Messages

5101

Equipment / Re: An SDR for $17 - The R820T USB SDR DVB-T Dongle

« on: January 12, 2013, 2048 UTC »

Last fall, I picked up a Newsky DVB-T (with the E4000 tuner).

It gets the job done and for its price, can't complain. Does seem like there's images all over the place with it, but could be overloaded by the GP-15 on the roof.

Have listened from the FM BC band up through 900 MHz. Not much to listen to on the 800 MHz around here since the large public safety system is APCO-25 and of the few services on FM 800MHz, they're trunked.

5102

Shortwave Broadcast / Re: V.O.R.

« on: January 12, 2013, 1646 UTC »

Off the top of my head, the remaining broadcasts to the U.S.: Australia, Romania, China, Cuba. New Zealand used to come up here in the evenings, but haven't heard them lately (could be conditions). Spain comes in well here, but don't know if they're sending to us.

Greece still comes in pretty decent, but don't know if they're sending that to us.

Past few weeks have been picking up Deutsche Welle broadcasting from Africa.

Haven't had much time lately to take a survey of the bands.

5103

General Radio Discussion / Re: An alternative to Coast To Coast AM

« on: January 11, 2013, 0110 UTC »

On Sunday nights from 11:00pm to 1:00am EST (Monday mornings 0400-0600Z) on AM 740 CFZM Toronto is The Conspiracy Show with Richard Syrett.

5104

Utility / Re: Alaska on 518 kHz NAVTEX 0935 UTC 1/5/2013

« on: January 08, 2013, 0344 UTC »

Nice.

Tried for Hawaii recently, but no luck.

5105

MW Loggings / Re: MW monitoring

« on: January 08, 2013, 0343 UTC »

For decoding NAVTEX, I use YaRD. Its pretty slick.

5106

General Radio Discussion / Re: A UNIVAC as a Morse Code practice oscillator

« on: January 03, 2013, 0339 UTC »

Hahaha... Lilek's site is great. Minutes turn into hours. Hours turn into days.

However, haven't looked at it in a while and appears some major changes.

He used to have a podcast called The Diner. Wish he'd start that up again.

5107

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: 3942 300utc GCN Network Alex Jones live show ID

« on: January 02, 2013, 0421 UTC »

The Alex Jones show can also be found on WWCR on 4840 kHz M-F starting at 0300Z and I think on various MW stations around the country.

Could this be a spur or an image of 4840? Difference is 898 kHz. Do you have a local station on 900 kHz (could be mixing that with 4840)?

5108

General Radio Discussion / A UNIVAC as a Morse Code practice oscillator

« on: January 02, 2013, 0209 UTC »

http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/morse.html

The Morse Code Exec

October 1971

by John Walker


As might be gleaned by examining other documents available on this site, I have somewhat of an affinity for the absurd. In terms of outrageous applications for computers, I peaked early in my career, with the program you find below. This program, written in the fall of 1971, was a full-fledged operating system which transformed a UNIVAC 1108 mainframe computer worth millions of dollars into…a code practice oscillator! When idle, it played synthesised music generated by an algorithm invented by Harry Pyle and used in a little digital gizmo he built.

This program was written more than 20 years before audio hardware became a commonplace component of computers. Nonetheless, the UNIVAC 1108 maintenance panel included an “Audio” button. This was an obscure feature intended to be used in conjunction with the program alarm for debugging operating systems. It caused the program alarm, sounded by the ALRM instruction, to be gated by the guard mode bit in the processor state register. This resulted in an audible signal on the console when the operating system was in control, for example, because the system had gone idle.

A little experimentation (no button must go unpushed, after all) revealed that even if the program alarm was not sounding, an artifact of the circuit caused the program alarm speaker on the operator's console to emit a little “tick” every time the processor went into or out of guard mode. And that, of course, was a glitch big enough to permit generation of arbitrary tones, given a suitable program to flip guard mode on and off at the proper rate.

Since user programs always ran with guard mode on, that meant the tone generation trick had to be done by code in the operating system, or by a stand-alone operating system booted from tape. I chose the latter, in large part to compound the absurdity of the whole thing; very few UNIVAC programmers ever wrote stand-alone operating systems—they wrote user programs that ran under the operating system or modified components of the operating system itself, but few ever looked at the boot code in the system or contemplated writing their own. Shortly before I wrote this program, I had been involved in the development of the boot code for CHI/OS, an operating system being developed from scratch at Chi Corporation in Cleveland, so I was sufficiently familiar with low-level boot code to pull this off.

