Large Scale Central

Ham Radio / Short Wave Listening / Signals Intercept

Other Hobbies
#1

I’ve been a licensed ham since 1963; my Novice Class license arrived the same week as the Kennedy Assasination.

Don’t get on the air a whole lot these days, but still got antennas up and a couple of transmitters ready to go (1950s vintage Globe King 500 and a Johnson Valiant).

Mostly work 160 meter AM and CW.

Over the years, I’ve held the callsigns WN9LGD, WA9QMB, K9TA, and I’m currently W9LBB.

Mymain thing these days is so-called “Premium Receivers”… gear that was built and used for the ultimate in sensitivity, selectivity and stability intended for military and intelligence agency signal interception and intelligence gathering. I’m especially into Racal and Watkins Johnson equipment, mated to microprocessor equipment for decoding digital text transmissions.

I’m sort of a Spy Buff, but I have NO illusions about code breaking; rather, I concentrate on “Traffic analysis” intercepts. That’s all about keeping track of WHO is transmitting coded messages, WHEN they do it, and looking for CHANGES from routine patterns… as well as keeping track of intended recipients when they can be determined.

Off and on I keep track of the transmission schedules of “The Lincolnshire Poacher” (a station allegedly operated by British Intelligence on Cyprus), the routine MOSAD transmissions from Israel, and Cuban “Spy Counter” transmissions (there’sa TON of those on short wave).

I’m also into exploring low frequency / Long Wave/ VLF transmissions, especially natural radio emissions in that frequency range.

Mr. T.

#2

Hi Tom -

I’m a ham, currently W1KBW formerly KA1RLX. Haven’t warmed up a tube or a transistor in several years, but still have some gear hooked up. I was heavily into LEO satellite and just before RS-10 burned up I was getting pretty good at working western Europe while the bird was on the horizon for both of us. Unfortunately I don’t have the gear to work the modern birds, nor the budget to buy in.

Interesting about your listening. Thanks for sharing.

73 :slight_smile:

#3

I still hold N3XGE as my station call sign. I haven’t bothered to upgrade and forgot most of my CW. I still have a 50 MHz rig and a 2m/440 in the truck. The air is dead lately when I do turn it on.

I enjoyed the hobby. I wanted to learn CW but I sucked so bad I just stopped embarrassing myself.

Your QSO’s sound fun!

#4

oh,my…you guys shouldn’t…this radio thing is an itch that I can’t scratch

#5

We are about the same as others here. We let our lic. go after getting a divorce in 1970. We started a new life and sold most of my equip. at that time. Was hard to move a BC-610-J TX that i changed over to pi net. … and BC-348 rec. Boy kind of miss hearing my voice coming thru that 100TH final runing 1,000 watts. Plus, i also had a Viking 100 to that i got later on from Allied Radio that i love for easy operation to change freq. I just verily got thu the test on getting 60 words per min. in 1950 to pass my novice lic. but made it and went for my Class A as soon as i could. Mic. was the only way to go. Kind of wish i had a set of beams like others had tho… I ran 40 and 75 meter with an inverted “V” home made ant. Being fixed, worked great going West or East.

Anyway kind of miss my Gen. Lic " K6WGZ "( also held my Lic for our Cal Nat. guard unit here when i joined in Sacramento after svc. as AA6WGZ for a couple of years. ) some times, but things have changed so much during a Divorce I went thru in the late 1960’s. Now on new life we have our Internet broadcast and able to chat with computers now.

Tk’s for the post to an old guy going back in the past like some of you did. Ya… we do miss it sometimes… But, Hey… We have some big trains now… laf. Noel

#6

I gained my Ham licence in 1983. Most years were VHF/UHF operation. Alterations to the UK licencing schedule some years ago allowed access to the HF bands.

Railroading, model and 1:1 scales, have taken over to a fair degree but I still use HF for UK nets and I like chasing islands, lighthouses and other special event stations.

I use Echolink twice a day to speak with Ham friends in Wisconsin. Incidentally, using Echolink, you can join a train* net at 20.00 Central Time on the K9QLP repeater in Cedarburg WI. Its not a good time for me, however, as I am usually fast asleep at 01.00 UTC.

  • 1:1 trains are discussed I believe but there are probably modelers there as well, maybe just listening.
#7

W1TUW … legacy call sign from my late uncle, who had it from the 30’s.

I’m a little short on gear just now … most of the connecting I’ve done of late is over Echolink (which is, at least, free!) … someday I’ll put the 2m back in the truck. Did some weather stuff with a friend in Indiana … out spotting in the middle of the night was interesting! (and yeah, I took the classes too.)

I talk on the radio all day for my job, so I tend to need a little different motivation to get on the air “for fun…” so I’m pleased to see it discussed here!

Matthew (OV)

#8

Stumbled over this link on Spaceblog…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73EYcyszf8[/youtube]

Space Station Crew Uses HAM Radio to Call Earth

as noted, the HAM part starts about 10:30 seconds into the clip.

#9

For the fist time in many years I fired up the receiver of my ancient Yeasu HF rig a few days ago and clipped the center of my coax to a 12 foot chunk of bare wire running across the basement ceiling. I was amazed at the DX I was able to pull in on 15 Meters and above. This kind of re-kindled my long dormant interest in HF DX.

I haven’t tracked the sun activity in years, so I just went and looked it up. Seems that we are currently just in teh beginning of the up-turn in solar activity with the peak expected around 2013. It won’t be as good as it was in 2000, but I might have a shot at finishing my all 10 Meter DXCC.

I wonder if I can actually remember how to tune the finals on that rig :smiley:

#10

Stop that! I don’t need to be buying replacement gear for the stuff I sold years ago!

#11

I’ve got a basement full of ham gear… 220MHz FM, 144Mhz SSB/FM, A 10/15/20/40/80/160M HF Rig and a bunch of old Motorola cop radios that I re-tuned to 144Mhz when I had access to a scope. What do you need :smiley:

#12

Wouldn’t happen to have a couple of headsets for the old Motorola radios, would you?

#13

I could go for a nice smoked Virginia HAM about now…:slight_smile: :slight_smile:

#14

That sounds pretty darn good John!

#15

Oh crap. Now I have to pick up my Kenwood TS unit and swap the Kenwood power supply out of my railroad for the smaller Astron. I now have a 30 foot long 10 inch tall mast .Of course I will have to spin my antenna 90 degrees.

#16
Bob McCown said:
Wouldn't happen to have a couple of headsets for the old Motorola radios, would you?
No - Now that I remember, they are GE, not Motorola. They were hand-held mic sete-ups. The kind with the electronics in the trunk with a small head in the passenger compartment. I think I only have one head, but three of the MastrExec transciervers.

At one time I had a Telex headset from something - perhaps a theater intercom system. but I have no idea where that is.

#17

I have extra keys and paddles

#18
David Hill said:
I have extra keys and paddles
Sounds kinky :D
#19

LOL!
:slight_smile:

#20

LOL!!