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I'll be adding a bit to the cash totals in a month or so. I'm moving soon, and my new landlord said it's cool with him if I put an antenna up on the roof. He said that there's an old TV antenna up there, complete with coax. Do any of you think just hooking up to the TV antenna will be any good, or should I replace it with something else?
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Jul 26, 2007 00:13
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Chalk up another $90 to the financial damage totals. I picked up a RadioShack DX-394 this afternoon from a coworker. I figure it'll work to get me started, although Google searches now make me want to mod the gently caress out of this thing. I plan to start listening tonight.
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Sep 7, 2007 00:37
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You may as well tack on another $90 to the total. I'm sending my DX-394 halfway across the country to be modified into something useable by Lowbander. He's going to do all the mods on this page with the switchable IF mod rather than the Kiwa filter. During it's absence, I plan to put an antenna up on the roof. The landlord doesn't care as long as it's not an eyesore... Any recommendations? I'm in central Jersey in the middle of town, no large buildings around.
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Jan 4, 2008 03:55
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wasabimilkshake posted:I'm thinking about picking up the Grundig G6 as a foray into the mysterious world of shortwave radio. It's $92 right now on Amazon, and $75 from L.L. Bean. drat you... Add another $75 from me as well. I was up in the air between the 7600GR, the G6 and the G3 until I saw that price. quote:Finally, a simple question: is shortwave dead? This article probably isn't doing much for shortwave radio sales. It may be true that some international stations have stopped broadcasting in recent years, but you still have the crazy preachers who won't go anywhere as long as they can keep paying the power bill. Just tonight on 7050 I was listening to a preacher using shortwave to cast out the demons that had entered the listener's bodies from such sources as prescription medicines, hearing people talk about other religions, and listening to Elton John's back catalog. I was almost a believer until he wanted to cast Unicron out of my body. That was the last straw.
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Jan 3, 2010 08:54
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I finally caught my first voice numbers station broadcast tonight. I've run across M8 a few times while scanning, but caught V2a tonight broadcasting on 5880 KHz. I'm assuming the transmission started around 7:00 UTC since it ended around 7:45 UTC. I missed out on the beginning, but did manage to catch the end. Many thanks to Wasabimilkshake for posting that link to the Grundig G6 on sale over at L.L. Bean. Picking up that thing was the best purchase I've made in a while. I was concerned about it being too sensitive since I live in Jersey and have to deal with overpowered signals from both NYC and Philly, but even without an external antenna I'm getting more than I was with my old DX-394. Last night I was able to catch VVW on both 5000 and 10000 KHz, which has never happened before. I was also able to catch the English broadcast from Voice of Turkey with minimal interference. I posted back in the day that I was going to send my DX-394 to Lowbander for modification, but it never made it out. I'm now kicking myself since the lousy reception I've always had was completely due to the lovely way RS made the first version of that thing. Tonight when I hooked my slinky dipole up to the DX, I could barely hear V2a on 5880 since there was massive bleed-through from the fundie preacher transmitting on 5890. Meanwhile, the G6 was sitting not 3 feet away, happily spitting out Spanish numbers just using the built in whip antenna. EDIT: Maybe some of you can answer this for me... I've noticed that on the G6 the 'Auto Search' feature likes to jump past large chunks of frequencies (e.g.: 26150 - 30000, 150 - 2400, 3400 - 3900) that are manually tunable. Researching some of these 'blank spots', I see that they are listed as 'fixed service', 'aeronautical mobile, 'maritime mobile', or 'government use'. Some of these are obviously not going to mean much to me (I doubt listening in on the Forestry Service from 29700 - 29800 is very exciting), but some of them would be nice to scan through on without having to do it manually. Do any of you know if there's a way to turn off the filter that skips these when auto scanning? EDIT TWO: Eton/Grundig replied to my email. The auto search skips over anything that isn't a 'major shortwave broadcasting band' and there is no way to configure it to scan all frequencies, so manual tuning is required. Looks like I will be getting the DX-394 modified after all... BigHustle fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jan 14, 2010 |
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Jan 12, 2010 09:53
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I have the G6 and have been very pleased with it so far. In my place (second story apartment in a house in the middle of Jersey) I get better reception with the built in whip antenna than I do with the random wire I have strung up, but that's because I haven't built a properly tuned antenna yet. If you're in/near a major metro area, be prepared to catch a lot of FM interference when running through the air bands. It may not be much of an issue if your local airports are running at frequencies that aren't a harmonic of the local stations. SSB is fantastic on this thing although it just has an SSB button; It doesn't differentiate between USB and LSB. When in SSB mode you can tune either by 1 KHz steps in 'fast' tuning or smaller increments that aren't listed on the display in 'slow' tuning so you can really dial in the signal. EDIT: Got beaten to the punch on the G3 commentary. BigHustle fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Jan 25, 2010 |
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Jan 25, 2010 05:25
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blugu64 posted:There's been a few times I've thought about renting a timeslot to play something worth listening to. I would listen to that.
