Re: [IRCA] WABV DX TEST HEARD IN TN
Ok, forgive me.,... Raw AC? What's that stand for? Or am I forgetting and having a brain fart? And do you mean, live operator? Paul 1590WABV SC ABBYVILLE0014 08/02/0 Heard what sounded like raw AC being sent as morse code, by a lid operator. Heard it again at 0029. Very weak under station from Jackson, MS. [WM-TN] Hi Willis, Those of us over the age of 29 (way over) and who got licenses when they were still hard to get know both what raw AC is AND what a Lid operator is, hi As is often the case, wikipedia will help you young squirts (cf. Hiram Percy Maxim) with the latter (read down a bit) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lid I guess next, they start asking who Maxim was . sigh 73 Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] 1st PIRATE Station on SONYULTRALITE..1710 LUBAVITCHER RADIO Brooklyn, NY
Thx. 100 watts. No wonder all I have gotten is a carrier at this distance. What amazes me if the FCC allows these NE pirates to continue to operate. It's been discussed here, I believe more than once, and by those more knowledgeable than I. Unfortunately the collective memory of mail lists remains surprisingly short. The FCC doesn't carry muscle with them when they move to shut down one of these operations. In Fla. there is a *state* law against pirate activity, and the FCC FO gets the FDLE to ride along and do the takedown, and they seem to be happy to help. In New York the Lubavitchers have a great deal of influence, and the local police agencies are reluctant to get involved and look bad. It's probably a jurisdictional issue as well. Someone has to make a complaint and the use of 1710 seems to assure that no legitimate broadcaster will be around to complain. I would not be surprised to learn *IF* it happened that they were quietly told to park themselves up there, and they would then be left alone. You would think more pirate operators would pick up upon this. Not to mention it is a clear channel in the true sense of the word. But it remains IMHO that few, if any, pirate operators are MENSA members. I know this has been talked about before now. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] One Tube MW Regen on eBay
Check out eBay item: 330207789574 Gorgeous. 73, -Bruce Bacon N7BWB Boise County, ID Interesting. This device needs 12 volts but has a tube which looks like an old 807 (but I think the 807 had 5 pins, and this has what looks like 7 pins so it may be a 1625). There is no power componentry for such a tube (it needs around 400 volts for the plate) so that's likely decorative, or maybe some of the hardware is not shown? The detail on the photo is not good enough for me to tell if the plate cap lead actually goes anywhere. Or maybe the tube envelope was opened up and a small transistor preamp was mounted inside the tube envelope. That would be hard to do. Or, maybe in the tube base. That might be doable. Then that makes it just misleading. The tickler coil appears fixed-wound on the coil form. A regen should have a way to adjust the tickler coupling. A mystery to me. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] HAARP in Fla
Begin of test at 0630Z on 6792.5 heard but somewhat weaker than yesterday, lots more rapid fade on both signals (main and echo). Somewhat better at 0650, still not as good as yesterday but, for a couple of minutes, it seemed the echo was as good as the main, and simulated just a steady tone with a gap of a few hundred ms every couple of seconds at the best point. I can't aurally hear any doppler shift. Everything is done in CW mode of course. Not paying the closest attention as i was looking for insurance contact with FO/OH1RX on 3508 which I got a bit ago, then shut everything off (it's after 2 am). This ham station is on Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas group and they report having zero local manmade noise, along with no precip static (rains every night). As a result, they hear everything on LF, but I don't believe they are participating in this test. see: http://www.sm0w.com/marquesas for pictures etc of what would certainly be an outstanding MW DX site, located near Tahiti. Back to haarp: I hrd some signals at 0635z QRMing, about 100 Hz off freq for a little bit, and atmospheric frying sound noise is worse, in addition a cold front came through Fla tonight with lightning - quite rare in Fla in January - to equal most August t-storms. So the band is full of noise. Rx a Kenwood TS-430S and a 20 meter end fed wire /MFJ989C tuner. Bob Foxworth sent 0729Z ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] HAARP Test heard
On Saturday 19 January 2008 00:15, Walter Salmaniw wrote: I'm hearing quite nice moon bounce best using USB tuned to 6791.8 I'm hearing it here too, also using USB. The HAARP skywave signal is not tremendously strong - Barry I first tuned in around 0510 and was amazed to be getting clear echoes, but they never lasted more than a half minute. The main signal ranged from 559 to 579 with fade, and the echoes were heard maybe 1 minute in every 4 or 5, and for no more than 20 to 30 seconds, running about 519 to 539. There was occasional other signals heard, a rapid sweeper very loud, and occasional CW interference such as up. 7407 and tu at the end, weak. I think the 0510 was the best signal and never as good, shoulda been there on time. The 7407 was useless here due to some loud interference. Rx a Kenwood TS430S (gen coverage rcvr) and a 20 meter longwire. Location Tampa FL - Bob Foxworth ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Sony SRF-39FP.... So Much Fun They May Put You in Jail!
Provided courtesy of Kevin Schanilec, my accomplice in serious Ultralight DXing crime, this transparent little ancestor of the SRF-59 was actually designed for prison inmates... If you would like one of these little jewels, you will need to take your chances on eBay, because they are currently no longer in production. But if you can track one down, I assure you that your efforts will be deeply rewarded-- the SRF-39FP not only has a much larger tuning thumb wheel than the SRF-59 (making the analog tuning actually fun, at least for this fanatic), but also has an excellent alignment quality control record (my unit was competitive with a fully aligned SRF-59 right out of the box, and every other SRF-39FP I have heard of was also very sensitive as received). The Chinese factory which manufactured the SRF-39FP's apparently was a model for quality control, and the current SRF-59 factory QC managers deserve indictment for negligence, by comparison. The SRF-39FP (FP means For Prison) is a true status symbol for the ultimate SRF-59 fanatic, and as you log your TP's, TA's and other exotic DX in the future, you'll be ready for the slammer, on the charge of having way too much DXing pleasure! I got one of these little fellows a few days ago, through eBay, as a result of a posting here saying just a few were left. It was about $15 + shipping. It seems to live up to the hype. I can actually find space between domestic channels, and it has good sensitivity and pretty good nulling. I was getting WDBO Orlando 580 last night coming past my strong local on 570, mixing with a LA with romantic ballads, possibly HIAF up briefly though I think they should have been off by then. On some sets here, 580 is hard to work with any usable signal. It tunes very similarly to the way my old Radioshack TRF 12-655 behaved, as I recall it. But the absence of a usable dial scale is somewhat annoying. The thickness of the dial pointer is much greater than the spread on the dial of adjacent stations. If there was a way to add a LCD freq readout, this would be awesome. I know it reaches 518 as I was hearing thumping from the AM-mode demodulation of NavTex, and it sounded centered, not on edge. I haven't tried to see how high it tunes yet. Mine came in a cardboard carton with a Koss earbud headset, but no instruction book. It would have been interesting to read, though I suppose, short on any real detail. Obviously it is transparent to alleviate the hiding of contraband. It'll be handy for sniffing around to find local noise sources. Do I get the record for logging the most distant insulator arcing? hi - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Hets on 1062 and 1078
For the first time since September 07 I am hearing hets. On 1062 and 1078. They are VERY strong! but no audio. Not sure if they really are hets or thye Cubans with an open carrier. 1078 may not be a TA. Any one else hearing these? Willis Old Fort, TN I'd look into the possibility that someone on 1070 is carrying some programming that has 8 kc audio embedded in it, Note the perfect symmetry of these hets against 1070. Also 1078 is not a TA frequency. You'd never detect this directly by listening on 1070. Only indirectly by seeing if any programming you could hear on 1070 might sound like it was a satellite feed. Or another indirect way is to see if the signals go off simultanelously when the station cuts away to local origination and even that is not foolproof. because it might be an artifact in the audio chain at the station. I am certain this is not of Cuban origin. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] CFFX DX Test heard with Dueling Ultralight Radios
Bob Foxworth noted that WERC dominated the frequency at his QTH with Fox News. I caught a partial announcement of Your news and information station at EST, then into Fox News. Does WERC use that slogan? Steve Howe Albany, NY I do not recall hearing that phrase from WERC but I am not the guy to ask, as I was listening for code or sweeps. None of them were heard by me, either -0005 or 0100-0105 EST when the audible signals were all in voice. I QRT at 0106. During the 0100 section I heard Reloj much better than an hour earlier, mostly even to atop WERC. But I did not hear any second RR signal (a different xmtr) here, though I frequently hear a second one on 950, about 1 second behind the main one. I never had any usable 3rd signal here on 960 but just using my portable was not a truly fair test. Perhaps Les Rayburn could advise if Your news and information station is ever used on his local WERC Someone mentioned an ESPN ad that includes code. I remember hearing something like that using code but the ad I did hear somewhere, if the same thing, was just a jumbly bobble of a few non-characters and was nowhere like real code, which I do know. 73 BobTampa ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] CFFX DX test - no luck in Fla
For those keeping score, the code and sweeps only ran for a minute and a half, from 0001:10 to 0002:40 EST, preceded by a voice announcement about the test. Listened from about 2358 to past 0010 on DX390 portable. WERC pretty much owns the freq. They had Fox news to 0005. Reloj from Cuba 15 to 25 dB below them. I think Reloj was running their chimes every few seconds during the first minute. No sign of anything else that was a usable level. Reloj back to standard fmt after 0001. Better luck on ham bands, worked V73NS on Kwajalein on 7018 just now. 73 Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] SRF59 and Ewe Experiment
From: Gil Stacy [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Yesterday afternoon I restrung the 130 degree firing ewe (18'x40'x18' #26 black vinyl jacketed copperweld) in the front yard over the entrance sidewalk to our home, much to the delight of my xyl 73, Gil SE Georgia SRF59 and 18x40x18 ewe, firing 130 degrees. Gil, what is your source for the black jacketed copperweld? I have been using paddle wire ( #26 steel wire with a green enamel paint) (sold at craft stores, for tying floral arrangements) for a stealth longwire, but this would be a better choice, longer life, for one, I am sure. Tnx, Bob, in Tampa ( townhome CCR hell) ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] UNID beacon 506
Jim Renfrew, Holley NY 2130 EST 506 kHz BD Can anyone else hear this? It's repeating without any pause. Might be negative keying ... the B character dots seem a little longer than the D character dots. dah - dit - dit - dit dah-di-di Is there someone intending to send VU here? This would likely be the invert of what you describe. The long dah in the B character would be the space between the U and the following V. Just draw a picture of the dah and dit characters you hear, with the spaces drawn accurately. Then just below that, draw characters that match the spaces you created above and see if they sound out to real code characters. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] I'm baack
Yes, KAST was there. They are a god-send to Clatsop County. I wish there was a wy to nominate them for an NAB award. They sure deserve it. I called in on the air last night to personally thank them for all they did. Organizing all of the community leaders and one by one getting them on the air to inform our county of the dangers, help, and all. 73, Patrick Patrick Martin Patrick, I am curious as to whether broadcasters on the OR and WA coast have any sort of tsunami warning network in place, and if so, how they implement it. This of course is due to the risk from the Cascadia Subduction zone which apparently faults every few hundred years with major coastal damage (the last one was in 1700 and they have found sand grains embedded in the tree rings). The warning time is given in just minutes. Just today the NY Times had an article about the tsunami threat to the _east_ coast of the US. Interestingly they did not even mention the threat from Cumbre Vieja (La Palma island in the Canaries) but rather from a deep undersea trench near Puerto Rico, one I did not even know existed. A threat model for eastern Long Island was described and the warning time given as several hours. What kind of network is in place aside from EAS to help with this scenario? - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] NY Times - House Cmte Chmn orders FCC Inquiry
Today's NY Times, in an AP wire story, says that John Dingell-D-MI who heads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says that the FCC has suffered an apparent breakdown in an open and transparent regulatory process. He is losing confidence that the commission has been conducting its affairs in an appropriate manner, and has ordered an inquiry. The investigation will be conducted by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-MI, who has received several complaints about the way that (Kevin) Martin has conducted business that include claims of an abuse of power and an attempt to keep fellow commissioners in the dark. The terms selectively withholding data and short-circuiting procedural norms also appear in the AP story's allegations, among others. End excerpts from the AP story. The following are from me. Perhaps someone will advise Rep. Stupak of the academic interest of examining the ways in which the Commission came to its decisions on the BPL issue, and the IBOC issue, both of which seem to me to have striking similarities, among which are deliberately ignoring technical information that would suggest not adopting the positions that were subsequently taken. Should be interesting. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Tests on 1030 1210
Not to change the subject any but things look promising for tests on 1030 and 1210 in mid December. Both would be using 10 kw. Which would you say has a better chance of reaching the most DXers? What tests are you talking about? The DXTests.info website lists no upcoming tests from stations on these frequencies. This WAS answered on some MW list - sorry, I get them all and don't now remember which. These stations are both in Arizona. AFAIK they are still being developed. As a result they would not been posted to the DXtests website. Side comment - this is what happens when specialty hobby lists get fragmented audiences, and the reader does not, for whatever reason, choose to, or can't get them all. Since my chances, in Fla. are not that great for hearing any AZ test, I am not following this that closely. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Tests on 1030 1210
Some of you posted to ask why the looking promising tests aren't on the test calendar . Not to change the subject any but things look promising for tests on 1030 and 1210 in mid December. all and don't now remember which. These stations are both in Arizona. AFAIK they are still being developed. As a result To me, the words things look promising and still being developed means that AT THIS TIME there are NOT yet any **scheduled tests**. And some of you are complaining because these tests that look promising [not my words] aren't yet on the calendar. They aren't yet on the test calendar because they are evidently still being developed. That's why the question of whether 1030 or 1210 would be better. And if they only look promising then they won't yet be on the test calendar. Again the OP used the words look promising, not I. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] IBOC battle begins
I think Bob would be crazy not to sell for a pile of money if he wants to sell. That said, Bob can't sell because his signal is being impaired by WBZ. What did the people of Taunton, Massachusetts get last week when their local WPEP 1570 handed back its license, after its owner was bought out to enable a power increase up the road at WNSH 1570 Beverly? This has nothing to do with WBZ diminishing the worth of WYSL or its ability to earn money. I hate to see WPEP go away since ABDX member Jay Rogers works there, but businesses buy out businesses every day. The FCC does have a say in this though but they haven't had much to say about this kind of thing lately other than to rubber stamp it. I'm not sure the WPEP-WYSL comparison is valid. Apparently the WPEP owners accepted an offer to sell. Possibly not completely to their liking, but apparently it was an acceptable offer, reflecting something like market value. Last I heard, WYSL is not looking to sell. And any offer made to them now would be substantially degraded because of the interference problem, and market value would be compromised. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] TA's leaving TP's coming?
