Topics

16

Amateur Radio / 12M AM? Sure!!! Why not?

« on: December 17, 2022, 1841 UTC »

Got home late last night to hear Timtron, WA1HLR, QSO with big-gun Don, K4KYV, on not having time to do AM on the higher bands in the daytime. Then, he mentioned that whenever he finally does, he wants to get some 12M, a.k.a. 24.9MHz, AM activity going. Well, sure... Why not??? That´s a very under utilized WARC Band, yet shares F2 and Sporadic ¨E¨ propagation like 11M, 10M, and 6M. And, you have this benefit of a tax funded PORP beacon, WWV on 25.000000MHz. If you heard that, then you know that 12M is open. Anyway, the FREQ that Timtron is trying is 24.975MHz for AM. So, when F2 dies-out in the evening, then Winter Sporadic ¨E¨ may open that band up to ´short-skip´. Passing thoughts, there. https://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/hf/24mhz/
Oh yeah... Don´t forget, that you can check out 12M propagation by tuning in WWV on 25.0000MHz. Today, 12/19/2022, 17:15UTC, that was banging-in at S10/9 on my W.O.G.! (COOL!!!)

17

Equipment / SWL´ing TEF6686 chip radio? Neat!!!!

« on: December 15, 2022, 2047 UTC »

https://swling.com/blog/2022/12/ivan-checks-out-the-new-tef6686-chip-radio/    Looks like a kit, but I like that display.

18

Amateur Radio / Santa Nets are back for 2022!

« on: December 12, 2022, 1831 UTC »

Came home last night to hear them wind down the list of 20 stations that had kids that wanted to do the Santa talk. FREQ = 3916kHz LSB, and the site to do the net and request your kids to be on this is:  https://www.cqsanta.com/   This year, they are also doing one-way ´Shout-Outs´ for just RX´ing SWL´ers and are using the neat tool of other folks´ Kiwi-SDR´s, which they had to do list night when 75M made it so one of the requested kid´s station couldn´t be heard by the ´Signed-In´ net stations, even with seven net stations in AL, FL, TX, NY, and MI. Still, they made it happen. This seems to be more of an East Coast / Mid-West thing, since the one stations for the West Coast had problems. So, if you want to try a unique way to combine radio fun, Christmas, and Amateur Radio coordination, on this annual net, check out 3916LSB and that CQ Santa site. 

19

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Part 15 X-mas station, near me, is back!

« on: December 09, 2022, 1914 UTC »

Tis the season, for Part 15 FM X-mas stations. And, that dude, about a mile from me, is back with the wholly-kow decked-out yard X-mas display, is back on 101.3FM. True Part 15, with it MAX´ing-out at maybe 400ft away with my good truck stereo receiver. Good audio and levels, and no distortion, so he knows what he´s doing. And, ya know that he´s not the only one out there doing that. So, watch for, and tune-in, to these annual holiday stations, while you can.

20

Software / Audio Test Generator: Level Meter with Digital readout combined with a Sine Wave

« on: December 07, 2022, 1908 UTC »

 I haven´t tried this, yet, but looks like it could be indeed a very useful audio tool to download and use.    https://www.darkwooddesigns.co.uk/pc2/testgen.html

21

Amateur Radio / The bad-use for an on-line Kiwi-SDR to HAM´s? Oh yeah.

« on: November 28, 2022, 1931 UTC »

Just last night, I was listening, before bed time, on 3892kHz LSB. Some douche was continuously messing with that group, keyed-up. What was crazy was that in seconds the usual 3892 group made comments about this douche, that douche was commenting about what they were saying back, while the douche was still TX´ing. The 3892-group figured out that this douche was using an on-line Kiwi-SDR to listen, while keying-up and harassing! (Uh, great...) Yeah... What a use for on-line Kiwi-SDR´s, huh? Make it a full-duplex TX/RX harassment device.

22

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Boomer posts the 13.560MHz AM Milliwatts Transmitter!

