Messages

331

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6920 USB 0425 UTC 16 MAY 2024

« on: May 16, 2024, 0512 UTC »

0510z - Music. SIO 444. ~S8 via Airspy HF+D and 31' vertical. Some static crashing, but otherwise a decent to good copy.
0513z - OTA.

Thanks for the broadcast! :)

332

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: Airspy HF+ Ranger | Next-Gen Model?

« on: May 15, 2024, 1516 UTC »

Excellent. The extra frequency coverage will benefit some, but for me it will be interesting to see what other new features will be offered.

333

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: KiwiSDR 2 Now Available for Pre-order.

« on: May 14, 2024, 2341 UTC »

There are decent deals out there on eBay and similar for quality power supplies if patient. I picked up a new, though out-of-box Acopian 5v 32a linear highly-regulated supply with the overvoltage protection option. 0.005% load and line regulation with 0.25mV RMS ripple. Reputable dealer with a warrantied guarantee. MSRP as spec'd is $750+. I paid under $150 shipped.

32a is kind of ridiculous for just a single Kiwi, but the decent mid-range eBay and similar 5v audiophile supplies tend to be like $125 to $200 anyway, and most of those have little to no meaningful published specs.


Here is a new open-box 5v 22a sibling to my mentioned Acopian supply. Overvoltage option included, plus same regulation and ripple specs as above. $111.75 shipped at the moment. Same vendor where I purchased mine, too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325755116796

334

Equipment / Re: Ionospheric storm disturbing the GPS referenced oscillators ?

« on: May 12, 2024, 2048 UTC »

Quite possible. NOAA SWPC reports a 24-hour peak in the R3 radio blackout range, though there were some instances of near R4 levels. ~R4 can affect GPS systems.

https://www.spaceweather.gov/communities/global-positioning-system-gps-community-dashboard

It would not be surprising if isolated areas on the sunlit side of Earth might have reached even R4 given the considerable power of the recent CMEs.

There is a 75% forecast chance of R3-R5 levels through May 13 UTC.

Farmers in online communities all over the internet have been discussing the GPS outages, with some saying that they’ve been running into “very weird issues.”

Souce: https://www.404media.co/solar-storm-knocks-out-tractor-gps-systems-during-peak-planting-season/

335

General Radio Discussion / Re: Me??? Several radios...

« on: May 09, 2024, 0127 UTC »

Various portables, desktops, SDRs, etc.

I generally preferred desktop receivers back when computers were my work. My Kenwood R-2000 was my primary "go to" HF receiver for many years.

The computer work is no longer a concern, thus my migration more to SDRs in recent years. Being able to remotely access them is a nice bonus IMO.

Conversely, my oldest receiver is a rather nice National NC-125 with matching speaker, though it is rarely powered anymore. I suppose it is more of a personal display piece now.

336

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: STERNRADIO 6956 AM 0320 8 MAY 2024

« on: May 08, 2024, 0413 UTC »

0411z - ID into music. SIO 444. ATS-20+ and ~15' loop-in-window.
0413z - "Transmitter is smoking..."
0422z - Music. Pretty good copy tonight here, especially for a portable and an indoor antenna.
0432z - Interference from whatever a KHz or few above. LSB ECSS helps a little.
0436z - Interference seems to be moving lower in frequency. Back to SIO 444 via AM.
0504z - ID into music.
0537z - Off air.

Thanks for the broadcast! :)

337

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Sternradio 6952.6 AM 0042 APRIL 28 2024

« on: April 29, 2024, 0125 UTC »

0121z - "Transmitter is smoking..." into music. SIO 333 via KiwiSDR 2 and 31' vertical.
0130z - Improving. SIO trending 434. AM sync tuning.

0210z - Music. SIO 334 via ATS-20+ and 15' loop in window. Intense static crashing on my Kiwi right now.


(click to enlarge)

0309z - Off air.

Thanks for the broadcast! :)

338

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Radio Static 6950 USB 0100 UTC 28 Apr 2024

« on: April 28, 2024, 0125 UTC »

0125z - SSTV. KiwiSDR 2 and 31' vertical.
0127z - Music. SIO 222. Tough copy at the moment.
0137z - Music. Improving. SIO trending 333.
0144z - Bark, bark, bark...
0209z - SSTV, UTE activity, SIO 222 trending 221.

