DAVID HAMILTONS VHF TV & MW DX DIARY IN SCOTLAND

29 january 2012

2012-01-29T10:47:00.002Z

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION .... that was the key yesterday morning as there was virtually nothing on my recordings and my files were deleted early but Paul Crankshaw over in Troon which is roughly 20 miles from here had the following logs

1450 HJNL La Carinosa, Manizales 0400 pf
1130 HJVA R Vida AM Basica Bogota 0400
1070 HJCG R Santa Fe, Bogota 0400
980 RCN Cali 0400
770 RCN Bogota 0400
680 WAPA San Juan PR 0300
730 HJCU R Melodia/Lider Bogota 0300
1060 HJLY R Delfin, Riohacha 0300 pf
1100 HJAT Caracol, Barranquilla 0300
1320 HJNO La Carinosa, Girardot 0300 pf
pf = personal first

i had my 240 deg pennant in use for my recordings yesterday morning but i had mostly mush or hardly any signals at all and i am pretty sure the sea path that Paul has helps allot. this morning wasn't much better although from 0700 there was a couple of SS stations coming in but the band peaked after TOTH and its mostly music on my recordings and not much talk and nothing really that sounds like id"s.

Radio Rebelde Cuba on 1620 had quite a good signal at 0700 ( unknown location 3 listed ) but i am struggling for id"s as the band peaked after TOTH and nothing much at BOTH. while Rebelde is quite a common catch here in Scotland the signal was not too bad considering i am using an indoor antenna and a video of the reception can be seen on the following link Radio Rebelde 1620 0700

i was chatting to Ken who had his west beverage in use yesterday morning and he also reported the band was poor and as i type Paul is not on skype as yet but i will be interested to see what logs he gets this morning.

26 january 2012

2012-01-26T09:12:00.000Z

with the recent solar activity the mw band has been extremely poor here and although Paul Crankshaw ( Troon ) had some good Latin conditions on Sunday i think it was with a couple of pf"s my enthusiasm is just not there at the moment and i have not been recording overnight the past couple of days and just having a look when i get in the shack in the morning. i have 07 - 0830 from this morning but after having a quick check it doesn't look too promising and i noticed the Bahama's on 1540 from 07 but very little else and although my indoor antennas work not too bad when conditions are poor this is when i struggle.

22 january 2012

2012-01-22T12:59:00.001Z

well what a complete fool i was this morning .. i was checking a file and i had a unid ss on 1060 which the guys on skype had a listen to and i posted it on the real dx group in hope for an id and not only that i deleted the original Perseus file in thinking that there was nothing really worth keeping on the file ..... it has turned out i have loaded up a file from 2 years ago which i thought was this morning and as i said i have deleted the file and there must have been something interesting on it if i had kept it DUH ! so i am standing in a corner hanging my head in shame .... i have put my Perseus files that i am keeping on another hard drive so that mistake wont happen again. nothing really interested on this morning clips well i hope it was this mornings lol !

20 january 2012

2012-01-20T09:26:00.001Z

although some huge signals yesterday especially 0300 and the likes of WWVA WOOD WLIB were at local levels there is still not what i call real dx coming in as yet but with these strong signals it gives other dxers the chance of logging some new ones and as i have said before what i call common stations will be dx for other guys. this morning was similar to yesterday in the stations that were coming in but i have only had a quick scan of my recordings and hopefully more to follow ....

17 january 2012

2012-01-17T11:34:00.000Z

nothing much to report on MW and pretty much similar conditions since my last post. WABH 1380 and CFAB 1450 are a regular catch this season which i would have been glad of last season and we are nearing the end of January and still no west coast received here this season as yet apart from a extremely weak tentative KOMO on 1000 a week or so ago. nothing much to talk about this morning and it shows how different locations receive different things as Stu down in London logged WVAE Bideford ME 1400 at 06 this morning while all i had was the usual CBC.

i have uploaded a video showing the AM rejection function on the Perseus which you activate by going to 25 kHz bw then ie if on 1030 as shown on the video hold the shift button and double click on the offending carrier and if conditions allow you have a chance of some TA stations that you wouldn't normally receive. i have noticed though if you go to 1040 and do the same you receive 1030 ???? and i wonder if anyone has reported this bug but looking at the Perseus yahoo group i don't think it will be worth asking as it seems the software updates have stopped and any suggestions sent to Nico are not getting answered. you can see the video of the AM rejection function here Perseus AM Rejection Function

