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AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?postid=332512394

Everybody might want to be listening to Radio Habana tonight, just in case any of this pans out.

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wa27
Jan 15, 2007

I don't know if we're allowed to talk about scanners in here also, but this thread sparked my interest in radio again and now I think I'll be buying a pro-97 in a couple days. I heard it will be on sale for $150 starting sunday, which is just in my price range.

finally I can dump my old pro-2040. :)

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
Feel free to talk about scanners. Hearing other people's scanner stories in this thread has inspired me to start saving pennies for a scanner.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
Castro aint dead. Radio Habana is just babbling on about the injustice of the Cuban 5, as usual.

overflow
Dec 20, 2001

wa27 posted:

I don't know if we're allowed to talk about scanners in here also, but this thread sparked my interest in radio again and now I think I'll be buying a pro-97 in a couple days. I heard it will be on sale for $150 starting sunday, which is just in my price range.

finally I can dump my old pro-2040. :)

I threw I my scanner audio back on http://chiscanner.listen2myradio.com (shameless plug) if anyone wants to give it a listen. I had taken it down for a bit since no one was really listening to it. I occasionally switch it to my shortwave receiver if I'm catching something interesting. It's Chicago police only; I locked out the two channels of my neighbors that have baby monitors.. heh. Also, made a much clearer recording of our Atencion lady today. I don't know why but I still find V2A to be intriguing. Might want to stream this one, it's the whole transmission (36.4MB,40 minutes long.)

overflow
Dec 20, 2001

Nostratic posted:

Are you using multiple capacitors? If so, how are they hooked up? (Diagrams are a plus for this wiring-retarded builder).

This is exactly how I've got mine rigged up. The switch really is optional; if you don't use it you just also short the connection between C1 and C3 before connecting to the loop.

overflow fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Aug 25, 2007

StarkRavingMad
Sep 27, 2001


Yams Fan

AstroZamboni posted:

Castro aint dead. Radio Habana is just babbling on about the injustice of the Cuban 5, as usual.

FERNANDO! ANTONIO! GERALDO! RAMON! RENE!

Unjustly imprisoned for fighting against terrorism!

I swear, I'm going to make a tv show out of the Cuban Five. Give them a snappy theme like the A-Team and we're all set.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

overflow posted:

I threw I my scanner audio back on http://chiscanner.listen2myradio.com (shameless plug) if anyone wants to give it a listen. I had taken it down for a bit since no one was really listening to it. I occasionally switch it to my shortwave receiver if I'm catching something interesting. It's Chicago police only; I locked out the two channels of my neighbors that have baby monitors.. heh. Also, made a much clearer recording of our Atencion lady today. I don't know why but I still find V2A to be intriguing. Might want to stream this one, it's the whole transmission (36.4MB,40 minutes long.)



Great recording! You can really hear the difference with the new voice with that! Well done.

For newcomers who haven't heard the old voice (retired just in the last couple months, after decades of service), here's a recording from the conet project.

Also, a band called Botany Bay has done some cool number sampling on a rock song called "Voices".

Note: The above download link is a legal download from the band, not pirated :filez:.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

overflow posted:

V2A Schedule for this evening (from same source as last night):

0200 - 5883
0400 - 9323
0500 - 3927/8097
0600 - 4028/8097

Every day at 1600 and 1700, they're on 17478 and 17436 respectively. No guarantees, they change it up quite often.

Would your source happen to have a comprehensive frequency list? My lists are a bit outdated and are missing a few of these. I just keep a fuckton of known number traffic frequencies in the memory pages of my radio and just flip through to see if any are transmitting currrently. Makes it a lot easier to track down number transmissions.

overflow
Dec 20, 2001

AstroZamboni posted:

Would your source happen to have a comprehensive frequency list? My lists are a bit outdated and are missing a few of these. I just keep a fuckton of known number traffic frequencies in the memory pages of my radio and just flip through to see if any are transmitting currrently. Makes it a lot easier to track down number transmissions.

