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General Category / Equipment / Re: Help pulling in Pirate radio stations
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on: December 27, 2012, 2209 UTC
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I will make a few bullet points that could be helpful.
* You are in a very good geographic location with regards to hearing pirates at night below 10 MHz. So you do have an advantage, there.
* Park your receiver on 6925 KHz. There is where most activity pops up. Be in the IRC chatroom, or watch the logs here on HFU, to see what other people are hearing in real time. Sometimes there will be other frequencies, but 6925 is where you should start. Activity could be in AM or SSB, so be prepared for both.
* Find and eliminate any egregious sources of RFI in your home. Plasma screen TVs, flourescent lamps, MRI machines, arc welding equipment left on... reducing your noise level will help.
* Antennas... keep it simple. I second Redhat's suggestion that a simple dipole, the largest you can fit (inside our outside) is a really good basic antenna. I only have dipoles here at the Beershack, and they work well! Mine are outside.
* Consider a radio upgrade. The DX-392 is not a bad radio, but is designed for pulling in blockbuster signals. I know that money can be tight, but an upgraded radio could offer you superior sensitivity, selectivity and maybe a useful noise blanker. Current modern ham transceivers (and their related receive-only versions) can have very good noise blankers. If you have a decent computer, consider one of the number of software defined radios (SDR) that have appeared on the market lately. You can get one for $200-$500.
Good luck!
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