not too far away from me that has great hot dogs, with sauerkraut. That's a treat!

As I just mentioned, I got my Corona booster shot on the 17th, Saint Patrick's Day, and received no side effects whatsoever. I have friends who are anti-vaxx, and others who are pro-vaxx, and I decided I'd prefer to let the vaccine teach my immune system how to kill the virus rather than take my chances actually catching the virus. I also take some supplements (Echinacea-Goldenseal extract, Vitamin D3, a multivitamin, garlic extract, and sometimes ginseng) to help keep my immune system in shape.

Bluebells, volunteer flowers by a local streetside. They bloom there every Spring.

THE WEATHER FEELS MORE LIKE SPRING

Lately, the weather has been warming up slightly, from the 30s-40s F to around 50F, which is 10C or so, moderate weather. The trees were about two weeks late this year, so I don't think we are out of our extensive colder Spring weather phase. It remains to be seen how the rest of this Spring will go, weather wise.

Well, that's about it for this installment. I will close this blog post with a pic of my cat Sammy, who died unexpectedly in August, 2021. She was my welcoming committee -- any time I drove into my driveway, coming home from work, there she was, meowing and wanting to be petted. A really nice cat.

Peace.

C.C., March 31, 2022 - April 29, 2022

THE GRUNDIG G2 -- A Look At A Handy SW-FM-AM DX radio

The Grundig G2 Reporter, an AM-FM-SW stereo mini-boombox, with recording capability. Discontinued, it can still be found for sale online, and is a handy radio and great performer on SW and FM, and good on MW/AM, although an external loop antenna is sometimes needed to DX MW/AM. When I took the pic, the radio was tuned to Radio Rebelde, a Cuban SW station, which the radio was receiving off the whip antenna with two bars' signal.

Sometime in September 2014 I was at the local Fry's Electronics store, which was a large US West Coast electronics / computer / appliance 'box store'. Fry's had two small sections inside the store where they sold radios. The section back near the TV's had AM-FM portable radios, as well as clock radios and the like. The section that was closest to the computer and electronics parts sections had some SW radios and CB radios, along with some SW and CB accessories, including ham radio books.

Fry's unfortunately went out of business in February of last year. But during the 20-odd years they had a store here in the Seattle area, it was a good place to shop for radios and radio accessories.

Fry's Electronics in Renton. Photo taken the night after it closed permanently, in February, 2021. The night I bought my G2 in September, 2014, this parking lot was probably half full of cars!

This particular night in September 2014 Fry's had a portable SW radio on sale. It was one of the lesser known Grundigs, the G2 Reporter. Being the radio nut that I am, I bought the radio.

AN ULTRA-MINI BOOMBOX WITH DSP

Apparently the Grundig G2 Reporter is a variant of the Degen 1128, a small, slim, ultra-mini AM-FM-SW boombox with two small stereo speakers, a rechargeable battery, SD card slot, and recording/playback capability. Over the years of its development, several glitches were dealt with, and the version I bought, the latest version of the G2, had most of them fixed.

Like many newer digitally tuned SW radios, and many Chinese Tecsun and Degen made radios, the G2 has a SiLabs DSP IF chip, which acts as RF amp, IF amp and filter all in one. The chip is probably a SiLabs Si4735, which is their AM-FM-SW chip with FM RDS capability.

The G2 isn't talked about much in the radio community -- if at all. It had apparently gotten off to a shaky start, with some glitches and bugs being reported early in its run. It wasn't a huge seller. Consequently, there isn't that much info on the G2 on the internet. When I got mine, it was an impulse buy. Looking back, I am really glad I got my G2. Actually, since I got the radio, all of my Shortwave radio listening has been done on my G2 -- that's seven years, as of September 2021. The Grundig G2 is that good on Shortwave. 

Because the G2 is so good on just the whip antenna, I no longer needed to plug my DX-398 into my indoor wire antenna. Who needs a wire antenna when a G2, just off of its whip antenna, will pull in the Voice of Greece with readable signals, or even pull in China broadcasting to Europe from Xinjiang -- and I'm in the Northwest corner of the U.S.? And on top of that, when it also sounds great through headphones?

According to the G2's specs, it's a little less sensitive than some of its Tecsun brethren... On MW it has 2.5 mV/m sensitivity, where a Tecsun PL-660 has 1 mV/m. On SW, the G2 has 50 uV sensitivity, where on the PL-660 is has around 20 uV. FM on the G2 is 5 uV sensitivity, where the PL-660 has around 3 uV.

So, as you can tell, the performance figures are a bit less than the Tecsun, which is a popular radio, and also has a similar SiLabs DSP chip. My guess is the specs are a bit less because the radio's main operations microprocessor may put out more RFI than the other radio models, and the designers wanted to reduce the chances of that RFI leaking into the radio -- but that is just a guess.

NOT MANY PICS ON THIS ARTICLE -- Beware :-)

This article on the G2 is a bit word-heavy, but I really don't have many cool pics of it, being that I haven't taken it apart like I have done with other radios I have written about here. The reason is that the Phillips head screws that hold the radio together do not look substantial (i.e., it looks like it would be too easy to strip the heads on the screws), and there are other pics of the G2 with its back off available on the internet. Inside, it's your typical green PCB, with surface mount parts, shielding around some of the vital electronics, and the 50-60mm, 7-8 mm thick loopstick tucked into the bottom right corner (just below the right speaker, when looking at the radio from the front). It also was difficult getting decent pics of the LCD readout for some reason. But I've done the best with pics that I could.

FWIW, the best interior pics I've found were at this link:

N9EWO Review : Grundig eton G2 Reporter/Degen DE1128 DE1128H (qsl.net)

This guy, N9EWO, must of had an earlier model G2 than I did (his radio has firmware version V.0 2.1, 20120309 -- mine has V0 2.3, 20120516) because I didn't have some of the issues he mentions, and my radio has more memories available on AM and FM. But his article is fairly extensive and informative if you have one of these little marvels.

The Shortwave radio section at Fry's Electronics some time in 2019. You can see a Grundig AM-FM-SW radio for sale in the lower right of the pic (radio in a white box with black handle on top), and a MW loop antenna (Eton AN200) in the upper left, on the upper shelf. In the early 2010's, Fry's had more radios stocked on these shelves, mostly Grundigs.

BUYING THE RADIO

When it was new, the G2 radio normally sold for over $100US, and when I saw it on sale at Fry's in September 2014 it was on sale for around $30. I hadn't read much about the G2, although I'd seen it at Fry's for a while. But because it was priced at just $30, I decided to bite (since 2014 or 2015, the G2 has unfortunately been discontinued).

I was pleasantly surprised in many respects.

Now I call this a 'DX radio' guardedly. There are many radio enthusiasts who believe that the only radios you can call a 'DX radio' are either high performance MW radios with 200mm loop antennas and tuned RF sections, or tabletop HF-MW communications receivers with longwire antenna capabilities (the Icom R75 and Drake R8 come to mind).

I don't share that narrow a definition. To me, any radio that's capable of picking up DX is a 'DX radio'. This includes Walkmen, boomboxes, and the like. If it can DX the MW with a loop and get decent results, or pick up FM on tropo or E-skip, or it can hear a SW station from the other side of the world -- whether off its whip or off an attached wire, to me it's a DX radio. Using this definition, the G2 fits -- although it does indeed have some quirks, which I'll go into later.

