Messages

496

General Radio Discussion / Re: w1aw/7 seattle washington 18159khz

« on: November 12, 2014, 1035 UTC »

Sometimes I think during QSO's CW stations just sent "5-9-9" no matter what the reception is -- if they can read it, they send "5-9-9".

It's fairly rare I've heard a CW QSO where they didn't send "5-9-9". I think I've heard "5-7-9" a couple times. Don't recall hearing other numbers, if it's happened, I didn't log it down.....

What I meant was that it was one way. I was on scheduled transmission. And I saw it on my Yaesu 857D screen 5 9 and black convergent lines which meant that it was perfect. They dissect when the frequency is off-line. Did they get my CW, Sir?

On most transceivers the power meter tells you how much power the radio is putting into the antenna. I'm guessing that's how the power meter works on your Yaesu 857D.

It basically tells you whether there is full power going to the antenna. It doesn't tell you whether the other person heard your CW or not.

Whether the other person (to whom you're sending the CW) can hear it or not depends on several things: ionospheric propagation, their own receiver, their antenna, etc.

You could be putting full power with low SWR into a properly tuned antenna, and if propagation is bad, or the person you're sending the CW to has a poor receiver, they still may not hear your transmission.

If they get back to you and give you a signal report, then you know they heard you.

If it's one way only, and they don't come back to you, you can only guess whether they heard you or not. But if the power meter on your radio is showing full power, that is a sign that at least your transceiver and antenna are putting out a full signal.

497

General Radio Discussion / Re: w1aw/7 seattle washington 18159khz

« on: November 11, 2014, 1918 UTC »

Sometimes I think during QSO's CW stations just sent "5-9-9" no matter what the reception is -- if they can read it, they send "5-9-9".

It's fairly rare I've heard a CW QSO where they didn't send "5-9-9". I think I've heard "5-7-9" a couple times. Don't recall hearing other numbers, if it's happened, I didn't log it down.....

498

General Radio Discussion / Re: YHWH - 11/5 update

« on: November 08, 2014, 1929 UTC »

I don't see the harm in posting loggings of YHWH.  I'm sure if the FCC are interested in catching YHWH, they already will have been logging the station anyway.

RE: YHWH's 'aggressive' natured speaking... going by what I've heard, it doesn't seem to be any more aggressive in nature than Brother Stair.

But I haven't heard more than maybe 15 minutes or so of YHWH at a time. Usually when I'm tuning around the shortwaves, I'm tuning around a bit. I have listened to YHWH for 45 minutes or so maybe once or twice, mainly to get the jist of the guy's religious message.

499

General Radio Discussion / Re: Favorite SW station that no longer exists?

« on: November 08, 2014, 1844 UTC »

One of my favorites was Radio Barquisimeto, which used to be on the 60 meter band out of Venezuela. Supposedly they are online now, but I haven't tried to catch their stream yet. They always played cool music.

Another favorite was the old Radio Moscow. Propaganda? yes, but it wasn't 100% propaganda, as the cultural programs were usually quite interesting, including a lot of the cool music coming from Central Asian republics.

Another was VOA -- the old VOA, which had the jazz show and the Breakfast Show in English to Africa and Asia.

The Australian ABC outlets on 31 meters were cool to listen to (VLW9 was the one I listened to -- a SW relay of 6WF/6WN in Perth), as they were SW transmitters relaying ABC MW radio stations.

Papua New Guinea was a regular here on the West Coast, as was the Solomon Islands SW station. I think both are gone.

Last but not least, the Singapore Mediacorp SW stations were always cool. One was in English and the other one (I think it was called Radio Oli) was mostly in one of the Tamil-related languages (from Southern India). I used to hear them most mornings, along with the RT Malaysia SW station out of Kuching, Sarawak.

I also remember Radio Nederland and HCJB, but didn't listen to them as much as I did Radio Australia and the stations coming out of the Pacific.

Someone here mentioned Afrique Numer Un -- I remember hearing that one on 31 meters during the late afternoons. Lots of soukous and highlife music, it was always very cool to hear.

Of course, nowadays we have internet streaming, but it's not the same. On one hand, the streams are FM quality. On the other hand, internet connections to some areas of the world are still a bit dodgy. I've tried getting Iranian stations using Tune-In -- sometimes you get streaming, sometimes nothing. And other stations -- like the Voice of Greece, for example -- apparently don't have streams. The Voice of Turkey used to have a musical program aimed at Europe that I could hear for six to eight hours on my DX-390 and maybe 40-50 ft. of wire. Now I'm lucky if they're running their internet music stream more than a couple hours a day. Most times I check it it's turned off.

Welcome to the new world of international radio.....