Reception has cool off here. Will check tape latter on the Russian on 1215. Will be at it again at 1300 ut for TPs. Have fun. Dennis, Vancouver, WA FWIW the 80 meter CW ham band is the best it has been in a long time, Hungary, Netherlands loud, and Hawaii coming in well (KH7XS) between 04 and 05 Z. Hawaiian is hearing/working Europeans.. All around 3505 - 3510 kc. Gander Radio on 3485 USB is as loud as NewYork Radio. Spots on the DX Summit for 160 m (1815, 1827 kc) for Europe working into western NAm. (I can't work 160m here) - Bob 0529z ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] WCXH-780 Monticello, ME DX - nil in Fla
It's tonight folks - don't miss this opportunity to possibly hear a station from Maine! Nothing for me in Tampa first 20 minutes, using DX-390. Northeast signals from NYC are far from optimum. 880 weak and fady, 660 and 770 are just jumbles of audio.. 780 a mix of R. Formular (?) sounded XE, and a weak fady WBBM. Plan to return to the sack... 73, Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Fw: [RT] [Fwd: [drmna] Canada report on HD/IBOC]
This just in from the Radio Tech list. It is a 36 page pdf. I've just begun to look at it. What I'm seeing so far is pretty FM-specific. The original subject line (this post) says no to AM but the report itself is titled: IBOC TECHNOLOGY: An Assessment of Technical and Operational Issues in the Canadian FM Radio Environment prepared by the Digital Radio Coordinating Group I can't find a reference to AM. - Bob k2euh Tampa -- - Original Message - From: K Watts [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Broadcast Radio Technical Forum [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 13:29 Subject: [RT] [Fwd: [drmna] Canada says no to HD/IBOC on AM] http://www.cab-acr.ca/english/radio/dab/DRCG_Report_final.pdf ___ ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] [lbi-dx] What are these?
The center is certainly a Collins 51S-1 receiver. Below it appears to be the companion SSB adaptor for a Hammarlund SP-600. The nomenclature escapes me just now. r/ Chuck Rippel Bill Harms [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Does anyone recognize the gear in this rack? http://tinyurl.com/yr7od9 It is not a HC-10. I used to own a HC-10 which was in a square, cubed actually cabinet, matching the HQ-180 knob layout. Maybe 10 x 10 x 10 inches per side. The HC-10 had a lot more knobs. It was actually the rear end of a HQ-180 complete with 60 kHz IF, and a 455 kHz input jack. The SPC-10 was the rack mount version of the HC-10 and had a similar looking S-meter, as well. This is not a SPC-10. It would fill a 19 inch rack slot without needing support plates. I still have manuals for both devices, which are possibly more collector's-item than the actual hardware... and the SPC-10 is a rare duck indeed. This device shown is not directly rack mountable, has way too few knobs to be either a HC-10 or a SPC-10, and the lower two knobs have round level marker plates, which I never saw on a Hammarlund product of that era (1962-ish), though the SP-600 had such. Maybe a home upgrade on those 2 lower knobs, for visual effect. My guess is that it IS a sideband adapter. If it had a nomenclature plate, I'd guess Technical Materiel Corp. though they DID have a tunable adapter for the GPR-90, I think it was the GSB-1 this is definitely NOT that. It could even be homebuilt- a one-off. That's my best guess. The panel work is definitely within the ability of a lot of home workshops. Truth be told, I don't know. The CEI is the rack mount device above the Collins, as stated. The four large knobs on the left edge of the photo look like part of a RCA broadcast transmitter, actually, but that does not make a lot of sense to have a RX next to an Xmtr like this. - Bob . ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Early TA's in Alberta
Let me be the first to remind you folks in the Pac NW that, at the winter solstice in Dec-Jan you will have a true greyline path from your area to northern Europe at your local sunRISE, probably (without checking more exactly) around 1500 UTC. I think NHP is one that has had some tentatives there in recent years. Unfortunately with Kvitsoey-1314 gone, it will be less easy. That far northerly coast location gave them a nice big window of time. Hams have been exploiting that path on 160 meters (1820 kHz) for some years. This is almost the same path that allows Iceland to be heard past 0400 local time in the Northeast US in late December on LW. Reminder that true greyline is where the signal path is the same as the sunrise terminator, at all points on the path. Not just where sunrise or sunset is occurring at one end, though that by itself often causes brief enhancements. This is the same path concept that Craig Healy is trying to exploit to hear Anchorage on MW 750 at the summer solstice. Perhaps some of the tech gurus here can dig a little deeper into the question of how a few hundred watts, or 1 kW, at 1820 can do so well, compared to MW signals at 1500-ish that need much higher power. A few weeks ago, the 3B7C ham expedition to an island near Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean were working the west coast of NA via longpath on 160 SSB, not every night, but it was done. I think they had Beverages for rx and either a K9AY or a four-square, power was no more than 1 kW. This was around sunrise in CA. Also they were basically at sea level with a clear azimuth in every direction. Many of the guys on the other end had far less optimum setups. As for me, trace audio on 1134 around 0130Z on my barefoot DX390 tonight, other stuff BFO'able e.g. 1575. - Bob, Tampa FL Those TA's are getting earlier all the time!. Noted several quite strong carriers just after 0030, with weak audio on 1134. Other strong carriers (though they tend to be up and down) are 1575, 1377, 1422, 1215. Another evening that bears watching. Winter of 95', Nick and I were picking up Norway at 2300 UTC (late afternoon in Victoria...) sun down still 1 hour away. -- Colin Newell - Editor/Creator coffeecrew.com | dxer.ca Web-Design / E-Commerce / Writing Victoria, British Columbia, Canada ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] On Slashdot GAO report slams FCC
Posted yesterday (10/03) at 1645 on Slashdot GAO report Slams FCC http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/03/1813217threshold=-1 Interestingly there is reference to how the FCC ignored techncical facts about BPL, but no one posted about how the FCC ignored technical facts on HD. Tells you something about the (lack of) penetration of HD radio into the public consciousness. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Random thoughts on IBOC
Or in the words of Mister T: I pity the fool who buys an HD Receiver! Actually I wound up keeping my $100 Accurian because it is a nifty little desktop mini stereo amp/speaker unit, when I use the Aux In function to play back from a pocket digital recorder. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] [ABDX] Some informaiton on 4KZ 531 Cains, Austrailia...
Subject: [ABDX] Some informaiton on 4KZ 531 Cains, Austrailia... Per an email I *JUST* got from their General Manager For the record, the town name is Cairns and not Cains. Pretty far up north on the Qld. coast at about 17 deg S. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] TPs for 09--25-07 from the QCI
Yesterday's highlight was India on 684 (from Port Blair) at 14:45 for about an hour, often at surprisingly good reception, and // to SW 4760. Talk about being thrilled!!! You know that Port Blair is in the Andamans, and all hams and most SWBC types count that as a separate country from India. No matter how it is counted, that is a very nice logging. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Cheaters-R-Us -- SIGINT lesson 102
..I can tell you first hand, that you'll make the job of Jim and the BTC more difficult by using the term on this list. Let Jim tell you about the recent response/refusal to a DX test from a CE at a station (which shall remain un-named, of course) who considers DXers who log a station by copying Morse Code to be cheaters. Well, he hasn't, AFAIK. I suppose it Had to Happen. I look forward to perhaps reading about this. Jim ?? Probably a ham who has learned that contacting hams at a great distance using CW is much easier (if you know the code) than to copy his/her voice, all else being equal. The 10 to 1 reduction in bandwidth for CW is part of the answer. I'd bet this is more common than you would imagine. It is based on the premise that the station should be received and logged in the mode in which it is intended to operate. IOW, an AM double sideband modulated station should be logged using AM detection (which could be diode or synchronous, but it is logging the station by detecting its voice sidebands audibly, and listening to the spoken recovered output by ear, as any listener would do). I've posted on this several times. Logging a station based on that premise, in order to count it as an AM station logging is one thing. Hearing a CW ID in AM mode (when the station transmits a CD of an audio code ID or sweep tone) pushes the limit of what an AM station is expected to do. I think many DXers are satisfied with counting their loggings that way, i.e. hearing a MCW ID. And, yes, I've done it. A _true_ CW ID is done by pulsing the carrier on and off and using the BFO. What we are doing is MCW, pulsing a _tone_ on, and off with a constant carrier. A further reach is when the DXer detects the sideband __IN CW MODE__ (BFO on, 300 Hz bandpass filter, tuned exactly to the sideband of the tone, optimally 3000 Hz or greater, to escape the normal AM sideband hash). A lot of DXers probably would have trouble even getting that to work. It is certainly way beyond the scope of what an as-intended AM station signal reception would be all about. It's useful if you want to just get an indication of what kind of propagation is happening. I guess some would count it and some not. My own preference would be to Not count it, but then I stopped counting stations, as being sort of meaningless, in the 1970's. I like the GPN model of pushing the limits technically, as distinct from just counting as a logging, so you can claim X and then X+1 loggings. Then there is the question of counting the (then) wobbling KFI carrier using Spectran, a few years ago. No sane person would count that as a logging partly because the opportunity does not exist to be equally able to count any other signal on the same frequency. That's because none of the others have a distinct artifact (a voice ID would be a distinct artifact) allowing it to be uniquely identified. After all, the idea that the KFI carrier could then be visually identified, ONLY because of its unique temporary defect, is interesting in a technical sense because it lets one determine how often that carrier might be present at a distant location, all very useful information, but it is in no way valid for a logging when none of the other signals have an equally reasonable chance of being identified in the same manner. Don't forget that the KFI situation then depended on a transmitter defect, (wobbling oscillator) that is not part of the intended manner in which the station operates. To prove this, listen to 640 from the east at 0700L in Dec., you might see 10 or over 10 distinct carrier lines, but, if you have done no prior research (AM DXing by sound requires none, to be successful) then you honestly now have no idea which of those carrier lines is which station, and you can't log _any_ of them. You can just infer identities based on such things as a trace appearing or disappearing at the known s/on or s/off time of a particular station, as UK DXers have done with South American signals on 1470 etc. It's all stuff I think is fascinating and has high value. I suppose a true purist in this model would not even count a signal heard at night, using its daytime facility, as it is also not part of the way the station is intended to operate. No easy answers. Don't forget that GPN used SAH recovery and PFM data as a pointer to possible future reception of seldom heard signals, which would then be logged audibly in the normal manner, and not as a way to log by SAH reception alone. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Cheater term and the FCC - earliest known?
Foxy writes: I think I can claim the earliest known instance of what some have referred to as Cheating. I think it was in 1959, when I was still in high school. I was still in high school when I heard KXRN-1220, Renton, Wash., doing an HSFB game at night, well past sunset. I graduated from Corvallis High in 1953. Q.R.M. Ach du Lieber! QRM'ed by the Q.R.Meister! Ja, ich bin jetzt Nummer Zwei! Gee John, they had radio in 1953??? (just kidding) - Bob, saying, ah fame, 'tis fleeting etc. ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Cheater term and the FCC - reposting of comments
Very good comments. But both the IRCA NRC lists are indeed Googled. 10 minutes after I post something on either list, it ends up on broadcasting lists per several engineers I know. They see and read all about us and what we hear and report. That is another reason I try to Patrick This implies either (1) that the DXer posting to a DX list has another DXer re-posting that material to a broadcasting list - or - (2) that a reader of a broadcasting list (there is Broadcast, RT and the AF that I know of) is reading the DX list and importing comments from the DX list onto the broadcasting list. I read those lists, perhaps not meticulously, but I can't think of any time this has happened. I would think that broadcasters have neither the time, interest nor energy to skim DXers' comments from these lists and put them onto b/c lists. What am I missing? Another list? I know that many of these comments here do become searchable by Google but that is a pull technology by the reader, where this comment sounds like push technology (post ... ends up on... lists) is being used. Say, aside to Patrick, a young lady waitress at the local Stone Chase restaurant moved here 3 months ago from Seaside OR, and when I casually mentioned hey, that's in Clatsop County she was amazed. (I just really enjoy doing stuff like that). Her name is Lisa. She has, unfortunately, (for you, I guess) never needed the services of a locksmith when she lived in Seaside. She is doing pre-med at USF, where they have a diabetes-related med program. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Cheater term and the FCC - earliest known?
