Messages

1066

Equipment / Re: How can I get into this hobby?

« on: August 16, 2018, 0329 UTC »

Not knowing how basic you actually are into the shortwave listening hobby, I would start off the way most folks, myself included, started out, with a portable. I didn't have Single Side Band for over 8 years, but heard much on AM mode with a simple $50.00 Radio Shack Realistic DX-40. That covered from 3MHz - 22MHz, so pirates that were broadcasting in AM mode were actually heard on such a simple radio. (Try to find one of those portables today.) That was Around 1981. In 1989, I stepped up to a Sangean ATS-803A portable. That was an earlier digital tuning portable that covers 150kHz to 30MHz, as well as FM band. (I still have that radio!) That radio receives Single Side Band (SSB), mode with what's called a BFO (Beat Frequency Oscillator.) With SSB, the AM's carrier is taken away at the transmitter and you are left with a side band single, either Lower Side Band (LSB), or Upper Side Band (USB). An SSB signal on a regular AM radio sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher, with a male voice garbled. What an SSB receiver does is inject a carrier back into that SSB signal, then you can hear what the station is. I went this basic with you, not knowing where you are at with shortwave at this point. Are you an apartment dweller? Can you put up an outside antenna, like a 60ft longwire antenna? What do you have for equipment, or don't you? Anyway, a decent portable radio is a good place to start and get your feet wet. I did, and so did many others.

1067

Equipment / Re: Panaxis FME 500 issue?

« on: August 15, 2018, 2016 UTC »

This might sound dumb, and simplistic, but have to tried rocking each DIP switch ON / OFF. I've seen them get flaky for contacting with time. And, try grounding the master crystal case, with clip leads, to chassis GND. Just some more passing thoughts. I don't think that I've missed that you may have tried that, but....

1068

Equipment / No DRM around? Roll your own!

« on: August 14, 2018, 1538 UTC »

I was looking at this European company for their AM C-QUAM TX's, but found a neat DRM milliwatt transmitter,  http://www.aspisys.com/drmax.htm  So, if we don't have DRM here yet, we can literally roll our own Part #15-wise.

1069

Equipment / Re: Artificial Ground Tuner With A Receiver?

« on: August 14, 2018, 0330 UTC »

       Well, if you are stuck in an APT complex, or an H.O.L., it maybe one of the few GND counter poise options out there. Most of the time, the electrical GND sucks by just bringing in more noise, plumbing GND maybe an option, but that may either have power panels GND'ing to it, or might not be all copper, but PVC. So, that MFJ Artificial GND can indeed be useful and make a noticeable difference. I have found that I would need to retune that when switching from one band to another.

1070

Equipment / Re: Panaxis FME 500 issue

« on: August 09, 2018, 0251 UTC »

Does yours come with the IC sockets? If so, try prying up the IC's out, then reseat them back in. That's worked on Ramsey FM-25 FM TX's as well. Also, be sure that you have very clean P.S. powering it at +12VDC. Another thing is to check the AUDIO IN. Is it for standard AF, or optioned for wide MPX audio from the FMX unit? I've seen where you have to have an RFC in series with that. Couple of things to check. Hope ya get 'er going, and I like seeing Ernie's gear still rockin' after all these years.

1071

North American MW Pirate Radio / Re: UNID 1620 AM 1930 UTC 26 Jul 2018

« on: July 27, 2018, 1544 UTC »

Tis not I, from my massive PEP of 92mW on 1620kHz. And, that time period that you've listed would be The Alex Jones Show winding down, live. (And go figure that no one else in WV broadcasts him, thus my niche.) Anyway, what I keep hearing at night on the truck stereo on 1620Khz is Espanol. I've been told that this might be Cuba, but I hear it with decent signal strength nightly, when I'm on the road away from my 1620kHz. So, it makes me wonder just what you are hearing, and from where.

1072

Equipment / Re: Icom IC R-75 comms receiver performance...

