Achtung! Its the one and only Shortwave Radio Uberthread!

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nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Just because I haven't seen it mentioned in the last couple of pages, there's a dedicated ham thread over in A/V: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2386322

It's cool that we're getting more people interested in SWLing.

One of my goals in the next few months is to get some money together and get a decent older tabletop, like a Yaesu FRG-100 (or something in that price range). Or, I may save my money and get a used FT-100 or 857 or... :smith:

Then I have to get some kind of real antenna put up again. Hmmm...

# ¿ Jun 19, 2007 10:15

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 00:17

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

edit: ^^ didn't even see you mention Universal.

DarkSol posted:

You know, it's really hard to find an E1 anywhere on the net. (Amazon has it for $600 which is $100 more than what Eton even says it should be.)

I shall continue my hunt for the greater good!

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/0101.html

First portable listed at Universal Radio. $499, with a free $80 radio thrown in.

edit 2: ok, reading further, this one is the XM model as well. Still a good deal with the YB-550 thrown in, though.

nmfree fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Jun 21, 2007

# ¿ Jun 21, 2007 06:16

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

If this has been mentioned already, my apologies...

Something to keep in mind, if you're using a portable w/ a wire antenna, is to clip the wire to the antenna itself as opposed to using the antenna jack. Many portables have an attenuator built into the jack to help with static or lightning discharges; if you're just running your wire in your room or on a balcony or something, you don't need to worry about those.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2007 03:37

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

SoundMonkey posted:

That hasn't been mentioned, thanks for the tip. So, for the Eton, would I just touch the tip of the 1/8" connector to the telescopic antenna? I'm assuming only the tip is used, or that both sleeve and tip are tied together or something, since there's only one wire. Is this correct?

Just the tip, yes; the sleeve is supposed to be connected to ground.

SoundMonkey posted:

Also, will I get decent results just attaching the antenna to something big and metal? I ask because the person in the apartment next to me has their entire balcony enclosed in chicken wire to keep squirrels out, and it seems like it could be a great antenna.

You may, it's worth experimenting with.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2007 05:06

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Paperweight posted:

I had a 3 prong AC plug with screw terminals laying around. I attached a green wire to it's ground prong only. I plugged it into the wall outlet and connected the ground connection of the 1/8" plug to it.

DISCONNECT THIS IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS NOT WHAT THEY MEAN BY GROUND!

Best case scenario is you fry your radio and burn your house down, worst case scenario is you get killed by this. NEVER plug something into an outlet that isn't specifically designed to be plugged in.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2007 19:01

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Paperweight posted:

It's a fully encased 3 prong plug. It's usually used for replacing broken ends on drop cords. I've been using it for months now and haven't died horribly unfortunately. The hot and neutral are very well separated from the ground connection. I used 600 volt insulated wire as well. I used to use the outlet cover screw for a ground connection on AM projects as a kid.

What does it mean by ground then? Some of us are a little dense and need to be filled in.

The ground that you need is an 8' copper rod driven into the ground as close to the radio as possible. It does not mean tap into the ground on your wall socket (for all you know there is no proper grounding on the wall sockets in your dwelling and they're bonded to the neutral in the panel or something) or attach to the cold water pipe (besides the fact that the ground path is usually too long via piping, who knows what material the pipe is outside your home? Plus, if you connect on the house side of the meter, there is often plastic connections inside the meter itself, insulating the pipe from the dirt outside.).

The way you have it set up, all it takes is a loose wire in a refrigerator or washing machine to have a loose wire touch the cabinet and all kinds of bad things will happen.

Sorry to be a prick about this, but people have killed themselves and burned their homes down because of improper grounding.

Halah posted:

10000 is WWV, the atomic clock station in Ft. Collins, CO.

http://www.lownoiserecords.com/wwv_the_tick.html

# ¿ Jun 24, 2007 21:38

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

YASD posted:

As a cheap college student, is there a somewhat workable low cost way to at least partially experience the wonders of shortwave? ...What, in essence, is the biggest bang for my buck?

For about $100, you can do very nicely indeed. $25 should go toward a copy of Passport, and the remainder on a radio. If you get the book, you'll be able to pick something out based on their reviews, otherwise I'd suggest something like this (if you're comfortable using eBay) or even this to start out with for not a lot of money.

YASD posted:

Is a police radio tracker cheaper?