I know the HS FB rule as we used it back in the 70s when I worked at KVAS Astoria. The salesmen would sell the spots and the advertiser would want to hear his spots during the game. If we dropped power at LSS to 250w, the station was gone 5-10 miles out of town, so we stayed on 1 KW until the FD game was over. I think I can claim the earliest known instance of what some have referred to as Cheating. I think it was in 1959, when I was still in high school. A playoff game was in progress to decide which team would represent the National League in the World Series. The game went into extra innings, and I - when living in New Jersey - was listening to the game on CFOR 1570 Orillia, Ontario, who were booming in with the game feed. (This was when all US 1570 were daytimers and had long since s/off) There was an echo of the game audio behind CFOR. I have no real idea of the time but it must have been around 8 PM. I was recording this on my dad's Webcor tape recorder. The game finally ended, and CFOR was carrying the post-game wrap-up, and the echo was still there, but suddenly ended. The CFOR announcer said Hear the World Series on Cee - FOR and paused for about 2 seconds, and in that gap could clearly but faintly be heard This is radio station KMCD in Fairfield, Iowa.. and right away, the game announcer came back and said something like Well that was quite a game. KMCD immediately went to a s/off, which was essentially not understandable u/CFOR and less than a minute later, they were gone. The CFOR coverage of the game wrap-up continued normally. Several reports to KMCD were never answered. (surprise...) and it remains one of the few 1570 sunset loggings I never verified. I still, somewhere, have a copy of this tape, which is how I remember it so well. I think I was still playing it for others at DX GTG's into the 1970's. Maybe Russ remembers it? CFOR then was considered a nuisance signal for those of us who were trying to hear the 1570 US daytimers' signoff, they ranged from inaudible to strong on various nights. I seem to remember that the Iowa reception was maybe 45 minutes to an hour after their scheduled s/off, but given the nature of the game, I can understand how this happened, in an area that probably had no real TV usage then, and it was either radio, or nothing, for news. Maybe some of the sports enthusiasts can cross check this game and confirm my recollection of the year. I've long since forgotten the teams, etc. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Cheater term and the FCC - reposting of comments
I didn't see a reference to a specific list, so maybe hard-core-dx is the list he's referring to, and maybe not. It is a broadcasting list, but without specifics its hard to tell. Mike Bob Foxworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This implies either (1) that the DXer posting to a DX list has another DXer re-posting that material to a broadcasting list - or - (2) that a reader of a broadcasting list (there is Broadcast, RT and the AF that I know of) is reading the DX list and importing comments from the DX list onto the broadcasting list. My personal opinion is that HCDX is a DXer list, in the same category as NRC and IRCA. A broadcasting list, in the way I see it, is for those who work in the b/c industry, but a number of DXers read some of them. A recent development on one of the b/c lists was postings from a fellow who went to Honduras, volunteering to help get a 1 kw AM box (that used to be at WDWS on 1400) set up in a village, and re-tuned to 1580, and was seeking help. As it turned out the dummy load and directional coupler were not working right. He finally got the rig up to 1 kw on 1580. It was quite an interesting story. But it's not DX. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] KFBK 1530 not running HD
I noticed tonight that both 1520 1540 is totally clear. KFBK audio back to normal and no HD noted. I wonder if KXPA complained? Patrick You DID send the courteous, written letter, to the Manager (NOT the CE) at KFBK thanking them for turning it off, no ?? And, a copy to KXPA. Your influence Counts. Use It! --(Bob Grant, WABC) ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Using the most remarkable Eton E1 receiver
Give the engineers another ten years and what you said may not be a figure of speech! Patrick Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Colin, According to guys with the computer radios, those are the future I have been told. With the zillion filters and the like, it may work better against HD in the future too. I don't have one as yet, but it is still in the back of my mind. Well maybe I am behind the times but present technology understands data in the time domain, and in the frequency domain, and IBOC is the first thing I have ever heard of that apparently has 100 percent occupancy in both domains, relative to the receive IF bandwidth, so when you filter out the noise there is really nothing left. Look at the waterfall displays from the SDR-IQ. It is a solid sheet of light, e.g. noise, where the digital sidebands are. No gaps anywhere. The sharpness of the edges is in itself interesting, the blurriness as you tune past the edge of the IBOC sideband is an artifice of the IF passband response in the rx. Noise blankers can work because in the time domain, the occupancy of the noise is only a few percent, so you blank out the pulse and you have maybe 95% of the time a clear signal and just recover that. Even though the fast rise-time noise spike fully occupies the freq domain (again, relative to the rx IF bandwidth). I'd look into super directive receiving antennas, not into baseband or IF filters. I think that's where the next big breakthrough in MW DXing is to be found, if it can be done. If you can filter at the antenna, it does not matter what comes later. Or, hey, moving to Guam may work, hi - Bob k2euh ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] 160 meter propagation notes
As some of you may know there is a major league ham radio expedition underway from St. Brandon island, northeast of Mauritius (some atlases show these islands as Cargados Carajos) in the Indian Ocean. Their web site www.3b7c.com today shows the following notes (the web site operators in England get reports back by satphone): 160 meters SSB at the start of each hour worked reasonably well (freq is 1821 kHz) until Sept 17/2300z. At this point signals on CW became so weak, relative to QRN, that SSB ops were impractical. Many stations in Europe (and later, North America) were audible calling, but not strong enough for a long enough time to make a [contact]. Every 5 - 10 minutes a few stations would get 15 to 30 seconds of signal enhancement, just enough to get a call[sign] and exchange reports. But many times we would hear a call, or part of a call, and not hear any further response. A few stations experienced signal enhancements several times but were unable to copy us well enough to complete the [contact] despite multiple calls. On 80 meters they are finding an opening to WCNA in the 1700-1900z period with different propagation paths noted when comparing the 3500 kc CW range to the 3800 SSB range. The 160 meter SSB signal was heard in Zone 3 around 1800Z. Click latest news on the website home page. These 160m CX sound just like what we have on MW with signals bubbling atop and then fading back out, but that is just on one hop. So the fade mechanism for these multi-hop paths seems basically similar. Interesting. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] 1380 WWMI disney has eye block turned on.
transmitter. May be a while. Disney is quite committed to IBOC and probably has turned them all loose at night, if possible. This prompted me to check just now (1315 local time) and the 1380 Disney in St Pete is running iBOC, a fact I did not know, so, no idea when it was turned on. I'll have to check after dark to see what their night time situation is. None of the other Tampa HD's have it on at night, as of last night. The hash indeed seems to extend farther out as well, but I'd want to have a spectrum analyzer to make an informed judgment on that. Maybe just the lack of semi-loud adjacents up there makes it seem wider... Due to !!SPAM appearing in the Subj line,in the OP, I re-titled it. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] 1380 WWMI disney has eye block turned on - no night ops
On 9/17/07, Bob Foxworth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This prompted me to check just now (1315 local time) and the 1380 Disney in St Pete is running iBOC, a fact I did not know, so, no idea when it was turned on. I'll have to check after dark to see what their night time situation is. None of the other Tampa HD's have it on at night, as of last night. And, he writes yet again... Two checks this evening after dark show that the 1380 is not using IBOC at night, as of tonight anyway. So thats 0 for 5 now, in the TPA market. Someone mentioned the staggered rollout by CCU (which would not necessarily apply to Disney, or Mega) but it was not clear if this meant stations first turning on HD, or if it meant those beginning night ops, who had already turned it on for day use. I took it to be the former, but who knows? In any event, it is interesting that there appears to be such a reluctance of so many stations to not run it (nights) at this time. Do groups of operators in a given market agree among themselves to not run it? There's gotta be a story here that we aren't hearing about. - Bob, TPAh, Flah, still having 90+ afternoon temps and daily lightning storms. Hope our 120+days/year of lightning, making us the lightning capital of North America, will end soon. Bah. ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] IBOC on Saturday night
now there is KXPA, KGNW, and I am sure KPDQ Portland must be affected with their 500w at night. FWIW the four AM HD's in Tampa FL are still not running their HD at night. Just had a good signal from a Reloj-960 which would otherwise be impossible. These are 620, 970, 1250 (all CC talk ) and 820 Spanish. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] New Old Radio
I have just procurred a Hallicrafters S-38B mint in box (or so I was told... and it looks that way). It is in a nice Hallicrafters box THE RADIO MAN'S' 'RADIO'... with a 7 page manual. Short story: The set is worth much more than you would suspect if you offer it as an antique at eBay. Having the original box and manual will add a lot to the value of the set. As Charles said, run it on a variac at low voltage for a while and if you are lucky the original electrolytics will re-form and not need to be replaced. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] 24/7 IBOC begins tonight
I was at the local SBE chapter meeting today*. During the banter, (you know that radio engineers love to banter, unlike stodgy dull air personalities, hi) the question came up - and not from me - as to what the local plans were for night HD for the Clear Channel AM properties here. The official word - as of noon Thursday - was that no decision had yet been made, and when it was, it would come from out of town. I then asked if they had any feedback as to the penetration of HD receivers into the market. They had no idea at all as to how many were out there. (*yes I am an affiliate SBE member) I was frankly, surprised, at both of these developments. First that it was even still up in the air, and this comment came directly from the gentleman who would throw the switch to do it. The second is that, one would *think* that the HD alliance would be bending over backwards to track these figures. And if tracked, at least make them available to those stations directly affected. I'll grant you that they have no cause to send them to the St. Pete Times...nor to me, either, hi So if they DO have these figures, and don't share them, it does not bode well for the big rollout. And if they DON'T have them it means to me, at least, the alliance is not doing their homework. A.C. Nielsen is good at extrapolating audience survey data, and a lot of green rides on what they generate. There is no reason the HD Alliance can't do the same, except for incompetence, laziness, or unwillingness to deal with it. Or ?? ..(option D ??) They could do a trade deal with all the Best Buy types out there. Give us sales detail info and we give you a break on stocking radios and free promo material among all that trade air time they are filling up. I'd bet that they could connect with a half dozen chains. Wal-Mart, Crutchfield, RS etc come to mind. They could survey the great majority of set retailers to get sales info that would seen to have a high degree of reliability due to the huge sample size. Get Free Advertising in exchange for some data? What's Not to Like? One explanation against could be that the Best Buy types are not convinced of the validity of tracking such a niche product, and won't, no matter the incentive. I'll see what's up locally this evening. - Bob It will be interesting to see the mess that will be made of the lower to mid band with all those 50 KW clears hashing up the adjacents. It's been a fun hobby. Lighten up brother. ;-) SUGGESTION: Get into/back into ham radio. 3B7C workable long-path on 40 meters CW at 1230Z this morning, 100 watts/short wire stealth ant. here. QSL's practically guaranteed. There is something new on every day. ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Patrick's DX Heaven
54 miles North of Grayland, WA there is 40 acres of land for sale near the town of Queets. The price is $119,500. Property taxes are $63.00 a year. A prospective buyer should make sure there is no homesteading (as it is known in Fla.) in place that has kept the tax rate artificially low. This sounds really low to me. Would a buyer face a huge increase, as is happening right now in Fla.? Also make sure there are no development rights or mineral rights issues. Can you market the lumber? (prospective income stream?) What road access do you have? 4-wheel? It's located near the ocean (yards) on a heavily forest piece of land. The acreage is located on the Quinault Indian Reservation. That's another thing. Are you limited in how you can use the land or what you put on it? What rights do the Quinault retain? Looks like the nearest AM stations are the two in Aberdeen, WA, 42 miles as the crow flies. Below is a link. Dennis, Vancouver, WA I like the Western Australia concept. Never been there. Probably no 1 on my wish list for places to see before I die. I would give that some serious thought. I doubt however you could import your gun collection (if you have one), they are pretty squirrelly about Americans and their gun collections, hi. (just kidding around, a little bit) Can't see any advantage to going to Guam. Is that just because it is a US territory, and far away? - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Another Caribbean trip report
