Topics

1

General Radio Discussion / Nightly europirate interference with 4625u buzzer

« on: January 21, 2022, 1708 UTC »

Guessing Ukranian guy.  Plays Metallica, Rammstein, etc.  Frequent images in the waterfall.  He has quite the signal and has been on the last few evenings so probably again tonight.
Vice picked it up
https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3vbjj/pirates-spammed-an-infamous-soviet-short-wave-radio-station-with-memes-uvb-76

I'd stick an image or two here but I don't use photo junk online.  Be prepared for mangled English spelling and penises.

2

The RF Workbench / Tried a 270-030 replacement

« on: May 29, 2020, 1931 UTC »

2 mH 5A choke from Mouser.  Did it work? Yes, but a bit overdriven even at lower volume.  RA told me never found a replacement that sounded as good as the original Shack part and I believe him.  $5 for this experiment bypassing a choke in a working clone into a dummy load of course.
If you want to see exactly what I tried, part # 80-SC-05-20J
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/KEMET/SC-05-20J?qs=%2Fha2pyFaduiM5%2FZw09rRvNezte5RnLa%2FRhWhrxF2v5iAMKT4dGsPQA%3D%3D

3

The RF Workbench / What kind of build and output do YOU want to see?

« on: November 19, 2018, 2344 UTC »

Lots of talk about 200-400 watt designs but I imagine most everyone would not want to run this as it is practically asking for the knock or a nice arcing fireball when something goes wrong.  I know what I like and what I would like to have exist.  I'd like a grenade type design.  It is easy to build with basic electronic knowledge and gets out nicely with a good dipole.  What I would like is for more than a sub 10 watt carrier with 20 max PEP.  Maybe double this while still using 12-15 volts.  And without the obsolete 270-030 which is increasingly hard to find.  That is the only problem part with this solid design.  I don't know if this would be a laughable request, like maybe the design is already maxxed out at 10 watts, but it is what I'd be willing to spend some $ on with schematic and just my nice multimeter.  Yeah I know there are Dave M designs that may kind of fit the bill but I have never been able to get one of them to work well.  Either not at all or with terrible audio.  Grenade works first time every time and can be tweaked up a couple watts maybe by experimenting with filter caps.  So what do you all want to see?

4

Bacon, BBQ, Beef, And More / Near Zero Carbs! Pig Brains n Eggs

« on: November 11, 2017, 1608 UTC »

Ingredients:
1 can Rose pork brains
1 rounded tablespoon lard or butter
3 eggs
1/4 cup whole milk
salt and pepper-I use more than usual

Melt butter/lard in skillet
Dump can of brains in on medium to medium-hi heat and cook 5 minutes until liquidy goodness is reduced a bit
Whisk eggs and milk in a bowl and dump in
Scramble until done and serve over toast and add some more salt and pepper

It is like scrambled eggs with a bit of minced sausage added and it provides over a full month supply of cholesterol (~3500 mg)

5

Huh? / Tosh.0 Boomer on next week?

« on: August 11, 2017, 2353 UTC »

I just watched the last episode on DVR and at the end Tosh said they were going to catch up on past favorites.  Boomer was one of the three images.  I believe the next one is on 8/15.  It should be interesting.  Tosh wasn't nearly as bad as I would have expected him to be last time and Boomer held his own just fine.

6

Equipment / Portable with good ssb?

« on: April 04, 2017, 0053 UTC »

I have a maybe 8-10 year old Sony 7600 and I HATE the ssb tuning wheel.  It is so sensitive and you never really nail the ssb tuning.  No great complaints other than this other than general ergonomics. What about a Tecsun 880 or 660?  Do you guys have recommendations with the ssb tuning on these or any other ones I should consider in a portable?  No SDR or big radios, already have one of each.

7

Bacon, BBQ, Beef, And More / Bacon Cheese Jalapeno Soda Bread

« on: January 31, 2017, 0045 UTC »

It's a forgiving recipe.  Epicurious and allrecipes took a shit on me and wouldn't publish my fun real life recipe with inaccurate measurements.  Of course those submissions were much more fun...I don't know..this is the toned down version.  Anal retentive buttholes.
The doughballs should be a bit sticky rather than dry before cooking.  It took several tries to mess with recipes online and get something I liked the best.  And chicks love bacon, cheese, and bread in that order.  It makes impressive grotesque shaped loaves that you will want to photograph and turn into QSL cards.  This stuff usually is devoured within an hour right out of the oven by the 3-4 of us.

