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  • Locked thread
Illegal Clown
Feb 18, 2004

Radio Nowhere posted:

I will admit though his craziness is entertaining, that gravelly voice makes him sound way older then he really is.

Yes! When I first heard him I pictured some older George C. Scott type guy. Then I saw him on Youtube and later learned he was less than 10 years older than me. Really though, the day I discovered him was so magical. It was the day I got my radio and the first station I could get during the middle of the day was WWCR. I listened to whatever preacher they had, and it wasn't too bad. It was mostly on in the background, but at the top of the hour the Imperial March from Star Wars played. It had my attention, and what followed was two hours of the craziest anti-government psychotic rants I had ever heard. I even recorded his broadcast from the Obama inauguration. It was fun. He started the broadcast shouting, "Battle stations, battle stations, the New World Order is here!"

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Doc Faustus
Sep 6, 2005

Philippe is such an angry eater
Not really shortwave, but does anyone have much interest in aircraft band radios? How from how far away can you generally hear tower-air traffic? So far the cheapest aircraft band scanner I can find is from Kaito for $50, but it only does AM/FM/Aircraft, and I'm otherwise pretty well set for AM/FM radios.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!

Doc Faustus posted:

Not really shortwave, but does anyone have much interest in aircraft band radios? How from how far away can you generally hear tower-air traffic? So far the cheapest aircraft band scanner I can find is from Kaito for $50, but it only does AM/FM/Aircraft, and I'm otherwise pretty well set for AM/FM radios.

The G3, G6 and Satellit 750 all have built-in aircraft band radios. I have the G6 and use the aircraft band frequently as I'm nearby (and in the flight path of) Phoenix Sky Harbor.

Typically you have to be less than 5 miles from an airport to pick stuff up clearly. The aircraft bands tend to also be susceptible to TV various kinds of interference. Still, they're a lot of fun to play around with. I enjoy it a lot.

BigHustle
Oct 19, 2005

Fast and Bulbous

AstroZamboni posted:

Typically you have to be less than 5 miles from an airport to pick stuff up clearly. The aircraft bands tend to also be susceptible to TV various kinds of interference. Still, they're a lot of fun to play around with. I enjoy it a lot.

I'm about 36 miles from Newark International Airport and can occasionally snag some traffic from flights passing overhead, but those are far and few between.

Some air band radios pick up massive interference from FM radio in the area too. My G6 is terrible about FM bleeding into the air traffic frequencies.

Doc Faustus
Sep 6, 2005

Philippe is such an angry eater

AstroZamboni posted:

The G3, G6 and Satellit 750 all have built-in aircraft band radios. I have the G6 and use the aircraft band frequently as I'm nearby (and in the flight path of) Phoenix Sky Harbor.

Typically you have to be less than 5 miles from an airport to pick stuff up clearly. The aircraft bands tend to also be susceptible to TV various kinds of interference. Still, they're a lot of fun to play around with. I enjoy it a lot.

I'm reasonably close to Sky Harbor (see your PMs.) I know there's plenty of good radios that include the Air Band, but right now I'm working with a Grundig YB-400 I got for free, so I figured I'd either try to get a cheap airband radio, or else just wait until I have the cash for a full-blown scanner.

nmfree
Aug 15, 2001

The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006
It really is YMMV with Air band monitoring. A lot of scanners cover the frequencies, but do so really poorly; it's the same with some SW radios. Reception distance really varies: sometimes I can hear Minneapolis ATC here (~300 miles away), especially at night after the Green Bay tower closes, and sometimes I have problems picking up planes flying almost directly overhead. It's a real crapshoot.

If you're really interested in air monitoring the March issue of Monitoring Times is devoted to monitoring air shows, which isn't exactly the same but has enough parallels and similarities to make it a useful read.

Social Animal
Nov 1, 2005

Radio Nowhere posted:

I don't know of any shortwave station that is strictly music but your best bet is just tuning around at any given time. It's rare I scan the shortwave dial unable to find a station playing music.

A recommendation though would be WBCQ's "Area 51" block every night from 7-9 PM (EST) on 5110 KHz. Those 2 hours are filled with pirate-radio shenanigans which include plenty of offbeat music. Reception of that frequency can be tough on the east coast, at least it is for me. If no luck on your radio try this stream.

Awesome I'll check that out. Hopefully I can get it since it seems like I can't pull anything.

Alex Jones makes the workday go by faster.

