Messages

46

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WANK 4030 USB 0011 UTC DEC 24 2022

« on: December 24, 2022, 0048 UTC »

4030 USB
0040 UTC Grandma got run over by a recursive loop. WANK holiday special.
0050z off

Fair to good via MD SDR with sky loop. Nary a peep via the home rx.

0115z they're baaaccckkk. Still fair to good via MD SDR, nothing at home.

47

General Radio Discussion / Re: US FCC High Frequency Direction Finding Capability Center

« on: December 23, 2022, 0602 UTC »

Pigmeat is correct about the typical policies and practices in the US.

I'm only familiar with US regulatory agency policies and practices in general, having worked for federal gummint regulatory enforcement agencies years ago (not the FCC, and never any *law* enforcement agencies, which operate very differently from civil regulatory enforcement agencies). Federal budgets are tighter now than the period up to around 2000. Budgets were already being slashed back in the 1990s when I worked for the feds, and after years of pro-business/anti-regulatory GOP dominated administrations and legislatures, most federal civil regulatory agencies are weaker than ever. Mine, in particular, was a paper tiger. We depended heavily on the power of persuasion, but didn't resort to overt or implied threats or bluffs.

Generally speaking, US regulatory enforcement agencies depend on the cooperation of the persons, businesses or organizations being investigated. Without that voluntary cooperation, regulatory agencies usually must obtain a warrant through a federal magistrate to compel an investigation or inspection. Even then there have been instances when persons, businesses and organizations declined to cooperate with warrants until US Marshals appeared, and attorneys for both sides got involved. It's pretty rare for a regulatory enforcement agency to flex muscles or physically force themselves into a situation. This isn't like the federal criminal law enforcement agencies -- FBI, DEA, etc.

As some civil rights attorneys advise, it's usually not in your best interest to cooperate with such investigations or inspections beyond the absolute minimum required by law. And there may be certain complications in some states, counties and municipalities where local authorities have more clout than feds. Operating outside the "shortwave" HF spectrum may subject the broadcaster to such local and regional authorities, which makes FM, mediumwave, etc., a bit more tricky than the typical shortwave broadcaster.

As Pigmeat said, if you're not a US licensed amateur radio operator, you haven't agreed, by default, to comply with inspections of your station, etc. If you're not a ham, there's no reason to cooperate with FCC requests or implied demands to inspect your station. While it's difficult to remember under pressure, there's no reason to even discuss it, or say things like "Well, yeah, I have a transmitter, but it doesn't work or I'm not using it," etc. Just say nothing. Thanks for stopping by, but no thanks, see ya. Keep on protecting us from the "dangerous aliens", to quote Agent  K in Men In Black.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/1bb8135f-7418-4690-b05a-017efc5380a3#ChJjbkGT.copy

And don't interfere with local emergency agency comms, air traffic, etc., or authorized HF stations that are recognized as legitimate by the feds, notably the various utility stations. Find out where MARS, military field exercises, etc., operate, and avoid QRMing them. With online chats, email and SDRs it's easier than ever to get immediate notification from listeners of potential interference with official transmissions on unexpected frequencies and times.

No idea about Canada, other than articles on enforcement activities that indicate they have more enforcement authority in some areas, due to differences in Canadian constitutional philosophies.

Finally, and strictly in my opinion, the only likely scenario in which the FCC or other federal agency -- regulatory or criminal law -- is likely to compel the investigation of shortwave pirate radio is if the station broadcasts material considered seditious or inflammatory in a way that might be considered a public threat.

But considering the overtly anti-government and paranoid conspiracy theories that make up much of the content of licensed shortwave broadcasters in the US, and the eccentric behaviors of many hams, it would take quite a bit for the feds to worry about on air rants from low power pirates whose broadcasts can barely be heard with a typical portable radio. WWCR, WBCQ and its ilk built its base on borderline seditious and inflammatory polemics for decades. That was their bread and butter, in addition to apocalyptic evangelical hucksters and goldbugs, since the early 1990s. YouTube and Reddit contain far more of that stuff than radio ever did.