Another Caribbean Trip Report Some time ago I had thoughts of trying to make the NRC/WTFDA convention in Idaho. Well, Pat said she had another idea, and could I listen? To make a long story shorter it involved my sister coming down to visit, and a dinner cruise, all to help celebrate a birthday (mine) that was coming up. Well, in Tampa, my idea of a dinner cruise is the little boat maybe 75 feet long that goes out down the ship channel, circles in Tampa Bay near Peter O Knight airport, while you all have dinner and comes back maybe 3 hours later. Pat's idea of a dinner cruise was a 5 day trip on a somewhat larger vessel that would have squashed the starship dinner yacht if a large wave had come up the ship channel. As it turns out the three of us spent 5 enjoyable days on the big ship, and the yacht trip will have to wait another day. We visited Grand Cayman and Cozumel. I brought the DX398 and did some radio research, looking at Cuba and of course George Town. But this is vacation radio and far from exhaustive, and probably not much news here. The vessel is known to true Radio Men in parts of the world everywhere simply as C6FM5, no further detail required. It is only to the illiterate masses of non- Radio Men that the added description M/V Inspiration must be added. On this trip, the name Perspiration might have worked as well. Must say, the wx was outstanding, if quite toasty. They were having a real sale, the three of us travelled for less than two would normally spend. I don't know if they made a profit but the ship (2480-ish pax) was full. Our Cuba track southbound passed maybe 15 km west of Cape San Antonio, the tip of Pinar, about 1530 local, second day out. What appeared to be a Cuban navy picket boat, or perhaps a fixed platform, was visible a few km east with binoculars. Treetops and a few coastal buildings were dimly visible, but too far to discern any possible tower structures. The Good News - no one fired on us! I was somewhat more productive with the radio on the return trip, noon local time on 31 August, at 24 N, 85 W but by then far enough north that Habana proper was being heard. (Unfortunately I lost my notes from the southbound pass, 21d30m N, but I recall 550, 790, 820 being loud while Habana, as measured by 950 level, was weak due to land attenuation). I noted 550 // 530, the 530 lagged by 1.5 second, equal level. I think there used to be a 650, but here 650 and 660 were vacant. On 710, 2 Sp. signals, equal, with 5 Hz SAH. Noted 730 fairly strong w/Progreso (maybe Isla Juventud?) Noted Reloj 790 loud, 2 Hz SAH w/pres. Miami. The 820 was very strong and was // 550. Noted 880 at s-7, 890 at s-2 and 900 unheard. 950 by then was s-9. Heard Guama on 990 very loud, // on 1020 a lot weaker. 1030 and 1050 vacant. On 1080 was a seeming 1 kc het, similar to the 1180 situation? 1140 fairly loud and // a somewhat weaker 1120, and same 1120 level as 1100. The het on 1180 was between ear- splitting and just piercing. Massive. Audios just a jumble between Reb and Marti, nothing discernable thru the massive het from 1181. My Rx is too broad IF to be useful for DF'ing here. In addition a pronounced 8 Hz SAH was chopping up 1180. I can report that, just south of Cabo San Antonio, 21 30N on Tue 28 Aug, Marti was very loud and absolutely alone, around 1500 local, so the cordillera in northern Pinar must be blocking everything from more easterly Habana-ish area. Perhaps the het was absent that day, I just don't know. I wonder if they get any field reports from Cubans in that area? I heard a local on 1200, couldn't match to any of the other Red's. I haven't attempted to Id the networks except when absolutely known by me, or by sound (reloj, etc). Also, I did not hear anything Cuban above 1200 so the effort I saw reported elsewhere, to get Cuban Am'ers over 1200 off the air, must be working. I once thought I had a hot one on 1450 with LAtin mx, turned out to be just Sarasota (at minimal s-1 level // to a s-2 1320) Aside from the (two?) hets, freq stability of the ones I heard from western Cuba seemed as good as we have in the US. I have to report that I made no real effort to see what I could identify on FM, mainly due to lack of time, when passing near Cuba, also due to not having brought any logs, and hearing out of area signals that would take too long to ID. The classical cruise dilemma - how to allocate your limited time resources? Especially when at 15:30 it's classical Piano in the lounge with tea and salmon being served. Have all you want, etc. Also, no night DX, almost no beacon DX, nothing of note. I did not consciously seek out distant US stations, except to note WWL very well heard while headed N. I did a fairly involved survey of FM in the Grand Cayman area, when outbound, mid-afternoon. I was able to identify TWELVE!!! FM signals coming from Grand Cayman. Not having a WRTH, I don't know how much of this is known to DXers but I'll write up my notes on them and send separately,
[IRCA] caribbean trip report part 2 of 2 Cayman FM
Another Caribbean Trip Report - part 2 of 2 I did a fairly involved survey of FM in the Grand Cayman area, when outbound, mid-afternoon. I was able to identify TWELVE!!! FM signals coming from Grand Cayman. Not having a WRTH, I don't know how much of this is known to DXers. I know that Powell heard one of them, so perhaps someone's unID from the Es season will match my notes? I know this is FM, if you feel it is 'Off Topic', just kindly delete your copy. Just trying to reach as many as I can. Maybe one of you had one of these on Es this summer. I was listening with the DX398 1430-1530 localtime EDT 29 Aug while westbound from George Town, Grand Cayman (on EST time there) after our 1400 departure**. FM signals were held until reaching 19d 26.2m N; 81 deg 55.4m W when the louder ones started dropping out. I was in the cabin on 5th deck (of 12), window facing south. Heading 291 deg, speed 21.4 mi/hr. (note: on the older ships such as the Inspiration, the window glass will pass GPS signals. Newer ships e.g. Triumph, the cabin windows are an absolute block to GPS and you need to be topside. This is probably metallization to block UV light). **ship always stays on time of the home port, here, EDT, though both visit ports were 1 hour earlier. I heard the following, all believed from Caymans. Incidentally I heard both CAY-mun and kay-MANN used in speech. There is of course no guarantee that these formats apply at any particular time. For instance I heard BBC satellite feed news audio on one of these, in a cab, around noon; I think it was the 104.1 but that's just a guess. And, most everything with music seemed automated, often segued. 88.7 Gospel, weak signal, very little talking 89.9 Local telephone talk, local issues, relig. context 94.9 Spin ninety-four nine, rap music 96.5 kay-rock ninety six five; rock mx 97.7 heaven ninety seven gospel, relig. news items Call 945-2707 to FAX in items, 939-0350 prayer help. 98.9 The Vibe, ninety eight nine Carib, hip-hop, had at least one ad in Spanish 99.9 rock. RDS: TODAYS / Z99FM 101.9 country, CNN news. RDS: ROOSTER / 101 / CAYMAN / COUNTRY 104.1 rock. RDS: HOT 104 / YOUR / MUSIC (or) YOUR / STATION alternating with song title/artist display 105.3 rock, local radio, spoken: keep it locked on The Breeze, Happy Radio Breeze F-M 106.1 rock. RDS: KISS FM alternating with title/artist display 107.1 rock. RDS: X 107--1 alternating with titles display. Total of 12 identifiable signals, 5 w/RDS. As for AM (which long ago used to be on 1205 and 1555) - ha, ha. I would have no idea where to look for old AM towers - everything from George Town up the 7-mile beach, up to Hell, turtle farms etc., is pretty well developed, properties are very expensive. SO any old AM sites are likely long razed, or were way out East. We bought a book on Cayman geology. Much of the area is karstic limestone that shows evidence of multiple long-term inundations long ago, and the area is an elevated risk of earthquakes, due to being on the border between two tectonic plates, on a fault zone running E-W and on towards Eastern Cuba. (recall the 1694 tsunami at Port Royal, Jamaica) Feel free to republish this in any other DX club medium e.g. WTFDA (to which I cannot post) etc. 73 Bob Bob Foxworth, Tampa FL k2euh info as of end of August 2007 ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Cable work
Oddly, it's called poultry wire. If it's the stuff I am thinking it is, about 1/4 inch squares openings, steel wire woven together and dipped in molten zinc, they call it hardware cloth out here. I've used it a few times years ago when I needed a wide fat ground connector from a radio shelf to a metal plate on a concrete floor. I was having RFI issues and the setup took care of the feedback. Rick Kunath Archaeologists are fond of this stuff. You build dirt sifters out of a wooden square frame and the cloth makes the bottom. Pour in the dirt and shake the frame (the more elegant ones suspend the entire frame so your arms don't) and you sort out the larger items. You can get a 1/8 inch mesh, as well. And yes it is known as hardware cloth in Fla as well. It is quite stiff. The wires make exact squares. What I know as chicken wire has a hexagonal-shaped opening about one inch on a side and is much more flexible, and surely costs a lot less. Just enough to keep the chicken from escaping. It's woven much like a chain link fence. I never heard the term poultry wire. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] WWBA-1040
I've been meaning to check this...finally remembered to do so... At 2130 EDT today WWBA 1040 (a local for me) has Rusty Humphries. I think he is the one usually on during this time slot. His web site is www.talktorusty.com They (WWBA) do something weird when they drop power at sunset. Carrier goes off twice within a few seconds. No idea why, unless they switch towers, then drop power in a separate step. Their night signal is crap. I have heard WHO through them on many occasions. They advertise on-air their streaming if you can't hear WWBA at night. 73, hope this helps, Willis. - Bob in Tampah, Flah k4ape wrote: 1040 WWBAFL PINELLAS PARK 2150 16.08.07 NEWS TALK 1040, WWBA THEY ARE RUNNING SOME TYPE OF TALK SHOW, BUT CAN NOT DETERMINE WHO IT IS. TWO DAS FOR COMPINAYS IN FLORDIA. [WM-TN] They are running late on their day power; QRMing WHO at times. DXer: Willis, K4APE QTH: Old Fort, TN ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] KVOR-740 Colorado Springs Change
Gang, Just received email from KVOR-740. They say that they will be making a major programming change, and this change will be announced today at 4:00PM MDT. Art Folsom, CA I was listening to the opening of Mark Levin tonight at 2100 local time, and he announced 2 new affiliates, WVLK Lexington KY on a FM freq, and, as I recall, this was the other one. This then would point to their have gone to right wing talk. I'm not making an effort to run it down further. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] CFL CFL CFL CFL LAMP -was- CFB (Compact Florescent Bulbs) - Revisited
This is from my son, the physics major and UW Henley rower, and is in response to Mike Hardester's comments on CFLs: Begin forwarded message: From what I read of the post, it most seems like hearsay or wives tales. CFL bulbs operate at 2x 60Hz Trivia ... it is only on the IRCA list that I am seeing these devices referred to as bulbs. In the commercial media, they are nearly universally referred to as lamps thus making the abbreviation CFL, as Pete has correctly stated . - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] DX logging: WYMB-920 Manning, S. Carolina
920 WYMB SC Manning: Tuned in @ 2100 7/3 hunting for Reloj. Instead, Interesting to see this reported. A month ago I made a round trip up I-95 as far as Florence (then down to MYB, always stopping off to get a couple bags of Vidalia Onions at a farm stand near Marion). I-95 takes one right past the Manning exits. Yes, there is a sign on I-95 saying Manning next 4 exits, a sign that imputes an importance, and implication of the size of the town, all out of proportion to reality. (Manning is at milepost 119, a bit north of Santee and the lake area) I did a dial twist, again, in that area and came up with nothing. So either this fellow was silent last month, when I went thru, or else has a signal that doesn't go all that far. I think long ago they were on 1410 .. trivia. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Antenna Soldering
If all you're doing is twisting the broken ends of the wire back together and then soldering it, you don't even need a tip - just a small propane torch. Get the flame on the area, and feed the solder in. Russ Edmunds This is correct. Remember that the wire itself has to get hot enough to melt the solder. It is not good to use the flame to just melt solder onto cooler wire. The flux then keeps the wire from developing surface oxidation that would restrict the ability of the wire to wick up and absorb the melted solder into the joint and form a good bond. You need just enough heat to efficiently melt the solder. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Pox Nabisco
Yeah, and they lost a huge empire, too. Conclusion: Use correct English like we do over here. Charles It's not as we do ? - Nanny ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Alaskan Project
At 11:34 PM 6/16/2007 -0400, you wrote: I have been monitoring 750 for the Alaskan project. I have heard WSB obviously, and a Cuban Craig Healy Providence, RI The Alaska Project? Craig, Is this some nefarious attempt to receive KFQD-750 Anchorage? Charles Chollie, Craig believes (and I think with good basis) that it should be possible to hear Alaska on BCB at sunrise in the northeast US, in June, as the greyline then makes an almost perfect path from Anchorage to New England. So yes your guess is spot -on and I'd think the demise of YVKS, if indeed they are gone, could only help. Though they are probably well faded out by then. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] 1610 NC TISs. OC on 1610.
My QTH is 34 47 03 N and 77 23 15 W. Of interest to me, plugging my location into Google or Microsoft Streets program, there's a slight error in locating my QTH. My QTH was determined using a couple of Garmin GPS units. Perhaps Google and Microsoft are deferring accuracy due to this being a military area? Mike Another interesting question it looks as if you stated your location in FCC style coordinates of deg-min-sec. As I figure it, the resolution accuracy (not the position accuracy) of such a reading is very roughly 100 feet, that is, if 34-47-03 changed to 34-47-04, you would have changed ~ 100 feet. Of course this will be different in the N-S direction, than in the E-W direction, as typically the area bounded by any adjacent second lines is a rectangle which varies by how far N or S one travels, as the E-W separation converges at the poles.. My Magellan MAP330M which is 5 years old, can give a reading in its highest resolution mode of DD MM.MMM, or such as 28 deg 03.456 min. This implies a resolution accuracy of roughly six feet, which is somewhat greater than one would normally trust [even with SA turned off] due to various factors such as h t and v dilution of precision, caused by ionospheric instability etc. My own thought would be to rely on what the Garmin is telling you, especially if the readings are repeatable from day to day. I'd think a variation of 20 to 30 feet is pretty good. On some days it will seem to be better than that, others, not. I would always use the GPS at the highest display resolution, even if the values don't always track exactly, so as to know the amount of error you're dealing with. I think DD MM SS is a bit more granular than you need. It's probably harder to repeatably find the points where the sec. reading changes as one travels. Then the question is why the map info is off (you didn't say by how much, and if the two sources are each off by the same amount and direction). That, I think, is important to understanding the reason for the error. It may be benign, i.e. old map coordinates in some old database being used to import into new programs. I would think the FCC style of DD MM SS is plenty good enough for their field inspectors** to be able to locate transmitter sites, so they probably have little need to try and upgrade their database format. I can't (yet) imagine any military influence on publishing of map coordinates for adjacent civilian areas, which I believe is your situation. **do I overestimate today's RI ?? Maybe in Russia where it is common to publish maps with deliberately skewed data. Unfortunately, one sees coordinates published in any of three formats, the two I have above, and then the DD.D format (fractions of a degree) which I suppose are most useful for programs that do distance measurement. It's not always obvious which of the first two are being used by someone, unless the smallest (rightmost) value is 60, you can assume it is not seconds, but fractions of a minute. If I see a coordinate in DD MM SS I have to manually convert it to DD MM.MM if I want to create a waypoint in my Magellan. Perhaps the latest ones have fixed this problem? - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Vroom-Vroom's bandscan mangled
PLEASE read the [IRCA] mailing list guidelines at http://www.ircaonline.org/guidelines.htm The preceding commercial message was sponsored by... The CAT meowed, I'm gonna find the guy that invented the PC, and when I do Charles And, that would be Al Gore, of course. Go for it! - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] CMDC-570 RR power?
