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I'm in a good mood; it's time to pay it forward a bit. I've got a Radio Shack DX-380 / Sangean ATS-818 that's now unused since I got the 1103 (and just bought an E5 for work). Has AC adapter, etc. I bought it off eBay a year and a half ago from what appeared to be an estate sale; it arrived in the original box with all the original purchase paperwork and even an invoice from when it had been sent back to Radio Shack for repairs at one point. FREE to the first person who wants it, will pay shipping ($15?), and doesn't mind that it sat in the same room with my wife the smoker for a while. mrbill fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Jan 8, 2008 |
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Jan 7, 2008 07:58
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From that QRZ.com link:quote:No flaring activity is expected in the coming days.
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Jan 7, 2008 08:32
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Awww. It seems that as I suspected, my house's lovely cellphone reception was a pretty good indicator of how good my radio reception would be. I couldn't even find a clear Christian station. I might have another place to put the antenna that will work though
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Jan 7, 2008 09:26
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I got an Eton E5 for Christmas. Currently I have a 30ft strand of wire clipped to my antenna running around the room. I see the E5 has a jack for an external antenna, and I'd like to get a proper one. What are my options for doing this?
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Jan 7, 2008 10:10
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Sexy Pants posted:Awww. It seems that as I suspected, my house's lovely cellphone reception was a pretty good indicator of how good my radio reception would be. I couldn't even find a clear Christian station. I might have another place to put the antenna that will work though This shouldn't necessarily be the case, since cell phones use UHF, which is line-of-sight only. If you have a relatively clear view of the sky (no huge cliffs or anything), you should be able to pick up HF/SW alright. How big is the antenna you're using? As others have said, the next solar cycle is just creeping in and we should be able to look forward to more sunspots (better propagation!), so don't give up hope just yet  .
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Jan 7, 2008 23:33
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Edit: nevermind OP, if you care to add me to the damage report: 1 SA account so that I could join this thread, and 1 Grundig G2000A ($53.96). war penis fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jan 8, 2008 |
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Jan 8, 2008 01:56
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OP, my total purchases are now: $90 (KA1103 off Amazon, bought for me as consulting work payment) $160 (E5 from Universal Radio, with free FR200) $123 (E5 off Amazon, bought for me as consulting work payment) Edit: And $20 for a slinky antenna from lowbander on eBay, because I'm too lazy right now to dig out the soldering iron and make my own. mrbill fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Jan 8, 2008 |
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Jan 8, 2008 02:54
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mrbill posted:I'm in a good mood; it's time to pay it forward a bit. Me??? I'd gladly pay that shipping.
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Jan 8, 2008 03:10
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zen666 posted:Me??? Hit me up via PM and we'll get things rolling.
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Jan 8, 2008 03:31
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I'm incredibly surprised it took that long
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Jan 8, 2008 03:39
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Jose Pointero posted:I'm incredibly surprised it took that long
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Jan 8, 2008 03:44
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TetsuoTW posted:From that QRZ.com link: Solar flares are bad. They knock out communications. Sunspots, however, spit out magnetic energy, which enhances the ionosphere. More ionosphere -> better mirror for those signals -> better skywave propagation. The "bipolar sunspot" is one of the indications that the cycle has bottomed and is reversing. It's of a different type than the normal ones we've seen for a bit. Coronal holes are areas where for some reason, the solar magnetic lines do not loop back into the sun, but extend outwards. This also activates our ionosphere somewhat. To update the thread - I posted an epic on radioreference about this, but basically I threw up a 1/4 wave inverted L antenna for 75 meters. If you guys are having bad luck with your compromise antennas, I say again - go and throw wire up in trees. I've been ragchewing on 75 meters all weekend where previously I'd never landed a QSO. I stripped out some phone cable (basically half of CAT5 cable, two pairs instead of 4) and was out throwing poo poo up in trees at 3am Saturday night. As we all know, antenna performance is directly proportional to how ugly it is, and inversely proportional to how nice it was outside when you put it up.
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Jan 8, 2008 03:45
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I live in an apartment. I think I'm going to try to build a broomstick antenna. Anybody familiar with these? http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx/antenna/special/bromstik.html
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Jan 8, 2008 03:50
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Jonny 290 posted:To update the thread - I posted an epic on radioreference about this, but basically I threw up a 1/4 wave inverted L antenna for 75 meters. If you guys are having bad luck with your compromise antennas, I say again - go and throw wire up in trees. I've been ragchewing on 75 meters all weekend where previously I'd never landed a QSO. I stripped out some phone cable (basically half of CAT5 cable, two pairs instead of 4) and was out throwing poo poo up in trees at 3am Saturday night. And directly proportional to how fiance approved it is. Also mind posting a link to said epic thread?
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Jan 8, 2008 04:03
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Jonny 290, thanks for the explanation, that was awesome. Looks like I bought into this whole thing at just the right time.
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Jan 8, 2008 19:08
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blugu64 posted:And directly proportional to how fiance approved it is. My wife STILL rants about "that drat ugly slinky" that I put up on the side of our house in Austin (it was a slinky dipole). We've lived in Houston now for three years. You can see part of it in this picture: http://www.mrbill.net/fence/2002/house-09-07-2002/house12.jpg Needless to say, all my ham/SWL antennas now have to be indoor.
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Jan 8, 2008 19:33
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DarkCow posted:This shouldn't necessarily be the case, since cell phones use UHF, which is line-of-sight only. If you have a relatively clear view of the sky (no huge cliffs or anything), you should be able to pick up HF/SW alright. How big is the antenna you're using? While I don't really have the hang of that thing yet, I saw this guy for $50 on Craigslist and since I collect pretty electronics I sprang. Seems like it works, though I have no idea how to use it and and all I've picked up are commercial AM (I don't have an antenna for it yet, so I'm not really worried)   For those that can't speak blurry, it's a Lafayette HA-700 and a dinky little speaker. Farts Domino fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jan 8, 2008 |
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Jan 8, 2008 22:12
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I keep her fed with Cosmo, Glamour and a few other mags. She don't complain none. Thinks I'm cute when I'm out throwing wires up in trees or some poo poo. Radioreference thread on it. I'll post pics as soon as the sun comes out for a few hours some day this week. I've already got plans for the next one - higher, longer and stealthier.  e: that little lafayette is awesome. After I get a few spare bucks one of these days I'm going to buy an armload of all the old shortwave receivers like that - Hallicrafters, the old Realistic, etc. I think they're super-cool. Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Jan 8, 2008 |
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Jan 8, 2008 22:27
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FYI, Universal Radio is severely backlogged. I called today to check on the order I made on Sunday night, and they said they're just now today shipping orders from December 31st. In other words, they look to be about a week behind. If they weren't throwing in a free FR200, I would cancel the order and get my E5 somewhere else. Edit: From looking at the "About Us" section on their web site, they seem like a REALLY small operation people-wise; maybe less than 10-15 employees? I don't mind waiting, I just wish they'd put something more than "we're a few days behind" on their web page. mrbill fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Jan 9, 2008 |
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Jan 9, 2008 17:47
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Topical. I ordered 150 feet of coax from Universal on Dec 20th and they hadn't shipped by Jan 6th. Had to cancel because they hadn't charged yet and I mis-budgeted for Christmas, sadly. Hopefully they'll catch up and I can re-order soon.
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Jan 9, 2008 18:21
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So I finally made it back from Australia a few days ago. Still getting over the jet lag. However, my trusty Grundig G5 made it with me. I was out on the Great Barrier Reef for two nights on one of the tourist boats. It's pretty hard to get torn away from the beauty of the reef itself (and the great Aussie beer), however I did manage to squeeze some shortwave time in (though not as much as I might have hoped). It was without a doubt the cleanest signal I had gotten anywhere ever. That ended up being somewhat of a problem actually. It was so clear that a lot of frequencies would have multiple stations on them. This made deciphering some of the material being broadcasted difficult to understand. Additionally, I do not have a good grasp of many Asian languages, and there were a lot of those channels. I am certain that I picked up the following: Radio Australia, Radio New Zealand, Radio Moscow (was a bit surprised by this, but it was very strong), a lot of channels from Bali, a couple of stations broadcasting music that sounded like it was straight from Bollywood, though I don't think I picked up any other stations from India, so I'm not entirely sure on that. Tons on stations from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan. Some BBC service, but that was likely relayed from a closer point. I think I picked up a boat at some point, but am not entirely sure at that point. What was very interesting about all of this is that it ran a huge range. I was picking things up from 600-17,000 with almost no stops in between. It was just solid material the whole way through. That also made it hard to get through at points. Again, I wish I had more time that I could have spent listening but was very pleased with what I got to hear. I'd highly encourage anyone going that way take a shortwave with them for some interesting late night listening.
