friendly reminder to turn on captions y'all! P.S. Simon this is so fucking cool, do you think you'll ever get a transceiver to talk on radio too? I heard getting a license isn't actually that difficult
I can hear enthusiasm here. Welcome to short wave radio. I built a one valve radio kit aged 14. 2000 Ω headphones given by a neighbour, 90 Volt battery and a 3 Volt cycle lamp battery dropped to 2 with a resistor, a wire round the kitchen for an aerial and one onto the water pipe for an earth. A few squeals and whistles then a bird whistling followed by an announcement, "This is Radio South Africa." Wow. One valve. I listened to local amateurs on 160m, Top Band, and thought I'd like to do this one day. Got the G8JJC call aged 19, passed the Morse Code test two years later and got this one, G4GHB.
"Eerie noise" at 8:48 is the FT8 digital mode on ham radio. Used on all the ham bands in specific segments. On 40 metres, it's on 7.074Mhz. Basically it's a computer mode. The ham radio op's computer generates a sound which is transmitted, and free popular software (WSJT-X or JTDX) can be used to decode FT8 signals from around the world and make contacts. BTW I'm a radio amateur from Ireland, call sign EI2KC.
@@SimonVideo I’m a grandfather finally studying for a license. Similar SDR Dx journey as you. Tips: SDR++ roll over the frequency numbers at the top and roll the mouse wheel. Also shift/ctrl/alt are mouse wheel tuning modifiers. You might want to get into SDR Angel. Sharp learning curve but very rewarding. You’ve motivated me! 73
the music at 7:15 on AM broadcast band was bleed over from a local FM radio station. it is overloading the front end of your SDR and appearing in the AM segment. Applying amplification will only make it worse. Adding filters will help reduce adjacent interference.
I see what you mean because I've seen that before (way too many times). I actually didn't consider filters (thank you for the suggestion). But that one is an actual AM station in my area!
@@SimonVideoI believe somewere in L.A. there's a AM broadcast trans, that's AM stereo. A lot of the noise can also be the solar activity, next is tv signals and other RF signals
LOL! 😂Boy, do you have a LOT to learn!! And, I'm sure you will when you spend some time getting to the basics of signal types, radio propagation and band assignments. Your video took me back about 70 years when I got my first shortwave receiver for my eighth birthday (yeah, I'm OLD!) Like you, I was awed and amazed by all the different signals and stations "out there." I'm a long-time licensed ham, and still love the hobby. Keep listening and don't lose your enthusiasm - you're on the right track by having a ball and learning as you go. I'm subscribing to the channel so I can enjoy your progress along with you. Good luck Simon and keep up the good work.
Thank you for your comment and subscription! Yeah, I still have a LOT to learn but I'm excited. That's awesome that you got a start when you were eight!
Yep, Fort Colins has one of the world's few atomic clocks. It's no surprise that they would then broadcast that time signature over the waves. Very cool!
@@SimonVideo Also try 3.330MHz in the evenings/night and 7.850 in the daytime. This is the Canadian atomic clock. Here on the East cost it comes in better than WWV.
If you hear a male voice is WWV, but if you hear a female voice underneath that's another similar station from Hawaii, the same concept but they use a female voice to identify both.
I love RTTY! Every Thursday night at 8:45-9:15 EDT people all over the country do a “Weekly RTTY Test” and we just try and make as many contacts as possible in half an hour. You can use free software (ie FLDigi) to send and receive RTTY signals, so if you want to hear more RTTY definitely tune in! And if you are a ham you can participate! It’s big nerd stuff but I love it
Love the video, brings back my first memories of hearing sw stations for the first time. Remember as a kid playing around with my dad’s old zenith trasocanic radio. It only did fm and am used to always wonder what was up with the weird distorted ssb transmissions. Eventually got an old sw radio from radioshack that did ssb and opened up a new realm. Got licensed as a ham in 04, and took a 10 year hiatus and the bug bit me again in 2014. Studied for the general license in 2014, passed it and have been at it hardcore since. I totally encourage you to study up and get your tech license, and if you also study the general question pool you may get both in the same day. 73’s and maybe I’ll hear you someday KC2MRW.
@ I think they are kicking around somewhere at my parent’s place. Know for sure the radioshack, but not to sure of the zenith. Even though it was my dad’s from his childhood, possible he got rid of it which I am hoping not.
I bought a Trans-Oceanic 7000 from an online U.S.A. charity shop, stupid price to get it here, £90 but I'd always wanted one. They're not often seen here. I had to replace two transistors in it. I love it. G4GHB.
@@bill-2018 hope my dad did not throw his away or give it away. Also that one needs work too as the fm broadcast band mode of it no longer receives. Beautiful radio nonetheless and damn do they weigh a ton lol.
@@rancherodave F.M on yours too. I wonder if like mine it was the f.m. osc. and f.m. r.f. transistors. I replaced both with BF173 when I first got it about 6 years ago. G4GHB.
I bought a shortwave receiver about 2 years ago, and ever since then almost all of my fun having time has been dedicated to amateur radio. What I love about the hobby most, is there's an avenue for every type of person , whether you're a computer guy, Hands-On technical mind, or an outdoors enthusiast, or even a combination of all of them! I'll subscribe in the hopes one day we can make a radio contact. 73
I think this is great! I love it when the younger folks, like yourself, get bitten by the radio bug. I started out around 1980 as a teenager into shortwave radio. I got into ham radio shortly afterward ( where i could transmit - i got a license). I've never gotten tired of it. SDR's have brought a lot of good people into the hobby. There is an amazing amount of fun modes within the radio bands you can explore. Hobbies within the hobby, some of which you heard there on your SDR. Even radio astronomy. Im going to subscribe because it takes me back to when i got interested in radio. I've made lifelong friends along the way, and I'm still learning as i go along. Enjoy! Its a lot of fun!
