- Posts
Hi Guys!
I just wanted to mention two quick things.
Because I have been very busy, I think I
have been making mistakes posting messages.Hi Guys!
I just wanted to mention two quick things.
Because I have been very busy, I think I
have been making mistakes posting messages.I had put one in the other day about Part 15 jokes.
I don’t know what I did but I guess it’s
not there. Must have been my mistake.Probably just as well! 🙂
The other thing was, we have been talking
about the old 1980s C-Quam AM stereo format on a couple of other
threads. This has really been fun. For those
of you who didn’t catch that, the C-Quam format
was around for quite a while, but has mostly
faded away. It’s a shame it didn’t work out,
but that’s another story.I found my Sony SRF-A100 radio, which was
on the bench. This is a great radio from the
1980s, which works fine getting C-Quam.
Sadly, the front panel is badly damaged,
and I have slowly been making a new one with
a speaker grill from another radio. It has to
be done just right, so it is a very slow job.The was one AM station here in Connecticut that
I could hear the old C-Quam format, but it is
too weak now. I can barely hear it at all.
I tried a few other stations that were on different
C-Quam lists, but to no avail. The station that
I could hear, as recently as last year, must be
having problems. I’ll have to check with my friends
in the broadcast community. Perhaps the station is
running reduced power or it’s ground system is going
bad.There is one oddity on the AM band here. We have a
500 watt daytime/11 watts night (I think) that
broadcasts classical music on 1290. They are not
C-Quam stereo, but their mono signal sounds fantastic
one the Sony radio, which the wideband function on.
I’m going to hook it up to my sound system and try it
that way.Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
Total posts : 45366With all the unusual weather happenings on the East coast over the last couple of years, it could be something gone bad with their ground system or some other issue with the tower or antenna tuning unit.
You could check online at the audio division of the FCC website and enter in the call letters, call up the records and see if they are operating on STA.
Very unique…classical music on standard AM! And when you hook up that SRF-A100 to your larger stereo system, get set to be blown away at the incredible fidelity of that mono classic music!
RFB
Total posts : 45366Yup, there’s some weird radio
stuff here.I think you mentioned WDRC’s
early stereo experiment in the
1920s. You’re broadcast history
knowledge is huge, considering
the fact that WDRC is just 5 or
so miles from here, and I hadn’t
heard that story.I will keep trying to listen to the
1220 C-Quam stereo station, maybe they will come in
better some day. There is a station
on 860 about 70 miles from here. They
are, I think, 2500 watts, day, and they
have a night-time power of 3 watts, I
think. They always come in better in
the wintertime, I’m not sure why. One
winter I called them and said I was
listening to them in West Hartford, CT.
(They are way up in Mass.) They are a
full service station and were all excited
that I called them. “We don’t get down
to Hartford,” they said. Then the telephone
got handed to different people on the staff
so they could all talk to me. It was a really
nice thing for them and for me.The 500 watt (1290) classical station is an interesting
fluke. It is part of an AM/FM combo that was
bought about 10 years ago by a company that had
some full time commercial classical stations.
(I guess there are a handful left in the country.)
Anyhow, the FM was a sort of grungy rock station.
When they bought it, they put in “HD IBOC.”
The grungy rock station remained the same and it was on HD-1.
The HD-2 ran full classical, and it was great! They
were also on the net and on the AM 1290.I never thought it would happen. But I ended up
with 2 “HD” radios. I was able to listen to the
classical HD-2, and it was wonderful! Then because
of problems, they turned the HD off. It’s funny,
because that classical format was great, and I really
enjoyed it. The 1290 is still on playing mono classical
music most of the time. It had a small very loyal
following here. I don’t know if it still does.As I mentioned, the mono 1290 classical station
sounds great on my Sony C-Quam SRF-A100 even if
it is just mono.You’re probably wondering how I ended up with 2
HD radios. (Because I have an ongoing list of
“radio things” that I eventually want to obtain,
and HD radios were not on the list.)The Radiosophy HD-100 was given to me. Forgetting
about the “HD” – it is a fabulous FM DX machine.When Sony came out with their “HD” tuner a few
years ago for about $90.00, I had some extra
cash and quickly bought it.i understand that the Sony tuner – I can’t remember
the model number right now – is one of the
best FM tuners ever made. It is even better than
the famed Macintosh (Sp.) MR-78. Or the Heathkit
AR-15.By the way, the Macintosh (Sp?) MR-78 was designed
for a specific person who had pull with the
manufacturer, apparently.The story took place here. Apparently a doctor
lived in New York City. He had a big thing for
WQXR, a very famous classical station on 96.3 in New York.