There are some YouTube channels run by, and catering to, a younger demographic of "survivalists," for lack of a better generic term, with emphasis on the potential use of radio for emergency communications in the event of a societal collapse. But those types have always been around. I knew some back in the 1970s when I was in the military. Every generation has yet another iteration of folks who anticipate a societal breakdown and the need for preparedness including radio. Hey, at least it keeps the craft going. If they never use it for anything other than LARPing, maybe they'll get bored with the survivalist games and use radio for creative pursuits. And the two aren't mutually exclusive. Even ninjas in the trenches need a little entertainment.

Until or unless we're ever under actual martial law, which doesn't mean temporary curfews, etc., we're unlikely to see FCC agents accompanied by fed SWAT teams busting down doors to confiscate gear and old cassette tapes and CDs of long-dead wannabe insurgent types.

48

General Radio Discussion / Re: Using imgur for posting images

« on: December 22, 2022, 0419 UTC »

Yup, Imgur seems to work fine as a replacement for those image hosting sites we used a decade ago, all of which are long gone. I started without using a login, but set up a login account when I used my phone for posting. Works fine.

Only problem I have is remembering how to use the HFU's coding for embedding images. I've become spoiled by other phpBB sites that have more intuitive interfaces. Usually I end up just posting a link and leaving it at that.

I still have an ancient Photobucket account, which I haven't used since they switched to a hostage taking and extortion type business model. Apparently all of our old images are still there, but we can't view them, link to them or even delete them without paying ransom first. I get emails at least once a week asking if I want to retain or delete my old Photobucket account. I used to respond "delete," which they ignore. For awhile there was a browser extension workaround that enabled viewing Photobucket images embedded to discussion sites, but that extension seems to have been disabled. At least when MySpace went kaput they had the grace to actually delete (or give the appearance of deleting) our old accounts, and didn't try to extort users by implying those old posts might someday come back to haunt us. Photobucket is behaving like Pootie's Russia equivalent to an internet site. Minus the rash of defenestrations.

49

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: RPM 45 6935 AM 0128 UTC 22 DEC 2022

« on: December 22, 2022, 0135 UTC »

Should be RPM45, per ID at end of broadcast.

6935 AM
0133z Soldier, The Payola$
0138z Queen, Body Language

SINPO 44323
Good via Utah SDR, strong peaks with deep fades, same conditions as earlier tonight via eastern SDRs and home. Barely audible via MD SDR with sky loop. Just a carrier via home rx with indoor antenna.

0144z tough one, Shazam and Google can't ID. I'm gonna guess "Not the Same Girl" by Blue Northern, 1981. I vaguely remember hearing this on the radio back then.
0147z Juke Box Hero, Foreigner
0149z Rock 'n' Roll is a Vicious Game, April Wine
0154z Man in a Pin Striped Suit, Dave Clark Five
0156z My Lisa, Bay City Rollers
Much better now, completely faded out via home rx, but via Utah SDR it's now SINPO 54334, stronger peaks, fewer deep fades
0203z Song stumped Shazam, Google song and text search: Keep on trying, never give up, keep on going, etc. Reggae style.
0204z My Girl Bill, Jim Stafford, the clown prince of 1970s country musicians
0207z Shaddap You Face, Joe Dolce

0221z Signal fading, song with "Not fair what you're doing tonight" lyrics, can't ID
0222z Love Machine, The Miracles
SINPO 44323

No ID yet, but I recall a station op who had a fondness for this era of pop music.

0225z Repeated clear "Radio Papa Mike Forty Five" IDs, then "out", RPM45

Recording via Utah SDR: https://archive.org/details/rpm-45-70s-80s-pop-songs-utah-sdr-22-dec-2022-0133-0225-utc-6935-am

50

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Voice of Laryngitis relay via UNID 6925 USB 0033 UTC 22 DEC 2022

« on: December 22, 2022, 0041 UTC »

6925 USB
0035z Reverend Billy Bob Huxley bits
0041z Voice of Laryngitis ID, relay of classic older program
0044z Santa tracking updates, Voice of Laryngitis ID
0045z spoof radio ad medley of pop singers doing Blue Christmas
0055z off

Good audio, good signal peaks, deep fades, same conditions as 6975 AM earlier tonight. Via MD SDR with ginormous sky loop. Not a peep via home rx with indoor antenna.