My Grundig G2, along with an old phone charger that came with an old TracFone I don't use anymore. The 5V charger (with one of the larger USB sockets) charges the G2 well. You can also rig a charger 'cube' up with a plug-in USB cable. It takes maybe 4-6 hours to charge the G2, depending on how low the battery has been drained. You can run the G2 with charger installed, only if you listen to FM. Otherwise, the 'hash' from the switching power supply will swamp the radio. Depending on use, one charge -- when just using headphones -- can last more than a month (See below for more info). In disaster or emergency situations, a spare, charged battery (available online) or a portable, lithium battery emergency charger would also be useful.

FIRST THING: CHARGING THE BATTERY

When I got the G2 home and got it out of the box, the first thing I had to do was fully charge and then discharge the battery three times. They said to do this in the manual. Apparently this is for long-term battery health. After that, you can charge it whenever you want -- I usually wait until it's down to zero bars or so before recharging, often recharging it after the battery conks out on me. When I first had my G2, I fully discharged the battery by actually using the radio: it was the only way I knew how to do that.

When I finally was able to use the radio after its first charge (which took over eight hours -- since then the recharges take a little less time -- usually 4-6 hours), I switched it to the MW band. The G2 isn't the most sensitive radio on MW by itself, as it has a 50-60mm loopstick. I was able to hear local stations, regional stations, and stronger DX stations, but it wasn't exactly blowing me away with DX. It was pulling in as much as a couple of my Sony Walkmen, so it was adequate for casual listening, but a little lacking for actual DXing.

When I added my Radio Shack loop, it was a different story. It was pulling in DX very well, and the selectivity is very usable. The only channels that I wasn't able to DX on were two channels covered in terrible IBOC hash from a local 50 Kilowatt station, and even then I could hear DX stations when the propagation is up. Since then, the 50 KW station turned off their HD.

Then I switched the G2 over to FM. It picked up stations that many of my other radios simply won't pick up. Most Grundigs and Tecsuns seem to have excellent FM performance (from what I've read on the internet), and this G2 was no exception. The FM sounded great through the headphones. Default FM is mono -- you press the "FM" button a second time to bring in stereo.

The G2 with the battery showing. The battery is available online, if you need to buy extras (I haven't done this yet). The black square of plastic beneath the radio is a clip-on battery cover, that keeps the battery secured inside the radio. Then, the radio's stand will clip down over the entire battery assembly. I never use the radio's stand -- I've never needed to. But it's fairly sturdy.

EXCELLENT ON SHORTWAVE!

Then I switched the radio to Shortwave. Tuning across the 49 meter band around 5-6 in the morning I found the band chock full of signals -- just on the radio's whip antenna! Amazing.

With the whip fully extended, I received some local MW interference on SW that morning. When I shortened the whip to around 8-9 inches (10-15 centimeters), the local MW interference disappeared and the 49 meter band was still loaded with signals from Asia! The fact it would pull in so many signals on 8-9 inches of whip antenna was a testament to the radio's performance: most of my other SW radios won't pull in many signals without the whip fully extended, and even then, performance is relatively poor. The SiLabs DSP IF chip that the G2 uses is really a high gain chip -- and one of the SiLab chip's functions is to 'tune' itself to whichever antenna it is using -- and it was apparent to me as soon as I tuned the radio through the 49 meter band that the DSP chip worked quite well on SW.

The G2 is best used with headphones -- really, it's a headphone radio with two small stereo speakers just as a bonus. Through headphones it sounds full and rich on all three radio bands. The volume control -- like it is on many modern radios -- is two buttons on the top right of the radio. One button increases volume, the other button decreases the volume. There is enough volume allowed through headphones to DX quiet MW and SW channels.

The performance on SW and FM is impressive. On MW it will DX quite well with an external loop.

Many of the functions of the radio operate from a menu, although using the menus is not necessary. You can turn on the radio and use the FM, AM, or SW buttons and tune away.

But the menu comes in handy for setting the time, changing the MW/AM channel spacing, or recording a catch. You can also use the menu to switch the FM range from 88-108 to 76-108 ("Japan Band", according to the radio) or 64-108 ("School Band") if you want.

My G2 with a script that appears right before it powers off. I think the date is the date of the calendar that is included the radio, something I've never used. There is a "Calendar" function, assessable via the Main Menu, in SysSet. I've never bothered to change it. Consequently, it's always 2011 on my G2! I don't mind, because 2011 was a fairly good year!

THE G2's SHORTWAVE 'BANDS' TUNING FEATURE

On the G2, there are two separate ways to tune the SW bands.

The first way is to hit the "SW" button once, and you'll get the entire SW spectrum from 2.2 Mhz to 22 Mhz on the LCD readout. Then you type in a frequency -- say, 6000 Khz -- and go to whichever station or band you want to tune.

The second way is to tune the individual SW broadcast bands -- the 60 meter band, the 49, 41, 31, 25, 21, 19, and 17 meter bands. To do this, you hit the "SW" button twice. It will bring up the 60 meter band at first (a relatively dead band anymore, thanks to poor propagation). If you don't want to tune the 60 meter band, you hit the "SW" button again. Then it brings up the 49 meter band -- about 5800 - 6300 khz. When you are finished tuning through that SW band, you can hit the "SW" button again and it will toggle up the bands each time you hit the button.

I have found this a useful feature sometimes. It is kind of fun just tuning through your favorite SW band by itself, sort of like you do on FM or MW.

If you are in SW Band 'mode', where you're just looking at a single SWBC band, and you enter a frequency outside that band you are looking at, however, the radio will not do anything.

The way to get out of the SW 'bands' tuning feature is to switch from SW to the AM band or FM band, and then go back to SW by hitting the SW button once. Then you will have access to the entire SW spectrum (2.2 Mhz to 22 Mhz) again.

It's pretty simple.

My Grundig G2 tuned to 747 Khz in the MW/AM band. At this time, there were no signals on 747 coming in. Hearing anything on 747 here in Seattle is rare. Sometimes a strong Japanese station, JOUB, can be heard, but only with a good longwire, or an external loop antenna. Switching between 10 Khz channel spacing and 9 Khz channel spacing on the G2 is pretty easy, as described a few paragraphs below.

MW DXing CAN ONLY REALLY BE DONE WITH AN EXTERNAL LOOP

Because the G2 has a small loopstick, out of the box the G2 isn't an ear blazing DXer on MW. Now, in some regions of the world, this might not be the case. But in my area, which is a low MW signals area, the G2 is about as good as your average clock radio. OK on MW, but not a Superadio by any stretch. :-)

Unaided, the G2 will hear most regional stations, and some DX stations (in high signals areas it will probably bring in more DX signals than it does here where I live).

But to really hear more distant AM band radio stations, you need to use a loop. Why this is, I don't know -- most DSP radios are pretty hot MW DXers. However, the G2 is moderate on MW. It is possible that MW is desensitized somewhat to reduce interference from the radio's keyboard scanning function, as when you press a key on the keyboard, you can hear a very slight electronic 'click' or 'pop'. But that is just a guess. Maybe it's the quality or type of 50-60mm loopstick. According to specs, the G2 should be able to DX on its own, and maybe it does in regions with high DX signals. But it definitely needs an external loop here, even a small loop like an Eton AN-100 or Select-A-Tenna will do excellently.

