Messages

46

10/11 meters / Re: 11M / 10M weak opening later turned into big 6M opening last night!

« on: January 26, 2021, 1743 UTC »

In Florida, 6 meters SSB opens to somewhere almost every day of the week.

That is called Tropospheric Propagation. 

When you get north of the Mason Dixon Line and hear someone on 6 meters, that is called a band opening.

47

10/11 meters / Re: 75' tower!

« on: January 26, 2021, 1741 UTC »

Oh yeah??? Here's a real test. Can you talk down to the PA border regularly? On Alma and North Hills in Allegany Co., a decent mobile station could easily hear the dudes up in Buffalo / Niagara Falls. Then again, most of them were running stupid power, so they didn't hear me at the time.

Range is dependent upon band conditions.

LOS - is about 65 miles, anything past that and you either have to have a damn good station or the band conditions are just right..

Even with a 25 watt AM radio and a Solorcon A99 on a 40' tower, the best I can do to a mobile is about 20 miles from where I live.

If people would use SSB they would get better performance, but most people are too cheap to buy a good SSB radio and they are more worried about how loud their audio is then how clean their signal is..

How many times have you heard people operate where their signal is 3 channels wide?  That is an inefficient use of power..  it takes a 4X multiplication of power to talk twice as far..  So on a day where you can't hear a legal 5 watt mobile more then 10 miles, you would need 1000 watts just to talk 100 miles.

48

Equipment / Re: Garbage Baluns

« on: August 16, 2020, 1549 UTC »

http://www.hypowerantenna.com/products/balun-line-isolators

Hy Power Antenna Company

Balun & Line Isolators

49

Equipment / Re: Garbage Baluns

« on: August 16, 2020, 1547 UTC »

Most antenna Balun manufacturers are  Charlatans, they waste your time with inferior materials and poor workmanship.

Look at the specifications for the Guella Balun used by the Hy Power Antenna Company.

The question is - are you using this antenna just for listening or do you expect to transmit on this antenna aslo.
Impedance matching is not as important for listening as it is for transmitting - where the transmitter expects to see a certain impedance.

A better solution for a monitoring antenna would be to use 300 ohm tv flat ribbon Twin Lead cable.

https://www.amazon.com/Radio-Shack-100-Ft-300-Ohm-Twin-Lead/dp/B003AKA08O

If you need 50 / 75 ohms at the receiver you can use a simple television balun between the two at the radio receiver..

50

TV DX Loggings / NextGen TV

« on: August 09, 2020, 1725 UTC »

How many of you looked at this?  https://www.cpb.org/atsc3

Looks like our televisions will once again be Obsolete..

51

TV DX Loggings / Television Repack and Digital TV

« on: August 09, 2020, 1723 UTC »

I don't know about you, but where I live they ran out of channels..

With all the low power translators, there is sometimes as many as 3 stations on the same channel.

I'm using stacked Winegard 8200u with a Channel Master CM 7777 pre amplifier,  with a Antennas Direct XG 91 with another Channel Master CM 7777 pre amp and a antenna switch, rotor, 30' tower, 20' mast.

I view the Pittsburgh,  Altoona / Johnstown market..

I'm not getting anything anymore out of Cleveland OH, Youngstown OH, Morgantown WV, Wheeling, Clarksburg WV.

52

10/11 meters / 10 - 10 International Club

« on: August 09, 2020, 1719 UTC »

From time to time I hear a 10 - 10 contest on 10 meters ssb phone.

In the old days, 10 - 10 club was free, now they charge a fee to join.

Sometimes just for the fun of it, I go ahead and give them my zip code as my 10 - 10 number.

Its comical because they just don't get it.  Some people will come right back to me and say - that isn't your number.  I'm like - who cares?

I hear people on the cb radio using numbers, and I wonder are those numbers self assigned or is there some type of club that they join that assigns them their number..

53

10/11 meters / Re: 11m opening

« on: August 09, 2020, 1715 UTC »

No to hyjack the thread, but I am hearing people on 10 meters telling other people that they are slightly off frequency..  (Only 10 meters is not channelized! )..  So its not only 11 meters that attracts the goofballs, 10 meters with a license is no better..

Only these days, other then band openings, I'm not hearing much of anything on 11 meters anymore..

The cell phone seems to have killed it, right along side amateur radio.