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010

nmfree posted:

If you're really interested in air monitoring the March issue of Monitoring Times is devoted to monitoring air shows, which isn't exactly the same but has enough parallels and similarities to make it a useful read.

There's another piece in the March issue about general air monitoring also, highly recommend getting it.

I'm 1/2 mile from the local airport and in my experience my police scanner trumps my shortwave with airband. But like nmfree said, YMMV. One thing to consider is any radio will probably hear the plane side of the communication. When airplanes are a few miles up in the sky they get helluva range! Ground control is another story where one has to be pretty close, say 10-15 miles, to hear both sides of communication. Some people make a hobby of going to airports with their scanners just to listen to both sides of communication. I won't get into the homeland security angle of that but only hearing one side with no talkback can be confusing. A good test of being able to hear ground control is to try an airport's ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) channel. If you can hear the repeating automated weather conditions transmitter you can likely hear ground control too. Here's a good frequency resource if you haven't already bookmarked,

http://www.airnav.com/

blugu64
Jul 17, 2006

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

Radio Nowhere posted:

There's another piece in the March issue about general air monitoring also, highly recommend getting it.

I'm 1/2 mile from the local airport and in my experience my police scanner trumps my shortwave with airband. But like nmfree said, YMMV. One thing to consider is any radio will probably hear the plane side of the communication. When airplanes are a few miles up in the sky they get helluva range! Ground control is another story where one has to be pretty close, say 10-15 miles, to hear both sides of communication. Some people make a hobby of going to airports with their scanners just to listen to both sides of communication. I won't get into the homeland security angle of that but only hearing one side with no talkback can be confusing. A good test of being able to hear ground control is to try an airport's ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) channel. If you can hear the repeating automated weather conditions transmitter you can likely hear ground control too. Here's a good frequency resource if you haven't already bookmarked,

http://www.airnav.com/

You have no idea how badly I want to be able to use a scanner on an airplane.

AstroZamboni
Mar 8, 2007

Smoothing the Ice on Europa since 1997!
Here in Phoenix there's a public park (Papago park) only a mile from the airport. Under the verandas there is a drat good place to park yourself with an airband radio and listen to aeronautical poo poo. If you use headphones it isn't nearly as suspicious as actually parking at the airport and listening.

SentinelXS
Aug 30, 2009

Why don't you make like a tree, and FUCK OFF?
I've been following this thread for a while now, and I've finally been pulled into the cult of shortwave. I thought about getting a G6, but I couldn't justify spending that much money on a new hobby that I might not get into. Now I'm saving towards getting one. I have a friend who works retail at a local Goodwill store, and one of the perks (maybe the only perk) of that job is that he gets first pickings of all the donations that come into the store. He's a pack rat just like me and we trade random gadgets. Today he found a new-looking Bell & Howell analog portable shortwave radio in the trash, and he knew I was into radios and audio equipment so he gave it to me. After playing with the thing for 10 minutes, I was hooked. Even though it's cheaply built and the reception isn't anything great, I'm pulling in tons of neat stations. The only ones I could identify were China Radio International and WWCR. Most of the spectrum is ruled by crazy Christian preachers and Spanish stations, but I've picked up plenty of interesting stuff and want to hear more.

The highlight of my listening time was when I came upon a classic Southern preacher's fiery sermon, who sounded like he was talking in an open room like a basement. This guy was the real deal, it's exactly what I imagine when thinking of a crazy fire and brimstone preacher. He was screaming at the top of his lungs at random parts of his sermon, and I could hardly understand him because he was so frantic. I almost poo poo myself when I was just casually going down the dial and then my ears were blasted with "This is the real prophecy! You can't hide what you've done! God saw it! GOD SAW IT! Aaaghh!"

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010

SentinelXS posted:

The highlight of my listening time was when I came upon a classic Southern preacher's fiery sermon, who sounded like he was talking in an open room like a basement. This guy was the real deal, it's exactly what I imagine when thinking of a crazy fire and brimstone preacher. He was screaming at the top of his lungs at random parts of his sermon, and I could hardly understand him because he was so frantic. I almost poo poo myself when I was just casually going down the dial and then my ears were blasted with "This is the real prophecy! You can't hide what you've done! God saw it! GOD SAW IT! Aaaghh!"

