Messages

1

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Pigs Knuckles 6925 USB 0159 UTC 20 MAR 2023

« on: March 20, 2023, 0238 UTC »

6925 USB
0230 UTC approx, couple of songs from O Brother, Where Art Thou -- Man of Constant Sorrow, In the Jailhouse Now. Pigs Knuckles sign-off
Good signal to the indoor antenna

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Huh? / Re: Balloon

« on: February 24, 2023, 0533 UTC »

That's what the Government say's, who are you going to believe, me or that pack of lying curs? What are you some sort of wise guy? If that nuke blows, no more eastern Carolina BBQ ,the best whole hog BBQ in the known universe! You're worse than Al Fansome, a well known poopy-head in his lifetime. Never interrupt me when I'm on a roll!

This is the quality interneting that keeps me coming back.

3

Equipment / Re: Recommendations for a Hiking Antenna

« on: February 24, 2023, 0529 UTC »

The PAR End-Fedz SWL and HF transmit antennas seem to work well, according to most users. I've watched a few YouTube demonstrations from a few years ago and the Par cable seemed to work well slung up a tree using a slingshot or whatever method they liked.

I use a homebrewed bolo to sling wire up a tree occasionally -- it's just a white flexible plastic pill bottle from generic NSAIDs with flat tape bass fishing line (more resistant to tangling than standard fishing line). I fill the pill bottle with coffee grounds or sand. I swing it around like a bolo and sling it up a tree. Then tie one end of the antenna to the pre-tied loop in the fishing line. Hoist it up, wrap the other end around the tree trunk to hold it fairly steady. Done.

Years ago I used to listen for the HF QRP backpack ham nets. Some of them talked about dragging wire behind them to transmit and receive as they were hiking. That would probably work pretty well if there's no other pedestrian traffic, and the antenna wire resists snarling.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WWWW 6925 USB 2354 UTC 20 FEB 2023

« on: February 21, 2023, 0305 UTC »

21 Feb 2023
6925 USB
0100-0230 UTC
Same heard here via the home receiver and indoor antenna, fair to good signal, improving after 0130z. Music, ELO, Marshal Tucker Band, others. Bob 106.3 IDs.
Closing ID from WWWW at 0230z, much louder than rest of signal, 800 watts.

5

General Radio Discussion / Re: THE US AIRFORCE MAY HAVE SHOT DOWN AN AMATEUR RADIO PICO BALLOON OVER CANADA

« on: February 19, 2023, 0448 UTC »

The best part is watching the drama by the morons who are addicted to paranoid conspiracy theories on Reddit and YouTube. Especially the guy on the S2 Underground and DecoyVoice channels. The S2 guy sorta had the right idea about the value of amateur radio for survivalists. But he and the DecoyVoice guy have gone off the deep end, ......

I just stumbled across the S2 videos the other day and watched a couple. He went into elaborate detail about "secure comms" and how to "not get tracked".
After a while I found myself wondering what this guy was even talking about. If you watch any YouTube videos on RF, sooner or later the algorithm dangles these things front of you.

Sorry - moderator going off topic 

On topic - l tried to look at the Bottle Cap Balloon website just this morning since the group is in my area. Their server will not respond. They must be swamped.

Z

Well, it's more or less on topic because social media algorithms do "suggest" (nudge, push, shove) inflammatory and divisive clickbait at us that's only vaguely related to topics we're actually interested in. That's how the S2 Underground channel was suggested to me by YouTube -- because I've subbed to some radio related channels. The S2 guy has chattered about radio. I subbed just to get an idea of where he's going with this stuff.

He gives the impression of being authoritative, but after listening to enough of his videos for a few months, he seems like an armchair operator, someone who reads a lot of stuff on Reddit and conspiracy sites relevant to military and intel, just enough to memorize some buzzwords and pretend to know the subject. But he's mostly blowing smoke.

His credibility fell apart recently with his posts on the Chinese balloon incident. He had nothing of substance to say, but rambled on for half an hour with wild speculation about dire consequences, sounding genuinely frightened and confused. He's a blowhard with zero credibility. Ditto, the DecoyVoice dude, who mostly posts wingnut shill fear bait. But his channel was recommended to me by YouTube, presumably because I've subbed to S2 Underground, Mike Glover Actual (another former military guy who's gone off the deep end recently) and others, mostly out of idle curiosity.

But it's easy to see how people get sucked into that vortex when they're primed to believe the end is always nigh, the barbarians are always at the gates, and it's always Apocalypse Now o' clock.

Never mind the more reasonable and mundane explanations that occasional security lapses occur, balloons are rarely considered a significant security risk, the national infrastructure is crumbling due to years of neglect from under-funding, and, as Walt Kelly's Pogo put it years ago, "We have met the enemy and he is us," (spoofing the Oliver Hazard Perry quote from the 19th century).

