Part15

License Free, legal, low-power radio broadcasting

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  1. More More
    That was great and I agree with the description “almost musical”.

    What could it ever be?

    How could so many sendings at slightly different audio pitches combine together?

    I will be watching this thread with great interest to hear the opinions as they roll in.

  2. I know what it is…
    It’s just a whole lot of amateur
    radio operators all over the place
    trying to make contact with a “DX”
    station. They are all on slightly
    different frequencies, so the pitches
    are all slightly different.

    I caught bits of ham radio callsigns
    when I was listening to the recording.
    There was one “K0” station that kept
    coming up over and over. (So that’s
    a U.S. station whole callsign starts with
    K, and his callsign has the number zero in
    it.) Most of the good DX can be found on
    the low end of the ham bands, and even though
    most people in the world aren’t using Morse
    code, it is still very much alive in ham radio.
    I’m not into this sort of thing, but I have to
    respect these operators. Their code is FAST, and
    to me that’s really something. My Morse code skills
    are not good, I am very very slow. I talked to a
    guy every Friday night for a couple of years with
    the code. We used old tube ham radio equipment, and
    it was really fun.

    The reason they are all down on 7016 kHz is because
    most of the DX stations are there – as I said – and in many
    countries – the 40 meter ham band only goes up to
    7100 kHz. Here in the U.S., our allocation goes up
    to 7300. Also, like texting, the Morse code has
    abbreviations that are known internationally, so
    you can “talk” to a guy whose language you don’t
    know, and if he doesn’t know our language – it doesn’t
    matter.

    Two more things – this thing you heard is known as a
    “DX pile up.” The other thing is – a lot of this
    code could have been generated by computers – i.e, –
    the repetitious call signs that are sent over and over –
    but – when it comes to receiving – you have to have
    really good ears. A computer will not hack it. You
    really have to know what you are doing.

    I love the code because it reminds me of when I was first
    licensed as a ham in 1971. It make me feel young.

    There has not been any time to get on my ham station
    lately.

    That was a great recording!

    Best Wishes,
    Bruce

    • Multi-Station Reception
      Fully agree with Bruce. Sounds just like a reception of various CW stations on close and same frequency, propagation effects and wide-band receiver setting.

      Only thing weird is the assumption about it being some kind of warning message.

      I think some fresh air might help. :p

      RFB

  3. yay
    Thanks for your replies. Helps clear lots of things up. I just though the whole thing was so beautiful sounding.

    That was the first time in a while I had such good reception inside my apartment on the Grundig.

  5. 1971 Morse Code Ham Radio
    It DOES sound really cool,
    doesn’t it? It’s a great sound!

    Back in 1971, when I started out
    in ham radio, there were frequencies
    set aside for people with the first
    level of ham license – which was
    called the NOVICE license. You were
    only permitted to operate Morse Code.

    The Novice frequencies were jammed
    with Morse signals. All sorts of
    conversations were on top of each other.
    The trick was to listen to the pitch
    of the station you were talking to.
    Your ears got to be really good.

    Morse code was still being used in
    other radio services, so we all felt
    like we were running “BIG TIME” communications
    set-ups.

    A lot of the equipment (well – transmitters
    anyway) – was home made.

    Mostly everybody was using old used vacuum tube
    equipment. We had to keep operating logs.
    Even if we sent out a general call, and
    nobody answered – well, that had to be logged
    too – just as a transmission that was made.
    You would put the time and frequency into
    the operating log, and then make the
    notation of, “no answer.”

    They were great days. Most of the young
    people then (and there were tons of them,)
    were looking to go into engineering or
    electronics. What a great way to learn!

    My first transmitter was a Johnson Viking
    Challenger, which could run 120 watts DC
    input. It was made in 1956, so it was
    17 years old when I got it. I was really
    really scared of it, because sometimes it
    would arc on the inside. It always thought
    it was going to blow up. One day I turned
    it on and the final tubes shorted (6DQ6s).
    I’m so glad the transmitter had a fuse,
    or my ham station would have been blown
    sky high!