15 january 2012

2012-01-15T15:55:00.000Z

i forgot to set my recordings last night and i only managed 0800 0900 and the band seemed very average and i have uploaded a video showing the more common stations that were coming in at 0900 this morning and nothing really to get excited about. once again 1450 CFAB WINDSOR NS was logged at around 0815 but it was very weak and the file has been deleted as i have a much better recording from last year. you can see 0900 from this morning on the following link 0900 15 january 2011

10 january 2012

2012-01-10T09:28:00.001Z

one again nothing much happening on MW this morning and the Latin America conditions were gone this morning and the more common east coast USA stations were coming in. i had a VOCM ( i think) id on 1240 at around 0603 but no local id and 1590 was just a rumble with stations mixing on my recordings.

Mark Borthwick down in the borders has put up a interesting video of a hombrew antenna splitter he has made and it cost around £5 to make and i am pretty sure it will work as good as any commercial one and you can see the video on the following link Marks homebrew splitter

low vhf is showing some life again and as i type 0925 there is some Russian pmr comms up to around 39 MHz and 29.500 - 29.600 FM is quite active with hams although i haven't heard any calls as yet.

8 january 2012

2012-01-08T09:22:00.000Z

a couple of days of conditions to Latin America with HJCA Capital Radio, Bogota 1250 HJIP BBN Medellin 1590 HJBS R Punto Cinco, Bogota 1490 in the log but signals were not strong and apart from capital radio it was a struggle to get ids. its very handy to have two antennas as the above were simply not there on the north American flag antenna and although my 240 deg pennant antenna is quite a bit smaller than my flag antenna it certainly pulls in the Latins etc. this morning was similar to the past couple of days but with weaker signals and my recordings are already deleted as nothing of interest was heard.

6 january 2012

2012-01-06T10:51:00.000Z

quite poor this morning and the only one worth a mention is XEVOZ La Mexicana 1590 at around 0602 which was rather weak. what i presume was XERF-AM La Poderosa on 1570 was good from 0600 onwards but i have received this many times so i didn't bother with it and it was still quite strong at 0830 when i stopped listening. i recorded from 0200 - 0830 and only common USA stations were received up to 0500 which then my 240 deg pennant was in use. finally the strong winds have died down and i was actually getting worried about my log periodic on the roof and last night it went from one extreme to the other and some hard frost set in but i would rather have that and not worry about my log periodic taking flight.
weak XEVOZ Mexico 1590

5 january 2012

2012-01-05T11:57:00.000Z

nothing too spectacular on MW this morning and quite a few ss stations at 0600 but as usual no ids that i can make out apart from Capital Radio Bogotá, Colombia on 1250 ( thanks to Fredrik Dourén for id ) however there was good strong signals and mostly music on 1230 1280 1290 1400 1410 1590 and with my ss being very bad i just cant tell on some of them if they are id or not. i recorded with the 320 deg flag from 0200 - 0500 but nothing of interest and i was dxing live from around 0530 which i noticed the ss stations which i switched to my 240 deg pennant for the rest of the morning. as i type i am listening to a recording from 0604 on 1350 with YL talk and a few comments about Colombia but once again nothing that sounds like an id.

3 january 2012

2012-01-03T10:49:00.000Z

a happy new year to all .... from Xmas day i have not being doing much radio due to the fact i have not been well and with family etc visiting there has not been much time. i recorded this morning but nothing much around and with 1590 clear now i was hoping for a couple of new logs but only WAKR and WARV coming in. there is some really strong winds this morning with a couple of large trees down and a couple of wheelie bins going into orbit lol and reports of a few vehicles getting turned over and there is a few warnings coming over the news not to travel. i thought my log periodic was down as there was no signals from the locals on b2 but the Irish were coming in well so the mast at darvel might have got damaged in the high winds. with Christmas and new year out of the way thank god .. bah humbug ... lol and i am feeling allot better hopefully and conditions allowing i can get back to enjoying the radio.

