Messages

121

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Does 'Cable FM' still exist anywhere today?

« on: September 06, 2024, 1704 UTC »

Another Part 15 option that has existed, at least since the early 1970's in the USA, is Cable FM Radio.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_radio  (I'm sure there are other explanations out there, but that was from a very quick search.) Anyway, in the 70's, 80's, and the 90's, college campuses and small towns, with CATV companies, could allow a station to exist via only being available on their cabled system. Where I grew up, we had Cable FM, but not anything local access like, just re-FREQ-assigned of rebroadcasted stations from Buffalo, Rochester, Hornell, Olean, Niagara Falls, in WNY, and even Toronto, ON, Canada. Local FM reception was dismal, at best, in that area, so FM was nice for the cable company to offer at the time. The only thing that was Cable-Only was the leaky-cable coo-coo at the very start of the FM dial. That, was the tool where cable company employees could drive around, using just a car stereo's FM RX, to find out where the RF leaky cable faults were, and, or, see whom was stealing CATV illegally. Bottom-line, does anyone know of any Cable FM only stations that exist only on the local CATV system, that they are carried on? Or, do you have stories of such station in the past?

122

Amateur Radio / ARRL September VHF Sweepsteaks, 9/14 - 9/16/2024.

« on: September 05, 2024, 1809 UTC »

https://www.arrl.org/september-vhf       Hopefully, 6M will still be hopping on F2 for this. Don't know if Tropo will exist for 2M, on up.

123

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Inexpensive Automatic Volume Control for Part 15 stations? And, other things.

« on: September 04, 2024, 1847 UTC »

https://www.tompolk.com/hobbies/automaticvolumeleveler/avc.html   Looks very doable to me. However, I wonder if you could use LM386 audio amp IC's in there? They would be easier to power, and are more readily available. https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm386.pdf

124

Huh? / Re: While we're at it, check out RigPix's site!

« on: September 03, 2024, 1951 UTC »

https://rigpix.com/cbfreeband/cbfreebandselect.htm  Even, if this doesn't have the owner, or service, manual that you might be looking for, still fun to look at various world-wide CB / Walkie-Talkie PIC's.

125

Huh? / Pretty big FCC AM Station(s) listing!

« on: August 29, 2024, 1938 UTC »

Actually, I was doing an updated TIS Station search, but came across this, instead:    https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?call=&arn=&state=&city=&freq=530&fre2=1700&type=0&facid=&class=&edu=1&list=1&NextTab=Results+to+Next+Page%2FTab&dist=&dlat2=&mlat2=&slat2=&NS=N&dlon2=&mlon2=&slon2=&EW=W&size=9       Yeah, a pretty big listing there, and not just USA stations. Just FYI...

UPDATE??? OK... This is, if you don't crash the FCC's site doing this. Oooops...

126

Huh? / CB Tricks is back, but as a .ORG now.

« on: August 27, 2024, 1822 UTC »

Great site for various classic CB radio INFO. And, now they are back with a different URL.    https://cbtricks.org/   You can spend hours looking through and downloading various manuals & schematics. (YEA!!!!)

127

Propagation / Re: Good conditions for Late Summer VHF / UHF Tropo? Could be, and was!

« on: August 27, 2024, 1701 UTC »

Nice Western  / Eastern Tropo after 04:00 UTC, 8/27/2024, from Ashland, KY WX FREQ 162.550MHz. Normally, this station is just at Squelch threshold, on my outside Discone Antenna, here in SW West Virginia. However, that WX station was full-quieting on the indoor scanner antennas. (Nice...) Now, if we could only get this condition on a weekend night.

128

Propagation / Good conditions for Late Summer VHF / UHF Tropo? Could be!

« on: August 23, 2024, 1904 UTC »

It's been incredibly dry here in SW West Virginia, where even the GND Rods need to be kept moist for conductivity. Well, this next week the weather here calls for mid-90's in the day, and 60's at night, even foggy mornings. That's, usually good makings for nice Tropo for VHF / UHF  Propagation, from like midnight, to maybe 9AM. Best indicators for that are distant NOAA weather Radio FREQ's, from 162.400MHz - 162.550MHz FM. TV / FM DX'ers may get some good catches here. And, don't forget to try DX MURS VHF and GMRS UHF. Don't forget those Amateur Radio simplex FREQ's. This map site could be helpful as well.  https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html    So, hopefully, HAPPY VHF / UHF DX'ing!

129

Huh? / Radio Survivor Podcast #342 – The Famous Computer Cafe

« on: August 18, 2024, 1453 UTC »

Got to admit, it's kind of a different turn for Radio Survivor, but digging-up 1980's computer shows are no doubt of interest. So, enjoy.   https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2024/08/podcast-342-the-famous-computer-cafe/

130

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Re: College Carrier-Current AM stations still on-air? Radio Locator search.

« on: August 17, 2024, 2050 UTC »

https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?call=&band=AM&freq=&freq_exact=Yes&city=&state=&country=&format=&owner_search=starts&owner=&scope=&is_ful=Y&is_unl=Y&sort=Call&count=20&sr=1&sid=      Interesting, but I know that there's more out there.

131

General Radio Discussion / CHML 900AM Hamilton, ON going bye-bye? Uh...

« on: August 16, 2024, 1557 UTC »

Ya know, I've just RSVP'ed a post, where someone was asking about station that still air Old-Time Radio programs, and CHML 900AM was one that I remembered that still did nightly. Well, I guess not anymore.  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-corus-shuts-down-hamilton-radio-station-amid-other-necessary-changes/  That sucks, as it was also another neat alternative talker that could be easily heard driving around WNY. (Thank you Boomer, for passing that along to me.) Still, sucks to read about.

132

10/11 meters / 0352 UTC, 8/12/2024, CB CH38 LSB. Rare, late night F2 and late season Sporadic E

« on: August 12, 2024, 1739 UTC »

Surprised to hear activity on CB CH38 LSB, 27.385MHz, at 11:52PM EST, with Sporadic "E" from Illinois, and F2 from a 416 Jeff, from Melbourne, Australia, peaking out at S9. Then, there was this dude DX'ing from Hawaii, but didn't mention where. Still, neat to hear that late at night, on 11M.

133

General Radio Discussion / Re: Looking for stations with old time radio shows? Try these, albeit late night

« on: August 11, 2024, 1656 UTC »

I've heard Charleston, WV's 580AM WCHS do old-time radio comedies on Saturday mornings from 2AM - 4AM EST.   https://radio-locator.com/info/WCHS-AM    And for years, I've heard old-time radio comedies and dramas on Hamilton, ON's CHML AM900, nightly.  https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=chml&nav=home  I understand that many Part 15 AM stations are airing these old-time radio shows as well. So, you'll never know.

134

Huh? / What's your 'College Stations' list?

« on: August 08, 2024, 1718 UTC »

With the recent buzz of the movie documentary 35000 Watts, www.35000watts.com , that leads the question out there to y'all. What college stations did you either visit, listen to, was on-air with, or even provided engineering to? With me??? Still thinking about it, my list keeps getting longer, but been to the studios of:

WJSL, (Now WXXY.), WNTE, WALF, WITR, WECW,

Station that I have not been in the studio, but just outside, or at the TX site:

WETD, WGCC, WGSU, WBSU, (That includes the AM Carrier-Current trainer station.), KSUA, (Got to also see their parade float in 7/1985.), WRUR, WBNY, WSBU, WVCR, WEOS, WMUL, WWVU, WSPN, WVBR,

Other stations that I've listened to, but never been to:

WICB, WDWN, WFSE, WCEB, WCMO, WKPS, WSRU, WQSU, WERG, WVWC,

The only station to provide engineering to, thus far:

WNTE


Am I forgetting some? I know that I am. I'll never beat Jennifer Waits's list. So, how many do you know on this list? https://www.35000watts.com/college-radio-database/

While I'm at it, LPFM stations that I've been to:

WTSQ-LP, WSVQ-LP

Now, how many pirate stations have I been to? Um... Let's leave that one for another subject.

Incomplete list? 8/10/2024: Forgot about listening to Toronto's 89.5FM, CIUT,   https://ciut.fm/  heard driving down Rt 390S, to as far as Wayland, NY. That was in the late 1990's, and they just played a long set of Trance tunage then. Thus far, the only Canadian college station that I remember hearing. Probably, couldn't do that today, with all these newer FM translators on-air.

135

SDR - Software Defined Radio / Radio World discovers, SDR: The Next Level of Shortwave Radio Listening? Ok...

« on: August 07, 2024, 1622 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/global/sdr-the-next-level-of-shortwave-radio-listening   Hey, gotta' start somewhere on this. At least, the author got his RTL-SDR to work, where as I'm still doing occasional on-line Kiwi-SDR's and the all-in-one-box Xiegu G90. Bigger and better SDR's in my future? Hope so, but $$$$, projects, and time, always have to go elsewhere.