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Well, just parted with $150 for a Sony ICF-SW7600GR thanks to this thread. Mostly so I have something to listen to when I'm deployed overseas. The deciding factors? It was recommended in the OP and it takes AA batteries. I'm not good at researching my purchases.
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Jun 17, 2007 11:38
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 14:55 |
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The Navy VLF site in Cutler Maine (NAA) is purported by some public sources to be 2MW and others to be 1-1.8MW, either of which makes it the most powerful radio transmitter in the world. I wasn't sure how much of the design was public, but I found this abstract this morning, and thought you all might be interested:P. Hansen posted:VLF Cutler Hollow Core Cable Repair/Replacement, P. Hansen (unclassified)  Satellite photos here: http://web.elastic.org/~fche/mirrors/cryptome.org/cutler-eyeball.htm Anyone had a chance to see Cutler in person? grover fucked around with this message at 16:52 on Jun 17, 2007 |
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Jun 17, 2007 16:47
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Just finished moving back into my apartment for summer classes, brought out my Eton E5 (which you can add to the damage total in the OP if you haven't) and with just the whip was able to pick up the NDB at the local airport  which I couldn't back home (different airport).
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Jun 17, 2007 20:11
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Here's a page with some antenna ideas for people with limited space (apartments etc.) http://www.angelfire.com/mb/amandx/limitant.html It's on angelfire so hopefully we don't kill it.
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Jun 17, 2007 21:03
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Dog Case posted:Here's a page with some antenna ideas for people with limited space (apartments etc.) I'm thinking about either getting the Cliffdweller or the Eavesdropper Twinlead. Both say that they can be installed in the attic which would work well for me. Anyone have experience with either of these? The Eavesdropper got a good rating in Passport, although I don't know if they tested it as an attic installation.
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Jun 17, 2007 21:21
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Went down to my shed and dug out the R-392 and decided to work on it. I need a 1 mA full scale deflection 17 ohm analog meter for it. The original meters were pulled when decomissioned due to radioactive dial paint. The government was never shy about exposing soldiers to danger.  Sorry about the cheap camera. I couldn't get the radio to pick up much of anything. The above mentioned meter is part of a gain circuit and might be a cause of poor reception. That and a previous owner decided to modify it to run a power cable in one of the holes for the spare fuse holder. God only knows what else he did. It more than likely needs a tune up and alignment. It has inductive tuning and a rack of gears and cams so it can cover 500 KHz to 32 MHz. I have a junker 392 for spare parts and something to look at and figure out how it's supposed to go back together. Oh and it has that wonderful military surplus store smell. It smells like it can get the job done.
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Jun 18, 2007 01:55
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My only experience with HF is using it for oceanic position reporting, but it's cool to warm 'em up for a radio check and get New York Oceanic from Japan. Only happened once, but still, that was pretty cool.
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Jun 18, 2007 02:01
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Well on my humble S350, I just picked up WHO 1040am out of Des Moines from my apartment in doors in Dallas Texas!
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Jun 18, 2007 06:32
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EDIT: Dang Back Button,
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Jun 18, 2007 06:38
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A coworker of mine is letting me borrow his little Grundig for a few days and, man, I don't know why this is interesting but it is. Tomorrow I'm going to take it far far far out of town to see if I can pick up anything really interesting. Almost every station I'm able to pick up clearly is speaking in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. It's nice, but I can't understand that. Hopefully the novelty of this wears off within a few days, otherwise I think you may have to add me to the financial drain in the OP...
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Jun 18, 2007 11:41
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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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So, I managed to score myself an Eton E5. Is $120 CAD (like $105-$110 USD) a good price for one? Also, is my plan to listen to it when I'm on the cruise ship flawed? I just realized that the cabin I'll be in has no windows, is on a lower deck, and behind a steel hull. It's pretty much a floating Faraday cage.
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Jun 18, 2007 19:04
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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? Pack some headphones and sit on the deck. Though being a cruise listening to the radio probably wouldn't be my main concern, but to each his own. Comedy Option: Use the Ships Hull as your Antenna.
