Messages

121

Propagation / Re: Solar cycle 25 . Very interesting? I have my doubts.

« on: September 21, 2021, 0121 UTC »

As far as I can tell, more than halfway through 2021, prop still is sucking poorly. MW isn't much better than SW.... There are still distant stations to hear, but it's nowhere what it was ten years ago.

Maybe next year will be better. Who knows.

122

General Radio Discussion / Re: Brasil extends FM band down to 76 MHz

« on: July 01, 2021, 1108 UTC »

RE: MeTV: the station in Chicago played mostly music and even got ratings. The radio industry crowd seems to call them Franken-FMs, because they're technically broadcasting on TV audio frequencies.

RE: Brazil: Power to them. I hope they also have some initiative to get FM radios capable of tuning down that low in the hands of consumers. I know most DSP chips will tune down that low -- but it depends on the microprocessor operating the radio in many cases, and how the DSP chip itself is programmed in others.

My Sangean PRD14 and Grundig G2 can tune down as low as the Eastern European OIRT band. Was able to get them to do it with a couple menu clicks.

123

Propagation / Re: Solar cycle 25 . Very interesting? I have my doubts.

« on: June 22, 2021, 0834 UTC »

^^^^^ You make some good points. As the years progress, even if the sunspots improve it will take more of an antenna setup than would work in 2011 to hear much SWBC, if only because most of the activity is on the other side of the globe from the US. 

Ham radio may or may not be much better, except during contests, when they tend to light up the bands with activity.

124

General Radio Discussion / Re: Mail from Cuba

« on: June 22, 2021, 0828 UTC »

Awesome. I'm still waiting for an email back from Eva Barajas. She used to be the sexy voiced announcer on Radio Havana's English service during the night up until around 2015 or so. Then she disappeared. Curious, I found her email was still at the Radio Habana site. So I sent a hello, asking if she was still on the air.

125

Equipment / Re: Gary DeBock’s 2021 Ultralight Radio Shootout! Another SWLing rip.

« on: May 11, 2021, 0543 UTC »

Interesting, in depth reviews of the various radios.

DeBock's done these Ultralight MW radio shootouts before, but I think a couple of the websites where they were published no longer exist.

126

Amateur Radio / Re: TX noise figures from today's HF transceivers?

« on: May 03, 2021, 1903 UTC »

When I was last monitoring the ham bands' SSB sections (I stopped about four years ago), I don't know if I was encountering 'dirty' transmitters but yeah, a lot of the guys push the power when they don't really need to -- especially during contests. CW not so much...

On some of the ham forums, there have been suspicions mentioned of guys using more power than legal during such contests. Whether that's true or not, I have no way of knowing, but ever since I've monitored the ham bands, I've encountered lots of ham stations that splatter 10 khz to either side of a target frequency. I just counted it up to my receivers.

And, ironically, if another ham gets on the channel and complains about a splatter master, the inevitable retort is "get a better radio, old man!"

127

General Radio Discussion / Re: Frequency schedules list

« on: April 21, 2021, 0213 UTC »

Short-wave.info is my go to database, and if that isn't producing results Eibi's LW-MW-SW frequency list text file works on my computer and also on my tablet (using a browser -- I don't use my phone on the net).

128

General Radio Discussion / Re: Supreme Court sides with FCC in loosened Media Ownership rules

« on: April 06, 2021, 0154 UTC »

Radio has lost maybe 50-60% of their revenue (when accounted for inflation) since 2005. The corona economic impacts have only cut in to what revenue is left.

Expect a lot of changes all over. It isn't just IHeart that has had cuts. Some Hubbard, Sinclair, Salem and Entercom radio stations have also seen some cuts. Now that Entercom has changed names, I would expect that somewhere down the line other changes are in order as well.

Consolidation has its negatives, but it can keep marginal stations on the air. After Dereg 1996, when a company owned 'clusters' of stations, marginal stations usually were programmed with formats that weren't super popular (classic country, oldies, classic hits, sports talk networks, alternative talk, standards, etc.) just to keep the stick on the air, and they'd market the station as an add-on for commercial sales, as usually another station in the cluster was making the big money.

129

General Radio Discussion / Re: Season's Greetings - 50,000 watt Class A MLB AM Radio Broadcasters

« on: April 06, 2021, 0148 UTC »

Cool. Something to DX for during the summer season. I already can receive at least three of those stations regularly (KIRO, KNBR & KOA). Will have to try for some of the others.

Thanks for posting the list.

130

General Radio Discussion / Re: Brother Stair Dies

« on: April 06, 2021, 0146 UTC »

He used to cover the SW at night, and gave the domestic (and some foreign) SW broadcasters a lot of business.

His death, along with covid, and the teetering state of the economy, and the bad propagation we've had since 2016 or so, and the slow disappearance of SW broadcasting in general, all are portents that we are entering the days of 'log 'em before they go off the air'.

131

Amateur Radio / Re: 2M SSB - Is it worth the cost?

« on: April 06, 2021, 0143 UTC »

Not a ham, so you can take my opinion with a grain of salt....

I'd bag the 2M SSB idea, as even the ham forums don't talk much about DXing SSB on 2M.

Maybe put the time, effort, and money into 6 meters instead? Besides, when 6 meters is in, it seems that guys sometimes get worldwide contacts. Not so on 2M. Even 2M FM is mostly MIA in my metro. Tune across the band with a good multibander and it's hiss. In 1990 it would have been 2-3 QSOs heard at least, even well into the evening.

132

General Radio Discussion / Re: Rush Limbaugh has passed, Michael Harrison on his impact on radio

« on: March 12, 2021, 0747 UTC »

The most poignant thing in the article was the mentioning that radio is declining in cultural significance, with less radio stars.

It makes me want to embrace whatever radio we still have left. Overall, the industry seems to be going more and more automaton. The pandemic seems to have accelerated that trend.

133

General Radio Discussion / Re: Time Is Running Out for FrankenFMs – Just 4 Months Left

« on: March 12, 2021, 0729 UTC »

A couple of these "franken FM's" apparently get ratings, especially the one in Chicago. I guess they'll have to look elsewhere for a means to transmit.... maybe an HD2 FM channel.

134

General Radio Discussion / Re: China bans BBC

« on: February 24, 2021, 0103 UTC »

The BBC still broadcasts out of Kranji, Singapore, apparently. 9580 khz. seems to be the key frequency during Asian mornings.

135

General Radio Discussion / Re: Golden Earring - dutch band - Quits

« on: February 11, 2021, 0536 UTC »

I first heard them on Radio Nederland.... It's when Radar Love was a hit over there.

Always enjoyed their first few albums. Sad to hear Kooymans (the guitarist) has ALS. Man.