SiLabs DSP IF chips usually are great on MW, and even pocket radios equipped with a 50-60mm loopstick and a SiLabs DSP chip can DX. But my G2 isn't as hot as a pocket radio I have that has a similar SiLabs DSP chip and similar sized loopstick.

Either way, unless you live in a high signals area (with terrific ground conductivity) an external loop is a must when using a G2 to really DX the MW/AM band. And indeed, you can DX with a G2, using a loop, and it will DX very well.

When using an external loop with the G2, you place the G2 either to the left side of the loop, or place the loop right behind the right hand speaker (when the radio is facing you). It will work with the loop on either side of the radio, but the radio seems to have a hair more gain if the external loop is placed on the right hand side of the radio (when the radio is facing you).

This is probably because Grundig placed the 60mm loopstick antenna underneath the right hand speaker. So that is where the loopstick's sensing coil is.

Tuning a loop with a G2 is a bit tricky at times. The G2 has very tight AGC, and SiLabs chips are designed to peak themselves to the antenna every time the radio is tuned to a new frequency. Unlike most radios, you don't hear the volume go up when you peak the signal using an external loop.  Instead, you have to listen for the station's programming to get louder, or clearer. 

Tune the loop slow. Listen to the station's audio, and slowly peak the loop until the audio is the clearest.

It is very different until you get used to it. It can help if you hold the radio farther away from the loop and peak the signal that way, and then place the radio closer to the loop for maximum results. Usually it's very easy, but sometimes if you are tuned near to a local station, peaking the adjacent channel is a bit tricky.

In such cases, you can tune to a strong signal about 10 kHz away (9 kHz if you're outside the Americas), and keep it there and then tune to the target signal; you still should be able to receive the target signal that way. I've done this while DXing 700 kHz. There is a 50 KW blowtorch here on 710. Sometimes to hear what's happening on 700 I tune to 690, where there is a regional station in Canada (CBU Vancouver), and leave the loop there and tune the G2 to 700. I can still hear 700 reasonably well that way.

Once you get the hang of peaking a signal with the loop and G2, it gets easier.

The selectivity on the G2 is very good for MW DXing. The audio characteristics of the G2, when using headphones, are very good for MW DXing, too. The radio isn't tinny, and the selectivity is good enough to reduce splatter from nearby, strong signals.

On a good DX night I was able to heard KXLX 700 kHz (an ESPN sports station) from Spokane, a station 250 air miles (maybe 310 km) away, which is usually covered in horrendous splash from 50 Kilowatt KIRO 710.

Using the loop and the G2, I was able to receive KXLX with minimal hash and it was very readable. With most of my radios, even on a good DX night when KXLX is coming in, it's only half readable because of the splash from 710. Just last night KXLX was coming in loud enough that there was almost no splash at all from KIRO. That's rare. On most of my other radios there was more splash. I don't know what the selectivity on the G2's DSP chip is set to, but my guess is that it is 5 or 6 kHz. It's wide enough for good sound, and narrow enough to DX with (on this night I didn't have to tune the loop to 690, as I described above -- KXLX's signal was strong and steady).

As for overall DX, I've heard WJR Detroit, weakly, in between two strong local/semi-local stations on my G2, using the loop. When propagation is in well, you can hear regionals and some farther stations without a loop, similar to what you may hear on a Sony clock radio barefoot.

A pic of the G2's "FM Radio" menu. It's actually the menu that covers all basic radio settings, including FM band tuning range and MW/AM channel spacing.

This is the menu for switching the G2 from 9 Khz to 10 Khz channel spacing, and vice versa. This menu item only appears when the radio is tuned to MW/AM. It acts like a toggle. You press in the tuner button and it will switch to the other channel spacing. Very simple, actually.

MW/AM CHANNEL SPACING IS A SNAP

If you hear heterodynes on the MW band here in North America and want to try to receive a Trans-Pacific or Trans-Atlantic station, you can switch from 10 KHz MW spacing to 9 KHz MW spacing quite easily, using the radio's main menu. Changing the channel spacing is very easy to do.

Turn on your G2, and tune to the MW/AM band (hit the "AM" button).

The MW spacing 'switch' doesn't appear when the radio is tuned to the FM band or SW, so you've got to have the radio on MW to change the 9 khz / 10 khz spacing. Believe me -- I learned this the hard way after forgetting this.

If your radio is on MW, press in on the tuner button up on the top right corner of the radio, or hit the ESC button in the right top corner. This will give you a menu. Because you are already tuned to the AM band, the menu will automatically be the radio menu, the one called "FM Tuner" ("FM Tuner" is the menu item that deals with radio settings in general -- not just FM).

Scroll down until you reach "AM spacing switch" and click the tuner button in (by pushing on it until it clicks), and the MW channel spacing will change instantly.

If you want to change back to your preferred channel spacing (whether it is 9 KHz or 10 KHz), repeat the process.

MW TUNING TRICK TO REDUCE SPLATTER

There is a trick a DXer discovered on the G2 that can help other DXers on the AM band.

Sometimes you want to tune a KHz or two to the left or right to reduce splash from a strong, adjacent local station. As the G2 tunes the MW with only 10 KHz or 9 KHz increments, you're sort of stuck when it comes to tuning away from splash.

But a US DXer discovered a tuning trick. It's most easily explained this way:
My strong local, KIRO, is on 710 KHz. I want to hear KXLX Spokane on 700, with less splatter. On some radios I would tune to 699, or fine tune to the left.

But on the G2, I'm stuck on 700. If I tune to the left, I get 690 and CBU Vancouver B.C. Canada. There are no 1 KHz tuning steps, as there are on some SW FM AM radios.

So, what if I want to tune to 699 KHz, so I can clear a little of the splatter from 710 KHz?

Press 6-9-9-9 (that's right, you add an extra 9 at the end of the sequence), and hit the ENTER key (the key on the keypad with the arrow on it). Now your G2 will not only tune to 699 KHz, it will also tune to 599, 899, 999, 1499, 1599, etc. 

Every channel you tune to will be one KHz to the left!

The side effect to this is that this tuning trick STICKS. I.e., you turn the radio off, and back on, it's still there! It will tune that way until you change it back again!

To "fix" it, to where it will get back to tuning in 10 KHz channels again (600, 700, 900, etc.), you turn the radio on to the AM band and press 7-0-0-9 and ENTER. Now it will tune normally again.

It's a fun trick, and I can see how it would come in handy, as the G2's selectivity is very tight, but it still can't overrun a 50KW local 100%.

The main thing to remember, if you don't have this article handy, is press in a frequency ending with a 9 (699 KHz would be an example), and add a 9 (making it 6-9-9-9), and then hit enter, if you want your G2 to tune 1 KHz to the left. 

To get the radio back to normal 10 khz channels, press a 10 khz frequency, add a 9 at the end, and hit Enter again.

I am not certain how this would work in 9 Khz areas of the world, being that the channels aren't as "regular" as they are here in the Western Hemisphere, where all MW frequencies end in zeroes.

