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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:Apologies for the poor quality, but would it happen to sound like this? HOLY loving poo poo, YES! Where did you find this? Did you record it?
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Jun 13, 2007 00:35
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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:I just stumbled across it around 2235 today at 11800 khz. I listened for about 5 minutes or so and then it cut out and went to Cuban programming that I couldn't understand. I recorded it with my Pocket PC. I need some sort of line recorder for times like that. Cool. I wonder if this might be an interval signal of some kind to hold a station on the air without broadcasting dead air in order to keep anyone else from broadcasting on a frequency you want to hold? owenkun posted:So I'm in the midst of filling out a spreadsheet and GONG BONG BING BONG EINS ZWEI READY READY BWAHAHAHAHAHA! That's loving beautiful. That's happened to me with my iPod, too. One time I spent an entire week listening to CONET as I fell asleep at night. I think I might have caused permanent damage to my sanity.
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Jun 13, 2007 01:04
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Halah posted:My wife HATES the Conet project. She also works on the road and lives out of hotels most of the year. A couple nights ago I cut out a juicy part of Swedish Rhapsody and made it a ringtone, then sent it to her phone. At 3AM. I'm gonna get my rear end kicked the next time she comes home, but it was funny. You are one magnificent bastard.
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Jun 13, 2007 01:23
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Halah posted:I'll send it to you if you want. You don't have plat, but you can email me at halah34@gmail with your number. Wouldn't do me any good, as I don't currently have a cell phone. However, I do have software for making CONET ringtones should I get one at some future date. Thanks though!
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Jun 13, 2007 01:36
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Halah posted:Outside is better. Back in the home ownership days I tossed a wire out the window and up over the roof. You can also run one to the top of a tree if it's convenient. Depending on what your gutters are made of, you can even use them as part of your antenna. Right now I have a wire wrapped around the outside of my window. I have a copper hose faucet right beneath my window and I ground it to that. My window faces east-southeast, making it perfect for picking up Cuba, but not so great for receiving Asian stations.
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Jun 13, 2007 03:56
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solorca posted:I need to dig my shortwave radio out of the closet to get in on the fun. I received it as a gift from a Ham radio loving uncle when I was really young, but I never paid much attention to it. Everytime I've ever messed with it, I've had a hard time hearing anything that unusual, however. It takes patience, and knowing where to look. What bands/frequencies does the receiver cover?
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Jun 13, 2007 04:18
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Halah posted:Can you email me? halah34@gmail You can e-mail me at philipmcabacus4 at gmail dot com.
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Jun 13, 2007 04:40
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You sir are a gentleman and a scholar and are the living embodiment of ten kinds of awesome. I and all of my kind salute you, and when the Zamboni revolution comes you will be made prime minister of Arizona!
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Jun 13, 2007 04:54
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killabyte posted:Well, I bought a 7600GR a few months ago and even imported the Sony Active Antenna from Japan. I live in an apartment so a longwire antenna is impossible. Has anyone had any luck finding anything interesting on the air in California? It seems like I am in the wrong time zone for this stuff. Trying to find SW stuff from California is probably no harder than trying from Arizona (where I'm located) so here's some advice. Find schedules/frequencies for prominent international broadcasts. Around sunset and into the night you should be well placed for picking up a lot of asian broadcasts. ou can probably also pick up Cuba pretty easily. Orient your active antenna towards the west and try to pick up Cherry Ripe, which is the Far East version of MI6's "Lincolnshire Poacher" number station broadcast from guam. You'll need to practice tuning upper sideband, but it'll be worth it. Very likely the coolest number station you'll be able to reach and easiest around 7 PM (local time). Around the same time of day, try to pull in Voice of Korea. That'll put some ahir on your rear end.