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Jan 29, 2010 00:03
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Radio Nowhere posted:Both stations will sell you time if you're willing to pay and they can squeeze you into their schedule. No idea what an hour will cost but I'm thinking in the range of $100-200 an hour but it could be less. Airtime blocks on Radio Miami International cost as little as $1.00 per minute for bulk purchases according to their website. Now we just need a name...
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Jan 29, 2010 16:07
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Radio Nowhere posted:Using biglads idea, spending ~$10,080 to spaz out other countries for a week could be fun. Hopefully Cuba would give their jamming of WRMI a break that week (probably not, drat you Arnie Coro! If all they broadcast is anti-Cuba programming, then we need to just get a week's worth of V3a recordings and play that instead of the G3 chimes.
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Jan 29, 2010 21:40
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). BTW WRMI's program schedule is usually anti-Cuba programming and Spanish Christian yelling with some
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Since it's been moved to tomorrow morning, I'm debating whether I want to drive to the shore and see if I can catch a glimpse of the launch. According to the map in the shuttle thread, I should be able to see it from 3 minutes after launch until the main engine cutoff. That coupled with my G6 should make for an awesome morning.
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Feb 7, 2010 17:42
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I have a quick question as well... I put up a 46 foot run of speaker wire in my room to act as an antenna until the spring thaw hits and I can put up something on the roof. When I tune in WWV on 5000 khz, I'm also able to hear the woman from WWVH speaking her time announcement right before the male WWV voice kicks in. It's faint but clear and audible. Does this mean I'm actually catching the WWVH signal coming out of Hawaii, or is it something also coming from Colorado? For a distance reference, I'm in New Jersey.
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Feb 12, 2010 07:36
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Radio Nowhere posted:Any hardcore shortwave goons attending this in 2 weeks ? If it was any time other than the 5th-6th, I'd be all over it. This and Bike Week in Daytona both missed because I made plans too early in the year.
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Feb 21, 2010 08:57
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Dijkstra posted:A dipole by definition has two balanced radiators, each of which are 1/4 wave long. Each radiator is connected to a separate conductor of a dielectric or parallel line. Both ends of the dipole aren't connected to the same conductor. For example, if you feed a dipole with coaxial cable one radiator is connected to the center conductor, and the other is connected to the braided shield. One other thing to remember is that in a dipole, since the system is balanced the length of the poles are exactly what you put up. In an end fed setup, the feedline is part of the antenna unless you use a balun to 'terminate' the connection at the feed point. Examples 60 foot dipole: Each 30 foot arm is connected to a feed point that connects to 20 feet of coax running to the radio. Your antenna is 60 feet in length. 60 foot end fed: You have a 60 foot run of wire connected a feed point that connects to the center pin of 20 feet of coax running to the radio. Since there is nothing for the ground to connect to, you have essentially have a 80 foot antenna. This may help: http://www.aa5tb.com/efha.html
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Feb 24, 2010 01:47
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Doc Faustus posted:OK, hopefully last dipole-construction question. Is the use of coaxial cable an actual important part of the design, or is it just popular because coax plugs directly into so many amps/tuners/radios? If there is some special property of the coax, can I replicate it by using a resistor with the proper ohms in lieu of coax? It's mainly used because it's plentiful and easy to work with. You could always solder the ends of the wire directly to the coax (one side to the center pin, one side to the braid) instead of using an adapter and waterproof it (wrap the joints in electrical tape and encase it in a T of PVC pipe with the ends caulked) if you're doing it outside. If you're running this inside, you could skip the waterproofing. EDIT: Or since you're going to end up plugging it into a 3.5mm plug anyway, do what I did and run to RadioShack, pick up a bare plug with screw terminals for about $6, and just attach the wires to the plug. BigHustle fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Feb 26, 2010 |
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Feb 26, 2010 23:38
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AstroZamboni posted:Typically you have to be less than 5 miles from an airport to pick stuff up clearly. The aircraft bands tend to also be susceptible to TV various kinds of interference. Still, they're a lot of fun to play around with. I enjoy it a lot. I'm about 36 miles from Newark International Airport and can occasionally snag some traffic from flights passing overhead, but those are far and few between. Some air band radios pick up massive interference from FM radio in the area too. My G6 is terrible about FM bleeding into the air traffic frequencies.