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Jan 9, 2008 23:56
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Bump - too keep alive. Also, a couple of radio n00b type questions. There is a tower at the end of my street (just over 2 blocks). It seems like everything would run through this tower. Cable comes in through it. There are no radio stations that I know of. Would that interfere with picking up shortwave stations? What would be things to look for to indicate that it would interfere? Also, is there any way of finding out what is being transmitted?
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Jan 14, 2008 03:57
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It's burgin' time! 
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I heart bacon posted:There is a tower at the end of my street (just over 2 blocks). It seems like everything would run through this tower. Cable comes in through it. There are no radio stations that I know of. Would that interfere with picking up shortwave stations? What would be things to look for to indicate that it would interfere? Also, is there any way of finding out what is being transmitted? It may just be a cell phone tower. Easiest way to check transmissions would be to use a frequency counter. Update: I cancelled my E5/FR200 order from Universal Radio as I didn't want to wait another week for them to ship stuff, and am now trying to snipe on ebay. My current equipment list: Kaito 1103 Eton E5 (should arrive Tuesday) Circa '82 Radio Shack DX-302 HF general coverage receiver (if I get lucky on eBay) The DX-302 is so I can have a proper BIG RADIO in my "shack". I just don't feel like a proper ham without huge equipment. As my wife said, "we grew up in the years of huge big stereos, so of course we want big electronics".
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Jan 14, 2008 07:04
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Well this is horrible. I just discovered that my beloved HomePlugAV setup - which I use to network my Xbox 360, PS2, and satellite receiver where wifi won't reach - is generating all kinds of interference between 2 and 28 Mhz. It's turned my electrical wiring into one big broadcaster of noise. No matter what room I'm in or what kind of antenna I use, I can't escape it without unplugging my network adapters. HomePlugAV was the solution to so many of my problems (speed, distance, etc) and this is a huuuuge inconvenience. Argh!
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Jan 14, 2008 16:38
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SpazRobot posted:Well this is horrible. Time to run some cat 5/6 around the house Any ethernet/internet over power lines generates a lot of interference.
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Jan 14, 2008 20:33
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Short article (with a picture) about the new solar cycle.
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Jan 14, 2008 21:22
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Finally back from the frozen wastelands, and updated the OP. Yesterday my boss at the museum (a ham) was shooting off a theory that the church of scientology uses numbers stations to send orders to the sea org. Then again, he has some pretty weird ideas.
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Jan 15, 2008 20:47
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I heart bacon posted:Bump - too keep alive. Perhaps with a pic of the antennae we could make a guess at what's carried?
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Jan 15, 2008 20:49
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AstroZamboni posted:Yesterday my boss at the museum (a ham) was shooting off a theory that the church of scientology uses numbers stations to send orders to the sea org. Then again, he has some pretty weird ideas.
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Jan 15, 2008 22:37
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AstroZamboni posted:Finally back from the frozen wastelands, and updated the OP. Wouldn't they need a FCC license to broadcast stuff from the US? That said they could easily have the transmitter outside the US, or be broadcasting illegally.
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Jan 15, 2008 22:42
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blugu64 posted:Wouldn't they need a FCC license to broadcast stuff from the US? That said they could easily have the transmitter outside the US, or be broadcasting illegally.
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Jan 15, 2008 22:45
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meltie posted:Perhaps with a pic of the antennae we could make a guess at what's carried? Good idea. Here it is:  If it helps, I live in a town of about 1500 people.
