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Vol. 15, No. 11

Cover Story

Scanning the MegaMall By Chuck Penson

November 1996

One of the main attractions inside Minnesota 's Mall o f Ame rica is LEGO's Imagination Center, brim-ming with colorand incredible LEGO block creations. It also houses "Camp Snoopy''-a full-size amusement park with roller coaster and seven-story Ferri s wheel. The sheer size of this mega-mall is mjnd-boggling, re-quiring the coordination and services of a small city.

Like all cities, it provides its share of scanning opportunities. Thanks to a group effort. our author s leuthed out the frequencies to plug into your seannerin advanceofyour visit. Story begins on page 8.

Not interested in mingling with the mega-crowds November 29th? Any mall a nywhere can provide plenty of entertainment-see the Scanning Report on page 30 for more on mall scanning.

Cover photo courtesy LEGO Sys-tems, Inc.

CONTENTS

New Olympic Technology........ ............................... 12 By Bennett Liles

In the year of the Olympics, we just had to wrap up with one more look back at the Games. After a ll the hype about new technology, what solutions worked and which need more work? Which new technologies will become a part of the Games and/or a part of our Ii ves for years to come? Some of the answers may sur-prise you.

lnsomniac's Guide to Broadcasters on the Net ........... 18 By Gayle Van Horn

MT' s Frequency Man ager takes ad vantage of a sleepless night to "surf' the net for international broadcaster' s web s ites. Ou r readers are the benefi ciary as she prov ides a short description and rates each site on its value and attractiveness .

Get in the Mediumwave Loop ................................ 22 By Philip Gebhardt

The next few months offer the best conditions of the year for broadcast band li stening. Anyone who gets hooked on seeking out and logging these statio ns will eventual ly want to buy or build a loop antenna. Gebhardt addresses what makes the loop such an e ffective solution, and how you can try out a loop without investing a fortune.

Face-Off: ICOM's R-8500 vs. AOR's AR-5000 ......... 26 By Bob Grove

These two long-awaited, top-o f- the-line, wide-frequency-coverage re-ceivers finally a rri ved at MT headquarters withi n days of each other, so Bob Grove took the opportuni ty to pi t them against each other, head-to-head. Later. we' ll look at each one in its turn . but here are his personal first impressions.

Reviews: Perhaps the surprise of the season is

Drake's SW8. whicl) has experienced so many enhancements it deserves to be called an sWSA (even though such a model doesn't ex ist . rr you haven "t given a serious look at thi s portatop, Magnc says it deserves a second look. Sec .... llliiiilll .. lll ... page 92.

If you always wanted an o~cilloscope on your bench. but could never afford one. let Bill Cheek introduce you to ProbeScopc- a small. computer-interfaced . probe-type scope from Radio Shack (p. 82).

Yet another ACARS decoder'l Universal Radio has introduced the ACT- I. and John Catalano finds it yet another- and a very valid-approach to decoding these aircraft communica-tions addressing and reporting messages. See p. 84.

DEPARTMENTS

Letters ............................ .................... 4 Communications ................................. 6 PCS Front Line ................................... 28

Crossing the Cellular Divide Scan~:~ ~~rrt ............................... 30

Utility World ......... ............................ 34 Marine HF Radio Scaling Down

Global Forum ................................... 38 QSL Report ....................................... 42 English Lang SW Guide ..................... 43 Propagation Conditions ..................... 63 Beginner's Corner ............................. 64

Beyond the Fringe Below 500 kHz ................................. 66

Portable Pickups American Bandscan .......................... 68

What's in a Name? Outer Limits ...................................... 70

New Name for Nigerian Clandestine On the Ham Bands ........... ............... 72

The Heath HW-9 DeMaw's Workbench ........................ 74

Working with Toroids

Plane Talk ......................... ............... 76 VHF / UHF NA VA/OS

Federal File ....................................... 78 Who's Who without a Program

Satellite TV ....................................... 80 The SBCA Show: Futurewatch

Experimenters Workshop .................. 82 ProbeScope from Radio Shack

Computers & Radio ........................... 84 News Bytes; ACT-1 ACARS decoder

Special Events/Club Circuit ................ 86 What's New ..................................... 88 Magne Tests ..................................... 92

Drake's Secret "SWBA" Scanning Equipment .......................... 94

Build a Mobile Radio Mount Antenna Topics ................................. 96

Is That Really an Antenna? Radio Reflections ............................... 98

Real Radios Glow in the Dark Ask Bob ......................................... 100

Opto Xplorer Cellular Restoration Stock Exchange .............................. l 02 Closing Comments .......................... l 04

Reporting what you overheard

MONITORING TIMES (ISSN: 08895341) is published monthly by Grove Enterprises, Inc., Brosslown, North Carolina, USA. Copyright 1996. Periodicals postage po id ot Brosstown, NC, and additional moiling offices. Short excerpts may be reprinted with appropriate credit. Complete articles may not be reproduced without permission.

Subscription Roles: $23.95 in US; $48.50 Canada air; and $85.95 foreign air elsewhere, US funds. La bel indicates last issue of subscription. See page 103 for mare information.

Address: P.O. Box 98, 7540 Highway 64 West, Brosslown, NC 28902-0098

Telephone: (704) 837-9200 Fox: (704) 8372216 (24 hours) Internet Address: www.grove.net or [email protected];

Editorial: [email protected]

Postmaster: Send address changes to Monitoring Times, P.O. Box 98, Brosstown, NC 289020098.

Disclaimer: While Monitoring Times makes an effort to ensure the information it publishes is accurate , it cannot be held liable for the contents. The reader assumes any risk for performing modification or construction pro jects published in Monitoring Times. Opinion or conclusions expressed are not necessarily the view of Monitoring Times or Grove Enterprises. Unsolicited manuscripts are accepted. SASE if material is to be returned.

Owners Editorial Staff Bob and Judy Grove

Publisher Bob Grove, WA4PYQ

Editor Rachel Baughn, KE40PD

Assistant Editor Larry Van Horn, NSFPW

Art Director John Bailey

Advertising Svcs. Beth Leinbach

(704) 389-4007 Business Manager

Kelly Davis, KE4TAM

Frequency Manager ... Gayle Van Horn Frequency Monitors ... David Datko, Loyd Van Horn Program Manager ... Jim Frimmel Beginner's Corner ... T.J. Arey, WB2GHA

K.l.S. Radio ... Richard Arland, K7YHA Plane Talk ... Jean Baker, KIN9DD

Scanning Report ... Richard Barnell Computers and Radio ... John Catalano

Below 500 kHz ... Kevin Carey, WB2QMY Experimenter's Wkshp ... Bill Cheek

Propagation ... Jacques d' Avignon DeMaw' s Workbench ... Doug DeMaw, Wl FB

Digital Digest ... Bob Evans Federal File ... John Fulford, WA4VPY

SW Broadcasting ... Glenn Houser On the Ham Bands ... Ike Kerschner, N31K

Mogne Tests ... Lawrence Magne

Communications .. . Larry Miller What's New? .. .. Larry Miller

Sconning Equipment .... Bob Parness, AJ9S Sotellite TV .. .. Ken Reitz, KS4ZR

Antenna Topics .. .. W. Clem Small, KR6A American Bandscan .... Doug Smith, W9WI SW Broadcast Logs .... Gayle Von Horn

QSL Corner ... . Gayle Van Horn Utility World ... . Lorry Van Horn, N5FPW

PCS Front Line .... Dan Veeneman Outer Limits .... George Zeller

Correspondence lo columnists should be mailed c/o Monitoring Times via e -mail ([email protected]) or via post office. Any request for a personal reply should be accompanied by on SASE.

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Techno-quackery Several recent letters re late to the

topic of Bob Grove's August "Clos-ing Comments" which adddressed a variety of topics, among them " techno-quackery" and keyless car entry sys-tems. Here are some of your responses. " I can re late to your concern about -tech no-quackery. During the mid-

L E T T E R S

~ ~The Short.wave List.ening Club V G.L. Comba Public School

mobile antenna." " I saw the very th ing you wrote about concerning kcy less entry sys-tems on Boston TV about eight months ago. Two men were shown with a box maybe 12" by 8" that contained a di splay, what I tho ught were thumb wheel switches. and a whip antenna. Whenever anybody locked their car with the remote, they would capture the code. One man would then ask the car's owner for permission to unlock the car without touching it. They then went ahead and transmitted the neces-sary c.:ode to accomplish the task.

