Messages

1

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: RTN 6940 AM 0120 UTC 9 Feb 2014 (6935)

« on: February 09, 2014, 0231 UTC »

Getting him on 6935 AM since about 0215, moderate to heavy fades and lots o static.  Just heard O'Lamour by Erasure (one of my all time faves!!) then ID Radio True North.

Wow, am I surprised just how much better the intelligibility is on the ancient Hammarlund boat anchor vs. the Icom R75....static overpowers it on the Icom.

Now Moody Blues, The Voice....(let me check to make sure my record collection hasn't been stolen)

Quick ID and off @ 233.

Found him again on 6955 with Beatles "Come Together" @ 0238 (yeah, for sure I better check my albums now).  Bit less static on this frequency.

0242 Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf.  Check.

Lovely show, thanks RTN.

0322 still hanging in there, barely, as the band descends into the quagmire.

0332 OK scratch that.  Forgot these old boat anchors drift and need touching up every now and then.  Still coming through about the same as before.

0334 Little chat, RTN ID and "Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" + more South Pacific

0344 Boys of Summer

0349 Riders On the Storm

0356 SOS by The Police

0405 Self Control by Laura Branigan (another favorite)!  Seems the overall signal getting weaker, though w/ fewer and less deep fades.  Getting hard to make out announcer.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: X-FM 6925 AM *0118 UTC 31Jan14

« on: January 31, 2014, 0247 UTC »

Awesome bass here on the left coast...some heavy fading a few minutes ago, now coming though strong again.  Nice to give the tubes a work out on my recently resurrected Hammarlund HQ-129-X

Cover of Blue Monday at 0243Z

Thanks for making the evening X-FM!

3

Equipment / Re: Tecsun PL-880 Review

« on: December 20, 2013, 2111 UTC »

I've had the PL-880 for about a week, purchased from Kaito, and it is by far my favorite portable. (And I've owned them all.)  The 880 is what the Sangean 909x should/could have been if they'd spent as much time on the sound quality as they did on external design.  The speaker/amplifier is really wonderful; deep, rich, yet no loss of detail.  I find myself listening to SW, MW and even FM for...*gasp* ....actual pleasure... It made me step back and be aware of just how much ear-straining I was doing with my other radios, including the IC-R75 with external speaker...(Pirate listening notwithstanding;))

I feel the construction is slightly better than the PL-660, sensitivity seems about equal.  The best thing is they've managed to increase verbal intelligibility on marginal signals for the most part.  I like the nice stainless steel whip and the knobs are butter smooth.  Echoing the above comments, SSB tuning is as easy as the ICOM, and for those times when the bandwidth filters don't completely eliminate adjacent channel interference, you can use USB or LSB with only a small penalty in fidelity, even on MW, something no other portable will do (that I know of). 

I'm starting to appreciate the new 18650 lithium battery, though additional ones are kinda expensive (around $10).  I was getting sick of all these double AAs proliferating around the house.  The PL-880 is more like your laptop or smart phone--keep the battery inside, and charge while not in use. *Beware Chinese fakes on these batteries, and claims of 4000mah and up.  From what I can tell, the good brands are Samsung and Panasonic and though I haven't ordered any extras as yet, it seems 3400mah is a realistic max. (The Tecsun supplied battery is 2000mah and seems to last a good solid 6+ hours at medium volume).  I'd love to hear if anyone else knows a reputable yet inexpensive source for these batteries.

One small problem, the first shipment of these radios from Kaito had firmware with some bugs...(see SWLing blog for the gory details) --namely an overactive soft muting circuit that could not be disabled.  Disastrous for SW with deep fading.  It would actually *reduce* volume at the bottom of the fade...I hope whatever genius at Tecsun that let them out the door like that gets their just reward...

However, don't be discouraged as I heard a rumor that Kaito is going to be able to perform the firmware upgrade for the radios that have been returned for this defect, and I'd assume they'll be updating any new ones sold from this point forward.  The ebay seller from Hong Kong (Anon Co) apparently got the updated model and hasn't suffered this issue.

In case you haven't noticed yet, I LOVE the PL-880.  Does it have quirks?  Yes.  Will it replace the ICOM (or other communications grade receiver)? Of course not; but I do think it represents a step forward in modern portables that has been a long, long time in coming.

4

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: The CBS Late Movie 6935 khz USB 1:53 utc 12-20-13

« on: December 20, 2013, 0300 UTC »

Just an impromptu Thursday nite 80s nostalgia trip.  Thanks for listening!

-TLM

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 DSB 0027 UTC 12 Nov 2013

« on: November 12, 2013, 2210 UTC »

Heard him over here too.  Very weak, but audible more on USB than LSB.  Not enough to make out what was being said.

