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Author Topic: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates  (Read 3870 times)

Offline ThaDood

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates?
« Reply #15 on: December 03, 2022, 0741 UTC »
Interesting. Well, with all of that massive real estate that Russia has, a small community could possibly get away with a MW pirate for years. IŽll bet some Russian bands would love to be on those, since a rep from the band Master, has told me that thereŽs no way that rock & metal artists would be aired on gov-run AM / FM stations there. Which is why Master appreciated getting aired on Part #15 AM, LPFM, and even WBCQ, with programs like this one:  https://archive.org/details/the-underground-jam-slate-no-tuj-09122021-review-of-master-master-of-time

As far as Russian to English translating goes? DeepL seems to be way better, than Google Translate:  https://www.deepl.com/en/translator

 Anyway... Interesting that this topic re-popped back up, since Master recently e-mailed me about their 35th anniversary from their separation from the band Aria. Nothing like timing.
I was asked, yet another weird question, of how I would like to be buried, when I finally bite the big one. The answer was actually pretty easy. Face-down, like a certain historical figure in the late 1980's, (I will not mention who, but some of you will get it, and that's enough.) Why??? It would be a burial that will satisfy everyone: (1) My enemies will say that it will show me where to go. (2) On the same point, I can have my enemies kiss my butt. (3) It will temporarily give someone a place to park a bicycle. See??? A WIN / WIN for everyone.

Offline redhat

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #16 on: December 05, 2022, 0945 UTC »
Quote
A simple Russian as a human will share with you his last loaf of bread and a bottle of vodka.

We should all be so lucky.  Loving this thread, and hope to learn more as this develops :)

спасибо!

+-RH
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Please send QSL's and reception reports to xfmshortwave [at] proton [d0t] me

Offline Charlie_Dont_Surf

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #17 on: December 06, 2022, 0155 UTC »
This is the most popular transmitter design used by these stations (I think this is it anyway).



Maybe this explain why a lot of the stations on MW drift all over the place and sound pretty rough (putting it charitably).  :)
I don't STRETCH the truth.

"Every minute I spend in this room, my signal gets weaker.
Every minute Charlie squats in the bush, his signal gets stronger."

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #18 on: December 06, 2022, 1358 UTC »
Charlie, that was the article I ran across doing research for the old "Homebrew Pirate Radio Group". Arnie Coro had an SSB transmitter schematic based on the same type tube he flogged on Radio Havana. He said and I quote, "It might drift 40-50 kc., but it will get you on the air." Good ol' Arnie.

Offline Charlie_Dont_Surf

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #19 on: December 07, 2022, 0006 UTC »
You wouldn't need a VFO. Just wait for it to drift to the frequency you want. Problem solved.  :)
I don't STRETCH the truth.

"Every minute I spend in this room, my signal gets weaker.
Every minute Charlie squats in the bush, his signal gets stronger."

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #20 on: December 07, 2022, 0136 UTC »
I think it was the same transmitter design Radio Havana used when I was a kid? When they amplified it and pointed those antenna arrays north, you could hear Fidel on one of his multi-hour rants coming out of every speaker in town.

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #21 on: December 22, 2022, 0536 UTC »
I still have not found any additional information  :-\

I am still awaiting a reply regarding joining the 6p3s.ru forum, I am doubting it is ever going to happen. If anyone else wants to try to join, write (in Russian) to ua9uco@yandex.ru (Igor Jurtaev-UA9UCO).

Maybe this explain why a lot of the stations on MW drift all over the place and sound pretty rough (putting it charitably).  :)

Would you mind explaining why that is? I would like to know, but I cannot read schematics.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2022, 0539 UTC by Shortwave_Listener »
Lucas Bandura
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Offline redhat

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #22 on: December 22, 2022, 0754 UTC »
VFO's tend to drift radically based on temperature, applied voltage, circuit loading, etc.  Unless great pains are exercised in construction, the drift of a conventional VFO can be significant.  One of these circuits appears to be a modulated power oscillator, meaning the operating frequency would likely change based on antenna loading changes, and with modulation...poor man's FM.

It's one of the reasons I like DDS 😁

+-RH
« Last Edit: December 22, 2022, 0757 UTC by redhat »
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Offline Charlie_Dont_Surf

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #23 on: December 22, 2022, 1843 UTC »
One of these circuits appears to be a modulated power oscillator, meaning the operating frequency would likely change based on antenna loading changes, and with modulation...poor man's FM.

Yes and I'm going to expand on this a little:

Transmitter have several operating functions inside them. Examples are, an oscillator (a VFO is one such oscillator), a final amplifier and perhaps some amplification between the two of these, perhaps some sort of power supply (e.g., 'bias") circuit. All those functions have to be present and operate well separately from each other; this implies a level of isolation and is critical for proper operation. If the different functions interfere or interact with each other too much, bad things can happen like muddy/mushy modulation, FMing or frequency shifting with modulation, oscillator drift,  feedback (instability), operation at unintended frequencies and so on.

The best way to ensure a certain amount of isolation is to make separate oscillator circuit, a separate final amplifier circuit, separate power supply circuit and then the designer will weave them together so that they all "play nicely" with each other.