500

General Radio Discussion / Re: Using HF rig as AM radio receiver

« on: November 08, 2014, 1827 UTC »

I've never used a ham transceiver, but I've been involved in the MW hobby for a long time and read a lot of reviews over the years, and aside from SDR's (which a lot of the high end MW DXers use now) the big rigs that seem to get the biggest thumbs up from MW DXers have been Drake R8's, and then maybe the Icom R75.

I don't know what radio you use now, but chances are high that it's fine for MW, just get an external loop to boost the signals a bit.

If you don't have one, or don't feel like building one, even the readily available Eton AM loop will do a decent job -- although I haven't used one of that particular brand, I have similar loops made by other manufacturers -- a Radio Shack loop and a Select-A-Tenna, and they both do the job really well.

501

General Radio Discussion / Re: favorite SWBC station that still exists?

« on: November 08, 2014, 1820 UTC »

My favorite, existing shortwave station is the Voice Of Greece. Love the music they play. A lot of it sounds Middle Eastern tinged -- obviously because Greece is so close to Turkey and other Mideast nations -- but also has some of the saddest sounding ballads that can be heard on the airwaves, usually sung by female singers. But haunting, beautiful music also.

A runner up would probably be Radio Nacional Da Amazonia. After that would be Radio Australia, mainly because they always have interesting news and feature programs. RNZI is also one I'll listen to if it's on.

In the past I used to listen to the Voice of Turkey every evening, but although they still exist, they don't come in as well as they did in the 1990's. Their program in Turkish to Europe used to be non-stop Turkish music, with some talk in Turkish from time to time.

502

FM Free Radio / Re: 87.7 MHz FM, Monday 09/29, Livonia, Michigan

« on: October 08, 2014, 1546 UTC »

Rap music doesn't contribute to violence in America any more than action movies do -- where you can see people get shot, buildings blown up, people injured, you hear lots of cussing and bad language, and that's all in the first five minutes. :-)

503

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / Re: What is a Radiosonde for?

« on: October 08, 2014, 1523 UTC »

Thanks for the info, Chris. Not sure I have a radio that goes that high... but it makes it easier understanding the posts on this section of the forum knowing what these radiosondes are.

504

Equipment / Re: New to radio stuff

« on: October 08, 2014, 1514 UTC »

I Googled it and nothing much comes up.

Perhaps more of a description would help.

Only thing I found was a company in India that makes satellite dishes, and also some device (probably related) that runs on 70 Mhz. Mono-pulse something or other.

505

MW Loggings / Re: 1540 KXEL Cedar Rapids, IO 1024z 9/12/14

« on: October 08, 2014, 1502 UTC »

They get out fairly well to the West also.

I've heard them in a local 1540 station's null. Even without an external loop.

506

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: CFVP Calgary where are you? 6030 AM 2210 UTC 5Oct12

« on: October 08, 2014, 1500 UTC »

I haven't heard CFVP in more than a year. Perhaps it's coming in on nights when I'm not tuning the 49 meter band.

Right now I'm getting what sounds like Chinese fading in and out (off the Grundig G2's whip).

But even with my 25 ft. indoor antenna and other radios I always get Marti and the jammer during afternoons and evenings when I'm usually tuning around the shortwaves.

And CFVP is only about 500 mi or so NE of my QTH.

I have received it before, when it was still playing country music -- probably more than 3 or four years ago.

FWIW: Firedrake is coming in really well on 6075 khz. Unreadable speech behind.

507

10/11 meters / Re: 10 meters burning up my ears! 09/27/14

« on: October 01, 2014, 0944 UTC »

Very good catches then!

508

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / What is a Radiosonde for?

« on: September 30, 2014, 1336 UTC »

Really dumb question I know, but what is the purpose of these radiosondes? Are they weather balloons? Are they used for a different scientific purpose?

And what are their primary frequencies? Does someone have to have a high gain antenna to hear them if they are in the vicinity?

The only VHF DXing I've done (aside from some scanning and PSB and Railroad band listening in the past) is when I heard some NOAA weather satellites in the 136 Mhz band, the beepbeepbeepbeep sound that would occur as they drifted over the area.

509

10/11 meters / Re: 10 meters burning up my ears! 09/27/14

« on: September 30, 2014, 1248 UTC »

Good catches. Which radio did you use, and did you use an external antenna?

510

General Radio Discussion / Re: Another web site with loads of ham radio links 'AC6V' site

« on: September 28, 2014, 1433 UTC »

The ham prefix lists were pretty informative. I used to have a booklet with complete prefix lists (i.e. which numerals and/or letters refer to sections of Japan, sections of Mexico, sections of Argentina, etc.) but lost it.