151
Equipment / Re: Outdoor tuner or switch
« on: May 27, 2020, 1240 UTC »
Have you considered a knife switch?
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 permissable in your locale.
The downloadable screen image is interesting. All sorts of commercial business cases for the use of RDF collected data...
https://www.he360.com/one-year-anniversary-of-pathfinder-commissioning/
I can’t speak to what was going on with TurboTax, but this doesn’t make sense. The highest incremental tax rate is 37% and this is on income of greater than $518,401 (single filer). $6 on $10.48 would be 57%.
Speaking of TurboTax...
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
During the winter months, I often hear the European LW stations, sometimes well enough that I use them for background music while I work on other things.
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152
General Radio Discussion / Re: What were those antennas good for
« on: May 15, 2020, 0951 UTC »
I’ve heard that the antennas are gone and the area is now used as a paintball field.
The site is mentioned here:
https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/Signal/USAREUR_SignalCorps%20CN-ECCCS.htm
The site is mentioned here:
https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/Signal/USAREUR_SignalCorps%20CN-ECCCS.htm
156
Equipment / Re: Copper Clad Steel
« on: April 30, 2020, 1256 UTC »
I agree with Pinto...not all RG6 is of equal quality. You have to separate out problems caused by poor quality off-shore RG6 from those caused by the use of CCS at the lower frequencies.
In addition, for those sending DC power up the coax, you have to consider whether the additional resistance of steel has an impact on the DC power available at the distant end. That would be easy enough to measure.
What I would like to see is a measurement of matched load line loss of a 1000 ft of CCS RG6 vs 1000 ft of pure copper RG6, of equal quality construction, at 100 kHz, 1 MHz, 10 MHz, and 30 MHz. That would tell me whether this is a real problem or not.
Also, it is becoming harder to find solid copper too. I can’t find ladder line cable anymore that isn’t CCS.
I set up a 1000 foot loop-on-the-ground antenna this Fall, using CAT5 UTP. The cable I bought was Copper Clad Aluminum (CCA). The DC resistance on each conductor was twice what copper wire would have been. I have no idea if this impacted the antenna. I heard plenty of DX on it. Maybe I would have heard more on a pure copper antenna... maybe not.
In addition, for those sending DC power up the coax, you have to consider whether the additional resistance of steel has an impact on the DC power available at the distant end. That would be easy enough to measure.
What I would like to see is a measurement of matched load line loss of a 1000 ft of CCS RG6 vs 1000 ft of pure copper RG6, of equal quality construction, at 100 kHz, 1 MHz, 10 MHz, and 30 MHz. That would tell me whether this is a real problem or not.
Also, it is becoming harder to find solid copper too. I can’t find ladder line cable anymore that isn’t CCS.
I set up a 1000 foot loop-on-the-ground antenna this Fall, using CAT5 UTP. The cable I bought was Copper Clad Aluminum (CCA). The DC resistance on each conductor was twice what copper wire would have been. I have no idea if this impacted the antenna. I heard plenty of DX on it. Maybe I would have heard more on a pure copper antenna... maybe not.
157
Equipment / Re: Copper Clad Steel
« on: April 29, 2020, 1225 UTC »
More from Duffy. One ham bought RG6 that started to see performance drop offs below 85 MHz.
https://owenduffy.net/blog/?p=17599
https://owenduffy.net/blog/?p=17599
158
General Radio Discussion / Re: U.S. Space Force Is Arming to Jam Russian and Chinese Satellites
« on: April 22, 2020, 1150 UTC »
The attachment of MEV-1 to extend the life of IS-901 is a historic first. I can think of several ways that this same technology could be used offensively.
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/04/17/intelsat-satellite-returns-to-service-after-first-commercial-life-extension-mission/
https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/04/17/intelsat-satellite-returns-to-service-after-first-commercial-life-extension-mission/
159
General Radio Discussion / Space based RDF
« on: April 15, 2020, 1347 UTC »The downloadable screen image is interesting. All sorts of commercial business cases for the use of RDF collected data...
https://www.he360.com/one-year-anniversary-of-pathfinder-commissioning/
160
General Radio Discussion / Lightsquared returns...
« on: April 14, 2020, 1419 UTC »
About 10 years ago, a company called Lightsquared attempted to obtain approval to offer internet services in L band, using frequencies adjacent to those used for GPS. There was a huge backlash to this because almost all GPS receivers were not designed to work with strong adjacent signals and would be overloaded. The combined voices of industry, users, and the DOD managed to kill the proposal.
Lightsquared was renamed Ligado, and is back. It appears they may get the permission they desired from this administration.
Details are here:
https://www.c4isrnet.com/breaking-news/2020/04/10/fcc-to-approve-spectrum-plan-that-pentagon-claims-will-harm-gps/?
Lightsquared was renamed Ligado, and is back. It appears they may get the permission they desired from this administration.
Details are here:
https://www.c4isrnet.com/breaking-news/2020/04/10/fcc-to-approve-spectrum-plan-that-pentagon-claims-will-harm-gps/?
161
Equipment / L band antennas
« on: April 08, 2020, 1329 UTC »
Some good construction info here for L band antennas:
http://www.merseyradar.co.uk/airband-radio/l-band-diy-antennas-for-jaero/
http://www.merseyradar.co.uk/airband-radio/l-band-diy-antennas-for-jaero/
162
Longwave Loggings / Re: LF 2200m amateur band propagation
« on: April 06, 2020, 1224 UTC »
The KiwiSDR built-in WSPR decoder includes a setting for the 2200M band. I have heard a few stations here, but not as many as I have heard on 630M.
163
Huh? / Re: Damn Taxes
« on: March 30, 2020, 1154 UTC »I just entered my interest income from my savings account, it was $10.48. I looked at the federal refund number at the top of the page and my refund went down $6. $6 on an investment return of $10.48. What in the hell!!
I can’t speak to what was going on with TurboTax, but this doesn’t make sense. The highest incremental tax rate is 37% and this is on income of greater than $518,401 (single filer). $6 on $10.48 would be 57%.
Speaking of TurboTax...
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
164
Equipment / Re: 120 ft T2FD Antenna Build
« on: March 23, 2020, 1335 UTC »
The March/April 2020 issue of QEX has part 1 of an article on Broadband HF Antenna designs. In the article they note that for a 30 foot long T2FD antenna, with 100 watts input to the antenna, 74 watts is lost in the resistor at 14 MHz, and 70 watts is lost at 29.7 MHz.
Unless a flat SWR over a very large bandwidth is of importance to you (e.g. ALE scanning), the T2FD would not be my first choice for a transmitting antenna.
Unless a flat SWR over a very large bandwidth is of importance to you (e.g. ALE scanning), the T2FD would not be my first choice for a transmitting antenna.
165
SDR - Software Defined Radio / Re: New To SDR
« on: March 12, 2020, 1158 UTC »
As there are no broadcasting stations on the long wave band in the North American countries, being a resident of the UK I've often wondered what it sounds like from across the Atlantic. The only station I've heard is Radio Algeria on 252kHz. It's weak, but you can detect audio from it. Moving to 198kHZ which is used by BBC Radio 4, there is a line on the waterfall and a very, very weak carrier wave. One night I could just detect some barely perceptible audio.
During the winter months, I often hear the European LW stations, sometimes well enough that I use them for background music while I work on other things.
