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This thread makes me want to go find my ATS-909.
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Feb 17, 2011 04:23
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atomicthumbs posted:This thread makes me want to go find my ATS-909. Hook that up to a longwire and you got an awesome setup.
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Feb 17, 2011 21:15
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Radio Nowhere posted:I have a VX-5R and find the shortwave performance to be uber lacking. Unless they improved it in later VX models you'd need a dipole hooked to that handheld to get even decent performance, and no SSB. It is one durable rear end handheld though and I can only imagine how awesome it would be with more features and waterproof. Radio Nowhere posted:If this is just for listening, go for the Grundig G6.
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Feb 20, 2011 07:52
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Add me to the list for an impulse buy G3. I have a "Globe Patrol" receiver I picked up at a hamfest relatively cheap. It has been the source of infinate frustration, since it seems to receive certain things (RCI , various preacher types ) but it is impossible to tune and the gain control goes into a feedback loop so easily. I made a "maptenna" which didn't really seem to improve much for receive, but, again, impossible to tune. The G3 just seems like a decent model. They also had a Grundig field receiver (RadioShack, I know, sucker, right?) which was $50 less, and it had a nice tuning knob, but it immediately pissed me off with flapping around and no apparent SSB capabilities.
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Feb 21, 2011 00:44
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My grandfather got me into Shortwave radio at a very young age. I use to have all kinds of fun DXing stations between the ages of 10 and 14. I've been missing it lately, and I have been considering possibly picking up a radio to play around with. I am also hoping to use it for musical purposes as well (sampling). Potential problem: I live a few blocks from downtown columbus, OH in a three story house. I am by no means isolated, and I am worried that I may have reception issues. What do you guys think? I DO, however, have a GIANT attic (it's basically an entire empty 2 bedroom apt up there) that I could potentially use to hang some wire to use as an antennae. Thoughts?
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Feb 23, 2011 15:43
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Radio Nowhere posted:Try FStream, it's free and just add the following URL: Does anyone know if this URL will work for the Discovery mission launching in a few hours?
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Feb 24, 2011 18:47
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foobar posted:Does anyone know if this URL will work for the Discovery mission launching in a few hours? From a SomaFM e-mail I got earlier this week that link will be carrying today's launch.
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Feb 24, 2011 19:15
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spaceship posted:My grandfather got me into Shortwave radio at a very young age. I use to have all kinds of fun DXing stations between the ages of 10 and 14. bump
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Feb 25, 2011 05:55
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spaceship posted:My grandfather got me into Shortwave radio at a very young age. I use to have all kinds of fun DXing stations between the ages of 10 and 14. My thoughts, try it. The OP has some great radio recommendations. Antennas end up being trial and error. At the moment I'm having decent luck with a vertical antenna after nothing but noise with a simple wire. I'm in a townhouse and am thinking getting that wire away from the house would be my ultimate option. When I was in an apartment my only option really was the radios built-in portable whip, wires and anything else just brought in more noise then signals. I never got around to experimenting with loops. Start with a portable radio, if nothing else you can go to a park with it to get away from electrical interference.
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Feb 25, 2011 16:46
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Well of course we're going to tell you to try it, man. This is a thread about shortwave radio. And like Radio Nowhere said, this is a trial and error business. Throw wire around like a son of a bitch and fiddle until you figure out its moods.
