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Oh god this thread. I found it linked through the Infowars thread in GBS and within a day I've gone out and spent 40 dollars on a Grundig G4000A. (I honestly didn't have any more money to spend.  ) I think I've spent four hours now on my front porch listening to news broadcasts from China, Taiwan, Cuba and Croatia, not to mention listening to old guys talking about selling radios on Craigslist.Oh god, what have I gotten myself into?
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Oct 18, 2010 04:34
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Ackart posted:Oh god this thread. I found it linked through the Infowars thread in GBS and within a day I've gone out and spent 40 dollars on a Grundig G4000A. (I honestly didn't have any more money to spend. You've gotten yourself into a pretty awesome hobby. It may actually be a gateway into ham radio, which has it's own megathread. Just wait until you catch Alex Jones' show or some of the freakier of the 'fire and brimstone' preachers on the air. Oh... there's numbers stations out there for your listening pleasure as well. As for me, I built a multi-element dipole this evening to use strictly for DXing shortwave. I need to make the spreaders for the elements and hang it up. I'll put up pics once I get it fully assembled. If all goes well, it should allow for improved listening from 2500 kHz up to 30,000 kHz. If not, I'll make a post tomorrow with a lot of vulgarity in it.
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Oct 18, 2010 04:48
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AstroZamboni posted:That is one HELL of a find! My old boss at the museum had one of these on his kitchen counter. Nice radio! Thanks! The FM section ... ugh. It's like the rig has X-TREEM! AFC, the selectivity on that band is so bad. I'd like to install a good filter to increase selectivity and sensitivity on FM, but I don't have a schematic or the tools handy. On AM and the SW bands, though, it's surprisingly selective, and the tuning knob offers just the right amount of resistance to be able to precisely tune in a station on one of the shortwave broadcast band slivers, without having to resort to the bandspread. The analog frequency display is precise; the pointer is right on 6 MHz for Radio Havana Cuba, and 15 MHz for WWV. There's the awkward band compression (I don't know what the proper term is for this), where the higher the frequency, the closer together they appear on the display. I've got to attach an external antenna to see how it really performs. The audio quality is excellent on AM and SW, but a bit bassy, in the style of late 1960s/early 1970s radios. There's a plug inside the battery/cord area to attach an external speaker. Even though the radio was made in Hong Kong, it reeks of quality. No plastic trim pieces; it's all metal. I imagine it wasn't designed as a serious SWL rig, but instead to occupy a typical upper middle class den of the day. Still, it has BFO, which not even the Zenith Transoceanic of the day offered. It's a really fun radio to play around with. It would make an excellent cabin radio, if I had a cabin. When I was a kid, I owned a Panasonic RF-2600. That radio is my Rosebud. Even though the shortwave bands aren't nearly as interesting as they were in the 1980s, someday I'll own another RF-2600.
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Oct 18, 2010 05:53
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Okay, I can understand why the conspiracy theorists are so attractive to those looking for a venue to pitch gold; fears of hyperinflation, "fiat money", the collapse of society and with it currency, and so on. However, what's the deal with all the supplement, natural medication, vitamin and homeopathy commercials? Is the audience of the nutjob programming just as likely to believe that "the FDA, doctors and bug pharma don't want you to know about these natural cures because it'll put them out of business? I can imagine some survivalist hunkered down in a bunker somewhere in central Kansas, surrounded by shortwave radios, guns, ammo, gold ingots, and bottles of supplements.
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Oct 18, 2010 20:14
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elmwood posted:Okay, I can understand why the conspiracy theorists are so attractive to those looking for a venue to pitch gold; fears of hyperinflation, "fiat money", the collapse of society and with it currency, and so on. However, what's the deal with all the supplement, natural medication, vitamin and homeopathy commercials? Is the audience of the nutjob programming just as likely to believe that "the FDA, doctors and bug pharma don't want you to know about these natural cures because it'll put them out of business? I can imagine some survivalist hunkered down in a bunker somewhere in central Kansas, surrounded by shortwave radios, guns, ammo, gold ingots, and bottles of supplements. Yeah, that's largely it. Quacks know that if they pander to the sorts of people that will believe one set of conspiracies, they can usually make a sell. If you've ever looked at a UFO magazine or something like that, you'll see the same thing reflected in their adspace.