I'm trying to get it out of him, but he doesn't want to give it up... guess he's put a lot of work into it so I suppose it's understandable. The daily transmissions at 1600 and 1700 on 17478 and 17436 (both regular AM, non-SSB) are accurate. The recording I made is from the 1600 broadcast today. He also said the "new" voice is actually one they were using about ten years ago.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
Holy cow, I just hit a mother load of gold for utility and number station listeners. Check this poo poo out:
http://www.geocities.com/n2uhc/utefreqs.html

Includes a fuckload more cuban number frequencies, more than I ever knew existed. Combined with my existing list, I have 149 known cuban numbers traffic frequncies.

a mysterious cloak
Apr 5, 2003

Leave me alone, dad, I'm with my friends!


overflow posted:

This is exactly how I've got mine rigged up. The switch really is optional; if you don't use it you just also short the connection between C1 and C3 before connecting to the loop.



Ahh, I see. I might have to make yet another trip to Radio Shack this week. I don't listen much during the day, but I'd like to have the option of tuning higher freqs without a bunch of hoodah-hah.

Diamond Frogs Sucks

wa27
Jan 15, 2007

Turns out whoever told me the Pro-97 scanner would be on sale today was right. I went down to radioshack and picked one up an hour ago.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102425&cp=&kw=20-527&parentPage=search

This thing is ten times more confusing to program than my pro-2040 was. I guess I'll have to learn all about trunked systems and stuff now.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
Here's a cuban frequency you guys might want to check in on once in a while. It transmits pretty rarely, but is one of the most delightfully eccentric number stations of all.

6925U is the home to "The Cuban Babbler," a male voice who loudly sings out his number broadcasts in an operatic style. It operates fairly infrequently, and is thought to be used by the Cuban military, rather than the spy service and seems to serve a similar function to the USAF Emergency Action Message system.

Definitely worth listening for.

StarkRavingMad
Sep 27, 2001


Yams Fan
Oh, the terrible joys of this hobby. I just spent about an hour crawling around in my dusty, hot, spider-infested, insultation covered attic. And I do mean crawling, the drat thing is too small for me to even kneel upright in. My legs hurt, I'm sweating like a bitch, I cut my back on a protruding nail, and I'm coughing from breathing in insulation.

And I have an Eavesdropper T installed!

First impressions: I'm definitely getting much stronger signals, even than I did with the AN-LP1. All sorts of stations I wasn't getting in before. The downside is that I'm also getting quite a bit of electrical interference, especially noticeable on weak stations. Part of that, I think, is because I haven't soldiered the wire ends to a minijack input yet, so I'm just wrapping them around the whip antenna -- so the eavesdropper is getting the active boost from the whip and it isn't designed for that. There's some wiring and cable leads up there in the attic that I'm sure are contributing to the noise, too, but nothing I can do about that. And it may just be an overpowered antenna for the E5, it's really designed for true receivers, not portables, I think.

But, even with all that, it's still pretty impressive...I checked it out by detaching and reattaching the wire and there's a number of weak signals that would have maybe a third of the reception meter without it and would have the full meter with it attached, and that's with a corresponding increase in reception and clarity, not just noise. So, I'm pretty happy with it, and we'll see how much better it gets when I get a real input jack on it.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

bad mutant vibes posted:

And I have an Eavesdropper T installed!

Congratulations! Give us a full rundown when you have the minijack hooked up.

By the way, addendum to my earlier post on the Cuban Babbler. The frequency is 6529U, not 6925. Apparently, it is also sometimes heard on 5637U.


Update your digital memory banks and frequency lists accordingly.

overflow
Dec 20, 2001

AstroZamboni posted:

Congratulations! Give us a full rundown when you have the minijack hooked up.

