Sometimes I listen to ham radio conversations and take notes on what is being discussed. (Most of my HF listening is of international shortwave broadcasts.)Two recent conversations I've heard have been about shipping companies (fedex, ups, dhl, etc).

Hams often mention their callsigns, but I unfortunately don't hear them clearly enough. The main reason I'm interested in callsigns is if I hear someone say something interesting, and I want to look for their email address to write to them about it.

Lately I use my Sony ICF SW7600GR for ssb reception. I can clarify the signal quite well, but the noise level affects the clarity.

Are there any others in this newsgroup that are strictly listeners? What have your experiences been like?

Are there any others in this newsgroup that are strictly listeners?
What have your experiences been like?

i am for the moment. i'm still studying for my morse code test but my
rig is hooked up, so of course i'm going to get some kind of use out of
it! i sit and listen to morse code down around 3.5mhz, and also up in
the 7mhz range where i can find it, trying to decipher other peoples
conversations. i also try to catch peoples callsigns so that i can
look them up and see how good my reception is, how far away i can catch
a signal. it's fun ... would be more fun if i was able to perceive cw
at 30wpm as being more than a string of random beeping sounds hahaha.
the only reason i know it's 30wpm+ is because i've been using G4FON
software to learn in the evenings.

I am not a listener only, I am one that talks! grin

Despite supposed international conventions about how one says their
callsigns they are often peppered with strange nuances and abnormal
phonetics.

Callsigns are often also rushed or abbreviated if those talking know
each other and talk often. I have found this makes things very
difficult. Of course its easy if you can ask them to slow down!

I find the best way is to record (on a PC) then play it back a few times
to work out what is being said.

It might be worthwhile trying to tackle your noise problem too. Care to
elaborate? Rememeber that the brain is a very effective filter. You just
have to keep at it.

Cheers Bob W5/VK2YQA

weatherall wrote:

Lately I use my Sony ICF SW7600GR for ssb reception. I can clarify the
signal quite well, but the noise level affects the clarity.

Are there any others in this newsgroup that are strictly listeners?
What have your experiences been like?

i know it's 30wpm+ is because i've been using G4FON software
to learn in the evenings

i wanted to brag a little too that i finally made a breakthrough on
morse code.

i had been trying to learn morse code by learning individual letters at
high speed. i would set the G4FON software to play the letter over and
over at 30wpm and try to learn it's "sound" .. that is, instead of
learning dashes and dots, i just tried to learn the overall sound the
letters made. this was good, it was working, just very slowly, and i
would forget the sound of the letter soon after i learned it, i just
could not keep it in my mind.

then i got the HF rig working and started listening to some real morse
code on the radio. it was similar because it's going pretty fast but i
couldn't understand a bit of it, it's just too fast, and i can't recall
the letters as i hear them. i started realizing all the time i was
spending trying to learn letters just wasn't bearing any fruit.

then my motivation changed ... i started thinking, you know, to hell
with it .... i'm going to skip all this crap i've been trying to learn
and just try to figure out what the hell is going on in these radio
conversations. instead of trying to figure out what every little
letter is i just want to get some idea what they are talking about. so
the way to do that, i discovered, was to take an entirely different
approach. sort of a "wheel of fortune" kind of approach where you just
learn enough letters to guess what the word is hahaha. so, what
letters do i need to know ? THE SAME LETTERS YOU NEED IN WHEEL OF
FORTUNE!!!

so i learned all the vowels first. then i started using G4FON's
"common words" setting at 30wpm, and WOW! even just knowing the vowels
you can make out an amazing amount of what's going on. and you learn a
few other letters while learning the vowels just by the nature of doing
it ... like "T" is at first easy to mess up with "E" because "E" is
just a single beep sound. whereas "T" is a longer beep sound. so you
learn 2 for the price of one because you have to be able to tell them
apart. and learning "O" is a big help too, the vowel, because it's 3
long beeps and gives your mind a moment to pause and get back on track
when it is recognized. do you know how many words have "T", "E", "A",
"I", and "O" in them ? a freaking lot, that's how many. you can
even make out some words just knowing those five letters.

so basically in about an hour i started comprehending some morse code
that i wasn't able to do for weeks before using my other methods. i
can even listen to the radio now and pick up a few words just because
of the vowels and the very few other letters i know, and you can kind
of see where the sentence is going just because you can pick up "a" and
"on" and "be" and some other short words pretty easilly.

just thought i'd post that, maybe it will help someone else who is
trying to learn it ...

Thanks for your reply. I have recorded from my shortwave radio before but never thought about recording ham conversations for deciphering. I should do that. Also I should point out that I am referring to voice communications rather than morse code.

During the warmer seasons, I prefer to take my radio outside and listen while walking around. This lets me get far away from interference sources. While indoors, I am getting adequate reception from international broadcasters with some noise. Last night while listening to some ham radio operators, I was able to clearly hear a nearby person (in San Jose) but some others were faint.

