Topics

31

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Engineer Eyes New Frontier With SDR-Powered LPFM in Colorado? Uh-huh, RW rip.

« on: April 29, 2025, 1711 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/news-makers/engineer-eyes-new-frontier-with-sdr-powered-lpfm-in-colorado  Neat read, and a couple of us have kicked around the idea of doing transmitters, via SDR tech. You could do FM MPX Stereo, AM C-QUAM Stereo, DRM for any band, Noise Reduction, and, analog MOD's of AM, NBFM, SSB, and possibly ATSC Digital TV. Scratching the surface? Could be...

32

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Tunnel Radio: How Signals Reach Drivers Underground? RW rip...

« on: April 29, 2025, 1546 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/tunnel-radio-how-signals-reach-drivers-underground    We don't hear much about Leaky-Cable Broadcasting. Heck, who still makes cables that could even do that, Belden? Still, a permissible way to broadcast license-free. (Thank you Boomer!) Oh BTW, this also works in mines.

33

MW Loggings / WPXT 1690 AM 0200 UTC Nightly 2025

« on: April 25, 2025, 1716 UTC »

Pretty much every night, at around 10PM EST, I'm hearing this 1690AM station playing mainly 60's hits, and occasionally a 70's hit. No ID heard, as of yet, but a generic, "Your oldies station!", either by an OM, or a YL. Occasional fading, but most of the time this station dominates. Here's my choices on Radio Locator,    https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?call=&band=AM&freq=1690&freq_exact=Yes&city=&state=&country=&format=&owner_search=starts&owner=&scope=&is_ful=Y&is_lp=Y&is_lic=Y&is_cp=Y&sort=Call&count=100&sr=1&sid=  But, nothing really corresponds to this list. Any clues???

34

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / A 1964 Part 15 Callbook Handbook? Looks like it.

« on: April 22, 2025, 1615 UTC »

Boomer found this on Part 15 .ORG's site.      https://www.part15.org/community/regulations-law/1964-part-15-callbook-handbook/#post-60133  Well, an interesting look-back.

ADDITIONAL: I certainly would not take this as gospel ruling today, since Part 19 CB is now, Part 95. And, I believe that voice COMM's are no longer allowed on those in-between channels, a.k.a., 3A, 5A, 7A, 15A, and 19A, but meant for paging and IMS use. Still, a neat look-back.

35

Huh? / The FM Band From 30,000 Feet in the Air? Uh-huh, RW again.

« on: April 20, 2025, 1750 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/the-fm-band-from-30000-feet-in-the-air    I've never done this with FM radio, but with a portable, 3" B&W LCD pocket TV in 1988. The pilot wouldn't let me extend the telescopic whip in the plane, so with just 3" of retracted antenna I was still able to get every Allegany County's, WNY, PBS TV translators and Buffalo's VHF WKBW-TV7, direct from their 1,000ft Colden, NY tower crystal clear. Did not pick up the two lower VHF Buffalo, NY channel 2 and 4, or the Grand Island based UHF stations WNED-TV17 and WUTV-TV29. Nothing, from the Rochester, NY based stations. Still, a neat experiment.

36

Pirate Radio History / New Documentary Explores the Legacy of Irish Pirate Radio? Another RW rip.

« on: April 20, 2025, 1738 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/new-documentary-explores-the-legacy-of-irish-pirate-radio   Well, it's Irish Pirate Radio history. Always interesting to check that out over there. (Thank you Boomer!)

37

General Radio Discussion / Optimod 5750 Boosts Coverage for WJFF! Um, What??? RW rip...

« on: April 14, 2025, 0311 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/buyers-guide/optimod-5750-boosts-coverage-for-wjff
OK... I still don't get this. Improve range and multipath on an FM station with an Optimod? What am I missing here?

And, while we're at it, here's this one.    https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/digital-radio/what-about-audio-processing-for-hd-radio

38

Huh? / Mystery Surrounds 3 Pending U.S. Shortwave Stations? Yep, another RW rip.

« on: April 14, 2025, 0301 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/business-and-law/mystery-surrounds-3-pending-u-s-shortwave-stations
Well, I hope that WIPE, doesn't wipe anyone out on HF. I know that we've hit this subject before, but here's an update.

39

The RF Workbench / My most downloaded circuit, on Archive .ORG, is the 555 Audio GEN? Um, ok...

« on: April 11, 2025, 1532 UTC »

https://archive.org/details/555-timer-adj-af-generator-schematic      Around 5 years ago, I've wanted a dedicated AF Generator as an audio feed for audio amps, my P.O.S. early 70's B&K (Im)Precision RF Generator, (Hi-hi...), and to inject into MIC inputs on transmitters. Now, I have one of those mid-90's Tenma portable AF Generators, utilizing a 555 Timer in it, and uses a 9VDC battery, but I wanted something bench dedicated. So, from leftover parts on-hand, I did up that Adjustable 555 Timer AF Generator. And, to my surprise, it's been, and still remains, my most popular Archive .ORG download. (Interesting...) The circuit pretty straight-forward, a 12VDC, 300mA, rectified and filtered wallwart, leftover DC Barrel Connector jacks, a switch, filter CAP. Now, why did I use an oddball LM7810 +10VDC, 1A, voltage regulator? I have a bag of these on hand that I believe I had given to me by the engineer of Houghton College's, then, WJSY. (The price was right. And, I've used these in several projects.) The rest of the circuitry I've either cobbed from the 555 Timer Cookbook, one of those various TAB Books here, or even from my college text books. Where ever I got the circuit from, it works. BTW, this produces a Square Wave, so to get a nice, clean, Sine Wave, an RC Filter was built for that. It's tuned best for 1kHz, but still filters for the other FREQ ranges. I have in the TEXT Notes what the range is. Yes, that RC Filter does attenuate. However, if you want more audio beefiness, a headphone amp, computer speaker amp, etc., can be added to do so. But, for most of my bench purposes, I don't really need one. Oh yeah, I know there are APP out there for your smart phone and tablet for a free AF Generator APP. And, they work... Whatever you want to use this circuit for, learn, use, enjoy. BTW, while you are on Archive, check-out the rest of the page.    https://archive.org/details/@thadood   

40

The RF Workbench / Technical Tips from Mark W. Persons Arc Gap for AM Antenna Systems?

