Shortwave radio help?

[dipisc]

Hi;

     Get your hands on a magazine called  Pop Comm.  In the back of the magazine is usually 4-5 pages of listeners listing freq's of interesting operations. Some  Israeli CIA, US Military, South America Ops, Cuban propaganda etc.  The articles in the magazine are very good at times and if you like info on how it was back in them there days - you will like   Pop Comm.

[Badgersmilk]

I'm ashamed to say, but Popular Communications is WAAAYY over my head!  I've checked it out in the book stores a few times.  They're talking about making radio's out of freak'n tin cans and a bunch of parts from Radio Shack for Pete's sake!

My kid would laugh me outta the house the day she saw me install tuning knobs on a can of Chicken of the Sea!  Her and my wife have enough to pick on me with as it is.    

Don't get me wrong!  Your "the man" if you understand half the jargon Pop. Comm. uses!  

I need stuff with lots of pictures!  

"Pop up" books are nice to! 

[Rastus]

Let me know how you like it.  It must be a new model, I do not see any reviews on it yet.  Honestly, the 600 is pretty good, but on LW it does not perform well.  I may sell and upgrade if the 660 is better.
<snip>

OK, I know it's an old thread but I'm an old guy.  I picked up a Tecsun PL-660 and have used it for a few weeks and it's an honest to goodness good little SW radio.  It ranks right up there with Sangean, Grundig, etc. at a lower cost.  Delivered to the house for less than $110.  Check out the reviews on eHam.  It has FM and airband to complement the shortwave. 

[rojawe]

Hello Hello can U hear me now Hello is anyone out there

[les snyder]

 Uncle Sam trained me to be a radio traffic analyst (USAFSS 202) ... so long ago, in distant exotic lands, I had the opportunity to work with the best Morse Intercept Operators and Voice Linguists that Keesler AFB,  the Presidio of Monterrey, Yale,  Syracuse University and Ft. Meade could provide...

so if you are really serious about HF and VHF intercept, get a Collins R390 , and hook it up to a AN/FLR9 (if you don't know what this thing is... look up Elephant Cage...)

6918th Hakata Japan
6922nd Clark AB, Philippines
6924th Ramasun Station, Thailand... JSPC, Torii Station, Okinawa.... TDY

[Sponsor]

[Rastus]

Les you had the good stuff.  I just picked up on your post...from nearly two years ago.  I knew about the elephant cage...only a dream for us little guys.  I hear they are all gone now..., oh well, I think that's a mistake.

Collins...yeah sweet but more than $100 delivered to home.  I'm running a Yaesu 107M transceiver and, as you would expect, it's far better than the Tecsun.  The 107M has been "out of print" for 25 or so years now...but the receiver design is one of the best out there to this day.

As far as modern day, the Tecsun is in numbers for availability and is lower cost than most for the performance you receive.  The PL660 has been superseded by the PL880 (about $135 delivered from ebay) but misses some of the PL660 performance.  There's a Yahoo group on the PL880 and it continues to improve with software fixes....ain't that somethin'...software fixes.  Anyway, it's probably been modified enough by now to outperform the PL660 in all areas....initially it was lacking in some...check out that Yahoo group for more info.

[Rastus]

Uncle Sam trained me to be a radio traffic analyst (USAFSS 202) ... so long ago, in distant exotic lands, I had the opportunity to work with the best Morse Intercept Operators and Voice Linguists that Keesler AFB,  the Presidio of Monterrey, Yale,  Syracuse University and Ft. Meade could provide...
<snip>

Les,

I've been dreaming about retirement (does that make me a dreamer BHO?  Give me free money.  Now.) and how that fits with ham radio antenna.  I've done a little research and I'm leaning towards a rhombic antenna or lazy H curtain.  The rhombic takes a lot of space and is fixed...the lazy H with a reflector can be bigger but takes big towers as opposed to tall polls and acreage.

Any experience with the two or a suggestion otherwise?  I'll never have an elephant cage....but several rhombics can be placed adjacent to one another an the minor lobes will provide 360 coverage.

Thoughts?

Ken

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

Another page to check is http://www.radioreference.com. It may be a bit more focused on public service frequencies but you might find something else to listen to listed there.

Let me second that. While this is a public service/amateur oriented site it is very useful. Whenever there is an "incident" like another mishap at a gun free zone this site will provide you with scanner feeds to that local area. Was quite handy during the last "gun free zone" incident in CA.

Depending on the type of radio/scanner you have, some can use this web site to automatically program your radio/scanner. You need a membership for that but at $15.00 / year for me it is well worth the cost. If you are looking for local info this is where I would start.

Next time we have a "gun free zone" incident go to the scanner listing for that area and listen to the info that never makes it to the "main stream" media.

Hope this helps.

[Rastus]

Looks like a good "active listener" site. 

I've been looking at the Uniden BCD996P2 Digital Mobile TrunkTracker V Scanner....actually for my mother-in-law.  I like how you can link it to your iPad, etc...but the linking software early on was too buggy to use lots of time.  Do you know anything about the remote control software for the Uniden products?  Have they fixed it yet?

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

Looks like a good "active listener" site. 

I've been looking at the Uniden BCD996P2 Digital Mobile TrunkTracker V Scanner....actually for my mother-in-law.  I like how you can link it to your iPad, etc...but the linking software early on was too buggy to use lots of time.  Do you know anything about the remote control software for the Uniden products?  Have they fixed it yet?

Unfortunately not. I use the older GRE products and have had good luck with them although they do not have the remote link you speak of. Most of the programming software available for both Uniden and GRE will allow direct programming from the radio reference site but that will require a membership at the site. I believe it was $14.95 last time I checked per year. The government has implemented a program to standardize digital over the air communications between all LEO and 1st responders named Project 25 (P25 or APCO-25). This will allow them to cross connect any parties together during emergencies (or for whatever reason they determine) so make sure whatever scanner you get will decode these signals. There are phase 1 and phase 2 steps in the overall plan of this system and your radio needs to be able to handle both. The main difference is the amount of traffic the systems will handle. Phase 2 will cut the band width use in half to allow double the number of simultaneous channels.

Hope this helps.