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Hey can anyone help me figure out what I'm hearing on 15440-15445 khz at 23:00 UTC? It sounds like an Asian language; mostly talking so I'm betting some kinda of news. I'm checking WRTH, and I'll edit in what it is if I find it. EDIT: It appears to be "RADIO TAIWAN INTERNATIONAL". blugu64 fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Jun 8, 2007 |
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Jun 8, 2007 00:12
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I'm looking at the Degen DE1103, which is very hard to find. I assume the Kaito 1103 is the same thing, just rebranded? I can't afford to spend a lot on a receiver, but $80 from Amazon looks like a good deal, and from the reviews I've read it's a solid piece of equipment. Any SWers wanna weigh in on this?
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Jun 8, 2007 01:31
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^^^^See my post below, and yes it is just a rebranded Degen.^^^^Scaevolus posted:I can manage without ease-of-use, so the Kaito 1103 looks interesting. It looks like I could pick one up new for about $90, shipped-- are there any specific features that would warrant the extra cost of the E5, apart from user interface? For one thing, the Eton has about 3 times more memory slots for frequency storage. Volume adjustment is WAY easier, and the radio as a whole is just a hair more sensitive. Radio Intelligencer has a pair of equipment reviews that outline the differences better than I can. http://www.radiointel.com/review-etone5.htm http://www.radiointel.com/review-degende1103.htm DarkSol posted:How hard exactly is it to hear the Voice of Korea? North Korean propaganda is absolutely hilarious, in my opinion. Voice of Korea isn't the easiest station to pull in, but with a decent antenna (even just a long wire) you can pick it up. It tends to be hard to receive with just a built-in whip.
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Jun 8, 2007 01:38
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Alright, it doesn't look like the E5 is worth the extra $70, especially on my budget, so it looks like I'll be picking up a Kaito. Thanks for the input!
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Jun 8, 2007 01:46
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DarkSol posted:How hard exactly is it to hear the Voice of Korea? North Korean propaganda is absolutely hilarious, in my opinion. We haven't had any luck yet... apparently, if you send them a QSL, it's Crazy Propaganda Jackpot!!!!  And, if it gets intercepted by South Korea, you get anti-communist propaganda. You can't lose!!!And, while we're on the subject of radio equipment.... http://radio.tentec.com/Amateur/Receivers/TT320 Some day, my pretty... you will be ours... some day....
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Jun 8, 2007 03:39
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im_sorry posted:And, while we're on the subject of radio equipment.... Meh. I'm not that fond of computer based receivers. I prefer something portable that you can load up with AAs and take way the gently caress into the middle of nowhere and get good reception. Although they do have swanky features, gotta give 'em that.
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Jun 8, 2007 04:27
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AstroZamboni posted:For one thing, the Eton has about 3 times more memory slots for frequency storage. What are those memory slots used for? Do you manually save frequencies, or are they used for autoscan? I can't see myself needing more than 200 saved frequencies.
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Jun 8, 2007 05:18
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I've always found shortwave to be really interesting. Right now, I can't afford a SW radio, so I'm jealous of all of you. The idea of being able to pick up radio broadcast from somewhere halfway around the planet is awesome to me. And those "numbers stations" sound spookily cool. (PS - did you guys know Wilco included stuff from a numbers station on their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot?)
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Jun 8, 2007 05:53
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Scaevolus posted:What are those memory slots used for? Do you manually save frequencies, or are they used for autoscan? The E5 has 700 programmable memory slots divided into "Pages" of 7 slots each which can be labeled with a 4 digit alphanumeric tag. You CAN use them for ATS (automatic tuning/storage) which automatically scans through all bands and frequencies and stores the strongest signals, but I prefer to just store them as I find them. Otherwise it would store a shitload of religious broadcasters. The advantage of having a metrick fuckton of memory storage is that nearly all SW broadcasters transmit on multiple frequencies because not all bands are easy to listen to at all times during the day or the year. Having all of a station's frequencies stored in a single page allows you to flip through them and find whichever one is coming in strongest. Number Traffic enthusiasts have another reason for having lot of storage. Most number traffic networks transmit on dozens of different frequencies. Cuban intelligence alone uses more than 40 frequencies, Israel's Mossad uses about 90, and british intelligence uses about 50. I have over a third of my memory slots filled up JUST with numbers traffic frequencies! I have about a quarter of them filled up with regular international broadcasts (Voice of America, Voice of Korea, Voice of Russia, Radio France, Radio Habana, Radio Netherlands, BBC World service), a page full of time interval signal frequencies, a couple pages of local AM/FM stations, and the rest I can use for storing whatever random weird poo poo I can't identify so I can find it later. stray posted:And those "numbers stations" sound spookily cool. (PS - did you guys know Wilco included stuff from a numbers station on their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot?) Yes, and they got into a shitload of legal trouble for it too. They stole the sample from a CD set called "The Conet Project," which is 4 and a half hours of number station recordings. They didn't get permission, which led to one of the more interesting and unusual copyright infringement cases in history. How could the publishers of CONET claim they had a copyright on something they taped off the radio which was clearly transmitted by somebody else? The Conet producers (Akim Fernandez and Irdial Discs) were able to show that since everybody (read: government intelligence) refused to claim ownership of the stations to the point of denying their existence, the first person who could slap a copyyright on them could own that copyright. One of the funnier points in the lawsuit was when the British government stepped in and tried to shut down production of the Conet project, with an exchange that went something like this:  "People shouldn't be listening to this stuff! It isn't interesting! Its not for public consumption!"  "WHY isn't it interesting or intended for public consumption?""Uh...I can't tell you that.""Why can't you tell us that?" "Uh...because these stations are what you think they are....""HaHA!"
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Jun 8, 2007 15:44
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Dog Case posted:Anything more than the built in antenna will be an improvement. A length of wire attached to the antenna and strung around the window frame works. I imagine even just a couple feet hanging out the window would help quite a bit.
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Jun 8, 2007 19:08
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AstroZamboni posted:The E5 has 700 programmable memory slots divided into "Pages" of 7 slots each which can be labeled with a 4 digit alphanumeric tag. You CAN use them for ATS (automatic tuning/storage) which automatically scans through all bands and frequencies and stores the strongest signals, but I prefer to just store them as I find them. Otherwise it would store a shitload of religious broadcasters. Thanks for clearing this up, I think I can manage with fewer slots and a notebook to write stuff down in. Also, there's a TV antenna on my roof. I'm thinking I can connect the radio to the coaxial cable-- other radios get really good FM/AM reception off it.
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Jun 8, 2007 19:11
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InediblePenguin posted:We have a black plastic AM loop, two Slinkies, and about 75 feet of assorted wire (stereo and clothesline) looped back and forth in a sort of net pattern across the ceiling of our radio room. It's pretty ghetto, but hey, we can listen to the BBC! Can you knock out an MS Paint blueprint for this, or some sort of instructions for building one? It sounds like a frinktabulous fabtraption! How are your results, typically? Pretty clean reception?
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Jun 9, 2007 01:38
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Hey, thanks for the thread. Lots of good info here. I hadn't read about the Number Stations in awhile, and this got me all interested again. I decided it was about time to get a SW set since I've always wanted one, so I found the E5 on eBay for about 100 bucks and grabbed one. Seller is electronicrevolution and appears to have some more, along with positive feedback for this item. Price seemed pretty good since most places have it for MSRP. Anyhow, I look forward to picking up some foreign state-run radio stations. I got into the FTA satellite thing a couple years ago, and that has been lots of fun - US viewers can get about 120 channels, mostly foreign programming but a lot of Jesus channels too. Lots of arabic channels and middle-eastern state news channels. Chinese drama and home shopping and live persian rug auction-by-phone. At about 1AM here you can get arabic morning cartoons, crazy poo poo. You can check out the channels available at https://www.lyngsat.com Well, cheers! I hope to get my radio up soon and chime in on some of the crazy poo poo coming over the airwaves. stash fucked around with this message at 06:03 on Jun 9, 2007 |
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Jun 9, 2007 05:59
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drat, I was about to post https://www.dxtuners.com. That was a site which had a couple dozen receivers around the world attached to computers so you could listen to any of them and tune them online for a subscription fee. Unfortunately the guy running it shut it down because he didn't have time for it anymore.
