Messages

1231

Equipment / Re: What kind of cabling to use 75 pr 50 ohm?

« on: November 23, 2014, 2317 UTC »

You can build an impedance matching section to match 50 ohms to 75 ohms.  Assuming the antenna is 1:1 SWR, using 75 ohm cable should only raise your SWR to 1.5:1.  You might be ok at those power levels.

+-RH

1232

General Radio Discussion / Re: Troubleshooting (or just shooting) a Johnson Valiant

« on: November 21, 2014, 0224 UTC »

During that brief period before the LV fuse goes, what does your LV look like?  All of what I read said that it should be around 300V.  If its low, something is pulling it down.  Did you replace the LV rectifier with diodes as well?  if not, look for a gassy rectifier tube, otherwise, shorted (or leaky) diodes are possible.  Worst case, a short in the LV transformer could also be a cause.  Try and pull all of the tubes out of the unit and see if it still blows fuses.  If so, you may have an issue with the transformer.  If the fuse holds, add tubes one by one until you find a tube or combination of tubes that cause the fuse to blow.  I'm not sure how the replacement high voltage stuff was redone, but check too that nothing has happened to the filament connections to the HV rectifier tubes, as those are run off the LV transformer and are relatively high current capable.

Dumb question, but do the filaments and pilot lamp light when you turn the filament switch on?

+-RH

1233

General Radio Discussion / Re: Troubleshooting (or just shooting) a Johnson Valiant

« on: November 20, 2014, 0738 UTC »

You could have a shorted (or leaky bypass cap somewhere.  Sometimes you can get carbon trails along tube sockets, phenolic ones are particularly bad.  If you have one, bring the unit up on a variac slowly and start looking for smoke.  The old carbon resistors they used in older tube gear would change value with age, and in some cases go open.  Double check everything, sometimes you will have to remove a suspect component from the circuit to be sure.  It is also possible you have a leak in your mod transformer, or one of the input chokes to ground.

Good luck!

+-RH

1234

General Radio Discussion / Re: 6925 vs 6935 (or elsewhere)

« on: November 16, 2014, 2120 UTC »

That is one of the reasons I rarely hang out on '25, that and the fact that a lot of guys do have crystal controlled rigs and it seems unfair to squat on it with any regularity.  The Link-11 that likes to sit on '48 seems to come and go with the seasons and the whims of the president.  '75 is a good alternative, although CFARs like to camp out on 6973 from time to time.  I like the idea of 'moving south' although a recent survey of pesky activity found them all the way down to 80 meters, with certain 'watering holes' having more activity than others.  6800-6875 seems to be a good compromise, and most peoples' equipment shouldn't need much to get there.

I also like the idea of 1720, but your looking at one big antenna, and unless your on the east coast, I doubt many people would here you with a good signal.  Although, it is a lot easier to make power down there.

+-RH

1235

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: XFM Shortwave 6940 AM *0208 UTC 3Nov14

« on: November 03, 2014, 0337 UTC »

I've got a RFI problem with one of the audio codecs that may be causing this.  I am asking a lot of pro-sumer electronics...

+-RH

1236

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: XFM Shortwave 6965 AM *0029 UTC 1Nov14

« on: November 01, 2014, 0214 UTC »

Some days just aren't your day.

Antenna problems, audio configuration screw ups....and....then the breaker trips.

..So I guess we're done for the night.  We'll give it another shot sometime.

+-RH

1237

General Radio Discussion / Re: Prepaid cell phones for pirate DJ's

« on: October 12, 2014, 1826 UTC »

There are providers out there that have free VOIP numbers.  You sign up for one under a phoney name, buy a POTS adapter and register it to the free phone number.  You can then use the number as is, or get a google voice redirect number.  At any rate, you give out the number and people call in.

A proxy is a web service that hides your geolocation by using some other IP or range of IP's.  This is a service you pay for in most cases to browse the web anonymously.  You can also use it for other things too, like streaming, chat, ect.

+-RH

1238

General Radio Discussion / Re: Prepaid cell phones for pirate DJ's

« on: October 12, 2014, 0846 UTC »

We do live in the VOIP era.  You can score a prepaid POTS adapter for as little as $10 and feed a phone hybrid with that.  Don't want big brother to know where you and your IP are?  No problem, use a proxy

+-RH

1239

Huh? / Re: The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy

« on: October 06, 2014, 1426 UTC »

He he, "snarky."  I thought I was the only one that used that word

In all seriousness though, I recently got tired of buying incandescent lamps that burn for a few weeks or maybe a month before burning out, and began replacing them with led lamps.  I've got a pair in my porch light that have been burning 24/7 for over a year so far with no issues.  They don't seem as bright as they once were, and I'll be very surprised if they make it to their guaranteed 24K hours/3 years, but we'll see.  I do like the fact that they use 1/4 the electricity, and are electrically quiet to boot.  The new cree lamps have power factor correctors in them.

+-RH

1240

Huh? / Re: Teachers arrested after having threesome with student.

« on: October 02, 2014, 0453 UTC »

"I'm hot for teacher" 

+-RH

1241

Software / Re: What Radio related software would YOU like to see?

« on: September 27, 2014, 0659 UTC »

How about a linux port of the WinRadio software

+-RH

1242

General Radio Discussion / Re: THERE IS A GOD- RADIO DISNEY IS SELLING ALL BUT ONE OF ITS STATIONS!!!!!

« on: September 06, 2014, 0754 UTC »

A lot of the Disney outlets were c-quam prior to the introduction of HD.  To boot, their processing wasn't too bad, and they were shaking the hell out of whatever they were running.  I will be sad to see them go.

+-RH

1243

Equipment / Re: FYI: Some Nice Hardware Listed

« on: September 03, 2014, 2334 UTC »

To be fair, a modern solid state rig at the 5KW power level is barely 150 lbs.  That seems a lot more portable than most of those 'old gals'

+-RH

1244

Equipment / Re: FYI: Some Nice Hardware Listed

« on: September 01, 2014, 1912 UTC »

The Sparta 5KW and RCA 5KW are in remarkably good shape.  Its been a long time since I've seen a broadcast pull that clean.  Usually they look like the 250W on the inside.

+-RH

1245

General Radio Discussion / Re: THERE IS A GOD- RADIO DISNEY IS SELLING ALL BUT ONE OF ITS STATIONS!!!!!

« on: August 31, 2014, 0318 UTC »

I doubt they'll go dark.  Disney is spinning them off as per their research, only 13% of their listenership is through AM, and contemporary music of today does not sound good on the average 2KHz wide AM radio.  They were supposedly taking a bath on music royalties, that combined with the high cost of maintaining an ageing AM plant makes them non-viable.  Depending on the market they will probably go mexican or religious, as those are the only groups really running non-viable signals anymore.  Everything else is either news/talk or sports.

+-RH