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Cheers for the tips guys, since posting in the thread it hasn't happened since but if it starts up again I'll look into the ferrite cores.
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Apr 15, 2014 12:12
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Little bit of coverage on the BBC today about numbers stations: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24910397
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Apr 16, 2014 15:19
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There's a massive power cut currently affecting a huge swathe of the north of Scotland, so I've whipped out my Eton G3 and reception unsurprisingly has massively improved.
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Apr 16, 2014 22:40
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So I'm in the process of trying to set up an SDR using a Raspberry Pi and a Soft66RTL, and while I'm waiting on the latter, I'm trying to get the software set up. SDR# seems to get the most recommendations, but the site seems to be down. Any suggestions? GNUradio? And what about for Windows?
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May 1, 2014 19:43
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I have no idea what's going on, but this was posted on RTL-SDR today:quote:SDR# WEBSITE AND DOWNLOADS REMOVED
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May 2, 2014 09:04
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Oh for God's sake, of course I choose the exact day he freaks out and pulls the program to finally discover it.
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May 2, 2014 09:57
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It's ok, HD-SDR is nicer anyway.
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May 2, 2014 16:32
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ickna posted:It's ok, HD-SDR is nicer anyway. e: Hmm, maybe I was thinking of another one? HDSDR seems easy enough. sub supau fucked around with this message at 17:38 on May 2, 2014 |
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May 2, 2014 17:33
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The comments on the post about RTL-SDR going down have a comment pointing to a mirror of the files (though you download those at your peril) As for me, I am scheduled to take the Technician and General exams tomorrow morning. I haven't done much studying the last week because work's been busy. 
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May 2, 2014 18:48
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Zamujasa posted:
Take the AA9PW online practice exam on repeat until you have most of the question pool memorized.
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May 2, 2014 20:00
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ickna posted:Take the AA9PW online practice exam on repeat until you have most of the question pool memorized. This. Precisely what I did, made general on the first try.
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May 2, 2014 21:45
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Looks like the number stations people have found The Buzzer! Not nearly as creepy and guarded as the old site it seems. http://priyom.org/blog/real-buzzer-site-found!.aspx
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May 18, 2014 22:14
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I picked up a vintage Sony TFM-1000WA at the thrift store today. I won't be using it as my primary shortwave receiver, of course, but I did find this print ad for it: This is how I picture all of you.
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May 22, 2014 04:13
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wa27 posted:
I use an external antenna.
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Jun 19, 2014 07:39
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(Sorry for possible thread necromancy. If there's a newer thread, I'll relocate there) I've been trying to get back into SWL after some off-and-on interest in the past couple years- I went ahead and got a NooElec RTL-SDR USB dongle, hooked it up to my PC and tried it with its included antenna (apparently pretty junky) by my window. That's the only place I can really put an antenna, methinks, since the building is old brick which seems awesome at blocking incoming signals. I was able to pick up some FM stations and that's mostly it. I rigged up something a little better with some ethernet cables for the time being and that was able to pick up some scattered voices, morse-code conversations and plane beacons.  Currently debating if I should drop the $99 plus $15-ish shipping on an MFJ 1622 (http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1622) so I have room to grow with an OK antenna when I get my license and a transceiver- for now I'm just listening-- or if I should go with some long wires, a soldering iron and some junk around the house to build my own magnetic loop instead (or toss a looooong wire out the window). I'm lousy at mechanical stuff, though, so I doubt it'd work as well as the contraption I linked, and I have a feeling it'll be somewhat less succeptible to RFI if it's professionally built rather than cobbled together from junk parts (proper RF connectors in particular). I get loads of RFI still, and I think it might be unavoidable due to the cheap design of the SDR dongle. At least, that's what I think these obnoxiously loud beepy carrier waves with no visible information on them, ultra-narrow bandwidth (0.25 KHz or less) are that absolutely never stop and are all over every single band. They seem to get a little better if I wrap the dongle in aluminum foil, ground that, and also wrap the lead to my long-rear end wire antenna through a ferrite donut, but I guess I just have to get used to working around them with all the computers and other equipment nearby. Any tips'd be highly welcome. 