Thanks for the broadcast! :)

339

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: SDRSharp v1.0.0.1920 Release (updated)

« on: April 28, 2024, 0123 UTC »

v1920 release build now available:

https://airspy.com/download/
https://airspy.com/downloads/changelog.txt

Probably the biggest change:

Getting rid of Telerik UI. Once for all.

Announcement and community feedback:

https://groups.io/g/airspy/topic/sdr_1920_release/105735345

340

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Ball Smacker 6960 AM 0056 UTC 26 APR 2024

« on: April 27, 2024, 0104 UTC »

Music at 0102z. SIO 322. KiwiSDR 2 and 31' vertical. Heavy UTE interference.

Thanks for the broadcast! :)

341

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 11727 FM 1951 UTC 25 APR 2024

« on: April 25, 2024, 1957 UTC »

Beeps at 1 sec intervals on the USB side at 1957z.

342

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: Fobos SDR

« on: April 22, 2024, 1826 UTC »

The hardware device driver for Windows is via Zadig, similar to how the RTL-SDR driver is installed. Otherwise on the SDR software side....

SDR# via SDRSharp.FobosSDR.dll plugin.
HDSDR and other ExtIO_*.dll compatible software via ExtIO_FobosSDR.dll plugin.
uSDR via native Fobos SDR API

Source: https://rigexpert.com/files/product_documentation/Fobos%20SDR/Fobos-SDR-User-Guide.EN.pdf

The ADC is a 14-bit version of the LTC2143.

https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/21454314fa.pdf

It seems you can likely select spectrum in either 100kHz-25 MHz direct sampling or 25MHz–6GHz superhet modes, though I suspect perhaps not an overlap of those two ranges. Not sure here, so a big YMMV on my part.

https://rigexpert.com/files/product_documentation/Fobos%20SDR/FOBOS-SDR-Receiver-Datasheet.EN.pdf

Spotted a post on another site suggesting a $395 MSRP. Potentially an even bigger YMMV.

343

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: KiwiSDR 2 Now Available for Pre-order.

« on: April 20, 2024, 2152 UTC »

There could still be supply available through retailers, as per jks....

"We have shipped hundreds now to ML&S (UK) hamradio.co.uk and WiMo (DE) wimo.com. So consider ordering from them. Check if they will ship to your region and the cost.

Source: https://forum.kiwisdr.com/index.php?p=/discussion/3051/kiwisdr-2-kiwisdr-nz-sold-out-please-order-via-hamradio-co-uk-and-wimo-com/p2

344

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Airspy HF+ Ranger | Next-Gen Model?

« on: April 15, 2024, 2222 UTC »

Skimming the Airspy HF library source code, a mention to an "AIRSPYHF_BOARD_ID_AIRSPYHF_RANGER_REV_A" was landed then removed on the same day in February.

https://github.com/airspy/airspyhf/commit/e1dcc17956157b15885a284d9c9b42ba5de7dc51
https://github.com/airspy/airspyhf/commit/39f06a4934a0707a35496cfabce45cfaf5c60d92

No more info found, though i did not dig much further than a couple of web searches.

There is at least one revision of the original Airspy HF+ Dual, plus there are at least two hardware revisions of the Airspy HF+ Discovery. The Airspy HF+ "Ranger" would appear to be something different.

enum airspyhf_board_id
{
   AIRSPYHF_BOARD_ID_UNKNOWN_AIRSPYHF = 0,
   AIRSPYHF_BOARD_ID_AIRSPYHF_REV_A = 1,
   AIRSPYHF_BOARD_ID_AIRSPYHF_DISCOVERY_REV_A = 2,
   AIRSPYHF_BOARD_ID_AIRSPYHF_RANGER_REV_A = 3,
   AIRSPYHF_BOARD_ID_INVALID = 0xFF,
};

345

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Radio Illuminati 6870 AM 2327 UTC 13 Apr 2024

« on: April 13, 2024, 2342 UTC »

Music at 2338z. OTA at 2341z. SIO 332 via Airspy HF+D and 31' vertical. Decent carrier but modulation is largely in the current noise floor here.

Thanke for the broadcast! :)