I 980s. I was a Radio Shack store manager, and Tandy Corp. was just as guilty as any other electronics re-taile r. One item that comes to mind was a tabletop TV antenna in the shape of a satellite di sh. It sold for $ 19.95, but it performed no better than our $3.99 rabbit ears. All store managers hated selling it, because we knew it would come back, and we would have an unhappy customer on our hands.

"In 1984 at Radio Shack's annual managers' meeting, Radio Shack's VP of marketing open ly joked about

" With the help of Mo11itori11g Times, we've been able to tune in a11d hear many different stations around the world," says the Shortwave Listening Club at G.L. Comba Public School in Altamonte, Ontario. Their teacher, Neil Carleton, sent this picture at the end of the last .1chool year in thanks for their complimentary subscription. To req11est an educational subscription, describe, on school letterhead, how radio is being used in yo11r classroo111.

t have remote armi ng on my car. Since then I have stopped us ing it in parking lots except for entry (I don ' t think they will tai l me) and let it arm auto matically after 30 seconds just in case some high tec.:h criminal is out there.'' -Allan G D111111, K I UCY, Ho lbrook, MA

this antenna. When asked why Tandy Corp carried the antenna, his reply was. ' If you se ll lOofthem, maybe one of them will stay sold.'

"Altho ugh none of my customers ever lost any money, it did create ill will and a lso cast doubts on the qual ity o f other Radio Shack products. In other words, ' If the antenna is sub-standard, maybe their computer is also not worth buying.'

" I am writing this letter to say thank you for your honest way of do ing business. Over the years, I have seen many product reviews in Monitoring Times by you and Larry Magne. fo llowed by an ad in the Grove catalog for the item. If a product is so-so. there is never any undue hype when it is offered for sa le by you. Economy, budget-minded, beginners radio, etc., are all acceptable terms the public under-stands. Also, if an item is really bad, you don' t sell it at all. I can all but buy an item j ust on your word a lone.

"If you ever decide to go into the used car business, let me know. rd buy one from you sight unseen."

- Jim Weber. Colton, California

" In regard to your editorial comments in the August issue (p. I 04 ). under the heading of"Same Scam, New T wist?" I think you and Bob Grove e ither have a lot of nerve or have your tongues firmly in your cheeks when you comment on bogus antenna schemes! I don' t see much difference between the worthless gadgets that use your house wiring for an antenna orthe magic little ba l I that goes on the tip o f a whip, and the (quite aptly named)

4 MONITORING TIMES November 1996

NoTenna that is sold through the Grove ca ta log.

"Grove says the house-wiring gizmo is 'humbug' and contains nothing more than voltage blocking capacitors.' OK, I' ll buy that, but let 's see a schematic of the NoTenna. and compare it to the humbug device .... I' d like to see some evidence that thi s device is in any way superior in it s basic.: des ign o f fu nc-tion than either of the other dev ices you seem to hold in such contempt."

- Robert Nickels. KEOT. via e-mail

It was reader Greg Docrschler who made the ''clever" connection between house wir-ing antennas and the NoTenna ad text (which went un named in his August letter): we ran it without comment in spite of his inference. S ince you took the criticism seriously. I asked Bob Grove for a brief c larification of the difference between the NoTcnna and techno-quackcry.

Bob writes. " Reader Nickels apparently has trouble differentiating between products which arc simple but effective. and products which are simple but ineffecti ve. He a lso ignores the fact that the value of a completed product is cons iderably greater than the sum of its individual parts.

"The 'Turn-your-house-wiring-i nto-a-gi-ant-TV-ante nna nostrums arc bogus because they invite e lectrical inte rference from com-monly-connected household appliances by leading them directly to the TV set. Whi le it is true that cars generate electrical interfer-ence, the NoTenna is no more vulnerable to that source of interference than any othe r

I Beg to Di ff er " In the August' Ask Bob,' Bob's response to a question about laser weapons was that they were impractical and limited . This was not correct: both the United States and the Soviets have been working for a number of years to develop laser weapons. I worked on one of the programs in the mid- I 980s whi le at Fon Benning, Georg ia. Some of them have a lready been fie lded and were used on Navy s h ips de ployed to the Gu lf du r ing the reflagging operations in the late 1980s. There were a lso prototypes developed (and possibly fielded) for the Bradley Infantry F ighting System and Special O peratio ns forces.

The systems were designed to destroy or damage optica l targeting and observation devices. Problems which have prevented the widespread use were expense, problems with fratricide, and questions whether their use was within the bounds of the Geneva Con-vent ion.'

- Michael Kanner, Longmont, CO

By the way. regarding the "Power Tip" referred to above, Michael confirmed what we have already heard from other service-men: people are being asked to pay $ 19.95 for an antenna end designed to prevent eye injury. As fa r as I know (and I invite any sparkies out there to differ), there is no in-crease in trans mission capacity when using the 'power tip.' Most of the time we replaced it with a tennis ball and lots of duct tape."

(Co11ti1111ed 011 p. 102)

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CalllCOlt'Jlrochure ho1&ue:fto6)450-60SS. lk to1110d !COM ll

Good Buddy Newz CBers in Vancouver, Washington, have

always used channel 12 for they call ''hash and trash." It's a place where. as one operator repons. "people air gripes about the world and belittle each other. often profanely." In a way, it 's a lot like the internet.

John Maddux and Shawn McDowell were two such CBers who used the channe l o ne night to "cuss at each other r on channel 12] like a couple of drunks." So bad d id things get that Gary Sipe, another CBer who was travel-ing in his car with his mother, asked McDowell to tone things down. McDowell responded with an insult to Sipe's mother.

Maddux, who said that he had already downed a s ix pack of beer. later invited Sipe over for more drinking. By I 0 pm, another six beers were gone and Maddux was back on channel 12. trading nastiness with McDowell.

Apparent ly, something that was said dur-ing the second round infuriated McDowell who appeared without warn ing at the door of Maddux 's radio shack, an old chicken coop in the back yard. When Maddux answered the door. McDowell grabbed Maddux and tossed him into the bushes. He then grabbed Sipe and began beating him with a 3-foot section of pipe. Eventually. Sipe blacked out. McDowell jumped on top of him. choking him and banging his head agai nst the ground.

Meanwhi le, Maddux had dragged himself out of the bushes and began hitting McDowell in the head with the butt ofa7mm rille. "That just seemed to aggravate him further,' ' said Maddux. " I tried to pu ll him off. I kicked him. I hit him. I couldn' t get him o ff."

At that point, Maddux raised his rille. aimed for McDowell 's head at point-blank range and pulled the trigger.

COMMUNICATIONS

Sipe is now recovering in the living room of his C lark County home where he recounts his story to reporters .

'Tm not in any way proud of what hap-pened." he says. tears !lowing from his eyes. 'Tm not proud of this at a ll."

W hat a way to meet new friends. Reckon a sobriety test should be required to operate a CB?

FM Friends M ichael Taylor had dreamed of putting a

radio station on the a ir for years. But he didn't have the money to put a commercial station on the air, so he began work on Liberation Radio, an unlicensed, low-power FM station in south central Los Angeles. The decision may have cost him his li fe.

Au thorities and friends say that Taylor was killed because of a dispute over equip-ment.

"The suspects were looking for equip-ment," said police Detective Steve Watson. "That 's definitely what the issue was. Basi-cally there was some sort of equipment . some sort of transmi tter, they wanted to get."

Taylor was found murdered. execution style.

Tower Tragedy WGVPwent on the air only a year ago, but

already its tower has been the site of two deaths. When the s tation was known as WYGA. a local doctor flew his a irplane into the tower. knocking it over and sending the station off the air. The doctor died.

Tragedy struck again recently when sta-tion officials were trying 10 lift an old antenna off the tower. Two workers were at the 950 foot level when the rotors of a he licopter hired

"What's that? Oh, so you think I sound like some kind of weirdo, huh? Care to

to lowerthe pieces to the ground struck the tower within a few feet of one of the men.

"At o ne point they waved Lthc pilot] off, and he kind of tilted over back into the tower," Cook County Coroner Mike Futch said. ' 'His top rotor blade caught the top of the tower. It broke that rotor off and the tip of the po le and the strobe light," said one witness. The pi lot of the he licopter was killed instantly. One of the two workers on the tower s uffered a bro-ken foot.

r / elaborate 0 11 that, / good buddy?"

Get a Charge Out ol This Technology is a wonderful thing.