« on: November 24, 2022, 2032 UTC »

http://boomerthedog.com/part-15/13560.html          It was still a neat project, but it really ticked-off the Beacon Freaks. Even Glenn Hauser wrote-in to suggest that AM on 13.560MHz, even at Part 15 levels, wasn´t a good idea. So, if you were to use this ´lil transmitter, a Hamfest, or even something like Winterfest, events would be perfect. Use this at an event, then tear-down and get out afterwards.

23

Amateur Radio / ARRL November Sweepstakes?

« on: November 17, 2022, 2053 UTC »

http://www.arrl.org/sweepstakes       With the weather begin so terrible, this might be well worth checking out.

24

Huh? / Grimeton Radio Station broadcast Nov 16, 2022 to celebrate UNESCO 50th, on 17.2k

« on: November 14, 2022, 1814 UTC »

Well, this will be a good test of your VLF capabilities.    https://swling.com/blog/2022/11/grimeton-radio-station-broadcast-nov-16-2022-to-celebrate-unesco-50th-anniversary/

25

Equipment / A review of the Tecsun H-501x portable shortwave radio receiver. SWL´ing.

« on: November 06, 2022, 1905 UTC »

https://swling.com/blog/2022/11/a-review-of-the-tecsun-h-501x-portable-shortwave-radio-receiver/

Hmmmmmmmm... That limited AM Bandwidth kind of bugs me. Just my picky take.

26

Propagation / Coming soon, Winter Sporadic ¨E¨ Season for 2022 - 2023. And, maybe Tropo, still

« on: November 02, 2022, 1938 UTC »

November, already, but Sporadic ¨E¨ propagation should be showing up soon, especially on CB FREQ´s, then 10M, and hopefully, 6M. There are still a lot of rural highway departments still using upper 30MHz and 40MHz VHF rigs, so you might hear snow plows on-the-air soon. Don´t forget to check, https://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=W2LN&HF=N&DXC=ING2&GL=S   for this. However, warm fronts, going to cold fronts, still can make Tropo neat on upper VHF and UHF bands. Neat Christmas, about 6 years ago, I got off work before midnight, and heard a friend on 2M National Simplex, 146.520MHz FM, QSO´ing with stations up by Cleveland, OH, over 200 miles away! And, I was able to hear them in the truck. I then worked a couple of those stations back home on the base. So, y´all just never know.

27

Huh? / Century Edition of ARRL Handbook for $80.00 hard cover.

« on: November 01, 2022, 1817 UTC »

https://handbook.arrl.org/   Oh yeah!!!! Always a wealth of info. I´ll even keep the older editions for the info in those.

28

Huh? / Halloween DX'ing? Hope so!!!!

« on: October 29, 2022, 1843 UTC »

Tis the season for those Halloween pirates, like MW stations from 1710kHz - 1790kHz, late at night. Most stations pretty much heard on 43M in North America, but with F2 propagation back in there, now could be a decent time to check-out 11.401MHz, 13.900MHz, 15.050MHz, 17MHz region, 19.0000MHz even, up past 21.450MHz, and the entire 11M INT band, 25.670MHz - 26.100MHz. You'll just never know what ya might hear. Even, 87.9MHz on FM. Happy Halloween DX'ing!!!!!

29

Equipment / C.Crane’s new CC Skywave SSB 2? An improvement, or an over-priced P.O.S.?

« on: October 25, 2022, 1836 UTC »

Yeah, SWL´ing rip:    https://swling.com/blog/2022/10/c-cranes-new-cc-skywave-ssb-2/   Ya know, for $200.00, I could get an older YB-400, and have much $$$$ lest over. For a good used price, I would consider the C Crane SSB2, but not for $200.00 new.

30

10/11 meters / Some douche teasing LSB´ers on CB CH38 with NBFM, 1600UTC.

« on: October 24, 2022, 1806 UTC »

I was wondering when I was going to hear domestic NBFM on CB, with it now allowable. Well, heard it today, and of all places, the very informal Gentleman´s Agreed LSB CB calling channel 38. This dude was teasing the LSB´ers saying that he can use any voice mode that he wants there. No idea upon where he was TX´ing from, and I don´t think that he was going to tell that anyway. 10min later, he finally went to LSB to talk to whatever. Got to admit, that was different.