The single tube/valve transmitter shown doesn't have any of that isolation between circuit functions; it does all the functions in one circuit and so it is prone all the issues I mentioned above. So why do it? Having those functions in separate circuits adds complexity, expense and time to build. For a hobbyist, convenience may override all those other considerations.
I don't STRETCH the truth.

"Every minute I spend in this room, my signal gets weaker.
Every minute Charlie squats in the bush, his signal gets stronger."

Offline redhat

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #24 on: December 23, 2022, 0103 UTC »
One of these circuits appears to be a modulated power oscillator, meaning the operating frequency would likely change based on antenna loading changes, and with modulation...poor man's FM.

Yes and I'm going to expand on this a little:

Transmitter have several operating functions inside them. Examples are, an oscillator (a VFO is one such oscillator), a final amplifier and perhaps some amplification between the two of these, perhaps some sort of power supply (e.g., 'bias") circuit. All those functions have to be present and operate well separately from each other; this implies a level of isolation and is critical for proper operation. If the different functions interfere or interact with each other too much, bad things can happen like muddy/mushy modulation, FMing or frequency shifting with modulation, oscillator drift,  feedback (instability), operation at unintended frequencies and so on.

The best way to ensure a certain amount of isolation is to make separate oscillator circuit, a separate final amplifier circuit, separate power supply circuit and then the designer will weave them together so that they all "play nicely" with each other.

The single tube/valve transmitter shown doesn't have any of that isolation between circuit functions; it does all the functions in one circuit and so it is prone all the issues I mentioned above. So why do it? Having those functions in separate circuits adds complexity, expense and time to build. For a hobbyist, convenience may override all those other considerations.

Yes, this precisely.

+-RH
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Please send QSL's and reception reports to xfmshortwave [at] proton [d0t] me

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #25 on: December 23, 2022, 0158 UTC »
When I ran across that schematic in the first decade of the century, there was an article with it that mentioned the one tube design was due to the fact that parts were hard to get. An ordinary citizen had to apply for a permit to buy a TV or radio and it took months and up to a year's salary to buy one. The pirates used tubes scrounged from scrapped TV's and radio's they found in the trash and preferred triodes.

Arnie Coro in his talk about his drifty SSB transmitter on "Dx'ers Unlimited" mentioned using tubes from those same type of Eastern Bloc TV's and radio's to build it. They were common junk in post Cold War Cuba. 

Offline Charlie_Dont_Surf

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #26 on: December 23, 2022, 2144 UTC »
When I ran across that schematic in the first decade of the century, there was an article with it that mentioned the one tube design was due to the fact that parts were hard to get. An ordinary citizen had to apply for a permit to buy a TV or radio and it took months and up to a year's salary to buy one. The pirates used tubes scrounged from scrapped TV's and radio's they found in the trash and preferred triodes.

Yes, I remember hearing this more than once. That's all they could get, so something simple is understandable.

Arnie Coro in his talk about his drifty SSB transmitter on "Dx'ers Unlimited" mentioned using tubes from those same type of Eastern Bloc TV's and radio's to build it. They were common junk in post Cold War Cuba.

I always wonder about the reasonable number of Cuban hams on FT8. I'm visualizing a bunch of hams using 20-year old computers that can barely keep up with the demands of WSJT-X, like the 1950s Edsel cars in videos of Havana. At the same time, their computer clocks don't seem any more out of sync with accurate UTC time than the US hams so...
I don't STRETCH the truth.

"Every minute I spend in this room, my signal gets weaker.
Every minute Charlie squats in the bush, his signal gets stronger."

Offline Pigmeat

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #27 on: December 27, 2022, 0203 UTC »
There was a man down the street from one of Great-Uncle's with an Edsel. White wall tires, moon hubcaps, and that distinctive front grill, it was something to behold. He was known in town as "That fool that bought an Edsel."

Offline Shortwave_Listener

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #28 on: January 07, 2023, 0655 UTC »
I found these two videos that describe the history of the 6P3S transmitter design, the one shown in that schematic. It is is Russian, but if you set the video to auto-translate captions you can kind of get the idea.

Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbcFeBr9GIY
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG5BF4iQXmc
Lucas Bandura
eQSL appreciated! lucasnerite@gmail.com
Songs are identified with Shazam if needed. I usually use KiwiSDR receivers. Reception from my QTH is using an SDRPlay RSP1A for SWL with a 40 meter band Inverted V at 40 feet. Kenwood TS-570D for ham use.
My website: https://swl7.wordpress.com/
Shortwave Radio Archive: https://www.youtube.com/@SW_Archive
https://archive.org/details/@shortwave_radio_archive

Offline minorukun

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Re: Discussion on Russian Mediumwave Pirates
« Reply #29 on: January 09, 2023, 0132 UTC »
This is the most popular transmitter design used by these stations (I think this is it anyway).
The text on the top states " УКВ приставка", meaning "FM add-on", the thingie allowing to receive FM broadcast (OIRT FM those times) on AM-only device. It was quite useful and somewhat popular gadget, since at the moment FM broadcasting started there, many people already had AM receivers - that oldschool ones, all wood and metal, often combined with vinyl player (this type was named радиола)
« Last Edit: January 09, 2023, 0207 UTC by minorukun »