Topics

271

Software / DRM for Android? Sounds more practical.

« on: May 09, 2021, 1959 UTC »

I don't have a smartphone, but I do have one of those cheap-ass Polaroid tablets that's Android driven. Hmmmmmm... Wonder if this would work with my RTL-SDR dongle?    https://swling.com/blog/2021/05/starwaves-drm-softradio-app-for-android-now-released/

272

Huh? / Saturday night’s NASA rocket launch may produce high energy auroras? Really???

« on: May 08, 2021, 1857 UTC »

Damn... Gotta' miss this one.    https://www.news4jax.com/weather/2021/05/06/friday-nights-nasa-rocket-launch-may-produce-high-energy-auroras/?fbclid=IwAR2tSLEl4wlAZuXLtDkX6H8oO25vZ2z6wu-df4bLnUcQLpd4ZfUG1p4s2so

273

Equipment / Gary DeBock’s 2021 Ultralight Radio Shootout! Another SWLing rip.

« on: May 07, 2021, 2012 UTC »

Hmmmmmmmmmmm... Looks like Radio Jay Allen has a 'lil competition here. Neat read, fo' sure.      https://swling.com/blog/2021/05/gary-debocks-2021-ultralight-radio-shootout/

274

Equipment / Lab599 Discovery TX-500? Yeah, I want one!

« on: May 01, 2021, 1859 UTC »

Damn!!!! This looks like something that you'd might expect from Harris RF.     https://lab599.com/       And, of course, revisit where I've read about this,    https://swling.com/blog/2021/05/updates-return-of-the-lab599-discovery-tx-500-qrper-com-and-youtube/#comment-666430

275

Equipment / MFJ-209C for medium wave tests?

« on: April 30, 2021, 2311 UTC »

Anyone ever try this antenna analyzer to match-up Part #15 antennas and Carrier-Current Coupling?   https://www.mtcradio.com/mfj-209c-hf-vhf-220mhzswr-anlyzr-nolcddisp/       I like that the newer MFJ analyzers now measure that low. Just too bad that the original ones don't, like the MFJ-269C that I bought in 2005. I also like that the MFJ-209C does the 222MHz band, where as the MFJ-269C skips over it.

276

Equipment / So, what happened to the PantronX Titus II SDR portable? Can't find an investor.

« on: April 26, 2021, 1904 UTC »

Huh... I did the pre-order for two of these years ago, then, what the hell happened? This kind of explains it:   http://www.hfcc.org/delivery/receivers.phtml      Surprised, that they don't try crowd funding. It's worked to get products out before.

277

Huh? / WION 1430 kHz in Ionia, Michigan will be testing tonight?

« on: April 25, 2021, 0524 UTC »

A bit late for this, but I didn't even get home until 1AM EST. Oooops. Still, interesting to read about. THANK YOU Josh for that info!!!!!

WION 1430 kHz in Ionia, Michigan will be testing tonight. The purpose is to evaluate the matching of their night directional array to their transmitter. This will help ensure better bandwidth for their C-QUAM AM Stereo signal.

The signal will alternate between the night time power of 330 watts and their daytime power level of 4.7 kW starting at 11PM EDT and midnight. (0300 UTC) The duration of the testing is unknown, but probably not more than a couple of hours. Daytime power levels will occur during the experimental period so after Midnight EDT (0400 UTC). All transmissions will occur using their nighttime antenna pattern:

WION AM Coverage Map

The station will mostly transmit their usual mix of music, but there will be some sweep tones designed to measure the transmitter performance and voice identifications.

You can compare your reception to their live web stream which is at:

i1430.com

See a more detailed listing of the testing tonight from their Chief Engineer Greg Buchwald below:

Greg BuchwaldWION 1430 kHz in Ionia, Michigan will be testing tonight. The purpose is to evaluate the matching of their night directional array to their transmitter. This will help ensure better bandwidth for their C-QUAM AM Stereo signal.

The signal will alternate between the night time power of 330 watts and their daytime power level of 4.7 kW starting at 11PM EDT and midnight. (0300 UTC) The duration of the testing is unknown, but probably not more than a couple of hours. Daytime power levels will occur during the experimental period so after Midnight EDT (0400 UTC). All transmissions will occur using their nighttime antenna pattern:

WION AM Coverage Map

The station will mostly transmit their usual mix of music, but there will be some sweep tones designed to measure the transmitter performance and voice identifications.

