In my opinion, the fuzzy rabbit mic gives a MUCH better, fuller sound. The wireless mic pack sounds very compressed, like you're wearing ear protection used in shooting pew-pews.
My man, You certainly have my respect. You are out there with no money or official training and showing how it’s possible to actually do these things at home. To give people the power of doing it yourself is possible. Keep up the good work.
3:52 OH HELL NAW. The Lapel mic is both muted, and washed out, compared to the fuzzy rabbit mic. And there is audible hissing. OFC I am using a 2.1 surround sound speaker set I've had since 2000. (I only had to spend $1 on it in ALL that time, Altec Lansing). I have no idea what it sounds like on a cell phone.
Audio engineer here- you can get your lapel sounding way better with EQ (unless you're already processing it and that was the best result) to match the shotgun on the camera. I often find omnidirectional mics are way more sensitive to lower frequencies and rolling off everything below 200 is almost a necessity.
Asking government employees about L band sat frequencies, looking at satellites, an antenna farm on the roof and yard. Yep, that military helicopter flying over the house and there's a van with "TWO GUYS FROM QUANTICO PLUMBING SERVICE" decals parked just down the street is totally coincidental.
to be more objective, the people that are saying the lapel one sounds more condensed, afaict, its really the exact opposite issue: the lapel is picking up a pure voice tone (albeit maybe slightly compressed due to too much gain) while the rabbit is picking up a bunch of echo/reverb, giving the illusion it being fuller but its actually just reverb noise
The condenser just needs a midrange correction with I dunno maybe a small high pass filter? The tonal response from the wireless is good but too much noise. Too much noise is hard to correct in post.
When we see military helicopters and aircraft they are either flying over the ranch b/c of their flight path, or in the case of the C130, its a bunch of fly boys buzzing the ranch to get on tv.
I used to drive up to scenic vistas all along the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia and set up a 2M Yagi to see how far I could get on a watt or two. Every so often park rangers would drive up and things would be a bit awkward until I could convince them I wasn't tracking a hunting dog or something like that.
It was always fun talking to somebody on a mountain or in the middle of nowhere and whom was running QRP, I once talked to a guy on CW who was climbing Mount Shasta and had a little mono-bander with him, I was just a young boy and thought it was funnest thing I ever did.
Also should say that I was looking into finding fellow ham operators in the area of the ranch that wanted to maybe host some web-based SDR listening stations off site. There were a few people in their discord channel ( one of which was a moderator) who thought we were crossing some boundary of ethics and would interfere with the research being done, which I found to be an interesting stance since listening is purely passive.
In my humble opinion, I would say use the wireless as needed, in all honesty I really love the Lofi sort of style you have. it’s very honest and very simple and not overly complicated. with the amount of Clickbait and pomp and circumstance there is with a lot of science and tech videos it’s super refreshing just to get something as simplistic as your stuff. Gives it a more authentic sort of feel, makes me feel like you’re just some guy showing me something you think is really cool lol, but with that said I don’t want to to sound like I’m opposed to you wanting to be creative and expand. in short don’t feel pressure to be overproduced, if it works it works as they say, love the channel, keep ‘em coming
The Fuzzy Rabbit (great name) for sure. the lapel mic is probably technically better, but the rabbit sounds more like Im coming around for a beer in your shed and your telling me about your gadgets. the lapel is great for studio-style sounds, but hanging out in your shed is what im here for. for long distance USB, I have had great success using standard cat5 cable. I use the green pair for the actual USB signal, and all the other white as negative, coloured as positive. feed 12v in at the computer end, and a linear 7805 regulator at the usb end to give a stable 5v with plenty of current. Ive had a successful 25-30m run, to a spinning disk drive, transferred a ~10gb file and MD5 hashed it, and it came out just fine. Ive been told by someone who knows way to much about the USB protocol that that should be impossible, but the nice thing about working with good engineers is they know that numbers cant lie. if its been tested and works... no point arguing. I used this setup gaff-taped to a broom and broken fishing rod inside a yoghurt container with a WiFi dongle that had been modded to be a 3 element yagi, in order to get WiFi from a local public hotspot, 6-700m away (never did figure out exactly where it was). worked great! I'd still use my phone for banking and important things, kinda high latency and not terribly fast, but for youtube and running bittorrent (linux ISO's only, I promise) worked very well. Cat5 is practically free, and the issue with long USB is more down to stingy conductors, voltage drop. give it a square 5v and a twisted pair, It'll probably work.
You were looking for strange signals, and actually found knowledge : that's brilliant ! Scientific approach wins ! I like how you pointed out the bias/mistakes in the show (although i didn't heard of this show in France). In my opinion, just follow your own path, don't let people make you search stuff you're not interested in. Cheers
@@FatherMcKenzie66 There's a difference in gain, pattern and bandwidth that could impact some applications. The log is generally the better antenna, but with somewhat lower gain.
