31 january 2011

very average on the MW band this morning and nothing much to report. the band has been quite good to Mexico the past few days but no new ones heard and XERF on 1570 being very strong at times. there has not been many logs on the cluster or the mwc and perhaps they are too busy listening online to other Perseus receivers than listening to their own lol!

i had the downconvertor on today and figured out how to show the correct frequency with the PMSDR and also i have made a short video showing noise reduction and the ability to put in your own value of filter. there is still no provision for this that i can see for the Perseus using WRplus but you can do it with its own software and after a trial period you have to pay for it but while at the moment the perseus software doesnt have WFM its completely useless for vhf b2 dx. you can see the video of the PMSDR here Perses wb-80 down-converter & PMSDR

29 january 2011

not alot to report and i haven't had much time to play around with the down-converter. i received an email from Fernando Velasco producer at XERF and the following is from a google translate

Hello to All.  I am   Fernando Velasco, producer of radio of the XERF The Powerful one 1570 AM belonging to the Mexican Institute of the Radio, located in City Mints Coahuila Mèxico.  I receive with satisfacciòn the emissions that you receive from Mèxico.  And above all that the productions to my charge infringe horizons.  Thanks by listening us and by rising this sample that prevalecerà in the history for the enthusiastic radio to this Radio of service Pùblico Lic.  Fernando Velasco

a big thanks goes to Fernando for the mail as many stations on the MW band seem too lazy to send you a reply. just had a quick check from 0800 this morning and nothing much coming in apart from the usual stuff ie WAKR on 1590 and i will be giving ken his Perseus back as its better to record 10ch of rubbish on the PMSDR than the whole MW band LOL !

27 january 2011

the perses wb - 80 - 120 - tp down-converter arrived today from Germany and first tests look promising. i have only tested it for an hour or so and i didn't have the correct connectors for it and did a quick lash up job just to see it working and trust me you don't want to see it LOL !

first let me say using it on the Perseus's own software is a complete waste of time and WRplus is a must and as i said i haven't had time to use it much but it really does look promising especially with the wide band recording with the Perseus. i have uploaded a couple of videos and remember its only a first try and i will post more as soon as i play around with the settings. it will take alot to beat the Sony 920 with the rds chip connected to the pc and esslinger rds software and if its anywhere near that combo i will be a happy man.


clip 1 perseus sdr & WRplus & perses down-convertor first test
clip 2 testing the filters
clip 3 PMSDR & WRplus & perses down-convertor

at the moment its on with the perseus at the bottom end of band 2 and i am sporadically recording just to test it on meteor scatter but i will probably get better results in the morning ..... more to follow

25 january 2011

new Perseus software

the new release of the new Perseus software has certainly caused a buzz on the Perseus yahoo group and all because of the WWW button which means you can log on and use other dxers Perseus's all over the world. i gave it a try this evening out of curiosity and logged into kens which i would have been quicker running down to his shack but it wasn't working for me and i also logged into other users but not a thing so i got bored and switched it off.  maybe i had wrong settings but as i have said before i have no interest in this as i find it hard enough listening to my own stuff never mind whats coming in at the other side of the world.

i can see the uses for it ie checking a weak id on your own recording to a Perseus near the location etc but i think the update would be better for more navigation buttons and more tools for the dxer and on this point WRplus is well in front at the moment and the perseus has not even the WFM mode for b2 downconvertors etc. some users think the online mode is the best thing since sliced bread but personally i think its a gimmick which will soon wear off especially if there are guys pestering you to put it online when you want to live dx and i really hope Sandro doesn't go this way with WRplus and he sticks to what he is doing now ie useful stuff for the dxers.

22 january 2011

a new updated version of the Perseus software was released today and apart from Internet settings i don't see anything improved from a MW dxer"s point of view. ken has continually asked for extra navigation tools ie when playing a Perseus file it will go forward to the next file but to go back you have to stop the recording and load up a previous file but these have been ignored again. me personally i cant hear any difference in the audio or filter settings but i wonder who will be the first to say ... much better audio/filters ... as they do with every release.

the MW band peaked around 0800 here this morning and there were quite a few unid ss stations ie on 1410 1420 1430 1450 1470 and i have put some recordings on the realdx yahoo group but no luck as yet.

