Messages

241

General Radio Discussion / Re: Do they...

« on: September 02, 2018, 1857 UTC »

What are they going to solder? Most modern electronics now are throwaway. And the call for radio, stereo and TV repair people is pretty limited.

At colleges they prefer to teach people other stuff they'll never use in real life, especially in retraining. A lot of retraining is a merry-go-round. Retrain and retrain and retrain. It's not always that way but it happens more than people think.

242

General Radio Discussion / Re: What In The Actual Hell?

« on: September 02, 2018, 1044 UTC »

You don't say what radio your using, or what sort of antenna (if any external one). You don't mention if you tried a different radio.

Could be auroral conditions or just crappy ones in your neck of the woods.

A few nights ago they were mediocre here in the PNW. Last night was mediocre also. A Canadian station that usually bombs in (about 180 miles away) was extremely weak for a few hours. It's also north of me.

Perhaps you were experiencing the same sort of conditions.

The last few mornings MW has dropped off quickly instead of sticking through til 9 a.m. as it often does, even in Spring and parts of the Summer.

Tonight the Canadian station in question I mentioned earlier (CKOR 800 Penticton BC) is coming in much better. It's usually one of the barometers for auroral conditions for me -- that one and CKMX 1060 Calgary.

I also listen to CKOR because they play a decent selection of pop music.

243

General Radio Discussion / Re: expanded FM band in Americas

« on: August 30, 2018, 0439 UTC »

here's an I/Q file of 71.66-74.0 mhz recorded on an ELAD FDM S2 during the excellent 2017 dx season
https://mega.nz/#!VktjCawS!caCppF1Y6pRFJnLFitz1km0xr7Vje4MMoJ4J5bI4iNY

i don't know if theres any ids, i could upload more if anyone had webspace  i have a file at midnight Moscow time  you can hear the national anthems

do you want me to tell you whats here or do you want a surprise? :-)
there was intense auroral E's at the time so its all northern stuff


here is southerly conditions from this years disappointing season but at least theres lots of talking

https://mega.nz/#!41kgyYZQ!U4SMekYWZ3dldvF9Y0n66a3CtVGGdrn4aSMWHvmDQXg

What is an I/Q file? I see it is zipped. But is it mp4 or something that plays on media players? Or is it merely for SDRs.

244

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Re: part 15 distance records

« on: August 26, 2018, 0443 UTC »

I had an ersatz Part 15 in the 80s (an AM broadcast RAdio Shack P-box), and I ran higher power than the transistor was designed for (18V instead of 9V), and it was clearly audible on my portable radio over two blocks away. I had it tuned to an empty spot in the 1400's.

245

General Radio Discussion / Re: expanded FM band in Americas

« on: August 25, 2018, 1346 UTC »

Tim in the UK,
Do you ever get any of the OIRT 66-74 Mhz stations from the former Communist bloc countries of Eastern Europe?

246

General Radio Discussion / Re: WWV Petition

« on: August 23, 2018, 0012 UTC »

I signed it, for what it's worth. It's only $6 million dollars and it's a national treasure, of sorts.

A beacon of normalcy in an uncertain world.

247

MW Loggings / 1180 Khz Radio Rebelde heard in PNW -- first time in years

« on: August 23, 2018, 0010 UTC »

Last night whilst doing some creative writing I had my Sangean PR-D5 on 1180 KOFI, listening to Coast To Coast. Behind it was the usual weak local station KLAY with Jim Bohannon's show, and then there was some music.

The only real music station I've heard on 1180 is Rebelde, which sometimes used to come in strong enough to be heard on a Walkman, even unaided.

I took out a SW radio and tuned to 5025 -- same music.

I haven't heard Rebelde on 1180 since probably 2015 or 2016. Perhaps this DX season will pick up a bit. Hopefully so.

248

General Radio Discussion / Re: Brother Stair in Europe!

« on: July 26, 2018, 0135 UTC »

I don't think most people have a problem with the broadcasts per se*, but it's very tiresome when all you can hear on the broadcast bands is religious stuff, or RHC, or maybe CRI or the CRN1 jammer. Even on a good day, those stations can account for half of the decent, copyable signals. It gets old, unless RHC is playing some good music.

* Stair is the exception for reasons much discussed in the past. No need to rehash them now.

That's all I hear on SW also: RHC, a couple religious bcasters, Rebelde on 5025, and CRI and the CNR1 jammers. On good nights Nikkei's two stations come in well. Maybe NHK to Russia or Asia. BBC from Singapore during early mornings. RNZI.

Definitely a far cry from the waning days of the Cold War when a lot more could be heard. If propagation was better I'm sure more Asian and Mideast stations would be audible, but propagation is the great eraser there. By the time it gets better those stations will undoubtedly be gone.

249

General Radio Discussion / Re: Brother Stair in Europe!