Recording: https://archive.org/details/xmas-voice-of-laryngitis-relay-22-dec-2022-0035-0055-utc-6925usb

51

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6974.9 AM 2202 UTC 21 DEC 2022

« on: December 22, 2022, 0016 UTC »

6975 AM
0013 UTC I'll Be Your Santa Baby, Rufus Thomas, other Xmas R&B funk songs. Good audio and signal peaks with some fading, via MD SDR with ginormous sky loop. Just a carrier via home rx with indoor antenna.
0015z Jingle Bell Rock, Hall & Oates
0017z Santa Claus Slide (remix), Big G
0022z dead air for a minute, back with Irie Christmas rumbling dub bass, Freddie McGregor
0030z deep fade, even carrier barely there now

Good while it lasted, thanky kindly.

0103z peaked just enough briefly to copy Christmas Time is Here Again by The Flirtations
0104z keyboard instrumental, just barely audible, no ID, Shazam sez maybe Natural Born Dub (Riverside Xmas remix), Hiroshi Fujiwara
0112z Jingle Bells, Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, signal peaking a bit stronger now and then, still fadey

Two recordings, first much stronger than second: https://archive.org/details/xmas-music-22-dec-2022-0013-0030-utc-6975-sam/Xmas-music_22Dec2022_0110UTC_6975-SAM.wav

52

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6925 USB 0200 UTC 21 DEC 2022

« on: December 21, 2022, 0225 UTC »

Same via home rx with indoor antenna, occasionally just audible enough to copy familiar music.

53

North American Shortwave Pirate / Unid 4185 USB 0200 UTC 21 Dec 2022

« on: December 21, 2022, 0222 UTC »

0200-0205 UTC sounded like Billy Squier "Lonely is the Night," faded out, no ID
0231z hanging in there, not quite punching through enough to copy songs or ID
0232z James Gang "Walk Away"

54

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Thunder Chicken Radio 6950 USB 2134 UTC 19 DEC 2022

« on: December 20, 2022, 0000 UTC »

2355z Tull, just barely audible, mostly flute punching through.
2359z Skating Away, a bit stronger peaks

55

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WTF Radio Worldwide 6955 USB 2135 UTC 18 DEC 2022

« on: December 18, 2022, 2346 UTC »

2330z Signal peaked just enough to hear woman singing Let it Snow, then faded again to barely audible.
0008z Christmas Time Is Here, Vince Guaraldi, from Peanuts Christmas show, signal peaking above noise a bit better now

56

North American Shortwave Pirate / XFM 4185 AM 0104 UTC 18 DEC 2022

« on: December 18, 2022, 0122 UTC »

4185 AM
Caught show opening just after I got home from errands. This was supposed to be my rest day from running workouts (prepping for half marathon), so a good excuse to put up my feet and listen.

0104 UTC Op chatter about new battery for broadcast, Sevendust "Xmas Day"
0128z op checking HFU logs, shout-out to loggers, Smooshing Pimpkins "Beguiled"
0128z RHCP "Dani California", able to Shazam that from across the room. Shazam usually struggles on my phone with music in sideband, but better in AM
0150z Redhat chatter about challenges of playing radio outside or via mobile in cold weather.
0157z op chatter, checking logs, "Some Velvet Morning" by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, possibly the weirdest pop song of that era to actually become a minor hit. More popular now than it was then (yeah, I'm old enough to remember).
0205z Same song, Some Velvet Morning, this time Primal Scream with Kate Moss.

SINPO 44323, S3-7 rapid fluttering peaks and fades, better than usual to my indoor antenna setup. Great audio, as usual. Kinda makes me wish the Palstar had the kind of adjustable AGC as some better SDR setups.

By 0205z signal improving, SINPO 44333, S9 peaks, somewhat less crazy fluttering fades.

