Coming back to SWL'ing, I might have one or two questions

arybvtcw0eolkf

Background first, I come from an army/navy signals background and operated primarily CW for many of those years (before we went over to data like ARQ, FEC etc, although RTTY was long in use).

I got licensed sometime in the early 90's and operated mostly CW on 20 and 30m (EI was a rarity on 30m back then).. Then of course the kids came along and I was getting pushed out of my man cave and into tighter and tighter corners of the house.

The a new house purchased happened and I was told in no uncertain terms that I wasn't going to be allowed mount my antenna's & so the gear was sold, a Yeasu FT1000, Yeasu FT902DM (which I adored) and my JRC NRD 545 receiver, I was always kicking myself I sold the receiver.

When I wasn't on 20 and 30m CW I was SWL'ing, mostly commercial radio stations and aeronautical HF.

So that's my background, tbh I'm not interested in becoming licensed again (I don't even know the process involved if I wanted to).

I like being portable, I really don't want a desktop receiver so I'm looking at a Tecsun PL-660

My real question is HF aeronautical transmissions, are they still a thing?, a google search really didn't give me much information, and is SW DX still worth chasing?, I'd imagine the vast majority of commercial stations have gone silent but I also enjoyed winter late night MW DX, I guess that will always be a thing.

Popoutman

There's certainly still aero HF to be heard, mate of mine is an ATC in Shannon, and definitely still uses the HF sets for those out of range of VHF.

Of course, the volume of traffic transatlantic is ~20% of what it was 3 months ago with Covid travel reductions, but there are still planes flying out there. That number is directly from my ADSB listener setup in Limerick. Start of March I'd see 25-30 planes concurrently during the morning rush hours, and that's down to maybe 5 at most these days.

Feel free as well to utilise the KiwiSDR network of SW internet-capable radios, log on and listen away, though a lot of KiwiSDRs have either less than stellar antennas or very noisy neighbourhoods. Mad_Lad's two Kiwis have lovely low noise floors and have decent signal strengths. His are at http://emeraldsdr1.ddns.net:8073/ and http://emeraldsdr1.ddns.net:8074/
My own Kiwi is also on the net at http://78.137.172.198:8073 but there's a neighbour with a terribly loud Ethernet-over-Powerline setup that has killed anything outside the amateur bands for me.

Note as well that there's decent hardware out there for portable HF usage - see the likes of the Yaesu FT-818 for under a kilo all-in including the supplied battery, as an example. Also plenty of decent antennas as well. If you live in an RF-quiet area a powered miniwhip antenna will work really well, and there are fairly cheap loop antennas out there. Check out the AAA-1c kit from https://active-antenna.eu/ - I built up one of these and it's performing well in an attic in a city apartment.

arybvtcw0eolkf

I actually had considered something like an FT 818 QRP rig, but I'd be tempted to go after my licence again lol.

I had the use of an Index Labs QRP radio a good few years back, I think it was a 5 watt transceiver and great fun, brilliant fun in fact.

I'll have a look at your other suggestions there, thanks for the reply.

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

I actually had considered something like an FT 818 QRP rig, but I'd be tempted to go after my licence again lol.

I had the use of an Index Labs QRP radio a good few years back, I think it was a 5 watt transceiver and great fun, brilliant fun in fact.

I'll have a look at your other suggestions there, thanks for the reply.

I recently got the PL-680 which is a newer version of the 660, the 660/680 is a terrific receiver with good quiet nice analogue sound with no digital filtering. Get it here https://www.anon-co.com/

The 680 has miles better LW/MW performance so you might as well get this. The PL-660 is practically deaf on LW/MW but it's a great performer on SW.

Stay away from the Tecsun PL-880 and S-8800 and most DSP radios of that type, while they have better filtering they have a dreadful harsh sounding audio on SSB that will make listening to aeronautical traffic very fatiguing. They are ok on AM but SSB is a no no they really messed up those radios.

In crowded bands the lack of filtering is obvious on the ham bands with lots of stations close by. There is only wide and narrow.

Listening to shortwave is great though because if there are stations close by either side you can just switch to SSB and zero beat the signal, that is, turn the BFO until the sound becomes natural sounding but switching to LSB or USB can eliminate entirely the interfering signal, you can't do this on the PL-880 or S-8800 because they sound so bad on SSB.

Tecsun have 2 or 3 new radios coming out maybe by the end of the year and we'll see what their performance is like on SSB, one neat feature is that an external antenna greatly improves MW reception, most portable radios with external antenna inputs don't work on MW or LW.

The filtering on the 880 and S-8800 is better but on SSB the sound is so bad with terrible distorted bursts of Audio at strong peaks in signal and it will drive you nuts. Not so noticeable with the telescopic whip of course so most youtube videos won't highlight this bad sound on SSB but I can assure you it's bad.

Antenna wise, a really superb antenna that matches these portable radios wonderfully is the Bonito MA305 which has been replaced by Ma 305FT

https://www.bonito.net/hamradio/en/megactiv-ma305ft-wideband-active-antenna/

The Antenna is bloody tiny, around 7 inchs long, how they managed it I do not know but it blows me away each time I use it. You see, if you connect an antenna with too much gain, too much pre amp or a big long wire antenna it will over load these radios and wipe out most of the signals or produce spurious signals throughout the shortwave spectrum, so you could be receiving a very strong SW signal such as Radio Romania International in many places it's not transmitting, that's just one example or you might hear very little at all in an overload situation especially at night.

The Ma305 is just the right amount of signal and you can use the attenuation switch on the radio if things get a little hot.

Your greatest enemy today is of course RFI from electronic devices which can wipe out most of the weaker signals.

If you are in an estate and the neighbour next door has a bad led light bulb or iphone charger she got from China on Ebay it can kill your reception. This can be rectified though if you can prove where the interference is coming from, COMREG will assist you with this as the LED bulb and Iphone charger should not be interfering with the radio spectrum which is protected by E.U and international law. They can be made replace these defective devices or some goodwill if it's not too expensive offer to replace them yourself, the difference can be night and day.

Do you have to sit the exam again to get your license ? shame you let it expire. But do definitely get it back because it's a wonderful Hobby.

Unless planning to get your license back I wouldn't bother buying a ham transceiver, the PL-680 will be all you need, spend more on the antenna, a radio is only as good as the antenna. I have my Bonito Ma305 installed about 20 feet high cable tied to the branch of a Birch tree, I have the coax grounded at the base of the tree, this is essential to reduce static.

If you do get your license and intend working portable then get the Yaesu FT-891 it's a a very compact 100 Watt radio which you can transmit at 5 or 20, 40 or 100 watts, with a 5 watt radio you're stuck at 5 watts which isn't really terrible if operating CW or digital. You can go portable with some ham sticks for the bands you want, use mag mount on the car or use a portable antenna such as the Super Antenna MP1, I have this and it gets out very well on 100 watts, later you could add the MFJ-1979 whip to make it more efficient.

In noisy environment at home you can use PSK31, RTTY , JS8 Call is a new digital mode which can work at -20 db signal, amazing. They will allow you use keyboard to keyboard chat and I do like PSK31.

And don't let anyone tell you you can't install an antenna, it's your House too. Put up a tower if you want, you only live once might as well do something you enjoy.

I have a 40 meter long myantennas.com EFHW-8010 installed and you'd hardly notice it in the air. If space is tight mount it UNUN near ground, ground it there and put the wire as inverted L, going up straight as much as you can then across and across to something else, Very effective antenna when mounter right and high.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Cheers, I won't quote your whole reply if you don't mind.

I had the 880, and like you said, it was dreadful on SSB. It dead a death, and went I went looking for other's with similar problems, with the hope of a fix, it seems a common problem. ie LW/MW & SW die but the radio still works on FM and there are no fixes, it went into the bin.