« on: July 26, 2018, 1425 UTC »

       A friend of mine sold his IC-R75 recently, and it beats me why he did that, since I don't know what he replaced it with. He got rid of a TS-870 also. (That was a beautiful rig in every respect as well.) Anyway, In the long run, you'll get lots of enjoyment from this rig. I don't think that the "S" meter is bad in the R75, albeit I'll take that nice 'ol Icom classic analog meter in my IC-745 anytime over any digital bargraph meter. As far as having to power with an external power supply? In the long run, that is actually a better option. Why's that? It's been my experience that internal power supplies generate more than 1/2 the heat in a rig and age the components faster and cause FREQ drift. I experienced that 1st hand with a TS-711A 2M all-mode rig, (Cousin to the famed TS-440 HF rig.). I ran it for years with the internal Kenwood PS in it and it did indeed add to 5/8th more heat to the rig, even on idle receive. Then I read in the 1990's that one of Kenwood owner's biggest gripes were the failure of the Kenwood internal power supplies, and the heat that they pumped into the rigs that they powered. Long story short, I later ran my TS-711A with an EXT PS, and it indeed ran much cooler, but the damage was done, and today that rig is still wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy off FREQ on me. Come to think of it, I ran the internal PS in an old Kenwood R1000, and that 1st 30min, it would drift almost 1kHz, then stabilized. Bet ya that if I ran that with EXT PS the drift would have been less. (Damn, I miss that fun rig.) The point is, an EXT PS, especially if it's a linear power supply, and not switching, could help make that rig last almost twice as long and let you enjoy RX'ing with less noise. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd, your idea of a GND line to a large-ass bucket of soil? Even better. Try a bucket of brine, i.e. salt water. Way more conductive than soil. Finally, try that R75 on DX'ing MW stations as well. It won't be the best sounding receiver for that, but you'll get some nice catches for sure. As far as audio quality goes on it? Got a bookshelf stereo speaker that you can add to it? And, I understand that there is a MOD to open up the audio in the R75, so that you can appreciate the audio from some of those catches. For that, and other neat MOD's, I believe that there's a Yahoo Group for that to join up.   

1073

Equipment / Retro bring-back, an FM to AM converter! Another Cuthbert Kit.

« on: July 24, 2018, 1459 UTC »

Yeah!!!! I remember those car radio FM to AM radio tuner converters from the 70's and even the early 1980's. Well, here's a portable one.   https://radiojayallen.com/cuthbert-fm-to-am-converter-mkii/    Radio Jay did a miss print there where he typed 15kHz, 14kHz - 16kHz, to really mean 1500kHz and 1400kHz - 1600Khz. (But gee, wouldn't super ELF be a neat kit to modulate? Hi-hi...) Anyway, what would you use this kit for? Most of you have SWL rigs and HF transceivers that do not have the FM BC band. This would be a unique way to add that. Well, sounds fun...

1074

Equipment / Re: Cuthbert AM Stereo C-Quam Transmitter Kit! It's here!!! Now to build, test,

« on: July 21, 2018, 1852 UTC »

       COOL!!!! Sean's C-QUAM kit came in. And, what little time I've had to check it out, it's put together very cleverly. The PIC instructions are much the way that assembly procedures were when I went to work for that RF Plasma Generator / MRI Generator company MKS Instruments back in 2006. I did change over the .BMP's to .JPG's. Ubuntu seemed to handle that better. The PIC's are defined high enough for really big blow-ups of close views. All in all, it appears very doable, indeed.
       The plan? Build the kit the way that Sean has it, test with the 3M wire antenna on the 3rd FREQ, like 1650kHz, then implement the FREQ safety change and EXT ANT MOD's. And then, after extensive testing, swap out the I Am Radio TX for the Cuthbert TX on AM1620. That's the plan, anyway. Then? See what can be done to have AM Carrier-Current, AM610, to go stereo. I do see that Sean has it so that the kit can go either 100mW, USA Part #15 allowable with the 10ft antenna, or 400mW, which would be fine going Carrier-Current operation. Now, to get time to build and test.

1075

Equipment / Re: Antenna updates

« on: July 21, 2018, 1822 UTC »

Well, with all the antenna real estate that you have, ever try the WOG (Wire On Ground.)? JTA has tried that with decent results and less noise. I have rolls of trashed RG-11 cable here that I use to make various antennas with, and plan to make a WOG out of one of those rolls. No longer good for CATV anymore, due to water contamination, but those long lengths of rigid outer aluminum shielding work fine as various antennas. Yep... Practically nothing goes to waste here. And, if you want solid copper wire that's bigger than #10AWG, that's what the center conductor is in these RG-11's. Albeit, it takes some bit of work to get at that. (Damn, I'm cheap.)

1076

Equipment / Re: MFJ noise filters for NDB DXing...

