Messages

5866

General Radio Discussion / Re: NASA: Solar storm in 2012 nearly ‘knocked modern civilization back to the 18th c

« on: July 26, 2014, 1937 UTC »

Luckily, Al Fansome was on the job and warned the members of HFU about the possible consequences before the said event was due to hit.

As my family has a farm with a permanent spring, and a couple thousand acres, a good chunk of it river bottom, I was looking forward to the event. The re-institution of serfdom, and my elevation as the Marquis of the Mud with Fansome as my Necromancer would have been sublime.

5867

General Radio Discussion / Re: Defection starts with reform radio

« on: July 26, 2014, 1912 UTC »

If the North Korean people can do the final wiring in country, ie; antenna, tuning cap, and speaker, why doesn't the Korean dissident community abroad smuggle complete receiver boards into the North? They could make the coverage basic MW with one or two prime SW ranges and give them away.

5868

The RF Workbench / Re: Linear power amplifier with 10 W output for frequencies between 100 kHz and 2000

« on: July 25, 2014, 0403 UTC »

There is a guy on Ebay whose handle there is pbsn6040. His company is called BootsParts. (I think?) He uses clock oscillators for his transmitters and sells the audio transformers to feed them. He's also got diy linear amps for them. The best thing about his stuff is it's dirt cheap.

You could easily buy a clock oscillator that's resonant at say, 1710 khz., and amplify the thing to a couple or three watts.

The big problem with MW is the antenna. It's tough to build or buy one that's efficient down there and meets FCC Part-15 regulations. It doesn't mean it can't be done, but it's a PIA.

5869

General Radio Discussion / Re: My "Kinda" legal station

« on: July 24, 2014, 1647 UTC »

Do some digging around the web for info on Carrier Current AM broadcasting. You should be able to easily cover most of your town with 20 watts of AM via carrier current.

BTW, it's legal.

5870

Huh? / Re: Benedict Cumberbatch to play Alan Turing in upcoming movie

« on: July 24, 2014, 1639 UTC »

Would that be Benedict Q. Cumberpatch?

5871

Huh? / Knobs......

« on: July 24, 2014, 1636 UTC »

Al, I was on Ebay last night, taking a peak through used HF equipment. I ran across a seller offering box lots of Collins knobs. They would be the perfect finishing touch to your Awesome-O 3000 SDR.

You can thank me later.

5872

Huh? / Re: What to Do with a Failed $5 Billion Experiment?

« on: July 22, 2014, 1442 UTC »

I wonder if they'll let me borrow the laser to reprogram Al's brain?

5873

General Radio Discussion / Re: United States National Radio Quiet Zone

« on: July 21, 2014, 1252 UTC »

My family had a camp about three miles from there when I was a kid. One winter the folks at the Observatory started having problems with nightly QRM. They couldn't figure it out so they went out df' ing around the region.

Odd thing was it was locally generated. When they NOAA finally tracked it down they found it was a heating pad installed in an old lady's dog house set to run on a timer. The NOAA bought the woman an insulated dogloo and the problem was solved.

I've never figured out who was in a bigger panic over the "Doghouse of Doom", the NOAA or the NSA, two ridges over at Sugar Grove?

5874

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: HELP NEEDED PLEASE!

« on: July 19, 2014, 0141 UTC »

With the Cubans on one side of them and the Chinese on the other they gotten creative w/ the schedule to get away from them.

5875

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: SDR book

« on: July 18, 2014, 0215 UTC »

How are they going to open it without a knob?

5876

Equipment / Re: 11 Meter SW BX Band....

« on: July 18, 2014, 0201 UTC »

I remember the Swedes being up there in the late '90's. It seems to me the French and South Africans were up there around the same time.

5877

General Radio Discussion / Re: Now You Can Spy on the Spies Using Free Web-based Shortwave Radio

« on: July 15, 2014, 1459 UTC »

.erusserp erit ruoy kcehc, emosnaF lA.

5878

Huh? / Re: Tommy Ramone, last surviving original member of the Ramones, dies

« on: July 12, 2014, 0831 UTC »

Why Alfy, you did listen to my broadcasts!

5879

Equipment / Re: Outdoor vs. Attic Antennas

« on: July 12, 2014, 0826 UTC »

Hitch, do you own the house or are you renting?

I had similar situation with a house I owned, the former owner had used rubber cement on most of the windows. What I did was this, I drilled a hole through the bottom of the window sill. Then I went to Lowes and bought one of those screw together coax entry tubes the cable guys use. I used some silicone to seal the flanges on the entry tube to the window. After I threaded the coax through and got the antenna up, I gave the tube a shot of expanding foam to seal it tight. It worked well.

5880

Huh? / Re: Tommy Ramone, last surviving original member of the Ramones, dies

« on: July 12, 2014, 0801 UTC »

Time to break out the old torn up jeans, black leather jacket, and Converse All-Stars. Now to sniff some glue and catch the train to NYC for the funeral. Gabba-Gabba-Hey!