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Mar 4, 2010 00:36
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JammyLammy posted:I just a shitton of static. How would be the best way to go about reducing this? If you're using a random wire setup, there's really nothing you can do other than to make sure your wire isn't running close to power lines. If you run a longer antenna and clip it, you'll end up with the same problem if your new run is crossing/running parallel to power lines. One other thing you can check out is whether you have anything electronic plugged in around where you are. If I plug in my netbook I get a boatload of static on a random wire clipped to my G6, but if I disconnect the AC and run it on battery the static goes away.
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Mar 28, 2010 01:01
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JammyLammy posted:Sadly that thought occurred to me about an hour after I posted. Look at my desk and there was the netbook, lamp, speakers, XM radio, and some other misc. poo poo. How the hell did that thought not enter my head? Because you get used to it. I was without power for 3 days when the last major storm rolled through and knocked a tree down on the power lines. It was insane the amount of things I forgot that I needed power to use. quote:As for the ceiling antenna, I clip one end onto the radio antenna, what do I do with the other end? Originally used 100 feet, and was going to use some thicker gauge outside for a long antenna, but do to the way that powerlines are set up around my place thats not really feasible :/ I guess I might we all just hang up the rest around the ceiling then. Exactly what you said. I ran mine up around the ceiling all the way around the room. I know other folks who have gotten good reception tacking it up around a window frame. If you have a length of wooden dowel or a chunk of wood, you could try the Great White North Antenna or one of the other Limited Space Antenna ideas that guy has.
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Mar 28, 2010 01:32
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JammyLammy posted:Excellent, thanks for the help. I did a really ghetto ceiling antenna and moved the radio away from alot of electronics, that cleared up things alot. Manage to hit some Chinese station and right now I have it on a Japanese station. The chinese one came in quite clearly, the japanese has a bit of lingering static in the background but you can still hear the broadcast. If you're in the US, you may be hearing Radio China International being broadcast out of Sackville in Nova Scotia. A few nights I've been able to pick up Radio Algerienne broadcasting Quran calls out of Issodun in France and Voice of Russia being broadcast out of Kishinev-Grigoriopol in the Republic of Moldavia, but most of the usual suspects are being broadcast 'locally' by Radio Canada International (China Radio Int., Radio Japan, Voice of Turkey) out of Sackville or by WYFR/Family Radio (Radio Taiwan Int.) out of Okeechobee, FL. I generally keep the netbook handy and use short-wave.info to see what I'm listening to and where they're transmitting from. For the rare occasion that they don't show anything there, I'll Google the frequency and usually something will pop out at me. As far as the antenna goes, you might want to figure out what frequencies you want to focus in on and make a half-wave antenna (or several) to fit the bill. The basic formula for determining your antenna length is to divide 468 by the frequency in MHz. As an example, if you want to listen to Radio Habana Cuba on 6000 KHz (6 MHz) or stations on nearby frequencies, you'd want to cut your wire to be about 78 feet long. Antennas also work on multiple frequencies, so that antenna for 6000 KHz will also work (although 'not as well') on 12000, 18000, and 24000 KHz. As far as QSL info, I haven't gotten into it so I'm of limited use there. You can get general info on what the radio stations look for here.
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Mar 28, 2010 06:35
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JammyLammy posted:I'm more interested in exploring up and down the spectrum seeing what I can get, rather then trying to find that particular station. This is a stupid question, but would this be feasible, Depends on what you're using for antenna wire. If you're using speaker wire or something else covered in a non-conductive shield, you should be OK with them being close together. If you're using bare wire, you want to make sure they're separated enough that they won't touch at all. If you just want a ghetto antenna and aren't concerned with looks, you can make a homebrew separator out of some straws by cutting a length of straw long enough to leave an inch or 2 between the antennas and cut holes in the straw to hold the wire. Put a spacer every foot or so to keep things nice and even and you're good to go. code:
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Mar 28, 2010 21:26
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Catastrophe posted:This will be a long shot but does anyone here know if there any stores in Philadelphia that sell shortwave radios? I want to find something locally rather than just order one off the Internet. RadioShack sells a small assortment of Grundig radios. Just don't expect them to know what the hell they are or how they operate.