So arc batteries.

6 MONITORING TIMES November 1996

Michael Rego, 33, was wdl equipped when he left Hubbard Brook State Park in Thornton, New Hampshi re, about 7 :00 a.m. with his bear hounds. Rego packed a cellular telephone, a global positioning system un it, as well as compasses and telemetry equip-ment for tracking the -). dogs. ' ho~:~~~~ ~~t~~:~nn~ ,'~.,.!. 'r ncl:urs. The pager address wi th any message is then displayed on the scn:cn for you lo view.

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Sensormatic SpeedDome"' camera keeps an eye on Olympic Stadium construction in the early phases of preparation Jot the games.

Of Eyes in the Sky and other new Olympic Technologies

As with other mega-events on the world stage, the

Olympics in Atlanta spawned a host of new

technologies that will affect our lives for years to come

12 MONITORING TIMES November 1996

By Bennett Liles

It was not onl y the RF event of all time, the Atlanta Ol ympics also served as launch pad for hundreds of techno-spinoffs that wi II help us find each other, walk our dogs. catch crooks. and even help us keep our cool. Never before has so much machinery-high tech and low-come together to serve so many different purposes in one huge event.

This-Cam, That-Cam Only David Letterman's infamous monkey-cam night provided more unusual camera

angles. Remember the movie The Shining where Jack Nicholson chases his young son through the snow-covered hedges? That was the renowned camera work of Garrett Brown. inventor of the Steadycam and NBCs mad viewmiester on the Games.

The joystick-operated go-cam that ran with the runners got its technical kinks worked

out in Barcelona, and the lighter, less power-gul ping Atlanta version did fine. providing some very dramatic track shots. Brown's dive cam, a miniature camera on a vertical tube, was dropped into the water as the diver plunged with it and for the first time, the diver's water entry was fully in view. wi thout di stortion. Unfortunately, the archery event 's target cam was a bust. Mounted inside the bullseye, the wide angle lens made the arrows look bent and way o ff the mark.

These cameras were cabled, but those used on the marathon and some used on the open-ing and closing ceremonies were RF linked. Each required a camera operator. a transmit-ter antenna op, a receiver antenna op, and a video engineer. The RF camera links worked well in the stadium, but in the men's mara-thon-where the entire event went through town- frequent breakup marked the motor-cycle and helicopter shots. On that event, buildings and thick fog made helicopter place-ment both difficult and dangerous.

A sky-cam on wires hovered over the Olym-pic Stadium and the aquatic venue, splash-cams swung twenty-five feet out over the Ocoee River to get up close and personal on the whi tewater events, and even the lake row-ers had 0.95-kilogram mini cameras on their boats. For equal weight. all boats carried cameras but only some were used. The con-testants were not told which boats held the working cameras.

On the RF video links. the key to success seems to have been wide open spaces. T he very d irectional nature of microwave video links on ly suffered in the concrete canyons downtown.

Getting up close sound on the rowing events proved impossible. Even though the course was equipped with numerous floating micro-phones, NBC technicians found that the mo-tors on the accompanying power boats com-plete ly covered the sound of the rowers. In an alternate scheme, rowers were sound-recorded fi rst and then during the races the digiti zed oar sounds were manually keyed in from a com-puter in time with the live picture. The oars were li ve but splashes were canned.

Atlanta commuters were also on candid camera and they will be from now on. The Georgia Department of Transportation re-ports that their one hundred and forty million dollar Advanced Traffic Management Sys-tem worked flawlessly. It was already in place and was being used weeks before the festivi-ties began. The computerized system controls over six hundred traffic signals around town.

Perched on poles at known problem areas, its cameras are continually fed by fiber optic cable to a 0 .0.T. monitoring center on Con-

..

federate A venue from which accident warn-ings are issued and displayed on electronic billboards above the highways. The warnings are complemented with AM radio broadcasts

-~-

Traf flc cams at known trouble spots are a legacy Atlanta commuters truly appreciate.

The sight- but not the sound- of rowing at Lake Lanier was live action, owing to the ;_. cameras located on the boats. (PlzoJo by Joh1~

Baile~) .:.: -- ,

during rush hours. The video is also fed to the internet (still shots updated every two min-utes) and to the commercial TY stations in town. Their live displays have become a regu-lar part of the local morning news shows.

I Playing the RF Slots Sun-cooked Atlanta was also fried in radio

freq uences (RF). As it turned out. the RF challenge was ably met by the ACOG RF team led by Mike Smalls and Lou Libin. As with most Olympic systems in use. there were initial problems, but they were qu ickly tended.

Says Smalls, "We were plagued by late freque ncy requests from the European broad-casters but we managed to get everyone an RF slot.'' Attesting to his RF dilemma, there is a picture of karate star Bruce Lee on Mike's Desk. Lee 's characteristic gri mm ace has been augmented with a comic strip bubble saying, "The deadline for freq requests was in MARCH!"

Four-page letters of instruction had been sent out months before the Games and these bore all the names, phone numbers . and in-structions needed. In many cases, Mike and Lou personally made the rounds at the Inter-national Broadcast Center (!BC), deep inside the World Congress Center, where they intro-duced themselves and inspected trailers full o f RF gear. Brand-switching caused some headaches.

"We had a few foreign broadcasters tell us they were bringing Sennheiser wi reless and then show up with Sony," Mike reported. "On one occasion, the BBC called us about an-other carrier on their frequency. We called in the FCC tracking vehicles and they had the

November 1 996 MONITORING TIMES 13

The Automated E11viro11me11tal Monitoring Device kept tabs 011 the weather at Lake Lanier. (Photo by John Bailey)

and lighter weight, was suppo~ed to catapult the U.S. cycl ing team to medals in the bike events, but not only did the American team not strike gold. they and their Super Bikes were totally outclassed by the European teams and their road machines. Back to the old bike shop.

Not all the gadgets used were sanctioned. After bei ng ejected from the contest area. Croatian coach Bruno Silic was discovered in the stands, continuing to instruct his team by cellphone. It was confiscated. Wh ile not al-lowed to know the current score during a match, U.S. wrest ling coach Jesse Ravelo was watching a TY monitor and using hand sig-nals to an assistant coach who yelled the score to his contestant on the mat. Information was everywhere.

I Smart Bikes to Smart Bags If the bikes themselves didn t set the world

on fire. their six-hundred-dollar l.D. numbers and the Swatch Timing System did cook right along. Each bikes number bore an RF trans-mitter chip that sent a continuous signal to a receiver antenna wire embedded in the road course. This ensured accurate results both in time and orderof finish. The technology called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) shows great promise in helping people and their belongings find each other in busy airports and bus stations, as well as aid ing in quick

recovery of stolen property. It will be like having a LoJack system on your luggage and. eventually, your kids.

can calculate, navigate, and transmit its loca-tion.

Even this technology is being superseded in some areas by a newer system called RIC (Remote Intell igent Communication). In the RIC set-up, the onboard chip incorporates a direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) mi-crowave-frequency radio, a microcontroller. and a low-power static random access memory (SRAM). Operating at 2.45 GHz. the system

Micron Communications of Boise, Idaho, is currently developing a technical standard for such devices so that many manufacturers can integrate their products in a non-interfer-ing environment. In addition to keeping olympic bikers on track, these devices will soon be enabling inventory without opening a box. securing buildings wi thout guards, and, most importantly, making sure that every

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November 1996 MONITORING TIMES 15

Cool Concepts. an all new system for cooling large. outdoor areas, was o n h a nd at the equestrian venue. The devices fanned water vapor into the air where it ab-so rbe d ambient he at and bl ew away. Previous tests showed the

The Sensormatic Speed Dome (top, foreground) provided video surveillance at the main security checkpoint at ACOG headquarters.

sys te m was ca-pable of lowering the loca l air tem-perature by as mu ch as 15 de-g rees. T hese he lped calm some

piece of luggage that is loaded aboard a plane be longs to someone who is still on that plane.

Similarto these were the chip-bearing l.D. cards worn by all volunteers and ACOG offi-c ia ls. These RF widgets were read at check-po ints for each of the venues. and the informa-tion read from each o ne was considerable . Names. di stinguishing featu res. company af-filiat ion, hand print profile, and even retinal blood vesse l patterns can be .. burned onto .. these chips to be instantl y read at a c heckpoint similar to a grocery store check out. The hand geometry and other identifying information are stored in the central IBM AC-500 com-puter. w hich is automatically accessed as the l.D. badge is read . If all the profiles dont match up. access is denied.