21 january 2011

some good signals this morning but nothing exciting as yet and also a good signal from XERF on 1570 from Mexico which was a good signal from 07.40 onwards and it was playing the national anthem through the toth at 0800 and it gave an id as  Radio Bilingue around 08.02.  in the recording below the first clip is around 07.42 with the XERF id and the second clip is the  Radio Bilingue id at around 08.02. 1570 is usually dominant by the french Canadian here and it was good to hear XERF coming up to fair levels.

the past few days i have only been recording from 07 or 08 onwards but i don't think i have been missing much as there hasn't been many spots  before 07 on the cluster

20 january 2011

again the mw band continues to be very average and nothing worth reporting apart from a unid i had on the 18th on 820 at 2300 which the man speaking had a very low deep audio and is hard to make out with a possible RADIO M????? at 12 seconds which can be heard below

the Perses wideband downconvertor was sent this morning from Germany and i will have a full report as soon as i get it and it has the following specs

Perses-WB-TP

Wideband Down-Converter for Perseus.

Add-on for SDR Perseus by microtelecom to receive frequency ranges 40 - 80 MHz, 80 - 120 MHz and 120 - 160 MHz.

Can also be used with other receivers with frequency range for several kHz to 40 MHz.

• Spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) > 90 dB.
• Gain typ. 23 dB.
• Noise figure typ. 3,8 dB at center frequency.

The input frequency range is downconverted to 0 MHz - 40 MHz.

Input frequency range	Output frequency range	typ. 3-dB bandwidth
40 MHz - 80 MHz	0 MHz - 40 MHz	45 MHz - 71 MHz
80 MHz - 120 MHz	0 MHz - 40 MHz	87 MHz - 112 MHz
120 MHz - 160 MHz	0 MHz - 40 MHz	129 MHz - 151 MHz

Block diagram

Technical Data:

Parameter	min.	typ.	max.	Bemerkung
Total Gain		23 dB
Input IP3		+1 dBm
Noise figure		3,8 dB		at center frequency
Image rejection		65 dB
Supply voltage	10,5 V	13,5 V	15 V
Current consumption		450 mA

17 january 2011

i thought i would add a little more about the software for the Perseus and the pmsdr in my case. first of all the use of a downconvertor and the software that comes with the Perseus does indeed provide this BUT ! for a trial period then you have to pay for it unlike the pmsdr and using Wrplus its free and as you can see on the picture below there is a few more options with the pmsdr and these are getting updated regularly

i am not saying anything bad about the Perseus as it has transformed the way i dx now IE there is no need for me to stay up until the small hours as the Perseus and auto hot keys can record the full MW band at anytime i choose but for the amount of radios that has been sold the updates seem to have come to a halt while WRplus is improving all the time and even the dll for the pmsdr is getting updated and again Martin Pernter is listening to what the users are needing.

as i have said the Perseus is not mine it belongs to Ken and he kindly lets me use it but if he needed it back i wouldn't lose much sleep over it as while my pmsdr can only get 10 transatlantic MW ch for recording as it is sound card dependent and my sound blaster card is 96 kHz its still a good receiver and i actually got two personal firsts with it at the start of the season.

notice i haven't mentioned this mornings MW conditions that's because there was nothing much to talk about LOL !

15 january 2011

once again nothing to talk about on the mw band and at the moment i am recording less TOTH as i normally would as conditions are simply BORING !

Martin Pernter ( pmsdr ) has uploaded a video of the PMSDR on band 2 ( 3rd harmonic mode ) and as you will see the new version of WRplus is working well and the rds decoding looks great. i can do this with my own pmsdr but for some reason i cant get total recorder to record the audio .. its fine with the video and the audio is fine if i am recording a mw file etc but not when recording band 2 and its probably just a setting needing changed. you can see Martins video here  PMSDR & WRplus on band 2 ( 3rd harmonic ) 

as i said in a previous post WRplus is coming along great and with Sandro listening to what dxers want it can only get better and for some reason the perseus software is quite a way behind at the moment in updates that is and i have noticed on the perseus group if they ask for WFM etc they are given the cold shoulder and one poor guy was made feel about 2 inches tall. has nico taken the perseus as far as he wants to and i think he should take a look to what Sandro is doing and actually listen to what dxers want.