You're talking about a scanner, which is completely different.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2007 00:01

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

SpunkyRedKnight posted:

Does anyone know if it's worth looking into wideband receivers or would it be better to buy a shortwave radio and scanner separately if I was looking into the AM to GHz range?

Yes, these are made. However, you know how the saying goes: jack of all trades, etc.

They usually have bad sensitivity and selectivity on the low bands, and usually have poor intermod rejection on the high bands.

Having said that, however, Passport gave both the $2500 AOR AR5000A+3 and the (illegal to purchase domestically) $1700 Icom R8500 four stars, so they aren't all bad.

edit: I don't want to completely sound like I hate wideband (so-called DC-to-daylight) receivers; in fact, ME WANTEE. It's just that wideband receivers are usually scanners that happen to cover HF, so features and refinements useful for shortwave listening are usually lacking.

nmfree fucked around with this message at 00:52 on Jun 25, 2007

# ¿ Jun 25, 2007 00:50

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

PancakeMan posted:

Sad thing is that for some reason it skips a few chunks of frequency. Anybody else have one of these and find a way around this? (For example I was trying to get the 6.6 shortwave frequency this morning and the radio skips from 6.35 to 7.05), cause it's kinda dissappointing not being able to hear stuff you know is there.

Nope. In order to keep costs down, they used a single-conversion receiver inside. What this basically means is that you're physically limited to what you already get unless you modify the circuitry to add another mixing crystal.

On the up side, you're not missing all that much anyway.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2007 01:13

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

thehustler posted:

In a few weeks time I'm off to the Lake District again to do some walking and kayaking, so hopefully I'll be able to do some listening in the countryside away from noisy RF, and I'll try and get some far off poo poo.

I'm hoping to get up north this summer yet and string up a Beverage antenna or a nice tall inverted vee- I have plenty of wire (I rescued a cable that was used for controlling some sort of fire system from a dumpster: 300'+ with 8 18 AWG conductors) and I have some coax sitting around; I'd take my Yaesu FT-757GX (even though it's not all that great for SW DXing) and run it off a booster pack or marine deep cycle battery.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2007 09:37

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Milka posted:

OK, I read through the dry parts of the passband book this weekend, can someone explain to me what an inverted-L antenna is and what the difference between that and longwire is? Does the reel-up antenna that I got with my E10 count as a longwire? Also, what's this Yagi that I keep hearing about?

In short: An inverted-L is in the shape of an "L", but with the horizontal part on top and sometimes the whole thing is angled so the 90 degree angle is pointing into the air. A longwire is just a random length of wire attatched at one end to the radio and the other end either floating or connected to ground. Look around your neighborhood above the roofline- see the TV antennas above some houses? Those are Yagis.

If you have a NetLibrary account, they have Joe Carr's Practical Antenna Handbook available for free; there are better books that are more specialized and in-depth, but this is the best generalized handbook to read and keep around hands down.

Milka posted:

Furthermore if I want to catch a station for example from the east, should I set up a longwire pointing towards the east, or towards north-south? I understand that since these stations use antenna nets to broadcast, polarity wouldn't matter.

The only antenna that has a lobe off of the end is a Beverage antenna, which is a longwire that is at least 1500 feet long. All of the rest are off of the broadside of the antenna.

Polarity doesn't matter much, since the polarity gets scrambled as a result of bouncing off the ionosphere.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2007 21:49

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Halah posted:

Hahaha yup, that's American SW in a nutshell right there.

It really is too bad that, because of Uncle Charlie, this is about all that American SW can ever aspire to be.

Contrast with Canada, for example. Even though America Jr.'s only major SW presence is RCI (which is now nothing more than rebroadcasting/simulcasting the CBC), there are a number of small stations situated in more remote areas that rebroadcast the MW programming. Passport lists only four in the 2007 edition, but there used to be twice as many, and you could actually hear several of them, especially during the daytime.

ah, gently caress it

[ramble]
The sorry state of affairs regarding SW broadcasting in the US is because of a unique rule imposed by the FCC: no SW broadcasts may be targeted to the USA itself. All SW broadcasts must be targeted, both in programming and broadcast pattern, to foreign lands, including the official propaganda arm of the United States, the VOA. (In fact, VOA is prohibited by Federal Statute from giving away freebies to United States addresses. I don't even think they can give a QSL card, but they can verify reception.) Many domestic broadcasters get around this by claiming they are doing missionary work in Mexico or Canada or some such nonsense with a wink and nod toward the FCC. Even stations like the now defunct WRNO, which used to simulcast Rush Limbaugh, had to make some flimsy pretext of broadcasting to Americans abroad (or something) in order to get their license.

