Hear What You’re Not Supposed To Hear| The AM Radio Trick

So much of the information YOU are absorbing is literally being spoon fed in order to get a given reaction and thought process out of YOU – PSYOP anyone? The vast majority of the “network” radio shows you listen to are pretty much ALL scripted – designed to either lead or drag YOU in a given direction – about the only chance you have of unfiltered information are the local morning shows – and a lot of them “follow” a given agenda.

FFS – don’t even get me started on television!

Short Wave Listening gives you a lot more of a variety of information – bear in mind the majority of what you hear is designed to insert programming into that organic computer you are carrying around on top of your neck. Short Wave dot Info can be searched for any station broadcasting in a bunch of different languages <<< CLICK HERE FOR ENGLISH>>> . Click on the find frequencies dialog box and click English and then click go. All I can tell you is listen to as much stuff as you can – with the thought in your mind that you filter ALL of it through — Exactly what/how am I being expected to believe/think/act on this information? — Then start applying that same filter to people you interact with every day. I can talk to someone for about 5 minutes and pretty much tell you which news program (why do you think it is called programming??) they listen to.

I’m pretty sure I have posted this link before – if you have not seen these beginners guides to SWL – they will give you a good starting point to start gathering some information ON YOUR OWN instead of being spoon fed what YOU – as a good sheeple – are supposed to absorb . . .

does television programming work? do YOU remember meeting george jetson? and don’t forget – the mate was a mighty sailing man, the skipper brave and sure, five passengers set sail that day . . .

Something I’ve done to people for 20+ years – at a pause in the conversation ask them if they would like to take a simple survey – of course they will – a survey – “Oh Boy” – Keep a little pocket notebook on you – the prop reinforcement – thumb through several pages (don’t forget the pencil or pen) – and straight faced/total dead pan – ask them, “Ginger or Mary Ann?” The majority of time you can actually watch their organic computer/brain lock up.

I mean that shit right there is funny, I don’t care who you are . . .

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

You and Office Safety

I don’t remember this particular film – and yes boys and girls you actually got to watch films on workplace safety during orientation – the vast majority were a total hoot!

Depending on your given employer you got to sit and watch stupidity like this prior to doing “the job”. Old timey rule of thumb was the longer the orientation (ornamentation as we affectionately called it) the bigger the spoonfuls of bull shit you got handed to you – but it was all good! Sit and basically vegetate for anywhere from several hours to several days and get free coffee and doughnuts AND get paid for it!

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

A Good Score to Start the Day! – Radio Mosoj Chaski and a “Fight Club” Update!

A 10kilowatt station at 3310kHz in Bolivia – with the Airspy HF+ Discovery/SDRConsole(V3)/LoopOnGround(LOG) – Tuesday app. 2230 UTC

A 10,000 watt station out of Bolivia – every once in a while I think about replacing the airspy and then grab something like this – same antenna/same time this didn’t even show up on any of the sdrplay radios – for my setup (your actual mileage may vary!) the airspy works real good from about 5.000mHz and down – really shines on am broadcast band when paired with the vertical antenna.

looking forward for the late fall early winter conditions change to see how the vertical will work for wsm 650 am for the Grand Ole Opry – and yes i know you can stream it over the internet – what’s the fun in that?

It was better in the shack – I kinda need to figure out something better . . .

Not quite the catch that The Solomon Islands @ 5.020 – it was still cool for me!

My Blushing Bride’s birthday present – Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided it is time to whoop his big brother Theodore Roosevelt’s ass – LMAO!

remember the #1 rule about fight club – never talk about fight club!!

Always remember – Relaxation IS the key . . .

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

Strategic Air Command at Forbes Air Force Base

Most folks today tend to scoff at the premise of the movie “Strategic Air Command” – surely (and my name ain’t Shirley!) they wouldn’t do something like that to a “famous” ballplayer like “Dutch” Holland. Wanna bet? Dad was in the Merchant Marine in WW2 – had a ship torpedoed and sunk whilst he was on it – that’s rude to say the least. Was injured (not seriously) and spent a couple of weeks on board the luxurious “Motel Lifeboat” – was not a good time. Made it through the war – working as a steam plant operator – everything was going right along . . .