Since its an LP antenna it covers a broad spectrum and isn't all that much in gain where a Parabola is much more gain and rejection rejection from other Directions
For the record, I never comment on videos, but this one definitely deserves it. I love your channel and have been watching it for some time. I searched high and low for people who seriously approached the 1.6 GHz phenomenon on Skinwalker Ranch, but it seemed like no serious hams or radio techs took on the challenge. I'm a firm believer that using off-the-shelf SDRs and antennas designed for digital TV reception, as I've seen used on SKR, isn't very scientific. I worked as a radio tech for a while, and when SDRs first came out, we compared them against professional spectrum analyzers like Rohde & Schwarz and General Dynamics. The difference was exactly what you'd expect when comparing a $40 SDR dongle to a $10,000 commercial-grade analyzer. On the show, imagine the interference you’ve got: UHF comms for the film crew, UHF/VHF for the people on the show, likely wireless camera systems around the ranch for filming and security, and if they’re flying drones, then that too. As mentioned in the video, there’s wireless audio equipment such as mics and other gear. If they’re launching rockets, depending on the setup, you could get interference from the radios in Arduinos or Raspberry Pis. Also, having that many computers and monitors located so close together, never mind how they’re powering all this in the middle of a field-using a cheap inverter or generator, who knows?-is going to create a lot of interference. In short, thank you for looking into this subject; it made my day. Keep up the great work, and yes, more satellite stuff!
Yep, the SDRs are nowhere near professional quality. Their main benefit is they're affordable and approachable for hobbyists, but they aren't usually used for serious science without a lot of customization and more technical knowledge than I have!
There’s a HackRF spectrum analyzer (FOSS) that can generate broadband waterfalls, it makes it much easier to see where signals might be, and includes an overlay to highlight the US/EU band assignments.
As soon as I saw that LNA in the shot, I knew that you were going to rip the connector off it! In true “save it for parts” fashion, just use a bit of tape to attach the cables on both sides of the LNA to a wooden chopstick/pencil/garden cane/whatever to give you the necessary strain relief. Great videos as always, and great to see Linux tools being used on TH-cam.
Excellent video, I was going to check this out for myself but you just saved me the time. I suspected it was just sprogs and rubbish from the local equipment. Keep up the interesting channel & many thanks.
thank you. for some reason my brain refuses to remember 'Log periodic' as what they are called. I know what they are and a reasonable understanding of how they work, but the name just never stuck. ideal for exploratory sdr work, directional, but wide angle, only 3-5db of gain. a true yagi of that size would have a massive amount of gain and the focus of a laserbeam. I have one for a terrestrial cell phone band, 24db (!). but it gets of aim if you stare hard at it, let alone a puff of wind.
Hi there Thank you for some great videos! I am an audio engineer, and I use the lavalier mics often for tv broadcast. The one you have now is muffled and closed in the sound, you could try to take the rabbithat of it, but I don't think it will do much. The problem can be in two places, the transmitter itself, or the mic.. i can't see what mic it is.. Here in Denmark we often use DPA4060 for this job, and it is GREAT for it, but also a bit expensive.. Sennheiser have some more inexpensive ones.. they are also okay, but I can't remember there model names, and they need a bit more edit eq. But the DPA will do the trick for you if you want it. The camera mic is not bad at all! but it is a bit distant to listen to.
I love the shirt! Also, Fuzzy Mic has a fuller, less compressed/Muffled effect. The mic pack seems to have wire noise leading to a fuzz noise. Great video!
Dude! I have that exact mug now! Goodwill special for me. Also have it in pick, yellow, and green. The pink is cracking though, so it's either not microwave safe or dishwasher safe.
great vid ! perfect example of open minded skepticism and tech savvy ,what we need to actually unravel some of these mysteries. I hear ya on those Minnesota summers , worse than Georgia!
That antenna as you've already been told is an LP antenna , it covers many frequencies but not a lot of gain on any so if you want a highly directional antenna a dish might be a better choice . keep up the great videos .
A couple years ago I got interested in stream gauges and exactly what and when they were transmitting. I was able to contact a few USGS employees through email and get a little bit of info, but not much more than what you said in the video.
1.6 GHz is a common base frequency for mobile Intel processors, the processors throttle up from that frequency. So I suspect that since they are so close to the laptop, it is the laptop that is the source of interference. I prefer the wireless microphone, much better sound quality. The audio is cleaner.
Can also be harmonics. Inverters, chargers, switch mode power supplies, active cables left coiled up, electric fences bad powerlines. The list is endless. I have not listened to the sound on the show. One thing I would like to see on the show is a 10 / 11M antenna. Can someone get hold of a Ham International Big Mac?
On camera audio is much better and has fuller range of audio. One thing I would make sure is that you are matching the correct polarization of the sat you are trying to hear. GOES are vertical I think. I could be wrong but I remeber also a rotational "Skew" componet to take into consideration.
Right away you could tell the lapel was a more condensed sound, a little too much i though at first, but then I forgot about it until the end of the video when you switched back and a lot of background noise was then obvious in the rabbit. So I would say use the new lapel wireless mic!
*"You gotst yourself some petttty equipment right heaugh Mr. Government man, I'm the Save It Fo' Parts guy. Just lookin'... juuuust loookin'." **f'n great.
Even though I am a huge skeptic, paranormal stuff is just simply “fun” whether one believes in it or not… aliens, monsters, ufos etc… super interesting fun topics, at least imho…
LNA is Low noise amp (not linear). I am currently designing one for APT signals while i am listening to your show. Fuzzy mic is a bit better. I am sure the HAMs will troll the skinwalker people.
I think the wireless mic sounds better in tone but it has more background hiss. The other mic sounds more like what I'd hear from a webcam, but the wireless sounds more like FM radio.