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Oct 18, 2010 20:43
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elmwood posted:I can imagine some survivalist hunkered down in a bunker somewhere in central Kansas, surrounded by shortwave radios, guns, ammo, gold ingots, and bottles of supplements. My favorite one lives in Washington state. Miles Stair, no relation to shortwave wacko Brother Stair, is a survivalist with an 1800 page website with all the info you need to survive when the poo poo hits the fan and America turns into a Third World country overnight. He has some pretty bad rear end poo poo for sale in his survival store too.
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Oct 19, 2010 01:32
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I finally listened to 4.840 Mhz long enough to figure out it is Alex Jones. God drat... Just, god drat.
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Oct 19, 2010 04:00
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OK, the antenna is done. Click here for the full 800x600 image.  Click here for the full 800x600 image. The center support is made by MFJ. I had it lying around already so I decided to use it for something. The supports keeping the lines apart are actually the center inserts from a set of plastic hair curlers that I picked up at the Dollar Tree. It's coming into the house with a 50 ft. run of RG-58U I picked up at RadioShack and ends in a PL-259 to 1/8" mono adapter plugged straight into the Grundig G6. I have no pics of the antenna in the air since it was too dark to see when I finally got it hung. I listened for about 45 minutes tonight, and was pleasantly surprised with the results. Stations that normally come in well with the built in whip were booming and stations normally covered in static were easily heard. Between 1:00 and 1:45 UTC and skipping the normal Jesus poo poo coming out of TN and FL, I got in the following: 3145 kHz Brother Stair - The only US preacher worth listening to. 4885 kHz KBC Nairobi - Broadcasting from Kenya in Somali 9560 kHz Radio Romania Intl - Broadcasting from Romania in French 9570 kHz Radio China Intl - Broadcasting from Albania in Portuguese 9580 kHz Radio China Intl - Broadcasting from Cuba in Spanish 9610 kHz Vatican Radio - Broadcasting from Vatican City in Spanish or Portuguese 9665 kHz Voice of Russia - Broadcasting from Russia - Signal was poor but readable. Punk band played a song about how the US should give Alaska back to Russia. LOL 9750 kHz Voice of Malaysia - Broadasting from Malaysia playing music 9790 kHz China Radio Intl - Broadcasting from Canada in English 9830 kHz Radio Free Europe - Broadcasting from Germany in Turkmen 17760 kHz BBC Carribean - Broadcasting from Antigua in English 17850 kHz Radio Exterior de Espana - Broadcasting from Spain in Spanish BBC Carribean was splattering all over the band, from about 17000 up to 18000. Not sure if that was pickup from the antenna or if they are having transmitter issues. Future upgrades will be to add more supports, add some weight to the bottom of the supports to make it hang straight, get rid of the tied wire support stops and replace them with actual wire ties, get better coax than that RadioShack poo poo I have running into the house now, and re-orient it to aim SW/NE or SE/NW to get better reception to the north and south. I believe it's more N/S at the moment, as I was picking up European and Asian stations loud and clear but was having issues getting Radio Havana. dv6speed posted:I finally listened to 4.840 Mhz long enough to figure out it is Alex Jones. God drat... Just, god drat. Amazing poo poo, ain't it?
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Oct 19, 2010 04:22
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What are the physical details on that antenna you made there? Most importantly, how long the thing is. Those MFJ center insulators are nice, but I can't see spending $35+ on it for something I can make in less then a half hour. (My time, sadly, is not yet worth $70/hr... maybe one day.) I'm putting up a 130 ft long wire in the air tomorrow which will good hooked up to an antenna tuner for the 80m ham band, but it should improve SWL reception as well. BigHustle posted:Amazing poo poo, ain't it?  Edit: Speaking of antennas, anyone in this thread played with beverage antennas? AbsentMindedWelder fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Oct 19, 2010 |
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Oct 19, 2010 04:57
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dv6speed posted:What are the physical details on that antenna you made there? Most importantly, how long the thing is. The elements were cut to rough spec using the 468/mHz formula. I originally planned to use use the plans that AMANDX has on his site, but I didn't have the cash buy ~150 feet of speaker wire. Instead of running one band per element, I decided to experiment and see if I could get a better effect using harmonic resonance instead since an antenna cut for 2500 kHz will also resonate on 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, etc. I figured the element lengths as such: code:My original plans were to put elements on for every 2500 kHz but I'd have had to custom make the supports and the bulk would have made the connections unwieldy. The speaker wire came in handy though... Make one measurement, one cut, peel apart for two identical elements. 18 gauge speaker wire is pretty cheap at Lowe's Hardware. I think I paid around $12 for a 100 ft spool. That MFJ center was something I already had lying around the house. I can't remember where I picked that thing up. It may have come from a ham up in Jersey, if I remember correctly. I had the dog bone end insulators sitting here too. Jones is a loon. The only person I like to listen to more than him is Brother Stair, only because when Stair speaks you can feel the tendrils of insanity come out of your speakers and wrap themselves around your brain. I love the rules to worship at his church in NC. Brother Stair posted:If you would like to attend one of our services or join us for prayer, please dress as becometh holiness. I had plans to put up a Beverage antenna when I was living in Jersey, but according to the calculations I made I'd have needed about 300 feet of wire and lacked the funds and space for such a monster. I forget whether that was supposed to be a SWL or Ham antenna though...
