Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

LIKE THIS SITE? Let me build one that’s just as nice for you or your organization. Since the government made me a fourth class citizen, it has become very difficult for me to support myself and my three children.

I am skilled in writing, editing, graphics, and publishing (both the print and Web varieties), and I have become quite expert at customizing WordPress to create online magazines, newspapers, and organizational Web sites. I’m also a skilled broadcast engineer. If you have any kind of paying work in these fields, no matter how small, please let me know. I’m eager to get started. Just click on the ‘contact’ link on this page.

If you don’t have any work for me now, but appreciate my past efforts, please consider making a donation.

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

AN ELECTRONICS collector in Germany has created a series of videos showing us the actual hardware used in the at once ubiquitous and mysterious “spy numbers” stations emanating on shortwave from Cuba (even today) and from Eastern Bloc nations (during the Cold War).

Apparently the technology used by the ’80s consisted of digital voice samples on EEPROMs, and paper tape (of the same kind used in my high school computer lab circa 1972) for the actual encoded messages.

Back in 1989, some jokester put on a faux “spy numbers” station on 7425 kHz (and a few other frequencies) that sent messages read by an accented female announcer consisting of Mexican food items instead of Spanish numbers — “Attencion — taco… burrito… tamale… tamale… nacho… — final… final…” Hilarious.

Here are the six videos followed by the original author’s commentary:

Commentary from the video producer:

“This machine pronounces, in a monotone voice, a string of numbers used by intelligence agencies for one-way shortwave radio communication with their agents in enemy countries. This machine belongs to a German collector who has a vast collection of various spy gadgets. There were many machines of this particular model produced in East Germany for usage within the DDR itself or other Communist bloc nations, like the Soviet Union or Cuba.

“The printed circuit boards only contains the voice samples of the lady pronouncing numbers in either German or Spanish. The EEPROMs never contain the actual message. For a message to be put in the machine a paper tape was used that not only contained the actual message intended for the agent, but also (coding that determined) the number of times this message should be repeated by the machine.

“The Speech/morse generator can also change the speed at which the pronunciation occurs, giving the voice a slightly higher or lower pitch.”

A scan of Harvey's signature from one of his many "care packages"

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

THANKS to Mike, ex-N3GVA, some precious audio files were recently rescued, and we once again have access to the recordings of W8MPB, Harvey Heinz, made during his final days with us in March, 1999. We also get to hear KE2LO, W9OAG, N8ECR and other voices which we sorely miss on 3950 these days.

One of the humorous graphics created by Harvey Heinz, W8MPB. His mailings also included copies of rare books and texts, spiced with technical information and original cartoons mocking the jammers and would-be censors of 75 meters.

Harvey Heinz (who also held the call sign N8TFB for a number of years) was a well-known regular on 3950 kHz and the Liberty Net.

His “info-pack” mailings of articles, original cartoons, and inside information from his P.O. Box in Gladwin, Michigan were frequent and welcome visitors to our mailboxes. These “care packages” contained reams of printed materials and, in later years, diskettes containing text files, graphics, schematics, and sometimes even entire books. Harvey was the creator of the N8TFB Trap Dipole, which was used with success by quite a few stations in the 80s and 90s.

When these recordings were made, Harvey had cancer and had just suffered a severe attack of pneumonia from which he never recovered. He had to go on oxygen and was unable to repair or maintain his station. Not only was he sick, but he was off the air and cut off from his friends.

Thanks to the hard work and kind heart of Scott, WB8RAV, Harvey got back on the air for a time just before the end. These recordings document his comeback and Scott’s mission.

Harvey Heinz worked for Collins Radio when it still was Collins Radio. According to a friend, “I don’t know if you know this, but Harvey worked for years for Collins Radio Company. He worked all over the world for them, and is quite the practical RF engineer.  I met Harvey years ago on Liberty Net.  We used to converse quite a bit, and he told me the story of how when Rockwell was taking over Collins, how all the Hebrews wearing yarmulkes were going through the plants and books, and snooping around.  They didn’t try to hide it.  Then and there Harvey decided to retire from Collins/Rockwell.  Just at that time all the Collins gear went downhill and has never come back as far as I know.”

Most of the 3950 regulars received Harvey’s frequent mailings. One wrote to me, expressing hope that Harvey could some day get on the Web: “Yep, you are right; if I want to send any pictures to Harvey I have to mail him a disk.  He’s not on the Internet yet, but he tells me there is a provider in Gladwin.  He just needs a push to get him online. I don’t think he realizes all the ‘damage’ he could do by having full access to the Internet.  Boy, if ever there was a fellow who should be on the Web, it’s Harvey.”

One week after W8MPB returned to the air, we received this email from the late KE2LO, Gene:

“I have just been informed by Harvey’s brother that Harvey passed away last night. He awoke briefly to hold his wife’s hand and say goodbye, then gently passed.

“This is a sad day for me and all of you. As a friend of Harvey’s I will miss this pillar of principle and the wisdom he afforded to all.  I will miss the friendly phone calls and the care packages that Harvey sent to all of us.

“For you who never had the fortune of talking to or knowing W8MPB, I am sorry; you would have liked him and he would have appreciated you.

“Harvey’s brother Russell said Harvey left him instructions that if he passed, he was to call me and I would inform all of his friends on 3950 that he says goodbye and 73.

“Special thanks to everyone who helped or offered to help make Harvey’s last days with us as comforting as possible.

“A very special thanks to Scott (WB8RAV), Craig (N8SFY), and the ham in Gladwin — Scott Wolfing — that Craig contacted to help Scott get Harvey back on the air for the last time.

“73, Gene (KE2LO)”

The voice is now silent, but the radio waves continue to travel through the cosmos, and the wisdom is passed on to new generations of our people.

I don't know if you know this, but Harvey worked for years for Collins
Radio Company, he worked all over the world for them, and is quite
the practical RF Engineer.  I met Harvey years ago on Liberty Net.  We
used to converse quite a bit, and he told me the story of how when
Rockwell was taking over Collins, how all the Hebrews wearing
yarmulkes were going through the plants and books, and snooping
around.  They didn't try to hide it.  Then and there Harvey decided to
retire from Collins/Rockwell.  Just at that time all the Collins gear went
downhill and has never come back as far as I know.

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

WHILE LOOKING for receivers on Ebay the other day (yes, I do dream about setting up an amateur radio station again some day), I noticed a nice Collins R-390A for sale.

Reading the advertiser’s copy, I was pleasantly surprised to see the receiver extolled as “sweet” for listening to “the Liberty Net Saturday evenings on 3950.”

Now that good reception of the Liberty Net is a selling point for receivers on Ebay, what’s next? Mention of Liberty Net capabilities in ads for the Flex 5000 and other transceivers? — mention of nulling and identification of would-be jammers of the Liberty Net in antenna ads in QST?

Seriously, though, the Liberty Net meme has saturated the ham-radiosphere and is making its way via SWL into the society at large. That’s a good thing.

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

THANKS TO an anonymous listener and the Audio Vault at amfone.net, we now have a audio clip of my AM station, recorded while I living in Rochester, Minnesota in 1996.

At the time I was running my highly modified Kenwood TS-440s on 75 meters into an Alpha 77D at about 300 Watts into a 150′ inverted L antenna that just barely fit into my small city lot. (All that gear is now gone — stolen from me along with nearly everything else I owned.)

The signal isn’t bad considering that it was presumably heard a thousand miles away on the East Coast. You can hear the recordist adjusting the bandwidth (sounds much better in the wide mode) during the segment. I’m discoursing on ‘AM-ology,’ a field which certainly deserves further study!

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

YEARS AGO I joked that the next niche radio format to be attempted would be continuous bird calls. I never imagined that it could actually happen, but it has, and the results are quite pleasant.

Apparently one of the Digital Audio Broadcast channels in Great Britain (yes, they have real over-the-air digital radio in the UK, not the dysfunctional “HD Radio” that the media moguls forced on this country) started broadcasting ambient bird calls and other natural forest sounds about a year ago, and it developed quite a following. (I have no idea if the station’s creator, Quentin Howard, ever heard of my decades-old suggestion or not.)

But the station has been axed by channel owner DigitalOne (a British quasi-governmental digital radio monopoly) and replaced by something described as “Amazing Radio, playing rock, indie, urban and jazz tunes,” according to the UK’s Independent newspaper. Ho hum.

Birdsong Radio began by broadcasting a 20-minute loop of chirps and tweets originally recorded for a stage play sound effect in 1991 at Howard’s home garden in West Lavington, Wiltshire. You can still hear that original loop at http://radiobirdsong.com where station supporters have built a home on the Web. Another group of birdsong lovers has built an even more elaborate online station, http://www.birdsongradio.com/ with superb fidelity and a larger variety of recordings.

Howard says of the over-the-air station’s cancellation “I think it’s a bit of a stunt to get attention for the new radio station because there’s enough empty slots on digital radio for both. There’s a lot of very cross people out there.”

I find Birdsong Radio a delightful change from conventional radio, and its outdoors ambience will be augmenting the aural atmosphere of my office often in the future.

The AM-864/U broadcast peak limiter

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

THE AM-864/U broadcast peak limiter, which I purchased “new surplus” from John Meshna and Company in about 1974, was my first foray into true broadcast audio processing for amateur radio. Like my TCS transmitter purchase from them, the unit was beautiful and flawless out of the box. It cost me $35. I sold it in the 90s (probably a mistake) for about $100. It now has acquired a “reputation” in the recording industry, and good ones sell for over a thousand dollars.

It’s 600 ohms transformer-coupled balanced in and out, with a simple all-vacuum-tube and all-balanced audio amplifier and peak rectification and gain reduction circuit. It was built in the 1950s by the Federal Television Corporation (some were built by other contractors, I am told) for use in AM and shortwave transmitters run by AFRTS, the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. It came with a manual, the most hilarious aspect of which was its instructions on how to destroy it (“use axes, knives, machetes, flamethrowers, incendiary grenades” etc.) in case it fell into “enemy hands.”

AM-864/U destruction instructions, from the operator's manual (click for the full-size image). And yes, the "enemy us" typo is in the original!

I modified it for adjustable release time (a faster release was often desirable for amateur voice, even relatively high fidelity voice, to increase audio density) and improved low frequency response. The AM-864/U imparts an airy, floating quality to the audio, and gives the impression of emphasizing the upper midrange. It doesn’t control peaks as well as a CBS Labs Volumax or a Gates FET peak limiter, but it’s quite usable.

At that time, my main transmitter was a Hallicrafters BC-610E (a 250TH final modulated by a pair of 100THs).  I used a UTC Linear Standard hi-fi push-pull-plates to speaker transformer hooked up backwards to drive the grids of the 100THs and the Linear Standard was driven through a resistive loading pad by a Knight high fidelity amplifier using a pair of EL34s and negative feedback from the modulated B+ of the BC-610. It was clean audio. The AM-864 was fed by my Shure 556S microphone into a Heathkit tube-type cathode follower preamp/tone control and the AM-864 fed the Knight hi-fi amp.

I used this setup for several years and it was what I was using when I made the AM amateur bulletin transmissions in 1977 to build opposition to FCC docket 20777 (which would have effectively eliminated AM and other experimental modes). I know where some of that old gear went (everything I still had in my possession in 2006 was stolen by my then-wife in complicity with the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force), but I do wonder who is using my old AM-864 now.

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

THE YEAR WAS 1973. It was my first hamfest. I was so young I didn’t have a driver’s license and my mother drove me to Gaithersburg that crisp October morning. I met WA3PUN, Ed Bolton, there. He was one of the AM amateur operators that I’d just started talking with on 75 meters. And I made my very first hamfest purchase — a shiny new-looking 1950s military surplus receiver, a Collins R-395, part of the PRD-1 direction finding set.

Now I notice, thanks to the Declan McCullagh photography site, that an R-395 that looks exactly like the one I bought and added to my Viking Valiant / BC-610 / DX-150A HF station is now enshrined as an exhibit in the National Cryptologic Museum in Laurel, Maryland. Time passes, and what was once just an old yet interesting receiver is now a notable part of history.

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

AS I TRY to rebuild my life and recover from the false charges and politically-motivated prosecutions that have devastated my family, one of my dreams is to return to the amateur radio airwaves. Since all my money and all of my material possessions — including all of my radio gear — was stolen from me, I’ve just set up an Amazon Wish List which has the potential of helping that dream come true. My deepest thanks go out to those who have kindly helped me. I hope that my writings and my efforts to promote quality signals  and intelligent discussion on amateur radio have helped you too!

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