Messages

271

WEFAX and SSTV / Re: ISS SSTV broadcast campaign coming up

« on: December 29, 2021, 1852 UTC »

Thinking about it, since ISS has been doing SSTV all week, thus far, with every pass. And, with S+10/9 signal to boot. The must be using high power on that Kenwood TM-D710SG.

272

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / Re: Tis the season, for new Bubble-Pack FRS / GMRS radios for Christmas to monitor.

« on: December 29, 2021, 1849 UTC »

Wait until ya mess with hunters that do that whispering in the mic to each other. Hmmmmmmmm... Should I have said that? (He-he...)

273

Equipment / Re: Ameritron Al811 help. Keep that power low.

« on: December 28, 2021, 2055 UTC »

Going through this myself, with recommendation from Timtron, on working him on 3885kHz AM, keep the AL-811's carrier output to 90W, or less. plug-in 572's tubes and you can up that power out carrier to around 110W. Also, be sure that you have some type of decent audio limiting as well and maybe 4:1 compression. And, always listen to that signal with a receiver without an antenna. Hope that helps.

274

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / Tis the season, for new Bubble-Pack FRS / GMRS radios for Christmas to monitor.

« on: December 28, 2021, 2020 UTC »

So, with warmer weather, and being the Christmas / NYD Week, I'm hearing daily activity from neighborhood kids on what must be new Bubble-Pack GMRS / FRS radios. I keep an older Midland Bubble-Pack HT on constant scan, on a 6VDC power supply, and did it originally to hear hunters and get heads-up on local road construction around here, since they use these radios as well, instead of commercial VHF / UHF HT's. The most annoying thing about monitoring these are the kids whaling on the Call button constantly. This doesn't usually last, and by the 2nd week of January, they almost always give it up. I use to hear this in the 1980's and 1990's every Christmas on CB CH14, when kids would get CB walkie-talkies for Christmas and try them hard for a couple weeks, then the buzz of them would fizzle out. So, if you want to set-up your scanner to listen-in, or use a spare bubble-pack radio and hit scan, like I do, FREQ here,     https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/FRS/GMRS_combined_channel_chart

275

Amateur Radio / Re: Xiegu G90? see if the reviewer have.

« on: December 28, 2021, 0500 UTC »

I haven't, but I believe that some of these Reviewers have,       https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=14255

276

Pirate Radio History / Remember Ernest Wilson's EBN / ERN zine from the mid-1980's? Boomer's got 'em!

« on: December 26, 2021, 0643 UTC »

Ernest Wilson, of Panaxis Productions, had a great newsletter, almost zine-like, The EBN, Experimental Broadcaster's Newsletter and then the ERN, Experimental Radio Newsletter. Well, Boomer's got the mid-90's ones, and you to can download and enjoy these articles from mostly reader supplied, as well as Q&A's, and Ernest even puts his $0.02 worth. I have only from 1987 to end printing. So, ENJOY!!!!!! 

http://boomerthedog.net/radio.html 

277

Equipment / Re: Yaesu FT-950 issue - Please help! PS???

« on: December 25, 2021, 1838 UTC »

I forgot to ask, but what are you using for a power supply? To run my 100W rigs full-bore on SSB and AM TX, my bro-in-law's Astron RS-35A is perfect, with current to spare. I've tried using an RS-20M, but 20A peak wasn't enough on SSB and AM peaks. I feel that you comfortably need at least 25A on a 100W rig. FM is different, running Class C, and I can get away with 20A there on 10M FM. Just another passing thought that I can't believe that I didn't ask about earlier. BTW, can you run a lower current PS with a 100W rig? Well, yeah, but at much reduced power. A 15A PS, ya might get away with 50W. 10A??? I wouldn't go over 25W. It like drinking, know your limit, stay within it.

278

Equipment / Re: R-390a Users?

« on: December 25, 2021, 1830 UTC »

Don't have one, have yet to try one, read extensively about them, so I want one! Yeah... You should have included that in your survey, "I WANT ONE!". Talk about a rig that 'nailed-it' for things to come, before the age of digital read-out, that was very forward thinking for it's time, and its standards are still a model to base a rig's performance, today. That sells me.

279

North American MW Pirate Radio / Several UNID's 1710AM - 1740AM, 0230 - 0330 UTC, 12/25/2021.