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Oct 19, 2010 05:59
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Just ordered a Grundig G6. Add $70 to the goon wallet raping!
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Oct 20, 2010 07:00
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jarv posted:Just ordered a Grundig G6. Add $70 to the goon wallet raping! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine. Speaking of, I was able to pick up broadcasts from Saudi Arabia, Chile, and Spain today during the daylight hours. I need to get that antenna up a little higher and see what else I can drag in. I still want to get Voice of Korea and Voice of Iran.
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Oct 21, 2010 01:52
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BigHustle posted:The elements were cut to rough spec using the 468/mHz formula. I originally planned to use use the plans that AMANDX has on his site, but I didn't have the cash buy ~150 feet of speaker wire. Instead of running one band per element, I decided to experiment and see if I could get a better effect using harmonic resonance instead since an antenna cut for 2500 kHz will also resonate on 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, etc. BigHustle posted:I figured the element lengths as such:  You used one too many 0's on your frequencies. You cut your longest dipole for 25 MHZ, not 2500 kHz. If you really wanted to make a dipole for 2500 kHz it would be 468/2.5=187.2', which would be 93.6' on a side. (And it would be a great general SW receiving antenna, too.)Having said that, BigHustle posted:3145 kHz Brother Stair - The only US preacher worth listening to. BigHustle posted:I had plans to put up a Beverage antenna when I was living in Jersey, but according to the calculations I made I'd have needed about 300 feet of wire and lacked the funds and space for such a monster. I forget whether that was supposed to be a SWL or Ham antenna though...
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Oct 21, 2010 03:08
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So I was scanning some UHF frequencies the other day, I discovered a local FM broadcast station (WSTW 93.7FM) being rebroadcast on 455.4125 Mhz. I thought this was weird and placed a call to the radio station but they haven't responded yet. Is it likely that the station is rebroadcasting on that frequency for some internal use, or is it more likely that a 3rd party is doing it illegally for whatever reason? I haven't yet made a radio direction finding antenna. 
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Oct 21, 2010 15:54
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nmfree posted:Generally, the minimum useful length for a Beverage is 500 feet; most people who put one up will try to get at least 1000' up in the air. Also, most people use aluminum electric fence wire which is something like $40 per quarter mile. Both SWLs and amateurs use Beverages (as receiving antennas only) on the low bands (generally below 5 or 6 MHz) because they are so directional.
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Oct 21, 2010 16:17
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dv6speed posted:So I was scanning some UHF frequencies the other day, I discovered a local FM broadcast station (WSTW 93.7FM) being rebroadcast on 455.4125 Mhz. I thought this was weird and placed a call to the radio station but they haven't responded yet. Is it likely that the station is rebroadcasting on that frequency for some internal use, or is it more likely that a 3rd party is doing it illegally for whatever reason? Ah, the Marti system. That's how radio stations do remote broadcasts. What you heard was the station-to-remote side, more interesting is the remote-to-station side when a DJ isn't broadcasting and it just bantering amongst themselves off-air. The FM station I worked for had this, 1 VHF frequency and 2 UHF frequencies. The UHF frequencies are a little wider bandwidth for better broadcast audio quality on-air, on a scanner it sounds clipped but it's really not. The VHF was straight 2-way comms ranging from a talk countdown to cordinating a station event. All of this is perfectly legal, the frequencies are likely licensed as 2-way frequencies to the company who owns WSTW. Many radio and TV stations have systems like this in the 450-470 MHz range, scan through when the local newscasters are on talking to traffic copters or covering a crime scene. It's usually pretty easy to hear the station-to-remote side since those transmitters are usually on the same tower as the actual station (750+ ft up on a tower).
