27 february 2011

a frustrating couple of days on the mw band as there has been quite a few ss stations quite strong BUT either playing music through the toth or not giving an id and on the link below there is a recording from the 26 feb on 1230 at 0700 which i was told it could be HJIL medelline clm ( thanks to Henrik and the guys on realdx ) but there is no way i could claim it without a id on the recording. 1240 1410 1480 1560 1590 were the same and mostly playing ss music through toth.

unid 1230 26 feb 0700

25 february 2011

once again i didnt record too much this morning and i was in the shack at around 0645 but once again the band sounded very average. once again there was ss on 1230 which i couldnt hear anything that sounded like an id and the hf side of the band has stronger signals at my qth. below is how WOKB & WJNO were sounding at around 0657 - 0705

24 february 2011

i only recorded a few minutes at 0700 and around 0715 but the band seemed quite average. i have a unid ss on 1230 which is possibly Radio Calidad and i have put the recording on the real dx yahoo group. below is how WLQY Florida 1320 and WLAC Nashville 1510 were sounding this morning.

talking about the real dx group Henrik Klemetz put in a comment of dxers who regularly put their unid recordings on the group and when the members identify the station the dxers go and claim the station without a mention to who actually identified it. personally there is no way i would do this as 99% of my ss receptions are identified on the real dx group and i always give a mention to who gets it for me and its the same on the mw chat on skype i am in or even if ken contacts me and says there is xxxx on xxxx at xxxx utc i will put in the cluster or if i am putting it in my blog or YouTube where the source came from.

22 february 2011

DX TESTS ( info from Andrew Brade )

Details follow of forthcoming DX Tests courtesy of IRCA. My notes are attached in italics.

WKVQ, 1540 kHz, 10 KW, Eatonton, GA

WKVQ will test on March 12, 2011 from 1:00 to 1:30 and 2:00-2:30 AM Eastern Standard Time. Test will include Morse code IDs, voice IDs, special music, and sweep tones. Reception reports may be sent to starstation@bellsouth.net which will be acknowledged with an eQSL or snail mail reports to WKVQ Radio, Attn: DX Test, P.O. Box 3965, Eatonton, GA 31024-3965 which will be acknowledged with a traditional QSL card. During the test, phone calls will also be accepted at 706-485-8792. Special thanks to Chief Engineer Craig Baker, for making this test possible. (Arranged by Jim Pogue; information via Phil Bytheway)  This is a daytimer only with 10kW daytime, non-directional.

WYTH, 1250 kHz, 1 KW, Madison, GA

WYTH will test on March 19, 2011 from 2:00-2:30 AM Eastern Daylight Saving Time. Test will include Morse code IDs, voice IDs, special music, and sweep tones. Reception reports may be sent to starstation@bellsouth.net which will be acknowledged with an eQSL or snail mail reports to WYTH Radio, Attn: DX Test, P.O. Box 3965, Eatonton, GA 31024-3965 which will be acknowledged with a traditional QSL card. During the test, phone calls will also be accepted at 706-485-8792. Special thanks to Chief Engineer Craig Baker, for making this test possible. (Arranged by Jim Pogue; information via Phil Bytheway) 1kW daytime; 79W night time both non-directional.

WFNY 1440 kHz Gloversville, NY

WFNY will Test Sunday morning March 6th between 0100 and 0200 EST. Morse Code, tones and old rock and roll. Power will be with their 5,000 watt non-directional signal. Address as in the Domestic Log and WFNY@Logical.NET for reports with return postage.

Verie guy is my buddy Mike Sleezer, Owner, G.M. (Arranged by Ron Musco of Poquonock, CT; information via Phil Bytheway) The 5kW daytime pattern is non-directional but the normal night-time pattern has its major lobe to the NNW.

73

Andrew

20 february 2011

from Gary Deacon South Africa

I have been approached by Hans van de Groenendal from the South African Radio League to present a regular audio programme for "Amateur Radio Today" - the weekly radio programme for radio amateurs, shortwave listeners and the electronic hobbyist - aired by the SARL.

The first programme featured mediumwave dx highlights from various locations on the Cape Peninsula and was aired last week

The second programme touches on the dramatic ABC Local Radio coverage of Catagory 5 Cyclone Yasi as it hit the north Queensland coast this week. The radio coverage was well planned, professional and impressive to say the least!

Apart from the non-stop coverage of updates and reports, listeners were invited to phone in with their personal experiences of the effects of the cyclone as the storm ripped through their respective neighbourhoods. Some of the calls were quite intense.

 Broadcast Schedule

You can listen to Amateur Radio Today every Sunday at 08:00 UTC on the following frequencies:

17 570 kHz AM / 7205 kHz AM / 7082 kHz SSB.

Repeat broadcasts are availlable every Monday at 19:05 UTC on 3215 kHz AM.

you can listen to the show here Amateur Radio Today

Gary is on at 25 mins

19 february 2011

conditions on mw this morning was pretty much the same as yesterday morning and nothing to report.

19 element band 2 yagi

i was speaking to DK1MAX this morning on skype and he was telling me that his homebrew 19 element for band 2 is just about finished and he has just to put on the dipole then it will be ready for the first tests. well known band 2 dxer and current sporadic e world record holder Mike Fallon East Sussex has the 15 element version and gets amazing results with that so i look forward to hearing what max gets.

the below picture is showing the 19 element getting ready for the dipole

18 february 2011

quite a few busy freqs this morning with ss stations mixing especially 1520 1560 1580 and the latter had atleast 2 or 3 ss stations mixing from 07.09 onwards. i managed to id  WVOZ Radio Voz ptr at 0714 on 1520 and i recorded 1500 - 1590 from 0700 to around 0745 when the band faded out with me but as i said the rest of my recordings are difficult due to ss mixing.

yesterday morning the Bahamas were quite strong on 1540 at around 0725 which i caught the " ministry of national security and national broadcasting corporation of the Bahamas " id but nothing much else on my recordings.

i no longer have the perseus and with the pmsdr i have around 10 TA channels and for the overnight recordings i record 1230 - 1320 and usually i am in the shack from about 0630 for live dxing and with the 10 channels i have for recording my tactic"s are tune and record OFTEN as you never know when a id pops up

16 february 2011

not alot to report really on MW and could the season be winding down ????? the past few days there has been good signals especially on x band but from the more common stations which i wont bore you with.

way off topic .......

recently i found my old xbox lurking in a corner and thought i would bring the old girl back to life with a new hard drive etc and its not just taking the hard drive out and putting a new one in as m$crosoft wont let you and you have to go back to the good old days of dos and use a wee app to unlock/lock your hard drive and to do various partitions etc then some ftp from the pc to the xbox which was very enjoyable doing. the xbox is quite old now but its a handy wee media centre as you can put all sorts in the hard drive when modded ie movies music or battle the hairy monster from moo moo land lol but as i said i enjoyed using dos again and you can even put w$ndows into it and i wonder if i could get a sdr to run on it as a xbox is basicly a 733 MHz Intel Custom Pentium III with Micron 64 MB DDR SDRAM and a 8 GB Hard Disk which i replaced with a 80 gig and a dvd drive

13 february 2011

i have been recording the usual TOTH throughout the morning but the band isn't really opening up until about 0730 and peaking around that time as well and this morning i was up around 0630 and the band looked quite average with the normal east coast stuff coming in but at 0730 on the dot XERF Mexico on 1570 came up to good levels with a fade out around 08.15. i still have my recordings to check so hopefully more later.

DX TESTS

Subject: Additional DX Test block for Europe


At the request of Barry Davies and our DXing brethren across the pond, Craig Nelson has agreed to add an additional test segment from WKVQ that will hopefully provide a pre-sunrise window for European listeners. Note, this is in addition to the previous test block that was announced and does NOT replace it. The details of this additional test block are as follows:


WKVQ, 1540 Khz, 10 KW, Eatonton, GA will test on March 12, 2011 from 1:00-1:30 AM Eastern Standard Time (0600-0630 UTC). Test will include Morse code IDs, voice IDs, special music, and sweep tones. Reception reports may be sent to starstation@bellsouth.net which will be acknowledged with an eQSL or snail mail reports to WKVQ Radio, Attn: DX Test, P.O. Box 3965, Eatonton, GA 31024-3965 which will be acknowledged with a traditional QSL card. During the test, phone calls will also be accepted at 706-485-8792. Special thanks to Chief Engineer Craig Baker, for making this test possible.

Something to look forward to!  - Saul Chernos, IRCA-NRC DX TEST Committee

11 february 2011

i have been quite ill for a few days and nothing to report radio wise

DX TESTS CANCELLED !!!!

Bad news. I just heard from the engineer who was planning to run tests at KHMO, WLIQ, and WLRB this weekend and next. He has had to cancel them for now, with a view to ***maybe*** running them later this season. I won't get into details at this time, but rest assured the reasons are completely understandable and have nothing to do with the tests themselves.

The engineer sends his apologies for the short notice, as do I..

I would really appreciate this notice being circulated as far and wide as possible. I am at Burnt River and borrowing e-mail access because my computer is in the shop for a fix and tune up. I have no contact lists with me. There are people who find out about these tests via paper bulletins and DXAS, etc... so if you know someone in such a situation, who does not have e-mail access but is likely to be anticipating the tests, please let them know, if at all possible.

