Surely you realize that there are people that listen to things on radio.
Shortwave, VHF, UHF. Military comms, utilities, ect. You do actually
participate in the radio hobby, don't you?

No. I do not consider 'radio' a hobby. I appreciate the fact that others do.

Amateur radio is a service, for example.

I clearly do not understand that eavesdropping on the marine band with a
unidirectional antenna is a hobby. I invite Richard to expound its virtues;
tell us who does it; tell us how such hobbyists meet; discuss their fun info;
and so on.

This is a new one, relatively, to me.

BTW, I have been a ham since 1966; have won various contests; have DXCC honor
Rolls; 8BDXCC (equivalent); #1 DXCC Honor Roll; and so on.

I have also done various public service stuff as a ham, BTW.

I've been around the pike, so to speak.

73
Chip N1IR

Surely you realize that there are people that listen to things on radio.
Shortwave, VHF, UHF. Military comms, utilities, ect. You do actually
participate in the radio hobby, don't you?

No. I do not consider 'radio' a hobby. I appreciate the fact that others do.

Amateur radio is a service, for example.

I clearly do not understand that eavesdropping on the marine band with a
unidirectional antenna is a hobby. I invite Richard to expound its virtues;
tell us who does it; tell us how such hobbyists meet; discuss their fun info;
and so on.

This is a new one, relatively, to me.

BTW, I have been a ham since 1966; have won various contests; have DXCC honor
Rolls; 8BDXCC (equivalent); #1 DXCC Honor Roll; and so on.

I have also done various public service stuff as a ham, BTW.

I've been around the pike, so to speak.

73
Chip N1IR



Before cell phones were widely available, the phone company around here
(Belmont, CA)
had a phone patch service for marine vhf. I met at least one guy who had a hand
held
marine vhf radio which he used to carry around so he could make phone
calls without having to find a pay phone. I expect monitoring the marine band
could get pretty boring, and might get you a charter membership in the
dull men's club, but little else. Of course, if you own a boat that's another
story.
73,
Tom Donaly, KA6RUH

"Fractenna" wrote

No. I do not consider 'radio' a hobby. I appreciate the fact that others
do.

I clearly do not understand that eavesdropping on the marine band with a
unidirectional antenna is a hobby. I invite Richard to expound its
virtues;
tell us who does it; tell us how such hobbyists meet; discuss their fun
info;
and so on.

This is a new one, relatively, to me.

BTW, I have been a ham since 1966; have won various contests; have DXCC
honor
Rolls; 8BDXCC (equivalent); #1 DXCC Honor Roll; and so on.

I have also done various public service stuff as a ham, BTW.

I've been around the pike, so to speak.

73
Chip N1IR

Not the pike that several thousand hobbyists enjoy, perhaps most of whom are
licenced amateurs!

Try http://www.wunclub.com/ and really dig around, you'll find that marine
listening is a close second only to military aircraft monitoring, maybe
commercial aircraft after that.

IF the claims about BPL were accurate, it would have such a profound effect
on so many major forms of government and commercial communications, that the
BPL lifespan might be about a week after full scale exposure. So like
yourself, I am watching with open eyes and ears for more tests to prove it's
a boon or a bane.

73,

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach Va

I expect monitoring the marine band
could get pretty boring, and might get you a charter membership in the
dull men's club, but little else. Of course, if you own a boat that's
another
story.
73,
Tom Donaly, KA6RUH


That's my anecdotal sense as well, Tom. Hence my natural curiousity as to why
someone with an apparent sense of advanced skills would consider this
worthwhile, and exhort us to 'benefit a service'. I would still like to 'get
it'. I am open to it. I am puzzled why I am not getting an answer from the
person who started this thread.

Kindly fill us in, Richard. We're friendly.

73,
Chip N1IR

Not the pike that several thousand hobbyists enjoy, perhaps most of whom are
licenced amateurs!

Try http://www.wunclub.com/ and really dig around, you'll find that marine
listening is a close second only to military aircraft monitoring, maybe
commercial aircraft after that.

IF the claims about BPL were accurate, it would have such a profound effect
on so many major forms of government and commercial communications, that the
BPL lifespan might be about a week after full scale exposure. So like
yourself, I am watching with open eyes and ears for more tests to prove it's
a boon or a bane.

73,

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach Va



The licensed amateur part doesn't sound right, but your link is very helpful.

Wouldn't it make more sense to make construction info available on an
appropriate site to those who are more likely to see it? Perhaps a newsletter?
Trade pub ? Monitoring Times?