PLEASE read the [IRCA] mailing list guidelines at http://www.ircaonline.org/guidelines.htm PLEASE read the material appearing below this line - from [EMAIL PROTECTED] thankyew When it comes to Cuban AM's, little beyond what you hear and the frequency you hear it on is certain. What Curt says is 100 percent correct Neither the Cuban government nor most stations recognize call signs. Generally this is 98 % true, however during the Primero de Mayo celebration in Habana, coincidentally on the first of May, during the big feed to several networks, during the group ID of the various networks was a clear mention of say emmay bay effay (CMBF) which I heard twice during my discontinuous listening, about 11 AM as I recall. Monitored on 640 but this is NOT to say that this call belongs on this freq. It might even be another name, now, for one of their networks. In the long past I have heard a reference to CMQ but at this point I can't even recall if on 640 or one of the other daytime fqs available here. And I got 1 from eastern Cuba during cruise a couple of years ago. Hearing call letters on any Cuban is quite rare, and should be treated as probably part of a feed from another station, so the call-frequency association s/b treated with great skepticism. It could be spoken in context of a colloquial nostalgic familiarity, I suppose, and not as any kind of formal ID. As for 570 at night, they can easily punch out WTBN while driving around Valrico and points a bit East, in the WTBN null Which is probably why they paired up with the 910 in Plant City (named of course for Henry B Plant of railroad/hotel fame of a century ago). - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Radio Reloj-570 daytime reception
PLEASE read the [IRCA] mailing list guidelines at http://www.ircaonline.org/guidelines.htm I am not responsible for any text above this line --rf 570 CMDC* Cuba Santa Clara, Santa Clara province. RR. First noted two days ago @ 1243(12:43 p.m. for your civilians) with greater strength. Not skywave. Is anyone else hearing this? No other Cubans noted on other freqs. If not skywave, then it's groundwave. And if groundwave, you should hear it every day. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] SDR radios
Sounds like an updated version of Craig Healy's DX Time machine. See http://72. the most amazing things is you can record an entire SWATH of spectrum, save it to the hard drive, and go back to that file, See the Monday Morning Tape Recorder article from the 1970's I think, it was a primitive system that would record most of the MW band to a VHS recorder. One thing it needed was a 30 dB block gain amplifier. The dynamic range was not all that great and the servo slew was not very stable, but it was a workable POC. It needed 60 Hz to sync the recorder. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] SP 600 /R390
familiar w/GPR-90 TMC. Similar in appearance to SP-600. FRR-60, TMC Model DDR-5, fills six foot rack. Diversity models fill two. Certain logic to that. Different animal from '90. Rare. Works of art. Nothing beyond their reach. Nothing. I had a GPR-90RXD for a few years. Wonderful set, fantastic audio. It took some feats of imagination to read the dial correctly, being 100% non-digital. Anyone who kept theirs and can now add one of those external digital dials will have a truly nice receiver. The RXD signified the existence of the optional bank of ten sockets for HFO crystals, all of which lived behind a little door on the top of the front panel. Great for situations where the user worked on fixed freq nets. I bought mine from Barry Electronics in NYC in 1971, used. I think it was a 6U rack height ( 6 x 1.75 inches). - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Need help with old logging KGLM
Hi. My 1993 KGLM in Montana was on 1400 kHz. Since KGLM FM is in Anaconda, Hi. From a 1993 band scan in Montana, I have a notation of a station KGLM which I can't match up to anything current. Does anybody know what station this might be? KGLM-FM is on 97.7 in Anaconda currently. The associated AM there is KANA which has had that call for a while. So far I've not been able to locate any info on an AM with that call. Isn't there a KGLN in Glendive MT ? on the low end of the band? - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] CFB (Compact Florescent Blubs)
I will have to buy a CFB the next time I am at Fred Meyer to check it out. Thanks for feedback. At least there is hope with this. I don't know if all of the bulbs are as quiet or not. Which brand do you use? 73, Patrick Are we still on CFL's ?? (it's Lamp, not Bulb, or even a Blub) Check out this link (wrapped? last letters in link are fda) www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=aa7796aa-e4a5-4c 06-be84-b62dee548fda Whatever you do, DON'T call the Poison Control Center when you drop your CFL (read the article for why) When I was in grade school, I had a three pound bottle of mercury. It was several inches tall and completely filled with liquid mercury. We used to pour it on to the floor of the classroom, in fairly small amounts, and watch it bead up and run into the cracks of the wooden floor. And then put dimes (made of silver then) into the floorboard cracks to soak up the mercury (took a few minutes) so the dime got sort of a frosty look, then go out later and spend the dimes after being in our pocket. It's called silver amalgam as your dentist knows. The mercury exposure levels now are like asbestos. The people who have died from mesothelioma are the ones who worked in the shipyards for 20 years and used to shake out the white asbestos dust from their clothing every night when they got home. Being in a room once, for 10 minutes, where overhead pipes are covered with stable asbestos is IMHO not a health hazard. But now the PC crowd has made it as if you will die if you even see a PICTURE of asbestos. I think mercury, a known problem in sufficient amounts, is also way overstated as to just what is a sufficient amount. I don't think that the mercury I was exposed to 50 years ago has killed me yet. But I am sure I went way past 300 billionth of a gram/cubic meter. Please stand by while I check my pulse OK, still going. The mercury hasn't kicked in yet I guess. Maybe by 2009? I have to admit, few in my class were interested in owning their own personal three pounds of mercury. I gave it away long ago, after ruining a bunch of dimes. I think I then moved on to studying the solubility index of carbon tetrachloride, then available in large quantity as a dry cleaning agent. That's what you used then to remove chewing gum. At Home, I might add. Today, CCl4 is a Known Killer etc. The story I have seen is that, if CFL are mandated, the demand will be so great that many new plants will need to be built to make them, the plants will be built in China where there are no real enviro laws, and the pollution from the new bulb factories will create a net loss in the environment. And if the new plants burn coal well, guess what is in untreated coal smoke blowing all over the world. Someone is going to make a Lot of Money on CFL's someday. - Bob PS radio related?? Chinese coal smoke will tarnish the bandswitch contacts in your radio. See? On Topic :-) And a broken 673 rectifier tube contains a lot of mercury, which vaporizes in use. Or when dropped. ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] Re: WGN Xmtr. Maintenance Period
Now here is an idea that Willis will appreciate. Remembering Tesla's idea for a wireless power distribution system, could one set up an antenna, tune it to the most powerful transmitter in your vicinity, and make use of the received power in your home? There is a lot of wasted RF floating around out there. Of course this would probably only work on analog signals. Maybe the power companies are the real backers of IBOC to prevent this from happening! That's my conspiracy theory. Patrick Griffith, Westminster CO I recall reading that, in the 1930's when WLW was running superpower, local residents would build resonant loops connected to small light bulbs to provide free outdoor night lighting. Maybe something on the order of a #47 bulb ( who among us can remember those. hi). I don't know the exact details. Now that we have a business model that allows construction in near fields of existing stations, it may be possible to replicate this test. Here in Tampa, a new Target store (derisively referred to as tar-zhay by some,in a mock French accent) is being built on open ground within hailing distance of the WFLA 970/WHNZ 1250 site along State Route 580, so there should be some stray RF floating around inside there. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] Re: WGN Xmtr. Maintenance Period
Since the two Chicago stations are very close, and have tall and efficient gatherers, there can be a dangerous amount of voltage induced in one tower from the other. I would bet they have traps in their tuning units to keep the other signal out of their transmitter. It could cause serious intermodulation products. Such as (720 * 2) +/- 780 or (780 * 2) +/- 720. I'd bet something shows up on 660 and 840, to name two likely spots. Craig Healy Indeed and in the 1970's on Monday mornings it was not too hard to hear one of those Chicago stations, I think it was WBBM, on the then-vacant 840 (WHAS SP) while listening in New York. I am sure Russ recalls this as well. This was a mix product heard via skywave. No, I did not QSL it. This was probably before they had the proper traps installed. The pernicious thing about RF burns is that it will destroy the skin cells in the burn area in such a way that they grow back slowly and form some sort of keloid that makes the burn area look white. I have a nice souvenir of my early ham days on the tip of my index finger that has survived for decades, caused by 500 watts at 14 MHz. Paul, your rite of initiation will be when you get your own burn scar. Until then you are just a pretender. (hi) - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] AM radio broadcasts could end in two years
I'm not sure where this is from, Australia? Figmentofimaginatia? this. The proposals we outline today seek to ensure a vibrant and innovative UK radio sector, said Ed Richards, Ofcom's chief executive.. There's the answer, right there in the original text. Also, note the spelling of the word analogue. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] clock radios that DX
My best clock radio DX was hearing a solid HET from 1178 VOA Okinawa (here on the West Coast...) on/about 1975-76 -- Colin Newell - Victoria B.C. Canada My best clock radio DX was on a table model GE transistorized clock radio, usual plastic case, analog dial, sitting on the nightstand, no external antennas of any kind, around 0100 local time, winter, early 1970's (sunspot minima) and hearing a clear signal from Beromuenster-1562 when WQXR 1560 s/off. Location Nassau County LI NY. Also hets from such as Germany 1538 but could not separate the audio of course. Ant was just the usual 4 inch small loopstick. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Towers and government
there is one thing I have learned when dealing with situations like this, it's that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Words of wisdom spoken by Grace Hopper, US Navy, perhaps a colonel, a computer science pioneer, a legend in that field, years ago. It was Hopper who coined the term bugs (in computer programs) after having to clean bugs out of the relay contacts and switches in the computers of the day, which caused them to fail. (The computers then would fill a small warehouse) If I recall, Gene Faltus was their engineer before the fellow who did the balloon trick. Gene is a good guy, and did run DX tests from the place. I think Gene is in the Hartford area. I should look up his ham call address and drop him a note. It's been years since I spoke with him. There should be a number of QSLs from Gene for WKFD. I've got one, for an ET I heard one night. He sent me a very nice letter, and I was gung ho for New Englanders in that area, so very much appreciated. Around the same era that I managed to get a v/l + coverage map from WFEA Manchester NH a notorious non-verifier, also on 1370. I did it by telephoning the night jock a few times before their 0125 s/off, played their local quality audio back to him through a phone coupler, which really impressed him, finally asking for a v/l Some DXers are too cheap to use the telephone. Their loss. - Bob Craig Healy Providence, RI ___ ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] k m i k possibly testing iboc
So I assume the letter is going out tomorrow saying, what did you DO to your sound to make it so awful? My kids hate it I can make a local call and do that. Kevin Well, sure, but the local call will end up at the desk of a 19 year old receptionist who has no clue what you are talking about, and is too busy talking with her friends to care. The letter might actually wind up at the desk of the individual who authorized using HD, and who just might care. Letters carry weight, and usually they survive the moment. - Bob (apologies to all 19 YO's who do their jobs in a conscientious manner) ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] IRCA 2007 E-mail directory
FOXWORTH, BobTampa, FL rfoxwor1 at tampabay dot rr dot com that's r f o x w o r 'one' (not ell) ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] TPs (or lack thereof) for 24 March
The DU conditions popped in last night before I headed to bed. JOAK, JOIB, and JOUB were there as usual but weaker. After I posted I also caught 4TAB on 891 on top of presumed 5AN with Sports talk TAB Net. I have not heard them for sometime either. So it was a DU morning along the coast. My recollection from the 60's (DX lore that existed even back then) and through the 70's (includes my own experience such as 1964 + 1973-74) is that this 3rd week in March was the best of the entire year to hear DU signals in the eastern US, with a secondary peak around New Year's. If the freq's were still open I think it would still be happening now, though noise levels are higher now. This may be partly helped by the vertical sunset terminator line in March affecting the earliest fade-in time of DU signals This for AU would be around 0930Z now. What experience do the WCNA DXers have now with earliest f/in times? This is somewhat earlier than f/in would happen in December. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] An idea for future DX Tests.....
Also, Charlie Taylor (the expert) and I have played with precision frequency measurements (PFM) while stationed overseas. After a while, *** That goes back to the days when the FBIS published lists on monitored frequencies to that same level of decimals on a regular basis. The late Gordon Nelson used it heavily. There again, you have the same discussion - does a DX catch have to be heard ro count or can it be seen. PFM is a bit farther toward the end of the scale than FM RDS or even code via sidebands or the spectrum analyer display, but back in the day when there were the FBIS books to validate against Russ Edmunds The FBIS did publish Broadcasting Stations of the World in sort of a telephone directory format, but the listings that were made to a 0.1 Hz resolution were done by the European Broadcasting Union for internal use and of course listed just the European frequencies, though e. g. WINS-1010, Globo-1220, CKCW and things like Astrakhan would occasionally appear as splits. EBU had six monitoring stations. Of them, Tatsfield and Jurbise were the most prolific in reporting the lower power Eu signals, and the exact carrier offset they measured. The FBIS lists could be purchased by anyone through the Government Printing Office. I don't think anyone ever found out exactly who the mole was that provided the EBU lists (as copies) to GPN, the sole North American consumer of that data AFAIK. Gordon always delighted in showing off his latest copies, which appeared monthly, when we still had Boston-based DX parties in the late 60's. Despite the public GPO sales outlet, it always happened that, about every 18 months (when a new edition appeared), a complete set of FBIS lists - by freq, by location, and TV/VHF - would mysteriously appear in the mailbox of the current IDXD editor, mailed from PO Box 2604, Washington DC. in a plain manila envelope. Some of the FBIS entries were listed operations and had only fair to good data accuracy and the freqs were shown just to the nearest kHz. Just one of several data sources. You could tell by the print typeface that they were done on a big mainframe and a lineprinter, and offset mastered. DXing is so much less interesting these days. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] QRRe: A idea for future DX Tests.....
Also, Brandon and Les keep referring to a TXCO reveiver - I ( and I presume others ) have no idea what that is, which suggests none of us may have such. A typo, it is actually TCXO (Temp. Controlled Xtal Oscillator). Just a small part of the receiver. The crystal is put into an oven which might run about 90 degrees or such, thermostat controlled. The crystal is cut to work at that freq and the thermostat will eliminate variable drift rates which would happen if the xtal is left to run at ambient temp. Remember when BC stations would be 300 Hz off freq because the xtal oven heaters were off? Back then the xtal can, with all its thermal packing, was the size of a large soup can. I think the idea of verry sllw code might not pass the sanity check of GMs and PDs with all that lengthy tone irritating listeners. One or two call letter reps is tolerable. I'd sure like to know listener reaction to the sweep tones! I'd readily second Craig's suggestion (which has been made before by some of us) of using 5000 Hz tone, and detecting as CW at +/- 5 kHz of nominal. Then the speed nearly would not matter. But it surely is not AM mode. It's good for a propagation validator. - Bob who snored soundly this AM to make an 0500 wakeup. I did not consider trying, fearing LA QRM with WSM. ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] (was: New MW QSL) Ernest R. Cooper?
Someone told me his DX loggings QSLs were from three QTH's totalled. Certainly I know that he combined two - Brooklyn and Provincetown, but I wasn't aware of a third. I can't think of a third, unless it was South Plainfield NJ so he could finally log WERA 1590.which was nonexistent under WQQW for him (/humor) - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] (was: New MW QSL) Ernest R. Cooper?