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Nov 25, 2014 01:34
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General Tofu posted:(Sorry for possible thread necromancy. If there's a newer thread, I'll relocate there) Have you tried the dongle in another computer or tried plugging the dongle into a USB extension cable? There's always a chance that the RFI is actually coming from your computer rather than the dongle itself. (It's fairly easy to test and is cheaper than buying new gear.)
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Nov 25, 2014 01:46
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poeticoddity posted:Have you tried the dongle in another computer or tried plugging the dongle into a USB extension cable? There's always a chance that the RFI is actually coming from your computer rather than the dongle itself. (It's fairly easy to test and is cheaper than buying new gear.) Great idea- it did occur to me, actually-- I read about how a lot of times the USB dongles end up accidentally using the USB connector casing (the rectangular part) as an antenna, essentially making your whole PC case one big RFI source-- and that a good solution is to use an extension cable and disconnect the shielding (but keeping the VCC, GND, Data+ and Data- wires intact.) I intend to do that once I get a soldering iron. For the time being, I did try hooking it up via a powered USB hub on an extension lead, the whole contraption wrapped in aluminum foil and grounded to my radiator- which seemed to help bring down the weird "empty carrier wave" noises on the spectrum. As for trying another computer- I did hook it up to my Surface laptop and run it on the battery, and take it outside and far away from the apartment building-- I still got about the same level of weird empty carriers. I suppose if using an extension lead with the shield disconnected, grounded Al. foil and ferrite donut doesn't get rid of it entirely, I might want to look into getting a better SDR device? Like something that's in a shielded case to begin with like that HackRF thing?
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Nov 25, 2014 02:12
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I keep my computer turned off whenever I'm doing SWL because of the RFI it throws off. Case fans, Hard drives, all that poo poo are terrible RFI sources and the reason I never use computer receivers for SWL.
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Nov 25, 2014 16:00
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OK, today I took my laptop (running on battery) to the park and got the exact same results with gobs and gobs of carrier waves that aren't carrying anything (also known as BEEEEEEEEE- [continue forever]). If I work around them I can kinda pick out real signals, but it seems like they're almost washing out the real signals near them in the spectrum (which I've heard is possible if a too-strong signal is adjacent on the band to something weak you want to listen to.) I'm starting to think the bizarro noise IS coming from the USB device itself due to its cheap design-- or being let in from the PC via the USB connector. I'm considering getting a battery-operated dedicated receiver- like one of the nice-looking Tecsun or lower-cost Grundigs I see dropping in price on Amazon and at Radio Shack and using that instead. However, the whole reason I got an SDR dongle is because I thought I'd be able to do like I can on other peoples' WebSDR pages-- look at whole bands, spot traffic, dial in on it, fiddle with the bandwidth/filters and listen to it. They must be using some much nicer equipment or they have an antenna 50 feet in the air, because my experience has been FAR less successful. I've got a particular interest in analyzing stuff like digital modes, SSTV, packet radio, that sort of thing, so if I do get a dedicated receiver I'd want to hook it up to my laptop's mic input to decode it. Hopefully it won't produce too much RFI for that to be possible. I keep seeing people on Youtube in their den with a full computer, an HF rig and their video camera and they're talking on PSK to some guy in Paraguay like it's the easiest thing in the world. I don't get it. On the positive side, things I HAVE received: - Repeating CW letters that never stop (beacons?) (weak) - Air traffic controller and airplane pilot chatter (strong to weak) - A couple of staticky AM news stations (moderate) - Loads of FM stations in the tri-state area comes (obscenely strong) That's pretty much it. Had way more success with people's WebSDR's, but that ruins the fun- the whole idea is to see what is flowing through the airwaves around you locally and fiddle with your own antenna til it comes in clear, rather than listen to some guy in a Amish country with a god-tier antenna's radio. (Goats don't produce appreciable RFI, right?  )
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Nov 26, 2014 04:14
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Have you played with the AGC and front end RF gain settings in the SDR software? There are a couple of quirks to the USB sticks, and if you have the gain set wrong you'll hear way too many birdies and spurs, because the gain is all hosed up and it's straining to hear anything. Also, what antenna are you using? If you are sticking a long wire into the center pin of the antenna jack, yeah, you'll have shitloads of noise. Run some coax and hang the wire off that, grounding the shield of the coax at the antenna feedpoint to something like a water pipe or radiator, some hunk of metal. For what it's worth, my SDR setup will eventually be a dongle, HF converter and PA0RDT active whip all in one self-contained, weatherproof PVC pipe with an outdoor RJ45 jack. Get that thing 20-30 feet up in the air away from power lines and noise sources, and it'll be super low noise.
