Anything interesting to listen for?

Discuss radio from around the world. FM/DAB/AM/SW ...whatever the wavelength!
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Kentdx
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Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Sat Nov 08, 2014 5:49 pm

I've been messing about swling but haven't found much too great. Had laser one night and a foreign ham last night but that's it really. Where do most of the hams frequent? Any more pirates that reach uk or any consistent dxing stations to listen for?

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teckniqs
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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by teckniqs » Sat Nov 08, 2014 7:00 pm

I used to find most of the SW stations around 6.0MHz upwards although very occasionally I've heard them in some other bands but used to find 6.2-6.3MHz to be the most frequent.

You will probably hear most HAM's around the 40m 7MHz band or the 20m 14MHz band, bearing in mind they only transmit in the upper side band you should still be able to hear some interesting stuff.

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Sat Nov 08, 2014 7:57 pm

My radio is evidently supposed to have upper and lower sideband, that's where I've been searching for hams but only ever found one speaking in a foreign language

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by teckniqs » Sat Nov 08, 2014 8:16 pm

Ahh yes, so it does. Radio looks very similar to the Eton E5 and has the same basic signal meter and SSB just like it. Probably all designed by the same guys.

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Dai Pole » Sun Nov 09, 2014 9:58 am

What kind of stuff are you looking to hear? There's loads of stuff jammed between 1.8-10 MHz - Morse code, SSB, foreign SW stations etc. etc.

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Sun Nov 09, 2014 1:21 pm

Hi mate , mainly pirates, amateur radio (ham, cb), air or ships etc, communications and dxing

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by teckniqs » Sun Nov 09, 2014 2:46 pm

How high does your HF band go? Does it go up to the CB bands? (27-28MHz)

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by bristolpirates » Sun Nov 09, 2014 2:50 pm

Something I tend to do when I'm in the mood for SW is use the Twente receiver to find a signal and then see how it comes in on the Tecsun, if at all.

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

There is a chat room on the page that's handy for hints on upcoming Number Station broadcasts and other signals.

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Sun Nov 09, 2014 4:39 pm

teckniqs wrote:How high does your HF band go? Does it go up to the CB bands? (27-28MHz)
Ah 25ish I think it goes up to, I won't be getting those then !

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Sun Nov 09, 2014 4:40 pm

bristolpirates wrote:Something I tend to do when I'm in the mood for SW is use the Twente receiver to find a signal and then see how it comes in on the Tecsun, if at all.

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

There is a chat room on the page that's handy for hints on upcoming Number Station broadcasts and other signals.
That's a cool idea, I'm going to try that out

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by teckniqs » Sun Nov 09, 2014 11:56 pm

Don't know if this will be of interest, but the Pirate Radio Chat Room has loads of active live SW and MW pirates on there regularly switching on and asking for reports.

http://www.easyshopdiscountzone.com/rad ... /chat.html

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Tue Nov 11, 2014 12:44 pm

Kentdx wrote:
teckniqs wrote:How high does your HF band go? Does it go up to the CB bands? (27-28MHz)
Ah 25ish I think it goes up to, I won't be getting those then !
Actually it goes up to 30mhz! Do you get cb up there then?

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Tue Nov 11, 2014 12:44 pm

teckniqs wrote:Don't know if this will be of interest, but the Pirate Radio Chat Room has loads of active live SW and MW pirates on there regularly switching on and asking for reports.

http://www.easyshopdiscountzone.com/rad ... /chat.html
I'm going to have a go on this at the weekend mate cheers. Sounds mad!

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by teckniqs » Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:22 pm

Kentdx wrote:
Kentdx wrote:
teckniqs wrote:How high does your HF band go? Does it go up to the CB bands? (27-28MHz)
Ah 25ish I think it goes up to, I won't be getting those then !
Actually it goes up to 30mhz! Do you get cb up there then?
CB is in the 27MHz range, it is very narrow band. It is only licensed for FM use in the UK but many people overseas still like to use AM.
Many taxi firms in Europe still use them as cab radios, it goes absolutely mad as hell when there's a lift on right from 25-28MHz!

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by teckniqs » Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:25 pm

Kentdx wrote:
teckniqs wrote:Don't know if this will be of interest, but the Pirate Radio Chat Room has loads of active live SW and MW pirates on there regularly switching on and asking for reports.

http://www.easyshopdiscountzone.com/rad ... /chat.html
I'm going to have a go on this at the weekend mate cheers. Sounds mad!
Loads of them are on there, I've seen people come in asking if someone can hear them on 5945KHz from Spain for example and been able to give reception reports. The Tecsun is pretty useless on the SW bands with the standard telescopic antenna, but then you connect yourself a nice long external outdoor wire it's a completely different story, I've even got an ATU what goes between them to help improve the reception on the different bands using the same long antenna wire. ;)

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Tue Nov 11, 2014 6:02 pm

The tecsun does come with a wire, I haven't strung it out anywhere yet just hung it out the window and it was a bit rubbish lol
I'll have to get a few decent aerials in the summer I think and try and catch some of the lifts.

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by teckniqs » Tue Nov 11, 2014 6:54 pm

Yeah the 5m reel thing which you clip onto the telescopic is pants, I ran some coax outside and had a long wire coming off the centre core down the bottom of the garden and the outer core went down to earth via a thicker cable and a large spike in the ground. The band is almost silent until you connect that up and then it comes alive! :D

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Tue Nov 11, 2014 10:35 pm

sounds awesome teck Im looking forward to when summer comes around again and plotting up in the garden with something like that rigged up

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by bristolpirates » Fri Nov 14, 2014 1:22 pm

If you can't sling up a longwire just yet, try different parts of the house, or even go for a walk. The stronger signals will come in eventually in my experience.

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Re: Anything interesting to listen for?

Post by Kentdx » Sat Nov 15, 2014 8:36 pm

bristolpirates wrote:If you can't sling up a longwire just yet, try different parts of the house, or even go for a walk. The stronger signals will come in eventually in my experience.
Cheers mate, I'm Deffo going to put up a long wire soon, do you know of any good links explaining a bit about the best way to do it?

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