What to listen to for background noise?

[Bazz4CQJ]

In the long-distant past, if I was in the shack undertaking some task, I would always have a receiver on in the background listening to something, just as a source of "noise". Usually, it was just a couple of guys chatting away on 2m AM.

These days (especially from my QTH) 2m is 100% dead. There's usually something on 80m, but I never find SSB comfortable listening. Broadcast radio is full of doom and gloom or stuff that I don't find interesting.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to anything that would fill this gap? I suspect that in rural N. Oxfordshire, CB will be dead, except perhaps for truckers fast moving along the M40?

B

[Terry_VK5TM]

Being in a similar position (no 2m, rubbish broadcast radio etc) I just make up a playlist of some music and play that at a lowish volume.

[Bazz4CQJ]

Originally Posted by Terry_VK5TM

Being in a similar position (no 2m, rubbish broadcast radio etc) I just make up a playlist of some music and play that at a lowish volume.

Yes! I have put a load of music on usb sticks and they are spread around the house. But there's still something 'entertaining' about listening to someone else's conversations .

B

[its ur aerial]

I agree with you about listening to SSB, I really miss listening to Top Band AM, like you could in the 60`s 70`s, or even the people with a home brew TX on MW around 230 mtrs, flying the Jolly Roger
Lately I've started listening to my local 70cms repeater GB3IW.
But I miss the Top Band characters, and there technical rag chews.

Ken, G6HZG.

[Jon_G4MDC]

Volmet for me. VHF AM preferred. Something nice about the way it goes around and around.

[G3PIJpeter]

14 MHz CW for me on an HRO with broad IF that lets in four or five signals at once. Every now and then my wandering brain clicks into gear and says "Oh - there's a PY under that lot". Tuneful twittering.

Peter G3PIJ

[Aub]

3.615 for Amateur AM nets and ragchews , mostly every morning from about 7am till 9am, or on Saturday for the VMARS net at 0830. There is often a QSO going on in the late afternoons, too, especially now we're going towards winter conditions. If there's too much noise at your location, then try one the the many WEBSDR sites that cover 3.615 MHz.
I'm guessing you probably know all this already.

Cheers

Aub

[G6Tanuki]

For me it was usually the Architect military logistics net on 11.177MHz USB. Alas long since closed down.

These days I tend to have a scanner running on the civil airband, being on the flightpath into and out of Heathrow to the West means that during the day there is usually something going on. It's fun to look up the callsigns you hear on flightradar24 too.

[Bazz4CQJ]

Yes, the AM chatter on 160 and 2m all seems like another world .

The early morning AM activity on 80m is not the right time of day for me. If I'm not asleep, I'm playing Mr Grumpy.

I'm pretty much under the flightpath from London to N.America, so that might provide some 'noise', but those guys don't engage in much chat! I've got an old Alinco DJ-X10 (0.1-2000MHz) scanner somewhere; I must dig it out and see if it still works.

B

[G6Tanuki]

2M is pretty much dead round here, today I did a drive through the coverage area of the Mendip repeater GB3MN, the White Horse (GB3WH) near Swindon, GB3VA covering much of Berkshire up as far as Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes, along with the Newbury and Reading 2M repeaters.

Called through all of them, as well as putting out lots of CQ calls on S20, I was running 80Watts, but the response was a deathly silence.

Got home, put out a CQ on 60M and get an immediate reply from someone in Huddersfield.

VHF ham radio has had its day.

[Bazz4CQJ]

What mode/power/aerial were you using on 60m?

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Bazz4CQJ

What mode/power/aerial were you using on 60m?

SSB, around 25W PEP from a Clansman PRC320, antenna is a 'cloudwarmer' NVIS end fed longwire about 100 feet long and 25 feet above ground, loaded against a bunch of galvanised steel fencing spikes.

Works surprisingly well, I have worked all over Europe, and into Iceland and Greenland and Svalbard with it.

[Bazz4CQJ]

I have an IC-718 which is set up to cover 60m, but no antennas up at the moment. The shape/size of the garden here, plus the presence of large trees, +overheard power and overhead phone lines is...problematic?

The 25W from the Clansman is doing well.

B

[pnh0001]

Here in Brisbane I face the same problem when working in the shack. I have a rack of HF receivers fed from my antenna system via a multicoupler. My go to sources are:

7125 the local a.m frequency which has been very quiet of late due to conditions,

http://www.bom.gov.au/marine/voice_services.shtml usually VMC on 8176 usb

or

13261 or 8867 usb major world air routes S Pacific region, aircraft crossing the Tasman reporting position/height and requesting weather diversions

or

on MW 4TAB the local horse/harness/dog race calling station. The calling is rather hypnotic and before the action starts in the morning some quite interesting characters are interviewed. It's interesting to make a mental note of how often the favourite doesn't get up.

All of these at low volume just nicely fill the silence.

73 Peter VK4COZ

[Sparky67]

Shanwick Oceanic is often audible here with plenty of USB traffic. When conditions are good listening to the Far Eastern ATC can be interesting too, Mumbai’s freqs can be busy.

There have been quite a few music pirates transmitting between 6 and 8MHz recently too. My go-to was The Vault on 6985kHz, with their 40W of AM to a dipole. A bit of multi-path phase distortion added to the nostalgia. Although not voice traffic, you may find something to your taste in that area?

Martin
G4NCE

[Steve G4WCS]

GB3NGI or GB3VHF usually does it for me. However Ive treated myself to a little yaesu FT-891 and 10 metres has been bonkers this week. Worked the states, saudi arabia, south africa, and was over the moon to work the falklands

[Roger Ramjet]

Trust this is not too much off topic, but connecting a telephone handset across a copper phone line via a DC Blocking capacitor will give background "network" noise. Telephone test handsets have a MONITOR selector for same purpose.

Rog

[Radio Wrangler]

I have a 1979/1980 radio series on open reel tape. I tend to play it through whenever all the diodes down my left side are giving me gipp.

David

[Bazz4CQJ]

If old radio programmes appeal, there's a station called Pumpkin FM https://pumpkinfm.com/ which may be of interest, though they are an internet station and I don't know where the FM bit comes from.

They run two stations transmitting 24/7, mostly old BBC comedy shows. Some of them are very old (Round The Horne) and some a little more recent. Perhaps a good source for your pantry TX and hence vintage content for a vintage radio.

It's not quite the same as eaves dropping on Fred and Bill chatting away on 2m, and whom you might join in with shortly .

The later series of 'Round the Horne' are still damn funny!

B

[Bazz4CQJ]

If old radio programmes appeal, there's a station called Pumpkin FM https://pumpkinfm.com/ which may be of interest, though they are an internet station and I don't know where the FM bit comes from.

They run two stations transmitting 24/7, mostly old BBC comedy shows. Some of them are very old (Round The Horne) and some a little more recent. Perhaps a good source for your pantry TX and hence vintage content for a vintage radio. The later series of Round the Horne are still damn funny, but it's not quite the same as eaves dropping on Fred and Bill chatting away on 2m, and whom you might join in with shortly .

B