Tag: Amateur Radio

What A Pile Up!

John7 Comments

A few days ago, I ordered another CB Radio and received it yesterday. I put the radio on the plastic hump mount last night and took it out for a test this afternoon. A Pile Up is what ham radio and CB (citizens band) users call a frequency with multiple stations all calling for a contact at the same time as the video shows.

The sounds you hear are not music to everyone’s ears but they are to me after being on the radio since 1979-1980 which was the end of my high school days..

I made several calls for contacts but made none which can be attributed to the many stations calling, and the fact that my little radio is stock and puts out just 12 watts on SSB (single sideband) and a tiny 4 watts in the AM mode. Back in the day, I would have a 500-watt linear amplifier which is completely illegal by the way, to get my signal way out there and easily heard.

I had fun using this new radio and will leave it in the truck for a while. The ability to talk to distant stations all around the country which is what I heard today, is referred to as Skip.

By this, we mean that the Ionosphere, one of Earth’s atmospheric layers high above is able to reflect the radio signals coming from the CB transmitters. You get the same effect while listening to the AM Radio frequencies after dark every night.

So there you have it. a very brief explanation of shooting skip with CB radios. Fun! Photos and video are from iPhone 12.

The Full Strip

John

Today has been very beautiful with a temperature just below 90 and a perfect breeze. I stopped at my favorite spot to see the distant Strip and snapped this photo as there appears to be zero smog over the city. This is the full length of the Strip which is I think around five miles north-to-south.

I know that you have seen this before but this image is sharper than usual. Moving along, I purchased this CB Radio a few days ago from President Electronics. This is the first legal CB Radio with FM in this country.

There have been illegally imported radios with the FM mode in this country for years now but this one is the first to be sold here legally. It’s a great little radio, its received signal sensitivity is great. I tried to make a few contacts but nobody came back to me, better luck next time!

I had a more advanced radio until last night that has SSB, or Single Side Band capability but the damn thing up and died last night! This morning, I opened the casing of the radio and had a look for burnt resistors, transistors, or pots (tech stuff) that were obviously cooked but found nothing.

Next, I checked the power cord and the socket where the radio gets its power from the truck. No problems there. There were no blown fuses in the truck either, so, the radio just died and I used it maybe three times since last year when I purchased it. Note to me – do not buy Galaxy CB Radios!

I have more fun with CB Radios that I began my radio hobby with in the early 1980s than I do with my ham radios!

Eton Elite

John11 Comments

I ordered this new radio yesterday from Amazon and received it about five PM yesterday. Thanks, Amazon! I already have two other radios from this company, they build very good quality radios.

This one has the usual AM and FM bands plus the Airband and the shortwave radio bands as well. It also has SSB, or Single Side Band which is some technical stuff. Anyway, I like to take some unboxing photos because the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys!

Some Blog Statistics For You

John8 Comments

Once in a long while, I like to post the blog stats for Las Vegas Photoblog. Here are the stats as of last night, the numbers make me happy! The funny thing about this blog though is that I have 300+ followers which isn’t much for a blog that went live in 2016. But, I am okay with that.

Businesses and obvious spam blogs are removed daily as needed, I won’t allow them to use this blog for their own purposes. I have removed what must be hundreds of businesses over the last six years. I’ve been very busy around the house today with installing some new ham radio gear in the house and truck.

Radio has been a huge part of my life for decades! I hope y’all are having a great weekend, folks.

Tiny But Mighty

John10 Comments

I picked up this tiny C Crane radio a couple of days ago, it’s tiny but mighty! The little C Crane receiver covers the standard AM and FM broadcast bands and also receives the Shortwave bands, the Aircraft band, and all of the NOAA weather radio frequencies. It covers more frequencies than its much larger cousin the Sangean.

And, it costs about one-half the price of the Sangean. Plugging the headphones in, I was pleasantly surprised to hear such deep, rich sound coming from such a compact receiver. I have been playing with receivers and ham radio gear since 1980, so I believe that I can safely say that the circuitry in this tiny radio is as good as that inside the Sangean receiver. It was nice to sit the little radio on the arm of the couch and tune it comfortably.

I would certainly not hesitate to recommend this receiver to you and anyone else because of its overall quality. Have you or anyone in your family ever used radios like this? It can be a great hobby.

Radio and Blue Sky

John

These photos have been stuck on my desktop for a few days, I’m letting them out to play in the wilds of the internet. Partly sunny and seventy degrees are forecast for Las Vegas today which sounds pretty darn nice. Happy hump day, you are halfway to the weekend!

Radios and Toots

John6 Comments

I’m kinda bored this afternoon after whipping up a fresh pot of chili which I kinda screwed up by purchasing all pinto beans and no kidney beans. Oops. I grabbed the silly horse photo from Instagram today, yeah, I have an odd sense of humor, but it’s true, isn’t it! My daughter loves horses, should I send the photo to her? 😂

Eleven Meter Fun

John3 Comments

Once in a long while I will put one of my two CB radios in the truck and take a ride somewhere that is wide open to tune around the eleven-meter band, which is where the old Citizen’s Band radio frequencies are located. They are located between 26.965 and 27.405 megahertz.

This is where I became interested in radio in the late 1970s and have had radios in my life ever since. I moved to Ham Radio in the early 1980s and am still licensed.

I sometimes tune into these frequencies using a shortwave radio in the house and heard some activity on this band a few days ago which is why I put the CB radio in the truck. The band is open, I tried making a few calls for distant stations in other states back east but had no luck.

The radio puts out just five watts so it’s not easily heard among the clutter being reflected back from the Ionosphere. It’s called DXing, or shooting skip.

Every eleven years, a new solar cycle begins with the sun. Its surface has more Prominence being ejected which causes the earth’s Ionosphere to reflect radio waves back down to earth, hence we can talk great distances on very low power with the correct antenna system and coaxial cable. Radio is fun!