4576
Huh? / Re: Hacking Wireless Tire-Pressure Monitoring Systems
« on: September 18, 2016, 1222 UTC »
We're taking a Winnebago cross country with it as the primary facility. What do you think?
Shortwave Pirate Radio In North America And Around The World, And Other Signals That Go Bump In The Night
We seek to understand and document all radio transmissions, legal and otherwise, as part of the radio listening hobby. We do not encourage any radio operations contrary to regulations.
Always consult with the appropriate authorities if you have questions concerning what is permissible in your locale.
They convert them to generators to power grow houses here. Pacific Gas and Electric had a helluva of time with growers stealing large solar panels they use on gas line stations used in the boonies for remote monitoring over the years for the same reason.
I remember a spike in copper prices back in the late 70's that had guys stealing miles of decades old insulated telegraph wire running along the right of ways of railroads out in the country. They'd sneak in at night and work in the dark. One problem, when electricity first came to the region, the power companies rented space on the telegraph poles to reach small communities along the line instead of putting up their own poles, it was cheaper to do it that way.
After a few decades most switched to their own poles as they secured right of ways, but in tight areas, such where the railroad ran along a bluff near the rivers, they still shared poles. If you were stealing wire in or around those sections you had to be very careful. It's tough to tell an electric line that might serve 30 or 40 houses from an old telegraph line in the dark. If they got crossed, which happened all the time, and the insulation had rubbed through, it was big trouble, too.
More than a few guys met their maker trying to steal wire that way. A guy I went through school with has been known as "Stump" since his nighttime encounter with a live line back in '79. He worked for guy who installed lines for the power company. He was the "expert" of that wire stealing crew. He scoped the telegraph line runs out when they were running the new wire on his day job. They stole tens of miles of that stuff for months before that faithful night. He was damned lucky the ladder flew out from under him when that jolt hit him causing him to convulse and plummet to the ground. That bunch were stealing it to be able to afford to inject their favorite drug, PCP. Bright boys.
Ol' Stump was as wild as they come and had been since he was little. When I was a safety patrol, I had post furthest from the school. My only job was to make sure the future Stump got from the corner to school, that was it. He would come rolling over to my spot from his Grandad's tavern about a half hour late, smoking his first cigarette of the day, and drinking a cup of coffee. What was going to tell him? His folks let him smoke at home and he bought them from the machine at Grandpa's place. The future Stump was 9 at the time. He and Keith Richards have to be related.
I thought it was about tire pressure and penguins?
How's your second year of college, Atrain? Enjoy it, it goes by much too fast.
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4577
Huh? / Re: Al, is it true what they're saying about Amelia?
« on: September 18, 2016, 1218 UTC »
Not Uncle Hank!
4578
General Radio Discussion / Re: K263AP is missing its tower
« on: September 17, 2016, 2348 UTC »In my area the local meth monsters target of choice seems to be irrigation wells. They seem to be lured by the sweet siren song of 600-800 ft of beautiful 8 ga copper. Some must not be too electrically savvy as occasionally they find their fried carcass near the wellhead .
they arent adverse to just taking diesel drive engines either as occasionally 1500 lb stationary engines dissapear our crackheads if nothing else are industrious!
They convert them to generators to power grow houses here. Pacific Gas and Electric had a helluva of time with growers stealing large solar panels they use on gas line stations used in the boonies for remote monitoring over the years for the same reason.
I remember a spike in copper prices back in the late 70's that had guys stealing miles of decades old insulated telegraph wire running along the right of ways of railroads out in the country. They'd sneak in at night and work in the dark. One problem, when electricity first came to the region, the power companies rented space on the telegraph poles to reach small communities along the line instead of putting up their own poles, it was cheaper to do it that way.
After a few decades most switched to their own poles as they secured right of ways, but in tight areas, such where the railroad ran along a bluff near the rivers, they still shared poles. If you were stealing wire in or around those sections you had to be very careful. It's tough to tell an electric line that might serve 30 or 40 houses from an old telegraph line in the dark. If they got crossed, which happened all the time, and the insulation had rubbed through, it was big trouble, too.
More than a few guys met their maker trying to steal wire that way. A guy I went through school with has been known as "Stump" since his nighttime encounter with a live line back in '79. He worked for guy who installed lines for the power company. He was the "expert" of that wire stealing crew. He scoped the telegraph line runs out when they were running the new wire on his day job. They stole tens of miles of that stuff for months before that faithful night. He was damned lucky the ladder flew out from under him when that jolt hit him causing him to convulse and plummet to the ground. That bunch were stealing it to be able to afford to inject their favorite drug, PCP. Bright boys.
