Radio Plans for 2019

[majoco]

Boombox said:

I love radios, but to be honest, I think I'm about radio'd out.

Nah, impossible! I haven't done a count recently and I gave some to a local charity sale, working of course, but I think I have well over twenty in working order and some in the garage on to "to-do" list!

 

[pjxii]

A bit off-topic - Mike said "they were built for the commercial maritime market, " meaning the JRC radios. I have a derivative of the marine Skanti 5000, a Danish company but the original design was by Siemens. Now you would think that this radio would have all the bells'n'whistles but no, strangely it's devoid of them. A USB filter only but a very good one, an AM switch position but that's very broadband. No pulse noise suppressor, no passband tuning, RF and AF gains of course and a fine tuning knob. Frequency selection by keypad down to 100 Hz and a manual tune - no memories. But what is does have is a bomb-proof preselector and a switch selected narrow bandpass filter tuned to accept the ITU receive frequencies and reject the ship transmit frequency in the same band - a 500Watt or even 1kW transmitter less than 1MHz away - this is for full-duplex radio-telephone. Very sensitive and stable so if you get the chance of buying a marine receiver - grab it. Just make sure of the power requirements first!

Martin, I just got my Dansk M3000 (Marconi Oceanic) and gave it a quick longwave NDB test. You're absolutely right, if someone gets a chance to obtain a marine receiver they should grab it!


My antenna system is limited to a ferrite loopstick right now, and using beacons on 342 (30 miles north) and 344 (higher power 300 miles NNE) seperation was truly effortless (unlike my beloved DX-1000) and reception was stronger than on my other receivers. The tunable preselector is precise to say the least. Tuning to 343 kHz and using the notch filter to eliminate one or the other was very impressive. I wonder why other marine receivers didn't include a notch filter, it can make a world of difference depending on the signal.

I had no intention of getting another receiver but this one kept calling me, like Gollum and the Ring.

 

[mbott]

Just had a thought that fits in this thread. Maybe this years I'll add the BST-1 car shortwave radio. Might be an interesting toy to have during long drives.

--
Mike

 

[KB4MSZ]

My radio goal is just to get this setting right and I'll be happy.

 

[ka1njl]

I am in the midst of an ongoing effort to modernize my shack. I replaced an aging but wonderful Yaesu FT-920 with an Icom IC-7300 and I recently installed a KiwiSDR (KiwiSDR: Wide-band SDR + GPS cape for the BeagleBone Black) at home that enables me to listen to HF from anywhere. So far I'm enjoying listening with my iPad from around the house and from my office at work. I also added a Behringer X Air XR12 digital mixer to my arsenal of scanners so I can not only control the audio but record it all to a USB thumb drive when I wish to do so.

 

[KB4MSZ]

I guess I need to modernize my shack as well.

 

[rayneeny]

Just had a thought that fits in this thread. Maybe this years I'll add the BST-1 car shortwave radio. Might be an interesting toy to have during long drives.

--
Mike

Did you get that car radio yet?

 

[56FB666]

I just picked up an Anytone AT D-878UV. I want to get a little more involved into DMR as well as APRS.

Since you own the Anytone AT-D868UV radio this site could interest you or you already knew this web page and now I feel ......

AnyTone AT-D868UV / AT-D878UV / Btech DMR-6X2 modifications / mods and information

 

[mbott]

Did you get that car radio yet?

No, but it's still a thought. I'll wait an appropriate time after the Eton Executive Satellit arrives before I pull the trigger on another radio.



--
Mike

 

[GrumpyGuard]

Since you own the Anytone AT-D868UV radio this site could interest you or you already knew this web page and now I feel ......

AnyTone AT-D868UV / AT-D878UV / Btech DMR-6X2 modifications / mods and information

Yes, I have checked this page out and have it bookmarked. As of now, I don't plan on making any changes to the radio. If or when I upgrade to the Bluetooth I will more than likely have it installed.

 

[GB46]

My (belated) radio plans for this year:

(1) I'm going to stop obsessing about my malfunctioning R75 and just enjoy the Sangean ATS-909X.

(2) I'll be in Saskatchewan for a couple of weeks in July, and of course I'll be bringing the portable along to compare reception between the prairies and this radio-blocked valley between mountain ranges. I'm sure it will be like a breath of fresh air. This won't be a DXpedition, mind you; I don't plan to listen quite that much.

 

[mbott]

No, but it's still a thought. I'll wait an appropriate time after the Eton Executive Satellit arrives before I pull the trigger on another radio.

Well, that was blown away by the Airspy Discovery. Hopefully they will begin shipping before the end of the month.

