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Radio Nowhere posted:If it's not in the op ask away! I'll admit I'm a nerd and read this whole thread before I posted, it was awesome to find other shortwave nerds under 50 Haha, right on. I'm just glad to have found a hobby that isn't too ridiculously expensive to start on. (Unfortunately for my wallet, I see a ham radio/amatuer radio license in my not-too-distant future.) Like I said, I hit up Radio Shack today for wire. I put a 75m spool of wire up on the stairway from my basement to enhance reception. I also bought a 55m spool of wire for a "whenever else I need it" antenna. Just trying to figure out other ways of getting better reception in the basement townhouse.
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May 27, 2010 07:03
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76 pages, and I've loved every single one. So I've been sitting here, for the last week, reading this thread from start to finish. Convincing myself that I'll be purchasing a SW radio at the end. Then it dawned on me. "Didn't I inherit something?" When my grandfather died, the family attempted to offload all his crap onto me. Some of it I accepted out of politeness, (mismatched sets of cognac glasses that predate the Vietnam war, etc), some of it I accepted out of necessity, (washing machine, etc). And some... some I demanded.    From what I've read about these radiograms, it's obviously a very limited receiver. I'm just interested to see what, if anything at all, I can pick up. The back of the unit is pretty much off, so I can see the valves, and the rest of the internals, but can't seem to work out where any sort of aerial goes. I pick up AM, but nothing but silence in that, "short wave band" area. Regardless of what it does, it's a glorious piece of
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May 28, 2010 09:45
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ifire posted:Haha, right on. I'm just glad to have found a hobby that isn't too ridiculously expensive to start on. (Unfortunately for my wallet, I see a ham radio/amatuer radio license in my not-too-distant future.) Like I said, I hit up Radio Shack today for wire. I put a 75m spool of wire up on the stairway from my basement to enhance reception. I also bought a 55m spool of wire for a "whenever else I need it" antenna. Just trying to figure out other ways of getting better reception in the basement townhouse. Try putting the wire outside with the end up in a tree. Get it outside and up high to improve reception. emjayelle posted:Sweet radio! Is there a socket or screw terminal to attach a wire antenna? Radio Nowhere fucked around with this message at 00:33 on May 29, 2010 |
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May 29, 2010 00:26
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I did find a terminal inside the unit, so there is an aerial. I also spoke to my dad about it, he can remember being a kid listening to this thing, so that makes it 60+ years old. The good news, he can remember having all the other Italians come over to listen to news from Italy (this was in Sydney, Australia), plus he can remember picking up boats on it. The bad news is, I've killed it. It was working fine, then nothing. No power at all. I'm assuming it's nothing more than a dry joint. Has anyone had any sort of experience with these?
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May 29, 2010 00:52
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I haven't had internet access from home for a couple of weeks, but I'm glad to see that the move away from GBS hasn't killed the thread. Far from it, in fact. A week from today the thread celebrates its 3 year anniversary! I've been going totally hog wild with the magnetic loop. I've been picking up poo poo I never thought possible. I copied a ham 2000 miles away doing 0.5 watt SSB QRP operation with a random wire. In-loving-sane!
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May 29, 2010 02:53
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Whoa. I just stumbled across something fun. At night when activity is high, plug the headphone jack or line-out from your shortwave radio into the microphone jack of your computer, download and start up the free program CWGet (decodes morse code audio into text), and hunt down some CW morse code broadcasts and see what's being said out there. The bands are absolutely PACKED with CW activity right now. Approximately 3000-3570KHz, 7000-7070KHz, and 14000-14070KHz are absolutely jammed with CW right now. Unfortunately, little shortwave radios like my Grundig G3 don't provide a mode that gives a narrow enough filter to very effectively capture CW without letting neighboring frequencies bleed in as well. For me, flipping the wide/narrow switch to narrow and running in SSB (usually USB) mode works best. You'll also have to fiddle with the settings in CWGet to get it right. Having AutoThr, AutoGTM and AFC enabled seems to work for me much of the time. Turning AutoThr off and manually clicking where in the spectrum on the bottom that you want the program to watch for CW also works.