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Feb 25, 2011 20:44
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If I understand correctly, you could identify noise sources in your neighborhood, note their location and frequency, and then use directional and/or tunable antennas to keep the noise out of your radio. Mag-loops, or wire Yagi-Uda antennas might be a good choice for this. I don't have much experience though, so somebody else could weigh in more. You could perhaps even complain to the FCC if there is excessive noise in the broadcast spectrum. The FCC is serious about enforcement action. Check out their website for enforcement actions with causes from the accidental and mundane to the hilarious and sad. Vir fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Feb 26, 2011 |
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Feb 26, 2011 03:28
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Hello thread. You can put me down for $70 on a G6 and about $10 for speaker wire and a mono 3/4" plug. Not much success in my first couple days of ownership, though I think I have several strikes against me: I live in the East Bay Area, which is seeded strongly with radio stations, there are at least two or three cell towers within a mile radius, and I'm in a first floor apartment. I've gotten a few preachers, and Voice of Russia, but this is all very infrequent, mostly nothing by day, more by sundown, not much at night. Not terribly encouraging, but not surprising either. So far, I've strung about 40 ft of speaker wire around the room at varying heights as a temporary antenna. It's not fantastic, but it's a durn sight better than the whip. I can turn everything off in my place, and even unplug it all, but I still get interference in the few stations I can tune into, usually a staticky interference sound that comes in and out, as though it is getting "angry," then subsiding, then angry again, then subsiding, and eventually the station simply drifts out and all that's left is the anger. It's about high-middle in tone, and seems to almost completely coat the 150000+ range. Any ideas what it could be? doctorfrog fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Mar 20, 2011 |
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Mar 20, 2011 03:04
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doctorfrog posted:Hello thread. You can put me down for $70 on a G6 and about $10 for speaker wire and a mono 3/4" plug. Cell towers shouldn't give you that much of a problem, but the AM/FM stations will. Try building one of the magloop antennas that everyone raves about... That should clear things up for you greatly. As far as the other interference you're talking about, I had the same problem up in New Jersey and never figured out what the cause was. The best thing I can suggest is making one of the magnetic loop antennas or try changing the length of wire you have looped around the room. If the wire you have up is on the same wavelength or a multiple of whatever is causing the static, then you'll never get rid of it. FAKE EDIT: Do you have a wireless router? That could be it.
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Mar 20, 2011 15:17
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As noted in the OP and BigHustle, the A6 is susceptible to AM interference. A loud whine might be a harmonic of an AM carrier. Would it be all over the band above 150 kHz though? Wouldn't it sound more like a tone? It might be something more close to home, like a switching power supply or touch lamp in your neighbor's house. Or maybe arching power lines? A transformer? We've got a trash compactor outside which even in standby mode wipes out the 80m band. Edit: In the proper terms, I mean radio interference from AM radio is usually narrow band, while stuff like power lines and power supplies are usually sources of broad band interference, and from your description it sounds like broad band interference. Have you tried running your radio on batteries instead of mains power? Vir fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Mar 20, 2011 |
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Mar 20, 2011 21:30
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The Foreign Affairs Select Committee wants to - at least partially - shield the BBC World Service from the austerity measures, saying it's too important to reduce, especially in view of the "Arab spring". http://www.techradar.com/news/audio/bbc-world-service-too-valuable-to-be-cut-942671 http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9456000/9456338.stm
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Apr 13, 2011 10:37
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Vir posted:The Foreign Affairs Select Committee wants to - at least partially - shield the BBC World Service from the austerity measures, saying it's too important to reduce, especially in view of the "Arab spring". It's interesting to see that shortwave is still playing into national information dissemination policies given all the rhetoric about the role that the Internet played in all of this. Even more amazing considering where I'm at it's nothing but religious propaganda 
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Apr 19, 2011 06:32
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There's no question that this pan-Arabic uprising was started on the Internet - Facebook and Twitter in particular, but to get information out from the educated and well-informed young professionals and students who are social internet users out to the less connected countryside, satellite TV and shortwave radio are both essential.
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Apr 20, 2011 03:11
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What type of Am reception should I expect from a G3? I'm lucky if I can get one station and it doesn't come in very good. This entire unit worries me because the tuning knob is crooked and the seam at the bottom where the two parts of the body meet have a spot where they are bulging apart.
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May 22, 2011 23:01
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java posted:It's interesting to see that shortwave is still playing into national information dissemination policies given all the rhetoric about the role that the Internet played in all of this. I realize I'm responding to an old post, but... Egypt's government turned off the internet. I believe similar things happened in the other Arab Spring countries. China has its internet firewall. But try as they might, foreign governments have a very hard time blocking access to shortwave. Danger Kick: I don't have a G3 myself, but it should get excellent reception. SW and AM are the same basic technology, just different areas of the spectrum. At worst, it the reception should be no worse than the AM reception in your car. If you can only get one AM station, I'd see about repair/refund.
