ken has very kindly loaned me his spare perseus once again and i cant thank him enough not there is anything wrong with the pmsdr as i have been comparing the two on receive on MW and there is really nothing between them IE if the perseus receives it the pmsdr is getting it just as good. the one thing the perseus wins hands down is the recording as when using the pmsdr with auto hotkeys for overnight recordings i have 10 TA channels on MW where with the perseus i can record the whole of the MW band.
not alot to report over the past few days on MW and the band is still opening to south america in the late evening and last night once again what i presume is brazil on 1230 started to come in at around 21.30z and while i am receiving quite a few stations they are peaking well before and after TOTH/BOTH and i havent managed to get any id"s yet.
1920'S RADIO MAP OF BRITAIN
i forgot to mention ken has got hold of a 1920"s radio map of great britain and if you havent seen it its well worth a look. i had a look at the real thing the other day when i was in kens shack and its rather large and ken took the time to scan it section by section then put it all together which would have been quite a job. the following link will take you to kens web and the picture is 25 mb but its very detailed and with broadband it shouldnt take that long to come down but dial up users just load the page and go have a coffee as its well worth the wait.
http://www.ayrshirehistory.eu/tadx/map_radio_map_of_britain.html
(copy and paste in your browser)
well this is the last day of august and i cant complain as i have had 3 personal firsts on MW so fingers crossed september brings many more and if anyone would like an article or picture or even a recording put on here just send me an email.
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Sunday, 29 August 2010
29 august 2010
still the fair late evening openings continue to south America and again they continue NOT to give id"s well none that i can make out and last night what i presume is Brazil started to come in at just after 21.00z !. again i had PP talk on 1130 1140 1200 1230 1290 1330 but no id"s however at 00.03z i had a station come up on 1510 to fair levels which i have the recording on realdx and hopefully they can come up with the id.
yesterday band 1 TV opened up to Portugal on e2/3 with e3 the stronger and i had some good strong pictures and i was chatting to MM0BSM Stu on skype who told me i had missed a good strong opening on the R channels but i wasnt in the shack too much yesterday but its good to know band 1 TV has still a bit of life to it yet this late in the season.
yesterday band 1 TV opened up to Portugal on e2/3 with e3 the stronger and i had some good strong pictures and i was chatting to MM0BSM Stu on skype who told me i had missed a good strong opening on the R channels but i wasnt in the shack too much yesterday but its good to know band 1 TV has still a bit of life to it yet this late in the season.
Thursday, 26 August 2010
26 august 2010
last night around 22.30z MW opened up to latin america and again signals were noted on 1010 1100 1130 1140 1200 1230 but once again no id"s were heard that i could hear and as usual signals were not too bad untill TOTH when they faded. i have just checked my overnight recordings but the band was poor and not much around at the dawn peak.
GLOBO BRAZIL 1220 KHz
GLOBO BRAZIL 1220 KHz
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
24 august 2010
nothing much to report this morning on MW but again last night around 23.00z i again had ss on 1130 1140 1230 but once again no id"s i could make out. GLOBO Brazil was a fair signal on 1220 and its good to know the W pennant is doing its job as on my NW flag i couldn't get GLOBO due to the splatter from 1215.
there was some good strong signals yesterday morning but nothing new received here however i received two unid stations on 1190 which i have been told the first clip could be Colombian and the second clip could be argentina but these will probaby go into the unid folder as the clips were on Realdx and 9/10 the guys on there will id it for you but no luck as yet.
UNID 1190
as i said there was nothing much about this morning but i did manage to get VOA São Tomé and Príncipe 1530 khz close down at 04.30z. i have had this before but nice to record it at close down
VOA São Tomé and Príncipe 1530
there was some good strong signals yesterday morning but nothing new received here however i received two unid stations on 1190 which i have been told the first clip could be Colombian and the second clip could be argentina but these will probaby go into the unid folder as the clips were on Realdx and 9/10 the guys on there will id it for you but no luck as yet.