« on: April 09, 2025, 1734 UTC »

http://www.mwpersons.com/tech-tips/AM/arc-gap.htm   and     http://www.mwpersons.com/tech-tips/AM/08-06-14-am-rf-junction-box.htm     Neat INFO to know. I have a 400V arc cartridge on my Part 15 AM1620. Keep in mind that this will not take a direct-hit from lightning. However, those really close strikes, the spikes from those can be arc-shunted to ground, protecting circuitry after that.  Again, good to know. (THANKS, Boomer for FWR that!)

41

Propagation / TIS the season for 40M Greyline Propagation? April... Hello Australia!

« on: April 09, 2025, 1727 UTC »

A friend of mine, on a 2M Net, reminded me that 40M is really hot right now, with Greyline Propagation from North America to Australia & New Zealand. My best contact was in April 1994, when a friend of mine asked me to bring over to his house on Jerusalem Hill, Elmira, NY, my Icom IC-745. (I still have that rig.) Early evening, while QSO'ing with a local friend on 40M, a VK6 station, in Esperance, Western Horn of Australia, called me, after hearing me on just 50W and my friend's 40M Dipole. That later made for receiving a great QSL card. So, you never know.  https://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=W2LN&HF=N&DXC=ING2&GL=S

42

Huh? / Medium Wave Transmitter Joe on 1485 kHz, in Germany?

« on: April 08, 2025, 1817 UTC »

https://am-radio-stations.de/en/medium-wave-transmitter-joe/     Now, this is an interesting MW station that Boomer FWR to me. Enjoy.

43

Amateur Radio / Ham Community Frets in “Delete, Delete” Comments? RW rip.

« on: April 08, 2025, 1656 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/delete-delete-delete-comments-aplenty
My take??? Consolidation of two licenses? I know that's been kicked-around for a while. And, a technical competency is still good to know, VSWR's, various bands, propagation, antenna construction, harmonic suppression and filtering of spurs, etc. Two license classes would be useful for ARRL Field Day. Last time I've done that, I was the only Extra Class there, and everyone else was either Tech, or Generals. I, was their operating loop-hole for that evening. When I was a Code-less Tech, my loop-hole was to bring my HF rigs to a friend with a higher license class. There are more non-licensed ways to operate today, CB, MURS, GMRS, various Part 15, and even some of the IMS Bands. However, (And you'll never see this.), I'd like to see an Amateur Broadcasting Band open-up, using existing Amateur Radio call signs. Kind of like what they did for Amateur Television, (ATV), albeit that's not considered broadcasting. So, mixed feelings here.   

44

Equipment / Califone and those BSR Record Players seem to still have interest for archiving.

« on: April 07, 2025, 1720 UTC »

https://archive.org/details/califone-1130-k-schematic-library-commercial-record-player   
Some time ago, JG Tiger acquired a Califone 1130K commercial record player. My guess was in a trade. Anyway, I immediately knew what is was, since I've seen, and used, such a player in school, or the library, back in the 70's and early 80's. After that, cassettes pretty much took over. So, I benched-it to clean up 40-some years of grime and use. The unit still plays great, and sound pretty decent as well. Even plays stereo records, and has a hi-fi amp to do so. However, the big reason to have this was for 78RPM archiving, which it does very nicely. This unit has four speed, 78, 45, 33 1/2, and even 16, RPM. (Remember those? I know that there was a rarer speed of 8 RPM, meant only for long play voice dictation.) 16 RPM was used for narration of books and long slide shows. This unit has an internal schematic, so I've posted that on the preceding Archive .ORG link. Not the lowest noise and the best in fidelity, but it's not bad. Recording can be tapped from the headphones jack. (I would not recommend from the 5W speaker jacks, unless you build resistive attenuaters.) The Bass & Treble work well as a 1/2-ass EQ, so you may have to experiment for settings of choice here. The drive is via an AC induction motor, using wheels and a multi-cut diameter shaft, as a speed transmission. (Very much like the BSR units, but a bit more heavy-duty here.) So, if you see one of these units, not totally trashed, and the price is right, I would not pass it up. Oh BTW, not a bad thing to have for radio 78 RPM airing. That PAUSE is very CUE friendly and quick, if your station is doing Vinylthon.

45

Propagation / This latest after-storms & floods cool-snap maybe last-call for Low Band DX'ing!

« on: April 07, 2025, 1652 UTC »

After disconnecting everything radio-wise for almost a month, I did hook-up & kick-on the HF rig Sunday afternoon, then evening, to find that the bands below 10MHz were not that trashed-up in lightning crashes, unlike earlier last week. 40M AM was totally listenable on 7280 - 95kHz, with lots on ops booming-in. 3885kHz AM wasn't that noisy either, but hardly anyone on. In fact, there wasn't that much traffic on 75 - 80M last night. Some activity on 160M SSB. So, while we have this cool-snap in the East, might be a good time to take advantage of that, before T-storms return.