By the way, addendum to my earlier post on the Cuban Babbler. The frequency is 6529U, not 6925. Apparently, it is also sometimes heard on 5637U.


Update your digital memory banks and frequency lists accordingly.

Ahh, sometimes I wish my radio had more than 32 memories. I've never heard the Cuban babbler, but I do know that 6925U is the popular frequency for pirates these days - I got a real nice recording of "The Crystal Ship" station last night; I'll upload it to Tindeck as soon as I get home.

Also, I don't think I've taken the time to thank you for starting this thread, AstroZamboni. It's totally renewed my interest in radio in general.. last night I dug out my old school Realistic DX-100 out of the garage. It needs some work, but it still works really well on the bands it picks up!

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

overflow posted:

Ahh, sometimes I wish my radio had more than 32 memories. I've never heard the Cuban babbler, but I do know that 6925U is the popular frequency for pirates these days - I got a real nice recording of "The Crystal Ship" station last night; I'll upload it to Tindeck as soon as I get home.

Also, I don't think I've taken the time to thank you for starting this thread, AstroZamboni. It's totally renewed my interest in radio in general.. last night I dug out my old school Realistic DX-100 out of the garage. It needs some work, but it still works really well on the bands it picks up!

Can't wait to hear the Crystal Ship recording.

And considering it was the alst thread about Number Stations that made me man up and finally stop lurking and buy a forums account earlier this year, part of me feels that there needs to be a shortwave discussion presence on these forums in perpetuity.

In other news, I hope to start building a magnetic loop very soon. I really need to do SOMETHING to counteract the interference from Radio Disney. Found out their transmitter is only two miles away, so no wonder I'm getting interference all over everything.

StarkRavingMad
Sep 27, 2001


Yams Fan

AstroZamboni posted:

Congratulations! Give us a full rundown when you have the minijack hooked up.


Following up on it as requested. I got the minijack soldered together tonight (and did a surprisingly neat job of it for once). Connecting it via minijack definitely fixed the interference I was getting before; it seems it was just too much gain hooking the eavesdropper up to an active antenna lead.

The results are pretty spectacular. I'm seeing reception that is way better than the whip antenna and significantly better than the AN-LP1. And the nice part is, since the individual antenna "traps" on the Eavesdropper cover all of the separate bands, there no need for me to tune the antenna to bandwidths like I had to do with the AN-LP1, yet I'm getting all the clarity of isolating those signals. It's seriously that good -- I keep doing reception tests by finding a station, checking it on the whip, checking it on the AN-LP1, and checking it on the Eavesdropper connection, and the Eavesdropper is head and shoulders above the other two every time. So, in short, I'm loving it and it is certainly my main antenna now, with the AN-LP1 relegated to travel antenna.

Considering how easy installation is on this thing, I'd highly recommend it if you have 45 feet of space somewhere to put it up (even in an attic like I did, if your building isn't metal) and you want a nice passive antenna without having to erect some giant outdoor metal pole sloper.

StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Aug 29, 2007

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
Awesome, thanks for the info.

Is the eavesdropper T durable enough for use outdoors? I don't have indoor space like an attic to use, but if it can work well as an outdoor antenna I may have to consider it.

Also, can you post photos of the installation?

StarkRavingMad
Sep 27, 2001


Yams Fan

AstroZamboni posted:

Awesome, thanks for the info.

Is the eavesdropper sloper durable enough for use outdoors? I don't have indoor space like an attic to use, but if it can work well as an outdoor antenna I may have to consider it.

Yes, it's actually intended for outdoor use and is completely weatherized for the outdoors, the instructions just say "oh yeah, or you can stick it in an attic if you want." But all the diagrams show it strung between two trees. It even includes a "Zap Trapper" gas tube lightning arrestor that you can splice into the feed line.

It just doesn't come with anything like poles, it's designed to be tied to some sort of existing structure, whether it be between a couple trees or from the roof of your house to some sort of high fence pole or whatever.

