Messages

1

HF Beacons / Re: Teotwaki's Evening Beacon Log

« on: February 02, 2023, 0431 UTC »

Just a note that I enter these loggings right after I hear the stations. The date and timestamp of this message is good for anyone interested in guessing at propagation to SoCal.

2097.315 KHz    "A" beacon, good signal here on the MLA loop and the R8600
4095.670 KHz    DW. Good signal on the KX3  BAT 13.0  OTMP 51  ITMP 55  PV 1
4109.400 KHz    Coast Slider, weak but readable slow whoops! Good job to the builder!

2

Group W Bench / Re: FCC Cancels W6WBJ License

« on: February 01, 2023, 2237 UTC »

As of Jan 27th, the total is 767760, per http://www.arrl.org/fcc-license-counts

Thanks for the assist Chris!

3

Group W Bench / Re: FCC Cancels W6WBJ License

« on: February 01, 2023, 2236 UTC »

I'm not a Ham, but try to share my interest of shortwave with most folks I come in contact with.  The static either scares them off or peaks their interest and then I've got their attention.  I recently gave my Tecsun PL-660 to an Afghan Vet who was a translator and speaks multiple languages.  He was more than excited by the idea of listening to a portable radio to practice his skills and when I explained reception quality varies with time & season similar to tidal activity (he's a surfer) that was it.  Don't know if he'll get his ticket, but at least someone else digs it

That's exactly the way to do it. You don't have to convert the world, just introduce one person at a time. I got one friend started by showing him some HF beacons using the on line kiwi SDRs, He just let me know that he bought a small portable HF SDR and is bringing it on our next camping trip. Pretty cool!

4

Group W Bench / Re: FCC Cancels W6WBJ License

« on: January 26, 2023, 0448 UTC »

Nothing but old men with ham licenses is going to be the death of ham radio. When they pass on, it will be gone. Young people aren't interested in old technology.

I hear that often from people who do absolutely nothing to share the hobby with others, young or old. There's a Young Amateur Radio Club Discord server out there. My teen aged niece has a shiny new license and handheld radio. There are kids out there who are using SDRs, building wireless linked microcontrollers and so on who don't yet realize there is a bigger community of radio hobbyists out there. All they need is some outreach. Europe has YOTA  (https://www.ham-yota.com/)

I'd like to find a version of this chart that has the last four years of data but the growth is something like 12% on this one. Maybe Covid killed all the old hams and made the plot nose dive.
https://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/number-of-radio-amateurs.png

5

HF Beacons / Re: Teotwaki's Evening Beacon Log

« on: January 26, 2023, 0308 UTC »

2097.315 KHz    "A" beacon, good signal here on the MLA loop and the r8600
4095.670 KHz    DW. Good signal on the KX3  BAT 13.0  OTMP 54  ITMP 59  PV 1
4096.861 KHz    Marin ditter, slow ditter, only heard on KFS, nothing here at home
4109.400 KHz    Coast Slider, weak but readable slow whoops

6

HF Beacons / Re: Coastal Slider Back On 4109.5

« on: January 26, 2023, 0303 UTC »

Can hear CS at home, faint but recognizable.

7

HF Beacons / MOVED: All right, fess up! :-)

« on: January 25, 2023, 1401 UTC »

This topic has been moved to General Radio Discussion.
It's funny, but belongs in a general discussion area as it could relate to all solar powered pirate radio equipment
https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php?topic=107800.0

8

HF Beacons / Re: Teotwaki's Morning Beacon Log

« on: January 25, 2023, 1355 UTC »

2097.320 KHz    "A" beacon, good signal on the mag loop and long wires
4095.700 KHz   DW. Fair signal.  BAT 12.8 oTMP 45 iTMP 48  PV 1
4109.400 KHz   Coast Slider, weak but readable
7039.300 KHz   Russian K beacon, faint signal

9

HF Beacons / Re: Coastal Slider Back On 4109.5

« on: January 25, 2023, 1348 UTC »

I guess that CS has been repaired and the battery is well charged. It is 5:45am with dawn a ways off and I can hear CS faintly at home and it's also coming in very good on KFS omni.

10

Group W Bench / Re: FCC Cancels W6WBJ License

« on: January 24, 2023, 2051 UTC »

time for a little maul of truth, W6WBJ is actually a good operator, lol.

the real jammers where the hamtifa clownworlder hippiecrites that wouldnt check in W6WBJ.

the case against W6WBJ was built on irrelevant and falsified info, taking into account today's pc extremism.

the still on going memorex jamming still going on 3908 and 3890 KHz are recordings of the real racists.

K6TXH, WA7BZI, KW6BUZ (superstation of warfa), and W6QI (Moody).

the real blight of ham radio is these four hippiecrites, never was W6WBJ.

WARFA and similar hypocritical groups are a cancer on ham radio and will be the death of it.

That sounds like Billy Boy talking. If not, then it's just a jammer's shill.

11

HF Beacons / Re: Teotwaki's Morning Beacon Log

« on: January 23, 2023, 1805 UTC »

Rainy and Gendarme coming in well on the KFS SE kiwi

12

HF Beacons / Re: Coastal Slider Back On 4109.5

« on: January 19, 2023, 1822 UTC »

CS still seems to be a daytime-only-with-good-sunlight-beacon.

13

Equipment / Re: MLA-30 Loop antenna

« on: January 18, 2023, 1740 UTC »

Here is a schematic of the AL1530 Wellbrook loop


The writeup is very interesting too.
https://www.george-smart.co.uk/projects/wellgood-loop/wellgood-loop-history/

14

Equipment / Re: MLA-30 Loop antenna

« on: January 18, 2023, 1712 UTC »

From one of my posts in the MW thread....

Lowered voltage at the bias tee I was using to feed the MLA-30 preamp down to 4.5v last night. Add some voltage drop due to 75' of RG-6 feedline. Gain barely dropped at lower-HF bands and MW, while SNR likely improved. I still need to check voltage versus gain on upper-HF bands.

Positive supply voltage for the TL592B differential amp is listed at 3v to 8v. That tracks with my results. Gain at 3v (minus line loss) dropped considerably. The preamp at 1.5v dropped out.

12vDC as supplied by the stock USB->12vDC boost regulator in the bundled bias tee is likely overdriving the amp IC and potentially affecting SNR. YMMV, of course.

Dropping voltage might improve SNR with the inexpensive video preamp IC used in the MLA-30 design. I assume the MLA-30+ uses the same or similar chip.

Rob

Thanks for bringing up the suggestion for the lower supply voltage.

The reverse engineered schematics do not show any on board voltage regulator so I agree that  a +12v supply is too high, assuming the Chinese used a chip specified the same as the TL592B.  I've dropped the voltage into the bias Tee to +6vdc and the loop's amplifier gain seems the same. I'll try to make some signal strength measurements later this week.

Jim

15

Equipment / Re: MLA-30 Loop antenna

« on: January 10, 2023, 1916 UTC »

I bought a Chinese MLA-30+ and modified it a little. I desoldered most of the DC-DC converter in the bias T and ran in a line from a 12.6vdc linear supply. I tossed the thin stainless steel loop wire too. I took some aluminum jacketed 1/2" coax and made a loop. I squashed the jacket flat on each end, bent a 90 degree tab and drilled it. It seems to be about 2.9 uH

The antenna's output is run through a Navy surplus multicoupler that has a great 2 - 32 MHz preselector filter before the amplifiers.

Despite all of the MLA's engineering flaws in the amplifier design it performs fine mounted up high, outdoors when compared to an untuned 70' end fed wire. That leads me to believe a correctly designed active loop could perform even better.



The DW beacon