Topics

106

Huh? / Time to Come Clean on AM Quality? Well, yeah!

« on: January 08, 2022, 1845 UTC »

Article from an ENG to Radio World,   https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/guest-commentaries/time-to-come-clean-on-am-quality

My $0.02 worth was that I believe that the noise levels are like X10 of what they were, even 30-some years ago, when I wrote back to him.

107

Amateur Radio / USS Midway on the air on HF.

« on: January 06, 2022, 1847 UTC »

FWR from K8RRT:

 A local museum radio team will be activating the aircraft carrier this weekend.

     NI6IW will be activating the ship on HF
7.200 LSB
14320 USB
14070 PSK.

Also they will be DStar .



    If you have a Facebook page there's a link below to get more info about working the USS Midway carrier.

       Good luck and have fun



https://www.facebook.com/groups/12699105116/permalink/10165946597150117/

108

Huh? / Station changes, like formats, or ownerships?

« on: January 05, 2022, 2000 UTC »

So, has anyone heard of any station changes in formats, ownership hands, coming on-air, or even going off-air?

109

Equipment / Xiegu bangs-out another one, the X6100.

« on: January 04, 2022, 2000 UTC »

Huh... Still learning the Xiegu G90, but looks like Xiegu has found their niche market, which seems more than a niche.   https://swling.com/blog/2022/01/the-new-xiegu-x6100-is-it-a-good-sw-mw-broadcast-band-receiver/


And yes, I did move this over from RF Workbench. Duh-know why I put it there in the 1st place. I'll blame it on the coffee not hitting me, yet.

110

10/11 meters / Finally!!!! Winter 27MHz Sporadic E looks like it's back. Well, sort of...

« on: January 04, 2022, 1950 UTC »

Got back from work last night to hear Texas stations on CH38LSB at 11PM EST, so that can't be F2 that late. No 'Needle-Benders' there, but the strongest station was around 5lbs. Now, can we wake-up the 10M gurus?

111

Pirate Radio History / Pirate Radio Ships, RNI, VID footage.

« on: January 03, 2022, 1844 UTC »

Since the weather really sucks, now, this might be a good time to check out the uploaded VID's on the WBCQ Archive site and watch, or even download, the VID's of Radio New York International. https://archive.org/details/pirate-radio-ships     The RNI one is 1.2GB in .MOV format, but seems to play OK on what I have. So, enjoy!!!!!

112

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / New AM Part #15 Transmitter Kit on the Market? Maybe....

« on: December 31, 2021, 1952 UTC »

Boomer alerted me to this dude.    https://www.ebay.com/itm/203708056581      Hmmmmmmmm... Kind of like what Ernie of Panaxis did to sell bare minimum parts and plans as a CYOA campaign to keep the FCC off of his back.

113

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / Tis the season, for new Bubble-Pack FRS / GMRS radios for Christmas to monitor.

« on: December 28, 2021, 2020 UTC »

So, with warmer weather, and being the Christmas / NYD Week, I'm hearing daily activity from neighborhood kids on what must be new Bubble-Pack GMRS / FRS radios. I keep an older Midland Bubble-Pack HT on constant scan, on a 6VDC power supply, and did it originally to hear hunters and get heads-up on local road construction around here, since they use these radios as well, instead of commercial VHF / UHF HT's. The most annoying thing about monitoring these are the kids whaling on the Call button constantly. This doesn't usually last, and by the 2nd week of January, they almost always give it up. I use to hear this in the 1980's and 1990's every Christmas on CB CH14, when kids would get CB walkie-talkies for Christmas and try them hard for a couple weeks, then the buzz of them would fizzle out. So, if you want to set-up your scanner to listen-in, or use a spare bubble-pack radio and hit scan, like I do, FREQ here,     https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FRS/GMRS_combined_channel_chart

114

Pirate Radio History / Remember Ernest Wilson's EBN / ERN zine from the mid-1980's? Boomer's got 'em!