Sensormatic Electronics provided the se-curity mac hinery. inc ludi ng the hand scan-ners and the SpeedDomes-controllable cam-e ras perched atop the c rowds. Those entering high security areas could be instantly identi-fied in several ways and like a card key. access pri vileges could be changed without the user hav ing to return the credentials.

I Looking Cool and Keeping Cool Even T-shi rts broke new technical ground.

French artist Marc Ahr was at the O lympic Stadium with previously prepared watercolo r paintings of the scene minus onl y the actual event w inne rs. A~ the athle tes won the event. /\ hr quickly painted them o nto the scene and rushed the pai nting to his nearby headquarters where it was immed iate ly la~er-printcd onto a load of shirts . These were then madly bi-cycled back to the stadium where fans j ust ex iting the event were able to buy the T-shirts showing the actual w inne rs crossing medal paydirt only minutes before!

16 MONITORING TIMES November 1996

of the fears shown by officials of the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to /\nimals. Smaller versions bearing s mall fans mounted on wa-ter-filled plastic bottles were hawked to ind i-vidua l spectators.

I Communications The Atlanta Games were the largest peace-

time use of RF communication in hi story. and some pre tt y impressive feats were pu lled o ff. In the minutes afterthe Centennial Park bomb-ing. U.S. coaches sent a simultaneous RF page to a nearly a thousand athletes on the American team. ask ing them to report the ir w hereabouts immediate ly to their supervi-sors in the Olympic Village. Within o ne hour and five minu tes. a ll were acwunted for. That emergency .. bed check .. would have other-w ise requ ired knocking on a whole lo t of doors. Motorola. supplier of all cellphones and page rs. was proud to say that whe n usage soared after the explos ion, no prob lems w ith the ir systems were seen.

As with some of the othe r aspec ts of the Games. the load ant icipated did not match the ac tual capacity needed . Be llsou th reported that their land line syste m handled onl y 79.5 mill ion ca lls at the highest peak. The ir usual business day tall y is 7-1.8 million. 1onnal busirn.:ss use was way down as many firms vi rtuall y shut down during the O lympics.

As expected . cellphone use was up but not by nearly the amount antic ipated. Afl er te m-porarily increasing cellphone capaci ty e ight hundred percent inside the O lympic Ring. actua l cellphone use went up by about twenty-Ii ve percent.

In the av iation band. a dozen or so new tower frequencies had been added in the 122 and 128 MHz area. but after the first week

those we re discarded and the local airports returned to using thei r usual 122.8. I '.?.3.0. and I '.D.05 unicorn frequ enc ies. The ext ra con-tro llers brought in were sent ho me on the second Monday. and the temporary control

tower~ were c losed as it had bcrnme c lear that private air traffic for the Games was not even going to match normal usage. Epps A ir Ser-vice at Peachtree-DeKa lb Ai rport reported that the ir business was about thirt y percent of nornwl.

Although no word i~ in from the loca l neighborhoods near the venues. it is safe to say that. with all the -19Ml17 walk ies freely avai lable from Radio Shack and other ven-dors. locals with cordles~ phones were treated to a hit of the United Nations.

I The First Cybergames Among the Centennial Games many Ii rs ts.

its internet broadcasts also made history. While many hook publishers and other businesses arc sti ll grappling wit h how tu best use it. the internet s two-way nature was sci1.ed upon by O lympic organizers. Web pages built by ACOG and NBC garnered record se tting de-mand. Traffi c on CNN. ssport s pages doubled.

After the info-slowdowns of the first two days. cybe r-scores were racing over the world faster than the traditiona l broadcast resul ts. At the Surf Shack- a combination video arcade and compute r galle ry in the Olympic V il -lage-athletes kept in touch with the folk~ at home and answered megabytes of electronic fan mai l. Many athle tes received 300 tu 400 e mailed fan notes per day. with most coming from the United States. Australi a. and Brazil. O n the NBC s ite. the ir .. Golden Mome nts .. chat with Kerri Strug \\'a:-, attended onl ine by some fifty-thousand net su rfers: anothe r N BC site record.

Of course. one-way cybcr~cl li ng also set new marks . Xerox. Bcllsouth . Nike. and other compa nies were we ll represented on the web and their products were pic tu red and hyped:

~orneti me~ creati ,cly but a lways relentless ly. The IBM web page was visited 189 million times and ACOG sold o,er four million dol-lars in tickets on thei r page. The inte rnet truly brought a new and needed dimens ion to the Games. allowing people all over the planet to be involved. In Atlanta . the O lympics and the internet were happi ly joined.

Even with the ine\'itable glitches. the mas-s ive marriage o f technology and people. known as the Centennial O lympic Games, was a resounding s ucccs~. and the techno logy spinoffs from the event w ill a:-,surc go ld medal pcrformacc in a host of other industries. On that field. you and I wi ll be the w inne rs.

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The Insomniac's

Guide to

International

Broadcast Sites

on the Internet

Sleepless in Brasstown

Can't sleep ? Try a little net DXi11g. Internet web sites like this one of Radio Korea 's, offer lots of information for tile SWL.

18 MONITORING TIMES November 1996

By Gayle Van Horn

Bras.Ho1111, NC. -Three a.m. on a Saturday morning ... and I should be asleep. Everyone else is. Oh well . I tell myself ... how about a classit: movie? Nope. I' ve seen this Bette Davis fli ck four ti mes. Okay. how about sate llite T Y channe l s urfing? ... I wonder where the remote has gone this time?

DX? Nope. radio conditions are lousy. Besides . Binky my fa ithful DX dog. is asleep. too. There s still some hope; why not try scanner li stening? In Brasstown at three a. m.?! You 're not in New O rleans anymore. Gay le. Even the county sheriff and his hunting clogs arc sleeping.

Suddenly. I realize my hormone-crazed teenage son is as leep. and that means just one thing: now would be an exce llent ti me to log onto the Internet and sl!arch for inte rnational broadcasters' home pages.

To make th is "surf' through cyberspace more interesting. I decided to give the home pages (also called websites) my own rating from worst to the best. Rating~ range from * (needs work) to the very best****.

It should be noted. that. unless otherwise stated. all home pages include English frequency schedules and satell ite feed information if appl icable. Website addresses can and do change frequently. and those li sted remained current during my search. Broadcasters excluded are non-English home pages: lceland. Italy's RAI. YLE/Radio Finland. Colombia's CARACOL. Spain' s Radio Exterior de Espana. Rad io Portugal. Brazil' s Radio Bras. Polish Radio Warsaw, Taiwan's Voice of Free China/Voice of Asia. and Radio France Internationale.

Come along .. surfs up in Austria '

Austria Radio Austria International "

http://www.ping.at/rai/ (email: [email protected]) Radio Austria's home page is available in four languages. The English site begins with a preview of up-coming programs on Report From Austria, to a text on the history of their station and photo links of the ORF Center. On-line reception reports ore available and Fods and Figures contain national news and travelogue items. Good site.

Australia Radio Australia

http:www.abc.net.ou/ra / default.htm (English section email: ratx@ radioous.abc.net.au) Click-on icons open this site. Online News and Grandstand (the sports page), have details from Matches of the Doy in the English section. Wont more? Try Resource Center, o page with hundreds of Australian links and Beyond Tlie Block Stump

ABC~ I

Radio Australia

Belgium

page presents "Austroliono," delving deeper into the Aussie culture. Don't forget the ABC Home Page (http:// www.abc.net.ou/) for news links to Aussie radio, N , and their Explore Your Interest page. Go for it, luv.

Radio Vloonderen lnternotionol, Belgium 1 /2 http:www.brtn.be/ rvi/ (email: [email protected]). All About RV/ tokes you to English and five oddi-tionol longuoge pages. Sites ore also available for notional rodio/N and links to Deutsche Welle and Radio Netherlands.

Canada Co nod ion Broadcasting Corporation " 1 /2

http://www.cbc.co/ (email: [email protected]

Everyone should spend on evening traveling through this site! The English Radio page takes you to Radio Network, News and Information, Regional Rodio, Future Radio, and more. Whot's New At the CBC includes o radio/N doily hotsheet of air dotes, webchot, headlines, and Real Audio (audio on demand across the Internet! for sports and news releases. If you like CBC television, the foll lineup is offered including a site for the popular radio/television comedy series Royal Canadian Air Force. (http:// www.cbc.co:SO/oirfarce/) Radio Conodo lnternotionol can be located ot: http:// www.rodio.cbc.co/ rodio/rci/rci/html. Send your RCI e-mail to: rci @montreaLsrc.ca .