Regards the licence, if I had to sit a test again I simply wouldn't be bothered as I've no motivation to go active again. At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging (I'm honestly not) but I've worked just about anything that I wanted to, and I know there must be lots of new countries and awards added in the years I've been off I've no motivation to go after them. Like I said earlier, when I sold my gear the only radio I regretted selling was the JRC NRD 545.

I'm still in the job so I still get to play with nice things

I'll certainly look at the 680 a little closer, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information out there compared to the 660. Its interesting, and a little disappointing to hear that the 660 is deaf on LW & MW, that would definitely be a deciding factor for me because I love MW DX (I've a little PL380 at the moment).

You might wonder why I've go from the likes of an FT1000, a triband yagi etc to small portables, but I find them fun. I'm still in the job, I travel a lot and like to have something very portable which I can't throw into my back and just scan the bands, particularly at night.

Thanks again for the info, and I'll defo check out those links later. I'll let you know how I'm getting along with my decision on which radio to go for, but a deaf MW on the 660 would drive me away from it.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Deleted User wrote: »

I recently got the PL-680 which is a newer version of the 660, the 660/680 is a terrific receiver with good quiet nice analogue sound with no digital filtering. Get it here https://www.anon-co.com/

Just had to come back and quote this.

This site is an incredible saving over Amazon or Ebay, its looking like a PL-680 now, thanks

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

Cheers, I won't quote your whole reply if you don't mind.

I had the 880, and like you said, it was dreadful on SSB. It dead a death, and went I went looking for other's with similar problems, with the hope of a fix, it seems a common problem. ie LW/MW & SW die but the radio still works on FM and there are no fixes, it went into the bin.

Regards the licence, if I had to sit a test again I simply wouldn't be bothered as I've no motivation to go active again. At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging (I'm honestly not) but I've worked just about anything that I wanted to, and I know there must be lots of new countries and awards added in the years I've been off I've no motivation to go after them. Like I said earlier, when I sold my gear the only radio I regretted selling was the JRC NRD 545.

I'm still in the job so I still get to play with nice things

I'll certainly look at the 680 a little closer, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information out there compared to the 660. Its interesting, and a little disappointing to hear that the 660 is deaf on LW & MW, that would definitely be a deciding factor for me because I love MW DX (I've a little PL380 at the moment).

You might wonder why I've go from the likes of an FT1000, a triband yagi etc to small portables, but I find them fun. I'm still in the job, I travel a lot and like to have something very portable which I can't throw into my back and just scan the bands, particularly at night.

Thanks again for the info, and I'll defo check out those links later. I'll let you know how I'm getting along with my decision on which radio to go for, but a deaf MW on the 660 would drive me away from it.

If you travel a lot and are staying in BnB's Hotels etc then you might be very disappointing with reception on all the bands due to the plague of switch mode power supplies which are in everything these days from LED bulbs to phone chargers.

You might be better off using a loop antenna in a hotel window such as the Bonito Megaloop FX, another great antenna, it's a wire loop so dead easy to pack up in a bag and a great antenna to have at home too, but the MegaDipol has the edge for DX.

I don't contest or chase continents etc, I just like the buzz of using the radio and having the odd ragchew. Using different equipment etc.

I'm just did some googling and I think you can apply for another license without having to resit the exam, makes sense. Worth a try, better to have it than want it.

Do you have an interest in SDR by any chance ?

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

Just had to come back and quote this.

This site is an incredible saving over Amazon or Ebay, its looking like a PL-680 now, thanks

Cool, yes, it's a good little radio, I do like it a lot. I had to retire my PL-660, I gave it some abuse over the years, that's the reason I got the 680.

I highly recommend the Bonito Ma305 or the newer version, it's a great match for the Radio, some good quality coax, H155, very well shielded and a good ground rod for permanent installation. It's a good antenna to use with SDR such as the SDR Play, Airspy HF+ too.

Of course you can just throw 30 feet of wire in a tree and wrap it around the telescopic antenna, it might pick up a lot of noise though.

