Messages

1

10/11 meters / Re: 11m Band Opening 0728z 17 June 2021

« on: June 18, 2021, 1344 UTC »

Yessiree, listened along for most of the overnight, and even TXed here and there on 10m. Very enjoyable propagation going on recently, I have missed it considerably!

Mike
N0TLD

2

General Radio Discussion / Re: Brother Stair Dies

« on: April 10, 2021, 0851 UTC »

He was a pedophile, a sexual predator. He was pure evil. Few will miss him.

I certainly won't. A wicked man, spewing hateful things, a perverter of faith and far worse a perverter of people -- including children --  who believed in and trusted him. He victimized people for decades, and if there had been any justice, he'd have spent his last long years alone behind bars, instead of dying at home in hospice care.

Now, I can understand some feel his 'loss' is a blow to domestic shortwave broadcasting -- I can almost picture panicking RMI and BCQ and a half dozen MW stations frantically sending heart pumps and resuscitation gear to him the last few years. I wouldn't blame them. And of course, it was entirely his right to produce and pay for airtime to broadcast whatever the hell he wanted. I've never been about censorship; I know what a tuning knob is. And I want those stations to succeed and grow and go on.

But in all honesty, if it turns out his brand of grating, delusional garbage is the only thing holding up American SW, then American SW deserves to die with him.

Yet I imagine Stair will be in syndication for however long whomever has the rights to his recorded rantings also has the cult cash to air it. Maybe it will be a little less often, a diminished schedule, not as many freqs/stations, etc... but it will probably still be going for years to come.

I'm not bitter or anything. I just have an issue (and hard experience) with cults, and cult leaders, and the damage they cause, from innocent children's lives to entire families and communities.

Good freaking riddance.

Mike
N0TLD

3

10/11 meters / Re: 10m US to UK/Europe

« on: November 30, 2020, 1548 UTC »

Yessir. Here in SW MO, I wasn't operating (just RXing) but I did hear a lot of UK, especially Ireland, Man and western Scotland, and some SE England. Things quieted for a time but then shifted to the U.S. west coast, running from San Diego up to Seattle over the duration of the band opening. I hadn't heard such conditions here in quite a while, so very enjoyable! Hopefully a sign of things to come with the new cycle.


Mike
N0TLD

4

Amateur Radio / Re: FCC Proposes to Reinstate Amateur Radio Service Fees

« on: September 02, 2020, 0954 UTC »

I am not fully educated on all the ramifications of such a thing... but if I thought the money would honestly go toward actual, effective monitoring and FCC enforcement on the bands, I think I should be glad to essentially pay $5 a year for my 10 year license, especially if it would directly help remove the illegal, hateful, garbage-spreading bullies and cowards who have been poisoning certain frequencies for many, many years. I am no goody-goody op, but the FCC has been essentially absent from the bands for far too long -- it seems like by the late '80s or so, the FCC essentially handed over all the actual work of the amateur bands (licensing and regulating and organizing and monitoring) to volunteers and the ARRL and a skeleton crew of actual Fed officials, and have only pursued commercial radio ($$$) interests ever since. I am definitely against adding fees if the FCC is merely going to continue being invisible on non-commercial amateur radio and letting volunteers, EMCOM and the ARRL keep doing all the work. But if the FCC would actually rejoin in the effort and take part in the process with the money they'd be collecting from us, different story. It will be interesting to see what happens.


Mike
N0TLD

5

Equipment / Re: Finally!!! Radio Jay Allen covers the Realistic DX-440/Sangean ATS-803A portable

« on: August 16, 2020, 0835 UTC »

I love Radio Jay AND the ATS803/DX440, so seeing the new article made me happy today.    I've had my 803a for a long time, and modified it a bit (less chuffing while tuning and some audio improvement) but those mods were very slight -- even stock it is simply a great radio, plain and simple... and well deserving of its rich praises over the decades. Glad to finally see it on Jay's Mega Shoot Out lists!

Mike
N0TLD

6

General Radio Discussion / Re: Proposed Shortwave Station in Illinois Prompts an Objection

« on: July 14, 2020, 0700 UTC »

Just what the World needs - another megawatt Bible-thumper.

Right, my thoughts exactly. Oh goodie for us.

