Hey guys. I was wondering if anyone has ever recieved a dx from a part 15 station? probably highly unlikely but as an avid part 15 opperator i'm curious. thanks all.
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part 15 DX?
- Thread starter austingrace
- Start date
From the files of Believe It or Not!, there's a guy on the HD Radio board, under the topic "FM Power Increase Sought," that claims to have picked up a Part-15 station on 1650 AM for several hours from Texas while in East Central Indiana.
From the files of "Is this a magic frequency", I have been wondering if 1650 could be so clear that I'd retune my 1620 to 1650 to give hippo a chance tonight, but I'll need to hear his recording before I believe this one.
I can't hear mine more than 2 blocks at night, what with Omaha sports-yap 1620. Daytime is Village of Bensenville to west,
Illinois tollway trafffic info to north, both of them about 15 miles, and South Bend 1620 at 85 miles.
My pirate impulses say "use 1710!" but I darest not. On a truly clear frequency, anything can happen.
I can't hear mine more than 2 blocks at night, what with Omaha sports-yap 1620. Daytime is Village of Bensenville to west,
Illinois tollway trafffic info to north, both of them about 15 miles, and South Bend 1620 at 85 miles.
My pirate impulses say "use 1710!" but I darest not. On a truly clear frequency, anything can happen.
What antenna are you using to get 15 miles?
wow. that would be amazing if this was true. the recieving of a texas part 15 in indiana. that would be so crazy.
P
ponderosaAZ
Guest
Tom Wells said:
I've heard it said that some presumably digital car radios can't get 1710. Has anyone else heard this? I would love to put up a part 15 antenna, but can't right now, and 1710 is a clear frequency here and 30kHz away from the next LPAM station in town.
Tom,
What kind of transmitter & antenna do you use?.
I have an Stran 3000. I'm considering the antenna that they recommend I just don't have a good place to put it. I have limited space.
What kind of transmitter & antenna do you use?.
I have an Stran 3000. I'm considering the antenna that they recommend I just don't have a good place to put it. I have limited space.
Homebrew, tube-type with 6V6 in Colpitts oscillator, feeding to a modulator with 3 6SN7s for audio, the last one mixing
audio and RF injection on the same grid, then a 6D6 voltage amp for the 100 mw output.
Antenna is a sort of leaky-coax arrangement since I have a tiny city lot and have no space to put up a proper ground-mounted
3 meter stick with radials.
audio and RF injection on the same grid, then a 6D6 voltage amp for the 100 mw output.
Antenna is a sort of leaky-coax arrangement since I have a tiny city lot and have no space to put up a proper ground-mounted
3 meter stick with radials.
I have a similar antenna with space restrictions also.
wow. that is crazy...
if anyone is wondering what i use for broadcasting here it goes.
I have a 20 dollar radio kit from 5 years ago you could buy at toys r us. it's called a wild plannet radio dj. they do not make it anymore witch sucks.. but i may get a ramzy kit one day or something... oh yeah, it uses 1610 am. so if you hear some rock music or something on 1610 am it's prob me if it is eskip... just had to throw that in. i do all kinds of stuff on that 1610 am. anything from music to talk to prank phone calls... ok maybe not that but it was fun to say.
anyway on the fm side i use an itrip fm transmitter on my ipod classic 80 gb model. i also use a mobile blackbox v6000 fm transmitter. I have an antenna for the fm transmitter and the antenna for 1610 am in my window. the antennas are not long though.
so that is what i use for broadcasting. prob poor man's stuff to you guys but what can i say? i am a college student.
if anyone is wondering what i use for broadcasting here it goes.
I have a 20 dollar radio kit from 5 years ago you could buy at toys r us. it's called a wild plannet radio dj. they do not make it anymore witch sucks.. but i may get a ramzy kit one day or something... oh yeah, it uses 1610 am. so if you hear some rock music or something on 1610 am it's prob me if it is eskip... just had to throw that in. i do all kinds of stuff on that 1610 am. anything from music to talk to prank phone calls... ok maybe not that but it was fun to say.
anyway on the fm side i use an itrip fm transmitter on my ipod classic 80 gb model. i also use a mobile blackbox v6000 fm transmitter. I have an antenna for the fm transmitter and the antenna for 1610 am in my window. the antennas are not long though.
so that is what i use for broadcasting. prob poor man's stuff to you guys but what can i say? i am a college student.
I guess any unusual reception of a low power device would constitute DX, since anything beyond the 1-2 blocks most part 15 devices can radiate would be "DX"-distance!
