WEBVTT - TechStuff Goes Transmitter Hunting - Part Two 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.360 stuff works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:18.360 I am your host, senior writer Jonathan Strickland right for 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:20.840 house stuff, What's dot Com? And today we're going to 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:25.000 have part to the exciting conclusion on our episodes about 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:30.760 transmitter hunting. Our our friend, my coworker, Joe McCormick joins 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:34.519 us to talk about this interesting use of technology and 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:38.080 how it's been turned into a sporting event, something that 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.479 you can participate in if you have the desire, So 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:45.000 let us rejoin the show. We need to move into 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.040 more of a discussion about radio specifically, because even though 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.800 radio is a subset of electromagnetic radiation, it covers an 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.760 enormous range of frequencies and therefore wavelength and not all 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.520 frequencies behave the same on Earth. True. Yeah, so you've 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.560 got different bands you might have You've seen terms like 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:10.080 HF for VHF you HF. These are specific sub bands 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.680 of frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum, all what we would 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.800 call radio frequencies. But um, so yeah, you've got like 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.680 high frequency, very high frequency, and a lot of what 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:22.240 we're gonna be talking about today is going to be 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.520 in the VHF part of the spectrum, that very high frequency. 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.440 So yeah, this radio spectrum is pretty broad, and it 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:31.160 goes well beyond the types of radio that that the 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.560 typical person can listen into, unless you happen to be 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.240 one of those folks who you know, maybe you operate 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.119 a maritime radio to help with navigation, in which case 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.720 you are using frequencies most of us don't touch. But 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.040 or maybe you're are a doctor working with experimental medical 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:51.520 imaging equipment, in which case you're using radio frequencies on 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.440 the opposite end of the spectrum, because maritime radio uses 0:01:55.040 --> 0:02:00.520 very low frequency UH radio waves, whereas medical imaging uses 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:06.000 extremely high frequency radio waves. So the range goes from 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:10.080 the bottom is at like three hurts, which means you 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:13.160 get three waves passing a given point in a second, 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:17.120 all the way up to tremendously high frequency, which is 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.160 three thousand giga hurts or three trillion hurts, meaning three 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.440 trillion waves pass a given point within a second. Actually 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.239 like extremely low frequency. More because the acronym is elf 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.400 so elves, elves communicate kind of like nts, very long 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.880 wave forms. The elves at the bottom of the ocean yeah, 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.760 that's where we've stuck them. So again, you know, we 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.000 talked about how all these waves are traveling at the 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.480 speed of light, so it's really just the number of 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:49.680 waves that pass a given point in a second that 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.560 tells you a frequency, not speed of transmission, because that's 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.200 going to remain the same no matter what. So, um, 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.760 a three hurts frequency wave, we'll tell you that the 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.520 wave length or that particular wave has to be a 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:06.239 one hundred thousand kilometers in length. That's a long radio 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.160 wave hundred thousand kilometers. Meanwhile, in the opposite ind of 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:10.560 the spectrum, if you go all the way to that 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.760 three thousand giga Hurts wave, you're talking about a hundred 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:19.760 micrometers in length. So teeny tiny micrometers are very tiny, 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.720 huge difference obviously in the length of these waves. Um. 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.640 So that's why you know, the whole frequency wavelength relationship 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.520 is important. So we use the different frequencies for very 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.840 specific purposes. It's also important to point out that this 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:39.480 is not universal. The There are usually some sort of 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.800 governing body within a country that designates what frequencies can 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.720 be used for what purposes. In the US, we have 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.200 the FCC, uh, so if you're looking at the terror 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:55.480 hurt side of things, that's that ultra ultra high or 0:03:55.680 --> 0:04:00.600 terribly high frequency as is some sometimes referred to. It's 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.800 for medical imaging, that that kind of stuff also molecular 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:08.480 dynamics measurements and other high tech information. Uh. The extremely 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:12.080 low frequency would be like radio communication with submarines. You 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:15.640 