What did this lunatic sound like? If he had a Elmer Fudd'ish lisp it was probably Brother Stair (lovingly called Brother Scare). Did he have a super racist overtone to his ranting ? That would be "Pastor" Peter Peters. Did he cuss a little more then expected of a preacher? Old recordings of Gene Scott still haunt the shortwaves, he's dead. Maybe the sermon just made you sleepy? Family Radio's Harold Camping can do that, he's almost 90. A very small sampling on what the US broadcasts to the world. God bless America :911: And welcome to the shortwave cult!

Social Animal posted:

Awesome I'll check that out. Hopefully I can get it since it seems like I can't pull anything.

Alex Jones makes the workday go by faster.

I made a mistake, according to WBCQ's website "Area 51" due to lack of funding is down to weekends only. This weekend they covered the SWLfest in Kulpsville, PA. I caught an hour of coverage and it was general pirate radio weirdness. I remember hearing WKRP clips, warped classic rock songs, mock WBCQ jingles and telephone dial tones.

Radio Nowhere fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Mar 7, 2010

Social Animal
Nov 1, 2005

Radio Nowhere posted:

I caught an hour of coverage and it was general pirate radio weirdness. I remember hearing WKRP clips, warped classic rock songs, mock WBCQ jingles and telephone dial tones.

This is glorious.

SentinelXS
Aug 30, 2009

Why don't you make like a tree, and FUCK OFF?

Radio Nowhere posted:

And welcome to the shortwave cult!

I'm really enjoying it so far. I've toyed around with old UHF/VHF radio scanners in the past, but I never got much of anything interesting because the emergency services are on brand new digital trunking systems. The most I ever heard was taxi services and school buses. Shortwave seems a lot more exciting. Luckily, I live in coastal suburbs far away from any transmission towers, and I get great shortwave reception with little interference. Once I get a proper radio with an external antenna input, I'll see about doing one of those crazy wire setups with some old speaker wire I have laying around. So much for getting a new battery for my laptop. I think I may have too many money pit hobbies.

Also, I heard my first numbers station today. The creepy thing is, it just happened to be broadcasting right about where I left the dial the last time, so I heard it as soon as I turned on the radio :psyduck:

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010
Next Saturday I'm having a new headunit installed in my car. So loving what right ? The headunit is a Sony CDX-GT470U I won on Australian e-bay and is only sold in Africa/Middle East/Asia/Australia (okay anywhere not Europe or America). Again so loving what ? Really nothing special about the headunit feature wise (CD, MP3, USB, Aux, yada yada) except for one major thing, loving shortwave! Most aftermarket headunits do FM1, FM2, FM3, FM-infinity, AM1 and AM2; but this headunit does SW1 and SW2 !! Coverage is like 2300 to 7500 then 9500 to 18900 KHz I think. I'm also getting it interfaced with my steering wheel and hopefully I can have what is usually preset up/down can be tune up/down instead. Can't wait to be crusing the highways just tuning around the shortwave bands listening to crazy poo poo! :woop:

wolrah
May 8, 2006
what?

Radio Nowhere posted:

Next Saturday I'm having a new headunit installed in my car. So loving what right ? The headunit is a Sony CDX-GT470U I won on Australian e-bay and is only sold in Africa/Middle East/Asia/Australia (okay anywhere not Europe or America). Again so loving what ? Really nothing special about the headunit feature wise (CD, MP3, USB, Aux, yada yada) except for one major thing, loving shortwave! Most aftermarket headunits do FM1, FM2, FM3, FM-infinity, AM1 and AM2; but this headunit does SW1 and SW2 !! Coverage is like 2300 to 7500 then 9500 to 18900 KHz I think. I'm also getting it interfaced with my steering wheel and hopefully I can have what is usually preset up/down can be tune up/down instead. Can't wait to be crusing the highways just tuning around the shortwave bands listening to crazy poo poo! :woop:

I really should try that too. Most BMW head units for the last few years are international receivers, so if I pop in to the service menu and put it in to European mode it unlocks shortwave, but I think it screws up my FM.

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010

wolrah posted:

I really should try that too. Most BMW head units for the last few years are international receivers, so if I pop in to the service menu and put it in to European mode it unlocks shortwave, but I think it screws up my FM.

Your FM should be fine, would change the channel steps from 200 KHz to 50 KHz (so instead of 88.1->88.3->88.5->etc. it would be like 88.1->88.15->88.2->etc.). The AM steps would hurt you though since near everything outside the Americas uses 9 KHz steps as opposed to our 10 KHz step. So instead of 530->540->550->etc. it would be 531->540->549->etc., good if you DX European signals that might hide between American channels but useless for local stations. I wonder if opening up European mode would give you the longwave band (150-283 KHz) ?

wolrah
May 8, 2006
what?

