Messages

706

European Pirates and Private Stations / Re: Radio Mona Lisa 6285 AM 0909 utc 06 jan 2019

« on: January 06, 2019, 0935 UTC »

0932 - SINPO 445444 on and SDR in Germany with U2 "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
0954 - Talking over "Telstar". Listener greetings in Dutch and English. One listener in Indonesia.
0956 - "Please send reception reports to Radio ..... AT hotmail DOT com" Keep missing the ID.
0959 - ID in Dutch, German. I think they said "Mona Lisa".
1003 - Clear ID, "Radio Mona Lisa". Said that they were going to close down and listen to another station on 6245 KHz.
1008 - Of course, it's the "long good bye" that Dutch stations seem to specialize in. Playing heavy metal.
1016 - Heavy metal continues.
1024 - Judas Priest, "Freewheel Burning".

707

QSLs Received / Re: KAID KitchenAid Radio eQSL

« on: January 05, 2019, 2029 UTC »

get jiggy like wil smif suggested in that video with some .01 ceramics rated a few kv.

Yeah, like right on the motor leads.

Alternatively, you could put your entire kitchen into a Faraday cage.

708

QSLs Received / Re: KAID KitchenAid Radio eQSL

« on: January 05, 2019, 2028 UTC »

I understand KAID will be on the air later this afternoon, in fact. The upside is it will be making low carb chocolate mousse.

I'd suggest that you narc on them to the Feds but you know...that government shutdown thing you folks are having would prevent immediate relief. 

709

QSLs Received / Re: KAID KitchenAid Radio eQSL

« on: January 05, 2019, 2026 UTC »

Mixer Radio International?

Ohhhh. Very good.

710

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC says ‘most’ operations will be suspended Thursday

« on: January 05, 2019, 0139 UTC »

They are all going to say they are working on it. I'm talking about 28Ghz that the FCC is auctioning off. I don't see that happening except for maybe in the largest cities and not for 3-5 years. So what's the rush? (unless the shutdown is going to last for months or years)

Yes, given where the equipment suppliers are in their development, I'd say 3-5 years is about right.

I don't know for 100% sure but my feeling is that the licensees want to be sure of exactly what frequencies they will obtain because it affects equipment decisions (i.e., optimizations for a certain band) and given that it takes their equipment suppliers 1-2 years to get final versions from their suppliers, nailing those down soon would seem important.

But also, the FCC does like $$$, don't they?

711

Equipment / Re: General Coverage Comms rxer down to 20KHz?

« on: January 05, 2019, 0117 UTC »

https://www.herostechnology.co.uk/pages/VLF-LF-MF_Up-Converter.html

They have some neat stuff!

712

QSLs Received / Re: KAID KitchenAid Radio eQSL

« on: January 04, 2019, 2246 UTC »

The KitchenAid Pro series 7 quart stand mixers (and probably some of their others) have a variable speed motor, which produces a prodigious amount of RFI/QRM.

One word: ferrites.

713

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC says ‘most’ operations will be suspended Thursday

« on: January 04, 2019, 2240 UTC »

5G is a Chinese hoax.

Hmmm. I think you are joking but, in case not, Better tell Ericsson, Qualcomm, Verizon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Analog Devices, and a bunch of other similarly non-Chinese companies that tidbit of information.

714

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC says ‘most’ operations will be suspended Thursday

« on: January 04, 2019, 2236 UTC »

At the same time, if there is no emergency, they might just get bored and do some investigatory work.

As long as you're not interfering with safety of life services (i.e. jamming the US Coast Guard - of course they have HFDF capabilities too...), US government/military nets or aeronautical frequencies then you're fine.  Keeping the safety of life services frequencies clear is their highest priority.

I realize that it was hard to tell but I was joking.

As with previous government shutdowns, I think there has already been an increase in pirate activity.  Hard to say if that's also because of the recent holidays or a combination of the two.

I agree. I guess that we will find out this weekend?

715

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC says ‘most’ operations will be suspended Thursday

« on: January 04, 2019, 0307 UTC »

Will the president increase pirate radioactivity? 

Oh, I think as time goes on there will be more stations like this: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,43559.msg160866.html#msg160866

So, the answer is "yes".

716

Equipment / Re: General Coverage Comms rxer down to 20KHz?

« on: January 04, 2019, 0300 UTC »

Someone, Palomar I think, used to make one that had a xtal osc and a nice diode mixer, translated the entire band to 3 or 10mhz or wherever it was. It's front end was designed to pass vlf and reduce anything higher.

Yes, I remember that Palomar Engineers carried one back in the 80s and 90s, back when they had red lettering (or was it red cases?) on everything.

Maybe you can find one of these converters on Ebay.

717

Equipment / Re: General Coverage Comms rxer down to 20KHz?

« on: January 04, 2019, 0256 UTC »

Yeah, just make sure you use opamps rated for hifi audio as run of the mill opamps like the 741 are great noise sources.

The 741 is very, very old and quite noisy. The AD797 is newer ( and still ~20 years old) but (as ThElectriCat mentions) is well-known for low-noise performance and reasonable distortion characteristics. 10 MHz gain-bandwidth product fits the bill here.

718

Equipment / Re: General Coverage Comms rxer down to 20KHz?

« on: January 03, 2019, 0701 UTC »

Also, possibly someone still makes converters that shift the vlf up to say 10MHz or wherever. These might offer improved performance as they're designed for the band in question but transvert the sigs where a hf receiver will be at peak performance.

That would be my vote too.

You can make your own up converter for this range; you just need a DC-coupled mixer, a variable LO, probably a few amplifiers and baluns as a quick and dirty bare bones solution. Op-amps make great amplifiers at LF. 

719

General Radio Discussion / Re: Italian Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) leaving shortwave

« on: January 03, 2019, 0645 UTC »

I think they mean just temporarily, but we'll see.

My crappy Italian (but perhaps less crappy than yours ) says SPERANDO DI TORNARE PRIMA POSSIBILE IN ONDA = "Hoping to return to the air as soon as possible."

720

General Radio Discussion / Re: FCC says ‘most’ operations will be suspended Thursday

« on: January 03, 2019, 0633 UTC »

Staff of the FCC Operations Center will handle emergency contacts for agency. Staff of the High Frequency Direction Finding (HFDF) Center will operate the high frequency antenna system used to protect life and property. One management employee will oversee and coordinate regularly with both operations to help identify and respond to imminent threats to life or property.

Likely chasing down someone on 6925 is not priority one. At the same time, if there is no emergency, they might just get bored and do some investigatory work.