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Jun 13, 2007 05:44
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Halah posted:If I understand this correctly, you mean wrapping the end of some bare wire around the end of an antenna that comes with your radio? That will work, yes. A better way, if your radio has a connection for an external antenna, would be to connect the wire to something that can plug in to your radio's external antenna jack. Do this. You can get 1/8 inch phone plug connectors at Radio Shack for a buck or two, and wire up your wire to that. That will disconnect the whip antenna when you plug it in (which is probably an amplified antenna) and allow you to just use the long wire in its place. You'll get better reception and selectivity that way. Edit: Here's a link for a 1/8 inch phone plug connector. AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jun 13, 2007 |
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Jun 13, 2007 06:11
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hoju22 posted:I have a feeling this new obsession is going to burn a hole through my wallet and leave me with 3 and a half to 4 radios in various states of disrepair. Welcome to the club, my work here is done.
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Jun 13, 2007 06:17
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Shastao posted:I have a question, is there any sort of modification I could do to say allow me to use my car's antenna for mobile shortwave reception without having to break out a huge conspicuous antenna? Alligator clips or something? Mobile SW reception from a car is...nigh impossible. I've tried, oh lord have I tried. Reception is tricky enough, and you tend to have to orient your radio and antenna in a way that it receives best and interference doesn't affect it as much. Unfortunately, while driving in a car, not only are you constantly re-orienting the radio and antenna, you're also driving amongst people using FM transmitter iPod adapters which cause ungodly interference. Not so much on strong local stations, but while trying to DX they can throw off a lot of RF noise (which is entirely the point, I guess). If anyone has found a way to successfully shortwave-ify a car, please chime in. I'd love to hear it.
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Jun 13, 2007 16:23
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blugu64 posted:Yes, SSB is referroing to using either the upper half of the wavelength (USB), or the lower half (LSB). I'm not familliar with the E5 enough to tell you how it tells you if you are using USB or LSB, but I'd assume it would say USB or LSB on the LCD, or the switch you use to select SSB mode. It just says SSB on the display, but there is a fine tning knob on the right side for tuning between USB and LSB. WHere the knob is positioned can let you know whether the signal is USB/LSB.
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Jun 13, 2007 19:26
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hudibrastic posted:Lots of Eton love here, which is great. But don't count out Sony, they've been making portable radios for 50 years. The 7600GR is a great radio and if you can find a ICF-2010 (produced from 1985-2003) at a good price, snatch it up. I've never used a 2010, but many guys swear that it's the best portable radio ever made. If you get, it, be sure to give us a full review. Those things are hella sexy. I just wish they had an internal ferrite rod...
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Jun 14, 2007 01:13
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DarkSol posted:
Between the higher-end sony portables and the Eton E5 (which is only around 150, unlike the E1) there are really more similarities than differences. It boils down to reading up on the features and prices and deciding which one works best for your needs.
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Jun 14, 2007 01:35
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So which do you suggest? The Sony or the Eton? I had a Grundig way way back in the day, but it wasn't that great. (It was rather inexpensive.)
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Curly Shuffle posted:Because of this thread, I received delivery of an Eton E5 yesterday. I stayed up way past my bedtime last night listening to Taiwan, China, Moscow, Cuba, Voice of America, the Netherlands, and some armed forces radio on SSB. I'm going to try to find the previously mentioned Coast to Coast on shortwave tonight, since my local AM affiliates have crummy reception. Thanks for the thread. You will enjoy many sleepless nights, and the days after these sleepless nights you will rue the day this thread came to be. Welcome to the party! Jesus, can we get a roll call of everyone who bought a radio because they were inspired by this thread? Be sure to post what radio you bought and how much you spent on it. I want to add stats on monetary drain caused by this thread to the OP.
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Jun 14, 2007 06:53
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Okay, monetary drain stats added to the OP. Frightening, actually. Looking at the numbers I'm stunned that this happened.
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Jun 14, 2007 18:45
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StarkRavingMad posted:I bet the actual numbers are higher than that too -- but people either don't want to admit they got sucked in, or went and bought something and then never checked back in. Yikes.