There is hope, however. The FCC has started to understand the power and potential of SW, and a few years ago greatly loosened the international target rule. AFAIK, however, the basic idea is still being enforced, which is unfortunate. I am willing to wager that a number of stations in the US would be greatly interested in simulcasting on SW. Imagine being able to listen to a baseball game while driving across the country in your car. Or getting local news updates from across the country while camping. The possibilities are endless.

[/rambling]

# ¿ Jun 26, 2007 08:54

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Clock Explosion posted:

However, when I went home for a weekend, I brought it with me and was ecstatic when I could pick up some sort of oriental station, the CLR (or was it a CTR? It was a Chinese news station that broadcasts in English)

You heard either CRI or RTI, or maybe both!

# ¿ Jun 26, 2007 19:23

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Ol' Tortoiseblossom posted:

The crazy DX-specific show on Radio Havana, in between yammering about a lot of technical stuff that I didn't understand, was talking about how the solar flux is getting better for reception, so maybe we have some good reception times ahead.

Good ol' Arne Coro, he's actually pretty on top of things, especially considering he lives in Cuba. It's funny to hear him talk about all these technical things in one program, and then a few minutes later talk about the evil United States in another program.

Anyway, we are at the rising component of the solar cycle right now, although still at the bottom part of the cycle. In about 5-6 years, the sunspot count will be high, which in turn will stimulate a thicker ionospheric layer, especially at night, and things will really start to cook.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2007 23:00

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

AstroZamboni posted:

I've been able to receive WWVH on 15 mHz in broad dalight several times, sometimes stronger than WWV.

In the mid 90s it wasn't too unusual to hear simulcasts on at least 3 of their channels... all day and well into the night. When solar activity is super high, the MUF at night can stay up around 14 or 15 mHz, which is, frankly, nuts.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2007 01:01

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

AstroZamboni posted:

One real pisser (I'm not sure which frequencies) is that somewhere very nearby to where I am is a local Radio Disney affiliate which transmits in AM AND Shortwave. They tend to cause godawful interference all over the place.

Are you sure you're not picking up harmonics from their MW transmitter?

# ¿ Jun 30, 2007 09:08

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

AstroZamboni posted:

Info added, as well as MAJOR updates to the entire OP with more links, InediblePenguin's Slinky antenna schematics and a bunch of other stuff.

If someone is really interested in making a slinky antenna, more information can be found here.

Or, you can build a tape measure dipole.

Or a beer can antenna.

Or a ladder antenna.

Or a Dodge dipole (I couldn't find an online reference to this, but the guy disconnected the batteries on his mid-80s Dodge station wagons and ran antenna leads to the frame of each car).

# ¿ Jul 2, 2007 08:40

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Elijah posted:

So what's the etiquette for QSL reports? Include an SASE (how the hell would you even do that for an international mailing?) and a local postcard or something?

Be polite, and try to make the letter not sound like a form letter. If you listened to a program in English, then they'll generally respond to correspondence in English as well.

Be sure to include:

Date/time/frequency
Quality of reception (either SINPO, RST, or plain English like "Reception was strong, not much interference, but the signal occasionally faded.")
Details of what you heard (I include at least 5 minutes of program details, if it's the news I'll write down what stories they covered; some people go so far as to record a clip of the show and include that with their letter)

Generally, you don't need to include anything, although some stations will ask for an IRC or two, mint local airmail stamps (which can be found on the internet somewhere I'm sure), or occasionally American currency (usually a $1 or $2). If you're not sure what they require (or appreciate), look it up in Passport, ask here and someone will look it up for you, or email the station (if they have some sort of email address). Otherwise, unless you know the station appreciates local pictures or knicknacks or whatever, I wouldn't send anything in the mail, because it makes it more likely to be stolen while en route or the stuff might just get thrown away by some mail clerk. (That's not to say that some smaller stations don't appreciate that stuff, just that some of the larger stations probably don't care all that much.)

Jedi_2 posted:

I've been thinking of buying a GE SuperRadio and an Shortwave radio, the reason for the GE Superradio is because I listen to C2C at night and I've heard that shortwave radio's are usually good at AM reception but not great can anyone confirm or deny this and if this is true do you know any radio's that are great at shortwave and AM?

