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Messages - BoomboxDX

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31
Interesting. I thought the US already had some OTHR facilities in operation somewhere?

I sometimes hear OTHR, usually very weak, in the SW bands (31 meters mainly), from time to time, but nothing like the famed Russian Woodpecker in the 1980s.

One thing in OTHR's favor I suppose is that HF isn't quite as crowded as it was several decades ago.

32
Propagation / Re: Solar Cycle Sunspot Number Progression
« on: December 01, 2022, 0949 UTC »
The last couple weeks have been touch and go. At least three separate nights / mornings where the ionosphere sounded like frying eggs, with the US domestics barely readable and even MW sucked, more or less. One evening / a.m. WWV on 10 Mhz was completely MIA, and I never experienced that before the downturn in the last cycle around 2017. Since the downturn, it seems to happen at least once or twice a month.

So in the northern tier latitudes, we're not out of the woods yet.

But you turn on the radio, tune around, never know what you just might hear. There are surprises that happen, even when the SW bands are down, down, down.

33
General Radio Discussion / Re: Mali
« on: November 24, 2022, 0648 UTC »
China Radio International also broadcasts from transmitters in Mali, so you can also hear the country that way.

34
General Radio Discussion / Re: WTWW QRT?
« on: November 15, 2022, 0639 UTC »
They're desperate, like most music royalty related operations, because there are no more music sales, so royalties are the only revenue for the music industry, and royalties do not pay as much as sales once did.

Sad, but that's the way of the world.

RE; WTWW, I probably heard them once or twice without knowing it on 9940. Never tuned into 5085, though.

35
General Radio Discussion / Re: Cold War Radio history.....
« on: November 05, 2022, 1825 UTC »
The Cold War was definitely a lively time for SW fans. 24 hours of Radio Moscow World Service (much of the programming was actually pretty interesting). I never heard Radio Tirana. Mostly Firedrake from China. Voice of Vietnam relayed via Cuba.

The Woodpecker. The Buzzsaw. And of course AFRTS, VOA, and the rest.

I once heard some Soviet hams who were transmitting from Franz Josef Land, which is pretty far north. The Americans were all trying to get them in the logbook.

Interesting times.

36
Amateur Radio / Re: Snotty Hams
« on: November 05, 2022, 0920 UTC »
Yes, I've experienced it as an SWL, not on QRZ dot com as I am not a member there, but on some other ham / radio forums some of the hams can get cantankerous, even towards each other.

On more than one occasion a ham has said I probably don't know enough because I'm just an SWL, even though I've been monitoring the ham bands as well as SWBC bands for over 40 years, which indicates I must know at least a bit about radio, antennas, and propagation.

When they toss out some vitriol, I counter it with fact, and then let it go. There's not much else you can do. Sometimes they might lighten up after a bit. People are people -- there are awesome ham guys and some that maybe have a bit too much attitude, but just hold your own and move on.

37
Propagation / Re: Solar Cycle Sunspot Number Progression
« on: November 02, 2022, 0537 UTC »
Latin American 11m signals have been fairly common here the entire year, although not all day long. Also the occasional opening to Europe, but I haven't encountered one in the past few weeks.

One reason for the difference between our reception experiences is probably the latitude. I'm above 47N, Maryland is centered around 39N, plus the general time zone / geographical advantage (ET is closer to South American time zones).

But still, me hearing Latin American outbanders is a sign that prop is slowly picking up. During the sunspot lull it was deadsville, as was much of the SW spectrum many nights and mornings.

38
General Radio Discussion / Re: KiwiSDR discontinued
« on: November 02, 2022, 0445 UTC »
I've seen some market gurus speculating on whether the current shortages in electronics and inflation may promote a return to domestic production. I kinda doubt it. We're spoiled by low prices. And electronics manufacturing is environmentally dirty. That's a tough ask in the US.

I work in "the business".  At the moment, approximately 75% of the world's wafer fab capacity is in East Asia. (https://anysilicon.com/semiconductor-wafer-capacity-by-geographic-region-2020/) The CHIPS Act in the US will have some effect but it will take some time (years) to have any effect. (Construction has started on many projects as a result of it.) The other consideration is that manufacturing is not strictly fabrication of wafers, it is also wirebonding/assembling/encapsulating them into plastic packages or adding solder bumps and virtually 100% of that worldwide capacity for high-volume is in East Asia as well. The CHIPS Act doesn't do much about that. (Some but not much.) So there will be more domestic US production eventually but I also don't see it as a magic wand changing everything.

