29 october 2011

the MW band is still well down due to the recent solar disturbance and only a few weak ss stations received at my location and even at the so called dawn peak i havent been recording as there simply nothing there worth recording. F2 conditions continue on low vhf but slightly down and below is a couple of recordings received here

25 october 2011

the MW band continues to be very average and nothing to report from here and there was some solar activity at some point last night/this morning which doesn't help matters.

Ken got the news he wanted and the farmer gave him the go ahead for putting up a beverage in the open Field which we started last night just before dark as we didn't want any of the local kids to see what we were doing and in the time we had Ken ran out about 480 meters of wire which i followed behind him putting in the supports which we then put the wire on them which hopefully today all that's left to do is make it in a straight line as the last time we put the beverage up we were patting each other on the back to how straight we got it the first time until we looked the next day and it was like a banana.

 the coax run and the balun and earth rod at the feed and earth rod and variable resistor at the end of the beverage will be next which shouldn't take too long and Ken will put his vhf bug on so we can hear whatever station we choose to null on the portable rx while we are at the end of the beverage. Ken decided to run this beverage slightly more north than his permanent beverage in the Woods and we will be interested to see how it performs.

a couple of days ago while the uniden was scanning away while the F2 conditions were coming in it stopped on 35.505 which i heard a broadcast station on NFM which i gave a call to Ken to see if he was receiving it in case it was just overload but he was receiving it as well and Ken commented it sounded like radio Netherlands which i put on their web stream and it was but if this was a 3rd harmonic why was it on/sounding better on NFM rather than am and it turned out to be radio Netherlands ( RNI ) from Madagascar which stupidly i didn't keep a recording of it to show you however Paul Farley captured a video of it showing it sounding better on NFM which  can be seen on the following link
RNI 35.505

22 october 2011

i wish i had lots to report on the MW but since my last post once again its the more common stations that were coming in and nothing unusual has been heard. the lower vhf freqs continue to be good with strong USA and middle east pmr being heard.

18 october 2011

not a thing to report on MW this morning and the more common stations were received. on the following clip there is a few F2 recordings from today with a possible STL and thanks to Paul Logan for the following information on my USA clip

Great recording from 31.36 David all the info for a positive id  this is KTK672 BARKMAN OIL COMPANY INC in Woodbury Pennsylvania. The reference to "the village at Morrison's cove" "439 south market street" and the phone number gave it away plus the ref to "burners" the call is to nearby Martinsburg ! Cant help with the others but 31.8 sounds very interesting. Keep em coming i enjoy the detective work.
TODAYS F2 RECEPTIONS

i also received a nice slow scan tv picture from W0ZD on 28.680 which a recording can be seen on the following link W0ZD slow scan tv  which i sent him an email and in return he sent me the following picture with his thanks

17 october 2011

nothing too much to report today and  similar conditions to yesterday however i managed to receive JT5DX Mongolia on 28 MHz which a recording can be seen on the following link
JT5DX Mongolia

16 october 2011....cont

a couple of f2 recordings from today can be heard on the following link
16 october 2011 f2 above 30 MHz

16 october 2011

once again the average conditions continue on the MW and nothing really much to report. 30 - 36 MHz is where the dx is at the moment with pmr comms from the east and w/nw which are regularly received here on a daily basis at the moment

the following link you can hear how WOAI 1200  WBBM 780 and WMVP 1000 were sounding this morning and regular catches here WOAI WBBM WMVP

13 october 2011

once again nothing really exciting happening on the MW band at the moment although Ken and Paul have had a couple of goodies pop up but its mostly the more common stations that have been coming in here and with good signals ie KXEL on 1540 at 0630z yesterday was a huge signal but no unusual ones as yet. i haven't been over my recordings from this morning yet as propagation over 30 MHz was quite good when i put the radios on but there has been nothing much on the MW dx cluster from this morning.