Saul Chernos
DX Test Committee

4 february 2011

usual stations on MW this morning and nothing to report however there was a short opening on band 1 TV with 1+1 Ukraine coming up for a few minutes on r1 and at this time of the year i will take any TV opening that comes.

the below video was taken just before i called ken and by the time i had alerted him it had more or less gone

1+1 Ukraine

winter sporadic e tends to be fast and furious and you basically have to be on at the correct time and i was actually listening to 27 MHz and Poland etc started to come in quite strong so i switched on the TV and there it was. normally i would be watching for carriers to alert me if the band was opening but the radios are all set up for MW dx and at this time of the year its not really worth it unless meteor activity is good.

3 february 2011

again an average morning on the MW band and while there was some good signals nothing new heard as yet on my recordings. i have uploaded a few files from this morning which can be played in WRplus/HDsdr etc and remember to make sure in options that swap i & q ch is ticked. you can find the download links on my pmsdr group PMSDR

DX TESTS


Saturday February 12 - At precisely 0100 and 0200 CST (0700 and 0800 UTC):
KHMO 1070 Hannibal, MO
Will test with Morse code, sweep tones and voice announcements for 5 minutes at the top of the first hour with its 5KW/3 tower day pattern and 5 minutes at the top of the second hour at its 1KW/6 tower night power.

Saturday February 12 - From 0300 to 0400 CST (0900-1000 UTC):
WLIQ 1530 Quincy, IL
Will test for 20 minutes using Morse code, sweep tones, voice announcement, special music, sound bites, etc, at its 1400W Non-Directional Day Power, then for 20 minutes at is 290W Non Directional Critical Hours Power, and then for the final 20 minutes it will test at its once-proposed 3 Watts Non
Directional Night Power.

Saturday February 19 -- From 1am to 2am CST (0700-0800 UTC)
WLRB 1510 Macomb, IL
Will test for the first 30 minutes using Morse code, sweep tones, voice announcement, special music, sound bites, etc, at its 1KW Non Directional Day power and for the final 30 minutes with much the same content at its 250W Non Directional Critical Hours Power.

Snail-mail QSLs: Send a self addressed stamped envelope to the Chief
Engineer at the following address:

Gary Glaenzer
c/o (Put the name of the station whose DX test your are reporting on this
line)
325 East Douglas Avenue
Jacksonville, IL 62650

Tapes or CDs will be accepted along with written reports but MUST be cued up to the point of where the best reception is. If sending in a report by mail, you MUST include a return, self addressed, stamped envelope. The reports are being sent to the engineers home address, not the station. So please be patient, as Mr. Glaenzer is the Chief Engineer for 16 radio stations in Missouri and Illinois.

E-QSLs are available - Send to the engineer at with both the station call letters and the words "DX test" in the subject line, as follows:

KHMO DX Test
WLIQ DX Test
WLRB DX Test

Finally, we ask that you please not telephone any of the stations or the engineer during the test. No one will be at the stations during the tests - everything is being done remotely by phone control.

Of course, be sure to report any catches to the DX lists, to club bulletins, or to any of your regular communication channels. And please help the cause by forwarding this test information far and wide, and - if you can – by organizing a test of your own!

With thanks to Paul for arranging and Gary for running.

Saul Chernos
IRCA-NRC DX Test Committee

2 february 2011

average conditions on the MW band this morning and the PMSDR was at its usual good standard but no dx heard. i only did a few toth recordings and from 0730 - 0800 seemed to be the peak for me and i have uploaded a PMSDR file from 0800 which can be seen here PMSDR on MW

on the recording is what i would class as an average morning but as i have said before some of the stations received might be dx for others.

MWC LOGS

now this really bugs the hell out of me and i have sent emails about it but its seems some dxers are logging and claiming stations with this type of thing " xxxx 1590 talks about California or xxxx 780 ss mix or xxxx 680 french talks " you get the idea and no mention of an id well my local station on 810 could talk about Mongolia or maybe play a ss song but i wouldn't claim it and the past couple of magazines in the log section there is getting quite a few like that.

i wouldn't dream about claiming a station unless i got the id and the first time i got KBRW on 680 i didn't claim it and i knew it was them but there was no id but luckily i got the id a few days later. maybe i am just being petty but i wonder what would happen if i sent some in like that and i could send a lot in  ie 680 news then talk about Alaska however there is the odd exception ie the am 740 id from CHWO or am 11/40 id from CHRB

1 february 2011....cont

i did a small video of the new version of the Perseus software and showing it going online which can be seen here the perseus online  handy for listening to toth ids or even to hear how your own tx sounds on the ham bands.

1 february 2011

not alot i can say about MW this morning and i recorded each toth from 0300 - 0800 and from 03 - 04 there was some good strong signals from the east coast stations but after 0400 the band just went quiet and i haven't checked yet but it looks as if there has been some solar activity and Ken even commented that it looked as if his antenna had broken. i will be taking the perseus back to Ken today so all my dxing from now will be on the PMSDR which i have no worrys and although it doesnt "see" and record as much as the perseus it has proved to be a good radio for dx.

just after me saying the band was poor toronto has just came up on 1010 strong at 09.15 as i type lol so will have a tune around.