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May 29, 2010 02:57
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emjayelle posted:I did find a terminal inside the unit, so there is an aerial. I also spoke to my dad about it, he can remember being a kid listening to this thing, so that makes it 60+ years old. The good news, he can remember having all the other Italians come over to listen to news from Italy (this was in Sydney, Australia), plus he can remember picking up boats on it. The bad news is, I've killed it. It was working fine, then nothing. No power at all. I'm assuming it's nothing more than a dry joint. Has anyone had any sort of experience with these? It may need a battery. My 1923 Type 60 radio is battery operated. I haven't even begun to go to hobby shops and ask about prices/availability, though.
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May 29, 2010 03:16
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Catastrophe posted:Whoa. I just stumbled across something fun. At night when activity is high, plug the headphone jack or line-out from your shortwave radio into the microphone jack of your computer, download and start up the free program CWGet (decodes morse code audio into text), and hunt down some CW morse code broadcasts and see what's being said out there. The bands are absolutely PACKED with CW activity right now. Approximately 3000-3570KHz, 7000-7070KHz, and 14000-14070KHz are absolutely jammed with CW right now. Unfortunately, little shortwave radios like my Grundig G3 don't provide a mode that gives a narrow enough filter to very effectively capture CW without letting neighboring frequencies bleed in as well. For me, flipping the wide/narrow switch to narrow and running in SSB (usually USB) mode works best. What messages did you see?
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May 29, 2010 03:30
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Forget CWGet. Use FLDigi or Ham Radio Deluxe's Digital Master 780, you'll have access to a lot more than CW. 
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May 29, 2010 03:34
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Tomcat1944 posted:What messages did you see? Seems like a boatload of ham contesting is going on right now. I've just picked up CW from Germany, Connecticut, Belarus, Aruba, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia within a few minutes.
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May 29, 2010 05:12
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Catastrophe posted:Seems like a boatload of ham contesting is going on right now. I've just picked up CW from Germany, Connecticut, Belarus, Aruba, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia within a few minutes. This weekend is some CW (Morse code) contest among amateur radio operators (or hams). The goal is to make as many contacts as possible so communications are uber short and sweet. Basically a station throws out their callsign, someone responds, callsigns and locations are exchanged and everyone moves on to the next station. A contact may last no longer then 10 seconds. The distances you can hear during a contest is amazing but interesting conversations are non-existent.
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May 29, 2010 06:23
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Do many of you guys collect QSLs? I would appreciate if you guys could post a few images of your cards Having gone over the thread a bit I see that many of you collect QSLs. I still would enjoy some photos though 
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May 30, 2010 13:36
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If anyone can give me a link where I can download some scary numbers stations tones like said in this thread from the CONET Project or wherever, I would highly appreciate it, I want to make it into a CD to scare people with. Thanks!
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Jun 1, 2010 01:07
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Dassiell posted:If anyone can give me a link where I can download some scary numbers stations tones like said in this thread from the CONET Project or wherever, I would highly appreciate it, I want to make it into a CD to scare people with. Thanks! You mean like this link here which has all the stuff from the CONET project? (It's available to download for free.) On another note, wouldn't it be sweet to have one (or a couple) of these? http://espy.com/pdfs/TeamSENTINEL_DS.pdf http://espy.com/pdfs/TeamSENTINEL_PO.pdf http://espy.com/pdfs/TeamSOIGNE_DS.pdf edit: also, I'm excited that we appear to be near the sunspot minima, so ioniospheric propagation has nowhere to go but up! Lucid Smog fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Jun 2, 2010 |
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Jun 1, 2010 13:01
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My wife and I have finally moved from the apartment to a townhouse and WOW what a difference in reception! What use to be bars of noise all across the shortwave spectrum is now barely a bar of noise on my Degen 1103. When a signal dips it no longer disappears behind hash but gets quieter. My shortwave listening has just improved threefold, almost makes the mortgage worth it! Helps I have a end unit which means I'll be stringing wires/verticals/loops soon enough!
