Nice signal 3927.

[Dave]

Nice splashy/ splattery signal from the Spasman again.
Even the BBC on 3915 inaudable due to his splatter.
Why don't all pirates have such signals??
Teach the legal stations a thing or two!!
Dave.

[silentkeyradio]

honestly Dave, if you dont have 20 or 30kHz of sideband you just can't get the audio quality that short wave is famous for.

[Dave]

honestly Dave, if you dont have 20 or 30kHz of sideband you just can't get the audio quality that short wave is famous for.

Thats right, I just don't know why the BBC or Deutche Welle etc haven't learn't this yet.
I am going to alter all our transmitters so they are like this, although I may not have the experience!
Dave.

[wanker]

Wanker just pissed of and jealous about the power others use. I guess he lost it. wanker janker

[Dave]

Wanker just pissed of and jealous about the power others use. I guess he lost it. wanker janker

Hello Mr Wanker, No you've got it wrong we think that Spacemans audio was good and as for the power thing he doesn't run as much as the BBC.Oh by the way use your normal ID instead of hiding.

[Box73]

Despite the nice signal of spaceman (so why listen to other stations), if you would like to listen to the BBC or Deutsche Welle, I am sure these stations are transmitting on other frequencies where there is no spaceman around.

[Andy Richards]

Sorry guys,but I really don't see what you are talking about!I measured "Spacemans" supposed splatter on Saturday & here in London he was only audible from 3925 to 3930 Khz.Not bad when you are on 3927Khz.
At 2330 he seemed to deliberately turn up the mod,maybe just to test this "splatter" theory near the beginning of "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young.This indeed did cause some "Splatter" from 3920 - 3935 Khz.I am sure this was done to see if the "Splatter" was for real & he closed down soon afterwards anyway.
I do feel that there is a bit of "Sour Grapes" from UK Pirates here,"Spaceman" has always been very good on bandwidth,splatter,mod quality & not interfering with others.It is very unfair & incorrect to single him out as an offender,just because he has a huge signal.I know UK Pirates can't run the power that some continental stations use,but to be fair,we don't pay enough attention to aerials & earths either!
You seem to think that any station with a huge signal must be running loads of power & doesn't care who he interferes with.But I bet there are stations running more power than "Spaceman" with poorer aerials & earths,causing interference that he would not tolerate.
THINK BEFORE YOU POST GUYS.


Andy Richards.

[Just me]

Hi, I listened also Spaceman that time and had to agree Andrews point that no troubles with bandwidth. I even listened BBC on 3915 kHz and it came also just fine...

So if there has been some troubles with splashes it had to caused of using poor receivers....

That's all,

Pirate Listener

[me]

Sorry I was meaning Andy when writing Andrew...
Pirate Listener

[Just me]

Hi, I listened also Spaceman that time and had to agree Andrews point that no troubles with bandwidth. I even listened BBC on 3915 kHz and it came also just fine...

So if there has been some troubles with splashes it had to caused of using poor receivers....

That's all,

Pirate Listener

[Guest]

Spaceman has a very nice signal. His modulation is super. It is very crisp, every single word is easily understandable. But…(and this have I told him….)….
I do not think he overmodulates the carrier but he modulates the carrier with audio frequencies far from what can be heard.on most receivers. I think most of his listeners use receivers with an AM bandwidth of something like 6 to 8 kHz. This means that no modulation further from the carrier than 3-4 kHz can be heard at all, it just adds up to the noise and interference causing troubles for other stations.

In the regular AM band spacing is 9 kHz. This means that any modulation with frequencies higher than 4500 Hz will cause trouble for the neighbouring channel. In the shortwave band with a spacing of 5 kHz we have all experienced interference from 5 kHz up and down.

Stations in the 48 mb are ususally very close. Most of them between 6290 and 6310 kHz. One solution to the interference problem would be to use other frequencies

[silentkeyradio]

yes gert I think you are right to a point.

But if you are looking at 5kHz spacing then the most audio frequency you can use for AM is a mere 2.5 kHz. Your average landline phone has better hifi capabilities.

Some of the higher powered pirates have massive sidebands - even using the 4kHz filter on my rx I can sometimes still hear sideband splatter 20kHz from the fundamental. When I lived in a very quiet rf rural area sometimes it was 30kHz!

This is not to critisise anyone. But we owe it to ourselves and to other pirates and to listeners to put out the best signals with the least interference as we can. And sometimes it is better to dumb down the audio quality for the sake of technical excellence.

[Dave]

Right, if we are talking 9 KHz spacing we are talking maximum 4.5KHz each sideband!.
Thats one problem, but the problem that Spaceman and all others have is that each piece of music has a different frequency range. here in the UK, due to historical reasons, we have often prerecorded our programmes and proccessed them at the same time. For instance I use Cool Edit and limit the bandwidth when processing, so that nothing other than is necessary is transmitted.
This is not so easy when you broadcast live,as do the Dutch(god bless them).
Steve from Radio Underground spoke to the Spaceman the other day and the Spaceman was of the opinion that he needed a "Optimod" unit.
This is one answer, a very expensive one, but not the only one.
I will publish a circuit that will limit the audio bandwith to a maximum of 6 KHz and compress the audio to a uniform level and it will cost less than 10 euros.
I will do this soon and it won't be new, it will be a proven circuit that has been used for some time.
Oh and by the way I think Gert is bang on target.

Spaceman has a very nice signal. His modulation is super. It is very crisp, every single word is easily understandable. But…(and this have I told him….)….
I do not think he overmodulates the carrier but he modulates the carrier with audio frequencies far from what can be heard.on most receivers. I think most of his listeners use receivers with an AM bandwidth of something like 6 to 8 kHz. This means that no modulation further from the carrier than 3-4 kHz can be heard at all, it just adds up to the noise and interference causing troubles for other stations.

In the regular AM band spacing is 9 kHz. This means that any modulation with frequencies higher than 4500 Hz will cause trouble for the neighbouring channel. In the shortwave band with a spacing of 5 kHz we have all experienced interference from 5 kHz up and down.

Stations in the 48 mb are ususally very close. Most of them between 6290 and 6310 kHz.

Dave.

[Box73]

Aha, a very interesting discussion we have here...

And yes, audio bandwidth on shortwave should normally be limited to about 3 kHz, however this will give a somewhat dull sound. Somewhat wider bandwith will largely increase audibility.

For myself and already for a large number of years I am using a sharp LF low-pass filter with a cut-of frequency at 5 Khz. Although this is, even on MW too much, I am convinced this reduces interference a lot.

Furthermore however one should pay attention to avoid over-modulation, this is a second important source of splatter. No filtering will help you with that. During the past I tried a number of so called 'negative peak limiters' to avoid this problem, however without much success. The only cheap solution on this is monitoring the transmitted HF signal on a (old) oscilloscope. Avoid using cheap limiters, because they mostly distort the audio-signal and produce unwanted harmonicas and/or mixing products.

One of the better (and expensive) solution is using an orban, omnia or other sound processor. Mostly however they are adjusted to create a more powerfull sound, thus creating additional spaltter instead of avoiding splatter using carefull expander/compressor settings...

Greetings to all.

[roy]

the best stand alone processor is the inovonics 231 mapll specialy for am broadcast bud..........where to find???????? anyone more details????