Messages

91

Equipment / Re: Anyone tried the Sirio re-issued Starduster 11M / 10M Antenna? CAP hats????

« on: February 21, 2025, 1827 UTC »

Um, sort of... My 1st good CB antenna, back in the early 1980's, was my Uncle's late 1960's Hygain Super Penetrator. https://www.k5rwk.org/2022/08/25/the-super-penetrator-a-beast-on-10-meters/  It, had four, top-mounted on the VERT Radiator, 45-degree, 10" aluminum rods, for a capacity hat. Those kept falling off, and my CB performance didn't seem to change without those. Also, if you look at the VERT radiator on the Starduster 1/4-wave GND-Plane, about 1/2-way up the VERT Radiator, are three 5" 45 degree rods. What are those for? I would assume as a CAP hat of some type. Click-on the icon image from this link to see that. https://sirio.store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=26  Now, where a capacitive top does make a big difference is on a Medium Wave, Part 15, 3 meter long, antenna.  Yeah... 10ft isn't very efficient at like a calculated .025%. If you see those TIS AM stations, they have huge, like 10ft diameter, tophats on them. Question is, does this answer your question? Um, I don't think that it really does. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...

92

Huh? / Amateur Radio and a High School FM Station? Sure!!!!

« on: February 20, 2025, 1923 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/kent-county-md-high-school-students-command-the-hf-bands    Boomer, alerted me to this RW rip. Wow... Pretty hefty power for a school station on the FM-side.  https://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&call=WKhs&nav=home  Man... Wish that we had stuff like this when I was in high school. It was proposed, but all the faculty wanted was the ability to try and get grant $$$$'s. (Um, yeah...)
(Hey Chris!!!! Can you get either this FM station, or ever heard the HAM stations?)

UPDATE 3/4/2025:  Huh... Looks like ARN #2470 covered that as well for the 2/28/2025 release. https://www.arnewsline.org/

93

Equipment / Re: Anyone tried the Sirio re-issued Starduster 11M / 10M Antenna? Worth it!!!!

« on: February 20, 2025, 1632 UTC »

Finally, returning back to gave y'all my take on the Sirio Starduster make-shift 1/4-wave GND-Plane. And??? It's seems the perfect Upper HF Antenna for my near bottom valley location. 2:1 VSWR curves are from 25MHz to 30MHz! The 1st, 1/2-ass installation was placed 30-some feet away from the house. The Cushcraft AR-10 is side-mounted to the house and RX's all the house's electrical & computer noisy garbage. Noise, on the AR-10 is anyway from S3 to S5 of hash & BZZZZZZZZ. Noise, on the Starduster is anywhere from 1/2 an 'S' unit to S1. (Nice!!!) 1st Starduster install, the GND Radials were only 10ft off the ground. VSWR sweet-spot was 1.3:1 around CB Channel 20. 10M local Chit-Chat FREQ here is 28.415MHz USB. VSWR was just under 1.6:1. (BTW, I went by the Sirio manual for elements' lengthening & settings.) Certainly usable to talk, but a touch of a tuner is good to do. Anyway, folks on CB and 10M Chit-Chat gave me mixed reviews. Some CB'er noticed that I was down in signal, and the dude that I QSO with on 10M, about 20-some miles away in Culloden, WV, said my signal was down a couple of S-units. However, some CB'ers also noticed a signal improvement a couple of "S" units, over the AR-10, in other directions. One thing that was noticed was the RX improvement in WWV's 25MHz signal in the daytime. At least several "S" units over the AR-10, and even my Windom Antenna. During Christmas, the Starduster worked great on Sporadic "E" catches, with just 20W. And, 1st time shout & catch. I was strongly encouraged, by my friend in Culloden, to raise that Starduster higher. So, before that cold-snap in January, I had a 50-some degree weekend to lower, retune the Starduster, by reducing the VERT length a few inches, and added another 5ft pipe section to the mast. WOW!!!! Just that added 5ft raise made an S3 improvement to my friend in Culloden. And, VSWR on 28.415MHz, now 1.2:1. (No tuner required there, and the GND-Radials may have been too low previously. Thus, a capacitive effect.) On 10M the rig is a MAX-out 20W Xiegu G90, and the CB is a Uniden Bearcat SSB980, totally bear foot. CB Band VSWR is 1.3:1 on CH40 and 1.4:1 VSWR on CH1. (That's fine.) Antenna does hear well on 12M, (24.9MHz.), but at a 2.1:1, I need to tweak the tuner there. And, 3:1VSWR on 15M, 21MHz, where a tuner is fine there as well. The auto-tuner will do 20M, 14MHz, but I've noticed that my Windom is far better there. So, still testing this antenna, as time allows, but so far, I'm really diggin' it. https://www.copperelectronics.com/cart/Antennas-Towers/CB-Antennas/Base-CB-Antennas/M400-10-11-Meter       