I got reception of my old part 15 Ramsey kit from a point 3.05 miles from the transmitter a few times. Now, I didn't build the TX so I cannot say if it was built to the US or UK specs, but I am sure the homebrewed nondirectional antenna, mounted 12' off the ground, indoors, took care of any chance of breaking the rules.
The reception point? On a hilltop, about 200' above the transmitter site, 3.05 miles away. Reception was just barely perceptable for a 200-300' path along the hilltop.
It may not've been skip or tropo, but it was still a lot further than the thing was meant to get!
I got reception of my old part 15 Ramsey kit from a point 3.05 miles from the transmitter a few times. Now, I didn't build the TX so I cannot say if it was built to the US or UK specs, but I am sure the homebrewed nondirectional antenna, mounted 12' off the ground, indoors, took care of any chance of breaking the rules.
The reception point? On a hilltop, about 200' above the transmitter site, 3.05 miles away. Reception was just barely perceptable for a 200-300' path along the hilltop.
It may not've been skip or tropo, but it was still a lot further than the thing was meant to get!
P
ponderosaAZ
Guest
austingrace said:
your antenna is indoors, how much range do you get? Is it grounded indoors? I would like to put one indoors and I'm 60 feet in elevation above the average elevation of a town on 250mA (million years mA is geologic talk) limestone, excellent ground conductivity. Would I get at least a mile to a mile and a half? I would cover 20,000 people. I'm new to lpam and don't want to invest in an expensive grounded outdoor setup until I try with the cheapest stuff I can. I have hundreds of pages of part 15 AM engineering info from the great Kyle Hojem and others to read but why not have a cheap set-up while reading from the experts and making an informed decision before spending $2,000? It would be nice to make a few extra bucks interviewing acquaintances for infomercials for the 20,000 persons. Thanks for any info anyone might have on indoor AM antennas!
W
wkbam1690
Guest
austingrace said:
There used to be a community of hams who used part 15 equipment on the 160-190 kHz band (1 watt into a 50 ft. antenna) and medium wave (our familiar 100 milliwatts into 10 ft. antennas). They were called "lowfers" (low frequency) and "medfers" (medium frequency). I remember reading about beacons in the expanded band (1610-1700 kHz) which often were received at distances of several hundred miles. Keep in mind these were beacons running slow speed code. There were even some books published on the subject with transmitter and antenna plans.
austingrace said:
I have one of those myself! In fact, I learned about it on the Community Radio board right here on Radio-Info back in 2002 and subsequently bought one from Amazon.com. From April of 2003 until August of 2005, I used it to operate a gold-based soft AC formatted part 15 AM station (back when I lived in Houston.) My signal usually got out about half a block from my apartment building in each direction. Although, one time I tested it, and in one spot along the main road that ran behind my apartment, about two blocks away from the side street that ran by the building, I could actually hear my station! I guess that could count as DX, since my station could not normally be heard that far away.
Since moving to Rockford, IL, I've "field tested" my WPRDJ a few times, but never really got around to starting my station up again. However, since adjacent channel WMCW 1600 out of Harvard went off the air, I was quite surprised as to how much farther out I could still hear my WPRDJ's signal, now being on a third floor apartment (as opposed to being on a ground floor apartment, as was the case back in Houston.)
Griffin makes some pretty good transmitters, I use the transmitter module from a Griffin Road Trip, velcroed to the wall 7 ft up and get great coverage of almost the whole building at work. I had this same transmitter on the 12th floor balcony when I went to the beach this year, and I was able to pick it up half a mile down the beach.austingrace said:
Some of these posts remind me of a three-mile contact I made on a 500 mW FRS (not GMRS) radio with my friend back when we were 14 and I rode my bike about three miles south of his house up a 100' hill (not that much). There have been much more impressive contacts made, but that was pretty exciting at the time.
I would say that any reception of a real Part 15 transmitter (especially FM) beyond a few blocks would constitute DX. And for via tropo or E-Skip, I would forget about it - virtually no chance with (1) such low power, (2) all the other competing stations out there today. However, some people do operate "lowfer" stations with very low power around 180 kHz and they sometimes really get out. As somebody mentioned, these transmitters generally do not send voice, but coded transmissions useful only for identifying the station - DX'ing at its purest.
I would say that any reception of a real Part 15 transmitter (especially FM) beyond a few blocks would constitute DX. And for via tropo or E-Skip, I would forget about it - virtually no chance with (1) such low power, (2) all the other competing stations out there today. However, some people do operate "lowfer" stations with very low power around 180 kHz and they sometimes really get out. As somebody mentioned, these transmitters generally do not send voice, but coded transmissions useful only for identifying the station - DX'ing at its purest.
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