(edit) let me see if I can find my digital camera and take a picture...

StarkRavingMad
Sep 27, 2001


Yams Fan
ok picture time



That copper wire you see running down the length of the picture is it. Normally you'd want to suspend it up high so it isn't touching anything, but everything in the attic is wood, so I wasn't too concerned about letting it rest on the beams. But normally you'd suspend this between trees or whatever. It's running about 30 feet down that way out of sight, and 10 in the other direction. That was the fun crawl I was doing last night.



These are what the antenna traps look like, and are the real heart of the thing, not the copper lead. There's eight traps and each one performs like a separate antenna, tuned to a different shortwave band. Quoting the manual "Each trap is hand-assembled and individually resonated to its proper design frequency. Each trap is enclosed in an ultrasonically welded, hermetically sealed, ultraviolet light protected trap cover, protecting not only the traps from weather deterioration, but the soldered connections as well." Fancy, eh?



Here's a couple more traps, just sitting there being antennas. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see the nasty insulation I was stomping around in, and if you look up in the top right, you can see the nail that gouged me in the back.



Here's what the tie-offs look like. Each end of it terminates in a plastic piece with a hole in it, suitable to run a lenth of cloth cord through (included) and tie around something. So you could even tie this off to metal poles if you wanted, since the cloth cord is non-conductive.



The trap in the middle has the feedline, which is the second cord you can see snaking out from the bottom there. It's a nice length of insulated 72-ohm wire, suitable for soldering to a minijack.

That's it, it's pretty simple. I didn't take pictures of the "Zap Trapper" but you basically cut and strip your feedline and stick it between washers on one side, and then run another length of line from the other side to your receiver, and one more ground line, and then you are lightning-proofed.

nmfree
Aug 15, 2001

The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

bad mutant vibes posted:

Here's what the tie-offs look like. Each end of it terminates in a plastic piece with a hole in it, suitable to run a lenth of cloth cord through (included) and tie around something. So you could even tie this off to metal poles if you wanted, since the cloth cord is non-conductive.
Generally you don't want to use hard connections for the ends of wire antennas; it's much better to use bungee cords (although they break down in the weather and have to be replaced periodically) or some sort of weighted rope strung through a pulley/over the crotch of a branch or something so that the antenna has a little give when weighted down with snow, ice, or blown around in the wind.

bad mutant vibes posted:

That's it, it's pretty simple. I didn't take pictures of the "Zap Trapper" but you basically cut and strip your feedline and stick it between washers on one side, and then run another length of line from the other side to your receiver, and one more ground line, and then you are lightning-proofed.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS LIGHTNING-PROOFED.

I'm sorry to be a dick about it (and since your antenna is inside it doesn't matter at all), but this is extremely important. No arrestor will help with a direct or nearby lightning strike; none of them can act fast enough, and even if they could, the voltage would just jump over the thing completely and continue down the coax. Arrestors will help from static buildup and low-intensity atmospheric activity damaging your receiver, but not actual strikes. The only way to completely protect yourself (and your home) is to completely disconnect the antenna and connect it directly to ground so that if you get hit the energy stays away from flammable things and things that can be electrocuted.

StarkRavingMad
Sep 27, 2001


Yams Fan

nmfree posted:

Generally you don't want to use hard connections for the ends of wire antennas; it's much better to use bungee cords (although they break down in the weather and have to be replaced periodically) or some sort of weighted rope strung through a pulley/over the crotch of a branch or something so that the antenna has a little give when weighted down with snow, ice, or blown around in the wind.

They say in the manual to either leave it some slack or use flexible connectors if you're tying it to something flexible like a tree. Doesn't really matter for me since my attic shouldn't be swaying in the breeze.

quote:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS LIGHTNING-PROOFED. :rant: :argh:

Hot button issue for you?

