Messages

91

Equipment / Re: Portable with good ssb?

« on: April 17, 2017, 1526 UTC »

I still really like the Radio Shack Dx-440

Agree.  The DX-440 was my first shortwave receiver, and it did great with SSB.  Actually, it did great with a lot of things until the tuning knob broke when I dropped it.

92

General Radio Discussion / Re: North Korea encrypted numbers

« on: April 17, 2017, 0154 UTC »

jamming North Korean TV is probably not too difficult. North Korea apparently makes heavy use of the VHF TV frequencies to cover wider broadcast areas compared to the UHF bands.

I've seen North Korean TV.  It's in the best interests of South Korea to let the world see it.  It's 100% propaganda straight out of Orwell's 1984.  The first time I saw it, I thought it was a parody or disinfo campaign. 

93

Other / Re: Malicious Interference 3840 LSB 0625 UTC 16 Apr 2017

« on: April 16, 2017, 2022 UTC »

The jammer.  I'm thinking it's the same guy I posted about a few days ago.  Both used a soundboard, and interestingly one of the things he broadcast was a loop of F you with different voice effects like you mention.  One ham gave his callsign and location with a signal report in the hopes that someone would be able to triangulate.  It wouldn't surprise me if this were one lid hitting 80 meters on a regular basis.

The main reason I'm listening to the amateur bands is part of getting back into radio is to upgrade from Tech to General and I'm trying to figure out what bands I'd like to start on.  On the bright side, there is a lot of traffic that's interesting especially during contests.

Welcome to the wonderful world of 75 meters, the new CB band.

No kidding.  All the truckers who are serious about talking got tech licenses and use the local repeaters because CB got so bad.   When I listen to CB out here, it's a ghost town except for noise.

94

Other / Malicious Interference 3840 LSB 0625 UTC 16 Apr 2017

« on: April 16, 2017, 0629 UTC »

Guy interrupting QSOs with a soundboard.  Vulgarity, racist comments, etc. on loops.

95

Equipment / Re: What's a good upgrade from an R75?

« on: April 15, 2017, 0628 UTC »

Thanks all for the advice.  Looks like I'll be researching SDRs!

96

Equipment / What's a good upgrade from an R75?

« on: April 14, 2017, 0515 UTC »

Life got in the way, and I put my radios away for a while.  Last month I dug them out of mothballs and started up the hobby again.  I'm enjoying it and was thinking of investing in a new (or higher capability used) receiver.

Right now I'm using my 10+ year old Icom IC-R75 which works great, but was thinking of upgrading.  What's a good upper-mid range HF receiver?  Used is definitely an option because looking around I haven't seen many new radios :-(   I mostly listen to ham and SW, but I poke around the frequencies and will log utilities, decode RTTY, etc. Also, I've gotten spoiled with the DSP in the R75.  It would be difficult for me to bring myself to get a radio without it.  There are a lot of phone signals that would be unintelligible to me except for the DSP noise reduction.

I was looking at used JRC NDR-545s.  I'm also thinking of waiting for the new Icom receiver.  I'm open to SDRs, but don't know much about them.  I have a $20 USB SDR that I've been playing with, but I don't know much about the Airspy / SDRPlay and up level receivers.

Any suggestions?

97

Peskies / UNID Spanish Language 6905 kHz LSB 0239 UTC 14 April 2017

« on: April 14, 2017, 0241 UTC »

Two men speaking in Spanish.  One side nice and loud RST of 57  Other side I can barely make out RST 11

98

MW Loggings / KOHI 1600 khz 0348z Apr 12, 2017

« on: April 12, 2017, 0425 UTC »

KOHI  St. Helens, OR  SINPO: 32323   They were playing Old Time Radio (The Whistler).  Nighttime power is 12 watts, and I was receiving pretty clearly 130+ miles away.  It would have almost sounded local except they were getting stepped on by other stations during fade.

99

Other / Malicious Interference 3908 LSB 0429 UTC 10 Apr 2017

« on: April 10, 2017, 0444 UTC »

Someone is clogging up 3908 LSB in the ham bands with audio bite loops, profanity, music, etc.

Came across this at 0429 and it's still going on.  Pulling S9 here in the Seattle area