24 december 2011

2011-12-24T09:39:00.000Z

its nearly time for santa to come and i hope you all get the radio toys that you want and i hope santa gets me a new house in the north of scotland with no neighbours for 50 miles and room for beverages in all directions and a swedish bimbo to make my coffee in the morning but i dont think the wife will be too pleased at that one LOL !. have a great day when it comes ... Merry Christmas All ...

21 december 2011

2011-12-21T09:33:00.000Z

as you will gather with my lack of posts the MW band is still extremely poor for dx and although the regular east coast stations are coming in and i have seen reports on the skype chat that CBC is coming in as early as 1730 i just cant get the enthusiasm for these common stations and to be honest in the run up to Santa coming and at this time of the year when cousins etc who i haven't seen for years turn up at the door i haven't been doing much dxing. there is still not much of a dawn peak that i can see and the band is dropping off from 0830 - 0900 and once again there is reports of regular east coast stations coming in at 1100 but my interest is not there to listen to WWKB at that time and what a difference to the logs of Martin Hall who has been logging west coast USA ... Alaska etc at midday ... i wonder if Santa will get me a house in the north of Scotland.

14 december 2011

2011-12-14T09:49:00.001Z

DAMN SMALL LINUX ....

as the MW band has been so poor it has given me time to play around with other things and a few months ago i started to get Linux running on an old original xbox which i finished yesterday and while the original xbox by today's standards is very old you can still have allot of fun with them and i hacked mine so it can play backup games from the hard drive which i swapped the original 8 gig one for a 120 gig hard drive which lets me put on allot of games and with XBMC ( xbox media centre ) i have put on my avi files ( movies ... tv series etc ) and allot of mp3 music etc and i can also stream movies or music from my pc in the shack to the xbox in the living room.

going back to linux and i installed a version called " damn small Linux " which can be found on any xbox update/program disk and the original xbox has an Intel celeron processor running at 733 MHz with 64 meg of ram and graphics is Similar to the GeForce 3 Ti500 and with the new 120 gig hard drive by today's standards you wouldn't bother with it and on the front of the xbox there are four controller ports which are basically usb ports and with a simple mod to a mouse and keyboard or you could buy/make an adaptor it gives you the full functions of a pc and if i am not in the mood to climb up into the shack and use my pc and if the xyl/daughter are using their own pc/laptop i can switch on the xbox and run Linux to browse the web .... check emails .... or even go onto skype and as i said by today's standards the system is ancient but its an interesting project to turn a xbox into a VERY handy media centre ( which plays all formats ) and web browser and make it do things what its not supposed to do

linux desktop

xbox media centre ( xbmc )

original xbox

13 december 2011

2011-12-13T08:38:00.000Z

as you will gather by my lack of posts the MW band is still VERY poor and its got to the stage i am having a quick check before i go to bed and not even recording over night and dxing " live " when i get up in the morning usually around 0600 and this morning was no exception and from 0600 i didnt record as there was nothing interesting coming in. i can see myself giving Ken his perseus back as its better to record 100 KHz of crap with the PMSDR than recording 2 meg of crap with the perseus LOL !

8 december 2011

2011-12-08T09:13:00.000Z

once again the extremely poor conditions continue on MW and my enthusiasm is just not there at the moment when the dx is WWKB etc. i have been recording overnight but listening to the files don't take long as there is simply nothing there worth listening too and still conditions seem to drop off at the so called dawn peak. low vhf is not much better and don't get me wrong there is still some good signals about above 30 MHz from New York etc which is actually good dx but as you receive the same stations day after day it gets a bit boring.

the weather has taken a turn for the worse and we have had a mixed bunch ranging from hail sleet heavy snow and as i type there is VERY strong gusts of wind and very heavy rain. so that's about it and sorry to the people who read my blog as due to the bad conditions there is nothing much to write about.

5 december 2011

2011-12-05T11:12:00.000Z

another poor weekend for dx on MW and low vhf and this morning on MW from 0600 - 0800 it was just pathetic and at 0800 there was just weak common stations coming in. i noticed this morning the SFI is on a steady increase and hopefully this brings back good conditions on low vhf.