Mike
N0TLD

7

Equipment / Re: Sky loop update - Now 750 ft

« on: July 12, 2020, 0654 UTC »

Well, too late to keep me from going crazy -- in general. 

When I get it going well enough I'll post about it, as I'll definitely want some feedback along the way, at least from people who know the subject well. I've been building antennas of all kinds for decades so I'm not too green, but I find it inspiring and motivating if I know others are offering their informed advice and even their own crazy ideas. Well... within reason. Not wanting anything TOO crazy.

Mike
N0TLD

8

Equipment / Re: The Best Active Loop Antenna 2019 = MLA-30?

« on: July 11, 2020, 0030 UTC »

I hope they do improve some of the issues with the PL880 on the final version PL990. I like the '880 a lot, in fact I like most of Tecsun's offerings very much -- I think they represent some serious value at their price point/s -- but it would be very nice to have a portable that sounded as rich as the '880 sounds (to me anyway) but with much better SYNC and birdie/internal noise performance. The S9900 is intriguing as well, and I'm looking forward to if/when Eton will finally come out with the Elite Satellit, the E-1/XM lookalike (and hope it performsalike).

Fully agree about the older classic portables performing wonderfully on today's less crowded bands, absolutely. I'm a big fan of the classic Panasonic RF Command Series (the RF2200 and RF1150 in particular for MW DXing) and Sony's ICF-SW classics you mentioned (the '77 is a real favorite). Lately I'm going realllllly analog with the Zenith TransOceanic R7000-2 for SWL and enjoying every second of it. Not saying one is best, or classic is better, or anything along those lines... but just reiterating that they are still excellent performers on today's SW scene.


Mike
N0TLD

9

Equipment / Re: Sky loop update - Now 750 ft

« on: July 11, 2020, 0002 UTC »

Yes indeed, that T2FD of yours is a signal-to-noise beauty. I made a (decidedly shorter!) T2FD for upper HF RX (about 10 to 30 MHz) many years ago and in most instances it gave me quieter, cleaner reception than any TX antenna I had at the time (including resonant dipoles for 15 and 10). The 120' version on your first SDR just sounds great.

Good to know about the sky loop height, thanks. I know there is a point where returns begin to diminish with length (certainly if I want fuller MW range), but I will not concern myself too much then if I can only get it mounted so high. It will not be a perfect loop anyway of course -- it will be more like a skewed septagon?-ish shape, with not all anchor points the very same height... so what's a little more imperfection?   I just want to get the largest area of... area, I guess!


Mike
N0TLD

 

10

Equipment / Re: The Best Active Loop Antenna 2019 = MLA-30?

« on: July 10, 2020, 2124 UTC »

There is no such beast as an overall, official 'best' antenna (or radio or anything else for that matter) for all users, so any time I read a review or video headline with 'best' in it I ignore that part and just see what the substance might be. Each of us has our own 'best' radio, antenna, etc., for a given use, a given application, but no single product can be all things to all men at all times.

Any item, of low, high or any middling quality, can be 'best' for a specific user/given need. I like the idea of the MLA30 antenna and I know a lot of people really enjoy using them, which is as it should be especially at its price point. It's one hell of a value if you ask me, and I don't own one yet!   So I'm not knocking it at all. But 'best' is not only illogical, it's impossible.

I'm sure this has been linked here on HFU before (I can't imagine it hasn't because I think he's a member) but Martin Ehrenfried G8JNJ has a faaaantastic radio electronics website, including this thorough and helpful page on his analyses of LOTS of active antenna designs and products:

https://www.g8jnj.net/activeantennas.htm

He discusses the MLA30 style antennas (about two thirds down the long page) along with numerous other types. It gets into electronics/RF component theory and more nuts and bolts/ohms and volts than you might be needing or knowing, but it is a fantastic (and I think very fairly presented) page. It's not a ranking or claiming-best-of kind of list, just his view on different active antennas. If you haven't seen it before it's well worth the studying. If you have seen it before then never mind! The entire site's great.


Mike
N0TLD

11

Equipment / Re: Sky loop update - Now 750 ft

« on: July 10, 2020, 0310 UTC »

I like that kind of work-less work!