54

10/11 meters / Re: 11m opening

« on: July 28, 2020, 1501 UTC »

That is because those states has a high population of people with loose screws and a high day time temperature that forces most of them indoors during the summer months.

Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas - were the people that forced me to turn my cb radio off in the 1980's because I couldn't stand to listen to their garbage cb'r talk.

55

Group W Bench / Re: FCC Cancels W6WBJ License

« on: July 28, 2020, 1458 UTC »

If you tune across 80 meters after midnight est most any day of the week, you will hear multiple deranged people, some of whom talks to themselves.  Every time you remove one, there is always 10 to take their place.

Poor Mike did his best to defend the WARFA morons, and his repayment was a generic email sent to him that stated thanks but no thanks, that they were glad that the worlds biggest jammer was taken off the air, but that they no longer required his services and for him to kindly go away!

The Quote I read from Moody was - and now things can go back to the way they were..

The last time I bothered to tune in - 3.908 - they were actually calling CQ, begging someone, anyone to check in to their net..

It seems that the jamming and Mike were bigger attractions then a bunch of colored people that only wanted to talk to each other.  I predict that the whole net will fall into the hole they dug when they chased away half of their check in's - in a single stroke of a keyboard key.

WARFA what?  Never heard of it!

56

Amateur Radio / Re: Yaesu FT-817/818 CW filter

« on: July 28, 2020, 1451 UTC »

https://www.dxengineering.com/search/fits-transceiver-model/ft-817/filter-intermediate-frequency-if/455-khz/product-line/yaesu-transceiver-filters?autoview=SKU&sortby=Default&sortorder=Default

Some Filters has to be ordered..  Some companies that made filters has gone out of business due to the fact that the new radios comes equipped standard with DSP Technology that makes discreet filters obsolete.

You can double the cost of a new - cheap radio by adding a bank of filters.

Its cheaper to buy a better radio that already has filtering built in..

57

Amateur Radio / Re: VECs are allowed to conduct remote amateur radio licensing

« on: July 28, 2020, 1448 UTC »

The : Last I heard - The Laurel Amateur Radio Club said NO - they were not going to participate.

I myself said that I would volunteer to go to a persons house to proctor the exam in person, IF - the applicant was going to do more then buy a Boefung walkie talkie and play repeater jocky.

The local club was abhorred by my comments.  90% of them are nothing more then walkie talkie carrying, repeater jockies that only turns their radio on once a week on Sunday nights to participate in a local net where their only comments are - No Traffic!

58

10/11 meters / Re: 11m true free speech in the raw!

« on: July 19, 2020, 1312 UTC »

Sounds more like people with loose screws to me..

59

10/11 meters / Re: 11m opening

« on: July 19, 2020, 1310 UTC »

In the USA, in the lower latitudes, it is not uncommon for 11 meters to open up to somewhere on an almost daily basis.  During certain parts of the year, Trans Equatorial Propagation exists between north america and south america of equal latitudes.

The problem is skip or bounce..  The skip zone seems to land in the same place most of the time when there isn't true band openings.

Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Texas seems to have a skip zone somewhere around Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland.  true band openings would be from one end of the country to the other and outside the north / south america's.

2011 it was not uncommon to operate 25w SSB into Russia, Germany, Spain, Great Britain, everywhere in the European Union with nothing more then a Solorcon A99 30' off the ground from Pennsylvania..

60

10/11 meters / Re: What Is Freeband 11 Meter Free Band CB Radio Export Radio Info

« on: July 19, 2020, 1303 UTC »

Thank you for that in depth analysis of Free Banding and an explanation of where it occurs.

The only thing I could add would be why do it if its so simple to obtain a amateur radio license and use 28 Mhz legally with a call sign.

The USA Technician Class License exam - there is no Morse code requirement, and is nothing more than a background check to obtain a FRN number and a simple 35 question, multiple guess test - you have to score above 70%.

The material is published - so there is no surprise questions and the questions and answers can be obtained free online.

Most of the people that I know that still operates The Citizens Band in the USA that operates it as a hobby, wishes that there was still a license and a call sign.  Most of them would gladly pay for a license if the FCC would use the money from the fee for some sort of enforcement of the rules.

Paying hundreds of dollars for an illegal export cb radio makes no sense in today's world where you can buy a perfectly good ham radio that does all the bands - not just 10, 11, 12 meters for the same amount of money.  and you don't have to pay for a peek n tune for a ham radio, because most of them comes standard with 100w SSB / 25W AM and adjustable audio.