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Jun 9, 2007 12:57
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stash posted:Hey, thanks for the thread. Lots of good info here. I hadn't read about the Number Stations in awhile, and this got me all interested again. I decided it was about time to get a SW set since I've always wanted one, so I found the E5 on eBay for about 100 bucks and grabbed one. Seller is electronicrevolution and appears to have some more, along with positive feedback for this item. Price seemed pretty good since most places have it for MSRP. Anyhow, I look forward to picking up some foreign state-run radio stations. When I was a kid my dad had a 12' FTA dish; we got the SciFi channel back when it was free and they still ran Mission Impossible (the series), and Hawaii 5-0. Whenever I buy/build a house I'll probably try and get back into that. As for state run radio stations; in a word they're awesome. I was out last night from 9-11 in a parking lot with my radio and the stereotypical 'huge spool of wire', and picked up Radio Thailand, Radio Havana, Voice of Russia, and CRI, and they all sounded great. CRI was playing a hour long music show that was pretty nice; and I found a Christian station that was playing some of the creepiest choral music you've ever heard. If you're anything like me you'll love the radio.
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Jun 9, 2007 19:30
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These days you can get excellent FTA reception with just a lightweight 3ft dish and a cheapo receiver. You can get the whole shebang setup for about $100. For $200 you can get a motorized digitally-controlled dish mover and a better receiver, and you can pick up about 20 satellites from anywhere in the US where you can see the southern sky (not all sats have free programming). I was thinking about starting a FTA thread since this one inspired me a bit.
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Jun 9, 2007 20:17
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AstroZamboni posted:Can you knock out an MS Paint blueprint for this, or some sort of instructions for building one? It sounds like a frinktabulous fabtraption!  It's hard to tell without a real basis for comparison - the ghetto-rigging is the only sort of antenna we've ever used - but it's certainly clearer than the built-in antenna alone, and I find it suffices pretty well for a rig that cost under $20 altogether including the radio (an estate sale find).
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Jun 9, 2007 21:08
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Oh man, this thread inspired me to dig out my radio and rig my antenna back up to see if I could catch any numbers stations and I found one almost instantly. If anyone's interested, the Spanish numbers lady is on right now on 6855 kHz.
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Jun 9, 2007 22:28
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InediblePenguin posted:
What type of wire do you use? Hookup wire? Speaker wire? And do you just have the wire in contact with slinkies hanging from the ceiling or something? I have a soom with hooks from the ceiling like this, and I would like to build one of these fabtraptions.
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Jun 9, 2007 22:42
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Originally I was interested in HF scanners, but this thread had inspired me to go out and buy the Grundig E5 from my local Radio Shack. I'm still learning, but I've already deduced that I need a better antenna than the whip that came with it. However, most of the antennae I've checked out online have a PL259 connector, and the E5 has an 1/8" jack for the external antenna. I've tried Googling for adapters/converters but sadly, my Google-Fu is lacking. Has anyone seen such an adapter?
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Jun 9, 2007 23:35
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AstroZamboni posted:What type of wire do you use? Hookup wire? Speaker wire? The slinkies used to be placed with one stretched between two cuphooks, in contact with the wires, and the other just hanging from the ceiling, but they've gone missing.
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Jun 9, 2007 23:41
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InediblePenguin posted:The stereo wire is I think speaker wire. (Edit because I misunderstood your question. Sorry.) There has been a rash of slinky thefts all across this great nation. I blame the cubans.
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Jun 10, 2007 00:05
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I found this thread very interesting and am thinking about buying a radio. I'm looking at the E10 and E100, and you said the E10 didn't have SSB, but what else does the E100 not have?
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Jun 10, 2007 00:07
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The E100 lacks selectable fine tuning steps on SW, has 350 less storage slots, lacks automatic tuning-storage, and lacks antenna trim function (E10 is the only one to have antenna trim). Here's the specs on each one: http://www.etoncorp.com/upload/contents/307/E100_Specs.pdf http://www.etoncorp.com/upload/contents/307/E10_Specs.pdf
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Jun 10, 2007 00:13
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AstroZamboni posted:The E100 lacks selectable fine tuning steps on SW, has 350 less storage slots, lacks automatic tuning-storage, and lacks antenna trim function (E10 is the only one to have antenna trim). Here's the specs on each one: Frankly I've found the antenna trim function on the E10 not to really do anything. Is it only supposed to be used for certain frequencies? I turn the dial and it sounds the same.
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Jun 10, 2007 00:20
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Another Ham guy checking in who also loves SW listening. Here's a random tip: If you're getting odd interference and you happen to have any 'touch lights' (lamps that turn on and off via touch), try unplugging them. It's amazing how much poo poo they spew.
