Messages

991

General Radio Discussion / Re: All Digital AM Band? Um, maybe not.

« on: May 11, 2019, 1809 UTC »

Yeah... Somehow, if All-AM-Digital was to become a reality, like it did in HDTV, (I still miss analog TV.), I don't see a D/A converter RX'ing digital signal, then re-TX'ing it on an analog FREQ. (Hi-hi...) Albeit, they kind of did with satellite radio going to Part #15 FM TX's. Give me AM Wide!!!

992

General Radio Discussion / All Digital AM Band? Um, maybe not.

« on: May 10, 2019, 1743 UTC »

Boomer found this one on the proposal of making the AM broadcast band in the USA all digital. https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/business-and-law/few-broadcasters-show-interest      Yeah, the idea doesn't excite me either.

993

Equipment / Re: More adventures in battling the RFI Demons

« on: May 07, 2019, 1748 UTC »

Do you have old power strips with MOV's in them, (Metal Oxide Varistors.)? When they get old, or have taken some big spikes from lightning surges, they can also cause that noise.

994

Amateur Radio / Sporadic E on 10M last night!

« on: April 29, 2019, 1657 UTC »

           Nice QSO to Fayetteville and Tommyville, AR on 28.420USB at 03:15UTC, 4/29/2019 from WV. Signals peaked to S7. I 1st heard it on 11M CB CH 38LSB and the Superbowl CH 6 going nuts. Hey, I'll take it, with the lower bands crammed with lightning crashes. Both were about 100W coming back to me, and I was around 62W going back. I'm now using a 10M Ringo tuned to 1:1 VSWR at 28.400MHz. 

995

General Radio Discussion / Re: adapting radio astronomy techniques for dxing

« on: April 21, 2019, 1814 UTC »

Heck, someday I'd like to see that taken a step further. It's only a matter of time before we have a Moon base, or even a Mars colony. Wouldn't it be unreal to communicate via amateur radio to them. The Moon wouldn't be too hard to do, but can Mars be done at amateur power levels? Using the technique of a received multiple dish array, that might be possible. Albeit, that 40min RX / TX lag time will be a pain.

996

Amateur Radio / 17M open coast to coast Saturday 4/20/2019.

« on: April 21, 2019, 1742 UTC »

             I had a nice QSO from WV, to Palmdale, CA, on 18.150USB aound 20:00UTC. And that was just with the radio barefoot at 75W on the Windom. Albeit, I had to change from the Heil HMM mic to the D-104-M6B to get his attention. Most of the time, signal stayed around S1, but peaks from him went up to S7. So, there might be some hope for these upper HF bands yet. 

997

General Radio Discussion / Re: New Production Computer. Editing? I use Audacity.

« on: April 18, 2019, 1922 UTC »

 The crew of Berkeley Liberation Radio got me into using Audacity years ago, and it works great for me. Even to add more pep into the audio, (Like into a 1/2-ass produced Amateur Radio Newsline.), I love the compression features as well. And it works superb on Linux formats as well, if not better.  https://www.audacityteam.org/about/features/editing/     Give it a try. It's free, pretty intuitive, and does not take up much hard drive space at all. The hardest part is the initial set-up to where you want everything to sound as an end product. Pretty gravy after that. I have it on all my computers with WIN XP, VISTA, WIN 8, Ubuntu 14.04, and Mac OS X10.

998

FM Free Radio / Re: I/Q recordings of fm pirates

« on: April 16, 2019, 1702 UTC »

You can hunt and peck through WBCQ's Pirate Archive list,   http://radionewyorkinternational.com/archives/pirate/   Happy hunting!!!!