6

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: X-FM 4185 AM 0118 UTC 19 FEB 2023

« on: February 19, 2023, 0431 UTC »

4185 AM
0420 UTC: Signal peaked just enough to copy XFM ID. Music, signal faded, can't ID song.
0525 UTC: Shout-outs to listeners logging. Signal still barely peaking above noise now and then, hearing unfamiliar music, not enough to ID anything.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: B-Side Radio 6935 AM 0314 UTC 18 Feb 2023

« on: February 18, 2023, 0547 UTC »

6935 AM
0345-0400 UTC: Heard some jazzy noodling way down in the noise, not enough to ID station or music.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Pigs Knuckles Radio 6925 USB 0204 UTC 18 Feb 2023

« on: February 18, 2023, 0235 UTC »

Same heard here via the home receiver with indoor antenna, S5-S6, well over noise.

9

General Radio Discussion / Re: THE US AIRFORCE MAY HAVE SHOT DOWN AN AMATEUR RADIO PICO BALLOON OVER CANADA

« on: February 18, 2023, 0150 UTC »

Yeah, that was my guess from the beginning: ham radio and weather hobbyist balloons, some university research balloons. These have been used for years without any drama. Doesn't take a taxpayer funded fighter jet and missiles to cope with a few balloons.

The best part is watching the drama by the morons who are addicted to paranoid conspiracy theories on Reddit and YouTube. Especially the guy on the S2 Underground and DecoyVoice channels. I've watched their videos for awhile. They were mostly harmless and amusing. The S2 guy sorta had the right idea about the value of amateur radio for survivalists. But he and the DecoyVoice guy have gone off the deep end, thinking there's some kind of precursor to a world war from China, or leftist insurgency sabotaging rails and electrical utilities. It's mostly crumbling infrastructre in the US. We can thank Congress and most recent administrations for that. They're so deeply invested in divisive posturing they can't or won't do anything to fix the infrastructure.

TBH, I'm not even sure the guys who post that crap actually believe what they're saying. They're probably just parroting the Faux Noise paradigm of making up stuff to earn some fear coin from the rubes.

10

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Pigs Knuckles 6925 USB 2300 UTC 16 FEB 2023

« on: February 16, 2023, 2327 UTC »

6925 USB
Same heard here on the home receiver with indoor antenna since 2315 UTC: Allman Brothers, Whipping Post; Tokens, Lion Sleeps Tonight, older traditional version of same song. Op chatter between music. Pigs Knuckles ID, talking about tubes heating up.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 USB 0050 UTC 16 FEB 2023

« on: February 16, 2023, 0123 UTC »

16 Feb 2023
6925 USB
0117 UTC: Katrina and the Waves "Walking on Sunshine," The Cure "Friday I'm in Love"
0127 UTC: Tracey Chapman, Fast Car
0133 UTC: Fixx, One Thing Leads to Another
0135 UTC: WKKL ID
0146 UTC: Off or faded out

Might have been an ID in there. Seems to be real time relay of WKKL, 90.7, college station. Playlists match.

Can't seem to tune this station to pitch to match the web stream version. Sounds slightly off no matter how I tune my receiver. Maybe the Palstar lacks fine enough increments, dunno.

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Equipment / Re: Made in China Wellbrook 1530 Loop Antenna?

« on: February 15, 2023, 0415 UTC »

Discovery Channel logo?

You and me, baby, ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's DX like they do on the Discovery Channel

https://youtu.be/L8cLbT0i9BA

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Mix Radio International 6876 USB 0238 UTC 15 FEB 2023

« on: February 15, 2023, 0406 UTC »

15 Feb 2023
6876 USB
0400 UTC: Just got home, spun the dial and heard some jazzy music and Mix Radio International IDs. Fair signal, just enough to copy familiar music.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Pigs Knuckles 6925 USB 0206 UTC 14 FEB 2023

« on: February 14, 2023, 0246 UTC »

14 Feb 2023
6925 USB
0240 UTC: Battle of Evermore, Led Zep
0245 UTC: Pig's Knuckles ID and sign-off

S3-S5, not quite as strong as last night but still well above local noise.

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General Radio Discussion / Re: A reminder about stuff not allowed on the HFU

« on: February 13, 2023, 0306 UTC »

...There's a sticky topic at the very top of the loggings board that shows the Official HFU Approved Logging Message Topic Format. Here it is if you can't find it: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,8448.0.html

It should be followed. EXACTLY. This even means using the correct case for month abbreviations, modes (AM/USB/etc.) and so on.  The correct spacing between words. Why so apparently pedantic? A few reasons:

It makes it easier for people to find the correct logging thread, so they can add to it, rather than starting a new one, which then needs to be merged.

It makes it easier for people to search for logging threads, to find info about past transmissions.

Logging info is often used to generate reports on pirate activity, and a consistent and coherent format makes this much easier to accomplish.

Is it feasible (or even possible) to incorporate a data entry interface with pre-formatted selections for logs, especially the thread titles filed out by the original poster? That would help with consistency.

Many years ago when I was still using Clarion to create data entry utilities, I concocted a couple of free/share ware utilities just for logging radio stations. Worked great, especially on low end computers, no need to remember specific upper/lower case for every type of station (some military and government acronyms use mixed case). The only downside was that once the freeware/shareware utility was released into the wild, it couldn't be modified. I abandoned that project after Clarion was discontinued.

An app version of the HFU might be suitable for that kind of thing. For now I access the HFU via Chrome on my phone when I'm away from home with a portable. It works, kinda, but the browser version is hard to read on a phone, and tricky to poke the correct keystrokes if I've forgotten my 2.5x reading glasses.