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Jun 18, 2007 21:09
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grover posted:The Navy VLF site in Cutler Maine (NAA) is purported by some public sources to be 2MW and others to be 1-1.8MW, either of which makes it the most powerful radio transmitter in the world. Yeah, thats a lotta bird frying wattage there. But to counterpoint that, I have successfully taked from Virginia to Brazil on 2.5 Watts SSB. I know others in a club I belong to that have successfully transmitted from North Carolina to various places in western Europe with as little as 100mW using morse code and a radio powered by a 9V battery. While power is nice, it's all about the size and efficiency of your antenna  Another things y'all will notice is that different times of the year will give you better reception. Oh, and drive around one night and tune around the AM side of your car stereo, especially after midnight. You'd be amazed at what stations you can pull in from your car. From NC, I have tuned AM broadcast stations as far away as Boston, Miami, Cleveland, Detroit and DFW. As for Shortwave, the world is full of amazingly weird stuff. I have a nice Yaesu allmode that I use to listen to SSB around the world, and a nice Lafayette that I use for AM transmitters.
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Jun 18, 2007 22:17
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bladernr posted:Yeah, thats a lotta bird frying wattage there. I just think it's awesome that we have radios that can transmit to a submerged submarine halfway around the world. blugu64 posted:Comedy Option:  You're just bound to make friends with the crew this way!
grover fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Jun 18, 2007 |
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Jun 18, 2007 23:14
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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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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! Edit: I just realized that's a 'W' call in Texas. Add another one to the list!I picked up Radio Sweden earlier tonight as well - sent them an online QSL. Halah fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Jun 19, 2007 |
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Jun 19, 2007 03:06
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AstroZamboni posted:Very good price. They typically run 150 US for a new one. Did I mention this was for a brand new one? Apparently they were having a clearance sale. Grundig G4000As were $99 CAD.  Haven't picked up much yet, but since I'm using the internal antenna, indoors, during the daytime, I'm not expecting much. I'll string up the huge antenna tonight and see what I can find. By the way, was the "use the ship's hull" comedy option actually viable? It IS a huge chunk of metal, but it's also pretty much ground.
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Jun 19, 2007 03:13
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9700khz AM Radio Bulgaria is coming in very well in Dallas. I heard the program "Keyword Bulgaria", and let me tell you guys something; it's got the coolest theme song for a radio show /ever/. Faux EDIT: It starts around 1min into this stream. Note it was noticeably longer on air; and more awesome as my radio kept trying to drift away. http://213.222.53.195/BNR.RadioBulgaria/Programi%20ot%20denia/Angliiska/6_Subota/Audio_eng_16_06_07.mp3 EDIT Halah posted:I'm currently listening to WOAI out of San Antonio...indoors in South Carolina Awesome! I used to listen to that station (1200AM WOAI) all the time when I lived in San Antonio. I can hear it /just/ enough to ID it inside my apartment in Dallas. You should see if you can hear 1040AM WHO out of Des Moines. I can usually pick them up here in Dallas; and they usually play odd stuff like crop reports and little league games. blugu64 fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Jun 19, 2007 |
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Jun 19, 2007 03:41
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Thread has inspired me to knock the dust off the ham station and register for Field Day. nice! I run all Icom radios, among them a bulletproof IC-735 and a pair of PCR-100 wideband rigs that I've modified and tweaked (10.7 MHz IF out -> IC-735 for SSB/CW satellite decoding) I'm a bit of a brand loyalist. Antennas include a 25 foot vertical for HF, Diamond vertical for 2 meters, [homebrew eggbeaters for 2 meters and 440, and a homebrew 7 element 440 beam] - bracketed antennas are for satellite work. I've got an Alliance U100 perfectly restored and ready to put up for my steerable satellite array, but I need ~2weeks of free time and a new house to install all of that. Keep on listenin; I got discouraged this winter when I upgraded to Extra and spent ~300 hours trying to QSO on HF with no success. The sunspot cycle did me in. If memory serves me it should be improving a bit now, six months later - I think the cycle nadir was somewhere between Feb and April.
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Jun 19, 2007 03:51
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Jonny 290 posted:The sunspot cycle did me in. If memory serves me it should be improving a bit now, six months later - I think the cycle nadir was somewhere between Feb and April. It's going going to get better from here 
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Jun 19, 2007 03:52
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Bah! I can't seem to get Radio Bulgaria. I can get WHO all the time, though. Tonight it's getting killed by lightning interference from somewhere (probably in my area.)
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Jun 19, 2007 03:56
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Got Radio Havana last night, clear as a bell, just in time for the Cuban jazz program. Really cool, and nice reception considering I'm on the WEST coast of the US.