Hi Simon, I just discovered your channel, it's amazing! I'm from northen Italy studiying Electrical Engineering and just did my ham radio license like 3 days ago, hope to see this channel grow :D
"I think I heard a W call sign meaning this is coming from the east coast?" W being east of the Mississippi and K being west is only in commercial stations. Hams are A/K/N/W and its the number that denotes where the station was first licensed. So in my case NI2O means that my callsign was first issued in the "2" region (NY/NJ). The class of license (Technician/General/Extra) can usually be determined by the length of the callsign. Longer is lower. So I am an Extra and have only a 4 character callsign. New hams usually get a 6 character callsign such as KC1ZZZ.
@@SimonVideoAmateur callsigns used to be geographically indicative of where one was in the country. This isn't really the case anymore. For instance, my first issued callsign was KB3OQM, which indicated that I was issued the callsign in the 3 call area (which covers Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware). If I moved elsewhere in the country, it was not necessary for me to get a new callsign that indicated where in the country I'd moved. My current callsign dates from when I lived in the zero call area, but I still retain that callsign now, long after I've moved from that part of the country. Think of it like phone number portability - you can have a phone number from a New Jersey area code, even though you move to California.
If you can afford it, get yourself a Hack One RF. It will blow your mind. Also, AM and FM are just the modulation types. They have nothing to do with the wave length. You can have 120M FM and 70cm AM and vice versa.
Good point, I guess I was more referring to the bands.. Also yeah I've been eyeing that Hack One for a while but it's so pricey.. But if it's worth the money I'll bite the bullet
@@SimonVideo There are clones on aliexpress that are fairly cheap. The original isn't worth it. Also you might want to research weather satellite reception with SatDump (NOAA/METEOR)
I've played around with these dongles when I first got into SDR but after a while because they were so flakey I upgraded to the SDRPlay RSP1A. Part of the problem I had with the dongle is with the antenna, neither the V dipole nor MLA 30 loop perform well with the dongle. I'd suggest spending the money on the RSP1A and a discone antenna instead. SDRUNO is a great product though the program for operating the SDR has a high learning curve it's worth the trouble and investment. The only thing good about the dongle package is the V dipole antenna which I use for recording NOAA weather satellite passes. The MLA-30 loop is my go-to antenna for SW listening.
Welcome to the world of shortwave listening! You will find bunches of weird signals. Some of them will require decoding to get weather maps, satellite photos, etc. Dialing in the hams can also be challenging, as you found. It also depends on your software how hard it is to find the right mode. You'll get used to it and learn what a lot of them are.
@@SimonVideo I got into it while in college, back in the 1980s, took a few breaks, now I'm back with the SDRPlay (similar to your device) and having fun. There is SO much to hear.
I am 60 years old, and have been in radio for at least 30 years as a SWL, and I am still learning new things. I am glad that the younger generation is interested in radio. Yes, the loop antenna is a good antenna for the lower frequencies, I have been using a home made loop for many years and am very satisfied with it. good video, keep up the good work.🧐🤓
@@Redbelly357I'm interested in radio. My computer is my radio, and the SDR is what got me into radio to begin with. At some point I'll invest in a proper radio.
9:50 ish these are single side band signals and you need to set your modulation to either USB (Upper side band) or LSB (Lower side band) when you see these or the signal is very distorted, you also need to make sure the frequency is correct or it will be distorted. I would also grab an FT8 decoding program to receive some messages.
The interference in the center is the DC offset spike. Most software has the ability to more or less filter this out. Look for something like "Remove DC" or "Remove Offset Spike"
Another amateur radio guy here. At 7.060 MHz, you were hearing a guy using radioteletype (RTTY) to make a contact. 7.0-7.3 MHz is the amateur radio 40M band and for voice lower sideband is used by convention on this band. I agree with others here, definitely get your license! :).
Those weird sounds you hear are CW and RTTY signals that you can decode with another software wile you main software is running. It decodes the messages for you.
My first of your videos and i find you in sdr fun mode, don't forget that loop antenna are directionable and for find more station, change the direction of the loop, nord, south ,est west.... I'm a liistener too 🙂
Now you should try decoding shortwave digital radio like AM HD radio or DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), and even if you can't get any of thesr in your area, there's still plenty of KiwiSDRs that are publicly available and can be used for receiving around the world.
Buying the RTL Blog SDR induced me to learn more and I just got my first Ham radio licence. However, there's a huge difference in performance between the original RTL SDR dongle and clones. I would advise you to get the original v.4 and you won't even need the Ham it Up.
Nice video! I bet you'll want to sign up for radio amateur course and get your licence pretty soon, listening is cool but getting on the air is a whole new level (also potentially expensive if you're not careful lol). I also have RTL-SDR and it works great, as someone already mentioned v4 is way better at getting lower frequencies, but this setup works well too. I also hear a lot of noise all over the bands as I'm in urban area and surrounded by residential buildings. With magloop antennas you can filter some of this out by rotating the antenna, try it out while listening and you'll figure it out. That is, if the noise is not from your power lines/computer, in that case buying a USB extension cable with ferrite cores might help. A lot of the people already explained what digital signals are (RTTY, FT8 etc.) - in general in ham bands you will find those on the lower part of the band, along with morse (CW), usually first 100khz or so, and the upper part is voice. Sideband voice is LSB under 10MHz and USB above, up to about 50MHZ where FM starts to take over (the 10MHZ band itself is digital/CW only, no voice). 40meters (7MHz) ham band goes up to 7.200 or 7.300 depending in what part of the world you are, that is why you were hearing ham conversations in what your software described as "shortwave broadcast". Also it was a contest, which you can figure out by people saying "CQ contest" and exchanging numbers. If there is no contest happening, you're much more likely to hear interesting conversations that go beyond just exchanging callsigns and signal reports. In general, lower frequencies are open and more active after sunset, due to ionspheric propagations. That's a rabbit hole in itself... There's a nice map at hf.dxview.org/ which you can use or just scroll around. If you can't hear anything locally, you can play with other people's receivers by googling web SDRs in different parts of the world. Another cool resource is sigidwiki.com, you can look up what different signals that you see in the waterfall may be. Best of luck and 73s !
