Messages

331

Equipment / Re: AM Radio Reception Improved by Large Coil of Wire - Why?

« on: September 03, 2017, 1626 UTC »

I have a large coil of wire (flexible hookup wire in a metal spool) which I set near my Sony ICF-38, and it made no difference whatsoever in MW reception. Does your coil have a plastic spool?

The same here with large spools of the stuff over the years, Boombox. Doesn't do a thing for reception plastic or metal, but they do make a dandy upstairs ground when you twist the conductors together, crimp on a terminal lug, and connect it to whatever radio or audio device you're using. I've got roughly 500 ft. of the stuff on a spool in the shack I use for just that. It works, and has for nearly twenty years.

Cool. I'll have to remember that. My spool is pretty big -- same size as the one pictured above, but has green-insulated stranded wire, larger than the usual hookup wire gauges... maybe as large a gauge as a single strand of small speaker wire.

332

Equipment / Re: AM Radio Reception Improved by Large Coil of Wire - Why?

« on: September 03, 2017, 1624 UTC »

^^^^^^ also a plastic milk crate, available at Wally's and other big stores, will also work as a home-built MW loop antenna form.

They can work well -- I made one that way.

333

Equipment / Re: AM Radio Reception Improved by Large Coil of Wire - Why?

« on: September 02, 2017, 0557 UTC »

I have a large coil of wire (flexible hookup wire in a metal spool) which I set near my Sony ICF-38, and it made no difference whatsoever in MW reception. Does your coil have a plastic spool?

334

Equipment / Re: AM Radio Reception Improved by Large Coil of Wire - Why?

« on: September 02, 2017, 0555 UTC »

PS -- Sony Dream Machines can make good clock DX radios, the weakest link being the small loopstick inside. If you use a tuned external loop, you can probably DX with that radio, making up for the small internal loopstick. Many Sonys have the CXA1019 chip, which was fairly generic in many Sony radios but a hot performer. Their ICF-38 DX portable has one in it.

DX, do you mean Broadcast AM only?

Yes, I was referring to MW/AM band DXing. The FM antenna in Dream Machines is the power cord (inductively coupled through a separate wire inside the radio). For serious FM DX, you'd need a good whip antenna or a dipole to really pull it in.

335

Equipment / Re: AM Radio Reception Improved by Large Coil of Wire - Why?

« on: August 31, 2017, 1617 UTC »

I can't explain it electronically, but my guess is the large coil of wire is acting like a large, untuned loop, and it is inductively coupling with your radio's internal loopstick. The 400 feet may also be making a difference.

I once set a Realistic TRF down near some railroad tracks, and heard Alaska from here in the PNW. The rail was acting like a beverage antenna.

Large coils of wire may also act similarly -- they are untuned antennas, but the massive coil and long length of wire obviously grabs signals. I have a similar huge coil of wire I should experiment with myself.

I am sure one of the other guys here (several of whom seem to be very well versed in antennas) will be able to explain to you how your coil / radio system works.


PS -- Sony Dream Machines can make good clock DX radios, the weakest link being the small loopstick inside. If you use a tuned external loop, you can probably DX with that radio, making up for the small internal loopstick. Many Sonys have the CXA1019 chip, which was fairly generic in many Sony radios but a hot performer. Their ICF-38 DX portable has one in it.

336

General Radio Discussion / Re: Cyber threats prompt return of radio for ship navigation

« on: August 08, 2017, 0050 UTC »

I say power to them. If GPS can be hacked, and it's the most prominent link in the navigation chain, there need to be more alternatives available.

I read somewhere that the US Navy is bringing back navigation by dead-reckoning and using a sextant, as a backup for GPS. They realise that they have become too dependent on GPS.

337

General Radio Discussion / Re: The Ghostly Radio Station That No One Claims To Run

« on: August 03, 2017, 2025 UTC »

^^^^^^LOL

Yes, "On The Beach" -- that was a true 'dead hand' machine, in all aspects of the term.

What a haunting novel and movie...

338

General Radio Discussion / Re: DRM+ tests in South Africa sound very promising. Now, will it happen in USA?

