Radio Austria International QSL

I received a QSL letter from Radio Austria International for my e-mail reception report sent on 25 Nov 2006. Here's an image of the letter I received. On the back of the letter was a picture of the city of Salzburg, Austria. I found the e-mail reception report link on their website.

XEABC 760 kHz Heard in Houston!

I've been hearing a very strong Mexican station on 760 kHz for the last week or so. This afternoon, I left work at 5:00 PM CST. I tuned to 760 kHz and heard WJR in Detroit. As darkness approached, WJR faded out and my thus-far unidentified Mexican station began to fade in. Over the next few minutes, I heard several mentions of "Presidente Calderon" and "la superbowl." Then I heard an announcement, "En Mexico tengo nuevo Presidento." I figured it was a Mexican station, so when I got home, I tuned in on my KA-1103. Sure enough, it was XEABC! I verified what I was hearing by using the "Haz click y escuchanos en Vivo" link on their website (http://www.oem.com.mx/abcradio/). At 6:59 PM, I heard their full ID. They have a news/talk style of programming, complete with commercials almost as annoying as those on US news/talk stations! Great signals, but I've already verified them from Fort Worth.

Sharp DRW-V2 "Digital DJ"

Found this very unusual-looking radio on eBay.

For less than $20 (including shipping), I figured, what could I lose? The "Digital DJ" was designed to be a "data Radio" (sorry, not HD or DRM ...) that would receive stock quotes, news feeds, etc. using DRIS technology (similar to SCA transmissions). Well, there are no such stations here in Houston, but I like the radio, anyway. It has a unique design, operates using 2 AAA batteries, and has 30 station presets (15 on AM, 15 on FM). Interestingly, the headphones don't kill the speaker unless you slide the "Hold" switch on the back of the radio. Once that is done, you get very good sounding FM stereo through the headphones, but you can't go to a different band (AM or FM) or a different station -- the "Hold" switch is on. I wonder why Sharp designed it that way.

It has a fairly large LCD screen (3 x 1.25 inches)with indigo-blue backlighting. It has 5 buttons labeled A through E that serve different functions depending on the mode selected. The speaker, although small, has a good sound, clear enough to be usable at one's desk or computer.

The back of the radio has a flip-out stand, but I seldom use it. Printed on the back of the radio is the web address for "Digital DJ" but the web site is no longer valid - it takes you one of those "This Domain is For Sale" pages. Ugh!

Anyway, the radio has a calendar, an alarm, and is manually tuned by using up/down buttons. It's not a DX machine, but it's a pretty neat shirt-pocket radio. For me, it's a keeper.