Ol' Stump was as wild as they come and had been since he was little. When I was a safety patrol, I had post furthest from the school. My only job was to make sure the future Stump got from the corner to school, that was it. He would come rolling over to my spot from his Grandad's tavern about a half hour late, smoking his first cigarette of the day, and drinking a cup of coffee. What was going to tell him? His folks let him smoke at home and he bought them from the machine at Grandpa's place. The future Stump was 9 at the time. He and Keith Richards have to be related.
4579
General Radio Discussion / Re: K263AP is missing its tower
« on: September 17, 2016, 1347 UTC »
Now, now, let us not besmirch our fine crackheads. Most of this stuff happens out where heroin and pills and the drugs of choice.
4580
General Radio Discussion / Re: Getting back to my roots
« on: September 17, 2016, 0421 UTC »We're all about the unlicensed hobbyist radio operator here at hfunderground.
I thought it was about tire pressure and penguins?
How's your second year of college, Atrain? Enjoy it, it goes by much too fast.
4581
General Radio Discussion / Re: K263AP is missing its tower
« on: September 17, 2016, 0418 UTC »
This has been going on all over the country. Junkies are driving out to translators, cutting the power and tearing the things apart to sell as scrap. As most of them are in hard to get to places, it's easy pickings for the metal thieves. Nothing but aluminum and copper, the scrappers dream.
4582
Huh? / Re: Hacking Wireless Tire-Pressure Monitoring Systems
« on: September 17, 2016, 0405 UTC »
Al, get the ip's and addresses of those people in the comments. It's time to put the 15 gallon Throne of Justice in the Winnebago of Doom and administer mass swirly's upon them. With the anti-bull..er.. anti-nerd reprogramming edicts enacted in our schools over the past three decades the inmates are running the asylum. Just bringing back dodgeball to establish a simple pecking order would cut this stuff in half overnight. A kid looking for Pokemon on his phone? "Kerwham!" a soccer ball to the side of the head shattering his phone and rattling his brains would end that foolishness on the spot.
As my HS vice principal used to tell me every morning before sending me out to do my duty, "A swirly a day keeps the geeks at bay." He was a wise and noble man. He had a technique for Indian burns that would hurt for half a semester.
As my HS vice principal used to tell me every morning before sending me out to do my duty, "A swirly a day keeps the geeks at bay." He was a wise and noble man. He had a technique for Indian burns that would hurt for half a semester.
4583
FM DX Loggings / Re: What is the farthest station heard
« on: September 15, 2016, 0348 UTC »
About 1100 miles when I wasn't much more than a kid a station from a in Shreveport, Louisiana. These days I probably wouldn't have noticed it, but in those days there were so few FM stations, if an odd one showed up, it stood out. Ducting along the front of what are now known as an "Alberta Clipper" is my best guess? It went from mild and gusty where I lived to "thundersnow" in about an hour that afternoon.
I was trying to catch a regional HS basketball tourney game that had been bumped due to NFL football to FM. The Shreveport station stood out like a sore thumb in the days of the near empty FM dial. It lasted maybe 20 minutes, tops. I couldn't figure out why I was hearing LSU basketball, as they weren't playing Kentucky? UK could have played a HS team and it would have been on every radio and TV station in the region, the NFL be damned. I got a partial id on the Shreveport station on a time out. A few minutes later it was gone.
I was trying to catch a regional HS basketball tourney game that had been bumped due to NFL football to FM. The Shreveport station stood out like a sore thumb in the days of the near empty FM dial. It lasted maybe 20 minutes, tops. I couldn't figure out why I was hearing LSU basketball, as they weren't playing Kentucky? UK could have played a HS team and it would have been on every radio and TV station in the region, the NFL be damned. I got a partial id on the Shreveport station on a time out. A few minutes later it was gone.
4584
North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: UNID 6170 AM 1234 UTC 14 Sep 2016
« on: September 15, 2016, 0243 UTC »
Drunk on The Moon? You better hope you don't have to hurl.
4585
The man smoked 20 double coronas a day, had more women than the Sultan of Brunei, revolutionized TV production, yet lied about his height all his life. Odd. He claimed to be six feet, but the 5'7" Lucy towered over him in flats. He made the "Cuban heel" popular for short guys worldwide.
He was in the first stages of cancer and dog sick when he absolutely brought the house down on SNL, making the house band look like a garage band trying to keep up with him. When he cried out "Bababalu Aye" he was calling down the old gods down to get the crowds frenzied. He was a force of nature. RIP Desi, we won't see the likes of you again.
He was in the first stages of cancer and dog sick when he absolutely brought the house down on SNL, making the house band look like a garage band trying to keep up with him. When he cried out "Bababalu Aye" he was calling down the old gods down to get the crowds frenzied. He was a force of nature. RIP Desi, we won't see the likes of you again.