Yeah, the manual even says that it won't protect from a direct strike, but it actually is a specially-designed arrestor that is supposed to act faster than standard ones for induced voltage from storms. Here's the whole description, cut and pasted from the manual:

quote:

Transient Protection: The leading cause of failure in modern solid state receivers is voltage buildups on long antennas and feedlines caused by dry wind, dust and snow storms, and by nearby and far-field lightning strokes. A nearby lightning stroke can, by induction, place many thousands of volts on an antenna system. Tests have shown that damaging voltages can be induced by a lightning stoke as far as 15 miles from the antenna site. These phenomena are called transients. Some solid state components can be destroyed just by the static electricity from the touch of an ungrounded finger, and some thousands of volts entering your receiver through the antenna input is guaranteed to damage it. Because of this, we have developed our line of Zap Trapper™ Gas Tube electronic receive-only lightning arrestors. The gas tubes consist of two metal conductors separated by a space filled with a rare gas under pressure. When the design voltage is reached, the gas, normally a non-conductor, ionizes and becomes a conductor, thus shunting the damaging voltage surge to earth ground, before it can enter the receiver.

The transition time, from non-conducting to conducting, is very, very fast, on the order of just several nanoseconds, which is much faster than the voltage wavefront rise time of lightning. Transmit type lightning arrestors exist, but because they must withstand transmitted radio frequency energy without firing it to ground, they cannot be as sensitive as a receive-only design. In fact, our Zap Trapper receive-only series provides 7 times the protection of the commonly available 200 watt transmit type arrestors. We are speaking of induced voltages, not direct lightning strikes. Neither our Zap Trappers nor anyone else's lightning arrestor is guaranteed against a direct strike, and in fact, a direct strike will in all probability vaporize before the antenna system and completely destroy whatever is attached to it.

So, I used the term "lightning-proofed" as shorthand for "inductive voltage caused by nearby lightning strikes." Obviously nothing is going to protect the antenna from a direct hit.

Les Oeufs
May 10, 2006
Just noticed a couple days ago that my E5 comes with an external wire antenna. I clipped it to the window in my room and threw the end to my radio on the back deck. Reception was a bit better, but when night came I started getting this awful interference. Didnt seem as bad around sunset when I first started using it.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

Les Oeufs posted:

Just noticed a couple days ago that my E5 comes with an external wire antenna. I clipped it to the window in my room and threw the end to my radio on the back deck. Reception was a bit better, but when night came I started getting this awful interference. Didnt seem as bad around sunset when I first started using it.

Yeah, the E5's wire antenna tends to pick up a lot of local interference, especially if you happen to have a strong MW transmitter nearby. See through this thread for my constant bitching about Radio Disney. Oh Radio Disney, I hate you so!

Your best bet for using a portable external antenna is a degen active loop. Pretty cheap, and as portable as the E5's wire. Active loops/magnetic loops are really good at filtering out nearby electrical interference. Or you could go on the cheap/non portable route and build a magnetic loop like overflow did.

Also is the wire hanging near any sorts of electrical device? Putting a long wire near an air conditioning unit, for example, can cause some really weird interference. This is something I found out the hard way and it took me forever to track down the source. I finally found the source of the interference when I noticed it came and went... whenever the thermostat turned the AC on or off.

So do you have any electrical devices in your yard that primarily operate at night such as pool filter pumps or the like? Anything with a motor in it can through off some whack-rear end RF noise.

AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Aug 29, 2007

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
:siren: RADIO DISNEY HAS GONE TOO loving FAR! :argh: :siren:

Radio Disney has just massively boosted their power on their demon transmitter, and now its not only causing interference on SW, but also every goddamitin' cordless phone, cell phone, police scanner, EVERYTHING susceptible to RF interference in a 3 mile radius.

I am now completely unable to get decent SW reception because the interference is so bad.