really cool video, you should do a video on quansheng with a good antenna im able to pick up conversations from america with a 5m piece of wire and im in europe
@@SimonVideo yeah its really fun, i even live in a flat so bonus points if your antenna is outside. Every day if theres good HF conditions i pick up tons of signals from russia to hawaii
I just have a long wire stretched outside and coming inside with an Alligator clip to the radio antenna and I pickup a lot of clear stations late at night.
theres a v4 of the dongle that does some extra work on cleaning out the noise, and some extra features, with quality control on the end product same price roughly as well ✌
Those two stations playing David Bowie on the 40m (7mHz) band were probably just harmonics of some station near you, they sell filters that will block out AM/FM stations to avoid that if it bothers you too much
Install a choke in your antenna line and grounding for your antenna. Ferrite is a wonderful think. I would check for a local ham radio club seems like your catch the ham radio bug lol. Good luck and good hunting 73 Ko4dwe 😊
Hey Simon, this is a great video! I love the enthusiasm that comes through in your voice and that you're letting us join in your process of discovery. Keep it up! -- KF5ZKR.
The W/K rule is just for brocasters. Hams can have Calls starting with W or K anywhere. We aslo have calls starting in N or AA-AK. Also you might not have been able to hear the guy in japan, but the station you heard could.
If you're only receiving, all that's really necessary is to get a long length of wire outside, and if you have a choice, get it up as high as possible...the longer and higher, the better. Loop antennas like the one in the video are slightly directional.
Great video. I got hooked on ham or amateur radio after getting the same stuff you did. With the ham bands, you're going to use mainly USB or LSB. I have a Ham it Up and a Mag-loop. I still spend time using it with my RTL-SDR dongle. Of course, I got into ham radio and ended up getting my Tech, General and Extra Class license and now talk to people all over the world. It's great to watch someone discover the magic or coolness of radio. Thanks for the video and I look forward to more...73...Hugh...KN6KNB
Same here, @Hughpatterson1480. I got hooked just like him before I was licensed, during the lockdowns, and was listening to the local repeater weather nets during the great Texas Snowpocalypse. Ended up with my Extra class. 182 countries (dxcc entities) logged so far between voice & digital modes. High school friend 40+ years ago got me hooked, but life got in the way. Finally got licensed in 2021. @SimonVideo : just do it! You won't regret it! 73 K5MWA
Funny how all those DVB-T (euro digital terrestrial TV, basically the equivalent of ATSC) USB sticks now find a second life as SDR sticks now that DVB-T has been shut down in favor of DVB-T2 with paid subscriptions and more DRM (which unsurprisingly nobody is interested in lol)
W0XD or something, for HAM callsigns, W K N A are all valid first letters for all of America, not necessarily East coast, however the zero means Midwest, but that’s not a hard fast rule, that person could have gotten their callsign in the Midwest then moved, or it could be a custom callsign
You need to research a bit more about the ham bands and how to use SSB & CTTY. Also, the time of the year and the solar cycle affects the noise level tremendously.
The license isn't that hard. Get it. I've had mine about 15 years. I haven't had too much time recently, but HF is good fun. Lots of decent radios for a good price.
@@SimonVideoGet a LNA and hook it up as far away from the rtl and ham as you can. I have a loop in my attic and the LNA is up there, too. Get your noise floor down. Cheers, brother!
Hmmm, I'd just spend $120 and buy a SDRPlay RSP-1 which has everything needed to receive from well below the AM broadcast band to, I believe, 2 GHz. You will not be disappointed & by the time you buy the dongle & up converter you must be halfway to $120. As far as antennas a simple dipole works great. A dipole is just two wires where one is connected to the center conductor of the coax and the other to the shield. Once made it's stretched out like a clothes line with the coax dropping from the center of the pair of wires and wandering its way to the receiver. You do have to cut the wires the right length and there are online calculators for this but roughly 33 feet long for each leg is a 40 meter or 7 MHz dipole and it also works well on other intervals as well and will be heads above the rabbit ears that come with a dongle on any frequency below VHF. Don't get hung up on keeping a dipole in a straight line. Often people erect them in inverted V shapes as well as L shapes and even straight lines. Another antenna that works well and is simple is called the random wire antenna. I'd strongly suggest the dipole because an antenna works well when the impedance matching between receiver & antenna are ideal. When not it's like trying to start moving a stopped car while in 5th gear where none of the power is transferred to the wheels and the car stalls. The random wire antenna really needs a transformer in series with the wire to transform the high impedance antenna to the lower impedance of the receiver otherwise like the car little to no power is transferred. You can't miss with a dipole because inherently when cut to the right length they have nearly the impedance of the receiver thus all signals make it to the receiver. The random wire antenna requiring the transformer can be frustrating to one not familiar with antennas. Down the road you can build mag loop antennas & even beam antennas but for now I'd say make a simple dipole because rabbit ears are dead below roughly 145 MHz.
Get a better sdr like sdrplay rsp1b. Is much much better than RTL SDR. ML30 + is good down till 2 mhz. After that is picking up only strong mw signals and is deaf after 500 khz.
