Messages

1051

Amateur Radio / Re: FCC Invites Comments on 5.9 GHz Proceeding

« on: February 15, 2020, 1923 UTC »

The same thing with the 3.5GHz portion of the Amateur Spectrum,   https://www.multichannel.com/news/fccs-3-5-ghz-auction-to-begin-june-25-2020      I don't know of any amateurs whom operate up there, other than contestants and EME'ers. Ya know, if amateurs are will to give this up, they should try and trade a tid for tad.

1052

Equipment / Re: Spitfire Am transmitter

« on: February 15, 2020, 1917 UTC »

You can go the other option of AM Carrier-Current Coupling, like some college stations still do. Most ops tend to stay away from that method, since coupling to power lines tend to scare away folks. Some ops are running like 30W into the lines, while others are 5W, or less. I turned mine down to the TX's MIN of 200mW carrier, since more transformers have been installed on my road. Today, it doesn't matter if I run 10W, or 100mW, Carrier-Current, since the power transformers are a brickwall RF stop. And, I'm Neutral Injecting the James R. Cunningham way. https://sites.google.com/site/lowpowerradio/home/low-power-broadcasting-by-james-r-cunningham   Still, some ops are getting out a few miles doing Carrier-Current, and it's totally Part #15 permissible still. 

1053

10/11 meters / Re: Man without a life....

« on: February 11, 2020, 1949 UTC »

Huh... Some things just never change. Back in the 80's, there was an A-hole like that who pissed off folks in WNY and NWPA. Problem was, he was just down hill of me. How close? You could hear his 5th harmonic in the aircraft band on a scanner. And, he'd bug the crap out of everyone, no matter what FREQ you went too. His down fall??? He messed with the 10M Amateur Radio ops and interfered with EMS services. The Federal Corporate Coddlers cleaned him right out. Then, in 2003, when we had another A-hole like that, we were able to go to the license-free MURS FREQ's,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Use_Radio_Service   So, CB to MURS, back to CB. I also have a GMRS license. So, you have some alternatives now. If you can help it, you never want to really bring the Federal Corporate Coddlers around, since they'll want to check out more than just some offending A-hole. However, if they interfere with emergency communications and broadcasting stations, let them cook their own goose.

1054

Amateur Radio / Re: Y'all ready for the 2020 AM Rally?

« on: February 08, 2020, 1911 UTC »

Wow!!! I'd like to hear what his audio quality sounds like on-air. Some day, I hope to collect gear like that. Right now, I'm doing good to keep the gear that I have presently.

1055

Amateur Radio / Re: ARRL HF Band Planning Committee Seeks Comments on Recommendations

« on: February 08, 2020, 1909 UTC »

I was for opening the entire 10M band to Techs, since that seems to be the modern 'Gateway' band into Amateur Radio these days, and no so much 2M and 440MHz.

1056

Amateur Radio / Re: HF AM frequencies

« on: February 08, 2020, 1908 UTC »

Yeah, that 75M AM window from 3875kHz - 3885kHz kind of sucks, since you have those dudes on LSB 3878kHz and slop over from 3892kHz. Yeah, you can narrow your bandwidth, but then that takes out the whole reason that we want AM, fidelity. 14.286MHz AM is a wash, due to SSB, but Timtron's suggestion of 14.320MHz - 14.350MHz AM was way better for 20M. At least it was for me. Most of the time on 40M 7290kHz and 7295kHz is SSB free, but that just two FREQ's. Then, you still have international broadcasters jamming that up. On 80M, 3733kHz seemed fairly open to the AM group down there, but isn't that open to Advance and Extra Classes? What sucks even more is that in another month thunderstorms will clog things up with crashes down there. Yeah, in May Sporadic "E" will open up 10M AM on 29.000000MHz and 50.400MHz on 6M, but that leaves a dry spell called Spring time. I'm not hearing much AM anymore on 1885kHz 160M. What's up with that? Just a noisy winter? Looks like we've got to fight for AM. Huh.... Well, if we can ever find pockets of 2M AM, then we could take advantage of Tropo. I've got a decent rig for that band and mode, but nobody here wants to do that locally. Hell, I can't even get them to do 50.400MHz and 29.0000Mhz AM here. The big buzz where I am is C4FM Fusion DV. That's nice, and I'm glad to have an HT that now does that, but AM? No interest here. Kind of the same deal here with 222MHz. I seem to be the only one that wants to keep that band alive. Oh yeah... Here's another AM'ers site,   http://www.amwindow.org/index.htm   