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Jun 10, 2007 00:24
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Mapless posted:Another Ham guy checking in who also loves SW listening. Its the electrical current along the metal surface that allow it to work also acta as an antenna/transmitter pouring off all sorts of weird RF interference. I've found that lots of lights and other audio systems in the house tend to cause interference. I turn off pretty much everything and listen in the dark. Electric fans create some weird interference too, by the way. Especially set on "oscillate" mode.
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Jun 10, 2007 00:28
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If I only have budget enough for one, which book would you recommend I purchase?
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Jun 10, 2007 01:30
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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:If I only have budget enough for one, which book would you recommend I purchase? Between what choices and what kind of budget?
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Jun 10, 2007 18:08
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Between WRTH, Passport, and whatever other book you think might be helpful. Also if you have any magazine or website suggestions to help get started, they'd be appreciated! Assume I have $30-40 to work with.
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Jun 10, 2007 18:11
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stash posted:These days you can get excellent FTA reception with just a lightweight 3ft dish and a cheapo receiver. You can get the whole shebang setup for about $100. For $200 you can get a motorized digitally-controlled dish mover and a better receiver, and you can pick up about 20 satellites from anywhere in the US where you can see the southern sky (not all sats have free programming). I was thinking about starting a FTA thread since this one inspired me a bit. Requesting said thread...with link so I don't miss out on the FTA goodness!
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Jun 10, 2007 19:04
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I live in a basement apartment. What options are there for listening to shortwave radio in a basement with two tiny windows in my room and one tiny window in the bathroom? I always wanted to get a shortwave radio as a kid... and a ham radio too. Neither of them ever happened  . I did finally get my Technician license a few years back, as an adult, but the desire to do use it has diminished.
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Jun 10, 2007 20:05
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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:Between WRTH, Passport, and whatever other book you think might be helpful. Also if you have any magazine or website suggestions to help get started, they'd be appreciated! Assume I have $30-40 to work with. This is from a point of view of VERY limited experiences with these books, but I'd say go with passport.
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Jun 10, 2007 21:58
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Sorry to keep asking dumb questions but I'm kind of excited now. If I were to buy a length of cheap insulated speaker wire and run it out my window along my gutters by my roof, would that be a pretty decent antenna?
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Jun 11, 2007 00:31
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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:Sorry to keep asking dumb questions but I'm kind of excited now. If I were to buy a length of cheap insulated speaker wire and run it out my window along my gutters by my roof, would that be a pretty decent antenna? Yup. I've done this very thing, and it works wonders.
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Jun 11, 2007 00:48
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Eurakarte posted:Oh man, this thread inspired me to dig out my radio and rig my antenna back up to see if I could catch any numbers stations and I found one almost instantly. If anyone's interested, the Spanish numbers lady is on right now on 6855 kHz. Havn't heard one in years; been hoping I'd hear one or someone would post one so I could tune it...Lesson learned spend more time with the radio;less time with the lady. (joking of course)
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Jun 11, 2007 01:22
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blugu64 posted:Havn't heard one in years; been hoping I'd hear one or someone would post one so I could tune it...Lesson learned spend more time with the radio;less time with the lady. Some of the numbers traffic monitoring sites have lists of Atencion (spanish numbers lady) frequencies. Sometimes they even have current schedules. Worth checking out, and could help you track down a broadcast more easily.
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Jun 11, 2007 01:42
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I did hear the same station at the same time (2100 UTC) at the same frequency again today, actually. Spynumbers' V2c schedule says it's a daily broadcast, so it'll probably be on again tomorrow.
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Jun 11, 2007 01:47
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Does anyone have the Conet 4 disc collection as a zip to download or torrent? The page linked has them as well over a 100 individual little files that have to be grabbed one at a time.
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Jun 11, 2007 01:50
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Eurakarte posted:I did hear the same station at the same time (2100 UTC) at the same frequency again today, actually. Spynumbers' V2c schedule says it's a daily broadcast, so it'll probably be on again tomorrow. I'll have to try to catch that tomorrow. That's 7 AM, local time, so I'll just have to get up a few minutes earlier than usual and listen before I go to work. I just installed a 50 foot windowframe wire wrap in a southeast-facing window of my bedroom which is perfect for picking up Cuba.
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Jun 11, 2007 01:51
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