UNID 1190
as i said there was nothing much about this morning but i did manage to get VOA São Tomé and Príncipe 1530 khz close down at 04.30z. i have had this before but nice to record it at close down
VOA São Tomé and Príncipe 1530
Sunday, 22 August 2010
22 august 2010
after a few days of tests on the SW pennant i decided to move it to the W as the noise from stations from the south was just too bad and while i was receiving ie GLOBO Brazil on 1100 and 1220 and some unid ss on 1130 and 1140 at 23.00z over the past few days it would be difficult to get anything.
so with the pennant now to the W and it is rather close to the NW flag i don't see any interaction on each other i recorded from 1320 kHz to 1410 kHz on each TOTH throughout this morning ( for some reason i didn't set the 05.00 script as that is a good peak !!! ) and usually i set my alarm to get up just before the peak time so i can record as needed BUT!!!!! the alarm went off at 04.30 and i decided i would have another 5 minutes and next thing i knew it was 09.00 so this morning i was stuck with the above freq range.
there was nothing much on my recordings apart from WDEA Ellsworth ME at 02.00z and while the W pennant was in for my recordings it would have been interesting to switch between the pennant and the NW flag to see if there was much difference between the two.
WDEA 1370 KHz
so with the pennant now to the W and it is rather close to the NW flag i don't see any interaction on each other i recorded from 1320 kHz to 1410 kHz on each TOTH throughout this morning ( for some reason i didn't set the 05.00 script as that is a good peak !!! ) and usually i set my alarm to get up just before the peak time so i can record as needed BUT!!!!! the alarm went off at 04.30 and i decided i would have another 5 minutes and next thing i knew it was 09.00 so this morning i was stuck with the above freq range.
there was nothing much on my recordings apart from WDEA Ellsworth ME at 02.00z and while the W pennant was in for my recordings it would have been interesting to switch between the pennant and the NW flag to see if there was much difference between the two.
WDEA 1370 KHz
Saturday, 21 August 2010
21 august 2010
not really much about on the MW band this morning before 05.00z but it was like switching a light on at 05.00z and the HF side of the band came alive with SS stations which i logged YVRZ R DOS MIL CUMANA VENEZUELA on 1500 kHz which i am the first to admit if it wasn't for the great help from the guys on RealDx i wouldn't have a clue about my SS logging's but there is one certain user that seems to think even though the id is clear enough on my recording that i should know SS language. i wonder how he would get on if stations started talking in Gaelic or Mongolian and if he could id them.
Ecuador slips away .....
i was chatting to Paul crankshaw on skype this morning who was checking his recordings and well done to Paul who got a personal first from R ECOS DE NARANJITO ECUADOR on 1470 kHz at 05.00z so i had i look at my own recordings and i was dxing live at that time BUT !!! i didn't have TOTH and my recording started at 05.10z and while audio was received and i am sure i heard NARANJITO mentioned and my recording was sent to Paul but he heard no id but confirmed it was the same OM he had heard at TOTH. its one of those ones that you know its the station but me personally i wont claim it as there was no id in my recording.
YVRZ r dos mil 1500 khz
Ecuador slips away .....
i was chatting to Paul crankshaw on skype this morning who was checking his recordings and well done to Paul who got a personal first from R ECOS DE NARANJITO ECUADOR on 1470 kHz at 05.00z so i had i look at my own recordings and i was dxing live at that time BUT !!! i didn't have TOTH and my recording started at 05.10z and while audio was received and i am sure i heard NARANJITO mentioned and my recording was sent to Paul but he heard no id but confirmed it was the same OM he had heard at TOTH. its one of those ones that you know its the station but me personally i wont claim it as there was no id in my recording.
YVRZ r dos mil 1500 khz
Friday, 20 August 2010
20 august 2010
conditions on mw were not quite as good as yesterday morning dx wise i mean as the usual stations were strong but i managed to get RADIO PUERTO CABELLO VENEZUELA 1290 at just before 05.00z (thanks to paul crankshaw for the id). i have a recording from 01.57z on 1450 with ss talk and paul thought it might be WENJ but no north americans were coming in at that time here and i have the recording on REALdx so fingers crossed.
