Messages

271

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Radio Casablanca 6940 AM

« on: July 25, 2010, 0258 UTC »

Wow ... I'm hearing what sounds like two carriers ... a Hz or two apart, beating against each other with fades and peaks -

- two ppl/stations active on 6940 ??


0406z A fairly strong carrier just left 6940, and now a much weaker carrier can still be heard ... is there re-use of this band in Europe or S. America for ... the same purpose?

I should add, since I wasn't able to copy pgm material (the audio) I was monitoring the carrier level and tone in CW mode on the Icom, and suddenly the strong carrier dropped out leaving the weaker carrier (at that point). Earlier the two carriers were fairly close in signal strength, but, as time progressed propagation changed ... I just thought I would mention this as it looked a bit interesting ...

272

North American Shortwave Pirate / 6926.46am UNID 0027z 7-25-2010 (very weak signal)

« on: July 25, 2010, 0028 UTC »

0027z Very weak signal ... able only now to hear some pgm content

Carrier freq determined to be 6926.46 kHz +-10 Hz or so

Two different radios (WR-G303e and 756II) and two different antennas (2' tuned loop and dipole respectively)

Nothing heard/found there before, so, unlikely it's an image or mixing product locally ...

0032z Still present

0042z Still present, still very weak (obscured also by some QRN enough to keep obscured, although at times the signal peaks enough to hear more pgm content)

0051z Still present, some pgm audio heard on and off (bass guitar licks really sem to come thru)

0116z Still present on both rcvrs (but just barely!); signal has trademark characteristics of ionospheric propagation, e.g. fading and peaks ...

0142z Still present, still noted on 2 rcvrs/different ants

273

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WEAK Radio 6935 AM

« on: July 24, 2010, 2355 UTC »

Delayed report from the field:

2319z WEAK Radio copied while walking at the athletic field on a Degen 1103 portable radio!

274

General Radio Discussion / Re: Request for high-quality recording of WWV/WWVH tsunami warning test

« on: July 24, 2010, 1417 UTC »

My recording sound a lot more 'hi-fi' than that.  Weird...  I was also tuned to 10 MHz.

Receiver here was Kenwood R5000 using pre-filter audio out to laptop computer.  Can hear the 100 Hz. time code quite nicely in my recording.  Almost missing in yours.

Hmmm ... might I suggest you upgrade speakers (laptop speakers usually won't cut it) or use a good headset? ... just checked the original wav file and the encoded mp3 and can hear the 100 Hz just fine here. Can't testify at the moment to any adulteration/recoding thru the mediafire web/file server.

As to hi-fi; that's not my claim ... poster requested to hear said 'crappy' audio and I obliged. Also, my audio is probably as 'flat' (unaltered) as one can get (save for the IF filter response determining ultimate BW) ... the claim I will make is a limited SNR is probably no better than 30 dB at the best points and 10 dB during signal fades all owing to propagation and a weird carrier I had in the passband of the lower sideband just below 10 MHz.

I have an idea, why don't you post a segment of your recording and we can all do a comparison?

275

North American Shortwave Pirate / 6925am UNID 0351z 7-24-2010

« on: July 24, 2010, 0352 UTC »

Really too weak to copy, but, cdx may improve.

Carrier noted for last several minutes

Approx freq 6925.2 kHz

0404z Narrowed it down to 6925.25 kHz (-+ 10 Hz)

0406z Slightly better results using an in-building tuned 2' loop on account of noise e.g. QRN

0411z Some serious guitar jamming is taking place ... sounds like genre is rock ... significant lows ... need a bigger loop ...

0422z Whomever this is, they are jammin ... lots of bass guitar coming through, no detectable ID (not that I could pull it out) signal is up and down some too. Need to cut out of here soon too ...

276

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6925 USB

« on: July 24, 2010, 0205 UTC »

7/24/10
6925 USB
0202z: Barenaked Ladies "Testing 1-2-3" followed by Wolverine Radio ID and big band music.

Nice signal. S4 to S5 and QRN respectably below that level

0210z Seeing peaks over S9 with the full Quarter-wave 40M ground-mounted vertical antenna (but QRN seems worse compared to dipole) ...

0214z The 'easy listening' format continues ... nice change from the usual!

0224z "Can't take my eyes off you"

277

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 6950am UNID 0115z 7-24-2010

« on: July 24, 2010, 0155 UTC »

RADIO RONIN SHORTWAVE  on the FAT MAN   01:20 full scale on my meter and draggin the static along for the ride    01:25 gettin some fades to s9   but at least the static fades with ya       B IDOL  White Wedding

I have seen pictures of the FAT MAN very very nice 

Don't FEAR the REAPER  01:30

sending you some audio RONIN

ID at 01:36   weak modulation on the id's

01:44 you and the static are fighting a hell of a fight  i think the static is winning you are about buried now 

01:49 on top for a bit again with TURN THE PAGE    Thanks RONIN   

Consider following as constructive: Announcer could use a bit more audio/compression on those voice segments; the music program comes through considering the QRN.

