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Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:33 pm
by jistabout
Just curious. My wife and I were discussing this because she works in broadcasting.
On your service bench, when not being used to service radios, do you tune your service monitor to your favorite fm or am radio station and listen while working? Thought this might be a good place to ask 'cause lots of service monitor users here
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- Darrell/KA7BTV
Re: Do you do this?
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:50 pm
by DJP126
We did at the depot all the time. One of the techs (wb9sfg) used the R2001 in the 10 meter band to QSL from Schaumburg to Phoenix.
Re: Do you do this?
Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:11 pm
by escomm
my portable is programmed with the IFB channels of the local news stations. the audio quality is much better and it's got a 15-30 lead over the delayed broadcast
Re: Do you do this?
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:25 am
by Garyf629
Listen to 2 meters and FM all the time.
Re: Do you do this?
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 3:35 am
by talviar
Yep. use it to listen to WDVE on 102.5 . . (R2001C)
Actually receives better than the stereo system I have in the shop on the same antenna. (Live about 50 miles from the transmitter in the hills of Western PA)
Tony
That's one of the first tests
Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:03 am
by Wowbagger
That's one of the first tests and milestones of a service monitor in development - when you can tune in broadcast radio.
It used to be that one of the milestones at work was being able to tune in Paul Harvey.
Re: Do you do this?
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:32 am
by jistabout
DJP126 wrote:We did at the depot all the time. One of the techs (wb9sfg) used the R2001 in the 10 meter band to QSL from Schaumburg to Phoenix.
Thats too cool
. I can see how it could be done though, with a good antenna. Might try it myself some day.....
Wowbagger wrote:That's one of the first tests and milestones of a service monitor in development - when you can tune in broadcast radio.
It used to be that one of the milestones at work was being able to tune in Paul Harvey.
Sounds like a good test to me - after all, most modern broadcast transmitters are either right on frequency or off by only a few hertz at most. And you get entertainment to boot!
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:18 am
by akardam
One time we were up at a site and I'm playing ground crew to the tower guy outside the container our gear was in. All of a sudden I hear strains of NSync come floating through the air. Poke my head inside and our programming guy is in there fiddling with the service monitor...
Told him to find some decent jazz or I'd pull the plug on him.
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:11 am
by Wowbagger
akardam wrote:One time we were up at a site and I'm playing ground crew to the tower guy outside the container our gear was in. All of a sudden I hear strains of NSync come floating through the air. Poke my head inside and our programming guy is in there fiddling with the service monitor...
Told him to find some decent jazz or I'd pull the plug on him.
I hope he wasn't tormenting one of MY children with that - I think that even violates the warranty.
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 9:13 am
by akardam
Wowbagger wrote:I hope he wasn't tormenting one of MY children with that - I think that even violates the warranty.
No, it was only an HP, thank god...
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:45 am
by motorola_otaku
Back in 2002 when I was new to the company and we first got our GD R2590, one of the first things it did was get tuned to 101.1 KLOL. I remember me and my boss at the time commenting on how "huge" the signal looked on the spec-an, and how unusually crisp it sounded from the internal speaker.
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 12:29 am
by rodgrech
Used to do it all the time until i got sick of my supervisor telling me im doing damage to the service monitor using that way
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 8:24 pm
by bernie
My two bits worth:
I have always tuned FM broad cast stations on my analyzer.
I also used to dial up FM stations on units doing burn in test in the depot.
Gives a known signal for reference. A Simulcast paging system can be used for frequency calibration verification.
These things DO break, problems receiving your favorite station may alert you to a potential problem.
NO it will not harm your instrument nor lead to blindness.
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 6:54 pm
by cablemonkey
All the time. I listen to the news, mostly.
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 6:47 pm
by AEC
I use mine to listen to several broadcast stations in the Globe area, but there are two located on a very nearby hill, so I have to use a can tuned to each station as the signals are far too strong and create harmonics all over the vhf band with a single station.
Even tuning WWV in Ft. Collins is a chore with strong local AM signals, I have church music in my speaker instead of the time!
Re: Do you [dial up FM broadcast on your service monitor]?
Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:06 pm
by AEC
Hightower wrote:Using my spectrum analyzer I noticed a signal around 50-60Mhz. Further looking into the signal I noticed a NTSC sync pulse and color burst. I busted out the now useless Casio pocket TV and connected the vertical output to the video in. Well what do you know, I was watching my neighbors dishnetwork IRD. The RF ch 3/4 output from the IRD was very strong, or the guy has very leaky/loose coax. Of course the video signal was weak and fuzzy and in black & white, it was still very watchable.
I will have to try that method out on my DirecTV system here.
Never bothered to find out if it was a source of on-carrier leakage, or strong IM products.
I'm curious now....Guess I'll have to open up the DVR and probe the chassis with a sniffer!