AM Freqs in TX?

[n3lrx]

Maybe this is the wrong place to ask, I don't know. But where are the AM frequencies in Texas? Are they in the AM window or somewhere else?

I'm seriously considering moving to Texas sometime in the next few years. I've been considering taking up the promise made a while ago now, and that is the promise of 2.5 acres on my best friends property. The only thing keeping me here at the moment is he lives out in the Hill Country and they don't have broadband or DSL yet.

I'm too involved with the Fedora Linux community to leave it now. The only option now for broadband is satellite which the latency really sucks. Currently there are two cable companies slowly moving toward the out of the way area where he lives. So once they are live I'm seriously considering moving south.

I hate the cold and aside from my mother living here, Michigan was a bad place to move to.


de Randy, N3LRX

[Opcom]

7160 Saturday and Sunday from about 10AM to 4PM, not solidly occupied the whole time, but if you listen, someone will call. Noon till 2 is more occupied. Stations in Dallas, Austin, Houston areas, and some from other states at times. Usually it's long winded and when someone turns it over there is frequently an announced but short pause for any 'breakers' in. just give your call to be recognized. All are welcome.

[n3lrx]

Cool, I don't have an antenna set up for any band yet but I've been using online receivers. I'll see if I can listen in on what's online. I think I remember one being in TX. Somewhere.

[WD5JKO]

I hate the cold and aside from my mother living here, Michigan was a bad place to move to.
de Randy, N3LRX

   Randy,

   Another long winter, or a little latency?

I am from Michigan. Since moving south I've only occasionally missed being up there. Then when I go its so humid, and too many mosquito's. In the hill country you have to worry about a constant drought with the occasional flood.

As to AM in Texas, we have a big group that gets on 3890 pretty much every morning. The group that used to get on 75M AM in the evening is largely gone, but there is a presence on 3880 most evenings. Many of these stations also hang out on 3870 SSB, and then they fire up their AM rigs on 3880. On the 1st Wednesday Collins Collector Association group, there are AM stations all over Texas that come out of the wood works. This is on 3885 +/-

Also down here we hear a lot of the W4 groups on AM. They start coming in around sunset on 3885.

On 75 the copy of the NE stations is usually bad except for the winter evenings. The usual S9 carrier is heard with little intelligible audio coming through. Then here comes Tim WA1HLR, or WA1QIX with good signals, and plenty of intelligible audio. Of course, Don, K4KYV literally pounds into this area.

Jim
Wd5JKO

[n3lrx]

Cool on there being an active group. I'll have fun then.
It will be good to hear Tim-Tron again. I haven't talked to him in a month of Sundays.

It will be within the next 2 years that I make a decision to move down there or not. If within that time frame they haven't fixed the internet solution I'll consider satellite.  It's just that I am constantly uploading and downloading and using services that time out easily. And of course the updates, Fedora is a fast moving distro so there are always updates to be downloaded and installed. All the people I know that are on satellite hate it. It may be their only solution but not one they would choose if they had a choice. I see them dropping off the radar regularly then reconnecting  again. Usually complaints about the reliability of  satellite internet follows upon re-connection. lol

We had a cold summer this year in Michigan. I didn't even use my air conditioning at all this year. Although I spent Aug. in Texas, it was pretty cool in Michigan all summer long. Meanwhile the weather in Texas was great. A little hot some days but I can take the heat. I just can't take the cold anymore.

My iguana will also enjoy Texas, he could be living outside in the summer. I could build him a paradise cage outside there. He'll have a blast.

Thanks for the info!

de Randy, N3LRX (Yellrx)

[WD5JKO]

Randy,

  A friend of mine lives around Lake Travis and there is no wired infrastructure for internet available. So he deals with a 4G Cell provider to get internet since there is a cell tower close by such that he gets good signals, and sufficient bandwidth for his needs. Many cell plans have a cap in the data though, like 5 Gb per month.

  So what is the latency of internet from the cell phone providers?