Radio Nowhere posted:

Your FM should be fine, would change the channel steps from 200 KHz to 50 KHz (so instead of 88.1->88.3->88.5->etc. it would be like 88.1->88.15->88.2->etc.). The AM steps would hurt you though since near everything outside the Americas uses 9 KHz steps as opposed to our 10 KHz step. So instead of 530->540->550->etc. it would be 531->540->549->etc., good if you DX European signals that might hide between American channels but useless for local stations. I wonder if opening up European mode would give you the longwave band (150-283 KHz) ?

I checked it out and you are correct that it's AM would be hosed, which of course doesn't affect me in the slightest since US "AM" radio bores the crap out of me pretty much universally. Some of the region settings apparently do open up MW and LW, so I think I'll have to go play with it later today.

I doubt I can DX anything with it though, rear window integrated antenna and it uses a proprietary connector which IIRC is like FAKRA but not.

wolrah fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Mar 12, 2010

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010

wolrah posted:

I checked it out and you are correct that it's AM would be hosed, which of course doesn't affect me in the slightest since US "AM" radio bores the crap out of me pretty much universally. Some of the region settings apparently do open up MW and LW, so I think I'll have to go play with it later today.

I doubt I can DX anything with it though, rear window integrated antenna and it uses a proprietary connector which IIRC is like FAKRA but not.

Awesome about LW! If you're on the east coast maybe you can snag some European or African stations at night, if not you can listen to plenty of morse code beacons from airports :v:

Did any of the modes open SW ? I remember old BMW's having the 49M shortwave band since a few European countries had regional transmitters. They carried national network feeds to areas that couldn't be reached by AM or FM radio I guess. I know in Germany when they realized nobody really used them anymore they kept them running but if a transmitter failed they let it go. Last time I checked only one 49M shortwave transmitter was still going in Germany carrying the main public radio network.

nmfree
Aug 15, 2001

The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Radio Nowhere posted:

Next Saturday I'm having a new headunit installed in my car.
If anyone else wants to get shortwave in their car, there are a few electronics shops in East Asia/Australia that will export to the United States; I'm pretty sure that I've linked to them before in this thread, so if you don't want to go the eBay route look around.

Personally, I'd like one of these, both for the rarity/WTF factor and because it has better sensitivity/selectivity than the Sony units do.

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010

nmfree posted:

If anyone else wants to get shortwave in their car, there are a few electronics shops in East Asia/Australia that will export to the United States; I'm pretty sure that I've linked to them before in this thread, so if you don't want to go the eBay route look around.

My Sony CDX-GT470U was discontinued so it was uber cheap from many overseas stores when they were around. I came across my radio on Australian eBay used for even cheaper then the stores. Shipping was like 25% of the cost coming from Australia but still only cost me $115. I think some US eBay sellers were selling this model too but at a ridiculous price ($300+). I passed. The Canadian shortwave store use to have car stereos with SW but hasn't had anything for about a year now. -> http://www.shortwavestore.com/

nmfree posted:

Personally, I'd like one of these, both for the rarity/WTF factor and because it has better sensitivity/selectivity than the Sony units do.

I wanted that more then anything in high school! My car was 15 years old anyways so another archaic device wouldn't have hurt it. I was too poor though and never did it. For my new car I wanted a headunit that at least did the things a normal car stereo does (CD, MP3, USB, etc) so the Sonys were my only real option. Performance wise they do pretty well, strong to moderate reception. Here's some vids of it in action;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0py2w3h7HG0&
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1twuxGIskuI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWu50QR1YIc

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010
Radio Sweden done with shortwave October 31st, the usual "focusing more resources on interwebs" excuse :sweden:

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&format=1&artikel=3562645

JammyLammy
Dec 23, 2009
Stupid question, but I still haven't had a chance to buy a shortwave yet (need to pay off some debt first) but is there a website that can be used to scan frequencies? Not really the point of shortwave radio, but I wouldn't mind scanning around and hearing what can be heard until I finally get a real radio.


On a lighter note, I just found out my campus has a Amateur Radio club, so if you are at WVU I might see you there :iamafag:

blugu64
Jul 17, 2006

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

JammyLammy posted:

Stupid question, but I still haven't had a chance to buy a shortwave yet (need to pay off some debt first) but is there a website that can be used to scan frequencies? Not really the point of shortwave radio, but I wouldn't mind scanning around and hearing what can be heard until I finally get a real radio.