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Jun 3, 2010 17:22
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Thanks to this thread (and the Numbers Stations thread in GBS) I ordered a G3 and it just came in today! Scanned a few frequencies, found a couple stations that were interesting and fun, then I found something else. I'm at 4999 KHz and I can hear this clicking noise. Then every minute or so there's a male voice speaking something unidentifiable, followed by a loud beep and just more clicking. It seems to be most audible in USB Sync mode. Any ideas? Its nowhere near as easy to pick up at 5000. My best guess is that I managed to find the Time Station.
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Jun 5, 2010 05:54
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SourceElement posted:I managed to find the Time Station.
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Jun 5, 2010 07:24
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Anyone wanting a Grundig G5 really should call Radio Shack right now, they are clearing them out for $40. I called the local store and they ordered one for me from a different store. I should have it by Wednesday!
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Jun 6, 2010 03:47
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I think my next receiver is going to be something with outlandish coverage like the Yaesu VR-5000 or a Winradio WR-G305e. I recently found out that those little FLO TV mobile television widget doodads transmit on old UHF frequencies, and it's gotten me to thinking about how difficult it would be to actually rx that kinda stuff. According to wikipedia, they use QPSK and 16QAM in their modulation, but I'm not sure how they all come together. It would be interesting find out if I could actually watch live TV through an audio-in jack. I know it's not shortwave, but there's no VHF/UHF thread, so this is as good a place as any. There's tons more wacky stuff above 30MHz than there is below it, although most of it is pretty short-ranged.
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Jun 6, 2010 04:58
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Crossposting from the ham thread: Weird famous Russian station UVB-76, AKA "The Buzzer", has reportedly gone off the air. Who freakin' knows why or if it's significant, but man that's kinda spooky. Maybe it's having hardware issues? I don't have shortwave listening ability right now so I can't confirm. e: ifire posted:Haha, right on. I'm just glad to have found a hobby that isn't too ridiculously expensive to start on. 
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 11:28 on Jun 6, 2010 |
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Jun 6, 2010 11:20
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TC the Giant posted:I think my next receiver is going to be something with outlandish coverage like the Yaesu VR-5000 or a Winradio WR-G305e. Heck yes. I still want a VR-5000. Most of the complaints I see about them are the same complaints I saw about my VX-8R: "Too complicated." Lousy old farts can't figure out how these new-fangled gizmos work. I was going to pick up a VR-5000 until I decided "Screw that. I want to transmit, too." and picked the FT-817ND instead. I have a huge amount of wire and coax on its way to me and am going to construct a giant dipole antenna and see how far I can toss CW (morse code) at night with 2.5/5 Watts. Yaesu 4 lyfe, yo. TC the Giant posted:I know it's not shortwave, but there's no VHF/UHF thread, so this is as good a place as any. There's tons more wacky stuff above 30MHz than there is below it, although most of it is pretty short-ranged. Yeah, there are all kinds of crazy data broadcasts around here that I can pick up with the VX-8R's wide receive capabilities but I have no idea what they are or what to do with them. Jose Pointero posted:Crossposting from the ham thread: Weird famous Russian station UVB-76, AKA "The Buzzer", has reportedly gone off the air. Who freakin' knows why or if it's significant, but man that's kinda spooky. Maybe it's having hardware issues? I don't have shortwave listening ability right now so I can't confirm. It's back up. Some people are still reporting that it's down simply because they can't pick it up but that's how shortwave works.. propagation is a tricky thing and many people will simply never hear it even if it is still broadcasting. I've never heard it even though I've tried at all hours of the night on multiple occasions in the past. But yeah, people who are close enough to pick it up are saying it's back up now. It must have been a piece of failed hardware that needed to be replaced or maybe just some maintenance. EDIT: Proof it's back up. I just connected to an Icom radio in Germany and tuned to 4625KHz and our old buddy was there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcErt5Y_3Ho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcErt5Y_3Ho Catastrophe fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Jun 7, 2010 |
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Jun 6, 2010 15:31
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I got a stupid technical question. Moved into a new place and found one of these monstrosities in the attic.  Slightly bigger and with more parts sticking out. Any use I can get out of this? Like get a alligator clip and hook it up to the antenna.