Another great video! The fuzzy mic definitely sounds better than the wireless one. Next time you go out to the desert or go mine exploring etc please can you take this setup with you and look for the 1.6Ghz out there? And finally as a Brit, I'm horrified at your tea making! 😂
hEYA Peter, Tony from NZ calling ... love ya channel man - ah, 'lapel mics' are traditionally clip on to the lapel of a jacket.... the reason they sound so good in the position is that your voice radiates out and foward awar from your mouth in, basically a polar pattern ... and putting them on ya tshirt collar is behind that polar pattern..
Your video was very informative, thanks a lot for the scientific approach trying to explain all sorts of background noise and self induced interference very logically. That table from the TV show did indeed look kinda sketchy with all those wires and sensitive measuring gear so close to each other haha
A few yrs ago I was doing automatic and manual scans with my rtlsdr stick and at a point I came across a strange signal around 500MHz that was as powerful as a local 100W FM station a mile away. It sounded like an amateur MFSK transmission. Turned out it was one of my Orange Pis, a couple of feet away when the ethernet port was up and running on a 1Gig link negotiation. :) Also this FM station was co-located with two others. I happened to work in the building which these were on and had B2B relations with the owners. I knew for a fact that only one of them used a passive band-pass filter. So every time as I was walking down the street near the antennas the receiver I was using (an old Ericsson phone with an attachable radio) picked up huge interferences coming from those stations and at a point It's auto-scan function sometimes went bonkers.
I can only share your skepticism about UFOs and aliens. I also can't imagine that aliens would come here in a UFO only to crash in the desert. I find it very interesting that you touched on the topic of Skinwalker Ranch. The 1.6 GHz signal that they keep picking up in the series has caught my attention as well, and I’ve also wondered what it could be. The experimental setup you mentioned in your video seemed very questionable to me. Normally, antennas are placed at a greater distance from the devices that cause interference. It's a good thing you didn’t have to go into the desert in those temperatures. That’s more like cave weather.
(Agree with Cam) the fuzzy rabbit felt real…spacial… possibly laying an underlying ambient sound track could round out the lavaliere? OMG, my new local hero. Need to create some sort of spotlight to call you to action…
i recommend just biting the bullet and going on pasternack and buying one of each type of adapter. if you get regular slotted connectors, the price won't be too insane. it is SO nice stepping directly from N to SMA though, its worth buying the adapters just for the convenience (if not for the better signal). you can always just go to some random vendor from china too and get any connector dirt cheap online. just gotta make sure its actually brass lol. and also make sure its a reverse polarity connector. i've been burned by amazon pages that sneakily were selling RP connectors without clearly marking them. they are essentially useless unless you specifically need one
11:28 "OK base he's still out there with his antenna, maintain radio silence until he goes away" Also you might be a barbarian that microwaves tea but... at least you drink tea, so we'll let it slide. 🧐
Tea drinking Brit here who gets through about 15 cups a day......I can just about find forgiveness in my heart for the terrible use of the microwave rather than the kettle primarily because you are an American who drinks tea :) I'm in Arizona next week, teaching a class at the Microchip MASTERs event. I have packed my own tea to be on the safe side. Although the chocolate cookies that I've had in the past are to die for! I am a little apprehensive over the heat in the desert though as I will be packing HF/VHF/UHF radio with me with the intent to operate from outdoors.
@@saveitforparts Thanks, will do - that is one of the beauties of tea! it is quite refreshing on a hot day. Thanks for the content that you create, always been a pleasure to watch your projects evolve. I want to build an AZEL mount for working the LEO amateur satellites - I do have a dish set up for the QO-100 satellite for both uplink (2.4GHz) and downlink (10GHz). I also think the rabbit mic sounds a bit better than the wireless mic - maybe it was the placement as it seemed to be tucked around your neck a little bit.
Be sure to sip water and electrolytes every hour. Dry heat feels good, but it also means dehydration can slip up on ya. Welcome to the states, hope you have fun!
In a way, I almost prefer the way you record your screen. If you put on a CPL filter to remove some of the reflections off of it, it would be even better. Yeah, a proper screen record is "nicer" but this gives it a better feel, like we're actually there with you hah. Love the content
the wireless mic is ok, for outside shots its fine but indoors its way too muffled, wonder if there is a way to connect the rabbit mic to the wireless transmitter or something. not sure if that would make any difference.
Awesome video. This was a good one for sure, thank you for putting up with the heat for us! Opinion Regarding mics: I think old mic sound is better. Reason: The new mic has a lot of background static and is lacking the high frequency tones the old mic picks up.
no, that lapel mic is horrible - it's full of noise and hiss - the mic on the camera is much clearer without background noise. The wireless lapel mic sounds like a super low budget local tv station from some hick town in the early 90's that has no budget for good equipment
Hello from KT1R. I enjoyed your operation as I did have the same questions about skinwalker and you should be on their next series with your gain antenna. Too bad skinwalker did not try your process.
