Friday Music : Some 70’s One Hit Wonder Action

Everybody remembers them – they were all good stuff – but not much “chart” follow up – Enjoy YOUR Friday!

what one hit groups/songs were YOUR favorites?

And of course I had to throw this in here! – LOL

And still making the karaoke rounds – King Harvest lives on . . .

Foghat? Slowride? The entire album was good stuff!

My own personal favorite “One Hit Wonder” . . .

Released in 1969 – 2525 was still getting quite a bit of airplay in 1970 – and still shows up today!

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

Starting (slowly) To Come Together

(upper left / RSPDXr2 – upper right / Airspy HF+ Discovery / lower left / RSPDX – lower right / RSP1B – bottom center / RSP nRSP-ST)

(allows me to swap the bottom center monitor – fed off the laptop – and put short-wave info in front instead of the RSP nRSP-ST – just drag and drop)

This mess here?

It is actually starting to be manageable – LOL!

I only have 3 antennas at the point – took the dipole down and replaced the deck so we are not worried about it falling apart if you were sitting out there and sneezed – not really that bad but not far from it.

I’m putting a lay down mount with a 10 foot mast on the back deck so I will be able to swap out antennas easily – I have several different loops as well as a mini-whip and I will use the coax running out there to try them – makes it relatively easy to compare performance with the different antennas. I will add another switch on the input to the wire random wire antenna distribution block to be able to easily switch to test antennas – and be able to try them with various radios.

Different antenna / radio combinations do make a difference. Right now – 4pm CDST / 2100 UCT the Airspy switched to the random wire is outperforming everything except RSPDXr2 running on the DX Engineering loop antenna at 15.034mHz usb (Canadian military aviation weather / volmet) – go figure – a 31 foot (approximate) piece of wire and a 9:1 UNUN out performs $800 plus dollars of loop on everything but one radio . . .

Differing conditions – different frequencies – different radios – different antennas – all react together differently – I can say this much – pick a radio / antenna setup and start listening – it is interesting hobby to say the least – then start “improving” your setup. That becomes quite the rabbit hole . . .

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

Friday Music : Kim Carnes

(all 3 albums are great and well worth listening to – Kim Carnes didn’t just drop out of the sky into the 80’s MTV video music thing . . .)

From her first solo album in 1971 “Rest on Me” she went on to really make her place in the music industry . . .

She released her self titled second album “Kim Carnes” in 1975 . . .

And her third album released in 1976 “Sailin’ ” . . .

This should help get you through your Friday – I hope . . .

I will do some more Kim Carnes later – however – you just can’t go there without going here . . .

And since it is MY website – here’s a twofer bonus from me to YOU! – you’re welcome . . .

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

Ongoing Configuration Changes

So . . . I was asked by someone about a good (not a cheapie dongle) SDR to start with and my standard answer has been Airspy Discovery HF+ . . . they came back a day or so later with “I really don’t want to drop $200 bucks into this “hobby” just to get in the door.

I checked the prices and the tariff situation has in fact put the Airspy at $200 bucks. So I ordered the SDRplay RSP1B from Ham Radio Outlet – it has been on my back burner want list for awhile. And at $140 bucks – it might just be a bargain.

So here is where the ongoing mess is now . . .

upper left / SDRplay RSPdx-R2 — upper right / SDRplay RSPdx — lower left / Airspy Discovery HF+ — lower right / SDRplay nRSP-ST
upper left / SDRplay RSPdx-R2 — upper right / SDRplay RSPdx — lower left / Airspy Discovery HF+ — lower right / SDRplay nRSP-ST

So the changes – the Airspy is swapping out for the SDRplay RSP1B – and I already have SDRUno software installed on the computer and since the RSP1B only has a single antenna input . . .

This monstrosity will let me switch between the loop/random wire/discone . . .

Started making changes to the wiring disaster – er – antenna connections . . .

It will be interesting to see how the SDRplay RSP1B stacks up against not only the Airspy but the other SDRplay products as well.

More later on this . . .

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!

USS Nimitz – Sailing Into History . . .

Can’t really wrap my head around the fact that she’s gone . . .

Star of the silver screen AND reality . . .

And if you just have to have your “Final Countdown” fix . . .

(you’re welcome!)

And the now USS Nimitz is steering for that “second star to the right”. . .

Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!