You can compare your reception to their live web stream which is at:

i1430.com

See a more detailed listing of the testing tonight from their Chief Engineer Greg Buchwald below:

Greg Buchwald
Author
Update: The updated AM stereo tuner is now online. Less top end distortion. (The Carver needs alignment and probably a few caps changed). Carver tuners, with out a modification on the stereo decoder PLL also have increasing distortion on the bottom end around 50/60Hz. We ran an hour of difficult test music and confirmed it is working properly. Tomorrow night we will take the AM down to measure the night directional array network and finalize the new matching of it to the transmitter for better bandwidth. The current night array is 10.5dB down at 1440khz as compared to the lower sideband at 1420khz (10khz modulation). The resultant quadrature distortion equates to well over 10%; dropping to 4% at 5khz. I expect this to be well under 1% when we are finished. Saturday night is prep work only. We need final measurements to lock in some capacitor and inductor values. I expect the installation of the network will occur in June. After an hour measurements, I will do some audio work. The music will not be your normal selections; it will all be highly separated and chosen to really test the system and allow us to evaluate some minor component changes in the optimod processor and the CRL AGC that precedes it. Comments will be welcomed. Specifically to the DX association that wants to do some listening tomorrow night: carrier will be up and down at 4.7kw and 300W. I can't give specific timing of each power level but expect us to begin sometime between 11pm and midnight edt. There will be few if any tones as we will actually sweep the carrier frequency for some of the tests. Once we have the required data, I will run some tones to confirm the transmitter performance. That will be followed by extended music sets while we perform the audio processing mods and updates. When we install the network at a later date, it will be much easier for us to state specific times of carrier power levels and specific modulation.

Expect lots of reports and discussions on the Facebook group devoted to AM Stereo:

[www.facebook.com]

Greg has discussed the possibility of a DX Test using Morse Code, sweep tones, etc. in June when the station will be doing additional testing during experimental hours. Stay tuned for that event.

The CPC is not coordinating reception reports for tonights events, but we would appreciate receiving .MP3, .WAV, or .MP4 video recordings of your receptions. Send those to:

les@highnoonfilm.com




Author
Update: The updated AM stereo tuner is now online. Less top end distortion. (The Carver needs alignment and probably a few caps changed). Carver tuners, with out a modification on the stereo decoder PLL also have increasing distortion on the bottom end around 50/60Hz. We ran an hour of difficult test music and confirmed it is working properly. Tomorrow night we will take the AM down to measure the night directional array network and finalize the new matching of it to the transmitter for better bandwidth. The current night array is 10.5dB down at 1440khz as compared to the lower sideband at 1420khz (10khz modulation). The resultant quadrature distortion equates to well over 10%; dropping to 4% at 5khz. I expect this to be well under 1% when we are finished. Saturday night is prep work only. We need final measurements to lock in some capacitor and inductor values. I expect the installation of the network will occur in June. After an hour measurements, I will do some audio work. The music will not be your normal selections; it will all be highly separated and chosen to really test the system and allow us to evaluate some minor component changes in the optimod processor and the CRL AGC that precedes it. Comments will be welcomed. Specifically to the DX association that wants to do some listening tomorrow night: carrier will be up and down at 4.7kw and 300W. I can't give specific timing of each power level but expect us to begin sometime between 11pm and midnight edt. There will be few if any tones as we will actually sweep the carrier frequency for some of the tests. Once we have the required data, I will run some tones to confirm the transmitter performance. That will be followed by extended music sets while we perform the audio processing mods and updates. When we install the network at a later date, it will be much easier for us to state specific times of carrier power levels and specific modulation.

Expect lots of reports and discussions on the Facebook group devoted to AM Stereo:

[www.facebook.com]

Greg has discussed the possibility of a DX Test using Morse Code, sweep tones, etc. in June when the station will be doing additional testing during experimental hours. Stay tuned for that event.

The CPC is not coordinating reception reports for tonights events, but we would appreciate receiving .MP3, .WAV, or .MP4 video recordings of your receptions. Send those to:

les@highnoonfilm.com

278

MW Loggings / WWCD 1580AM, by Columbus, OH, 03:11UTC, and e-mail RSVP!

« on: April 21, 2021, 1737 UTC »

I heard this station booming in during my commute between job sites, jamming out 1990's modern rock. Nice audio quality as well. When I'd gotten back home and looked it up, I filled out the their on-line contact page and got this reply back:

"Hey Tha Dood - thank you so much for reaching out! It's always a pleasure to hear about our AM signal reaching beyond state lines, it's awesome you were able to tune in for a bit! I will drop a line with our engineering team to see if we can confirm whether or not we utilize a C-QUAM stereo.

In the meantime, it's been great to hear from you, I hope you have a great rest of your week!

J-May
WWCD Ltd.
CD 92.9 FM
Central Ohio's Alternative
1036 S. Front St.
Columbus, OH 43206
P - 614.221.9923
F - 614.227.0021
  www.cd929fm.com
LISTEN LIVE"

Neat!!!! The last response that I've gotten was when that Ft. Wayne, IN 1620AM station was still on-air. That was like 7 years ago.

279

Amateur Radio / TX noise figures from today's HF transceivers?