There's no portable SW radio that will do MW nearly as well as a Super Radio III. In fact, there aren't many radios period that perform on MW like a SRIII (and a proper outdoor antenna). IMO the only SW radio that I would say is equally excellent in both MW and SW is the Drake R8 (R8A & R8B), but those run around $1000 on eBay.

nmfree fucked around with this message at 09:28 on Jul 4, 2007

# ¿ Jul 4, 2007 09:24

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Capnbigboobies posted:

I was listening around 3:41 Pacific time.

A.M. or P.M.?

Capnbigboobies posted:

6055 khz - Was in Japanese, I wonder if this is broadcast from Japan?

Passport says this is indeed coming from a suburb of Tokyo, assuming that it is in Japanese.

Capnbigboobies posted:

6095 khz - I didn't take any notes for this one but googling the freq seems to say stuff about Poland. I doubt I was able to listen to a station from there in California.

It could have been Radio Polonia, which broadcasts to Eastern Europe from 1900-2000 UTC in the summer. More likely, though, it was Radio Free Asia, which blasts 500KW at East Asia (China) from the Marianas.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2007 02:38

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

AstroZamboni posted:

I've heard WWV on other random frequencies before, and always assumed hey were RF reflections of some sort. However, it is possible that they do tests of their transmitters on other frequencies at times. Who knows?

It's far more likely that WWV and some other strong station are mixing inside the radio and coming out on this resultant frequency.

For instance, WWV on 2500 and a strong local MW station on 1310 would mix to produce the mysterious 4810 frequency. Or WWV on 10000 and something on 5190 would subtract to make 4810.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2007 20:22

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Elijah posted:

I'm getting a faint gospel station right now on 6145, but I can't figure out what it is from Passport. Anyone know?

No obvious images +/- 910 khz, so I dunno? It's doubtful that it's Gospel for Asia, although who knows? :google:

doesn't have any answers either.

edit: oh.

edit 2: wow, that was an African feed coming from Maine, nice catch.

nmfree fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Jul 12, 2007

# ¿ Jul 12, 2007 07:02

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Elijah posted:

Really? Cool! Too bad they signed off right before I posted the edit. Where did you find this listed?

World Harvest Radio

# ¿ Jul 12, 2007 07:38

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

meatpotato posted:

Edit: Well it looks like that free goon-only hosting is no good, it appears I don't have any bandwidth even though this is the first thing I've uploaded.

If it's less than 10MB, send it to me at nmfree@writeme.com . I'll put it on my hosting.

# ¿ Jul 16, 2007 21:18

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Elijah posted:

Where do I find it on shortwave? I found the affiliates list on their web site, and all I see are AM/FM stations.

AFAIK there is no SW outlet for Art.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2007 22:26

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Elijah posted:

Doh! I wish I would have known that PXes carry them.

Makes sense that they do, since AFRTS broadcasts on SW again.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2007 22:45

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Cmosfm posted:

I just got my radio and I'm having a hard time finding anything. Is it better to search with or without SSB on? Also, what are the most active frequencies. I'm using a Degen DE1103.

If you're using the built-in signal seek function, AM is your best bet.

If you're looking for things to listen to right now (~0200 UTC), start at 6000 kHz and slowly move upward. You'll hit tons of signals, some of them even in English!

Cmosfm posted:

EDIT: And Ham Radio conversations, which is best for those?

Manually tuning around the ham bands. Again, 0200 UTC, start at 3600 or 7125 kHz and tune upwards, you'll run across SSB signals pretty quickly as those are the 80 and 40 meter phone bands, respectively.

edit: haha post 666 in this thread!

# ¿ Jul 20, 2007 03:10

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Stuntman Mike posted:

What's so special about 0200 Zulu time? Is it just because that's right now, or is that usually a good time for finding stuff?

nmfree posted:

If you're looking for things to listen to right now (~0200 UTC)

# ¿ Jul 20, 2007 04:36

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Sennheiser posted:

Anyone that knows anything about radio scanners want to answer a couple of questions?

Certainly, we've already answered several scanner questions.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2007 03:32

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

AstroZamboni posted:

If someone who's an expert in scanners could post a bunch about it, making sort of a comprehensive "Scanner tutorial," I would certainly appreciate it. It would help make this a "general weird radio poo poo" thread which would be awesome.

