Comments by "spaceflight101" (@spaceflight1019) on "Ringway Manchester" channel.

  1. The story I've heard is that they have quietly installed SDRs in thousands of population centers and can easily access them via the internet. They use them to verify that a problem exists and take steps from there.
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  2. The popular one in the states is "FBI van 13".
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  3. I started out with shortwave radio in 1964. By the time I had Geography class in 1967 it was an easy A because I had been listening to stations from around the world. Evenings were filled with European signals and African stations, and weekend mornings featured Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.
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  4. Doesn't "War Pigs" start with an air raid siren?
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  5. Half of the kit is the antenna. Unless you have room for a decent antenna you're better off coming here. If you have the room and a laptop, I highly recommend that you invest in a good SDR, or software defined radio.
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  6. The FCC has monitoring capabilities via SDR and internet access all over the country. No need for the local offices.
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  7. Maybe someone will set up "War Pigs" on a loop...
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  8. I have three computers that run XP and have no issues. On the other hand, every time they update Windows 10 it screws up the wireless card drivers on my Dell and Toshiba laptops.
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  9. Getting a shout-out is all fun and games... until the MIBs show up at the door and start asking questions like "what do you know about this?" and "if you claim to know nothing, why was your name mentioned?"
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  10. 52.925 is in the American 6 meter FM portion. Amazing that nobody heard "CQ DX Six Meters FM".
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  11. ​ @yardsale781 The C64 was an inexpensive way to get into packet radio and could send and decode CW.
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  12. You haven't lived until you've gotten drunk and watched Battlestar Galactica dubbed in German, subtitled in Croatian, in glorious black and white in a hotel room in Zagreb!
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  13.  @bobblum5973  , I've encountered two phrases that kinda sum up the current CB mentality: "You gotta bleed to succeed" ...and... "You have to splatter to matter".
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  14.  @MrWhizardsLizard  , the info I posted was removed, but the FCC still has teeth and occasionally uses them to remove CB operators. Apparently posting legal notices is verboten here if names are part of it.
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  15. Just like that basketball player complaining that the Russians didn't read her her rights...here's a hint...you're not in Kansas, Dorothy.
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  16. This August marks the 50th anniversary of the huge FCC raid on the Pittsburgh area. A lot of people never got back on and things were never the same. My parents took what they did with the FCC to their graves, but they believed in me and I had a great career in Electronics. The worst part is that I blame myself. Maybe if I hadn't screwed around with the Civil Air Patrol the FCC would not have been called in.
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  17. It all depends on propagation. These frequencies are typically better if it's nighttime between your location and the transmitter's location. Europe is better after sunset, Asia is better before sunrise. Atmospheric noise becomes an issue with the onset of spring in the northern hemisphere. Lightning static from thunderstorms can be heard over hundreds of miles away. I've never been able to hear any of these signals in Pittsburgh and I use a Yaesu FTdx1200 and Alpha Delta DX-B. Welcome to the hobby, and good DX.
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  18. They use SDR tech accessible via internet. Once they find a problem then a field team is sent out to verify it and track it down.
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  19. If your critical systems are airgapped, then you won't have problems...unless a spy uploaded Stuxnet with a thumb drive.
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  20. They enforce the rules because there are other services that use those "Freeband" frequencies.
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  21. Although it wasn't technically on shortwave, the warning beacon from the Space Jockey in a deleted scene from "Alien" is terrifying on an instinctive level, so terrifying that it was deleted by the director.
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  22. Remove the battery, wait one minute, then reinsert the battery while holding down the "up" and "down" buttons.
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  23. In the States, we watched "Keeping Up Appearances" and "Are You Being Served" on our local PBS station. When those shows ended my parents stopped watching TV.
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  24.  @simonblandford7593  10 meter FM is quite popular when the solar cycle is at a peak.
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  25. It's been that way since WW2. The "advantage" was that you weren't subjected to commercials.
