Messages

31

Amateur Radio / Re: Mobile hamstick vs tuning 102' whip? Hamstik story.

« on: December 04, 2022, 2042 UTC »

The only Hamstik that I´ve used is the 6M one with an MFJ-9406 10W rig, and raked-in QSO´s from ¨7¨ land in the mid-90´s. However, in 2006, a co-worker of mine had another friend do a professional install with the Hamstik mounts to his new GMC Sonoma pickup. The rig was a barefoot, 100W PEP, Yaesu FT-857D. He had it to where he paid only $20.00 per Hamstik per band, (75M, 40M, 20M, 15M, 10M, etc.), and he had the 75M Hamstik dead-nuts matched to 3799kHz to work the UK stations from his drive home from work at 1AM, no EXT tuner. He lived in the New York, Finger Lakes Region, and he was giving those dudes in the UK an S9 peak signal routinely. I actually heard his mobile QSO´s on 3799kHz and could hear him and the UK stations, when I removed to the WNY Southern Tier for months afterwards. Anyway... Bottom line... A well matched and installed Hamstik can indeed get the job done.

32

General Radio Discussion / Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates?

« on: December 03, 2022, 0741 UTC »

Interesting. Well, with all of that massive real estate that Russia has, a small community could possibly get away with a MW pirate for years. I´ll bet some Russian bands would love to be on those, since a rep from the band Master, has told me that there´s no way that rock & metal artists would be aired on gov-run AM / FM stations there. Which is why Master appreciated getting aired on Part #15 AM, LPFM, and even WBCQ, with programs like this one:  https://archive.org/details/the-underground-jam-slate-no-tuj-09122021-review-of-master-master-of-time

As far as Russian to English translating goes? DeepL seems to be way better, than Google Translate:  https://www.deepl.com/en/translator

 Anyway... Interesting that this topic re-popped back up, since Master recently e-mailed me about their 35th anniversary from their separation from the band Aria. Nothing like timing.

33

Amateur Radio / The bad-use for an on-line Kiwi-SDR to HAM´s? Oh yeah.

« on: November 28, 2022, 1931 UTC »

Just last night, I was listening, before bed time, on 3892kHz LSB. Some douche was continuously messing with that group, keyed-up. What was crazy was that in seconds the usual 3892 group made comments about this douche, that douche was commenting about what they were saying back, while the douche was still TX´ing. The 3892-group figured out that this douche was using an on-line Kiwi-SDR to listen, while keying-up and harassing! (Uh, great...) Yeah... What a use for on-line Kiwi-SDR´s, huh? Make it a full-duplex TX/RX harassment device.

34

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Boomer posts the 13.560MHz AM Milliwatts Transmitter!

« on: November 24, 2022, 2032 UTC »

http://boomerthedog.com/part-15/13560.html          It was still a neat project, but it really ticked-off the Beacon Freaks. Even Glenn Hauser wrote-in to suggest that AM on 13.560MHz, even at Part 15 levels, wasn´t a good idea. So, if you were to use this ´lil transmitter, a Hamfest, or even something like Winterfest, events would be perfect. Use this at an event, then tear-down and get out afterwards.

35

General Radio Discussion / Re: Hobby Broadcasting Radio. Andrew, on C2C AM 9/10/2001, and this VID!

« on: November 19, 2022, 1854 UTC »

And, don´t forget that Andrew was on C2C AM, with host the late Art Bell, from Monday night 9/10/2001. That can heard heard, and downloaded from here:  https://archive.org/details/andrew-yoder-on-art-bell-c-2-c-am-mon-9-10-2001-edited
A big CONGRAT´s to Andrew, for getting his new monthly podcast.

While I am at it, might as well revisit Andrew on Inside Pirate Radio documentary.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l48gp6iFko

36

Amateur Radio / ARRL November Sweepstakes?

« on: November 17, 2022, 2053 UTC »

http://www.arrl.org/sweepstakes       With the weather begin so terrible, this might be well worth checking out.

37

Huh? / Grimeton Radio Station broadcast Nov 16, 2022 to celebrate UNESCO 50th, on 17.2k

« on: November 14, 2022, 1814 UTC »

Well, this will be a good test of your VLF capabilities.    https://swling.com/blog/2022/11/grimeton-radio-station-broadcast-nov-16-2022-to-celebrate-unesco-50th-anniversary/

38

Equipment / Re: C.Crane’s new CC Skywave SSB 2? What Radio Jay says about it.

« on: November 13, 2022, 1807 UTC »

Here´s what Radio Jay has to say about the Skywave SSB2.   https://radiojayallen.com/c-crane-skywave-ssb-2/

39

General Radio Discussion / Re: WTWW QRT? That would be ashame.