Then he moved to Avon, CT, about 3 miles from where
I am. This guy had such a thing for WQXR-96.3,
that he still wanted to listen to it. Too bad for
him, because the WTIC-FM 96.5 towers were practically
in his back yard!So, I don’t know the specifics, but somehow the MR-78
was made for him, and money was apparently no object.
So he maybe came up with serial number one. He was
able (with a beam antenna, or course) to get WQXR on
96.3 in New York in stereo, noise free. Even though
the WTIC FM 96.5 flamethrower was probably about a mile and
a half from his house.So here’s this MR-78, one of the most amazing FM DX tuners
in radio history. And then Sony builds this little
$90.00 HD tuner, and it turns out to be better than the
MR-78! At least that’s what my friend across town says,
because he has both!The HD tuner you mentioned, which goes for about $200.00,
is a great tuner and comes highly recommended. I just
happen to not have one, but I wouldn’t mind it if I did.As of late, I have become a radio minimalist.
Crystal sets, Part 15 radio, regenerative receivers,
One tube ham transmitters, that sort of thing.But, waiting in the wings, if I need them, are
a couple of high power ham radio rigs, and DX receivers
for AM, FM, SWL, and Long Wave broadcast band DXing
(LW – 153 to 285 kHz, I think.) I also used to love
TV DXing. That’s pretty hard to do now.Well, if you got this far, you’re quite a trooper.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
Total posts : 45366I remember spending hours and hours overnights pulling in VHF Low and High and quite a few UHF TV stations, particularly in the fall/winter seasons when overcast skies would act like a wave guide to those UHF stations! The low lying clouds would also help pull in quite a few FM’s too.
I recall the Sony unit your talking about, the $90.00 unit. Indeed that receiver has a very beefy FM front end and is very unique. Hang on to that one!
I am not 100 percent sure but I think that Sony unit’s AM side can only decode the IBOC and standard AM, but not C-QUAM.
But the FM side of it more than makes up for any lack of anything else!
I am considering adding a LW station and a 13Mhz station soon, perhaps by next spring both will be up and running.
It is difficult these days to do any TV DX’ing since its all gone digital and less power than the analog counterpart. I still have 3 analog TV sets, one which has the UHF tuner capable of tuning up to Ch 83 and is not digital, but the good ol variable multi-gang capacitor set inside the heavy duty shield casing. The VHF tuner is the rotary switch type with the channel inductor coils and fine tuning slugs.
Those were the days eh!! A bunch of wire, zinc plated vacuum tubes, bulk coils and heavy transformers, and sometimes enough heat escaping from the vent holes to keep the hands warm!
Those years were unique in the world of wireless. Whereas today its all racked and packed into a tiny hand-held i-something or another.
Well when the grids go down and the net flakes out and the cell sites go dark…we will have our classic equipment come to the rescue once again and prove once and for all that just because the stuff is old, does not mean it is useless!!
RFB
Total posts : 45366RFB, I did a lot of TV DXing. So
much, that I broke my parent’s antenna
rotor. (Roter, rotater?)I started TV DXing in the second grade.
It was really the first “radio geek”
thing that I did. I got some E-skip on
channels 2, 5 and 6. Tropo on the higher
channels, that sort of thing. Although
my set up was very limited, I did end up
getting most of the UHF channels (well, up
to 69, anyway), after doing it for about
50 years.Two receptions stand out. In June 1990, a
few weeks before I was married, actually –
I received an Iowa channel 2, on an indoor
antenna with a run of the mill TV. It was
11:PM, and I was in Hartford, CT. That was
pretty late for E-skip. But I’ve been reading
about the theory of E-skip on and off for years,
and of course nobody really knows the whole story.Anyhow, I was able to hook up my VCR, and record
that reception. The VCR didn’t like the heavy
fades, so typical of E-skip, but it did record
the whole reception.The channel 2 held in well for about 10 or 15 minutes,
and then disappeared.The other reception that stands out was with the same
receiving set-up. Again, I was in Hartford, in my
apartment, on the second floor, and the antenna was
just a simple indoor type. The station was a channel
15 or 16, and they appeared to be in Maryland. It was
a strong signal. But I couldn’t stay and figure it
out, unfortunately. (I sure regret that now.)I’m sure you are aware of the wonderful history of
TV DX. One of the most stunning stories is when
the BBC was transmitting from the Crystal Palace
(wherever that is) in England. They were on 45 Mhz,
or Mc, because this was 1938. 1938! Wow!So they are doing their thing on this channel.
(I don’t know the exact channel allocation,
i.e., where the video and audio frequencies
were.) Anyway, a bunch of RCA engineers were
working on a TV set in New York, and they
received the signal via F-Skip! Somebody got
out a movie camera and recorded the video of
the thing. About 10 years ago, a couple of
television historians found the film! It was
still good, and that recording is on the internet!
