Messages

1096

General Radio Discussion / DRM+ tests in South Africa sound very promising. Now, will it happen in USA?

« on: July 31, 2017, 1856 UTC »

Ripping from SWL'ing, again, but sounds neat about DRM+, the digital alternative to analog wide-band FM,

http://www.radiomagonline.com/around-the-world/0020/south-african-station-tests-digital-radio-mondiale-features/39070

Huh,  they should use NYC, LA, or even Chicago, as a DRM+ test bed over here. Question is, will they, with the HD Radio IBOC foothold? Hmmmmm...

1097

General Radio Discussion / Neat AM broadcasting article FWR to me. Neat read.

« on: July 18, 2017, 2246 UTC »

COOL!!!! Boomer was nice enough to FWR this to me, and it's quite a read:

http://www.insideradio.com/bumps-remain-on-long-path-to-am-revitalization/article_cbbd1766-54b6-11e7-9742-a37b51b593b5.html

I'd love to see AM stereo make a foot hold again, and although we might not be too happy being stuck with Motorola's C-QUAM, (Due to those phasing and wowing effects at night.), it does sound good and work pretty well, overall.
What the article doesn't hit upon is to open up AM for LPAM, for those that have been totally shut out of LPFM, due to the flood of FM translators on now. Maybe we should e-mail Tom King, president of Bristol, TN-based Kintronic Labs, to encourage his company to be forward thinking on AM, and see what he'd think about being on the LPAM bandwagon. Passing thought, [www.kintronic.com]

1098

General Radio Discussion / U of AK does HAARP tours! Wanna' go?

« on: July 15, 2017, 1316 UTC »

Yeah, ripped from SWL'ing:  http://swling.com/blog/2017/07/haarp-open-house-august-19-2017/#respond

Heck yeah, if I was up there still, I'd do it. I've already been to the U of AK, albeit that was back in 1985.

1099

General Radio Discussion / Re: WWV 25 MHz Signal Swapped to Circular Polarization, Reception Reports Invited

« on: July 14, 2017, 0240 UTC »

  I'm was so glad to see this 25MHz side come back to WWV. Not only is it a great propagational beacon for F2 and Sporadic E, but I have, and will still, use it to retune radios' master oscillators too. My Kenwood TS-2000X was a rig that came out of the factory with a slightly mistuned master oscillator. (Enough so that you would notice it on 2M SSB, 432MHz SSB, and especially 1296MHz.) By zero beating the 25MHz in CW, then testing in LSB and USB, I was way more on FREQ with that rig. Tested that against an Icom IC-745, where the manual actually tells about the WVV / master oscillator tune-up procedure. Next, I plan to retune a Kenwood TS-50S rig that I know is about -50Hz off FREQ. It's enough so that I notice that on 10M SSB. Like I said, a very useful, rock solid, 25MHz signal source, just too bad that I can't RX it every day.

1100

General Radio Discussion / Re: Horns Across America: The AT&T Long Lines Network. Oh yeah...

« on: July 14, 2017, 0218 UTC »

       One of the biggest, and highest sites of these old AT&T towers is in the old P.O. Box 452-land. You can see it for miles, and from hilltops more than 20 miles south of the PA border. It is said that either Lake Erie, or Ontario, can be be seen from there at the tower's top. (Don't know how true that is.) It would be a prime tower spot for FM, TV, or a repeater. What stops folks from setting up such a station on these AT&T towers? American Tower bought up a bunch of these towers and charge absolutely outrageous tower space prices, so they stand today bare and unused. Yep...

1101

FM Free Radio / Re: Any stations in Los Angeles? Good luck finding a free FREQ!

« on: July 12, 2017, 1255 UTC »

      Yeah, good luck finding a free frequency in LA on FM. Ya might be better off going onto AM there. But beware, I remember reading that engineers from commercial stations tried to take two Part #15 AM stations off-air, but the FCC actual couldn't do anything, because they were compliant. This was back in the 1990's. So, even if the FCC doesn't hunt ya down, some asshole, brown nosing, commercial station might there.

1102

General Radio Discussion / Re: 30th Anniversary of WFAN (and the birth of Sports Radio)

« on: July 05, 2017, 0215 UTC »

Well, I for one didn't like the WFAN change from 66 WNBC. I still miss that. I do have to give WFAN credit, where credit is due. They have lasted the test of time. Albeit, I certainly didn't see this as a bright moment in radio history at that time.

1103

General Radio Discussion / ARRL Field Day this weekends June 24 - 25, 2017.