This request seems to have come out of no where, with no context. It has the
appearance of a bait, but that's a personal opinion.

73,
Chip N1IR

Dear J. McLaughlin, self proclaimed newsgroup cop. If you don't know
the answer to his question, why did you bother to answer him? Just
wanted to "dig" on him a bit because he didn't post his call? You
posted yours and you still came off sounding like a pompous know it
all ass.
Or was that your intention?



On Sat, 5 Jun 2004 09:59:36 -0400, "J. McLaughlin"
wrote:

Dear Richard - no full name - no call - no location - probably not a
real E-mail address:

Let me see if I understand: You have the strange idea that someone
who has the experience and skill to craft for you an expensive design
(for free) is looking for something to do. Strange indeed.
Mac N8TT

You're in your own little world, aren't you?

"Fractenna" wrote in message
...
Surely you realize that there are people that listen to things on radio.
Shortwave, VHF, UHF. Military comms, utilities, ect. You do actually
participate in the radio hobby, don't you?

No. I do not consider 'radio' a hobby. I appreciate the fact that others
do.

Amateur radio is a service, for example.

I clearly do not understand that eavesdropping on the marine band with a
unidirectional antenna is a hobby. I invite Richard to expound its
virtues;
tell us who does it; tell us how such hobbyists meet; discuss their fun
info;
and so on.

This is a new one, relatively, to me.

BTW, I have been a ham since 1966; have won various contests; have DXCC
honor
Rolls; 8BDXCC (equivalent); #1 DXCC Honor Roll; and so on.

I have also done various public service stuff as a ham, BTW.

I've been around the pike, so to speak.

73
Chip N1IR

CW wrote:

You're in your own little world, aren't you?

He's on the small moon Fractanus...A so far, undisclosed moon of the
planet Uranus. "The U.S government refuses to acknowledge the existance
of the object" A cover up? Fodder for the next Drudge report I
suspect...
As *most* know, people on the planet Earth listen to everything. "If you
broadcast it, he will listen" There are probably people that monitor
pager transmissions for obtuse tone variations...:/ People listen to
boats, marine phone patches, cabs, police, utility co's, biz radio,
airplanes, baby monitors, yada, yada, yada, till the freq range runs
out...He surely knows this. I think he just wants to appear above it
all....Gives him an opportunity to flash his Fractanal ham radio contest
resume...Like that really helps the marine band listener to receive
better...:+
Fractanions do not listen to much VHF public service band radio
evidently. I guess from that far distance, even the oft touted fractal
antenna is useless...:( Been around the pike huh...I guess that makes
you a piker...
:/ MK



--
http://web.wt.net/~nm5k

Dear J. McLaughlin, self proclaimed newsgroup cop. If you don't know
the answer to his question, why did you bother to answer him? Just
wanted to "dig" on him a bit because he didn't post his call? You
posted yours and you still came off sounding like a pompous know it
all ass.
Or was that your intention?



On Sat, 5 Jun 2004 09:59:36 -0400, "J. McLaughlin"
wrote:

Dear Richard - no full name - no call - no location - probably not a
real E-mail address:

Let me see if I understand: You have the strange idea that someone
who has the experience and skill to craft for you an expensive design
(for free) is looking for something to do. Strange indeed.
Mac N8TT


Hmmm, Mac made sense to me. He always does, come to think of it.

73,
Chip N1IR

"Fractenna" wrote

Try http://www.wunclub.com/ and really dig around, you'll find that
marine
listening is a close second only to military aircraft monitoring, maybe
commercial aircraft after that.

Wouldn't it make more sense to make construction info available on an
appropriate site to those who are more likely to see it? Perhaps a
newsletter?
Trade pub ? Monitoring Times?

This request seems to have come out of no where, with no context. It has
the
appearance of a bait, but that's a personal opinion.

Hi Chip, yes there are websites, monitoring lists and circulars that
specialize in utility listening. The WUN is just the biggest, not the only
by any means. It has been my experience in the last 12 years of that part of
the hobby, that about 90% of the "members" are anonymous non-posters. When
the mailing addresses of list members were once public, they included almost
every government agency. Monitoring marine safety on VHF and HF by hobbyists
has definite public safety benefits very similar to licensed amateur groups
such as the Maritime Mobile Net that works 14.300 mHz. The post may have
been bait, and most of us would have chosen a little different form of
explanation of what/where/why, etc. But there are very few affordable
antennas manufactured for the bands commonly referred to as "Utility"
(non-ham bands), and this is a logical place to ask for help in that area.

73,

Jack Painter
Virginia Beach, Va