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Messages - Seamus

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31
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WLDJ 6925u
« on: July 22, 2010, 0221 UTC »
He never wanted to do pirate radio? did any one else hear that , WTF ???

Confirm; heard it; don't believe it ...

He wanted to be....


...a LUMBERJACK!   :D



Got him at 02:19 on the mic, tryin' to make everyone happy.

32
There are several variations of a "charge and dump" circuit collectively referred to as "solar engines", which are used to build simple autonomous mechanisms.  They sit and charge capacitors from tiny solar cells until a specified threshold voltage is met, at which point they activate, dumping the cap into the load portion of the circuit.  This is usually used to drive small motors that the cells wouldn't normally be able to drive on their own, though they are also used to power other loads.  The basic "Miller Solar Engine" circuit is quite simple, requiring only a handful of components.  The Canadian company Solarbotics sells epoxy-encapsulated cells with circuit traces pre-printed on the back for building them.

If you work out the RF scavenger portion, I imagine that replacing the solar cell in a solar engine circuit wouldn't be too difficult.

Hell, for that matter, just driving a straight CW transmitter with the basic "charge and dump" solar engine circuit should probably produce a series of beeps where the repetition rate varied with solar input.

33
Other / Re: Help idenfity this Data Mode? Interference?
« on: July 17, 2010, 1250 UTC »
I believe that's one of the variants of over-the-horizon radar. 
Until fairly recently, I had only heard it on recordings from locations in western- and south-central US.  I've recently started to hear it from time to time on my own radio here in upstate South Carolina, so I presume that whatever system is producing it, they have recently expanded its use.

For what it's worth, the radio here in an Icom IC-718, with a 400-foot wire at about 40 feet, with an apparent north-south bias to the pattern.

34
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 6925u 2356z 7-14-2010
« on: July 15, 2010, 0003 UTC »
Excellent signal into upstate South Carolina - SINPO 44444 with only slight, slow QSB.

Heard at startup with:

23:55 - Tom Petty - Last DJ
23:58 - Bush - Glycerine
00:02 - Starr - It Don't Come Easy
00:08 - Petty - Last DJ
00:10 - Wilburys - Handle With Care
00:13 - Rollin'
00:18 - Audio dropped out a few times mid-song, then apparently off

Radio: IC-718
Antenna: 400-foot longwire @40 feet
Also noticed that frequency seemed a bit low - I made it 6924.900 at start-up.  As of 00:04, it seems to be slightly higher at around 6924.925 or so to make it sound right.
As of 00:11, I am also getting occasional interference, presumably from pescaderos by the sound of it.  They're in and out of the signal and off-frequency, fading lots deeper than the b-cast, but when they're in they're IN.

35
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 6931am 0049z 7-13-2010
« on: July 13, 2010, 0111 UTC »
Still there as of 0108, though unreadable in upstate SC, due to nearby storms producing a very high noise floor.  Carrier clearly heard, with program audio underneath the static.

36
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Captain Morgan 6924.5 AM
« on: July 13, 2010, 0041 UTC »
Noise is horrendous here in upstate SC tonight, due to storms in the vicinity.  I can just make out that there's something there, but that's about it.  Sounds like it would be at least listenable if not for the storm noises, but not as it sits.

37
HF Beacons / Re: 27mhz beacon
« on: July 10, 2010, 1310 UTC »
If nobody is going to try and listen for it, i will remove it today....... >:(     jr.
Oh, I know at least one person has been trying for it - I'm just currently in a mess radio-wise, and can't hear too much of anything at the moment.

I had a lightning strike a few weeks ago now, and along with some electronics that had to be replaced, it seems to have destroyed the interface to my antenna.  I'm going to have to rebuild it (not easy on zero income, as I still haven't been able to find a job yet), though for the time being, I can connect directly to the end of the wire for listening purposes - on a temporary basis.  That connection has to come down every time a storm rolls through and before I shut down every night, so I haven't been doing as much listening as I'd like.

We'll still keep an ear out for it, though.

38
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6925u
« on: July 01, 2010, 2254 UTC »
Quote
Lex, what program do you use to copy SSTV off the air?

