Messages

151

The RF Workbench / Re: zeppelin radio homemade transmitter video presentation

« on: September 20, 2018, 1231 UTC »

its always interesting from one OP to another to see their radio transmitter gear, antenna setup and audio processing equipment.
i have made a few videos concerning mine but they were not as detailed.
in the future, i will make more detailed videos describing everything from the source of audio to the final antenna and publish it for the public.
thanks for the detailed video of your setup !

152

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1554 UTC 11 Sep 2018

« on: September 12, 2018, 0104 UTC »

2158 music, 2200 blank ?, 2202 music

congrats Ray !
i was at 50 watts carrier when you heard me form the northern east coast of the US.
i generally end broadcast at 2200z but i extended it for a little bit for testing since i was preparing a good friend of mine for remote broadcasting to my station in the near future.

153

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Mix Radio 6873 USB 0308 UTC 09 Sep 2018

« on: September 10, 2018, 1851 UTC »

I listened and 'watched' again. So it's not really SSB but more like VSB because there is some lower sideband and carrier. My bad. Is that as wide as he could make it display?

I wonder what it would have sounded like in AM mode.

like SSB would sound in AM, because there was no sign of any carrier.

154

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Mix Radio 6873 USB 0308 UTC 09 Sep 2018

« on: September 10, 2018, 1601 UTC »

"As far as the bass fluttering that is because the receiving SDR is not zero beating meaning it is not exactly on frequency with the transmitting station."

I disagree. The bass fluttering was the amplitude varying not the frequency.
There is no zero beating going on because there is no carrier. If there was frequency shifting it would be constant and not affect the amplitude.

actually, if you look at the video, you can see the passband is below the center of the frequency going into the LSB of 6873Khz at about -200Hz.
this is because Mix has some low frequency audio (0Hz to 100hz) on the LSB of the carrier, so KiloKat7 moved the passband to that area not realizing that there will now be a slight frequency difference between both the transmitting station and the receiving station, about 5Hz, creating the "flutter" effect.
if KiloKat7 moved the passband to 0Hz on the USB of 6873Khz (0Hz to 13Khz), the "flutter" effect of the slight frequency difference of about 5hz would not be heard.

155

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Mix Radio 6873 USB 0308 UTC 09 Sep 2018

« on: September 10, 2018, 0104 UTC »

I think every SDR app I have allows you to adjust the bandwidth, SdrDx lets you go to 20 kHz for example.  The problem, as MDK2 notes, is one of signal quality / hiss. There's usually very little transmitted spectral content above a few kHz, most of what you hear about 3 or 4 kHz is noise, unless the signal is extremely strong. I have occasionally opened up the bandwidth on a wide pirate transmission but it is rare. Of course this is an issue for AM as well as SSB. My personal opinion is it's not terribly useful for most SW broadcasts (SWBC or pirate) to use very wide bandwidths. Now ask me what I think about DRM, but I won't be so polite with my answer 

sorry, im just venting at my frustration trying to locate SDR software that can reliably demodulate certain QAM streams like 802.11/QAM256/ATSC/8-VSB-TV/Cellular/etc.
i have to take "crude" home made measures to get what i desire at this point.
all i need is the (properly) demodulated signal to feed the software i have.

156

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Mix Radio 6873 USB 0308 UTC 09 Sep 2018

« on: September 09, 2018, 2212 UTC »

Posted my reception to YT showing signal and wideband audio.  A few minutes into this and you'll forget your listening to sideband...and on shortwave nonetheless.  If anyone argues that sideband sucks for music then please direct them to this before YT mutes it for a copyright violation:

https://youtu.be/M4k6jDbVxHA

Mix Radio: nice job!

i have no argument about broadcasting in SSB, it certainly is much more efficient than AM and as a result, "gets out" much further but its pretty much useless for music if you cant broadcast with an audio range of at least 60Hz to 4Khz.
the issue is with some SDR software that demodulates SSB, by default, limits bandwidth and audio quality because the creators of this software did not anticipate or expect content that would require higher demod bandwidth with full range audio such as music, leaving much to be desired when the end user wishes to listen to the broadcast on a high fidelity sound system.
the only piece of SDR software i have found that allows you to customize the demod bandwidth and audio to limits unheard of concerning other SDR software is Sodira.
i think it would be helpful to those of us who are seeking to demodulate a transmission in high fidelity for playback on a sound system, to know exactly which SDR software supports unlimited demod bandwidth and audio adjustments, i had to install many different SDR software to find what i desired.
now while Sodira doesnt have the same graphical waterfall display as other SDR software, it does have options that currently do not exist in any SDR software (that i know of) - i just wish the creator would make some improvements to Sodira and post a newer version as there are a few bugs in the current version.