Costa Rica Radio For Peace International, Cosio Rica

http:/ /www.clark.net/ pub/ cwilkins/ rfpi/ rfpi.html (email: [email protected]). RFPl's home page is currently under construction. Technico/ /nformofion and the Vista Library--o selection of articles from their quarterly newslet-ter- is interesting. The Other Sites List contains links to activism resources. Reception reports via email ore welcomed; however, the reply will be via email os well.

Croa tia HRT /Radio Croatia

http://www.hrt.com.hr / index_ eng.hhnl (email: [email protected])

Most of this home page is in Croatian, with some English under latest News. Help!

Czech Republic Radio Prague

http://www. radio.cz/ (email: [email protected])

Recently designated o 3-Stor Site by Magellan, Roa io Prague offers o fine home page. All AbOut Radio

. Prague is extremely informative. Subscriptions to Czech news and

FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) on the Czech Republic ore available by email. Favorite Links is fun with national guides and news from central Europe.

Denmark Radio Denmark http://www.dr.dk

(email: [email protected]) Welcome to DR Online! The English page

(http://www.dr.dk.dronline.htrn) includes o steadily expanding list of articles on Cultural Capitol News, World Music and the TV Entertainment Deportment.

Radio ABC ' l / 2 http://www. radioabc.dk (email: [email protected]) Lost summer, Denmark's Radio ABC premiered on shortwave. Reception reports are welcomed either by email or snoilmoil. Other features include program ming, station news, and broadcaster links.

Ecuador HOB email: [email protected]

(replace language with Czech, French, Germon, Japanese, Nordic, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish). For o current directory of text, publications, and schedules go to; ftp:// ftp.hcjb.org.ec/ Germany

Deutsche Welle http://www.dw.gmd.de/DW / (email: [email protected] .

DW Online is available in six languages. The English service has audio on demand of Newsline Cologne and European Journal. How about some Germon travelogue or cultural links?

P\.- !lt"ts _ .,, __

DDJ~al~[I]~~

Whu do"olfcr?

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Radio Israel 's site.

Greece Voice of Greece '"1 /2

http://alpha.service.odriadne-1.gr/ Docs/ Era5_ 12.html. I like this site, but I always have liked Greece. General information, news bulletins, sports headlines, and program previews ore here. You may email your reception reports to: [email protected]. Click-on QSL cords feature Greece' s tourist sites for viewing. My favorite? The Acropolis of course! Poss the ouzo, Demetri.

Guam Adventist World Rodio-Asio 1 /2

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/ homepoges/ awr_asia/. A click on this site will bring you Listener News from around the world, focts on AWR, Real Audio for text and music, photos, and a Seventh-day Adventist Home Page.

Hungary Radio Budapest ' l /2

http://www.eunet.hu/ radio/ Hiahlighted by the coforful station logo and national Rag, the Budapest home page includes personnel/ contact points, and sites for their nine languages. The English Home Page hos program previews for their 1996 celebrations commemorating the settlement of Hungary. English and Hungarian programming con be heard on your computer al http://www.wm.org/.

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Internet week

Indio All Indio Radio" http://air.kode.net/ AIR's site is Fairly new to the Internet and

rumored to be under construction. Currently, only their frequency schedules for the various language services are available at; (http:// www.air.kode.net./schedule/torget.htm). AIR Online Information Service presents news and editorials from Indian newspapers. I look forward to additions from AIR.

Ireland Radio T elefis Eireann, Ireland

http://www.bess.tcd.ie/ irelond/rte.htm. This is the place to go for anything related to

Ireland. RTE is on AM/FM station in Dublin which until recently was available only via satellite on World Radio Network. It hos now gained a new and larger international audience via relays over WWCR in Nashville, Tennessee. RTE is a tremendous hit and so is their home page!

Israel Kol Israel "l /2

http://www.ortificia.com/ html/news.cgi. Weekly Journal con be heard on Real Audio.

The News and The News Area ore interactive sites For discussions. Links of Funny Bites and Cool Links ore worth checking. For multilingual schedules on shortwave go to gopher:/ /isroel-info.gov.it.70/00/ cul/ media/950900.med.

Italy NEXUS/IRRS-Milan, Italy

http://www.nexus.org/ (emoil:[email protected]) NEXUS-IBA is a nonprofit broadcaster on FM,

and hos been on shortwave since 1988 as IRRS. Links to /RN-Internet Radio NEXUS ore available on sites for the U.S. and Europe. UNESCO and UN Radio ore a click away as well as a Real Audio Server.

Japan NHK/Radio Japan '

http://www.nhk.or.jp/ r/'net/rj8/ index.html "Hello Dear Web Sur ers" greets you to

cyberspace from Radio Japan. What's New in Radio Japan is a collection of recent program-ming and frequency updates relating to their General Service. Recently, during a special Internet Week, Radio Japan broadcast program-ming segments via Real Audio at their home page site. My Internet QSL cord arrived in two weeks. For country counting ... should I count this as "cyberspace"?

Republic of Korea KBS/Radio Korea International, " l /2

http:/ / kbsnt.kbs.co.kr / (email: [email protected])

20 MONITORING TIMES November I 996

With on opening message from the station president, KBS welcomes all Netizens to their home page, in this self-described " land of the morning calm." I enjoyed this site very much. KBS Newsletter contained photos and stories from Korea's national news, current affairs, and links to additional Korean sites. Don't forget to visit the Audio News files and English News section.

Malaysia RTM Malaysia,

http: //www.asia.connect.eom.my/ rtm-net/ RTM Online contains archived broadcast

material via the net. Real Audio complements the "live" broadcast. There are many RTM links including Radio Live, Online, and RTM Web. Good site!

Netherlands Radio Netherlands

http:///www.rnw.nl/ mw/ (email: letters@rnw. nl)

RN Online begins with click-on language home pages. You'll find numerous areas to surf on TY, station history, a nd What's New, as well as Real Audio samples. The English page (http:// www.rnw.nl/en/ernwhome.html) serves up program previews for Media Network and sites for The Sports Report. Real Radio is very good, with articles on receivers, antennas, propagation, and more. Great site but could use some graphics and photos.

New Zealand Radio New Zealand International

http://www.actrix.gen.nz/ biz/ rnzi (email:[email protected])

RNZI schedules can be found regularly on alt. rec.radio.shortwave newsgroup. For information on contacting the station, reception report requirements, or additional program schedules, send your message to the email address. Needs work, yo'll.

Norway Radio Norway International 'l /2

http://www.nrk.no/ utenland/ (email: [email protected])

Station Frequency Manager, Olav Grimdalen, established this home poge and accepts reception reports between 0500- l 330 UTC via the email address. Links to News in English-Norway Now con be found, with the remainder being in Norwegian. Photos would improve this one, or perhaps a "virtual Norway" link.

Romania Radio Romania International ' l /2

http:/ /www.indis.ici.ro/ romania/ news/ rri.html {email: [email protected])

~F._ ,, ... _ .. , .,...,.,. ... J ~"'!J ~-~.....;.J11o1~~1 ~I

Radio Singapoto lnttrn41tJonal

.... ,.,.

RADIO Sl:\GAPOR f 111.'TIUl.NATIONAL

~ .... Sill&.,.zt l~~~(ASipCt:~IUStt-:0tctY'~l5fl&.aa. 'J.ct~~ ~I l'bt. 1tMtt ~c1zi;c;:::c:i~il F~7t994

Radio Singapore's web site. The RRI logo takes you to the daily preview of

Panorama programs. Extra features and Bucharest links, please.

Russia Voice of Russia.

http://www.var.ru/ World Service frequency schedules by ta rget

areas are available and a page on the history and goals of VOR. Station Feedback about Voice of Russia can be sent to Audience Relations' email address: [email protected] .

Seychelles FEBC Radio ... http://www.febc.org/

(email: [email protected]. Interesting site to prowl. Many links and a

page on the history of 25 years in gospel broadcasting.

Singapore Radio Singapore International ' l /2

http://rsi.com.sg/ (email: [email protected])

Information ranging from staff biographies and photos to Regional Press Review. Listener's Feedback has an on-screen Form to Fill in and send.