can't you can't use very high frequency when communicating with 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:19.560 stuff that's underwater. The waves attenue are the radio waves 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.560 get attenuated by the ocean water, and that creates problems 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.840 with communication. But it's less of a problem with with 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:30.080 extremely low frequency and very long wavelength radio transmissions. What 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:33.279 about the kind of radio we think of as standard radio, 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.799 as in radio accessible to the average consumer AM FM, 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.479 That kind of stuff, so AM would be in the 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.120 medium frequency. Medium frequency ranges from three killer hurts to 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.440 three thousand kill hurts or three mega hurts. If you 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.039 prefer AM radio specifically in the United States is in 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.880 a even more narrow range than that, right, that's all 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.800 of medium frequency AM radio in the US goes from 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.360 five killer hurts to one thousand, seven hundred kill hurts 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:03.119 or one point seven mega hurts. UM if you wanted 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:05.720 to talk about shortwave radio. That's from five point nine 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:08.440 mega hurts to twenty six point one Mega hurts. CB 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.240 goes to twenty six point nine six mega hurts to 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.520 twenty seven point for one mega hurts, and so on 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.919 and so far. So so FM radio is gonna be 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.080 that's mega hurts, right, So it's going to be around 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:23.680 around MEA hurts exactly. So yeah, because power nine and 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:25.640 nine that would be at ninety nine mega hurts right 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.440 one I think originally maybe high thing, yeah, and goes 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.320 up to like one oh seven I think somewhere around there. So, uh, 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:39.039 Different countries of allocad their broad broadcast spectrum in different ways, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.160 so not everyone follows those exact same rules. There's usually 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:47.000 some overlap. Um. Now, when you know something about the 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:51.480 wavelength of the radio frequency, that tells you what you 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.200 need how you need to build your antenna right, Because 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:58.320 the length of your antenna is dependent upon the frequencies 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.719 you're looking for. You want your antenna to be the 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:05.680 right length to resonate properly with the radio frequencies you're 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.760 searching for. And there's no such thing as really a 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.720 perfect universal antenna that can equally pick up all frequencies 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:18.000 across the radio range. Now you might wonder, how can 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:22.360 you have like a pocket AM radio, because if AM 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:28.000 radio is broadcasting in the medium frequency and has pretty 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.360 long radio waves, and you need to have an antenna 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.039 that is the right length to pick that up. Typically 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:37.760 we're talking about half the length of the wavelength of 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.640 the radio frequency you're looking at right, So if you're 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.960 talking about like a a wavelength that's a hundred meters long, 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.119 then you're looking at our radio antenna that's between forty 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:50.760 and fifty meters. How the heck do you fit that 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.760 on like that? That seems ridiculous. Well, the antenna for 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.880 a M radios are typically wire that are UH and 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.160 that wire is wrapped around the core. Because it doesn't 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.280 matter if the wires straight or not straight or whatever. 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.120 You can you can coil it inside a device and 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.360 have it completely housed within the radio. So if you 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.160 were to open up an AM radio, chances are you'd 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:16.000 find a wire where one end is not attached to 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.239 anything and it's just wrapped around around around around around 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:22.840 a core of some sort. That's the antenna. It's it's 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.400 not like it's providing any sort of electrical uh. Stimulation 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.520 apart from conver you know, pulling in radio waves and 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:35.640 having that induce an electric current. So, uh, that's why 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:41.680 AM radios don't necessarily have a visible, incredibly long antenna um. 