And Tnx Ronin!

278

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 6950am UNID 0115z 7-24-2010

« on: July 24, 2010, 0127 UTC »

RADIO RONIN SHORTWAVE  on the FAT MAN   01:20 full scale on my meter and draggin the static along for the ride    01:25 gettin some fades to s9   but at least the static fades with ya       B IDOL  White Wedding

I have seen pictures of the FAT MAN very very nice 

I put it down as RRS. Tnx. Copy here is rough!

279

North American Shortwave Pirate / 6950am OHR says: Radio Ronin SW 0115z 7-24-2010

« on: July 24, 2010, 0116 UTC »

More to follow

0119z ID: Radio (I thought I copied _____ but will wait)

Cndx not really conducive to good copy yet/tonight


0147z Finally got good freq for USB on the IC-756II determined: 6950.59 kHz ...

280

General Radio Discussion / Re: Request for high-quality recording of WWV/WWVH tsunami warning test

« on: July 22, 2010, 2300 UTC »

Wow.  It's like receiving emergency instructions from Charlie Brown's teacher.

Pretty much ... 'horrid' is the word that comes to mind ...

281

General Radio Discussion / Recording of WWV ... warning test

« on: July 22, 2010, 2240 UTC »

Someone got a copy of said crappy audio to share?
I'm curious not only about the audio, but the contents of the test.

Let's see if this works - WWV 10 MHz 1816z thru 1828z:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/4a27nnd878e8xc1/WWV_2010-07-22_1816_1828.mp3


Update: I just clicked on the link, got the file downloaded and played it okay ...

282

General Radio Discussion / Re: Request for high-quality recording of WWV/WWVH tsunami warning test

« on: July 22, 2010, 2056 UTC »

...
Sounded like telephone line quality audio. 
...

Worse; sounded like a 50-year old, compressed-granule carbon-element microphone mouthpiece element ('government-issue' phone system/PBX in Ft. Collins or NOAA WX?) ... as many will attest today, 'landlines' can sound quite good today (sample any talk-show listening with a critical ear to caller phone quality). It seems to be the 'user' equipment that sounds quite lame (the free 'Sports Illustrated phone' reference seems quite fitting here) on occasion today ...

IMHO that is where they need to make the biggest change, improve that d*** audio and make it understandable! As it stands right now, only a small portion of the population will 'copy' anything (let alone correctly) that they have to say with audio like they have had for awhile now ...

73, SW-J

P.S. Recorded in four 15-min segments, digitally, directly after the synchronous demodulator using a Winradio WR-G303e (no intervening audio A/D operation via a sound card involved) using an in-building 2' diameter tuned-loop antenna.

283

General Radio Discussion / Request for high-quality recording of WWV/WWVH tsunami warning test

« on: July 22, 2010, 1757 UTC »

BTTT

284

Shortwave Broadcast / Jammer 2nd/3rd harmonic? Re: 7405 jammer stomping on Bulgaria 7400

« on: July 22, 2010, 1600 UTC »

7/22/10
0430z: Jammer on 7405, presumably Cuba over Marti, also QRMing Radio Bulgaria on 7400.  Bulgaria audible only on LSB, wiped out on USB and wideband AM by 7405 jammer.

Been awhile since I noted any jamming between Marti and RHC, last time was on 49m band a couple of years ago.  At that time it seemed the jamming was confined to one sideband to avoid QRMing adjacent freqs.

Get an opportunity, check the 2nd and 3rd harmonic of the Cuban jammer; I've copied their jammer's third harmonic up in the CB 'outbander' spectrum before (while observing for DX) ... it came and went briefly as the propagation at 27/28 MHz to the area of the island opened up briefly ...

It would seem the jammer's harmonics were not so tightly controlled (takes BIG parts to perform as a high-power low pass harmonic filter and they may have just not installed one or simply bypassed it after it failed ... and *I* would not want like to be the one to let Fidel know that his 'jamming' department was not 'on-the-air' b/c of a simple filter failure, after all, they're jamming, and that's not entirely in accord with WARC rules and regs either ...)

 

285

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WLDJ 6925u

« on: July 22, 2010, 0239 UTC »

i can hear him on 40 meters   he seems to have caught a little attention already

Yep. THAT"S why ya gotta stay clean ... don't attract it ...

I could hear some stuff above 6930 this far away ...

I hope the HFDFC is not getting a workout on account of this this evening ...