94

Amateur Radio / 73 Amateur Radio Magazine, now uploaded to Archive. (Good!!!)

« on: February 19, 2025, 1633 UTC »

https://archive.org/search?query=collection%3A73-magazine&sort=-publicdate    One of the best MAG's, in my opinion, for INFO in Amateur Radio, and electronics, was Wayne Green's, 73. As a teen, I had a leaving B.O.C.E.S. electrical instructor give me a whole box of these in 1985. (I still have them.) Going through these is what started my education in electronics, radio, & antenna, theories. I still enjoy thumbing through these, albeit it is kind of sad to see advertised all the companies that are now gone today. Say what you want about Wayne Green, but he knew his stuff. And, if he didn't, he knew the people who did.  Enjoy!!!!

95

Equipment / Re: Don't pass up those 1980's Radio Shack Mixers! Mute Control?

« on: February 19, 2025, 1611 UTC »

Mute Control? Well, they both have a CUE Button, that mutes audio from going out the Line-Out, and only to the headphone jack, to cue-up turntables, or a tape deck. BTW, the CUE Controls are for each Input Line, except the Mic Inputs. Rack mount??? Being only about 1ft wide, a bit small for 'Rack Mount'. Well, I say that, when I actually have a #32-1200 mixer mounted to the right side of my home-brew, wooden, A/V production rack. I have the mixer's bottom mounted on a couple of set screws. You can see what these mixers look like in this Radio Shack catalog page link.  https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1986_radioshack_catalog.html?fb3d-page=53    And, look at, or download, the manuals on my Archive page. https://archive.org/details/@thadood I hope that these answer some questions.

96

Huh? / A legit FM station on 87.7MHz? Really??? Franken FM?

« on: February 17, 2025, 1825 UTC »

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/292226/core-radio-group-launches-87-7-the-vibe-atlanta/     Interesting, if this FREQ is really true. A nice, clean, FREQ to be on, but just how many FM receivers in the USA can actually receive this? I-duh-know... It caught my attention. Am I missing something? In theory, you should be able to listen to this on an analog, NTSC TV, with mechanical TV channel tuner. Albeit, the audio maybe loud and distorted, with TV audio deviation being +/-25kHz, to FM BC's +/-75kHz. 
UPDATE: This could explain it, a Franken-FM.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_6_radio_stations_in_the_United_States

97

Huh? / Re: The History of UHF TV in America? Oh, UHF, the movie?

« on: February 14, 2025, 1748 UTC »

While I'm at it, remember the Weird Al flick that ripped the UHF TV thang years ago? Wellllllllllllllllllllll...      https://tubitv.com/movies/305029/uhf

98

Huh? / New Options for Pirates and LPFM? Another RW rip.

« on: February 14, 2025, 1743 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/columns-and-views/new-options-for-pirates-and-lpfm     Actual, stumbled on this one on my own. (Oooooooooooooo...)

99

General Radio Discussion / Re: Thieves somehow take 200-foot radio tower? Back on-air!

