Subj : Activity?
To   : poindexter FORTRAN
From : Oldbieone
Date : Sat Feb 11 2023 09:37 am

  Re: Activity?
  By: poindexter FORTRAN to Oldbieone on Fri Feb 10 2023 07:05 pm

I think a lot of us did networking over the electrical wiring when that technology came out. I know I did, too. Seemed to be a good solution back then to not having to run NIC drops at home. You're right, it created a LOT of RF noise, especially on the lower bands (160 thru 40), right in the range of AM shortwave broacasting. Coast to Coast is still on-air in the AM bands, and I  think there's still a pirate rebroadcasting the pre-Noory ones in the 7-8 MHz range occasionally. The biggest problem now is switching power supplies, from laptop chargers, monitors, digital TVs, through pretty much everything. But there are still ways to squash a lot, if not all of it. I had to buy some ferrite cores recently to bring my noise floor down from an S9 to an S4-5. Still a lot of noise, but its no longer at a point where it's de-sensing my front end and stopping me receiving anything at all.

The DX'er community is alive and well, though most of it seems to be hunting clandestines and pirates these days. The old DX'ers Unlimited on Radio Habana Cuba is gone, after the show's creator and RHC technical director, Arnie Corro, died back in January. It had kinda been off and on for about a year before he finally passed away. One of the DX shows is still going, Glen Hauser's, but the guy is pretty old so who knows for how much longer?

But now you have people like YouTube personalities doing shows on shortwave. Not even kidding. There's a kid called the "Review Brah" with a show called This Week In Review I think, and he broadcasts a podcast version of it on shortwave, so there's still a lot of unexpected broadcasts to be found on the air.

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