Remember, the Pl-680 and most portable radios LW/MW reception will not improve at all with external antenna but you can use a loop antenna which will couple to the internal antenna, the Tecsun AN-200 is decent MW only antenna and may surprise you.

With an SDR of course the external antenna will greatly improve LW/MW reception, again, the Bonito is a great LW/MW antenna for all bands.

I have recently got an old but one of the best ever radios, the Sony, ICF-2001D radio, it works fantastic with the Bonito MA305 + the external antenna jack works with LW/MW and it makes a huge difference, it's a great radio and the way every radio should be.

Seemingly the new Tecsun radios will have the external antenna socket work with at least MW.

dxhound2005

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

Just had to come back and quote this.

This site is an incredible saving over Amazon or Ebay, its looking like a PL-680 now, thanks

They are in Hong Kong so watch out for possible import charges, as per the information on the link.

https://www.anon-co.com/page/payment-shipping

dxhound2005

dxhound2005 wrote: »

They are in Hong Kong so watch out for possible import charges, as per the information on the link.

https://www.anon-co.com/page/payment-shipping

There could be charges, but I've never got charged by customs with delivery from them.

I got the PL-680 radio just a couple of months ago, no charges, other items throughout the years, no charges. But on a cheap radio it wouldn't be much anyway.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Popoutman wrote: »

Feel free as well to utilise the KiwiSDR network of SW internet-capable radios, log on and listen away, though a lot of KiwiSDRs have either less than stellar antennas or very noisy neighbourhoods. Mad_Lad's two Kiwis have lovely low noise floors and have decent signal strengths. His are at http://emeraldsdr1.ddns.net:8073/ and http://emeraldsdr1.ddns.net:8074/
My own Kiwi is also on the net at http://78.137.172.198:8073

Unfortunately the first two links aren't working but I'm having fun on 20 & 30m CW on your one. All that CW is whetting my appetite, unfortunately we don't use it in work anymore

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

Unfortunately the first two links aren't working but I'm having fun on 20 & 30m CW on your one. All that CW is whetting my appetite, unfortunately we don't use it in work anymore

No, my Kiwis are down because three.ie have blocked the ports, scum.

I'll try the apn settings as was suggested to me earlier.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Deleted User wrote: »

No, my Kiwis are down because three.ie have blocked the ports, scum.

I'll try the apn settings as was suggested to me earlier.

No bother. I'll play around with a few others, like I said all this CW is whetting my appetite, this could get expensive again lol

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

No bother. I'll play around with a few others, like I said all this CW is whetting my appetite, this could get expensive again lol

Yes, no stopping you now, you may as well get the new license, see if COMREG will give you a new one, it only takes a phone call.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes, no stopping you now, you may as well get the new license, see if COMREG will give you a new one, it only takes a phone call.

LOL, feck off

I love CW and its always funny if a young person hears I can read morse and ask 'is that the stuff you hear on the old war movies' lol.

Tbh when I was licensed I don't think I ever had a microphone connected to a radio except maybe my 2mtr, and maybe not even that one because that was mostly used for packet radio and a DX cluster (I've no idea if those things are even around anymore, I doubt the DX Cluster is, or if it is it's online).

Am I sounding like an old fart?.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Just checked Comreg and found this;

4.3 Licence Duration
Amateur Station Licences, with the exception of temporary assignments, are issued for
the lifetime of the licensee. In accordance with the Regulations, all ‘lifetime’ licensees
are required to confirm to ComReg, in writing, each and every 5 years that their licence details are still correct.

Interesting, I might give 'em a ring.

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

Just checked Comreg and found this;

Interesting, I might give 'em a ring.

Ham radio is a Hobby for life and a great one, go get your new Call and get on the air.

You'll never let your license expire again.

Popoutman

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

Unfortunately the first two links aren't working but I'm having fun on 20 & 30m CW on your one. All that CW is whetting my appetite, unfortunately we don't use it in work anymore

Glad I could be of service! Enjoy!

There's also a CW decoder in the plugins, that can do a half-decent job with a clean signal.