Ernie grew up in his parents' home at 438 East 26th Street (correct me if I'm wrong on the street number, Bob Foxworth) in Brooklyn, within a couple of blocks of the Courtleyou subway station. My recollection is 438 East 21 and the U-bahn stop was Cortelyou. It was one of those brownstone deals where the front door was close to sidewalk level but there were steps involved and I think the interior ground floor was a few feet _below_ grade, and the whole structure was several stories high. Makes you wonder how any DX signals ever got in there. They had of course just the one floor. Not sure what line Cortelyou was on, maybe the D. It was a local and took seemingly forever to get there and back. OT - just discovered a while ago I just missed being able to see the Atlas-5 launch from the Cape which occurred, after some delays, at 2210 local and was visible in Tampa, bcz I didn't check my email sooner. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Censoring ourselves (was KXEL, etc. etc., etc.)
Les, That does not surprise me. I know of several engineers that find the IRCA NRC postings on other lists. It is amazing something that is commented on right now, well be on another list within a few minutes for anyone to read. We should try to crub discussions that will iritate broadcasting personel. 73, Patrick Are you saying that postings on the Dxer lists are being forwarded to broadcaster lists? I really can't think of what these would be. Maybe on the usenet lists such as rec.radio.broadcasting?, which is considered to be a high noise list. I look at RT and AF in realtime and don't see this kind of traffic there. Maybe I just read the more tech-oriented lists and not a lot of high noise chatter. Can you add to this? Tnx, - Bob1821 ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Fw: FCC errors on some PSRAs
Forwarded from RT. 2314 est Say Paul Walker in SC, didn't this apply to you with your multiple times listed for PSSA in a recent posting? Since you have apparently dropped off all the BC lists, you might not have seen this. Computer Error. Ha Ha. Some say the problem lies between the chair and the keyboard, when computer error is claimed, especially in Washington.. HTH, - Bob I hope that's the case, because the PSRA for one of my stations dropped from 500 watts to 12 watts :O I just saw this over on the CRTECH listserve: We just got word back from the FCC that says, in part: We have discovered a few 'bugs' in our mass PSRA/PSSA recalculation, which we are in the process of investigating. This process should not have resulted in drastic power reductions for any station, with the exception of PSRA operation in the month of March under advanced time. They added our station to the list of those needing recalculation. If you received new PSRA PSSA authorizations that drastically cut your power levels, it is apparently a mistake you should call the FCC. I've spoken with Norm Miller at the FCC in Washington about errors on my PSRA. Norm indicated there were some computer errors made, if and only if, you have 2 times/power levels listed on your PSRA. If you only have one time listed per month, you're OK. All those PSRAs with 2 times listed, per month, will have to be re-run due to the computer error. Norm indicated they will try to get them done before Friday 03/09/07. According to Norm you will have to go back and check your View Correspondence Folder to look for an updated PSRA. --- ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Sierra Leone not Dakar
Sierra Leone 1205. never heard here either. I do well remember the reports on Dakar and Sierra Leone though. KZOO used to be quite a powerhouse here on the coast. Infact in the early 80s, they would be dominant at times. Conditions do change. The Pacific just does not have the signals they once had. 73, Patrick I had bits from Freetown on 1205 but never got to report them, listening from NY. My recollection from about 1963 was that they were then on 1200. I recall Ron Schiller was probably the first to bag them, but he had thought it was Accra, Ghana based on program content such as ads for an airline. I am sure this logging survives in an old DXN from that era. I am another who believes the Pacific stations do not have the reach inland they used to. I had logs of a few of the common ones (Hawaiians, Tarawa, Tonga, some Aus/NZ), all on tape, and they, now being on splits, would be expected to also be heard as well now as then. I believe the prop has gotten a bit worse, and the increased noise level (s/b splash, machinery noise) is also contributing. And when I say the prop is worse, I refer to the best of the current cycle, compared to the best of previous cycles. But nowadays even carriers are very difficult to detect in the east when similar receiving gear (typ. indoor loops) is used. Back then it was not terribly unusual to get carriers well enough to yield some audio. The problem was to hold the audio long enough to assemble a credible reception report. Stations such as 4QD, then on 1550 (1973-ish) would fade in about the same time as the Puerto Rico WKFE would s/on. I had a few times when bits of talking in presumed Aus. accent were heard, but with unreportable lack of detail. (This was from LI NY) If the prop was the same, 4QD on 1548 should be heard just as well, but they aren't. This was on a HQ-150 and 4-foot indoor loop. Some might argue that the prop is the same, and the increase in noise is all the difference. I really don't know for sure. I was fortunate to get a qsl from Dakar 764, a nice f/d folder with picture, and a bi-lingual narrative trompe l'oeil sur le Senegal 764 kc 200 kW - Bob 2345 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] Re: KVAN-1560 VERIE
That must be a mistake Pete. I spent a week in Seaside OR one night. I did hear some reports of a local locksmith who has an interest in radio. I tried to go out to see him. But he was out stringing up some fence wire in the direction of Japan when I was there. Pat Griffith No this fellow was indeed stringing out long lengths of fence wire, but the reports are that he was trying to import a DSL signal that ran faster than 28 kbit/sec. Nada to do with Japan radio stations, I am reliably informed, rather, had to do something with computers??. :-) Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Fw: Total Lunar Eclipse
TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE: Set aside some time this weekend for sky watching. On Saturday night, March 3rd, there's going to be a total eclipse of the Moon. This means the Moon will glide through the heart of Earth's shadow and turn a beautiful shade of sunset red. Totality can be seen from parts of all seven continents including all of Europe and Africa and the eastern half of North America. What I have read about this eclipse is this. The midpoint of the eclipse (moon totally covered by shadow, appearing a deep red) will occur at moonrise, i. e. sunset, in the eastern part of NA. ABout an hour after moonrise, the partial eclipse phase should be visible. Of course in Europe this will all happen during late evening. I'll try to look up the time references later. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Re Explosion at Abbeville
Is this story for real or is this a joke? I checked CNN for the news and did not see any reports about it,and there was no mention about it on radio news,Has anybody been able to verify its accuracy? Bill in BC I'd believe that any line such as interviewed by a reporter for the Abbeville Fishwrapper should be all the indication you need to determine where this 'story' is coming from. That said, it was a very funny bit. Given the questionable abilities of today's typical journalism students, now turned loose in the field, there's no telling now who might pick this up and run with it. Just a suggestion. If you check CNN, also check Fox. Believe about half of whatever you hear on either of them. - Bob 0613 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] KIRO 710/SS stations
Nice list of catches. Didn't WGBS used to be on 540Cypress Gardens, Florida? (testing my memory here). In any case, it reminded me of catching a FL station -while DXing from SoCal.- on 540 during a hurricane watch. It was a cool catch. 73- Doug Doug, you're thinking of the old WGTO. I don't believe any of the other replies referenced this particular call. As Pete said, they've had several calls. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Letters from Prison: Castro Revealed (on WashPost)
Letters from Prison: Castro Revealed (is linked from Drudge) Ann Louise Bardach Washington Post Sunday 25 Feb 2007 page B05 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301723.html - Bob 1944 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] 1100 Wobbler bizarre!
The Wobbler on 1100 is truly bizarre! It looks like the variation is caused by incipient oscillator failure. As the frequency varies, it shifts the tuning and loading on the power amps. That varies the voltage applied to the oscillator. A feedback condition. This would imply that this is a design issue with the type of transmitter in use. I believe many of the Cuban xmtrs are old and of Eastern European, probably Czech mfg. A way to corroborate this would be to identify the make of every xmtr that is doing this. I think this a very reasonable candidate explanation, as nothing else I've heard (including mine) makes much sense at all. Note that some extremes of frequency variation, the frequency has rapid variations on it...as though the bass component of the modulation frequency is FMing the signal briefly. We would need to do a better job of correlating modulation type with exhibited wobble behavior. I have, in my limited experience, herard wobbles when the underlying signal was not audible, and I think I have heard wobbles when the underlying signal was voice. But I am not the guy to ask about that, given my limited hearing of them. One of my spectacular receptions was on Musical-590 last year when the strong wobble replaced the modulation, briefly, which was nowhere near timed in rhythm or beat. If an oscillator was drifting into instability, the wobble would I think tend to slowly appear and fade. I have heard them start and stop abruptly as if a switch was thrown on and off. Another problem is when the wobble appears strong and the underlying signal has faded out. I have heard this on 1100, 1120 RCH. If the freq and site are the same, wouldn;t the fades be similar? I don't think that external power variations have a thing to do with it. A grid that unstable would constantly be losing sychronization among generators on the high-voltage tielines. That would trip breakers and cause very frequent blackouts. I don't think power is an issue here either, but one problem I have is that I believe this condition (incipient failure) would tend to get worse over time. The wobbles last sometimes for days which implies there are no armies of techs standing by to retune these failing rigs when the wobble begins, but they eventually all seem to cure themselves, even if for a finite time. Wouldn't entropy suggest that by now, every Cuban xmtr would be all wobble all the time? 73 de Charles - Charles A Taylor, WD4INP Greenville, North Carolina - Bob 0816 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] MACAU VISIT
Bob Foxworth wrote: I took the hydrofoil to Macau and met the CE of Radio Vila Verde-735 and nice studio/xmtr tour, also of his ham shack (CR9AH a very famous ham DXer then). Did you discuss veries? I don't recall anyone ever getting a verie out of them (including me). Pete Taylor I don't specifically recall a lot about veries being said, it did not seem particularly significant. RVV 735 was mainly in Chinese when I was there, they had a little station on 1200, I think, in Portuguese which had been reported in Europe. The CE was from Portugal and spoke English fairly well. His name was John Alvarez. I still have a blank QSL card he gave me, somewhat ironic as, despite working some 270 countries, Macau (now XX9) was not one of them. I'm not about to try to fill it in either. The station was, I thought, quite modern for the time. I met him by asking about it (RVV) when the hydrofoil docked at the pier, and I bought my visa (an elaborate thing all in Portuguese that filled the entire page of my passport, still have it) and someone phoned the radio station for me and he was there later on to meet me, did some sightseeing, walked up to the Chinese border (doesn't take long to get there, in this place). I remember his mentioning some reports mainly from Aust and NZ. Were they not QSLing in 1965? Had no reason to suspect they were black, must have been in later years? By this time it had been several months since I had seen a copy of DX News so I wasn't particularly up to date with DX issues. After all this time I have visual memories but less so of what might have been talked about. This fellow was very gracious to devote the amount of time to me that he did, and I was not about to say anything critical (e.g DO YOU QSL!!!?) Pete you may recall a month or so after that when we had a visit at your place in SFO. This was after crossing the Pacific, 11 days JPN-HI and 6 days HI-SF) Two typhoons. Daytime reception of KMTH-900 one day near Midway. I remember DXing at your place and listening to ZCO mixing with KDKA, late in the evening, playing the Baby Elephant Walk for one.. Should have asked me about QSLs then - hi - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Celsius - was - CFRB-1010
IT'S -4 DEGREES IN TORONTO. THAT TO COLD FOR ME!!! [WM-TN] / Willis here in Denver this morning coming up on 5 AM local it's -16!!! And that's the straight air temperature In Toronto they use Celsius, so 4 deg below freezing C would be [very] approx 8 below freezing F, or, 24 degrees above zero. Still too nippy for my taste, though. Maybe someone here knows if CFRB ever reports temp in F ? - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] RVC tonight
This has been the story here ever since the Castro bros launched a high powered campaign on 530 against Radio Marti's aerial offering -- the rare weekend flights not logged here in S.FL for many weeks -- but the assault continues, 24/7. Curt Why can't we just fly the plane on different frequencies every week, forcing the Cubans to start jamming each of those frequencies. Seems as if a little cat-and-mouse with them would quickly lead to a vivid real-time demonstration of the term resource exhaustion as Thuggo and Thuggee discover that they just don't have the hardware to cover all their frequency options. What, we have to clear this through Kevin Martin first ??? Esto es Guerra! - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Ground Hog Day
Radio is broadcasting the news about Groundhog day. The way I have always understood it is that, with one shadow option, Spring will be here in six short weeks, and with the other option, there are six long weeks of winter ahead. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Live and Local takes a hit in Tampa - I guessed wrong
A week ago tonight I reported on a development in Tampa radio The announcement was not hard to pre-guess. As I suspected, Mark announced his retirement from his three-hour Sunday evening show, one of the very few liberal voices (Lionel, Saturdays, another) on FLA. The choice of retirement was offered to him over lunch Then I speculated on what would replace his local take on what was largely local content last show after being cut. Maybe at the staff meeting tomorrow, when they plan whether to give us the 2nd repeat of Limbaugh or the next repeat of Hannity, someone will mention that Well, I was wrong about at least this. He was not replaced with either of my guesses, but not a lot better, with a repeat of their local afternoon drive show which was originally recorded the day after the Bush SOTU speech, adding nothing to what has been said before. Unless, of course, you missed the PM drive show on Wednesday and feel the need to catch it now. (!) This is an interesting thought about HD. Now that CC seems to feel the need to eliminate programming that may not pay its way, (ironic, in that the listener to the alternative viewpoint is probably the more likely one to go out now and buy an HD receiver, becoming an early [only?] adopter) then the whole concept of what to offer the listener in the context of nighttime HD becomes open for analysis. IOW, if they view the night time hours as so un-important that they can merely fill it with days-old repeats, then what is the justification for all the expense of HD conversions for AM night ops. --- Another thought comes to mind when thinking of stations that rebroadcast days-old talk shows. This is the concept of being a station of record which is a promo that FLA runs every so often when they get in a self-back-patting mood. A *newspaper* can be a Newspaper of Record. I can go to the circulation department and order a back issue, or find it at the library, and can look up a story at my leisure. Record implies that the information they broadcast is accessible to anyone at some undefined future point to check facts, or for whatever purpose. That's because a newspaper pushes information out in parallel mode with a lot of data busses (sections) available at once. Radio stations present their product in serial mode with a single channel data buss, limited not by how fast one reads, but by how fast (slowly) they push it to you. A radio station CANNOT be a Station of Record because there is no practical way for any listener to access a previously broadcast story, on terms that are reasonably available to the listener. He or she would have to go to the station and convince them to make available logging tapes (if they are even available) (unless there are a few stations that are archived by 3rd parties for a fee). I'd bet a court order would be needed for this to happen. Has anyone ever done this? I hear that there are stations that do NOT archive content to avoid such situations, similar to the idea of businesses archiving (or not) e-mails. Well, time for Drudge. Saying Iran offering to rebuild Iraq. Maybe put a couple of 2 megawatters for us to shoot for. - Bob 2234 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] WMGG 820 HD back on
WMGG 820 Largo HD back on air, noted today. It has been off for a few weeks and was off a few days ago when last checked. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] new bill may impact media
Broadcasters will quickly see the financial burden of carrying unpopular, unprofitable programming to satisfy the banal concept of fairness and will stop carrying any political opinion at all, rather than be forced to carry programming that drives away the listeners. A nice, bland, non-controversial content which no one will complain about. The result will be to suppress political discourse, not to enhance it, as the fairness doctrine is touted to do. And one more nail in AM radio's coffin. Curt Agreed, but your comment makes it seem that the idea of stop[ping] carrying political opinion... is an unintended consequence of a financially-driven action. I submit that the plan IS to drive right wing radio off the air, and rather than being a consequence, is in fact, the real reason for this plan. - Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] WCGA 1100
I heard it at 1100z 1100 WCGA the most powerful station on the coast from NC to Florida. It then provided a commercial for a Brunswick GA church. Amlog has it at Woodbine GA which is near Brunswick. It is missing from FCC database. Only Ga freq. at 1100 is Hapeville, hundreds of miles from GA coast. Is this a lag in records? I don't know how long WCGA has been on the air. 73 Gil NN4CW Savannah GA WCGA Wonderful Coastal Georgia has been on the air for at least several years. I always check them when heading up or down I-95 (It's near GA mile marker 14,on the Satilla river) Occasionally have a bit of them in Tampa near sunset but local on 1110 pounds them badly. - Bob, TPA ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] WMRO test not hrd by me
I set the alarm for 0300 (revised WMRO test time). Listened on dx398. Only thing ID was WPAD with ESPN sports right at the beginning, which varied from strong to nonexistent. Some other stations in mush, none id'able here, quit around 0320. Thanks to the organizers anyhow. - Bob, Tampa FL ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] WOR Tower Article and HD baloney ad nauseum
HD is all sizzle, no steak. Worse, the steak is five days dead putrefacted bilge chaugie whose sole capability is emitting irksome disruptive buzzing by virtue of flies hovering about its ratty carcass, slavering in expectation of ill-gotten gain. Dr. Zecchino Aww, stop being vague, sir Z. Tell us whatcha _really_ think :-) Initial testing (once) of the WHNZ 1250 IBOC signal from my location, some 2.58 miles distant, with the Accurian, yields some dropouts and fallback to analog. This during midday. WFLA at the same distance has been somewhat more dependable but not rocksolid. WDAE seems pretty dependable. Time to find some opportunity to do some field measurements. I am wondering how the dial position as well as the xmtr antenna complexity is affecting the distance the HD travels compared to the analog. Not to mention where I am w/r/t daytime lobes and nulls, of which I suspect the 1250 will be the most problematic. Last I checked a couple of days ago, 820 still had it shut off. I need to call them again next week and enquire. = Bob ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] HD DX?