« on: February 14, 2025, 1719 UTC »

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/wjlx-returns-to-1240-am-after-tower-theft    Boomer, alerted me to this story. Looks like they are back on-air. Hopefully, they've invested into some kind of security system.

100

Huh? / The History of UHF TV in America?

« on: February 11, 2025, 2105 UTC »

Being one who's worked for a UHF TV station, for like 7 years, I can appreciate this site.    https://uhfhistory.com/index.html

101

Equipment / Stripped-down Nextel-like HT's? Well, at least intriguing.

« on: February 06, 2025, 2002 UTC »

https://rapidradios.com/?view=abconvert-index-WU8xc6vs   I've heard about these advertised on C2C AM, and I've had friends ask me just how would these work? My guess was right, they won't work in a totally dead cell area. There are like a stripped-down version of how Nextel made their cell flip-phones with that Walkie-Talkie function. That said, they do seem to offer a VHF / UHF HT.  https://rapidradios.com/products/my-emergency-radio-emergency-vhf-uhf-radio  Doesn't seem to be much INFO on these, but must be like Beofangs? (Speculating here...) Still, intriguing...

102

10/11 meters / Re: 27.195 MHz Nonstop Data Stream + MFSK Bursts? And, a 30sec Speak-Repeater?

« on: February 06, 2025, 1852 UTC »

That's not all that's there. A friend of mine alerted me to a Speak-Repeater on 27.195MHz AM. It's one of those devices, that connects any transceiver's Mic & Audio OUT, records up to 30sec of audio, and re-transmits it back. Radio Shack sold one and so did MFJ. So, not far fetched that someone would put one to a CB.

103

Huh? / More RW rips on AM Boosters and AM Noise Levels? Um, yeah...

« on: February 05, 2025, 1816 UTC »

I don't subscribe to Radio World, but apparently Boomer does. And, when he find interesting stuff e-mailed to him, he has a tendency to share those. What's nice about that is it filters down to mainly the most interesting articles, like this one on AM Sync Boosters.  https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/synchronous-ams-long-and-tortuous-history    BTW, on-FREQ Boosters have also been used on FM, but I don't hear about their use today anymore. Mainly, just the litter of off-FREQ translators.
The other article is a 'know-schytt Sherlock' conclusion that pretty much most of us would come to upon AM noise.   https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/nrsc-releases-details-of-am-band-rf-noise-study  This big difference, someone got paid to do this study, and we didn't.   

104

VHF/UHF Logs, including satellites and radiosondes / So, what are you hearing on Red Dot FREQ 151.625MHz FM?

« on: February 04, 2025, 1700 UTC »

Since the 1990's, I've been advised to put 151.625MHz FM in my scanners, since that FREQ seems to have lots of various activity. Indeed, it does. So much so, it's surprised me that the FCC didn't make it one of the license-free MURS Band channels. The MURS Channels were taken from those licensed VHF High Band color-dot FREQ's back around 2002, but Red Dot FREQ 151.625MHz, wasn't one of them. Here, in WV, I know that the tower workers are working in the middle of the night, on that now empty 600ft TV tower a mile behind me. When I would hear them on 151.625MHz, super strong signal, sure enough, I would see LED flash lights going up & down that tower. More recently, I hear a lot of mobile traffic from RT. 64. I even heard what sounded like Japanese spoken on there. Now, I have to question, is this still even a licensed VHF FREQ in the USA?   https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/itinerant-freq-151-625.307176/       So, what do y'all hear on that FREQ?

105

10/11 meters / Re: CB: Motor Mouth Maul... A CH 28 staple for years.

« on: February 04, 2025, 1636 UTC »

This dude's been a staple on CB CH28 AM for years, but more recently he's been on the Superbowl CH6, and CH11. I've even heard him on the Highway CH19. I've yet to hear him on the LSB channels. My question is, does he actually hear anyone coming back to him, or is he all alligator? I've never been able to work him, and I don't know anyone else who has either. Huh...