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  26. In 2008 I bought a Bearcat BC370CRS All Hazards radio. Because they run tests in the middle of the night the alert function is useless.
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  27. Back in the day, the spectrum from 5.9 to 6.5 MHz was the 49 meters broadcast band. These little signals would have never been heard over the megawatts that singed the airwaves.
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  28. It's somewhat ironic that the CB radio service is actually able to be used for its intended purpose these days: inexpensive short range communications for families and businesses.
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  29. Every superheterodyne receiver uses an intermediate frequency to make the signal easier to amplify. The known frequency of the oscillator is what the TV vans are looking for.
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  30. Pennsylvania uses stationary cameras that do nothing but run plates. They are most frequently used for fugitives and Amber alerts. The bigger issue is that Pennsylvania cops will force everyone riding in a car stopped for a traffic infraction to provide ID even if they are just passengers.
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  31. Add in "we're guessing" too.
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  32. I don't watch it either. I'd much rather play with my ham and CB radios.
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  33.  @bobroberts2371  "I get it! So, what do you want from me?"
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  34. @michaelhole4894  I'll use a common CB radio as an example. To receive Channel 9, 27.065, and the receiver uses an intermediate frequency of 455 khz, you will find a crystal with the frequency 26.610 on it. Take a general coverage receiver and tune it to 26.610, and you can hear the oscillator.
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  35. There's a live stream dedicated to a Russian station known as The Buzzer. Don't confuse it with WMMS-FM, aka The Buzzard, unless you like good music
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  36. You don't need fancy DF gear. I've tracked down many stations by using a radio without an antenna.
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  37.  @radiorob7543  , the USA has NERC and FERC. Depending upon where you live, you have an interconnect agency. ERCOT controls Texas. PJM controls the mid-Atlantic states. MISO is the Midwest Independent System Operator, and so on.
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  38. Egregious incidents by law enforcement, such as the recent West Virginia incident, continue to cast doubt on the legitimacy of their actions.
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  39. BlackBerry 2.0?
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  40. When the military studied a Russian fighter plane brought in by a defector, they were astonished to find that the Russians were still using vacuum tubes while we'd switched to transistors. A mild panic set in when they realized that tube gear was impervious to an EMP while transistors were not.
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  41.  @cyanade  It's not the transmission system, it's the frequency bands that it's transmitting on. The original analog system operated on the 800-900 MHz bands. 2G was the first digital system and operated on the 2400 MHz bands. 3G and 4G also operated on 2400 MHz but with greater bandwidth to handle the increased data rates. 5G has two bands: 450 MHz to 6000 MHz. The second is 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. It is this second band whose long-term exposure effects are unknown.
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  42. Like anything else, you make it bigger. More tubes, more power, bigger antennas.
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  43. The Olympics is nothing more than a platform for self-important jocks to express their political views on a world stage. I hope it dies of indifference and soon.
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  44.  @paulsengupta971  50 years ago, there were many CB radios that had a 6 MHz first IF frequency. As (bad) luck would have it, my EICO Sentinel Pro was one of those. Interference from powerful shortwave stations rendered it unusable in the evening. None of the CB shops could fix it, and it was by accident that I discovered the cure: use an antenna tuner. The Demco Satellite is another one.
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  45. Cheese boxes!
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  46. The fact that US scanners are still banned from receiving the long-abandoned analog cell phone band is typical American thinking.
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  47.  @davemould4638 , according to wikipedia's website there are several services that still use the frequencies between 27.405 and 28.000.
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  48. A lot of police departments looking for revenue enhancement!
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  49.  @Beanie1984  they treat rainwater?
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  50.  @MrWhizardsLizard  , on a different thread I posted the names of closed Harley dealers and it got deleted, so I don't know. As far as the rest, the FCC removed two channel 6 users and two guys who were terrorizing CB users and playing music on local ham repeaters and public safety frequencies. What i tried to get you to read was the legal filings in the case. Maybe I'll try to post the docket numbers and see if they delete public records.
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