the wireless mic sounds better, but a bit muffled. the rabbit one sounds good too. I like the rabbit one more, it gives you that "i am a backyard nerd who just builds cool stuff for the sake of it" vibe
For high frequencies, skinny coax cable is devastating to the signal. And for sdr software you really have to crank the gain, just be careful not to come across a signal so strong it overloads the hardware when the gain is set high
Yeah the 1559-1608 MHz range are GNSS frequencies. 1608-1626.5 are Globalstar and Iridium (in the upper range you should be able to see Iridium downlinks since they use TDD) Above that is Inmarsat and other MSS L-band uplinks. Then there's a chunk of radio astronomy above the 1660 MHz point, and then...well, in the US apparently you may be able to hear some interesting military wideband systems ;)
Hi Gabe with regards to the audio, I echo many other comments and agree that the fuzzy rabbit sounds much better. As far as the tv show goes, I watched a number of episodes and soon got rather tired of some of the ‘nonsense entertainment’ that they were filming. That said it’s made for an interesting video and I’m very much like yourself and would prefer to stay away from the heat of summer, though it’s been much more manageable this year here in England/UK. Thank you for sharing this excellent video with everyone. Best wishes to you, your family and the feline overlords 🏴🇺🇸🐈
SDR++ with jack rf one gives that frequency ghost at mid point. Cubic sdr gives the ability to offset tune. Also rf wayerfall. If waterfall. And audio waveform
The lapel mic sounds way better for the clips outside; otherwise I had the impression you always had to shout to the camera. It does sound a bit muffled compared to the rabbit mic but in the end it's more comfortable to listen to (especially with headphones).
My company lent them one of the gamma ray spectrometers we make. They got some basic training and advice on how to use it to properly record data. Naturally those goofballs just did whatever they wanted in the interest of mild dramatic effects. It would've been more interesting to see any scattered sources of radiation that might be hidden out there. If they were serious enough (paranormal "investigators" are not) they would've learned the tech, and benefited from some longer measurements and post-processing to see some actual hidden "energies."
Did you learn any additional things about stream sensors? That was a highlight in this video for me! I am in a flood zone, and a unit which monitors water level, flow rate, O2 content, etc. would be really appealing for me right now. We have a lot of streams, and tidal areas, and monitoring them all, I could hook them all up to a database and webservices to provide a web based UI for it. I could try to piece some hardware together, but if you know of any products I would really love to know about it. I love your videos!
With such a number of adapters there can be significant losses, in this case it is better to solder the cable directly to the antenna, and it is advisable to have a cable with a larger cross-section for lower losses and also adjust the antenna according to the characteristic impedance, good luck to you. I'm using google translator, I hope everything is clear.
In my opinion, the fuzzy rabbit mic gives a MUCH better, fuller sound. The wireless mic pack sounds very compressed, like you're wearing ear protection used in shooting pew-pews.
I concur.
Yes, the lapel mic is horrible!
I think the issue is the lack of a high or low pass filter(can't remember which) on the audio to filter out that background static.
Fuzzy rabbit
I think you could work with the lapel mic with some EQ and possibly different placement, but the fuzzy rabbit does a great job.
My man,
You certainly have my respect.
You are out there with no money or official training and showing how it’s possible to actually do these things at home.
To give people the power of doing it yourself is possible.
Keep up the good work.
Make cool shit
Put it on the internet
3:52 OH HELL NAW. The Lapel mic is both muted, and washed out, compared to the fuzzy rabbit mic. And there is audible hissing. OFC I am using a 2.1 surround sound speaker set I've had since 2000. (I only had to spend $1 on it in ALL that time, Altec Lansing). I have no idea what it sounds like on a cell phone.
The placement is wrong and it needs postprocessing.
I mean, I'm using headphones and concur haha
@@peepopalaber just what i was thinking. glad im not nuts
As we all learned from Scooby-Doo, you never trust the caretaker, the old farmer, deputy etc...
or the guy with glasses
So, people in positions of power then? xD
This only applies if you're a bunch of nosy kids.
@@ProtoNeoVintage The real bunch of nosy kids were the friends we made along the way.
@@ryandrew-tv7bg well yeah!
The lapel has a bit of gain, turn it down and raise the bitrate. I like the R0DE wireless 🎙️
I prefer the on camera audio all day. Always sounds excellent.
Audio engineer here- you can get your lapel sounding way better with EQ (unless you're already processing it and that was the best result) to match the shotgun on the camera. I often find omnidirectional mics are way more sensitive to lower frequencies and rolling off everything below 200 is almost a necessity.
Asking government employees about L band sat frequencies, looking at satellites, an antenna farm on the roof and yard. Yep, that military helicopter flying over the house and there's a van with "TWO GUYS FROM QUANTICO PLUMBING SERVICE" decals parked just down the street is totally coincidental.
LOL Check your devices Wi-Fi for available networks and look for the one labeled FBI van or CIA van.
@@specialed6357>>>
_"I'm from the Federal Government_ AND _I'm here to help you."_
🤭🤭🤭
to be more objective, the people that are saying the lapel one sounds more condensed, afaict, its really the exact opposite issue: the lapel is picking up a pure voice tone (albeit maybe slightly compressed due to too much gain) while the rabbit is picking up a bunch of echo/reverb, giving the illusion it being fuller but its actually just reverb noise
I'm so grateful that someone understood this
The wireless mic _definitely_ has a higher self noise, and also it 100% has some sort of low-pass filtering/less responsive highs.
This is the correct answer. People are confusing room noise with "fuller" audio
The condenser just needs a midrange correction with I dunno maybe a small high pass filter? The tonal response from the wireless is good but too much noise. Too much noise is hard to correct in post.
When we see military helicopters and aircraft they are either flying over the ranch b/c of their flight path, or in the case of the C130, its a bunch of fly boys buzzing the ranch to get on tv.
