Tonight, getting an ultra-hot signal from a nearby locomotive waiting to enter a rail yard — so hot, I can almost smell the sulphur-rich diesel:
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I’d share an audio sample, but gqrx crashes each time I try to record. This version doesn’t appear to allow the user to set a directory for making/saving audio recordings.
In any event, I’ve been able to listen to audio from both major railway carriers this evening, and the folks on each have totally different vibes. Despite getting signals this strong, I realize I’m still at the “welcome, new user! would you like a tutorial?” Clippy-stage of amateur radio, and some day I’ll look back wistfully at this post and laugh at my greenness.
Tonight, as
I trawl the megahertz with the SDR on the A1261 running gqrx on 10.6.8 (did anyone see what I did there?), I decided to go low and low(er). What I got was a real mixed bag of fascinating, comforting, and also trash. For the first time, I tried a feature calling “direct sampling”, which made it possible with gqrx to pick up AM radio and some shortwave signals (using the
rtl=0,direct_samp=3 setting). I was somewhat surprised by how weak local AM radio was, which may have something to do with my antenna setup.
Getting the trash out of the way, I found a frequency (4.8401 MHz) which sounded like a possible repeater of either some TV, FM, or AM broadcast. The signal, which faded in and out, was just strong enough to decipher and it managed to get clear enough at times to parse what was being said. I listened for maybe 45 seconds when I could hear the dude on the mic (clearly some kind of radio talk show) started making inflammatory, revolting remarks about trans women, then segued instantly into some “new world order” spiel, followed by something-something about illiteracy, followed by some conspiracy theory that the pandemic was planned or something along those lines. About the only noteworthy thing about this geyser of garbage is he managed to do all of that in the span of about 120 seconds.
Soooo… I went on to the next find:
This one, at 56.860 MHz (the thin red bar, about 35 per cent in from the left) was also unidentifiable (ignore that bright beam on the right; that has to do with some harmonics with the crystal in the SDR, I think), but I was able to parse that it was playing Chicago’s “Make Me Smile” (I think just the 7-inch single, not the full, two-part version from the album), so that was fun.
Then, at 29.540 MHz, more music, some station, possibly also a repeater or echo, was playing hardcore-yacht pop, which is right up my alley: Player’s “Baby Come Back”, followed by Kenny Loggins’ “This Is It” (with Michael McDonald), but when voice-over emerged, it was too distorted beyond my guessing it was some syndicated show from the U.S. But hearing yacht pop on a distant radio station in the middle of the night always warms my heart.
Finally, the surprise of the night, just before shutting it all down.
After switching back to standard,
rtl=0 mode, this signal at 133.4 MHz, took me by surprise — both because I wasn’t expecting it and I wasn’t expecting it to be so strong: a pilot from a jet aircraft, either taxiing for takeoff or just airborne, saying good-night to the tower. I only caught the very end of it, but it was crystal-clear, much like the railway stuff the previous night.
Aaaaand I think this will be the last time I bore y’all and derail this thread any further with stuff which probably belongs on a radio hobbyist forum which isn’t MR.