On a lighter note, I just found out my campus has a Amateur Radio club, so if you are at WVU I might see you there :iamafag:

Keep in mind that's going to be more Ham radio oriented.

JammyLammy
Dec 23, 2009

blugu64 posted:

Keep in mind that's going to be more Ham radio oriented.

Yeah I figured as much (they are having classes to pass FCC Amateur Radio License Exam) but at the same time I figure it goes hand in hand with shortwave radio. Learn the tech behind ham, can be applied to short (right????)

No harm in learning something new.

grilldos
Mar 27, 2004

BUST A LOAF
IN THIS
YEAST CONFECTION
Grimey Drawer

Radio Nowhere posted:

Radio Sweden done with shortwave October 31st, the usual "focusing more resources on interwebs" excuse :sweden:

http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&format=1&artikel=3562645

This sucks.

nmfree
Aug 15, 2001

The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

JammyLammy posted:

Stupid question, but I still haven't had a chance to buy a shortwave yet (need to pay off some debt first) but is there a website that can be used to scan frequencies? Not really the point of shortwave radio, but I wouldn't mind scanning around and hearing what can be heard until I finally get a real radio.
There used to be several that were pretty good, but unfortunately it looks like they all now might be offline. :(

JammyLammy posted:

Yeah I figured as much (they are having classes to pass FCC Amateur Radio License Exam) but at the same time I figure it goes hand in hand with shortwave radio. Learn the tech behind ham, can be applied to short (right????)

No harm in learning something new.
I'm not trying to dissuade you from going, but if it's a class for the Technician exam there's not going to be much shortwave material covered, since Techs only get to operate on a tiny slice of HF. But, hey, go anyway, I could be completely wrong. v:shobon:v

JammyLammy
Dec 23, 2009

nmfree posted:

There used to be several that were pretty good, but unfortunately it looks like they all now might be offline. :(

Boooo. Oh well, I guess thats the ways of the internet.


quote:

I'm not trying to dissuade you from going, but if it's a class for the Technician exam there's not going to be much shortwave material covered, since Techs only get to operate on a tiny slice of HF. But, hey, go anyway, I could be completely wrong. v:shobon:v

Ah, my mistake. Heh, I guess this illustrates perfectly why I should be going regardless if I'm this clueless on it. Thanks for the heads up. :)

HFX
Nov 29, 2004

nmfree posted:

There used to be several that were pretty good, but unfortunately it looks like they all now might be offline. :(

I'm not trying to dissuade you from going, but if it's a class for the Technician exam there's not going to be much shortwave material covered, since Techs only get to operate on a tiny slice of HF. But, hey, go anyway, I could be completely wrong. v:shobon:v

This is true. It is not until you get into General and Extra licenses that it becomes more about HF. However, I will say learning a bit about Antenna's and basic radio design is pretty good. If they have an actual station, you may have a chance to tune around and listen in on the bands.

Most ham HF equipment makes wonderful shortwave listening equipment. Just don't listen to people who tell you that the best equipment was made more then 30 years ago. I refuse to use anything made before the 1980's as my main operating and reception radio. It can be pricey, and you always want to make sure it is fully working before you buy it for the insane prices old farts try to charge.

onoj
Jan 15, 2006
muh?

JammyLammy posted:

Stupid question, but I still haven't had a chance to buy a shortwave yet (need to pay off some debt first) but is there a website that can be used to scan frequencies?

Globaltuners works great for me, try to get one of the receivers with the unreal audio streaming and the latency is low enough for skimming through the bands. I've had good success with both the Northwest Connecticut receivers and the Rimini, Italy one.

The Muffinlord
Mar 3, 2007

newbid stupie?
Seconding Globaltuners. Get on an open receiver and scan whatever bands are active in the area. You'll get a couple seconds' lag but even on low quality the sound is generally pretty good.

blugu64
Jul 17, 2006

Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

nmfree posted:

I'm not trying to dissuade you from going, but if it's a class for the Technician exam there's not going to be much shortwave material covered, since Techs only get to operate on a tiny slice of HF. But, hey, go anyway, I could be completely wrong. v:shobon:v

Dude, whatever happened to good old fashioned bait and switch?