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Jun 19, 2007 04:10
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StarkRavingMad posted:Got Radio Havana last night, clear as a bell, just in time for the Cuban jazz program. Really cool, and nice reception considering I'm on the WEST coast of the US. Radio Havana is a fun one to listen to. I enjoy listening to bits and pieces of their news hour. Do all of you guys have to wade though a sea of tejano, and spanish stations? I'm in Dallas so it would make sense to pick up mexican stations clearly; however for all I know they are coming from South America. (I should probably look them up)
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Jun 19, 2007 04:19
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Most non-English stations I can hear are either Chinese or Spanish, with a large number of Spanish-speaking stations. And I live in Upstate NY.
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Jun 19, 2007 04:21
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blugu64 posted:Radio Havana is a fun one to listen to. I enjoy listening to bits and pieces of their news hour. Do all of you guys have to wade though a sea of tejano, and spanish stations? I'm in Dallas so it would make sense to pick up mexican stations clearly; however for all I know they are coming from South America. (I should probably look them up) And yeah, I get a ton of Spanish language stations. I'm firmly convinced they don't give a poo poo how much power they're putting out.
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Jun 19, 2007 04:27
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Dog Case posted:So I was out and about today, and, well, this happened again. Holy crap! That's the exact one I have. I think I've had it for at least 10 years. It's pretty good, but be careful about not letting your pet rabbit chew through the antenna wire. 
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Jun 19, 2007 04:57
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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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Anybody else getting crap reception tonight?
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Jun 19, 2007 07:07
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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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Question... does the telescoping antenna on my E5 even do anything for shortwave? Also, hmm, I wonder why I'm getting poo poo reception... with the radio sitting three inches from a laptop using wifi and bluetooth. Problem solved. I found some CW at 262kHz standing out on the balcony, and after finding a pen and a pad, it appears he was saying "VF" every few seconds, followed by a 5-second steady tone. Automated beacon of some sort? EDIT: ..._ .._. is "VF", right?
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Jun 19, 2007 07:32
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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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SoundMonkey posted:Also, hmm, I wonder why I'm getting poo poo reception... with the radio sitting three inches from a laptop using wifi and bluetooth. Problem solved.  Also my LCD monitor seems to give off interference around 13.6MHz.
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Jun 19, 2007 07:42
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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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Also, I hate you forever, OP, because I'm going to be listening to this poo poo all night. Hopefully it gets easier when I get away from civilization (but have to start competing with ship's communications and radar and such). Is there much chance of me getting Radio Habana from Vancouver? It seems to be what all the cool kids are listening to. Where might I find it? SoundMonkey fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Jun 19, 2007 |
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Jun 19, 2007 07:57
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Pardon the double post, but I do believe I just found my first ever crazy religious broadcast. If I may quote: "The ox is a tremendous beat for physical labor. It is slower than the horse, slower than the rear end, and smaller than an elephant, but it will last and last and last. This is god's plan. If he wants to, he can pull up the attribute of the ox spirit, or the lion spirit, or the man spirit." This is probably the best thing I've ever heard.
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Jun 19, 2007 09:27
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Okay, here's a mini-listening guide of programs I've found easy to hear, taken from Passport to World Band Radio. All times are UTC: Radio Habana Cuba 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00. 6000, 6060, 9550, 9820, 11760kHz. Radio Japan 5:00, 6:00 6110, 13630kHz China Radio International 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00. 6020, 6080, 6190, 9690, 9790kHz. Radio Australia 3:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, 8:00. 9580, 9590, 13630, 15160, 15515kHz. Radio Taiwan International 2:00, 3:00, 7:00 5950, 9680kHz. Bold are times/frequencies that I normally get good reception of on the west coast.
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Jun 19, 2007 09:47
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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...  Then I have to get some kind of real antenna put up again. Hmmm...
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Jun 19, 2007 10:15
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 14:55 |
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Well my softrock lite kit just showed up. I'm waiting for the soldering iron I ordered to arrive now (Metcal SP200). Would anyone like a little walk through on putting these things together? Also what kind of antenna should I make for this? I have somewhat limited space right now so I was thinking of just doing a magnetic loop. It still has to be a pretty decent size because its being build for the 80m band.
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Jun 19, 2007 10:19
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