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Let's hope this works out better than his last comeback
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# ? May 18, 2015 13:02 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:42 |
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Color me excited!
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# ? May 21, 2015 22:35 |
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I built one of those PA0RDT Mini-Whip active antennas. GO. NOW. GET ONE. There's a guy on ebay slinging the kits for 20 bucks or so. I built mine from chinaparts dead-bug style. I'm getting longwave down to 250 khz, it is a powerhouse on AM broadcast (so much so that I"m getting some harmonics/images through 5 MHz, but I'm fixing that) and excellent performance up through at least 22 MHz or so. i've never seen a performance/size ratio like this in an antenna ever. ever ever.
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# ? May 21, 2015 22:54 |
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So I just rebuilt my mag loop in anticipation of the new Art Bell show. It'll be great to have new shortwave content instead of the usual terminations of broadcasting we're getting increasingly used to. Edit: Holy poo poo, this thread turned eight years old last week. The thread is already in third grade.
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# ? Jun 18, 2015 00:10 |
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AstroZamboni posted:So I just rebuilt my mag loop in anticipation of the new Art Bell show. It'll be great to have new shortwave content instead of the usual terminations of broadcasting we're getting increasingly used to. Gimme the dish on the mag loop!. I've got a strong urge to build one, and a 1000pf 1.5 kilovolt air variable just sitting here. Also happy birthday thread only 3 more years and it's a solar cycle!
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# ? Jun 18, 2015 01:37 |
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I'm pretty sure the link is in the OP for the mag loop.
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# ? Jun 18, 2015 01:38 |
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oh yeah and i ran my mouth in the OP and everything, oops, its been a while. any upgrades or changes?
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# ? Jun 18, 2015 05:39 |
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nah, just the same design.
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# ? Jun 18, 2015 13:07 |
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The preachers are going crazy right now. Crazier than usual I mean. Long time reader, first time poster etc. I'm using an rtlsdr with this direct sampling modification http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-direct-sampling-mode/ and a wire antenna. The performance is surprisingly decent. I think I'm going to take a stab at building an upconverter and a better antenna.
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# ? Jun 29, 2015 06:13 |
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I got a Grundig Satellit 700 from a yard sale, I figured for $15 it was a decent gamble. Tried it with some D-Cells and a 9 volt adapter I had but all that happens is static coming from the speaker and it doesn't turn on. Any suggestions?
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# ? Jul 8, 2015 05:42 |
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Pop it open and check for loose wires. Had to do that on my E5 a few years ago when I had a similar issue. Found a single loose wire with an obvious connection point and soldered it in place. Good as new afterwards. Might want to check out the DIY electronics thread too, as they might be able to offer good advice.
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# ? Jul 8, 2015 17:10 |
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So I found my dad's old SW radio, a Panasonic RF-5000A from the late 60s. I played around with it for a short time, but not knowing much about radio aside from my physics student knowledge I figured I'd ask you guys about it. I hosed around for an hour or two trying to find stuff to listen to, but I couldn't really hear much aside from faint voices through heavy static, a distorted NPR broadcast, and the local high-power AM station. I'm positive I'm using it incorrectly, but I couldn't even seem to pick up the "time standard" radio station (WWV?) that I looked up on Wikipedia. For what it's worth, I'm within visual line-of-sight of the biggest transmitter farm in the Cleveland area, and I can see tons of blinking red lights at night from said antennae. What do the buttons in the last image do? Which ones should I have turned on and when? What position should the antenna(s) be in for best reception? I definitely noticed a change when I touched it (IIRC the human body can act as an antenna sometimes) but I couldn't figure much else beyond that. It has a loop antenna and two whip antennas, one slightly bigger than the other. Is it worth pursuing anything else with this lead brick of a radio, or should I relegate it to the "curiosity" pile? If I can get some good listening from just buying a cheap external antenna, then I'll stick with it; but if it's so outdated that it's not worth it then I'll just stick it back in the closet and forget about it. Luneshot fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Jul 13, 2015 |
# ? Jul 13, 2015 00:28 |
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Luneshot posted:So I found my dad's old SW radio, a Panasonic RF-5000A from the late 60s. Luneshot posted:What do the buttons in the last image do?Which ones should I have turned on and when? AFC: Automatic Frequency Control. I don't know about that specific radio, but sometimes that's only for FM reception. If the radio is tuned slightly off of a stronger signal, this will 'pull' the receiver onto the exact frequency. ANL: Automatic Noise Limiter. Self-explanatory, try that on and off to see which sounds better. BFO: Beat Frequency Oscillator. This is how you'd be able to listen to Single Sideband signals (how amateur radio operators talk to each other, as well as a few utility signals like long-range aeronautical forecasts). After sunset you can try tuning/fine tuning between 3.6-4 or 7.1-7.3 MHz and, after finding a signal, using the MGC thumbwheel (I believe) to adjust the BFO pitch to make the speech intelligible. MGC: Manual Gain Control. At least, I'm almost certain that's what this is. Local is less gain, DX is more. There's usually little point in having this anywhere but pegged to the DX side. Luneshot posted:What position should the antenna(s) be in for best reception? Luneshot posted:Is it worth pursuing anything else with this lead brick of a radio, or should I relegate it to the "curiosity" pile? If I can get some good listening from just buying a cheap external antenna, then I'll stick with it; but if it's so outdated that it's not worth it then I'll just stick it back in the closet and forget about it.
