i forgot to add i recorded 1230 - 1310 from 0200 - 0300z  TOTH and BOTH but only very weak SS was heard on 1230 1240 at 0300z and it was more or less a test to see if the antenna was working which was put back up yesterday and to see if the band was free of QRN which it was.

at 0830 this morning there was an opening on 6 meters to France with  F4BKV on 50.145 with a s9 + signal and also the FX4SIX/B on 50.315 was also very strong which then there was a short opening to Spain and Portugal on B2. as i type 0929 conditions have went down and hopefully it picks back up later.

MTV Hungary has changed its logo which can be seen below ( picture from Gösta Van Der Linden ) nothing much to report dx wise apart from RUV Iceland on E3 and 87.7 yesterday morning.

1 hop conditions have been in since 11.00 this morning with the usual Belarus at quite strong levels and the OIRT band was very busy as was B2 with Poland etc coming in quite good. the 4 meter band was open as well to Poland which a short video can be seen on the following link SP on 4 meters

there is a recording of Belarus on my youtube page if you wish to see it. as i type 14.39 i am starting to receive K1TOL Lefty in Maine on 6 meters and hopefully we get some TA dx later.

sporadic e season what sporadic e season that is the question and after my transatlantic reception a few weeks ago there has been virtually nothing apart from a couple of 1 hop openings which lasted no more than 10 minuets in the morning and the rest of the day has been totally flat and yet again there has been allot of solar activity which doesn't help matters. i was going to order new wire and coax for the MW flags but after chatting with Ken who said he had done a few recordings on MW but reported the band was dead and it seems there is no rush to get back on MW as yet.

i have noticed the doom and gloom merchants have started up again on various groups about some of the one hop stations going off and saying B1 TV dx as a hobby is finished. don't these guys realise this is a great opportunity to get some good dx which you wouldn't normally receive when the one hop stations are end stop and yes i moan about the lack of sporadic e and many days/weeks without activity but that doesn't mean the 2 hop + stations are not there and it just means you have to put a wee bit extra effort into monitoring for carriers etc which some dxers are just not prepared to do as they are used to switching on in the sporadic e season and something is there and some B1 dxers have even taken down their antennas ????? would a MW dxer stop dxing if the band went for weeks with poor conditions or just the usual stations coming in and don't they know there is a chance of F2 this winter. the lack of activity this season has nothing to do with the lack of dx its the fact that there has been very little sporadic e that's the problem and as above the dx stations are still there but if there is no conditions you are not going to receive them.

going back to some of the one hop stations going off and take my transatlantic reception on A2 55.250 a few weeks ago for example would i have still received it if RTP Portugal was still on as past experience shows that 9/10 if i had TA conditions RTP would be end stop on the TV making it impossible to receive  TA dx and its the same with E2 48.250 with the middle east and Africa as 9/10 when the Es were running either Portugal or Spain would be belting in making it impossible to receive any dx so in my opinion this is the best time to receive those 2 hop + stations but its all down to the conditions not the lack of 2 hop dx stations to receive.

nothing to report radio wise as i have not been too well and the times i have made it into the shack there has been no propagation but going by reports of other dxers it has been very poor and i haven't missed much.

the aurora continues which is fine for 50 MHz etc but no interest here unless it comes with aurora Es and i am not really interested in reporting weak mushy signals on B2 which takes a huge effort to id them in aurora well this far north it does and so nothing to report once again

i have heard a few rumbles and wooshes on the band but whether it was the flare impact i don't know and the run of the mill 1 hop propagation continues and as i type R4 85.250 has just opened but nothing too interesting so far. lets hope we get a transatlantic or middle east opening before the band dies

as i type Belarus is quite strong on R1 ( 49.750 ) and it would be interesting to see what impact the flare has ie does propagation suddenly stop or is it a slow process. below is a short clip of Belarus when in the clear and not getting battered by hams and cci

 

the same story so far that kills the band here in the north.... as one flare settles down another one comes along

REVISED FORECAST: The CME launched toward Earth by yesterday's X-flare is moving faster than originally thought. Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab have revised their forecast accordingly, advancing the cloud's expected arrival time to 09:17 UT (5:17 am EDT) on Saturday, July 14th. Weekend auroras are likely.

below is a short clip of how 1+1 Ukraine was looking on R1 ( 49.740 ) a few mins ago coming over the CCI

from 0700 this morning B1 has been very active and in particular R1 ( 49.739 - 59 usb ) with CCI ( co channel interference ) from Russia Ukraine and Belarus and as i type 0903 middle east carriers are starting to come up on E2  ( 48.239 - 49 usb ) and E3 ( 55.249 usb ) hopefully more to follow ....

nothing to report once again because just as the band is recovering from one solar flare another one happens shortly after and its just not getting the chance to settle down. i do notice dxers south of me are getting small openings to Algeria,Tunisia etc on B2 but nothing this far north. i sent a reception report to NTV and Canada am regarding my A4 67.250 reception but no replies so far however the Canadian communications foundation kindly acknowledged my reception and passed on my message. i am rather used to this as its the same with MW dx as very few stations bother to reply to reception reports.

yet more solar activity today and unless i get some aurora Es i think i can forget about B1 for the next few days or longer .... i hope i am wrong

UPDATE .... 14.25

weak aurora starting on 50 MHz with LA OH OZ received in cw

yet again more solar activity and i am not holding much hope for today but i notice the SFI is up to 178 from 158 yesterday so there might be a slight chance for some sporadic e but if it follows the same pattern for whats been happening this season the bands will be quiet for a few days ( for dxers in the north anyway )

the transatlantic carriers did not return yesterday and if it wasn't for a few beacons on 50 MHz you would think i had no antenna in. as i type 08.07 there is no reports of sporadic e in the UK that i can see and there is not much being reported in the rest of EU. i have been getting a few messages that MW is actually not too bad for Latin America, Caribbean etc and i might put the MW flag back in use and do a couple of overnight recordings as it will give me something to listen to when the propagation on B1 is down.