Slovakia Radio Slovakia International "

http://www.xs4all.nl/ ~xavcom/rozhlos/ index.html

"Welcome to the small home page for our small radio station," is the friendly opening for this three-year-young station. The Slovakia Document Store is fun with scenery photos a nd tourist links. Hockey Fons will like SDS's Slova k Hockey Page. Kudos to RSI!

South Africa Channel Africa "

http:/ /www.sabc.eo.za/ units/ chonofr / index.html

Current updates remain online, as this station ponders its future and asks for your continued support. Channel Africa offers click-on QSL card photos, plus links to News Headlines and Newsdesk. This multi-award-winning site includes

a search engine to Search the Web With Info Search.

Sweden Radio Sweden "

http://www.sr.se/rs/ index.htm (email: [email protected])

Another award winning site-and no wonder! First, visit Virtual Sweden, a hodgepodge of scenes from around the country. Move on to Nordic Links for other Scandinavian sites in Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. You'll find transmitter and staff photos as well as George Wood's MediaScan DX page. Finally, for a thoroughly useless page !their words, not mine), browse the comical Moose Gallery. Don't soy I didn't worn you!

Switzerland Swiss Radio International

http:/ /www.srg-.ssr.ch/SRI/index.html. Reportedly under construction, SRI has one

logo graphic, no photos or links. The only additional graphic was a numbered click-on your location worldwide mop. My location, at #4, revealed another schedule. Keep on eye out for additions.

United Kingdom BBC ""

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ (email : [email protected]. uk)

Add this site to your bookmark list .. . it' s a winner! This outstanding home page contains countless sections to browse. Are you a news junkie? Type in http://www. bbcnc.org.uk/ worldservice/ ncaws.hhnl for a preview of the doily news. Like astronomy? Stargazing charts ore available to print (they're greot!J (http:// www.bbcnc.org.uk/worldservice/ science/ starts.html). Don't forget the complete English rodio home page. Jolly good show!

World Radio Network " http://www.wrn.org/index I .html.

WRN via London is a 24 hour news and information network via satellite (C-bond satellite service-domestic satellite Galaxy 5/tronsponder 6, audio subcorrier 6.80 MHz), containing programming from the world's leading interna-tional broadcasters. Under Read Me, find out the history and goals of the station, then move on to Links to International Broadcasters. World Media Page takes you to links of news services, weather, and our own Grove Link! Studio, transmitters, and staff photos give you a peek inside this highly successful broadcaster. Bravo to WRN.

United States KNLSAnchors Point, AK " 1 / 2

http://www.hax.com/ WCB/ AAAINDEX.HTM (email: [email protected]).

Web editor Mike Osborne hos the beginnings of a fine home page. The official KNLS history article opens this site, with lin ks to my favorite section, Voice From Alaska, including Real Audio segments from some of Alaska's most remarkable citizens.

KTBN-Solt Lake City, UT " " http://www.tbn.org/ (emoil : [email protected])

Roted in the Best 5% of the Christion Web for 1996, Trinity Broadcasting Network wos indeed the best religious home page I viewed. Their opening page is a series of colorful click-on icons

