Messages

76

Equipment / Re: Vertical antenna SWR diagnosis

« on: June 14, 2019, 2251 UTC »

I'll try shortening it some more.

The choke should be preventing the coax shield from acting like a radial, but who knows what's going on in this thing right now 😎

77

Equipment / Vertical antenna SWR diagnosis

« on: June 14, 2019, 2112 UTC »

I just hung and tested a new 20m minimal vertical with peak about 22', feed point just over 6', and two raised radials sloping down to about 2' at the ends. Coax terminates to a UHF connector, which is hooked to a choke made of twin power cable wrapped through two stacked 31-material ferrite toroids for 13 turns. I am using 25' of rg8x for current testing.

I originally cut all three wires for about 17'. Initial SWR measurements showed a nice dip to 1.5 around 13 mhz, so I "shortened" each wire by about 6" by bending them back on themselves at the end insulators. SWR was now dipping at around 13.250 mhz, so i bent back another 6". Another check showed the same SWR dip at 13.250, so I didnt bother to shorten it yet again.

Any ideas what might keep the lowest SWR where it was after the second shortening? The wire is solid bare 18 AWG, so it makes electrical contact where it loops back and wraps itself. Could the toroid choke be causing it? Or my length of coax?

78

Amateur Radio / Re: 3840 khz Bootlegger Net & Jammers (LSB) 05:30 UTC

« on: June 14, 2019, 1654 UTC »

I was listening to 5830 early this morning around 0500 UTC and as it faded out, I switched to 80m to make sure it wasn't my radio or antenna, and caught these jackalopes on 3860.  When I see mental illness on the sidewalks in downtown Chicago I shrug it off as sad but harmless.  However, I find something dark and sinister about such insanity paired with the financial resources and intelligence to get on-air recordings, edited in near-realtime, booming out with a huge signal on 80m for the sake of...I suppose just being noticed.

79

Equipment / Re: More Wire, Higher Wire, Longer Wire

« on: June 14, 2019, 1638 UTC »

the 6800 is odd in that it's whip works better than an external into the SO-239. The CRF-1 is just the opposite, whip is useless but on an external it really shines.

Is it possible the 6800 has an attenuator on the external antenna plug?  My ICF-2010 goes deaf on MW if I plug the skywire into the plug. 

The AOR-AR3030 operates from internal batteries as well but AA cells and they last only a half hour.

  Ouch, what's the point with that burn rate!?

I'm kind of surprised that long wire doesn't cause problems on your portables.

I have isolating transformers on both ends of the feedline and assume they aren't very efficient, introducing enough attenuation to prevent overloading.  The Tecsun does have problems with this antenna system sometimes.

80

Amateur Radio / Re: 20m open late today

« on: June 10, 2019, 1207 UTC »

What kind of antenna are you guys running on 20m?

81

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: YHWH 7480 AM 0256 UTC 28 May 2019

« on: June 04, 2019, 2033 UTC »

Any educated guesses on how much wattage he's pushing out?  He sounded good the time I heard him, as I mentioned I had assumed I was tuned to WBCQ.

82

Equipment / Re: Multiple dipole positioning

« on: June 04, 2019, 2023 UTC »

Maybe a 20/40 fan is a good bet for starters.

I'm running QRP so I am trying to be as efficient as possible, but it's sounding like the switch may be too much hassle.

83

General Radio Discussion / Re: That '70s gadget, the CB, hangs on! Chicago Tribune article.

« on: June 03, 2019, 2347 UTC »

I scan it from time to time. Aside from the occasional skip from down south, I've not been hearing anything. Perhaps it's time to put more energy into it.

84

Equipment / Multiple dipole positioning

« on: June 03, 2019, 2010 UTC »

Hey all,

Awhile back I purchased a four-way remote antenna switch kit from the bay and intend to hang several dipoles cut to frequencies of interest.  The idea is a long run of coax to the switch, with the shortest possible coax lengths to the antenna feed points.  What sorts of orientations would minimize negative interactions between four dipoles?

85

General Radio Discussion / Re: Morse code revolutionized communications 175 years ago

« on: June 03, 2019, 1915 UTC »

An honorable mention goes to first runner-up, "everything else":

https://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/standards/morse-codes-vanquished-competitor-the-dial-telegraph

86

Propagation / Re: EXPERTS PREDICT A LONG, DEEP SOLAR MINIMUM:

« on: June 03, 2019, 1911 UTC »

We'd have been better off buying a piece of crap PA system, putting a speaker in the window, and cranking it to the max.

Funny and profound. Not all waves are created equal.

87

Equipment / Re: More Wire, Higher Wire, Longer Wire

« on: May 31, 2019, 1822 UTC »

lugging my IC-775DSP around like it was a ghetto blaster.

lol

I make a distinction between DXing and SWLing. If I want to pick out signals that are just barely above the noise floor, I plug headphones into the KX3 and use the combination of onboard physical and DSP filtering, noise reduction and antenna tuning.  Lately I've enjoyed tuning a shortwave broadcast on a portable, turning up the volume and moving to the next room to do something else while listening.

88

North American Shortwave Pirate / Re: YHWH 7480 AM 0256 UTC 28 May 2019

« on: May 31, 2019, 1752 UTC »

Thanks for the recording.  I've heard him before and assumed I was tuned to WBCQ.

89

Amateur Radio / Re: HAM Radio FUNgus

« on: May 31, 2019, 1745 UTC »

I'm exposing my little ones to shortwave listening in the hopes of at least instilling some appreciation for the science behind it.  And while they are thankfully rare here, during power outages they enjoy listening to the scanner with me while I monitor emergency and utility services.  They need their "Sarah Connor" training before they are too cool for dad 

90

General Radio Discussion / Re: All Digital AM Band? Um, maybe not.

« on: May 31, 2019, 1719 UTC »

Most of what's on the AMBCB should not even be listened too, fix that first!

It's enough to make one start chasing faint signals from vast distances...

AM band's woes are mostly "lack of compelling content" and second, fidelity. However, I think most people on here would rather have lower fidelity if there was something WORTH hearing to begin with.

The other night I was using muffled bandpass filtering and fighting through severe lighting hash in order to enjoy reruns of Art Bell, because I find this three hours of AM programming per week more interesting than anything else I've found by orders of magnitude.

The flat earthers are coming to WBCQ 9330 with 500KW 24/7 in about a month.

Anyone else here wonder which intelligence agency is funding this loudspeaker?