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.960 And this is important when it comes to things like 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:49.240 transmitter hunting. Yeah, because if you look at transmitter hunting 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:51.920 sites and we'll get into the specifics of the sport 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.920 here in a minute, you see a lot of jargon 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.680 that obviously has to do with stuff about like antenna 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:00.840 length and frequencies and stuff like that. One of the 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:02.920 common things you'll see is like the idea of a 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.520 two M hunt. The the the two M arena is 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.880 often considered the sweet spot for for transmitter hunting. Now, 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.480 what does that mean When a HAM radio enthusiast talks 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.680 about two meters and they're telling you specifically about the 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:18.880 size of the antenna that they are using. The two 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.840 meters is a pretty decent sized antenna, right, like you know, 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.040 a meters. Like here in the United States, we don't 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.040 necessarily think in terms of meters that frequently because we're 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.800 not on the metric system. But yeah, that's the reason 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.680 is because the frequencies that are being used by HAM 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:41.320 radio enthusiasts are falling in the VHF radio frequency band, 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.880 that very high frequency. Now, that frequency band goes from 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:48.120 thirty mega hurts to three hundred mega hurts, and the 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.360 radio wavelengths go from ten meters down to one meter. 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.840 And we're using descending sizes because remember as frequency increases, 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:01.280 the wavelength decreases. Right, So if you if you're hunting 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:07.680 for a radio signal that's somewhere and that uh, that 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:11.800 four to five meter range, you need a two meter 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.560 antenna in order to pick them up effectively to to 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:20.160 have it be particularly sensitive to those transmissions. Now, the 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:24.560 specific range within VHF designated for amateur radio use is 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.200 in the United States a hundred forty four mega hurts 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.439 two hundred forty eight mega hurts. It's a little different 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.800 than Europe where it's one forty four to one forty 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:37.480 six and not quite as wide a range. Give us 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.520 our two mega hurts. Come on, yeah, and well, to 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.440 be fair though, it's not the only band for amateur radio. 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.319 Amateur radio actually has bands and several different frequency ranges. 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.280 It's just for the VHF frequency range. It's this specific 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:58.680 range of frequencies from in the US six in Europe um. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:03.520 But you can also find amateur radio frequency bands in low, medium, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:05.600 and high frequency as well as all the way up 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.520 to like terribly fast terribly high frequency. You can find 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.920 them up there too. Now because of the wavelengths involved, 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:13.880 that two meter antenna is best able to pick up 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:18.440 those transmissions because it resonates more readily with transmissions in 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.080 that frequency, Like it can pick up stuff outside of it, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.960 but not as effectively as the stuff it was designed for. 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:28.480 It's that's the sweet spot. So you can build your 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:30.360 own if you want to do. There are a lot 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:34.160 of different resources, both online and in libraries that will 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.160 teach you how to build an antenna. I watched one 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.040 that actually was so cool that I think I might 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.280 do it as a project here and how stuff works 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.280 and do a video about it. What kind of antenna 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.480 was it would be? It would be a quad antenna, 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:47.200 but I'll talk about a little bit a little bit later. 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:49.439 Mostly because I've been thinking about trying to build a 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.280 Yachi antenna. Yeah, well that would be great, some of them, 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:57.360 as some of the Hams pronounced it, yagg Yeah. I 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.640 think that that project would be really kind of fun, 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:07.240 and also I like the way a quad antenna can look. 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:09.559 I'll talk more about that in a little bit. Anyway, well, 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.840 I will I challenge you to an antenna build off. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.440 That sounds great, Yeah, let's do it solely. Do it 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.040 to be fair, It's way easier to do it now 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.000 than it was in the old hobbyist days where you 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.120 had to do all the calculations by hand. Now there 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.240 are so many online tools that will allow you to 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.400 just plug in what you're what you're attempting to do, 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:29.760 and he'll tell you exactly how long each element. I've 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.640 been to exactly one of these calculators. I found one 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.600 online that says like, Okay, here's the frequency I want 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:39.200 to look for, here's the decibel gain I want um, 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:41.880 and then it will tell you the relative size of 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:46.719 your of your elements for your antenna. Yeah. So, if 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.480 you are a transmitter hunter, chances are you have multiple 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.480 antenna or as I put, a veritable array of antenna 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:58.720 perhaps a literal array of antenna's, depending upon what you're 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:00.920 you're depending upon how much in time you have to 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.480 put into the hobby. But then we also have another 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.760 element that that you put in our notes a question. Yeah, 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:13.560 so sometimes you'll hear or you'll read about people in 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:18.080 the transmitter hunting community talking about harmonics, you know, so 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:20.000 they'll say, maybe, oh, I got very close to the 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.400 transmitter and I was I was overwhelmed. What could I do? 