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May 23, 2011 02:18
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My antenna hanging tree fell down in a storm last month. Fortunately I hadn't been able to mount my antenna yet, so I have no rebuilding to do. I've found that I really miss tuning into RHC and scanning the bands looking for crazy poo poo that I haven't heard before.
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May 23, 2011 13:45
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Danger Kick posted:What type of Am reception should I expect from a G3? I'm lucky if I can get one station and it doesn't come in very good. This entire unit worries me because the tuning knob is crooked and the seam at the bottom where the two parts of the body meet have a spot where they are bulging apart. I don't own that model but I own a G5 which is fairly similar. I would return it and swap the radio for another G3. Seems like the radio you have right now has some major quality issues.
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May 23, 2011 13:56
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I filled out the warranty claim form on the eton website, so hopefully I can get this thing taken care of. It's been less than a year, but probably too long to get Radio Shack to exchange it. Since this was my first shortwave radio, I wasn't sure if it was broken or what, but I feel pretty sure now that something bad happened before it left the factory. External antennas work best when only plugged half way into the unit, and the sync feature is pretty unstable. Anything that changes reception conditions, like me walking away from the radio, cause it to freak out and start making nasty howling sounds.
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May 23, 2011 16:06
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Holy loving poo poo, this thread has been going for four years now. Is that some kind of a record? I'm curious what the oldest active thread in the forums is at this point.
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Jun 8, 2011 16:00
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The sun farted a nice bubble yesterday so we'll have some interesting propagation tomorrow! On a sadder note the news reports the Voice of America is dropping, or at least greatly reducing, shortwave radio. The current political crop believes foreign rural areas are just as well served by FM and the internet. Facts show otherwise and shortwave is still a strong medium for the VOA but facts smacts there's a budget to balance!!
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Jun 8, 2011 16:15
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Radio Nowhere posted:The sun farted a nice bubble yesterday so we'll have some interesting propagation tomorrow! That sucks, especially since rural areas here still have problems with internet, much less rural areas in lands with much less economic power.
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Jun 8, 2011 16:49
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AstroZamboni posted:Holy loving poo poo, this thread has been going for four years now. Is that some kind of a record? I'm curious what the oldest active thread in the forums is at this point. And I'll bump this poo poo just to keep it going. This thread made me sign up for the forums and get a G6. Rock on, thread. Content: was just visiting my family in NY for the first time in 6 years. My dad was into shortwave when I was a kid (70's - 80's), so we chatted about that a bit and I showed him my lil' G6 and dialed in a few stations for kicks. He was amazed at how good the G6 was for its size (he was used to big honkin' tabletops) and looked genuinely pained when I told him that my 2009 Passport was the last Passport. 
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Jul 1, 2011 04:55
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I picked up another G6 today at my local RadioShack for $49.97. Now I'll have one to put in my fishing bag in the car. I just need to get some extra wire for an antenna to throw in the trees and I'll be all set.
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Jul 1, 2011 23:38
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I'm genuinely pained that there is no more passport...
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Jul 2, 2011 02:06
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It's burgin' time! 
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I heart bacon posted:I'm genuinely pained that there is no more passport... I am too. There is the internet though, which works OK for the most part.
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Jul 2, 2011 02:14
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It's still not the same as sitting in the dark in the "shack", reaching for the passport while scanning the dial. I guess for me, it was part of the charm of shortwave... almost like TV guide to old school cable TV of when I was a kid.
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Jul 2, 2011 02:17
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I heart bacon posted:It's still not the same as sitting in the dark in the "shack", reaching for the passport while scanning the dial. I guess for me, it was part of the charm of shortwave... almost like TV guide to old school cable TV of when I was a kid. I totally agree, especially considering most of my electronics interfere with reception.