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Oct 21, 2010 16:53
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I'm looking to get back in to SW listening. I listed for about 3 years when I was younger, thanks to my grandfather. I'm somewhat confused as to what model radio I should buy, however. Money isn't an issue. Should I get a G6, a G3, or a Satellit 750? Note: I live in a somewhat large city, but in a house w/ a large empty attic in which I could string up as much wire as I wish. arbybaconator fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Oct 21, 2010 |
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Oct 21, 2010 18:09
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spaceship posted:I'm looking to get back in to SW listening. I listed for about 3 years when I was younger, thanks to my grandfather. Here's my opinion on the Satellit 750. If you don't have/want to move it, its a great radio with awesome sound. I'm using it in NOT ideal conditions, (in a concrete garage surrounded by shop lights) and I get decent signal. When I finally go and mount my external antenna outside, I think my reception will improve dramatically. Here's the kicker. It can take batteries, and it has its own whip antenna, but if you want to take it ANYWHERE, its going to be in your car. Its not small at all. Its not compact. I actually just ordered a G6 Buzz Aldrin because its going to be a lot more compact and going to let me listen to shortwave/air bands at work and give me that portability to bring my radio to football games. Its got less features than the G3, but has more features than the super portable Mini400. I played around with the Mini400, and its small to a fault IMO. If you want a mix of portability, features and price I would suggest the G3(even though I haven't even used the thing). Edit: Also, I would suggest making your own Loop Antenna. I was able to use a lot of stuff that I had on hand to make it(had the copper tubing, pvc on hand). I spent probably 20$ in coax and a sacrificial radio from a Goodwill. Its pretty significant the amount of signal you get from that kind of antenna vs the whip antenna. ASSTASTIC fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Oct 21, 2010 |
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Oct 21, 2010 18:39
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nmfree posted:Not exactly. Harmonic resonance only occurs on the odd harmonics, so an antenna cut for 2500 kHz will be resonant on 7500 kHz, 12.5 MHz, 17.5 MHz, etc. The main trade off of taking advantage of this property is that every time you go up an odd harmonic you basically add a lobe to the antenna's pattern; in our example you'll get the traditional figure-8 pattern on 2.5 MHz, but you'll get more lobes as you go higher in frequency. I said harmonic and meant multiples. An antenna cut for 14 Mhz will also work decently on 7, 21, 28, etc. It's not as good as an antenna cut specifically for that frequency, but I'm not using it for transmitting so it's good enough for my purposes. quote:
I did that on purpose so I could get a shorter antenna. Funds were limited so I wanted something that I could put together in an evening and would be relatively inexpensive from a materials standpoint since I had no wire lying around. Using the multiples theory my 25 mHz element will still receive the 2.5 mHz signal with a wingspan 168.48 feet smaller than a element cut for 2.5 mHz. It works pretty well. I can get WWV with no interference on all frequencies (2.5, 5, 10, 15) where with the whip everything but 10 was a mess. It looks like I got the directional orientation correct too. I'm able to receive stations from Europe/Asia, Australia, and South America well enough to start firing out QSL cards for the ones I can understand. quote:For a lot of people it's more important to get their receiving antennas up high and away from local noise sources than for cutting to a specific frequency. I wouldn't worry too much about changing out the Radio Shack coax, either, at HF coax quality isn't all that critical. Since we have rain forecast all weekend and I currently have no grounding system in place, I'm pulling the antenna this weekend to make a few modifications and see how it performs in the same location with a more vertical orientation, more stable elements, add in a grounding setup just outside of the house, etc. If that goes well, I plan to run it from a mast on the roof over to another mast mounted in the backyard. Right now it's performing well at about 25 or 30 feet and adding height will only help it out. Eventually I want to make a full length version just to get the extra 'oomph' out of having larger elements, but cashflow is an issue at the moment. Local noise is one thing that I'm really glad to have gotten away from. When I was living in Jersey my room was about 10 feet from the power lines running down the street and there was just a poo poo ton of interference coming from everywhere. Here in the MO suburbs, there's a lot less electrical interference floating around and I'm able to pick up a lot more stations with relatively weak signals. Hell, I was driving home Wednesday morning just after midnight playing with the car stereo and was picking up AM stations out of Chicago and Atlanta as if they were broadcasting from three blocks over. In Jersey all I'd ever get was static, garbled messes, and interference from stations on the same/adjacent frequencies in NY and PA fighting for dominance.
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Oct 21, 2010 19:52
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Not that I wanted to double post, but... That grounding system I was talking about? I ended up at Lowes to get an 8 foot grounding rod, but was having problems finding a suitable grounding block since RadioShack sells everything but items for a Radio Shack and ordering online will take too long to appease my impulse buying urges. So, I decided to make one. Any comments or suggestions will be welcome, since I'm pretty much winging it on this one.  Click here for the full 800x600 image. PARTS LIST - One 8" 12 ga. ground lead (will most likely shorten this) - Four 6-32 x 2" machine screws and nuts - Two RadioShack SO-239 sockets - One short length of #14 house wire - One 1/2" PVC pipe coupler I coiled the piece of #14 house wire to fit inside the coupler, soldered it to the center pin of one SO-239 socket, slipped on the 1/2" PVC coupler, then repeated the process with the other socket. I compressed the whole shebang into one piece and fed the machine screws through the mounting plate holes in the SO-239 sockets and tightened. The ground lead is connected at the nut end of one of the machine screws holding the thing together.  Click here for the full 800x600 image. I know that you aren't supposed to solder a ground connection since a lightning strike will vaporize it, but I think for the inner connection on this gadget that would be an advantage. I took another run of RG-58 coax I had lying around and made a 1:1 air-core "ugly balun" to connect at the business end of the center connector and run to the grounding rod. A second RG-58 run will come in the house and terminate at the radio. When not in use, I plan to disconnect the second run of coax at the grounding block and bring it in the house. Since the weather forecast calls for rain all weekend, I'll be taking advantage of the wet ground on Monday to bury the grounding rod. As far as my little contraption here goes, I plan to encapsule it in a housing made of PVC pipe to keep it out of the elements. I just haven't decided whether I want to mount it to the side of the house or connect it directly to the grounding rod itself.
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Oct 22, 2010 05:14
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Jesus this is a quiet thread... I made some modifications to my antenna and got it in the sky this morning. I made an RF choke to block out any crap hitting the coax shield from the elements.  https://wi.somethingawful.com/0c/0ca7b96957fef6561a61d2862c44424a43c26a0c.jpg  https://wi.somethingawful.com/3f/3f470bc4b379b92abdb2dbf4c6b5e738fa7b6e4e.jpgAnd strung the fucker up about 10 feet higher than last time on the other end of the house so it wouldn't get tangled up in the trees.  https://wi.somethingawful.com/2a/2a0f62ec3856b6f798b9e0d72d97723c31dd7fca.jpg  https://wi.somethingawful.com/66/66325315499912f606c87d3a2abb8d48d0849a55.jpgThe real test will come tonight when I do some hardcore DXing, but even in the daytime I'm able to pick up WWV on 2,500 and 5,000 kHz with a lot of background noise. WWV on 10,000 and 15,000 comes in clear as a bell.
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Oct 25, 2010 20:59
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BigHustle posted:Jesus this is a quiet thread... Trying to contribute...What/where are the plans for this antenna? I'm interested in it. Also, I've noticed with my loop antenna that I have to tune the antenna a lot when I go from like 9000mhz to 15000mhz. Is this normal? I'm usually able to find the "sweet spot" (where more static = clearer signal), but if I want to mount this outside, will I have to tune it each time if I want to adjust stations? Just seems like a PITA if I want to "set it and forget it". I know that I constructed the antenna correctly because it is a VAST improvement over my whip antenna. Thanks in advance!
