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AstroZamboni posted:One thing I tend to notice is a lot of people won't write an online review unless something goes terribly wrong. About 60 people in this thread have E5s and are satisfied. Ah, that makes sense too. The few things I've ever reviewed were things that had broken. I guess I'll go in and ask if I could open the box and check it out, most likely purchase it. Thanks.
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May 6, 2008 20:14
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blugu64 posted:nmfree what's your email address? edit: I'd like to thank blugu64 for buying me this wonderful avatar. Thanks mang! nmfree fucked around with this message at 09:14 on May 7, 2008 |
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May 6, 2008 23:21
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Haier posted:Hello. There's a lot of love in this thread for the Grundig/Eton G5s, but I was wondering something. I read several reviews online and it seems that there were a decent amount of people that bought them and had them break hours later. It might be a Radio Shack thing too. My G5 was all but DOA from Radio Shack. FM worked, barely, but AM and SW picked up literally nothing. I returned it last night and am currently debating whether I'll get another or wait until after I take the FCC license test at the Hamvention in a few weeks.
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May 7, 2008 04:57
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I bought an E5 a couple weeks ago, and I've had nothing but good luck with it thus far. I got it from Radio Shack, as well, so take that as you might.
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May 7, 2008 13:42
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You can add $145 to that list, I ordered the Sony ICF-SW7600GR. My dad has had a 7600 for the past 1X years (I think he even owns two of them), so I figured "why not?" and bought the Sony instead of the Grundig. It arrives in a few days, can't wait to stay up late fiddling with buttons through the night. Thank you economic stimulus money.
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May 8, 2008 00:12
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Are there any numbers stations that are easy to hear on the west coast? We seem to be at a disadvantage for numbers stations. I've yet to hear one, ever.
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May 8, 2008 00:17
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I got my G6 today (finally!) and my review of it would sound much like the other one in this thread. I have yet to pick up anything good, but I haven't had much time to fiddle with it. I did expect something a bit bigger, but I love the size. With the nice travel case it came with, it's very portable and I look forward to taking it along with me when I go out camping this summer. For such a small radio, it seems quite sturdy, and breaking of any sort doesn't seem likely. I'll share more once I find some stuff to listen to. Right now, I'd say it was definitely worth the money. Edit: I have to add, I totally agree with player2, it smells fantastic. Awesomonster fucked around with this message at 08:18 on May 8, 2008 |
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May 8, 2008 02:27
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Thanks for the reviews. I didn't see the point of spending more on the G5 if the G6 was just as good or better. And the aviation bands might be interesting, since I'm right by a major airport. However, one of the reasons I was looking into a new radio (beside numbers stations and other fun things) was because I wanted a better weather radio. Will this pick up the weather bands as well?
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May 8, 2008 16:01
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Something to listen for this weekend:quote:The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are co-sponsoring the annual military/amateur radio communications tests in celebration of the 58th Anniversary of Armed Forces Day (AFD). Although the actual Armed Forces Day is celebrated on Saturday, May 17, 2008, the AFD Military/Amateur Crossband Communications Test will be conducted 10 May 2008 to prevent conflict with the Dayton Hamvention (16-18 May 2008), which is the same weekend as the actual Armed Forces Day. Since the .pdf is kind of long and difficult to read, I've cleaned it up and posted just the frequency schedule here. This is a great opportunity to hear some utility-type transmissions, as well as challenge yourself to see how many different stations/modes/frequencies you can hear.
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May 9, 2008 00:32
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nmfree posted:Since the .pdf is kind of long and difficult to read, I've cleaned it up and posted just the frequency schedule here. Not to sound like an ungrateful dick, but could you put that up in just plain .doc format as well? Really keen to see if propagation works in my favor on this, because this sounds cool as all hell.