The lapel mic sounds totally serviceable for in the field, but the traditional mic sounds better for the videos where you're sitting in front of a PC.
I used to drive up to scenic vistas all along the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia and set up a 2M Yagi to see how far I could get on a watt or two. Every so often park rangers would drive up and things would be a bit awkward until I could convince them I wasn't tracking a hunting dog or something like that.
It was always fun talking to somebody on a mountain or in the middle of nowhere and whom was running QRP, I once talked to a guy on CW who was climbing Mount Shasta and had a little mono-bander with him, I was just a young boy and thought it was funnest thing I ever did.
Also should say that I was looking into finding fellow ham operators in the area of the ranch that wanted to maybe host some web-based SDR listening stations off site. There were a few people in their discord channel ( one of which was a moderator) who thought we were crossing some boundary of ethics and would interfere with the research being done, which I found to be an interesting stance since listening is purely passive.
1.6 ghz 10mhz to 25 is iridium/globalstar, below is GNSS, above is GSM(cellular), all of it licensed!
Really liked how you explained where the interference could be coming from, great work as always.
6:55 @Gabe: Those are called “birdies”, which is the SDR picking up RF from other (nearby) oscillators.
In my humble opinion, I would say use the wireless as needed, in all honesty I really love the Lofi sort of style you have. it’s very honest and very simple and not overly complicated. with the amount of Clickbait and pomp and circumstance there is with a lot of science and tech videos it’s super refreshing just to get something as simplistic as your stuff. Gives it a more authentic sort of feel, makes me feel like you’re just some guy showing me something you think is really cool lol, but with that said I don’t want to to sound like I’m opposed to you wanting to be creative and expand. in short don’t feel pressure to be overproduced, if it works it works as they say, love the channel, keep ‘em coming
The Fuzzy Rabbit (great name) for sure. the lapel mic is probably technically better, but the rabbit sounds more like Im coming around for a beer in your shed and your telling me about your gadgets. the lapel is great for studio-style sounds, but hanging out in your shed is what im here for.
for long distance USB, I have had great success using standard cat5 cable. I use the green pair for the actual USB signal, and all the other white as negative, coloured as positive. feed 12v in at the computer end, and a linear 7805 regulator at the usb end to give a stable 5v with plenty of current. Ive had a successful 25-30m run, to a spinning disk drive, transferred a ~10gb file and MD5 hashed it, and it came out just fine. Ive been told by someone who knows way to much about the USB protocol that that should be impossible, but the nice thing about working with good engineers is they know that numbers cant lie. if its been tested and works... no point arguing. I used this setup gaff-taped to a broom and broken fishing rod inside a yoghurt container with a WiFi dongle that had been modded to be a 3 element yagi, in order to get WiFi from a local public hotspot, 6-700m away (never did figure out exactly where it was). worked great! I'd still use my phone for banking and important things, kinda high latency and not terribly fast, but for youtube and running bittorrent (linux ISO's only, I promise) worked very well. Cat5 is practically free, and the issue with long USB is more down to stingy conductors, voltage drop. give it a square 5v and a twisted pair, It'll probably work.
You were looking for strange signals, and actually found knowledge : that's brilliant ! Scientific approach wins ! I like how you pointed out the bias/mistakes in the show (although i didn't heard of this show in France). In my opinion, just follow your own path, don't let people make you search stuff you're not interested in. Cheers
Govt: we need a surveillance van to look into this guy.
Sir, he is a surveillance van.
It's like I keep telling Ringway Manchester. " It's all fun games until MI5 shows up."
My life goal.
This is fantastic Gabe. I am with you on all the "paranormal" talk. I am also in Minnesota and appreciate the videos. Thank you
fellow Minnesotan here and heavily into the UAP topic. Great video, great conclusion. Love how you showed the interference in real time.
Log periodic antenna, not a yagi antenna. Not that it really matters
If it doesn’t really matters, then why you said it
@@FatherMcKenzie66 There's a difference in gain, pattern and bandwidth that could impact some applications. The log is generally the better antenna, but with somewhat lower gain.
Since its an LP antenna it covers a broad spectrum and isn't all that much in gain where a Parabola is much more gain and rejection rejection from other Directions
It DOES matter, they are 2 very different antenns, if you were a radio ham ( a real one ) you'd know that 🤷@@FatherMcKenzie66
Man I wish more people used 60 fps. Your vids are a pleasure to watch. Not to mention the great content!
That isnt a yagi antenna. Its a log periodic antenna.. great video
I just told him that it cover 70 to 23cm. This guy does not know anything about RF, that's for sure.
@@susanlodges48and if you have watched any of his other videos, he knows this and says so.
For the record, I never comment on videos, but this one definitely deserves it. I love your channel and have been watching it for some time. I searched high and low for people who seriously approached the 1.6 GHz phenomenon on Skinwalker Ranch, but it seemed like no serious hams or radio techs took on the challenge.
I'm a firm believer that using off-the-shelf SDRs and antennas designed for digital TV reception, as I've seen used on SKR, isn't very scientific. I worked as a radio tech for a while, and when SDRs first came out, we compared them against professional spectrum analyzers like Rohde & Schwarz and General Dynamics. The difference was exactly what you'd expect when comparing a $40 SDR dongle to a $10,000 commercial-grade analyzer.