1057

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Mix Radio International 5125 USB 2106 UTC 7 Feb 2020

« on: February 07, 2020, 2316 UTC »

Tuned into a EDM version of Ballroom Blitz at 22:58UTC, Radio 48 ID at 23:01, then an EDM version of Lenny Kravitz - American Woman. Signal peaking at S5. Nice sounding audio for USB.

1058

General Radio Discussion / Re: Another Pride of China portable radio

« on: February 07, 2020, 1743 UTC »

I told Radio Jay Allen about these. He ordered one, but then gave me an interesting reply, "There's a sucker born every minute...so to prove it I just bought one and will write it up!

You're a bad influence sir!

Jay".

That should be interesting, and I just had to snicker at that.

1059

For Sale / Wanted / Barter / Re: Let's do some bartering!

« on: February 05, 2020, 1754 UTC »

Hmmmmmmmm... Well, I've got that Radio Shack 13.8VDC - 15A switching power supply to off. Perfect for VHF / UHF FM rigs, but I don't need it, since I use Astrons here. From an ex-co-worker, I've gotten several late 1970's 45W VHF Motorola commercial crystaled rig, as well as several late 70's, very early 80's Moto UHF HT's, that I'm still going through. Anyone interested in them for parts, or for tapping DDS oscillators into the crystal sockets to may them FREQ agile? Passing thoughts.

1060

Amateur Radio / Re: Y'all ready for the 2020 AM Rally?

« on: February 03, 2020, 1819 UTC »

Well, I didn't do HI, but id did a work a few stations in WA on 20M, 14.315MHz and 14.335MHz AM. I heard stations trying on 14.286MHz, but the SSB'ers were just too much there. Works a couple of 40M 7290kHz AM, and the rest were on 75M 3880kHz and 3885kHz AM. Huh... The op at W1AW hung it up around 5PM Sunday, but I managed to work the take-over guy whom was 20 miles of the Newington, CT center. I didn't hear any AM on 160M, besides the amateur news infos on 1960kHz AM. More Flex rigs, Kenwoods, several Icom, and actually one decent sounding Yaesu FT-3000. (Wow!!! Miracles can happen.) The most popular amps used were the Heathkit SB200 and SB220. Good weekend! Now, to ready for the AM Heavy Metal Rally. When's that???  Looking at some search sites on that, and apparently, I'm not the only one asking this. But I'll ask this... Anyone getting QSL card request from SWL'ers? I have, for the last couple of years, and I've got to figure that me mentioning my massive 20W carrier must be one reason. (Hi-hi....) 73!!!!!!!!

1061

Amateur Radio / Re: Y'all ready for the 2020 AM Rally? For Techs? 6M and 2M AM.

« on: January 30, 2020, 1827 UTC »

Looking forward to the AM Rally this GHD weekend to see if Timtron, WA1HLR, will see his shadow. But, a question was risen to me on, "Where can Tech Class ops do AM?". Yeah... They are kind of limited, since the majority of the AM portions of the HF bands are in the General's Regions. Well, you've got 6M AM at 50.400MHz. For years I've operated there as a Tech on AM back in the 1990's with a Kenwood TS-60S and a Halo antenna, and got out over 50 miles on some Saturday night 6M AM round tables. And, if you have the capability, there's 2M AM. Now here no one seems to agree where to really operate, but if you do a search for 2M AM activity, you get sites that mention various pockets of 2M AM activity. https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/2am   ,    http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=33419.0  ,   https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/2m-am.234248/   Yeah, not just here, but around the world no one seems to have agreement where to do 2M AM. Me, I've tried 144.250MHz and no one has bothered me up there. It's above the majority of the 2M CW / SSB, and just below the Beacon Portion. So, you might have to research where to do 2M AM in your area. Another thing that you can do, and I did this several times on a Tech Class years ago, is to goto a friend's QTH whom holds a higher class and operate using his / hers class on HF, (Including their call when you ID yours.) So Techs, don't be intimidated that you have limited AM space. It can be had.  http://www.amrally.com/

1062

Amateur Radio / Re: Best Band/Frequencies to Start on CW?