MMSSTV, one of the world's great freebie programs.  Should be available from several sites.


Thanks Lex, I'm going to give that a try ...

.
Over the years, I have used several different programs for SSTV reception of both amateur and pirate material, and MMSSTV remains my favorite.  It may not be as polished as some of the others, but it's robust, flexible, and quite functional.

The "quick and easy" way to hook it up is, as mentioned above, to place your computer's microphone next to your receiver's speaker.  It will pick up the squawks and warbles and magically turn them into images.  It will also pick up other noises in the room, and be subject to some of the oddities of going through an acoustic link, but it's a perfectly usable method, and one that we used to get many people on the air with SSTV back when I was in Florida.

Another method also mentioned above is the direct audio line, though also as mentioned, you may need to choke out some noise with ferrite beads or toroids.

The method I prefer is to use a 1:1 transformer in the line, to isolate the radio and the computer from being directly connected to each other.  This also lets me throw an attenuator into the mix so I can adjust the levels easily with a knob instead of having to mess with onscreen volume controls all the time.  I also have another isolation transformer going the other way, from the computer to the radio for sending SSTV on the ham bands.  This is part of the interface that I made, which also has an outgoing attenuator (again, no fiddly onscreen controls), manual/off/auto TX switch (using the computer's serial port to kick the radio into TX mode), and a level meter to avoid splatter. 

That's a whole hellofalot more than the basics required to work SSTV though.  For the isolation cable approach, all you really need is an audio cable with a 1:1 transformer in it (you can use other values too if 1:1 isn't available - I've seen people use all sorts of wacky values and work fine - it just needs to be an audio transformer).

Then again, for full transmit-receive capability, a mic and speakers work just fine - just hold the one up to the other, depending on which direction you're going, and the sound goes through.

39
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: BIG AZZ WEAK SIGNAL
« on: June 30, 2010, 1402 UTC »
Heard a great signal from WEAK at various points last night.
I wasn't able to make a proper log report, due to having a bunch of things to tend to, but every time I got the chance to turn on the radio, there it was - I even got a couple of quick recorded clips, but every time I sat down to listen, something else came up.
Great signal into upstate SC though.

40
Tuned up from the previous signal down at 6.923 to Outhouse Radio ID at 03:14
SIO around 333 to 344

3:14 - Outhouse Radio ID/interval signal

41
03:12 - got voice after the music: laughing, able to make out the words "funny" and "frequency" before apparently shifting frequency

Tuned up to 6.925 to find an "Outhouse Radio" ID.  Same signal?

42
Just checked the LSB side again and got nothing.  Maybe switched modes?  Or I was hearing things.  Couldn't pull out anything intelligible before anyway.

02:52 - got speech of some sort, but it still isn't making it through well. 
02:53 - back to music - harmonica - bluegrass type?

SIO only around 333 or worse here - getting clobbered by the noise.

43
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 6923u yes 6923 !
« on: June 28, 2010, 0245 UTC »
I've got something there, but it's hard to make out.
Might be DSB, because I hear something on the other side around 6.924L.  AM tunes to something, but not making it through the noise well using AM mode.

44
Have it here (upstate SC) 6.925
decent signal - S8 on the meter, SINPO approx 44334

Missed sign-on - came back to the room and it was playing
One song then apparently off at 02:16

02:21 possibly the same source back on again.  No ID, straight into music.  Signal sounds about the same as the previous track.
02:23 apparently off again.

02:28 Back again.  The 5-minute-long silent station breaks are unique, but hard to ID.
02:33 Silent once more

Will it be back at 02:38?
Doesn't look like it - getting nothing but the fringes of pescadore traffic leaking onto the frequency as of 02:40.

45
Tuned in around 00:25 UTC
Great AM signal to upstate South Carolina - signal pushing S9 to +10 with an SINPO of around 54444 or so.

Listening to jazz and blues tunes with occasional static crashes.
Heard a couple of IDs with email addresses, but the body of the address has been killed by noise each time. 
I'm recording, and will have to check back unless I can catch one in the clear further on down the line.
Caught IDs at 00:43 and 01:01
Off at 01:02 UTC

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