On the show, imagine the interference you’ve got: UHF comms for the film crew, UHF/VHF for the people on the show, likely wireless camera systems around the ranch for filming and security, and if they’re flying drones, then that too. As mentioned in the video, there’s wireless audio equipment such as mics and other gear. If they’re launching rockets, depending on the setup, you could get interference from the radios in Arduinos or Raspberry Pis. Also, having that many computers and monitors located so close together, never mind how they’re powering all this in the middle of a field-using a cheap inverter or generator, who knows?-is going to create a lot of interference.
In short, thank you for looking into this subject; it made my day. Keep up the great work, and yes, more satellite stuff!
Yep, the SDRs are nowhere near professional quality. Their main benefit is they're affordable and approachable for hobbyists, but they aren't usually used for serious science without a lot of customization and more technical knowledge than I have!
There’s a HackRF spectrum analyzer (FOSS) that can generate broadband waterfalls, it makes it much easier to see where signals might be, and includes an overlay to highlight the US/EU band assignments.
As soon as I saw that LNA in the shot, I knew that you were going to rip the connector off it! In true “save it for parts” fashion, just use a bit of tape to attach the cables on both sides of the LNA to a wooden chopstick/pencil/garden cane/whatever to give you the necessary strain relief.
Great videos as always, and great to see Linux tools being used on TH-cam.
Excellent video, I was going to check this out for myself but you just saved me the time. I suspected it was just sprogs and rubbish from the local equipment.
Keep up the interesting channel & many thanks.
If I lived in the area of skinwalker ranch I would make a huge effort to mess with them. 🙂
Why? "Huge effort" just to be petty? Why not spend that energy helping your community instead :)
@@3nertia that is helping the community imo.
@@Sloptit No, it's not. It's wasting your time and energy to be petty to some other community - big difference ...
@@3nertia potato potato
@@Sloptit Oh, is that what your brain is made of? Good to know, I guess ...
Nerd comment: That's not a yagi, it's a LPDA (Log Periodic Dipole Array). It sacrifices forward gain for broad bandwidth.
thank you. for some reason my brain refuses to remember 'Log periodic' as what they are called. I know what they are and a reasonable understanding of how they work, but the name just never stuck. ideal for exploratory sdr work, directional, but wide angle, only 3-5db of gain. a true yagi of that size would have a massive amount of gain and the focus of a laserbeam. I have one for a terrestrial cell phone band, 24db (!). but it gets of aim if you stare hard at it, let alone a puff of wind.
I'm looking forward to future videos with the hack rf, I got one a couple months back, looking for more projects to try
Hi there Thank you for some great videos! I am an audio engineer, and I use the lavalier mics often for tv broadcast. The one you have now is muffled and closed in the sound, you could try to take the rabbithat of it, but I don't think it will do much. The problem can be in two places, the transmitter itself, or the mic.. i can't see what mic it is.. Here in Denmark we often use DPA4060 for this job, and it is GREAT for it, but also a bit expensive.. Sennheiser have some more inexpensive ones.. they are also okay, but I can't remember there model names, and they need a bit more edit eq. But the DPA will do the trick for you if you want it. The camera mic is not bad at all! but it is a bit distant to listen to.
I love the shirt! Also, Fuzzy Mic has a fuller, less compressed/Muffled effect. The mic pack seems to have wire noise leading to a fuzz noise. Great video!
13:25 I think it's fine if you record the screen. Most people don't like it because it isn't clear, but you do a good job of recording the screens.
Dude! I have that exact mug now! Goodwill special for me. Also have it in pick, yellow, and green. The pink is cracking though, so it's either not microwave safe or dishwasher safe.
8:40 yes some instances thats correct. But there has many many times their using other antennas that are further away from the SDR .
When? Can you show proof?
great vid ! perfect example of open minded skepticism and tech savvy ,what we need to actually unravel some of these mysteries. I hear ya on those Minnesota summers , worse than Georgia!
That antenna as you've already been told is an LP antenna , it covers many frequencies but not a lot of gain on any so if you want a highly directional antenna a dish might be a better choice . keep up the great videos .
Another awesome radio video by the one and only.
The new mic is pretty good.
A couple years ago I got interested in stream gauges and exactly what and when they were transmitting. I was able to contact a few USGS employees through email and get a little bit of info, but not much more than what you said in the video.
1.6 GHz is a common base frequency for mobile Intel processors, the processors throttle up from that frequency. So I suspect that since they are so close to the laptop, it is the laptop that is the source of interference.
I prefer the wireless microphone, much better sound quality. The audio is cleaner.
small correction, lna stands for low noise amplifier
Can also be harmonics. Inverters, chargers, switch mode power supplies, active cables left coiled up, electric fences bad powerlines. The list is endless. I have not listened to the sound on the show. One thing I would like to see on the show is a 10 / 11M antenna. Can someone get hold of a Ham International Big Mac?
The antenna is log periodic with little gain on 23cms (1296) it's covers 70cm through to 23cms only. Get a antenna cut for the band in question.
Thanking you most kindly from English England
I like your old school setup it’s nostalgic
You might be able to see a radiosonde on 1680 mhz. They will pulse.
This is not a Yagi antenna, but a log-periodic antenna. It is for small gain in a wide frequency range.
On camera audio is much better and has fuller range of audio. One thing I would make sure is that you are matching the correct polarization of the sat you are trying to hear. GOES are vertical I think. I could be wrong but I remeber also a rotational "Skew" componet to take into consideration.