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Jun 14, 2007 19:03
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4outof5 posted:I was poking around a pawn shop today during lunch and there was a Grundig S350DL for 40 dollars, I said what the hell and got it. After getting home and starting to read reviews online it seems I got a really expensive AM radio that will never get anything interesting. Any rays of hope or are the negative reviews pretty much spot on? S350DL actually has very good sound quality and sensitivity, and it has the frequency lock feature (which the S350 standard lacks). It should actually be a pretty good radio, from my experience.
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Jun 15, 2007 00:22
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DarkSol posted:What should I do for an antenna? I live in an apartment, but it's an on-campus one, and I don't think housing would particularly like it if I strung wire everywhere and hit me with a potential fire hazard violation bs deal. Anything that could be nice and neat? Oddly enough, Bed Bath and Beyond sometimes has good sales on Eton radios. Might be worth checking out.
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Jun 15, 2007 01:29
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Halah posted:Holy hell, what's all that noise I'm hearing?!? Most of the time it's normal radio white noise, but shortwave is very prone to interference. Sometimes the interference can block a signal completely, and possibly frustrate a new listener. With the aid of Gordon West's ham CD's I can share some common noises and maybe help cure them (I got mod approval for this post.) Totally awesome. Do you mind if I add this to the OP?
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Jun 15, 2007 03:41
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DarkSol posted:Bed, Bath and Beyond? You have to be joking! Or is that part of the "Beyond" part? Indeed. I was rather stunned when I went there to buy towels and found SW receivers. Bizarre.
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Jun 15, 2007 03:42
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Aqua Bear posted:Sorry for the stupid question, but I live in Hawaii and I'm wondering how this would affect reception. Would I be able to hear things differently because I'm in the middle of loving nowhere? I'm checking google right now. Actually, Hawaii means your well placed for receiving broadcasts from both the continental US and Asia. You should be able to hear all kinds of interesting poo poo. Haydez posted:I picked up a Sony 7600 at the Ham Radio Outlet on the way home from work today. The receiver I've been using hasn't aged too well so I figured I'd try this one out. Hoping RHC will come in clearer with my new setup. It's sad, but one of the main reasons I'm looking to move into a house is so I can drape antennas all over the loving place. How much did you spend on it? I can update the stats in the OP.
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Jun 15, 2007 16:20
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I've updated the OP, adding updated financial drain and interference clips.
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Jun 15, 2007 17:08
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Dog Case posted:So I was out and about today, and, well, this happened again. Jesus merciful crap, that is one HELL of a find! Good work!
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Jun 16, 2007 07:16
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Paperweight posted:I broke down and ordered a Sony ICF-SW7600GR. It's synchronous selectable sideband broke the tie with the Eton G5. I did have to buy the AC power supply seperately from Universal Radio though. Sony just couldn't seem to make a supply that doesn't cause interference and include it with the radio. I guess that would make the Eton the easiest buy since I suppose it has everything with it. I would have bought an Eton E1 if I had a little more credit left. How much were the radio and power supply? I'll add it to the tally. Edit: Nevermind, I looked it up on Universal radio. AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Jun 16, 2007 |
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Jun 16, 2007 07:17
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Dog Case posted:Just last night I was on the verge of ordering an E5 or the Radioshack version of the Sangean 909 used from Universal, but I decided to at least wait for my next paycheck. Am I correct in thinking the YB400 has SSB? I have a neighbor who has one and loves it. Edit: By the way, what the gently caress is "Value Village?"
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Jun 16, 2007 08:26
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Dog Case posted:Yep, it does. Value Village is a chain thrift store kind of thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_Village Oh, Savers. I'm actually going to one later today for other reasons, I just didn't know it had different names in different states. Yes, they sometimes smell like pee.
