24 february 2012

very poor here on MW since my last post and the only thing worth a mention is XEVOZ-AM La Mexicana 1590 at 0632 yesterday morning with a good strong signal on my 240 deg flag but i have had this station before. once again location seems to be the key at the moment as Paul Crankshaw ( Troon ) has a few more personal firsts with the following

1400 WKAV Charlottesville VA 0700 pf 23/2/2012
1420 WKCW Warrenton VA 0700 23/2/2012
940 YVNN R Punto Fijo 0702 pf 23/2/2012
1480 WPWC Dumfries-Triangle VA 0700 pf 24/2/2012

i had a listen for these stations but on my recordings it was just a rumble of stations mixing together. as i type 1006 above 30 MHz has a bit of life with a few Russian sounding pmr comms starting to come in and even F2 conditions have been well down the past few weeks.

19 february 2012

what a frustraiting morning on MW and from 03 - 06 on my recordings the band was poor but at 07 the band came alvive with latins BUT !!! very little ids on my recordings. at 0711 i had a " onda cero " id on 1110 in which the guys on the real dx yahoo group commented ( thanks to the individuals are on the video ) " Onda Cero", mentioned on the clip, is heard nightly on Radio Angulo, Holguín. Henrik ....

Good audio David. As Henrik wrote, this is probably R Angulo.

1110 is a very very difficult frequency here in central Sweden due to 1107 Moray Firth Radio. It also damage 1100 73 fredrik

I hear "Onda Cero"; Gert Nilsson mentions it and the fact that HK informed
him that Radio Angulo is the source.

it will go down as a " tentative " as i dont hear any other id on my recordings.  as for the rest it was buisines as usual in which the music on my recordings were good but as soon as any talk came up they went into rapid qsb which is VERY frustraiting . you can see a video of the above reception on the following link and you will see me switching between my 240 & 320 deg flags as i was listening to another station as i was recording this live and i wouldnt have touched the antenna if i knew at the time it was coming in

tentative radio angulo 1110

17 february 2012....cont

a few dxers have asked me is there really much of a difference between my 320 and 240 deg flag so i have uploaded a video to show the difference on my local BBC Scotland on 810 and you can see there is a wee bit difference and at my location its the difference of getting USA/Latins or not getting them. you can see the video on the following link 320 & 240 deg flags

17 february 2012

PMSDR on 4 meters

i received the DLL from Martin Pernter last night  which i copied the folders of WinradF and WRplus as not to change the settings i already have and the DLL was put in both folders. each of the software has their pros and cons and being able to see 100 kHz of band is a big help and the first thing i noticed was there was no sign of GB3CFG Carrickfergus io74cr N. Ireland on 70.027 and my first thought was the dll was not working but a few mins later i saw and heard cw on 70.020 which is GB3ANG io86mn Dundee ( 100w 3 element yagi )  which is roughly 140 km from here but in a bad direction as my qth is at the bottom of a valley.

why my excitement about this well if you take the price of the PMSDR which for the receiver itself is 195 euro and you look at the Perseus sdr which the price can be anything from £600 - £800 and to get the oirt band and 4 meters you have to buy a down-convertor and if you use the Perseus own software you also have to buy a license key . then there is the Win-radio Excalibur which is roughly the same price as the Perseus but it covers up to the 6 meter band but once again to get the oirt band and 4 meters you will have to buy a down-convertor.

then there is updates and i haven't been following the Excalibur but for the Perseus the updates seem to have stopped and i don't see much on the yahoo group but for the PMSDR one thing is for sure Martin listens to what people want and any problems etc he is usually the first to answer on the PMSDR yahoo group. now for bandwidths and depending what sound-card i use i can " see " either 100 or 200 kHz of band which might not sound too much but it will let me " see " a good portion of the 4 meter band or the oirt band during a sporadic e opening and its much better than sitting on one frequency that you would have to to with a traditional receiver.

i have put a recording on YouTube  and as i said above for the moment the only beacon i can receive on 4 meters is GB3ANG and its in a very bad direction for me so its a weak reception and its just to show that the new DLL is working.

dll v 3.7 beta on 4 meters with the pmsdr

15 february 2012

i put up a flag antenna at 240 deg with the space i had made and as i suspected it has a much better null than the pennant  i was using and the big difference i see is on 810 and 1215 as with the pennant on 810 BBC Scotland was strong and the same with absolute radio on 1215 but with the flag at 240 deg and when i checked the band around 2000 last night Spain was nearly coming over BBC Scotland on 810 and i think i heard a cope id on 1215 but as there is no real transatlantic conditions at the moment i wont know how its working until conditions pick up however i was in the shack from around 0500 this morning and i noticed on 1180 on the 320 deg flag i had WHAM Rochester NY and when i switched over to the 240 deg flag Rebelde Cuba was coming in so fingers crossed all is well.

i had an email from Martin Pernter who designs the PMSDR receiver asking me if i would like to test a beta dll to see if the dll would let the PMSDR receive up to the 4 meter band which would be brilliant when the sporadic e season starts and a couple of 100 kHz on the oirt band will be handy to as at the moment my PMSDR stops around 62.5 MHz so it will be great to get it receiving to over 70 MHz .... results to follow ....