No, I haven't gone over to the dark side, but I did get a chance to borrow a Boston Acoustics HD receiver and play with it a bit. I'm not in range of any FM IBOC stations, so I've mostly been trying it out on AM. The most interesting reception was of WDCD (1540, Albany NY, 205 miles from me), where I actually received the digital audio stream, for a grand total of about 5 seconds. There wasn't a huge change in audio quality - the striking change was the sudden disappearance of co-channel interference (mainly from CHIN). Aside from that one brief burst, I had zilch digital audio decoding from a host of strong IBOC signals. So, is this the first reported instance of AM IBOC audio reception via skywave? Even if I can claim that dubious distinction, it certainly doesn't change my opinion, expressed years ago, that AM IBOC would be an absolute dud as far as DX'ers are concerned, and is a train wreck in general. Barry -- Barry McLarnon VE3JF Ottawa, ON ___ Barry, you and Craig Healy are the only reports I know of that have had any HD audio (call letters flashing on the window don't count). I was quite surprised at how _fast_ the call letters will pop up in the window, and how _long_ it takes to sync to the audio. I'd think that if there is a fade or other anomaly more often than once every 7 or 8 seconds, you'll _never_ get skywave HD. I'm starting to think the change in audio quality on AM will be determined by the quality of the original program feed. Probably Limbaugh, on WFLA is a better demo since they seem to have a high quality feed out of the EIB facility. I'd bet that a locally originated talk pgm would not be as much of a difference, e.g. mono only, etc - or does everyone on AM originate audio in stereo now? The most interesting demo I could think of, right now, would be for you to have access to an Accurian and try that set out _side by side_ with a BA and get a good determination of how much the sets differ in reception quality. I think this is useful to factor in the true variable of rcvr performance against the constant variable of how much the HD transmission medium deviates from plain analog. Accounts such as yours seem to consistently say that the HD skywave is very fragile. Would the BA and the Accurian behave similarly, if run side-by-side and hearing the same skywave signal? IOW would you get the same 5-second decode on both sets at once? If the indicator for decode was a DC level available somewhere inside the set, this could be run to a 2-track chart recorder so that one could do a long unattended capture. I have no idea if such a signal is even available on one of the pins anywhere inside the set. The HD icon on the window might work if you found the driver lead. Should be do-able with a hi-Z scope. I wound up keeping my Accurian, after all. I did send for the rebate timely and made sure to photocopy all three things they asked for (sales slip, and rebate form from RS, and the UPC code cut from the carton). If, by some chance I get denied on the rebate, it will be a subject of posting on BE and RT. The main reason I kept it is that I missed the return deadline which was right at Xmas. I still want to do some testing of edges of coverage on the various AM stations, all with the included loop. I don't much care about FM in this manner, the secondaries are attracting all the interest there. Here in TPA, 620 WDAE and 1250 WHNZ are also now on HD, however 820 WMGG has had it turned off for about three weeks. I called them after a few days of it being off and they said it would be back by that weekend, but when I checked, along with others, it was off. It appears that the CC stations are the ones using it here. I have little doubt that 820 will have it on again. The audio difference (analog vs HD) on their music format was much more noticeable than any of the three gasbag talkers it's now on on the CC stations - what a waste. The local SBE chapter is planning a meeting about HD soon so that should be fun. I'll have to marshal some info to share. - Bob 2223 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] FCC info on tone testers
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/els/reports/STA_Print.cfm?mode=initialapplication_seq=30515RequestTimeout=1000 This is the application BAE filed in July, 2005, for operation at Ft. A. P. Hill for 10 kW on 590, 1020, and 1600. It was denied/dismissed ``Location: Bowling Green, Virginia, North 38 7 59, West 77 19 49, Mobile: n/a Radius: 150.00`` Bowling Green is the town next to Ft. A. P. Hill, S of Washington DC. (Glenn Hauser, OK, DX LISTENING DIGEST) Hmmm. I posted a few days ago about the possibility of A P Hill being involved, as well as maybe FBI Quantico. I had then made a reference to Rt 207 and driving back and forth through then Camp Hill on my college/home travels (US 301 to 1). This is about the time we also speculated on APG, home of the old WGU20 LF site, as something to check out. Unfortunately I seem to have deleted it already, but I commented that this site was a big place, in the context of being able to hide a station away from the roadway, as Dismal Swamp would also offer. Anyone remember seeing this? This area is pretty well off the beaten path now that I-95 is in service. Not that it matters, I just feel the need for bragging rights for being one of few who remember this (then and maybe still) god-forsaken area. I am not saying that THIS is the mystery site. But it would have a lot to offer if you want to stay physically hidden. Can't hurt to bring this point out again, I suppose. - Bobsent 1018 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] TONESVILLE
On Dec 4, 2006, at 8:12 PM, Bob Foxworth wrote, Didn't one of the clubs used to have a member at WGAI-560? Bob Carter? He is on ABDX and is now living in Utica, NY. No help there. Kevin Actually no, Pete Taylor wrote the question (see the three 's) My reply - which would have had two 's - is not shown and which also did answer the question. Not a big deal in itself (which one answered the question) but the larger issue is that sometimes I see carelessness in attribution of past quoted comments to the original author. It doesn't matter here, but at other times it can be quite important. Usually when some serious namecalling is going on (not here, thankfully) The question of whether Pete actually lives in Tonecoma, WA is likewise shrouded in mystery... enough wierd humor, and I move we tone it off for tonight. - Bob 0006 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Accurian receiver review - part 1 of 4
Review of Radio Shack Accurian 12-1686 HD receiver by Bob Foxworth- in 4 parts I bought a RS Accurian HD radio for evaluation on a promotional sale and rebate which ended last Saturday. I bought it at a R-S store in the Citrus Park Mall, in a factory boxed carton. The young sales clerk knew what it was and did not mistake it for X-M/Sirius, and said they were selling lots of them, though I have to put that in some context. They said I could return it within 30 days, which I might yet do. With the rebate this made the net $100, within my pricing model. The box contains the receiver (and remote), power supply, and 1 AM and 2 FM external antennas. The receiver is approx 7.5 inches high x 12 in. wide x 6 in deep (max) and presents a slightly curved panel with 2 speakers, one in each side and a control area in the middle. There was a slight temp. rise from the top air vent. The brick power supply is appx 4-3/4 x 2-1/4 x 1-3/8 inches and accepts a standard PC 3-pin cord on one end and has a cable feeding a barrel connector on the other, which goes to the rcvr. The power supply output rating is DC 5V at 5 A. The receiver tunes AM 530 to 1710 in 10 kHz steps, with a rollover at the ends, and the FM tunes 88 to 108 MHz. The AM loop is a plastic rectangular frame appx 5-3/4 in wide x 5 in high with seven turns of maybe 28 ga stranded wire solenoid wound on the frame. There is no tuning or resonating cap. The two ends of the winding lead to a appx 6-1/2 foot mini coax leadin, terminating in two tinned wire pigtails, heat-shrunk at both ends. These tinned leads are placed into the antenna input pushclips by the user. There is a choice of two FM antennas, either a single unipole of length 4 ft 10 inches, or a dipole (not folded) made of mini twinlead with a feedline of 4 ft 10 inches and the tee is 31 inches each side. Each FM antenna terminates in a F connector and has plastic hanger eyelets. The instruction book is 13 pages, well illustrated and moderately technical at a user level, but has no real technical internal operational receiver info. end part 1 of 4 ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] accurian receiver review - part 3 of 4
Review of Radio Shack Accurian 12-1686 HD receiver by Bob Foxworth- in 4 parts begin part 3 of 4 AM HD. In Tampa there are two AM HD signals, on 820 and on 970. These are high power (daytime) signals located just a few miles distant from me. Both of these signals will decode to HD, at this close range. The big question of course is what is the limit of coverage at which the HD decode fails when analog is still usable. I am able to force a temporary un-lock of HD on these two AMs by just rotating the loop. There are two critical angles in which HD is marginal (even at this range) due to loop nulling. A nontechnical user who uses set and forget for his/her loop placement in the house runs a small chance of never hearing a desired HD AM, and may not understand the need for better loop placement, as the collective experience of outside antennas is now a lost art. When any non-HD frequency is tuned in, the display will say (for example) 860 AM. When tuning in, say 970, the display will pick up and show the call letter ID in a second, or even less than a second. It then takes 7 or 8 seconds for the audible decode to change to HD sound. When this happens,a HD logo becomes visible on the display, and a 6 line bar graph showing signal strength becomes visible. The bar graph is not rapidly responsive to input level changes (loop rotation, etc) and it is unclear what exactly drives it, as FM signals show most or all bars while AM show just some, and of course only on my 2 local HD signals. The main effect of HD is to brighten the high end audio response and to create a sensation of stereo separation. This effect is noticed best when the user is directly in front of the set (or using a headset) and is somewhat less pronounced when listening from a distance. The effect on WMGG (a Spanish music format) is quite a lot more noticeable than it is on WFLA (talk) where it is (to me) only somewhat apparent. The display latches the call letters which continue to show, even if the HD unlocks. WMGG has a scrolling line of text with their megaclasica.com web address. WFLA has no such data stream and the display just shows artist: title: in the area where the date and time, or scroll, otherwise appear. It's interesting to tune the set to 960 where the hiss is present on a dx398 etc, in this case a grinding bubbling type noise is heard, not too different than the analog case. (I'm sure someone is wondering about that). Incidentally WFLA hiss is somewhat louder on 960 than on 980 on an analog set. One of my plans is to determine the rough edges of the AM HD coverage. I would do this by taking the set in my truck, powering it from an AC inverter and setting up at various locations. I soon found that the inverter I have plays very badly with this (and probably other) sets, on AM, and this option is completely unworkable for me. I need to come up with a 5 VDC 5 A clean source. In the meantime I do have some results to offer. I set up the set at an indoor location in southern Pasco county, close to the intersection of SR41 and SR-54. Neither HD signal was even decently copiable in analog, let alone getting any HD. I need to go back and see if this is environmental. On the other hand I set up the receiver indoors at the K of C meeting hall on Fruitville Road in Sarasota, where WFLA gave just fragmentary bursts of HD. However I was surprised to see that WMGG gave a solid decode there. This is about 50 miles south of Tampa. FM usage is somewhat more satisfying. What is interesting to me is that the blend from FM analog to FM HD is hardly noticeable. It is more of a perception of a subtle difference, than the striking change I hear on 820 AM. The sound section of this radio, to me, is innately good enough that it renders analog FM quite nicely, and the program feed the FM folks use is not that much enhanced with HD. I had issues with decoding HD on a number of the FM offerings depending on how I placed the antenna, which one I used, and where I was in the house. The dipole needed to sometimes be fully extended and positioned, with placement issues somewhat like those for the AM loop. I am not a FM DXer and may not go a lot farther with this issue. Some FM customers will want the secondary programming which is available on FM. I won't do an exhaustive rundown of what's on the dial here as it won't help many in other markets. Non-comm WUSF is frequently but not always running separate programming on their secondary, which IDs as WUSF eighty-nine seven two. They show as 89.7-1 or 89.7-2 when tuned in and the new station appears as if dropped in between the existing ones. When they both carry NPR news, the -2 is 7 seconds behind the -1. Some stations like WSJT 94.1 have the same programming on the -1 and the -2, with 7 seconds separation. WUSF has the analog fallback timing solved while the fallback on WSJT is a bit over a second out. end part 3 of 4 ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA
[IRCA] accurian receiver review - part 2 of 4