Right away you could tell the lapel was a more condensed sound, a little too much i though at first, but then I forgot about it until the end of the video when you switched back and a lot of background noise was then obvious in the rabbit. So I would say use the new lapel wireless mic!
I second that opinion.
I always learn something from watching your videos! Thanks, and do watch out for the library police, they might see your library books ;)
I have a bunch of former library books, the University used to sell them by the pound :-P
You should have done it at night, then it would be cooler out, and any result would automatically be spooky 😀
Great job - this was a fun video!
*"You gotst yourself some petttty equipment right heaugh Mr. Government man, I'm the Save It Fo' Parts guy. Just lookin'... juuuust loookin'."
**f'n great.
Even though I am a huge skeptic, paranormal stuff is just simply “fun” whether one believes in it or not… aliens, monsters, ufos etc… super interesting fun topics, at least imho…
LNA is Low noise amp (not linear). I am currently designing one for APT signals while i am listening to your show.
Fuzzy mic is a bit better.
I am sure the HAMs will troll the skinwalker people.
I think the wireless mic sounds better in tone but it has more background hiss. The other mic sounds more like what I'd hear from a webcam, but the wireless sounds more like FM radio.
Interesting video as always.
The wireless mic seems to have better noise canceling qualities. Sounds great.
Thank You and 73,
JR
Another great video! The fuzzy mic definitely sounds better than the wireless one. Next time you go out to the desert or go mine exploring etc please can you take this setup with you and look for the 1.6Ghz out there? And finally as a Brit, I'm horrified at your tea making! 😂
hEYA Peter, Tony from NZ calling ... love ya channel man - ah, 'lapel mics' are traditionally clip on to the lapel of a jacket.... the reason they sound so good in the position is that your voice radiates out and foward awar from your mouth in, basically a polar pattern ... and putting them on ya tshirt collar is behind that polar pattern..
I've driven past the moonbeam ufo multiple times. I got a little too excited to see that.
Fuzzy mic is better, much better.
“Science-adjacent” 😂🤣
very diplomatic way of saying
Your video was very informative, thanks a lot for the scientific approach trying to explain all sorts of background noise and self induced interference very logically. That table from the TV show did indeed look kinda sketchy with all those wires and sensitive measuring gear so close to each other haha
Fuzzy rabbit mic has the best audio quality, imo. Interesting video, thank you!
I do like both microphones, I believe the wireless one has a more direct voice, while the fuzzy is more for group situations.
A few yrs ago I was doing automatic and manual scans with my rtlsdr stick and at a point I came across a strange signal around 500MHz that was as powerful as a local 100W FM station a mile away. It sounded like an amateur MFSK transmission. Turned out it was one of my Orange Pis, a couple of feet away when the ethernet port was up and running on a 1Gig link negotiation. :) Also this FM station was co-located with two others. I happened to work in the building which these were on and had B2B relations with the owners. I knew for a fact that only one of them used a passive band-pass filter. So every time as I was walking down the street near the antennas the receiver I was using (an old Ericsson phone with an attachable radio) picked up huge interferences coming from those stations and at a point It's auto-scan function sometimes went bonkers.
I love your videos ! Keep up the great work 🙂
I can only share your skepticism about UFOs and aliens. I also can't imagine that aliens would come here in a UFO only to crash in the desert. I find it very interesting that you touched on the topic of Skinwalker Ranch. The 1.6 GHz signal that they keep picking up in the series has caught my attention as well, and I’ve also wondered what it could be. The experimental setup you mentioned in your video seemed very questionable to me. Normally, antennas are placed at a greater distance from the devices that cause interference. It's a good thing you didn’t have to go into the desert in those temperatures. That’s more like cave weather.
Just ordered one of those sweet t-shirts, thanks!
(Agree with Cam) the fuzzy rabbit felt real…spacial… possibly laying an underlying ambient sound track could round out the lavaliere?
OMG, my new local hero.
Need to create some sort of spotlight to call you to action…
The fuzzy rabbit mic has a clear sound. It's the best sound.
The Chinese GPS constellation is 北斗 / Bei Dou is the Chinese name for the Big Dipper. It's pronounced "bay dough" roughly, rather than "buy do".
Apply for the show’s cast so you can do the satellite stuff also they track aircraft
i recommend just biting the bullet and going on pasternack and buying one of each type of adapter. if you get regular slotted connectors, the price won't be too insane. it is SO nice stepping directly from N to SMA though, its worth buying the adapters just for the convenience (if not for the better signal).
you can always just go to some random vendor from china too and get any connector dirt cheap online. just gotta make sure its actually brass lol. and also make sure its a reverse polarity connector. i've been burned by amazon pages that sneakily were selling RP connectors without clearly marking them. they are essentially useless unless you specifically need one
11:28 "OK base he's still out there with his antenna, maintain radio silence until he goes away"
Also you might be a barbarian that microwaves tea but... at least you drink tea, so we'll let it slide.
🧐
Tea drinking Brit here who gets through about 15 cups a day......I can just about find forgiveness in my heart for the terrible use of the microwave rather than the kettle primarily because you are an American who drinks tea :)
I'm in Arizona next week, teaching a class at the Microchip MASTERs event. I have packed my own tea to be on the safe side. Although the chocolate cookies that I've had in the past are to die for! I am a little apprehensive over the heat in the desert though as I will be packing HF/VHF/UHF radio with me with the intent to operate from outdoors.
