Ok, I made the final decision, I will continue using FM but I am going to also setup a shortwave station which will turn on at night, on around the 6000 khz area. I already have a CB transmitter and it works pretty good but i have heard that CB is risky and I can get busted for playing music.
Yeah, CB's propagation is also not as interesting. You're much less likely to make it out of the country. You can make it all around the world with SW, however.
If you do plan on shortwave, you should check out this site: www.voacap.com/area/
It will predict your range and give you a coverage map depending on time of day and frequency, etc. If you want an idea of where your broadcast would go, try it out.
Of course, they only let you select ham frequencies on that site, but you can just choose one that's closest to the shortwave band you plan on using.
In terms of transmitters, there's several options:
1. Look up stretchyman on hfunderground.com - he sells a 20w and 150w if I remember correctly.
Post by 877fm Radio Pushka on Aug 2, 2018 0:01:33 GMT -6
I have bought stretchyman’s 50 watt PEP transmitter and running music on 6925 khz. I could see a faint line on all of the SDRs but I couldn’t hear the music. I cant figure out how far the signal is propagating. I have 20 meter long dipole that i wrapped around my bedroom. LOL I cant put it outside because some jerky neighbors will be worried about their electronics getting fryed by my radio equipment. So the signal travels around the US but none of the websdrs can make out the song playing.
Post by "Skidmark" Fred Douglas on Oct 18, 2018 22:37:14 GMT -6
Y'all are out west so I thought I would throw in my two cents from Florida.
I'm not going to say that anything about legalities in my area. I drove all over my area and picked up a very faint Spanish only radio station on 87.5. It "blipped" on for two seconds, well a little more than that, while I was going over a very tall bridge. Other than that my area is free on either side of the band.
Here we need some sort of coalition of LPFM and small stations. Its the only way to fight off teams of a**holes sent out by the FCC Cartel. Florida can be dangerous ground. But you can't beat flat land and water on my band.
Ok, I made the final decision, I will continue using FM but I am going to also setup a shortwave station which will turn on at night, on around the 6000 khz area. I already have a CB transmitter and it works pretty good but i have heard that CB is risky and I can get busted for playing music.
Yeah, CB's propagation is also not as interesting. You're much less likely to make it out of the country. You can make it all around the world with SW, however.
If you do plan on shortwave, you should check out this site: www.voacap.com/area/
It will predict your range and give you a coverage map depending on time of day and frequency, etc. If you want an idea of where your broadcast would go, try it out.
Of course, they only let you select ham frequencies on that site, but you can just choose one that's closest to the shortwave band you plan on using.
In terms of transmitters, there's several options:
1. Look up stretchyman on hfunderground.com - he sells a 20w and 150w if I remember correctly.
Currently, I have no.2 with the amp no.3 for 20W. I've got my eyes on the PWM, but it's pretty expensive.
Well, turns out the stretchyman transmitter is total garbage. I tired cb, and it worked REALLY well, contacts and music over 1000 miles. great! Nevada, Iowa,and Oklahoma. I have a 200 watt SSB CB transmitter on channel 37 in USB, WORKS GREAT! The stretchyman transmitter doesn’t make to any of the SDRs on sdr.hu
I also bought a 50 watt fm transmitter for 87.7 FM, it didn’t do much, but it transmitts HD and has RDS capabilities. I think it is time for the tsar cannons, 3.5 kilowatts , 10 kilowatts, and over.
200 watts CB on VOACAP:
call me crazy but cb can go much farther out of the country
Yeah, CB's propagation is also not as interesting. You're much less likely to make it out of the country. You can make it all around the world with SW, however.
If you do plan on shortwave, you should check out this site: www.voacap.com/area/
It will predict your range and give you a coverage map depending on time of day and frequency, etc. If you want an idea of where your broadcast would go, try it out.
Of course, they only let you select ham frequencies on that site, but you can just choose one that's closest to the shortwave band you plan on using.
In terms of transmitters, there's several options:
1. Look up stretchyman on hfunderground.com - he sells a 20w and 150w if I remember correctly.
Currently, I have no.2 with the amp no.3 for 20W. I've got my eyes on the PWM, but it's pretty expensive.
Well, turns out the stretchyman transmitter is total garbage. I tired cb, and it worked REALLY well, contacts and music over 1000 miles. great! Nevada, Iowa,and Oklahoma. I have a 200 watt SSB CB transmitter on channel 37 in USB, WORKS GREAT! The stretchyman transmitter doesn’t make to any of the SDRs on sdr.hu
I also bought a 50 watt fm transmitter for 87.7 FM, it didn’t do much, but it transmitts HD and has RDS capabilities. I think it is time for the tsar cannons, 3.5 kilowatts , 10 kilowatts, and over.
200 watts CB on VOACAP:
call me crazy but cb can go much farther out of the country
I'm surprised about the stretchyman TX. It really isn't that powerful though. That's why I built my own class D for shortwave. It should do 500W eventually, but right now I have 100W.
Did you use the same antenna you use on cb for the 6MHz band? If yes, maybe you are just not getting good efficiency from the antenna. It should do much better than that. Even 10W can go around the world in the right conditions.
SDR.HU!!!
Thanks for that link!!! I can't believe I never found that site before. I was stuck listening to SDRs over 1000 miles away from my location because the other site I use doesn't have any good ones.
Sure at sunspot maximum time but for the previous 10 years and for the next 5, CB won't go further than a few miles. Sure you get Tropo in certain months but not reliable long distance Comms.
What are you even thinking, even 50W isn't a great deal of power and will only be enough for NVIS during the day and would need a low dipole.
Your trying to get from one continent to another on 50W.
That isn't going to work unless the conditions are very favourable.
Doesn't sound to me like you've got any idea what you doing at all.
A reserved response Stretchy if I may say so. I haven't bought one of your xmitters only because I live in a flat in London and don't have space for a 700ft long antenna lol. Seriously though, is there such a thing as a compact SW antenna?
Sometimes wonder weather it's worth all the numpties giving you bad press!
For freqs between 3 and 7MHz the ONLY antenna to use is a low dipole. By low I mean less than 1/4 wave as you want VERY HIGH angle radiation, i.e. straight up as you'll be using NVIS propogation. Very effective but don't expect any DX but do expect decent signals from 200-500 miles out. This will vary with frequency etc and ONLY useable during the day, you'll get nowt at night.
I can put 5&7 in the EU from UK most days with 10W and a 70' dipole at 15' high.
If you want 'Intercontinental' then regard 100W as a minimum and use a vertical at night. I can put 5&5 into US East coast frequently with such a system.
Re small antennas, forget it, this is SW not CB or V/UHF so the antennas are large in comparison.
However you could use a loaded horiz dipole around 20' wide isn't much bigger than a dipole for CB.
NANOVNA is your friend, so get one and learn to use it, superb for antenna work. I've got one and old HP 8712C and it compares well with a £20K lab instrument!
All my stuff is on eBay but please contact me directly as it's much cheaper..
Yeah, CB's propagation is also not as interesting. You're much less likely to make it out of the country. You can make it all around the world with SW, however.
If you do plan on shortwave, you should check out this site: www.voacap.com/area/
It will predict your range and give you a coverage map depending on time of day and frequency, etc. If you want an idea of where your broadcast would go, try it out.
Of course, they only let you select ham frequencies on that site, but you can just choose one that's closest to the shortwave band you plan on using.
In terms of transmitters, there's several options:
1. Look up stretchyman on hfunderground.com - he sells a 20w and 150w if I remember correctly.
Currently, I have no.2 with the amp no.3 for 20W. I've got my eyes on the PWM, but it's pretty expensive.
Well, turns out the stretchyman transmitter is total garbage. I tired cb, and it worked REALLY well, contacts and music over 1000 miles. great! Nevada, Iowa,and Oklahoma. I have a 200 watt SSB CB transmitter on channel 37 in USB, WORKS GREAT! The stretchyman transmitter doesn’t make to any of the SDRs on sdr.hu
I also bought a 50 watt fm transmitter for 87.7 FM, it didn’t do much, but it transmitts HD and has RDS capabilities. I think it is time for the tsar cannons, 3.5 kilowatts , 10 kilowatts, and over.
200 watts CB on VOACAP:
call me crazy but cb can go much farther out of the country