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Oh you bastards. Just what I needed, one more dorky hobby for my wife to make fun of me. I just ordered an E5. I bought a house this year, so I can actually do a decent wire antenna for it; I figure just run a length of wire out the doors on our balcony and around the rain gutters.AstroZamboni posted:Some stations will not just send a QSL card, but put you on a mailing list for all sorts of crazy swag. Communist countries are the best about this. The curator of the museum where I work (who happens to be a ham) has a huge collection of insane banners, calenders, etc from commie china. Its keen. How do you normally do a reception report? In this day and age of high tech, can you do them via email or do you have to send letters/postcards? StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jun 13, 2007 |
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Jun 13, 2007 01:21
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Halah posted:I have 30 feet of wire seven feet in the air running from the spare bedroom, across the living room, through the kitchen and clipped onto the back door. Yeah, I'm going to have to take that down before the wifey comes home Good idea on the grounding, I didn't really think of it. I'll be sure to splice part of it down to a water pipe or something. Also, which works better: running a long line around the house, or doing loops around a windowframe? Or a combo of both?
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Jun 13, 2007 01:47
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AstroZamboni posted:You will enjoy many sleepless nights, and the days after these sleepless nights you will rue the day this thread came to be. Welcome to the party! Bought an e5, 100' of speaker wire, and the Passport to World Band Radio.
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Jun 14, 2007 17:45
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AstroZamboni posted:Okay, monetary drain stats added to the OP. Frightening, actually. Looking at the numbers I'm stunned that this happened. I bet the actual numbers are higher than that too -- but people either don't want to admit they got sucked in, or went and bought something and then never checked back in.
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Jun 14, 2007 18:50
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Got my E5 today, what a sexy piece of equipment it is! Pulled in Radio Tokyo (I think). Unfortunately, I think I got the power supply that causes a hum. So I'll have to call them to get the updated one.
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Jun 16, 2007 19:13
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Just (very clearly!) got Radio Australia -- their morning show. I was all excited to hear what they were talking about as morning news in Australia and the topic...was Paris Hilton.
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Jun 16, 2007 23:11
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Well, my plan for an intricate and awesome antenna wire failed utterly. After carefully soldering various connections, running a wire all around my rain gutters, and splicing a ground line down to my water pipes I got a signal...that was much worse in every aspect than just throwing the included wire antenna out the window. And was only marginally better than just using the telescoping antenna. Back to the drawing board.
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Jun 17, 2007 04:35
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(edit): nevermind, link wasn't what I thought.
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Jun 17, 2007 07:51
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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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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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Dog Case posted: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: You're getting the exact same lineup I am! I've pulled in a few other ones -- got Radio Roma very faintly last night, but that's pretty much what seems to come through on an average day. With a bunch of crazy southern preachers scattered all over the place. I sent reception reports to all of those above today. I think to get anything farther away, I'll have to get a real antenna. SoundMonkey posted:I have the wire antenna that came with my E5 (20-30', I'd guess) strung up inside my apartment (pretty much line of sight to my balcony). My main listening problem is insane amounts of interference - if I plug in the external antenna, I get probably twice as much signal, and like six times as much interference. This leads me to believe that my issue is antenna placement. Would out on the balcony be loads better? The best results I've heard so far were with me standing out on the balcony using the telescopic antenna. The only thing is that if I put the antenna on the balcony, I'll probably have to double it back once or twice, my balcony isn't that big. The wire antenna doesn't do much for me. I've strung it across my balcony, around my windowsill, threw it up a tree, up on my roof...no matter what I do, I'm getting better results with the normal telescoping antenna. Hell, I even rigged up my own wire all over the place, and I'm STILL better off with the E5's pathetic little antenna. I don't know if the E5's built-in is that good, or if I just live in an area where the added interference is too great. I'm still going to get an Eavesdropper and rig it up in my attic, but that project will have to wait until August when my wife is out of town for a week. She'd kill me if she saw me trying to build something up there.
