Scanner School - Everything you wanted to know about the Scanner Radio Hobby

Latest Episodes:

046 - #AskScannerSchool V.02 Nov 06, 2018

Show notes

A lot of listeners have been submitting their questions via e-mail, and today I am answering some of them.

If you have a question about scanning, please visit www.scannerschool.com/ask and leave us a message via SpeakPipe or the local number on our website. We'll play your message on next month's #AskScannerSchool

If you are a little shy, you can always use the contact form on www.scannerschool.com/ask or use #askscannerschool on Twitter

All session notes can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session46

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

045 - Encryption Oct 30, 2018

Show notes

Encryption - it is the one word that will make any scanner radio listener cringe.

Today, we take a brief look at the history of encryption, and also what types of encryption are used today.

I also spend a few minutes talking about my thoughts on encryption. What do you think?

All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session45

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

044 - NXDN Trunking Oct 23, 2018

Show notes

NXDN stands for Next Generation Digital Narrowband

For an introduction to NXDN, please see last week's podcast at www.scannerschool.com/session43

NXDN Trunking comes in two classes: NXDN-C and NXDN-D

NXDN-C is like most trunking systems. There is a control channel and a set of voice channels.

NXDN-D is similar to LTR Trunking, where you have no dedicated control channel. Your users are listening to a home channel and any channel can be used as a voice channel

Please be sure to view the session notes for all the sources on both last week's and this week's podcast

All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session44

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

043 - An Introduction to NXDN Oct 16, 2018

Show notes

NXDN stands for Next Generation Digital Narrowband

NXDN was created in 2003 with a joint venture of Kenwood and Icom. The protocol was announced at IWCE in 2005 and the first units arrived in 2006. It wasn't until 2017 that NXDN was published by the ITU-R as an international digital land mobile system.

NXDN was created to satisfy the 2005 FCC Narrowbanding mandate. Originally created for business users, NXDN is used by public safety and even the military.

Overseeing NXDN development and standards is the NXDN Forum. A 30 member community including JVC Kenwood, Icom, Anritsu, The Boeing Company, and Zetron.

NXDN Comes in 3 flavors

NXDN Standard (As defined by the CAI)
Kenwood's NEXEDGE
Icom's IDAS

NXDN operates using FDMA over 12.5kHz or 6.25kHz wide bandwidth.

All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session43

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

042 - Electrical and RF Station Grounding Oct 09, 2018

Show notes

Electrical and RF Grounding - a simple solution for a common problem.

RF Grounding is more important in a transmitting environment than a receiving environment, but scanner listeners can still benefit from grounding their station.

By Grounding your receive station, you may find that you've increased your scanner's sensitivity and eliminated some RF noise.

In this session we discuss:

RF Ground Loops
Grounding best practices
Single Point Ground (SPG)
The differences between
- Copper Wire
- Flat copper braid
- Flat copper strapping
The Skin Effect

All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session42

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

041 - #Ask Scanner School V.0I Oct 02, 2018

Show notes

A lot of listeners have been submitting their questions via e-mail, and today I am answering some of them.

If you are a little shy, you can always use the contact form on www.scannerschool.com/ask or use #askscannerschool on Twitter

All session notes can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session41

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

040 - An Introduction to Batteries Sep 25, 2018

Show notes

Batteries - something that are in practically every device we touch.

There are many types of batteries out there. I'm not talking about battery sized, but the chemical composition that makes up a battery. From one time use to rechargeable - there is a correct type for every application

In this session, we discuss:

Alkaline Batteries
NiCd Batteries
NiMH Batteries
Li-Ion Batteries
Battery Voltages
Rating in ampere-hours

All session notes can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session40

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

039 - Easy Emergency Battery Power Sep 18, 2018

Show notes

There are a few ways that you can bring emergency power into your scanner radio setup. But there aren't many ways that can be ready to go in the blink of an eye.

Generators are good, but you wouldn't want to operate one in the middle of a storm. Most generator users don't have them ready to go immediately.

Computer UPS devices could make a good battery standby unit, but you are effectively taking a 12VDC source (batteries), using an inverter to create a dirty AC power source, and then using your scanner's power transformer or your power supply to go back to 12VDC.

You could just wire in a battery with your power supply, but that can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

Or you can pickup the device we talk about in this podcast. A safe, simple, and easy way to add a battery for emergency power in your station.

In this session, we discuss:

A few ways to add emergency power to your station
How to size a battery for your station
What Anderson Power Poles are and why I love them
How to safely connect a standby battery to your station

All session notes can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session39

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

038 - Petition to Save WWV, WWVB, and WWVH Sep 11, 2018

Show notes

Time is running out.....

The 2019 annual budget for NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) decreased by $49 Million USD from the 2018 budget.

Due to the decrease in budget, the NIST has decided to pull funding for WWV, WWVB, and WWVH. This move will save NIST $6.3 Million USD.

WWV is one of the oldest radio stations in continuous use. They went on the air in 1920 from Washington DC, broadcasting the time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

WWV, WWVH, and WWVB

Broadcast the official US Time
Broadcast Atlantic and Pacific Maritime Conditions
Broadcast GPS Status Updates
Broadcast geophysical alerts from NOAA

WWV, WWVH, and WWVB

Are used by many radio operators to check band conditions
Used by many to calibrate their receivers to make sure they are on frequency
Used by mariners for storm updates
Used by anyone who has a device that sets the time automatically from the "atomic clock"

Listening to WWV, WWVH, and WWVB:

Operate on 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz
Transmit 10kW on 5, 10, 15 MHz
Transmit 2.5kW on 2.5 and 20 MHz
WWV and WWVB operate from Ft Collins, CO
WWVH operates from Kauai, Hawaii
You may also dial in over the phone
WWV receives 1M Calls per year
WWVH receives 50k calls per year

How can we save WWV, WWVH, and WWVB

Sign this petition online (www.scannerschool.com/savewwv)
- 100,000 electronic signatures are need
- As of this podcast date, only 16k are signed
- We need 83k more for the White House to respond
Call your state congressperson
Call your local government
Call your state's governor's office

All session notes and additional links can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session38

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

037 - Power Supplies Sep 04, 2018

Show notes

Every Scanner needs it's own power brick plugged into your wall. Every other 12 volt device requires it's own wall wart.

The worst part about these adapters is the amount of space they take up. Sometimes they are large enough to cover 2 spaces on your power strip.

How do we clean up this mess?

Power supplies are the perfect way to deliver power to all of those 12volt devices at your scanner radio station. Using a single 12v source for your scanner and 12v accessories, this is a great way to bring some order to the electrical wiring mess in your shack!

In this session, we discuss:

Voltage
Amperage
Current
What to look for when buying a power supply
Constant Voltage
Peak Voltage
Regulated and Unregulated Power Supplies

All session notes can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session37

Please support the Scanner School podcast. Visit www.scannerschool.com/support to see how you can help us. Some of the ways you can support us won't cost you any additional money!

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