Messages

31

Propagation / Re: Is my radio dead though?

« on: July 14, 2019, 0048 UTC »

Kage, good to hear nothing fried.

Pigmeat, was your radio powered up during the storm, or can these things really take damage indoors, away from external conductors?

Josh, I keep everything unplugged when not in use. There's also a bunch of audio gear involved that I'm not interested in replacing.

But i have to know...should i start stowing my radios in literal faraday cages while not in use? I'm really paranoid now.

32

Propagation / Re: Is my radio dead though?

« on: July 13, 2019, 1824 UTC »

The front end of my good ol' Sangean 404 went last weekend due to tornado spawning storms kicking out some serious lightning. The whip was retracted and it wasn't near wires leading outside.

This post just ruined my day. 

I was listening on an old Panasonic in my house last month and heard some lightning static crashes that peaked meter a couple times before I powered down and stowed the whip.  I figured if powered down and stowed I'd be fine.  Now I'm going to test my radios so I can stop freaking out about it.

33

Propagation / Re: Attention Propagation Nerds

« on: July 13, 2019, 1820 UTC »

Beware anyone who says it's "settled science."  I agree that it makes sense on a simplistic level:  man started making Co2 en masse on this date, and temperatures started rising from that date.  However, the controversies regarding data manipulation, the models that can't predict anything and must constantly be revised, and the obvious political motivations at play should cause one to look deeper.  There are far more variables in the equation than just Co2 in the atmosphere.

Here's some recent findings by the Finnish and the Japanese, who hardly rate as "virulent conservative talk show hosts" as one commenter put it:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1907.00165.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-45466-8

even if one doesn't have kids or grandkids they should care about those who do.

This is not the way the world works.  Despite the outliers we can name, the majority of humanity operates on how much skin they have in the game.  Don't be fooled by the bumper stickers and social media postings about saving the whales and rainforest, freeing Tibet, and "going green."  Most people express these things to earn social cachet, it's social signaling and it costs exactly nothing.  Once it starts costing something, you can expect changes in attitude.

34

Propagation / Re: Attention Propagation Nerds

« on: July 13, 2019, 1745 UTC »

Could you be more specific?

35

Propagation / Re: Attention Propagation Nerds

« on: July 13, 2019, 1435 UTC »

I have yet to hear anyone at NASA or the NOAA talking about the need to reduce the number of third-world polluters.

36

Propagation / Re: Attention Propagation Nerds

« on: July 13, 2019, 0248 UTC »

If we can dramatically reduce the populations on the continents other than North America, we will make a big dent in man made global warming, if it is in fact a thing. NASA and the NOAA need to stop dragging their heels and start the conversation.

37

General Radio Discussion / Re: California Earthquakes Disrupted HF (Shortwave Radio) Propagation on West Coast

« on: July 13, 2019, 0238 UTC »

I'd figure it's a process that only works on the surface of materials, and that surface area to volume for continental plates is much smaller than on small crystals. Some processes dont scale very well in chemistry or physics. And then I'd suspect that whatever RF is being generated is being severely attenuated by gigatons of earth between it and free space.

But now I know better!

38

General Radio Discussion / Re: California Earthquakes Disrupted HF (Shortwave Radio) Propagation on West Coast

« on: July 12, 2019, 1536 UTC »

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity

Thanks for the link.  I knew currents could deform slices of crystal to create buzzers, but was not aware this worked in reverse on a grand scale.

There's also an ex-usgs guy who has made a career out west of predicting earthquakes using pet lost-and-found ads in the San Jose Murky News.

I think I heard this guy on "Art Bell's Somewhere In Time" last weekend.  The name escapes me, but the guest was talking about how animals start running away in larger numbers in the lead up to quakes.  He mentioned something I'd never considered, as intuitive as it is:  the longer a fault goes without a several smaller quakes, the larger the next quake will be.

39

General Radio Discussion / Re: California Earthquakes Disrupted HF (Shortwave Radio) Propagation on West Coast

« on: July 11, 2019, 1609 UTC »

I'm interested to know more about the mechanism behind the noise.  Schwarz refers twice to "field lines" from the quakes, but what generates them?  Rock scraping on rock shouldn't, but perhaps the movement of ferromagnetic material in the plates through the Earth's magnetic field generates spurious electric fields and RF disruptions?

40

Equipment / Re: Notch Filter for the 9330 kHz WBCQ SuperStation

« on: July 10, 2019, 2100 UTC »

...but there's differences from program to program, so there's also the possibility that the audio is being provided to WBCQ already compressed.

I was listening to Bossman and his wife (Alan and Angela) who, I assume, should know better!

A question to the old-timers:  was this what it was like during the good 'ole days of shortwave broadcasting?  Were the Cuban, Russian and Chinese (and American, for that matter) propaganda stations shooting around the globe with 500k watts like the WBCQ super station?  I reckon I could RX WBCQ with a salty shoestring.

Back on topic, are any of you suffering from overloading?  I haven't noticed any on my end, but I'm still quite green and probably wouldn't know it if I saw it.  Are you talking about de-sensing on adjacent frequencies?  Images on other bands and so on?

41

General Radio Discussion / Re: Are you under 30 and how did you get interested?

« on: July 08, 2019, 1609 UTC »

after a lot of research and watching videos on youtube i think i've settled on a wideband magnetic loop.

For giggles, consider purchasing a BC AM tuning cap, some thin-gauge magnetic wire and using a pizza box or plastic milk crate to wire up a BC AM tuned loop.  I haven't found much worth listening to on BC AM, but I'm addicted to improving what I can pull in.  It becomes a sport.

I suspect experimentation with tuned loops will help you develop your HF loop.

42

Equipment / Re: Multiple Radio/Antenna Safety

« on: June 29, 2019, 2250 UTC »

Thanks for the input. The tecsun wont be the ears, but I suspect the advice suits the radio I intend to use.

43

Equipment / Multiple Radio/Antenna Safety

« on: June 28, 2019, 1901 UTC »

I'm looking into my first mobile install with a CB and a VHF radio.  I've also just acquired a second HF radio and am interested in using one for "ears" and the other for mostly TX.  I'm looking for some advice, feedback, and/or life experience regarding ensuring systems don't harm each other.

Questions I have:

-For radios and antenna systems in the same band (e.g. 20m) what sort of distances between TX and RX antennas are generally safe, and where on the wattage spectrum does danger of the TX hurting the RX radio approximately begin?  I've been using the pl880 with the antenna retracted and only TXing at most with 15w to test my sound, but I've been paranoid I'm hurting the pl880.  I intend to be TXing with 100w.

-For radios and antenna systems in different bands (e.g. 11m and 2m) the same question as above, and this will be on a vehicle so spacing will be tighter.  I don't suppose I have to worry much about the 4w from CB hurting the VHF, but what about 75w going the other way? Also, are transistors less vulnerable to damage from something like this if they aren't in use?  Would turning the CB off while using the VHF help protect it?

-Recommendations for a TX/RX radio switch are appreciate, or inline attenuators for the RX radio.  I believe these would allow one to blast away on TX and ensure a damaging voltage doesn't make it to the RX radio, but I have no experience here.

44

General Radio Discussion / Re: Brother Stair off the air?

« on: June 27, 2019, 1926 UTC »

I think I hear Brother Stair on 9330 right now.

EDIT:

Definitely hear him on 9395 right now.

45

General Radio Discussion / Eham Offline!?!

« on: June 27, 2019, 1325 UTC »

I noticed last night that the forum was broken due to some missing PHP library, but now it seems the whole site is down.  Ouch!