« on: July 21, 2018, 1808 UTC »

What I had to do at my present QTH is physically move the antennas away from the house and power lines +50ft away. I have one leg of my Inverted - L going over the creek valley. (Which is fine since minnows, crayfish, and frogs, don't bitch about RFI.) I even had to move the wide-band Diamond Discone antenna since I was still getting power line noise on 2M, MURS, and even 222MHz, FM! WOW!!!! You actually got the power company to come out and do something? Huh, in WV if I even try to complain about power line noise, they say G.F.Y.S. and deal with it. So, I'm always looking for NR here as well, and thus far, distance seems the most effective, but at the cost of distant feed line loss. BTW, I also had an MFJ-9406 10W USB rig. A very fun rig indeed, whether portable, base, or mobile. Got a lot of QSL card requests from that rig's use in the 1990's. Even talked to the UK on a home brew dipole! Ended up selling it to a friend.

1077

FM Free Radio / Re: Antenna Height vs Gain

« on: July 20, 2018, 0445 UTC »

Well, not me, but someone whom kindda' resembled me, did well with 25mW, 40ft up a fur tree, on a home brew copper, 1.1:1VSWR tuned 1/4-wave GND Plane. It was heard over 5 miles away in one direction. Then, 400mW was heard almost 10 miles away in the next state. (Damn, that station is sadly missed.) And, even got a letter writing back to a Radio Garbanzo broadcast from a town over 70 miles away. Even Fearless Fred said, "Ya never know!". (Temp inversion that night?) CP wasn't done since it was just seen as wasteful. 1/2 the signal either goes straight up, or straight down. (OK for worms or ET.) FM is no longer done, due to the huge FM witch hunt the Federal Corporate Coddlers are so hard on about. Any chance to get your antenna in a tree, just above the tree? I remember a station, in fairly flat terrain, used just 3W up a 60ft pine tree on one of the custom made 1/4-wave GND Plane. It MAX'ed out to 19 miles in one direction! Huh... Wonder what ever happened to that dude whom resembled me? 

1078

Equipment / Sangean HDR-14 Compact AM/FM HD Radio, Radio Jay Allen Review.

« on: July 19, 2018, 1535 UTC »

This makes it the smallest, and most affordable AM/FM HD radio out there yet. And, even if you don't give a flying crap about AM / FM HD Radio in North America, you've got to admit that, at the very least, it is intriguing.     https://radiojayallen.com/sangean-hdr-14-compact-am-fm-hd-radio/

1079

Equipment / Re: Starting a pirate radio in Spain? Very helpful site for 60M and other bands.

« on: July 19, 2018, 1528 UTC »

Hola Diego!!! ¡De nada! To add to that, from España is a very useful propagation website interactive map,  http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=W2LN&HF=N&DXC=ING2&GL=S   Not just for 60M, like the example I have chosen, but almost spectrum-wide. Just hit the tabs for bands, region, and even check-off the weak signal modes, like digital and CW, and keep phone operators. This way it gives you a better idea what real propagation possibilities are in real time. You can also choose if the operators are recent posts, or the last 24 hours. This site is a very useful tool indeed. Not me, but someone close to resembling me, wished a site like this existed 30 years ago for pirating. Contento DX!

1080

Equipment / Re: Starting a pirate radio in Spain. 5MHz?

« on: July 18, 2018, 1555 UTC »

Well, to answer your question in the 5MHz, the 60M band, it's a very good band to use. The military uses it extensively. In the daytime, it has nice regional coverage from 50km to over 500km, and is a good choice for NVIS, (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave.), antenna. Meaning, the dipole is low to the ground, like 10 meters, or less, and you are using the ground as a reflector to intensify more signal going to the F2 layer, and bouncing back regionally. (If I understand the theory correctly.) At night, this band goes long, very long. More than 1,000km, and can skip over the first 400km. Amateur radio operators and the US Army actually did a test exercise last year to see if they can talk coast to coast to each other, and they did, with 100W, or less. The downside of 60M? This time of year it is very noisy with lightning crashes at night. I am trying to think what is on this band for you to monitor 60M for yourself to study propagation. WWV right at 5MHz even comes to mind from Fort Collins, Colorado. Then, there's WBCQ on 5130kHz,     http://www.wbcq.com/   Anyway, bottom line is, 5MHz, a.k.a. 60M band is indeed a good choice.