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Oct 25, 2010 21:16
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ASSTASTIC posted:Trying to contribute...What/where are the plans for this antenna? I'm interested in it. The 'plans' are a few posts up. I got inspired by someone else's idea and just kind of winged it. I suppose I should put together something with details and post it somewhere though. The five elements are 9.36 ft, 7.8 ft, 6.685 ft, 5.85 ft, and 5.20 ft per side. I connected them all to a 4 inch piece of wire just to make the connection to the center conductor easier. The total length of wire for both ends of the dipole comes to 69.79 feet, so a 75 foot spool of speaker wire would be perfect for this project. A 100 ft roll of 18 ga speaker wire runs $12 at Lowes. The line spreaders are cheap plastic hair rollers that I got for $1 for a bag of 10 at Dollar Tree and are secured with 4" wire ties I bought for $1.89 a bag at Lowes. The center conductor is a prefab one I had lying around. If you don't want to buy one (the model I used runs around $30), you can make your own with something non-conductive that you can secure your elements and coax to in order to make a stable base. If you want to go cheap and ghetto you can even just solder the ends of your coax directly to the connector wires, one to the center and one to the braid. The end insulators I also had lying around. Those run less than a dollar a piece, or you can use anything non-conductive to tie your antenna and rope to. Plastic coat hangers, zip ties, empty soda bottles, whatever you have or want to make. The RF choke is 21 feet of coax coiled in a tight loop. I used a mailing tube as a form and covered the whole shebang in electrical tape to keep it together. Other folks have done the same with PVC pipe and wire ties. I threw some links up in a previous post about the antenna a little further back. The inspiration for my creation and the formulas I used for the elements are posted there as well if you want to do some research to see if something else looks better for your purposes. For example, mine is kind of a 'catch all' antenna. If you wanted to cut your elements for specific frequencies that you listen to often, you could do that instead. quote:Also, I've noticed with my loop antenna that I have to tune the antenna a lot when I go from like 9000mhz to 15000mhz. Is this normal? I'm usually able to find the "sweet spot" (where more static = clearer signal), but if I want to mount this outside, will I have to tune it each time if I want to adjust stations? Just seems like a PITA if I want to "set it and forget it". If you're talking about the mag loop antennas that a few other folks have made with the variable capacitors, you will need to tune it each time you change frequencies. If you're looking for an outdoor antenna, something like this dipole will be better, simply because you won't have to tune for every station you pick up. As a trade off you won't be able to 'dial in' a weak station, but you also won't have to fiddle with a dial every time you retune either.
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Oct 25, 2010 22:11
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BigHustle posted:The 'plans' are a few posts up. I got inspired by someone else's idea and just kind of winged it. I suppose I should put together something with details and post it somewhere though. Awesome. Thanks for the write up about your antenna. I'll take a look at my supplies and see if I'd be able to construct something near that capacity. Also, thanks for the clarification on the mag loop antenna. I understand now I have to fine tune it if I want to pick up other stations. I was just shocked and amazed on how many more stations I was able to pick up once I moved my antenna outside, but going outside in the Seattle fall weather makes me want to rethink my desgin/antenna.
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Oct 25, 2010 23:07
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ASSTASTIC posted:Awesome. Thanks for the write up about your antenna. I'll take a look at my supplies and see if I'd be able to construct something near that capacity. Speaking of, I'm listening to Radio Exterior de Espana doing some kind of show on Jethro Tull, I think. The 'commentator' is speaking Spanish between songs. They played Cross Eyed Mary and Locomotive Breath. You could always try experimenting to see if you can make it work 'remotely'... Hang it outside the window and put longer leads on the variable capacitor to run inside. See if the added leads affect the way it tunes. If it still works, try coming up with a way to rotate the whole thing from inside. That way you get the best of both worlds. I'm thinking of building a mag loop this week since I got a chance to pick up a few old clock radios from Value Village that I can cannibalize. BigHustle fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Oct 26, 2010 |
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Oct 26, 2010 00:57
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BigHustle posted:You could always try experimenting to see if you can make it work 'remotely'... Hang it outside the window and put longer leads on the variable capacitor to run inside. See if the added leads affect the way it tunes. If it still works, try coming up with a way to rotate the whole thing from inside. That way you get the best of both worlds. I'm thinking of building a mag loop this week since I got a chance to pick up a few old clock radios from Value Village that I can cannibalize. I was thinking about experimenting with a remote setup when I build my magnetic loop. Would a wire running out to the loop with a capacitor inside actually work? Maybe I'll have to try this out when I get a couple nights off. Holy crap, this thread is going the distance!
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Oct 26, 2010 23:13
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It's burgin' time! 
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I made a post in the ham radio thread about the long wire antenna I finished today. It's made for transmitting on the ham bands, but it is certainly working as a fairly good receive antenna for broadcast AM and SWL.