When I tried this new tuning trick, I didn't find an incredible difference in reception -- but it could be a handy DXing tool nonetheless. With standard analog chipped, digitally tuned radios we often tune a little to the left or right to reduce splash from a strong adjacent station. Whether this undocumented tuning trick works on other Tecsun/Grundig radios with fixed tuning increments, I don't know. But this tuning trick could be just one more wrench in the DXing toolkit. :-)

If, by chance, you try this tuning trick and can't get your radio back to normal, turn it off, and pull the battery. Wait a few minutes. Then put the battery back in. This will cold-reboot the radio and should reset all of the tuning settings to default.

ANOTHER 1 kHz TUNING TRICK

I have since found a different 'tuning trick', which I discovered completely by accident, in early November, 2024. If you enter a ZERO after a non-standard, three digit  kilohertz entry (520 through 990 kHz), the radio will tune every channel to a frequency ending in the number before the zero.

Example: I was on 840. I wanted to quickly tune to 860 to see if there was a station there (at night it's usually KPAM Portland and KTRB San Francisco). By accident, I hit 8-6-6-0 instead of 8-6-0. There is no delete key, so I just hit 'ENTER'. 

The radio tuned to 866 kHz. When I used the tuner knob, every channel was a frequency ending in '6' -- 876, 886, 896, 996, 1206, 1506, etc. The FIX, to get it back to normal? Enter the frequency correctly! I entered 8-6-0 and the radio went back to normal. No powering down / powering back up the radio necessary. 

Whether this was intended at the factory, or was just a fun glitch, I wouldn't know. But it would be a handier way to tune 1-2 kHz away from a target channel. For example, if you were tuned to 1060 and there was considerable splatter from 1050, you could tune the G2 to 1058 or 1059 by entering 8-8-8-0 or 8-8-9-0 or something similar (it would have to be in the three digit kHz areas of the MW band, because you need the extra zero to make it work), and then use the knob to tune up to 1058 or 1059. 

Then entering a frequency correctly would clear the useful tuning glitch.

CHIT CHIT

One of the biggest quirks with the G2 is the "chit-chit" noise you can get when tuning over a couple spots in the MW band, and sometimes when there is no signal on SW you will hear it in the background.

I don't know what causes it, but I'm guessing it is a clock function, or possibly the keyboard scanner, as it happens exactly once a second, in the background. I've heard similar if I have one of my MW DX radios sitting next to my cell phone (which also has a clock).

I hear the 'chit-chit' mostly between 650 kHz and 680 kHz, and sometimes higher up the band (in the 1200's somewhere) when there is an empty channel. If there is nothing but static on the Shortwave bands I'll sometimes here it. Otherwise, it's gone.

It might be occurring because the MW antenna wire goes across the back of the PCB where the microprocessor's clock may be located. I don't know. It's a minor issue, as it doesn't interfere with DXing, but it could be annoying to some people.

It's most noticeable on poor DX nights when most of what you hear is static, and signals are mostly weak -- S3 or lower. You'll also notice it if you aren't using an external loop antenna.

On nights like that I will hear the "chit-chit" underneath KNBR 680 or KFI 640. But on good nights the "chit-chit" is there but not as loud because it's covered up by the programming. When signals are S4 or more, you hardly notice it.

It would have been nice if it weren't there, but I can live with it. I've been able to listen to John Batchelor's program on KBOI 670 and not be annoyed by the sound. But like I said, it would have been nice if it would have been able to be filtered out completely somehow.

FM AND FM RDS -- GREAT FM RECEPTION, and OIRT FM, TOO

I'm not a huge FM fan -- at most I listen to the local rock stations (98.9 and 99.9), and sometimes the alternative pop/rock stations on 107.7 and 104.9, and every now and then I'll tune into the local pop station on 106.1 FM. So my review of this radio is limited to mostly SW and AM. However, the G2 has a very good sound on FM through the headphones. It can receive RDS, although you have to switch that on using a menu, and the readout is different from other FM RDS capable radios I have used. It garbles sometimes, but generally works well enough to ID a station or song.

One cool feature of the G2 (at least for travelers) is that it will receive the Japanese 76-108 Mhz FM band and the Eastern European OIRT 66-74 Mhz FM band also. These options ("Japan Band" for 76-108 MHz and "School Band" for 64-108 MHz -- "Normal Band", 87-108 Mhz, is the default) are selectable under the FM Radio menu, which you get when you push in the Tuner button.

As the FM default is mono, as mentioned before, you press the "FM" button (located below the LCD readout) a second time to get stereo. The stereo has a clear, full sound.

To get RDS, which lately I've found useful (very few stations back-announce songs, and RDS is a great way to ID a song you don't know but you find you like), you press the Tuner button in and scroll to the "FM Radio" menu selection, if it isn't there already. Press in the Tuner button again and then you get a series of menu choices and you scroll down to "Open RDS". Press in the Tuner button again and it will start the RDS function appearing on the LCD readout. Then you hit ESC to get back to the radio again.

The G2 comes with a cloth carrying case. One should be careful, however, as if you bump the radio against some surfaces the tuner button can catch and then be pushed off the radio. Pressing the button back in is a snap, but still -- it's not a good thing to have happen.

The RDS function has six characters it uses to readout the call letters, song titles, etc., and they scroll. It's a bit funky to use, but it works. I really am not an RDS freak, so what RDS the G2 has is adequate for my uses.

It turns off when you turn off the radio or switch to another radio band.

The Grundig G2 tuned to Voz Missionaria, a station in Brazil that is sometimes heard here in the PNW of the US. This pic shows the G2 in "Meter Band" mode, where the radio will tune each individual SW Broadcast Band by itself, as opposed to the entire SW spectrum from 2.2 to 22 Mhz. To get to "Meter Band" tuning mode, you press the SW button a second time. To get out of it (in case you want to hear a station that is outside one of the official Meter Bands), you tune to FM or AM and then back to SW again.

ON SHORTWAVE THE G2 IS EXCEPTIONAL FOR A SMALL PORTABLE!

On SW the Grundig G2 is -- in my view -- exceptional. I say this because it will hear anything off the whip that my other SW radios will hear off my indoor 25-30 ft. (10 meter) wire. I don't have another SW radio that will pull in stations so clearly just off the whip.

I've heard China Radio International broadcasting to Europe from Kashgar on 31 meters -- which means I heard it off the back of the beam, and Kashgar (located in Sinkiang, in far western China) is on the opposite side of the North Pole from my location. This was just off the whip antenna.

I've also heard the BBC broadcasting to Africa from Ascension Island on 49 meters, just off the whip. That would have been off the side of their beam. I've heard -- more than once -- All India Radio's Vividh Bharati program on 9565 KHz., broadcasting to India and the Indian Ocean from Bangalore. This was also just off the whip! India is often a fairly tough catch for those of us here in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., as any signals coming from that location skirt the Pole, and consequently get a little degraded by the time they reach here.

The first time I heard the stations mentioned above I compared the G2's reception to my DX-398 off the 25 ft. wire. The G2's reception was maybe one S unit lower with a bit more fading. But it was still just as readable.

I have read some other reviews of this radio that claimed that the G2 wasn't very good on SW, and that it was "just a toy". Perhaps they were using earlier versions of the radio, as I understand it has had some of the bugs worked out since it was introduced. My G2 may be a more recent version. Or, maybe I just got a good one.

In either case, G2 is the best SW radio I have for the price: very easy to use, works well off the whip, and sounds great through the headphones.

