Checking Lower Frequencies With the Nooelec Ham It Up
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- čas přidán 12. 12. 2023
- I've been doing a lot of VHF, UHF, and microwave radio stuff lately, and I almost forgot about the lower-frequency stuff! Most of my Software Defined Radios (SDRs) can't go below 30mhz, which was the hot part of the radio dial a century ago. Fortunately there's a product that will boost these lower-frequency signals up to where an SDR can see them, the Nooelec Ham-It-Up.
This is NOT a sponsored review, although I did get one of my Ham It Up units from a viewer (thanks!). In addition to that one, I'm also trying the Nano version which I coincidentally bought around the same time.
You can find these and other radio gadgets I like on my Amazon store: www.amazon.com/shop/saveitfor...
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You can find the custom bandplans I mentioned here: github.com/Arrin-KN1E/SDR-Ban...
And you can learn more about the Ham-It-Up unit here: support.nooelec.com/hc/en-us/...
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7:38 Those are FT8 signals at 21.074MHz. You can use WSJT-X or similar to decode them.
7:58 I'm not sure exactly what the cause of that specific sweep is, but more commonly, extremely wide sweeps are usually ionosonde sweeps. The sweeps probe the ionosphere to determine propagation conditions. I'm sure you've been seeing those too!
8:50 Try using CW mode (just below USB mode) with around 300Hz bandwidth and it should be a little easier to seperate the signals. You may also need to zoom all the way in!
Great video as always!
Thank you again, from Arrin - KN1E
Awesome, thanks! And thanks again for the bandplan help :-)
that crossbow really caught me off guard 🤣🤣
As for the "old" USB cables, if you ever purchase a modern HF ham radio set, it'll usually have a built in sound card so you can connect it directly to a PC for digital modes without having to go through the audio input/output through an adaptor. These amateur radio sets usually have these style sockets in them. I personally have an FT-991 which does HF, 6m, 2m and 70cm all in one set. It has a built in sound card.
NooElec also makes a "SmartTee" version of their radios -- those versions have an always-ON bias-Tee. Something to note is that ALL the RTL-SDR radios (The RTL-SDR Blog dongles, and the NooElec versions) are all based on pretty-much the same chipset (R820T2 and RTL2832U), with all the "competition" being in things like making lower and lower noise power supplies, switchable bias-T, more accurate clocks, and better support for the direct-sampling input. But they're all very very similar in performance. I used the SpyVerter as an upconverter for a WWV phase-anomaly project a couple of years ago--it has the advantage that it can phase-lock its clock, which is important if you're going to be measuring very subtle phase variations on a very very stable signal. I like the HamItUp, though, and was a very early Beta tester.
It's an interesting gadget and I could spend far too much time just wandering around the radio dial listening to random stuff! I still have to get my Sawbird H1 set up though!
That's precisely what I did in the early 1980s, and in 1986, I got my amateur radio license. I had bought a Yaesu FRG-7700. Spent HOURS and HOURS listening on shortwave. I still have that FRG-7700. Needs some work :(
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You seriously need to get your general class amateur radio license. You would have a ball. So many cool things to listen in on though even without it. US Air Force traffic on 11.175 USB, commercial HF air traffic control over the oceans, foreign AM broadcast stations. Hours of entertainment, half the fun is finding a signal then trying to figure out what it is.
On the old AW bands there was a lot of fun to have. I remember picking up an old radio and hoisting it into my tent at the campsite our family stayed for the summer. I used to listen to AFN broadcasting from Germany. I am from the Netherlands, BTW. Another great memory was a trip to Poland. The room my father and I were staying in, was the only one having a radio. Another relic from the past, but with a length of soldering wire plugged in as an antenna we picked up both Polish music stations and on the AM band the Netherlands World Broadcast, giving us Dutch spoken news and programs when needed. We were there with a group and we brought all the latest news from home during that trip at the breakfast table.
The sweeping signals are ionosonds, sweeping across frequency bands to determine the best frequency to use. Other users are OTHR, wideband high speed data, even high speed stock trading overseas.
Nice job on the video! You're genuine in your presentation and explain things really well. It's refreshing to see someone explore with their viewers and share that same fascination we all share.
When you see a little dot sweeping across the screen it’s normally someone sweeping their antenna and it’s being transmitted.
My antenna when I started HAM was bare copper wire stretched at certain lengths depending on the freq bands. In the middle was a plexiglass panel with bolts for one side of the antenna/bare wire and on the other side was the rest of the bare wire. I will have to draw something for you on this. It worked great though.
I don't have any nooelec stuff but I can add some info.
While in the Army I talked to a Special Forces (Green Beret) commo sergeant. He told me about carrying a heavy fishing weight and some heavy duty twine for the wire - swing it like a sling and let it fly.
My mom lived in Alaska as a kid 50+ years ago and when 9v pocket transistor radios were popular they could hear Hawaii at night. When the aurora was going they heard everything from around the world.
That strange military stuff at the VLF end is usually submarine communications. There is a ginormous VLF array at the far end of the GAFA in Exmouth Australia (as well as a giant shrimp). It’s called the Harold Holt Antenna station or something thereabouts.
On the low frequencies, you can receive the longwave transmitter SAQ located in Grimeton. On December 24, 2023, it will be on the air again, transmitting a Christmas message in CW to the world. The frequency is 17.2 kHz, and the transmitter is audible worldwide. It can also reach America and was put into operation on December 1, 1924.
This is a nice SDR receiver; I've been looking for something like this for a while. I find it lovely that the cats want to help with the project and contribute to it.
That would be fun! I think I listened for it once when there was a test transmission, but didn't hear anything.
@@saveitforparts The next test transmission is on December 24, 2023; the transmitter will be started at 14:30 UTC and will broadcast a vvv continuous loop until 15:00 UTC. Then, the transmission of the peace message to the world in CW begins. You now have a new receiver; perhaps this year you'll have better luck hearing SAQ on 17.2 kHz on December 24, 2023.👍
Thanks for mentioning the bandplan. Added that to mine.
We use 5w UHF in Australia as our regular ‘CB’, no one really uses the AM 27meg radios anymore, however I’m setting up a car for pilot car work and I’m going to put an AM radio just because, there might be the odd thing I pick up as I travel around. I also have an UHF/VHF set that I’ll eventually fit, but I need a licence for that but it’s much more handy for things like weather and traffic.
Most casual users in the US seem to be on FRS/GMRS these days instead of CB. The only ones I ever hear on 27mhz are pirates in Florida with giant amps.
FM CB was approved by the FCC fairly recently.
Good overview of hf upconverter 😊
Awesome channel, keep up the great work, and the cat interruptions! 😊
Thing going across is an ionosonde
Good video, have fun with your new toys, I wasn't sure that I liked the V4 when I got it, but it turns out to be a gem.
WHY are all these "band plans" not there BY DEFAULT!!! There's so much more information now, wow! Thank you very much for all this info, band plans installed and a "Ham it up" is also in my "cart" now. 😎👌
HF has a lot of interesting signals. You can spend months finding stuff.
If your AM sounds like crap, it is the software. AM Broadcast is limited to 5KHz. which is fine for talk, sports and most music. CB and Amateur radio AM has the same upper frequency limit. I hear a lot of intermod, and multiple tansmissions. Try a real AM radio on one of the Clear Channels, like WSM (Nashville) at 650KHz or WLW (Cincinnati) at 700KHz. Clear Channel stations run 50KW after dark to cover large parts of the United States.
I'd like to add that local AM broadcasters will likely overwhelm the receiver. Just way too much signal strength.
@@leftovertech The software normally allows you to adjust the hardware gain on these SDR devices to be able to turn it down. Mostly you'd just run with the AGC on.
@@leftovertech I've seen AM broadcast transmitters from 250W on a center fed dipole, to the 500KW WLW transmitter that fed their iconic Blaw Knox Diamond tower. The former was the only station you could hear, while the latter would cause barbed wire farm fencing to sing and talk. 😆
VLF would be very interesting to navigate
What are the odds, I was just poking around different webSDR's before this video popped up! Maybe I can convince my schools engineering club to buy one of these and run it off their server!
enjoyed your video and it reminded me to get an upconverter.
10 m band is hot now because of the sunspot cycle.
You might want to build yourself a Mag Loop receive antenna. It will do much better than the random wire antenna. You can use several tuning capacitors on your main loop so as to change intervals of the spectrum your intent on listening to.
I have one made for transmitting. Its designed for 40 meters or 7 Mhz up to 20 meters or just below 15 Mhz. For my transmitting Mag Loop I had to build the main loop from 4 inch diameter aluminum dryer vent. For receive only, since efficiency is not so important you can use just plain common wire for you main loop.
Very cool. Never thought to use phone app for decoding morse code.
I'll note that "antique printer cables" are still used. The quite-modern "comms hub" for our sexy-new 3HP servo motors uses that style of cable, and USRP B200/B210 also use it (or the USB-3 version of the same cable). The problem with the new super-compact connector options is that they're fragile as fark, and do NOT do well on bare boards...
I've started seeing the latest "B" port for USB 3.0 in more places. Last year it was so new that the computer store guys didn't know what it was. Everyone seems to have their favorite, on another video people were complaining that Micro B was too outdated.
Hey for the morse code signals, set SDR++ to CW demodulation and you will be able to discriminate between them
"antique USB cable" ima cry....
I wish B was used more often because one benefit of that formfactor is that the standard specified keepout zones around the tip body; devices can backset their ports and build in strain relief for the port and enhance friction-based retention on the cable. It's really great for tons of applications! But for whatever reason people keep using A to A or C or (worst of all) micro and the ports all break....
21.074 was FT8, a weak signal digital mode basically just hams sending signal reports back and forth
I have that one, and the nano. This is superior.
This was terrific. I too play with my NESCr SMARt. loads of fun. 5:40 Ah yes. 27.025. Ch 6 on the CB. Skip, (tropospheric ducting) is strong with this one. Fun to try to get it, not so fun when you hear what's said.
9:17 lots of CQ CQ CQ. I saw you had a phone app for listening/decoding CW. I'll have to give that a try. Looks like fun.
With proper filtering, AM sounds pretty awesome! Old tube radios seam to sound more warm and natural using AM. The guitar amp guys know. Have you tried building a noise cancelling passive loop antenna? (aka, a receive loop)(I hear they are good for urban environments with higher noise floors) I like the custom band plan addition to SDR++. Keep up the neat vids!
Regarding times of day, the lower frequencies will travel better at night...that's 150kHz to, say 2000kHz (2MHz) because of ground wave propagation. This includes the 160m amateur band. At the top of this, and as you go up from there, you're into skywave or ionospheric propagation. To cut a long story short, the higher frequencies will transmit better in the day and the lower ones at night. There's an arbitrary cut off, at least during the winter at normal latitudes, of about 10MHz.
You should get the 80m band (3.5 MHz) better at night. The 40m band (7MHz) will be ok at night but also usable during the day. The 30m (10MHz) and 20m bands (14MHz) will come into play as the sun comes up and should last until the sun goes down. The 20m band is probably the most active HF amateur radio band. Then, as the day goes on, the Maximum Usable Frequency (MUF) will increase and then decrease again. Depending on solar activity this will take you through the 17m (18MHz) band, 15m (21MHz) band, 12m (24MHz) band and the CB and 10m bands (28MHz). At the moment we're coming up to the sunspot maximum so the MUF is often above 30MHz, so a good time to be listening to the 10m band. The higher bands will start to close down as the sun starts to go down, but you will get something called the grey line just as the sun is rising or setting - look that one up. RTTY is used on the ham bands, as are other more modern digital modes such as FT8. For FT8 and FT4, look up WSJT-X and JTDX software. Look up WSPR too. You can track the propagation around the clock with where you receive on FT8 or WSPR on any particular band.
You'll also find the shortwave broadcast bands worth a listen. Look them up, there are quite a few - 60m, 49m, 41m, 31m, 25m, 19m....etc. There's also HF airband for over ocean air traffic control. Look up North Atlantic Tracks and so on. You've mentioned WEFAX for weather charts, always worth a decode, but there's also RTTY text based weather transmissions. Look up Sitor-B/Pactor decoding software.
Then there are the clandestine number stations. For frequencies and times, check out priyom dot org. For more information on them check out RingwayManchester's videos.
If you google FT8 frequencies, there's a handy chart which will tell you what frequency to use on what band. On HF they are generally 1.840, 3.573, 5.357, 7.074, 10.136, 14.074, 18.100, 21.074, 24.915, 28.074. All USB.
Can somebody tell me how to get my nooelec smart to work witth the sdr software. I'm not getting anything
@@midwestogbobbyjohnson I'm not familiar with that particular SDR but if it's like the others, you have to make sure the correct driver is loaded, don't let Windows detect it. Then when you load the software, make sure the correct item is selected to use, and then make sure the gain/AGC are turned up/on.
I’ve been waiting for you to upload something about low frequency stuff. lol I even went to your Patreon to get more account info so I could email you about it haha but couldn’t find it. FYI idk how to use patreon so ur my first person to subscribe to over there
Thanks! I also have a CZcams membership thingy, or my email is in the "About" tab. I try to reply to all the comments but sometimes I miss some.
RTTY sounds like beedle-deedeedeedee. Im seeing FT-8 signals, a low speed data mode ham seems to only use now, sandly RTTY and 300 baid packet a pretty much dead except in select contests. When i hear a lot of FT8 traffic i call it the weeping and wailing of radios!
Lot's of those CB Pirates come even trough here in germany.... Just right now CB 6 (27025kHz) AM .. i'm sittin northern germany and hear stories from tennesee ;)
(Using my plain AE2990 AFS for rx. ;))
Thanks 👍
You can use the RTL-SDR Blog V3/4 dongles to listen to SW, just set the dongle to direct sampling mode.
Good to know, a quick google was telling me you still needed an upconverter for those. Seems like google spits out more and more misinformation these days. Not just stuff like that, but everything I put into google it seems like it's "answers" are either full of misinformation and contradictory statements. Google needs straighten things up. (Though they won't they'll just add more "features" that will make it even worse)
With the V4 you don't have to do the direct sampling mode, it handles all that stuff for you, from what I read.
Good Video. I am infatuated with many of the military communications. SigNit... EAM ( Emergency Action Messages) from airborne and submarines for instances are interesting. Parts are encrypted of course, Try 11.175 MHz - but there are others as well.
Great video! When you connected the RTL-SDR v4, were you also using the Ham It Up, or were you using the upconverter built into the RTL-SDR? If you weren’t using the RTL-SDR’s upconverter, can you please do a comparison of the RTL-SDR v4’s built in upconverter vs the Ham It Up?
exactly, since we have many videos showing how to listen to SW and CB and they are not using Ham It Up
not sure where you located, but there are still few long wave stations in Europe and Asia (150-250 kHz), you may get lucky at night and receive something. you may try the very strong time signals at 50 kHz and 77.5 kHz.
also: we still use 27 MHz CB in Europe, AM, FM and SSB, which maybe the best chance to go all the way over
You can add wire from the microphone plug to outside. Then you use the sdr software to read your sound card and listen to really low frequency stuff. 500 hertz to 15khz
Cool, that would be interesting to try!
any tutorial showing it?
If u download virtual audio cable and the fldigi u can decode the rtty cw other digital modes
The cb bands are wild sometimes. A bunch of dudes saying weird stuff and shouting explicatives over each other. While also destroying all of the adjacent channels.
FYI the first digital signal was morse code thje second is RTTY which is baudot
The weird thing you are seeing around 23 MHz 5:03 looks like an Over-the-horizon radar signal.
awesome video, i had no idea they made a V4 for the rtl-sdr, im adding that to my xmas list
Fun way = best way
Right around 5:09 your 23Mhz is most likely OTH Radar :)
London calling too a far away Land
Try a narrower bandwidth for the morse code.
On Christmas Eve morning, Sunday December 24th 2023, SAQ Grimeton is scheduled* to be on the air, to send out the traditional Christmas message to the whole world, using the 200kW Alexanderson alternator from 1924, on 17.2 kHz CW.
Fun fact: I live approximately 1.4 wavelengths from the Grimeton station. :)
That would be fun! I think I listened for it once when there was a test transmission, but didn't hear anything.
My father uses cb in Italy, very high power transmission, with 2000 w linear Amp 😢
Hello, I am a subscriber of yours and I wanted to ask you if for any videos in the future you can make some type of radar or something similar
I have a boat radar in parts in the garage, I'd like to play with it but they can be a little dangerous! It's on the to-do list anyway :-)
i am inspired of your work, ca you please tell me how would i start in this field if i am totaly ignorant of these staff(hardware components, theories...)?
QSL from Australia
I think the RTL-SDR v4 has builtin upconverter
serious?
@@michaelnoardo3315 Their website says "Unlike the RTL-SDR Blog V3, there is no need to activate direct sampling mode to receive HF. You can instead simply tune to an HF frequency and it will work. Activating direct sampling mode on a V4 dongle will yield no results."
I am not sure if its an upconverter but it can tune into HF without direct sampling mode
Worldstar!!!
Ahh USB standards..... I now have 2 USB B 3.0 cables for my ridiculous drive array.
Can u try next video to listen to the SiriusXM satellite radio satellites
I have some of that gear in a box somewhere, I might give it a try.
Dumb question: So I hook the "long wire" just to the center wire of the coax into the Ham it up?
That's what I did, seemed to work OK.
@km4ack did a video on weather fax and wsjtx recently.
how would you go about bringing the higher stuff down for say making a radio telescope to get the high GHz ranges? is that what the ham it down is for and is there a way i can get all the way from 1-10 GHz? i know different frequencies need different antennas but i am guessing ill need more than just antennas and a good sized dish
You use a block downconverter. This is standard practice in advanced receiver design. The various tuner modules we built at Microdyne were done this was, since the receiver's IF was entered at 70MHz.
I had one know it all try to convince me that 'everyone' was using 21.4 MHz. He freaked out when I told him that some receivers used a 50 to 90MHz IF band.
@@michaelterrell do you know anywhere i can get lnbs that will work and some good diy dishes that could get me started?
@@jtraveny Sorry, but we built our own, and Microdyne is out of business. What frequency range do you need?
@@michaelterrell to be honest, i have always wanted to do this but never knew anything about it, and since finding out about the rtl-sdr i have just been trying to learn as much as i can, i don't even know where to start besides just the beginning of the H1 line. im not sure if its even possible but i would like to try to one day go through 1Ghz all the way to 10or is there higher than 10 GHz i can go for SETI research?
I have a Ham-It-Down unit that lets you go up to 3.1ghz. I've been meaning to use it more for satellite S-band and other stuff. Commercial satellite LNBs are another option, the Local Oscillator (LO) frequency tells you how far they down-convert. So a KU-band LNB will take in 11ghz, subtract by the LO of (for example) 9.75ghz, and your SDR will see it as a 1.25ghz signal. I have some LNBs for C and Ku band and I just ordered another one from ebay that I've already forgotten what it does :-P
Can you chain multiple filters with the v4 ?
As with any receiver, you can chain passive filters. Be aware that you lose some signal strength (insertion loss) with each one.
My phone tried to launch its nukes.
~$ sudo apt remove cat
P.S. I've just ordered an RTL-SDR V4, thanks to you. 😁👍
Cat is a required dependency of all my tech projects :-)
@@saveitforparts I have the same model, but find that a (re)boot usually fixes it.
(Only joking, I only kick her accidentally, when she gets between my feet. As they do...)
Mine also has a habit of sleeping on the laptop if it's running. Had to disable the lid switch, so it keeps running when closed.
She has me completely under her control. It's worse than being married.
P.P.S. Delivery by mid February. 😢
What software do you use?
After watching your cool video the only choice I had to affirm it was a down thumb. There was no up thumb available. So I hit the down thumb. I've heard as long as people are watching the algorithm doesn't care. If it's plus or negative it just knows it's active so....
Is there a save it for parts Discord?
I don't have one yet, I have a hard time keeping track of all the chats I'm already in 😅
Yeah
Can you capture the Russian buzzer at 4625Khz?
I haven't tried that yet, I'll put it on my list :-)
0:59 1:00 1:00 1:01 1:01 1:02
What app is that?
hello 23 seconds ago this was uploaded
0-8 hz, anyone? EQ signals...
Sadly, most of the "traditional" Shortwave broadcasters have ceased operations on HF. Their "spots" now being taken up by mostly Christian broadcasters and random kooks with enough money to run and maintain a license for a SW station.
I use seatty for hf fax. 8.502 is a great freq to check out.your cw was all jumbled up because you was still using upper and lower sideband .put it on cw.
What do you use/recommend for the high end of the spectrum higher frequencies? You briefly touched on that in the beginning. Brand, etc? How affordable is it? Thanks
For stuff above what the RTL-SDR does? I have a Ham-it-down that goes up to 3ghz, and I've been experimenting with that a bit lately. For other satellite stuff like KU and C-band I generally just use the LNB units that come with old TV dishes.
CB was a joke way before you were even born, unless that was before the early 1970s (I know it wasn't). It's the same today. And RTTY was around WAY before anyone called anything "digital".
Back in the 70's, we had a couple of 1 watt handheld CB radios that we used at work while pulling cable. I was on the roof of a 6 story building in Southern Arizona when I got a break from someone on Florida. Pretty good QRP range that day.
I spent a lot of time with CB in the middle 70s. I even had a legit license. KAED-6650. My girlfriend (I was about 16) was KXD-9928, I think.
9A5RCL hello all