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Oct 26, 2010 23:25
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Guess I need to get an outdoor shortwave antenna set up soon before winter sets in. I'm in a townhouse, end unit, yet there's no way to really do a dipole that won't be obvious and also won't be too close to the house to pick up every electrical device I own. Portables (Grundig G5, Sangean 909) work pretty well in the house near the outside wall, but I tried a very simple 50 ft wire to antenna tuner to my Icom 706 MIIG and all that reall accomplishes is increased signals and increased noise (zero sum game). I'm not really that surprised, I need to run coax to place the antenna somewhere quiet. My best bet might be a par-endz antenna off my back deck to a tree in the back. That will get me 50 ft of antenna about 15 feet off the ground. Anyone have any luck with the par-enz? I'm thinking the 40 meter model which should also receive quite well.
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Oct 27, 2010 14:28
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Making a dipole out of magnet wire may work well for you too. Magnet wire is small enough to be virtually invisible but still packs a punch. If I can find a deal on a poo poo ton of it, I plan to make a massive array from the stuff for the backyard. The one I have up now isn't obtrusive, but the folks are already starting to complain when I mention adding anything else back there.
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Oct 28, 2010 02:32
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My Grundig G6 is awesome. I just bought 50 feet of 18 gauge speaker wire, wrapped it around my windowsill, then attached it to my antenna. I flip it to 2500 khz to see if I can hear WWV on that frequency...i can. I turn it to 10000 khz but can't pick it up there. Then I flip it to 4625 khz and I can hear UVB-76. This is awesome.
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Oct 28, 2010 05:06
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Not knocking the idea at all, but I would imagine magnet wire would have to be installed very carefully as to avoid breakage of the wire. I don't give a poo poo what my neighbors think, so I have no problem running 12 gauge wire wherever the gently caress I want to. That being said, I'm still very interested in any installation tips you would have for a "permanent" magnet wire antenna installation.
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Oct 28, 2010 05:28
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Picking up my first numbers station on 5883 right now!
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Oct 28, 2010 08:02
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dv6speed posted:Not knocking the idea at all, but I would imagine magnet wire would have to be installed very carefully as to avoid breakage of the wire. I don't give a poo poo what my neighbors think, so I have no problem running 12 gauge wire wherever the gently caress I want to. That being said, I'm still very interested in any installation tips you would have for a "permanent" magnet wire antenna installation. I don't care what my neighbors think either, but the parents are another story... My secret weapon? Fishing line. Even in the sun fishing line is mostly invisible, so I planned to use that as my main support line and attach the magnet wire to it with something equally clear and permanent, like small dabs of epoxy or super glue. If you attach the two at tension the fishing line will take the majority of the stress and the magnet wire can just have enough pressure on it to stay taut. Another option is 6 wire "hot rope' for electric fences that looks like clothesline but contains 6 thin wires inside for connection to current. Putting up a clothesline isn't exactly 'modern', but it is still commonplace. My plan was to do the same thing you did for your longwire. Run it out to my support, tie it off to an insulator, and have the rope tiedown run through a pulley to a weight of some sort to keep the whole shebang flexible while still keeping it taut. My dipole now is hanging with rope tied between a deck railing and a tree in the backyard with enough stress to keep the center conductor support rope and elements taut while still allowing for fairly heavy motion from the tree. We had a major storm roll through this past Monday which included 45 mph sustained winds and gusts up to 65-70. The dipole held up like a champ. The tree next to my car in the driveway though...  Anyone have any stealth antenna plans for a Ford Focus? [quote="jarv"]Are you getting Radio Habana Cuba in the background? The last time I picked up Atencion, there was some intermod coming in with it. You may not have been able to pick up WWV on 10k due to the time of day you were listening. Usually the higher the kHz, the harder is is to grab during the day/morning. Or maybe it's the other way around... I forget. By the way, where are you located that you can pick up UVB-76? That's the one thing I haven't tried yet.
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Oct 28, 2010 14:53
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jarv posted:My Grundig G6 is awesome. Are you a European goon? If not getting UVB-76 in the U.S. is a helluva catch! I've been trying to hear it for some time in vain. jarv posted:Picking up my first numbers station on 5883 right now! Just what are those Cubans up to !? I'm picturing someone crouched over their small shortwave radio, probably a Grundig G6, decoding the uber secret message for "Agent Juan". Maybe a message as benign as happy birthday, or slightly more sinister like "initiate operation Lucy".
