response 63 of 123:

Mar 7 19:49 UTC 1999

Get a copy of QST (or join ARRL and get it regularly). They list "hamfests",
where hams and commerical vendors sell new and used gear, and you can meet
a lot of hams. Hamfests are held frequently all over the country, and you
should be able to find a couple per month within easy driving distance.
You can also find ham clubs affiliated with ARRL through the ARRL web
site at arrl.org. 

response 65 of 123:

Oct 1 16:40 UTC 1999

I bought an Alinco DJ-X10T, wide band reciever...from Hamradio outlet
its really cool..its kinda like the Icom R-10 but a little cheaper. :)

response 67 of 123:

Oct 8 07:47 UTC 1999

I was kinda intimidated at first cuz I've heard horror stories
about how some Japanese radios can be hard to figure out.
This one was simple...I remembered the basic functions after about
5 hrs of playing with it.

I bought a Radio shack Pro-2037 back in 95 that cost me $200,
it does 30-960MHz with lots of gaps, 200 channels. 
(but is quicker scan=25ch/sec search=50ch/sec)

this Alinco cost me bout $330 after S/H (2nd priority)
covering 100KHz-1999MHz (minus cell freqs)
has 1200 channels (40ch per 30banks)
it has a neat little bandscope thats kinda like a spectrum analyzer.
the sensitivity is good. (.25uV for 30-1000MHz NFM 3.5KHz 12dB SINAD)


the only 2 things I dislike about it is:

1) its super slow  scan=5-6ch/sec  search=25ch/sec
2) when programming in names for channels im limited to 8 characters
   and it takes awhile to programs.

a really good website for more info is:

http://www.strongsignals.net/htm/revx10.htm


$300 seems like alot for a fancy scanner...but im really into radios
so to me it was worth it.

response 69 of 123:

Oct 11 01:21 UTC 1999

I was playing with it the other day..using the factory antenna and I could
pick up 5070 WWCR easily, I could hear 10000 WWVH when I turned the squelch
down to its lowest setting....when I had it im my car using my mag-mount 2-mtr
5/8 wave antenna I could listen toCW on 30 meters and a conversation on 15
meters (SSB). Im gonna make a super long wire antenna and report the results
in a few days. :) 

so far I pretty happy with the SW performance..it seems to be albe to "hear"
everything that my Radio Shack DX-392 can hear.

response 71 of 123:

Jan 22 14:49 UTC 2000

Of course. They are devices and you could put one together yourself,
though the difficulty of doing so would depend upon how much of it
you buy as subunits. Stereo receivers are so inexpensive, however,
that I wonder why you would want to.

response 73 of 123:

Jan 22 16:55 UTC 2000

Try Kiwanis... :)

response 75 of 123:

Jan 28 17:47 UTC 2000

Get two of them... :) (actually - how does stereo FM work?)

response 77 of 123:

Jan 28 21:21 UTC 2000

It's a bit complicated.  As I recall, the monaural signal (Left+Right) is
present as usual.  Combined with this, however, is a Left-Right signal
that's single-sideband amplitude modulated on a 19 kHz "pilot tone." The
whole schpiel is then mixed together and transmitted as an FM signal.  Since
normal FM only carries audio out to 15 kHz, the pilot tone and L-R signal
aren't audible on a monaural receiver.  When a stereo receiver senses the
pilot tone is present in the demodulated audio, it seperates it out and
demodulates the L-R signal from it.  By adding and subtracting that signal
from the monaural signal, it recovers the two channels.  (Since
(L+R)-(L-R)=2R, and (L+R)+(L-R)=2L.) I know this isn't very clear...someone
else might be able to explain it better.  I could also scan the basic block
diagram of the process from some class notes I have from a few terms ago,
if you'd like.

This system seems a bit Rube Goldberg-ish, but in practice it works pretty
well, and keeps compatibility with monaural FM receivers.  (Another scheme
that was tried and thankfully rejected was transmitting the left signal on
the FM broadcast band and the right signal on the AM broadcast band.  One of
the obvious problems with this was that the fidelity of the two channels
just wasn't equal.)

response 79 of 123:

Jan 28 21:29 UTC 2000

Many thanks. I'm wondering why I hadn't thought to find out a long time
ago how this works. I guess two monaural receiver chips just won't do
it.....  :)

response 81 of 123:

Jan 30 03:00 UTC 2000

So do the majority of FM stations transmit SCA?

response 83 of 123:

Jan 30 18:09 UTC 2000

resp:81  A lot of them don't, actually.  One possible reason for this,
according to the article, is "In the case of SCA, modulating one
subcarrier of a stereo signal uses up about 10% maximum of the total
75 kHz deviation (100% modulation).  In practice, that reduces the
main channel's signal strength by about 1 dB.  Normally, such a drop
in signal level would not be noticeable.  However in areas with
crowded FM bands, every dB counts in the race for ratings, and
revenue."  The article also mentions that there is sometimes a second
SCA subcarrier at 92 kHz, which (if used) would take even more power
away from the main channel.

I live in a different area now than when I built the radio.  All of this
SCA talk is giving me the urge to fire up that radio and see what this
city has to offer in terms of SCA.

response 85 of 123:

Jan 31 03:15 UTC 2000

I dusted off my SCA receiver.  I found three SCA transmissions: One
background music, one data transmission, and one that sounded like some
type of community service thing.  I can't remember if I have the receiver
set for the 67 kHz subcarrier or the 92 kHz one (I should have brought
that adjustment out to the front panel), so I there might have a few
others that I missed.