RADIO PUERTO CABELLO 1290
i also noted that the likes of CFRB CP24 WBBR were coming in well after sunrise as when i last checked they were still quite good at 05.20z
RADIO PUERTO CABELLO 1290
i also noted that the likes of CFRB CP24 WBBR were coming in well after sunrise as when i last checked they were still quite good at 05.20z
Thursday, 19 August 2010
19 august 2010
another personal first for me this morning and the season has hardly even started. at 05.00z i received Radio Callao - Peru on 1400 kHz which was id with the help of Torolf Johnsson from Sweden. i haven't been through all my recordings so hopefully more to come. i did notice WEPN new york on 1050 at good levels which makes a change from the usual CP24 from Toronto and the audio can be heard on my you tube page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tredTo0cMpI
Radio Callao 1400 (id 14 secs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tredTo0cMpI
Radio Callao 1400 (id 14 secs)
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
18 august 2010....cont
the below video is just a test to see how it looks on my blog. it was 1+1 Ukraine received after M1 and NOVA faded and was rather weak and i used some very heavy adaptive noise filtering in dscaler so if it looks bad i will remove it. it looks not bad on the original file but lets see .....
weak 1+1 Ukraine
weak 1+1 Ukraine
18 august 2010
the MW band this morning again was quite good to the " usual " stations and this time i recorded from 920 - 1010 kHz and good id"s from CFBC 930 CKNB 950 WEAV 960 etc etc etc but nothing of interest and the recordings have already been deleted.
around 18.00 we had a late in the season opening to Hungary and Czech rep on r1 with fair pictures and audio and i recorded M1 which you can see on my YouTube page its nothing to shout about but after the season i have had i will take anything mu ma nature throws this way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY39FTFoBG0
copy and paste in browser
i was going to go a walk with ken along his beverage as the farmer was out whacking down the branches after the summer growth just to make sure the bev was ok but it started to rain and when that stopped he told me there were some youngsters heading in the bev"s direction and better not to touch it as they would probably pull it down after we repaired it so we will get to that in the next coming days.
around 18.00 we had a late in the season opening to Hungary and Czech rep on r1 with fair pictures and audio and i recorded M1 which you can see on my YouTube page its nothing to shout about but after the season i have had i will take anything mu ma nature throws this way
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY39FTFoBG0
copy and paste in browser
i was going to go a walk with ken along his beverage as the farmer was out whacking down the branches after the summer growth just to make sure the bev was ok but it started to rain and when that stopped he told me there were some youngsters heading in the bev"s direction and better not to touch it as they would probably pull it down after we repaired it so we will get to that in the next coming days.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
17 august 2010....cont
i made some changes to the below recording as it was far too long .... i am still going through this mornings recordings but nothing of interest so far.
17 august 2010
i recorded MW this morning and you have probably read before that i often say " just the usual " that have been coming in so i have made a few recordings from this morning of which were taken at various times throughout the morning and what i would call regulars and i don't really bother with. i haven't listened to all my recordings as yet but it looks as if its the normal east coast stations that were coming through but i hope i am wrong ... hopefully more to follow
common dx 17 august 2010
common dx 17 august 2010
Monday, 16 August 2010
16 august 2010....cont
i have just found out and thanks to John Märsylä if you crop the winrad and pmsdr recordings with adobe audition make sure you save the file with the LO frequency you recorded at as before playing the file you have to set the LO to the frequency of the recording in winrad xxxx in order for it to display the correct frequency.
its a crude way of cropping recordings but i would rather have a 40MB recording of what i need than a 200MB recording with nothing sitting wasting space on the hard drive.
Maurits Van Driessche a good pal of mine from belgium has started up a dx blog but not in english but its well worth a look.
http://dxbelgium.blogspot.com/
and maurits when you read this DO SOME POSTS IN ENGLISH :-)
its a crude way of cropping recordings but i would rather have a 40MB recording of what i need than a 200MB recording with nothing sitting wasting space on the hard drive.