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Apr 4, 2010 17:18
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AstroZamboni posted:I checked the Fry's website. No luck. If you have the Tech stuff down, you might want to pick up the General question pool and/or book and take that one too. Tech is nice if you want to keep to 2m/220/440 and a little 10m and up, but if you want the real fun stuff you'll want that General class upgrade. EDIT: This here PDF shows everything available to amateurs and what classes can transmit where. BigHustle fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Apr 4, 2010 |
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Apr 4, 2010 22:40
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Radio Nowhere posted:People on the Spooks list-serv have been hearing "The Buzzer" (4625) on random nearby frequencies, pretty loud too leading many to question if they are spurs or not! Listen to the clone Buzzers every 42.1 KHz from the main frequency. If all these Buzzers do stop for broadcast your rear end goodbye! I wonder if this has anything to do with the recent Moscow subway bombings. Maybe The Buzzer is actually waking up planted sleeper agents in the area and the baby buzzers are delivering their programming. 
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Apr 7, 2010 18:38
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biglads posted:Am I mad for wanting one? We could make our own Goon numbers station. Our call up would just be a high pitched winded voice saying 'Get Out! Get Out!' and signal that the transmission was over would be 'Go back to GBS'
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May 6, 2010 21:42
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biglads posted:in German No, in an Arabic language. Nothing will make the fundies and preppers poo poo their pants more than a 'Muslim' numbers station being heard.
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May 6, 2010 22:56
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SentinelXS posted:The Buzzer is also pretty interesting. I don't usually subscribe to conspiracy theories, but is ionosphere research really so fascinating that it's worth maintaining a transmitter to bounce signals for over 20 years? I wouldn't doubt if 'upper atmosphere research station' is the Russian equivalent of the US military's 'weather balloon/swamp gas'. FAKE EDIT: In Soviet Russia, the ionosphere researches YOU.
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Jun 18, 2010 06:10
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SentinelXS posted:Tonight I found this around 4.6 MHz: It sounds like CODAR to me. An explanation of what it's for is HERE and people bitching about the interference can be found HERE. When I was living in Jersey I used to pick that poo poo up all the time. It let me know my radio was working at least.
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Jun 22, 2010 06:59
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SentinelXS posted:That could be it. The frequencies used by CODAR are within the range I was picking up odd noises on. I live on the east coast so that might explain why it comes in so loud and clear. All of the other repeating tones I pick up are much quieter with more interference. Other than that, I haven't been able to find any major oddities, just some conspiracy theorists discussing how the BP oil rig disaster was orchestrated by the New World Order. When I was in Jersey CODAR was very easy to pick up. It never really interfered with my listening, since I was mainly sticking to the regular shortwave bands and laughing at the insane preachers. I've got a Grundig G6 and have some issues with FM radio stations bleeding over into the air bands. I need to bust it out and see if it's as big an issue now that I'm in a less dense area. Oh... If that Hallicrafters rig isn't working and you feel like tackling it as a repair project, you can find a ton of schematics and other help online. If you can try the forums over at QRZ.com, they have a section dedicated to helping people fix boatanchors.
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Jun 23, 2010 00:37
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SentinelXS posted:I picked up the thing today. It's an S-38A, and the S-38 series seems to be extremely popular with radio collectors. It barely receives a few stations and definitely needs work. I've been doing some research and might give repairing a go since the radio was free and I'm not too worried about killing it. As has been said before, there's something special about playing with these old radios. Good deal! Check out this dude's page for restoration info. There's also this dude if you get frustrated and just want to pay someone to fix it.
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Jun 26, 2010 03:43
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JammyLammy posted:Looking at the wiki for UVB-76, they know where it is. Whats to stop someone from just going there and knocking on their door? Google Maps has an aerial view of the facility. It appears to be surrounded by forest with no surface streets leading up to the facility. According to the user input over at Wikimapia, that area contains a few Russian military buildings. If you look a little to the south of the UVB-76 site, you'll see an open field in the middle of the same crop of woods. Someone noted on their maps that the field is directly above a FSB secret underground base. Regardless, I'd make sure you have your Russian translator present and let a bunch of people know where the hell you are if you plan to go knocking on their front door to ask for a tour of The Buzzer. I haven't had a chance to put up a decent antenna since I moved, but back in Jersey I used to pick up Atencion every night around 2 in the morning.
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Aug 25, 2010 21:52
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JammyLammy posted:I know it was brought up before, but I can't help but feel that maybe I'm having problems with mine. There are suppose to be issues with 1st generation grundig g3, how can you tell if you have a first generation? Is there a serial code I should look for? If you scoot back to page 74, Catastrophe went through the same thing. Call or email Eton and tell them that you're having problems with your radio and they should take care of you. They're one of the few companies left out there that takes pride in having a good product and gives a poo poo about keeping their customers happy.