I posted a few weeks ago in rec.radio.shortwave asking for some interference reduction advice. I'm on the top floor of an apartment building. There are dimmer switches in my apartment, and I turn them off when listening. I have a DE31 active loop antenna, but it typically doesn't improve the reception vs. the whip on my SW7600GR. My whip antenna is right by my window. Recently I've been placing the whip antenna horizontal, which I've heard can reduce some interference. I always run my radios with rechargeable NiMH batteries.

I've only been involved in shortwave radio for several months, so I'd be glad to hear any additional advice regarding interference.

thanks!

I personally have some major power line interference nearby that even
makes noise on 144MHz. One day I'll go and track it down! (Not that the
power company will do anything!)

- You'll generally find that a horizontally polarised antenna will
receive less local noise than a vertical. Note I am not talking about
close noises sources (say less than 100 yards) but those up to a ground
wave distances away. Also keep in mind that the receiver you are using
may have some of its antenna "internal" in the form of a ferrite etc bar
that might alse be responding to other polarisations. (ie also try
rotating the radio)

- Many noise reduction techniques come out of specialized receiver
design. This of course doesnt help you!. DSP techiques for example
sampling much more than the usual AM/SSB bandwidths to apply digital
filters make a huge difference nowadays.

- It is also conceivable that what you perceive as noise may even be
fundamental overload of the receiver front end with strong signals. ie
the radios selectivity isnt good. There are various ways to combat that.
If the active loop antenna has a tuning adjustment this can make a huge
difference. The main help will be a directive antenna of some variety.

- I should point out that I have heard anecdotal evidence that a magloop
antenna receives less noise but I have never found out why. I dont know
if your active loop antenna is one of these. They would normally have a
manual adjustment for frequency - that I dont see...

- You can use phase addition/subtraction techniques to suppress
interference/noise from a single source. Probably not helpful in your
case but still worth mentioning.

- The active antenna may be helpful if it has a reception/radiation
pattern nulls that can be positioned to point at the noise source.

- Noise blanker and noise limiter circuits are useful if the receiver
has them. If I was into SWL nowadays I'd be using a DSP filter, possibly
by using a PC soundcard.

- If you run a remote antenna (eg an outside dipole) ensure that the
currents in the feedline are balanced. (Use a balun etc) This makes
errant signal pickup along the feedline length less of a problem. (Or
coax transmitting RF if it is connected to a transmitter)

- An RF ground is important for noise reduction. Given your top floor
location though this may be difficult. Not a good idea to use the
power/utility ground as that will be full of noise. Note that a balanced
antenna system removes the need for RF earthing as one side of it "works
against the other" rather than against a ground counterpoise.

- The best noise solution is to tackle the sources.

- Ham radio ops will generally be much weaker than broadcast stations.
An antenna (or 3) tuned for the job may even be a good investment.

Probably not all that helpful, sorry.

Cheers Bob


weatherall wrote:


I've only been involved in shortwave radio for several months, so I'd
be glad to hear any additional advice regarding interference.

Three times to listen for a Ham callsign
At the beginning of a contact
Hams must Identify every 10 minutes
Hams must give their callsign when signing off

Once you have the callsign - go to QRZ.com URL:
http://www.qrz.com/
Enter callsign and in the results look for their e-mail address
It's given in jpeg to avoid the spiders from harvesting - so write it down
and compose a new e-mail

Handy to have a pencil and scratch pad ready -- you may only get part of the
call
Keep listening to fill in the rest

In case the Ham jargon is jibberish -- see AMATEUR RADIO GLOSSARY
JARGON, ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMINOLOGY

At URL:
http://ac6v.com/jargon.htm

Good luck es 73

--
CL -- I doubt, therefore I might be !






"weatherall" wrote in message
...

Sometimes I listen to ham radio conversations and take notes on what is
being discussed. (Most of my HF listening is of international
shortwave broadcasts.)Two recent conversations I've heard have been
about shipping companies (fedex, ups, dhl, etc).

Hams often mention their callsigns, but I unfortunately don't hear them
clearly enough. The main reason I'm interested in callsigns is if I
hear someone say something interesting, and I want to look for their
email address to write to them about it.

Lately I use my Sony ICF SW7600GR for ssb reception. I can clarify the
signal quite well, but the noise level affects the clarity.

Are there any others in this newsgroup that are strictly listeners?
What have your experiences been like?


--
weatherall

Oh, I didn't realize that part. I assumed this was to address the closest noise sources.

I agree there. In some cases I can use the antenna trimmer on the SW7600GR to improve the signal.

I guess I'm not sure if there are any differences between a magloop and an active loop antenna. Most of what I know about active loop antennas is from this antenna review:
http://www.radiointel.com/review-degende31.htm

I definitely appreciate the response! It encourages me to keep trying.

Ah, that's good to know. Most hams I've heard seem to ignore the "identify every 10 minutes" part though! I'll chalk that up to not noticing the passage of time.

Spiffy, thanks for that URL and the jargon link as well.