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Nov 26, 2014 05:21
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More awesome advice-- thanks! Essentially, this is my setup, and feel free to laugh as needed, but after experimentation with my limited resources (just moved in recently, no soldering iron, just whatever electronic scraps I had handy): PC --[USB, MiniUSB ~14" cable] --> unpowered hub --> RTL-SDR Dongle --> Coax, ~8" cable --> a CAT-5e cable with all 8 pairs wrapped together at one end and attached to the center conductor of that coax, wrapped around a pair of (plastic) hangers forming a roughly diamond shape, hanging in front of my fourth-story window looking pretty directly at the sky (with a few buildings nearby, but nothing tall.) I tried wrapping the RTL-SDL in foil- which helped- and then connecting it to earth ground on an outlet but there was no appreciable benefit. The ferrite donut helped bring the noise floor down substantially. Will try grounding the coax at the antenna feedpoint and see if it helps- using an earth ground and not the (already proven lousy) USB connector ground. Will try playing with AGC and gain some more- but from what I've done, I got nothing BUT noise with the RF level low or Auto, and if it's 49dB or so, I DO get more intelligible signals but the unwanted ones also become massively louder to compensate. Thanks for the terminology for "birdies"- as it describes the unmodulated, low-bandwidth, high-amplitude carriers I'm seeing really well. - ADDT'L NOTES: I heard the call signs on the best signals nearby. The closest intelligible signal is right here in town (a weather station, FM, fairly narrow bandwidth). The furthest is what doesn't come in that clearly, but sounds like it's in Connecticut (I'm on Long Island.) There's also the ATC and planes. The voices are so muffled (but not noisy! very strong signals!) I can't tell where the ATC stations are, and the others are presumably planes. The way the person speaks and what he says seems to indicate he's a pilot (I used to listen to the pilot-ATC channel on Continental flights back in the 90s when it was, for some reason, a channel you could tune in with your headphones in Coach class.) The planes and ATC naturally don't call a sign, and no one's said anything that gives me geographic ideas. I THINK I am hearing the planes I see coming in for landing at an airport here on the island. I did catch "Delta" and some flight #s and manage to look them up online, and determine they are in fact Delta flights en route and in the general vicinity of the Northeastern United States. Progress at least 
General Tofu fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Nov 26, 2014 |
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Nov 26, 2014 07:22
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Oh, if it helps, here's a rough diagram, not to scale, of the setup. Try to mentally picture that I also tested the tablet with this setup, and the diamondy antenna with me on a park bench, far away from the PC (and a good 500 feet from any other electronics, unless you count a streetlight) with similar results.