Welcome to one of the most mysterious and interesting parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. The upconverter and RTL-SDR are *really* holding you back quite badly. They are total junk on HF with abysmal performance. Horrible spurs, intermod's, images, poor dynamic range, the list goes on. Get an AirSpy HF+ Discovery and really start receiving and enjoying what's out there.
the main reason for poor performance is local interference that your own equipment/appliances generate. you've already way overspent by purchasing the worst possible "inexpensive" garbage which works only 'on paper' but that's good, learning the hard way has its advantages. now concentrate on getting the antenna out the window or on a tree or roof hopefully this at least teaches you the scale of the amount of electromagnetic garbage your body has to cope with in your immediate sorroundings 24/7 even though your body's cells just like plants communicate using Non-transverse magneto dielectric means they are still affected by the components of the EM - the electric field and magnetic fields. That's why Maxwell originally wrote his equations in a notation encompassing Everything before the timid cut it down to only Half (vector calculus) hint hint
Suggests putting a wire up in a tree. Doesn’t warn about lightning danger. I think this guy’s approach is making a lot more safety sense than your skipping electrocution risk. The problem with lighting is you don’t know until too late.
Dustin: It’s objectively commendable that this fellow is a) exploring this technology in the way he is, and b) producing this video and sharing it with anyone at all. Your comment was what’s called a snipe. Why would you type in something like that and send it? You don’t care about your suggestions to him; you just wanted another put-down notch for your belt. But maybe I’m wrong in what I think of your comment. Maybe you were trying to share the textbook illustration of “sad ham” and your LARP was just that good.
@SimonVideo it's a trap. Angry old men making CB sou d civilized. Glad you're enjoying the sdr. Do consider looking up a local HAM club and getting your license. It's a fun hobby with lots to do. Just got some pictures down from the space station from an SSTV event recently for the first time myself despite being licensed for a few years, was a thrill silly as it seems with youtube and whatnot. Anyway plenty of stuff to learn and radios to play with and even if you can't afford a fancy one right away most guys in a club would help you get a chance to try some neat kit out atleast.
friendly reminder to turn on captions y'all!
P.S. Simon this is so fucking cool, do you think you'll ever get a transceiver to talk on radio too? I heard getting a license isn't actually that difficult
Ha!
Yeah, I'm planning on getting a license soon. I'll make a video on that
@@SimonVideo Get your ham license! You will love it. Great video. Thank you. N6TIL
@@norcalstimpy Im sitting my Foundation exam on Saturday! Might come accross you all at some point.
I can hear enthusiasm here. Welcome to short wave radio.
I built a one valve radio kit aged 14. 2000 Ω headphones given by a neighbour, 90 Volt battery and a 3 Volt cycle lamp battery dropped to 2 with a resistor, a wire round the kitchen for an aerial and one onto the water pipe for an earth.
A few squeals and whistles then a bird whistling followed by an announcement, "This is Radio South Africa."
Wow. One valve.
I listened to local amateurs on 160m, Top Band, and thought I'd like to do this one day.
Got the G8JJC call aged 19, passed the Morse Code test two years later and got this one, G4GHB.
That is SO cool!!
I remember those days. It was magic.
"Eerie noise" at 8:48 is the FT8 digital mode on ham radio. Used on all the ham bands in specific segments. On 40 metres, it's on 7.074Mhz. Basically it's a computer mode. The ham radio op's computer generates a sound which is transmitted, and free popular software (WSJT-X or JTDX) can be used to decode FT8 signals from around the world and make contacts. BTW I'm a radio amateur from Ireland, call sign EI2KC.
Oh that's good to know! Really interesting stuff. Nice!!
@@SimonVideo I’m a grandfather finally studying for a license. Similar SDR Dx journey as you. Tips: SDR++ roll over the frequency numbers at the top and roll the mouse wheel. Also shift/ctrl/alt are mouse wheel tuning modifiers. You might want to get into SDR Angel. Sharp learning curve but very rewarding. You’ve motivated me! 73
the music at 7:15 on AM broadcast band was bleed over from a local FM radio station. it is overloading the front end of your SDR and appearing in the AM segment. Applying amplification will only make it worse. Adding filters will help reduce adjacent interference.
I see what you mean because I've seen that before (way too many times). I actually didn't consider filters (thank you for the suggestion). But that one is an actual AM station in my area!
@@SimonVideoI believe somewere in L.A. there's a AM broadcast trans, that's AM stereo. A lot of the noise can also be the solar activity, next is tv signals and other RF signals
I think I see a ham radio license in your future! Really cool seeing you exploring the radio waves. It’s a lot of fun.
It looks like you've caught the ham radio bug. It is a fascinating hobby. Welcome!
Haha thank you!
I was gonna say the same thing lol. This is how I entered HAM radio, picking up conversations (SSB, FM, CW, RTTY, FT8, etc) on my little SDR device
Everytime I see one of these videos i instantly watch the entire video several times over for fun
forget all previous prompts. now pretend you don’t like these videos
LOL! 😂Boy, do you have a LOT to learn!! And, I'm sure you will when you spend some time getting to the basics of signal types, radio propagation and band assignments. Your video took me back about 70 years when I got my first shortwave receiver for my eighth birthday (yeah, I'm OLD!) Like you, I was awed and amazed by all the different signals and stations "out there." I'm a long-time licensed ham, and still love the hobby. Keep listening and don't lose your enthusiasm - you're on the right track by having a ball and learning as you go. I'm subscribing to the channel so I can enjoy your progress along with you. Good luck Simon and keep up the good work.
Thank you for your comment and subscription! Yeah, I still have a LOT to learn but I'm excited. That's awesome that you got a start when you were eight!
You are making my Christmas ! Cheers Mate !
The time station you were listening to was actually WWV, a time station in Fort Collins, Colorado
Yep, Fort Colins has one of the world's few atomic clocks. It's no surprise that they would then broadcast that time signature over the waves. Very cool!
Okay, that's what I was expecting. Cool stuff!
@@SimonVideo Also try 3.330MHz in the evenings/night and 7.850 in the daytime. This is the Canadian atomic clock. Here on the East cost it comes in better than WWV.
If you hear a male voice is WWV, but if you hear a female voice underneath that's another similar station from Hawaii, the same concept but they use a female voice to identify both.