Recently I heard Radio Verdad on 4055 kHz, a 'tropical' band station in Guatemala, only 1 KW in strength. I was able to hear the station well enough to ID the language (Spanish) and some of the words. All off the G2's whip alone.

More recently, in 2021, when SW conditions have still been mostly horrible, I attached my 25 foot indoor wire to the end of the G2's whip antenna with an alligator clip, and was able to get 2-3 more S-units of signal, with practically NO OVERLOAD.

USE THE WHIP LENGTH LIKE AN RF GAIN CONTROL

The G2 will overload when conditions are awesome and signals are really strong. You will hear very faint audio from local MW stations as you tune across parts of the SW bands. In those times you just reduce the length of the whip until the overload stops. I've been able to tune the 31 meter band and hear a lot of stations even with just 6-10 inches (15-25 cm) of whip antenna, using the length of the whip antenna like an RF Gain control -- lengthen and shorten as needed.

Also, when SW conditions are really good and there are a lot of strong signals, you obviously would not need to attach an extra length of wire to the whip antenna with an alligator clip. The G2 will hear a LOT of SW stations on just the whip, if conditions are good. The SiLabs DSP chip is very good for filtering and amplifying signals off the whip.

One interesting idiosyncrasy is that there are times when shortening the whip antenna actually improves reception of a SW station. It seems to be contrary to what one would expect, but I've experienced this more than once. My guess is if there is a lot of atmospheric noise, it might cause the AGC to work too hard, and shortening the whip reduces the noise level and the AGC concentrates more on the SW station's actual programming.

The DSP chip, after all, works a little differently than an old-school analog, superheterodyne chip.

So don't be afraid to also shorten the whip a bit if a station isn't coming in well, especially if the ionosphere is noisy. You never know. 

USING A WIRE ANTENNA on SW with the PROXIMITY EFFECT

Although the G2 is excellent on Shortwave using its whip antenna, there are times that a little extra gain is needed or desired. I have a 25 ft (10 meter) indoor wire antenna that I have used for my portables ever since my 100 foot outdoor wire (30 meters) blew down in a windstorm in the early 2000's.

There have been times while I've DXed the Shortwaves on my G2 I needed extra gain to read the station I'm hearing. Clipping the 25 ft. wire to the whip antenna sometimes works -- other times I just get more static and noise. Clipping it to the whip when the whip is completely folded down seems to work at times also.

But the best way I've found to use an external wire with the Grundig G2 is the proximity effect. This is where you place the end of a wire antenna, or feedline, near the radio, but you don't attach it directly.

I've done this in the past with my Realistic DX-370, which doesn't really like to have a wire antenna clipped to the whip. I was able to hear Radio Tunis that way in the late 1990's -- I would place the end of my 100 ft. wire (30 meters) near the DX-370, and the 370 would pick up the signal from Tunis readably -- where off the whip it was barely audible.

It's the same with my Grundig G2. If I bring the end of my 25 ft. indoor wire near the radio, I get about one extra S Unit of signal. The radio seems to like it best when the wire antenna is sitting near the bottom of the radio -- possibly there is some inductive coupling through the G2's loopstick, which is also at the bottom of the radio.

So, if you have a G2, and want a small signal boost, and clipping a short wire to the whip doesn't help, try the proximity affect.  I was recently able to get Radio Feda (in the 21 Meter SWBC band, broadcasting to the Middle East from Madagascar) with very good results using this method, where the signal off of the whip antenna was choppy. The proximity effect addition of the indoor wire antenna boosted the signal from S2 to S3 or more.

This proximity effect method of adding wire to increase SW signals on a portable radio may also work with other DSP chip, portable SW radios, like many of the Tecsuns, Etons and Grundigs available today. It also can help with older, analog IF chip radios (like my DX-370).

Sometimes this 'proximity effect' doesn't seem to work as well as other times. I don't know why. But I'm throwing the idea out there because there's no harm in trying it.

Two years after I originally wrote this article, I discovered that YES, the Grundig G2 WILL work with a wire antenna clipped to the whip. But it seems to only work well during poor to mediocre Shortwave propagation conditions. Here I am listening to Radio Exterior De España's Spanish language service to North America, on a late morning when there were maybe 6 stations total on all of the SW bands -- 31 Meters -- 13 Meters (Firedrake included!). There was maybe a 2-3db improvement in reception, with no ill effects.

During GOOD SW conditions, however, clipping on a wire can give you overload. So, YMMV.

YOU ALSO CAN CLIP A WIRE TO THE WHIP During Poor To Miserable SW Conditions!

When I first wrote this article on the G2 in 2022, I hadn't been able to experience improved SW reception by clipping my 25-30 ft. indoor, second story wire antenna to the G2's whip. Oftentimes, when I tried this, I got overload. So, I had thought that the G2 won't take a wire antenna at all. In 2024, however, I learned that my conclusions about that were wrong!

When conditions are poor and grainy, clipping a wire antenna to the whip will bring weak stations out of the mud, with NO OVERLOAD.

So, if SW conditions are rotten off the whip, try clipping a wire to the whip. I recently (in Spring, 2024) had good to decent reception of Radio France International's French broadcasts to Africa by clipping my indoor wire antenna to the whip. Without the wire, all I heard was weak traces of audio.

So -- the key here, is experiment!

RECORDING FROM AM, FM, OR SW

With the G2 you can record directly off the air to WAV or Mp3. There is enough space on the internal memory to record a couple hours of WAV files. I am up to recording number 124, and I have a over an hour of space left.

To record a station, you tune to it, set the volume to 10 or a bit higher, and press in on the tuner button. This will give you a menu -- one of the choices is "Record". Press the tuner button again, and you have a choice between Mp3 and WAV. I choose WAV because it sounds better.

I was able to record a bunch of songs off the Radio Disney AM station in Portland (KDZR 1640) before Radio Disney went off the air. I've recorded music off of the Voice of Greece, Vividh Bharati, and other SW stations using this feature.

So far, the playback has been fairly clean. The recordings transferred easily to my computer in WAV form, and they sound great on the computer.

It is much more convenient than using an external recorder.

The radio uses more power from the battery when recording... So if you get a G2, and want to extend battery life between charges, don't record anything. The battery use while recording is not drastic, but it is a bit noticeable.

What I do when recording a broadcast (usually 5 minutes or so) is mark down the recording number in my paper log as I'm recording. I suppose there may be a way to label recordings once you get them onto a computer, but in the radio itself they have recording numbers.

It's a very handy feature to have on a radio.

The internal memory is extensive, but can be filled up. I have about 200 3-5 minute recordings of various MW and SW broadcasts, and my G2's internal memory is full.

You can add an external, mini-SD chip to the radio, however. It will insert into a socket at the bottom of the radio.

WAV and MP3 RECORDINGS of SW and Radio Disney on MW

Before the internal memory of my G2 filled up, I was able to record approximately 100 recordings of various MW and SW stations, including the last days of Radio Disney on Portland's KDZR 1640. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn't have an MP3 or sound file function, or I would post some of them. I also tried posting a sound file of them on SoundCloud, but their software detected the copyrighted pop music.

That said, any recordings you make off the air are easy to listen to on the G2, and they are easy to transfer to a laptop or other computer -- you just use the USB cable you use to charge the G2, and plug it into the computer's USB slot. The computer should 'see' the G2's sound files, and you just copy and paste.

