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JacquelineDempsey posted:
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Dec 30, 2008 23:32
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How did I miss that? Thanks again, nmfree.
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Add me to the financial drain list as well! Just went to Radio Shack and bought a Grundig G6 (Buzz Aldrin edition, haha), $100! Haven't found jack on it yet. I think I probably have to build some sort of DIY external antenna.
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Dec 31, 2008 03:55
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Well last weekend on 5230kHz USB picked up a numbers station, lots of fun, my first numbers station I've heard since I was a kid. The other fun thing about this transmission is that at the same time it was been jammed. It seems that it could of been the MOSSAD station, which considering recent occurrences could be a connection. Also finally sat my advanced exam so now have a full call for ham radio 
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Dec 31, 2008 04:48
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There's some neat stuff archived at http://www.davidgleason.com/Radio_Archives.htm , including some back issues of magazines and pictures of some "Border Blaster" transmitters.
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Jan 2, 2009 20:11
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I just picked up the Grundig G6 Buzz Aldrin Edition (like the guy three posts up) and am eager to do some serious listening. I wonder if anyone can give me some tips, because I get the feeling by the complete lack of anything listenable that I'm doing something wrong. I live in Southwestern Ontario in a fair sized town in its "downtown" area (not huge). I live at the top of an apartment building, there are not really many other similarly tall buildings around. There's probably tons of interference in my house from TVs, computers, wifi, wireless telephone, etc, but is my balcony any kind of safe refuge from this stuff? It's too cold to go out there right now, but I will probably bundle up and venture out tomorrow morning. I also live minutes walking distance from a large lake (Lake Ontario). If I went to the beach and sat on some rocks with the SW, would reception be any better? Having just explained my situation, can anyone offer any suggestions of stuff I shouldn't have a hard time listening to (aside from psycho religious rambling)? Particularly interested in Number Stations... straight out of the box I tried listening into the Cherry Ripe number station in Guam based on the schedule listed on it's Wikipedia entry, but I am probably delusional in thinking I can pick that up. Also, which type of home made antenna would work best? Or I notice the G6 has a hole in the side for a commercial one, what would be best suited for this? Thanks in advance, I'm very excited about this and not going to let this current setback keep me down!
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Jan 3, 2009 00:28
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Sorrow of sorrows, my E5 went tits up this week. I'm going to see if I can get it repaired/refurbed by eton, but I'm not holding my breath. Soooo, this morning I went to Radio Shack and picked up a G6 "Buzz Aldrin Edition." Here are my overall first impressions: I can already tell the raw RF sensitivity isn't quite as good as the E5. It still gets decent reception, though. I haven't managed to pick up anything on the aeronautical band yet. Also, this thing is just dinky. Doesn't quite have the heft and solidity of the E5. Also, Eton, when the gently caress are you going to start including smart charger circuitry in your re-charging radios? I do love the fact that it pretty much does everything the E5 does in a smaller package. However, the busy button layout is totally different from the E5, and is counter-intuitive in the same areas, but in different ways. I think it'll probably have a bit of a learning curve, just like the E5. The speaker sounds good, and I like the fact that it has a bass boost (which was absent on the E5). Not a big difference out of the speaker, but more of a deal on headphones on FM music stations. FM reception is tasty. I've been getting a good strong signal of WWV, so I'm not too worried about SW reception. I have yet to really put it through its paces on MW/LW/SSB or aeronautical. I plan to spend a good long time tonight after the sun goes down getting familiar with it and getting some DXing done. I'm surprised it doesn't have a DX/Local switch. I'm wondering if the Mega Bass switch doubles, as the music/news switch did on the E5. One feature I far prefer over the E5 is the backlight on the display. I'm exceptionally pleased that this has a red backlight instead of the blue/white on the E5. I use SW while doing amateur astronomy activities (primarily using time interval stations for predicting satellite flyovers to the second, since I don't have to look at my watch that way), and red light doesn't gently caress up night vision. The keys aren't backlit, though, which is a bit of a detractor. Anyhoo, I'll be posting more performance-related details after I put it through its paces. Overall, however, I'm pretty impressed.