Then one fine day a Captain Wing Nut (don’t know if that was his actual name-LOL) from SAC knocked on the door and put it plain as day – we need boiler guys – come join the Air Force and do 2 years in SAC or I go down to the draft board and hook you right up – Korea had just lit off at the time . . .

. . . according to dad it was actually decent duty – so here’s some “Forbes” stuff – 3 silent short films – think “B Roll” footage – and a couple more from K3inKansas – Enjoy!

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

The Switchboard – For Lack of a Better Term – Explained . . .

One of the nice things about the Switchboard (it is a board with a bunch of switches on it – right?) is the ability to choose between 5 different antennas without having to disconnect and reconnect coax. That gets really old really fast. Bruce – 5 different antennas – REALLY?? Isn’t there one antenna that is the best for SWL (Short Wave Listening)? Let me give you the short and long answer both – no there is not. Now if I left it right there – the answer doesn’t make a lot of sense. Another factor to consider is how much of exactly what YOU are wanting to listen to . . . For example – when I typing this post (2300 UTC-Thursday-08/06), I have the SDRPlay DX tuned to 7.163mHz LSB and the best antenna to grab this mornings chat group right now today is the vertical antenna. Tomorrow it may be the loop on ground – the next day the horizontal random wire – SWL is a lot like real estate. Real estate is about 3 primary things – location/location/location — Short wave listening is about 3 primary things – conditions/conditions/conditions. A given antenna under the right conditions WILL outperform other antennas on a given day . . .

So the qualified answer is NO – there simply does not exist a single “best” SWL antenna for all frequencies and all conditions . . .

So thus we end up with this thing . . .

The biggest thing is figuring out which antenna is going to work best at the time. The powered loop from DX Engineering works really good most of the time – at times the loop on ground with the low noise amplifier is an incredible performer – the ability to switch between different antennas on the fly is way cool.

Two of the SDR’s I use are single antenna inputs (the Airspy HF+ Discovery and the SDRPlay 1B) – which means I need to switch between 5 different antennas into one connection – and yes there are 5 to 1 switches out there – good ones start at about $160 and go north from there, using a 3 to 1 and a 2 to 1 and switching between them is about $90 – comparatively cheaper to do the same thing, which is switching between antennas to see which one at a given frequency/conditions is going to give the best performance while not having to swap coax out – YAY!

The other 2 SDR’s – the SDRPlay DX and DX-R2 have 3 software switchable inputs . . .

One antenna goes to A and one to B – C goes to a three way switch (loop on ground/vertical/discone) – again 5 different antennas and no swapping coax – YAY!

The next(?) part is getting all the grounding in place – the #6 copper you see running across there goes outside to an 8 foot ground rod which is tied into all the grounding side of everything and does indeed make a difference . . .

And then get all the computers grounded – and so on – it all make little bitty differences which adds up to noticeable differences . . .

Before that happens I need to get the incoming coax and the connections to the “board” straightened out . . .

The next part is adding or piggy backing 3 more amplified splitters to the amplified loop/horizontal random wire/loop on ground antennas so I can get my networked SDR and a portable or desktop radio hooked up.

Not having to swap out coax continuously really adds to the enjoyment factor. It has been suggested by several of you folks that I should start posting some of the “listening” I do on YouTube – yea no – not that it wouldn’t be cool – I simply have enough stuff going on at the moment. Maybe over winter I will seriously look into it – and who knows – maybe a couple of you – and we all know who you two are – will string up a wire and start paying attention to what’s going on around you . . .

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

You Ever Wonder – What Is a Sad Ham?

Besides the ones that got left at the grocery store during the Easter rush . . .

People ask me – Bruce, why have you never gotten an amateur radio license? Two Reasons – Come May of 2027 it will be 64 years of chasing signals – and I have never gotten bored with it. . . And fools like this . . .

Oh, woe is me – the powers that be changed the test questions again! It’s too easy – you simply can’t be a radio operator unless you can send and copy 600 words per minute of morse code AND give a detailed explanation of an inverted V antenna – gauge of wire/angle of slope/height above ground/for a given frequency AND literally manufacture your radio out of shit you scrounged out of your garage!

