Topics

196

Weather / Bitter cold makes for interesting LF, MW, and HF, signal enhancements? Uh-huh...

« on: January 21, 2022, 1903 UTC »

Reaching single digits Saturday morning 1/22/2022, this might be a neat time to check-out lower FREQ signal enhancements. And, not just the lower FREQ's, but possible Tropo from VHF / UHF stations, especially if you are up by the Great Lakes. And, if you have a Part #15 AM station, see how much further that's going to reach. If we're going to get stuck with being frigid, might as well have some fun with it. Right???

197

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / An AM Carrier-Current station from your livingroom? This dude does. And, gear???

« on: January 19, 2022, 1956 UTC »

Huh... Most folks doing a station either do it from the den, basement, attic, garage, or even a bedroom closet. This dude set-up in his living room. Eh... Why not???   https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/workbench/workbench-retirement-starts-in-your-living-room

198

10/11 meters / Late night "E" on 10M to 06:00UTC!

« on: January 09, 2022, 1922 UTC »

Glad to hear 11M and 10M jamming last night, when I got back home from work. Heard MN and WI, but worked three friends in the same town in MO, doing a round table, just after 04:30UTC on call FREQ 28.400USB. Then, seen a nice spike of a signal on 28.405USB, with a Texas station working Philadelphia, PA. When the Texas station later called CQ, I jumped-in with just 20W and worked him to 06:00UTC, when we signed. He worked with 100W, with signals from S3 - S9, and must have had that direct pipeline from WV to TX. NICE!!!!!

199

Amateur Radio / ARRL January VHF / UHF Contest Weekend 1/15 - 16/2022.

« on: January 08, 2022, 1925 UTC »

Sporadic E rarely rocks for this, but some Tropo by coastal areas and the lack of foliage absorption usually makes this contest decent for 222MHz and 432MHz.    http://www.arrl.org/january-vhf   Now... When's that AM Heavy Metal Rally?

200

Huh? / Time to Come Clean on AM Quality? Well, yeah!

« on: January 08, 2022, 1845 UTC »

Article from an ENG to Radio World,   https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/guest-commentaries/time-to-come-clean-on-am-quality

My $0.02 worth was that I believe that the noise levels are like X10 of what they were, even 30-some years ago, when I wrote back to him.

201

Amateur Radio / USS Midway on the air on HF.

« on: January 06, 2022, 1847 UTC »

FWR from K8RRT:

 A local museum radio team will be activating the aircraft carrier this weekend.

     NI6IW will be activating the ship on HF
7.200 LSB
14320 USB
14070 PSK.

Also they will be DStar .



    If you have a Facebook page there's a link below to get more info about working the USS Midway carrier.

       Good luck and have fun



https://www.facebook.com/groups/12699105116/permalink/10165946597150117/

202

Huh? / Station changes, like formats, or ownerships?

« on: January 05, 2022, 2000 UTC »

So, has anyone heard of any station changes in formats, ownership hands, coming on-air, or even going off-air?

203

Equipment / Xiegu bangs-out another one, the X6100.

« on: January 04, 2022, 2000 UTC »

Huh... Still learning the Xiegu G90, but looks like Xiegu has found their niche market, which seems more than a niche.   https://swling.com/blog/2022/01/the-new-xiegu-x6100-is-it-a-good-sw-mw-broadcast-band-receiver/


And yes, I did move this over from RF Workbench. Duh-know why I put it there in the 1st place. I'll blame it on the coffee not hitting me, yet.

204

10/11 meters / Finally!!!! Winter 27MHz Sporadic E looks like it's back. Well, sort of...

« on: January 04, 2022, 1950 UTC »

Got back from work last night to hear Texas stations on CH38LSB at 11PM EST, so that can't be F2 that late. No 'Needle-Benders' there, but the strongest station was around 5lbs. Now, can we wake-up the 10M gurus?

205

Pirate Radio History / Pirate Radio Ships, RNI, VID footage.

« on: January 03, 2022, 1844 UTC »

Since the weather really sucks, now, this might be a good time to check out the uploaded VID's on the WBCQ Archive site and watch, or even download, the VID's of Radio New York International. https://archive.org/details/pirate-radio-ships     The RNI one is 1.2GB in .MOV format, but seems to play OK on what I have. So, enjoy!!!!!

206

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / New AM Part #15 Transmitter Kit on the Market? Maybe....

« on: December 31, 2021, 1952 UTC »

Boomer alerted me to this dude.    https://www.ebay.com/itm/203708056581      Hmmmmmmmm... Kind of like what Ernie of Panaxis did to sell bare minimum parts and plans as a CYOA campaign to keep the FCC off of his back.

207

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / Tis the season, for new Bubble-Pack FRS / GMRS radios for Christmas to monitor.

« on: December 28, 2021, 2020 UTC »

So, with warmer weather, and being the Christmas / NYD Week, I'm hearing daily activity from neighborhood kids on what must be new Bubble-Pack GMRS / FRS radios. I keep an older Midland Bubble-Pack HT on constant scan, on a 6VDC power supply, and did it originally to hear hunters and get heads-up on local road construction around here, since they use these radios as well, instead of commercial VHF / UHF HT's. The most annoying thing about monitoring these are the kids whaling on the Call button constantly. This doesn't usually last, and by the 2nd week of January, they almost always give it up. I use to hear this in the 1980's and 1990's every Christmas on CB CH14, when kids would get CB walkie-talkies for Christmas and try them hard for a couple weeks, then the buzz of them would fizzle out. So, if you want to set-up your scanner to listen-in, or use a spare bubble-pack radio and hit scan, like I do, FREQ here,     https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FRS/GMRS_combined_channel_chart

208

Pirate Radio History / Remember Ernest Wilson's EBN / ERN zine from the mid-1980's? Boomer's got 'em!

« on: December 26, 2021, 0643 UTC »

Ernest Wilson, of Panaxis Productions, had a great newsletter, almost zine-like, The EBN, Experimental Broadcaster's Newsletter and then the ERN, Experimental Radio Newsletter. Well, Boomer's got the mid-90's ones, and you to can download and enjoy these articles from mostly reader supplied, as well as Q&A's, and Ernest even puts his $0.02 worth. I have only from 1987 to end printing. So, ENJOY!!!!!! 

http://boomerthedog.net/radio.html 

209

North American MW Pirate Radio / Several UNID's 1710AM - 1740AM, 0230 - 0330 UTC, 12/25/2021.

« on: December 25, 2021, 0519 UTC »

On drive home, 1710AM, heard a slow Ballard sung with Hudson Co. TIS battling with it. Back on base, 03:03UTC - 03:06UTC, 1710AM, church quire-like version of Silent Night, then repeated. TIS still giving fits to hearing this. S5 signal peak. Jump to peak seen on 1720AM, 03:06UTC, distorted audio of Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue, then Animals - House Of The Rising Sun, then gone 03:15UTC. Peaked to S4. Then wide band carrier centered on 1740AM on 03:31UTC. No audio, but just hash, (Digital?), S5. No ID on any of these.

210

Huh? / Experimental Station WI2XLQ will recreate 1906 Fessenden transmissions again?

« on: December 24, 2021, 1912 UTC »

That should be different.    https://swling.com/blog/2021/12/experimental-station-wi2xlq-will-recreate-1906-fessenden-transmissions-again-this-holiday-season/