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.800 You know, I I suddenly I couldn't isolate the direction 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.560 of the signal anymore. And somebody else might say, well, 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.480 try looking for the third harmonic. I love that because 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:38.720 it sounds very cryptic, and in the know it sounds 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.319 a little Star Trek esque in a way. So harmonics 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:46.520 are into drum multiples of the fundamental frequency, which is 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.079 a fancy way of saying you start with whatever frequency 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:53.040 you're looking for, because generally speaking, transmitter hunters there's a 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.920 specific frequency that they know they are searching for, otherwise 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.240 it would be needle in a haystack, right. Plus they're 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:04.960 limited anyway by the range that amateur operators are allowed 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.840 to use. So you start with whatever the target frequency 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.560 is and you multiply it by integers in order to 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.520 get the harmonic. So the first harmonic is the fundamental 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:18.320 frequency because you just multiplied by one, got it. So 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.440 third harmonic you multiply by three, fifth harmonic you multiply 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.400 by five. Both of those are particularly useful in transmitter hunting. 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:30.640 So the typical frequency you'd be hunting for is one 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:35.360 forty six point five six five mega hurts. Now, if 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.560 you want to find the third harmonic, you multiply that 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.120 number by three. That gives you four d thirty nine 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.839 point six nine five mega hurts. The fifth harmonic you 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.080 multiplied by five. That gets you seven two point eight 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:51.520 to five mega hurts. Now, each of those harmonics has 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:54.680 a weaker signal than the fundamental frequency, but it would 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.400 be related to the fundamental It is related to it, 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.000 but it is a weaker signal. Now, if you're when 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.559 you get close to one of these transmitters, chances are 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:07.320 the signal strength as such that you are it's hard 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.199 for you to get any useful information right, Like you 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.400 might if you have a directional antenna, which we'll talk 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.360 about in a minute, you might be sweeping it all 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.120 around and you're just maxing out your receiver no matter 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:20.000 what direction you pointed in right because the signal it's 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:21.960 not like you're right on top of the transmitter, but 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:26.720 you're close enough where the directionality is no longer useful. 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.560 It's kind of like you can hear someone yelling off 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.560 in the distance and you're blindfolded, so you know generally 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.400 what direction they're in, But as you get really close 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.520 and they're yelling and it's an echoe area, you can't 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.520 really tell where the noise is coming from necessarily. It's 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.720 kind of like that as an analogy. So if you're 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.560 able to switch to one of these harmonics because it's 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.280 a weaker signal, you can get a little more precise 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.640 with that directionality you can use if you have an 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:56.600 antenna that can switch to one of these signals, or 0:14:56.640 --> 0:15:00.320 you have an antenna specifically made to detect those harmon necks, 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:04.720 then you are able to switch to a weaker signal 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.400 which is not going to overwhelm your antenna so quickly, 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.960 and you can hone in on the direction a little 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.320 more precisely than you would if you had to rely 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:18.880 on your your chief two meter antenna. Right. So that's 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.960 why harmonics are important. Uh, and we well, we'll talk 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.640 a little bit more about the Yaggy antenna's in a second. 