What the gently caress can I do about this? Is there any way to make a complaint to the FCC about this?

overflow
Dec 20, 2001

Les Oeufs posted:

Just noticed a couple days ago that my E5 comes with an external wire antenna. I clipped it to the window in my room and threw the end to my radio on the back deck. Reception was a bit better, but when night came I started getting this awful interference. Didnt seem as bad around sunset when I first started using it.

You may have been hearing Over The Horizon Radar (OTHR) which is a long range radar system used by the US government. Last night it was booming on my radio, completely on top of everything I wanted to listen to. Here's an archive of a great page I found that helps to identify some of those weird sounds you might hear:

http://web.archive.org/web/20031210141623/http://www.wunclub.com/sounds/

Check the OTHR link. What I was hearing wasn't exactly like that, but similar. Other HAMS verified it was OTHR.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

overflow posted:

You may have been hearing Over The Horizon Radar (OTHR) which is a long range radar system used by the US government. Last night it was booming on my radio, completely on top of everything I wanted to listen to. Here's an archive of a great page I found that helps to identify some of those weird sounds you might hear:

http://web.archive.org/web/20031210141623/http://www.wunclub.com/sounds/

Check the OTHR link. What I was hearing wasn't exactly like that, but similar. Other HAMS verified it was OTHR.

I've picked that up a bunch of times. Similar system to the old Russian "Woodpecker."

That's a great link. The HAARP sound scares the bejeezus out of me :tinfoil:.

Edit: Wow, now I know what a bunch of the weird stuff I pick up all the time is. Thanks for posting that!

nmfree
Aug 15, 2001

The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

AstroZamboni posted:

:siren: RADIO DISNEY HAS GONE TOO loving FAR! :argh: :siren:

Radio Disney has just massively boosted their power on their demon transmitter, and now its not only causing interference on SW, but also every goddamitin' cordless phone, cell phone, police scanner, EVERYTHING susceptible to RF interference in a 3 mile radius.

I am now completely unable to get decent SW reception because the interference is so bad.

What the gently caress can I do about this? Is there any way to make a complaint to the FCC about this?
Well, there are no applications in the FCC database re: power output, and they are at the max power already, but I didn't look that far into it, so it's possible that I missed something.

Anyway, there are requirements regarding harmonics, spurious signals, etc., so it's worth a shot to talk to the FCC about it. You might want to talk to local hams, too, and see if they're having problems, too.

thehustler
Apr 17, 2004

I am very curious about this little crescendo
Get a bunch of people to complain at the same time, definitely.

If the FCC is as proactive as OFCOM is in the UK, then they will DEFINITELY check out reports of interference and do an investigation, and suggest solutions.

Keep us informed of the process if you do, it'd be interesting to see how the FCC works out something like this.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

thehustler posted:

Get a bunch of people to complain at the same time, definitely.

nmfree posted:

Anyway, there are requirements regarding harmonics, spurious signals, etc., so it's worth a shot to talk to the FCC about it. You might want to talk to local hams, too, and see if they're having problems, too.

My neighborhood as full of Hams. I'll get started on my crusade march.

overflow
Dec 20, 2001

AstroZamboni posted:

My neighborhood as full of Hams. I'll get started on my crusade march.

The FCC is entirely complaint driven these days. The more complaints you can get together the better.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
Don't have the neighborhood hams on board yet (haven't had a chance to talk to them) but I've talked to another neighbor who's a SW listener who has also been bitching. He's involved in neighborhood watch, and knows the rest of the neighborhood better than I do. He's going to bring it up at the neighborhood watch meeting in two weeks and try to get the full neighborhood to put in a joint complaint.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
OP updated for the first time in over a month. Added that utility noise page linked by overflow and all of the financial drain that had stacked up without being added to the page.

java
May 7, 2005

I got my notice today that my degen de11 will be sitting at the post-office at 9am Saturday morning. I can't wait to try that sucker out, it's going to be hard waiting for night-time.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

Automaton Empire posted:

I got my notice today that my degen de11 will be sitting at the post-office at 9am Saturday morning. I can't wait to try that sucker out, it's going to be hard waiting for night-time.

