Anyone here using shortwave? Any shortwave listeners? Anyone using shortwave through a Linux box?

No.
I only use longwave.

what is short/longwave?

i'mthinking something about radios but uh, someone clarify this for me as i am much too lazy to go to google and do it myself.

Yes shortwave and longwave are radio terms. Basically relating to the wavelength (usually measured in metres) of the frequency in use.

A good "rule of thumb" is that the lower the frequency, the longer the wave length.

regards

John

I have a Grundig Sattelit 800 radio (short/longwave, AM/FM) a real good radio - I've been listening to SW for about 10 years now...nice to hear what the world thinks about us...

Good evening, THIS is the BBC World Service broadcasting to you from London. Bong, Bong, Bong, Bong, etc etc etc

Nooooo! Not the BBCWS!

I sometimes listen to SW - usually when we have a powercut and get out the old trusty and rusty radio! I wish my radio tuner card would do AM as well as FM, but I can't be picky since it was like de birdy - cheap! Anyho, you tend not to get any Spanish radio stations in the UK unless they're on SW, so that's what I tend to listen to during powercuts.

Absolutely no logic in my behaviour on this front.

I have to thank drewenterprises for this thread.

When I first read this thread, I thought "OOOOOOhh yeah" a thread that I actually know something about (genuinely).

I was going to let fly with a 200 page diatribe about band plans, ionospheric interference, frequency management, blah blah blah.

But thought the better of it.

Anyway, it prompted me to got to the rsgb's website, At which I found the news that I've been waiting for.


I can now renew my licence so I have the full Class A permissions to operate on all "approved" frequencies from 1.8 mhz upwards.

Previously, I hadn't bothered to pass the morse examination (which was a previous Class A requirement), because I had had enough of the old di dah di dah dit, after having completed 9 years in Her Majesties Royal Navy.

So it's round the post office on Monday for a form. Hoorah!

regards

John

I use a Grundig YB400PE. The sat 800 must be nice.

I primarily use shortwave, but not with Linux (the darned computer monitor causes too much static ). I primarily use CW, morse telegraphy for the uninitiated, and have been for about 16 years. You can find me hanging out on 40 and 20 meters most of the time (that's of course when I'm not working, sleeping, eating, on the computer, etc.--gee, that only gives me about 15 minutes a week *sigh*). What I really want to find out is how that new PSK31 stuff works. Is there anyone on the boards that uses it? If so, how do you like it?

It's going back some time Dhimani but I did some psk stuff during my time in the armed forces - but if my memory serves me correctly, the principal is that If you look at a standard sine wave on a scope, then generate a second signal but you shift the phase of the second wave, the view on the scope is like a ribbon shaped christmas decoration. as in the first signal being in phase and the second being out of phase, but for this explaination if it's out of phase directly opposite the first signal. does that make sense.

Well, I would imagine that psk31 kit you mention, and presumably because it's "amateur" (don't like the word Ham, it cunjours up visions of exceptionally bad actors), I am presuming that it is phase shifting teletype multi tone informational signals. But (and it would be expensive), the termainal can logically be used to phase shift lots of different signals on the one frequency, and that would be using different emissions i.e. voice, tty, cw, etc etc.

I don't know it there are any logical or physical reasons apart from the logical bandwidth restrictions as to how many times the phase can actually be shifted (I would imagine that theoretically it would be infinitely).

The psk31 is running at 31 bauds, which on an amateur basis would suit easy error correction of teletype traffic due to the slow speed, and give some scope for relatively easy frequency management.

If you think of it as using both sidebands of the assigned freq, but instead of having two different traffic channels either side of the freq ass', but overlaid on top of the freq ass'.

How good the kit is, don't know, only used to having military quality kit - which was excellent.

I had a quick google and got this it'll probably answer you questions better than my burbling can.

regards

John

<edit>
p.s. just had a quick glance at the link, and the author seems to be mentioning using it for all sorts of data, beit voice and sstv or various stuff.

"Not really my cup of tea" I'll probably go for a home build set and just meddle with cw at qrp, once I've got my finger out and renewed my licence.

</edit>

I checked it out a little last night--did a Google search and found out that it requires a computer program to use. Good news is that there's free software for Winblows, Linux and Mac so I'm good to go no matter which computer I choose to use. It also requires a circuit to connect from the microphone input of the HF/VHF rig to the computer and then back to the headphone output of the radio. From what I gather, it uses the USB (upper sideband) mode of the radio. It surely sounds intriguing, and if I ever have the time to tinker with it, I'm definitely going to give it a try. The author of the article warned not to exceed 50% power output on the radio though. I guess that would fry the keying mechanism.

Yeah, you're right there. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Though I doubt whether I'll actually have a go at it. I end up with the same point of view as with my pc, inthat, while with the various bits of software, it will do all sorts of things.

In a lot of cases, I then have to ask myself what's my reasoning or justification for doing these "things".

I.e. yeah, great, install the server software and run servers. But the downside being what's the point. If I havent got loads of pages of info written down/typed up etc then why should I want to serve loads of blank pages of nothing?

The same with having psk31 or other psk facility. Why try it out/have a go at it, if I've got no use for the facility?

I mean, like the ability to operate on both sidebands of a frequency e.g. rtty on the upper side band and maybe voice or morse on the lower? Yes, I have done this while in the military, but then we had good reason to have lots of data to distribute to various persons/stations. But why would I want to do this now? well I don't, so I won't.

As earlier, I'll probably stick to qrp morse.

regards

John

The 800 does what I want - I've had it for almost 3 years now, taken it to Japan, and is great. Mine came with a great set of headphones. I think that I'll be using it for years to come.

My neighbour is an amatour radio broadcaster and has a giant aerial in there back garden (It goes way above there house). They have it connected to there computer and guess what OS they use. Linux, Red Hat linux to be precise. I think people can connect to them over the internet and use that for broadcasting. He might even be on here and I dont know about it. If he is I need to tell him that my computer speakers pick up his transmitions sometimes and the further down I turn my volumn the loader it gets.
I dont listen to the radio much. When I'm in the car Radio 1 is normally on which is on FM. When I go abroad I use a little handheld radio and scan every single frequency (AM, FM, LW, SW) for descent music. I normally find someting on SW. When Im at home i listen to a dutch radio station (http://www.arrow.nl/) that is on AM in the Netherlands.
*end of ramblings*