Messages

871

Amateur Radio / Re: Best Band/Frequencies to Start on CW?

« on: January 30, 2020, 1806 UTC »

Just my opinion here, but how about testing with friends locally on the 10M CW portion of that band? Then, when you get more efficient, move to 80M, or anyplace else in HF. If you have HF/6M rig, you can even try 6M CW. The weird thing, my last CW contact was a VHF / UHF June Sweepsteaks in the mid-90's on 432MHz. (I knew the other station's ops, so they were patient with me. Hi-hi...) Why??? That's where a majority of weak signal activity was, and probably still is, on 432MHz, and even 2M 144MHz. Of coarse, with the upper HF bands being dead, you can also do 12M, 15M, (Plenty of elbow room there.), 17M, and the CW / Data only 30M band. Oh... Why did I suggest 10M for a CW start? Well, the trend today in starting into Amateur Radio seems to be CB'ers, with the export 10M rigs that are MOD'ed for 11M. However, when they get their Tech ticket, they already have the Tech portion of the 10M band from 28.0000MHz - 28.5000MHz open to them, and I've talked to more new HAM's on 10M, than on 2M, which use to be the gate-way band for Amateur Radio. Again, just my take here, and I'm on the assumption that you are new into the hobby, when, (For all I know.), you could be a near 30 year veteran. I really want to brush up on my CW as well, since I haven't really applied it since 1996. Good luck!!!! 73!!!!!!!

872

Equipment / Re: Dual band vertical Vs Discone

« on: January 28, 2020, 1752 UTC »

You are just using this for receiving only? A Discone is a nice wide-band compromise, but a cheaper way to go would be a scanner base antenna that Channel Master and Radio Shack had. In the early 1980's, I stuck a 30" AM / FM car antenna +30ft up a pine tree, and I couldn't believe what I was able to hear on that, 10M HAM, McDonalds 35MHz drive-through FREQ, 46 / 49MHz cordless phones from a couple of miles away, the regular police, fire, hospital maintenance and UHF MED 1 FREQ's, 2M HAM repeaters from +75 miles away and 2M simplex from guys over +20 miles away, Conrail, local radio station VHF remotes, UHF TV audio from stations +80 miles away, AM aircraft chit-chat on 123.450MHz from several states away, etc. Of coarse, I was spoiled up on a hill then. Today, I live in the bottom of a river valley, where I use a Diamond Discone Antenna to RX / TX wide-band on 6M FM, 2M HAM, MURS, 222MHz HAM, 440MHz HAM, but doesn't seem to match well on 462 / 467MHz GMRS FREQ's. For me, having a do-all low gain antenna works better than an antenna that has gain, since signal just heads to the hills and bounces back to me, but a lower gain antenna helps me take advantage of refraction and reflection, where I can get-out better locally. So, it really depends upon what you want to do and where you are located geographically. If you can afford to shell out +$100.00 for a wide-band Discone, go for it. You could use it to transmit on later in the future, if you plan that. However, if you are on a budget, look at a cheaper scanner base antenna out there. Heck, there are some sites and Youtube VID's out there that show you how to build your own. I've seen people even recycle TV antennas by mounting them vertically. The compromise there is that they tend to be directional, but great if you have a target area to monitor. Hope that helps. Good luck!!!!

873

Amateur Radio / Re: UHF/VHF repeater activity

« on: January 21, 2020, 1748 UTC »

Yeah, I'll still keep my 2M rig on National Simplex, 146.520MHz, as well as 146.580MHz as a secondary where I am. On the repeaters, the C4FM Fusion seems to be the rage, but when you view and listen to the calls of the folks using that mode, more than 1/2 of them are not from here, since the Fusion repeaters are constantly linked. I'll do 10M FM repeaters as well, especially the Dallas, TX one on 29.660-/R, when propagation permits. It's not PL toned.

874

Propagation / Re: Grey line map (real time)

« on: January 21, 2020, 1735 UTC »

I use the one on DX Maps,     http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=W2LN&HF=N&DXC=ING2&GL=S
But, that just shows Grey Line for present day. Still, I've used it for 40M for USA East Coast and Aussi Grey Lining in April on 40M.

875

General Radio Discussion / Re: Reports: iHeartMedia undergoing layoffs, including at Syracuse, Rochester radio

« on: January 18, 2020, 1815 UTC »

Technically, since radio stations are no longer required to have a a physical studio at the location of broadcasting, they can consolidate to a single national location and have everything programmed and linked out to the cities of broadcast and make all of these high powered stations kind of like translators. Actually, NPR has done that for years in various states, (Like here in WV.), and nationally K-Love is doing that now,   http://www.klove.com/    Take this to a commercial level and there you go. The idea of just a handful of people doing programming and sales to a few hundred stations nation-wide is a golden goose that would be just too hard to pass up. As it is, most of those people left can do their tasks from home. I can see commercial and non-profit conglomerates going to that model exclusively this decade.

876

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Re: Part 15 MW Tansmitter Kit on eBay

« on: January 18, 2020, 1751 UTC »

NEAT!!!! And, if you want to build a Part #15 compliant antenna for this, Bob at MRAM1500, shows how to do this.   http://mram.us/AntennaStory.htm

877

Amateur Radio / ARRL VHF January Contest, weekend of 1/18 - 1/20/ 2020!

« on: January 11, 2020, 1807 UTC »

Huh... This contest is a little later this year,  http://www.arrl.org/january-vhf  Sporadic "E" should be pretty much done by then, so let's hope for Temp Inversions and Aurora. 

