Messages

61

10/11 meters / Re: 11m Activity 9 OCT 2022? Try 10M!!!

« on: October 09, 2022, 1819 UTC »

Actually, last sunspot peak, I was able to do a nice Armchair QSO to Anchorage, AK on 29.600MHz FM Simplex, with just 70W at my end. Had him for over an hour, and we gave others a change to chime-in, but no one else did. So, you´ll never know. I woke up to Italian HAM´s today around 28.400LSB at 16:00UTC.

62

Equipment / New Multi-band, Multi-Mode, toys? The Q900 and HS2!

« on: September 29, 2022, 1901 UTC »

Well, these seem intriguing.   https://qrznow.com/q900-version-3-all-band-all-mode-hf-vhf-uhf-transceiver/

and  https://www.ailunce.com/Product/HS2/Overview

Hmmmmmmmmmm... Which is the better of the two?

63

MW Loggings / It´s what I am not hearing. Cuba, on 1620kHz, 9/28/2022, 0330UTC.

« on: September 29, 2022, 0429 UTC »

Hearing earlier that Cuba´s power grid was down, I tuned to 1620AM, to see if that station from there, was off-air. Apparently, it seems to be. I hear Pensa Cola, FL and another classic hits station, in there, on the drive home from work. So, those MW , and maybe SW, FREQ´s, that are normally dominated by Cuban station might be freed-up for a few days. 

64

Amateur Radio / Hurricane Watch Nets reminders, due to Ian.

« on: September 28, 2022, 0602 UTC »

https://swling.com/blog/2018/09/how-to-listen-to-hurricane-watch-net-frequencies/    Info from 2018, but still pretty much valid. And,   https://www.hwn.org/policies/activationplans.html

Could make for some interesting monitoring these next few days.

65

Equipment / Re: Best type of coax for an antenna feed line? RG-6, even RG-59, is fine.

« on: September 23, 2022, 1929 UTC »

Actually, RG-6 coax wouldn´t be a bad choice for MW and HF RX´ing, especially with with today´s noise levels being what they are. In fact, this Fall, I was planning to redo my W.O.G., (Windom On Ground.), to get it further away from the house. RG-6 isn´t just nice & cheap, but also 100% shielded with outer braid and foil. That said, there is one caveat with double shielded coax. The aluminum foil and steel braid are dissimilar metals, and will corrode with time. When you strip it years later, you´ll have that fine AL dust coming out. Water and air tighten the ends as well as possible. The least amount of O2, the least amount of corroding. So, Chris has used TV Baluns with success on RX´ing HF and MW? Well, they make those cheap enough that it shouldn´t surprise me, and good to know.

66

Amateur Radio / Re: UNID 3885 AM 0455 UTC 11 SEPT 2022?

« on: September 19, 2022, 1929 UTC »

Huh... Tried listening to 75M AM at stupid o´clock at night, but even on the W.O.G. Antenna, I still get an earful of lightning crashes. A couple of ´S´ units in LSB, but much more in AM. Web Kiwi-SDR´s maybe the way-duh-go until like mid-October, or November. However, what activity I was hearing was on 3873kHz, so it makes me wonder if they were trying to keep away from 3885.

67

Propagation / Will last week of Summer be great for Tropo on VHF / UHF?

« on: September 18, 2022, 1923 UTC »

Looks like a last hurrah of hot, summer-like, temperatures, around the 1st day of Fall, THUR 9/22/2022, then crash to around lower 70´s, or Fall-like weather for where I am. So, could this be a possibility that we could see some nice VHF / UHF Tropo Propagation? https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html   The last time that I´ve DX´ed those conditions was in late September 2004, where 2M, VHF MURS, 222MHz, 440MHz, and 462MHz GMRS, acted like daytime 40M. From North Hill, in Southern Western New York, to London, ON, Canada was had on 446.000MHz Simplex with just 4W! (About 160 miles!!!) On a MURS FREQ, (For USA.), the London, ON ambulance corp., could be heard toned-out, like it was a local! Rochester, NY TV DX´ers were watching TV channels from Beckley and Bluefield, WV! So, could we see those conditions, again? Let´s hope so.

68

Equipment / Re: Magnet wire for free? Yep, done that.

« on: September 17, 2022, 1821 UTC »

To hide a Windom, living at an apartment, I did just that, used trashed TV degausser wire. It was like #26AWG, and, unless you knew exactly what you were looking for, it was pretty much unseen from the ground level. It seemed to work fine to DX lower HF, especially 43M. Not the strongest wire to use, so had to repair that after almost every high-wind storm. But, if you want to sneak an outside antenna in an HOA, this might be the way to go. 

69

Equipment / Receivers Introduced at pre-IBC Event to be Seen at RAI on Sep 10th, DRM.

« on: September 14, 2022, 1610 UTC »

https://www.drm.org/receivers-introduced-at-pre-ibc-event-to-be-seen-at-rai-on-sep-10th/    I understand that there are some Part #15´ers experimenting with DRM, so it would be nice to have gear to test with. Might be the only way to get DRM on to the AM / FM bands in the USA. Still, waiting to see if if catches on SW here.

70

Equipment / Re: Sangean ATS-909x repair needed? try the eham review.

« on: September 13, 2022, 1837 UTC »

Here´s another place to scan through to find repair facilities. It´s what I did to get TOKO IF filters swapped-out of a Kenwood TM-D710A rig, since I´m not set-up to work on SMT tech. Good luck. https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-category?id=26

71

Huh? / Re: Expansion of FM Band, a.k.a. Wide-FM, 76-88MHz, back in the news. C-QUAM?

« on: September 12, 2022, 1815 UTC »

Well, I certainly wouldn´t mind seeing C-QUAM Stereo on that band as well. S/N Ratio would be better. Heck... I also wouldn´t mind TV audio specs there as well, MTS. Narrower bandwidth, than traditional FM, which could add to more station channels. The hell with Ibiquity´s digital HD Radio specs. However, DRM seems to be making headway, and could be a try. 

72

Huh? / Expansion of FM Band, a.k.a. Wide-FM, 76-88MHz, back in the news.

« on: September 11, 2022, 1836 UTC »

FWD from Boomer:   https://recnet.com/node/3601      and      http://wide-fm.com/      Now, will this actually help-out LPFM´ers and even Part #15´ers? I doubt it, especially with the 800lbs gorilla called The NAB in there.

73

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Hurricane Intelligent AM Medium Wave Broadcast Transmitter MW. Part15 compliant?

« on: September 03, 2022, 1830 UTC »

I´ve heard about this. Boomer just linked me to the ebay site.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/184784608562   To me, this looks like an AM version of the ´ol Ramsey FM-30B in menu set-ups.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

UPDATE 9/7/2022: Well, chances are, this maybe, spec-wise, Part #15 compliant, but not Part #15 certified by the FCC. Could get around that by having it in kit form.

74

Part 15 AM and FM Station Operation / Re: The C.Crane Digital FM Transmitter 3? Radio Jay´s review!

« on: September 03, 2022, 1814 UTC »

Yep, he covers it.     https://radiojayallen.com/c-crane-fm-transmitter-3/

75

MW Loggings / Re: Classic Hits on 1410AM at night? Who's that??? WHLN!!!

« on: September 02, 2022, 1805 UTC »

Got a partial ID in job transit. I clearly heard WHL?. Just could not pull-in that last letter. So, that KY station´s gotta´ be it. 41W at night? Huh... Kind of a short-skip to me, but it dominates 1410AM at night here. So, pinto vortando, looks like ya go it. https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=whln&nav=home