UPDATE .... 14.00

RUV Iceland came up on E3 ( 55.250 ) with weak video which was then followed by a couple of 60 Hz carriers on 55.249.998 and 55.260.030 and 0 offset on 61.250 which they faded out quite quick and then around 14.30 which i presume the path changed to the Caribbean a few other offsets came up around 0 offset 55.250 including the warbler around 55.249.800 but were very weak and as i type B1 has went quiet again and hopefully the TA path comes back later and stronger. apart from RUV no other EU carriers were received. ( note .... nothing was being reported from that direction on KST 50 MHz cluster apart from MM0AMW David receiving Iceland on 50 MHz and he told me he was receiving the video carrier from RUV but his antenna is rather deaf on 55.250 )

i was in the shack quite a bit yesterday and nothing was received on B1 TV apart from meteor scatter and i am sure the recent solar activity killed the band once again. i had a look inside the Icom Pcr 1000 for the IF tap so i can have a try with it using my PMSDR and it looks an easy enough job to do but the motivation is still not there for B2 dxing and i will get around to it at some point. as i mentioned the other day i had to switch off and unplug my antennas due to a thunder storm which produced a bit of flooding and the below picture ( courtesy of Ken ) shows you how bad it was

attitudes ....

i had a wee laugh to myself yesterday as the bookmakers here in Scotland are taking a bit of an unusual bet and they are offering odds of the commentators at Wimbledon to say if Andy Murray wins the title today he will be British but if he loses he will be Scottish LOL !  i might just have a wee flutter on that ....

DX report .... as i type 08.55 B1 TV is quiet and nothing much being reported on the various 50 MHz chats/clusters apart from JT6M meteor contacts and fingers crossed it will improve later

yet more solar activity which i have been hearing the " rushing .... wooosh " sound when i have been monitoring for B1 TV carriers or listening to 50 MHz and as i have said i have never known so many in one season and in a short space of time and i am 99% sure that is why i am having one of worst sporadic e seasons that i can remember. i am still looking on the Internet for any information that links solar activity and the lack of sporadic e at the solar max for F2 conditions in the winter but there is so many contradicting articles i will just have to wait and see what happens. as i type 10.39 B1 is quiet but there is a few reports coming from southern UK that TV signals from Ukraine etc on R1 are quite strong with video and audio.

UPDATE 16.29

a few strong signals from Spain and Portugal at the bottom end of B2 .... B1 quiet for the moment

band 1 opened first and last thing yesterday with Belarus and Ukraine at very strong levels both times and there were a few carriers from the middle east on E2 48.239 48.249 and E3 55.249 but they never got to video level. i had to switched off for a few hours in the afternoon due to a large thunder storm and part of the village got flooded and the electric went out for about an hour or so. nothing much happening as i type apart from very long meteor pings on R1 49.749 in which some of the " pings " are going to video level which i will try to record.

DScaler settings

anyone using the temporal comb filter in DScaler which is suggested when using the video out of your band 1 TV into the s-video input of your TV card should note when in pal mode make sure in the temporal comb settings the video mode is set to pal and the same when you are using ntsc or the filter will not work. i have been using DScaler for years now and i am still finding out new things with filter settings etc.

here is Paul Farleys reception of Canadian A4 ( 67.250 ) last night and from what i could see there was no Canadian path here at all and it was all Caribbean carriers i was getting and also check out his videos of B3 Es yesterday which he comments it was the highest muf he has ever had.
Canada 67.250 Paul Farley

UPDATE.... 23.24

as can been seen on the grab below the transatlantic conditions continue and sometimes they are peaking up to give weak video on my TV but nothing worth recording as yet and i think its going to be a long night lol !

well done to Paul Farley who again got A4 Canadian TV this evening and while no Canadian path i have carriers from the Caribbean as i type. the below grab is from 20.37 when the Caribbean path first opened.

pal tv - ntsc dscaler settings with free run app

anyone using dscaler for their tvdx and receiving transatlantic video with free run when putting dscaler to ntsc make sure free run is off before you switch dscaler to ntsc or it wont work which then you can switch free run on. free run will alow you to receive video at very low signals so its a very handy app to have and anyone worried about ntsc rolling on their pal tv dont worry when using dscaler in ntsc mode ( without free run ) the video will lock as normal which can be seen on this link
pal tv to dscaler in ntsc no free run in use

what a fantastic transatlantic day on B1 TV and i first noticed carriers very early in the morning which can be seen below on the grab then the videos started to roll in which can be seen on my youtube page
it was weird conditions as the higher in the band i went the stronger the video and most of my video came from A4 67.250 and i even got B2 87.75 TV audio which can also be heard on my youtube page. looking at reports on the 50 MHz clusters it seemed a fantastic day on 6 meters as well but i didn't have the time to look and it was the same with B2 which i really should have as the TV audio on 87.75 was not too bad.

i received this message from mbstone 99 on youtube

While listening to the video I heard the mention of Canada AM which is a show that is broadcasted on the CTV network. I did a bit of searching around and it looks like what you heard is probably CJCB-TV out of Sydney, Nova Scotia.

i haven't had much time to do any detective work as yet because as i type 19.19 video carriers are starting to come up on 55.250 once again.

a 1 hop opening while is was in the shack which i got fair signals from Belarus on R1/3 but i missed most of the opening as i had visitors. Ken down the road from me was reporting the OIRT band was open but i was concentrating on B1 but only 1 hop conditions were noted Belarus 49.750