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010
Got my new shortwave car stereo installed (Sony CDX-GT470U) and it's pretty sweeeeet!! Driving home I listened to a Radio Canada International news show, a station with Greek music, classic country on WWCR and a Spanish soccer game complete with "Goooooaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllll." All this was during the day, too, so I can only imagine what night will bring in! The stereo is interfaced with my steering wheel so I can seek/tune all while never taking my eyes off the road :dance:

The only downside, and I should have caught this, is the MW interval. For some reason I thought the 470U was switchable between 9 and 10KHz, but it turns out only the 470US is switchable. My 470U can only do 9 KHz on AM so I'm pretty limited there now. I can tune in most of the real local stations even though they're a few channels off (ex. AM-930 at 927, AM-820 at 819, etc.), but since most AM stations are right-wing yack, I can live without. If nothing else, maybe I can get some European stations since I'm on the east coast while cruising around at night. I'll slap up some video/pictures later.

nmfree
Aug 15, 2001

The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

quote:

Moving On

It’s no secret — Passport 2009 is to be the last in an annual series that began in 1984. Now, the time is nigh to further phase down that operation by shuttering this website. Timing is inexact, but the wire should be snipped late this month.

Long, Strange Trip

In Deadspeak, this has been one long, strange trip. It started some 40 years back, when my first and wonderful wife was having increasingly serious personal problems. These led me to quit what I had been doing so I could watch over her fulltime.

Alas, this left me pretty much cooped up with little else to do. So, restless, I purchased a Drake R-4B receiver, which I still have, and became absorbed by digging through the boundless offerings of shortwave broadcasting.

It was fascinating, yet frustrating because of stations’ technical and content shortcomings. Never one to keep my trap shut, I let blast with critiques and suggestions, and in due course wound up consulting professionally. (Cynics might conclude, in the spirit of Lyndon Johnson’s explanation of why he retained J. Edgar Hoover, that they preferred to have me on the inside pissing out rather than the outside pissing in.)

It was fantastic work — especially victories against the KGB’s vast jamming firewall — but the base of viable clients was thin. In 1980, after several unforgettable years, that client base all but vanished, thanks to shifting political winds. We scrambled into survival mode.

Our most useful assets for public consumption turned out to be within our frequency management activities. First, our team of monitors and experts from intelligence and other backgrounds was top-drawer. Second, we had what was generally recognized as the world’s premiere database of shortwave spectrum occupancy.

Thus it was that the idea of publishing a world band database was born out of desperation.

But it wasn’t to be a slam dunk. Until then, our “database” had been a internal pencil-and-ruler exercise like what Roger Legge had been preparing at the Voice of America. Obviously, this had to be computerized if a book were to be timely and attractive enough for public sale.

PCs Appear in Nick of Time

Since 1961, when I had had the good fortune to land a summer job at IBM-Paris, I’d been working on and off with mainframe computers and database development. However, in the early Eighties the attractiveness of renting mainframe time began to fade as the embryonic world of PCs with hard disks — “Winchesters” — came into being.

We first committed to a DEC Rainbo system with a 5 Mb disk and a hard-wired Pascal compiler, but it had development issues. So we wound up purchasing, instead, an IBM PC-XT with a then-astonishing 10 Mb “fixed disk” and RAM upgrade to the maximum-allowed 256k. This was the lone demonstration unit which had just arrived at a major Princeton outlet in advance of XTs being nationally introduced for sale. Thankfully, I was able to persuade a young lady there to part with it anyway, as we needed something fast.

Still, with nearly every dime we had going to lawyers, we nearly didn’t make it. First, finding affordable programming talent to properly turn my specs into a working program was a huge hurdle. U.K. professor John Campbell, like Patton at Bastogne, ultimately came to the rescue. But only dogged persistence allowed us to overcome the main hurdle: a Federal lawsuit from an existing publisher.

Tarted Out for Survival

A small edition, dubbed Radio Database International, was ultimately released in early 1984, with the title eventually morphing into Passport to World Band Radio. But this was preceded by several near-death experiences, among them:

In late 1983 our legal counsel in New Jersey warned that we needed to produce something soon in print if we were to prevail in the lawsuit. Alas, we didn’t have enough time to input the massive volumes of data into our lone PC, and there were no rentals or funds for a second machine.

So, one of our female co-conspirators dressed in her best approximation of a ditsy young thing married to some rich guy. Thus tarted out, she proceeded to a Philadelphia department store.

There, she cooed to an eager salesman that for Christmas she just might be amenable to getting a computer for her husband. She also pointed out that she couldn’t be certain Daddy Warbucks would care for it.