A GOOD TRAVEL RADIO; BUT FOR SHORTER EMERGENCIES ONLY

Because of its slim size, good FM and SW performance, and adequate AM performance, the G2 would probably be a great travel radio. If you're into MW DXing, however, it would be best to take a loop along with you. The recording facility would be helpful for capturing foreign local FM and AM radio broadcasts.

The G2 is very slim, lightweight, and low profile -- perfect for travel. Just add a MW loop, headphones and charger cable and go.

As for emergencies, the problem with rechargeable radios like the G2 is that if the power is out for more than a few days, you can't recharge your battery. It takes 4-6 hours for the G2's battery to recharge. The battery life using the radio on speaker is supposedly 5 hours, according to the manual. Using just headphones it probably is much longer. I have used my G2 for a half-hour to an hour a night and the battery still has juice to power it 3-4 weeks later. 

My average battery life has been around a month.

But -- I only use headphones.

The problem with having a radio that is dependent on rechargeables is that in an emergency you can't just go to your drawer and grab some AA's and shove them in the radio when the old batteries are dead. Because it's a single battery, and it is rechargeable only -- you have to recharge it. I know there are compact rechargers out there, and maybe that would be the way to go for some. But for long term power outages (like when big earthquakes and other natural disasters hit) I would suggest an old Sony Walkman and stock up on AA's, or use the Grundig G2 sparingly -- headphones only -- and maybe get a portable recharger. With a good recharger, you could possibly get a second month out of the G2 before the battery's dead.

Ever since I discovered the G2's "sleep mode" trick (described below) my battery life has been extended drastically. I usually listen to SW and some MW and FM on my G2 about half-hour to an hour a night, maybe 5 nights a week. This past year I have averaged about a month in-between charges. My last period in between charges was almost two months, where I averaged ten days per 'bar' of power on my battery meter (40 days total, approximately).

So it's possible you could get a month or more out of a charge in a disaster before needing a recharge, if you used headphones only and limited your time to an hour or so of listening a night -- and you'd also have to turn on the G2's "Sleep Mode", which switches most of the G2's microprocessor functions OFF when the radio is not in use. Otherwise, your battery life will be more like 2 weeks instead of 1-2 months.

My guess is that the G2 would work best as an emergency radio for short emergencies and shorter power outages only, and then only if you're using headphones. If you keep the G2 set to "sleep mode", the battery life will be extended, and using headphones only it's conceivable you could get a week or more out of the battery before recharging. So it's possible that with a portable recharger you could get two or more weeks out of a G2 before you run out of juice during longer power outages (thinking a massive disaster here).

One could always buy a spare battery, charge it, and keep it handy, too.

This is the menu for "Power Off Mode", which you use to turn the radio to "Sleep Mode" -- where the radio's firmware is told to shut off all functions -- except the clock and the power button -- when turned off. Otherwise, other functions will be on Standby and you will use up the battery much more quickly. I always keep my G2 in Sleep Mode. With Sleep Mode, I get nearly a month out of a battery in between charges. When I had the G2 in "Standby Mode", I was lucky to get more than a week out of the battery.

SAVING BATTERY POWER ON A G2 USING 'SLEEP MODE' -- a good idea

There is a trick to saving battery power on a G2. I would suggest every G2 owner do this. Your life will be made easier, believe me. It is described in the Manual, but as it is a really great feature to save battery power, I'll describe it here.

First of all, press the "Escape" button (the little button marked ESC in the upper right hand corner of the radio).

If you've been listening to the radio, it will take you to the Menu function "FM Radio" (the default Radio setting, which covers all radio listening settings). Scroll up to "SysSet". "SysSet" is the Menu item where you adjust various system functions.

Under the "SysSet" menu option, you choose "Sleep Mode". This apparently shuts the microprocessor almost completely down when the radio is off, leaving only the internal clock and power button processes to run.

You also get to the "SysSet" menu option by pressing in on the tuner button when the radio is OFF, and then scrolling up or down until you reach it.

Whether you hit the Escape button and then scroll to "SysSet", or use the tuner button, pressing in on the tuner button is probably the easiest way. This will bring up the scrolling menu, and usually the "FM Radio" option is at the top. Scroll down to "SysSet" ("System Settings"), press in the tuner button again, scroll down to "Power Off Mode", and press the tuner button in once more.  You will have three choices, the top two are "Standby Mode" (the default, which uses more power when the radio is OFF) and "Sleep Mode". Scroll to "Sleep Mode" and push the tuner button in.

This tells the radio to turn off all functions (except the internal clock and on/off switch) when you have the radio OFF. Then hit the "ESC" button in the upper right corner of the radio. If you do this while listening to the radio, the radio will turn off and you will have to go to "FM Radio" again and choose your band.

You will now get much more time from your G2's battery between recharges.

If, for some reason, you remove the battery (which I had to do only once, to re-set the G2 when it glitched on my a couple years ago), your Shortwave, AM and FM stations will stay in their memory locations but you will have to re-set the "SLEEP MODE" function to "Power Off Mode".

RE-SETTING THE RADIO when it ACTS UP (Rare)

On one evening recently I switched on my G2, and instead of automatically tuning to the last SW or MW station I had tuned to, it was on 87.9 Mhz, the lowest frequency on the North American FM band.

I switched off the radio, and switched it back on, and the same thing happened. I also noticed that when I tried tuning the SW band, the radio was stuck on one frequency. I switched to MW, and it was on 9 Khz spacing.

It was apparent that somehow there was a firmware glitch -- only the second time my G2 has had one since I got the radio in 2014.

To bring the radio back to normal operation, I had to pull the battery, and leave it out of the radio for about 15 seconds. Placing the battery back into the radio, I switched it on. Everything was back to normal -- MW was back to 10 khz spacing, and all my memories were still saved. The only thing I had to do was change the radio back to "SLEEP MODE" to save the battery.

Apparently when you re-set the G2, it will keep your memory pre-sets, and preserve most of your settings, but you have to re-set the radio back to "SLEEP MODE", so you won't have to recharge your battery so often.

ONLY ONE OTHER SMALL, ONE-TIME GLITCH

I had to pull the battery to re-set the radio when it locked-up while recording off the air. It's the only time in the four years I've had the radio that the radio has locked up in any way. So far, my G2 has been basically glitch free.

ONE LOW POWER GLITCH -- Clock Was Off By Several Hours

Recently I went a week or so without using my G2, and the battery meter has been on one bar for the past two weeks. The battery is low enough to give me zero bars while using the radio.

That said, when I fired up my G2 earlier this evening the clock was off by 12 hours. I had to re-set it, and since then it's been OK. Another peculiarity was the frequency that the radio was on when I fired it up was unusual -- 6340 or something, a SW frequency I never tune to.

I rack it up to a low battery. Right now when I use it, it starts out at one bar, and then reduces to zero bars. And we've had some cold nights lately, and batteries do not like cold.

The Grundig G2's RESET pinhole is just below the battery, in the radio's battery compartment. Re-setting the radio does work, when it decides to glitch.

CHARGE THE BATTERY WHEN IT HITS ONE BAR OF POWER, 

Especially if the battery is getting old

In late June, 2023, my G2 had been on one bar of battery for maybe 2 weeks. On June 20th, when I switched it on, the radio came up on FM, 87.5 MHz, a frequency I never tune the radio to. I then discovered that the AM band was set to the default 9 Khz steps, and SW was set to 2300 khz. My stored memories were completely gone. Turning the radio off, and then back on, didn't fix the problem. 

