16
General Radio Discussion / Longwave Pirates?
« on: February 15, 2018, 0627 UTC »
Is longwave pirate radio a thing? I’ve found a few cases on the internet but I can’t find a case of a regular broadcast.
Shortwave Pirate Radio In North America And Around The World, And Other Signals That Go Bump In The Night
We seek to understand and document all radio transmissions, legal and otherwise, as part of the radio listening hobby. We do not encourage any radio operations contrary to regulations.
Always consult with the appropriate authorities if you have questions concerning what is permissible in your locale.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
17
Equipment / Re: Another source of QRM! This time from a KitchenAid mixer
« on: February 13, 2018, 0445 UTC »If any of you guys have a neighbor down the street with that sweet ride from the 1950s, chrome bumpers, bright red, 600 horsepower, you know the one. well, it also has a totally unshielded/ unsuppressed ignition system, which will light up my spectrum analyzer noise floor about 20 db when he drives by. totally obliterates any chance of hearing DX below 500 Kilocycles. Even the close by DGPS beacons are goneBased on my hot rodding high school years it sounds like an MSD ignition system. I had one on a truck I had and both am and cb radio sounded like a machine gun every time I put my foot down. Which was a lot
18
For Sale / Wanted / Barter / Re: 'It's like Frankenstein's lab': Massive 78-year-old transmitter for sale
« on: January 31, 2018, 1719 UTC »
Hmmm now all I need is a boat, a tower, and a generator.
19
Equipment / Re: The best undercover fm antenna on the market
« on: January 27, 2018, 0306 UTC »Nice work!Thanks! it was in my attic so I’d say about 12 feet up
Much is dependent on the actual elevation of your site and the terrain in general, as well as antenna height. If the site happens to sit in a low spot, one might do much less well than you are doing with the same 15 watts.... so I heard once long ago....
20
Equipment / The best undercover fm antenna on the market
« on: January 24, 2018, 0235 UTC »
So a little while ago I saw this little dipole on eBay for only $99 and I thought I’d pick one up.
Here’s a link to the same thing on amazon for a bit more but you can occasionally find these floating around eBay for much less
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NNERREM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516760244&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=fm+dipole+antenna+150+watts&dpPl=1&dpID=21UawYVmTiL&ref=plSrch
When t bought this I connected it to an old 15 watt fm tx I had just to see what would happen. I thought I wouldn’t see much of on improvement over the little telescope antenna that came with the thing. I WAS WORNG! The range jumped from about 1.5 miles to at least 8. While trying to find the range I actually hade to turn around because my truck was about to run out of gas and I was in the middle of nowhere and at that point the signal was coming through perfectly. I’d also like to point out that during the test the antenna was attached to a bench press in my attic far away from the spying eyes of the fcc. So to sum up. 15 watts of power a relatively cheap (possibly used) antenna a TNC to pl259 adapter and about 3 feet of rg8u and you get better than 8 miles. Enough to cover my little town. All added up an the whole set up cast me about $250
Here’s a link to the same thing on amazon for a bit more but you can occasionally find these floating around eBay for much less
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NNERREM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516760244&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=fm+dipole+antenna+150+watts&dpPl=1&dpID=21UawYVmTiL&ref=plSrch
When t bought this I connected it to an old 15 watt fm tx I had just to see what would happen. I thought I wouldn’t see much of on improvement over the little telescope antenna that came with the thing. I WAS WORNG! The range jumped from about 1.5 miles to at least 8. While trying to find the range I actually hade to turn around because my truck was about to run out of gas and I was in the middle of nowhere and at that point the signal was coming through perfectly. I’d also like to point out that during the test the antenna was attached to a bench press in my attic far away from the spying eyes of the fcc. So to sum up. 15 watts of power a relatively cheap (possibly used) antenna a TNC to pl259 adapter and about 3 feet of rg8u and you get better than 8 miles. Enough to cover my little town. All added up an the whole set up cast me about $250
21
Equipment / Re: Procaster AM Transmitter Review
« on: January 24, 2018, 0202 UTC »Bro, I think you should have bought one of these used.Oh how I wish I could afford it!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AM-TRANSMITTER/302556807153?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D44039%26meid%3D66df99fd980e4fa9a0b8e44b3d7d87cc%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D302556803139&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
22
General Radio Discussion / Re: S.C. preacher (Brother Stair) arrested following sexual assault allegations
« on: January 10, 2018, 1820 UTC »
He was asking for $10 million donations on the air. Wonder if there’s a connection.