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# ? Jul 13, 2015 01:24 |
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Luneshot posted:So I found my dad's old SW radio, a Panasonic RF-5000A from the late 60s. I played around with it for a short time, but not knowing much about radio aside from my physics student knowledge I figured I'd ask you guys about it. Take it outside and tune around. In the day, try bands above 10MHz. At night, try bands below 10MHz. I can't pick up poo poo inside my house, but I just went for a walk outside with my $15 shortwave radio and picked up dozens of loony preachers, some strong Spanish stations, and New Zealand. Or sell it to me, I reckon that hunk of junk might be worth $30
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# ? Jul 15, 2015 06:51 |
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Art Bell's new show starts tonight! 5085 khz, midnight eastern!
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# ? Jul 20, 2015 22:26 |
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AstroZamboni posted:Art Bell's new show starts tonight! 5085 khz, midnight eastern! Trying real hard to stay with it, but there is some 20db worth of white noise sweeping up and down the frequency here.
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# ? Jul 21, 2015 05:33 |
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Try 7490, 9330 or 6070.
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# ? Jul 21, 2015 06:31 |
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Blasting in to Denver on 5085. Loving this.
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# ? Jul 21, 2015 06:50 |
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420 LISTEN TO ART BELL ERRYDAY
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# ? Jul 22, 2015 04:51 |
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We don't have an Art Bell/C2C thread anymore, do we? I am picking up 5085 khz surprisingly well in Nebraska with my G6's built in antenna. Even though my computer is right here, listening to Art on shortwave seems more appropriate.
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# ? Jul 22, 2015 05:24 |
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I ended up streaming it off the web while watching the interference dance around on the air with my SDR dongle. It was cool to hear something on shortwave that isn't a fundie preaching session or a right-wing rally speech, finally a program with interesting topics and guests.. A+ would listen again.
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# ? Jul 22, 2015 05:25 |
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wa27 posted:We don't have an Art Bell/C2C thread anymore, do we? We do! Coast to Coast AM Thread The sound quality on the internet stream is excellent, but Art's made for the radio.
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# ? Jul 22, 2015 17:50 |
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Haven't listened to shortwave in quite sometime and decided to tune in last night. Holy poo poo, there is a lot more racist-flavored crazy than I remember.
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# ? Jul 24, 2015 05:46 |
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java posted:Haven't listened to shortwave in quite sometime and decided to tune in last night. Holy poo poo, there is a lot more racist-flavored crazy than I remember. 80 meter amateur radio or 'Pastor' Pete Peters?
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# ? Jul 24, 2015 20:54 |
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That's why I went to only one meeting of my local ham club and never went back. Holy Jesus
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# ? Jul 24, 2015 21:40 |
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Radio Nowhere posted:80 meter amateur radio or 'Pastor' Pete Peters? It was at 3185 khz. Looking it up, might have been the overcomer ministry?
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# ? Jul 25, 2015 02:52 |
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AstroZamboni posted:That's why I went to only one meeting of my local ham club and never went back. Holy Jesus That's why I never got more into the hobby beyond listening to SW. I never went into ham radio because every time I listened is old men complaining about black people. Sadly, my life has been so busy in the last five years I maybe make the time for SW like once per year.
