Messages

31

General Radio Discussion / Re: Avoiding the FCC

« on: September 13, 2014, 2048 UTC »

On FM, why do Florida and New York seem to be the hot-spots for pirate broadcasters?  Also, does the FCC favor certain types of music over others?  For example, would a pirate broadcasting rap or heavy metal be more likely to get a violation than someone broadcasting bluegrass music?

32

General Radio Discussion / Avoiding the FCC

« on: September 13, 2014, 1937 UTC »

Just reading the SW pirate loggings on this board, and see a number of broadcasters who do this repeatedly.  How do they avoid being caught by the FCC and sent a NOUO?  They have ways of long-range direction finding (HFDF), so it wouldn't be as difficult as people think for the FCC to track them down.

33

General Radio Discussion / Re: Long-Range direction finding

« on: September 12, 2014, 1125 UTC »

If this is the case, then how do all these SW pirates mentioned in the Logging board on this forum manage to not get caught by the FCC?

34

General Radio Discussion / Re: THERE IS A GOD- RADIO DISNEY IS SELLING ALL BUT ONE OF ITS STATIONS!!!!!

« on: September 12, 2014, 0227 UTC »

I would love to have the money to buy one of those stations.  I would make it a tri-format station: Classic country music (70's-80's) Monday-Friday, bluegrass music on Saturdays, and Southern Gospel music on Sundays.

35

General Radio Discussion / Long-Range direction finding

« on: September 12, 2014, 0224 UTC »

Here is a recent report of a couple of ham radio operators on the 40m band getting in trouble for not identifying on the air:

http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/AmateurActions/files/Kraje14_08_19_5521.html

But how do they pinpoint a location from so far away?  The letter mentions use of long-range direction finding techniques.  The FCC agent was in Maryland, and the two ham operators were in South Carolina and Delaware.

36

Equipment / Re: Ham radio frequencies for short-distance QSO's?

« on: June 03, 2014, 2003 UTC »

The skip zone on HF is frequency and time of day dependent (well, and solar activity dependent also). The distance appears to be about 100 miles? NVIS is perfect for that. It's actually what pirates are using on 43 meters during the daytime, good for a few hundred miles out. I'd suggest 40 meters (or maybe even 80 meters) during the daytime, and 80 meters at night. YMMV depending on solar conditions.

By 43 meters, do you mean frequencies such as 6930 kHz?  How exactly does NVIS work?  What kind of antenna do you need, and how would you configure it?

37

Equipment / Ham radio frequencies for short-distance QSO's?

« on: June 03, 2014, 1930 UTC »

Let's say a person lives in a western Detroit suburb (Livonia, Westland, Garden City, etc).  Would it be possible to talk to someone in Lansing using ham radio?  If so, what frequencies would work for that?  It seems like it's too far for 2M/440 to be effective, and too close for any HF communications to work; it would be within the skip zone.

38

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Sound card for SDR

« on: February 22, 2014, 1530 UTC »

Is this the right sound card to buy for use with an SDR?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102063

It has a 192-kHz sampling rate, which I understand to be the most important spec.

I have an Intel D915PCY motherboard with a 2.8GHz Pentium-4 and 4GB of PC4200 (533MHz) memory.
I am running Windows XP with SP3 on that computer.

39

General Radio Discussion / 18900 - 19020 kHz band

« on: February 12, 2014, 1500 UTC »

Based on the shortwave broadcast bands here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortwave_radio#Frequency_allocations

The 15m band (18900 - 19020 kHz) is almost unused.  Would that be a good band for pirates to use?  How would the propagation compare with the usual 6900 kHz band that they use?

40

General Radio Discussion / Re: Programming on pirate radio stations

« on: February 12, 2014, 0045 UTC »

6925 is like a box of chocolates....

Would 6930 be just as diverse as 6925?  And would a person broadcasting on 6930 have as much chance of being heard as if they used 6925?

41

General Radio Discussion / Programming on pirate radio stations

« on: February 11, 2014, 1539 UTC »

When people broadcast with pirate radio stations, what kind of programming do they typically do?  For those who play music, do any of them ever choose to play bluegrass or Southern Gospel music?  If so, is that more typical of FM or SW pirates?

42

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate broadcast modulation modes

« on: February 09, 2014, 2217 UTC »

Some SSB rigs can actually sound really good. Some Kenwoods and Yaesus in particular. Icom, not so good. Also if you have a really nice receiver on the other end, where you can open up the filters, it can really sound great sometimes.

AM has more heart and soul though.

The better SSB receivers still wouldn't sound as good as AM would, especially for a music broadcast.  The fidelity on AM is low enough as it is.  So if I were ever to do such a broadcast (which I currently have no equipment for), I would still use AM.  The intent would be to get as many potential listeners as possible.

43

General Radio Discussion / Pirate broadcast modulation modes

« on: February 09, 2014, 2120 UTC »

On shortwave, I understand that pirates use both AM and SSB for their transmissions.  But why would they use SSB?  It is terrible for music, even with a receiver capable of decoding the signal.  They would also be limiting their audience, because although many people have shortwave receivers, they can only tune into AM transmissions due to the lack of a BFO.  So for those two reasons alone, you would think most pirates would use AM.

44

General Radio Discussion / Fixed Service radio frequencies

« on: February 08, 2014, 2348 UTC »

According to this frequency allocation plan:  http://www.w2aee.columbia.edu/fcc-bandplan.html

The frequencies most commonly used by pirate shortwave stations are in the Fixed Service.  What exactly does that mean, and what kinds of communications are supposed to be there?  Is it actually used anymore for such?

45

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirate shortwave broadcast on 6930

« on: February 08, 2014, 0111 UTC »

A lot of listeners use SDRs, and notice something new popping up rather quickly when they are actively listening.

What exactly are SDR's?