Gendarme

[Dave Richards]

I don't see a thread dedicated to Gendarme, though I do see fairly frequent loggings of it by Teotwaki in his log threads. That's why I'm posting this in it's own thread.

I'm currently slumming it in style with my cat Sprout in my campervan. A week or so ago, we were in Prescott National Forest, AZ, from where I logged the following on my Belka-DX receiver with set-top whip -

Gendarme on ~6627 at 2115z on 4/10/2022. Very weak, but copyable, due to low band noise.

[ChrisSmolinski]

A very nice catch, Dave! This beacon, and Rainy, have been on my to-catch list for years.

p.s. I've been following your trip via your FB posts, nice to see you're mixing some radio in with your other adventures!

[Dave Richards]

A very nice catch, Dave! This beacon, and Rainy, have been on my to-catch list for years.

p.s. I've been following your trip via your FB posts, nice to see you're mixing some radio in with your other adventures!

Thanks Chris! It is so easy nowadays to take SW receive capability along with me on my trips, that there is no good reason not to.  Although I don't listen anywhere near as much as I could, I pull the receiver out when I feel so inclined, and figure that every single data point helps, even if it is only one or two.

One pleasant surprise has been how low the band noise often is, when I'm away from all the RFI in the large metro area that I call home. At first, I even thought there was something wrong with the receiver!

[Pigmeat]

A very nice catch, Dave! This beacon, and Rainy, have been on my to-catch list for years.

p.s. I've been following your trip via your FB posts, nice to see you're mixing some radio in with your other adventures!

Thanks Chris! It is so easy nowadays to take SW receive capability along with me on my trips, that there is no good reason not to.  Although I don't listen anywhere near as much as I could, I pull the receiver out when I feel so inclined, and figure that every single data point helps, even if it is only one or two.

One pleasant surprise has been how low the band noise often is, when I'm away from all the RFI in the large metro area that I call home. At first, I even thought there was something wrong with the receiver!

LOL! In my early pirate days, I went way out in the boonies to tx. Got the antenna about 60 feet up and heard nothing on my brand new
Sangean 909. I changed the batteries and went to 40 meters, a ton of QSO's. I put the original batteries back in and proceeded to do a couple of shows.

I was so far out in the sticks there was no electrical noise to be heard as static that late in the fall. I was sure the receiver had got bounced around and broke when I first heard all that dead air.

[Teotwaki]

LOL! In my early pirate days, I went way out in the boonies to tx. Got the antenna about 60 feet up and heard nothing on my brand new
Sangean 909. I changed the batteries and went to 40 meters, a ton of QSO's. I put the original batteries back in and proceeded to do a couple of shows.

I was so far out in the sticks there was no electrical noise to be heard as static that late in the fall. I was sure the receiver had got bounced around and broke when I first heard all that dead air.

My first time out in the desert was about the same. With the lack of  a big noise floor out of the radio I thought I had a bad antenna connection.

[Dave Richards]

I was so far out in the sticks there was no electrical noise to be heard as static that late in the fall. I was sure the receiver had got bounced around and broke when I first heard all that dead air.

Yep. It's almost unnerving, those first few times in low-noise environments. I really wanted my receiver AF gain to go to 11, until the sweet sound of a loud CW signal popped straight out of the speaker.

I don't know what to say about MB's weird rant, other than to express my opinion that it is antithetical to the spirit of these forums. DW, I hope you'll continue to check in here from time to time. The strong signal of your whooper makes it a dependable and friendly sound on the bands - much like the sound of the foghorns on ships in the San Francisco Bay, when I used to live a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean, or the distant sound of an Amtrak horn at night.

Jim - your consistent reporting here forms the backbone of this forum. It's much appreciated.

[Teotwaki]

I'm replying now as a moderator: I have been asked to delete Steve's off-topic posts but I'll move them somewhere so that they are available for anyone interested. I'll edit this post with a link once I figure out what bin to put the messages in (yes, including my personal non-moderator response to Steve's accusations, lol).

Jim

Here's the link. I'd like to see Dave's thread stay on topic, especially since he wanted to give Gendarme it's own reception thread

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,98494.0.html

[Dave Richards]

Gendarme coming through at about an S3 on the KFS SDR, at 1625z on 8/10/2022.