Messages

661

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 6925U

« on: August 19, 2012, 0104 UTC »

8/19/12, 6925 USB, 0100z: Some '60s style garage-psychedelic rock, sounds sorta like Roky Erickson 13th Floor Elevators, but can't recall band name or tune titles.  Suddenly off during some version of Roll Over Beethoven.

Fair to good via east coast web tuner.  Sounded like some tech problems too.

662

Equipment / Re: Wellbrook Active Loops

« on: August 19, 2012, 0021 UTC »

A few remote web tuners I used to access had Wellbrooks.  They all generally got very good reception and did indeed seem less noisy than other tuners using dipoles and other wire antennas.  Hard to tell for certain unless the owners had a choice between a Wellbrook loop and another antenna on an A/B switch.

Unfortunately most of those great web tuners with Wellbrook loops have been offline most of this year.  Evil Elvis had one set up with his Perseus in Tennessee a couple of years ago and even with high suburban RFI he got great reception of pirates.

One of the quietest was in England near their left coast and often got very good reception of N. American pirates.  That receiver's location was so quiet the only noise was often the receiver's noise floor.  Me, jealous?  I reckon.  My local RFI is usually S5-S9. 

663

Equipment / Re: RFI pickup problem with an interesting solution

« on: August 14, 2012, 0143 UTC »

I've had similar experiences using various lengths of ungrounded wire attached to either the receiver ground or to various places on my homebrewed loops made from ordinary TV coax.  I just experiment until it attenuates noise at the desired frequency without attenuating the signal.  No idea why it works.

664

North American Shortwave Pirate / Blue Ocean Radio 6930 USB

« on: August 13, 2012, 0537 UTC »

8/13/12, 6930 USB, 0530z: Harry Belafonte "Banana Boat Song", Blue Ocean Radio ID, more calypso music.
0543z: BOR ID from op, shout-out to HFU, "You're listening to Harry Belafonte on Blue Ocean Radio", playing the 1956 "Calypso" album.
0611z: BOR ID, gmail contact info, more fiddle music from "Natalie"? (didn't catch whole name, due to static crashes)
0620z: Ah, Natalie MacMaster, thanks!  Good stuff.

665

North American Shortwave Pirate / Unid 7425 USB after TCS relay

« on: August 13, 2012, 0428 UTC »

8/13/12, 7425 USB: 0405z (approx): Immediately after sign off of TCS baseball theme show, into some version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", some orchestral instrumentals.  Seems to be similar signal strength and audio, not sure it's same station however.
0450z: Alison Krauss "Down to the River to Pray"
0508z: Partial ID, obscured by QRN, more classical instrumental music

666

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: The crystal ship relay 7425usb 2:50z

« on: August 13, 2012, 0320 UTC »

8/13/12, 7425 USB: Listening since 0300z, hearing TCS baseball theme show, Bruce Springsteen "Glory Days" at 0315z, Abbott & Costello "Who's On First" routine, "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio". Good signal via east coast web tuner (too much local QRN at home tonight due to regional storms).
0331z: TCS relay network ID
0357z: Meatloaf "Paradise By The Dashboard Light"
0403z: PSA with Commander Bunny advocating the sockpuppet-free Free Radio Cafe. 
0404z: Station ID from The Radical, Quint "Farewell, Spanish ladies"

Immediately into some version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" after end of TCS show.

667

North American Shortwave Pirate / Unid 6925 USB 0530z

« on: August 12, 2012, 0608 UTC »

8/12/12, 6925 USB, 0530z (approx): Dire Straits "Money For Nothing", Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here", off without audible ID.  Good signal with some fades, outdoors with Sony 2010 portable.

668

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Blue Ocean Radio 7420u 0500 UTC 8/12/2012

« on: August 12, 2012, 0607 UTC »

Tried outside with the Sony 2010 portable away from local RFI between 0500z-0600z, could tell there was music on 7420 but not enough to ID anything.

