Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Mar 14, 2022 17:57:41 GMT
The bloke I knew that had one demonstrated it to me and a couple of other lads sometime in about 81, he said it had cost a couple of hundred pounds.
I vaguely remember one caller called Cowman, and another whose only topic of conversation was aerials. £200 quid to talk to two pillocks.
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Nightfly
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Post by Nightfly on Mar 14, 2022 20:05:29 GMT
£200 quid to talk to two pillocks. He he - this made me laugh. Actually, back in 1981, the house a couple of doors down had a CB which for a while interfered with my reel to reel tape machine. I could hear their full conversations in the background, mainly about aerials and equipment. When I mentioned this to them, they apologised and fit a filter to stop the interference. Then I could hear the guy next door to them who had a sub £1K full Ham radio setup with aerial strung across the garden to the house that also had a Radio Ham residing there. He was a fully licensed Ham, fluent in morse code and lingo and I could hear all his conversation too, which were... mainly about aerials and equipment. To be fair, they seemed like a lot of fun at the time.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2022 11:56:26 GMT
The bloke I knew that had one demonstrated it to me and a couple of other lads sometime in about 81, he said it had cost a couple of hundred pounds. I vaguely remember one caller called Cowman, and another whose only topic of conversation was aerials. £200 quid to talk to two pillocks. haha funny that Carty Lad! £200 to talk to two pillocks! and in a Northern Accent
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Mar 16, 2022 10:07:28 GMT
When I was a kid, Our nextdoor neighbour was a keen CD/Radio user. He built a Radio Hut in his back garden; fully kitted out, insulated/heated etc, and had a large mast in the garden, and a large length of wire stretched between the mast and his house.
When he used one of his older radio sets - it used to interfere with our TV.
He also had two TV aerials on Rotators, connected to a couple of old TV sets, he was well into TVDXing as it was known - and under certain conditions, could receive TV Channels from around the world. Much of them were from Europe.
I vividly remember him tuning into some Italian TV station (a very grainy picture) - and the Thames TV logo came on, and then an episode of "George and Mildred" - which had been re-dubbed!!!!
Also - it was through his Radio sets, I discovered the "Number Stations" (many still on air today) - which are radio stations never fully admitted, but are used by government intellience to relay messages to agents in the field.
We (UK) had the "Lincolnshire Poacher" - broadcast on SW, from a transmitter at an RAF base in Cyprus. That was last "on air" in 2008.
The stations broadcast a series of numbers, which can only be despyhered by an agent with a decryption key/one time code book. They are virtually impossible to break - and are very similar to the encryption methods used by the Enigma Machine. A Cuban spy was arrested and tried a few years ago, in the USA - comeplete with a codebook.
Using his CB setup, he used to talk to other users with similar set ups round the globe. They could also triangulate where broadcasts originated.
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Post by Dirty Epic on Mar 16, 2022 11:20:02 GMT
When I was a kid, Our nextdoor neighbour was a keen CD/Radio user. He built a Radio Hut in his back garden; fully kitted out, insulated/heated etc, and had a large mast in the garden, and a large length of wire stretched between the mast and his house.
When he used one of his older radio sets - it used to interfere with our TV.
He also had two TV aerials on Rotators, connected to a couple of old TV sets, he was well into TVDXing as it was known - and under certain conditions, could receive TV Channels from around the world. Much of them were from Europe.
I vividly remember him tuning into some Italian TV station (a very grainy picture) - and the Thames TV logo came on, and then an episode of "George and Mildred" - which had been re-dubbed!!!!
Also - it was through his Radio sets, I discovered the "Number Stations" (many still on air today) - which are radio stations never fully admitted, but are used by government intellience to relay messages to agents in the field.
We (UK) had the "Lincolnshire Poacher" - broadcast on SW, from a transmitter at an RAF base in Cyprus. That was last "on air" in 2008.
The stations broadcast a series of numbers, which can only be despyhered by an agent with a decryption key/one time code book. They are virtually impossible to break - and are very similar to the encryption methods used by the Enigma Machine. A Cuban spy was arrested and tried a few years ago, in the USA - comeplete with a codebook.
Using his CB setup, he used to talk to other users with similar set ups round the globe. They could also triangulate where broadcasts originated.
That's interesting Sparky, I'm sure I saw some BBC programme in the '80's about UK expats in the States doing that and the Granada logo came up when they were using some sort of satellite set up. Always thought I'd imagined that one but seems that it was possible. Good stuff again Sparky.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Mar 16, 2022 12:02:17 GMT
That's interesting Sparky, I'm sure I saw some BBC programme in the '80's about UK expats in the States doing that and the Granada logo came up when they were using some sort of satellite set up. Always thought I'd imagined that one but seems that it was possible. Good stuff again Sparky.
TVDXing, was quite a big thing before the days of Satt & Cable multichannel TV. The boxes you could buy looked like large radio sets and ranged in price from a simple cheap thing, to a more elborate box that could recieve VHF and UHF. The results depended on how good you aerial was, the weather, and was aparently be better at night, and with high clouds as a signal could travel further. I never dabbled in it - as it seemed to require a hell of a lot of patience and gambling with so many different variables.
I couldn't get into the CB set up, as I could never understand what any of the conversation was, and it sounded dreadful. So - perhaps easier to decode a Government number station.
Didn't you have to be licenced for such gear?
You could at one time, monitor Police and Ambulance as well as Aircraft radios.
