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136

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / 49 MHz Room Monitor / Open Mic With Some Serious Range 49.830 MHz

« on: May 06, 2020, 1352 UTC »

49.83 MHz, pretty wide signal (sounded good on 49.825 MHz and 49.835 MHz in addition to 49.830 MHz).  I was using a VHF high band 1/4 wave antenna, which is certainly not the best antenna.  Noted at least part of the signal on 49.840 MHz too. 

https://youtu.be/sJizl4V45sA

It sounds like somebody has a room monitor just on, you can hear a TV or radio in the background...at 0:59 or 1:00 in you can hear somebody say "oh you ready?".  More chatter around 1:30 and 1:40.  Interestingly enough, my scanner actually decoded too different CTCSS tones - 192.8 Hz and 196.6 Hz, on frequency. 

137

FM Free Radio / 107.7 FM Virginia House Radio - Richmond, VA 6 May 2020

« on: May 06, 2020, 1346 UTC »

Virginia House Radio coming in very nicely this morning on 107.7 MHz FM in downtown Richmond.  Music - faded into a relay of the local NOAA Weather Radio All-Hazards station WXK65 (162.475 MHz). 

Receiver is a factory stock Toyota AM/FM car radio with factory FM whip antenna (a real 1/4 wave steel FM whip antenna).

I managed to get two videos of the activity on 107.7 MHz:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/Y5c3H7YibM8

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/CiOycvrTz7o

138

FM Free Radio / 107.7 FM Virginia House Radio - Richmond, VA 27 March 2020

« on: March 27, 2020, 1352 UTC »

Tuned in to hear "I'll Fly Away" into "City On A Hill" at 0945 local time (1345 UTC).  SIO 444 in uptown, SIO 555 sounding really nice downtown Richmond, VA this morning. 

139

FM Free Radio / 107.7 FM Virginia House Radio - Richmond, VA 23 March 2020

« on: March 23, 2020, 1151 UTC »

Live (recorded) banjo music at 0751 local time - SIO 555 in downtown Richmond, VA on 107.7 MHz FM.

140

FM Free Radio / 107.7 FM Virginia House Radio - Richmond, VA 20 March 2020

« on: March 20, 2020, 1802 UTC »

Virginia House Radio Richmond Virginia still coming in nicely this afternoon (1400 local time).  Richmond VA - SIO 555 to SIO 444 in Richmond City proper.

More live recorded old time country music, mention of Floyd County, VA. 
  107.7 FM.  Virginia House Radio station in Richmond, VA 107.7 MHz pirate station.

141

FM Free Radio / 107.7 FM Virginia House Radio - Richmond, VA 19 March 2020

« on: March 19, 2020, 1336 UTC »

They’re back on the air!  0930 local time tune in - DJ talking about self-isolation, followed by several minutes of dead air / unmodulated carrier...now rebroadcasting the local NOAA Weather Radio station WXK65 162.475 MHz (SIO 555 in uptown Richmond at 0936 local
time.

Virginia House Radio 107.7 MHz FM 107.7 FM Richmond VA

142

FM Free Radio / 107.7 FM Virginia House Radio - Richmond, VA 5 March 2020

« on: March 05, 2020, 1144 UTC »

Virginia House Radio 107.7 FM in Richmond

1142 UTC / 0642 UTC hearing “Turn Turn Turn” by The Byrds with distorted audio underneath it that seems to be saying “6:42 A.M.” over and over.  At 1143 the background noise disappeared.  SIO 555 with nice sounding audio in downtown Richmond, Virginia.

Virginia House Radio 107.7 FM 107.7 MHz FM Richmond VA FM pirate heard on factory GM stock Chevrolet AM/FM car radio with factory antenna.

143

FM Free Radio / 107.7 FM Virginia House Radio - Richmond, VA 20 February 2020

« on: February 20, 2020, 1345 UTC »

Virginia House Radio continuing their usual programming on 107.7 FM in downtown Richmond Virginia.  Small bursts of QRM from 107.5 FM and 107.9 FM. 

WBQK on 107.9 MHz coming out of West Point, VA is doing 4 kW 328 feet HAAT / 305 feet AGL only 35 miles from downtown Richmond.   When the band is open, even marginally, I can hear another station or two mixing in on 107.9 MHz.   107.5 MHz has WNNT-FM (47 miles from Richmond at 6 kW, same height as WBQK) and WCHV-FM (65 miles away from the presumed Virginia House Radio transmitter site - only doing 210 watts ERP but their antenna is on top of a mountain, 259 feet above the mountain / AGL, 1109 feet (!!) AGL).

When it comes to 107.7 MHz itself, there are, unfortunately, three legal stations to contend with.  WWWT-FM (WTOP's 107.7 FM powerhouse, although their 44 kW transmitter on 103.5 FM out of Washington, D.C. also kills it....it's still a shame they got rid of the 1500 kHz facility and 1500 AM is now WFED - still, I can hear WFED on 1500 on a regular basis with factory Chevrolet and Toyota car radios into the sunrise hours during the winter without an issue.   