Congrats!

:siren: RADIO DISNEY INTERFERENCE UPDATE :siren:

The interference has stopped. Well, not totally, but they have scaled their power back again. My neighbor talked to some of his ham buddies and it turns out that RD had already gotten bitched out severely by every ham in a 5 mile radius before I even got a wild bug up my rear end to make an FCC complaint.

I'm able to hear my radio again!

Les Oeufs
May 10, 2006
First, I'd like to say that I probably had the best reception tonight that I've ever had. Full moon, clear skies, around 19C outside. It was a nice night. I was picking up so many stations. Tonight, I probably heard the best line so far in my very short shortwave career.
It was a woman on 3215 at around 00:30 EST. I tuned in and listened to her crackpot theory about children and emotions when she cracked out this gem

"Now, I dont mind if you take what I say with a grain of salt. I'll admit, I dont have a degree or anything. I never even went to highschool. But I was taught by angels"

After she explained her theory, she proceeded to give the worst financial advice I've ever heard in my life. I can only describe it as "The Secret" only with credit cards. It was madness.

I wrote her name down. It was Sally Simmons. If she's a regular on that station, then I'm going to be a regular listener. It was unreal

AnimalChin
Feb 1, 2006
I got to pick up Alex Jones last night and I was super, super excited about it because I've only picked him up once before and I considered it some of the best shortwave listening that I've done.

The first time I got him was a week or two ago on 7505, while last night it was ~5890, neither of which are freq's listed on his page http://www.infowars.com/listen.html

quote:

The show is broadcast over Shortwave from 11AM-1PM Central on WWCR 9.985. In the evening, the program is broadcast on 5.765 during the first hour and the second hour is on 3.215. The third hour of the live show is on 9.975.

Alex is rebroadcast on shortwave from midnight-3AM (CST) on 5.070, and from 9pm-midnight all three hours are on 5.765.

The first time I picked him up, I got a slow and steady 'wave' of static every minute or so. It sounded like he was getting interrupted by the ocean. No big deal, I heard him well enough. Last night's reception was identical to the first time, except one of the waves of static washed him out completely and I lost the signal. :( I was heart broken.

I'm still trying to pick up HAM guys but I haven't heard a single one yet. I get around 60% religious wackos, 35% foreign stuff that I can't understand, and 5% "cool stuff" like numbers stations or conspiracy theorists.

So far my list of stuff I still badly want to hear goes like this:

- More numbers stations. I can't get enough of these.
- HAM operators
- Conspiracy theory nuts.
- English-spoken propaganda
- Pirate broadcasters. I'd love to hear some kickass home made radio station playing punk rock, heavy metal, and hardcore, DJ'd by a rad guy in his basement along the lines of Pump Up The Volume. Or just someone ranting about local government, or just rambling on.

Most of the time, I can't find anything wonderful to pick up so I just jump down to 980 and listen to Coast To Coast AM with a feeling of defeat. My Eton E5 skips too many frequencies with it's auto scan, and seems to stop on really weak signals and not stop on strong ones. :confused: Also, the lack of a "scan through my stored freq's" function is quite bothersome.

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a mysterious cloak
Apr 5, 2003

Leave me alone, dad, I'm with my friends!


I don't hear HAMs very often either, but I'm generally listening pretty late at night. When I listen around 5pm CST, I always pick up at least a couple if I'm not scanning in a hurry.

I used to autoscan with my E5, but now I pretty much manually scan all the time. I catch a lot of faint stuff that the radio might skip. The autoscan is functional, but if you want to really use it you have to watch the frequency and stop it when it skips over, then go back to where it skipped, move up a few KHz, and restart again. I agree, it's definitely a bit of a hassle. But it sort of forced me to listen a little more closely, too, which (for me) was good.

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