« on: November 11, 2022, 1836 UTC »

  Well, this would suck... Especially, for the Amateur Radio community, that likes getting various info on that station.

40

General Radio Discussion / Re: Cold War Radio history..... Got in late, but got to hear it, still.

« on: November 06, 2022, 1929 UTC »

I consider myself a late arrival into shortwave listening, Spring 1981. That´s when I was gifted a Realistic DX-40 AM / FM / 4 - 22MHz SW, portable. Local AM station was a 1kW over 3 miles away and no local FM stations, at the time. Closest station was a 40M CW neighbor. So, that portable and a 75ft longwire went well for listening back then. However, it was the height of the Cold War era, and lots of stations to check-out. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/radioshack_realistic_dx_40_12_775.html

41

Equipment / A review of the Tecsun H-501x portable shortwave radio receiver. SWL´ing.

« on: November 06, 2022, 1905 UTC »

https://swling.com/blog/2022/11/a-review-of-the-tecsun-h-501x-portable-shortwave-radio-receiver/

Hmmmmmmmm... That limited AM Bandwidth kind of bugs me. Just my picky take.

42

Amateur Radio / Re: Snotty Hams? Oh yeah...

« on: November 05, 2022, 1920 UTC »

Oh yeah... I´ve especially run into these folks on 160M. Even, on 75M, especially AM mode. If you are not putting out at least an S+20/9 signal, with broadcast quality 100% modulation, there´s stations that may ignore you completely. A lot of QRP´ers seem to get ignored as well, like those folks that worked with those DIY 5W Pine Board Projects. If I heard their 5W signal, then I knew that they could hear my barefoot 20W signal. Makes me wonder if a lot of these stations run their RF Gains down, and just can´t hear ya. One band that I believe you´d love is that newer 60M band. Pretty much, a nice bunch of folks there, that have that 100W limit, and being channelized, you don´t have to worry about someone just 1, or 2, kHz from you blasting over. Oh.. The other thing that I´ve run into is Big-Gun snobbery. Ya know... Those folks with several Icom IC-7851´s, +100ft towers, multi-acreage arrays, broadcast quality audio processing, legal 1.5kW power all the time, etc. I´ve had that attitude towards me upon, ¨If I can get all that going, why don´t you?¨ Well, like me, a lot of us take years to acquire what we have, let along being able to afford to maintain all this gear. It´s the same deal of some of those people that you might meet that feel broke, if they don´t carry around at least $10k at all times. So, I guess we all have to find the folks that seem like our perks, and just avoid the jerks. 

43

Propagation / Re: Coming soon, Winter Sporadic ¨E¨ Season for 2022 - 2023. And, maybe Tropo, still

« on: November 03, 2022, 1928 UTC »

They also call Sporadic ¨E¨ propagation ´Short Skip´, for 24MHz and lower VHF Low band, like 450 miles to about 600 miles, where as F2 is usually +800 miles. Once in a while, an ¨E¨ cloud can do Back Scatter, a make an even closer contact, like 100 - 250 miles, possible. But yeah... The CB CH6 ´Superbowl´ is a good place to hang for openings. I like to keep a rig on CH 38LSB. Another thing that I can hear this time of year is a quick burst of Meteor Scatter. Happy DX´ing!!!

44

Propagation / Coming soon, Winter Sporadic ¨E¨ Season for 2022 - 2023. And, maybe Tropo, still

« on: November 02, 2022, 1938 UTC »

November, already, but Sporadic ¨E¨ propagation should be showing up soon, especially on CB FREQ´s, then 10M, and hopefully, 6M. There are still a lot of rural highway departments still using upper 30MHz and 40MHz VHF rigs, so you might hear snow plows on-the-air soon. Don´t forget to check, https://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=W2LN&HF=N&DXC=ING2&GL=S   for this. However, warm fronts, going to cold fronts, still can make Tropo neat on upper VHF and UHF bands. Neat Christmas, about 6 years ago, I got off work before midnight, and heard a friend on 2M National Simplex, 146.520MHz FM, QSO´ing with stations up by Cleveland, OH, over 200 miles away! And, I was able to hear them in the truck. I then worked a couple of those stations back home on the base. So, y´all just never know.

45

Huh? / Century Edition of ARRL Handbook for $80.00 hard cover.

« on: November 01, 2022, 1817 UTC »

https://handbook.arrl.org/   Oh yeah!!!! Always a wealth of info. I´ll even keep the older editions for the info in those.