Messages

1051

Huh? / Tropical Storm Helene Heading to The U.K.!

« on: September 16, 2018, 1651 UTC »

   You don't see this very often, a tropical storm that 1st was thought to be a concern to the NE USA / Canada did a complete hook-shot and now threatens Ireland and the UK,    https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at3+shtml/144450.shtml?mltoa34#contents This could make for some interesting monitoring of emergency communications from there. In the meantime, Florence continues to be an extreme slow moving pain in the ass state-side.  https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

1052

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC Part 95 R/C Data Link Legal "Beacons" 26-27 MHz Frequencies

« on: September 15, 2018, 2003 UTC »

One good example is what Radio Shack had in the 1980's with the 7W Paging System,   http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1987/hr058.html
If I remember right, the main FREQ was 27.195MHz. Our college had one that I was sent to work on over at administrations office. Got the system, with included back of set center load antenna, to work from on top of a filing cabinet, where it used that as a GND-Plane.

1053

General Radio Discussion / 14.325MHz maybe the goto FREQ this weekend, Sept 13 - 16, 2018.

« on: September 11, 2018, 1653 UTC »

With all that noise that Hurricane Florence is making, the Hurricane Net on 14.325MHz USB maybe the goto FREQ to monitor. http://w4ehw.fiu.edu/ With HF propagation really sucking lately, keep an ear open for 40M, 60M, and 75M, net FREQ's as well. After much of the North East had leftovers from Gordon dumped on them (Like where I am.), flooding will be a problem with this one well inland. Stay tuned!!!! Literally.

1054

Huh? / Re: For Red Green Fans

« on: September 10, 2018, 0301 UTC »

And don't forget, if it ain't broke, you're not tryin'.

1055

General Radio Discussion / Fusion GPS and Russia Gate via Amateur Radio?

« on: August 29, 2018, 1511 UTC »

Heard this blurp on FOX New Radio, then, it disappeared. Found it!!!   http://jamiedupree.blog.ajc.com/2017/12/17/the-conspiracy-theorists-came-for-my-pizza-in-2016-now-theyre-after-my-hobby/    Anyone know what band / FREQ, or even monitored the QSO that took place?

1056

MW Loggings / Re: CZFM TORONTO 740 AM......

« on: August 28, 2018, 1823 UTC »

Wait until you check out The Conspiracy Show on that station, Sunday nights, 11:00PM - 1:00AM. Before that is 4 hrs of Big Band tunage. Too bad that station is not AM stereo,   https://conspiracyshow.strangeplanet.ca/      and      http://www.zoomerradio.ca/ 

1057

Equipment / Re: How can I get into this hobby?

« on: August 21, 2018, 1607 UTC »

Well, here's my argument on why I believe a portable would be a decent 1st choice to start out. It is so versatile, since you can use a portable as a base, mobile, or take it along as a portable. For me? I have table top SW and HF transceivers here, but still use portables. Some portables that I have also feature nice AM / FM specs, as well as shortwave. I would be in a motel falling asleep listening to local stations of where I've traveled too, or listening to the HAM AM'ers talking on 3885kHz. And yes, I've DX'ed pirates in SW, AM, and FM, that way too. Portables are a useful tool to me as well. When I had a spectrum wide BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ driving me crazy here, I used an Eton E10 portable to DF (Direction Find.), where it was coming from. In this case, it was the UV light power supply from the Clear Stream septic system. I cured that with a .1uF capacitor across the DC power terminals and shorted out the noise from radiating. (That's one example here.) One thing about portables, they are fun! Also quick. Another useful feature, when you loose power and wi-fi, can you stream an on-line SDR then? A portable, kick it on and use battery power. Like I said, versatile. That's just my take.   

1058

General Radio Discussion / Monday August 20th is National Radio Day! SFW???

« on: August 20, 2018, 0149 UTC »

Yeah, when I heard about 8/20/2018 being National Radio Day, 1:, SFW?, 2:, Who thinks this crap up?, and 3:, WTFC? Well, I guess that we do, so here's the site about it, www.nationalradioday.com    Anyway, I believe that most of us are doing our part.

1059

Equipment / Re: Cuthbert AM Stereo C-Quam Transmitter Kit! Finally!!!!! On-Air performance.

« on: August 18, 2018, 1659 UTC »