0218z Redhat chatter, peaking S9+ now. Reading logs: "'Rock song by woman'. I'm guessing that's Garbage." (I laughed harder than I should have over how that sounded. )
0224z "Chinese High" Gang Gang Dance
0227z Spoon "On the Radio" , SINPO 44444 now
0234z Redhat talking about challenges of playing radio in cold mobile unit without gloves, tech issues with antenna and fiber optic cable. Reading logs from email.
0240z my recording will include a loud sneeze because I'm recording off the speaker using my backup phone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
0241z "Ballad of Chasey Lain" Bloodhound Gang. Never heard this one before
0248z Kraftwerk "Radioactivity" remaster
0300z mic doesn't have frost on it yet but getting almost cold enough. Chris Cornell "Long Gone"
0319z Fifi "Criminal", strong peaks, a bit more fading again, SINPO 54334
0332z Dido "Don't Believe in Love" conditions back to beginning of broadcast, S5-9, rapid fluttering peaks and fades.
0354z Chromatics "Time Rider" , signal hanging in there but conditions fading, SINPO 44323
0358z 3EB "I Want You"
0408z sign off ID and chatter, Flunk "Blue Monday"

Palstar R30C with indoor RF Systems EMF antenna strung along the ceiling, beer can end transformer dangling across the curtain rod. Works a little better than bare random wire, especially after guesstimating number of coils in feed line and ferrite chokes to control local noise.

Six off-air recordings, five of which are a few minutes long throughout broadcast, one was two hours long. Audio quality of my recording is pretty mediocore due to the open mic on my old phone picking up room noise. I kept fiddling with distance between the phone and speaker, recorder AGC and levels, wav vs mp3, but none of it really helped. Too bad because my previous off air recordings using this method outdoors were fine, probably because there was no room noise and reverb messing with phasing.

The actual broadcast audio quality and signal were very good. For about an hour it was near broadcast quality signal, comparable to how I usually receive Radio New Zealand and Australia here at night.

https://archive.org/details/xfm-4185-am-2022-12-17-20-05-10

57

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Hobby Broadcasting Radio #2 via MRI 6875 USB was 6865 USB 2220 UTC 16 DEC 2022

« on: December 17, 2022, 0321 UTC »

Caught just a bit of this on 6875 after I got home around 2320 UTC. Heard a couple of guys chattering about radio, rough copy through heavy local noise, couldn't make out most details.

58

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 4185 USB 0025 UTC 16 DEC 2022

« on: December 16, 2022, 0041 UTC »

Very good via MD SDR, just barely audible via home rx with indoor antenna.

0052z Johnny Desmond "A Marshmallow World" and more Christmas songs. Excellent signal to MD SDR, still just barely audible via home receiver with indoor antenna.
0110z off after some tech issues, audio cut out, some hum in background. Very good signal and audio until then.
0115z SSTV, no copy here, good signal but wasn't setup for SSTV

https://archive.org/details/unid-christmas-music-16-dec-2022-0036-0110-utc-4185-usb

Regarding the slight variations in the audio in that recording, it's all due to my fiddling with the USB filter to get a bit more bass and treble for the wideband signal, and tweaking the AGC threshold to minimize background QRN. There was very little fading with that enormous sky loop on that particular Maryland SDR. Can't beat a bunch of wire in the air for minimizing fading.

59

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6955 USB 0038 UTC 15 DEC 2022

« on: December 15, 2022, 0048 UTC »

Same heard  here via home rx with indoor antenna -- Carol of the Bells, CW, etc. Fadey, only occasionally audible.
0050z SSTV, OM voice, presumably op on mic, weak copy here.

60

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Thunder Chicken Radio 6955 USB 2115 UTC 14 DEC 2022

« on: December 15, 2022, 0008 UTC »

6955 USB
2242z-2255z Rock guitar instrumentals of Christmas music. Couple of SSTVs (no copy here, not set up for it). Missed closing message, was in another room, couldn't copy ID.

Fair to good signal via home rx with indoor antenna.