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Jul 2, 2011 02:33
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BigHustle posted:I totally agree, especially considering most of my electronics interfere with reception. Same here; for me it's all about listening in my dimly-lit, relatively EMF-free garage, flipping through Passport, and writing down good hits on a yellowed steno pad. So what're some good online resources since Passport kicked the bucket?
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Jul 2, 2011 03:07
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Back when I was on a rotating shift, I'd hit my night shifts and try to keep up with staying up at night. This was perfect to wander out to the shed and scan the dials really late at night. I mean, it's 1am and my wife is off to bed and I'm bored outta my mind. That was so great. If there is a good online resource out there that would be printable for bringing out to the shed for late night, please post it. I'm not on rotating shift anymore, but a late nighter would be fun.
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Jul 2, 2011 03:17
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JacquelineDempsey posted:So what're some good online resources since Passport kicked the bucket? I use the following... http://www.short-wave.info - My favorite for looking up stuff I find while scanning the bands. You can punch in the frequency you're listening to and it'll show what stations/languages are being pumped out at that moment. You can also use it to look up programs or search by time and language. This site gives transmitter locations on a map, which I like so I can see where the programming is coming from. http://www.naswa.net/swlguide/ - Will let you look up programs by genre (business, music, news, etc.) and give a list of what is being broadcast when. Also has a 'click here to see who's broadcasting now' button. http://www.dxing.com/tuning.htm - DX.com's tuning reference. Good for figuring out what those bleeps and bloops are that you randomly pick up while scanning.
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Jul 2, 2011 05:45
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Just picked up my first decent radio, an Eton S350DL. RadioShack had it on sale for $75, combined with a $10 off coupon someone left on top of it, got it for a nice $65. Haven't had a lot of time to really play with it yet, Radio Havana comes in nice and clear with just the built in antenna. Once I get some spare time I'll rig up a nice long wire and see what I can hear. Any tips for someone in the Florida Panhandle to pick up anything interesting?
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Jul 6, 2011 08:16
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josiahgould posted:Any tips for someone in the Florida Panhandle to pick up anything interesting? Other than suggesting that you get that longwire up or build a mag-loop antenna, not really. If you go with an outdoor antenna, make sure you ground it and keep it away from power lines. Generally speaking, hang your antenna with the ends north and south to pick up signals from Europe and Asia or east and west to get South America or Canada. All the wacky preachers from the US should come in clear, although you may find the transmitters in Okeechobee a little overpowering, depending on how close you are to them and whether the antennas are aimed your way.
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Jul 6, 2011 15:43
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BigHustle posted:I picked up another G6 today at my local RadioShack for $49.97. Now I'll have one to put in my fishing bag in the car. I just need to get some extra wire for an antenna to throw in the trees and I'll be all set. Now that my E5 is repaired I keep my G6 in my astronomy equipment kit. It has a red-lit display so it doesn't trash my night vision, and it allows me to time satellite flyovers using WWV/WWVH signals audibly so I can keep my eyes on the sky.
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Jul 6, 2011 18:23
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AstroZamboni posted:Now that my E5 is repaired I keep my G6 in my astronomy equipment kit. It has a red-lit display so it doesn't trash my night vision, and it allows me to time satellite flyovers using WWV/WWVH signals audibly so I can keep my eyes on the sky. I need to see if I can find or make a vertical SW antenna for the car. I'd love to have one of the G6s in the car for use when driving to and fro at night.
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Jul 6, 2011 19:11
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josiahgould posted:Just picked up my first decent radio, an Eton S350DL. Point it south and listen to Cuban numbers stations. 
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Jul 7, 2011 22:01
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BigHustle posted:I need to see if I can find or make a vertical SW antenna for the car. I'd love to have one of the G6s in the car for use when driving to and fro at night. I wonder how something simple like a CB mag-mount would work? Alligator clip it to the whip antenna of the G6. Doubt you'll get any DX that way but strong signals might work. josiahgould posted:Just picked up my first decent radio, an Eton S350DL. drat, that's a pretty good deal! I don't need anymore radios, I DON'T need any more radios .....
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Jul 8, 2011 03:10
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