Messages

256

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Voice of KAOS with another station 6.925

« on: July 31, 2010, 0028 UTC »

Voice of KAOS 6925
Mentioned Arlington Cemetary, played "I Love Rock and Roll", but hard to make out, as there is another station also on frequency at slightly lower strength obscuring most of it.
Signal sounds good, and I would probably be able to receive either of them individually, but with both on top of each other it's kind of a mess.

Location: upstate South Carolina
Radio: IC-718
Antenna: 400-foot wire @40 ft

"Another station .."

I think that other station looks to be up at 6928.4x, kinda wide as it appears here ...

257

North American Shortwave Pirate / 6928 - 6932 The Wide, Drifty Pirate (wide, drifting AM signal) 0021z 7-31-2010

« on: July 31, 2010, 0022 UTC »

More as available

Drifty, seemingly over-modulated ...

Needs to be copied in LSB/USB because AM doesn't sound that good, but, it drifts so the tome keeps changing ...

0031z Freq as 6929.18 now moving up ... presently at  6929.89

0036z Now at 6931.62 ...

0038z Now 6932.0 area ...

0044z Now 6931.80 area ...

0049z Now 6931.8x area ...

0054z Sudden shift to around 6930.5 ... then back to around 6931.9 ... Best copy for me using AMS (AM/Synchronous on WR-G303e)

... Waiting for the OHR ID to appear ...

258

General Radio Discussion / Re: Internet addresses will run out in about a year

« on: July 30, 2010, 2303 UTC »

... In the meantime ISPs may force multiple customers to share IP addresses, ...

Hmmm ... already do; that's what cookies for one, allow along with the sharing of several/many browsers/any http transaction behind a router capable of NAT (Network Address Translation) ...

The 'surprise' may come if one tries to do something like direct an incoming IP request through the router to a device (like route incoming requests to port 80 to your "personal web server") on your home 192.168.x or 10.x network and - the request never comes though the public internet! At that point you'll know that 'sharing' has been turned on ...

259

Utility / In July: Ecuadorian 3810 kHz LSB - Time station in Spanish 0445z

« on: July 30, 2010, 1015 UTC »

I caught it with a decent signal on a portable with a whip two nights ago well away from any windows. It would've been popping on radio with a real antenna.

The Date: July 30, 2010

The Time: 1013z or 5:13 AM local CDT l

The station: Hearing 3810 kHz time/frequency station this morning ... kinda unusual for this time of year?

Noticed it was present with the portable Degen 1103 earlier, and of course stronger using an 80 M dipole and the Icom ...

260

General Radio Discussion / Re: Off-the-grid communications

« on: July 28, 2010, 2235 UTC »

My understanding is that Radio Animal went to great lengths to keep the design secret. He never released any schematics or other design documentation. He even went so far as to file the part numbers and other identification off of the components inside the Grenade, and added some components that actually did nothing.

...

I hate to say it, but, anyone 'versed in the art' could put something together something in the way of a 'design' in an afternoon ... and this is not even considering the publications put out by 'The League' (ARRL) the last umpteen years that cover the subject of low-power/QRP transmitters ... never mind the Heathkit/Heathkit manuals and that equipment that can serve as the design guide for transmitters ... and countless solid-state CB radios from the 70's onwards that came with a schematic in the manual ... one would be HIGHLY surprised to really see anything novel 'rolled out' contain any real secrets ...

The crystal osc stage, a mult or gain stage or two, the PA, a push-pull audio modulator (ala CB radio) or even a series-transistor modulator (like a lot of 28V aircraft radios use) ...  impedance matching between stages ... the output lowpass filter; little of this is new or novel for decades now, esp in the 10 Watt power class ...

Just sayin ...

261

North American Shortwave Pirate / 6930u WEAK Radio 0337z 7-28-2010

« on: July 28, 2010, 0338 UTC »

More as available

Actually, a fair amount of LSB and USB (DSB, no carrier that I can detect)

0344z Kinda synthesized, kinda rock, kinda psychedelic, a lot of drums right now as far as pgm material ...