12 january 2011....cont

i didn't notice i had the Perseus audio set a little low so here is another video this time with both audio"s roughly the same WRplus / perseus sdr software

also here is another video of me playing around with WRplus  WRplus

12 january 2011

i have just finished listening to this mornings recordings and again not one thing to talk about and its actually getting quite tedious listening to mw at the moment. dont get me wrong conditions are there as Ken has been getting some good stuff the past few days ie 1230 WENY NY state .... 1290 KIVY Croket tx .... 1490 KQDS Duluth mn to name a few and when the band is like that my indoor flag just cant compete with Kens beverage. 

i have uploaded a video of a perseus sdr recording first loaded up in WRplus then through its own software just to show the difference if any. my own opinion is that with WRplus there is more settings to play around with to get it sounding the way you want ie if you right click the AM button you can change the settings ie 

high pass frequency 150 or 50 hz

high pass position before or after agc

enable post demod lp filter 2000 - 5900 hz

and you can spend  a fair amount of time getting it sounding just the way you want it but for sheer ease of use the perseus software comes into its own with the easy filter settings and just being dx friendly. each has their own pros and cons and i cant say which one is the best as wrplus is better at some things and vice versa.

the following link is showing WBBM Chicago on 780 and i chose a weaker station for the test and you can decide how each is performing and i haven't made one sound better than the other i tried to get them both roughly the same WRplus and perseus sdr software

10 january 2011

the WRplus/winrad family of software for sdr radios are coming on in leaps and bounds with very regular updates and the likes of Sandro (WRplus) take the time out to listen to what people want and implement it in the software while the Perseus seems to be dragging its heels. dxers either hate or love WRplus etc and personally i find it quite easy to use while some find it difficult and annoying with the two scales ie tune and LO. in 2010 we were all dreaming about the possibility of a sdr radio with band 2 and rds decoding and we have just entered into 2011 and that dream has come alive and excited about future updates.

i have uploaded a video of the pmsdr on 6 meters from last May using the new WRplus software  and the video is just to give an idea of how the pmsdr is working with WRplus  PMSDR and WRplus on 50 mhz

nothing to report on mw and with such strong signals yesterday morning even after 1000 its was a little disappointing to return to the bad conditions. while there was some amazing signals yesterday morning i didnt report anything as they were from the more common stations.

9 january 2011

A brief review on WRplus 1.04 (Version 4): DK1MAX Max

I took some time to play with Sandros new version of WRplus. It has RDS which
makes it a very good tool for the band2 WFM DXer. My setup for band2 DX is:

8 ele. Yagi
Preamplifier
Perses downconverter
Perseus SDR
WRplus 1.04 (V4)

Selectivity is very good with 50/80kHz BW and it is possible to dig deep in the
mud and find even the weakest stations. At 120kHz BW it starts to get more
difficult on a crowded band2. But: 120kHz BW is required to get RDS decodes.
Remember the RDS signal is at 57kHz. Some strong stations show RDS at 80kHz BW, but only a few.

The RDS display shows the PI code in decimal and HEX format, PS, RT and AF as
well as some datastream infos like Sync err., CRC err. and BER. RDS decoding is
quite fast, at least the PI code is shown quickly.

I compared this to my Kenwood KT-6040, RDS-Manager, RDSx0400 DOS system. The DOS
system is faster in decoding the RDS signal, but not a lot. And the DOS system
has got a RDS logging feature where u can see all the different DX on a specific frequency.

I know that Sandro is right at the very beginning with this RDS thing. From a
band2 DXer's point of view I can highly recommend this kind of setup. It opens
up a completely different world in b2 DXing.

If I may rise my hand and ask for some future features, I would request these:

* RDS logging function
* Bandscan function: Scan band2 and auto-log all signals with RDS info (specify
frequency range, tuning step, threshold, pause time etc.)
* A DX-RDS feature that does show the raw RDS data stream wud be useful for extreme DX
* Direct link to a band2 database and show all possible stations that fit frequency and PI/PS info

Let me say thank you very much for spending many hours for this project. You
have defined a new standrad for band2 WFM DXing!

THANK YOU!

Max

hopefully i will have the Perses downconverter soon and although i wont " see " as much as the perseus with the pmsdr i look forward to giving b2 a try sdr style

7 january 2011....cont

the below picture is from DK1MAX Max using the Perseus sdr and the  Perses-WB-TP 80..120MHz downconvertor  with the new version of WRplus showing it decoding rds & pi code etc

i gave it a try myself using the pmsdr but for some reason when right clicking the FM button nothing happens and a few others using the pmsdr have reported the same and Sandro is aware of the problem and hopefully its fixed soon

7 january 2011

A new release of WRplus, 1.04 is available for download from www.wrplus.altervista.org .