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:30.760 Yaggy antenna more formally is the Yogi Uda antenna, which 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.520 sounds like it should be a Star Wars character. Right, Oh, 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:41.000 you seek yagi Uda. It's a directional antenna that looks 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.800 kind of like one of those old TV antenna's, like 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.800 the old arials that you would see on top of houses, 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.280 typically in the movie like Uh Willy Wonka and the 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.880 Chocolate Factory. Yeah, it has It has one long boom 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.160 in the middle as well for two a central poll 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.440 on which are mounted parallel elements. These elements are does 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.080 the shaping and receiving of the signal or transmitting. You 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:06.960 can have a transmitter or receiver. Sure, yeah, antenna they're 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.120 meant to be both transmitters and receivers, right. Typically the 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.960 antenna that that I use and most people use, I 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:16.720 would imagine are simply used as receivers, except when you 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.680 get into things like phones and stuff. Obviously, any any 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.880 phone type device has both a transmitter and a receiver. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:27.440 Otherwise it's just a radio, so not terribly useful if 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.560 you want to make a call. Anyone does anymore, But 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.520 I digress. Well, anyway, we'll talk about the specific sent 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:36.760 a minute, but the the point of these parallel elements 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.960 on the Augie antenna is to create this directional effect 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:45.360 where a signal is detected if you are pointing right 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.800 at it, but it is killed if you are pointing 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.120 perpendicular to it right right. So the idea being that 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.760 if you turn to your right and the signal suddenly 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:58.320 drops out, you know that the direction to the right 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:00.520 is not the way to go used to turning to 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:02.520 the left. And you find where the signal drops out, 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.760 you can eliminate that. It narrows down the range where 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:11.840 the transmission can actually originate. And since transmitter hunting is 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.680 all about finding that transmitter, that's important. And we're gonna 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.440 talk more about transmitter hunting and really dive into the 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:22.960 hobby and the sport in just a moment. But first 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:35.440 let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. Alright, 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.080 we're back, and Joe, I want you to tell me 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:43.000 more about this sport of transmitter hunting, a sport I 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:47.679 did not know existed until you brought this topic to 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:52.000 my attention. Uh. Yeah, so I at some point I 0:17:52.040 --> 0:17:54.399 want to try this. I've never done it myself, but 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.320 I've been reading about it over the past couple of months, 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.480 and I've watched a few videos of people trying it 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.480 out on you tube, um, and it looks very interesting. 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.800 So the sport is known as transmitter hunting also t 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:12.080 hunting or fox hunting. UH, And a standard game goes 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.280 like this. You've got one participant who is the hider. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.080 This is sort of the dungeon master of the fox hunt, 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.960 and the hider puts together a radio transmitter appropriate for 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.639 the scale of the hunt. So you might use a 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:31.439 small handheld transmitter stashed inside an old ammunition can for 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.679 a small scale hunt on foot or in a you know, 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:39.680 small several mile mile area with cars. And in this scenario, 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.280 you would set the transmitter to repeat a signal at 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:48.960 steady intervals, so it might be like BP beep, bpit beep, beep, 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:52.679 and then you hide it somewhere, maybe in a public 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:57.240 park or another reasonably small search area. For large scale hunts, 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.520 you can actually build a powerful antenna capable of insmitting 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.080 miles and miles across state lines. There are people who 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.200 do this in you know, these long all day car 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:08.960 hunts where they're going a really long way to try 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.480 to find a transmitter somewhere out in the desert or something. 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:13.639 It looks like a lot of fun, and you use it. 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.840 You hunt it using cars or maybe fan boats, you know, 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.480 so you can you can do this in the Everglades. 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.399 I would that's just the way I would like to 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.200 do it. I just all I can imagine is now 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:29.080 we we talked earlier about possibly making a movie that 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.240 this movie would now have to star Bert Reynolds. But 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.440 if you are hiding a transmitter, there are some social 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:38.200 and safety concerns you probably want to keep in mind. 