Messages

31

North American Shortwave Pirate / Sycko Radio 6936 USB 0046 UTC 11 May 2023

« on: May 11, 2023, 0048 UTC »

0046 - "Goat Fucker Radio" repeated over and over. +4 KHz from Zeke.
(Zeke attracts all the best clientele. That must be why he used to call his station "Wild Irish Rose Radio", a cheap blended wine favored by winos.)

0102 - "Goat Man Radio" loop
0122 - Shout outs. Tnx.
0125 - The Doors, "Gloria"
0201 - Off

32

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6932 USB 0002 UTC 11 May 2023

« on: May 11, 2023, 0010 UTC »

Yup, I spotted this at the same time, Chuck. S9+10 in KY.

0104 - Zeke talking about Frank Zappa. "He died quite young. He died of Prosthetic Cancer."    Cancer of the prosthetic arm? Cancer of false teeth? Seems like a very tough situation. 

0122 - Off?

33

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6955 USB 0006 UTC 10 May 2023

« on: May 11, 2023, 0007 UTC »

"Black preacher" (manner of speaking rather than content) over synthesizer music.
https://voca.ro/17p7DeJ8BxhF

0013 - "I'm a human radio station. I'm the transmitter. I'm the tower, ..."
https://vocaroo.com/1iw4kC31gm62
(This is the "legendary" Shelley Pope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNEsEf03ERE)

0025 - EDM
0044 - off ?



I thought band conditions were supposed to be shit tonight?

34

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC To Pirate Landowners: Enforcement Is Coming

« on: May 04, 2023, 0440 UTC »

It would seem that such landlords' only recourse, once informed of the violations, would be to attempt to evict the pirate, which can take many months in some states

And before they are informed, it would mean that they have to be nosy at all times. Not exactly what I want in a landlord.

35

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WYMN Replay 6935 AM 0335 UTC 4 May 2023

« on: May 04, 2023, 0403 UTC »

Rebroadcast of station WYMN from the early 1990s. (I forget when they were around.) Audio is low and muffled. i.e., lacking highs.
Listening on an SDR in New York.

0400 - Stand up comedy routine from a female (a WYMaN) but difficult to understand due to the TX audio. However, I believe that I did catch some mentions of 1992.
0401 (roughly) - ID and Wellsville, NY mail drop address.
0407 - all-female rap about the The FCC. "We want the FCC to go away. Yeah go!"
0410 (roughly) - end of rap and "WYMN, feminine radio" with address.

NSFW recording starting at about 0409: https://voca.ro/11SvTa9MuVXi

0415 - I'm noticing the carrier frequency s-l-o-w-l-y drifting positive on the waterfall screen, roughly 1 Hertz/minute.
0416 - Song about doing your friends, mom and dad.
0418 - Female stand-up
0420 - "This concludes our broadcast for (or from) 1993" with Wellsville address.
0421 - SSTV. (Long, must be a Scotty DX or something.)
0425 - SSTV end. Dead air.
0428 - Close down

36

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC Says Its Pirate Enforcement Is Picking Up, Including New Hires And Equipment

« on: May 01, 2023, 0452 UTC »

Sixteen recent, complaint-driven, FM-related notices to landlords in NY/NJ metro area:

https://thedesk.net/2023/04/fcc-16-pirate-radio-warning-letters-new-york-new-jersey/

Joseph Alexander of the Bronx (New York), the operator of the New Covenant Christian Church, which is the listed owner of a property where an illegal radio station is purportedly operating on 88.9 FM.

Sounds familiar. (re: the church in Oregon in a similar situation)

37

The RF Workbench / Re: Class D audio amps - protection circuits

« on: May 01, 2023, 0433 UTC »

I've been buying generic "TPA3116" and/or "TPA3118" (the only difference is whether the thermal pad is on the top or bottom side) from the lowest priced eBay sellers, assuming (and we know what that means) that they were more-less the same.    Which they may be, but that begs the real question as all of them I've got do not in fact have either 3116 or 3118 ICs on them, even though that's how they are marked.   They cannot, because the real TI parts are in 32 pin packages and the ones I've got are in 28 pin packages!    However, they may be genuine TI parts, just different ones - namely TPA3111d1, which is a 10 watt amplifier. 

Here's the deal: occasionally the offshore assembly house (the subcon that puts the die in plastic packages) will goof up the top mark (what used to be called "brand" in the old days) and I can guarantee you that TI does not want mis-branded production material getting out to a customer. They tell the subcon to scrap the material. (You can't re-brand anymore.) Someone we shall call "Grey Market Joe" will take it off their hands and pay a little money for them - which is more attractive than the dumpster - and magically Joe has some "TPA3116" for his friend in Shenzhen who puts it on Ebay. Equally likely is that these were old engineering material that they tried stuffing into a different package for experimentation purposes and they somehow made their way onto Ebay by more or less similar means. I'm not making this up.

TI offers a family of parts built on the same platform in various power levels, and for those like me who are interested in low power QRP transmitters, the good news is they all can take up to 26 volt supplies, so the same modulator trick can be done.

OT note: they may be all based upon the same die with different wirebonds or different redistribution layers and substrates for the different part numbers. Or they may be what is called a "metal option" - the part numbers are decided through higher level metal masks in the fab process. Either way, doing this shaves development costs and time to market, which means everything in consumer electronics.

I was planning to implement a change to cause faults to automatically reset by connecting the FAULT and SD (shutdown) pins together, but that's when I realized the pinout was wrong.   

While I don't understand why it is not automatically resetting, the fault that occurs when connecting an input is probably as I guessed, a DC Offset fault:  "To avoid nuisance faults due to the DC detect circuit, hold the SD pin low at power-up until the signals at the inputs are stable. Also, take care to match the impedance seen at the positive and
negative inputs to avoid nuisance DC detect faults."  The real 3116/8 parts have a separate MUTE input but that pin is omitted on these misbranded TPA3111 parts, and the MUTE terminal is actually connected to pins 1 and 2, which are SD/FAULT. So it may be possible to connect a capacitor that will act like a power-on reset circuit to hold the SD input low at power-up.   

I think that you are going in the right direction. I would have done the same thing. I'm a big believer in making the extra effort for a controlled power up and power down with time delays and sequencing, etc. Pins labeled ENBL, STBY, MUTE, SD and FAULT are your good friends.

I have one of the Wondom 100 watt amplifiers on the way, which I assume will be a genuine TPA3116 for use with a Lulu-type transmitter and it will be interesting so see how it compares.

Mine does not allow viewing the IC without pulling the big heatsink off and I have not attempted that. (The DROK modules are similar in this regard.) Also the backside of the PCB gives no indication as the chip - whatever it is - is SMD. I can say that it does seem to be able to drive ~2-ish Ohms, though I have not gone into great rigor on that and I don't have high-wattage 2 Ohm resistors.

38

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Damn Skippy 6925 USB 0220 UTC 1 MAY 2023

« on: May 01, 2023, 0223 UTC »

0224 - Electronic music. I'm scared.
0226 - Straight into C&W, I think.
0233 - Back to the scary music with sirens on top of it.
0240 - Classical music: William Tell Overture, I think, with other sound effects mixed in.

SSTV. Not so good  :


0251 - SSTV, a little better but...



0302 - "Days of Hard Life"   OK, man. Just don't start telling us about Yahweh.
0318 - Someone jamming away on their guitar to Black Sabbath.



0343 - I gotta roll, CU later.

39

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6950 AM 0205 UTC 01 May 2023

« on: May 01, 2023, 0208 UTC »

Carrier is there. Stronger in the west than the east. Modulated perhaps but if it is, it is weak. The frequency is clear otherwise.

0208 - Carrier off for a brief few seconds then on again. I can hear music now but weak modulation.
0210 - Carrier was on and off a few more times.
0214 - Perhaps best on Half Moon Bay, CA. Modulation is much better. Ambient trance music, stuff you might hear waiting for a call center operator.