~S~ Nehc:ope: Welcome t o lhe llOC Wo rld \e.-ulce -===Gt~

o I ~ I ~ I ~ !r'ID .J . ~~' j iS I I .~ ... :t,m i -!!!...!~~ At~ .tlU)ff OH$''~~ ~ l fllot jQl\.,Mlp //l#yw~~ '11"q ~.'.:~..!"7~/ ~.

~~~~~~ BBC World Service

,. ..... ' :s-

. flHITl'il . ~~ ,,1;0\l>CMiil'' ~ ,i "' - ' I >KPORATI()\ i " ~ !f.,: tr )~ID Sl"R\ \

D

c

A loop antenna overcomes many of the disadvantages

of the random-length antenna, says the author:

Here 's a step-by-step approach to building a

very capable mediumwave antenna that won't make

the neighbors angry.

A

FIGURE t

height

base B

I I A square Loop viewed from the side. AB = CD =the height of the loop; AD = BC= the base of the loop. Sides AB and CD are vertical; sides AD and BC are horizontal.

22 MONITORING TIMES November 1996

Building an effective medium wave loop is not as hard as you might think. Read 011 for detailed description.

By Philip Gebhardt, VA3ACK

Getting started in mecliumwave (MW) DXing is easy. You grab a length of wire, connect an insulator to one end, attach it to a tree and then connect the other end to your receiver. However, almost every MW DXer eventually trades the random-length antenna for a loop antenna. As on any band, the right antenna is the key to success. But getting the most from your loop antenna means understanding how it works.

A loop antenna overcomes the disadvantages of a random-length antenna. Loops can be made very small , whereas a random-length antenna needs to be at least 75-feet long. And although loops have a fixed antenna pattern (so do random-length wires). you can rotate a loop so it points toward the desired station. (It's pretty tough to rotate a 75-foot length of wire.) Alternatively. you can point a loop away from an interfering station . Unlike a wire antenna, a loop doesn' t need an antenna tuner or a good ground connection.

Usi ng a simple MW receiving loop, you can hear hundreds of stations th roughout the U.S., Canada. the Caribbean. Central America, and South America. Some, like WSB in Atlanta. can be heard almost every night; others, like Deutsche Welle's Caribbean relay station on 930 kHz in Antigua, may take a little work.

Using a ~ i mplc loop an tenna huilt on a cardboard box. I was able to hear WBMQ (630 kHz with 5 kW) in Savannah. Georgia. from Nassau. Bahamas. at noon. (The 540 km path is almost entirely over sa lt water. ) Late one night (between sun~et and sunrise is when most MW DX can be heard). I heard CBL in Toronto, Ontario. (740 kHz with 50 kW ) from the same location using the same cardboard hox loop.

is nothing but a single pair of diagonal sup-ports. If you 're building or analyzing loop operation. it'~ the one to ~tart with.

horizontal J. As a vertically-polarized signal passes vertical side AB. a voltage is induced in the wire. Later. when the signal passes vertical ~ide CD. a voltage is induced in that wire.

The fir~t design question is: Should such a loop have a long base and short height or a short ba~e and long height? Or. doc~ it matter? Mathcmatically. a squan: loop is the best choice. Conveniently. a square loop is the e

FIGURE 3

D

A signal from a ~talion off the ~i

receiver) is to place both the antenna and the receiver on a rotatable, lazy Susan tray.

To avoid frustration, it is ncc.:cssary to be aware of the limitations of loop antennas. A home-made loop is rarely pcrfcc.:tly balanc.:cd and therefore the nulls may not be c.:omplcte. For the same reason. the nu lls may not be perpendicular to the direction of maximum signal.

The box antenna exacerbates thc.:se prob-lems. This shortcoming is related to the fac t that the antenna has a width equivalent to "n" turns. As a result. the box loop acts as if it is two loops-the one you sec plus a sec.:ond. smalle r loop perpendicular to the real loop.

You can. to a degree. c.:ountcr the~c effects in two ways. First, keep the adjac.:ent turns of the winding closely spaced so the width of the winding is small. This creates a secondary problem. however. Decreasing the spacing increases the capacitance between turns. To offset this effect, use small-diameter wire. (I use #26 enameled wire.) Second. reduce the number of tu rns in the antenna. As you reduce the number of turns. you will need to increase the length of the sides to maintain the total length or the wire and the signal level.

Some fine tuning tips Now that you have mastered the simple

loop antenna and its operation. you can look into some refinements. Nightti me MW DX signals may experience some Faraday rota-tion. in which case the elec tric field of the desired incoming signal will have shi fted from vertical. By mounting the loop so it can be tilted sideways (sides AB and CD tip side to side). you can maximize the signal induced in the loop by al igning the wires with the desired signal" s elec tric fie ld.

This gives you two move-ments: the first points the an-tenna at the stat ion you want to peak (or nu ll ). and the sec-ond aligns the wires with the desired signal" s electric fi eld.

(cos0= 1. cos20=0.94). However. if you get greedy and try to move the antenna off a nulled station to peak the desired station. the same 20 shift will cause the nulled station to ri se from no signal up to 34 percent of its maxi mum ~trcngth (cos90 = 0. cos70 = 0.34).

Some loop~ are shielded to imprO\e their performance. The shield makes the antenna

Jes~ susc.:eptible to noise. Furthermore, the antenna can he moved from one location to another with less impact on tuning.

Some loop~ use pick-up coils so the an-tenna can be mounted away from the receiver. so the rec.:civer need not be rotated along wi th the antenna. or so an amplifier can be used.

While all the loops described so far are air-wound. loops can also be wound on ferrite rods.

The simplest modification, however, is to increase the dimensions of the loop. A loop with a long base and height will require fewer turns than a smaller loop. and therefore elec-trical balance will be easier to maintain. As a result. the nulls will likely be deeper and they wi II more likely be perpendicular to the plane or the loop.

You can use loop antennas on higher fre-quencies. a~ well. For example, I used the same design to build a loop for the tropical bands. My prototype loop used six tu rns on the same size frame as the MW loop described previously. The one design modification I had to make was to wind a one-turn pick-up wind-ing beside the loop antenna to couple the loop to the receiver's antenna input.

:vty fi rst attempt at reception started at

Notice in Figure 3 that the desired signal changes slowly (initially) as you move away from the station, but the null changes very rapidly as you vary antenna direction. For example. if you orient the an-tenna to el iminate an interfer-ing signal and this puts you 20 off the dt::sired station. you' ll only lose about 6 per cent o r the desired signal Tlte finished product, mmmted to author's radio.

FIGURE 5-Eaclt diagonal wooden support is made from a piece of I" x 4" lumber 17" long. Tlte ends are notched lo hold the wire in place. Each support is cul halfway through al the center to allow the two supports to interlock. They can then be glued in place.

0200 UTC. 1 aimed the loop toward Ottawa to hear CHU (the Canadian time station). The 3 kW signal on 3330 kHz from the station located 195 miles away was strong. Some-what weaker, but sti ll readable. was WWV (2500 kH z with 2.5 kW) located 1350 miles to the west in Fort Collins, Colorado. Now, full of enthusiasm. I tuned to 3995 kHz. Deutsche Welle"s broadcast aimed at Europe was fu ll-strength.

At 0325 UTC. I was preparing to listen for the BBC's broadcast on 3955 kHz. Rather than the silence I expected to hear. I heard Channel Africa from Johannesburg. South Afri c.:a. signing on! And then a l 0400 UTC. the BBC came in- weaker than Channel Africa,

November 1996

but readable. In one last test of the loop. I tuned to 3965 kHz to log Radio France Internationale's 4 kW Euro-pean broadcast. The signal was extremely weak and al-most at the noise level. but I eventually managed a posi-tive ID.

My next project (the fol-lowing night) was a loop for the 49-meter band . Results were not as spcctacu lar as the previous night 's effort. but the loop consistently outper-formed the receiver's built-in te lescoping whip.

Whether you opt for a simple. small loop or a large one that you can tilt and ro-tate. you re sure to hear a fascinating variety of MW (and higher frequency) sta-tions.

MONITORING TIMES 25

F A C E - O F F

MT Compares the Leaders: ICOMs R-8500 and AORs AR-5000 Super Receivers

Alllllld,., Fur fre-qucm:y hu11lt:1" lHI the gu. the AOR is the dear choice. while the 11w1e 111a,.s ive. bru,.hed ,.tce l elcg.111c1.: ul the !CUM 111aJ...c!'> an imprt:,,,,i, e I 1x..:d 11htalb 1 io11 . .ind 1h larger knob" and kcy" a1 1.: ca,,icr to u"c.

Both n;cc i vc1" 111ay he puwe1 ed hy e ither 120 V AC ("ep,11 ate P""er "upl y included) ur 12 VDC.

I Keys

With the "1 11all c1 ,,i1.e of the /\OR gu "lllaJJer J...ey": \\Ol\C. llt:aJly all 26 of them a1C dual fUllClllHl. 111aJ...i11g 1epeated Opera-tion a ru) al Jl.1111. 1 hi" i" e"peciall) true \\'he11 thc1e a1e ,u 111.111) "CL' Jat111gl) u11 11c..:c,-"'ll )'

I lntermod Rejection I was very disappointed in the ICOM's

vulnerabili ty to strong-signal overload. Third order intermod was severe: considerably worse than !COM s previous. and venerable, R7 l 00 or the AOR. A local FM broadcaster pro-duced approximately 30 dB more intennod than on its predecessors, indicat ing a dynamic range some I 0 dB less than on the the two class ics. If the designers left out some fi lter-ing in an auempt to lower costs, the expedient lowered performance as well.

I Tuning

The 1- 1/4 inch main tuning knob on the AOR has a lever-activated "torque" option to allow greater stiffness in tuning if desired. Tuning increments may be selected from I, I 0. 50, I 00, and 500 Hz as well as I. 5. 6.25, 9. 10. 12.5 , 20. 25, 30. 100. and 500 kHz. matching virtually every channelization band plan except the American VHF-high band ( 15 kHz). A separate 3/8 inch coarse control allows larger tuning increments (X I 0) with-out having to key-select another step; the cont rol also doubles as a second-function option selector.

The ICOM's larger 1-7/8 inch tuning knob is inherently more comfortable to use. and a tension screw is available to tighten or loosen the "feel" of the dial. Two adjacent keys allow press-selection of tuning increments without hav ing to use AOR's cumbersome combina-tion of pushbutton and rotary knob. But ICOM's lllningstepsare limited to 10. 50,and I 00 Hz. and I. 2.5, 5, 9. I 0. 12.5, 20. 25. I 00. and I 000 kHz.

In both cases, however. the available steps are perfectly adequate for any application. Even ICOM's finest resolution. IO Hz, is more than adequate for any receivi ng applica-tion.

There was some setabi lity error in the AOR tuning. with increments oftennot mov-ing. or moving in the wrong di rection. as the dial was turned- the modern-day equivalent of old-fashioned. analog dial backlash.

Direct keypad frequency entry is afforded on both receivers, with AOR allowing either kHz or MHz entry; the !COM must have MHz entry, so 600 kHz would be entered as 0.600 (M Hz). The keys on the AOR are small , densely packed. low on the panel, and nearly a ll dual func tion. making key presses a daunt-ing task for most of us club-fingered males.

Both radios have have alphanumeric dis-play capabi lity for station identi lication, al-lowing you to type in "POLICE.'' "VOA," or