General Tofu fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Nov 26, 2014 |
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Nov 26, 2014 08:34
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General Tofu posted:Oh, if it helps, here's a rough diagram, not to scale, of the setup. Try to mentally picture that I also tested the tablet with this setup, and the diamondy antenna with me on a park bench, far away from the PC (and a good 500 feet from any other electronics, unless you count a streetlight) with similar results. Put the ferrite choke around both conductors, find a better ground and check your gains as stated earlier- overdriving the input can spill strong FM carriers into other bands. I found a lot of phantom carriers coming from networking hardware, so if you have anything nearby that uses ethernet cables try unplugging them. Switching power supplies are noisy as gently caress, I tend to use my laptop on battery power for lower noise listening. Your antenna is more than halfway towards being a magnetic loop, so you may consider building a proper mag loop to pick up weaker signals and aim the null of the antenna towards noise sources for a better SNR. Cutting your antenna to a length that is resonant around your main frequency of interest will help cut noise too. Really the problem with these cheap dongles is dynamic range, so anything you can do on the front end to clean up the signal is golden. A strong signal in another band can overload the receiver when you're looking elsewhere. A low-noise amplifier or pre-selector would be great. The supplied antenna is actually pretty decent for what it is for the native sensitivity of the dongle, the real fun comes with an HF converter which should run you about $50, I use the one made by nooelec. Random wire antennas tend to work better on HF than the VHF/UHF stuff you're looking at now, though in general wire length matters more for transmission than reception. You might also get cleaner signals with better quality connections- soldered and shielded connections over twisting wires together with e-tape. All of these suggestions/purchases are easily leveraged into the radio hobby if you choose to get your ham license too (do it).
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Nov 27, 2014 07:46
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I missed this thread! I don't think I've posted for a couple of years, but my radio interest has been steady. I bought a Tecsun PL-660 over the summer to replace my third dead Eton E5 and it's been awesome. Took it on vacation with me to southern Michigan and picked up some pretty awesome stuff. Now I'm looking at all these antenna diagrams going, "Hmmm. I could do that..."
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Dec 1, 2014 19:14
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I ended up ditching the RTL-SDR, as I suspect my particular unit is defective. I picked up a Grundig S450DLX "field radio" at Radio Shack on Black Friday. No SSB support or direct frequency entry, but it's proving to be lots of fun til I drop the big bucks on an HF transceiver. Stuff heard so far from Long Island: 7.491 MHz ... WBCQ in Monticello, Maine .. Religious SW radio 7.518 MHz ... SCREAMING preacher ("The LAAAAWWWWWWWD" is the only thing audible over the noise floor) 7.305 MHz ... Spanish speech, odd loops of Pachebel's Canon song ripoff combo. # station? The incorrect notes at the end hint at a possible cipher ~7.345 MHz ... Spanish, somewhat unclear, possibly news radio? 5.964 MHz ... NHK Japanese Radio (fairly clear at 11:03 PM EST - very clear actually, w/ bursts of noise overlapping off-and-on, probably local RFI) 6.165 MHz ... sounds like English news (at 11pm.) (Radio Havana Cuba) ALSO SEE 6.180, which is in spanish and seems to interfere somewhat. 4.790 MHz ... Heartbeat-like tone (beacon?) that changes to bursts of CW frequently 7.340 MHz ... Romanian program, in English, at 11 PM. Bucharest 1? 7.340 MHz ... English news, sounds like it's about foreign affairs- Possibly Hungary. 7.455 MHz ... International news? English 5.890 MHz ... The coming is nigh! (overcomerministry.com) - Heard on this station: very apocalyptic poo poo, and also a doomsday preacher who sounds 35 or younger (I understand that's rare.. the other preachers on this frequency are elderly). Highlights: THE JEWS WORSHIP SATURN SATURN IS A HEXAGON-- HEXAGRAM-- SATAN!! GET OUT OF THE CITIES  6.000 MHz ... Radio Havana, Cuba -> NOTE: DX Unlimited program airs at oh, 10:30 pm? 10 pm? 11.950 MHz ... Chinese soap opera? 7.359 MHz ... French it seems. Unknown station call sign Got a lot of great recordings so far. If there is interest, I'll put them up on soundcloud or somewhere? General Tofu fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 04:55
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Put 'em up.
