Messages

91

General Radio Discussion / Re: Finding the random fishermen...

« on: October 26, 2019, 0443 UTC »

40-41 meters is a fascinating area of HF -- hams, SW broadcasters, Russian single letter beacons, Spanish (and Portuguese) fishermen and outbanders, and Indonesian 'village radio' chanters in the early AM hours. Then you have the odd pirate around the 6900 khz range.

Of course, the past few years conditions haven't been terrific even in that swath of HF territory, but when I seriously tune HF, that's the region I usually concentrate on.

92

General Radio Discussion / Re: RTE returning to Longwave

« on: October 26, 2019, 0439 UTC »

The comments beneath that article were uninspiring, to say the least. I.e., who cares about older demographics that use LW to hear what's happening in the mother country. Or Irish fishermen and mariners, for that matter...

Glad the Irish government believes it's a worthwhile effort, though. Awesome.

93

General Radio Discussion / Re: NAV CANADA: Second Phase of NDB Decommissioning

« on: October 10, 2019, 1504 UTC »

Sad to see 'em go. Here in the PNW, the BC Canada NDB's are the "DX", my farthest catch being the one on the Queen Charlotte Islands...

94

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: WWVH only on 15000 kHz?

« on: October 08, 2019, 0043 UTC »

Propagation can do strange things. When I was a kid I'd hardly ever hear WWVH. Over the last year or so I've heard WWVH dominate on 10 Mhz and sometimes 5 Mhz at night more than once -- at least one time I did not hear WWV at all.

And I'm in the PNW.

95

General Radio Discussion / Re: A Good Enough Reason To Nuke Them?

« on: September 19, 2019, 1310 UTC »

They're doing it... Just because they can. :-)

96

Propagation / Re: Hello Grand Solar Minima?

« on: September 19, 2019, 0207 UTC »

Maunder here we come. :-)

97

General Radio Discussion / Re: SONY CRF V21 shortwave radio

« on: September 13, 2019, 0334 UTC »

A lot of the older Sony stuff commands high prices, even the lower end models. I recently saw a Sony ICF-38 (a very good AM-FM portable, almost as good as a Superadio), which was discontinued two years ago, going for $199 -- new in the box. I got mine about 5 years ago for $24.

The Sony EX5MK2, probably one of the best MW portables made, was discontinued a year and a half ago. They went for $150 new. Now they've sometimes more than doubled in price.

On one of the ham forums there are some threads complaining about used receiver prices... R8's, IC-71's, etc. commanding super high prices, used.

I think I saw an advertisement for the Sony CRF V21 a long time ago. Looked like a very complex radio, especially with the printer. It seems one would have an issue finding paper for the printer nowadays, though.

98

General Radio Discussion / Re: Washington State Ham Group Tracks Interference

« on: September 07, 2019, 1233 UTC »

As a non-ham, but one who has monitored the HF ham bands over the years, I'd say it's a good idea, just as long as it doesn't turn into a sort of vigilantism, which I doubt it ever would become.

On a semi-related note, while doing research on the Indonesian 'village radio' ham pirates that hang out around 6999 khz and thereabouts, I found a ham website where dedicated hams the world over report all of the intruding signals -- pirate hams, spurs, military and other intrusive signals -- on the HF ham bands. Whether it does any good, I wouldn't know, but at least they're reporting it.

99

General Radio Discussion / Re: FM radio - You may only have a decade to save it

« on: September 06, 2019, 1056 UTC »

Interesting take on the present state and possible future of FM. Thanks for posting the link to the article.

100

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC petitioned to open up 45 to 50 MHz for DRM+ broadcasts in the USA

« on: August 30, 2019, 0305 UTC »

I know India is changing its MW stations to DRM. But they promote and sell Indian-made radios to receive it.

As for the actual petition, it seems the petitioner is only asking for former TV channels to be open for DRM. If the FCC approves, I'd say have at it. The biggest problem would be listeners. Who has a DRM capable radio in their house? And there aren't many of them available online.

101

General Radio Discussion / Re: BBC is increasing shortwave radio shows to get past lockdown in India

« on: August 19, 2019, 0441 UTC »

[sarcasm button on] Who needs ancient, outdated tech like "short wave" when we've got cell phones and internet streaming?" [sarcasm button off]

102

General Radio Discussion / Re: S-METERS – COMFORTABLE LIES OR ACCURACY? – THE WHISPER OF SWEET NOTHINGS

« on: August 14, 2019, 0555 UTC »

I have never had use for them. A lot of reporting is subjective, be it the signal reports hams use (perennially "you're 5 and 9") or the SINPO / SIO reporting standards, which are more based on how loud the signal was, and what quality it was, as well as the propagation.

The only time I really used S-meters were when I was into CBing, where S-meters seemed to be more or less standard across the board -- at least when compared to SW and MW radios and comm rigs.

103

Peskies / Re: Chanting Pesky 6990 LSB 1255 UTC 25 May 2019

« on: August 13, 2019, 0609 UTC »

Thanks for the replies. I sort of miss hearing the Indonesians (Kalimantan 'village radio' chanters); haven't heard them since 2014 or so.

104

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: TWR Swaziland 6130 AM 2002 UT 30 Jul 2019

« on: August 13, 2019, 0607 UTC »

Any idea which language? I don't know if I ever heard TWR from Swaziland. May have picked them up from Meyerton a few years back, though.

105

Propagation / Re: Sporadic E, Es Propagation

« on: August 13, 2019, 0604 UTC »

Not much E-skip in my corner of the US (especially in the FM/VHF range), but when I had a 11 meter beam in 1990 I probably experienced some.