WETA on 90.9 FM gives WTOP on 103.5 FM / 107.7 FM a run for their money.  WETA 90.9 MHz FM is grandfathered in and does 75 kW from 456 feet AGL / 610 feet HAAT.  With my old sedan's "proper" FM antenna (a real 1/4 wave whip mounted on the fender - connected to a Pioneer receiver) I could hear WETA a solid 70 miles south of the transmitter location driving down I-95 towards Richmond. 

Anyway, WWWT-FM on 103.5 FM is doing 29 kW 80 miles almost due north, WMOV-FM out of Norfolk, VA doing 15 kW also 80 miles away, and WWDW-FM out of Alberta, VA, only 2.2 kW but around 55 miles to the south-south-west.  When the band is rolling, I can usually hear WTOP's audio mixing with WMOV and WWDW along with Virginia House Radio on 107.7 FM. 

Virginia House Radio's signal is excellent in the central business district (downtown downtown) area of downtown Richmond, I won't speculate as to their transmitter location but they must have at least some elevation.

144

For Sale / Wanted / Barter / CRE 8900 (Alinco DR-135CB / DR-135DX) 11 meter CB 10 meter radio AM FM SSB CW

« on: February 14, 2020, 1440 UTC »

For sale is a lightly used CRE 8900 all-mode export radio.  This is a DIN-sized version of the AnyTone AT-5555 series (also known as the SS6900/Superstar 6900, Alpha 10 Max MA-1000, Maas DX5000, K-Po DX5000, Voyage BR-9000 and a dozen other models).  See below for the specifications:

http://cbradio.nl/cre/cre_8900.htm

The radio is in excellent condition and comes with original box, mounting brackets/hardware and microphone (with UP/DOWN and automatic squelch on/off on the mic).  All-mode AM FM LSB USB CW and PA modes.  Power output is adjustable for all modes.

25 watts SSB PEP
10-12 watts AM carrier
10-12 watts FM power
10-12 watts CW power

Features:

-Selectable clarifier steps 10 Hz, 100 Hz, 1 kHz or 10 kHz (change steps by simply pushing the clarifier knob in, very useful for SSB operation)
-10 meter mode (28.000 MHz - 29.700 MHz) and 11 meter mode (25.615-30.105 MHz)
-6 band radio with 60 channels per band, fully programmable channels
-Fully adjustable RF output power for all modes including SSB
-Adjustable RF gain
-Built-in echo control (echo level and time delay control)
-Five different display color modes
-Programmable emergency channel
-Dual watch
-Noise blanker and automatic noise limiter on/off (NB/ANL)
-AF noise filter (hi-cut)
-Fully adjustable roger beep duration and tone
- +10 kHz button
-Programmable scanning with scan list
-7 digit frequency display - shows the UK FM frequencies correctly (i.e. 27.78125 instead of 27.781 or 27.7812)
-Automatic SWR indication (shows SWR on transmit) option
-Power supply voltage indication (shows DC voltage on transmit) option

Right now the radio is programmed with the standard 6 band export channel plan with some extras, including the UK FM 27/81 channels as channels 21-60 on band F) the A channels for each band, several SSB freeband channels such as 27.440 MHz, 27.470 MHz, 27.500 MHz, etc. and several 10m FM frequencies

Computer programmable (computer programming is NOT required).  I have received numerous excellent signal reports on AM, FM and SSB mode.  Several ops commented that it sounded like I was talking on a "real" HF SSB ham rig.  The very fine tuning (10 Hz and 100 Hz steps) come in extremely handy when working SSB

This radio looks great in modern vehicles and can be dash-mounted with a DIN adapter.  Will be shipped with its original box/packaging and manual/documentation.  This radio is one of the first CRE 8900s to hit the market - I actually purchased it from a UK based radio distributor before the radio was even available in the USA. 

It's been sitting in my radio closet for a while now...unused.  I recently saw a new opened box version of this radio on sale on eBay for $300.  I'm asking $250 including shipping within the lower 48.  Send me a PM.

Thanks!

145

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / 151.625 MHz Business Band Itinerant Analog FM vs. DMR Digital Voice 12 Feb 2020

« on: February 12, 2020, 1808 UTC »

Around 12:30 PM local time, receiving equipment is a TYT TH-9000D VHF mobile transceiver with a Browning BR-168-BS 1/2 wave VHF antenna with a Chevrolet sedan ground plane.  Tuned to 151.6250 MHz listening to two different users running analog FM (narrow FM, NFM, NBFM) 11 kHz bandwidth analog voice, one of the users appeared to be a construction crew and the other sounded like surveyors.  A strong DMR signal (full scale) obliterated the analog traffic on frequency for several seconds at a time.  I've noticed multiple analog users of the VHF itinerant business frequencies, but 151.625 MHz is the only one I've heard DMR digital voice on.  It's not P25, but DMR aka Motorola TRBO or MotoTRBO.