Cheesy jalapeno bacon soda bread – makes 2 medium loaves – fits on pizza pan
•   3 c bread/regular white flour (start with 2.5 cup and add as needed)
•   1.5 tsp baking soda
•   1 tsp baking powder
•   1 tsp salt

•   1 and 1/4 c buttermilk (can sub ¾ cup (small tub size) plain yogurt + ½ cup milk).  Yes it needs to be acidic like buttermilk/yogurt.
•   1 egg or 2. Who cares.  Nobody put eggs in the old soda bread recipes, just mainly the previous ingredients.
•   2 TBSP vegetable oil (optional)

•   8-10 slices hot cheese like pepperjack or habanero or ~1/2 bar of extra sharp cubed in 1/3 inch cubes
•   About 10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped up or use 1/2 package of prefab tiny cubed ham, but bacon is better
•   1 tsp rosemary ground up (optional)
•   1 tsp oregano (kind of optional but the chicks love to smell that fragrant shit cooking)
•   1 large jalapeno (or 2 small) diced as small as possible. Hell, I don’t mind 3.

Directions
1.   Get the oven preheated to 425 and prepare bacon, grind up rosemary, slice the cheese, dice jalapeno. Set these aside in a pile.
2.   Mix the first 4 solids in a large bowl (3 liter + bowl if you don't want to get powder shit everywhere) teaspoon size items first.  Mix well.
3.   Whisk buttermilk, egg, and oil in another smaller bowl.  No whisk?  Tear it up with a fork until smooth.  Doesn't matter.
4.   Mix the last ingredients (cheese, bacon, herb of some sort, jalapeno) briefly into the large bowl with powders.
5.   Add liquid bowl to large bowl. Use a large spoon and mix it well for a minute. It will be sticky. You will want to add a tablespoon or two of flour a couple times as you go to get the doughball not so sticky.
6.   Dump it onto a floured surface and fold/punch it for a minute adding a tablespoon or two of flour to the surface and on top a few times forming a ball at the end. It might take a half cup + between adding powder to the bowl and dusting the kneading surface.  It will still stick to your hand but add flour to the point where it is getting close to not sticking.  Yeah your hand may look like it is melting off with all that crap stuck on it.  Flip that mass over, split in half, use both hands to spin/shape each chunk into two half hemispheres, flatten a little bit, transfer both flattened masses to a floured cookie sheet or pizza pan.  Better to be a bit sticky than add too much flour and be dry.
7.   Get a giant Jason knife and cut an X into the balls going all the way down to the pan. It NEEDS this to not be a giant doughball at the end.
8.   Drizzle melted butter on top and sprinkle extra salt and pepper on top.
9.   Cook at 425 about 30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean from several points in the center. My oven seem to run hot so I do 425 for about 15 minutes then back it off to 350 as soon as it starts to get decent brown forming on top to get it cooked through.  Stick toothpicks in a few places until they come out clean.  Or as clean as it can be with melted cheese inside.  Let it sit out and cool 10 minutes.
10.   Be prepared to grow a gut and weigh in 2-3 pounds heavier tomorrow.

8

North American Shortwave Pirate / Moonlight Radio 6943 USB 0125 UTC 16 Jul 2016

« on: July 16, 2016, 0138 UTC »

Got family here and can't listen long but scanned and heard nice 6943 signal. USB.  Gone a few minutes later when I tried to listen for specifics.

9

The RF Workbench / what would make a box not like certain crystals?

« on: May 21, 2016, 1817 UTC »

Let's say I have 2 grenade style boxes and x number of WWII crystals all the same frequency. All work perfectly in box #1 with close to 10 watts from the IRF510.  In box #2, half are associated with power close to 10 watts, half get anywhere from a couple needlewidths of power to about 1 watt.  Any suggestions of what components to mess with?  About all I can guess to start is mess with the nice mica caps right before the antenna output and see if jacking around the values +/- 50-100 pF fixes things for the bad crystals yet makes the good crystal output suffer a bit.  I already optimized those when I built the boxes.  Theoretically speaking.