1 december 2011

2011-12-01T15:51:00.003Z

once again the MW band very poor and nothing to report. myself and Ken were back at his new beverage which he replaced the faulty section of coax with 2 core electrical cable which the idea came from Bjarne Mjelde and we fed audio from his shack through the coax/electrical cable to the feed point of the beverage just to make sure there was no faults and the audio was loud and clear through a speaker which we then connected the main beverage wire to the balun and the power cord was connected to the coax side of the balun. we then returned to his shack and made some tests against his beverage in the wood and everything seems fine ie the Faeroe's on 531 was more or less the same signal and same for the Irish stations BUT ! on 1008 the dutch station was well down on the new beverage and the likes of 1044 on the wood beverage he was getting Germany and on the new beverage Spain was coming in and so far it looks promising but we wont know until the transatlantic stations come in .... more to follow ....

29 november 2011

2011-11-29T08:56:00.001Z

nothing to report since my last post and its more or less the common stations that have been received on MW and low vhf has been pretty down due to the drop in the SFI. once again my recordings failed this morning which is getting to be a pain in the ass as i have been enjoying a long lie in the morning but it seems i will have to get up early once again. i contacted the electric company regarding the dip when it rains and they said they would send out an engineer but i am still waiting so i will be back on the phone today.

24 november 2011

2011-11-24T16:36:00.000Z

nothing much to report today on MW or low vhf as both bands were pretty poor. i have been trying out a CTCSS decoding piece of software called ScanScope which can be used with mp3 recordings or from the ext sp out in my case on my uniden bearcat ubc 9000 xlt scanner into the mike input on my pc for live CTCSS decoding and the tones that are being received as far as i can tell are the correct codes and for the moment it seems to be working well and i did a short video of it in action and the codes shown have been checked and are correct ScanScope CTCSS decoding

23 november 2011

2011-11-23T10:00:00.004Z

once again my MW recordings have failed and it always happens when there is heavy rain as myself and ken notice the lights going dim when it rains heavy and it must be enough to make the pc reboot at some point in the morning so i will give the electric company a call and tell them to get it fixed.

i had an email regarding my reception yesterday on 38.320 from dxer Ivan in Brazil who sent me this message

David,

Taxi at the São Paulo metropolitan area. Great catch! Congratulations!

Ivan Dias Jr. - Sorocaba/SP
http://ivandias.wordpress.co

Sao Paulo is roughly 9669 km from here and quite a good catch on 38 MHz and it would be interesting to know what power these have

22 november 2011.... cont....

2011-11-22T15:10:00.001Z

as i type 15.05 there is nothing really happening on low vhf however i have just received a presumed Brazilian taxi controller on 38.320 via f2 in which the following is mentioned

consultório odontológico, av. Queiroz Filho 1019

colégio Drummond São Paulo Santo André Vila Humaitá

( with thanks to henrik & renato from the realdx group)

you can hear the reception on the following link presumed brazil 38.320

22 november 2011.... cont

2011-11-22T10:08:00.000Z

i forgot to mention i received an unid spur on 34.288 yesterday morning which sounded much better in nfm than it did on am and as usual it was coming in not too bad untill toth when it faded out. you can hear a recording on the following link unid spur 34.288

22 november 2011

2011-11-22T09:38:00.001Z

i was in the shack around 0530 and all i can say is PATHETIC !!!! and i was actually going to switch off MW at 0630 but i stuck it out to 0800 but the band was in such a poor shape i wasn't even listening half the time and was doing odd jobs that needed done in the shack and i hope it picks up soon as the interest is just not there at the moment and all the fun is on low vhf where there is some really good dx coming in. at around 1700 yesterday Paul over in Troon alerted me to KBRW carrier on 680 which i had a listen and the carrier was not too bad and was getting the odd burst of audio but the TV went on downstairs and that was that finished.

low vhf is continuing in a usual pattern and as i type there is Russian comms up to 40 MHz with what i presume is flea power Russian phone calls on 31 MHz and if the pattern continues comms from the USA should start rolling in at around noon. Paul Logan sent me a list of west coast police etc with freqs and unit numbers and if anyone wants it just send me an email and although it might be a little too early to receive them and with the SFI dropping back down its a handy list to have.

21 november 2011

2011-11-21T09:50:00.000Z

came into the shack this morning and found my MW recordings had failed so nothing to report on MW. very little to report over the weekend and the low VHF transatlantic muf struggled to reach over 35 MHz. so a pretty boring weekend on low vhf and MW however Paul over in Troon has managed to receive some good dx on MW and i see on the cluster this morning he had KNX Los Angeles on 1070 at 0830 this morning and i will have to start getting back into the shack early again just to make sure the recordings are working ok.