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May 9, 2008 03:23
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TetsuoTW posted:Not to sound like an ungrateful dick, but could you put that up in just plain .doc format as well? Really keen to see if propagation works in my favor on this, because this sounds cool as all hell. Here ya go I can't wait to try this! I hope I can copy the signals. I live in FL, so hopefully the VA signals can reach me. I want one of those QSL cards! EDIT: I just remembered that a co-worker sent me an e-mail with these extra frequencies and dates that I don't think were in the file. Cut and pasted those below. STATION: AAZ (HQ Army MARS Gateway, Fort Huachuca, Arizona) Frequency Mode Date/Time 6988.0 kHz RTTY 11 May 0110Z PACTOR FEC 11 May 0130Z MT63 11 May 0220Z PSK-31 11 May 0250Z 14402.0 kHz RTTY 11 May 0110Z PACTOR FEC 11 May 0130Z MT63 11 May 0220Z PSK-31 11 May 0250Z STATION: WAR (Pentagon ARC/MARS Station, Arlington, Virginia) Frequency Mode Date/Time 6988.0 kHz RTTY 10 May 1700Z RTTY 10 May 2300Z MT63 10 May 1715Z MT63 10 May 2315Z 14440.0 kHz PACTOR FEC 10 May 1730Z PACTOR FEC 10 May 2330Z Olivia 10 May 1745Z Olivia 10 May 2345Z Stations copying the Secretary of Defense message transmitted from AAZ/WAR should send their entries to Armed Forces Day Celebration, Commander NETCOM/9th ASC, Attn: NETC-OPE-MA (MARS) (31), Fort Huachuca, AZ 85613-5000. NNNN Dolemite fucked around with this message at 03:36 on May 9, 2008 |
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May 9, 2008 03:34
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I'm going to stay lurking in the IRC channel on synirc, I mostly would be available to chat at 0000~0700 UTC. When I'm around, I'd be more than happy to talk about shortwave listening, or utility/VHF/UHF scanning. It's important to remember that IRC isn't always 100% realtime discussions, and it pays to stay in the channels if you intend to find a community to chat with. I have an old 80s Sanyo boombox with shortwave capabilities that I've had fun with in the past, but where I live right now, there's too much interference to hear much of anything. I've got a few numbers stations on tape with it. It's analogue tuning, and has no SSB capability, so it's fairly worthless for anything but very basic looking for signals. I've been listening to NHK world radio lately, but it's not in a frequency/time slot that seems to correlate to any of the published schedules. It's also nearly on top of China Radio International. I can hear some local activity on SSB on 80 and 40 meters, but for the most part I'm using the WebSDR linked in this thread to listen to stuff across the globe. I've nailed my interference down to my apartment ethernet, which pollutes most of everything from 10~25 MHz; my roommate's desk lamp which pretty much kills everything but strong radio stations from .5~50 MHz, and some unknown periodic buzz. I think I'm pretty much shot for listening to weak signals until I come up with some sort of real antenna.
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May 10, 2008 00:32
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Heard my first numbers station just now (20:25 UTC). It's on 7887 khz, and in Spanish.
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May 11, 2008 21:24
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Well you can put me down as spending $85 on a Degen DE1103. My housemate is playing with it at the moment as he had a console sized shortwave set as a kid. We're getting some asian music on 11825khz and I have no idea where it's coming from. EDIT: 11965 as well. Cynicide fucked around with this message at 11:37 on May 13, 2008 |
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May 13, 2008 11:34
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I got back from college to find that the longwire I'd placed on the roof of my parents' house did not survive the winter. Looks like I'll have to find another way to listen!
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May 13, 2008 17:25
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My G5 came! I've already found a guy talking about 2-mile wide spaceships and Obama's "57 states" 'slip' on 11785, this is a blast. Edit: and there's China Radio International! Foggy fucked around with this message at 01:00 on May 14, 2008 |
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May 14, 2008 00:49
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Any greybeards want to give me some longwire antenna tips? I just hooked mine upto my scope and noticed some things leading me to believe it could be a lot better. Ground to scope ground is about 2.5v P-P while signal to scope ground is only ~1-1.5v P-P. Potential across antenna ground and signal is about .4v P-P. It's a 60' longwire run along my wooden fence ending at 50' of RG59U for the run inside the house. I've got a .5" copper pipe 10' into the ground where the two cables meet tied to the braiding on the coax, in turn tied to the ground on the 1/8" jack into my G5. Hopefully someone has some input on what I'm doing wrong.
