Messages

121

Equipment / Re: Grounding A Radio

« on: May 13, 2020, 2317 UTC »

Make a big ol' "Enemy of the State" faraday cage and ground it to that.   

J/k....you probably just need a counterpoise, so run some wire around the perimiter of the room or (as ThaDood pointed out) stuff it under the carpet!

122

Equipment / fun toys (digital multimeters/oscilloscopes)

« on: May 12, 2020, 1918 UTC »

Just putting this here....i'm a fan of things that leverage the damn expensive hardware i carry in my pocket...
https://pokitmeter.com/
https://www.oscium.com/oscilloscopes/imso-204

123

General Radio Discussion / Radio to the rescue!!

« on: December 29, 2019, 0133 UTC »

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/us-tests-ways-sweep-space-clean-radiation-after-nuclear-attack

124

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6955 USB 0205 UTC 08 Dec 2019

« on: December 08, 2019, 0212 UTC »

S3-S5.  SIO 444.
0205: Stray Cats Rock this Town
(another stray cats song, then some metal...)
0210: rap
0211: Popeye twist.  still SIO 444.
0213: guitar instrumental..Parisiene Walkways?
0216: Radio Ga Ga
0218: OTA

125

HF Mystery Signals / 7335 and 7365kHz CW? 20191116 0216 UTC to ???

« on: November 16, 2019, 1614 UTC »

Maybe CW?  Broadcast on 7335 and 7365 kHz 20191116 0216 UTC until ??.  Captured from central MD, but also noted on Kiwis across eastern US (didn't check western US).  TDoA suggested SE US, maybe Florida....

Someone on HF chat commented that these are Radio Marti freqs.....

126

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: hmmm...SDR software optimized hardware?

« on: August 20, 2019, 0216 UTC »

Haven't dug into it but these folks were saying they share their benchmarks, etc.  Other than brute force FFT, wonder what other features would be good for a dedicated SDR rig?  Network I/O comes to mind, but wonder what else.....

127

SDR - Software Defined Radio / hmmm...SDR software optimized hardware?

« on: August 17, 2019, 0052 UTC »

There's a company that benchmarks and assembles desktops based on intended software use....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph-uq_B5TSI

128

Shortwave Broadcast / Radio New Zealand International 13840 AM 0323 UTC 01 July 2019

« on: July 01, 2019, 0332 UTC »

0323 UTC:  news story about longline fishing negotiations
0329 UTC:  music
S2-3; SIO 333.  Pretty amazed that it's coming in this well! 

129

Equipment / Re: Question about radiation.

« on: June 30, 2019, 2326 UTC »

Ditto what Chris said.  Alpha emitters are harmless until you ingest or inhale them.  It's probably radium, but could be promethium, strontium, or (less likely) tritium....(https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/radioluminescent/radioluminescentinfo.htm).  Promethium, strontium, and tritium are beta emitters which aren't quite as bad when ingested as alpha emitters, but you still want to limit your exposure as much as possible.

I think it would be a very interesting question which isotope the USSR preferred for their instrumentation. 

There are spectrum analyzers that can measure the radioactivity coming off a sample and return a list of the radionuclides present.  If you know any first responder types you might ask them if they have access to one....

Perhaps you could seal the paint back onto the radio with some nail polish or something similar?

130

General Radio Discussion / Re: Surely it could have sold it as surplus.

« on: June 28, 2019, 0113 UTC »

Two signal enter.  One signal leave.

131

HF Mystery Signals / UNID pips ~ 14220kHz 1337 UTC 7 June 2019

« on: June 08, 2019, 1806 UTC »

These came up at multiple frequencies (although I don't recall if they were concurrent) on the morning of 7 June.  Interesting thing is the train on a frequency would cycle up in magnitude and back down again....maybe a directional antenna sweeping around? 

132

North American Shortwave Pirate / UNID 6925 AM 2008 UTC 13 April 2019

« on: April 13, 2019, 2009 UTC »

2008 UTC AC/DC Hells Bells...right at QRN. SIO 222, brief bump up to SIO 333
2011 UTC AC/DC Shoot to Thrill
2016 UTC AC/DC
2019 UTC off?

133

North American Shortwave Pirate / Irish Rose Radio 6925 USB 1643 UTC 16 March 2019

« on: March 16, 2019, 1644 UTC »

1643 UTC:  Irish music.  S1-S2, SIO 344.
1645 UTC: ID as Irish Rose Radio
1651 UTC:  off the air due to banshees
1657 UTC: back on the air?
1703 UTC:  S2-S3 w/more Irish music.

134

North American Shortwave Pirate / Ion Radio 6869.6 AM 1609 UTC 16 March 2019

« on: March 16, 2019, 1610 UTC »

started off as carrier only, now instrumental music  SIO 333.
1630 UTC:  back to just a carrier with the occasional hint of music.
1634 UTC: switched to the loop and got slightly better reception.  some peaks at S2.
1708 UTC: off

135

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Signal identification

« on: February 01, 2019, 0307 UTC »

I’m just going to throw this out there....

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/deep-learning-neural-network-based-signal-identification-software-for-the-rtl-sdr/

And...

https://hackaday.com/2019/01/31/ai-on-raspberry-pi-with-the-intel-neural-compute-stick/