19 november 2011

2011-11-19T08:58:00.001Z

nothing really to report as the muf was around 36 MHz yesterday for transatlantic dx although it went to 42 MHz briefly. Ken was in my shack yesterday picking up a book i had ordered for him and the scanner was on in the back ground and it stopped on 31.650 i think and there was a phone call in Russian which got to strong levels and i am amazed that i can receive them at all as these must be really low power and i wonder if dxers in Russia receive UK phone calls on the same band.

i came across a interesting web and video on the Russian buzzer and its well worth a read/watch and i wonder how many of these things are left on SW the russian buzzer

17 november 2011

2011-11-17T08:30:00.001Z

conditions yesterday were well down from the previous day and the muf struggled to reach 40 MHz for transatlantic dx and nothing too interesting was received apart from an unid on 36.100 which at the time the usual strong signals from TA taxis were coming in on 35 MHz but i am not sure my reception is a taxi and you can hear my reception on the following link UNID 36.100

what has happened to the MW band as it continues to be VERY average/poor and i am thinking the recent solar conditions and the extremely good f2 conditions have something to do with it as the poor conditions on MW coincided with the f2 conditions and to be honest at the moment my enthusiasm is just not there as at the moment the usual east coast power houses are the dx and i am actually getting better and much more distances on 40 MHz + than i am on MW and looking back this time last year i was getting west coast USA etc with strong signals and even KBRW Alaska was making the odd appearance.

15 november 2011....cont

2011-11-15T20:11:00.000Z

once again thanks to Paul Logan with help in iding some of my clips

47.08 Maine Dept of transport WQIF295
42.86 KAA202 Lees Summit Missouri
42.06 KAA243 Springfield MO
40.31 with a PL of 250.3 its Huntsville Alabama (Ch 5), Tennessee Valley Authority

15 november 2011

2011-11-15T18:22:00.000Z

while the uniden was scanning away and i was checking TV freqs etc at around 14.45 there wasn't really allot happening then at 1500 bang the band went crazy and the muf started to rise and rise and i was getting USA comms on 47 MHz from Presque Isle ME and comms are still coming in as i type 18.11 to 43 MHz and there was also a transatlantic opening on 50 MHz. i had an odd one on 40.310 which sounded like a CB type conversation and at the peak of the conditions my lowest scan on the uniden was 40 MHz so by far today was the best of this cycle and long may it continue. you can see some of the more interesting recordings from today on the following link 15/11/2011 transatlantic f2

i have been receving snotel data on 40.670 from Utah which i sent a reception report and i got a reply today in which it said .... Awesome .. RJ .... that was it !!!!! what was wrong were they too lazy to lift their hands to type a few words is it really that hard to type a few words.

14 november 2011....cont

2011-11-14T20:28:00.000Z

i just had an email from Roger Schroeder chief of police Missouri and its great he took the time to reply to me.

Great to hear from you! As the chief of police, I can tell you it is exciting to know you are “hearing” from us, also If you don’t know, we are the state capital of the State of Missouri, located in the heartland of the US. You must operate some sophisticated equipment, and it’s obvious you enjoy what you are doing. From our standpoint, I hope nothing happens, which gets too exciting. We like quiet days. Take good care of yourself, and I wish I were with you to enjoy your beautiful country.

14 november 2011

2011-11-14T17:58:00.001Z

was out most of today but got back just in time for the peak of the transatlantic muf and i received KAA522 Willow Springs Missouri 42.38 and 42.64 Jefferson City, Missouri ( thanks to paul logan for the help ) and a few more which can be seen on the following link transatlantic f2 14/11/2011 and for signals this has been the best day so far this cycle and amazing as the sfi has dropped.

13 november 2011....cont

2011-11-13T17:59:00.000Z

i actually think the MUF was quite high today but as its the weekend i think there is little activity but on the following link you can hear what was received today and the first two clips there might be some encryption on them or the audio is just plain bad 13/11/2011 transatlantic f2

13 november 2011

2011-11-13T15:11:00.000Z

the MW band continues to be very average and reports from ken are that there is a good peak from 2300 which there is no chance at that time for me as TV is still on and one thing i have noticed the past few days is the band seems to drop out as the so called dawn peak comes. once again low vhf continues to be very good and yesterday the transatlantic muf peaked over 40 MHz but nothing from the west coast heard as yet.