« on: January 30, 2020, 1806 UTC »

Just my opinion here, but how about testing with friends locally on the 10M CW portion of that band? Then, when you get more efficient, move to 80M, or anyplace else in HF. If you have HF/6M rig, you can even try 6M CW. The weird thing, my last CW contact was a VHF / UHF June Sweepsteaks in the mid-90's on 432MHz. (I knew the other station's ops, so they were patient with me. Hi-hi...) Why??? That's where a majority of weak signal activity was, and probably still is, on 432MHz, and even 2M 144MHz. Of coarse, with the upper HF bands being dead, you can also do 12M, 15M, (Plenty of elbow room there.), 17M, and the CW / Data only 30M band. Oh... Why did I suggest 10M for a CW start? Well, the trend today in starting into Amateur Radio seems to be CB'ers, with the export 10M rigs that are MOD'ed for 11M. However, when they get their Tech ticket, they already have the Tech portion of the 10M band from 28.0000MHz - 28.5000MHz open to them, and I've talked to more new HAM's on 10M, than on 2M, which use to be the gate-way band for Amateur Radio. Again, just my take here, and I'm on the assumption that you are new into the hobby, when, (For all I know.), you could be a near 30 year veteran. I really want to brush up on my CW as well, since I haven't really applied it since 1996. Good luck!!!! 73!!!!!!!

1063

Equipment / Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone

« on: January 28, 2020, 1752 UTC »

You are just using this for receiving only? A Discone is a nice wide-band compromise, but a cheaper way to go would be a scanner base antenna that Channel Master and Radio Shack had. In the early 1980's, I stuck a 30" AM / FM car antenna +30ft up a pine tree, and I couldn't believe what I was able to hear on that, 10M HAM, McDonalds 35MHz drive-through FREQ, 46 / 49MHz cordless phones from a couple of miles away, the regular police, fire, hospital maintenance and UHF MED 1 FREQ's, 2M HAM repeaters from +75 miles away and 2M simplex from guys over +20 miles away, Conrail, local radio station VHF remotes, UHF TV audio from stations +80 miles away, AM aircraft chit-chat on 123.450MHz from several states away, etc. Of coarse, I was spoiled up on a hill then. Today, I live in the bottom of a river valley, where I use a Diamond Discone Antenna to RX / TX wide-band on 6M FM, 2M HAM, MURS, 222MHz HAM, 440MHz HAM, but doesn't seem to match well on 462 / 467MHz GMRS FREQ's. For me, having a do-all low gain antenna works better than an antenna that has gain, since signal just heads to the hills and bounces back to me, but a lower gain antenna helps me take advantage of refraction and reflection, where I can get-out better locally. So, it really depends upon what you want to do and where you are located geographically. If you can afford to shell out +$100.00 for a wide-band Discone, go for it. You could use it to transmit on later in the future, if you plan that. However, if you are on a budget, look at a cheaper scanner base antenna out there. Heck, there are some sites and Youtube VID's out there that show you how to build your own. I've seen people even recycle TV antennas by mounting them vertically. The compromise there is that they tend to be directional, but great if you have a target area to monitor. Hope that helps. Good luck!!!!

1064

Amateur Radio / Re: UHF/VHF repeater activity

« on: January 21, 2020, 1748 UTC »

Yeah, I'll still keep my 2M rig on National Simplex, 146.520MHz, as well as 146.580MHz as a secondary where I am. On the repeaters, the C4FM Fusion seems to be the rage, but when you view and listen to the calls of the folks using that mode, more than 1/2 of them are not from here, since the Fusion repeaters are constantly linked. I'll do 10M FM repeaters as well, especially the Dallas, TX one on 29.660-/R, when propagation permits. It's not PL toned.

1065

Propagation / Re: Grey line map (real time)

« on: January 21, 2020, 1735 UTC »

I use the one on DX Maps,     http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=W2LN&HF=N&DXC=ING2&GL=S
But, that just shows Grey Line for present day. Still, I've used it for 40M for USA East Coast and Aussi Grey Lining in April on 40M.