w_hat fucked around with this message at 01:36 on May 14, 2008 |
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May 14, 2008 01:28
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Shamelessly stolen from eHam, who shamelessly stole it from CQ:quote:14.270 Chinese Emergency Frequency: So if any of you live anywhere near China, this might be interesting to listen to, especially to see what discrepancies there are between official accounts and what the rescue workers are saying at ground zero. w_hat posted:Any greybeards want to give me some longwire antenna tips? Pretty much the only way you're going to improve that antenna is to raise it up higher- 5 feet off the ground will probably work just fine for you, but height will always trump length. P.S. not to be super pedantic, but you have a random wire antenna, a longwire technically is resonant on at least one band that you listen to; I think it's OK to use the terms interchangeably, though 
nmfree fucked around with this message at 04:10 on May 14, 2008 |
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May 14, 2008 04:00
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nmfree posted:So if any of you live anywhere near China, this might be interesting to listen to, especially to see what discrepancies there are between official accounts and what the rescue workers are saying at ground zero. I'll keep an ear out and see if I can pick anything up over here. I'm not sure if it'll be in Mandarin or local dialect, and if the latter they may as well be speaking Ancient Greek for all the difference it'd make, but if I get anything I'll let y'all know.
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May 14, 2008 04:11
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I'm getting a very clear signal, sounds like a newscast in an East Asian language, on 5985, which Google tells me is probably Myanmar National Radio out of Yangon. Pretty incredible, I wish I could stay up until they (apparently) switch to English in two hours.
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May 14, 2008 07:19
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It's a free for all as the sun goes down. I'm in Melbourne and I managed to pick up World Harvest Radio at 07:25 UTC at 11565khz plus I got my first morse code down in the 41M band. EDIT: And my first QSL Report for World Harvest Radio! Cynicide fucked around with this message at 08:39 on May 14, 2008 |
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May 14, 2008 08:31
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Foggy posted:I'm getting a very clear signal, sounds like a newscast in an East Asian language, on 5985, which Google tells me is probably Myanmar National Radio out of Yangon. Pretty incredible, I wish I could stay up until they (apparently) switch to English in two hours.
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May 14, 2008 08:40
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nmfree posted:I'm not quite sure what your problem is here. There's going to be some discrepancy between scope ground and antenna ground because (I'm assuming) the scope ground is coming from the third prong of the plug. There's always going to be a small potential between your house electrical ground and the antenna ground because of the different distances to the ground rods, other appliances leaking slightly to ground (this is more common than many people think), the actual ground wire in the house interacting with the earth's electrical field, etc. It's not something I'd lose a lot of sleep over, personally. I'm really just concerned with trying to lower the noise floor. To me it looks like my supposed ground signal is much stronger than the signal I actually want which seems counter-intuitive. What would be the best next-step for eliminating some noise?
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May 14, 2008 10:19
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I'll keep monitoring 7050/7060 over the next few days for anything from Sichuan, but so far from what little I've been able to monitor, there's definitely activity on 7050, but the signal is very weak for me - I can hear voices, but not make out words, or even language. This is, at least for the moment, being further screwed with since I think China might be on to the rest of the world trying to hit up these freqs, based on that one pretty solid telltale of China not wanting listeners, loving Firedrake. But this Firedrake is weird - it's really weak. Normally Firedrake is the strongest thing on the entirety of SW for me, but this one is fading in and out, and is generally very weak. Seems like they're trying to balance the need to keep it open locally with the desire to jam it abroad. Although this is based on just a little monitoring today, I'll see how it goes later on.
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May 14, 2008 15:13
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w_hat posted:I'm really just concerned with trying to lower the noise floor. To me it looks like my supposed ground signal is much stronger than the signal I actually want which seems counter-intuitive. What would be the best next-step for eliminating some noise?