11 november 2011

2011-11-11T08:20:00.003Z

still nothing really exciting happening on the MW band and i recorded overnight this morning which i haven't done for a wee while but the PC rebooted at some point so no recordings this morning and the band seems flat as i type ( 0814).

low vhf continues to be very good and there was some really strong signals from the USA yesterday and there was a report of the Californian highway patrol on 39 MHz received in southern UK and i had a strange one on 34.425 which i have been told the language sounds like Vietnam or from that area but from ???? and you can hear the recording on the following link F2 RECEIVED IN SCOTLAND

i have a very old president Adams ssb radio which i decided to take up the dx hill for a bit of a listen and usually up there the place is deserted and when i first got up there was not one person in sight so i started to get the radio etc set up and i had a simple dipole and as soon as i started to find a decent branch on a tree to hang the dipole the place looked like a bloody holiday camp with people out for a walk and asking what i was up to and i hate messing around with antennas with eyes watching me so the antenna was strung out very low but conditions were amazing as California Oregon Nevada New Mexico were all heard on 27 MHz and even though the location is quite high and a very good path to the USA its good to hear such long distances on a simple setup.

8 november 2011

2011-11-08T08:38:00.000Z

some good signals from the more common stations on MW from 0630 - 0700 and i have an unid W station on 1430 at 07 which i will report back later when i send it to dxers who have better ears than me. yesterday Ken called me on the radio to say that he had a phone call from a mate of his saying there was good signals coming from Ireland on uhf/vhf tv and he suggested we go to the dx hill and see what we could get but before we went i had a quick check on b3 which i normally receive two RTE but conditions seemed flat but off we went with Ken"s jvc 610 and a multi element uhf yagi and when we got there guess what .... yes it seemed flat up there too with just a couple from Northern Ireland and one thing we did notice was the yagi .. bloody hell it was narrow and the slightest movement and we lost a station ah well it got us out the house for 10 mins lol !

1430 update .... i sent my clip to Paul over in troon and my reception turned out to be WENE playing a clip from WCBN Chicago as if getting id"s on mw was hard enough when they play other stations calls

7 november 2011

2011-11-07T08:01:00.000Z

the MW band continues to be very poor here and to be honest i have been switching on at the dawn peak and having a quick listen and switching back off again as there is nothing apart from weak common stations and i hope i am wrong but its going to be a long winter if it continues like this.

low vhf continues to be very good and following a pattern ie comms from the east in the morning then from noon comms from the usa etc start to come in and the MUF is getting higher each time as yesterday i was getting comms from the east as high as 43 MHz and a few carriers appearing on R1 tv ( 49.739 - 59 )

i have added a ticker bar at the top of the page which i can report band conditions or any interesting stations that are coming in as they happen.

5 november 2011

2011-11-05T08:07:00.001Z

while listening to low vhf yesterday Ken called me on the radio to say he was receiving what sounded like phone calls in Russian and he actually thought he had new Russian neighbours which he was picking up on 31 MHz and i had a listen and i was receiving them as well and the signals started to fade so it was coming via f2 and these must have been extremely low power or coming via a repeater. not only that we were actually watching the MUF rise as we started to receive comms 38 39 43 MHz which then R1 TV opened for me to NOVA Czech rep and 1+1 Ukraine but this was via sporadic e and one thing i have noticed is when f2 conditions are in and sporadic e starts the f2 conditions drop out and return when the sporadic e fades ... coincidence ??? there was reports of African TV being reported as far north as Liverpool yesterday but sadly conditions didn't reach this far north but its looking very promising.