Despite its ridiculous intent, this was a fully general 1108 operating system which could be booted by any processor of a multiprocessor system, and into any memory module. On a multiprocessor system with a console on each processor, one could even boot multiple copies into different memory banks and enjoy stereo or three-channel sound. To my knowledge, nobody ever tried this. The 1108 console had a set of “selective jump” switches on the operator's console which could be tested by programs, so I used them to allow the user to set the speed at which the Morse code was transmitted. The code even adapted automatically when run on an 1106, which it detected by timing instruction speed against the hardware real-time clock. Unhappily, the successors of the 1108 and 1106 lacked the “Audio” feature, so the Morse code exec passed into history when the machines for which it was written retired from service.

The program was written so that, when executed in user mode, it wrote its own boot tape. Gosh it was cool, late at night, to type on the console and know that several million dollars of hardware were exclusively dedicated to making Morse code come out of the speaker. Folks familiar with user-mode 1100 programming will notice some oddities resulting from the fact that this code runs in the executive set of registers, which have different memory-mapped addresses when referenced in instructions. If you're hazy on the 1100 instruction set after all these years, check out the instruction set reference.

.   
.        M O R S E  /  S Y N T H E S I Z E R   E X E C 
.   
.                                      OCTOBER 1971 BY JOHN WALKER 
.   
.                  YOU BOOT THE TAPE THIS THING WRITES INTO ANY MODULE THROUGH 
.        ANY CHANNEL OR IOC PATH OF ANY PROCESSOR.  BEFORE PUSHING START, PUSH 
.        THE  'AUDIO'  BUTTON ON THE MAINTENANCE PANEL (IT'S RIGHT BENEATH THE 
.        PHASE  LIGHTS, AND TO THE LEFT OF 'INITIAL LOAD'.)  AFTER STARTING UP 
.        THE  PROCESSOR, BEHOLD THE MARVELOUS SOUND THAT ISSUES FROM THE ALARM 
.        SPEAKER ON THE OPERATOR'S CONSOLE.
.   
.                  AFTER  YOU  TIRE OF THAT,  TRY TYPING ON THE CONSOLE.  YOUR 
.        INPUT WILL BE SENT BACK TO YOU IN MORSE CODE.  THE SPEED OF THE MORSE 
.        CODE  IS  SET BY THE BINARY VALUE IN THE JUMP KEYS 1-10 (1 IS THE LOW 
.        ORDER BIT).  THE JUMP KEYS ARE READ WHENEVER THE RETURN KEY IS HIT.
.        YOU MAY GET AS FAR AHEAD OF THE OUTPUT AS YOU LIKE.  SETTING JUMP KEY 
.        15 WILL CAUSE INPUT TO BE QUEUED, AND TO BE SENT AFTER JUMP KEY 15 IS 
.        TURNED OFF.   IF YOU TYPE NOTHING FOR 10 SECONDS AFTER OUTPUT CEASES, 
.        THE  SYNTHESIZER  WILL  START  AGAIN.   TYPING A HAPPY-PUNCH (¤) WILL 
.        IMMEDIATELY ABORT THE MORSE CODE AND START THE SYNTHESIZER.
/. 
         AXR$   
R0       EQU       0100
.   
.        'HOW IT SOUNDS' CONSTANTS 
.   
RATE     EQU       ;                   HOW FAST TO SHIFT SYNTHESIZER REGISTER   
                   100000   
BSLENG   EQU       ;                   BASIC TIME INTERVAL FOR MORSE CODE   
                   3
SYNPTC   EQU       ;                   SYNTHESIZER BASIC HIGH NOTE PITCH
                   250 
MPITCH   EQU       ;                   COUNT FOR MORSE PITCH
                   1000
.   
.        REGISTER DEFINITIONS   

<snip>

5109

Shortwave Broadcast / 7575 kHz Voice of Croatia Jan 2, 2013 0004Z

« on: January 02, 2013, 0030 UTC »

 