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.439 Makes sense. Imagine, for example, you are out at a 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.640 public park with your children and you see some creepy 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:48.439 loaner with an antenna attached to their van pull up 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:51.040 beside the park and then put a bunch of electronics 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:53.720 inside an ammunition can and hide it in the bushes 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.440 next to the sandbox. I would say that would raise 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.600 at least one, possibly two red flags. Right, So you 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:02.960 probably first of all, need to be careful where you 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:06.199 hide your transmitters. You need to uh, if it's you know, 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.200 in a place where you would need permission, get permission first. 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:12.840 In any case, if you're doing transmitter hunting, I've I've 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:14.840 heard that it is a good idea to notify the 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:16.920 police ahead of time that they're going to be people 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.159 running around with antenna's and that you're gonna be hiding 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.520 a thing and let let the police know where you're 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.919 hiding it so that it doesn't get mistaken for a 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:29.359 bomb or some other nefarious device. Yeah, it also looks 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:31.639 like it's a good idea to put some writing on 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:38.320 the device warning people that it's not dangerous, although honestly 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.919 you wouldn't believe it. Yeah. I mean like if I were, 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.919 if I were the type to make a device that 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:48.879 was intended to be harmful to people, I can't imagine 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.199 that I would have the ethics to avoid writing this 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.440 totally will not harm you. It's like, I'm pretty sure 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.240 a box of hot pocket says this is not dangerous 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.480 on it. Yeah, I mean it all but but but 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.440 definitely go to that extra effort. Lah. We we were 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:06.960 talking offline about this before we came in here to 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:10.280 record the episode, and the world is a very different 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:14.520 place than what it was when. Uh. Transmitter hunting was 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:19.000 really one of those hobbies that that that people could 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:22.760 essentially go anywhere and play. No one really noticed because 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:26.760 they didn't even It was just beneath the public consciousness. 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.199 Joe found a book and lent it to me that 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.040 I got to read, and in it they describe a 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:38.159 situation where one person who was hiding a transmitter didn't 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:40.840 have the time to actually do it himself, and so 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.880 entrusted the transmitter to two other people who said, oh, yeah, 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:47.200 we'll totally hide it where you told us, and instead 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:49.760 they went and hit it under an overpass. And I 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.679 thought those days are over. You would get into so 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:56.760 much trouble now because you were hilarious prank back then. 0:21:56.840 --> 0:21:59.280 Now freaks people out. Yeah, you remember the Moon and Knights. 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.920 Those are characters from Aquitine Hunger Force, where they they 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.879 Cartoon Network had done this promotional stunt where they put 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:12.520 very simple led displays of the moonaites over certain bridges, 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.840 and it freaked people out. They thought perhaps it was 0:22:15.920 --> 0:22:19.800 like a weird warning about an explosive that had been 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.000 attached to said overpasses. Turned out, of course, no, it 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.600 was just a promotional stunt, but no one knew that 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:27.400 at the time. And in the world that we live 0:22:27.440 --> 0:22:30.960 in today, it's probably better to take those extra precautions 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:35.919 and to uh to let whatever authority oversees the area 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:38.399 that you're planting the transmitter in to know about it 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:41.119 ahead of time, get approval that kind of thing, and 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:43.959 take these extra steps to make sure you don't inside 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:47.480 a panic. By the way, you mentioned this book, and 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:50.679 I just wanted to throughout the name of it because 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:52.040 as I was looking at this too. It's a book 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:56.960 I order called Transmitter Hunting Radio Direction Finding Simplified. It's 0:22:57.000 --> 0:22:59.560 from the late nineteen eighties and it is a radio 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:05.360 hobbyest manual by Joseph Moel and Thomas in Curly. An 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.879 exhaustive hobbyist manual. Well, they've got a lot of projects 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:11.480 and stuff back then for building different antenna types, but 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:14.240 also just sort of an overview of what the sport 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.239 looks like, you know when people practice it. Uh So, 0:23:17.359 --> 0:23:19.680 when you when you get into a transmitter hunt, you've 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:24.760 got the transmitter hidden somewhere and you've got some boundaries established, 0:23:25.280 --> 0:23:28.239 and then the players are set loose. They're like the 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:30.760