2 november 2011

2011-11-02T19:43:00.000Z

less said about the MW band at the moment the better ..... low vhf continues to be very good with the MUF getting quite high today and had me looking at E2 R1 for carriers which it didn't quite reach and on the following link there is a few recordings of what i got higher in the band and some unid data
F2 2 november 2011

i also had Hebrew on 39.150 which can be heard below so signs looking good for some good F2 higher in the band

1 november 2011....cont

2011-11-01T14:32:00.000Z

tentative iran police via f2 received today 1 november 2011 f2

1 november 2011

2011-11-01T07:47:00.001Z

the MW band continues to be very poor and i like to be in front of the radio at the " dawn peak " but conditions have been so poor i have let the Perseus do the work as i cant get excited when the band is like that. at the moment 30 MHz and above is where the dx is and a couple of logs which have been received here over the past few days and thanks to Paul Logan for the help

33.560 KUG740 Lancaster County PA (100 watts ) ( cw id )
33.740 Connecticut but which?
33.780 Verona NJ, reference to Essex fells NJ
33.960 KNBD931 Westchester Co, NY

i received an unid language on 34.000 in which i have had a few emails ranging from India Israel and Africa and you can hear the receptions on the following link
F2 30 OCTOBER 2011

29 october 2011

2011-10-29T07:37:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-25T08:38:00.001+01:00

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

2011-10-22T11:52:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-18T19:08:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-17T17:40:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-16T18:48:00.000+01:00

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

16 october 2011

2011-10-16T12:49:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-13T12:09:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-09T10:51:00.002+01:00

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

2011-10-06T09:56:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-05T19:57:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-04T17:47:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-03T07:40:00.000+01:00

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.

30 september 2011

2011-09-30T09:03:00.001+01:00

first let me start off by saying " YEEEEAH HAAAARRR " and run about the shack with my shirt over my head like a footballer.
why so happy i hear you ask ... yesterday i got a new HD satellite box as my old one was broken and after it was installed
i went to check if there was any noise from it on the MW band and it was quiet and not only that the noise that started last
weekend was also gone and so i am back to having a nice clean MW band. could it have been your old broken HD box that was
giving me the noise ??? well as i have said everything in my house is unplugged when i go to bed so one of my neighbours
must have plugged something in and forgotten about it until yesterday afternoon when at some point they unplugged it
to give me back a nice clean band.

noise is the big enemy on the MW band and i have seen everything from mobile phone chargers xbox electric fires and even
the gas or electric boiler in your home giving that dreaded BZZZzzzz on the band and with more and more cheap
equipment coming from the far east etc which are made from CRAP its very hard for the band to be quiet. i am very lucky
as i am in a small village in the country and in general MW hf vhf is very quiet apart from MW in the daytime with all the televisions
etc that are on but that is to be expected but sometimes there is something that is switched on and it doesn't half make
your heart sink when you hear that dreaded BZZZzzzz on the band but for the moment its gone and long may it last. i am a
licensed ham op which i very rarely use the bands these days apart from 50 MHz and with the BZZZzzzz i was getting
i bet if it was the other way around and i was causing the BZZZzzzz one thing for sure they they wouldn't be long
knocking on the door telling me to stop and from what i have read here in the UK with PLT noise etc OFFCOM
are certainly not interested if those devices are giving noise but they wont be long shutting down your ham station
if you are the one that's causing it.

nothing much to report this side on MW this morning there was a few ss signals but no ids i could hear apart from Caracol i think

it was on 1580 at around 0601z and once again the band opened up at 0545z and it was very poor before that.

29 september 2011

2011-09-29T10:36:00.000+01:00

the Latin conditions continued this morning but once again the band peaked at around 0545z and there was a rapid fade out at 0555z which constant music was heard 1250 1320 and 1390 and 1400 was just a big rumble with ss stations mixing. i had sport on 1590 which Paul over in troon says they were talking about the champions league games last night but no id was heard. i found out what station i was getting off frequency on 1540.5 yesterday as it was in this morning with an id and it was Radio Turbo Mix Cajamarca Peru which a recording can be seen on the following link RADIO TURBO MIX PERU OFF FREQUENCY

i have had Turbo before and it should be quite easy to spot on a sdr receiver or if you use a spectrum program. as you will have seen in previous posts i have a bit of a noise problem that started last weekend and i have added three ferrite clamps at the feed point of the antenna and also added a ferrite rod at the radio side which has dropped the noise a bit but still there to be annoying and i have ordered another 4 ferrite clamps which i will experiment with at the feed of the antenna and radio side and i will also try some on the mains lead on the PC

28 september 2011

2011-09-28T10:32:00.000+01:00

yet another solar disturbance from around 2300 last night and nothing interesting to report on MW this morning apart from a unid playing Latin music from 0550z to 0600z on 1540.5 if i remember but it was very weak and i had to notch out what i presume was Bahamas on 1540 to hear it. there was no talk and constant music when i was receiving it. i had an email from KSCS regarding my reception on 25.990 but it was only to confirm that my report was sent to the head engineer and as yet no reply.