0347z Audio response seems to extend above 3 kHz ... sounds good when it's in here!

0349z ID: "WEAK Radio"

0351z "One small step for man ... one giant leap for mankind"

0353z Audio response seems to extend at least to 4 kHz (viewing real-time spec an Winradio interface software)

0359z Pgm continues, I've got to cut out, 73's to all ...

262

North American Shortwave Pirate / Radio GaGa - comedy bits/Summertime Blues 6925U

« on: July 28, 2010, 0315 UTC »

7/28/10
6925 USB
0245-0303z: Intermittent signal, sounds like comedy bits, parody music, "I know you are but what am I?" looped (I'm guessing Pee Wee Herman?).  Not quite strong enough here to ID much.
0310z: Eddie Cochran "Summertime Blues"
0312z: Canned Heat "Going Up The Country", sounded like live version w/ intro.

0314z Weak, readable here on an in-building 2' loop; QRN is getting a little worse though as that T-storm complex to the west is moving eastward ...

I should add; I've been hesitant the last couple days of connecting any outside antennas ... on account of the T-storms ...

0318z ID: "Radio GaGa"

Somebody was calling Radio GaGa ("How about it Radio GaGa") ... sounded like an attempt at a QSO ... didn't seem to pan out though (no ans by GaGa) ...

263

Equipment / Perseus SDR review

« on: July 26, 2010, 1413 UTC »

Will be interesting to see how this stacks up against the Perseus.

Came across these in my travels,

The Perseus SDR review (more general in nature) - http://www.kongsfjord.no/bm/Perseus%20SDR.pdf

Perseus Review (technical in nature) - http://www.kongsfjord.no/dl/SDR/Perseus%20Review%20VI.pdf

264

North American Shortwave Pirate / 6940am Update WWCR 0203z 7-26-2010

« on: July 26, 2010, 0204 UTC »

More as available

0205z 6940.00 kHz, too weak for a good copy ATTM

Talk, not music, format so far ...

0220z Signal has been weaker than previously experienced, carrier still detected ...

0224z Only snippets of speech coming through occasionally ... a source of QRM has cropped up too, a noisy, slowly sweeping narrow band signal that sweeps from 2 up to 3.5 kHz and back down just above the 6940 kHz carrier frequency ...

0314z Sig strength has picked up considerably ... this sounds like a commercial SW service; pgm content ATTM is male speaking; sounds like a preacher/teaching session.

I was/am unaware that this frequency is used/assigned for broadcasting ... maybe in another hemisphere at this time?

0344z Detecting a slight echo on this signal as well ... may be a very long path involved as well as the primary path ...

0405z ID and address heard, but not copied (weak signal+ some QRN) - commercial/paid for/religious broadcast

This station (on 6940) in the future will not be reported/logged.

0513z **Update** This is carrying WWCR program material ... do they have a mixing product they transmit? Remember two different receivers and two different antennas pick this up! The signal has gotten strong enough to copy the audio ...

265

Other / Re: Random bursts

« on: July 25, 2010, 2243 UTC »

The sound from 0:45 to 1:02 in [this video clip] is what I get (got) booming in here all the time.  The super-slow one at the end of his recording is new to me.  Most of the time it would just be clusters of two to four different speeds, sometimes just one at a time, and rarely a "full diagnostic run" of every flavor that they had from one end to the other.

That last one is a new one on me ... I'm thinking it's the product of something else other that RADAR ...

I had not in recent memory heard the slowest rate of the 'sweeper' ... that was quite a set of sweeps that was captured ...

266

Other / Re: Random bursts

« on: July 25, 2010, 1955 UTC »

I have been observing these random bursts that occur on various frequencies. Is this at all related to the noise used by jammers?