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# ? Jul 25, 2015 03:30 |
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The idealistic side of me says that you should be the change you want to see, the more proportion we have of younger/non-ailment-chat hams on the air, the more it goes away The pragmatic, realistic side of me says that you need a hell of a station to ragchew on the regular on 75 meters, and the types of antennas you use require acreage, and the cheapest acreage is in Iowa, and so you get a bunch of people that are okay with living in a state like Iowa being given the loudest signals on the band. Hence the rather one-track nature of the chats. I don't even tune down there any more. 40's as old school as I get. WARC bands are where it's at, but the top two are neutered due to our wet firecracker of a sunspot cycle.
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# ? Jul 25, 2015 03:57 |
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The old farts around here like talking about the time they saw Floyd as well as replacement hips, obummer, and skywarn Two outta four ain't bad when you consider the hail damage they saved my car over the years.
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# ? Jul 25, 2015 07:02 |
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java posted:It was at 3185 khz. Looking it up, might have been the overcomer ministry? Might have, depends on the hour. WWRB has been airing other religious nutters recently on 3185. They become way too familiar the more you get into the hobby. It'll be a weird day if I ever turn on a shortwave radio and Brother (overcomer) is nowhere to be heard! Then again Peter Peters and Gene Scott have been dead for years and they still haunt the dial
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# ? Jul 25, 2015 23:01 |
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When it comes to shortwave religious nutters this program has to be the most metal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcETroAozlo Not my clip, but always weird fun when I stumble upon it.
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# ? Jul 26, 2015 19:05 |
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Radio Nowhere posted:Might have, depends on the hour. WWRB has been airing other religious nutters recently on 3185. They become way too familiar the more you get into the hobby. It'll be a weird day if I ever turn on a shortwave radio and Brother (overcomer) is nowhere to be heard! Gene Scott was the poo poo when he was up on C-Band on AMC2 or whatever it was. He was 24/7. I had an old satellite dish and a 2x4 in my yard, I used to drag out this black and white TV and basically put it on his transponder and wave it around until Gene Scott appeared on my TV, then I knew where I was. We used to play a game to see what was going on when we tuned in to him. Was he wearing glitter? Was he interviewing Playboy bunnies? Was he talking about how Atlantis is in the Bible?
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# ? Aug 5, 2015 01:48 |
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Was he screaming obscenities at his terrified staff? Ah, good times.
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# ? Aug 5, 2015 02:57 |
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Fun fact: listening to the Conet Project while stoned will totally gently caress your poo poo up. Highly recommended.
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# ? Aug 8, 2015 05:33 |
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AstroZamboni posted:Fun fact: listening to the Conet Project while stoned will totally gently caress your poo poo up. Highly recommended. So is playing it when a co-worker is reading that Above Top Secret forum.
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# ? Aug 9, 2015 03:57 |
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After a few years of being in storage, I found my Grunding G3 and RadioShack DX-394. After spending a few weeks with the G3 and whip in the basement, I decided to upgrade to a multi-band longwire antenna. It isn't as good as the dipole antenna I made a few years ago, but I'll rebuild that one soon enough. I've been listening to WMRI on 7570 mhz for the last half hour (21:30-22:00 UTC) and it's been nothing but people yelling things like "Help me, Jesus!" and "I can't do it myself, Lord!" over a background of unintelligible moaning/wailing voices, a woman who seems to be in the throes of a lackluster orgasm, and ambient piano. Good Lord, I've missed this poo poo.
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# ? Sep 7, 2015 00:43 |
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Something Awful was called out on Art Bell tonight for Slenderman.
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# ? Sep 17, 2015 07:26 |
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AstroZamboni posted:Fun fact: listening to the Conet Project while stoned will totally gently caress your poo poo up. Highly recommended. He's right you know. In fact, it's the only way to listen to the Conet Project
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# ? Sep 30, 2015 14:28 |
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A something awful goon is on Colbert right now talking about number stations. Awesome.
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# ? Oct 16, 2015 06:35 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 14:42 |
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For anyone interested, HackADay recently posted a nice intro to number stations: http://hackaday.com/2015/10/29/secret-radio-stations-by-the-numbers/
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# ? Oct 29, 2015 20:38 |