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Aug 26, 2010 07:39
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6V 250mA
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Look at what I found on Craigslist. I don't think it would fit in my shack though... http://stlouis.craigslist.org/ele/1924228797.html
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Aug 28, 2010 19:56
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JammyLammy posted:edit: Because of how old the book is, some of this information is outdated and sort of makes me sad that I can't use it Unfortunately, if you're in the US any radio or scanner made after 1994 has those frequencies blocked along with any frequencies used for the old analog cellular phones. It's actually unnecessary these days since analog cellular service isn't active any longer and most cordless phones are using digital spread spectrum to prevent eavesdropping.
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Aug 29, 2010 14:05
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JammyLammy posted:Better ways I can improve my speaker wire antenna? If you're using a random wire antenna, really the only things you can do to improve the signal quality are to make sure that your antenna isn't grounding to any metal, make sure that it's not running parallel to any power lines, and when listening to the radio make sure that you have any fluorescent lights or anything with a power supply is away from you. I know I had interference with my radio when I had the lights on or had my netbook plugged into the wall and nearby.
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Sep 1, 2010 04:47
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JammyLammy posted:Got an alarm clock and laptop plugged in next to it =/ I haven't used one, but a lot of people like them. Loops knock out all kinds of external interference, but you have to retune them whenever you change frequencies for optimum performance. Oh... You might want to save a couple bucks and buy the Kaito branded model from Amazon instead.
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Sep 1, 2010 14:25
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BetterWeirdthanDead posted:Was it a coordinated effort with the guy who is holding the Discovery Channel hostage? Well, I went home with a waitress The way I always do How was I to know She was with the Russians, too? I grabbed a hostage in Discovery I took a little risk Send lawyers, guns and money Dad, get me out of this I'm an innocent bystander but somehow I got stuck Between a rock and a hard place And I'm down on my luck And I'm down on my luck And I'm down on my luck Now I'm hiding in an office I'm a desperate man Send lawyers, guns and money The whale poo poo has hit the fan Send lawyers, guns and money...
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Sep 1, 2010 22:10
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AstroZamboni posted:I... I love you. It was either that or 'Symphony of Destruction'. Warren seemed the more obvious choice. JammyLammy posted:Alright, goon project this weekend. A good source for the variable capacitor listed in the instructions is a thrift store like the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Grab an old AM clock radio with a dial tuner and you should be good to go.
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Sep 2, 2010 04:39
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JammyLammy posted:That explains why it was coming in with a strong signal. I guess googling frequency isn't the best way of getting station id's. How do you figure out stuff like that? I use Shortwave Info. You can search by radio station to see when broadcasts take place or enter a frequency to see what's broadcasting at that moment in time. It's nice since it shows you the frequencies around what you searched for as well as shows a map of the transmitter locations. Most of the foreign broadcasts I picked up when I was living in Jersey were rebroadcasts coming out of Radio Canada's Sackville, ON transmitter site or Family Radio's Okeechobee, FL transmitter like Radio Nowhere mentioned. The only exceptions I really came across were Radio Havana coming out of Cuba, the Atencion numbers station also coming from Cuba, and a station (Radio Algerienne, maybe?) that was broadcasting Quran calls out of southern France.
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Sep 4, 2010 21:31
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Bulgakov posted:As an aside, I was thinking about building a magnetic loop antenna and hanging it from my ceiling on some sort of lockable swivel instead of taking up floor space with a clumsy tripod base. This bad picture hopefully makes a small bit of sense: I was going to do the same thing before I moved. I planned to mount it to my ceiling above the bed on a hinge of some sort since I did my DXing while in bed. I'd do it here, but I'm in the basement so I don't think anything but an outdoor antenna is going to be of much use to me. Maybe one of the folks who already built one can answer this, but is there any reason you couldn't mount it 'upside down' and have the capacitor at the bottom and coupling loop at the top? You'd need a little extra coax, but that's better than needing to get a stepladder every time you need to retune.
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Sep 17, 2010 14:21
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JammyLammy posted:On 4870khz, midnight eastern (4:00 UTC (?)) Hearing just this beeping noise, my friend says sounds like a monotone toot from a panflute. Nothing else but a steady beeping. What is causing it? Are you near the coast? It could be CODAR interference. I used to pick that crap up all the time when I lived in Jersey. If you're far enough off, you may just be receiving signals from one of the transmitters instead of all of them.
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Sep 19, 2010 06:04
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Try one of these. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoeDKobVEMg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXkUx4rF8Nk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivl4hpJQfHk
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Sep 19, 2010 18:38
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