2015 Winter SWL Fest Program (Final—as far as we can tell)
(All Times EST. All Forum Sessions and The Shortwave Shindig in Chestnut A/B
unless otherwise indicated.)
Thursday, 26 February 2015
1900 – Presidential Suite Hospitality Room Opens (or perhaps earlier)
2100 -- Registration Table Opens (in Hospitality Room until 2200)
2400 – Hospitality Room Closes (earlier or later depending on use)
Friday, 27 February 2015
0800 -- Exhibit Room Opens in Chestnut C (including, among other
activities, demos , club tables and sales, and Radio HF radio/accessories/book
store.)
Registration Table (in Exhibit Room until 1030, reopening 1300)
0830 -- Forum 1
Radio on the Road 3
Janice Laws
Janice recentlyon the Road” series.
0945 – Forum 2
The Year in Pirate Radio
George Zeller
Your hostgo across the street to the Mexican restaurant before the session as
he did last year.
1100 – Forum 3
Time Travel, Teleportation & Spectrum Hoarding for the Contemporary DXer
Thomas Witherspoon & Mark Fahey
Software-defined radios (SDR) have revolutionized radio monitoring providing
DXers with receiving options that were only theoretically possible a few years
ago.
Mark has travelledwill demonstrate and present the recording techniques used
and the plans to record spectrum further afield in the coming year.
[N.B.: A library of spectrum files will Bring your own NTFS formatted USB
drive (typically each file is 50GB or greater) and you will experience how the
bands sound in China, New Zealand, Tasmania and both very remote and city
locations in Australia. They will play on a Windows PC with commercial (but
free-of-charge) software.]
1200- 1330 Lunch Break (on your own)
Hospitality Room Open
1300 – Registration Table (in Exhibit Room until 1500)
1330 – Forum 4
Coast to Coast - Geographically Enhanced Mediumwave Reception
Bill Whitacre
Things learned from experiencing DXpeditions to Grayland, WA and Lubec, ME over
the past 5 years. An overview, not initially technical in nature, but could
become so if such questions come up. Sound sample included!
1445 – Forum 5
Ultralight Mediumwave DXing
Gary Donnelly
It sure helps to have a great antenna farm and an expensive radio that dims the
lights in the neighborhood when turned on. But there is a group of DXerss who,
with small inexpensive radios, are using just the built-in ferrite or
telescoping antenna and getting impressive performance. This talk will
introduce the attendee to the DXing niche known as Ultralight Radio (ULR) and
discuss some amazing reception records obtained with these pocket-sized
receivers.
1600 – Forum 6
Crisis Radio
Michael Pool a/k/a The Radio Professor
This forum will focus on radio as it sounds locally during crises--including
recordings and airchecks captured during natural disasters, terrorist attacks.
civil unrest, and the like.
They are intriguing as they offer a snapshot of immediate human emotions and
opinion, fresh and occasionally naïve, regarding some really serious stuff that
the reporters and presenters have really had no time on which to reflect.
1700 Dinner Break (on your own)
Exhibit Room Closes
1830 Hospitality Room Reopens
Exhibit Room Reopens
Swap Meet (Ongoing)
1900 – Forum 7
Radio and Today's Teenagers
Anthony Messina
With cell phones and Internet radio technologies, how do teens think of radio
today? From the perspective of an 18 year old, Anthony will discuss how he got
into shortwave radio and DX'ing in the age of internet and smartphones. No,
we're not here with the stereotypical "radio is dead!" message. You just might
be surprised of what the teens today think about radio, even AM and Shortwave!
2015 – Forum 8
Kicking It Old School - A Return to Regenerative Receivers
Skip Arey
A radio design at the very roots of RF Technology is experiencing a resurgence.
Learn about this classic circuit and how to use it to bring new excitement to
your SW listening.
2130 – “The Wee Hours”
The Annual Spectacular Shortwave Shindig with David Goren!
Including a live, hour-long broadcast over WRMI, Radio Miami International, on
7570 kHz. from 0300-0400 GMT/UTC (Saturday), 2200-2300 EST (Friday) beamed 315
degrees from Okeechobee, Florida.
2400 Exhibit Room Closes (Possibly Earlier)
Hospitality Room Closes (Earlier or Later Depending on
Use)
Saturday, 28 February 2015
0800 -- Exhibit Room Opens in Chestnut C (including, among other
activities, demos, club tables and sales, and Radio HF radio/accessories/book
store.)
Registration Table (in Exhibit Room until 1000)
0830 – Forum 9
The View from Europe
Risto Vahakainu
Reporting on the state of the hobby in Europe and in Finland. The impact of
SDRs will be noted as will the “Irish church listening” that is now popular in
Finland, the decreasing number of European MW stations, the statistics of
stations heard in Finland from NA, Asia, Pacific and other continents, along
with a look at the fantastic remote DX sites and “shacks” of northern Finland.
0945 – Forum 10
“UFOs, Gliders and Planes, Oh My!”
Tom Swisher
UFOs and gliders, planes, trains and automobiles, boats, ships and barges. . .
what to monitor with your trusty old scanner when the local cops go digital.
1000 SILENT AUCTION Begins (Spruce Room)
1100 – Forum 11
Monitoring Dusty War Zones and Tropical Paradises - Being a Broadcast
Anthropologist
Mark Fahey
Mark presents a tour of his monitoring station, where 100's of thousands of
digital audio and video channels arrive into his home. He can listen to
domestic radio or watch the domestic television from most parts of the world.
Want to watch breakfast television from Tibet, or maybe the nightly news from
Wallis and Futuna - then it’s available in perfect studio quality. The
presentation also includes visits to remote broadcasters and examples of rare
and unedited video sent by journalists that capture the tragedies and joy
served up by our planet.
1200-1330 Lunch (on your own)
Hospitality Room Open
1330 – Forum 12
The Keeping of Time
Mark Phillips
With the ever-constant transfer of our hobby to digital modes, the keeping of
accurate time becomes crucial to preserve both audio quality and network
connectivity.
Topics covered will include an explanation of the difference between all the
usual time sources and why they are different, why you need an accurate time
base in the studio and why broadcasters need accurate time within their
broadcast networks.
1445 – Forum 13
Recognizing Digital HF Signals: Eyes and Ears
Michael Chace-Ortiz
There are hundreds of different digital signals that you can encounter during
any scan through the HF bands. While you can spend thousands of dollars on
software that might identify a particular mode you are hearing, there’s still
an awful lot you can do with just your eyes and ears. We’ll take an interactive
audio-visual tour around shortwave and get acquainted with many different modem
signals, Over The Horizon RADARs, ionospheric sounders, ocean sensing systems
and various other digital oddities that can be heard today.
1600 SILENT AUCTION Ends (Please promptly collect your winnings
and pay your bids.)
Exhibit Room Closes
Hospitality Room Reopens (closes 1700, reopens 1900)
1730 – Cocktail Half-Hour (This is the “formal” part. Many of you will have
already started or will take this into several hours anyway.)
1800 – BANQUET (Chestnut B/C) – Keynote, not yet determined.
(Those not holding banquet tickets are cordially invited to rejoin the group
after dinner around 2000 or so to take part in after dinner activities.)
2100 – LE GRANDE RAFFLE (Your Host: Harold “Dr. DX” Cones. The management
promises to try and do this in record time… record least time, that is…Be
forewarned, however. We’ve managed to break this promise every single year.)
2400 – PANCHO’S “MIDNIGHT RIDE” (if one were to know…)
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