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May 15, 2008 00:46
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In case anyone else missed it, the WRTH A08 schedule update is up. 105 pages of international schedule, frequency list, and schedule-by-language update goodness. Also, what's the deal with the A(year) and B(year) stuff? sub supau fucked around with this message at 10:45 on May 15, 2008 |
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May 15, 2008 10:37
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TetsuoTW posted:In case anyone else missed it, the WRTH A08 schedule update is up. 105 pages of international schedule, frequency list, and schedule-by-language update goodness. Or maybe it's the other way around, I don't remember offhand.
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May 15, 2008 13:06
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nmfree posted:A is Summer, B is Winter (between the equinoxes), I think.
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May 15, 2008 14:43
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AstroZamboni posted:One thing I tend to notice is a lot of people won't write an online review unless something goes terribly wrong. About 60 people in this thread have E5s and are satisfied. Add another E5 to your total, as well as $10 signing up for a forum account. I really like my E5, but the battery life seems to be terrible. I started with using some old crappy rechargables, and it'd drain one of the batteries and die in about 30 minutes (probably because they're old crappy batteries though). Using standard alkalines I'm getting about 5-6 hours which I suppose isn't bad but still less than I thought it would be. Mostly I've just been running it plugged in and have had a few interesting things so far. The Overcomer Ministry is quite fun in an utterly mental way. One night I heard this on a different frequency: Me, somewhere else posted:Dicking around with my shortwave radio earlier I was listening to some evangelical phone-in programme from the US. Someone called in....
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May 15, 2008 15:13
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TetsuoTW posted:In case anyone else missed it, the WRTH A08 schedule update is up. 105 pages of international schedule, frequency list, and schedule-by-language update goodness. Holy cow! I had no idea this existed. What a handy guide to have. I'm printing it right now. The frequency list alone is gold. If I tune into something randomly and can't quite make out what I'm listening to, I can just look up the frequency and bam! Voice of Serbia.
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May 15, 2008 16:53
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SpazRobot posted:Holy cow! I had no idea this existed. What a handy guide to have. I'm printing it right now. And that's just the summer update, AFAIK it doesn't include the stations that haven't changed their schedules and/or frequencies. If this is really tickling you, I'd fully recommend getting the book proper. It's a hell of a resource.
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May 15, 2008 17:19
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I got my Sony 7600GR yesterday and had a good time finding some stations during the day. When evening came, I sat out in the park and thanks to the synchronous detector I was able to pick up a lot of stations that probably would have came in poorly. I love the decent-sized buttons, typing in stations is a very quick thing, similar to using the number-pad on a typing keyboard (though it's upside down). It came with a small Sony-branded station guide that seems a little out of date, but it will help me find what I want until I decide to buy a better station guide later. The included attachable hanging antenna seems to be ???? at best, I couldn't tell if it was helping or not. For anyone one the west coast USA, are you getting Asia/Oceania stations clearly? Tonight I got several Asian stations by their Asian frequencies rather than their Americas frequencies, which kind of confused me. Now it seems if I can't get a station in clearly or at all by the N.America numbers, I can try the Asian ones instead and most likely get the station. Maybe my guide is piece of garbage. This is my own first SW radio, so it could just be me not understanding how these things work. It's a shame I can't use my radio in my apartment. I get a ton of man-made interference here. The restaurant downstairs with its florescent lights, my old refrigerator causing a buzz and hum, my computer causing huge static, and the giant power-box on the wall outside my window. I can barely get local AM station without static. The moment I get about 20 feet from my building, signals are clear as day. Luckily it's now summer and 95 degrees all night long, I can sit in the park and have a good listen/sweat.
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May 17, 2008 06:33
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Haier posted:st coast USA, are you getting Asia/Oceania stations clearly? Tonight I got several Asian stations by their Asian frequencies rather than their Americas frequencies, which kind of confused me. Now it seems if I can't get a station in clearly or at all by the N.America numbers, I can try the Asian ones instead and most likely get the station. Maybe my guide is piece of garbage. This is my own first SW radio, so it could just be me not understanding how these things work.