Maurits Van Driessche a good pal of mine from belgium has started up a dx blog but not in english but its well worth a look.
http://dxbelgium.blogspot.com/
and maurits when you read this DO SOME POSTS IN ENGLISH :-)
16 august 2010
i recorded the MW band this morning from 1160 - 1250 kHz but nothing much was heard apart from what i presumed was WHAM Rochester NY on 1180 at 03.00z. out of curiosity i loaded up the recording in adobe audition and started to cut part of the recording which wasn't needed and saved the file and loaded it up again in winradHD and the file played fine BUT!!!! the time stamp is removed.
this could save hd space on big recordings on which a small part is needed and when saving the file the only way i can see around the time stamp is to save the file ie 1250_0300z and at least it would give you a rough idea of the time of the recording. perseus users have to download a program called wave chopper but this involves downloading the .net framework to get it working and its rather large at over 200mb but it does keep the time/date etc.
the below link is a file which i cropped from 200mb down to 43mb and again there is nothing much on it apart from presumed WHAM on 1180 ( usb mode) but its just to show that loading it up in adobe audition and chopping off what you don't need works. for non winrad users make sure in the options make sure the " swap I & Q " channels are ticked and in channel mode " I (LEFT)/Q (RIGHT) is ticked.
http://www.4shared.com/audio/gwKIdEVB/1205kHz.html
(copy and paste in your browser)
this could save hd space on big recordings on which a small part is needed and when saving the file the only way i can see around the time stamp is to save the file ie 1250_0300z and at least it would give you a rough idea of the time of the recording. perseus users have to download a program called wave chopper but this involves downloading the .net framework to get it working and its rather large at over 200mb but it does keep the time/date etc.
the below link is a file which i cropped from 200mb down to 43mb and again there is nothing much on it apart from presumed WHAM on 1180 ( usb mode) but its just to show that loading it up in adobe audition and chopping off what you don't need works. for non winrad users make sure in the options make sure the " swap I & Q " channels are ticked and in channel mode " I (LEFT)/Q (RIGHT) is ticked.
http://www.4shared.com/audio/gwKIdEVB/1205kHz.html
(copy and paste in your browser)
Friday, 13 August 2010
13 august 2010
Perseid Meteor Shower
well like an idiot i went out after midnight and had a look and while the sky was clear and this was supposed to be a big shower and after standing for an hour or so i saw one and that was it and i ended up with a sore neck. i put on the TV when i went back in but just the odd flutter on R1. i remember the peak in 2004 and at 03.00 the TV actually woke me up as the shack was the bedroom in those days and it was actually like a sporadic e opening but i suppose there was a few more stations back then.
pennant antenna
while my NW flag is fine i have just cleaned it up with new balun etc i decided to put up another antenna for the Latin's and rather than put up another flag i decided to try the pennant to see how that performs. basically its similar to the flag you have the balun at the side you want the max direction and the variable or fixed resistor on the opposite side you want the null.
the main difference between the two is the flag is a rectangle and the pennant is a triangle on its side and to be honest if there would be any difference between the two beaming in the same direction i honestly don't know but i have put the pennant to the SW for the Latin Americans etc. i recorded MW this morning ie toth from 02.00 - 05.00z from 1490 - 1590 kHz but the band was poor to the SW and all that was received was weak WWKB etc.
one thing i did notice was the pennant had a lower noise level than the flag and i don't know if that is due to the shape or the way its beaming but it is at least one s point better off in noise level. the pennant is only a few days up and
i will have to stay up or get up early to make a test ie on 740 and switch between the two antennas and conditions allowing i should get Canada on the NW flag and Brazil on the Sw pennant.
PENNANT ANTENNA
2010 sporadic e season
well what can i say this has been the worst season i have had for band 1 TV dx for as long as i can remember. don't get me wrong there has been quite a few openings to the east etc but from regulars ie M1 NOVA RAI and that's like switching MW on and the dx is WWKB WBBR etc and nothing else and i am sure you would lose interest.
normally in a season you would get a good few transatlantic openings which would either produce a weak picture or some audio but this season i had two openings one that produced fair audio from the Caribbean with weak pictures and one to Canada with the same and that was it. even the openings to the middle east were down and while the audio was not bad from Syria/Jordan on e3 the video was not so good and when Iran was coming in on e2 9/10 it was swamped by mega strong stations on r1. lets hope that we get some F2 conditions very soon as the sporadic e season has been a bit of a disaster for dx.
