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Taking a Radio Camping

(ewpratten.com)
139 points ewpratten | 6 comments | 27 Jul 24 02:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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jnord ◴[27 Jul 24 06:57 UTC] No.41084907[source]▶
Back in the 70s when shortwave was still king, we used to pack communications radios, rolls of antenna wire and jump on a train to travel up to northern Scandinavia to listen to faraway exotic stations on the medium and shortwave bands. It was an ideal environment with no electronic noise, mainly due to scarce population, and we were free to roll out 500 meters of longwire in various directions without upsetting anybody. Fun times indeed!
replies(2): >>41085038 #>>41086974 #
lloydatkinson ◴[27 Jul 24 07:36 UTC] No.41085038[source]▶
I occasionally get a long wire between buildings and listen to shortwave and bands. Sometime I’d like to get a HackRF and try out SDR and GNU Radio.
replies(1): >>41088175 #
ted_dunning ◴[27 Jul 24 17:46 UTC] No.41088175[source]▶
HackRF isn't the only way to go. There are other projects like T41-EP that can give you a really nice software defined platform as well.

Check it out here: https://www.4sqrp.com/T41main.php

(hint: you know it's a group of hams as soon as you see the colored fonts and grey background)

replies(2): >>41089533 #>>41098330 #
amatecha ◴[27 Jul 24 21:41 UTC] No.41089533[source]▶
yeah you can also get an RTL-SDR for like $30 USD (or something) and listen to a pretty wide range of frequencies - definitely good enough to get started with a very small cost.
replies(1): >>41089950 #
1. fortran77 ◴[27 Jul 24 22:57 UTC] No.41089950{3}[source]▶
Not for shortwave. They don’t work below 50Mhz
replies(5): >>41090226 #>>41090311 #>>41091394 #>>41091506 #>>41095548 #
2. brewtide ◴[27 Jul 24 23:53 UTC] No.41090226[source]▶
Rtl-sdr blog v3 has a direct sampling mode that will get you into the single-digit mhz.

I assume that the v4 does as well. The earlier versions apparently also have this mode but it requires opening the devices up and a bit of soldering here and there.

3. ewpratten ◴[28 Jul 24 00:09 UTC] No.41090311[source]▶
I have an RTL-SDR and an upconverter. Pretty nice setup if you don't need the ability to transmit.
4. amatecha ◴[28 Jul 24 05:23 UTC] No.41091394[source]▶
They do indeed, with the RTL-SDR Blog V3 and "direct sampling" mode! I think it's the only one at that price point that you can directly listen to HF/shortwave.
5. kQq9oHeAz6wLLS ◴[28 Jul 24 06:05 UTC] No.41091506[source]▶
I have a couple of the super cheap ones I got for like $12 years back. With a simple mod you can get direct sampling and listen to any frequency. Works great.
6. lormayna ◴[28 Jul 24 19:58 UTC] No.41095548[source]▶
The best radio for shortwave is without any doubt the Belka. It costs around 200€, but the quality is fantastic. The new versions cover also LW/MW and have an IQ output, so you can use as SDR as well. Otherwise you can find some Chinese clones of SDR play that are really cheap, but I am not suggesting those from a ethical standpoint