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Jan 3, 2009 00:42
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A few fuller thoughts on the performance of the G6: SW reception is decent, but seems to be a smidge more susceptible to local interference than the E5. Almost all I could hear was the relatively nearby Radio Disney transmitter. Because of this, I wasn't really able to put the SSB through its paces. Apart from interference, reception on WWV and Radio Havana were decent. I think its about time I finally build a magnetic loop to filter out the local garbage. I'll be going a ways out of town next week, so I'll be able to test the SW and SSB a bit better. While I really like the red backlighting on the display, I really wish the keys were backlit. I like to listen to SW in a darkened room (lightbulbs can cause interference, and the dark makes SW spookier), and I didn't realize how much I relied on an illuminated keypad until I no longer had it. Once I'm familiar with the button layout and how all the keys work, I'll have less problems. ALL of the G6 reviews I've read talk about how much local interference makes aeronautical tuning impossible. I found this to be totally incorrect, at least in my case. Tuning through aeronautical band takes a shitload of patience and luck to actually find anything, i got my cleanest signals of all picking up pilot communications. Ironic, eh?
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Jan 3, 2009 03:49
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if anyone is listinging , i'm getting an numbers station on 8995 khz in phoenix az. its hard to make it out, but i have a crappy antenna.
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Jan 3, 2009 03:52
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Robert E. Lee posted:if anyone is listinging , i'm getting an numbers station on 8995 khz in phoenix az. its hard to make it out, but i have a crappy antenna. I'm down in Tucson with my little Grundig G6 and I'm not picking anything up. Man, I really wish I had a better antenna...  Anyone have any suggestions? AstroZamboni, if you experiment with anything, please share because I haven't been able to pick up anything on my SW other than a Mexican broadcast from Oakland, CA (which is pretty cool, but that's all I've been able to find).
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Jan 3, 2009 04:00
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Just ordered a G6 from Amazon for the purpose of finding weird propaganda and such. I can always do with more recordings of insane speeches.
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Jan 3, 2009 04:28
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it cut off at 20:00 local. i've never heard it before, it was a female voice spouting off alpha hotel foxtroc ect, no exit music or end of message notice of any kind.
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Jan 3, 2009 04:31
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Robert E. Lee posted:it cut off at 20:00 local. i've never heard it before, it was a female voice spouting off alpha hotel foxtroc ect, no exit music or end of message notice of any kind. I think this might have been a SkyKing message, not a true number station, since the frequency is pretty close to a heavily used SkyKing frequency. However, it could have conceivably been E10, the mossad station.
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Jan 3, 2009 04:37
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Robert E. Lee posted:it cut off at 20:00 local. i've never heard it before, it was a female voice spouting off alpha hotel foxtroc ect, no exit music or end of message notice of any kind. Sounds like you may have heard a US military Emergency Action Message. I've heard them too. They are usually sent by live person and not an electronic voice like a numbers station. The ones I've heard came from Andrews Air Force Base, as they said, "Andrews out" at the end. That's some pretty cool stuff right there.
