Interference source found and eliminated!

Glad to announce that repeater is once again running interference-free!

The irony is that the power supply littering the signal was the very same powering the SDR receiving the buzzer. So for past several months the repeater has basically recorded  his own mess...

Anyway, from now on we have clean signal again and hopefully even better than before thanks to newly installed magnetic loop.

New Antenna for Repeater

As a somewhat late birthday present from Satrian, my SDR radio company, repeater got itself now a brand new magnetic loop antenna!

It is fairly straightforward design made out of water pipes and tuned to 4.625MHz. 

The main advantage over the more classic antenna designs is its directional capabilities. The noise what is hindering the reception for past couple of months is therefore a little less evident, resulting a better SNR now.

Repeater Maintenance on August 17, 2014

The UVB-76 Temporary Internet Repeater is now more than 4 years old and no significant upgrades have been done since. 

As Buzzer seems to be alive and kicking as always and as the worldwide situation is heating up daily, the time has come to have some upgrades done. 

I will be moving the repeater to other server room today with new magnetic loop antenna already set up, what is supposed to take care of some of the QRM (interference) what has been disturbing the reception for past few months.

The expected downtime is 17.08.2014 from 2.30pm to 4.00pm UTC.

EDIT: Move complete, works nicely at new location!

Help Saving the Shukhov Radio Tower in Moscow

We have all enjoyed the mysteries of radio communication, would it be through unknown signals, number stations or just surfing the shortwaves in hope to find something inspiring. Now it is time to help preserving the very piece of the history of radio.

Please take time and sign the online petition to help saving this beautiful landmark in Moscow!

https://www.causes.com/campaigns/76415-save-shukhov-tower-in-moscow

The tower seems to be falling a victim of real estate development and so far the Russian State Committee for Television and Radio has given in to government and agreed to demolish it.
World leading architects are trying to give a support for those fighting for the tower and signed an open letter for saving the tower. However, any signature worldwide can be a step closer for saving it!

MoonBounce Serenade: Recording

Here is the recorded audio feed of the concert:
http://klassikaraadio.err.ee/helid?main_id=1721673

MoonBounce Serenade

I am proud to be part of the MIMProject.org atrist group and as we are specialized on technological art forms, my engineering hobby meets my art hobby quite often.

So it happened, that when we were asked to represent Estonia at the EBU annual Art's Birthday event on January 17'th, we decided to create something different.

Therefore, on January 17'th 2014 at 19.40-20.00UTC, we are about to create a largest music delay device ever attempted! And to accomplish this, we have teamed up with radio amateurs across the world and using the object no larger than .. our Moon! 

Simply put, the pieces of music will be transmitted to the moon using one of the most powerful 2.32GHz amateur transmitters for that purpose in existence, what just happens to be located in Estonia, at ES5PC (radio amateur callsign). The transmitter looks like this:

Moon will reflect the signal back and after traveling more than 768 000 km roundtrip, it will be received at the listening station of DL0SHF in Germany, where it is relayed back to us over internet, at . The receiver looks like this:

This will make the whole setup a huge 2.7sec delay line with some added effects (lot of noise and distortion..).

The catch? Moon is incredibly poor reflector for radio waves, so the signal will be attenuated by 281dB. If this number does not look too terrifying, lets represent it the other way: the signal arrives back 1258925411794167214239541063.958 times weaker ...

For those interested to listen how it all turns out, the live feed to the EBU show can be reached at http://klassikaraadio.err.ee/kuula and the time to listen is January 17'th 2014, at 19.40-20.00UTC