Review of Radio Shack Accurian 12-1686 HD receiver by Bob Foxworth- in 4 parts begin part 2 of 4 The rear of the receiver has a 5 VDC barrel jack, a 1/8 inch mini phono jack for Aux In, two pushclips (marked + and Gnd) for the two AM loop wire pigtail leads, and a Fe. F connector for the FM antenna the user chooses. There is no internal antenna provided. The pushclips are like those found on cabineted loudspeakers. The front of the receiver has the following functions: Power (push on/off), LCD display panel with blue backlit characters, rotary volume knob which also supports pushing in for mode (2 AM, 2 FM and Aux in). The 2 AM or FM ranges support hearing two pretuned stations on each band. The volume adjust is detent step rotary tuning, and a bar graph lights up when the volume knob is being changed. The Aux In is a good match for the earphone jack of a hand held digital recorder and provides good sound for one of these devices. Front panel push buttons also include preset/store, channel-, channel+, tuning-, tuning+, DSP, and Clock. The preset saves your favorite frequencies but again do not survive a removal of the power cord from the wall. Channel mode selects previously preset stations and tuning mode selects any frequency by stepping up or down (10 kHz steps) or can be held in to go to search mode. DSP has five settings, jazz pop classic rock and none which apparently just adjust the eq and rolloff for different types of music. I believe their usefulness is marginal and to me is somewhat cosmetic as it does not affect the RF environment. The clock displays date and time (12-hour) in an all numeric format on the LCD panel. When AC power is disconnected, the clock does not store the time, and does not reset from any HD data stream, but must be re-keyed each time the AC plug is connected. The clock shows if no artist data is being sent. The radio will, however, store the last AM or FM frequency chosen, if the power is removed and reapplied. As the intention is to have the user operate the set with the panel power pushbutton ( a relay click is heard) this should not be an issue. A mini-phono headset jack is provided on the front panel, which mutes the speakers, and provides an easy way to get audio recordings from the set. I did not, as of now, attempt using the remote, as it would not add to the electronic behavior of the radio. Radio reception. Testing was done in northwest Tampa. With no AM antenna connected, my locals on 620, 820 and 970 are heard weakly, say s-3 to s-4, and 570 at threshold level. Maybe 10 - 15 dB boost can be had by holding the finger next to the clips and inductively coupling. Using the loop gives good level on these local AM signals but a faint background noise in analog mode is heard. Rotating the loop creates maybe 20 to 25 dB of nulling when the loop is upright. Laying the loop flat reduces pickup substantially. The manual vaguely refers to repositioning the antenna if the signal is weak, but has no explanation of proper loop positioning. Many open (daytime) AM channels showed varying types of slight to substantial complex noise, which defies simple description, but serves to partially mask weak AM signals. Test frequencies such as 590 or 640 (Habana, Cuba), WRZN 720 or WWBF 1130 were heard with substantial degradation in s/n ratio compared to reception with test analog receivers. The type of noise would vary by frequency, being birdies, rumbling or grinding. The test for sensitivity on these weak signals showed many were uncopiable or at marginal audible copy, when they could be copied with little difficulty on sets such as the dx398 barefoot, due apparently to the reduced antenna gain and the higher noise floor. There is a very long AGC attack time and when the freq is step-tuned, the new frequency is muted for over a second and slowly rises in volume. Listening to frequencies where several signals are present, with pronounced beating, yields a pumping, chuffing irregular sound that makes hearing the audio difficult. Tests were done using a R-S 15-1853 loop. This is the circular tuned loop that was sold a few years ago. It was possible to get a boost in signal when this loop was near-field coupled to the Accurian's loop, but the tuning was not sharp or distinct, and had to be adjusted carefully and slowly, as if the front end of the Accurian was almost fighting back, an effect I have never seen before and find hard to describe. I have not yet attempted to completely substitute a different loop in place of the stock one. There were some AM frequencies that were relatively noisefree and once, I had a hearable copy on Jamaica-720 a little after sunset. The summary for AM is that (1) I don't think this receiver is acceptable for DXing non-HD stations in analog mode and (2) does not have the sensitivity to get a usable signal from a HD station outside of its local coverage area. It gives a mostly acceptable quality for local, strong non-HD AM signals. I did
[IRCA] accurian receiver review - part 4 of 4
Review of Radio Shack Accurian 12-1686 HD receiver by Bob Foxworth- in 4 parts begin part 4 of 4 The receiver also delays anything it handles (analog or digital, AM or FM) by about 100 ms behind the signal as heard on an ordinary receiver. If a previously heard -2 is still cached in the receiver, the HD unlocks, and the -2 is tuned, silence results. There were a couple of episodes where the tuning was changed from a HD to a non-HD and a couple more buttons had to be pressed to get the sound back. Aux In. The fifth input option (2 AM, 2 FM and Aux) lets you feed the output of another sound device into the set. This is very useful to me. I have several small digital recorders and can feed the headset output through the set, with good results. Take care to not overdrive the input, but a decent headset level from the recorder should be optimum. Insides. Here is a posting from the Broadcast list digest which is quite interesting. As I may yet return the set, I am not about to open it up. - Message: 20 Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 19:41:19 -0600 From: stanleybadams [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [BC] Accurian Insides To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I was tooling around the internet looking for reviews and information on the Accurian, as I received mine this week but have not turned it on yet. Here is what someone posted on a web site (www.avs.forum.com) by the name of Eric. So I am giving credit where credit is due I finally had the courage to open up the radio and look inside (Hint: some screws are hidden under the speaker grilles). There is a Samsung module that plugs into a PCB named Table-Top Version 2.2. The Main PCB contains the Power Supply, Amplifier, and connectors for the display, speakers, keypad, etc. The Samsung HDRMDVM0101 module contains the heart of the radio. The module has a 20 pin and a 50 pin connector to interface to the Main PCB. The module also has a JTAG connector for the ATMEL Processor. ICs on the module include: ATMEL Mega128L Low Power AVR RISC Processor with 128K Flash TI TMS320DRI350AZTS5 DSP for HD Radio Baseband and Analog Decoding TI DRI8201 Intergrated AFE Spansion S29GL032M90TFIR4 3.3V 32Mb Flash x8/x16 Bottom Boot Sector ESMT M12L128324A 3.3V 4MBx32 SDRam 1803A 24bit 96K Stereo Audio ADC 1782 24bit 96K Stereo Audio DAC LM833 Dual Op Amp This is a Software Defined Radio where the AM or FM signal is converted to a 10.7 MHz IF and then digitized. The digitized IF gets downconverted and fed to the DSP where either AM, FM or HD signals are decoded and sent to the Stereo Audio DAC. It appears even the Aux Input is digitized. Several companies offer modules based on the HD reference design so I would not be surprised if most HD radios use the same scheme. Plug a module into a I/O board and put a custom user interface/ configuration in flash. Obviously, the speakers can be replaced or the audio fed into a stereo system, but as you see they are modules such as this Samsung, or what TI or others would build. It is a single unit radio that has the real guts in the decoders, not in the RF section. Somebody ought to build a good American made copy of this thing, don't you think? Stanley Adams Memphis This tends to confirm my own thoughts about the RF behavior. PS a JTAG is a test point to allow diagnostic and interfacing on a otherwise self- contained module. end of review. 20061203. by Bob Foxworth ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] [NRC-AM] no test tones at 11 p.m. EST Sunday
None of the reported test-tone frequencies (590, 1020, 1610) was active with this sort of transmission when checked at 11 p.m. EST on 3 DEC. The only 1 kHz tones noted were from TA splits The posting from Kent said that 1020 was due to go off at 0700 Sunday, and the 590 should be up from Tuesday thru Friday. So this helps confirm that the apparent schedule he gave is, at least nominally, being followed. It's not very clear what Kent's role is in all this. He's been getting a fair amount of sniping over on the AF list which is where all the BE talk moved. If he was in Fayetteville with a FIM-41, that's a clue right there. There are probably a bunch of other people doing that, but none of them post here or on any of the radio tech lists. (post here, and then you post from Club Gitmo ;-) The most plausible reason for the test that I can think of is that a rapidly deployable field antenna is being tested. I am not the first to think of this. One could guess that they need both a day and a night signal to determine skywave fade details. What is perhaps less clear is whether the signal varies in strength from one night to another because of changes in the antenna (and not just fade). This would require several days of testing. And a tone would provide the most constant strength indicator, amid a sea of varying carriers which make RF level measurement problematic. Then we try to figure out if they are trying to maximize, or minimize, skywave, groundwave etc. What they should have done is test on splits. Spread the pain around a bit, and get a better received level indicator. Probably couldn't get authorization. - Bob 2352 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Info on 1610, 1020 and 590
A posting on one of the BC lists within the hour states: 1610 was legit and approved. 10 kW from an unspec east coast location. Content 1 kHz tone, nothing else (no hidden data etc). 1610 test is finished. Testing now on 1020, look tonight and Sat night. Then testing on 590 from Tue to Friday. Then, done. The purpose, authority or location was not given by the poster. I am sure more detail will be forthcoming. Some BC people are looking at Ft. Monmouth NJ (home of an Army communications command) as a possible site based on some DFing they did with FIM-41s. Finally some are speculating this is in preparation for the presumed coming demise of el maximo in order to have radio assets set to deploy. - Bob sent at 1103 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] (Fwd) The signal loops to the SOUTH OF Maryland
For the record, the 1020 signal loops much stronger to the SOUTH of here than to the NORTH towards New Jersey. I may be doing something wrong, but the signal is stronger on my SW and SE loops of my K9AY than on the NW and NE. My bearing is about 190 Degrees which puts it south of Washington, DC, and then near Richmond, Virginia. This bearing more or less follows I95 after that to about Georgia and Florida. I am eyeballing this on my map here, so this is just a rough idea. Bill Harms Elkridge, Maryland This would rule out speculation about Ft Monmouth NJ it would seem. Also Aberdeen PG. Looks as if my guesses are wide of the mark. But why stop now? We're having MORE fun than a DX'er should be ALLOWED to have ! Two possible candidates in the area you describe could be Camp A P Hill in northernmost Va, or the FBI facility at Quantico. Back in my college days I used to drive back and forth through A P Hill on Rt 207 after leaving 301 in Md. and picking up US 1 north of Richmond, on my travels between NJ and NC. (this was before I-95 was even built). It's a big area. Or could we even deign to bring out the name Vint Hill? I thought the company shut that one down and it's in the area as well. Don't forget that this tone being heard so well is that it's basically a CW ID that we love so much on DX tests, except that the key is locked in the on position. It's pushing through right now at 2230 local time. The mix on 1020 is Kendall in kreyol, and reloj from Cuba, about even, with no sign of KDKA, as usual here on the west coast of Fl. - Bob, Tampa FL 2241 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Prediction on the 1610 mystery station
Willis, I am 15 miles north of Greenville, S.C. and it is nowhere near me If it is ever discovered where this 1610 mystery station is located, I will predict that it will be found at one of these locations If it's government/ military it will be from one of these areas-- CAMP LEJEUNE, NC (marine) NORFOLK, VA (navy) GREENVILLE, NC (VOA/government) Who remembers from 32 years ago the 50 kw WGU20 on 179 kHz? This is W - G - U - twenty, the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency station serving the east central states with emergency information. Eastern standard time fourteen hours, twentyone minutes thirtyfive seconds (beep) [time is an example, the whole loop repeated every 20 or so seconds] This station one of the first solid state xmtrs was located at the Aberdeen Proving Ground which is not too far from Havre de Grace. That could be a likely possibility for an operation like this. WGU20 had a nice QSL card, of which I am happy to have one in my collection. These fellows literally did cover the east central states 5 x 5. None of the 10 or so other such stations that were planned ever got built. If any one of you guys finds yourself heading down I-95 you're close to APG. Look for the signage directing you to the exit for the Army Ordnance Museum, itself an interesting visit. That's about the only sign I recall for this facility. Not to say the tone is from there, just a possibility to check that seems to line up with many of the reported DF plots.. What was interesting about this station was the muffled effect on the voice, likely due to the Q of the antenna, as I recall it. The DCPA itself is gone, today it would just be a part of DHS. They wanted to put LF receivers into TV sets that would mute the TV and come alive with tone activated emergency messages. - Bob sent 2239 est ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
Re: [IRCA] Tone test on 1610 now?
Have it here in south N.H. s-9 with some fading... 2155 ELT Wasnt a new one coming on in Canada ?? Maybe we will hear from up north. 73 Tom Jones Mason N.H. I had the same tone here in northern South Carolina between 5PM and 6PM , with some QSB, but dominant on the freqencyIsuzu SUV radio in the Walmart parking lot while the XYL shopped. Chris JohnsonK4CME Surprised if this is Canada. Easily being heard in Tampa at 2305 est ranging from s-3 to s-8. I could definitely BFO both USB and LSB, so it's not a het. Only a vague guess at a DF but I'd say either 020 or 200, maybe 030 - 210, according to dx390. (If the foundation has moved, then these may be less valid :-) Only using toy RS portables (390, 399) so am surprised how well this coming in, on peaks anyway, on these typically semi-deaf portables.. - Bob 2316 . ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