157

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6870 AM 2243 UTC 4 Sep 2018

« on: September 04, 2018, 2335 UTC »

Cheers MixRadio !
good to hear you again !

158

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1631 UTC 4 Sep 2018

« on: September 04, 2018, 1931 UTC »

S5 to S6 in NW Ohio. A bit of fading, but overall fairly steady.

welcome to the forum ke8dnu
glad to have you here.

159

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1631 UTC 4 Sep 2018

« on: September 04, 2018, 1755 UTC »

S5 signal with some fading into NE Ohio this afternoon. I really enjoy the daytime shows while I work, thank you Relay Station.

you're welcome, glad you are enjoying the tunes.
i do this for the same reason, while i work i play some tunes except that im broadcasting it, it helps my workday move along smoother especially when its very busy like today after labor day on monday.

160

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Relay Station 6880 AM 1241 UTC 29 Aug 2018

« on: August 29, 2018, 1937 UTC »

good day guys !
i hope you are all beating this heat and humidity and staying cool.
my line voltage here is at 100VAC when its normally at 120VAC.

161

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Mix Radio 6870 AM 0125 UTC 28 Aug 2018

« on: August 28, 2018, 1607 UTC »

ah, i missed the show, i was tired and went to bed early.

162

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6880 AM 1600 UTC 27 August 2018

« on: August 27, 2018, 1613 UTC »

UNID station at S5 into NE Ohio with Heart, Journey and ELO this morning.

good day to you hammarhead, that would be me today with my usual random weekday daytime 50W broadcast of tunes while i work.
edit - i am glad youre enjoying the tunes, i am just playing random selections, monitoring my broadcast from an online receiver through my sound system while i work.
saturday night was a good night of activity and the bands were great, it was good to finally hear many respected OP's on the air to entertain all of us with their programs after a few long weeks of bad propagation.
1849 - strong carrier at 6870, Mix Radio ? if yes, ill shut down and get ready to listen to some entertainment !

163

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6935 USB 0031 UTC 26 AUG 2018

« on: August 26, 2018, 0059 UTC »

been listening since the start and enjoying the excellent selection of music, thanks Wolverine

164

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6960 AM 0047 UTC 25 Aug 2018

« on: August 25, 2018, 0056 UTC »

moved to 6954Khz and listening on an online SDR, S7 on peaks
0115 - off after ending of "jive talking" from the bee gees

165

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: The Relay Station 6880 AM 0022 UTC 21 Aug 2018

« on: August 23, 2018, 2046 UTC »

Has OTR ever qsled anyone or has anyone ever seen one from them?

not that i know of.
i think it is either a radio museum exhibit or an ARO with a collection of radios that is using 6770Khz to broadcast to them (K3FEF does this with a part 15 AM TX to his collection of old radios).
someone if the forums speculated that it might be someone sending old time programming to another individual who has one of those very old self-standing "cabinet" type tube radios.
whatever it is and whatever the reason, it has baffled me for years wondering about it.

From what I've read, it is indeed a radio museum using homemade (very) low power transmitters on 770 kHz and 6770 kHz to pipe old time radio content to a collection of antique radios from a computer using Winamp (and a huge playlist) as the audio source.  No word on how much power is being transmitted, apparently the antenna is category 5 cable run behind the radios.  Considering how well you've done with 100-200 mW, I bet OTR on 6770 kHz is transmitting similar QRPP power levels. 

I like the idea of running 100-200mW power output 24/7, much like Old Time Radio / OTR on 6770 kHz (although we don't actually know how much power he's actually running but I imagine its something like 100mW or so...maybe a bit more?) - at that level, you're acting like a propagation beacon.  I know you do 50 watts and 500 watts...is there a way to do maybe 4-5 watts carrier power 24/7 or whenever you're transmitting?

i could vary the power level between 0-50W on the TX but i feel "comfortable" at power levels under 500mW.
i might consider 1W though.
4-5W would likely be too much based on my location and that im reaching Ohio/Michigan (when the band conditions open up) at the current 100-200mW which is actually, pretty amazing for AM at that level of power, i can imagine what 4-5W would do.

Good point.  1 watt would be good (I'm assuming you're talking about 1 watt carrier power, not 1 watt PEP) too I think.  Maybe 500mW?  That would give you 2 watts PEP at 100% modulation.

Regardless, you're doing very well.  Kudos to whatever you've got for an antenna setup.

thanks R4002.
i should mention the AM-PEP is around +/- 500mW.
the antenna is a full wave 14GA twisted copper wire counterpoise horizontal dipole about 35FT above the ground in a completely open space.