soemand: (Default)
The shortwave oddity UVB‑76 — The Buzzer — has always thrived on mystery, but nothing delights listeners more than its rare bursts of unexpected audio. When the station suddenly drifted from its trademark buzz into Swan Lake, the internet lit up. Radio enthusiasts weren’t the only ones paying attention. Even finance‑sector analysts, always hunting for unusual geopolitical signals, took notice. In a world where markets react to satellite shadows and shipping noise, a Cold War‑era station playing Tchaikovsky becomes another strange data point worth watching.


soemand: (Default)
Radio Exterior de España on 17,715 kHz is rolling in today with that rare shortwave magic: an S5 signal that sounds absolutely pristine. No flutter, no fade, just clean, steady audio riding the bands like it owns them. Moments like this remind you why tuning the dial never gets old.

Meanwhile, the ionosphere isn’t quite hot enough to pull in the BBC relay from Ascension Island on 17,670 kHz, which is not getting through the noise. Funny how the bands pick their favourites.
soemand: (Default)

My V/UHF ham radio chirp setup.

While I have posted my recipe for naming my channels, in the past thought I’d share how I’ve programmed the channels on my kenwood ht, for the interested.

The kenwood has a group scan feature , where it will only scan the grouping of 100 channels at a time. So channels 0–99 is one group, 100–199 a second group, etc…

So what I’ve done is map the channels based on use. 0–99 is relegated to my hometown, 100–199 to my province, 200–299 to another nearby province.

My hometown channels include all the repeaters I can reach from my desk. There are 8 repeaters, and includes also simplex calling frequencies:

  • Ham 52 – 146.520
  • Ham 55 – 146.550
  • Ham 46 – 446.000

These three calling frequencies all copied into the other groups.

It is pretty simple, then the Provincial group is Provincial Repeaters + Calling etc…

I have placed a ‘skip’ on a few repeater channels that are either noisy, or boring. If you’ve been on the air, you all know about Frank’s gallbladder surgery.

So depending where I am located, I have the “A Band“ of my HT scanning the group that best matches where I am situated. The “B Band“ is my working channel; and I tune by memory to which repeater I wish to talk to.

This way, I’ve managed to have multiple qso(s) per day with the local hams; and keep an ear out to anyone looking to have a quick chat. Previously I would have stayed on just one freq; and missed quite a few folks.

The final group I have is a selection of marine frequencies; {12, 16, 71, 72, 77} that I peek into. The radio can’t transmit on those, but it is nice to listen in every once and a while.

Page generated Jan. 3rd, 2026 02:21 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios