Messages

1066

Equipment / Re: Filters For Dummies

« on: August 15, 2019, 1800 UTC »

Roll you own filter and build it, use this calculator site,    http://www.calculatoredge.com/electronics/ch%20pi%20low%20pass.htm
A site like this worked for me, but I've added a better twist to the ones that I've built in the past. All the CAP's are variable to fine-tune the filter to be very sharp.

1067

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / Re: NOAA Weather Radio Tropo Ducting Propagation VHF DX Logs July - August 2019

« on: August 12, 2019, 0318 UTC »

Try DX'ing WX stations around 5, or 6, AM.

1068

10/11 meters / Re: Local trucking company Ch 5 27015 AM 1202 UTC 9 Aug 2019

« on: August 09, 2019, 1844 UTC »

'Round my neck of the woods, it's coal trucks on CB CH8 for years. I've even passed them a few times when they were close enough to bleed on all 40 channels to me and found them that way on various roadways. I see that Maxim Crane Works trucks and crane rigs are outfitted with CB's as well, albeit I don't know what channel they use, yet.

1069

General Radio Discussion / Re: Pirating in the 11-meter broadcast band?

« on: August 06, 2019, 1756 UTC »

Well, not me, but someone possibly resembling me, might have considered 26.015MHz AM during E's and last decent F2's. Why there? That's the bottom limit where many of those 12M, 11M, and 10M, export rigs can RX. And??? Heard only once by CB'ers, but not DX. You still have those NBFM auxiliary stations there, and it's nice that WWV is back on 25.00000MHz again. I remember back around 1999, some dude up in Rochester, NY keyed down on a CB channel, (Don't remember which one.), and used it as a broadcast FREQ. Didn't sound like anything fancy, sounded like a CB with a power mic, and that was it. Music was hallow and distorted, and when he announced, he'd bitch at whomever walked in on him yelling, "Shut the f@#$ up! I'm on the air!". Then, after one week, gone. I don't believe that the FCC had anything to do with it. More like someone was either really pissed off, or he burnt up his rig. One advantage that was conceive about pirating on 11M BC band is, when E's, or F2, was hopping, it was difficult to precisely triangulate and locate where the TX could be coming from, unless the monitoring station was within 30 miles, or so. Unlike the lower bands, where a station was a sitting duck. Also, 11M can be had via mobile operations and a 1/4-wave whip. Just, too bad that few DX'ers ever consider looking for pirates up there, but mainly just hear CB outbanders.

1070

10/11 meters / Late E's for 11M, then 10M!

« on: August 05, 2019, 0241 UTC »

Around my neck of the woods, local HAM's on lightning free weekend evenings chit-chat on 10M, 28.415MHz USB. And, since this was a nice dry, storm free, Sunday evening, the weather must have keep any local ops outside today. However, I did hear from 23:25UTC - 01:30UTC stations from N. MI, NJ, then the swamps of LA. Scanned 11M CB, and sure enough, that was hopping mad with E skip. So, still some E's this late.

1071

Equipment / Re: AcuRite 02020 Portable Lightning Detector

« on: August 01, 2019, 1838 UTC »

HEY!!!! I've used something like this for decades. it's called a portable AM radio receiver. And, it can detect daytime lightning from +50 miles, or more. plus, it hears 100% of lightning strikes. At night, at full sensitivity, it can detect lightning from 1/2 the country. And also at night, I switch over to the optical lightning detector, my own two eyes. They can even more accurately detect what precise direction the lightning is coming from over 80 miles away! Wow...... Just sayin'...   Hmmmmmmmm, can ya fool that Lightning device by flipping ON a switch of something high current? Does it go off near bug zappers, electric fences, and noisy spark plug cables? Yeah, I don't believe that I need to buy this.

1072

Amateur Radio / Re: Radio repair technician?

« on: July 31, 2019, 1845 UTC »

Try this reviewed listing,   https://www.eham.net/reviews/products/26    It's what I went through for Kenwood repairs, especially SMT repairs. Good luck.

1073

10/11 meters / Re: Good 11 meters portable antenna

« on: July 21, 2019, 0621 UTC »

Well, just today, I worked a dude on 10M from TN whom had a double 10M Hamsticks in the dipole-like pattern. Not a great signal my way, but he gave me at the most an S5 with his 100W, while my original late 80's RCI-2950 was only pushing out 18W back to him. I'm using a rebuilt 10M Ringo AR-10. I believe that he heard me better than I heard him, but still a nice contact. I'm sure those 10M Hamsticks could be MAX'ed out for 11M. I still have a 6M Hamstick to a 5" MAG mount. 10W on 6M SSB had me working "7" land back in the mid-1990's.

1074

Amateur Radio / Re: 2M SSB, made it to "E's"!!!!

« on: July 21, 2019, 0608 UTC »

WOW!!!! Sporadic "E" was so intense, that a friend of mine DX'ed a 93.7FM from North Dakota! So, I checked 10M, 6M, and then 144.200MHz USB. Heard a bunch of super quick, partial "0" calls from 19:00 - 19:40UTC. Almost like meteor scatter quick. 6M and 10M stayed open into the evening, when I had to shut down for work.

1075

MW Loggings / Classic Rock, WQTT 1270AM caught and finally ID'ed.