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Mar 16, 2022 13:36:06 GMT
I remember tuning in to the local fuzz channel on a VHF radio we had.
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Nightfly
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Post by Nightfly on Mar 16, 2022 20:47:24 GMT
That's interesting Sparky, I'm sure I saw some BBC programme in the '80's about UK expats in the States doing that and the Granada logo came up when they were using some sort of satellite set up. Always thought I'd imagined that one but seems that it was possible. Good stuff again Sparky. You could at one time, monitor Police and Ambulance as well as Aircraft radios.
A mate from the Midlands was into DX-TV. I'm not sure about the technicalities of how it worked, but he would talk about "lifts" and high pressure and weather conditions that would carry signals from far away. He had a book full of foreign TV test cards to help him identify the stations. I remember him about to buy one of the early analogue satellite systems and being worried that it might take the fun out of the hobby. A few months later he had a couple of dishes in his back garden on rotators. As for the emergency services, they moved to a digital encoded platform making it impossible for Joe Public to listen in. However, the airband is open to anyone with a cheap scanner to listen in to. I have one and it's quite interesting to hear what is happening in the sky overhead. The first time I tried it, I discovered the plane about 5,000ft above the house was dealing with a passenger who had had a heart attack and they were liaising with the local airport so they could be met by an ambulance on landing. Listening to airband is a grey area. It's technically illegal, but is tolerated so long as you don't relay any info you hear... er, I suppose just like I've just done. It was a few years ago though... and the local paper reported the passenger thankfully recovered. Actually, I believe some people use scanners to eavesdrop on radio comms from film/TV crews. I think I saw a news item where a reporter parked up outside the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire studio and could listen in to conversations between the gallery and the floor. Maybe a better system than the "coughing" method. Those Short Wave number broadcasts are fascinating but very creepy ! Tony Hancock's The Radio Ham anyone ? ( It is a not raining in Tokyo also...).
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Mar 17, 2022 20:19:42 GMT
You could at one time, monitor Police and Ambulance as well as Aircraft radios.
A mate from the Midlands was into DX-TV. I'm not sure about the technicalities of how it worked, but he would talk about "lifts" and high pressure and weather conditions that would carry signals from far away. He had a book full of foreign TV test cards to help him identify the stations. I remember him about to buy one of the early analogue satellite systems and being worried that it might take the fun out of the hobby. A few months later he had a couple of dishes in his back garden on rotators. As for the emergency services, they moved to a digital encoded platform making it impossible for Joe Public to listen in. However, the airband is open to anyone with a cheap scanner to listen in to. I have one and it's quite interesting to hear what is happening in the sky overhead. The first time I tried it, I discovered the plane about 5,000ft above the house was dealing with a passenger who had had a heart attack and they were liaising with the local airport so they could be met by an ambulance on landing. Listening to airband is a grey area. It's technically illegal, but is tolerated so long as you don't relay any info you hear... er, I suppose just like I've just done. It was a few years ago though... and the local paper reported the passenger thankfully recovered. Actually, I believe some people use scanners to eavesdrop on radio comms from film/TV crews. I think I saw a news item where a reporter parked up outside the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire studio and could listen in to conversations between the gallery and the floor. Maybe a better system than the "coughing" method. Those Short Wave number broadcasts are fascinating but very creepy ! Tony Hancock's The Radio Ham anyone ? ( It is a not raining in Tokyo also...). TV-DXing was fascinating - but seemed really fiddly; you had to have the correct aerials, set it all up, point them in the right direction and rely on weather conditions (Sporadic E was a phrase I remember) so I never bothered with it. Too many variables!!
Pre-digital radio, we used to listen in to the local Police, Ambulance, Water Board and Gas Board, odd truckers and the local Taxi firm.
Film Crew radios are normally spread across about 6 channels - more for bigger jobs.
One channel per department. Electricians are usually Channel 3; Camera Channel 2, First Aid/Security on Channel 1; Grips - 4, Construction/Set 5, Production Office 6.
I think they are low power VHF sets, only restricted to about 1/2mile or something
Years back, they had none of this - so you had to have someone permanently on set, someone on the truck and someone fetching gear as required.
I'd never understood what those Number Stations were for until recently.
I used to stumble across the MI6 Lincolnshire Poacher station when mucking about with the radio as a kid. No one has actually admitted using them. As I said, in the US, a Cuban spy was arrested and tried - his codebook was used as evidence. They are still very much in use, though I don't think we've have used one since around 2008.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2022 20:35:29 GMT
That's interesting Sparky, I'm sure I saw some BBC programme in the '80's about UK expats in the States doing that and the Granada logo came up when they were using some sort of satellite set up. Always thought I'd imagined that one but seems that it was possible. Good stuff again Sparky.
TVDXing, was quite a big thing before the days of Satt & Cable multichannel TV. The boxes you could buy looked like large radio sets and ranged in price from a simple cheap thing, to a more elborate box that could recieve VHF and UHF. The results depended on how good you aerial was, the weather, and was aparently be better at night, and with high clouds as a signal could travel further. I never dabbled in it - as it seemed to require a hell of a lot of patience and gambling with so many different variables.
I couldn't get into the CB set up, as I could never understand what any of the conversation was, and it sounded dreadful. So - perhaps easier to decode a Government number station.
Didn't you have to be licenced for such gear?
You could at one time, monitor Police and Ambulance as well as Aircraft radios.
I’m pretty sure you had to have a license, but no l bothered! How ridiculous now, looking back! GC
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