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Dec 3, 2014 06:17
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grilldos posted:Put 'em up. First of many. You Can't Beat Saturn on WWCR, 5.890 MHz  https://soundcloud.com/magnitude715/you-cant-beat-saturn General Tofu fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Dec 3, 2014 |
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Dec 3, 2014 06:59
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General Tofu posted:[List of detected frequencies and content] http://www.shortwaveschedule.com/ If you find a station and you want to know where it's coming from (or if you want to look for specific stations, stations in your preferred language, etc.) this site's pretty handy.
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Dec 3, 2014 07:51
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poeticoddity posted:http://www.shortwaveschedule.com/ If you find a station and you want to know where it's coming from (or if you want to look for specific stations, stations in your preferred language, etc.) this site's pretty handy. Wow, this site is great! I was able to find lots of the stations I've been hearing on there. Thanks! Will upload some more recordings soon, hope you guys enjoy.
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Dec 4, 2014 03:02
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General Tofu posted:First of many. Fantastic, I crave more.
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Dec 4, 2014 16:29
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General Tofu posted:First of many. This is amazing.
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Dec 5, 2014 04:55
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Same guy, different frequency. Listen for it, at one point I think I hear him yelling over his shoulder at people in the next room that he wishes they'd shut up if they disagree. I'll keep checking back on this guy, but will post a different oddity next. Black Hole Sun on WWCR, 5.890 MHz  https://soundcloud.com/magnitude715/black-hole-sun Partial Transcript: "the way not to be a black hole sun is to actually kill a fetus, to, you know, ritually murder ... a child, join the sex magic cult, have your orgasm and then murder someone and then you'll be, you'll go right to the top. (pause) Well, you'd have to get away with it or steal something or do something awful and have it work out and they, they, when they accept you ... (beyond the law?) (unintelligible) rock star? Jay-Z is a genius." Humanity Exterminated on WWCR, 13.845 MHz  https://soundcloud.com/magnitude715/humanity-exterminated General Tofu fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 09:11
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Little Baby Diseases and NO Dinosaurs on WWCR, 5.890 MHz https://soundcloud.com/magnitude715/little-baby-diseases-and-no-dinosaurs
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Dec 5, 2014 10:07
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I like to think of all of the HF spectrum as one huge art installation.
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Dec 5, 2014 16:35
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The Muffinlord posted:I like to think of all of the HF spectrum as one huge art installation. I'm wondering if we will ever maybe see the SW BC broadcasting laws/regs relaxed. As far as I know, right now it is pretty much literally impossible to spin up a new US shortwave station. It'd be pretty cool if we could see some companies reclaim a bit. There's a local AM broadcaster that has a very cool indie/alternative playlist and it's changed my opinions of AM broadcast, got me thinkin.
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Dec 5, 2014 19:23
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The Fourth Beast: Combining the Power of the Lion and Bear on WWCR, 5.890 MHz https://soundcloud.com/magnitude715/the-fourth-beast-combining-the-power-of-the-lion-and-bear General Tofu fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Dec 6, 2014 |
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Dec 6, 2014 07:37
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You inspired me and I've been making shortwave vines for a couple days https://vine.co/u/972655962244718592
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Dec 6, 2014 08:00
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General Tofu posted:The Fourth Beast: Combining the Power of the Lion and Bear on WWCR, 5.890 MHz Brother Stair  is 24/7 insanity on many shortwave frequencies, if you can't hear him your radio is broken.
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Dec 6, 2014 19:06
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Radio Nowhere posted:Brother Stair is 24/7 insanity on many shortwave frequencies, if you can't hear him your radio is broken. Do you have Stair in your radio? Also, great username.
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Dec 7, 2014 04:17
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| # ? May 16, 2024 13:45 |
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Radio Nowhere posted:Brother Stair You can join him for church if you go to SC. Assuming you aren't a man with long hair or a woman wearing pants. http://www.overcomerministry.org/Community.html
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Dec 8, 2014 17:52
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