Well, late in July I was able to power up the Cuthbert Transmitter and get RF out. The whole RF stage is built either Class D, or E, and for a very high impedance, which is expected for a 10ft wire antenna on MW. Unfortunately, I have very little audio pumping out of it, and the O'scope confirmed (As did my ears.), that practically nothing was coming out of the audio IC, a TDA7284 ALC chip. (You probably have one in an 80's boombox, or even a stereo VCR, that has audio leveling for recording, instead of manual adjustment.) Boomer, of Carrier-Current station AM690, was doing fine with his Cuthbert TX, so I suspected that I had a bad audio IC. So, I really didn't need it, and just bypassed it all together, since I have managed audio feeding it anyway. WOW!!! Even on a low key AM stereo walkman, what a difference from AM mono to AM stereo! As far as stereo separation? Mine is about that of an early BA1404'ed Ramsey FM-10 from 1989, but better AF response. (I've had several of those Ramsey FM-10's over the years from the original to model C.) Testing on 1580kHz from the indoor wire antenna. Even on a mono receiver, that audio has more punch to its quality. And from the indoor wire antenna, on a car stereo, range MAX's out to just over 1/4 mile. Still, for what it is, if you don't have AM Stereo around where you live, it's still a way for you to provide AM Stereo to leftover receivers that you have with that capability. I do see that AM Stations are starting to dump HD Radio for C-QUAM Stereo again. Buffalo, NY's WWKB 1520AM just turned their AM Stereo back on again. Too bad that's sports talk. The next step? I've just bought two Meduci C-QUAM boards for $28.00USD each. Having just a couple of 1990's low scale AM Stereo walkmans just doesn't cut it, so I plan to roll my own AM Stereo receivers via modifications. https://www.ebay.com/itm/163031984400

1060

General Radio Discussion / Re: THE STRANGE DAVID AND GOLIATH SAGA OF RADIO FREQUENCIES.

« on: August 17, 2018, 1755 UTC »

Huh... I wrote to David Zweig, whom wrote that Wired article, and here's is response to my comments. Interesting argument indeed:

"A few reason why I don't believe this could work:
49MHz isn't licensed, so mics would be subject to interference from remote control cars and other devices that use this frequency.
This may be too low frequency to effectively transmit signals with modern mics and transmitters' current tiny antennas (even if this is where mics used to operate).
Mics need more than just one frequency. Every single mic needs its own slice, and buffer spectrum on either side, to prevent interference. In other words, if a production is using 30 mics, they need quite a bit of spectrum to operate; one frequency is not enough. It's not analogous to having twenty devices on the same WiFi frequency."

1061

General Radio Discussion / Re: THE STRANGE DAVID AND GOLIATH SAGA OF RADIO FREQUENCIES

« on: August 17, 2018, 1531 UTC »

Looks like a revival is needed for 49MHz. Granted, 49MHz is plagued more by electrical and computer noises, but if I remember right, wireless mics started down there in 49MHz, where they shared space with walkie-talkies, cordless phones, baby monitors, and even stereo wireless headphones. Hmmmmmmmmmm, I see an opportunity to make out big here $$$$-wise. There's always loop holes somewhere, and in this case, 49MHz could be it, again. It's true, what's old can be new again. In a pinch, a 10 channel 1980's - 90's cordless phone can be modified to do just that, be a wireless mic, even a two-way intercom, with the 46MHz / 49MHz split. Can be done!!! 

1062

Equipment / Re: No DRM around? Roll your own!

« on: August 16, 2018, 0335 UTC »

Maybe this site might explain things about various DRM,            http://www.drm.org/what-is-drm/

1063

Equipment / Re: How can I get into this hobby?

« on: August 16, 2018, 0329 UTC »

Not knowing how basic you actually are into the shortwave listening hobby, I would start off the way most folks, myself included, started out, with a portable. I didn't have Single Side Band for over 8 years, but heard much on AM mode with a simple $50.00 Radio Shack Realistic DX-40. That covered from 3MHz - 22MHz, so pirates that were broadcasting in AM mode were actually heard on such a simple radio. (Try to find one of those portables today.) That was Around 1981. In 1989, I stepped up to a Sangean ATS-803A portable. That was an earlier digital tuning portable that covers 150kHz to 30MHz, as well as FM band. (I still have that radio!) That radio receives Single Side Band (SSB), mode with what's called a BFO (Beat Frequency Oscillator.) With SSB, the AM's carrier is taken away at the transmitter and you are left with a side band single, either Lower Side Band (LSB), or Upper Side Band (USB). An SSB signal on a regular AM radio sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher, with a male voice garbled. What an SSB receiver does is inject a carrier back into that SSB signal, then you can hear what the station is. I went this basic with you, not knowing where you are at with shortwave at this point. Are you an apartment dweller? Can you put up an outside antenna, like a 60ft longwire antenna? What do you have for equipment, or don't you? Anyway, a decent portable radio is a good place to start and get your feet wet. I did, and so did many others.

1064

Equipment / Re: Panaxis FME 500 issue?

« on: August 15, 2018, 2016 UTC »

This might sound dumb, and simplistic, but have to tried rocking each DIP switch ON / OFF. I've seen them get flaky for contacting with time. And, try grounding the master crystal case, with clip leads, to chassis GND. Just some more passing thoughts. I don't think that I've missed that you may have tried that, but....

1065

Equipment / No DRM around? Roll your own!

« on: August 14, 2018, 1538 UTC »

I was looking at this European company for their AM C-QUAM TX's, but found a neat DRM milliwatt transmitter,  http://www.aspisys.com/drmax.htm  So, if we don't have DRM here yet, we can literally roll our own Part #15-wise.