« on: June 18, 2017, 1240 UTC »

Yep, that time of year again for this event,  http://www.arrl.org/field-day  .  And, no doubt that propagation will come in time to suck for this. It certainly did last year. Dead from 7MHz on up and no Sporadic E for 10M and 6M. Still, for DX'ers it's a chance to hear where all those stations from the USA and Canada are coming from since they exchange the call and the state, or province, they are at. And some places the states are divided. NYS is on of those for WNY, ENY, Long Island NY, etc. So, be listening on the regular HF FREQ's for these, 160M, 80M / 75M, 40M, 20M, 15M, 10M, and 6M. (No WARC bands, 60M, or the new MW and LW, bands.) Scanner listeners can listen for FM contesters on 29.600MHz, 52.525MHz and 52.540MHz, 146.550MHz and 146. 580MHz, 223.500MHz, 446.00MHz, 906.500MHz, and 1294.500MHz. Most activity is the lower HF bands, but if Sporadic E comes into play, then 10M and especially 6M will the the stars of the show. Happy DX'ing!!!!!

1104

Equipment / Re: Low Band Antennae

« on: June 14, 2017, 1052 UTC »

      Heck, just use a 102" CB whip antenna. No baseload coils to attenuate higher FREQ's. Or, ya might be able to grab a Low Band VHF commercial 60", or so, whip for nothing. Many commercial dispatchers are leaving the VHF Low Band for UHF, or cell phones, so ya might just pick-up a freebie there. 

1105

10/11 meters / Re: European Paging Pager Frequencies 11 meters. Use to be in USA as well.

« on: June 08, 2017, 0122 UTC »

     I still remember when Radio shack sold the CB digital pager in the 1980's that was in between CB channel FREQ's. (What freebanders called the "A" channels.) The offices at college (Back in 1987.), had me help extend the range of their system, so I used their filing cabinet as a GND Plane. Worked pretty good. I'm guessing that disappeared with the introduction of cell phones.

1106

10/11 meters / Re: 11 Meter Band Activity 7 June 2017? Um, yep!

« on: June 08, 2017, 0114 UTC »

      Awh, yeah... Talked to 5 dudes around the Rochester, NY area this afternoon on 10M SSB 28.405MHz, but it was the scanner that clued me in to Sporadic E opening up that way when I heard the Avon, NY 10M FM repeater over it on 29.620MHz. Also the scanner was hearing the Dallas 10M repeater again on 29.660MHz.

1107

Huh? / Re: A real "Inconvenient Truth" And counting!

« on: May 21, 2017, 1406 UTC »

   Yep,  that's the problem with Billery and Hill. Ya get too close to them and find out stuff, there leads a trail of a body count. Might be time to bring back out the blast from the past the Vince Foster Suicide Action Figure Doll. And, didn't anyone learn anything from the movie Primary Colors? Oh wait... That was fiction. Right?

1108

10/11 meters / Re: Activity 20 May 2017? ^m, 10M, and 11M rockin'!

« on: May 21, 2017, 1353 UTC »

    Awh yeah! I was making all sorts of new contacts, and a couple that I've worked from last year, Saturday 5/20/2017. 1st on 6M SSB to TX, LA, and MS. Then, later to the Mid-West on 10M SSB centered around 28.400MHz USB from OK, AR, and IA. But, when that wound down, activity continued to the Mid-West on CB CH38LSB. Oddly enough, the Superbowl CH6 was quite. Hmmmm??? And the early evening ended with some rare E-skip on 10M to Long Island, NY. So, several contacts from there before T-storms shut me down. Glad to have E-skip back, to make-up for the rest of the HF bands sucking from CME's. 

1109

The RF Workbench / Re: Stretchyman Pirate Radio Video? Puts me to shame.

« on: May 20, 2017, 1509 UTC »

 Oh yeah! That dude's work puts my work to shame. 3 1/2 years ago I made a 13.560MHz AM mW TX for the Part #15 portion of that bad. 900uW - 18mW output, EXT modulated with a 1/2W of audio, and all made from used components on hand. The only thing new in it was a donated 13.560MHz crystal from Fearless Fred. I stuffed it all in an old Pace CB chassis. Looks like hell, but works great. Stretchyman's TX is like the 21st Century's version of the Radio Animal Grenade TX, when I contemplate about it.

1110

Equipment / Re: 11 meter rig. Jan Crystals for CB rigs.

« on: May 20, 2017, 1451 UTC »

To answer the question earlier about CB crystals? With ICM gone bye-bye, there's still Jan Crystals in Florida,     http://www.jancrystals.com/   A decade ago I called them for crystals to a 460MHz Regency old taxicab transceiver to use for my GMRS repeater. They asked me for the make and model # of what the crystal were going into, and they pulled up the data from their library of photofaxes and told me what I needed to get, and for what TX / RX FREQ's for each crystal. If they don't have the make and model #'s of the rig you have, they may request a .PDF copy of that from you to: (1.)  Determine what crystals will work for your needs. (2.) To have that info for their own library. Tid for tad.