0004Z 55444 S9+ Discussion
0028Z 55444 S9+ ID
0028Z 55544 S9+10 Music
0108Z 55544 S9+10 Music continues
0132Z 55544 S9+20 Music
0155Z 55544 S9+20 Ivana Banfic "Otisak Prsta"
0158Z 45444 S9 Ivana Kindl "Nisi Sam"
0200Z 55444 S9+10 ID
0255Z 55444 S9+10 Lisac Josipa "Zivot Je Samo Most"
0300Z 55444 S9+10 Croatia Today (English program)
0300Z 54444 S9+10 Croatians across the country welcomed the new year.
0305Z 54444 S9+10 Ireland took over the EU presidency
0309Z 54444 S9+10 Sports & weather.
0312Z 54444 S9+20 Radio Luksemburg "Hrabri Se Ne Lome"
0329Z 54444 S9+10 Zoran Mišic "Gdje Si Sad"
0330Z 54444 S9+10 La Voz de Croacia
0342Z 54444 S9+10 Music
0400Z 54444 S9+10 News
0405Z 54444 S9+10 Dalmatino "To Nije Zna Niko Ka Ja"
0410Z 54444 S9+10 Prva Liga "Ti Si Jaca Od Mene"
0426Z 54444 S9+10 Bojan Jambrosic "Dvije Zvijezde Kraj Bagrema"
0429Z 54444 S9+10 Tose Proeski "Vezi Me Za Sebe"
0432Z 54444 S9+10 Jinx "Tamo Gdje Je Sve Po Mom"
0500Z 55444 S9+10 News
0506Z 55444 S9+20 Antun Tomislav Saban "Gibonni-Kad Sam Nasamo S Njom"
0514Z 55444 S9+20 Antun Tomislav Saban "Tina Vukov-U Tudoj Ruci"
0527Z 55444 S9+20 Lisac Josipa "Živim Po Svome"
0533Z 55444 S9+20 Gabi "Za Mene Je Sreca"
0600Z Off air.


Not sure why they're on as last night was supposed to be their last broadcast. In looking at their online schedule, 7375 is not listed. Perhaps someone forgot they were to end? Hope they got a serious case of amnesia and it keeps going...



_{Perseus SDR with Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop}

5110

North American MW Pirate Radio / Re: 1710 KHz "The Big Q" 0557 UTC 1/1/2013

« on: January 01, 2013, 0606 UTC »

0005Z 35433 S7 ID "The Big Q"
0005Z 35433 S7 Dusty Springfield "Wishin' And Hopin'"
0008Z 35433 S8 Larry Williams "Slow Down"
0011Z 35433 S8 ID
0011Z 35433 S7 Edison Lighthouse "Love Grows"





_{Perseus SDR with Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop}

5111

Longwave Loggings / Re: 495 kHz CW WESH

« on: January 01, 2013, 0308 UTC »

That looks like WEOH (not WESH).  Experimental amateur station  WEOH -WD2XSH/16 .  I believe they qsl.  google for info.

Very weak here.  I would have missed it if not for yer post....

Oh good grief. Yes. WEOH. 

5112

Shortwave Broadcast / 7375 kHz Glas Hrvatske Dec 31,2012 2300Z

« on: December 31, 2012, 2314 UTC »

This is the last broadcast of Glas Hrvatske:
"The Voice of Croatia would like to inform you that as of the 1st of January 2013, this program will no longer be broadcast on short wave. You will still be able to hear us on medium wave in Europe, via satellite and on the internet worldwide."


2300Z Came on with music & news in Croatian. Now hearing laughing (recorded). About 2309Z, heard the top of the hour tones and then the news again in Croation, with the laughter continuing underneath. Signal S9+, stronger than usual at this time.


2312Z laughter stopped. The news is done and now talking about other things (I have no idea what, I don't speak Croatian).  But it seems far different than previous broadcasts.  

James Bond theme with guy saying stuff including "Hrvatske Radio" over it.

Pink Panther theme and a man & woman talking.