once again the higher hf bands continue to be good and starting off with the usual comms from the E/SE then around midday the path opens to the USA which yesterday various USA comms were heard above 30 MHz and California was heard on 28 MHz which i forget his call and lets hope this keeps up for some F2 on band 1 tv over the winter.

myself and ken Paul and Stu were talking on the chat page we have on skype and the header on it is MWDX but we talk about anything really from radios to weather and if the grass is needing cut or if ken was pissed at the pub lol so were were chatting away about conditions on 28 MHz and over 30 MHz when in comes Maurits from Belgium who says cant you guys open another chat for this talk !!!!!!!! as nobody is talking about MW ... well imagine talking in a pub or in some other company and someone jumps in and says either go out of here or change the subject YEAH RIGHT ! and Ken came out with the perfect answer ... if you don't like the subject ... don't read it ... so was he expecting us to stop talking just because the subject didn't suit him LOL !

9 october 2011

MW since my last post has been pretty much the same and nothing really to report. this morning there seemed to be a peak at around 0615z which ss was heard on 580 which i will have a better listen later as i have been watching the rugby this morning and also what sounds like ss sport on 1590 which i am determined to id this one as it has been teasing me for the past two weeks or so. TURBO MIX Peru was also there on 1540 along with another ss which again i will have a better listen later on today.

the higher HF bands continue to be good with conditions starting off with what i presume is Turkish police on 34mhz and various other " Arabic " sounding stations from 30 - 36mhz then at midday the USA etc start to come in on 27/28/29mhz which is then followed by USA pmr comms from 30mhz and up however as i type 0908z 27/28mhz is rather quiet and i think there has been some solar disturbances this morning at some point.

SORRY MARK LOL ! it had to be done

i was watching one of Scottish dxers Mark Borthwick excellent videos of Usa pmr coming in on 33.9 MHz which on his EWE hybrid is brilliant and at the end of the video it shows him making a 9/3 turn binocular balun which is very helpful HOWEVER !!!!! every time i watch it the music from the Benny Hill show pops into my head LOL !!! sorry mark i couldn't resist
benny hill balun

6 october 2011

the band showed some signs of life this morning but nothing before 0550z and 0550z onwards it was like a light switch and the band opened but most freqs were just a rumble/growl with stations mixing. this is how radio voz was sounding at around 0620z RADIO VOZ PR 1520  the Bahamas was good on 1540 and the religious station on 1610 was very strong as was Rebelde 1550/1620 but nothing new was heard. no NA stations were heard and i was switching from 320 deg flag to 240 deg pennant and it seemed best to use the 240 deg pennant due to what was being heard ( i didn't do any overnight recordings and i was in the shack at 05z ) but at 0615 i noticed radio Disney on 1560 coming in very strong but no other NA stations were heard.

5 october 2011

once again very poor on on MW this morning and i noticed something was up as at 0600z the EU stations were well down and for example WINS and CFRB were virtually not there on 1010. once again the higher hf bands were good and some transatlantic signals were heard over 30 MHz and i find it amazing what a simple setup can receive. some of the signals can be heard on the following link
transatlantic above 30 mhz

i had an email from Mark Borthwick down in the borders who was also receiving them but with his MW dx antenna !!!! and as you can see below they were coming in quite good.

4 october 2011

once again nothing much to report on the MW band however the band was still open at around 06.45z but with the common east coast stations coming in. the good conditions continue on the higher hf bands and at around midday local voices started to appear on 33 MHz and up and i received which i have been told is Turkish police on 34.350 so conditions certainly picking up and as for those bands yet again i am using a simple dipole and when the MUF finally does get higher the log periodic will be back in action. a recording of the 34.350 can be seen below.

1 october 2011

very poor on MW this morning and just some common east coast stations received. yesterday the lower bands were quite good and the USA was very strong on 27/28/29 mhz and at times WBAP & KSCS feeders were strong on 25 MHz. the kq2h repeater on 29 MHz was at fair levels which a recording can be seen on the following link KQ2H 29 MHZ  and later the band shifted to Brazil and Argentina which some strong signals were received on 28 MHz.