Adventures In Amplitude Modulation - Part 28

At the end of September, I escaped the big city again. And at a little cabin in the Catskills I unwrapped and unzipped a couple radios, my recorder and all the assorted cables, batteries and cassettes and set up another little DX outpost for the weekend. Hey, it's how I have fun...

The reception wasn’t nearly as impressive as the last time I got a chance to scan upstate, but I had some luck on the 25 meter band in the late afternoon with my DE1103. I also had a chance to conduct a couple somewhat simultaneous band scans with the Degen and my analog Tecsun BCL-2000. The results were interesting and somewhat predictable. However, I’ve just gotten all that audio dumped into the computer and haven’t had a chance to go back over it yet. Somewhere in the next couple entries in this series I’ll dig into some of these recordings.

Instead, I'm serving up some ham radio today. Late on Friday (September 29) I had already gone through what seemed to be happening on medium wave and the 49 meter band. I had heard quite a bit of sideband activity as I prowled around, so I decided to turn on the SSB and dig on into that action. The two hot spots I'd come across were the 40 meter band (just above 7000kHz) and 20 meter band (just below 4000kHz) bands. That's where I came across the reception below.

Amateur radio operators, or hams, are licensed independent broadcasters who talk to each other on specially reserved chunks of the radio spectrum, a number of which are within the shortwave (or high frequency) range. Some hams still use Morse Code for communication, other’s have added digital technologies, and some are actually broadcasting television these days. But all I know anything about are the guys who talk to each other, over the radio.

From what I understand (and I don’t know that much), hams typically bond together into roundtable groups for “ragchew” sessions (yes, that’s the term they use). At certain times or days or frequencies, people who have over time become part of a group will look for each for a chat on some agreed schedule. There’s bigger moderated operations called “nets” where large groups of people check in on some frequency and a big radio powwow ensues.

I haven’t spent much time eavesdropping on these net gatherings and I don't know enough about how they work, but I have heard a number of ragchew groups over the years. And it can be as interesting or boring as any group of friends sitting around bullshitting. One thing that’s distinct (and a little odd) is that the biggest topic of discussion when hams gather on the radio is the radios and gear they're using to have their conversation. By nature, these guys (and they are almost always guys) are gear heads, geeks and electronics aficionados. So if they’re not carrying on about their transceivers, they’re talking about computers, TV’s, or other radios or toys. But sometimes they talk about what's going on around the house in more personal terms, and that’s where it can get interesting (to me). But rarely do the conversations get intimate or bizarre or emotional. They know they can be easily heard, and there’s some basic rules and etiquette that comes along with being a ham operator. And although I’m sure it happens now and then, I’ve never heard a ham spew on another or be anything less than polite.

While most of what you hear are just guys socializing and jargon-ridden small talk, public service has always been an important (and at times strategic) element of the amateur radio scene. During emergencies and disasters hams often play an important role in saving lives, like during Hurricane Katrina.

As I said, when I turn on the radio I'm usually more interested in programming rather than casual conversations. But there is an appeal in the hearing the real home broadcasting of ham radio, even if it's very rarely exciting or controversial.

Most hams broadcast on sideband (SSB) because they get more oomph out of their transmitters that way. So in order to hear them you need to have a radio that has SSB functionality (although there are ways to listen to sideband with one or two ordinary shortwave radios). While the DE1103 is a solid inexpensie receiver, it's not as easy as it should be to focus in on SSB signals with the Degen 1103, I found that once I did get a good copy of a ham conversation (by carefully adjusting the fine tuning to de-weird the audio) I could scan through that same ham band and generally not have to fine tune again. From what I’ve read, ham broadcasters generally use lower sideband (LSB) when on the 40 meter band on down, and upper sideband (USB) when they’re using the 20 meter band on up. But unlike normal shortwave broadcasting, they don’t hold to the 5kHz rule (with all frequency’s ending with a 5 or 0). For example two of the frequencies the recordings below were found on 3937kHz and 7197kHz.

Anyway, the world of ham radio is quite complicated, with a long heritage and plenty of jargon. And the hams themselves seem to be getting older as well. While it's hardly dying, there isn't a big youth movement in the amateur radio hobby right now. Most of the guys you’ll hear in these clips are middle-aged to elderly, and many sound to be from more isolated areas of south and midwest. I have heard hams from around New York City from time to time, but it just seems like it’s probably more common way to communicate out in the low population zones where it’s not so easy to find many friends to sit around and “ragchew.” And whether you listen or not, that seems like a good thing. It's not as common as it used to be, but it's still nice to hear that radio is serving such an purpose in people's lives.

So, here’s nine chunks of hamcasting from late night on Friday September 29 (or early morning on the 30th). It gives you an idea what you might hear if you scout out these bands late at night. But I should tell you that there's plenty of action earlier in the evening, on these bands and others. I apoligize in admitting that the files below are wrongly marked 09-28-06, but I’ve already uploaded them with the wrong date and I don’t feel like doing it all over again. I’m sure that’ll okay with you. If you're keeping track, add a day or two.

