Messages

781

North American MW Pirate Radio / Re: Christmas Music Pirate 1620 AM 1715 UTC 28 Nov 2017

« on: November 30, 2017, 0328 UTC »

A real antenna would help.  Most modern cars have a printed element which doesn't seem to do well on MW (or SW for that matter).  You could try a 3' whip in the fender...

+-RH

782

The RF Workbench / Re: Any DDS 200 watt AM Transmitters or kits

« on: November 30, 2017, 0323 UTC »

Agreed, without a scope, don't bother with class E.  It is necessary to observe the waveforms for tuning.

I'm working on something similar to W1VD's CMCD stuff (basically push-pull class E).  Right out of the box, I haven't seen anything documentation wise that fits my needs.  The AM Ham guys seem to be reluctant to put much out there.  It's 2017, why are they building RF decks to get 375 watts and need 8 fets...ludacris.  With the 2 1200V cree SiC's my testing shows good results to at least 600W carrier.  With better cooling, 1 KW seems obtainable.

Once I get something stable, I'll post the schematics and board layouts.  It's going to be a while though.  A companion stereo exciter will be included.

+-RH

783

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Radio is a Costly, Overlooked Problem—and It’s Thriving

« on: November 27, 2017, 0053 UTC »

Tried to listen to 16m SWBC band today, but something has a repetitive pulse. I scanned the HF band and the amateur bands are notched out. Imagine that.

Sounds like BPL.  There was some stipulation that they had to protect the HAM frequencies.  Everything else is fair game.

+-RH

784

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Radio is a Costly, Overlooked Problem—and It’s Thriving

« on: November 27, 2017, 0030 UTC »

iHeart is probably going to hit the debt wall next year I was told, and once in receivership will be auctioned off piece by piece.

+-RH

785

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6940 USB 2353 UTC 25 Nov 2017

« on: November 25, 2017, 2359 UTC »

6940 KHz USB about S8 on peaks to just below the noise floor.

2355z BOC 'Don't Fear The Reaper'
2357z Kinks 'Lola'

Slow rolling fades into the noise here, audio also a bit on the thin side.

Thanks for the show!

+-RH

786

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6930 USB 0010 UTC 25 Nov 2017

« on: November 25, 2017, 0013 UTC »

0011z 6930 KHz USB S7+  Sounds like speech with long cavern type echo.  Some kind of experimental/psychodelia music now.  Deep slow fades into the noise.
0016z a cover version of "(Don't You) Want Somebody To Love"
0020z signal lost.

Thank for the show!

+-RH

787

General Radio Discussion / Re: Who Was Behind the Max Headroom Signal Intrusion?

« on: November 23, 2017, 1138 UTC »

This would be much harder today.  The TV stations still using microwave are also using digital modulation with encryption.  In many ways, it would be far easier to break into a site, and patch in your ASI stream into the transmitters program mux, nevermind that the PID's and other stream information have to be identical or viewers would lose the signal.

I worked in TV during the digital transition and have some idea of how its done.  To do it right now would reguire really deep pockets.  It would have been a lot easier 20 years ago when the majority of the microwave shots were analog microwave.  Back then, all you needed was enough power to overcome the capture effect of the FM demodulator and you were in.


Poet; like in the movie 'Used Cars'

+-RH

788

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate Radio is a Costly, Overlooked Problem—and It’s Thriving

« on: November 22, 2017, 1457 UTC »

I was talking to a guy on the east coast yesterday.  He said recently there was a power outage...AM never sounded so good, all the noise vanished

+-RH

789

Equipment / Re: Do it TO yourself RFI !

« on: November 22, 2017, 1337 UTC »

I bought a string of LED multicolored lights several years back and tested them.  I could hear no noise emission, they do flicker like crazy though.

+-RH

790

General Radio Discussion / Re: Lawmakers demand investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai

« on: November 16, 2017, 1331 UTC »

As long as small stations fan find ways to stay important to the communities they serve, I think they'll be around.  Even ethnic programming is starting to flee for online versions of the same stuff, especially in larger markets.  On the bright side, if stations do start shutting down, some more elbow room will be had for DX'ing and low power/part 15 stuff.

Radio is fighting for a shrinking piece of the pie, but I still love it.  The fact that I can sit behind a mic and have someone thousands of miles away hear my voice in real time is pretty awesome.

+-RH

791

For Sale / Wanted / Barter / Re: This 1960's MW TX is still on sale at ebid.net!

« on: November 05, 2017, 2130 UTC »

Anything using triodes is pretty hard to convert to higher frequencies without a lot of work.  The tetrode boxes were easier to convert, but tubes are a lot more expensive.

+-RH

792

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Radio Free Whatever 4065 USB 0018 UTC 1 Nov 2017

« on: November 01, 2017, 0137 UTC »

Good signal about S8 and good modulation, lots of electrical noise for me on this freq however.

0143z RFW ID and break, music backsell. Cheerleader 'Feel Like That'  DW and Stavin talking about getting lapdances and not wanting to shower afterwords.
0146z Thanks for the shouts guys!  Apparently closing down with a Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions, 'Sleep'
0151z Off after song.

Thank for the show!

+-RH

793

Equipment / Re: RG58 vs. RG174 vs. RG316 for Receive Only

« on: October 24, 2017, 0637 UTC »

Shielding effectiveness at lower frequencies is not usually a problem except in rare cases.  Even loss at 10 or so MHz isn't going to be real bad unless the cable is very long, maybe 100' or so.  Bang for the buck wise, RG-6Q is probably the best most ready available cable out there for receive.

+-RH

794

Equipment / Re: This might be the start of something big

« on: October 23, 2017, 1738 UTC »

You have a lot more faith in PVC pipe than I do 

+-RH

795

Equipment / Re: Well as Ground

« on: October 21, 2017, 1401 UTC »

..I'm Jealous..

+-RH