2315Z 55434 S9+ Music.
2317Z 55434 S9+ Two women talking with light music in the background. Some sort of show.
2322Z 55434 S9+ Music
2328Z 55434 S9 Two guys talking with light music in the background
2331Z 55434 S9+ Music
2340Z 55434 S9+ Music
2350Z 55434 S9+ Music
2357Z 55434 S9+10 Olgica Miler "Zeko I Potocic"
0000Z 55544 S9+20 Power came up.  Now news.
0005Z 55544 Occasional peaks to S9+25
0030Z 55544 S9+10 English news
0032Z 55544 S9+10 Segment on Croatia accession into the EU.
0033Z 55544 S9+10 Croatian financial state
0037Z 55544 S9+10 Croatian & Serbian foreign ministers were finalizing plans to meet.
0038Z 55544 S9+10 2012 is one of the bloodiest years for journalists. 121 were killed in targeted attacks, bomb blasts & crossfire.
0039Z 55544 S9+10 Quick look at sports.
0039Z 55544 S9+10 Weather
0040Z 55544 S9+10 Recap of top news stories
0041Z 55544 S9+10 Gave listening methods via satellite and MW. And that Internet thingy.
0042Z 55544 S9+10 Music
0045Z 55544 S9+10 La Voice de Croatia en Espańol
0100Z 55544 S9+10 Top of the hour tones & into news
0143Z 55544 S9+10 Music has been going for a while
0151Z 55544 S9+10 Davor Radolfi & Ritmo Loco "Kada Uistinu Volis Zenu"
0159Z 35433 S8 Signal dropped
0200Z 55444 S9+10 Signal up
0200Z 55444 S9+10 News
0206Z 55444 S9+10 Tamburaski Sastav Patria "Zivot Je Pjesma"
0208Z 55444 S9+10 Tomislav Bralic "Samo More Nosin Ja U Dusi"
0213Z 55444 S9+20 Interview or something.
0242Z 55444 S9+10 Dvornik Dino "Tebi Pripadam"
0248Z 55444 S9+10 Djavoli "Ivona"
0253Z 55444 S9+ E.N.I. "Ostavljam Ti Usne"
0257Z 55444 S9+ NINO NIMAC "Puste Su Kale"
0300Z 45434 S9 Croatia Today (English)
0310Z 45434 S9 ID
0310Z 45434 S9 Sports & weather. Quick recap of today's top stories.
0313Z 45434 S9 Music
0330Z 45434 S9 La Voice de Croatia en Espańol
0337Z 35433 S8 Signal slowly dropping.
0344Z 35433 S8 Stipišic Ziatan & Gibonni "Dvije Duše"
0400Z 25432 S7 Top of the hour tones & news.
0424Z 45434 S8 to S9+10 Signal varies significantly.
0434Z 45434 S9 ID
0435Z 45434 S9 Haustor "Ula ulala"
0438Z 55434 S9+10 Dragonfly Feat "Vjerujem U Ljubav"
0441Z 55434 S9+10 Dani Marsan "Prozor Prema Zalazu"
0445Z 55434 S9+ Ivana Kindl "Nisi Sam"
0453Z 55434 S9+10 Luka Nizetic "Ponekad Pozelim"
0500Z 55434 S9+ Top of the hour tones & ID
0505Z 45434 S9 Magazin "Pisi Mi"
0508Z 45434 S9 Mario Huljev "Hajde Pusti Brige Sve"
0512Z 45434 S9 Marko Tolja "Prva Ljubav"
0516Z 45434 S9 Massimo "Iz Jednog Pogleda"
0536Z 35433 S8 Klapa More "Galeb Gost Neno Belan"
0544Z 35433 S8 Nina Badric "Moje Oci Pune Ljubavi"
0549Z 35433 S8 Oliver "Sa Dva Zrna Laznog Srebra"
0556Z 35433 S8 Pivaci KUD Carribi "Ne More Mi Bit"
0559Z 35433 S8 Time markers
0600Z Off air.



_{Perseus SDR with Wellbrook ALA1530S+ loop}

5113

Longwave Loggings / 495 kHz CW WEOH

« on: December 31, 2012, 2258 UTC »

Fairly strong CW repeating WESH.

<correction, repeating WEOH, not WESH>

5114

MW Loggings / Re: MW monitoring

« on: December 31, 2012, 2232 UTC »

What's the station you have heard on MW that is the farthest from your location?  My is St. Louis from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

Haven't measured it or made specific note, but can routinely get stations from NYC, Atlanta, and Texas up here. Nothing yet from south of the border. Plenty of Canadian stations, but so far nothing really far for them.

If you're talking about MW in general (not just MWBC), then Greenland on 518 kHz NAVTEX. 
Also have received the stations in Bermuda & San Juan, PR.
Next on the list is the Hawaiian NAVTEX station.

5115

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: Blue Ocean Radio 13875 USB 2130 UTC 30 Dec 2012

« on: December 30, 2012, 2143 UTC »

Barely hear him. Mostly in the noise.