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May 18, 2008 09:33
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I've been ignoring this thread for months, and finally got bored enough to read it two days ago. I've done very little else since. About 30 pages back, I decided to look for a radio locally, and I've simultaneously caught up with the thread and had most of my hopes dashed. New Zealand, it seems, doesn't warrant serious shortwave attention from the big names like Sony or Grundig. I rang Sony NZ earlier today, to see if the 7600GR was available and they told me it was discontinued in 2001 (  ) and all they had were glorified bedside radios, the SW11 and the slightly better 704S - the only SW radio in ANY electronics/department store locally. Grundig/Eton is even worse, without even a proper New Zealand contact number or email. The only number given goes to Australia, and even then its for service and warranty issues.  There is but one SW set listed on their website: the YachtBoy 2000, which has some terrible reviews anyway.I think I'm gonna have to suck it up and import one if the marine supply shops can't help me. </whine> That said, is there any appreciable difference between the Grundig G6 and the forthcoming G6BAE (Buzz Aldrin Edition)? I've looked around but haven't seen anything significant. Big Bad Beetleborg fucked around with this message at 01:47 on May 19, 2008 |
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May 19, 2008 01:44
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Dead Alice posted:I've been ignoring this thread for months, and finally got bored enough to read it two days ago. I've done very little else since. About 30 pages back, I decided to look for a radio locally, and I've simultaneously caught up with the thread and had most of my hopes dashed. As for getting gear in NZ, aside from Cash Converters and the like, which occasionally used to have some lovely AM/FM/SW/Tape radios, if you're feeling brave, Trademe has a couple of radios up: Grundig Music Boy 70 Degen 1107 Degen 1103 And the gold goes to: Yaesu FRG-7 Again, it's Trademe, so you could be taking a mighty risk, but still. e: Actually, if you wouldn't mind a second hand Sangean radio, I've got a spare 505 lying around with nothing to do. sub supau fucked around with this message at 05:30 on May 19, 2008 |
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May 19, 2008 05:25
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TetsuoTW posted:e: Actually, if you wouldn't mind a second hand Sangean radio, I've got a spare 505 lying around with nothing to do. Yeah I saw the TradeMe ones, but it's a bit of cash to drop on something that may or may not work at all. I've bought poo poo of TradeMe before and been screwed. I'd love the Sangean, send me an email at mirth_defect on the yahoo dot com and we'll work something out.
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May 19, 2008 06:20
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Not sure if there's just good listening conditions tonight or what, but I've been picking up all kind of stuff, using this as the most straightforward band guide I've seen yet. Shortwave Ron Paul is the best Ron Paul. Quick G5 question: I know you switch between LSB and USB by turning the "fine" dial, but I'm not sure how the '+' and '-' sides correlate to USB and LSB. I haven't yet managed to pick up a voice broadcast in SSB (though there's plenty of CW on the amateur bands) so I'm not sure if I'm doing it wrong or if I just need a bigger antenna.
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May 20, 2008 03:53
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Foggy posted:Not sure if there's just good listening conditions tonight or what, but I've been picking up all kind of stuff, using this as the most straightforward band guide I've seen yet. Shortwave Ron Paul is the best Ron Paul. Maybe there were favorable conditions yesterday, 'cause I was getting real good reception of a bunch of stations that are usually a mongrel to get well under normal circumstances.
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May 20, 2008 04:02
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How about that, I just picked up (and subsequently lost) a really faint aviation communication on 3484 in SSB. Guess that button does do something after all!
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May 20, 2008 04:21
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If you live in the USA, a quick and easy thing to try to listen to on SSB is AFRTS Shortwave.code:Foggy posted:Quick G5 question: I know you switch between LSB and USB by turning the "fine" dial, but I'm not sure how the '+' and '-' sides correlate to USB and LSB. '-' -> LSB You're tuning above and below the center frequency.
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May 20, 2008 21:35
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