« on: April 19, 2021, 1947 UTC »

Interesting, but I guess, not surprising.     https://www.dj0ip.de/transceivers/tx-noise/  Hmmmmm... Hopefully, using a tuner helps this problem.

280

The RF Workbench / 30min VID on the WBCQ Super Station! Go bigger!!!!!

« on: April 18, 2021, 2124 UTC »

Nice SWLing rip of this,    https://swling.com/blog/2021/04/video-wbcq-worlds-last-chance-radio-technical-notes/
Hey... This is still RF gear, right? Just wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy bigger.

281

Huh? / Vinylthon 2021, this SAT, April 17th.

« on: April 13, 2021, 2000 UTC »

Locally, our LPFM is doing this,   https://wtsq.org/   I am more surprised upon what stations are not on the Vinylthon list,     https://www.vinylthon.com/stations         Sounds like fun, anyway.

282

Software / Anyone else on Minds.com, besides me? Here's their update info.

« on: March 31, 2021, 1935 UTC »

As an ALT to facebook, Twitter, Tumbr, Instagram, etc., I was told years ago about Minds.com,   https://www.minds.com/      So, I toe-dipped with my page there,   https://www.minds.com/groups/profile/876322093051867136/feed     As you can see, I haven't been too active there, mainly since I weekly hit-up my VK.com page, my ALT to facebook and the de-funked myspace. Anyway, we'll see if this integration that Minds.com is doing is anything neat, or pure BS,   https://www.minds.com/minds/blog/minds-is-now-listed-on-uniswap-here-s-what-it-means-1221912862054379520?__e_ct_guid=876319834726473743&campaign=global&topic=minds_news      So, does anyone know anything about Uniswap? Thought I'd ask...

283

Equipment / A big surprise for under $20.00? I'm actually impressed with the Yorek YK-901!

« on: March 30, 2021, 1820 UTC »

Radio Jay Allen comes again with what was a $10.00 impulse buy for him, the new Yorek #YK-901 pocket AM / FM stereo / SW DSP portable. He got his for around $10.00! Mine, was around $22.00 total with with shipping and WV state tax. Now, why did I buy one? For the SW FREQ coverage of 3MHz - 21.850MHz continuous coverage. I want to use it as an on-air monitor tool of 3885kHz AM, 7290kHz AM, 20M AM, 17M AM, and even 15M AM. So, a handy little tool for on-air monitoring myself on Amateur Radio in AM mode. This thing, in size, is about as big as my now de-funked Sony ICF-SW100S clam shell portable. AM MW is about what you would expect, although more sensitive above 1MHz. That 'lil 15" telescopic whip is indeed short for SW, but at sunset here in WV, I was able to RX CHU 3330kHz, HAM's on 3880kHz AM, WWV's 5MHz, WBCQ's 7490kHz, CHU 7850kHz, WBCQ 9330kHz, WWV's 10MHz, and propagation sucked here above that for the time. The big surprise was the FM RX. This portable RX'ed most of the hard-catches for where I live. My DX portables to compare too are a Sangean ATS-803A, Eton E-10, and a C-Crane Radio +. Unreal!!! Just the 15" Yorek's whip, it pulled-in everything that they did. I expected maybe just the local Charleston, WV major stations, but this thing is pulling-in the not too easy to RX translators, Huntington, WV stations, Beckley, WV stations, a couple of KY and OH stations, and even that 104.1FM from Portsmouth, OH, over +80 miles away! WOW!!!!! I did not expect that. The downside??? The two < > button tuning is tedious, at best, with this wide of a FREQ span to tune. Fortunately, if you preset the 32 Memories to like 1MHz each, you can launch-tune from them. But, don't take my word for it, here's Jay's review:   https://radiojayallen.com/a-10-radio-the-yorek-yk-901-amfm-sw-radio/  Hmmmmmmmmmmm... Now, if you are clever enough to built a 'lil BFO for this portable, for SSB and CW RX'ing, then this would be a treat, indeed, for under $20.00! BTW, I was using 1/2-ass charged NiMH  AA batteries. What will it do with fully charged alkalines in it?

284

For Sale / Wanted / Barter / Sell diodes, and save the USCG!

« on: March 26, 2021, 1952 UTC »

There ya go. Sell stuff to the US Coast Guard!  https://hackaday.com/2021/03/14/rare-diode-threatens-coast-guards-arctic-ambitions/    I kindda' know what they're going through... Read my $0.02 worth way down below.

285

Amateur Radio / ARN should have George Zeller in their 3/26/2021 report.

« on: March 24, 2021, 1948 UTC »

With the OBIT out now on George Zeller, Amateur Radio Newsline should have all that they need for their report for what should be report #2265, released on Fridays.   https://www.arnewsline.org/       Just FYI...