Messages

46

FM Free Radio / Re: FM Dxing equipment? Antennas, boosters, and used car stereos.

« on: October 31, 2022, 1932 UTC »

Well, over +30 years ago, I used both those Radio Shack FM beams and a VU-190 TV / FM, VHF / UHF, beams up +40ft on a mast, with a cheap Channel Master rotor. In a rural area, without a local FM station, I was also able to get away with +10dB and +20dB signal booster amps. And, if I wanted sensitivity and great selectivity, and great IMD rejection, I´d buy used car stereos and put them on 12VDC power supplies. Routinely, I was able to RX stations +120 miles away, like Toronto, Erie, Pittsburgh, Clearfield, Williamsport, Syracuse, Ithaca, Cortland, Binghamton, etc. Then, during Tropo´s, Cleveland, Toledo, Utica / Rome, etc. I also DX´ed analog TV stations then as well. So, if you see your neighbors trash a TV antenna, it might not be too hard to clean-up, fix-up, use RG-59 coax, and some of your friends and co-workers might give you used car stereos, since they usually swap-out the OEM ones for name branded after market ones. The old AC Delco stereos did well, as did the Pioneer Super Tuner series. So, there ya go... You could do FM DX´ing, on the cheap. However, with all of those translators littering the FM band today, I see great selectivity as being a better advantage to great sensitivity. Happy FM DX´ing!!!!! 

47

The RF Workbench / Re: Turn Off the Stereo and See What Happens? Radio World??? Follow-up???

« on: October 31, 2022, 1915 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/readers-forum/your-feedback-on-fm-stereo-vs-fm-mono
Huh... Well, I didn´t think that this was going to be such a big issue. I still say, have STEREO / MONO switching done at the receiver end, and let the listener decide.

48

General Radio Discussion / Re: Proposal - new board for European MW Pirate Loggings - VOTE NOW!

« on: October 29, 2022, 1856 UTC »

Not know what the Alfa Lima board is doing these day, a Euro-MW logger might not be a bad idea.  https://www.alfalima.net/

49

Huh? / Halloween DX'ing? Hope so!!!!

« on: October 29, 2022, 1843 UTC »

Tis the season for those Halloween pirates, like MW stations from 1710kHz - 1790kHz, late at night. Most stations pretty much heard on 43M in North America, but with F2 propagation back in there, now could be a decent time to check-out 11.401MHz, 13.900MHz, 15.050MHz, 17MHz region, 19.0000MHz even, up past 21.450MHz, and the entire 11M INT band, 25.670MHz - 26.100MHz. You'll just never know what ya might hear. Even, 87.9MHz on FM. Happy Halloween DX'ing!!!!!

50

Equipment / C.Crane’s new CC Skywave SSB 2? An improvement, or an over-priced P.O.S.?

« on: October 25, 2022, 1836 UTC »

Yeah, SWL´ing rip:    https://swling.com/blog/2022/10/c-cranes-new-cc-skywave-ssb-2/   Ya know, for $200.00, I could get an older YB-400, and have much $$$$ lest over. For a good used price, I would consider the C Crane SSB2, but not for $200.00 new.

51

The RF Workbench / Re: Variable frequency oscillator design for HF? Tap-off an HF rig on a dummy.

« on: October 24, 2022, 1839 UTC »

As an experiment in the mid-1990´s, I keyed an Icom IC-745 HF rig, on FM mode on the 10W setting, and loaded that to a dummyload. With the RG-58 coax, (Not 100% shielded.), that fed the dummyload, I had a few turns of coiled wire around that coax and fed it directly to the FT-243 socket of a Knight T-60 transmitter, also with its output on a dummyload. That worked well. The IC-745 was the signal source, and the T-60 was the AM modulator. And, very FREQ agile. It was a neat experiment at the time.

52

10/11 meters / Some douche teasing LSB´ers on CB CH38 with NBFM, 1600UTC.

« on: October 24, 2022, 1806 UTC »

I was wondering when I was going to hear domestic NBFM on CB, with it now allowable. Well, heard it today, and of all places, the very informal Gentleman´s Agreed LSB CB calling channel 38. This dude was teasing the LSB´ers saying that he can use any voice mode that he wants there. No idea upon where he was TX´ing from, and I don´t think that he was going to tell that anyway. 10min later, he finally went to LSB to talk to whatever. Got to admit, that was different.

53

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Re: Music licensing concerns, the record companies used Part 15 as well.