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Jan 3, 2009 04:39
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Illegal Clown posted:Sounds like you may have heard a US military Emergency Action Message. I've heard them too. They are usually sent by live person and not an electronic voice like a numbers station. The ones I've heard came from Andrews Air Force Base, as they said, "Andrews out" at the end. That's some pretty cool stuff right there. Yeah, you could tell it was not a recording, so your most likely right. That makes it the coolest thing I've heard so far
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Jan 3, 2009 05:15
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AstroZamboni posted:
I live about 4 miles from a small international airport (PHF), which is part of the reason I picked the G6. Unfortunately, I haven't picked up squat. It's a shame there's no seek function for that band. [EDIT] So after posting this I decided to give it another go. And there's PHF approach, clear as a bell. You're right, AstroZamboni, those are good signals. And wow, whole lotta G6's up in here all of a sudden. One goofy trick I just did for mine: I found a set of TV rabbit ears at the thrift store for 95 cents. Alligator clip the coax out from the TV antenna to your G6 whip, and voila --- much better dx listening! It actually pulls in too much for closer listening (Cuba, the big Christian stations out of Florida, etc), but it makes a huge difference clarifying signals from Europe/Middle East for me. I like 'em for the fact that they fold up and don't weigh a thing, so it's easy to carry around the house --- I'm not stuck in one room as I am with the outside antenna. JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Jan 3, 2009 |
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Jan 3, 2009 17:38
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All this talk of not getting anything listenable reminds me - is anyone else finding propagation lovely at the moment? I don't seem to have been able to pick up diddly squat this past week or two other than CNR stations, and it would take Armageddon itself to drown those out.
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Jan 3, 2009 20:39
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The best bit about listening the US Military HF system is hearing the insane multipath on them. You're receiving signals from every single station in the system. They all receive and retransmit. So you get a wonderful echo effect. I'm going to have to use a SkyKing message in one of my musical projects, using number stations is so overdone
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Jan 3, 2009 20:45
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thehustler posted:I'm going to have to use a SkyKing message in one of my musical projects, using number stations is so overdone I like to use Canada's UTC clock (3330) for a nice 60/120 bpm when playing live. Are SkyKing broadcasts pretty random, as far catching something? How often do they broadcast? I found Zamboni's big list of freq's on page 21; but are some freq's more consistent than others, and does each freq correspond to a certain airbase? I'm dying to hear one.
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Jan 3, 2009 21:21
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JacquelineDempsey posted:I live about 4 miles from a small international airport (PHF), which is part of the reason I picked the G6. Unfortunately, I haven't picked up squat. It's a shame there's no seek function for that band.
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Jan 3, 2009 23:13
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JacquelineDempsey posted:Are SkyKing broadcasts pretty random, as far catching something? How often do they broadcast? I found Zamboni's big list of freq's on page 21; but are some freq's more consistent than others, and does each freq correspond to a certain airbase? I'm dying to hear one. I haven't heard any in a while, but haven't been listening much either. There were a few days last summer when I found one that would transmit every hour for a few minutes for at least two or three hours. I'm not an expert on them, but I'd say find where and when they are reported and try again at that time the next day or maybe an hour later.
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Jan 4, 2009 08:03
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Further thoughts about the G6: I finally found the interference on the aircraft band, and picked up "Masterpiece Theater" perfectly clear. Very odd. I DID wind up buying a new radio right when propagation conditions have been absolutely terrible. So it ISN'T entirely that the radio is less sensitive than the E5. It is, however, more susceptible to local interference, so you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be throwing together a magnetic loop sooner rather than later. At first, the single knob and having to constantly switch back and forth between rough and fine tuning in SSB mode drove me Cookoo Bananas. I longed to have my E5's fine tuning knob. That is, until I actually figured out how it works and a huge loving smile erupted all over my face. The "slow tune" mode in SSB not only tunes between the LSB and the USB of a given frequency (like the E5's fine tune knob), but if you just keep turning it while in slow mode, it will go from the USB of one frequency up to the LSB of the next, without having to go back into 1 khz increments. This removes a couple of steps when tuning SSB, and I loving love it. Now that I'm getting used to the single multi-speed tuning wheel, I love it to pieces. I just wish it was side-mounted like on the e5, however the E5's wheel had a tendency to fall off occasionally, which is less likely to happen with the G6' flush wheel. I just tend to think the e5's wheel was a tad more ergonomic. The e5's sound quality was better on SSB, but the ease of tuning MORE than makes up for that little sacrifice. G6 as opposed to E5: Pros & Cons Pros: Small size Awesome price (big pro) Aeronautical band (huge pro) Much better SSB tuning system (huge pro) Red backlight doesn't harm night vision. (big pro for me) Bass boost Cons: Still no smart charger circuitry, but the E5 had this problem too (small con) Slightly less raw RF sensitivity (small con) No backlighting on the keypad (biggest con) 1 less programmable alarm slot (almost inconsequential) More susceptible to interference Slightly reduced audio quality on SSB Overall, I'm very happy with the G6. Definitely a keeper.
