Messages

271

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WWWW 6925 USB 0303UTC 1 October 2022

« on: October 01, 2022, 0316 UTC »

Backyard with Panasonic portable and random wire on grass

10/1/22
6925 USB
0310z Aerosmith, Dude Looks Like a Lady
Fair peaks with fading
0314z Whisky Whisky Whisky Whisky ID, AC/DC, TNT Dynamite. Op mic audio a bit stronger than music level.
Stronger signal peaks now, still fading to barely there.
0318z Op chatter, Black Sabbath, Paranoid
0321z ID, Bob Marley, I Shot the Sheriff
0329z ELO, Don't Bring Me Down, Telephone Line, signal peaks to S7 on small portable with a little wire, fades to S1
0339z Classified, CW McCall
0342z WWWW ID, Springsteen, Blinded by the Cut loose like a douche or sumpin'

272

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: BallSmacker Radio 6960 AM 0055 UTC 01 OCT 2022

« on: October 01, 2022, 0300 UTC »

Backyard with old Panasonic portable and random wire antenna on grass.

Ball Smacker Radio
6960 AM
0228z Lynyrd Skynyrd?
0232z Can't Stand the Rain
0235z SSTV, Ball Smacker ID, guess the theme, proton mail address
0237z Wildfire, Michael Martin Murphey, and off air

273

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: BallSmacker Radio 6960 AM 0055 UTC 01 OCT 2022

« on: October 01, 2022, 0211 UTC »

Excellent signal and audio via web SDR. Gonna head out with the portable to try my luck the hard way.

274

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Insane Radio 6931.2 AM 0045 UTC 1 Oct 2022

« on: October 01, 2022, 0205 UTC »

Via MD SDR

1 Oct 2022
6931.? AM
Opened with Gorillaz, Feel Good Inc
0120 UTC Laurie Anderson, Only An Expert. Audio overdriven, competing with data/ute on 6925, but okay in USB or AM sync U.
0133z Tom Petty, American Dream Plan B
0135z Black Lips, Waiting
Static and distortion thwarting Google audio ID
0147z ad for business in Kalamazoo MI?
0148z The Meatmen, Big Bloody Booger on the Bathroom Wall 😆
0149z ID?
0150z Gorillaz, Feel Good Inc again
0202z off, carrier gone

275

Peskies / UNID QSO Italian dialect 3460 USB and 3516 USB

« on: September 30, 2022, 2021 UTC »

30 Sept 2022
0700 UTC
3460 USB and 3516 USB
QSO in language similar to Italian and French, maybe Corsican or Sardo? Some words, such as
frequenza, sounded like familiar Italian, but others were unfamiliar to me. But I haven't studied Italian since grade school. After listening to a few YouTube demo videos on Corsican and Sardinian languages, I'm guessing these were QSOs between Mediterranean ships.

Very crashy conditions, tough copy via every web SDR I tried in the US and Europe. Twente was less crashy but very high RFI made clear copy difficult.

276

Utility / JN53DV time station on 10Hz in Italy

« on: September 30, 2022, 2010 UTC »

New to me...

10 MHz experimental time station in Italy, JN53DV, with fast CW every minute and top of hour. Plays "Dance of the Hours" from Italian ballet opera “La Gioconda” by Amilcare Ponchielli, between pips. AM but modulates to USB like Canada.

Via Twente SDR, 30 Sept 2022, 0300 UTC

277

Shortwave Broadcast / Radio Romania International 11825 AM 0330-0357 UTC

« on: September 30, 2022, 0445 UTC »

30 Sept 2022
11825 AM
0345 UTC Radio Romania International (from Galbeni-Bacau in Romania) in English, news, commentary and music. Fair signal through noise and fades.

Sony ICF-2010 portable with random wire antenna on grass in backyard, better than whip.

278

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6935 AM 0220 UTC 30 SEP 2022

« on: September 30, 2022, 0255 UTC »

Same heard here in Texas, just barely audible on the indoor portable Sony ICF-2010, including jazzy flute music around 0250 UTC on 6935 AM, with op speaking at 0253z "...somebody else's... out there ... shortwave listeners ..."

I might try outside in the back yard again with the portable, get away from the usual household RFI.

Ah, too late, lost signal at 0259 UTC.

FWIW, signal was roughly comparable on my indoor portable in Texas and web SDR on east coast.

279

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WDOG 6950 USB 2345 UTC 29 SEP 2022

« on: September 30, 2022, 0043 UTC »

Backyard with Sony ICF-2010 and random wire on grass.

30 Sept 2022
6950 USB
0034z theatrical melodramatic song with piano, fair signal S1-S4, fadey.
0038z WDOG ID?
0040z sounds like Alice Cooper with Vincent Price project
0042z Season of the Witch
0046z Vincent Price cooking boys cutup spoof
0048z Talking Heads, Psycho Killer, signal still peaky/fadey, S1-S3, low noise, just enough to copy familiar material.
0052z WDOG through roaring background noise, BOC Don't Fear the Reaper. Woman's computer voice numbers station barely audible under music?
0057z WDOG ID
0058z Alice Cooper, You and Me
0101z end of show? CCR, Bad Moon Rising. Very peaky suddenly, not sure if signal or driving audio harder. Difficult to say with Sony portable, which doesn't have great audio fidelity.
0103z wolf cry sound fx, and off.