10

The RF Workbench / etching crystals-increasing the frequency on your ft-243s

« on: March 27, 2016, 2115 UTC »

I learned today you can buy dilute hydrofluoric acid (Whink brand fabric rust remover) to eat a bit off your nonfunctional or crappy frequency crystals to make them operate where you want.  Seems to eat away and increase the frequency somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 khz per 10 minutes with fresh stuff.  Got to get me down to the Crap-mart and get some with a pair of autopsy gloves.  Don't do it without a pair of breaking bad gloves.
Scroll down a bit to the whink thread
http://www.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/2014-November/subject.html#20177

11

Huh? / The next Bowl?

« on: February 03, 2016, 0150 UTC »

First there was super bowl.
Then puppy bowl.
I just heard there will be a kitten bowl.
What next?  I propose Dope Bowl.  Hot babes getting wasted in Colorado and eating melted peanut butter snickers, microwave burritos, and whole plates of sloppy loaded nachos.  No utensils allowed.
I admit I am a pig.  Oink.

edit
My wife says topless only

12

SDR - Software Defined Radio / What el cheapo $100 SDR to get nowadays just to try SDR?

« on: January 18, 2016, 2240 UTC »

I live in a real high noise environment.  I have had a Drake R8 and a couple Icoms that were great.  In OTHER locations.  Not here.  Sold a few and am now down to a portable and an Icom.  I would like to try SDR but don't want to drop a lot of cash since I am betting listening will be no better.  There was a thread here on a nice 3dbsdr item that now has links not found.  Since I can't get that, what is left?  Wait on the kickstarter one reported here a year ago http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,20309.0.html or go with the nooelec deal with HamItUp converter?  Or something else?  I know I just need to move to solve everything but that will not happen any time soon.  The noise is related to household electrical supply and is everywhere in the entire subdivision and noise cancelling products do not work-have tried several.  Tried tracking the source etc etc...
Thanks everyone

13

General Radio Discussion / Rosetta comet lander deal woke up today

« on: June 14, 2015, 2010 UTC »

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/06/14/rosettas-lander-philae-wakes-up-from-hibernation/

Rosetta’s lander Philae wakes up from hibernation   

Rosetta's lander Philae is out of hibernation!

The signals were received at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt at 22:28 CEST on 13 June. More than 300 data packets have been analysed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

"Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available," explains DLR Philae Project Manager Dr. Stephan Ulamec. "The lander is ready for operations."

For 85 seconds Philae "spoke" with its team on ground, via Rosetta, in the first contact since going into hibernation in November.

When analysing the status data it became clear that Philae also must have been awake earlier: "We have also received historical data - so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier."

Now the scientists are waiting for the next contact.  There are still more than 8000 data packets in Philae’s mass memory which will give the DLR team information on what happened to the lander in the past few days on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Philae shut down on 15 November 2014 at 1:15 CET after being in operation on the comet for about 60 hours. Since 12 March 2015 the communication unit on orbiter Rosetta was turned on to listen out for the lander.

More information when we have it!

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its Member States and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is contributed by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI.

14

North American Shortwave Pirate / XLR8 6950U *0050-0055 3/17/15

« on: March 17, 2015, 0059 UTC »

Turned it on and heard snot nose 1980 punk for a couple tunes then suddenly off at 55 after.  Sounded familiar but couldn't ID.  High noise floor, coming through moderate level kinda tinny. More. Gimmegimme.
yeah it's all electro-dance the last 20 minutes.  Same person?  hmm..same signal level but more punch.  Maybe due to snot nose punk having no bass but prolly different xmitter if i guessing.
xlr8 ID 0142
0144 more IDs with jungle dance punk stuff going on

15

General Radio Discussion / AYs New Pirate Annual is here

« on: February 23, 2015, 2202 UTC »

earlier than I expected.  The arrival kind of balanced out with the cat turd right below my pillow.  I shall read it tonight in that very spot.