Receiver: Grundig G6 Aviator
Anntenna: Telescoping Rod
Place of Reception: Northeastern United States
Date: 07/25/2010
Time: 0324 UTC
Frequency: 7540 kHz

http://www.zshare.net/audio/78673782ffa85a9c/

RADAR - perhaps the Ionospheric RADAR used to observe the aurora over the poles, but it's not comms and not jamming ...

If you notice, those are sweeps, sometimes slow, sometimes medium in speed and some times rapid. Watching the Winradio WR-G303e display on the PC they are about 15 to 20 kHz wide ...

A number of Google hits result from HF Auroral RADAR:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=opera&hs=r47&rls=en&q=aurora+radar+HF&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

SuperDARN - showing the scanned areas: http://superdarn.jhuapl.edu/

Wkipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Dual_Auroral_Radar_Network


Extracted from this document:

   http://ursi-test.intec.ugent.be/files/URSIGA08/papers/G05ap3.pdf

the SuperDARN Aurora RADAR network:

 

267

Other / Re: Am I hearing ACARS and RTTY on the same frequency?

« on: July 25, 2010, 1949 UTC »

That would explain it. I had no idea the intermediate frequency bandwidth was so wide on this little radio.

So if its likely a military RTTY signal, there is really no point in attempting to decode it.

And - they don't say in the official docs from the company either ... from their website:

Specs - http://www.etoncorp.com/upload/contents/307/G_G6spec.pdf

Manual - http://www.etoncorp.com/upload/contents/307/G6_Manual_US_010308_low.pdf

So, you can get close, but there will always be some minor 'ambiguity' ... I would take close in these circumstances as being close enough, as I do when I use the Degen 1103 (DE1103) ... compared to the Icom IC-756ProII -

Brief view of its specs:

  http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamhf/4019spec.html

  http://k0swi.microlnk.com/REVIEW/ICOM/ICOM_756PRO/ICOM%20756%20PRO%20REVIEW.htm


As to decoding, it may be nothing more than what appears to be random 5-letter/number code groups ... I don't know, I have never looked.

268

Other / Re: Am I hearing ACARS and RTTY on the same frequency?

« on: July 25, 2010, 1926 UTC »

My radio has a digital display, so it's fairly accurate. Could the signal have drifted off frequency that far?

Chances are, you were tuned above the signal (and BFO'd to audible) whereas normally the rcvr LO is tuned below (and then BFO'd audible) ... the difference being about 4 kHz (high).

A 'consumer'/entry-level radio like the Grundig is a lot like the Degen in performance a couple of us have, and unless the IF filter is swapped out the IF (Intermediate Frequency) BW (Bandwidth) is about 6 kHz wide (maybe even a bit more) ...

A good, normal communications receiver IF BW is around 2.3 or 2.4 kHz wide. Modern ham rigs (like an Icom IC-756ProII ) are adjustable from 3 kHz to less than 1.6 kHz (and also shiftable and infinitely variable) and then the CW filters range from 400 or 500 Hz down to 250 Hz wide.

269

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 6923.04am Outhouse Radio 1602z 7-25-2010

« on: July 25, 2010, 1917 UTC »

OK, this might be who I had around 1523z? Very weak here.

Probably; I heard activity awhile before I made my post, and then only after trying to verify it wasn't something else ... by that time the signal had picked up and I was able to copy some pgm audio ...

270

North American Shortwave Pirate / 6923.04am Outhouse Radio 1602z 7-25-2010

« on: July 25, 2010, 1603 UTC »

Very weak signal, verified on/initially about 6923.18 kHz

Had been copying for some number of minutes ... verified using two diff rcvrs, two diff ants

1610z Voice ID "Outhouse Radio ... gotta get out of here ..."

1611z Freq best for AMS = 6923.04 kHz

1613z Good morning yourself, OHR!

1615z Copy is a little more than rough here, OHR, only when signal peaks can I completely copy every word ...

1121z Off-air