669

North American Shortwave Pirate / Red Mercury Labs 6925 USB

« on: August 12, 2012, 0438 UTC »

8/12/12, 6925 USB, 0355z: Waylon Jennings "Good Hearted Woman", Jimmy Buffett "A Pirate Looks At 40"
0410z: Cold Play
0433z: Lincolnshire Poacher theme
0436z: SSTV, no copy here
0437z: Red Mercury Labs ID

Some odd choppy artifacts in audio, hard to describe due to heavy QRN.  Not sure whether these were all RML, but sounded like it via east coast web tuner.

670

North American Shortwave Pirate / Red Mercury Labs 6925 USB 03:30z 08-12-12

« on: August 12, 2012, 0400 UTC »

8/12/12, 6925 USB, 0355z: Waylon Jennings "Good Hearted Woman", Jimmy Buffett "A Pirate Looks At 40"
0410z: Cold Play
0433z: Lincolnshire Poacher theme
0436z: SSTV, no copy here
0437z: Red Mercury Labs ID

Some odd choppy artifacts in audio, hard to describe due to heavy QRN.

671

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6.925 USB

« on: August 12, 2012, 0209 UTC »

Ditto, Wolverine booming in on 6925 USB via east coast and midwest remote tuners.  0209z: Roy Orbison "Crying"
0228z: Blind Faith/Stevie Winwood, Joe Cocker "Cry Me A River", Jethro Tull "Cry Me A Song"
0239z: Janis Joplin "Cry, Baby"
0315z: After sign-off SSTV, heard QSO between Wolverine and one or two other stations.  Couldn't quite copy other station IDs due to QRN.  (Outside with Sony 2010 portable)

672

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 15070 AM Radio True North

« on: August 12, 2012, 0043 UTC »

8/12/12, 15080 AM, 0040z: Just tuned in to hear Lady Gaga "Pokerface" with ute QRM that nearly matches the song's rhythm.
0043z: Radio True North ID
0055z: Chaka Khan "I Feel For You", RTN moved to 15090
0059z: RTN ID and email contact info, Cold Play song

Roller coaster peaks/fades.  Significant improvement by 0100z, still roller coaster fades but stronger peaks.

0130z: Outdoors with portable on the whip, RTN ID and Pink Floyd
0205z: Via east coast SDR, Rush "Tom Sawyer" just barely audible, same roller coaster peaks/fades as via midwest remote and home tuner.

0250z: Via indoor receiver/ceiling wire, RTN ID, B-52's "Love Shack" - S2-S5 via indoor rig.
0310z: Outdoors with Sony 2010 in AM sync, heard RTN on 15090 until sign-off.

673

General Radio Discussion / Re: Beware the crapware

« on: August 09, 2012, 2115 UTC »

Dang penguinhedz.

674

General Radio Discussion / Re: HiFi-Tuning Supreme 10A, fast blow, 5x20mm WORLD'S BEST FUSE!

« on: August 07, 2012, 2052 UTC »

I used to have that radio.  It must have been broken.  It only made motorboat sounds.

675

General Radio Discussion / Re: Beware the crapware

« on: August 07, 2012, 2050 UTC »

FWIW: There's a bunch of "download sites" that grab programs from authors' sites, repackage them (possibly with adware or even worse) and then put them up for download on their site. This is almost always done without the permission of the author. If you're looking for a particular program, it is best to find the actual author site, and download it from there, to reduce the chance this kind of problem.

It's a real problem, especially when these sites appear higher in search engine ranking than the actual author site, so you find them first.

Yup, that's why I always go to the developer's site first.  In this case, the most recent copy of Audiograbber I downloaded directly through the developer's site was bundled with Fun Moods/Fun Dial.  That's what really ticked me off.

It seems to be a recent change.  I downloaded Audiograbber from the developer's site a few months ago and it wasn't bundled with crapware at the time.

Cnet has for years been considered a trustworthy site for downloading freeware, shareware and trial versions.  But they're also bundling somewhat less obnoxious toolbars and other low value crapware.

Regarding Babylon search/toolbar, I don't recall whether I downloaded the copy of PIRCH98 it was bundled with from oldversion, sourceforge, tucows or another site that used to be considered trustworthy.