I'm trying to get a good sky loop going here, and it looks like I will be able to get about 500-ish feet in the air (well, the trees), but only 20 to maaaaybe 25 feet above ground. I have higher trees than that but my physical/tech ability to get it there (and properly mounted/pulleyed/bungied/counterweighted, etc.) is very limited.

Still, my QTH is atop one of the higher hills in the region, so my antennas can sometimes have at least that elevation advantage. Trade-offs, as always.

Is your now-900' sky loop still on your KiwiSDR? I listen to it often, and really enjoy the s-n-r with the loop and the TTFD as well. Nice, quiet antennas, especially compared to the active loops and OCFs and even G5RVs so many other KiwiSDR stations seem to use. Not knocking them, those are all worthy antennas in the toolbox, but they're just usually noisier, at least as implemented by some of the stations I've heard online. Your SDR seems to be kept very clean in comparison.

Mike
N0TLD

12

Equipment / Re: Garbage Baluns

« on: July 10, 2020, 0238 UTC »

Well good lordy, hahaha! That WOULD explain it.

Wow. I wonder how many users of this sort/quality of product lost their hair trying to figure out why their antenna was acting so weird -- or just terrible -- when for all they knew there was a decently made balun inline.

And then, if they eventually found that things were better once they removed it (but still assumed it was the decent, properly constructed balun they thought they'd been sold), would they then be discouraged from using baluns again, in another antenna build?

Not the tragedy of the century, I know, but we all see how cheap/bad quality products can cause more damage than merely not working in a given situation -- they can cause people to distrust or entirely discount the real, proper technology.

Mike
N0TLD

13

Equipment / Re: Antenna projects that were not successful

« on: July 03, 2020, 0940 UTC »

Oh yes, there have been failures.

My failures have tended to be more mechanical than electronic -- though I am decidedly not a genius in mechanics or electronics --  and while I have no especially spectacular or amusing tales of failure, I can certainly sympathize with the feeling of hearing trombones when the material you thought would work suddenly doesn't (an outdoor MW loop frame suddenly goes flying in a minor breeze off the deck and into the neighbor's lawn 40 yards off), or when the clever hook-up suddenly lets out the magic smoke (who knew those electrolytic caps would be THAT picky about polarity? Not young me!)... and etc., and etc..

Still, any experiment that teaches one how to do -- or how NOT to do -- a given thing is successful enough in my book, and worth the effort... juuuuuust as long as you don't kill yourself (or a neighbor) while you're learning!

Mike
N0TLD

14

Equipment / Re: Please recommend some good MW and LW DX radios

« on: June 27, 2020, 0850 UTC »

Awesome. Good luck with whatever you use. Keep us posted on what that will be, please!

Just my experience -- my best single-antenna MW catches (single as in 'not phased/combined multiple antennas') have come from *passive* loops, not active.

Good active loops are best for broadband use, where their amplification helps overcome lower signal capture, boosting signals from below MW up to 30MHz. The best of them are really fantastic antennas -- the Wellbrook 1530LNP is spectacular, with excellent signal to noise over wideband reception.

But for MW-band-only reception, I find simple passive loops are superior. Easily inductively coupled to your receiver's internal ferrite antenna (no bias T- power supply coupled down the feedline, etc.), and with no active components to amplify any signals and therefore to amplify any noise at the same time, passive loops are generally a lot quieter, cleaner. They can have sharper tuning, higher Q and better, deeper nulls, than many wideband active antennas... and are usually MUCH cheaper!

That said though, I love 'em all. They each have their place in the radio lover's toolbox. You can't go wrong having both. I mean, if I am not using larger outdoor antennas, and I am bandscanning over HF at night, I most often want my active, amplified loop... but if I'm really digging into MW DXing with a single loop, I want that loop to be *passive*, quiet and easy to move around for best noise-fighting, signal-peaking ability.

Just my needless 2 cents. 

Mike
N0TLD

15

Propagation / Re: Will Sahara / Atlantic Dust Cloud affect propagation?

« on: June 25, 2020, 0834 UTC »

My assumption is that very small frequency -- microwave and millimeter wave, etc. -- propagation could be affected, maybe even severely if the storm/dust were intense enough... but I can't really find anything that suggests serious propagation effects below those frequency ranges. Would be nice to know for certain though.

Mike
N0TLD