well like an idiot i went out after midnight and had a look and while the sky was clear and this was supposed to be a big shower and after standing for an hour or so i saw one and that was it and i ended up with a sore neck. i put on the TV when i went back in but just the odd flutter on R1. i remember the peak in 2004 and at 03.00 the TV actually woke me up as the shack was the bedroom in those days and it was actually like a sporadic e opening but i suppose there was a few more stations back then.
pennant antenna
while my NW flag is fine i have just cleaned it up with new balun etc i decided to put up another antenna for the Latin's and rather than put up another flag i decided to try the pennant to see how that performs. basically its similar to the flag you have the balun at the side you want the max direction and the variable or fixed resistor on the opposite side you want the null.
the main difference between the two is the flag is a rectangle and the pennant is a triangle on its side and to be honest if there would be any difference between the two beaming in the same direction i honestly don't know but i have put the pennant to the SW for the Latin Americans etc. i recorded MW this morning ie toth from 02.00 - 05.00z from 1490 - 1590 kHz but the band was poor to the SW and all that was received was weak WWKB etc.
one thing i did notice was the pennant had a lower noise level than the flag and i don't know if that is due to the shape or the way its beaming but it is at least one s point better off in noise level. the pennant is only a few days up and
i will have to stay up or get up early to make a test ie on 740 and switch between the two antennas and conditions allowing i should get Canada on the NW flag and Brazil on the Sw pennant.
PENNANT ANTENNA
2010 sporadic e season
well what can i say this has been the worst season i have had for band 1 TV dx for as long as i can remember. don't get me wrong there has been quite a few openings to the east etc but from regulars ie M1 NOVA RAI and that's like switching MW on and the dx is WWKB WBBR etc and nothing else and i am sure you would lose interest.
normally in a season you would get a good few transatlantic openings which would either produce a weak picture or some audio but this season i had two openings one that produced fair audio from the Caribbean with weak pictures and one to Canada with the same and that was it. even the openings to the middle east were down and while the audio was not bad from Syria/Jordan on e3 the video was not so good and when Iran was coming in on e2 9/10 it was swamped by mega strong stations on r1. lets hope that we get some F2 conditions very soon as the sporadic e season has been a bit of a disaster for dx.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
10 august 2010
band 1 opened up this morning around 08.00 and is still coming in as i type and BT Minsk Belarus was at good levels. r2 was a complete mess and nothing was recorded so hopefully the season will go out with a bang as it started.
clips from BT Belarus 10/aug
i recorded MW this morning from 1490 - 1580 but the band was poor and the only highlight so far this morning was WWKB and that about sums it up. i haven't been through all my recordings as yet but i wont hold my breath.
yesterdays software recording hasn't had any replies so i don't really see the need to post the answer i don't think dxers like this type of thing as even Kens am/sam quiz had such a poor response
clips from BT Belarus 10/aug
i recorded MW this morning from 1490 - 1580 but the band was poor and the only highlight so far this morning was WWKB and that about sums it up. i haven't been through all my recordings as yet but i wont hold my breath.
yesterdays software recording hasn't had any replies so i don't really see the need to post the answer i don't think dxers like this type of thing as even Kens am/sam quiz had such a poor response
Monday, 9 August 2010
9 august 2010
here is another small test and this time i chose a weak to fair station from an old recording but the test this time is what software sounds the best to your ears. both recordings were on lsb and as far as i can see the filters were roughly the same and lets see if the perseus/winradF users know their own software.
not alot to report on mw or tv dx. band 1 has been open the past few days but nothing startling apart from a small transatlantic opening on Saturday morning which didn't amount to much apart from weak a2 audio but i did hear a few USA stations on 50 MHz but as vhf analog b1 tv is no longer used in the USA a opening like that has no real use to me.
not alot to report on mw or tv dx. band 1 has been open the past few days but nothing startling apart from a small transatlantic opening on Saturday morning which didn't amount to much apart from weak a2 audio but i did hear a few USA stations on 50 MHz but as vhf analog b1 tv is no longer used in the USA a opening like that has no real use to me.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
4 august 2010
a personal first for me this morning 1540 TurboMix AM, Cajamarca Peru at 03.36z and 04.02z and a BIG thanks to Torolf Johnsson from Sweden with help in the id. i have a few more to check and i will post as i get them. not one USA or Canadian was heard here this morning and it was mostly all ss i heard. a good start to the season which to be honest is a month or so away yet.