Not wishing to miss out on a juicy sale, the salesman suggested she could take home a fully equipped PC and peripherals. If hubby wasn’t pleased by his lavish surprise, she could return it weeks hence, in January — not incidentally allowing the salesman to collect his commission.

Thanks to this creative tomfoolery and the resulting round-the-clock keyboarding, we were able to successfully publish a first bare-bones edition within weeks.

Rise and Fall of World Band Radio

The rest, you may know. In the best of times sales were over 80,000 units a year, and for one snapped-fingers instant Passport was actually a national top-ten best seller.

But that was over 15 years ago. World band radio gained vigor during the buildup to WW II, and of course during the War. After that, the Cold War with its ideological bent kept the field thriving. But once the Berlin Wall came down, questions arose as to why these government broadcasts were taking place in the absence of any major conflict.

So, some reinvented themselves, while many phased down or terminated their shortwave operations. Add to that Sony’s near-downfall, the growth of the Internet, and even the possible fading away of print publications — and it’s sadly evident that the time has come to shutter Passport’s declining operation.

Great Folks, Grand Times

It has been a fantastic quarter century creating and growing this book. I can but wish that everybody could experience what I have: the opportunity to do work that makes you excited about going to the office and getting cracking.

And what a pleasure to have had such exceptional folks as colleagues! Heading the roster has been the amiable Tony Jones, who was central to Passport’s success from 1982 to the end. Without him, the book simply wouldn’t be have been what it was.

One of life’s eternal truths is that you don’t know who your friends are until the chips are down. So it’s worth recalling that early on, when we were threadbare, being sued and few gave us any chance of succeeding, we were fortunate enough to have had in our corner the likes of Don Jensen, Noel Green, David Meisel and Pennsylvania attorney Brian Price. During Passport’s 25-year run there were a good hundred other angels, including Craig Tyson, Mike Wright, Jock Elliott, Rik Mayell, David Zantow and Rob Sherwood, who turned their exceptional skills into meaningful results. That’s only some, and the names of certain others can never be made known. But you know who you are and how much your roles have meant.

The same holds for those who have read and supported Passport over the years. Especially, thank you, thank you and thank you for your many recent kind comments. We had precious little of this warmth when we started, and the difference cannot be overstated. It has thrown sunshine on otherwise difficult moments, even as we’re gently pulling down the curtain.

–Lawrence Magne
:smith:

stinky ox
Mar 29, 2007
I am a stinky ox.
Today I received my first QRSS transmission!

QRSS is a very narrow-band, very low-speed digital mode which is remarkable in that it allows transmission and reception of extremely low-power signals.

http://www.qrss.thersgb.net/What-is-QRSS.html

Basically you use software capable of extracting extremely weak signals that are generally not even audible. As the transmissions are extremely slow the software is able to extract them from what sounds like pure noise. You tune in to the QRSS band (around 10140 kHz), start the software, and just wait. I had my setup running for just over a day without much hope of finding anything (my antenna suffered some damage in recent windy weather and is basically lying in the trees down the garden at the moment) but after a couple of days I glanced at the reception window and spotted this:

http://llamasoft.co.uk/yak/qrss.png

A QRSS transmission from IW4DXW, an operator in Italy.

What is remarkable is that the signal made the trip from Italy to Wales from a transmitter using 0.25 Watts of power!

Reading up about the mode it seems that people are managing to make contacts halfway round the world often using equipment running only milliwatts of power into indoor aerials.

There are some QRSS receivers online and I was able to see that the same signal was making it out at least as far as Nova Scotia in Canada (I looked at this "grabber" here http://users.eastlink.ca/~ve1vdm/argocaptures/grabber.htm to confirm that it was seeing the same signal as me).

You tend to think that it's necessary to run serious power in order to get serious DX but this weird little mode proves that it's definitely not necessarily so.

It's a bit nerdy but I do love the digital modes and the performance of this one is extraordinary. One of these days we're going to have to build a transmitter and try it out for ourselves.

Trying for reception is easy, just plug the radio into your soundcard, tune to 10140kHz, run the (free) software and wait. Well worth a go if you're interested in such things/

The Muffinlord
Mar 3, 2007

newbid stupie?

stinky ox posted:

qrss

This is fascinating. I hadn't even heard of this mode, and digimodes are easily my favorite things from the ham bands. Thanks for sharing!

wolrah
May 8, 2006
what?

