Radio Plans for 2019

[pb_lonny]

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

 

[pjxii]

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, installing all the extra crystals in my SPR-4 has been on my To Do list all of last year, so I guess that's this year's project.

 

[Scan125]

I want to get into HF data decoding. MultiPSK is one program on the list. But enjoying the programming side of this hobby then I'll be thinking about some form of integration of and data decoding software with my DriveR8 (Alinco R8/R9 comms kit).

So much we all want to do and so little time available

 

[bobin]

Radio Plans … hmmm … Sell my JRC NRD-545 and CommRadio CR-1a. And, while I'm at it, I'll stop kicking myself for selling my FRG-100.

 

[GrumpyGuard]

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

 

[majoco]

Radio Plans … hmmm … Sell my JRC NRD-545 and CommRadio CR-1a. And, while I'm at it, I'll stop kicking myself for selling my FRG-100.

hmmm - the oldies are still the goodies, eh? I must admit I get more fun and satisfaction from twiddling the knobs rather than moving the mouse across a screen.....and the RF gain is a knob that I can twiddle instantly rather than select "Gain" and move a slider form "90dB" down to "70db" and then forget to deselect gain and wonder why I can't change the frequency.....

 

[Scan125]

Yes the oldies are still the best, hence my HF150 and DX-R8. Having said this SDR does have its uses. I use a cheap DTV dongle to feed flightradar24. This just works when ever my PC is on and feeders to flightradar24 get a free business account.

I've also got an SDRplay RSPDuo (in October) which I've played with it but want to do some more hands on because I've not got my head around, figured out why if one does the tuning on the band scope/waterfall display it never (or very rarely) tunes to the clicked frequency.

 

[JDrisc3480]

Looking at getting started in DStar and APRS along with some other digital modes.

 

[bobin]

hmmm - the oldies are still the goodies, eh? I must admit I get more fun and satisfaction from twiddling the knobs rather than moving the mouse across a screen.....and the RF gain is a knob that I can twiddle instantly rather than select "Gain" and move a slider form "90dB" down to "70db" and then forget to deselect gain and wonder why I can't change the frequency.....

Exactly! It's hard to find a radio anymore. They're all computers. And, everything is moving toward digital.

 

[mbott]

I'd like to finally get my ticket, because that was part of the reasoning I used for getting the IC-7300. Whether or not that happens, who the heck knows. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with the current status ... with the exception of all the "noise" being generated by American Electric Power.

--
Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

I want to get into HF data decoding. MultiPSK is one program on the list. But enjoying the programming side of this hobby then I'll be thinking about some form of integration of and data decoding software with my DriveR8 (Alinco R8/R9 comms kit).

So much we all want to do and so little time available

Read the HF Data Decoding article in my sig. You will get a good idea of what you're getting into (hi). And while MultiPSK is one program, there are many others you may want to eventually add to your toolkit.

Mike

 

[pjxii]

Radio Plans … hmmm … Sell my JRC NRD-545 and CommRadio CR-1a. And, while I'm at it, I'll stop kicking myself for selling my FRG-100.

Sell your NRD-545 but kick yourself for selling the Frog? That sure says a lot about the Yaesu (or the JRC and Comm)! Can I ask which and why?

 

[majoco]

I think we all have fond memories of our earlier radios and perhaps our thoughts of how well they performed gets a bit blurred by the passing of time. I think about how I felt about the Gov't surplus R1475 I got for a Christmas present when I was about 11 years old - I thought it was magic and learnt a lot about HF radio with it - so much so that it prompted me to enroll in a course to become a Marine Radio Officer when I left High School - and that knowledge has helped me throughout life. I was even listening to the VoA when Kennedy was shot in Dallas in November 1963 - I rushed downstairs to tell the family and they didn't believe me at first.

I suppose if I found another of those R1475's and put it into a side-by-side comparison with a current receiver it wouldn't come out looking too good but at the time when the cold war was raging in Europe and propagation must have been better as I had cards from around the world - it was a very satisfying experience.

 

[bobin]

Sell your NRD-545 but kick yourself for selling the Frog? That sure says a lot about the Yaesu (or the JRC and Comm)! Can I ask which and why?

The FRG-100 was an awesome receiver for the price. I installed the FM board, and it performed well in the 10m. band.

The NRD-545, is also a good receiver, but the $1,700 price tag, plus $350. or so for the CHE-199 converter, which extends coverage to 2 GHz, is a bit of a steep price tag for what I use it for. I have no complaints about its performance.

The CommRadio is OK, but, at roughly at the same price as the FRG-100, it does not have near the performance. But, the CommRadio does have some limited VHF and UHF coverage, and receives FM radio. But, no one buys a CommRadio for its FM broadcast band performance. Side by side (using a Diamond discone), the NRD-545's CHE-100 converter beats the CommRadio on VHF and UHF. The ComRadio is a great radio for traveling, which cannot be said of the JNRD-545.

And, my CCrrane CCradio 2E beats the NRD-545 and CommRadio on AM broadcast band performance. But, that's what the CCradio was built for.

 

[ka3jjz]

Keep in mind that the JRCs were not built for the hobby market - they were built for the commercial maritime market, and were adopted into the hobby market. Making comparisons against any consumer grade radio is really not meaningful...Mike

 

[KE0GXN]

My 2019 plans are to continue learning about shortwave and seeing what’s out there.

 

[majoco]

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!

 

[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 purchased a Dansk M3000 (which was also made for Marconi and called "Oceanic." I haven't received it yet, though, as its getting a look over by a third party technician first. Oddly, it has a notch filter which these older marine receivers generally don't include. I have seen a video of a fellow in the UK repairing one and testing it on 80 meters LSB using the BFO. Have you ever come across one in your travels?

 

[majoco]

That was waaay after I left the sea! The most modern gear was on the "Empress of England", a North Atlantic passenger ship which had brand new Marconi "Nebulas" which were really Eddystone 958's but the smaller ships were getting "Atalanta's" which were quite good - at least much better than the LF/MF "Mercury" and MF/HF "Elletra". Here's a pretty good video of the gear that was on board most of the ships that I sailed on!

 

[Boombox]

Interesting video, Majoco. Fascinating stuff. My uncle was a radioman in the US Navy as well as the US Merchant Marine, and also was a radioman for a stint at NOAA, which is our oceanic and weather research service, and they have several research ships. By the time I was able to see any of the equipment he used, it was the 1980's, and it was high-grade, marine HF solid state stuff that was so sensitive that when in port all you heard was noise and gibberish from all the local MW stns. He said it only cleared up when you got 100 miles away from port, although I did monitor a transmission he made once from the local port.

As for my 2019 plans, I think I'll put up a 100 ft wire (the one that blew down 10 years ago is in the garage), and maybe get another Sangean MW radio to replace my PRD6 that broke (got too hot, the pegs holding the dial string heated and snapped, not sure I can fix it). I love radios, but to be honest, I think I'm about radio'd out. I need to fire up all the ones I have. I've discovered that they stay in condition better that way -- probably keeps the caps from going haywire.