Right around 1970 I went to several different Ham Club meetings and was essentially told that I would NEVER be a radio operator like me or him or – because it is simply too easy now! And I said to that particular individual – Sir, I will never be a radio operator like you because I’m not a narcissist to any degree close to what you are – walked out and never looked back . . . (PRO TIP – if you’re going to be an asshole – be polite – it really fucks people up!) (it took him almost 3 weeks to figure out I told him FOAD – LOL!)

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

No Such Thing . . .

There is no such thing as a rule/ordinance/regulation/statute/law – whatever terminology you want to use – no matter how trivial – that one of our heroes in blue won’t flashbang your baby in its crib/shoot your dog/beat you to death/shoot you/burn your house down with you in it for – “officer safety” . . .

Truly inspires Faith, Hope, and Confidence in the system – doesn’t it??

FFS! – I have well in excess of 400 rounds of odd ball left over end of box ammo sitting in Tupperware! It comes in useful to just randomly stack it in magazines to test stuff – to see how it runs through different types of ammo . . .

Thank You Baby Jesus that I live in America and not a demoncrat commie fuck cocksucker enclave!!

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

Ground Loops

OOPS! – Wrong ground loop – LMAO!

If you spend enough time digging through YouTube videos on SWL (Short Wave Listening) and amateur radio antennas you will run into Loop On Ground antennas for receiving. The simple fact is that they do work – not a miracle cure-all for all situations – but rather think of them as another tool in the box.

The “stuff” you need? A beverage transformer – I used a Unified Microsystems BT-75 – available HERE from DX Engineering – two main reasons – cost and cost – at 38 bucks the transformer is inexpensive AND it utilizes 75-ohm coax – far less expensive coax.

For the actual antenna wire itself I used Super Antenna SuperWire readily available HERE through Amazonia – really good stuff! The PTFE insulation is just about forever when buried in the ground – and for long term you really want to get it down into the root bed of your grass to prevent snagging it when walking on your lawn or mowing – or in my particular case having it dug up by my three four-legged excavators – dachshunds for their size can move an unbelievable amount of dirt in almost zero time – and 3 of them? – OMG!

The antenna itself is simple – it’s simply a square of wire 15 feet on each side. You terminate at a corner – one end of the wire to one terminal of the transformer – the other end goes to the other terminal – 75ohm coax to a lightning protector and into the house.

Use a sealing product – I use 3M products – specifically this – available HERE from DX Engineering – the idea being that you want to slow down corrosion / water infiltration and keep your connections as dry as you can for as long as possible.

To actually do the install is really easy – your neighbors might look at you sideways – oh well. Take an edger set to as deep as it will go and dig out a square – 15 feet on a side – stuff the wire down in the “slot” – use landscape pins to keep it in place – put grass seed down in the slot and cover with potting soil – and water regularly for a couple of weeks. Other than “public” opinion – and my neighbors are sure that crazy guy with all the antennas is quite “different” – nobody said anything to me directly about running an edger around in my yard and not along the sidewalk.

One person asked about the termination point.

When I told what it is – and that we are standing on a 60foot antenna – nothing was said – however, the look was priceless – LOL!

(impressive – ain’t it!)

I ran the coax cable into a NOOELEC amplifier (available HERE from Amazoia) – kind of sorta needed since the overall signal strength is very weak – but a whole bunch less noise in most cases – basically the signal to noise ratio is better – for a TMI explanation go HERE . . .

(note the ground clamp- better /more proper grounding generally equals less noise)

The bottom line? – Loop On Ground antennas actually do work quite well – Cure All?? – no one single antenna will work the best on all frequencies during all conditions – but – the LOG antenna gives you excellent tool to pull out of the box and apply to a given situation. There are quite a few YouTube videos detailing layout – construction – and comparisons with other antennas. The “Tube” can be your friend sometimes – there are more things on it besides cat videos or Oliver’s favorite – police K9 chase and chomp videos – LOL!

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

And because YOU asked for it . . .