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Jan 16, 2008 00:30
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I have a question that may or may not pertain to radio, but I figure this is place to come even if it proves fruitless. When you broadcast do you ever say "MORE RAM MORE RAM" over and over? Sometimes in the early morning my computer speakers will blare "MORE RAM" but it's happened before to one of my radios and the living room TV set. Or its a ghost that craves ram. 
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Jan 16, 2008 00:57
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Swingline Savvy posted:I'm fairly sure an FCC license wouldn't condone the sending of ciphered text anyway (I know my ham license doesn't), so either way it seems it would be illegal. Heh, ya good point. I forgot about that.
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Jan 16, 2008 01:13
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Mr.Electric Ocean posted:I have a question that may or may not pertain to radio, but I figure this is place to come even if it proves fruitless. When you broadcast do you ever say "MORE RAM MORE RAM" over and over? Sometimes in the early morning my computer speakers will blare "MORE RAM" but it's happened before to one of my radios and the living room TV set. That sounds like some rear end in a top hat with a 500 watt CB amplifier (illegal) nearby. They're notorious for blathering weird poo poo and making animal noises, just so they can watch the meters jump real high. CB amps usually have next to no filtering so if anything is going to interfere with stuff like PC speakers and TV's, it'll be that. Hams usually clean their poo poo up, and that's not a known radio communications phrase or a mutation of one.
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Jan 16, 2008 03:04
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Phlegmbot posted:I live in an apartment. I think I'm going to try to build a broomstick antenna. And to contribute a little from my apparently uncommon position, for any Chinese speakers/readers interested in SWL, I just stumbled across the site of a ham from Hsinchu who has what seems to be fairly decent info on antennae and SWL at: http://www.x-net.idv.tw/bv3fg/ant/ant.htm - for antennae http://www.x-net.idv.tw/bv3fg/swl/swl.htm - for SWL Oh, and I finally had an awesome long-distance discovery or two last night: at about 1800z I was tooling about and, from my position all the way over here on the skidmark-end of Asia, picked up a couple of broadcasts aimed at northern Europe. drat if that's not exciting the hell out of me about this stuff even more.
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Jan 16, 2008 04:52
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TetsuoTW posted:I've started work on one of these, but hit a small issue - I have no idea what in the hell kind of place would have the aluminium disk it mentions. I'm a total DIY noob, so yeah, any hints'd be much appreciated. Use those little disposable aluminum pie plates for that. Should work A-ok.
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Jan 16, 2008 04:56
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Jonny 290 posted:That sounds like some rear end in a top hat with a 500 watt CB amplifier (illegal) nearby. They're notorious for blathering weird poo poo and making animal noises, just so they can watch the meters jump real high. CB amps usually have next to no filtering so if anything is going to interfere with stuff like PC speakers and TV's, it'll be that. Hams usually clean their poo poo up, and that's not a known radio communications phrase or a mutation of one. Thanks, it's been happening for a few years and was wondering what it might be. I wouldn't doubt its this rotund balding guy in the neighborhood with more antennae on his car than a TV Network.
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Jan 16, 2008 05:46
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E5 arrived today! I threw the slinkytenna on the wall of my "lab" and did some quick testing. I can pick up WWCR and a few of the other preachers just fine, but for serious SWLing I'm going to have to get rid of the CF lightbulb in the room and probably look into a power conditioner to eliminate any power-line buzz (will try batteries tomorrow to see if any of what I'm getting is from the AC adapter). I'm *really* impressed with the UI differences between the E5 and the Kaito 1103 - the E5 is usable out of the box, while the 1103 requires you to read the manual. Definitely worth the price difference - although its unusual that the more expensive radio (E5) *does not* come with a longwire antenna, earbuds, or rechargeable batteries. The 1103 has been delegated to "Desk FM Radio" duty at work.
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Jan 16, 2008 06:16
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Jonny 290 posted:Use those little disposable aluminum pie plates for that. Should work A-ok.
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Jan 16, 2008 06:58
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