Messages

1636

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 USB 2142 UTC 12 December 2020

« on: December 12, 2020, 2150 UTC »

2143z - Disturbed onto more hard rock. SINPO 25433.
2157z - SSTV (Thanks to MDK2 and myteaquinn for decodes.)
2211z - Improving band conditons. SINPO 35434.
2215z - SSTV (Thanks to Chris for the decodes.)
2345z - "The Breakup Song" by The Greg Kihn Band. SINPO 45434.

Occasional fading. Good modulation.

Airspy HF+ Discovery and 31' vertical over radial field.

Thanks for the broadcast! :)

1637

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: RHC 6950 AM: UNID 6950 USB 1335 UTC 29 NOVEMBER 2020

« on: November 30, 2020, 1549 UTC »

It is back. RHC ID at 1548z. S9+ on just a RTL-SDR and a 9' vertical.

1638

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6955 USB from 5890 AM from 6955 AM 0137 UTC 30 November 2020

« on: November 30, 2020, 0247 UTC »

0246z - "Radio Gaga" by Queen

SINPO 25333. Across the house from the usual receivers tonight, so just a Grundig G3 portable, Ameco PCL-P preamp, and 9' ground-mounted vertical over four 9' radials.

Thanks for the broadcast! :)

1639

General Radio Discussion / Re: Left for dead, twice, RadioShack gets another shot online

« on: November 25, 2020, 0734 UTC »

Cross-posting from https://swling.com/blog/2020/11/radioshack-has-a-new-owner-who-wants-to-make-it-cool-again/ ....

Radio Shack was not classic “Radio Shack” over 20 years ago; less long today. o.0

I was there as a part-timer for a few months around circa 1999 or 2000 to witness the change from niche strip-mall electronics shop to cell phone vendor. Depressing. Worst yet, salespeople apparently were making too much on cell sales and bonuses in certain markets, so the execs even started cutting into that pay model. Made it even more depressing for the frontline sales associates IMO.

1640

The RF Workbench / Re: Building your own RF spliters

« on: November 24, 2020, 0641 UTC »

Like the project, and thanks for the VNA plots.

Admittedly, recently I took the lazie... err, slacker approach to the issue for HF signal splitting to multiple receivers. I bought an used A/V distribution amp. Probably going to have to poke at it to better limit EMI/RFI and perhaps decrease the active gain a little, though. Maybe when I get around to hooking up the various receivers, which could be sometime between in a few minutes and possibly never. :slack:

1641

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID (ex 6970 AM relay?) 6790 AM 2335 UTC 23 Nov 2020

« on: November 24, 2020, 0628 UTC »

Noticed it a few minutes ago when turning the VFO. Radio teleplay, audiobook, or similar into commercials at 0626z. SINPO 25322. Good modulation on peaks, but with considerable fades and occasional static crashing.

1642

Equipment / Airspy Black Friday Sale: HF+ Discovery SDR $118.30

« on: November 23, 2020, 1955 UTC »

https://v3.airspy.us/product/airspy-hf-discovery/

https://v3.airspy.us/product/ant-youloop-1/

YouLoop antenna for $20.97 as well. Plus shipping and any applicable taxes. Limit four of each.

Other Airspy distributors here:

https://airspy.com/purchase/

1643

Propagation / Re: BIG SUNSPOT

« on: November 23, 2020, 1657 UTC »

Also AR2783 is growing. Potential for C-class flares.

1644

General Radio Discussion / Re: RIP Universal Radio

« on: November 23, 2020, 1617 UTC »

Cross-posting from https://swling.com/blog/2020/11/end-of-an-era-universal-radio-is-closing-shop/ ....

I shop DXE and eBay more these days, but I have made a few purchases from Universal Radio over the years. Hate to see it go, but I understand wanting to retire, too.

Suspected something was occurring when noticing several transceivers were no longer listed as “in stock” a few days ago. Even without the store, the site has lots of amazing information.

Hope the best for the owners and staff as they move forward.

1645

Equipment / Re: Keep your ground connections short if you want them to work

« on: November 23, 2020, 1614 UTC »

On a related note and probably as a last resort, a tuner can be used to create a pseudo-"tuned counterpoise" for those in difficult to near impossible RF grounding situations.

The MFJ-931 comes to mind as an off-the-shelf solution:

https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-931

1646

Equipment / Re: Generic Handheld Radio (Numbers Station)

« on: November 13, 2020, 0221 UTC »

The CountyComm GP-5 is a popular handheld shortwave receiver. It does SSB as well. Under $100, too.

https://countycomm.com/products/countycomm-gp-5-ssb-general-purpose-radio

Add a short wire antenna for better reception. Scrap wire works fine, but assuming you want something a little nicer, here ya' go:

https://countycomm.com/products/shortwave-coil-up-antenna

—— —— —— ——

Going up in price for handheld models, maybe take a look at the Belka-DX. However, note it only tunes shortwave bands and a tiny portion of the upper mediumwave AM broadcast band. That is fine for HF purposes, just know you will not be getting a general purpose radio with AM, HF, and FM band reception. Also note it does not have an internal speaker, though the option or maybe a kit is expected.... sometime.

http://belrig.by/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50

If your only interest is HF bands, the Belka-DX is an impressive receiver in a tiny format IMO.

—— —— —— ——

Alternatively, if you just want a portable general-purpose receiver in a more standard size format, the older but still available Tecsun PL-660 is a good option, again IMO. It is sensitive, delivers decent sound quality, tunes SSB acceptably enough, and has an actually usable AM sync function. There are newer Tecsun portable models, but many of them have DSP-related quirks and issues, so YMMV.

1647

Equipment / Re: Sangean ATS-909X2 Launch + Pre-Order

« on: November 13, 2020, 0206 UTC »

The Airspy HF+ Discovery is well under $200 shipped. Leaves over $200 for a basic notebook, which is doable these days and especially now during holiday season sales.

My HF+D often is connected to an old 17" notebook with just a quad-core AMD Jaguar processor. Jaguar was far from high performance when launched in 2013, less long today. o.0 However, the system runs GQRX and SDRangel fine on Linux in my experience.

1648

General Radio Discussion / Ethernet As Unintended VHF Radiator

« on: November 11, 2020, 0853 UTC »

Apparently a couple of Raspberry Pi 4s using an un-shielded network cable can suffice for 125MHz transmission of CW up to 100m distance using a decent receiver with a simple directional moxon antenna.

https://lipkowski.com/etherify/

On a side note, the FAA and FCC do not take kind to interference in the VHF air band. YMMV.

1649

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: UNID 4885 AM 1015 UTC 9 November 2020

« on: November 09, 2020, 1746 UTC »

Sounds much more likely. Thanks. :)

Oddly enough I do not log many South American broadcasters despite my QTH being in Florida.

It seems I did better listening to Brazil with a Grundig G3 portable, YouLoop antenna, and L-match tuner in the eastern TN mountains awhile back. o.0

I do have a decent semi-clearing to the south. I might try tossing out a BoG that way sometime.

1650

Shortwave Broadcast / UNID 4885 AM 1015 UTC 9 November 2020

« on: November 09, 2020, 1021 UTC »

"Get Lucky" by Daft Punk at 1015z onto other music. Under S1 with heavy static crashes. SIO 122.

Echo of Hope, perhaps? Trying a couple of shortwave schedule databases did not return results.