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Oct 28, 2010 15:19
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Radio Nowhere posted:Just what are those Cubans up to !? I'm picturing someone crouched over their small shortwave radio, probably a Grundig G6, decoding the uber secret message for "Agent Juan". Maybe a message as benign as happy birthday, or slightly more sinister like "initiate operation Lucy". The only things that the US has released are relatively benign messages: Atencion posted:"prioritize and continue to strengthen friendship with Joe and Dennis" [68 characters] I'm guessing that most of the messages are pretty benign, or else the Cubans are drat good at keeping their espionage quiet and out of sight of US law enforcement. I've come up with a few scenarios myself... - Atencion is a massive inside joke. If you ever listen to the RHC broadcasts in English, they never miss an opportunity to take jabs at the US whenever possible and love to point out the stupid things the US does in relation to other countries. I bet they keep the numbers broadcasts going as a way to get a good laugh at watching the US scramble to find non-existent agents in the field. - RHC is sympathetic to the plight of refugees and their families and Atencion messages are actually just messages to refugees in the US from their families sent in a coded format to prevent the Cuban government from arresting the senders for treason. I like to think that these messages are programmed into the machine by Arnie Coro himself while shedding a single tear, that tear symbolizing both Coro's sadness at committing treasonous acts against the homeland that he loves and also of happiness that he's able to keep the families of his people united. - The messages aren't Cuban at all, but are actually third party messages being transmitted by Cuba to 'throw off the scent'. Perhaps the messages are broadcast for different countries each few days (since the messages tend to be repeated for several days/a week before changing) and the message originator just lets their agents know the schedule for their broadcasts by other means. That would be a money maker for Cuba and keep foreign spies a little safer at the same time. - They could be part of a contest, like a puzzle based scavenger hunt. If someone figures out enough messages they get an address to write or phone number to call, and the winner gets a paid trip to Cuba and lunch with Raul Castro. - They could be coded transmissions between scouts in the field and athlete managers in the US. Sports management is a big business and it's possible that people like Drew Rosenhaus have agents looking over Cuban players and reporting back in code as to whom they should try and help get into the US in return for a lucrative management contract. I could keep going, but it just gets sillier from here on out.
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Oct 28, 2010 16:35
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Radio Nowhere posted:Are you a European goon? If not getting UVB-76 in the U.S. is a helluva catch! I've been trying to hear it for some time in vain. I'm in western Ohio. jarv fucked around with this message at 04:13 on Oct 29, 2010 |
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Oct 28, 2010 18:28
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jarv posted:I'm in western Ohio. I'm tuning in to 4625 in Missouri and getting a poo poo ton of radar/codar interference... Are you hearing a steady buzz or a sweeping tone?
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Oct 29, 2010 04:23
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Well, I officially hate China now. There must have been some killer propagation last night, because I was picking up Asian stations clearer than I usually catch Family Radio and WWCR. All was well until Radio Free Asia started their broadcast and China powered up their jamming equipment. I understand that China wants tight control over the media, but dammit, they completely obliterated everything at the top end of the 40 meter band and put huge dents in the rest of the frequency bands as well, since RFA broadcasts on multiple frequencies. A lot of shows I usually listen to were completely unlistenable thanks to either Firedrake or what sounded like the quacking of a pissed off robotic duck.
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Nov 1, 2010 03:31
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I was definitely hearing the buzzer. I haven't heard it but twice and now I can't get it again.
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Nov 1, 2010 09:59
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jarv posted:I was definitely hearing the buzzer. I haven't heard it but twice and now I can't get it again. Well, I'm jealous and until you submit proof I refuse to believe you.  Actually, I don't doubt you at all. The way the signals have been coming in from Asia and Europe for me, I'm guessing that I'd be able to hear it as well if it weren't for radar blocking out half the band. I'm about ~30 miles from two different airports and can actually hear their radar sweeps collide over the air when conditions are right. Oh... Radio Havana Cuba has their 2011 pocket calendars printed and ready for delivery if anyone would like one. If you send in a reception report and ask for a them, they'll send you a QSL card and calendar in return. I'm able to get their English language show nightly on 6000 kHz at 1:00 UCT / 9:00 CST. The broadcast repeats two or three times afterwards as well, so you can catch it if you miss it the first time around.
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Nov 1, 2010 14:19
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