VHF itinerants:

151.5050 MHz
151.5125 MHz
151.6250 MHz
151.7000 MHz
151.7600 MHz
154.5275 MHz
158.4000 MHz
158.4075 MHz

151.625 is by far the most popular of the eight frequencies.  If you include the five license-free MURS channels 151.820 MHz, 151.880 MHz, 151.940 MHz, 154.570 MHz and 154.600 MHz along with 151.955 MHz (which isn't technically an itinerant channel), the number of monitoring targets increases significantly. 

146

Peskies / 4662.4 kHz USB Spanish Language Chatter 2308 UTC 27 Jan 20

« on: January 27, 2020, 2310 UTC »

4662.4 kHz / 4662.5 kHz USB - another "cute" frequency (as in, easy to remember).  Like the 6.6 MHz freebanders, these stations love using the HF aeronautical bands for their private chat channel.  Doesn't make much sense to me, considering how many clear frequencies there are in the 4000-4438 kHz marine band. 

147

Peskies / 6666.6 kHz USB and 6670 kHz USB Active 2300 UTC 27 Jan 2020

« on: January 27, 2020, 2302 UTC »

On 6666.6 USB a station keeps repeating "40" over and over again.  2302 UTC, a different station replies to the 40 station. 

6670 USB also active with Spanish language chatter.  45 meter freebanders, 6.6 MHz EC Echo Charlie out banders out of Latin America. 

148

Peskies / 6912 kHz USB Spanish Two-Digit Numeric Callsigns OM and YL 2300 UTC 27 Jan 2020

« on: January 27, 2020, 2300 UTC »

6912 kHz USB 6.912 MHz USB   UNID Spanish language net. 

OM and YL talking.  Heard a couple mentions of two- and three-digit numbers.  "105" "81" etc.  OM is much stronger than the YL.  Noting a possible third station at 2300 UTC. 

The usual tell-tale gambio heard at the end of transmission...

149

Peskies / Portuguese Chatter 6750 kHz LSB 2255 UTC 27 Jan 2020

« on: January 27, 2020, 2258 UTC »

Hearing some Portuguese OMs yakking away on 6750 kHz, LSB mode.  Several other 6.6 MHz and 6.7 MHz frequencies are active (looking at the waterfall on the Westminster, MD KiwiSDR). 

6727.6 kHz USB is also active right now (2257 UTC) with Spanish language.  Might be closer to 6727.7 kHz USB.  Typical freebander type QSO

150

FM Free Radio / 107.7 FM Virginia House Radio - Richmond, VA 24 January 2020

« on: January 24, 2020, 1415 UTC »

Virginia House Radio continues going strong as of this morning. 

Logged yesterday and a couple days before that as well.  I've noticed that, in the morning when there's propagation enhancement - there's QRM from two distant stations on the same 107.7 MHz FM frequency.  The main one seemed to be the WTOP (WTOP-FM 103.5 FM) simulcast transmitter WWWT-FM 107.7 FM doing 29 kW ERP 646 feet HAAT out of Manassas, VA.  WWWT-FM is 86 miles straight line distance from downtown Richmond.   

WWWT-FM seems to mix in with WMOV-FM 107.7 FM out of Norfolk, VA (15 kW ERP 427 feet HAAT).  WMOV is 80 miles straight line distance from Richmond. 

The 107.7 MHz FM frequency is also bracketed by two equally busy FM frequencies, 107.9 MHz and 107.5 MHz.  I often hear multiple stations on both frequencies, with WBQK on 107.9 MHz often being the winner for that frequency.   

There was a translator station for WLES-AM on 107.9 MHz - W300DK doing only 45w ERP - but that translator has since gone quiet, WLES apparently then switched a different translator on 97.7 MHz - W249CI out of Belwood, VA (doing 240w ERP). 

The Richmond metro FM band is now full of these translators and repeaters...some of them repeating local AM stations (for example, WRVA 1140 kHz AM - the city's powerhouse 50kW AM station - is also repeated on 96.1 MHz FM with W241AP (145w ERP 837 feet HAAT) even though WRVA's AM signal is strong enough to be heard under a bridge with poor local noise conditions.    WXGI on 950 kHz AM - one of the city's two local AM sports talk stations has no less than three translators - WTPS-AM in Petersburg on 1240 kHz, W258DC in Richmond on 95.5 MHz and W274PX on 102.7 MHz in Petersburg. 

WRNL on 910 AM, the other local AM sports station, now also has a Richmond-based FM translator (on 105.1 MHz). 

It seems like 107.7 was basically Virginia House Radio's only option when it came to even sort of clear frequencies. 

They're certainly using it though.