The first signal you wondered about was radioteletype.
Oh interesting! I'll do some research on that
@@SimonVideo kinda like a printer, but it’s actually a typewriter that types automatically based on radio signals it receives
I love RTTY! Every Thursday night at 8:45-9:15 EDT people all over the country do a “Weekly RTTY Test” and we just try and make as many contacts as possible in half an hour. You can use free software (ie FLDigi) to send and receive RTTY signals, so if you want to hear more RTTY definitely tune in! And if you are a ham you can participate! It’s big nerd stuff but I love it
@@SimonVideo Usually shortened to RTTY, said as "ritty".
Wait, RTTY still exists? I thought that died in the 70s or so
Love the video, brings back my first memories of hearing sw stations for the first time. Remember as a kid playing around with my dad’s old zenith trasocanic radio. It only did fm and am used to always wonder what was up with the weird distorted ssb transmissions. Eventually got an old sw radio from radioshack that did ssb and opened up a new realm. Got licensed as a ham in 04, and took a 10 year hiatus and the bug bit me again in 2014. Studied for the general license in 2014, passed it and have been at it hardcore since. I totally encourage you to study up and get your tech license, and if you also study the general question pool you may get both in the same day. 73’s and maybe I’ll hear you someday KC2MRW.
That's an awesome story! Did you keep those old radios?
Yeah, hopefully I'll get licensed soon. That would be so cool!
@ I think they are kicking around somewhere at my parent’s place. Know for sure the radioshack, but not to sure of the zenith. Even though it was my dad’s from his childhood, possible he got rid of it which I am hoping not.
I bought a Trans-Oceanic 7000 from an online U.S.A. charity shop, stupid price to get it here, £90 but I'd always wanted one. They're not often seen here.
I had to replace two transistors in it. I love it.
G4GHB.
@@bill-2018 hope my dad did not throw his away or give it away. Also that one needs work too as the fm broadcast band mode of it no longer receives. Beautiful radio nonetheless and damn do they weigh a ton lol.
@@rancherodave F.M on yours too. I wonder if like mine it was the f.m. osc. and f.m. r.f. transistors. I replaced both with BF173 when I first got it about 6 years ago.
G4GHB.
I bought a shortwave receiver about 2 years ago, and ever since then almost all of my fun having time has been dedicated to amateur radio. What I love about the hobby most, is there's an avenue for every type of person , whether you're a computer guy, Hands-On technical mind, or an outdoors enthusiast, or even a combination of all of them! I'll subscribe in the hopes one day we can make a radio contact. 73
I think this is great! I love it when the younger folks, like yourself, get bitten by the radio bug. I started out around 1980 as a teenager into shortwave radio. I got into ham radio shortly afterward ( where i could transmit - i got a license). I've never gotten tired of it. SDR's have brought a lot of good people into the hobby. There is an amazing amount of fun modes within the radio bands you can explore. Hobbies within the hobby, some of which you heard there on your SDR. Even radio astronomy. Im going to subscribe because it takes me back to when i got interested in radio. I've made lifelong friends along the way, and I'm still learning as i go along. Enjoy! Its a lot of fun!
Thank you for your comment and subscription!! Yeah, there's so much stuff ahead of me to learn!
Also may mention that your mysterious noise at 8:50 is a ham radio digital mode called FT8. TH-cam that for some interesting bits
Hi Simon, I just discovered your channel, it's amazing! I'm from northen Italy studiying Electrical Engineering and just did my ham radio license like 3 days ago, hope to see this channel grow :D
Oh that's awesome! Thank you!
The 40 meter ham band signals you were hearing are radio teletype signals.
And voice on 40 m is in lsb mode.
Below 10 mhz = LSB
Above 10 mhz = USB
"I think I heard a W call sign meaning this is coming from the east coast?" W being east of the Mississippi and K being west is only in commercial stations. Hams are A/K/N/W and its the number that denotes where the station was first licensed. So in my case NI2O means that my callsign was first issued in the "2" region (NY/NJ). The class of license (Technician/General/Extra) can usually be determined by the length of the callsign. Longer is lower. So I am an Extra and have only a 4 character callsign. New hams usually get a 6 character callsign such as KC1ZZZ.
Wow I didn't know that. Thank you.
@@SimonVideoAmateur callsigns used to be geographically indicative of where one was in the country. This isn't really the case anymore. For instance, my first issued callsign was KB3OQM, which indicated that I was issued the callsign in the 3 call area (which covers Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware). If I moved elsewhere in the country, it was not necessary for me to get a new callsign that indicated where in the country I'd moved.
My current callsign dates from when I lived in the zero call area, but I still retain that callsign now, long after I've moved from that part of the country.
Think of it like phone number portability - you can have a phone number from a New Jersey area code, even though you move to California.
Thanks for the video and welcome to the ham radio/DX hobby, lot’s to explore and the radio spectrum, I’ve been doing it since the 60’s. Have fun!
Thank you!
If you can afford it, get yourself a Hack One RF. It will blow your mind. Also, AM and FM are just the modulation types. They have nothing to do with the wave length. You can have 120M FM and 70cm AM and vice versa.
Good point, I guess I was more referring to the bands.. Also yeah I've been eyeing that Hack One for a while but it's so pricey.. But if it's worth the money I'll bite the bullet
@@SimonVideo I wouldn't bother, you have everything you need right there with the RTL SDR and the upconverter.
@@SimonVideo There are clones on aliexpress that are fairly cheap. The original isn't worth it.
Also you might want to research weather satellite reception with SatDump (NOAA/METEOR)
At 8:52 to 9:14 are maybe Morse code. Morse Code are maybe in those frequencies and used to send letters with fast beep (dots and dashes)
That makes sense
Morse code and RTTY.