« on: July 21, 2019, 0601 UTC »

I've recently brought back from the dead a 1967 Arvin #87R59 Leather Cased Radio, then repaired the DC jack and and replenished missing hardware. FM and the MB (Marine Band), sucks on it, as I remembered that they did, even in their hey days. However, AM is a different story. On 1270kHz it was pulling in a pretty progressive classic rock station with much flutter fades. Getting an ID was about damned near impossible, and no other radio that I had here seemed to really get this. Not even the C-Crane Plus radio. Best direction was North / South. Boomer went onto an on-line SDR, with great AM receive, and finally caught the ID as WQTT,   Marysville, OH,   https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=wqtt&nav=
That night pattern is pointed right at me, but it's short skip, which would enplane the rapid fluttering fading. Hmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what else I'll catch with that portable?

1076

Equipment / Re: Directivity of HF dipoles

« on: July 15, 2019, 0409 UTC »

Kind of related here, but you can also implement NVIS Antenna pattern,   http://www.w0ipl.net/ECom/NVIS/nvis.htm
HAM's are finding that the newer 60M, (5MHz), band is great for this. Great from regional coverage.

1077

Equipment / Re: Active antenna for condo or apt

« on: July 14, 2019, 0535 UTC »

Well, I've been APT bound in the past, and even lived on the GND Floor of a complex, and have tried just about everything, including active antennas. And, every APT will be different with its perks and jerks. How high up will you be? Will you have access to large window panes? What kind of night time lighting is used, sulfur vapor, halogen, LED? Don't get me wrong, HF DX'ing is still possible, but between indoor attenuation and internal noise, it will be a great challenge. In the GND Floor of an APT Complex I did DX several pirates, like Radio USA, but I remember it being a real stretch to get that ID in 1990. Conditions like that prompted me to getting my codeless HAM ticket when that came 2/14/1991 in the USA, since I was able to get out better on VHF and UHF bands. Still I worked CB, as well as heard a lot of 10M stuff. For 13MHz - 30MHz, an 11M CB homebrew dipole in an Inverted-V can work almost as well as an outside mobile set-up. (Almost.) Fine-tweak with an antenna tuner, and maybe even an RX preamp, (With adjustable gain.), and there ya go, a homebrew active antenna-like system. You maybe surprised just what you can RX below 13MHz as well. I don't know where ya are, but you still have some nice propagational 24/7 beacons out there, WWV 2.5MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, 20MHz, and now 25MHz. Then, Canada's CHU at 3330kHz, (And the 40M and 20M FREQ's escape me, at the moment. Brain fart.). Oh, then 24/7's CFRX 6070kHz 1kW from Toronto, ON, Canada. Then, look for listing for amateur radio 10M Beacons. I hate to say that you will miss what you have. If you have windows that can open up, then another trick that I've done is a wire hanging from a fishing pole out the window. Reel it out when ya want to DX, reel it in when you're done, and hide it, even in an HOA-like environment restrictions. Oh... I even ran super thin TV degausser wire to a near-by tree. The only way someone had seen it was to know what they were looking for, and I DX'ed pirates, Euro and Russian stations with that. I don't envy ya, but I hope that this these are some ideas of what you can try in a condo, and they maybe cheaper than shelling out for an active antenna that may just bring you in more noise than signal. In a pinch as well, you also have on-line SDR stations to monitor, but that's not the same as RX'ing with your own gear, is it? 

1078

Equipment / Re: Notch Filter for the 9330 kHz WBCQ SuperStation

« on: July 01, 2019, 1836 UTC »

You could always build a DIY Notch Filter.    http://www.wa4dsy.net/cgi-bin/lc_filter4?FilterResponse=Bandstop&poles=6&CF=9.330&cfunits=MHZ&cutoff=.020&funits=MHZ&Z=50       I've used a site like this to calculate a 7 Element Chebychev filter when I've built the 13.560MHz mW TX. One trick to really bring this filter dead-nuts perfect? Use all variable CAP's. The inductors you can wind yourselves.   http://www.wa4dsy.net/filter/filterdesign.html        There are other filter design sites out there, but this one works pretty well.

1079

Equipment / Re: Multiple Radio/Antenna Safety

« on: June 29, 2019, 1918 UTC »

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... In my truck, I have a 2M 1/4-wave MAG mount about 2ft away from my Lil' Wil CB Antenna. The CB is a stock Uniden Pro520XL and the 2M rig is an older Kenwood TM-241A, with MAX OUT at 32W. Neither rig interferes with each other, but the CB does go over the trucks Chinese made stock in-dash stereo. (Hmmmmmm, rarely a problem with AC Delco stereos I've had in the past.) 2 years ago, I've tried a B-Tech UV-24X4 multi-band VHF / UHF rig, and the CB played total havoc with it, BAD. So, I took that B-Tech rig out, and put the Kenwood back in. Might as well use what works. Your problem might be a big one with the Tecson PL880. With little, to no protection on the front-end, you might fry some MOSFET's. What can you try? Add a coupler with parallel opposing ultra fast switching diodes on the ANT IN of the PL880. The diodes will shunt RF to GND when they reach .7V. Where did I learn this trick? From those that have protected the ANT IN's on Sony ICW-SW2010 portables. I did this also to my Sangean ATS-803A portable. Try a search on the Sony 2010 Yahoo Group's page for this, and apply that technique to other RX only radios. The other transceivers? Well, modern ones have PIN diodes already installed for super quick TX / RX switching. Now, whether they can protect the RX of a transceiver from high ANT RF IN is debatable. (Could someone else ring-in on that?)

1080

MW Loggings / Re: WGR 550 am 0244 UTC 27 June 2019

« on: June 27, 2019, 1848 UTC »

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh yes.... The only B-Lo AM station that could be heard both day and night reliably in WNY, where as 1520AM shoots its 50KW wad East, and 930WBEN didn't cover the Southern Tier well at all. Did ya have the DJ's at that time sign your albums that you've won? I miss when 550WGR then, played tunage, instead of sports now.