I'm very slowly learning Morse, mostly to be able to identify NDB stations. I find it fairly fascinating to pick up signals from navigation beacons thousands of km away - my current distance record is hearing OZN which is 2250km away in Prins Christian Sund, Greenland.

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket

Adrian Hallowed Sprocket wrote: »

LOL, feck off

I love CW and its always funny if a young person hears I can read morse and ask 'is that the stuff you hear on the old war movies' lol.

Tbh when I was licensed I don't think I ever had a microphone connected to a radio except maybe my 2mtr, and maybe not even that one because that was mostly used for packet radio and a DX cluster (I've no idea if those things are even around anymore, I doubt the DX Cluster is, or if it is it's online).

Am I sounding like an old fart?.

No not at all.

I'd love to learn CW this would be great.

You can always try some digital too, PSK31, RTTY and the new JS8 Call.

So many fun things to do on Ham radio

arybvtcw0eolkf

Popoutman wrote: »

There's also a CW decoder in the plugins, that can do a half-decent job with a clean signal.

I'm very slowly learning Morse, mostly to be able to identify NDB stations. I find it fairly fascinating to pick up signals from navigation beacons thousands of km away - my current distance record is hearing OZN which is 2250km away in Prins Christian Sund, Greenland.

Thankfully I don't have to use a morse decoder, when I was doing my radio operators course we'd do between two and four hours of morse every day for six months then our pass speed was 20 wpm without error, so it was fairly drummed into us lol

Deleted User wrote: »

No not at all.

I'd love to learn CW this would be great.

You can always try some digital too, PSK31, RTTY and the new JS8 Call.

So many fun things to do on Ham radio

I wish I had hints for your CW, but as I said above we had it drummed into us on our radio operators course, it was actually called a Radio Telegrapher's course.

Re. the data, I hate it lol. All our HF comms now are data

Nah, give me CW and its like reading a book for me.

I'll just say this about learning CW, don't be afraid to jump in with even a little CW because most chats are very simple as in 'De is EI6** name es Makikomi', UR RST es 559/579 (or whatever signal strength you're receiving the other op). tx es Yeasu *whatever*, ant is *3 ele yagi/G5RV etc, pwr is 100w, wx is *whatever*.. EI 8 MAD DE EI6** K

Other guy replies with the same and after than its usually a quick wrap up 'tnx fer de qso EI8MAD de EI6** 73's AR

And really that's all you need. A good operator will know you're a novice and slow their speed to match yours so you're not under any pressure, after that the your speed will come with experience.

A keyer is easier than a straight key IMO, much easier.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Re learning and jumping into CW QSO's, I'd say don't do it on competition weekends when the bands will be crazy, you'll be eaten alive and unless you're an experienced competition op you just won't get any pleasure out of it.

Yeah it's a bit like SSB during contests.

I have an Iphone and the apps for learning CW are poor, much better on Android. Something I plan to learn.

Using PSK31 the language is pretty similar, it's a fun mode, there's still plenty of SSB, I'm not in to FT8 or digital modes that require no human intervention.

PSK31 or JS8 Call give me the ability to make QSOs when I want to use my sitting room setup and the XYL is reading or watching tv or when I can't be bothered to go to the shack.

But Yeah, learning CW would be so much fun. I got to do it.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Well due to Covid-19 and restrictions on shipping I opted for a radio which wouldn't have been my first choice, but I got it at a decent price with some extra kit. When I have it I'll update the thread, just not 100% confident in the seller yet.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Well it wasn't my first choice of radio, esp for SSB but I picked up a brand spanking new Tecsun PL-880 Deluxe for a snip (less than half the price they're retailing for on Amazon).

I had an 880 that died on HF, then went into the bin in a temper. Delighted with the price I picked this one up for its got one or two little options that I don't remember on my last one so hopefully that SSB issue is sorted.

The deluxe is the one with the hard carry case and a few other extra's.

That said, I'm enjoying the SDR stuff.