« on: December 25, 2021, 0519 UTC »

On drive home, 1710AM, heard a slow Ballard sung with Hudson Co. TIS battling with it. Back on base, 03:03UTC - 03:06UTC, 1710AM, church quire-like version of Silent Night, then repeated. TIS still giving fits to hearing this. S5 signal peak. Jump to peak seen on 1720AM, 03:06UTC, distorted audio of Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue, then Animals - House Of The Rising Sun, then gone 03:15UTC. Peaked to S4. Then wide band carrier centered on 1740AM on 03:31UTC. No audio, but just hash, (Digital?), S5. No ID on any of these.

280

Huh? / Experimental Station WI2XLQ will recreate 1906 Fessenden transmissions again?

« on: December 24, 2021, 1912 UTC »

That should be different.    https://swling.com/blog/2021/12/experimental-station-wi2xlq-will-recreate-1906-fessenden-transmissions-again-this-holiday-season/

281

Huh? / Re: The mystery -550Hz carrier within 1240AM. And, 1540AM, +205Hz!

« on: December 23, 2021, 2015 UTC »

Whoa... Boomer asked me about the strong HET, that's +205Hz, on 1540AM. Yeah, I really can hear this one. Huh... How many more AM stations are off-FREQ?

282

General Radio Discussion / An Introduction to DXing the MF Marine Bands? Sure...

« on: December 20, 2021, 1855 UTC »

https://swling.com/blog/2021/12/guest-post-an-introduction-to-dxing-the-mf-marine-bands/         Been a while since I've checked-out the Marine MW band. I still have a couple of radios with that band listed on them.

283

Huh? / The mystery -550Hz carrier within 1240AM. I'm not the only one hearing this.

« on: December 19, 2021, 2104 UTC »

Here in WV, I'll do the late night drive home from work, and sometime MW DX'ing, if nothing is on C2C AM. But, if C2C AM is somewhat interesting, I'll tune-in to local 1kw 1240AM WVTS, and even drive right by the TX  site. Well, for the last week, when I get more than a few miles away from that station's site, I hear a HET tone that is somewhere from 500Hz - 600Hz in there. At 1st, I thought this to be yet another DSL internet carrier radiating out, but I hear this all over while on the drive, except very  near the WVTS TX site. I even see this carrier on the 'lil SDR display of my newer Xiegu G90. I've even heard this in the daytime, so I thought it to be local. However, Boomer, near Pittsburgh, is even seeing and hearing, this on his Kiwi SDR, and told me that the carrier is -550Hz from 1240kHz center. I've just asked a recently moved to FL friend if he hears and sees this. So, now I suspect that this isn't local from WV, unless someone is running several watts of power, and it can skip. Question is, can a 1240AM station be that far off FREQ? Maybe, someone grabbed an emergency back-up transmitter to get back on-air after all these Mid-West tornadoes? This timing would be about right. So, anyone else seeing and hearing this?

284

Amateur Radio / Re: Xiegu G90? Warmth???

« on: December 19, 2021, 1949 UTC »

In RX stand-by, more than luke warm. That doesn't surprise me, since you have CPU's crunching to produce that spectrum scope / waterfall display. So far, the only long key-up time that I've had with it is the 10M local chit-chat here. It got more than luke warm, but not hot. Then again, I wasn't running full-bore 20W, except for a quick test from 1W - 20W when a friend asked to do so, for his curiosity. I've yet to do QSO's on AM and FM modes, but I suspect that would heat it up there. One way to reduce heat is to reduce the display brightness from 100%, (Which appeared to be default.), down to less than 50%. I took mine down to 25% and that's still bright enough for indoor viewing, and doesn't light-up the whole room at night. BTW, I've only had my Xiegu G90 for less than a month, used in 68 - 70 degrees F. My guess would be, if I was using this outside on Summer Time Field Day, in 80 / 90 degree weather, then a fan kit would be a must. Hmmmmmmmmm... This might be a nice hand warmer for the Winter Field Day. (Hi-hi...)

285

FM Free Radio / Re: 87.9FM, 12/16/2021, 0230 UTC, weak, mono.

« on: December 18, 2021, 2029 UTC »

Well, these last posts can sort of explain that,   https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,83059.0.html     Incidentally, I don't see WNYZ-LP listed here,     https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?state=NY&serv=FL&vac=&list=2