Apparently, this 3000 mile F-Skip TV recording
is the only recording of pre-World War 2 TV
transmission.I’ll have to search on the internet and see if I
can figure out where that recording is.
Maybe you have seen it.When I was 7 years old, and was TV DXing, my
parents, friends and teachers in school all
thought I was crazy.But, that’s OK.
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
Total posts : 45366RFB I saw you mention plans to go LW and 13mHz. That is spectacular.
Just yesterday I was thinking about LW and trying to figure out how I could put up a 50-foot antenna. Isn’t that the permitted size?
Will you design your own LW transmitter?
I’ve been back fiddling with Big Talker the SW transmitter, changing antenna lengths, and as PhilB predicted, even small antenna changes cause wide changes in transmitter performance. I’m starting to add comments about it over at the Big Talker blog.
In the early days when only two FM stations were on the dial, I one night got a perfect signal from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, near the Arkansas border. These days that probably never happens because the dial is crammed with stuff.
Total posts : 45366“the BBC was transmitting from the Crystal Palace
(wherever that is) in England. They were on 45 Mhz,
or Mc, because this was 1938. 1938! Wow!”I remember seeing that video too. Amazing isn’t it! And shortly thereafter, FM stations started up in that same frequency band and could be heard for hundreds of miles!
Of course today FM’s even at a full 100Kw ERP can’t compare to the “FM Flamethrower” of those years.
RFB
Total posts : 45366“Just yesterday I was thinking about LW and trying to figure out how I could put up a 50-foot antenna. Isn’t that the permitted size?”
Yes I believe it is…actual calculated length is 49 feet 2.55 inches. Don’t forget the 5% wiggle room! And maximum final RF stage input is 1 watt.
I have seen a few LW setups using the “lazy” L configuration. That is the antenna wire is arranged so that it forms an L turned 90* clockwise so the short end of the L is your feed point near the ground. Take a couple of insulator blocks, some rope and springs for tension relief, a couple of trees and your set!
Another approach is the sloping L or sloping long wire. This is a good approach when there is only one tree around or having to resort to a mast.
Follow the same principles for the ground system like that on a MW setup and it should perform well. I may even attempt a test by hooking that LW TX into one of my TCU-30 couplers just to see what happens. Maybe modify one of them to be turned into a LW wire antenna coupler.
I will probably construct my own LW transmitter. Since 15.217 states “Any” in operation mode, I may set this thing up so that it can do CW, AM and FM. It is all still in the early planning stages, mostly the antenna system. I have a couple of rough draft designs for the TX.
RFB
Total posts : 45366RFB:
I am already sitting here in a front row luxury chair ready for the LW project. Appreciate the alternate antenna descriptions because a 50′ tower might stick up above the treeline and snag a traffic copter.Those interesting lower FM frequencies of yesteryear might be worth reconsidering as they shuffle around the frequency spectrum trying to figure out how big money can get bigger money.
The romantic things you guys have been remembering, such as FM and TV DXing, was all an analog experience. Human beings are analog animals, unlike crickets. Digital spoils the romance of broadcasting. This has been an editorial opinion which just happens to be right.
Back to DXing myself.
Total posts : 45366In 1976 my good friend built a nice
1 watt Part 15 AM transmitter (tubes)
from an article in some electronics
magazine. I think the title of the
article was, “The Neglected Band Transmitter.”
The transmitting freq. was somewhere between
160 – 190 kHz in the mysterious longwave
Part 15 band.I don’t remember what the ground system was.
I do know there was a 50 foot antenna, but
I don’t remember how he did it. He had a
cart machine he had gotten from a broadcast
station. He put an announcement on the cart
machine, and rigged it to run continuously
for a couple of weeks, at least. The announcement
gave his address and phone number and asked
for reception reports. None were received.
But in those days, long wave radios were so
hard to find in the U.S. My friend was lucky
enough to own a Drake SW-4A, which included
the longwave broadcast band. The transmitter
seemed to work fine, and the transmitted signal
was strong at his house. None of us had longwave
receivers, so there was nothing we could do.
I lived 3000 feet away, and was so frustrated that
I was unable to try to pick up the signal.If you guys want to see the film of the 1938
BBC TV transmission that was received in
New York, via F-skip, go to YouTube and type:BBC Television Received In New York
There are also a lot of interesting comments
posted by TV DX history enthusiasts.I think the video frequency was 45 MHz
and the audio frequency was 41.5 MHz.
I could be wrong about that, but they do
mention it there.Best Wishes,
Bruce, Dog Radio Studio 2
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