Here in short the new features, modifications and corrections:

• Discovered and fixed a serious (and unexpected) performance "bottleneck" in the original Winrad code; the improvement in terms of less used CPU resources is dramatic: as I previously stated in the User Guide Update, with the implementation of the new DSP core I had on my reference system (an "old" Pentium 4 HT @ 3 GHz) a CPU usage of around 20 – 25% while playing a 500KS file. The maximum sample rate that my system handled was 1000KS: at 2000KS I experienced continuous "stuttering". Now with release 1.04 I have around 25% CPU usage while playing a 2000KS file at maximum SP1/WF1 zoom factor (RBW 122 Hz); at RBW = 244 Hz CPU usage is about 15%!
  Further more, I'm able to play a 2000KS file in Stereo WFM mode (RDS enabled, Mode 1) with a CPU load of about 30% at RBW = 1953.
  This great improvement means that users will be able, in several cases, to exploit the highest input sample rates without being forced to upgrade their PCs.

• New NCO: WRplus 1.04 features a redesigned Numerically Controlled Oscillator with a very high spectral purity. Together with the already renewed anti-alias filters, this feature has eliminated every residual alias or other spurious products; you will notice a quieter background especially with large input SR.
  Do yourself a test using the file that Leif Asbrink has kindly provided; it is available here:
  http://sm5bsz.com/lir/sim1/sim1.zip
  Check also the tests performed by Leif here:
  http://www.sm5bsz.com/lir/sim1/sim1.htm
  Soon the above page will be updated with the test of WRplus 1.04.

• Radio Data System: thanks to Michael Feilen, which kindly agreed to use the RDS decoding core of his FMstack software in WRplus, I have been able to implement RDS reception in a restricted time.
  Unlike other decoders, Michael's code makes full use of the Forward Error Correction feature built in the RDS protocol: this means that data blocks containing errors are not simply discarded but errors are corrected (when possible) using CRC.
  Demodulation of the RDS bit-stream and clock recovery are brand new instead: WRplus uses a complex multi-PLL implementation in order to extract the RDS information even in critical conditions. WRplus is capable of extracting the RDS even from mono signals, like the stand-alone hardware demodulators/decoders.
  See the user guide for details.

• Fixed some issues with full-screen mode and large screen resolutions: some users reported incorrect placement of some screen objects while using 16:9 HD screen resolutions.

• Some cosmetic changes

• User Guide updated.

  

Please read the updated User Guide and the history.txt file before posting questions.

Many thanks to Michael Feilen.

As always feedbacks and comments are welcome.

Thanks to all for the feedbacks and advices.

Sandro Sfregola

6 january 2011

conditions still very average here this morning and it doesn't help when you have the att in use on the Perseus when recording. i had been listening to one of Ken Baird's Perseus files from over the festive season and when he uses his preamp he has the att on and when stopping the file and switching on the Perseus for live dxing the att is still on which i didn't notice until tonight and needless to say the att is now off.

congratulations goes to Paul Crankshaw over in troon with a personal first this morning at 0900 with KATE Albert Lea mn on 1450 and again what a difference 20 miles and being close to the sea makes as there was no trace here.

5 january 2011.... cont

Ted Williams the best voice in radio .......... a second chance

this guy has been making the news recently and getting an amazing number of hits on youtube etc and you can decide for yourself here   Ted Williams

and just after i saw it myself i heard CFRB talking about him at around 2245 which can be heard below

5 january 2011

thank goodness the god awfull new year festive season is over and i might sound an old scrooge but the endless visits from family and some whom i am meant to know but i havent a clue who they are is all done untill next time. not a thing to report dx wise as the mw band has been poor.

ken has some video and some great pictures on his web site of our local river just before and after the ice came bombing down and its well worth a look http://www.ayrshirehistory.com/river_ayr.html

1 january 2011

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

a couple to note from yesterday morning between 0700 - 0800

1130 WISN Milwaukee in small gap from wbbr
1330 WFNN Erie pa
1420 WHK Cleveland oh

there was some really strong signals between 07 & 08 from about 1200 up but the lf side of the band "seemed" dead and there was some good strong signals on X band for a change. i thought i had a rare call on 1410 at 0700 and i heard a W call and a place name but it turned out to be WPOP relaying WQUN hampden ct on 1220 jeez as if MW dxing isn't hard enough LOL !