4586
Huh? / Re: Lewis Merenstein, producer of Van Morrison masterpiece 'Astral Weeks'
« on: September 14, 2016, 0943 UTC »
Van Morrison had it made with Them then threw it all away for a slow fade into the dustbin of musical history. I never knew a Morrison with a lick of sense.
He could be raking in the big bucks in Branson doing "Gloria" and "Baby Please Don't Go" to this day. All he's known for now is that song he did in werewolf movie. Sad.
He could be raking in the big bucks in Branson doing "Gloria" and "Baby Please Don't Go" to this day. All he's known for now is that song he did in werewolf movie. Sad.
4587
Equipment / Re: LoG receive antenna, Loop on Ground!
« on: September 13, 2016, 0846 UTC »
I like them. We had a particularly noisy summer about 14-15 years ago when no one was getting out well, not even KIPM which was running a buttload of power. I started screwing around with things after reading an article in ham mag about them. I was using around 145 ft. of wire, close to a full wavelength for the funny band. That thing was near dead quiet. I used a small MFJ tuner for it. I could peak the signal on the loop, then adjust the gain on the portable, a DX-398 like you have, to hit that sweet spot where the signal could be best copied. They're not really for gain, they quiet the noise down enough to allow what's out there to be heard.
If you wanted to boost the gain, you could unfasten the end of the loop going to the ground terminal of the tuner. It was still a very quiet antenna, but not a closed loop. It's something you have to experiment with. Sometimes the complete loop can be so lossy as to be near dead. I found that to be the case when using the big radios in the dead of winter with it, when I was sure it was going to kick butt. Different ground capacity and atmospheric conditions would be my guess. I'd unhook the ground side and the band would come alive, but it still wouldn't outperform a dipole cut to frequency and well elevated in the quiet season. Or a BOG for that matter.
Have fun with it. The ground doesn't freeze hard as rock out your way like it does where I live. It might prove to be a good all year antenna for you.
If you wanted to boost the gain, you could unfasten the end of the loop going to the ground terminal of the tuner. It was still a very quiet antenna, but not a closed loop. It's something you have to experiment with. Sometimes the complete loop can be so lossy as to be near dead. I found that to be the case when using the big radios in the dead of winter with it, when I was sure it was going to kick butt. Different ground capacity and atmospheric conditions would be my guess. I'd unhook the ground side and the band would come alive, but it still wouldn't outperform a dipole cut to frequency and well elevated in the quiet season. Or a BOG for that matter.
Have fun with it. The ground doesn't freeze hard as rock out your way like it does where I live. It might prove to be a good all year antenna for you.
4588
Huh? / Al, is it true what they're saying about Amelia?
« on: September 13, 2016, 0803 UTC »
That she and Fred where left stranded on an island to be ravaged by equatorial penguins?
4589
General Radio Discussion / Re: Smart electric meters
« on: September 13, 2016, 0759 UTC »
I got one years ago, when the local power company first began the switch. No problems with rf.
I did have a problem with the coot who installed when he took the old one off. He gave me the fish eye and said "You been screwin' with this meter?" I said "Why don't you ask the fella who put it back on when one of your bucket trucks ran into the sagging power line in the big snowstorm last winter?" He goes,"Oh yeah, that did happen here, didn't it?" He turned out to be a pretty nice guy. He didn't like the bucket truck guy either.
I did have a problem with the coot who installed when he took the old one off. He gave me the fish eye and said "You been screwin' with this meter?" I said "Why don't you ask the fella who put it back on when one of your bucket trucks ran into the sagging power line in the big snowstorm last winter?" He goes,"Oh yeah, that did happen here, didn't it?" He turned out to be a pretty nice guy. He didn't like the bucket truck guy either.
4590
General Radio Discussion / Re: Sunspot cycle 24: Smallest cycle in 100 years?
« on: September 11, 2016, 2313 UTC »
This is why you never believe anyone without the "Fansome Seal Of Approval".
For a mere five thousand dollars one can be yours. Contact me via PM with your credit card numbers, credit ratings, bank account info and Social Security number and I'll do the rest. If you qualify, you're on your way to being an expert on the subject of your choice. It's much cheaper the Trump U. and ITT Tech, and more respected.
I suggest pro wrestling. Al knows more about pro wrestling than any man alive.
For a mere five thousand dollars one can be yours. Contact me via PM with your credit card numbers, credit ratings, bank account info and Social Security number and I'll do the rest. If you qualify, you're on your way to being an expert on the subject of your choice. It's much cheaper the Trump U. and ITT Tech, and more respected.
I suggest pro wrestling. Al knows more about pro wrestling than any man alive.
