Messages

1126

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...

1127

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.

1128

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.

1129

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!!!!!

1130

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. 

1131

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.

1132

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.

1133

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?

1134

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. 

1135

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.

1136

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. 

1137

Equipment / Re: Antenna tuner for random wire/longwire

« on: May 20, 2017, 1430 UTC »

Well, for a schematic of the tried and true MFJ-941D tuner, scroll down to page 4,    http://www.tgc-ares.org/mfj-941d.pdf      Actually, you can make this tuner better than MFJ with delron insulative washers and not using "rivets to aluminum" on the chassis. I've improved my 941D tuners by soldering GND braids from circuit board GND to daisy chaining the outer SO-239 connectors. You can tune just about anything from 160M to 30MHz. I mainly use mine to make-up the lack of auto tuning on the newer 60M band. Many older auto tuners, and rigs that have the built-in auto tuner just won't do do it, but my MFJ-941D manual tuner works great there. I haven't tried it on 30M, but it should work great. Best of luck!!!!!

1138

10/11 meters / Re: Truckstop Broadcasts on CB Channel 19 27.185 MHz? Oh yeah!

« on: May 14, 2017, 1611 UTC »

      I still keep a rig in my truck, and we're going to figure out where to stash a CB in my sister's Chevy Cruise. (Sucks that today's cars are so no radio-mounting friendly.) Anyway, still a good source for monitoring, bitching, wreck happenings, weather mess-ups, and even some interesting entertainment. A dozen years ago, I was on Rt 86 by the Arkport, NY exit, and over CH19 was a dude keying up just saying, "21 for head!". About every 1min he kept repeating that. One trucker keyed up asking, "Is he calling about a blow job!?!". Then, when ya went to CH21, ya heard truckers yelling, "WHERE ARE YOU?". Back on CH19, ya still heard that one dude repeating, "21 for head!", until I was about 10 miles away from there. That was different, but not as funny as what I heard in the late 1990's where a CB'er was told that he sounded like schyyt and too raspy. When that dude asked about what he could do about it, that other dude that said that he sounded like crap told him that his rig was probably too dry and that he needed to water it to make it sound good again. When that dude with the raspy rig asked where to do that on his rig, another dude keyed in and told him to pour a bottle of water into the radio's rear vent holes, but to do it while the rig is still keyed up. Then that dude keyed up doing the, "Well, I don't know...". More dudes keyed in egging this guy to do it. Then finally the raspy guy keyed up saying, "OK... Here we go. Let me know how it sounds." Then, ya heard a Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffftt sound, then silence for about a minute. Then a dude keyed up L.H.F.A.O. saying, "OMG!!!! I can't believe he F'n did it!". Then that channel just roared with comments afterwards. WOW!!!!!! That was classic and I only wish that I could have recorded that. 

1139

Equipment / Re: 11 meter rig. Another good skip antenna, 1/4 -wave Ground Plane.

« on: May 10, 2017, 0950 UTC »

        Here's a great antenna you can build that's great for talking local (Within 20 miles.), and great for skip talking. The Quarter Wave Ground Plane. Check this link,     https://www.pinterest.com/pin/205054589259242247/      It has a pretty high angle of radiation, so it makes it great for this Summer's Sporadic "E" propagation, (What CB'ers refer to as short skip.), and can do decent F2 skip when that opens back up during high sunspot peaks. Good luck!

1140

Huh? / Re: A decade into Record Store Day, a new world of vinyl?

« on: May 02, 2017, 0313 UTC »

Too bad that most of the vinyl out there today is digital copies analoged on 180g vinyl. Then again, most millennials don't seem to give a crap. I still believe the best quality out there, sound-wise, are the original pressings from the 50's to the mid-80's recorded from the original analog tapes.  It sucks when you listen to 180g LP and hear the recording of a CD skip, or the harsh treble highs from MP3's.