My next big purchase will be a scanner.

Well, what would you like to know about? I've been into scanners almost as long as I've been into SW.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2007 09:50

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

AstroZamboni posted:

I know this is appallingly vague, but a comprehensive description of what a scanner can and can't do,

First, despite what anyone else might tell you, you don't need a trunking scanner to listen to a trunked system. The only way that you wouldn't be able to listen to a trunked system is if they use one of the digital voice modes/ digital encryption. The only thing that will be different is that you'll have to lock out the data control frequency (daily, if it rotates) and it's a little more difficult to follow individual conversations.

Other than that, there isn't much that a scanner won't be able to do. Any new radio you buy today will be set up for NFM at 12.5 kHz spacing on VHF (as opposed to the old 25 kHz channels).

AstroZamboni posted:

what frequencies they cover,

As many as you want to pay for, basically. The traditional Bearcat/Radio Shack scanner will cover 30-54, 138-170, 400-512, and 800-950 MHz (roughly), but there are also wideband radios that will cover a much greater swath of spectrum.

AstroZamboni posted:

what sort of things you are able to listen to,

Police, firefighters, ambulances, street sweepers, utility companies, hams, studio link feeds for commercial broadcasters, cordless phones, paging services, marine radios, NOAA weather radio, etc.

AstroZamboni posted:

what features to look for in a good scanner, etc.

Here are the things I'd look for, from most important to least:

Sensitivity
Intermod rejection
Frequency coverage
Trunking coverage
# of Memories

# ¿ Jul 27, 2007 03:12

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

My only good intercepted cordless phone conversation was when a girl in my neighborhood described her "first time" to one of her friends. :quagmire:

Rev. Bleech_ posted:

Yeah he wasn't real happy when I whipped that tape out.

I hope you still have that tape somewhere.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2007 05:59

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Sennheiser posted:

I just bought a Bearcat 210XLT from a goon. Aside from being horribly obsolete, what sort of things can it do BESIDES just listen to police/fire/EMS/etc. radio?

Nothing, that's all it was made for. You could modify it to do things like recieve 138 MHz weather fax signals, but that can get pretty complicated pretty fast.

Sennheiser posted:

Are there any shortfalls to having an old scanner?

Good luck finding only 10 frequencies to monitor; even in a smallish city like where I live I need at least 150 memories to listen to everything. Otherwise, you've already found the main weakness of older units: they don't tune in small enough steps.

Sennheiser posted:

Also, all of the frequencies in Chicago tune to five decimal places, usually being something like 100.41350, but the BC210XLT only tunes to the third decimal place.

How will I be able to pick up my Chicago frequencies? Will the audio quality/volume be worse?

You'll just have to get lucky, I guess. You'll be able to hear things that aren't exactly on frequency, but it will be scratchy at best.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2007 06:46

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

grellgraxer posted:

Make sure you can cycle through the various PL tones while scanning.

You don't need PL tones to listen.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2007 22:43

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Elijah posted:

Uh, can we put the scanner stuff in a different thread? I think a lot of us would prefer to stick to shortwave here.

Honestly, the two are so related that it makes sense to cover both here.

nitrogen posted:

Here's a template QSL a friend of mine, who's a HAM uses, if you want to send out QSL's:

Reply Postage:
You can use IRC's (International Reply Coupons) that should be good for return postage for most countries listed here and you should be able to get them from your post office.

Thanks for posting. Now that it's posted, DON'T USE IT VERBATIM.

At the vast majority of stations, the people who are reading your reception reports are doing so in addition to their normal programming/on air duties. There are extremely few stations who have a dedicated correspondence person any more.

So think about it. These people, who are often overworked anyway, are reading listener letters. Which letter do you think is going to get a better response: the form letter, or something that at least looks like the person writing it took 10 minutes to write it and actually gives a crap about what Radio Petoria is doing? I guarantee you if you are actually sincere in your letter you'll get a better reply (not to mention more goodies).

I apologize for being a dick about it, but 1) I don't want to see people sending for QSLs from more rare stations and never hearing back and 2) shortwave radio is on its last threads as it is and boring people at stations who have to read these things is the last thing we, as SW enthusiasts, want to do.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2007 11:25

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

about the slinky dipole?

How about the tape measure dipole!

