MX Linux Forum

We have a few amateur radio operators (hams) in the forum, but does anyone run a "listening post" and enjoy just listening to whatever you can hear? Shortwave, medium wave AM broadcast stations from far away, longwave, VHF/UHF public service traffic, satellites, commercial and utility stations, aircraft, it doesn't matter: whether you just like to monitor a scanner to find out what's happening in your area, sit in front of a receiver and twiddle dials, peruse the bands on a portable radio or whatever. What brought you into the hobby? What equipment and antennas do you use? What sorts of things do you like to listen to?

I have an old Realistic Pro 2023 table top 20 channel radio scanner the link below will explain what the device is.

https://www.rigpix.com/rs-realistic/rea ... _20128.htm

I've had it for many years and at one time it was very active in what was happening in my area but not any more.

These days I scan different bands frequency by frequency just hunting for any activity at all.

If I do find any I save it and than monitor it for a bit to try and figure out what it may be.

Pretty boring most of the time as there's not much of any interest but something to do.

I bought an sdr setup to plug in to my pc and kinda got it working but really need help on using it and the guys who sold it provide zero help. All I need is a better antenna and some knowledge. I'm eying winradio cuase it has the awesome gui but it's like buying a pc.

Listened to the Russian Squeaky wheel military broadcast back in the past. I have a old grundig portable.
https://www.hifiengine.com/images/model ... _radio.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4caG_wfcvY

I have a RadioShack (Sangean) portable that receives SSB SW, but I haven't listened in quite awhile. Maybe I should get rid of the increasingly expensive satellite TV bill and get back to simpler things.

I also have a Realistic PRO-2006 I used to listen to local law enforcement, public utilities during emergencies and snowplows and such. Most of them seem to have gone to cell phones or such, and the State Patrol and Sheriff eventually went to APCO-25 or whatever. I started to research what I would need to get APCO-25 freqs, but even the cheapest receivers seemed to cost a few hundred so I didn't get very far.

davidy wrote: Sun Jan 16, 2022 12:54 pm I bought an sdr setup to plug in to my pc and kinda got it working but really need help on using it and the guys who sold it provide zero help. All I need is a better antenna and some knowledge. I'm eying winradio cuase it has the awesome gui but it's like buying a pc.

Check out Radio for Everyone. Also, search YouTube for "Signals Everywhere". Another informative YouTube Channel is Frugal Radio though the videos there are usually more overviews, though there are often informative links in the descriptions below the vids.

SDRs really need proper, resonant antennas for whatever frequency or band you want to monitor. The antennas that usually come with the dongles aren't good for very much, those with a magnetic mount and a short length of coaxial cable. You can either buy these antennas, or build them which is more fun. Generally, the antennas need to be mounted outdoors (or at least near a window) and as high as possible, just like those for any radio receiver. Depending on the intended frequency, the coaxial cable you use can have a large effect on signal strength too, particularly its attenuation or loss rating.

I too bought one of those SDR's several months back but found I could not get much on it.
I have not invested in a proper antenna. Where I live i would have to be careful what I put up and homemade antennas might not be tolerated.
Might be a future project.

Thanks Jay. I know about the tennas. You can buy em fairly easily but yeah building one from stuff lying around would be more fun. When I first bought it I did get it to work but I realized without a full instruction manual for the device itself as well as a simple software installation setup, an antenna was the least of my problems.
I will definitely check those links. I spent a pretty penny buying it and it sits in a drawer just taking up space at this point. All I need is a proper antenna and a correct software setup. It's supposed to just be exploring at that point.

Exactly what SDR did you buy?

I have listened on Shortwave since the mid 1960 when I also became a Ham op.
So over the years have used many radios and Antenna set ups. Now live is a retirement community and can't put up a good outside antenna but use
amplified indoor antenna and it works Ok. Though the broadcast offering are nothing compared to what they use to be.
Lot's of fun anyway. One of the best Shortwave Receivers I've used was a Collins R-390. Great versatile radio.

I have been listening mostly to VHF/UHF for over 50 years. Interest in that lead me to get my ham license, which was probably a mistake. I started out with cheap multiband tuneable receivers then mostly used scanners since the programmable ones appeared in the 1980s. I never lived anyplace where I could put up decent antennas so I was never into HF/MF/LF/VLF much.

I used to enjoy listening but it's been years since I had a working SW radio. I've thought about a SDR dongle, I might go shopping for one. But it'd have to be able to pick up the shortwave bands and a lot of them don't seem to do that so I'll have to be careful picking one out. I have an old mid-50s Transoceanic but I'm not sure it's worth it to me to try and restore. Ditto a Grundig AM/FM/SW/Phono console from I think the 60s. Ain't likely to mess with it, either. Might go for the SDR. Compact and pretty things on the computer screen to look at.

Way back in the day as a kid I listened on a Heathkit receiver my dad put together. Foolishly sold it at a hamfest to get money to buy my first 'puter, a ZX-80. Kinda wish I hadn't done that, although nothing beats your first computer...

Did a lot of scanner listening about 25 years ago- had a Bearcat programmable handheld that I used the crap out of- got a little portable amplified TV antenna from Radio Shack and used some adapters to mate it to where the rubber duck goes and with that setup I could pick up pretty good, especially up on a mountain, get some scanner DXing going on. Then of course everyone started trunking. Bummer.

duane wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:48 pm I too bought one of those SDR's several months back but found I could not get much on it.
I have not invested in a proper antenna. Where I live i would have to be careful what I put up and homemade antennas might not be tolerated.
Might be a future project.

20+ years ago when I was in the service we cut our antennas, mostly just speaker wire. Each frequency had it's own length based on wavelength (forget the equation, but I'm sure you could look it up). Anyway, they had to be small and light weight when rolled up, which is why the wire. We used different shapes, like and 'H' for example, pointed them in the direction by laying them out on the ground, got comms up, then packed up and moved on. The point I suppose I am trying to make is that your own antenna does not have to be fixed if you want to play around with them and are worried about what neighbors see.

roundup976 wrote: Wed May 04, 2022 5:21 pm

duane wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:48 pm I too bought one of those SDR's several months back but found I could not get much on it.
I have not invested in a proper antenna. Where I live i would have to be careful what I put up and homemade antennas might not be tolerated.
Might be a future project.

Each frequency had it's own length based on wavelength (forget the equation, but I'm sure you could look it up).

Lambda (wavelength in meters) = the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s) divided by the frequency. I personally just use web-based frequemcy-wavelength conversion tools as it's faster: https://www.everythingrf.com/rf-calcula ... wavelength and https://www.everythingrf.com/rf-calcula ... -frequency. For HF work your measurements don't have to be precise, especially just for receiving, and half- and quarter-wave antennas are also resonant on the desired frequency band, so if the calculated length in meters is way too long for where you live try dividing it by 2 or 4.

If you need a compact HF receive-only antenna that doesn't violate HOA covenants of landlord's rules look at the small active magnetic-loop antennas like the MLA-30 and the K-180WLA. They work a treat. You can mount them on a small tripod and put them on a deck or terrace, or just near a window. If you're handy with a few simple hand tools and a soldering iron you can even build your own. There are lots of web pages with instructions for putting up small, stealthy HF antennas for hams who have limited space or have "no antennas allowed" HOA rules. If you live in a house with a fenced yard get a spool of wire around 100 feet long and run the wire along near the top of the fence where it's not easily noticed until you're close. Strip the other end and attach it to one side of a Nooelec Balun One Nine (they're all over Ali, Amazon and eBay) and run your coax from there to wherever your radio or SDR is.

For VHF and UHF monitoring, take some wire and cut a 4 foot length, then cut an 18 inch length. Fasten each wire to to one of the screw connector on one of those convertors for attaching a cable TV cable to an old TV that has screw connectors for the antenna or rabbit ears. They're sold as TV baluns or 1:300 baluns. You should be able to find one at a discount store or department store, wherever TV accessories are sold. You can hang it in an upstairs window behind the drapes to hide it, or put it in your attic or loft.

@rickyraccoon buy an RTL-SDR Blog V3 or a Nooelec SMArt USB dongle, then download and install free software that uses the SDR dongle to receive and decoded unencrypted trunked radio systems. (If you get the RTL-SDR Blog brand beware of fakes, they're all over Aliexpress, Amazon and eBay. RTL-SDR Blog has an official store on those platforms, buy directly from them.)

@JayM

Oh yes I've seen RTL-SDR Blog's warning against fakes. That's the one I'd like but the Ebay store is perpetually 'out of stock' and the Amazon store states it'll be couple months or more to get one.

This looks like a good place for my first post to the MXLinux Forum. I am amateur radio operator N8OAY. I was big-time into scanner and shortwave listening. I am currently inactive as both a listener and a ham. I live in an area where the city, county, state and military comms are all on digital trunk systems and mostly encrypted. And my home is at a location making shortwave listening and ham activity almost impossible due to local RF activity. Once in a while I will listen to railroads, but there is very little action here. I still have several radios, some of them antiques.

From 1984 to 2013, I was at the helm of the All Ohio Scanner Club. We were very active at the Dayton Hamvention and the Winter SWL Festival. All three are now, unfortunately, past history.

I have a big interest in genealogy, computers and audiophile music listening. Before the pandemic shutdowns, I was an active railfan.

I am a retired movie projectionist and theatrical stagehand, and also worked in call centers for a few years.

I am planning to install MXLinux onto my PC later this week, which will probably cause me to show up here frequently. It will be dual boot with MX on a 2nd NVMe SSD. It has 2 SATA SSDs and 1 HDD for data storage and a NVMe for Windows 10. I started making current images of those drives today. Once that is done, I will install the second NVMe ad get started.

I am a second-time Linux rookie. I used it from around 2004 or 2005 to early 2014 when I went back to Windows for various reasons, one of them being the need to use Windows software for Genealogy so that I can share with a couple other family members. I currently have PCLinuxOS on one of my laptops. I started out with a retail box (yep, paid for it) Xandros 4 and later wound up with PCLinuxOS.

Dave M

Welcome to the forum, and I'm glad that you chose my topic in which to introduce yourself.

Have not ran it yet. Just found out about it.

youtube link

Going to watch the video now. So reading some notes. I guess it is based on xubuntu. Not sure though.