As for the economics, they are making it more competitive to do it in the US but a large part of that calculation is a) the more defensive posture that the US government is taking toward the PRC, making it more difficult to do business with them on grounds of national security (I believe that the concerns are well-founded) and b) the PRC threatening the entire world's supply of electronics by taking a more aggressive stance toward Taiwan. I don't see a) and b) changing anytime soon though so it's not a bad investment.

As for the KiwiSDR, I guess we have to hope that someone will step up to design the next generation of KiwiSDR or similar open-source project. It won't be me.  ;D

I recently read a news article stating that much of the world's high tech chips are made by one company in Taiwan, and that any crisis (or war) would curtail production of something like 50-90% of the chips that our tech depends on worldwide. How much does that figure in?

Here's the article:
https://www.businessinsider.com/tsmc-us-china-tensions-may-dictate-fate-of-global-economy-2022-10

Guess we radio people should stock up on radios, etc., now as opposed to later -- just in case.

39
Understood. If you're tuning across the band quickly to see if there's anything unusual, I can see where chuffing would be a bear, as some radios (my DX-390 is an example) keep muting until you slow down the tuning knob. It seems to depend on the radio. YMMV. My Panasonic RF-B45 just chuffs along, but you do hear every channel as it passes each one.

40
I've read nothing but good things about the CC Skywave. I suppose this new one had improvements. The additional Audio level is probably good, because with DSPs sometimes the low signals channels could use some extra audio boost, depending on the radio and how the audio chain is set up.

Never understood the hang-up about chuffing. It's not like you're not hearing anything when the radio is going from one frequency to another.

The only digitally tuned radio I have that has no chuffing is the Radio Shack World Receiver 200629. But even without any chuffing or muting whatsoever the stations 'pop in' when the tuner hits a frequency. It's still digital tuning, not analog....

I guess the price is up a bit on the new Skywave. But inflation is up, too, so there's that.

If I were to get a new SW rig, I'm at a loss as to what radio I'd get. I'm pretty much radio'd up, really.

41
Shortwave Broadcast / Re: Two catches this morn'...
« on: October 11, 2022, 0122 UTC »
If you have a tablet computer, you could go to EiBi and download their station schedule text file and keep it open on a browser page.

That's what I do, on my tablet computer. That way I don't need to go on the internet (using wifi, which eats batteries) to see what's scheduled on a particular frequency.

It helps me ID a lot of stations. EiBi is pretty accurate most of the time.

At other times I use my tablet to call up Short-wave.info. It's pretty accurate, too. I usually SW DX with the tablet nearby.

42
Shortwave Broadcast / Re: need help bringing in SW stations
« on: October 11, 2022, 0118 UTC »
First off, as the others said, don't operate the radio with it plugged in to the wall outlet. Modern day power adapters generally put out a LOT of noise.

Secondly, make sure you're tuning in the right ranges of frequencies. At night, you should be able to hear Cuba, at least, in the 6 Mhz SW band (5800 khz - 6200 khz).

Try tuning into WWV and see if it comes in. 5000 khz, 10000 khz, or 15000 khz. If you're not hearing WWV, you may not hear much of anything because if WWV isn't making it, it means propagation is abysmal.

Also, you didn't mention if the radio is operating normally on the AM band (MW band). If it's operating on MW, that at least would show that the radio works OK.

43
I've heard this station at least twice.

How and/or why were the Japanese citizens abducted? That is not clear to me.

And if there are no actual radios in North Korea, except a few smuggled in, or the standard North Korean single-frequency ones, how does the Japanese government know if any of the abductees are hearing the broadcasts?

44
General Radio Discussion / Re: A "?"
« on: September 13, 2022, 0636 UTC »
All jests aside, instead of using an online direction finder, it's probably easier to just look at schedules, and then look at a world globe to determine the chances of whichever station may be hitting your antenna, taking the daylight/nighttime conditions into account.

These days there are so relatively few SW broadcasters out there it's not that difficult to at least pin one down as a tentative.

45
Amateur Radio / Re: 75M AM HAM's at sunrise? Apparently...
« on: September 01, 2022, 0728 UTC »
And don't forget as the Fall and Winter months set in there is some DX activity in the DX window on 80 meters. I don't remember the exact frequency -- it was low in the SSB section -- but I used to hear some high powered, US California kilowatt dudes working Europe via Long Path on 80 when the sunspots were cooperating.... i would 'piggyback' using my DX-440 and sometimes hear snippets of the Europeans responding, which was pretty cool. A couple years hence it should be active again, but then ya never know.

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