14 february 2012

still nothing to report from my location on the MW band and disaster has struck !!!!!! .... my wife needed some things stored in the attic where my shack is and i had to take down my 240 deg pennant antenna so i could get them in and when she said don't even think about arguing and pointed her finger at me that was me beaten LOL! but hopefully it will only be for a few days and while i was making some room i noticed where the pennant was there was a bit more room and i figured i could get a flag antenna in the extra space which i have always preferred the flag over the pennant so it might not be a bad thing.

Paul Crankshaw ( Troon ) is continuing to pull out the dx and another couple of personal first and his receptions are just not making it to my location or the indoor antenna is just not receiving them and i haven't spoken to Ken for a few days so i don't know if he is getting any dx or not on his beverage. here is a couple of Paul's logs from the past few days.

12/2/2012
1370 ZYK766 R Iguatemi, Sao Paulo 0400 pf
940 ZYJ453 Super Radio, Rio 0400
1190 HJCV R Cordillera, Bogota 0300
1430 HJKU 1430 AM Radio, Bogota 0200
950 Radio 9 La Deportiva, Buenos Aires 0400 (ex-Belgrano)

13/2/2012
1420 WKCW Warrenton VA 0200 pf
1280 WPKZ Fitchburg MA 0200
840 CMHW Dobleve, Santa Clara 0100

( pf = personal first .... Paul uses the Perseus sdr & ewe antenna )

some great dx from Paul and as i have said before his sea path will help and when conditions are down this is when i really struggle using indoor antennas but saying that i don't really see much reports from other MW dxers

10 february 2012

i am starting to sound like a broken record but the poor conditions continue on the MW band at my location and the past couple of mornings i have been getting desperate in which i have been recording with my 320 deg flag on the Perseus and my 240 deg pennant on the pmsdr which takes a long time to listen to the files but there has been nothing really exciting happening but once again Paul Crankshaw ( Troon ) had quite a good Latin American log yesterday morning but my recordings failed due to a power cut at around 0100 . Paul had the following logs

1070 HJCG R Santa Fe Bogota 0700
770 YVKK R Nacional, VAlencia 0700
1230 HJLK R Calidad, Cali 0600
1190 WBMJ San Juan PR 0600
930 CMJS R Surco, Ciego de Avila 0500
1070 CMKS R Trinchera, Guantanamo 0500
1370 R Mundial Bogota 0500
1250 HJFV Radio Viva, San Juan de Pasto 0400
700 LV3 R Cordoba 0300
1320 WLQY Hollywood FL 0300

Paul uses the Perseus sdr and a ewe antenna

i had a listen " live " last night at around 2200 and there was actually some good signals around from the usual east coast stations and a unid on 1060 with OM talk through TOTH and i thought finally the conditions have returned but one thing i have learned about MW dx is that if the band sounds ok at one time it can change fast and there could be a dead band  half an hour later. even though at 2200 the band sounded ok to north America i recorded with my 240 deg pennant due to Paul's logs yesterday and you would think on the MW band there wouldn't really be much of a difference between the antennas and if i remember and conditions allowing i will make a video of the difference between the 320 deg flag receiving a strong east coast station and i will switch it over to the 240 deg pennant just to show the big difference between the two antennas .

5 february 2012....cont

as promised on the following link are a few of Kens receptions from dec 2009 and its not a dx video its just to show some of the signals that his beverage antenna pulls in
beverage antenna

5 february 2012

as you will gather with my continuing lack of posts conditions at my location on the MW band is poor and anyone who reads Ken Baird's blog will also see that it has not been updated for a wee while and if he is getting poor conditions on his 500m beverage what chance have i got. i was down at his place yesterday and he put some Perseus files on a hard drive for me to listen to from Dec 2009 i think it was and some of the signals from transatlantic dx are simply stunning and if anyone wants to see some of the signals let me know in the box below and i will upload a video on youtube.

as for the poor conditions this is when the Perseus or any other sdr receiver comes into its own and i couldn't imagine going back to a traditional receiver and getting up at 3 in the morning and sitting until dawn to see if the band opens up .... sdr lazy dxing !!!! well i don't mind being lazy as i am not up at 3 in the morning listening to a poor band i am tucked up in bed and the sdr is doing the listening for me.