# ¿ Aug 2, 2007 20:29

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

meatpotato posted:

Edit: I have some gripes with the ICF-SW7600GR. The main problem is that if you want to autoscan and not break the buttons holding them down for hours, you have to scan through defined "sets" of frequencies, 530-1690 as an example. It will just get to the highest frequency in the set and start again at the lowest and loop until it finds something. Now this isn't that bad, but you can't turn it off and just scan continually upward (or downward). What makes it worse is that the sets have gaps between them, leaving out frequencies that could contain numbers stations or other interesting material.

Memorize the band edges, and manually go past them into the "between band" region. A total pain, yes, but a compromise in the software to include other features (like Synchronous Selectable Sideband, on your 7600, IIRC).

meatpotato posted:

The other problem with it is the lack of a standard antenna connector. It's designed to use an 1/8" audio minijack that fits a sony antenna. Grr, I want to plug in my antennas without wrapping it around the telescoping one!

Even Radio Shack will carry those plugs in their parts drawers, just attach your antenna to the appropriate terminal inside the plug (experiment to find the right one) to hook up a wire antenna to the radio.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2007 10:14

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

SoylentGreen posted:

Does anyone know if this antenna is worth getting?

It seems there are a number of cheap Chinese antennas marketed under different brands that are all the same (Kaito KA33, Degan DE31), this being one of them. I want to get an active antenna but don't want to waste $20.

Those are all the same, along with the Thieking DE31.

PWBR posted:

Rating: 2 stars (OK), good value for the money

Pro:
Good gain, dynamic range, spurious rejection, antenna clip as well as 1/8" plug.

Con:
Limited tuning range, tuning control "touchy", only runs on batteries, antenna clip doesn't work the best without a ground, suction cup is weak and difficult to replace, no carrying pouch.

Verdict:
"Respectable performance, minimal investment."

They seem to think it's OK.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2007 23:57

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Stuntman Mike posted:

Oh wow, the sun went down and holy gently caress crazy preachers out of nowhere, all over the 6000-6500khz range. Jesus. Lots of Jesus. Strange though, I'm not getting anything substantial above 8000khz, and everything between 15 and 29 thousand is completely barren, but under 8000 every few khz there's a new station.

Why is this? Just coincidence?

You can read more on other pages of the thread, but it's not a coincidence. It's due to the physics of the ionosphere and the changes that take place therein between day and night.

Basically, nighttime is below 10MHz, and daytime is above 10MHz.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2007 03:25

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

Stuntman Mike posted:

Edit: I've got a question about the Passport To World Radio book. Is there substantial difference between editions? I was going to go buy it but then I thought...2007 is almost over, should I wait for the 2008 edition? vv

Eh, you're in the bad part of the year as far as that is concerned; the new edition comes out in October, but having one now is always helpful, but it's out of date, but a lot of the information doesn't change that much, but :derp:

# ¿ Aug 17, 2007 05:24

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 00:17

nmfree: Aug 15, 2001; The Greater Goon: Breaking Hearts and Chains since 2006

trentwoodard posted:

I know CB related stuff was a few pages back - but a quick question for you all. I just purchased a Cobra 29 to use at work at my desk. I don't want to put too much time into mounting an antenna, so I was going to take the cheap way out, and put a magnet mount on the roof somehow.

Will this work? I keep thinking that there must be some "grounding" or whatnot when its used on a car trunk, so it might not work on the roof.

If need be, I'll get a "base" antenna, but I sure as hell dont want to mount 18 feet of fiberglass on my building's roof.

Ideas please?

What kind of job do you have where you need a CB?

Anyway, you could use a mag mount antenna on the roof. The problem is that it's designed to work against the large mass of sheetmetal that is the roof of your car, so it won't work the greatest, but it will work. An A99 or other 1/4 wave vertical will work much better, but a mag mount will work OK.

The next problem is how to affix it to the roof? If you've some sort of appropriately-sized steel up there (i.e. big enough to actually get "magneted" to and securely fastened down), no problem in that regard, but if you don't then you've got to figure out something. Then you have to somehow secure the coax if you're running it down the side of the building, and make sure that where the coax enters the building is sealed properly so that water can't come in.

I'm not trying to be a killjoy or anything, I just want to to make sure you have all the bases covered.

edit: Also, you might be looking for something like this

# ¿ Aug 21, 2007 06:13

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Achtung! Its the one and only Shortwave Radio Uberthread!

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