1540 TurboMix AM
1540 TurboMix AM
Monday, 2 August 2010
2 august 2010
ok time for the PMSDR am ecss result and i was waiting for Guy Atkins to have a go but he is probably out somewhere remote putting up beverages to the pacific.
first recording was AM second was ECSS and only one person got it correct and shame on you MW dxer"s as he is a tvdxer LOL! ... this is what he said
well I can hear the difference quite well but I am using a huge pair of speakers on the amp, first half is much fuller audio, I assumed the first was AM as there was a slight suggestion of selective fading on it but I ain't no MW dxer lol
well done Paul F and mark and john go stand in the corner LOL! and i suppose i better do the same as i cant hear much between the two recordings.
band 1 was open again today and i think time has ran out for any exotic dx as it was all 1 hop reception again and i only recorded RTL Hungary on r2 and i will have a look at it later and decide if its strong enough to post on here lol.
first recording was AM second was ECSS and only one person got it correct and shame on you MW dxer"s as he is a tvdxer LOL! ... this is what he said
well I can hear the difference quite well but I am using a huge pair of speakers on the amp, first half is much fuller audio, I assumed the first was AM as there was a slight suggestion of selective fading on it but I ain't no MW dxer lol
well done Paul F and mark and john go stand in the corner LOL! and i suppose i better do the same as i cant hear much between the two recordings.
band 1 was open again today and i think time has ran out for any exotic dx as it was all 1 hop reception again and i only recorded RTL Hungary on r2 and i will have a look at it later and decide if its strong enough to post on here lol.
Sunday, 1 August 2010
1 august 2010....cont....
switched on the TV just before 22.00 and M1 Hungary on r1 was still coming in as it has been for most of the day i haven't checked for carriers as yet but its been mostly usual 1 hop stuff today
M1 HUNGARY R1
M1 HUNGARY R1
1 august 2010....cont
a few weeks ago i did a test on the perseus with am and sam mode and to be honest myself i cant hear much difference but there are dxer"s who can. this time same test but on the pmsdr and there is two clips .. one in am and one in ecss which i presume is winrad"s equivalent to sam mode ... can you tell the difference.
no enhancements were made to the recording it was just loaded up in winradF and recorded in either am or ecss and you can leave answers in the box below or members of the yahoo pmsdr group can post on the site. the recording was just a random recording from a local from this mornings overnight session and for the music well ABBA rock LOL! :-)
AM ECSS ????
no enhancements were made to the recording it was just loaded up in winradF and recorded in either am or ecss and you can leave answers in the box below or members of the yahoo pmsdr group can post on the site. the recording was just a random recording from a local from this mornings overnight session and for the music well ABBA rock LOL! :-)
AM ECSS ????
1 august 2010
again i recorded the MW band this morning although there was nothing spectacular there were a few fair signals from the east coast regulars. i made a recording of WBBR on 1130 with the pmsdr and winradHD as that is what i have the hotkey script running best with but the files were played back on the new version of winradF and on the recording the same clip is played on the various modes ie lsb am etc just to give you an idea of how the pmsdr sounds and again any degrading of the audio is due to windows movie maker.
next up is a weak id from WXKS 1200 from newton ma at 03.00z again weak signal but it is still very early in the season.
paul farley alerted me on skype this morning that he was getting short sporadic e on 27/28 mhz but when i checked b1 tv only MTV1 Hungary on r1 was coming in strong but i didnt record it as it has been VERY regular this season.
next up is a weak id from WXKS 1200 from newton ma at 03.00z again weak signal but it is still very early in the season.
paul farley alerted me on skype this morning that he was getting short sporadic e on 27/28 mhz but when i checked b1 tv only MTV1 Hungary on r1 was coming in strong but i didnt record it as it has been VERY regular this season.
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