Messages

46

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: WDDR 4015 was 6950 USB 0059 UTC 01 JAN 2021

« on: January 01, 2021, 0459 UTC »

Just tuning in here in AZ, barely legible, but hell yeah, you are in there. I don't have my good antenna up tonight. Sounds like there's a great party going on just a little too far in the noise, which is A-OK by me.

Thank you so much for the show, DDJ!  Your audio mixing with the kids setting off firecrackers a half block away, what could be better?

 Happy new year to all!

47

HF Mystery Signals / 325 hz Tone, 7310 kHz AM, 12/14/2020 0930z (+)

« on: December 14, 2020, 1018 UTC »

Not sure if I'm missing something. This tone was strong at my QTH and Kiwi SDR's in Nevada, Alberta CA, and Missouri. Seems to be gone as of 1000z.

Hopefully these links work...

Audio:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/r4tm8jdcj8qw2qp/12.29.214.134_2020-12-14T09_26_46Z_7310.00_am.wav?dl=0
Screenshot:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/joq6sg1uyo4mcyq/Screenshot%20from%202020-12-14%2002-29-01.png?dl=0

48

Amateur Radio / Re: After eight years of SWler'ing and DXing -- I'm now a ham!

« on: December 08, 2020, 2037 UTC »

Congratulations! I got my Tech and General a few years ago after 35+ years of SWL'ing and DX-ing!

It turns out that SWL/DX listening is very useful for amateur radio. Some of my best catches have been just going by ear, hearing some guy from Spain or Japan under tons of noise. If you check 14.205 on a good day, W2NQ/7 will be going on about this, about "learning to listen". His rants are usually very similar but always entertaining.

As for 10m, it's not been terrible lately. There seem to be openings most weeks, sometimes a few a week.

49

Amateur Radio / Re: Test your RX DX'ing in the unofficial 3799kHz Euro DX Window.

« on: November 29, 2020, 0140 UTC »

That's good to know. I can't talk to them until they're over 3800, but it would be nice to hear them, anyway. Which is far more unlikely out here, but you never know the way those skips and hops are gonna go. A lot of weird signals end up out here. Have you ever heard that South African guy who does little nets on 20m and 40m? He's usually in a part of the band that I as a General can't talk to. Thanks for the info!

50

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6930 USB 2342 UTC

« on: November 29, 2020, 0044 UTC »

Copying organ music here @00:40z... Linconshire Poacher @ 00:47....S5-6

Thanks for the broadcast!!

51

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6850 AM 2338 UTC 26 NOV 2020

« on: November 27, 2020, 0012 UTC »

Lots of peskie action in the region tonight for sure.

52

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6850 AM 2338 UTC 26 NOV 2020

« on: November 26, 2020, 2344 UTC »

I'm hearing the carrier (very loud) here in AZ, as well as what sounds like people talking underneath...

Edit: definitely AM and definitely music and chatter in there.

53

General Radio Discussion / Re: RIP Universal Radio

« on: November 26, 2020, 2309 UTC »

I learned a ton of things from their website back in the late 90's, such a helpful site just being there. I'm thinking of the days when dxing.com and a few others were go-to places (i.e. long ago). Sad to hear about this.

54

Equipment / Re: Care and feeding of beverage / longwire antennas

« on: November 16, 2020, 0318 UTC »

I really appreciate this post, some of the best first-hand stuff I've found on the beverage antennas (there's a lot of good stuff, of course, but some of it is "bibliographic echo" so to speak)... I have a place to try some ideas (one of these days), and you basically summed it up, thank you.

Now here's a question. I think in the old docs by Mr. Beverage himself or the ARRL, people have transmitted with these. Surely not optimal. Have you heard of someone doing this successfully? I know there are issues with transmit big enough to drive an aircraft carrier through, so to speak.

55

Equipment / Re: Generic Handheld Radio (Numbers Station)

« on: November 14, 2020, 0239 UTC »

Hi Rob, that's the model I was talking about in another thread, the Belka-DX from Belaruss. That's a really beautiful piece of kit. To the OP, I think that would be very close to the 80's cold war dream of what people did to listen to numbers stations.

I think Belka-dx doesn't have a speaker, headphones/ext speaker only, but so tiny!

56

Equipment / Re: Sangean ATS-909X2 Launch + Pre-Order

« on: November 14, 2020, 0213 UTC »

R&L Electronics also has this pretty cool looking little SDR radio, this one's Rossiskie, there's another from Belarus, forget its name.

Malahit mdr2000 ($250)
http://www.randl.com/shop/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=630&products_id=75276

It also decodes CW and has VHF/UHF in all modes, I think. Only big glaring omission is no presets. Also, speaker probably is lousy, but there are
vids of people using them and they look nice.

Might have to get one for myself this winter to check it out.

These things are the wave of the future for portables, Tecsum/Sangean et al are seriously behind the curve.
Supposedly there's a Chinese knockoff called something similar that's nowhere near as good, I read that the Russian one is way better.
Haven't used one myself, but really, Sangean, for $300+ euros, you could buy an old Thinkpad and put an RTL on it, easy peasy!

57

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Wolverine Radio 6945 USB 0000 UTC 18 OCT 2020

« on: October 18, 2020, 0021 UTC »

Good signal into AZ, steadily improving. Can't wait to hear what else you play!

[Edit: we're on the Road theme, baby... Doors at 0025.

ID @0028... Damn, we're at a 58 signal here... superb audio]

58

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Damn Skippy 6950 USB 0058 UTC 26 September 2020

« on: September 26, 2020, 0334 UTC »

Came in on "2112" intro, now "Sunday Afternoon in the Park" by Van Halen, SSTV, SIO 444 here, thank you Damn Skippy!

59

Other / Re: 6990 LSB chanting, Febrarury 14, 2019 - 2300UTC

« on: September 24, 2020, 2219 UTC »

The (presumed Indonesian) weird chanters reappeared around 7000 kHz LSB at 1417z 9/23/2020. 5/9 signal here, the other stations I heard higher up on 40m were Pacific at the time and would support the theoretical QTH of the stations. I made a recording but it really isn't good enough to post here, but I suspect we will be hearing these very interesting stations again through the winter.

60

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Damn Skippy 6925 USB 2300 UTC 20 SEP 2020

« on: September 20, 2020, 2340 UTC »

"Not Fade Away" by the Dead and then an excellent selection of music, ending with sio544 signal here. Air raid sirens and SSTV at 23:39. Visionary radio, world class, great show, thank you!