Post by Eleanor White on Feb 20, 2018 21:26:57 GMT -6
Patriots especially, but also members of the public, might benefit from becoming familiar with the ham radio bands and activities, and gain a little experience tuning the single sideband signals which most ham operators use.
Such experience could come in very handy in an emergency.
There are now web pages where those interested can listen to ham operators, and learn SSB tuning, withOUT having to get a receiver. I recommend getting an actual SSB-capable receiver, but if the interest isn't there, these ham radio web pages can be rather interesting.
The conversations can become heated (with language) because now, Trump is president, and this adds some interest for listening.
The best ham radio "listen in" web station I'm currently aware of is this one:
websdr1.utahsdr.org:8901
The station is located in Salt Lake City, and is known as the Northern Utah WebSDR site.
Note: These stations are somewhat experimental and there can be occasional times when they are down and being worked on.
Other stations can be located by a site outlining the web SDR stations in general:
www.websdr.org
I won't attempt to go into detail here, but I will say that like any other unfamiliar electronic gadget, operating these sites to hear ham conversations requires some fiddling with the mouse and/or keyboard. Read the text and experiment. If things get cockeyed try an F5 reload or exit and load fresh again.
These sites have a moving graph called the "waterfall," which shows where the available conversations are happening and how strong the signals are. You can click below in the black frequency "dial" to hear a conversation, and there are fine tuning buttons below to nudge the frequency for optimum clarity. (The waterfall can be click-dragged sideways to adjust the frequency range displayed.)
That's all I'll say here, but I'm confident some Power Hour listeners will find this interesting and convenient.
Anyone interested in learning a little about tuning SSB signals, and also some tips for getting small emergency power set up for shortwave receivers, can read article #5 on my web site here:
www.randomcollection.info
Such experience could come in very handy in an emergency.
There are now web pages where those interested can listen to ham operators, and learn SSB tuning, withOUT having to get a receiver. I recommend getting an actual SSB-capable receiver, but if the interest isn't there, these ham radio web pages can be rather interesting.
The conversations can become heated (with language) because now, Trump is president, and this adds some interest for listening.
The best ham radio "listen in" web station I'm currently aware of is this one:
websdr1.utahsdr.org:8901
The station is located in Salt Lake City, and is known as the Northern Utah WebSDR site.
Note: These stations are somewhat experimental and there can be occasional times when they are down and being worked on.
Other stations can be located by a site outlining the web SDR stations in general:
www.websdr.org
I won't attempt to go into detail here, but I will say that like any other unfamiliar electronic gadget, operating these sites to hear ham conversations requires some fiddling with the mouse and/or keyboard. Read the text and experiment. If things get cockeyed try an F5 reload or exit and load fresh again.
These sites have a moving graph called the "waterfall," which shows where the available conversations are happening and how strong the signals are. You can click below in the black frequency "dial" to hear a conversation, and there are fine tuning buttons below to nudge the frequency for optimum clarity. (The waterfall can be click-dragged sideways to adjust the frequency range displayed.)
That's all I'll say here, but I'm confident some Power Hour listeners will find this interesting and convenient.
Anyone interested in learning a little about tuning SSB signals, and also some tips for getting small emergency power set up for shortwave receivers, can read article #5 on my web site here:
www.randomcollection.info