Messages

166

Amateur Radio / January VHF / UHF Sweepsteaks, then Winter Field Day 2023!

« on: January 08, 2023, 1906 UTC »

Uh-huh... Tis that time for this one:  http://www.arrl.org/january-vhf    Lack of foliage helps out on 2M, on up, to get out. And, maybe 6M F2 this year. Then, the following week:   https://www.winterfieldday.com/    Now, the question is whether those Southern T-storms will settle down by then, and not rip-up the lower HF bands with crashes at night. And then, AM Rally:   http://www.amrally.com/

167

Amateur Radio / Re: 15 Meter AM? And, AM Rally for 2/2023?

« on: January 02, 2023, 1939 UTC »

Huh.. Speaking of AM, looks like the AM Rally is earlier this year, just after GHD:   http://www.amrally.com/  Hopefully, 20M, on up, will be rockin´ this year. Question is, can they ever get anyone to agree on a 2M AM FREQ? I haven´t heard anything about W1AW doing the event, yet. And, anyone got word on that Heavy Metal AM Rally. Those are fun, if you can catch when they are.   

168

General Radio Discussion / Re: U.S. Building Advanced Over-The-Horizon Radar On Palau

« on: January 01, 2023, 1955 UTC »

Shows that we are finally getting serious about the Chinese and N. Korean activities, but it does make you wonder what HF FREQ´s will get ripped by this?

169

Equipment / Re: Best MWDX antenna? The tower itself.

« on: December 31, 2022, 1856 UTC »

Actually, one of the best MW antennas that I remember making was to shunt-feed the 50ft tower that I had at the time. In the middle of the day, the NYC Big-3, (AM660, 770, and 880.), all came in at S9 from 300 miles away. Extremely low noise, being a couple hundred feet from the nearest powerlines. Originally, I did that to get on 160M, 75M, and 40M. On TX, a manual MFJ-941D tuner tuned all that in, but my GND losses were bad for transmit. However, on RX´ing, it was quite good. https://www.qsl.net/w9rb/webdoc9.htm

170

10/11 meters / Rare, late night 11M Sporadic ¨E¨ pipeline from Texas!

« on: December 30, 2022, 2058 UTC »

Wow!!! 27MHz CB was hoping, especially CH38LSB, from midnight to 2:30AM, (0500UTC - 0730UTC, 12/30/2022), with a direct pipeline to Texas. On 10M??? Just a beacon, or two, but no operating stations. All, on 11M. So, was 6M open last night?

171

Pirate Radio History / Re: Pirate Station Op Interviews, the 1st Fearless Fred one, 9/1992!

« on: December 28, 2022, 1953 UTC »

https://archive.org/details/fearless-fred-interview-sept.-1992-edited.

Well, after requests for this one, I´ve put it up there, the one from September 1992. I just can´t believe that´s over 30 years ago, now. Yeeeeeeeeeeesh....

172

Huh? / HAARP to bounce signal off asteroid in NASA experiment? More INFO.

« on: December 24, 2022, 1903 UTC »

https://www.gi.alaska.edu/news/haarp-bounce-signal-asteroid-nasa-experiment    I say, let HAM´s do it. Then, we can get credit for ultra rare DX. (Hi-hi...) At least, this helps them to focus upon not burning holes in the atmosphere, or trying to change the weather, so they can have at it. Huh... Looks like we need to bug them for what frequencies they are going to use.

UPDATE:    Ah... Hereś more details on date and FREQ´s.   https://swling.com/blog/2022/12/haarp-to-ping-passing-asteroid-with-shortwave-signals/

173

Amateur Radio / 10 Meter Beacon DXing? See if you can hear what this dude has.

« on: December 23, 2022, 2002 UTC »

If Auroras don´t kill 10M propagation, maybe we can hear what this dude did.  https://swling.com/blog/2022/12/guest-post-10-meter-beacon-dxing/

174

The RF Workbench / Simple and better circuit for MiniWhip antennas?

« on: December 20, 2022, 1812 UTC »

Boomer FWR this to me. Looks easy enough, and if I was stuck as an apartment dweller, I´d build and try it. http://www.pa3fwm.nl/projects/miniwhip/

175

Amateur Radio / 12M AM? Sure!!! Why not?

« on: December 17, 2022, 1841 UTC »

Got home late last night to hear Timtron, WA1HLR, QSO with big-gun Don, K4KYV, on not having time to do AM on the higher bands in the daytime. Then, he mentioned that whenever he finally does, he wants to get some 12M, a.k.a. 24.9MHz, AM activity going. Well, sure... Why not??? That´s a very under utilized WARC Band, yet shares F2 and Sporadic ¨E¨ propagation like 11M, 10M, and 6M. And, you have this benefit of a tax funded PORP beacon, WWV on 25.000000MHz. If you heard that, then you know that 12M is open. Anyway, the FREQ that Timtron is trying is 24.975MHz for AM. So, when F2 dies-out in the evening, then Winter Sporadic ¨E¨ may open that band up to ´short-skip´. Passing thoughts, there. https://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/hf/24mhz/
Oh yeah... Don´t forget, that you can check out 12M propagation by tuning in WWV on 25.0000MHz. Today, 12/19/2022, 17:15UTC, that was banging-in at S10/9 on my W.O.G.! (COOL!!!)

176

Equipment / SWL´ing TEF6686 chip radio? Neat!!!!

« on: December 15, 2022, 2047 UTC »

https://swling.com/blog/2022/12/ivan-checks-out-the-new-tef6686-chip-radio/    Looks like a kit, but I like that display.

177

Amateur Radio / Santa Nets are back for 2022!

« on: December 12, 2022, 1831 UTC »

Came home last night to hear them wind down the list of 20 stations that had kids that wanted to do the Santa talk. FREQ = 3916kHz LSB, and the site to do the net and request your kids to be on this is:  https://www.cqsanta.com/   This year, they are also doing one-way ´Shout-Outs´ for just RX´ing SWL´ers and are using the neat tool of other folks´ Kiwi-SDR´s, which they had to do list night when 75M made it so one of the requested kid´s station couldn´t be heard by the ´Signed-In´ net stations, even with seven net stations in AL, FL, TX, NY, and MI. Still, they made it happen. This seems to be more of an East Coast / Mid-West thing, since the one stations for the West Coast had problems. So, if you want to try a unique way to combine radio fun, Christmas, and Amateur Radio coordination, on this annual net, check out 3916LSB and that CQ Santa site. 

178

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Part 15 X-mas station, near me, is back!

« on: December 09, 2022, 1914 UTC »

Tis the season, for Part 15 FM X-mas stations. And, that dude, about a mile from me, is back with the wholly-kow decked-out yard X-mas display, is back on 101.3FM. True Part 15, with it MAX´ing-out at maybe 400ft away with my good truck stereo receiver. Good audio and levels, and no distortion, so he knows what he´s doing. And, ya know that he´s not the only one out there doing that. So, watch for, and tune-in, to these annual holiday stations, while you can.

179

Software / Audio Test Generator: Level Meter with Digital readout combined with a Sine Wave

« on: December 07, 2022, 1908 UTC »

 I haven´t tried this, yet, but looks like it could be indeed a very useful audio tool to download and use.    https://www.darkwooddesigns.co.uk/pc2/testgen.html

180

Amateur Radio / Re: Mobile hamstick vs tuning 102' whip? Hamstik story.

« on: December 04, 2022, 2042 UTC »

The only Hamstik that I´ve used is the 6M one with an MFJ-9406 10W rig, and raked-in QSO´s from ¨7¨ land in the mid-90´s. However, in 2006, a co-worker of mine had another friend do a professional install with the Hamstik mounts to his new GMC Sonoma pickup. The rig was a barefoot, 100W PEP, Yaesu FT-857D. He had it to where he paid only $20.00 per Hamstik per band, (75M, 40M, 20M, 15M, 10M, etc.), and he had the 75M Hamstik dead-nuts matched to 3799kHz to work the UK stations from his drive home from work at 1AM, no EXT tuner. He lived in the New York, Finger Lakes Region, and he was giving those dudes in the UK an S9 peak signal routinely. I actually heard his mobile QSO´s on 3799kHz and could hear him and the UK stations, when I removed to the WNY Southern Tier for months afterwards. Anyway... Bottom line... A well matched and installed Hamstik can indeed get the job done.