It was raining that night, and somewhere over the horizon there must have been some lightning as well, which you’ll hear. Some of the recordings are better than others, and on a few you'll catch a bit of simultaneous conversations or off-frequency buzziness. The fi isn't so hi half the time. However, if you take the time to listen you'll get a nice pink stack of homespun heartland geekiness from a number of night owls roosting in their ham shacks.

Ham Conversation #1 Late Night Coffee 09-29-06 (Download MP3)

The louder voice here is Larry, who had downed a coffee or two so he could stay up late and banter on the radio. Like most of the hams I received that night, it sounds like they're country folk (Even folks in suburbs don't have chores). Larry plans to barter some garden harvest for spare parts (for his antenna?). At the end of this clip I believe they're discussing the wisdom of pacing yourself when climbing your tower to work on your ham radio antenna.

Ham Conversation #2 Ham Radio Etiquette 09-29-06 (Download MP3)
A little bit of a discussion on the rules and manners of ham radio social intercourse. Roundtable discussion groups can last many years, and while civility is routinely practiced within amateur radio itself, it can be bad manners to jump into a group of long standing radio buddies and leap into the festivities without being invited or spending time on the sidelines. Other operators and groups are more open about things, like the larger moderated net mentioned here– “The Freewheelers.”

Out of all these clips, the fidelity on a few of these is rather dodgy. Quite a bit of crosstalk, and my reception is slightly off frequency.

Ham Conversation #3 Pig Psychology & Modern Farming 09-29-06 (Download MP3)

Believe it or not, here’s a ham radio chat centering around the pink sweet meat itself. Jerry the swine farmer offers some tips and tricks of the hog trade. Learn how to fool a pig into loading itself into a trailer, and how offering the porkers extra helpings of fresh water can improve your yield and dollar return.

While animal husbandry and farming in America is overwhelmingly run by corporate interests these days, independent farmers are still out there. But as you hear in this clip, there are more options (fish and tree farming) to raising traditional crops and animals nowadays.

Ham Conversation #4 RF Woes 09-29-06

Reception not great here either. Lots of distant thunderstorms all through this clip. In fact, this conversation is about interference, namely the RF horrors of entertainment and household electronics. The radio spectrum where the shortwave and ham bands reside sadly coincides with the majority of the same frequencies many modern appliances and electronics radiate as noise. For example, one of the fellows in this discussion bemoans the horrible RF noise of his giant TV, calling it a “splatterbox” (That's a new slang term to throw around.). And there’s another problems-- the damn Dell printer bleeding noise into the repeater. Some "freaky stuff."

Ham Conversation #5 Gadget Tweakers 09-29-06 (Download MP3)

Lots of talk of programming, frequencies, and resetting things. Men. Can you imagine two women chatting sociably about such esoteric electronic dilemmas?

Ham Conversation #6 Geek Geezers 09-29-06 (Download MP3)

Here’s some aging good old boys boasting how they were playing games on computers and sending email decades before "it was cool." Then their ragchew associate "Terry" breaks into the conversation. but he’s “a speck-tad off frequency” and distorted. Eventually Terry adjusts himself (coming down fifty cycles or so) and begins to sound more human.

Then the discourse drifts into radio esoterica– single, dual and triple conversion receivers, selectivity, big antennas, radio kits, and a recollection of a radio with so much gain you could “hear a mouse cut cheese on the other side of the Earth.” And then there’s that ankle injury...

Ham Conversation #7 Bait and Switch 09-29-06 (Download MP3)

Some tales of electronics shopping– a small victory in a bait and switch scenario, and the sad story of a defective Shure microphone that kept “fryin’ like freakin’ bacon in the pan.” Also, some insight into the correlation between audio quality and signal manhood.

Ham Conversation #8 Bad Luck 09-29-06 (Download MP3)

In my limited experience in eavesdropping on the ham bands I’ve heard plenty of tales of poor health and some tragic stories now and then. But the bad luck discussed here is of more a financial nature. One of the guys here (John) mentions he’s in the middle of Ohio. Then their friend Jim pops up (from near Allentown, PA) who they haven’t heard from in “a coon’s age.” Apparently he has a “bodacious signal,” but I’m sure not getting a good copy on it from upstate New York.

Ham Conversation #9 Antenna Talk 09-29-06 (Download MP3)

Typical rig talk– wires, dipoles, pulleys. And also some updates on the garden crops.

That’s it. In the next post in this series, shortwave again. It’s been a little while. And the next time you see a live pig, think of how you might cajole him into a trailer.

Thanks for listening.

Comments

[Aaron]

I cant help but think when I read this, are these people's privacy an issue here? I mean it's one thing to just easedrop but when you make MP3s and post them online, I think its violation of privacy. Otherwise, great post. Very well done.

[fatty jubbo]

my father was a Ham. He had a huge antenna that he built in the backyard. The basement was always littered with tubes and ham boxes he was building....we even built a morse code tapper together (I was never able to remember any of it and preffered tapping out rhythms) He also had a ham reciever in his car and a giant antenna attached. It was never a problem finding the car in the parking lot because that damn antenna would be sticking up 10 feet (my mother hated it). I remember us always driving up to Washington Rock in Greenbrook to get the best reception. I was always fascinated by the way the voices sounded and the high squeeling of tuning.

