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On the Chesapeake Bay one can find the US Army Vessels and the US Merchant Marine using GMRS inputs. Astounding when you think of the regulations radio officers and captains on said vessels must have to follow. Very puzzling indeed. What this means is that our own U.S. Government is confused, not just the FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
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Today I heard a GMRS repeater owner shouting at the imaginary. It would be funny except for the obvious impact he’s having across many thousands of square miles. Mild tropospheric ducting is in effect. Weak signals from a good portion of the Eastern United States are being heard at my home as I am sure are everywhere around DelMarVa. I can hear THREE systems ID’ing on the frequency in question and ID’s on other channels from Virginia, D.C., Delaware, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Someone somewhere is testing on the same repeater frequency pair used by the repeater owner in Virginia. The person testing is also apparently on the same CTCSS or DCS tone. This is one reason why GMRS licensees that own repeaters should coordinate tones!
Instead of realizing this and just ignoring it or turning his own rarely used repeater off during the tropo event he spends tens of minutes shouting at each and every burst of static announcing the time and date, you’ll never use this repeater, this is my repeater, this is private property go away, ad nauseum. I imagine the greater Eastern US is also listening to him rant.
Other than the obvious silliness of the entire episode from a technical perspective some other points come to mind:
1. GMRS licensees are required to control their repeaters. The other user is bringing up more than one system. The user doing the testing should WAIT and test another day if he detects he is bringing up multiple repeaters. Both repeaters should coordinate tones. The affected Virginia system should shut down.
2. Since the Virginia repeater is rarely used why shouldn’t it be shared and new users encouraged. My repeater in Calvert County, MD is available to any GMRS licensee that wants to use it as long as the GMRS rules are followed. We are going to lose repeaters if don’t stop being so ridiculously territorial and/or restricting allowed users to “members” of an elite service group or club.
3. Based on my personal experience since 1995 the interference could be INPUT interference from commercial pirates or foreign shipping. The latter being more a possibility in DelMarVa. Listen on the input to an affected repeater.
4. GMRS licensees do not own repeater pairs. Our repeater pairs are NOT coordinated so anyone can build a repeater anywhere. We are required by the rules to share and prevent mutual interference. Shouting at ghosts during tropo is interference. Well after the first time anyway.
5. I wish everyone that owned a repeater had a listed telephone number.
6. There is also a repeater on the same channel with very loud INTERMOD. The owner needs to correct that condition.
Shouting at a mystery user in the static makes you appear comical and doing it during tropo rude. We are NOT going to popularize our service and keep it by shouting anyone down. Even ghosts.
The long overdue 802.11n version of the Airport Express should be landing soon, possibly as early as this Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has a plan he says will help owners of thousands of small television stations survive the transition to digital broadcasting. (Associated Press)
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In the Winter time AM radio waves travel much farther. This draws many of us into the long-distance AM radio listening hobby BCB-DX. To those getting started just figuring out what all the odd noises are is half the fun.
Nighttime reveals several channels on the AM broadcast band with an odd clock-like ticking sound. Well, it really is a clock sound. The ticking and tocking is accompanied by a period Morse code broadcast of two letter R’s. The source of this is the island of Cuba and the radio stations call themselves Radio Reloj or Radio Clock. Listening carefully you also hear a non-stop Spanish language broadcast under the clock. On the east coast of the United States especially, Cuba’s radio stations are often louder than our own. When WTNT, 570 KHz lowers its power at night Radio Reloj often booms in. Radio Reloj has numerous locations in Cuba and broadcasts on several frequencies. Another clock can be heard at 950 KHz. Can you find them all? Clue: Google: Radio Reloj.
It is called a heterodyne. Two stations (or a station and an interference signal) with carrier frequencies just a few KHz apart produce an audio frequency in your speaker equal to the difference in frequency between the two stations. This is most noticeable when a European broadcast station beats against one in the United States. European stations use different center frequencies than do US stations to avoid direct interference with stations on our continent. Two American stations a few hundred hertz off frequency of each other will also produce a tone of just a few hundred hertz.
Yes it is possible to hear European broadcasters very clearly at times especially if you have a directional loop antenna connected to your AM radio. When you hear a heterodyne try zeroing in on the weaker station that is off the American channel by a few KHz. Leave your dial at that point and wait for a fade that brings the station in with a clear signal. In many cases the AM station here will have such a strong signal hearing the station will be very difficult unless you can minimize the strength of the stronger station with a directional loop.
Here are a few places to look. I logged carriers on frequencies in between our own stations. Some I have identified and others remain a mystery. An easy “tweener” is 555 KHz which is radio station ZIZ on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean.
567 KHz carrier next to 570 KHz WTNT
612 KHz carrier next to 600 KHz WCAO
693 KHz carrier next to 690 KHz CBU and 700 KHz WLW
765 KHz carrier next to 760 KHz WJR and 770 KHz WABC
895 KHz Voice of Nevis St Kitts and Nevis next to 990 KHz CHML, Radio Progresso in Cuba can be heard beating against WLS in Chicago at 890 KHz.
1314 KHz “NRK Prog 1″ in Norway next to 1320 KHz WJAS
Am radio is susceptible to noise from a variety of sources that are natural and man made. One of the more interesting are lighting storms. Lighting generates strong radio waves that can be heard across the AM band. It is an indicator that outside antennas should get disconnected immediately especially end-fed long wire antennas. One Summer evening I didn’t react fast enough and actually heard the sizzle-crack from the back of an ICOM R70 connected to an eighty foot end-fed wire. Two hundred dollars later after a trip to the ICOM service facility I could use my AM radio again.
Other sources of noise include motors, lights, ignition systems, power lines and the like. The ARRL web page has a link to a Radio Amateur that maintains a web page of sounds he has tracked down over the years.
A number of PopularWireless readers enjoy BCB-DX. If you have a question feel free to ask here in the blog or visit our Forums. No question is a silly question especially when you are getting started in the hobby.
(02-09) 18:24 PST — A lost hiker was saved because he activated a Personal Locator Beacon, which allowed a Search and Rescue team to locate him by GPS coordinates. Mt. baldy, San Bernardino, CA. *Wireless at work!)
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The FCC has officially launched a rule-making proceeding to determine if Comcast has violated its principles on “reasonable network management” with its “delaying” of P2P traffic.
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A very good article on the Coast Guard Auxiliary. (PopWireless: At this magazine we promote the proper use of marine VHF radio systems and marine safety. We heartily support and applaud the work of the Auxiliary as well.
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[CES 2008] Wowee is unveiling its new WiFi enabled robotic webcam that can be controlled remotely using any Internet enabled device: mobile phone, PC or video game console. Users can explore their home or office remotely through the Rovio’s…
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Traffic congestion may be worsened by motorists chatting on cellphones, a new study suggests. Hoooooonk Or to be really direct, “Shut up and drive.”
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Text Message vs Morse Code
Perhaps there is something to say for Morse Code after all!
How Verizon Wireless learned to stop worrying and love open access. Step one: Realizing it’s a way to add low-cost customers
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BEIJING (AP) — China’s largest cell phone service provider successfully tested a transmission station on Mount Everest on Tuesday, making it possible for climbers and those on next year’s Olympic torch relay to make calls, a state news agency reported.
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Diplomats are working on a deal that shares the radio spectrum used in wireless and satellite signals worldwide.
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A list off 11 Free Christmas Music Internet Radio Stations! (PopWireless: It’s not wireless but it is seasonal.)
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