« on: December 26, 2021, 0643 UTC »

Ernest Wilson, of Panaxis Productions, had a great newsletter, almost zine-like, The EBN, Experimental Broadcaster's Newsletter and then the ERN, Experimental Radio Newsletter. Well, Boomer's got the mid-90's ones, and you to can download and enjoy these articles from mostly reader supplied, as well as Q&A's, and Ernest even puts his $0.02 worth. I have only from 1987 to end printing. So, ENJOY!!!!!! 

http://boomerthedog.net/radio.html 

115

North American MW Pirate Radio / Several UNID's 1710AM - 1740AM, 0230 - 0330 UTC, 12/25/2021.

« on: December 25, 2021, 0519 UTC »

On drive home, 1710AM, heard a slow Ballard sung with Hudson Co. TIS battling with it. Back on base, 03:03UTC - 03:06UTC, 1710AM, church quire-like version of Silent Night, then repeated. TIS still giving fits to hearing this. S5 signal peak. Jump to peak seen on 1720AM, 03:06UTC, distorted audio of Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue, then Animals - House Of The Rising Sun, then gone 03:15UTC. Peaked to S4. Then wide band carrier centered on 1740AM on 03:31UTC. No audio, but just hash, (Digital?), S5. No ID on any of these.

116

Huh? / Experimental Station WI2XLQ will recreate 1906 Fessenden transmissions again?

« on: December 24, 2021, 1912 UTC »

That should be different.    https://swling.com/blog/2021/12/experimental-station-wi2xlq-will-recreate-1906-fessenden-transmissions-again-this-holiday-season/

117

General Radio Discussion / An Introduction to DXing the MF Marine Bands? Sure...

« on: December 20, 2021, 1855 UTC »

https://swling.com/blog/2021/12/guest-post-an-introduction-to-dxing-the-mf-marine-bands/         Been a while since I've checked-out the Marine MW band. I still have a couple of radios with that band listed on them.

118

Huh? / The mystery -550Hz carrier within 1240AM. I'm not the only one hearing this.

« on: December 19, 2021, 2104 UTC »

Here in WV, I'll do the late night drive home from work, and sometime MW DX'ing, if nothing is on C2C AM. But, if C2C AM is somewhat interesting, I'll tune-in to local 1kw 1240AM WVTS, and even drive right by the TX  site. Well, for the last week, when I get more than a few miles away from that station's site, I hear a HET tone that is somewhere from 500Hz - 600Hz in there. At 1st, I thought this to be yet another DSL internet carrier radiating out, but I hear this all over while on the drive, except very  near the WVTS TX site. I even see this carrier on the 'lil SDR display of my newer Xiegu G90. I've even heard this in the daytime, so I thought it to be local. However, Boomer, near Pittsburgh, is even seeing and hearing, this on his Kiwi SDR, and told me that the carrier is -550Hz from 1240kHz center. I've just asked a recently moved to FL friend if he hears and sees this. So, now I suspect that this isn't local from WV, unless someone is running several watts of power, and it can skip. Question is, can a 1240AM station be that far off FREQ? Maybe, someone grabbed an emergency back-up transmitter to get back on-air after all these Mid-West tornadoes? This timing would be about right. So, anyone else seeing and hearing this?

119

FM Free Radio / 87.9FM, 12/16/2021, 0230 UTC, weak, mono.

« on: December 17, 2021, 0755 UTC »

Sometimes I'll set the truck stereo on 87.9FM to see what comes up on the work commute. This time, a weak, mono station playing a Gorillaz tune that came IN / OUT for 2 miles. No ID. And, it wasn't bleed-through from 88.1FM's LPFM station locally. Usually, I hear other drivers on 87.9FM airing MP3's, or satellite radio, but they are true Part  #15 at just a few hundred feet. This covered miles. Station was gone by 06:30UTC, when I checked, later.

120

North American MW Pirate Radio / It's back!!!! That mystery X-mas music station on 1620, 03:30 UTC, 12/15/2021.

« on: December 16, 2021, 2041 UTC »

Yep... Last night it was really in there at 03:30UTC. A UNID station crankin' out really old-ass X-mas tunage on 1620kHz, and no announcements, and battling over those Pensacola and Cuban stations. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm???