Flex Radio Users Net

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Power SDR screen shotsby Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

I’VE JUST DISCOVERED a new and worthwhile amateur radio net, meeting Saturday mornings on or around 3872 kHz in the AM mode. It’s the Flex Radio Users Net, devoted to discussions of the software-defined transceivers manufactured by Flex Radio Systems and related topics.

Flex Radio Users Net – 2 January 2010 – 3872 kHz”]

This week, the group was discussing both the theoretical and practical aspects of symmetrical versus asymmetrical modulation, modulation levels generally, and audio processing for HF amplitude  modulation transmission.

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My Wish List

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WB4AIO microphone logoby 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!

My Amazon Wish List

Paypal Donations

Liberty Net for Week of December 19-25

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The Goddess of Libertyby Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

ONCE AGAIN the weekly current events discussion Liberty Net on 75 meters was filled with provocative ideas and debate, led by Net Control station W1WCR.

There’s literally nothing else like it on the air anywhere.

Here are just a few of the highlights of this week’s discussions, along with the time when they took place (from the beginning of the recording  in hours and minutes):

Listen to or download this week’s Liberty Net”]

• Somali gangs are now terrorizing Lewiston, Maine (1 hour 32 minutes)

• The United Nations is considering issuing gold coins called “Oros” (2 hours 38 minutes)

• Tips on investing in gold (2 hours 35 minutes)

• Glenn Beck suddenly takes a more sympathetic view of Obama, as the ruling establishment pushes for yet another and much larger war in the Middle East (2 hours 8 minutes)

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Amateur Radio Audio Recordings

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The TEAC-3340S, the model which was the main WB4AIO recording deck for many years, before it was stolen along with everything else I owned in 2006. Today I use Cool Edit Pro to make most of my recordings.

The TEAC A-3340S, the model which was the main WB4AIO recording deck for many years, before it was stolen (along with virtually everything else I owned) in 2006. Today I use Cool Edit Pro (a PC-based audio suite) to make most of my recordings.

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

I’VE JUST added two sections to 3950.net, one appearing in each sidebar, showcasing some interesting amateur radio audio recordings. Make sure that javascript is enabled in your browser for this site, and you’ll see a list of recordings with a small arrow on the left of each listing. Click on the title or the arrow, and a small player will open up, allowing nearly instant playback of the file. Click anywhere on the progress bar to skip around, and right-click the ‘download’ link which appears during streaming if you want to save the file to your hard drive.

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HD Radio: Doomed from the Start

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Here we see the HD Radio sidebands on either side of an analogue FM signal, as shown on a spectrum analyzer.

Here we see HD Radio sidebands on either side of an analogue FM broadcast signal, as shown on a spectrum analyzer.

by Kevin Strom, WB4AIO

WITH 2010 APPROACHING, CNET just released its “The Decade’s 30 Biggest Tech Flops” anti-awards, and “HD Radio” was among the “winners.”

HD Radio was not only doomed from the start, it was such a serious blunder that it may well lead to the death of thousands of radio stations and the permanent stunting of the industry itself.

There is nothing wrong with the concept of digital radio.

Using modern firmware-upgradeable codecs, orthogonal FDM transmission, and a network of community transmitters in a dedicated digital band, great things could have been done:

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