878

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Act Passes Senate

« on: January 09, 2020, 2038 UTC »

Huh??? I thought that the senate was too gun-ho with impeachment crap to even care about this.  Whelp, if we want to know how these people in congress get to be multi-millionaires, this is it. The NAB is lining their pockets nicely, I'm sure. Can someone tell Trump to veto this!

879

Amateur Radio / Re: Y'all ready for the 2020 AM Rally?

« on: January 09, 2020, 1924 UTC »

Check most evenings on 75M from 3875kHz - 3885kHz for nightly AM'ers. Also, early afternoons, before 3PM EST, for AM'ers on 40M 7290kHz. There are some big-gun AM'ers on 160M as well, like around1890kHz. Now, if these warm weather thunderstorms can just keep their distance, and not trash the lower HF bands at night, there's lots of AM to be had. BTW, with some Winter Sporadic "E" leftover, you may hear 10M AM on 29.000MHz - 29.200MHz. There's some folks doing 20M AM. The AM Rally lists 14.286MHz, but I was hearing more AM up in 14.330MHz daytime. So, there could be a lot of AM to be had. And, before 2M FM and SSB, there was 2M AM. That is very sporadic upon whom does that around this country anymore, but in FL, where you are, Tropo propagation could bring you 2M AM DX stations. And yes, 6M 50.400MHz. I use to join in those 6M AM round table Saturday night winter evenings back in the mid-90's. Some of those hill toppers were over 70 miles away! Hey... Ya never know...

880

10/11 meters / Re: 11 meter private comms?

« on: January 09, 2020, 1909 UTC »

Hello up in WNY! Unfortunately, there's really nothing private in using CTCSS, just to the ops using it. Everyone else tuning can hear everything that's going on, and maybe that very low BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR sound in your audio that the CTCSS tone puts there. (Which is not as sub-audible as people are lead to believe.) Anyway, all that CTCSS toned squelch does is keep squelched all the other traffic and noise that comes on to your transceiver. When a signal is RX'ed with that CTCSS tone that matches what your radio is set to, the squelch opens. Since 11M operations in this country don't use CTCSS tones, pretty much every 11M receiver and transceiver are wide open to listen to your COMM's. (a.k.a., they are carrier operated squelch, meaning any signal that goes up to a listener's squelch threshold level will just hear what's there.) Yep, CTCSS makes it so you don't hear everything that's on your FREQ, but anyone on your FREQ will still hear everything you TX, whether you are toned, or not. So, what's another option? There's voice scrambling out there, where a listener will hear what sounds like chickens in a feeding frenzy to others tuning in. That's employed commercially on the VHF / UHF bands, but I've yet to hear it on HF. But, I don't see why that wouldn't work. You could do DV (Digital Voice), modes like Icom's D-STAR, or Yaesu's C4FM FUSION. The Icom IC-7100 I believe can do D-STAR HF, and the Yaesu FT-991A can do C4FM FUSION there. Most CB'er will not have the ability to de'MOD DV, so that could be private for you, for a little while. However, you won't be private to some tuning HAM's, or fed monitoring stations. Oh... To answer your question on when Cycle 25 revs up? DX F2 propagated stations could indeed block your traffic, and make it so the traffic that you want on CTCSS toned is blocked out at times. Why did I go through this long winded? I wasn't too sure if you knew really how CTCSS tech worked, and my apologies, if you do. Anyway, good luck.

881

Amateur Radio / Y'all ready for the 2020 AM Rally?

« on: January 08, 2020, 2219 UTC »

This is probably the only HF I'll do below 10M, 11M, and 12M,       http://www.amrally.com/    After that, thunderstorms start trashing the lower HF bands. Anyone up for 6M, (50.400MHz AM, or even 2M AM? Although I can easily do this, I've yet to hear of anyone doing 430MHz AM, or even 1296MHz AM.

882

Equipment / Re: SW/MW radio recommendation?

« on: January 01, 2020, 0829 UTC »

Can't go wrong with a Realistic DX-440, the Radio Shack version of the Sangean ATS-803A portable. An AM only Eton E10 portable is a great affordable portable as well. Both can be had cheaply at Hamfests, but if you can get the seller to turn it on to test it out before you, it would be best to do so.

883

Equipment / Re: What Radio Did you start your listening hobby with?

« on: December 31, 2019, 1838 UTC »

I can't remember if I rang out on this, but am too damn lazy to go through the 7 pages to see, so... What got me hooked was a 1978 Realistic DX-40 MW/ FM / SW 4 - 22MHz portable. Only single conversion and very prone to IMD with a longwire, but decent FM 5uV sensitivity and selectivity that I was able to DX FM and TV CH6 audio from WNY, PA, and ON, Canada. I was hooked on FM DX'ing 1st, then MW and SW. Kind of wish I still had that portable. A great starter and that 1W amp IC in it sounded great. I can't believe that was now about 40 years ago. http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1978/h131.html

884

For Sale / Wanted / Barter / Re: For Sale: Tektronix 7623A 100 MHz Oscilloscope - $70

« on: December 27, 2019, 2002 UTC »

Very, very, tempting indeed. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, and I suspect that you are within 200 miles from me, being near Central WV. My biggest problem is getting time off from work, due to a 6 day work week that I have. Contemplation time needed.

885

Amateur Radio / The holy grail of digital voice modes? Hope so...

« on: December 25, 2019, 1941 UTC »

I'd love to see this come out, but I have a feeling it will be beyond my price range.    https://swling.com/blog/2016/05/european-hams-announce-new-radio-a-dual-band-multi-mode-radio-to-support-dmr-d-star-and-c4fm/