any other identifier within a reasonable char-acter length limit.

One very nice featu re on the AOR is a (dcfcatable) default which matches correct tun ing steps. bandwidths. and modes with any frequency entered on the keyboard or dialed up by the tuning knob. With the exception of the expanded 136-1 37 MHz AM ai rcraft band. frequency ranges we tested were quite accu-rately mode- and step-defaul ted.

The down side of this user sclectabi lity is that any attempt to alter a setting requires sev..:ral annoying pushbutton steps to make any change.

Scanning Thc AOR offers I 000 memory channels in

I 0 banks. scan nab le at 25 and 45 channels per second: 2 100 discrete frequencies may be locked out. The lCOM has 800 memory chan-nels in 20 banks. scannablc at about 13 chan-nels per second: I 00 frequencies may be locked out.

The AOR has a tone-reject function. ad-justable from 400 to 4400 Hz. which merci-fu lly skips over frequencies or channels on which a selected-frequency. continuous tone is being transmitted.

I Display

The LCD is backlit in both cases: the AOR window is smaller. and weakly backlit by a green-tinted illumination source. while the !COM is strongly backlit by an amber light source. The larger size, brighter illumination, and thicker. more contrasty characters make the ICOM considerably easier to read. Both receivers have the traditional (and widely pre-ferred) mechanical (D' Arson val movement) S meter.

The AOR has a I 2/24 hourclock timer wi th alarm and sleep functions; the ICOM has a sleep timer only.

I Audio Quality AOR' s bottom-mounted speaker. albeit a

good sound producer. comprc!>ses its sound fidelity somewhat compared to ICOM's un-obstructed top-mounted speaker. While AOR docs provide FM de-emphasis selection-csscnt ial ly a step-selectable treble cut- and low pass/high pass aud io fi lter selection. ICOM's availabi lity of audio peak filtering (APF) allows continuous contour selection from bassy through Oat to cri sp. Sound quality from both receivers is quite acceptable.

The ICOM also has a highl y effecti ve noise blanker which works, in vary ing degrees. on

both electrical line noise pulses and natural static crashes. The AOR does not have a noise blanker or limiter. but the squelch control can be used alternatively as an RF gai n control to limit the overall sensitivity and. thus. reduce the background noise on stronger signals.

For tape recording applications. the ICOM has conventional recorder audio output and activator jacks. while AOR provides th is ac-cess from a front panel DIN connector. In add ition, AOR provides an FM discriminator output for digital and SCA decoding.

The AOR offers CTCSS (subaudible "PL" tone) decoding: optional DTMF and inver-sion are avai lable according to thei r li terature.

Instruction Manual

By their own admission. the original AOR instruction manual was abominable and is undergoing continuous rewrite. At this time, the manual is quite usable, although not wholly complete or accurate. The ICOM manual. on the other hand. is the usual superbly-profes-sional publication. filled with well -illustrated operational documentation.

Both receivers may be computer-controlled via thcir RS232 ports; additionally, the ICOM offers a Cl-V control port.

I The Bottom Line For compact installation requirements. wid-

est frequency coverage. and the greatest vari-ety of options, select the AOR. For intu itive ease or use, display readabil ity, and profes-sional appearance, the ICOM wins hands down: ICOM officials arc aware of the intermod problem: for the latest on their re-sponse. visi t our web site (www.grove.net).

Both models offer I 0.7 MHz IF outputs on the rear panel. making them full y compatible with the Grove SDU- 100 Spectrum Display Unit, allowing up to IO MHz of signals to be shown visibly on screen on frequenices above 30 MHz. Under 30 MHz. the ICOM displyas about 30 kHz before signals roll off at the edges-maki ng it nearly useless except for single-signal display. The AOR, on the other hand. maintains a I 0 MHz bandwidth through-out its frequency range, a clear advantage for spectrum analysis.

I Next Month: A Closer Look The December and January issues of Mo11i-

wri11g Times will take a much closer look at these two tine. new receivers. including speci-ticat ions. Noted MT scanner columnist Bob Parnass is putting them through their paces. Stay tuned!

November 1996 MONITORING TIMES 27

_ ~--Pi_e_rs_o_n_a_I C_o_m_m_u_n_ic_a_t_io_n_s_S_e_rv_ic_e_s Dan Veeneman [email protected]

Crossing the Cellular Divide

Cellular telephones seem to have passed the watershed: they are everywhere. The Cellular Telephone Industry Association (CTIA) claims more than 30 mill ion subscribers have a mobile phone. with growth rates approaching fifty percent each year. In 1995 alone more than nine million customers started cellular servi

refe1Ted to as forward voice (FOYC) and reverse voice (REYC) channels. During a conversation the audio is sent analog FM modu-lated, but when a mobile telephone switches from one cell to another in a process called hand-off, the audio is briefly muted and a burst of digital data is sent from the base to the mobile. indicating the new voice channel to use.

When a base station sends out administrative information it uses a forward control channel (FOCC). When a mobi le telephone re-sponds to commands or originates a call , it uses a reverse control channel (ROCC). Twenty-one control channels for each carrier are dedicated to one or two fu nctions: access or paging.

Acce~s control channels handle administrative matters re lated 10 registering and monitoring mobile telephones using a digital stream of data. The paging channel is a digital stream of system information and telephone call "pages." All mobile te lephones, while idle, listen to th is paging channel. If a mobile te lephone decodes its own number from the paging channel, it wi ll respond to the incoming call. Not every base station has or needs a paging channel to adequately cover the cellular area.

With this as a background, next month we' ll cover cellular signals and the procedures a cellular phone goes through to place and receive calls.

PCS Comments Bob Grove's Closing Commems in the September issue elicited a

response from Francis Hemming, who writes, in part : Public Service a}{ellcies should stop j umping 01110 llew ROO MH-:.

trunked systems in favour of a PCS-based solution in the nearf11111re. WI'." ? Simply because the ne/ll'ork dh-ersitY offered by PCS is exactly what these agencies need to ensure adequate co1111m111ications under all normal and extraordinary conditions .

Trunked 800 systems grew out of a need for Public Service agencies to more effectively utilize the spectrum they had, while allowing a number of mobiles to share a common voice channel. Trunked 800 systems have their shortfalls. to be sure. but the network concept is one that meshes well wi th a dispatch-type of operation. PCS networks are not designed to support the one-to-many, highly configurable .. task force" groupings that trunked systems offer. This fundamental difference in design will prevent PCS from replacing trunked 800 in the near future.

There is also the problem of local capacity. For example, a report entitled Metropolitan Washingto11 Area /111eroperability . produced this year by the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee(PSWAC). est imates that 25 channels (RF communications paths) are required to implement a Mutual Aid Plan for a single major incident (such as the 1982 Air Florida crash in Washington. D.C. ). Additional complica-tions or simultaneous disasters will require many more.

Their fi nal recommendation was "for I 00 channels/RF communi-cations paths, in contiguous spectrum and paired for repeater access. be reserved for public safety mutual aid operations, for use by any

Channel Allocations Band Voice able to activote a CPS rereiver in the plume and send my coordinates occurate to within I meter. I don't 1r

During a trip to the APCO (Association of Public-Sakty Commu-nications Officials) conve ntion in San Antonio recent ly. I wa~ in -formed that. in real ity. New Hampshire had been plea-,ed with the test and had allocated funds to const ruct a ~tatewide digital ~y,tcm. At present. the system i ~ dc>igncd to operate on notHrunked VI IF hi~hbancl c hannels. If enough channel-, can be found. the ~y,t cm may go trunked.

T his is di sappointing news for hobbyi~t~: however. it will he interesting to sec how dig ital performs on a statewick ha~i' in 'uch a mountainous. tree-covered state. The in itial test wa~ run in the relati,c ly flat terrain of southea~tcrn New Hampshire. and. Wl' understand. it was determined that. un like ana log trunking. thl' engineers were not ahle to reliably simulcast the d ig.ital signal' and therefore had to rely upon a single ~itc . \Viii digital ~ig nab 1.iYe Free or Die ' ~hort ofrangc in New Hampshi re? Only time will tell.

I The Digital Olympics? There has been a Jot of confus ion over whet her the communica-

tions at the Olympic Games were in the analog or digi tal mode . A good friend in Atlanta. an astute monitor. told me that all oft he rad in traffic he he:ird was analog 800 and 900 M H7 trunked. Other' reported to Larry Van Horn. MT s lite World editor and the ccli tnr of Smellite Times. that everything was digital. Cla itw- \l'l're made prior to the Games. and reported in t h i~ publ ication a-; wl'l l ;" ntlwr~ . th ;t t all communications would be digi tal.

Could it be that the USOC (U nited States Ol ympic C0t111nit tee) and the two-way vendor were referring to the fact that trunking data channeb are digiLal? Perhaps some or the USOC communications may ha\e been condueted on ' EXTEL digi tal ~y,tem,.

According to a recent story in the \Vas!ti11g 1011 Post. 12.000 two-way rad ios .. 7.500 pagers and more than I .-WO cellular phones were in use wi thout a hitch at the Game,. There~ no mention of digital or an:ilug modes. however. lt s all ,cry puuling.

We urge readers who vis ited the Games or who li ve in the an:a to write us with their report>. Abo. we had heen told that local Atlanta agencies might inherit the digital rad io gear (for a di . counted price ) after the Games concluded. It' s a ll hearsay. Any definitive informa-tion would be appreciated. Also. if anyone wa-, monitoring when the pipe bomb exploded in Olympil Park. plca~e let uc; know. Emergency equipment arri ved on-scene ve ry qu ickly. Communicati on~ in thi ' instance. be they analog o r dig ital. seemed to work quite well.

All-Time Favorite Scanner Redux Alex Blaha of lll inoi~ wrote u-, wi th hi' all -time frl\orite radio:

.. Your question did stir up some nostalgia .... My favorite -,canncrol'al l time ha' 10 be the Bcarcat 210. While it is not popular. to me it is spec ial. Thanks to a ham operator. I received one a~ a gi ft and li,flnecl to my first pol ice

8680.4625. 860.9625 Lauderdale

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Leesville 855.4625. 855.9875. 859 2375, 859 4625. 860 4625

Louisville 851 .5625. 852.0625. 852.5375. 853.0125. 853.4875, 853.9625, 854.4375. 854.9125. 855.3875, 855.8875. 856.2375. 857.2375, 858.2375. 859.2375, 860.2375

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Plain Dealing 852.1875, 856.9625. 857.9625, 858.9625, 859.9625

Ramah 866.375, 866.9125. 868.3625, 868.8625

Ringgold 856.2375, 857.2375, 858.2375. 859.2375, 860.2375, 856.7625. 857.7625. 858.7625. 859.7625. 860.7625

Rosepine 856.2375, 856.7625. 857 2375. 857.7625. 858.2375, 858.7625. 859.2375. 859.7