One of my favorite things though were the cards that the hams would send each other. My father had a decent sized collection, mostly from around the US if I remember right. I'm not sure if he had any international cards but I remember frequently hearing him tune in on some foriegn chatter. Harpers recently had a story on these cards- I think someone put out a book of them as some of them were quite fancy and artfully done.

When I was heavily into Commodore 64 and BBSs, my father tried to get me into this Ham Net thing. I never quite understood what it was about. I believe it was developed specifically for the C64 and was along the same lines as Quantum Link but for free. I wasn't interested as I knew it would be a bunch of old men chattering away.

[joisy mike]

Having travelled a lot in my days, and now living in middle Tenessee, I can attest to the farmer > ham connection. In the most rural of areas you can always spot a 10 element beam or two sitting on top of a 100 foot tower behind many an old farm house. I admire the fact that these folks have the ambition to work on their own and have the obvious intellect to fashion their own high power radio stations. I am in the IT world, and have always been interested to amateur radio cept' I dont like to 'chew the rag too' much.

Oh, and Aaron:
Transmitting your voice over the air does not afford you any right to privacy. It is not eavsdropping. You are in fact under the assumption that anyone can hear you and you are potentially being recorded. If the professor were to record those conversations and offer them up for profit, it may be a whole other issue.

[K.]

hey Prof,

I can get with the Ham thing, alright. I have a great interest in tech, and a friend was chatting me up about problems he was having with his ham gear, so he brings it out to my lab and we set up. I teach him some stuff about grounding, and we string up an antenna and I get my first ham experience. Basically, we talked to a guy in Ohio in his basement in his underwear "It's hot here, how about by you?" I was stunned, it was everything I ever dreamed it to be... OK, so like I said I can tell you everything about making good radios and receiving faraway places, but I'll leave it to you to wade through the Ham ragchews for the nuggets of gold. Good post. Someone had to do it. Ham MP3's. I think this is one of the signs of the apocalypse.

[Ross Kazey]

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by my neighbor's HAM set-up in his basement. We were in Iowa, and I remember him talking to a man in Caldwell, Idaho. It boggled my mind. He was also very active in Civil Defense and did temperature readings as well. Not sure who he gave them to but, it all seemed quite official. Great post. Keep up the good work Professor. Your love of your subject matter reflects in your writing and makes it all come alive. Bravo!

[Dale Hazelton]

Great response to the blog! Ham nets are wonderful listening with their mix of arcane wisdom, technological minutiae and tips on growing plump tomatos. I can get good (enough) reception with a Radio Shack/Sangean set with a BFO switch. I have a Grundig Satellit 700 with true selectable sideband, and it really is no better than the cheaper set from my location for pulling in the strong signals, so anyone should be able to listen in without a big outlay of cash. And if you have an old police scanner sitting around, scan for 2 meter hams between 144 and 148 MHz (drivetimes usually). I've always found this stuff fascinating fun and have gone so far as to buy the "Now You're Talking" ARRL manual at Radio Shack to get my tech license. There's lot's of polarized debate with the old timers over having to know Morse Code to be a ham, but I wish it were easier still, just know the FCC rules of polite, civilized broadcasting. There's ALOT of theory in the test. Maybe that's one reason that it is becoming a geriatric hobby, we're all just too lazy today to learn all those seemingly archaic skills and knowledge. But it CAN'T be that geeky if Joe Walsh (WB6ACU) or Priscilla Presley (N6YOS) think it's worthwhile. Now let's all get to the nearest Hamfest!
http://www.eham.net/

[poesboes]

Friend of mine is a shortwave SSB Morse amateur. Kind of like the typical people you describe here so well.
He had build his own transmitter which was 'a tad' above license at 1.5kW. Just the sight of the freak blue shine from the tubes when he hit his key. Little zingy sparks from the rectifier circuitry. Boiling oil in his dummy load. The offhand remarks like: 'Oh, don't go near that too much.. It's got 6kV on it..' and the fact you could actually hear his morsecode reverberate about 7 times as it bounced around the earth made it a real magical experience.
And there was this little lit globe of the world, where he had drilled little pinholes of all the places he had reached. It was barely held together by China and Albania, where HAM radio is(was?) prohibited.

He also had an gigantic collection of tubes and stuff. In fact he had one very special one: a 500kW transmitter tube from the famous Radio Veronica pirate radio ship. I think it was about 140lbs of copper and used to be steam cooled, running at a cool 1100 deg F.

He has now moved on to designing arials for mobile phone repeaters and has several patents to his name. But he never stopped his HAM activities. How could he? :)

[Robert Donahue]

Ham radio is open to the public, and when we are talking we all know people are scanning, so I dont personally see anything wrong with recording it for the web .... it might be a little bit of an issue for some but hey we are talking at 100+watts what did you expect people that dont know you to turn the radio off :) anyway I think you should look into the fcc site and see the laws on rebroadcasting what you hear? it may very well not be cool with them ....