It obviously was not a short-term glitch. I pulled the battery out, waited maybe 10 seconds, and put it back in, re-setting the radio that way -- something that had worked before. It didn't work. I pulled the battery and waited 5 minutes. Put it back in. It didn't work. 

The radio would still tune the bands, and play OK, it just lost all temporary memory.

Being that the battery was low, I re-charged it (which takes 4-6 hours). Then I switched the G2 on again. No change.

I then noticed the RESET pinhole in the battery compartment, just below the battery. I found a small piece of stiff wire, and pressed it.

IT FIXED THE PROBLEM! My memories were back! My sound files were back! No more turning on my radio to find it's back to the factory pre-sets again! The date on my G2, which I've never changed, is back to 2011 again!

I think the G2 doesn't like to be on low battery for a length of time. Perhaps the battery dips in output now and then while the radio is off. Maybe it drops below a voltage threshold and causes the G2's operations to glitch. The battery is old. The date code says 2012. That may have something to do with it.

Suggestion: get a backup BL-5C battery and charger, and RECHARGE YOUR G2 when it's been on one bar of battery power for more than a day or two. Also, consider getting a few newer BL-5C's, and use your older one as a backup.

Obviously, when the radio began to operate normally again, I was relieved. It felt kind of bad losing the WAV recordings of the Voice of Greece and Radio Disney. Most of the 50 SW memory locations I entered over the years are for stations -- like the Voice of Greece -- that are no longer on the air. Sort of like the hundreds of filled memory locations in my Realistic DX-398, they don't take you to active frequencies anymore but it's kind of a reminder of how much more there was to hear even 10 years ago, in 2014-2015, when I was filling the memory locations with stations I enjoyed listening to.

I'm glad the memories, and the sound files, are back.

So recharge your G2's battery when it's been on one bar for a couple days. And four firmware glitches in 9 years of ownership aren't all that bad.

If you have another radio that uses BL-5C lithium batteries, it might be a good idea to recharge when they're on one bar for more than a day or two. Especially if your battery is 5-10 years old. It's possible other radios can glitch on low battery power, too.

The opening screen when you first turn on the Grundig G2 -- you get their logo. If you have the radio turned off, and 'locked', you get this screen without the logo -- just a white screen, which stays on for about three seconds. I call that "lantern mode". It probably could be used in an emergency, to help you find a flashlight.

LANTERN MODE

The Grundig G2 doesn't have a specific 'lantern mode', like some cell phones do, but it does have a 'lantern' like feature which could be helpful when the power's out. If you keep the lock on the radio, and press the power button, the LCD backlight will come on for three to four seconds. It's not enough to actually replace a flashlight, but if you kept pressing the power button you may get enough light over time to go find one.

IN SUMMARY, A GREAT RADIO IF YOU PAY $50-$100 U.S. or LESS

In summary, the Grundig G2 is a radio that is often overlooked, and is a good bargain for the money if you find it on sale. I've seen it listed as high as $175 -- to me, that is a bit too high for a radio that isn't a DXer on Medium Wave without an external loop.

But if you can find one for less than $50-$100 US, it's a good radio for the money -- especially if you love FM and SW. If you love MW, and live in a lower signals area (as I do), get an external MW loop antenna and you'll be happy. :-)

From what I understand, the G2 was discontinued by Grundig in 2015 or 2016. In a way, it's too bad, as the record feature and performance are both very useful. Perhaps they had the price too high, and the reported bugs early in production caused low G2 sales. Either way, if you get one for a decent price, it's well worth it for the SW, FM and recording alone. And -- as I've repeated here -- if you even have a small external loop, like a Select-A-Tenna, AN100 or similar 1 ft. loop, the G2 will DX on the MW/AM band very well.

As happens with discontinued products, prices seem to have climbed. A recent search for Grundig G2's brought up several G2's for sale with prices ranging between $140 US and $200 US.

Are they really worth $200 US? I'll leave that up to the individual to decide, after reading the article. I bought my Sony ICF-38 for around $34 US at Fry's in 2015 or 2016 and they now go for as high as $250 new, although you can get used ones for around $50 or so. Prices go up when radios are discontinued. It's a sad side-effect of the decline of radio overall.

The 'Bye-Bye' screen that appears when you power off the G2. Some programmer was being a little creative.

A FINAL NOTE -- MEDIUM WAVE LATELY HAS BEEN SO-SO, AND SHORTWAVE HAS BEEN EL DEADO MOST EVENINGS AND MORNINGS

(With Some Cool Exceptions)

It is now two years after I started this article, and propagation has still been mostly abysmal on SW, and only fair to middling on MW. I still use my G2 to see what's on the bands, as it is very handy, especially on SW. I also use it to listen to MW sometimes, and also to tune in FM, as the stereo through headphones is excellent.

Shortwave has been improving very, very gradually.... Some nights and mornings it's like nuclear winter conditions, where the 31 meter band is nothing but static, and even the domestics (and Cuba) on 49 meters are barely readable or MIA.

But the sunspots are destined to pick up during the next 3-5 years, and even if the new solar cycle is mediocre, there still will be more to hear than there has been since the sunspots dived in late 2016.

It is unfortunate that the G2 is no longer offered new, because it is very handy, especially if one wants to record off of SW or AM.

This afternoon I tuned around on my G2 and there were maybe 8 signals on the airwaves, and none of them really readable except for Firedrake on one frequency in the 31 meter band. Over the past several years SW conditions have been poor and I think it is killing the hobby. Hopefully, when the sunspots pick up in 2022 or 2025 or so, there will still be SW stations on the air -- probably mostly serving parts of Asia where SW is still a very viable broadcast medium.

My apologies to my readers for delaying this article so long. Being that SW has been sort of mediocre the last three to four years or so, my enthusiasm for writing articles about SW radios has been rather low.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post here, it does look like we may be heading into a new sunspot cycle, so maybe Shortwave radio will have one last surge of good listening, with plenty of DX, before all of the stations go off the air. The BBC still uses shortwave to reach listeners in Africa and Asia, and there are still some other broadcasters that transmit on the 31, 41, and 49 meter SW Broadcast bands. There are a couple religious (and other) broadcasters out of Madagascar that make for good DX here in the US. Radio Nacional da Amazonica and Radio Voz Missionaria are still broadcasting out of Brazil, giving DXers a chance to hear Brazilian folk music and religious hymns, and brush up on their Portuguese. :-)

If atmospheric conditions pick up a bit over the next few years there may still be some good listening for those who have radios like the G2. One can always hope.

Weather wise, Spring here has still remained colder than usual. Several nights in mid-April it's been 29F, 29F, and 28F (-2C), which -- in normal years -- doesn't happen later than February here.

....AND A LOT OF SLIDE GUITAR PLAYING

Outside of work, some fiction writing, bicycling, and MW DXing, I have been doing a lot of practicing on slide guitar. The two years of corona-world has given me plenty of time to work on it. Some of the 'work' has been on my red, Lotus L520 Les Paul copy -- trying to get it to be great for slide but not pop strings.

As some guitar players probably know, to play slide guitar well your guitar needs to have decent string tension -- meaning you go with bigger strings, and either tighten the tremolo springs on your Strat style guitar, or raise the bridge and lower the tailpiece if your guitar is designed like a Gibson.

