About

Posted on June 1, 2025 by Kevin

How did this blog about shortwave radios come to be?

My first domain was Davnet.org in 2002. The oldest version of my website on the Wayback Machine dates back to to August 2003, when it was pretty well developed. I found an older kwdavids.net version from February 2, 2001 but it is a hijacked version with advertising slathered in. I’m pretty sure  my first web page was far older than that, hosted by an ISP, under their domain name. I have an article here, transferred from that site dated in 1995.

The banner of that website has these prophetic words:

Find out who I am by reading my web site
and I will find out who I am by writing it.

Blogging has always been a voyage of self-discovery for me.

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Arrived In Time: AMNVOLT ATS Mini (Updated)

Posted on May 28, 2025 by Kevin

Thanks to AliExpress and their downstream agents, my shiny new AMNVOLT ATS Mini arrived in time for my trip to Spain and avoiding a hulking batch of new tariffs:

AMNVOLT ATS Mini and accessories

First Impressions

My first observation is that the box wasn’t half crushed like the prior one, and the instructions seem professionally printed. The case fits together without a big crack. This is definitely a higher build quality product. It came with V1.01 of the firmware. And yes, headphones work. Yea! The front and back printed Quick Start Manual actually names the product. AMNVOLT is the manufacturer and ATS MINI is the model name. (My former was called a “Mini Radio” or “ESP32 Si4372 Receiver.” And according to the ATSMINI page on github, mine is version 3.

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Looking for the Ultimate Travel Radio

Posted on May 27, 2025 by Kevin

I like to take my shortwave listening hobby with me when I travel.

Tecsun PL-380

I think my first international trip with a radio was in 2011 and the radio was a Tecsun PL-380 that I bought around the end of 2011. I think the first trip with it was to Costa Rica in 2012.

Tecsun PL-380
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I heard: HCJB (Updated)

Posted on May 20, 2025 by Kevin

When I was a kid, HCJB from Quito Ecuador was a station heard worldwide. One of their QSL cards celebrated a new hydro power station to boost their output even more!

“The Voice of the Andes”
“Project Outreach”
HCJB QSL, circa 1965

That power station is now part of the Ecuadoran national electric grid. Reach Beyond Australia in Kununurra in far north Western Australia carries on the HCJB legacy internationally.1

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Incoming Radio: Si4732 Pocket Mini (again)

Posted on May 17, 2025 by Kevin

I already have an Si4732 Pocket Mini, aka ATS-MINI radio, but there is an improved version with some important advances:

  1. Hi-Z antenna input for greater sensitivity
  2. Separate headphone amplifier circuit
  3. Improved speaker

Here’s a video about the new version:

I’m assuming it will have the latest firmware on it and I will likely keep this one on the main firmware track and the one I have now on the G8PTN branch. [Update: I decided to keep both on the main firmware branch.]

I hope what I ordered is an “official one” (I think the previous one was not). The picture looks like it:

I selected the one with the black donut antenna labeled 10 kHz – 18o MHz. The previous one was the red version. I already have a telescopic antenna for it.

The arrival date is set for May 27, which taking into account recent experience with AliExpress, means it should be May 26.

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Stereo! – Degen DE23

Posted on May 13, 2025 by Kevin

After circling central Virginia one time in a USPS truck, my Degen DE23 finally landed and was delivered a day early from eBay. Why spend $35 for a 13-year-old radio? The simple answer is stereo speakers with an AUX input. That’s a combo I don’t have among the 50-something radios lying about (yeah, things are getting out of hand again), and something I’d like to use to enhance the sound of some other radios, notably the Si4732 Pocket Mini.1 And it looks cool.

“DE23 All-Band Radio Sound System”
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My Amazon Product Reviews

Posted on May 10, 2025 by Kevin

I’ve written product reviews on Amazon for years, over 300 of them. It’s not unusual for a product I write about here to have a corresponding Amazon review. I recently changed my public name on Amazon to “Blog or Die!” and here I am publishing a link to my Amazon content:

Blog or Die! Product Reviews on Amazon.com

The reviews are often simplified, and I write them for a different audience.

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