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Jan 6, 2009 04:25
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nmfree posted:Don't know if I already posted this in the thread (I think I did, but a long time ago), https://www.airnav.com is where I go to get air band frequencies. HOLY poo poo. This rocks. THANK YOU.
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Jan 6, 2009 04:34
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Its official: The E5/G5 has gone the way of the Dodo in Eton/Grundig's product line. To replace it, they brought out this beast at CES: http://etoncorp.com/product_card/?p_ProductDbId=916030 http://etoncorp.com/upload/contents/307/G3.pdf The G3 looks identical to the G5, except it has a few more features: RDS for station/song info on FM (cool if you listen to FM a lot, otherwise yawn) Synchronous Detector with Selectable SSB (WOOP WOOP! Elevates the SSB capabilities of the G5 up to those of the E1) Aeronautical Band Okay, jesus loving christ. I JUST got the G6, and then they come out with this. True, it isn't technically out yet, and they don't have a price listed, but since it is pretty much a direct G5 replacement, it'll probably be 150 bucks. This thing could be the end-all and be-all of small portable SW receivers. Also, I'm looking into getting my E5 refurbed. I think having both the E5 and G6 to complement eachother will be nice.
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Jan 8, 2009 05:58
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AstroZamboni posted:Its official: The E5/G5 has gone the way of the Dodo in Eton/Grundig's product line. To replace it, they brought out this beast at CES: Son of a bitch. I just bought my G6 too . Man, that sucks.
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Jan 8, 2009 06:29
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AstroZamboni posted:
Oh, oh hot drat. I was actually just thinking of moving up from my G5 to an E1 just for that. This could save me a whole chunk of cash. Is there any price announcement on it yet? Or expected date for it to be available?
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Jan 8, 2009 06:49
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Apparently, it still has to be approved by the FCC (according to universal radio). I think this is one of the things eton debuted at CES this year.
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Jan 8, 2009 06:55
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AstroZamboni posted:Apparently, it still has to be approved by the FCC (according to universal radio). I think this is one of the things eton debuted at CES this year. drat, we'll see what happens come tax return time then, I may just end up shelling out for that E1. Or maybe something bigger I haven't spent any money in a long time, just been cruising along with the old E5 and the Eavesdropper antenna.Also, I can't believe it's been a year and a half since I posted in this thread that I bought my first radio. This is one long running GBS thread! Astro, when you first made this sucker, did you think it would go on and on forever? (edit): by the way, Spanish numbers lady on 5883 right now (11:10 Pacific) for anyone looking at the thread, she's right on time StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Jan 8, 2009 |
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Jan 8, 2009 07:16
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My active antenna showed up today. Not much better. I think my neighbors have some kind of heater that's making an awful buzz.
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Jan 8, 2009 11:31
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E2M1 posted:by the way, Spanish numbers lady on 5883 right now (11:10 Pacific) for anyone looking at the thread, she's right on time My favorite thing about that, at least this time of the year, is that the numbers transmission begins right at the end of Radio Havana's broadcast day.
