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Author Topic: History of The Vault Shortwave  (Read 1596 times)

Offline Ct Yankee

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History of The Vault Shortwave
« on: April 16, 2021, 1816 UTC »


Received this unprompted email from The Vault today:

"Hello dear CT
QSL on its way
In the meanwhile here’s an update

The Vault - A happy accident!
Some of my friends have been running pirate stations on AM and FM for a number of years. The idea of having something similar but different was always appealing having worked in both pirate and Commercial radio myself for many years. I had often toyed with the idea but never brought it to fruition.
One evening literally by accident I came across a low power AM HF rig for sale, I had plenty of ideas of what I may like to do with it. I also knew I would be able to employ a reasonable antenna system at the transmitter site.
The little 40w carrier would modulate to 150 or 160 watts PEP.
We started in late July 2019 with tentative tests and we’re noticed early on, the signal was very good across Europe and readable most evenings to North America.

The 40w transmitter was later reconfigured and used as just an exciter to drive an RF amplifier, this more than doubled our power it was usually a 85w carrier modulated to 400w or more. The signal and reports improved however it was costly and inefficient on the energy front. So this year, we upgraded the transmitter once again.

The Vault is currently in service from a solid state transmitter, it’s extremely clean, modulates very well and it is very efficient.
Carrier is now 250w modulated to 1 KW. It will do more - watch this space !

The antenna system has always remained the same. It is a half wave dipole in a flat top configuration usually at 80ft. The antenna is noticeably bi directional due to its position radiates best to the east and west.

The two most important factors for me personally are the audio quality and music content.
The audio is processed by an Orban Optimod AM model 9100 A. This is broadcast industry standard equipment. After much adjustment and tweaking I believe we have an AM quality sound which is second to none, The Vault is an audiophile station, producing high fidelity AM best listened to at 13kHz wide.

The Vault plays a very wide variety of music. The library has been built from scratch, every song hand picked and chosen under a number of criteria, most importantly has the song stood the test of time, will it sound amazingly good on our AM transmission, is it a song that maybe you were not expecting to hear.
We play 60s, 70s, lots of 80s and what we like to call interesting extras!
The station runs a very tight music format on a clock rotation system this guarantees our signature sound and overall station personality. All this comes from the rules and criteria we have employed in the station play out software system.

If you happen to hear us we hope you enjoy your time with us and maybe hear something a little bit special. Please tell your friends about The Vault !
Keeping Shortwave Alive.

Kindest regards
The Vault Keeper"
Tecsun H501x (broadcast received on this unless noted), Zenith T/O G500, Zenith T/O Royal 7000, Emerson AR-176, Zenith 8S154, T/O 7G605 (Bomber), Tecsun PL-600, Tecsun PL-880, Zenith 5S320, Realistic DX 160 using 40 feet of copper wire.  With apologies to Senator Gramm for his thoughts on firearms, "I have more radios than I need but not as many as I want."
QTH:  Durham, Connecticut (rural setting, 15 miles north of Long Island Sound)
qsl please to:  jamcanner@comcast.net  (Thank you)

Offline bfrederi

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Re: History of The Vault Shortwave
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2021, 0138 UTC »
Thanks for sharing, CT Y. Having just recently returned to HF listening after  a  long lapse, I wasn't familiar with The Vault. But the two times I've caught them in the past few weeks I've been impressed with the quality of both their audio and their content. It made me want to sit on the frequency and listen to the programming rather than just log it and move on in search of something else. Interesting to read the back story.
- Usually Airspy HF+/SDR Console V3.1
- After the tree guys left, now have a 125 ft wire that goes up to the west from 12 ft to 40ft., then a stretch SE that drops to 20ft termination. I should probably just say "longwire" and not worry about it. Miss that tree.
- Sometimes Sangean ATS-909X with whip and/or stock reel and/or YouLoop
- Remote SDRs only used when signal not present at home QTH, and always noted
- Shazam only used to ID music released after 1992. Mostly.
eQSLs to bfrederi1@verizon.net much appreciated

 

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