« on: October 23, 2022, 1937 UTC »

I seem to recall a multi-followed-up story from the 1990´s about a record company using an AM Part 15 station to promote new artists' releases by a very busy NYC roadway. This was just before the internet took-off. So, since they´ve used Part 15 as a tool themselves, hopefully, they don´t want to rock-the-boat.

54

MW Loggings / 1630kHz KCJJ back to booming-in at SW WV, 00:50UTC.

« on: October 21, 2022, 0700 UTC »

Had KCJJ, again, to listen to on a job site commute. And, surprise, the female DJ was live, talking about the 1st tune she heard at the time when 1st working there as a teen in 2015, and then playing it as her choice. (WOW!!! A commercial station that still let´s you do that? That´s rare, today!) Top of the hour ID, CBS News, and local Iowa city, IA news, then back to 10-year-old hit music. Nice, to have this to listen to, again, with it getting darker earlier.
https://www.1630kcjj.com/

55

General Radio Discussion / Re: Dipole antenna seperation?

« on: October 20, 2022, 1756 UTC »

Quick answer, very close, if they are perpendicular to each other. Heck, if you are planning that route, you could try a multi-band Fan Dipole, and save on the number of coaxial cables. BTW, the 135ft OCF dipole may do a decent job on 15M. Passing thoughts, especially when dealing with limited space. What wasn´t mentioned is, are you panning to RX only, or RX / TX, with these?

56

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Re: Music licensing concerns?

« on: October 19, 2022, 1957 UTC »

One way that I see around that is rebroadcast on your Part 15 station an LPFM, college, etc. You´d be using their music license agreement, and add, what??? Maybe, a couple hundred more potential listeners, at most? A local LPFM appreciates me putting them on Part 15 AM where I am, where it´s a geographic dead-zone, for them. Lazy´casting, for me. They provide the programming and tunage, and I provide some extra coverage for them. A grey zone here? Eh... I´m not that worried.   

57

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Re: Interesting comment of Commissioner Rosenworcel R

« on: October 19, 2022, 1944 UTC »

There are folks out there that like to keep analog NTSC TV alive. I remember an article in the old Stereo Review MAG, (Now, Sound & Vision.), covering the then legal Part 15 UHF TV in-house TV transmitters to use. None off those were for VHF, that flooded the markets here from Taiwan and Hong Kong, since they were double side band and not vestigial side band, back in the late 1980´s and much of the 1990´s. Lots of analog TV´s still out there, including classic TV portables, that were made pretty much obsolete with the 2009 digital HDTV mandate. There are folks out there that restore classic analog B&W and color TV´s today, and a legal loop-hole to transmit an analog TV signal, even very limited short range, in a show-room, or museum, would be nice to have. 600MHz, would be a good place to have that, with it´s UHF short range and high absorption rate on walls, foliage, and even furniture. 

58

Equipment / Radio Jay Allen reviews the NordMende GlobeTraveler II!

« on: October 18, 2022, 1736 UTC »

https://radiojayallen.com/nordmende-globetraveler-ii/
Heck, I´d take one today. That 5¨ X 7¨ speaker must be a treat for a portable. I use to have those as car stereo speakers in the 80´s.

59

Huh? / Uh-oh... Not going to get a g.d. thing done with a Doctor Who channel on.

« on: October 14, 2022, 1831 UTC »

Ok... I know that a lot of radio buffs are Whovians out there, and since I´ve been show that Classic Doctor Who channel, on Pluto TV, I might be hard-pressed to get a damn thing done around here late at night.  https://pluto.tv/en/search/details/channels/doctor-who-classic/   From 1963 - 1989, from William Hartnell to Silvester McCoy. And, surprise!!!! Reanimated fill-in episodes of the BBC trashed 79 episodes, where the audio tracks were still saved, and original scripts. What I don´t like is that these are presented in the 30min chapters, instead of the 90min ones that PBS did in the USA in the 70´s and 80´s. Hey... During that 1980´s sci-fi depression, Doctor Who was the great fill-in, back then. There!!!! Now, you too have a reason to not get anything else done.

60

Huh? / SWL´ing rip: WRMI repairs campaign, after Ian´s damage.

« on: October 12, 2022, 2121 UTC »

https://swling.com/blog/2022/10/campaign-to-help-wrmi-after-extensive-hurricane-damage/

Somehow, I suspect that a lot of stations are in this state of ´need repairs´ in Central FL.