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Jun 11, 2010 05:50
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JammyLammy posted:I got a stupid technical question. Moved into a new place and found one of these monstrosities in the attic. Hooked up to a scanner, however, with whatever coax might be attached, is something that you might find useful; you'll have to keep in mind that it's a directional antenna and will need to be pointed at whatever signals you want to listen to.
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Jun 11, 2010 08:12
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Finally found my first numbers station. I installed an eavesdropper antenna in my garage and I finally understand the appeal of this hobby. I pick up stations from all over the place now. Right now I'm listening to a Spanish number station on 5875 kHz and I couldn't be more excited.
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Jun 15, 2010 08:11
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I picked up my Grundig G5 last night for $40 from Radio Shack. I'll throw it out there again a steal if you can get it. The radio I got was obviously a floor model since the screen had a few scratches but otherwise works awesome. I compared it to my Degen 1103 and I would say it works 20% better, both in ergonomics and performance. I went in the backyard where the noisefloor is uber low and heard the usual cascade of foreign languages and music mixed with Christian kooks from the US stations. Trying out single sideband I caugh some amateur radio nets (I recommend the Maritime net on 14.300 evenings) and some transoceanic flight communications.
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Jun 16, 2010 16:04
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Radio Nowhere posted:Trying out single sideband I caugh some amateur radio nets (I recommend the Maritime net on 14.300 evenings)
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Jun 16, 2010 21:47
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Alright, which one of you guys keeps tuning all the receivers on GlobalTuners to The Buzzer?  I'm trying to get my SW fix via internet receivers until I can get my hands on a G6. I need something to fill the void since my old VHF radio scanner died, and most of the city upgraded to digital tech anyway. I have a rather lovely analog-tuning SW portable, but it can't receive much other than a few Spanish stations and crazy preachers. I used to get more interesting stuff, but lately I lost a lot of my reception. I was really fascinated by that whole event with the Atencion numbers stations and the arrests of spies, it's really cool thinking about the fact that I actually listened to that station a few times. The Buzzer is also pretty interesting. I don't usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, but is ionosphere research really so fascinating that it's worth maintaining a transmitter to bounce signals for over 20 years?
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Jun 17, 2010 20:33
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SentinelXS posted:The Buzzer is also pretty interesting. I don't usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, but is ionosphere research really so fascinating that it's worth maintaining a transmitter to bounce signals for over 20 years? I wouldn't doubt if 'upper atmosphere research station' is the Russian equivalent of the US military's 'weather balloon/swamp gas'. FAKE EDIT: In Soviet Russia, the ionosphere researches YOU.
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Jun 18, 2010 06:10
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SentinelXS posted:The Buzzer is also pretty interesting. I don't usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, but is ionosphere research really so fascinating that it's worth maintaining a transmitter to bounce signals for over 20 years? So, yes, there is plenty reason to bounce signals off the ionosphere for 20 years for research; it's just that it's obvious that the Russians are doing something else with it.
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Jun 18, 2010 08:26
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I'm having a lot of fun with decoding CW using FLDigi. I was only finding CW contesting for a while, but right now I'm listening to a pretty interesting conversation. One of the people talking said, "You're like a distant friend to me, hope you have a nice weekend in spite of the weather forecast"
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Jun 18, 2010 20:20
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SentinelXS posted:I'm having a lot of fun with decoding CW using FLDigi. I was only finding CW contesting for a while, but right now I'm listening to a pretty interesting conversation. One of the people talking said, "You're like a distant friend to me, hope you have a nice weekend in spite of the weather forecast" Was their callsign listed in the goon ham thread? 
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Jun 19, 2010 00:51
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I got a new multiband radio this morning from eBay, and I've been playing with the thing all day. The SW reception is actually really good, especially since I hooked up an external wire antenna. I get stations clearly that used to have heavy static on my tiny portable. I have a renewed interest in radio listening and I'm seriously thinking about buying a new VHF/UHF scanner to replace my broken one. Tonight I found this around 4.6 MHz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FefC4lclKYs Does anybody know what it is? Sounds like some kind of beacon, but I thought those were typically on longwave. It was near normal broadcast stations, so it scared me a bit because the tone is so loud.