Jim
Wd5JKO

[n3lrx]

Yeah, that's an option too but sometimes (especially around release time) I can go through 5gb in one day. That wouldn't do. If I do take the offer I'll be moving to Pipe Creek. About 45 min northwest of San Antonio. Off hwy 16. It's the sticks. But the good thing is I'll only have 1 neighbor within a 1/4 mile.

[flintstone mop]

Hughes Net Gen 4............You need to watch some TV. Satellite internet. Priced close to Cable internet.  The screw job we get from Comcast is $75.13 for "basic useless cable TV" and 25mbs down and 5mbs up internet... Some areas of the country are limited to 300gb download for the month.
Hughes Net speed is in between an upgraded DSL and what cable internet offers. I do not know if Hughes Net has limits for the month.
You will not be able to use a voip type telephone (Vonage) the latency is pretty large hitting a Satellite and return.
I would never depend on internet using a cell phone, plus it's pretty limited what you can do. It's all APPS and maybe they include Chrome browser.
It's strange now, how we go to dinner, and my son is looking for wifi to play his tablet and my wife looks in FaceBook with her Smartphone. We still have conversations at dinner...
Fred

[n3lrx]

Yeah, Crapcast really puts the screws to you. I just recently dropped cable TV because I never watched it. I have had vonage going on 10 years now but I can drop it and get a POTS (They do have telephone service in the rural Hill Country..  ).

It's really funny because they have BPL, the power company can turn your service on or off from their offices. So the meters must have their own IP of some sort.. I'm surprised they haven't cashed in on the void by providing internet service as well.

My cellphone, I hardly use it. I have a prepaid because I only use it for emergencies and when traveling. The minutes just keep racking up. You have to buy a certain amount every 90 days to keep the account active. The minimum is only $20. I've got close to 5000 unused minutes because they roll over.

Don't have a lappy or a tablet. Strictly desktops here. 1 workhorse and 1 server/email client.

I'll check into Hughes and see what they offer.

[flintstone mop]

Your quote from above

It's really funny because they have BPL, the power company can turn your service on or off from their offices. So the meters must have their own IP of some sort.. I'm surprised they haven't cashed in on the void by providing internet service as well.

You may not like to have BPL near your station..... You might have a sad surprise of not being able to use your equipment from the interference generated by BPL 
The power companies used an RF source ( something in the 150mhz band)  to turn on and off Central air conditioning units during high usage to prevent electrical overloads in Summer.

[n3lrx]

Ah, I see maybe that's how they do it. There are a few cell towers in the area they could easily have a transmitter on. I just know this because we came home from the bar and stopped at a friends house whom had been out with us and the electricity was off, (He forgot to pay the bill). While he was on the phone with them paying the bill the power miraculously came back on. At 1:30 am.

As far as BPL goes in that case I hope they don't use it then. I hadn't thought of the interference it will cause. Let's hope that's not what they use to control their meters. It would suck to put up a dipole or loop and not be able to use it.

[flintstone mop]

Yes The ARRL worked very hard to prove to the FECES that BPL was bad for anyone trying to use the HF spectrum. It took a few years to get it into their heads and hard evidence that BPL could stop a licensed Ham operator from using his equipment. Motorola has the answer to "safe BPL" but the providers had their cheaper versions and claims.

[kb3ouk]

If I'm right, that power line control stuff happens down in the LF range, somewhere around 130 kHz, I think. To work the guys in the northeast from way down there on 75 meters, you're probably gonna need a directional antenna, something like this would probably work pretty good: http://amfone.net/ECSound/K1JJ21.htm

[W2PFY]

slight hi jack...Is that Texas No Traffic net still going? Haven't' heard them on 7.290 for a long time?

[Jim, W5JO]

slight hi jack...Is that Texas No Traffic net still going? Haven't' heard them on 7.290 for a long time?

Oh Yes they are still very active.  Weekdays it is 11 to noon and 1 to 2 PM as I recall.  I forget the Saturday sechedule.