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Jan 8, 2009 13:24
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E2M1 posted:drat, we'll see what happens come tax return time then, I may just end up shelling out for that E1. Or maybe something bigger On the first point, you might actually be better off with the G3. The E1 has better selectivity, but the E5/G5 had the edge in raw sensitivity over the E1. Now the upgrade of the G5 will have the same selectivity of the E1 PLUS aircraft band. Honestly, that would be a much better way to go since the E1 doesn't even have an internal ferrite rod antenna. As for point #2, I wouldn't have believed in a million years my thread would be one of the most long-lived threads in GBS. I also picked up the Spanish lady last night on that broadcast, at exactly the same time no less. I was just randomly scanning when I picked her up. I've discovered that when plugged into a good long wire, the G6 is every bit as sensitive as the E5, and the Radio Disney interference isn't as pronounced. YAY! SSB signals sound better, too.
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Jan 8, 2009 16:54
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AstroZamboni posted:On the first point, you might actually be better off with the G3. The E1 has better selectivity, but the E5/G5 had the edge in raw sensitivity over the E1. Now the upgrade of the G5 will have the same selectivity of the E1 PLUS aircraft band. Honestly, that would be a much better way to go since the E1 doesn't even have an internal ferrite rod antenna. Hmm, guess I'll just wait on the G3 then. Or spring for a true tabletop system. I don't really care about the internal antenna since I'm always hooked up to my long-line these days or at least the AN-LP1, but there's no reason to drop that much money on the E1 if what's coming out soon is actually better and (probably) cheaper.
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Jan 8, 2009 19:41
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Welp, I sent off an e-mail to Act electronics in NV to see about having my E5 repaired. They're a third party that does out-of-warranty repair work for Eton/Grundig. While I was at it, I asked if they're able to replace the white LED back lighting in the E5 with red LEDs. I'm still waiting to hear back.
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Jan 8, 2009 21:15
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AstroZamboni posted:Welp, I sent off an e-mail to Act electronics in NV to see about having my E5 repaired. They're a third party that does out-of-warranty repair work for Eton/Grundig. While I was at it, I asked if they're able to replace the white LED back lighting in the E5 with red LEDs. Keep us updated about the LED thing. I'd love if I could get red LED backlighting for when I take my G5 up into the mountains.
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Jan 8, 2009 21:22
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Accursed posted:Keep us updated about the LED thing. I'd love if I could get red LED backlighting for when I take my G5 up into the mountains. I'll keep updating through the whole process.
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Jan 8, 2009 22:38
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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0103/1230842388623.htmlquote:When pirates ceased to rule the airwaves
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Jan 9, 2009 00:30
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RTÉ were allowed to jam pirate signals? What the gently caress?
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Jan 9, 2009 11:49
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So I've been trolling Craigslist frequently to see if there are any shortwaves. This one has popped up for $40: The description simply says it's a Realistic brand receiver, but I don't know enough about them to place what model. Is this a decent model/price? Thanks in advance. edit: That picture was with the listing; I haven't gone and bought it.
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Jan 9, 2009 16:00
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There's a few radio shack coupon codes in effect right now that will help save you some cash on a new radio. They're offering free shipping right now on orders over $75. 20STUFF09 - Get $20 off anything more than $200 on the Radio Shack website. SHIPMYSTUFF09 - Get free shipping on anything over $45. edit: Oh god, just dropped $379 on a PRO-197 scanner. Beary Mancrush fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Jan 10, 2009 |
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Jan 9, 2009 20:06
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nm: Quote is not edit.
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Jan 10, 2009 09:39
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 01:04 |
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Fredrick posted:So I've been trolling Craigslist frequently to see if there are any shortwaves. This one has popped up for $40: This looks like it might be your fella --- the DX-150: http://www.rigpix.com/rs-realistic/realistic_dx150.htm There's a few variants, though; the 160 also kinda looks like that. Here's what looks to be a handy guide for ID'ing old Realistic models (though thumbnails of the pix would've been nice): http://www.rigpix.com/rs-realistic/rs-realistic.htm Unfortunately, I have no idea if that's a good model/price. But hopefully the ID might help further research...?
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Jan 10, 2009 20:33
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