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Shortwave Broadcast / KVOH "Voice of Hope" 9975 KHZ AM 0255 / 8 Nov 2013

« on: November 08, 2013, 0303 UTC »

In Spanish tonight.  Translated id at 0255 "This is KVOH, The Voice of Hope, broadcasting from Los Angeles, California". S9+20 here. At 0300 ID again: "Transmitting with 50,000 watts from Rancho Simi, California".  (Rancho Simi is about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.)

Very nice signal, although they are clearly using some heavy digital compression.

0430 Now playing Joanie Sommers.... "I'll Never Stop Loving You" "Til There Was You" and "Let There Be Love"

In English, OM announcer: Pat Conrad, "This is Late night from Los Angeles."  Jesus loves you and coming up: Johnny Mathis.

Contact given:
studio@kvoh.net

PO Box 102
LA CA 90078

WOW, finally some decent music on regular Shortwave...however the massive amount of digital compression makes it rather hard to enjoy I'm afraid.  

OM announcer: send signal reports to: qsl@kvoh.net 

Sign off @ 0500 followed by brief test tone. 

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Radio Halloween 6950USB 2243z Sept 1, 2013

« on: November 01, 2013, 0259 UTC »

Very faint here, can just make out some voices.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Late Movie 6925 USB 0123 UTC 31 Oct 2013

« on: October 31, 2013, 0204 UTC »

Thanks for the reports!

40m propagation is only listed as "Fair" today.  Alas, hope you're able to enjoy some of it at least.  Tonight is episode 4, "The Name Game", all songs with someone's name in the title.

Tried to broadcast this on 2 previous occasions, but had to abort for various reasons.

Will send an e-qsl soon.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WPOD 6925 USB 0038 UTC 31 Oct 2013

« on: October 31, 2013, 0052 UTC »

Just tuned in...hearing a psychedelic/blues tune...can't quite put my finger on where I've heard it before.

OM: "The Navy announces "The High and Mighty" the worlds first origami aircraft carrier made of Job rolling papers.  No ID yet.

Now: Oingo Boingo Dead Man's Party.

ID 0053

Signal 9+20 with no preamp...great sound, like they're next door

Off at 0120..."WPOD now ends our broadcast day".

Thanks for the show!!!

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Utility / Re: UNID 6970 USB 29OCT2013 0340UTC

« on: October 30, 2013, 0315 UTC »

Last night was not quite like the video.  It was a less regular rhythm, almost musical, and I swear I could hear the rattle of a cow bell in there, a very acoustic non-electronic-like sound. 

Tonight I tuned in 6970 again and hear something much closer to the example in the video. 

11

Utility / UNID 6970 USB 29OCT2013 0340UTC

« on: October 29, 2013, 0347 UTC »

Dunno if this qualifies as a pirate, but for the last 10 minutes I have been listening to someone beating out a repeating rhythm on what sounds like a cow bell on 6970 USB.  Level varying from S4-8 with S3 noise floor on preamp #1.

Changed channels and came back...still going 0500 UTC.  Not sure if morse code, probably not..

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Shortwave Broadcast / Radio Rossii 7320 KHZ AM 10/17/2013 0600

« on: October 17, 2013, 0609 UTC »

Getting a fairly good signal tonight (in Russian), never heard this one before: According to shortwave schedule.com the 100KW transmitter is way out on the eastern end of Russia near the Bering Sea.  Also getting Radio Nikkei quite well on 9595, so propagation seems to be favoring the north Pacific.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: The Late Movie 6930 USB 0124 UTC 10/16/2013

« on: October 16, 2013, 1710 UTC »

Thanks again for the listen!

This was the first few minutes of Episode 4, stopped due to 'RF in the shack' (and my neighbor's 'shack') problems...hopefully a solution will be found and I'll be back sooner rather than later.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Pirate Radio Boston, 6925 AM, 0430 UTC

« on: October 12, 2013, 0615 UTC »

Definitely something there, male voice...can't make out any more than that.  Only on USB here too.

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North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: The Late Movie 6925 USB 0155 UTC 7 Oct 2013

« on: October 07, 2013, 1727 UTC »

Thanks Chris!  I could tell conditions were getting bad by the time I started as Red Mercury had all but disappeared.  Then I wondered if I had forgotten to plug in my antenna.  

Equipment was fine as far as I can tell.  One of my spotters about 300 miles away couldn't hear it on their RS portable either.

This was EPS #4 "The Name Game".  (My first 'live' mix too.)

Stay tuned for the rebroadcast.  

Best Regards,
TLM