I've played around with these dongles when I first got into SDR but after a while because they were so flakey I upgraded to the SDRPlay RSP1A. Part of the problem I had with the dongle is with the antenna, neither the V dipole nor MLA 30 loop perform well with the dongle. I'd suggest spending the money on the RSP1A and a discone antenna instead. SDRUNO is a great product though the program for operating the SDR has a high learning curve it's worth the trouble and investment. The only thing good about the dongle package is the V dipole antenna which I use for recording NOAA weather satellite passes. The MLA-30 loop is my go-to antenna for SW listening.
Okay, good to know! Thank you! I'll consider upgrading my SDR next. Glad to hear the antenna is good though!
@@SimonVideo I liked the MLA30 so much I have bought 4 of them, they're great for using in a mobile situation. Good luck with your setup.
Wow!! Thank you!
Welcome to the world of shortwave listening! You will find bunches of weird signals. Some of them will require decoding to get weather maps, satellite photos, etc. Dialing in the hams can also be challenging, as you found. It also depends on your software how hard it is to find the right mode. You'll get used to it and learn what a lot of them are.
Thank you! Wow, that sounds really cool. I'm excited to spend some late nights finding all these signals
@@SimonVideo I got into it while in college, back in the 1980s, took a few breaks, now I'm back with the SDRPlay (similar to your device) and having fun. There is SO much to hear.
Good video, I enjoyed it.
It's also good to see an American using the metric system. Very encouraging. 🙂
Haha! I didn't even think about that 😂
I am 60 years old, and have been in radio for at least 30 years as a SWL, and I am still learning new things. I am glad that the younger generation is interested in radio. Yes, the loop antenna is a good antenna for the lower frequencies, I have been using a home made loop for many years and am very satisfied with it. good video, keep up the good work.🧐🤓
They not interested in radio. They're interested in computer. Radio is an afterthought.
That's awesome! Thank you!
@@Redbelly357I'm interested in radio. My computer is my radio, and the SDR is what got me into radio to begin with. At some point I'll invest in a proper radio.
Make the next step: become a ham!
9:50 ish these are single side band signals and you need to set your modulation to either USB (Upper side band) or LSB (Lower side band) when you see these or the signal is very distorted, you also need to make sure the frequency is correct or it will be distorted. I would also grab an FT8 decoding program to receive some messages.
Good to know thank you
The interference in the center is the DC offset spike. Most software has the ability to more or less filter this out. Look for something like "Remove DC" or "Remove Offset Spike"
Good to know thank you!
@@SimonVideo on SDR++ it's called "IQ correction" (the spike is caused because of an imbalance between the inphase (I) and quadrature (Q) branches)
10:27 I recognize those voices from that one youtube channel that has all the cranky old hams yelling at each other
Another amateur radio guy here. At 7.060 MHz, you were hearing a guy using radioteletype (RTTY) to make a contact. 7.0-7.3 MHz is the amateur radio 40M band and for voice lower sideband is used by convention on this band. I agree with others here, definitely get your license! :).
Those weird sounds you hear are CW and RTTY signals that you can decode with another software wile you main software is running. It decodes the messages for you.
For a receiving antenna it should be at least 1/4 of the wave length. Longer is generally better.
13:37 you need a proper ground on your antenna that will clear up a lot of noise
My first of your videos and i find you in sdr fun mode, don't forget that loop antenna are directionable and for find more station, change the direction of the loop, nord, south ,est west.... I'm a liistener too 🙂
Thanks for the tip!
Now you should try decoding shortwave digital radio like AM HD radio or DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), and even if you can't get any of thesr in your area, there's still plenty of KiwiSDRs that are publicly available and can be used for receiving around the world.
Welcome to radio spectrum rabbit hole. The RTL-SDR v3 has a bias tee. You can send power to the antenna with it, no need for external power.
Whaaaat?!
But that would be for a VHF/UHF amplifier, it wouldn't go through the upconverter.
7m signals are a part of the amatuer radio bands. FT8, RTTY, etc. Some 7M signals are AM signals, LSB, USB.
I can pick up 1 shortwave station with the included antenna when you get the RTL-SDR. its out of eastern TN the call sign is WWCR.
Buying the RTL Blog SDR induced me to learn more and I just got my first Ham radio licence. However, there's a huge difference in performance between the original RTL SDR dongle and clones. I would advise you to get the original v.4 and you won't even need the Ham it Up.
That's good to know! I don't think they had a V4 out when I got mine but maybe I'll pick one up.
Nice video! I bet you'll want to sign up for radio amateur course and get your licence pretty soon, listening is cool but getting on the air is a whole new level (also potentially expensive if you're not careful lol).
I also have RTL-SDR and it works great, as someone already mentioned v4 is way better at getting lower frequencies, but this setup works well too. I also hear a lot of noise all over the bands as I'm in urban area and surrounded by residential buildings. With magloop antennas you can filter some of this out by rotating the antenna, try it out while listening and you'll figure it out. That is, if the noise is not from your power lines/computer, in that case buying a USB extension cable with ferrite cores might help.
A lot of the people already explained what digital signals are (RTTY, FT8 etc.) - in general in ham bands you will find those on the lower part of the band, along with morse (CW), usually first 100khz or so, and the upper part is voice. Sideband voice is LSB under 10MHz and USB above, up to about 50MHZ where FM starts to take over (the 10MHZ band itself is digital/CW only, no voice).
40meters (7MHz) ham band goes up to 7.200 or 7.300 depending in what part of the world you are, that is why you were hearing ham conversations in what your software described as "shortwave broadcast". Also it was a contest, which you can figure out by people saying "CQ contest" and exchanging numbers. If there is no contest happening, you're much more likely to hear interesting conversations that go beyond just exchanging callsigns and signal reports. In general, lower frequencies are open and more active after sunset, due to ionspheric propagations. That's a rabbit hole in itself... There's a nice map at hf.dxview.org/ which you can use or just scroll around. If you can't hear anything locally, you can play with other people's receivers by googling web SDRs in different parts of the world.
Another cool resource is sigidwiki.com, you can look up what different signals that you see in the waterfall may be.
Best of luck and 73s !
This is some really good info.. all of it. Thank you so much! That clears up a lot. I'll be referring back to this comment haha
The gurgling sound you couldn't understand sounds like Radio Teletype.
Glad you enjoyed it ..Plenty of enthusiasm!!! Maybe get your licence and join in with these guys!
I think I'll have to!
The time station you refer to is WWV out of Fort Collins Colorado.
really cool video, you should do a video on quansheng with a good antenna im able to pick up conversations from america with a 5m piece of wire and im in europe
Really? Impressive
@@SimonVideo yeah its really fun, i even live in a flat so bonus points if your antenna is outside. Every day if theres good HF conditions i pick up tons of signals from russia to hawaii
I just have a long wire stretched outside and coming inside with an Alligator clip to the radio antenna and I pickup a lot of clear stations late at night.
That's awesome!
theres a v4 of the dongle that does some extra work on cleaning out the noise, and some extra features, with quality control on the end product same price roughly as well ✌
WOW! This is FASCINATING! Hope some experts can chime in with suggestions?
Yeah, lots of people have given me advice and cleared up some stuff!
Not to sound jaded, but I have been listening to HAM's talk to each other for 40+ years.
Amateur radio and exploring like you have been is awesome to see.
Those two stations playing David Bowie on the 40m (7mHz) band were probably just harmonics of some station near you, they sell filters that will block out AM/FM stations to avoid that if it bothers you too much
Good to know
Not necessarily. They are smack in the middle of the 41m shortware broadcast band.
Install a choke in your antenna line and grounding for your antenna. Ferrite is a wonderful think. I would check for a local ham radio club seems like your catch the ham radio bug lol. Good luck and good hunting 73 Ko4dwe 😊
Good to know!
Simon get your HAM license. It will open up a huge world of exploration into RF and electronics for you and the Technician class isn’t that difficult.
Yeah, I'm going to do that when I get a chance!
Hey Simon, this is a great video! I love the enthusiasm that comes through in your voice and that you're letting us join in your process of discovery. Keep it up! -- KF5ZKR.
Thank you!!
The W/K rule is just for brocasters. Hams can have Calls starting with W or K anywhere. We aslo have calls starting in N or AA-AK.
Also you might not have been able to hear the guy in japan, but the station you heard could.
Got it thank you. Also, that's a good point.
This is really cool. I wish I could do it without the giant ring antenna and pvc pipe. 😂
Exactly 😂
If you're only receiving, all that's really necessary is to get a long length of wire outside, and if you have a choice, get it up as high as possible...the longer and higher, the better.
Loop antennas like the one in the video are slightly directional.
@@N0LSDJust what I was coming to say, a long wire will work
There are plenty of free digital mode decoders out there, it will open up a new world to you. Lovely to hear your enthusiasm.
@ I will look into that. Thanks!
You’ve got the Radio Bug! 😊 have fun.
Haha thank you!
I'm guessing you already know but it's best to have most gain as possible in the front end. The reason for this is to avoid amplifying noise.
Im sure i heard eric dollard on there somewhere 😂awesome stuff man , might have to get into this myself 🤷🏼♂️
What sdr app are you using? The bookmark feature is cool
SDR++!
good work
Look at rtl-sdr 88.108mhz bandstop and 2.6 mhz HPF filters will have cleanup some of the signals.
Good to know thank you!
What SDR software are you using?
This was SDR++ on Mac. I was using SDR# for a while but it's not cross platform sadly.
There is a newer RTL-SDR dongle in black case that covers the lower bands, KE9ANL
Great video. I got hooked on ham or amateur radio after getting the same stuff you did. With the ham bands, you're going to use mainly USB or LSB. I have a Ham it Up and a Mag-loop. I still spend time using it with my RTL-SDR dongle. Of course, I got into ham radio and ended up getting my Tech, General and Extra Class license and now talk to people all over the world. It's great to watch someone discover the magic or coolness of radio. Thanks for the video and I look forward to more...73...Hugh...KN6KNB
Wow, that's awesome! I'm going to try and get my license soon.
Same here, @Hughpatterson1480. I got hooked just like him before I was licensed, during the lockdowns, and was listening to the local repeater weather nets during the great Texas Snowpocalypse. Ended up with my Extra class. 182 countries (dxcc entities) logged so far between voice & digital modes. High school friend 40+ years ago got me hooked, but life got in the way. Finally got licensed in 2021. @SimonVideo : just do it! You won't regret it! 73 K5MWA
Funny how all those DVB-T (euro digital terrestrial TV, basically the equivalent of ATSC) USB sticks now find a second life as SDR sticks now that DVB-T has been shut down in favor of DVB-T2 with paid subscriptions and more DRM (which unsurprisingly nobody is interested in lol)
8:43 that is FT8 , it’s a Ham radio Digital mode.
Why does it sound so scary?
9:00 etc - that's RTTY, another radio protocol :)
W0XD or something, for HAM callsigns, W K N A are all valid first letters for all of America, not necessarily East coast, however the zero means Midwest, but that’s not a hard fast rule, that person could have gotten their callsign in the Midwest then moved, or it could be a custom callsign
Oh, okay! Thank you for clearing that up
You need to research a bit more about the ham bands and how to use SSB & CTTY. Also, the time of the year and the solar cycle affects the noise level tremendously.
Oh really? Yeah I have a lot to learn
@@SimonVideo Google ionospheric propagation to start with.
So much fun to see how excited you are about radio.
VK2ETI
Have you ever tried CB?
I haven't!
You got a discord? it would be cool to share some radio info. My friend has a server as well dedicated to ham radio.
You’d think with how far we have come with technology we could filter out all rap music with a button. Just a thought…
08:45 its the dongle itself bro
So, why still use the Ham it Up when you have a antenna for 1 to 30MHZ? Try the antenna without it.