23
Equipment / Re: Procaster AM Transmitter Review
« on: January 10, 2018, 1741 UTC »What's so costly is the FCC Certification. The dude behind, http://www.pll.gr/ , transmitters in Greece is having that issue. I bought the mono 20W AM transmitter for $550.00 two years ago with the USD and the Euro brought the price close for that. That transmitter is to add beefiness to my AM Carrier-Current station. Radio Systems wants $3,500.00 for their FCC Certified 10W transmitter, and I knew that price-wise I could do better. On Part #15 radiating, I made a 9ft 3/4" copper pipe with a capacitive tophat. My I Am Radio, http://www.iamradio.net/ , with the massive PEP of 92mW can be heard at 2 1/2 miles away, albeit weak, but listenable on a car stereo. Out that far, any electrical QRM and night DX totally obliterates it.Yeah for some reason people like to use fcc certification as a selling point. I’ve been kicking around the idea of selling my own part 15 kits for around $75 for years.
24
General Radio Discussion / Re: Looping mp3
« on: January 08, 2018, 1749 UTC »First thing that popped in my mind is find a used music on hold player like you would use with a phone system to play the hold music, at my job we have some out there that have been going for years nonstop, you can find ones that you just dump a single or even several mp3s onto and they loop forever as long as the power is on.I didn’t think of that. I’ll have to see if I can find one
25
General Radio Discussion / Looping mp3
« on: January 05, 2018, 1902 UTC »
I’m thinking of building an hf beacon and of course one of the main components of that is a device that will loop the same audio over and over again for possibly weeks. Does anyone know of an MP3 player that will loop the same track over and over again?
26
Equipment / Procaster AM Transmitter Review
« on: November 28, 2017, 1946 UTC »
I recently attempted, and failed, to buy a sstran amt 5000 for $229. after two months of waiting I opened a claim with paypal to get my money back. After I received my refund I impulsively bought a Procaster AM transmitter for $696 with $55 for shipping for a grand total of $750 plus about $100 worth of pawn shop studio equipment as well as wires, ground rods, and a long aluminum pole to mount it on. The tx has amazing range of about two miles when well tuned and grounded and is connected to a audio and power source inside the house via a cable that i believe is nothing more than a length of phone cord. This allows for the tx to be almost entirely controlled from inside the house with the exception of the tuning and frequency selection. The only problem i have withe the tx is that there is no good way to ground it without breaking part 15 law. The instructions call for an eight foot grounding rod, however this combined with any length of wire would violate part 15 law leading me to believe that when the fcc was inspecting the tx for certification, it wasn't grounded at all. Bearing that in mind i, knowing i had to ground it for lightning protection, bought forteen feet of six gage wire and an eight foot copper ground rod and plan to add even more grounding in the future.
All in all I'm very pleased with the tx. Even with my minimalist approach to the part 15 hobby i can still cover my neighborhood as well as several others in the area. I haven't had any problem from ether the fcc or the tx and i don't think i will. if you're looking for a good part 15 tx the Procaster is what i recommend.
All in all I'm very pleased with the tx. Even with my minimalist approach to the part 15 hobby i can still cover my neighborhood as well as several others in the area. I haven't had any problem from ether the fcc or the tx and i don't think i will. if you're looking for a good part 15 tx the Procaster is what i recommend.
27
Shortwave Broadcast / WRMI on 9495 kHz 5:03am utc 10-27-17
« on: October 27, 2017, 0510 UTC »
333 signal great music and sound quality. Played footloose then went to commercials
28
General Radio Discussion / Re: Anyone know what’s going on at sstran?
« on: October 13, 2017, 2040 UTC »
There’s a mailing address in the contact us section of the website. Maybe I’ll send them a letter.
29
FM Free Radio / Re: Low-power broadcasting at bluegrass festivals
« on: October 12, 2017, 2227 UTC »
It maybe that no one reports them. If it’s a big festival everyone may just assume they have a license. My first job was at a dragstrip that did this. It was a pretty big place. It had a stock car and pro go cart track to. They had an fm station that could be heard all over town. One day I decided to look up all the LPFM stations in that state and none of them where for a drag strip. My best guess was that no one reported it because they assumed it was legal.
30
General Radio Discussion / Anyone know what’s going on at sstran?
« on: October 12, 2017, 2154 UTC »
I ordered an amt5000 from sstran almost 2 months ago after hearing nothing but great things about them. Of course I also heard they can be a little slow to arrive. It’s been almost 2 months and my order is still pending. I’m sure I’ll get it eventually seeing as I can’t find anyone complaining that they didn’t but I am a bit curious as to what’s taking it. Has anyone heard anything from them recently?