Entertaining show, thanks, dawg

280

Equipment / Re: Magnet wire for free

« on: September 29, 2022, 0321 UTC »

A lot of the homeless from the shelters who end up apartments are mentally ill with a disability due to that. They get victimized in the shelters and on the streets. With mental hospitals being few and far between, they bounce from living rough, to the shelters, to group homes and subsidized housing. Quite a few of them end up back on the streets because they can't deal with the structure of living in a group home or on their own. Once they reach certain age and state of health, it's off to a rehab center to get them off of the substances of their choice and then to a nursing home for the rest of their days.

As for copper wire, that's something you cash in for a little extra food or a bottle of Mad Dog.

Yup. I've occasionally stopped to chat with folks living on the street or in the parks, rather than the designated shelters in the unofficial "homeless district." Usually they dislike the noisy, aggressive vibe of the shelters, especially the folks struggling with mental health issues.

One guy in particular gave me a run down about the daily routine for homeless folks who prefer to seek shelter downtown, or in the parks, rather than the homeless district. This guy was living in his SUV with his dog, saving his social security income to rent an apartment after a few months. He knew the schedules for the various fixed shelters and food banks, the visiting ministries and other organizations. But it involved a lot of walking, which is very difficult for some folks who are already struggling.

Over the past 20 years my apartment complex has morphed from a conventional independent living complex for able bodied seniors. The landlords started brining in more disabled tenants, despite lacking even basic ADA-compliant amenities such as wheelchair ramps, doors that are accessible to folks in wheelchairs, etc. And the landlord rents upstairs apartments to tenants who cannot get around without a power wheelchair, which basically traps them if there's a fire.

And since the 2008 economic crisis they've brought in more folks who were homeless, in shelters, group homes, etc., who were eligible for housing subsidies. This escalated rapidly after the last of the old school segregated and isolated housing projects was closed down a couple of years ago, just before the pandemic hit. Most of them are 55 and older, so the place is still pretty quiet compared with the rest of the neighborhood. But the complex gets more police calls than in previous years, often due to trouble caused by younger family or visitors, often, umm... unauthorized neighborhood entrepreneurs, shall we say.

281

General Radio Discussion / Re: Radio Sets Go Up In Flames As Celebration

« on: September 29, 2022, 0307 UTC »

"They can have my spark-gap transmitter when they pry it from the cold, dead depths of the ocean floor."
--Titanic radioman Jack Phillips, probably.

"Okay, changed my mind, a bonfire sounds pretty good right about now."
--Titanic radioman Jack Phillips, definitely.

282

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Radio Free Whatever 6955 USB 2200 UTC 28 SEP 2022

« on: September 29, 2022, 0141 UTC »

Sony ICF 2010 portable with random wire antenna on grass via shielded cable input.

29 Sept 2022
6955 USB
0134z Radio Free Whatever ID, new rock alternative slogan. Peaky fadey signal, S1-S7
0137z more slogans, RFW ID
Don't recognize any songs but good stuff.
0041z OM op , incredible edible egg, Acid Tongue?, shout-out from op. Howdy, back atcha. I was juggling my headset and missed the song title and band ID.
0055z Failure, Saturday Savior
0058z closeout ID, best of show, getting late, got some VR gaming to do.

Great music, fun to catch new stuff to put on my jogging playlist. Signal was improving by end of show, steadier with fewer fades, was able to ID songs by Googling lyrics while sitting in the yard.

283

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Damn Skippy 6955 USB 0040 UTC 25 SEP 2022

« on: September 25, 2022, 0229 UTC »

Backyard with Sony ICF 2010, external random wire antenna via shielded cable input.

6955 USB
0118z War with Eric Burden, Spill the Wine , good signal, not too much noise
0120z "radio"gospel jingle, SSTV, "radio" gospel style jingle again
0122z Ram Jam, Black Betty
0126z Van Halen, Eruption
0127z Booker T, Time is Tight, signal peaky fadey
0129z You've Got Another Thing Comin', Judas Priest. STP, Dead & Bloated
0203z Hendrix, Hey Joe. Steep fade to barely audible, Steppenwolf, Inna Gadda Da Vida
0211z Dr Who theme, peaking again
0212z "radio" gospel thing again, signal fading again
0214z extended Inna Gadda Da Vida organ riff, barely audible, "radio" thing

No audible ID

284

Utility / UNID net 6818 khz 24 Sept 2022 0227 UTC

« on: September 24, 2022, 0345 UTC »

Net via Magnavox D2935 portable on the whip. Drifty BFO tuner, no way to distinguish LSB from USB.

24 Sept 2022
6818 sideband, slightly off frequency, between 6818-6819 kHz
0227z American English language net, only net control fairly clearly audible, radio checks, check-ins. Can't quite copy station IDs.
0233z 9WF? Nine Whiskey Foxtrot, data burst
Net control also having difficulty copying stations reporting in.
0238z "You are weak, mostly unreadable, probably need a relay, wait." (Something tango X-ray)

285

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Two Dog Radio 6280 USB 0156 UTC 24 Sept 2022

« on: September 24, 2022, 0338 UTC »

Cant hear anything?

Two Dog was on briefly, couple of songs for air check, then off.