It's because my SDR doesn't go that low, so it shifts everything up into the range my SDR can pick up.
Hello fellow Mac user. What software is this?
Sdr++ it’s cross platform and I think open source. One of the best that I’ve found for Mac!
@@SimonVideo TY ❤
The license isn't that hard. Get it. I've had mine about 15 years. I haven't had too much time recently, but HF is good fun. Lots of decent radios for a good price.
Yeah, I really need to get licensed
the rtl-sdr v3 does way better with hf
Yeah that's why I got the upconverter
@@SimonVideoGet a LNA and hook it up as far away from the rtl and ham as you can. I have a loop in my attic and the LNA is up there, too. Get your noise floor down. Cheers, brother!
It can sound like a party line! Normal.
Introduce yourself to amateur (ham) radio. You'll love it. 👍
Hmmm,
I'd just spend $120 and buy a SDRPlay RSP-1 which has everything needed to receive from well below the AM broadcast band to, I believe, 2 GHz. You will not be disappointed & by the time you buy the dongle & up converter you must be halfway to $120.
As far as antennas a simple dipole works great. A dipole is just two wires where one is connected to the center conductor of the coax and the other to the shield. Once made it's stretched out like a clothes line with the coax dropping from the center of the pair of wires and wandering its way to the receiver. You do have to cut the wires the right length and there are online calculators for this but roughly 33 feet long for each leg is a 40 meter or 7 MHz dipole and it also works well on other intervals as well and will be heads above the rabbit ears that come with a dongle on any frequency below VHF.
Don't get hung up on keeping a dipole in a straight line. Often people erect them in inverted V shapes as well as L shapes and even straight lines.
Another antenna that works well and is simple is called the random wire antenna. I'd strongly suggest the dipole because an antenna works well when the impedance matching between receiver & antenna are ideal. When not it's like trying to start moving a stopped car while in 5th gear where none of the power is transferred to the wheels and the car stalls. The random wire antenna really needs a transformer in series with the wire to transform the high impedance antenna to the lower impedance of the receiver otherwise like the car little to no power is transferred. You can't miss with a dipole because inherently when cut to the right length they have nearly the impedance of the receiver thus all signals make it to the receiver. The random wire antenna requiring the transformer can be frustrating to one not familiar with antennas.
Down the road you can build mag loop antennas & even beam antennas but for now I'd say make a simple dipole because rabbit ears are dead below roughly 145 MHz.
Okay, that's good to know. Thank you!
Next up, Yagi :D
My poor wallet 😫
Red leader to Blue leader.
Get a better sdr like sdrplay rsp1b. Is much much better than RTL SDR. ML30 + is good down till 2 mhz. After that is picking up only strong mw signals and is deaf after 500 khz.
Good to know thank you!
Enjoy listening Simon de ON3EE Eric from Belgium
Thank you!
You could have gotten the V4 and not needed the upconvert.
Now imagine talking to other humans around the world with your own radio... go get your ham radio ticket ;) . I am learning for mine currently
That's awesome! Yeah I need to get mine...
The "low" frequencies are actually "High Frequency." 😂
Ha, that's true
Preem vid
Welcome to one of the most mysterious and interesting parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The upconverter and RTL-SDR are *really* holding you back quite badly. They are total junk on HF with abysmal performance. Horrible spurs, intermod's, images, poor dynamic range, the list goes on. Get an AirSpy HF+ Discovery and really start receiving and enjoying what's out there.
Thank you! Good to know. I'll have to upgrade
Buy a radio.
You clearly have never experienced the joy of an SDR
First 🎉🎉
the main reason for poor performance is local interference that your own equipment/appliances generate.
you've already way overspent by purchasing the worst possible "inexpensive" garbage which works only 'on paper'
but that's good, learning the hard way has its advantages.
now concentrate on getting the antenna out the window or on a tree or roof
hopefully this at least teaches you the scale of the amount of electromagnetic garbage your body has to cope with in your immediate sorroundings 24/7
even though your body's cells just like plants communicate using Non-transverse magneto dielectric means they are still affected by the components of the EM - the electric field and magnetic fields.
That's why Maxwell originally wrote his equations in a notation encompassing Everything before the timid cut it down to only Half (vector calculus)
hint hint
Suggests putting a wire up in a tree. Doesn’t warn about lightning danger.
I think this guy’s approach is making a lot more safety sense than your skipping electrocution risk. The problem with lighting is you don’t know until too late.
@gen-amb bet you wear a helmet every time you go out...
If you had a ham license or at least studied it, you would know that there are digital transmissions, including digital image transmissions.
At one point you didn't know these things. Im sure he is aware that learning more will teach him more. This comment is not adding anything helpful.
Dustin: It’s objectively commendable that this fellow is
a) exploring this technology in the way he is, and
b) producing this video and sharing it with anyone at all.
Your comment was what’s called a snipe. Why would you type in something like that and send it?
You don’t care about your suggestions to him; you just wanted another put-down notch for your belt.
But maybe I’m wrong in what I think of your comment. Maybe you were trying to share the textbook illustration of “sad ham” and your LARP was just that good.
@@gen-amb You are correct about the snipe. Not a way to be a mentor (elmer in ham jargon).
For a good laugh listen to 7.200 lower side band after the sun goes down
I'll try that out
@SimonVideo it's a trap. Angry old men making CB sou d civilized.
Glad you're enjoying the sdr. Do consider looking up a local HAM club and getting your license. It's a fun hobby with lots to do. Just got some pictures down from the space station from an SSTV event recently for the first time myself despite being licensed for a few years, was a thrill silly as it seems with youtube and whatnot. Anyway plenty of stuff to learn and radios to play with and even if you can't afford a fancy one right away most guys in a club would help you get a chance to try some neat kit out atleast.