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Jun 20, 2007 06:42
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AstroZamboni posted:That could have also been some sort of aeronautical/weather related transmission. I didn't find anything on 8992 on the master frequency list of known number traffic frequencies and it sounds like an unusual and unfamiliar format. On the other hand, you could have caught an elusive one-off transmission. You never know! Can you direct link to where the best lists are for number stations? I know you said Simon Mason's page and the Spynumbers page, but there's a lot of different stuff there, including just lists of frequencies, and several different pages for Mossad signals, and it's all a little bewildering. Is there just one consolidated resource somewhere that I could check? Maybe I'm asking for too much, but it would be great if there was something like the Passport to World-Band Radio listings, but for numbers stations. So I could go "okay, it's 4:30 world time, I should check the following 10 frequencies."
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Jun 21, 2007 19:55
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Milka posted:http://www.spynumbers.com/numbersDB/ That is exactly what I was hoping to find. Thanks! hudibrastic posted:The good news is that you really don't need to ground the antenna if you are using a portable. Just connect your wire to the whip antenna with an alligator clip. Disconnect it if there's a storm nearby. I was wondering about that. I'm using a portable and I live in a relatively dry climate -- it's not like a sudden freak thunderstorm is going to sneak up on me in San Diego. When there's rain like that on the way it's all "STORMWATCH 2007" on the news and I'll have enough advance warning to not leave the alligator clip on. But does grounding the wire do anything other than protection from lightning bolts? Like, does it help in weeding out random electrical interference or anything?
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Jun 25, 2007 20:19
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Oh you bastards. I got to reading back through this thread and something a couple people said caught my eye and then I started reading some reviews and... Well, you can add $104 to the running total in the OP, since I went and ordered a Sony AN-LP1 antenna off eBay. Probably the same guy everyone else is buying them from. He only has 3 left!
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Jun 25, 2007 20:47
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Got the spanish number station lady last night on 5883 at around 5 world time, thanks to that frequency database posted earlier 
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Jun 26, 2007 15:38
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Last night was a particularly good reception night for me. Radio Netherlands and Radio Havana were perfectly clear and I had a lot of unidentified signals that I hadn't heard before. 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.
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Jun 27, 2007 18:49
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Paperweight posted:Just got done soldering connections and burying my ground rods. Go into the house to get something to drink and what do you know, the power's out. Now I'm bored what do I do? Whip out the Sony and try out the AN-LP1. It picked up some good signals. Without it they wouldn't be listenable with just the built in antenna. And it was 4 in the afternoon. I think I picked up a Spanish female voice numbers station on 7885 (I think that was the freq.) Now that the power's back on I think I'm starting to feel the effects of a sunburn on my bald head and neck. Go figure. Wait, are you grounding the AN-LP1? I didn't think that was necessary.
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Jun 27, 2007 22:34
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meatpotato posted:We got spanish lady, but I can't remember the frequency. To be honest, we didn't care much for logging or remembering what we got, it was just a great experience. Sounds like a lot of fun. I have a few pages in my presets set aside for "temp" storage, so that if I'm just scanning through stuff and don't feel like figuring out what they are, I can just store them and look them up later if I feel like it. Also helps if I'm picking up like 3 or 4 broadcasts that I want to jump around between but I don't want to bother with remembering which presets they are on my normal storage.
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Jun 28, 2007 17:17
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Got my Sony AN-LP1 antenna yesterday. The thing is really nice. Inconspicous, just a big frisbee looking thing you suction cup to a window, and it folds up even smaller. But wow, does it ever pick up a good signal! Even with the crap reception during the day today, I was still able to pull in Radio Netherlands and Radio New Zealand pretty clearly. I haven't had a chance to try it after sundown yet, I will tonight. The only downsides I can see to it are that there is no AC adaptor, so I'm stuck blowing through batteries, and that it has that dial to select which shortwave band I am on, so if I'm scanning I have to keep rotating that dial accordingly. But still, the thing works like a charm and for the amount of space it takes up, I think it's pretty awesome. I wonder why they stopped making them?
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Jul 1, 2007 23:33
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overflow posted:
This has really been the only listening thread I've seen. It'd be hard to have one since it's so dependant on where you are, what your local interference is, etc. Better than depending on us to tell you what is on is to get a copy of the Passport to World Band Radio (there's a link in the OP) and checking http://www.spynumbers.com/numbersDB/dbOnAirNow.php3 to see what numbers stations might be on. Aside from that you can just scan around and look for ham radio guys or whatever, I've found a couple of those just by stumbling on them. The Passport book is the best thing for foreign stations, there's a section that is basically a "TV Guide" for radio stations. As for the active antenna, mine actually came with a passthrough filter thingie which is pretty nice to have.
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Jul 2, 2007 03:36
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AstroZamboni posted:Its also very possible you're unable to hear very many transmissions due to local interference from a powerful MW transmitter. I have lots of problems due to the aforementioned Radio Disney, and usually have to go somewhere else to get good reception. Ugh, I've been having a lot of interference the last week and I'm not sure why. Trying to figure out if I'm leaving something on like a wireless device somewhere or something, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be something my neighbors are doing. I can still get the big stations in fairly clear with only a little interference (Radio Havana, Radio China) but aside from that, every other frequency has been "The Buzzer" for me.
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Jul 6, 2007 16:59
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overflow posted:Add another $101.00 to the financial drain tally; I just picked up a Sony AN-LP1 off of ebay. Goddamn you guys. You won't be sorry, it's a good antenna. Probably the best you can do if you don't have the space to mount a big antenna outside somewhere.
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Jul 9, 2007 17:01
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Just for the heck of it, I sent out several reception reports via email to the major stations I was hearing, to see if I could get any QSLs that way. I know most of the smaller stations want a self-addressed envelope and all, but I thought the bigger ones might just take an email. I can confirm that you can at least get a QSL from Radio China just by emailing them a reception report:quote:Thanks for your reception report. I'll let you all know if any others worked that way.
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Jul 13, 2007 17:03
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Danton posted:I've got a QSL card from Radio Guam tacked to the wall of my room, I never knew that's what it was for and figured it was just a strange old postcard. I'll have to start sending out envelopes, but how do you find the addresses? In the Passport book? Yeah, that's where I found the addresses, although you can probably also look up the station's website for the larger ones and get the information there.
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Jul 13, 2007 20:05
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Danton posted:Do they just send back cards, or is it more personalized? Reminds me of the Zine/Mail-art/Cassette trading culture of the indie music scene in the 80's. Depends on the station. Usually the card will have some personalization, at least the date of your reception report and frequency. Also, some stations will send you little souvenirs, calendars, stickers, and of course, communist propaganda.
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Jul 14, 2007 01:39
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I got a QSL yesterday from Radio Japan, so you can add them to the list of stations that will send you one just for emailing them a reception report. Got a postcard, a little form-foldy return envelope thing that looks like I'm supposed to use it to send in another reception report, and a small brochure. I can't read anything but the QSL postcard since it is all in japanese. nmfree posted:If you're using the built-in signal seek function, AM is your best bet. I strongly suggest anyone who went through the trouble of getting a radio order the Passport to World Band Radio, it has listings of stations by frequency/time in a big chart so you can identify any normal (i.e. non-ham or numbers station) signal you hit, and also a little "TV Guide" like section where you can go and see what international stations are commonly broadcasting strongly at any time and what frequency they are usually on. It's really nice when I'm going to bed at like 11 PM PST and don't feel like screwing around scanning for stations, I can just look and say "Ok, I have Radio Havana on 6180, Radio Taiwan on 5950, and Radio Australia on 13535, what do I feel like listening to?" This link is good for finding what numbers stations/morse code stations might be broadcasting right now. Anything other than that like ham radio or aviation you just need to find manually by dialing around and seeing what you get. I've really only found a couple strong ham broadcasters on SSB, I think my area isn't very good for it. I found one guy once who was super-strong, and after listening to him describe the crazy rear end series of antenna he had set up, I guess I could understand why. But I only heard him once and never found him again. StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jul 20, 2007 |
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Jul 20, 2007 19:43
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I've found the Spanish numbers lady during the 7 UTC hour (midnight Pacific) on 5883 for three nights running. So, anyone looking for a numbers station, that's a pretty solid bet, at least for now.
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Jul 26, 2007 17:22
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AstroZamboni posted:By the way, I've heard good things about Eavesdropper Dipoles. Fairly full featured tunable dipole for 80 bucks for those who aren't quite so DIY-minded. Yeah, they look pretty awesome, and it says they can be done as an attic installation, too. I'm probably going to buy one and try to put it up next month. I'm happy with the AN-LP1's reception, but it never hurts to try something new!
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Jul 26, 2007 18:15
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nmfree posted:Police, firefighters, ambulances, street sweepers, utility companies, hams, studio link feeds for commercial broadcasters, cordless phones, paging services, marine radios, NOAA weather radio, etc. Ooo, fun. Now I'm torn between getting one of those or saving up to upgrade my E5 to something a bit more powerful.
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Jul 27, 2007 17:34
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overflow posted:If anyone is still thinking about getting a scanner, I've thrown mine online streaming so you can get an idea of what kind of transmissions you'll pick up. Right now it's setup for the Chicago, Illinois, police department frequencies. I'll add the fire department frequencies later on tonight. Obviously what you pick up will vary based on your location. I might take it down for a little while when I move it later tonight. Hey this is really cool, thanks!
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Aug 2, 2007 04:26
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Along the lines of discussing SSB and normal AM, when you're just dialing around looking for random interesting stuff, do you normally put it on SSB or off? I've been searching on SSB because while I can usually tell if there is an AM signal while I am on SSB and switch over, I've found I miss a lot of SSB stuff if I am on AM since it sometimes just sounds like static.
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Aug 2, 2007 22:46
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Nostratic posted:Okay, I'm going to have to revise my prior statement about the antenna. Doesn't that just loving piss you off? I did the same thing, created an intricate long antenna that wrapped all around my house and it just failed utterly. The whip antenna on the radio was better! Still sticking with the AN-LP1 for now, but I think next weekend's project is going to be to install an Eavesdropper in my attic. Maybe I'll take pictures
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Aug 14, 2007 05:50
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Stuntman Mike posted:I've gotta be doing something wrong, I'm getting practically nothing, besides one station with some really garbled tribal techno or something. Maybe this is obvious and you know it already, but are you also scanning non-SSB? SSB is mostly for stuff like HAM radio, morse code beacons, some numbers stations, etc. All the world radio stations like Radio Havana and the preachers and even some of the stronger numbers stations are not in the sideband.
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Aug 16, 2007 22:40
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Stuntman Mike posted:So I went down to Circuit City today and picked up a LineIN/LineOUT cable, so now I can plug my E5 into the back of my computer and hear the sound through my kickass computer speakers. Does interference from the computer kill your reception? I hate to be anywhere near my computer when I'm trying to listen.
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Aug 20, 2007 19:52
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overflow posted:I just realized I don't really have a place to host it. Signed up for a tindeck account.. anxiously awaiting activation email Semi-disturbing thing: I've listened to her so many times while falling asleep that hearing the recording made me sleepy.
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Aug 22, 2007 03:58
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Well, this is interesting (in an "I'm a shortwave radio nerd" kind of way). I'm getting Voice of Russia in right now, 4:30-5:00 Universal Time, on 13635. I've never been able to get them in at all before, on any frequency, and Passport doesn't even show them as broadcasting on 13635 at all. I wonder if they set up a new transmitter somewhere. Time for a reception report to see what the deal is! (edit): and they're gone, off the air promptly at 5. Neat while it lasted, very old school propaganda type radio. In other news, I got a QSL and a nice brochure from Radio Netherlands today, so there's another station that will QSL you just for dropping an email. StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Aug 22, 2007 |
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Aug 22, 2007 06:05
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AstroZamboni posted:This is called a rosary. Very common catholic practice, and monotonous as all holy gently caress. Part of why I'm not a catholic (besides the fact that I don't believe in god). It's actually not supposed to be monotonous, since those who really know what they are doing are meditating on a sequence of "mysteries" (specific biblical passages or events, tied with a certain virtue) while saying the rosary, a different mystery for each sequence of 10 hail marys/one our father. So the recitation of the prayer is almost like a mantra, like a Buddhist "Ohm", and not really the focus of the ritual itself. It's a strangely Zen practice for Catholicism, which is why I find it so interesting. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosary if you care. Which is why group rosary praying makes so much sense, and broadcasts of the same, in the same way group meditation makes sense. Of course, kids growing up today as Catholics tend to just learn "recite 10 Hail Marys" and not the rest of it, so to most folks it's mindless boring repetition. But that's why you see old women or people in Church, especially Roman, doing it with such furious concentration. They're actually doing it the way you are supposed to. Long aside, but it makes the rosary broadcasts make more sense. Of course, it also can make it more creepy, depending on your viewpoint. Just picture a huge group of people, all crowded together in a dark church in Italy, sweating and rolling those beads around in their hands while concentrating on "2. The Scourging at the Pillar. Fruit of the Mystery: Purity"
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Aug 24, 2007 18:01
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quality when broadcast over shortwave, where even the slightest change in the crackle is enough to make you paranoid.