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Jun 22, 2010 05:21
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SentinelXS posted:Tonight I found this around 4.6 MHz: It sounds like CODAR to me. An explanation of what it's for is HERE and people bitching about the interference can be found HERE. When I was living in Jersey I used to pick that poo poo up all the time. It let me know my radio was working at least.
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Jun 22, 2010 06:59
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BigHustle posted:It sounds like CODAR to me. An explanation of what it's for is HERE and people bitching about the interference can be found HERE. That could be it. The frequencies used by CODAR are within the range I was picking up odd noises on. I live on the east coast so that might explain why it comes in so loud and clear. All of the other repeating tones I pick up are much quieter with more interference. Other than that, I haven't been able to find any major oddities, just some conspiracy theorists discussing how the BP oil rig disaster was orchestrated by the New World Order. The multiband radio is enough to hold me over until I can save up for a brand new digitally tuned radio with SSB and all the goodies. The nice thing about it is that it also covers CB and VHF air band. I managed to listen to a few exchanges between truckers and also heard some pilots talking to ATC. I just remembered that my uncle has a vintage Hallicrafters vacuum tube SW radio laying around, I need to ask him if it's still working. It would be a lot of fun to play with.
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Jun 23, 2010 00:21
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SentinelXS posted:That could be it. The frequencies used by CODAR are within the range I was picking up odd noises on. I live on the east coast so that might explain why it comes in so loud and clear. All of the other repeating tones I pick up are much quieter with more interference. Other than that, I haven't been able to find any major oddities, just some conspiracy theorists discussing how the BP oil rig disaster was orchestrated by the New World Order. When I was in Jersey CODAR was very easy to pick up. It never really interfered with my listening, since I was mainly sticking to the regular shortwave bands and laughing at the insane preachers. I've got a Grundig G6 and have some issues with FM radio stations bleeding over into the air bands. I need to bust it out and see if it's as big an issue now that I'm in a less dense area. Oh... If that Hallicrafters rig isn't working and you feel like tackling it as a repair project, you can find a ton of schematics and other help online. If you can try the forums over at QRZ.com, they have a section dedicated to helping people fix boatanchors.
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Jun 23, 2010 00:37
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Catastrophe posted:The bands are absolutely PACKED with CW activity right now. Approximately 3000-3570KHz, 7000-7070KHz, and 14000-14070KHz are absolutely jammed with CW right now. You might want to check out http://www.hamqsl.com/solar.html Check on the left side and you can see what bands are doing well right now
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Jun 24, 2010 08:30
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BigHustle posted:Oh... If that Hallicrafters rig isn't working and you feel like tackling it as a repair project, you can find a ton of schematics and other help online. If you can try the forums over at QRZ.com, they have a section dedicated to helping people fix boatanchors. I picked up the thing today. It's an S-38A, and the S-38 series seems to be extremely popular with radio collectors. It barely receives a few stations and definitely needs work. I've been doing some research and might give repairing a go since the radio was free and I'm not too worried about killing it. As has been said before, there's something special about playing with these old radios. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ghb48DyITo One thing that's obvious in the video is the infamous 60 Hz hum that plagues old audio equipment. Gonna have to replace the caps, they all seem to be the stock ones and look pretty bad. SentinelXS fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jun 26, 2010 |
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Jun 26, 2010 01:06
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SentinelXS posted:I picked up the thing today. It's an S-38A, and the S-38 series seems to be extremely popular with radio collectors. It barely receives a few stations and definitely needs work. I've been doing some research and might give repairing a go since the radio was free and I'm not too worried about killing it. As has been said before, there's something special about playing with these old radios. Good deal! Check out this dude's page for restoration info. There's also this dude if you get frustrated and just want to pay someone to fix it.
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Jun 26, 2010 03:43
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For those who didn't see this:quote:http://monitor-post.blogspot.com/2010/06/revolution-in-scanning-is-coming.html
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Jun 29, 2010 02:55
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You guys have really made me want to get a SW radio. Been deciding over the G3 and G6. Be honest, would I be super pissed that I can't listen to ham guys if it's my first ever foray into the weird rear end radio world? I know it's only an extra $50 for SSB, but still. What do you think?
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