The trick is to increase the string tension gradually, so you don't pop strings. So far, I've been able to do just that, and although I can't say my L520 is perfect on slide yet, it's getting close, by incrementing the tailpiece downwards about a thousandth of an inch (maybe .10 millimeters) at a time.

Meanwhile, my Daimaru / Teisco-Kawai / Sakai Jag copy plays slide perfectly, as it has since 1996 or 1997 when I modified it extensively. No work needed on it in over 25 years.

MW listening with the DX-398, Panasonic RF-B45, DX-375, DX-350, and Sony ICF-P26

When I revised and edited this article in March, 2021, it was cold and grey outside, with the trees still mostly bare of leaves, and it still looked like Winter without the frost and snow. Very strange. 

This past MW DX season has been medium/fair to poor -- the usual suspects from the Western US, the bright spots being Las Vegas on 840 KHz and 670 KHz, and periodically catching San Diego on 760 KHz. 

I still like hearing the regional stations but it can get tedious pulling out the logbook, pulling on the headphones, switching on the radio and hearing the same 30 stations every night.

Most of my MW DXing the past couple months has been on my DX-398, Panasonic RF-B45, DX-375, and my DX-350 analog portable. I also DXed some with my Sony ICF-P26, a capable pocket radio with a CXA1019 IF chip inside, which DX's OK by itself, but better with a loop (although you want to place the radio about 6 inches (15 cm) from a loop to get better selectivity. As the Sony ICF-P26 is a radio one can get online for $25 US or so, it's a bargain, and would be a very good disaster radio.

I also have done a bit of late night listening / DXing with my Radio Shack 200629 (the Radio Shack version of the updated Sangean ATS-505), which is a handy DXer that sounds good through headphones.

LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST -- THE WAR

As we all know by now, Ukraine has been invaded by Russia, and the two countries are at war. I have a few readers in both countries, so I don't really want to comment about the war here, except to say that I sincerely hope that the war is ended soon.

In times like this I always wish that negotiations and peacemaking prevailed over sabre-rattling and warmaking. 

That's all I want to say about this hard and painful subject.

Until later, dear readers, have a great DX season, where ever you are in the world.

And may there be Peace.

CC 9-2017, 6-1-2019, 8-2021, 12-2021 and 3-2022.

ADDENDUM, February 22, 2023: 

I added a paragraph or two on shortening the G2's whip to improve reception of a SW station, something I experienced a few nights ago. Lesson learned: don't be afraid to experiment! :-)

ADDENDUM, June 20th, 2023:

I switched on my G2 this evening to find that it had somehow re-set itself. None of my memory presets were working, and -- when I turned it on -- the G2 was set to 87.5 MHz FM.

Tuning the radio I noticed that the MW was set to 9 Khz, which is apparently the default. None of the SW memories or MW memories worked. The date was re-set to the year 2000 (which is before the G2 was actually made or designed) and the clock was set to the right time, but everything else that involved memory was shot. My WAV files on the radio, of stations on SW and MW I'd recorded from Sept. 2014 to just after 2015 (when the memory filled up) were also all gone. Pulling the battery and waiting a few seconds, and then putting it back in didn't help any. Switching on the radio, it went right to 87.5 MHz again, and the MW had reset itself back to the default 9 kHz setting.

Strangely enough, the radio remained on the 'Sleep Mode' Power-Off mode (the one that saves the battery). So that function must be stored separately from the frequency memories and the sound recording memories.

It looks like sometimes between the night of June 19th and when I switched on my G2 on June 20th the memory chip inside the radio either fried, or otherwise is not accessible by the radio. 

Otherwise, the G2 operates normally. If I set the MW to 10kHz, it stays there. I haven't tried saving any new stations to memory because I'm certain they won't stick. Anyway, when I turn the radio off, and when I turn the radio back on, it's on 87.5 MHz again.

It's a bit discouraging when something like this happens. I have so many fond memories of tuning the bands with the G2 during 2014 through 2016 or so, and recording SW and MW stations -- and then it's also been my main SW radio even since then.

I'll still use it, but I think the RAM memory left us, and it will be more of a chore to use, being that I won't be able to turn it on and start tuning the SW band right away.

Stuff happens, they say. And they're right. I'm just glad it still works otherwise.

C.C. June 20th 2023.

ADDENDUM, June 21st, 2023: IT WORKS AGAIN!

Pulling the battery (after charging it -- it had been on one bar of power for a couple weeks at least) and then RE-SETTING the G2 (there's a small pinhole beneath the battery that is marked "Re-Set") fixed my radio!

The G2 now remembers it's frequencies when I turn it off, my memories are back, and so are my WAV and MP3 files!

I think the G2 may tend to glitch when the power from the battery gets low. I have added a small section to the article about this.

ADDENDUM, April 22, 2024:

I discovered that YES, you CAN indeed clip a wire antenna to the whip of the G2 and get improved SW reception! However, this only seems to work well when SW conditions are poor, and signals are extremely low. I added a paragraph and photo to the article about this.

ADDENDUM, November 4th, 2024:

This morning I discovered a new tuning trick on MW, by accident. I added several short paragraphs about it in the 'TUNING TRICKS' section of the article. 

A short summary: If you are using the keypad to enter a three digit frequency (520 through 990) and mess up, by adding a zero at the end, the radio will tune to oddball frequencies -- i.e., if you hit 8-6-6-0 instead of 8-6-0, the radio will tune to frequencies ending in '6': 866, 876, 886, 1106, 1206, etc. To get the radio back to normal you just hit a three digit frequency (520-990) correctly, and the radio then works normally.

I'm not sure if this is just a G2 radio peculiarity, or if it works with some other Degens out there. 

I tested this several times after discovering it by accident. 

ADDENDUM, April 21st, 2025: A NEW, REFURBISHED GRUNDIG G2!!!

I got a NEW, old-stock, refurbished GRUNDIG G2 from Amazon last week. They had a few refurbished ones for sale -- by Eton -- for $39 each. 

My new G2 works just like the first one, except I think the DSP chip is programmed differently, or it's a new chip (the firmware version is the same as my older one). The radio is slightly less sensitive on SW off the whip antenna, and the AGC is softer and doesn't pump. It is also easier to clip my indoor 25 ft / 8 meter indoor wire to the new G2 without overload. It works like a gem! Clipping the indoor wire antenna brings in SW as well as my other radios do with the wire antenna.

I am not sure if this 'new' G2 had the DSP chip reprogrammed at the factory, or if it was one of the last runs of the radio where perhaps a newer DSP chip was installed. But the softer AGC makes for easier listening on the MW band (the new G2 also is easier to 'peak' with a Medium Wave external loop), and SW.

FM appears to be the same. 

The BL-5C battery that came with the radio was dead, and won't take a charge. It is a 2012 battery. Luckily I have several, newer spare BL-5C's. 

It was a pleasant surprise seeing the refurbished ones for sale by Eton on Amazon. And the fact that this radio has softer AGC (and a slightly wider bandwidth, maybe 3.5 or 2.5 kHz instead of the tighter bandwidth on the first G2) makes it a joy to DX with.

It also came with a harder soft case.

I will probably post an article on it before Summer, 2025.

C.C. 4-21-2025