When the government says that you shouldn’t be interested in listening to something then that’s when you 100% should be listening to whatever it is – just saying . . .
If you want to head down the rabbit hole – here are three sites to start with HERE – HERE – or HERE . . . I am not responsible for any of you folks losing sleep – forgetting to eat etc. – just saying . . .
Chasing numbers stations can become quite addictive. And then you can start chasing pirate stations in your spare time – or navigation beacons – or . . . LOL!
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Caught this at approximately 14:50 UTC – 16 November @ 9.560mhz – best results were on the random wire.
And a short clip – audio was almost sketchy – they are running 300KW and for this time of day and conditions they are doing a decent job with it – I will figure this video stuff out eventually – really I will . . .
I had read about this issue in the past – here’s a shot of Paul Simmonds page – Link HERE . . .
Folks – if anybody says “there’s nothing on shortwave” – chances are they bought a $30 dollar pocket radio on amazonia and don’t really have a clue what they are doing . . . there is site after site – on the utube as well as static pages on how do do “this” – it’s really no magic or mystery to it – like anything else – there is a right way and a wrong way – you will tend to have more success at SWL by doing it as right as you can . . .
Slowly working through the bird’s nest of wiring on the bench – think really BAD cast with a bait caster – that will get you in the ball park – LOL! Going to be stupid busy this next week – we are doing Thanksgiving dinner here – next Sunday – Yippee Skippy and all that stuff – will try to get you folks something up for tonight and Sunday – but time is becoming a rare commodity at this point . . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
I do so want a discone antenna – and THIS is quite a discone antenna . . .
Maybe I can talk my CFO aka Blushing Bride into one of these – I’m not holding out hope for a Collins built 70 footer – LOL!
Been working on the radio room and just about have it in it’s final iteration – what an ongoing mess – but it will be pretty cool once it is done – just about down to cable management to finish it up . . .
Left to right – Pi5 – Pi4 – windows box – windows box – going to grab a second Airspy HF+ Discovery for the Pi4 – the Airspy out performs “dongles” to such an extent that there it makes zero sense to me to try to use them -the Pi4 running the Pi4 OS & SDR++ build from HERE and it runs well. I’m going to install DragonOSfrom HERE on the Pi5 and then I will have to agonize over which SDR to purchase for hunting in the gigahertz range and which discone antenna to get for it as it will be used primarily for uhf and up listening. And looking at the projected weather forecasts I don’t believe anymore antennas are going up before spring.
Cable management? You have got to be kidding – picked up a pair of usb switches as there simply is NOT enough room on the bench – 4 keyboards / 4 mice / a number pad – what a mess! And add power cables – coax – speaker wires – antenna switches – really got out of hand in a hurry!
I keep telling myself SWL ( here, have ONE of my daily reads ) is only a hobby – it’s only a hobby – it’s only a hobby . . . And if you really want to go down a rabbit hole? HERE or HERE will will also help you on your journey . . .
A final twisted thought for this post : Think of your antenna ( system ) as a transmitter – it captures electromagnetic energy and transmits said energy to your radio(s) – think of it as a transmission system going to your radio – think of it as a whole “system” that needs to play nice together – antenna / coax / grounding / radio . . . I listen to “stuff” every day that most people don’t even have a clue is out there . . .
it’s only a hobby – it’s only a hobby – it’s only a hobby – it’s only a hobby
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Looks like a great time – check it out HERE – we would have to drive a little out of the way to stay in America ( and not venture into the communist enclave of Illinois ) but it might be worth the weekend road trip . . .
The food looks like dinner theater fare – nothing to write home about – but it looks like it will eat . . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Here is the station we are looking at/listening to . . .
Switched over to the wire antenna . . .
And here’s the loop antenna . . .
Do you remember the 3 most important rules of real estate – Location / Location / Location?? SWL ( Short Wave Listening ) has the same sorta thing – the 3 most important rules of SWL? Conditions / Conditions / Conditions . . . And this morning conditions were decent to good – at least around 15Mhz.
I changed no settings on the SDR software – simply switched between the 2 antennas, so to answer YOUR question – a properly set up random wire canand will give excellent performance – but the random wire is omnidirectional as long as you stay under a 100 feet or so – but there is no slewing the antenna side to side to reduce interference. Both antennas have Flamingo AM and FM filters from Nooelec / available here – they do make quite a difference – the reason I have separate sets for each antenna is to be able to compare either antenna with and without. If I put the filters after the switches I can only have them in line with or out of line with both antennas.
If you are not using some type of tuner with a wire antenna – to be able to change the capacitance and or inductance as to what the radio is “seeing” – then when dealing with poorer conditions or lower strength signals or both – then you are limited to increasing the gain by software – and up comes the noise floor along with the signal strength. And that is where a powered loop with a good LNA ( Low Noise Amplifier ) comes into it’s own. Just about every review I could find on the RF-PRO-1B rated it good – and a lot of that is because of the engineering and design that went into the LNA – it works very well pulling those low level signals out of the noise floor – and not raising the noise floor so high that you still have a chance at hearing them.
Still in the middle of a battle with HDSDR software on windows – I have gotten to the point where it’s getting scrubbed off the box and reinstalled – I will start fresh with it. The Pi4 just continues to impress me – I downloaded a Pi4 OS onto a fresh micro sd card ( still have my factory OS intact ) that has SDR++ already set up on it – so I went ahead and installed CubicSDR software on it and promptly trashed the audio – oops. The audio still works for YouTube and everything else – just won’t work for either SDR program . . .
If nothing else I will re image the card and start over – no biggy . . . And of course now I’m lusting after a Pi5 to put together a 4 terabyte NAS – either like this / or like this – I’m just putting this out here – if some strange fate takes me – thoroughly check out my Blushing Bride – she watches all those true crime whodunnit channels and she has 2 spiral notebooks full of tips and tricks – just saying . . .
Have Fun! – Run the Gun! – and remember – Fish Heads are Cheap!!
Guns, Fun, Food and More 