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AstroZamboni posted:Castro aint dead. Radio Habana is just babbling on about the injustice of the Cuban 5, as usual. FERNANDO! ANTONIO! GERALDO! RAMON! RENE! Unjustly imprisoned for fighting against terrorism! I swear, I'm going to make a tv show out of the Cuban Five. Give them a snappy theme like the A-Team and we're all set.
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Aug 25, 2007 19:15
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Oh, the terrible joys of this hobby. I just spent about an hour crawling around in my dusty, hot, spider-infested, insultation covered attic. And I do mean crawling, the drat thing is too small for me to even kneel upright in. My legs hurt, I'm sweating like a bitch, I cut my back on a protruding nail, and I'm coughing from breathing in insulation. And I have an Eavesdropper T installed! First impressions: I'm definitely getting much stronger signals, even than I did with the AN-LP1. All sorts of stations I wasn't getting in before. The downside is that I'm also getting quite a bit of electrical interference, especially noticeable on weak stations. Part of that, I think, is because I haven't soldiered the wire ends to a minijack input yet, so I'm just wrapping them around the whip antenna -- so the eavesdropper is getting the active boost from the whip and it isn't designed for that. There's some wiring and cable leads up there in the attic that I'm sure are contributing to the noise, too, but nothing I can do about that. And it may just be an overpowered antenna for the E5, it's really designed for true receivers, not portables, I think. But, even with all that, it's still pretty impressive...I checked it out by detaching and reattaching the wire and there's a number of weak signals that would have maybe a third of the reception meter without it and would have the full meter with it attached, and that's with a corresponding increase in reception and clarity, not just noise. So, I'm pretty happy with it, and we'll see how much better it gets when I get a real input jack on it.
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Aug 28, 2007 05:34
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AstroZamboni posted:Congratulations! Give us a full rundown when you have the minijack hooked up. Following up on it as requested. I got the minijack soldered together tonight (and did a surprisingly neat job of it for once). Connecting it via minijack definitely fixed the interference I was getting before; it seems it was just too much gain hooking the eavesdropper up to an active antenna lead. The results are pretty spectacular. I'm seeing reception that is way better than the whip antenna and significantly better than the AN-LP1. And the nice part is, since the individual antenna "traps" on the Eavesdropper cover all of the separate bands, there no need for me to tune the antenna to bandwidths like I had to do with the AN-LP1, yet I'm getting all the clarity of isolating those signals. It's seriously that good -- I keep doing reception tests by finding a station, checking it on the whip, checking it on the AN-LP1, and checking it on the Eavesdropper connection, and the Eavesdropper is head and shoulders above the other two every time. So, in short, I'm loving it and it is certainly my main antenna now, with the AN-LP1 relegated to travel antenna. Considering how easy installation is on this thing, I'd highly recommend it if you have 45 feet of space somewhere to put it up (even in an attic like I did, if your building isn't metal) and you want a nice passive antenna without having to erect some giant outdoor metal pole sloper. StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Aug 29, 2007 |
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Aug 29, 2007 03:53
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