« on: July 26, 2018, 0131 UTC »

To be honest, the most frustrating part is not even the content, but the fact that it is the same content on every station.  When I tune from 530 to 1600 KHz, it dosent seem to matter how good the dx is, I dont hear anything within the US worth listening to (unfortunately, my RX stops at 1600)

Then again, an optimist would probably  say that the difficult stations  between the numerous syndicated satellite repeaters  are the real reward for listening, but that dosent mean hearing the same show on several frequencies isnt a little disheartening.

I hear a wide range of programming on the MW band. Daytime, I hear conservative talk, religion, sports, news, South Asian music, Korean programming, Variety talk (new age, in some cases), Russian religion, Mexican ranchero music, Spanish language religion, one classic hits station, one Country station, a fringe-signal business talker and a classic country station. At night you can add several CBC outlets and a rock station to the mix, along with one pop station, a couple stations with classic hits, and a couple more classic country stations (I'm talking dependable signals, not just intermittently received ones).

On FM, if you're talking commercial radio you're talking maybe five formats, in different flavors (pop, hip-hop, AC, rock and country). Seven formats if you add the classic rock and old school urban station. There is a local smooth jazz station but it will go away as soon as it is sold. There is a classical station that is in the commercial part of the FM band, but technically, it's not really commercial per se. Nine or ten formats on FM vs. more like thirteen or more on MW.

I understand your frustration with MW but I've been hearing the same complaints since the 80's when DXers complained about satellite and automated music networks.

250

General Radio Discussion / Re: Brother Stair in Europe!

« on: July 21, 2018, 1852 UTC »

I hope I am not getting too political, but many commercial radio stations (including the ones I work for) run shows like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, etc
these shows fit into the conservative talk radio format, and are not allowed to stray outside that format.
I am not saying that conservatism is necessarily wrong, nor am I saying Limbaugh or Hannity are pedophiles, but it seems to me like adhering to a format where only one side or one opinion is allowed, is a sell out, regardless of any criminal history of the host.

I understand your position, but unless a talk station is in a small market, they generally can't sell well unless they stick to the talk format, be it conservative talk, sports talk, or whatever. It's an actual format, and radio stations usually have to stick to the format or they find it difficult to market their airtime to advertisers.

In some smaller markets, a station can have a liberal, a conservative, and maybe something in between (Jim Bohannon at night, one of the all night news shows, etc.). A small AMer in another regional city here in the PNW does that. And I think it's cool they do so. A bit of variety in the talk programming.

As far as Brother Stair goes, the SW stations are having trouble staying on the air. Since Stair more or less left the airwaves, I hear very little from the US domestic broadcasters -- several of them seem to have reduced their airtime by a lot since his legal troubles began.

251

General Radio Discussion / Re: Kiwi TDoA Direction Finding Increases SW Pirate Institutional Paranoia Levels

« on: July 16, 2018, 1152 UTC »

How does this work when there are more than one station on a frequency?

Like, since hams have been mentioned here, could they use this to pinpoint the guys who play music and cuss a lot?

Because those frequencies have other transmissions going on simultaneously.

Does this feature only work when there is a sole signal on a frequency?

252

General Radio Discussion / Re: Kiwi TDoA Direction Finding Increases SW Pirate Institutional Paranoia Levels

« on: July 14, 2018, 1433 UTC »

Looks like it's off by about 30 miles. Enough to make a pirate a little less hesitant, but obviously the technology will probably improve. 

253

General Radio Discussion / Re: Kiwi TDoA Direction Finding Increases SW Pirate Institutional Paranoia Levels

« on: July 14, 2018, 0537 UTC »

Looks like a cool feature for stuff like finding locations of secret government transmissions, but by looking at these "maps" -- which actually are distorted in projection -- they really don't show locations well -- at least for pinpointing a pirate to more than a general area.

The maps have no cities, no roads, no state lines, no county boundaries, no grid squares... They look cool, but unless there is a way for an individual to correlate them to an actual map that has more than continental outlines I sort of doubt they would help any hobbyist or ham pinpoint anything.

Aside from the government transmission mentioned above, the other stations' locations are already known. If I hadn't known CFRX's location already, by looking at that map I'd have no idea if the transmission were in Ontario, western Quebec, Ohio, Indiana, western NY, or Michigan. It's a crummy map for pinpointing anything unless you already know where it is.

That is, unless you're satisfied knowing a transmission came from a certain state that is readily identifiable, as is the case with Florida above.

254

Equipment / Re: Icom IC R-75 comms receiver, your opinion?

« on: July 10, 2018, 0233 UTC »

Thanks gentlemen, swaying towards the IC-R75 at the moment, cannot work out why the transceiver version the IC-718 is cheaper though, around AUD$848.00 compared to AUD$900.00 for receiver.

Also been reading up on the AOR AR8600 Mark-2, lot of for and against.

Perhaps the price difference is because the IC-R75 has been discontinued?

255

General Radio Discussion / Re: Comparison of current solar cycle to cycle 5 and the Dalton Minimum

« on: July 05, 2018, 0806 UTC »

I haven't noticed an uptick in RFI at my location since 2011 or so (when I started MW DXing again after a few years' break) but the conditions just aren't as good as they were back then.

It must be a regional thing.