I've found dry desert heat more comfortable than high humidity and heat. But make sure to drink lots of water and sit in the shade if you can!
@@saveitforparts Thanks, will do - that is one of the beauties of tea! it is quite refreshing on a hot day.
Thanks for the content that you create, always been a pleasure to watch your projects evolve. I want to build an AZEL mount for working the LEO amateur satellites - I do have a dish set up for the QO-100 satellite for both uplink (2.4GHz) and downlink (10GHz).
I also think the rabbit mic sounds a bit better than the wireless mic - maybe it was the placement as it seemed to be tucked around your neck a little bit.
Be sure to sip water and electrolytes every hour. Dry heat feels good, but it also means dehydration can slip up on ya. Welcome to the states, hope you have fun!
@@currentfaves65 Thanks for the tips and kind welcome! :)
Sounds like the mic is too hot. Sounds very warm maybe too warm. Mic placement should be lower.
In a way, I almost prefer the way you record your screen. If you put on a CPL filter to remove some of the reflections off of it, it would be even better.
Yeah, a proper screen record is "nicer" but this gives it a better feel, like we're actually there with you hah. Love the content
the wireless mic is ok, for outside shots its fine but indoors its way too muffled, wonder if there is a way to connect the rabbit mic to the wireless transmitter or something. not sure if that would make any difference.
Awesome video. This was a good one for sure, thank you for putting up with the heat for us!
Opinion Regarding mics: I think old mic sound is better.
Reason: The new mic has a lot of background static and is lacking the high frequency tones the old mic picks up.
I think the lapel mic is clearer...but honestly, I've gotten used to the fuzzy rabbit and change is weird.
no, that lapel mic is horrible - it's full of noise and hiss - the mic on the camera is much clearer without background noise. The wireless lapel mic sounds like a super low budget local tv station from some hick town in the early 90's that has no budget for good equipment
Tbh I think the fuzzy rabbit mic gives much better quality while the wireless one lets static come thro
Hello from KT1R. I enjoyed your operation as I did have the same questions about skinwalker and you should be on their next series with your gain antenna. Too bad skinwalker did not try your process.
the wireless mic sounds better, but a bit muffled.
the rabbit one sounds good too.
I like the rabbit one more, it gives you that "i am a backyard nerd who just builds cool stuff for the sake of it" vibe
For high frequencies, skinny coax cable is devastating to the signal. And for sdr software you really have to crank the gain, just be careful not to come across a signal so strong it overloads the hardware when the gain is set high
Yeah the 1559-1608 MHz range are GNSS frequencies.
1608-1626.5 are Globalstar and Iridium (in the upper range you should be able to see Iridium downlinks since they use TDD)
Above that is Inmarsat and other MSS L-band uplinks.
Then there's a chunk of radio astronomy above the 1660 MHz point, and then...well, in the US apparently you may be able to hear some interesting military wideband systems ;)
Hi Gabe with regards to the audio, I echo many other comments and agree that the fuzzy rabbit sounds much better.
As far as the tv show goes, I watched a number of episodes and soon got rather tired of some of the ‘nonsense entertainment’ that they were filming. That said it’s made for an interesting video and I’m very much like yourself and would prefer to stay away from the heat of summer, though it’s been much more manageable this year here in England/UK.
Thank you for sharing this excellent video with everyone. Best wishes to you, your family and the feline overlords 🏴🇺🇸🐈
the physical screen records are fine, thanks for the neat content
SDR++ with jack rf one gives that frequency ghost at mid point.
Cubic sdr gives the ability to offset tune.
Also rf wayerfall. If waterfall. And audio waveform
The lapel mic sounds way better for the clips outside; otherwise I had the impression you always had to shout to the camera. It does sound a bit muffled compared to the rabbit mic but in the end it's more comfortable to listen to (especially with headphones).
You can use a old metal dryer hose and put the cable on the inside.
Damn, I love this channel.
The fuzzy rabbit mic picks up more reverberation (which has more to do with the room than the mic) but the lavalier has more noise
My company lent them one of the gamma ray spectrometers we make. They got some basic training and advice on how to use it to properly record data. Naturally those goofballs just did whatever they wanted in the interest of mild dramatic effects. It would've been more interesting to see any scattered sources of radiation that might be hidden out there. If they were serious enough (paranormal "investigators" are not) they would've learned the tech, and benefited from some longer measurements and post-processing to see some actual hidden "energies."
Did you learn any additional things about stream sensors? That was a highlight in this video for me! I am in a flood zone, and a unit which monitors water level, flow rate, O2 content, etc. would be really appealing for me right now. We have a lot of streams, and tidal areas, and monitoring them all, I could hook them all up to a database and webservices to provide a web based UI for it. I could try to piece some hardware together, but if you know of any products I would really love to know about it. I love your videos!
You can tell a difference in the microphone and the wireless on earplugs. It’s smoother.
I don't like the wireless lapel mic, it was perfect before!
My new favorite channel. More video like this! (not UFO)
With such a number of adapters there can be significant losses, in this case it is better to solder the cable directly to the antenna, and it is advisable to have a cable with a larger cross-section for lower losses and also adjust the antenna according to the characteristic impedance, good luck to you. I'm using google translator, I hope everything is clear.