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Jun 16, 2007 17:21
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blugu64 posted:Well on my humble S350, I just picked up WHO 1040am out of Des Moines from my apartment in doors in Dallas Texas! Grundig/Eton SW receivers tend to be REALLY sensetive in the Medium wave frequencies. I've been able to pick up some craze distant MW stations (like Seattle from Arizona) using my E5. I think this tends to be true of any well made SW receiver. The E5 also gets the cleanest FM reception of any radio I've used. I use it every weekend to listen to A Prairie Home Companion. 
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Jun 18, 2007 16:07
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SoundMonkey posted:So, I managed to score myself an Eton E5. Is $120 CAD (like $105-$110 USD) a good price for one? Very good price. They typically run 150 US for a new one.
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Jun 19, 2007 02:01
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Halah posted:Radio Havana is hilarious when they launch into 20 minutes of anti-American propaganda. Those are called "Border Blasters" and they set up on the Mexican side of border towns and pretty much violate every US broadcasting law.
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Jun 19, 2007 06:54
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So I was listening to CONET samples tonight...and I realized that this is the face of girl who's voice broadcasts "The Swedish Rhapsody."
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Jun 19, 2007 07:00
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Dog Case posted:Anybody else getting crap reception tonight? I'm getting a lot of interference from a local nearby Radio Disney station. THen again, I always get interference from Radio Disney.
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Jun 19, 2007 07:13
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SoundMonkey posted:Question... does the telescoping antenna on my E5 even do anything for shortwave? Yes, it does. Try experimenting with partially retracting it on certain bands and swiveling it. You'll soon get a feel for which lengths/orientations will serve you best. Yeah, bluetooth'll gently caress yer poo poo up.
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Jun 19, 2007 07:36
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Dog Case posted:I thought I'd found a weird signal the other day. Sounded like a data transmission, but it was very irregular and intermittent. Turns out it was my wireless mouse Isn't it odd how identifying the frequencies household items throw off is almost as fun as DXing? Edited for grammarly speaking good.
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Jun 19, 2007 07:43
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Some of these morse broadcasts could be letter beacons, a bizarre phenomenon thought to be related to Numbers Traffic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_beacon
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Jun 20, 2007 02:13
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DarkSol posted:Almost have enough for an E1 Badass! Be sure to provide a thorough review! You getting the straight up E1 or the souped up E1XM?
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Jun 20, 2007 02:24
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I can't wait!
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DarkSol posted:Just the straight up E1... I'd rather not pay MORE for XM radio, and then have to pay for a subscription, if that's how it works. Actually, they cost exactly the same, 500 smackers. The E1 XM just gives you the option of adding XM at a later date.
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Jun 20, 2007 02:33
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SoundMonkey posted:It already has, really. I can't seem to pick up much of anything at all during the daytime, on any band, but at night, I rarely see it scan more than 20kHz before something else pops up. I have yet to hear anything non-standard (so far: preachers, nav beacons, and news broadcasts), but I hope to hear a numbers station or some other cool thing soon. The schedule pages on Simon Mason's pages and Spynumbers dot com can really help you know when and where to listen. Links are in the OP.
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Jun 20, 2007 17:13
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Mike B posted:Another fun thing I've found, once you have been picking through for awhile and found a couple stations, make sure to note down their frequency. Later, go type the frequency into google, or just find a bigass frequency list, try to find the most likely station that was broadcasting based on broadcast times and nearest location to you. It's cool to find out its info like this, but even more cool is if the list has the geographic coordinates for your station, copy those into Google Earth and let her fly. On Simon Mason's "Shortwave Espionage" Numbers station page (towards the top) there are links to photos on Google Maps of known Number traffic transmitter sites. They were provided by a mysterious individual referred to on the site as "Tristan S." I wonder who that is?  Also, I know a dude who drops A while listening to SW. He has some stories, I tells ya what.
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Jun 20, 2007 23:16
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will probably melt your mind. Beats sitting on your rear end watching TV anytime. Don't freak yourself out though. 