--
Mike

 

[prcguy]

My goals for 2019 are to replace old remote HF rigs I have in Dallas and Boston with new HF/VHF/UHF rigs, upgrade my CA home tower with 30MHz to a couple GHz wide band amplified receive distribution to several radio areas, sell off spare radios like a TenTec Omni VII, TenTec Eagle, Elecraft KX3 and several others to make room for something new, TBD.

So far I got Dallas upgraded with a new Icom IC-7100 and its working great. Next week I'll be installing the same setup in Boston and the CA tower project is taking shape. I gave a good friend a heck of a deal on the KX3 but still need to round up lots of radios that are collecting dust around here and set them free.

 

[Boombox]

I'll be re-erecting my 100 ft. wire antenna some time in early July. It blew down mid-decade in the 2000's. Just never got around to putting it back up, as conditions were hot enough to make my indoor wire deliver adequately -- but now that sunspots are in the basement, and appear to be staying that way for another 5-10 years, I suppose re-erecting an old friend is in order. SW won't be with us forever. Time to hear 'em before they're gone.

 

[pb_lonny]

Well it is half way in to the year now, my radio plans have gone fairly well.

- Continue with as many of my portable ultralight radio DXing sessions as I can. While it is fairly easy to get out and about now in our Summer, it might be harder to be as motivated come Winter.
I am now focusing on the FM BCB and am finding this change very enjoyable.

- Continue to develop my blog, creating new content and posting anything of interest to the UltraLight Radio DXing community.
I have relaunced my blog under a new name and with a different focus.

- Expand my kit, I have my eye on a couple of radios.
I have picked up a few good radio bargains over the past few months, I have a couple of radios I am planning on buying next week.

- Continue to develop my custom radio database, "MWDXerDB", adding new features and improving this.
I have now stopped work on this and have instead migrated to running a database on my phone instead.

 

[prcguy]

Update:
Just got the Boston area radio install finished with a new Icom 7100 with RemoteRig interface and LDG IT-100 tuner. Upgraded a 43ft vertical here with a SGC auto tuner at the base and had to cut up a tree that had fallen on the antenna. The SGC tuner has bias Tees to feed voltage up the 125ft of buried (in conduit) LMR400 to the vertical.

Now this site can operate from anywhere using the 7100 control head and RemoteRig box, plus I installed an Internet controlled switch to change between a ZS6BKW dipole and the 43ft vertical. Also installed a GP6 type 2m/440 vertical to round out the remote station.

My goals for 2019 are to replace old remote HF rigs I have in Dallas and Boston with new HF/VHF/UHF rigs, upgrade my CA home tower with 30MHz to a couple GHz wide band amplified receive distribution to several radio areas, sell off spare radios like a TenTec Omni VII, TenTec Eagle, Elecraft KX3 and several others to make room for something new, TBD.

So far I got Dallas upgraded with a new Icom IC-7100 and its working great. Next week I'll be installing the same setup in Boston and the CA tower project is taking shape. I gave a good friend a heck of a deal on the KX3 but still need to round up lots of radios that are collecting dust around here and set them free.

 

[pjxii]

I am in the midst of an ongoing effort to modernize my shack.

I'm actually oldifying my shack. I've been picking up receivers and having the caps and bad components and sometimes bandwidth filters replaced to keep them going for a few more weak solar cycles. Vintage gear just has that appeal for me.

I did just finally learn morse code, it dawned on me that it was pretty stupid to hunt NDBs and need to look at a morse code chart to identify them!

So, since I finally know code I pulled out my TS-130V and picked up an old (that's vintage) straight key. Badly need to practice first. When I passed General I vowed that I would make my first contact in CW. I'm long overdue...

 

[JohnnyGent]

With the new year having just kicked off, what are all of our radio plans for 2019?

I have a few things I want to do:
- Continue with as many of my portable ultralight radio DXing sessions as I can. While it is fairly easy to get out and about now in our Summer, it might be harder to be as motivated come Winter.

- Continue to develop my blog, creating new content and posting anything of interest to the UltraLight Radio DXing community.

- Expand my kit, I have my eye on a couple of radios.

- Continue to develop my custom radio database, "MWDXerDB", adding new features and improving this.

Paul
The Ultralight Radio Dxer

Well I pulled the trigger & ordered a SDS100, hope to get by Wed, and hope all bugs are fixed. And hoping to get my FIRST Ham license in a couple weeks, if I pass I still have a couple bucks left over : )

 

[pjxii]

Well I pulled the trigger & ordered a SDS100, hope to get by Wed, and hope all bugs are fixed. And hoping to get my FIRST Ham license in a couple weeks, if I pass I still have a couple bucks left over : )

Good luck on the test!

 

[KB4MSZ]

If you get your ham license, you will never have a couple of bucks left over.