999

General Radio Discussion / Re: The Weird Machine That Measured Radio Audiences in the '30s and '40s

« on: April 15, 2019, 1922 UTC »

This reminds me of the story in the early 1990's EBN from Ernie Wilson, (Yeah, the ex-Panaxis Productions dude.). This story was about how a French TV station engineer noticed a minute more RF current drawn at the transmitter site right at the time a well watched soap opera aired, then after it would air, the minute current level dropped back down to where it was set. I thought that it was an interesting observation, but never heard anything about it since. You'd think that someone would have wanted to do the math more and figure out the TX RF current to the number of RX stations tuning in. Oh, wait... That might just put the Nielsen Ratings out of business.  So, never mind...

1000

Equipment / Re: Kenwood no longer producing low band xceivers

« on: April 15, 2019, 1906 UTC »

Major natural Gas companies still use VHF low band 48MHz. Dominion Transmission still did, since their wellheads, pump stations, and gas exchange sites, were mostly in the middle of no where, making cell coverage impossible. 100W from base to mobile at 48MHz could give up to 100 miles of good analog FM contacts. Back in 2010, Dominion (When I worked with them.), still used Motorola Spectra's and the Kenwood 100W mobile units, (The model with the goofy squelch that seemed to have a mind of its own.) So, look for TGP, Columbia / Trans Canada, Dominion, and other gas companies, getting rid of these rigs and see if you can snatch them up for pennies on the dollar. Most likely, most should have few problems to them, but minor, (Like broken power cables, damaged / dirty connectors, chewed up mic cords, etc.). The biggest expenses for your Two-Way shop is FREQ programming, installation / testing. Passing thoughts, but why go all new, unless it's a warranty you are looking for. And in that case, in used gear, ask the shop about used gear and work warranty policy.

1001

Amateur Radio / Re: Anyone still into rockin' it in AM mode? 20M AM?

« on: April 14, 2019, 1745 UTC »

I did try to listen in last week on 3885AM, and only the Big Guns could hear each other over the lightning crap, and could not hear anyone else, especially me on barefoot power. But, they were trying to kick around the idea of returning to 20M AM and, in their minds, were considering on what they had to go up there and do that. I've tried some 14.286MHz AM, with some success, but too many SSB'ers using that. I do kind of like Tim's, WA1HLR, idea of using the FREQ's from 14.330MHz - 14.340MHz for AM, and I've QSO'ed with a few stations there as well. What's nice about 20M is that barefoot power and a simple beam can work well, even with crappy 20M conditions. Even point to point, with dead skip openings, 20M can be had over 100 miles. Yeah, 20M is mainly for daytime openings, and now the warm weather is the biggest competition to that, but still a chance to try some AM stuff up there. And, no DX lightning crashes. Albeit, if you do hear that from 20M on up, time to pull the plug.

1002

Propagation / Re: Solar experts predict Solar Cycle 25 to be below average, similar to Cycle 24

« on: April 11, 2019, 2009 UTC »

And, here's what an MSN article says about it,    https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/scientists-predict-a-new-solar-cycle-is-about-to-begin-and-that-it-will-be-stronger-than-the-last-one/ar-BBVQnEL?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

1003

Propagation / Re: We have a sunspot

« on: April 09, 2019, 1659 UTC »

I believe that SHE said that we would.    http://www.spaceweatherwoman.com/      Ever check her out? How I know about her Sun Research is from Ham Nation. And she pretty much puts it near layman's terms.

1004

Amateur Radio / Re: HF Propagation websites

« on: April 07, 2019, 2241 UTC »

Do you know this one?

http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/mapg.php?Lan=E&Frec=50&ML=M&Map=W2LN&HF=N&DXC=ING2&GL=S

This is my goto site for various band propagation.

1005

Equipment / RADIWOW R-108 FM Stereo/LW/SW/MW/AIR/DSP Portable Radio! But, that's not all...

« on: April 07, 2019, 2147 UTC »

Looks like C crane Company is learning a hard lesson about Chinese manufacturing. Oooooops.... This is why I do not have the Chinese manufacturing my US Patent. You'll see when you get into this article.

https://radiojayallen.com/radiwow-r-108-fm-stereo-lw-sw-mw-air-dsp-portable-radio/