« on: August 03, 2017, 2024 UTC »

The only reason IBOC still has a presence is because of HD translators.  Listenership may not have changed much over the last 25 years, but the market share keeps getting more fragmented.  My home market used to have about 12 stations when I was growing up.  Over the last ten years, that has doubled.  Have they brought in more staff to program all these stations?  Nope, more format lab stuff from Cincinatti running on a server in a closet somewhere.  I just don't see how there is enough money in the ratings book to justify putting these things on, when you can get the same content over the internet, and sometimes commercial free.

'Renting' my OS...no thanks.  I'm also not a fan of cloud storage, because ya know, sometimes it rains

+-RH

Also, it means someone else actually owns your data. When it's stored somewhere else, they have possession of it. Although there may be some legal rights involved, in reality you are renting your own data from whomever owns the cloud.

I don't like the idea of renting your own OS. That sucks. I thought MS would be above that -- they kept Win10 buyable because of consumer demand. I thought that would continue.... Oh well.

RE: DRM: it probably is a great idea, and obviously it is the future for MW in India and other areas of the world. Power to them.

Here in the US the future is FM; online streaming; and maybe a few struggling (or government owned emergency) MW stations -- maybe some with HD.

But as people are hesitant to pay for all their programming, especially in times of economic uncertainty, FM and some AM will survive for quite a few years.

People like free.

339

General Radio Discussion / Re: The Ghostly Radio Station That No One Claims To Run

« on: August 03, 2017, 0206 UTC »

As soon as I read the start of the article I thought 'dead hand' / doomsday machine sort of station.

As soon as it's off, all bets are off.

But it seems no one really knows what the station is for. No one in Russia is talkin'.

340

General Radio Discussion / Re: DRM+ tests in South Africa sound very promising. Now, will it happen in USA?

« on: August 03, 2017, 0204 UTC »

It's not the content, necessarily. Radio listenership isn't down much more than a couple percentage points from the late 1990's.

The trend is that less people are actually buying radios, less people are listening to radio even in their cars (they're using bluetooth to play their Mp3's and cell streams) and that broadcasting here in the US is going more and more online.

No one will invest in new over the air, broadcast technology here. That ship has undoubtedly sailed.

The future will give us IBOC or the full digital Ibiquity equivalent, or what we have now (AM, FM and IBOC).

341

General Radio Discussion / Re: As our Sun ages, it's possible we may see fewer sunspots.

« on: July 25, 2017, 0323 UTC »

Heading for another Maunder Minimum? Only this time with radios.

342

Equipment / Re: Dipole help!!!

« on: July 24, 2017, 0526 UTC »

Maybe the problem isn't the transmitter or the antenna, perhaps it's the online SDR?

Have you taken a portable SW radio out and about to monitor the transmission?

343

General Radio Discussion / Re: Steps to Lower Noise Floor and Revitalize AM Radio

« on: July 19, 2017, 1309 UTC »

In my world, it's been a tradeoff. In the past, it was the powerline buzz. Now it's the power company's smart meter. Periodically it rips away with s9 of buzz. But it's maybe once a week or so.

I've had no issues with LED lights, or CFL's that work properly.

My router does put out some RFI, but not enough to keep me from DXing.

Poor propagation? Yeah.

But I can sympathise with those who have worse RFI. One neighbor's washing machine put out alien sounds all over the lower HF, and another neighbor's twin plasma TV's wreaked tons of havoc all over the 40 and 41 meter bands.

The main problem with AM radio is the crappy antennas on most cars, as well as the fact that auto computers aren't shielded well for RFI.

344

General Radio Discussion / Re: Neat AM broadcasting article FWR to me. Neat read.

« on: July 19, 2017, 1305 UTC »

Good luck with the LPAM idea. LPFM's fail frequently. They are very expensive to put up and maintain. One can only imagine the same thing would happen with LPAM's.

However, if they allowed for slightly higher power for Part 15's, perhaps that would fill the breach, i.e. allowing Part 15's to reach a mile or so, somewhere with a usable audience. A block and a half doesn't really make it.

345

General Radio Discussion / Re: Why am I Still Listening to British Radio in the U.S.?

« on: July 09, 2017, 0608 UTC »

I have to agree on one thing: too much talk on music radio. The local FM rocker has a morning talk show that's OK, but the afternoon one is noxious. I'd rather hear music. When I tune in an FM music station -- be it rock, alternative, or pop, I want to hear music, not some big mouths with monstrous egos pretending they're funny.