Recording https://voca.ro/11qxuAm81wkB

0218 - Carrier off between songs. Resumed and continuing with the "call center music".
0221 - TX off

40

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re:Yeah Man Radio 6925 USB 2324 UTC - 30 April 2023

« on: April 30, 2023, 2328 UTC »

2327 - ID. Jazz show. Listening on an SDR in Ohio. SINPO 45344.

41

Utility / CFARS Net 6977 USB 2220 UTC 30 APR 2023

« on: April 30, 2023, 2233 UTC »

Canadian Forces Affiliate Radio System secondary voice net.

Net control CIW681 taking check ins from the "500-700 districts". I'm not sure where this corresponds to but one check in was at Bagotville, QC, possibly associated with the CF base there.

No voice traffic from anyone. Closed ("secured") the net at 2230 UTC. Heard on a US SDR in Ohio.

42

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6950 USB 0304 UTC 30 Apr 2023

« on: April 30, 2023, 0305 UTC »

0304 -  Hearing some very confusing electronic music on the Northern Utah SDR.
0317 - Been moving toward more blues. Likely Outhouse/Dog House/Skippy/etc and he was on earlier.
0324 - Off or faded out.

43

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WDOG 6925 USB 0125 30 April 2023

« on: April 30, 2023, 0243 UTC »

0239 - Suddenly off during "Get a Grip On Yourself".

I think that this was a replay of this from Thursday evening: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,113220.0.html

From MDK2's notes that evening. Note the exact same song order.

0152 "In the City" The Jam
0154 OM with English accent saying "I'm not trying to impress anyone but myself" into "Trash" New York Dolls
0156 "Chinese Rocks" Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
0159 "Fall Out" The Police
0202 "(Get a) Grip (On Yourself)" The Stranglers

44

The RF Workbench / Re: Class D audio amps - protection circuits

« on: April 28, 2023, 0318 UTC »

Yes, familiar with it. In fact, I mentioned it over here: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,89881.msg348346.html#msg348346

How do you know that it is "DC Detect Fault" and not simply the overcurrent protection turning on? Overcurrent is simply drawing too much current from the output(s). This could be that you have an inappropriate load (likely too low impedance) or you are just asking for too much output based upon the load that is attached. In the latter case, you just have to turn the gain down or reduce the input.

If we are talking about the same thing, I generally I observe it as momentary drop in audio; basically just asking for too much from the amp. This is most likely to happen when there is heavy bass content to the program material. Not many alternatives for immediate relief other than reduce the bass content, turn down the gain or reduce the input. Also, it is important to note that these transmitters do not look like a pure resistor to the Class-D amp output; they will look like a complex impedance, especially below some arbitrary audio frequency. The Class-D amp may be "happy" with the load that the transmitter looks like at 1 KHz but very "unhappy" with the (probably) different impedance at 50 Hertz, for example.

The reason why bass tones are more likely to cause a problem, is for one thing, bass tones are low frequency, which means longer period and thus the Class-D output is on for a comparatively longer period of time. The overcurrent protection is only going to be triggered when the output is on, so, if there is an impedance problem that would trigger an overcurrent fault, it's more likely to occur on bass than treble just by sheer probability.

Beyond that, I have noticed some interesting turn on characteristics. If I have an audio input present at turn on that is too strong, it can create some sort of fault condition that is difficult to clear without turning off the amp, lowering the input and trying again.

45

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: KiwiSDR future/replacement?

« on: April 20, 2023, 2322 UTC »

John, the developer of the Kiwi, posted on the Kiwi forum some time back that he was also ready to sunset the project as he was pursuing other projects.

Which is curious because he keeps cranking out software revisions. Of course, hardware revisions have a longer timeline than software revisions.

The software the Kiwi user interface is based on, OpenWebRX https://www.openwebrx.de/ can be configured to work with a host of SDRs. It's not as feature packed.

You can say that again. For one thing, frequency resolution is lacking, IMO.