Radio Nowhere posted:

Awesome about LW! If you're on the east coast maybe you can snag some European or African stations at night, if not you can listen to plenty of morse code beacons from airports :v:

Did any of the modes open SW ? I remember old BMW's having the 49M shortwave band since a few European countries had regional transmitters. They carried national network feeds to areas that couldn't be reached by AM or FM radio I guess. I know in Germany when they realized nobody really used them anymore they kept them running but if a transmitter failed they let it go. Last time I checked only one 49M shortwave transmitter was still going in Germany carrying the main public radio network.

I finally got around to testing it and found the following:

Region: Europe
LW 153-279 kHz, step 1 kHz
MW 531-1602 kHz, step 9 kHz
FM 87.5-108.0 MHz, step .1 MHz

Region: USA
AM 530-1710 kHz, step 10 kHz
FM 87.7-107.9 MHz, step .2 MHz

Region: Japan
AM 522-1611 kHz, step 9 kHz
FM 76.0-90.0 MHz, step .1 MHz

Region: Oceania
AM 531-1702 kHz, step 9 kHz
FM 87.7-108.0 MHz, step .1 MHz

Region: Canada
AM 530-1710 kHz, step 10 kHz
FM 87.7-107.9 MHz, step .2 MHz

It looks like contrary to what I had been told there is no SW support on mine, but LW is there. This is for a BMW (Alpine) "Business CD" unit as found in a 10/2001 production (2002MY) 3 series. There have been a number of variants of this unit found in different vehicles, so no promises anyone else's is like mine. I've read of some units not offering region selection (typically locked to Europe).

e: also note if anyone else has a BMW and wants to screw with these modes, you will lose all your radio presets when changing regions.

stinky ox
Mar 29, 2007
I am a stinky ox.
Little bit of radio-related drama earlier on today - I was setting up a spare old PC to serve as the front end to my ICOM PCR1500 scanner (thank you so much ICOM for not bothering to update the software to work with windows 7 64-bit making the radio useless on my main machine).

Anyway I'm plugging away starting to rebuild my frequency lists, sitting there adding some airband frequencies. The radio's scanning as I do this so I'm hearing a fair bit of chatter, but one plane's callsign comes up so often I look him up:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Piper-PA-22-135-Tri-Pacer/1640170/&sid=65f72df5214ab34c5d86fd75535c544e

Then I noticed that the scanner was stopping on a distress frequency when he was talking. Hadn't noticed because he'd sounded quite calm.

We've had quite some weather here in Wales today, it started out beautiful but by noon it turned pretty rapidly to overcast, murky and rainy. Seems this guy was out for a flight, not instrument rated I guess, and got caught out when the weather shut down. He was circling over a town a few miles from here trying to stay out of the clouds and find his way to somewhere he could get back down on the ground. ATC and other pilots were in the emergency channel with him trying to help. At one point they tried to vector him to some small farm airfield but when he tried to find it it was completely closed in by cloud, at which point he declared that he'd be making an immediate forced landing.

I was relieved to hear that announcement followed shortly by another transmission saying that he was down and safe. The ATCs who'd been helping him praised him for a job well done (and he had sounded remarkably unflustered and in control given all that'd gone on). But he did go on to say that he needed new underpants after that experience.

I wasn't really expecting such drama while setting up a radio on a Sunday afternoon, but I guess that's partly why we listen to scanners, on the offchance that we'll hear something interesting. I'm just glad it ended well for the guy and that nobody got hurt.

Radio Nowhere
Jan 8, 2010
Here are some videos and pictures of my new shortwave car stereo in action;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ZTZTi-Or4 -> Wish I had started this video 2 minutes sooner, last 20 seconds of a Glenn Beck bit on "Le Show" on WBCQ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAbaUZINLp8 -> Next clip surprised me later when I saw the radio picked up both Family Radio 6085 KHz and Gene Scott 6090 KHz with awesome selectivity! Normally stations only 5 KHz apart spill into one another on average radios. Entire clip is a 2 minute scan using the seek function of 49 Meters (just tapping up on my steering wheel).

I had a third video of WWV but YouTube didn't want to take it :gonk:

I also took some still photos with the Blackberry.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b30/tmode93/CDX-GT470UClose.jpg
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b30/tmode93/CDX-GT470YFar.jpg

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Capnbigboobies
Dec 2, 2004

stinky ox posted:

Digital Stuff.

Can someone give me more info about hooking my shortwave radio up to my PC and listening/decoding some of the digital stuff? What software is needed and what freq's do people normally use?

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