    The receiver was a Heathkit HR-10B. Probably
    one of the coolest looking receivers. Also,
    one of the worst designed rigs and most difficult
    to use. The BFO injection was very poor,
    so all code signals sounded raspy. If you
    replaced the BFO tube – which was a 6EA8,
    the BFO would run clean for a couple of
    months, and then something would go wrong
    with the tube and you would be back where
    you started. Either somebody built the
    radio incorrectly, or it was just a bad
    design.

    Also, for a radio with tons of vacuum
    tubes, it DID NOT have any regulator
    tube. I had replaced the 6X4 rectifier,
    thinking that would do some good, but
    to no avail. That radio drifted all over
    the place. I was always retuning, as
    different appliances were being turned
    on and off in my parent’s house. Not
    to mention, the cycling of the furnace
    and the kitchen fridge.

    But I love the HR-10B for what it is.
    It hears the AM ham stations really
    well. So I have one. (Another one,
    not the original.)

    Those were very interesting days.

    Bruce, First ham radio callsign
    issued DEC. 7, 1971 (30 years after
    Pearl Harbor) was: WN1POI

    P.S. I’ll have to listen to that
    recording again.

    • Drawback
      “We had to keep operating logs. Even if we sent out a general call, and nobody answered – well, that had to be logged too – just as a transmission that was made. You would put the time and frequency into the operating log, and then make the notation of, “no answer.”

      Back in the day when the concern for trees wasn’t a concern. It was a time of waste, a time of unnecessary burden, a time of spending more time stroking a pen than hitting the key.

      It was one of many things that was totally useless. Somewhere in someone’s basement are decades of these log books which would make excellent fireplace kindling. Or bird cage lining.

      RFB

      • My Rich Friends
        My rich friend Pudge Gentry Snooter lines her bird cage with gift paper from Nieman-Marcus.

        My other rich friend, Preppy Pruneface, has some of those paper dresses from the 1950s. Did you know that attempts were made to make paper clothing popular?

        I even remember one dress that had wires and a radio built in. Oh, wait, that was in a Stan Freberg bit for the Radio Advertising Bureau.

        • “Friends”
          Sorry that you have only two rich friends.

          Hope you might discover/recognize a rich friend or two with a more useful technical background than those of the “friends” you posted.

          • Tuff Talk
            If somebody uses me, I know what to do.

            I’ll use somebody else.

            I’m not sure what that would amount to, but tuff talk happens before thinking things over.

            Relating it to part 15, there’s the real problem.

          • CW
            That recording did not sound unusual to me. The 40 meter CW band can be, and often is, like this. It is likely that some of the stations transmitting don’t hear the others and think the frequency is clear. This is due to the propagation on 40 where sometimes signals skip and come to earth at 400 to 600 mile intervals.

            I am rusty on CW but there is a station calling CQ and another where just the call sign W8IQ is repeated every few seconds. This might be a beacon because usually a station calling or trying to break into a net will end the call with a K which indicates they are listening, same as “over” on voice.

            Now for the boring part. While trying to get my code up to 20 WPM I listened a lot on the low bands and became accustomed to copying with background noise and the ear and brain has an amazing filtering ability in this regard. It paid off when I sat for the CW test administered by the FCC. It was held at a motel in one of those conference rooms with the soft divider wall and the test was played on a tape recorder and speaker and not with headphones as was done at the field offices. Just as they began the test with the code tape a dance band began rehearsing on the other side of the divider but I had no problem with my copy. There were about 15 taking the test and only two of us passed and the other fellow also had a lot of over the air practice. Some asked if they could restart the test but the FCC examiner told us that there is only one chance at the test and once it starts that is it. He acknowledged that the band was a problem but he had to follow the rules.

            Neil

          • Code Memories
            Many people remember the dance bands of their youth, but I remember code school at Fort Ord, California, where my Army request to be to be attached to a radio assignment was that infantry code training.

            I had submitted a researched paper with my application listing hundreds of military broadcast and recording installations throughout the world, but their response was a huge disappointment, for which reason I became annoyed by the tone of the code signal and tried to avoid their junk ear-phones most of the time.

            Today I know almost no code as a result. It did not come into my life in the romantic way that HAMs remember.

          • Great Stories! Also
            My Mother had a paper dress.

            But it was in the late 1960s
            or early 1970s.

            And it sure didn’t look like paper.

            Bruce, SLUG 88.3