27 september 2011

2011-09-27T15:28:00.000+01:00

pretty poor this morning on MW due to the solar disturbance and the only station worth a mention was what i presume was ZNS1 Radio Bahamas 1540 ( as no id its marked as presumed but 99% sure its them ) which on the following link you can hear when it fades the buzz i have now on MW on certain freqs which may not sound allot but is a pain in the ass when you are used to having a very clean band
presumed ZNS1 Bahamas 1540

and on the following link you can hear the buzz better which will make MW a real challenge unless it goes off which as i said when you are used to getting up to a nice clean band it is starting to make me think why bother
MW BZZzzzzz

26 september 2011....cont....

2011-09-26T21:47:00.000+01:00

noise update..... while chatting with the guys on the mwdx chat on skype about the noise i have it just went off !!!! but a low level buzz is now there which makes me think that its a tv that has been put on to standby which that will atleast let me get some dxing done which is better than no dx at all on MW

26 september 2011....cont

2011-09-26T21:12:00.000+01:00

a good opening to the USA this afternoon with a few repeaters on 29 MHz heard which you can see on the following links
KQ2H 29620
UNID 29680

and KSCS Arlington Texas 25990 studio link was heard along with WBAP on 25910. a recording of KSCS can be heard on the following link KSCS 25990 lets hope for the sfi to continue to get higher as there might be a chance to get some F2 on band 1 TV

26 september 2011

2011-09-26T08:48:00.000+01:00

it was too good to be true...... all summer and the start of the season the MW band was its usual quiet self which helps me in getting dx but this morning when i checked my recordings i was greeted to a BZZZzzzzzzzzz all over the band and its not coming from my own house so either one of my neighbours have left something on or they have got a new noise making gadget so for the moment there will be no MW reports untill it goes off.

24 september 2011

2011-09-24T12:34:00.000+01:00

some nice signals from the north west this morning and i am still going over my recordings but just the more common stations so far. on the following link you will see how a couple of the more common stations were sounding at various times this morning and i wonder how Ken would have got on if he had been in the shack with his sony HD radio common stations 24 sept 2011

22 september 2011

2011-09-22T21:20:00.000+01:00

yet again another good Latin opening here and yet again so frustrating as i only managed 2 ids but personal firsts with 1450 YVKJ R Maria Caracas and 1100 HJAT Caracol Barranquilla clm which both can be heard on the links below
HJAT CARACOL
YVKJ R MARIA

the following video shows how frustrating MW dx can be and as you will see the dominant station is quite a good signal but at TOTH/BOTH there were no ids i could hear and i recorded from 0500z - 0615z and with my ss being VERY bad i have probably listened to the id and not knowing it was it. you can see the video here
latin mix and that goes for the rest of my recordings ie i have probably listened to a clear id which someone who knows ss would hear quite well but i really struggle with them.

21 september 2011

2011-09-21T12:18:00.000+01:00

yet another frustrating morning on MW as there were plenty of ss signals but no ids that i could hear on my recordings. once again i used my 240 deg pennant but there were a few reports of some NA coming in quite well and i managed a VERY weak id of WMOB Mobile al on 1360 at around 0359. not a great deal to report this morning down to the fact there were no ids on the recordings i made however the SS signals were quite strong. a recording of WMOB can be seen on the following link and its rather weak as i was using the 240 deg pennant
WMOB Mobile AL

18 september 2011

2011-09-18T16:43:00.001+01:00

VERY ! frustrating morning on MW as there was many ss stations coming in but as the peak at the moment is around 0530z there is not many ids i can hear on my recordings however i managed OCU4J Bethel Radio, Lima on 1570 at 0536z and i had a strange on on 1100 and many thanks to Henrik Klemetz for the following information.

Interesting stuff, David. "Todo lo que pasa, pasa por RPP informando,..." is what I think I am hearing towards the end. RPP informando is a programme on Radioprogramas del Perú, which is unlisted on 1100 in the WRTH, but Wikipedia says there is a relay station at Barranca, which is 193 km north of Lima, on the Pacific shoreline. I would think this is at the outer edge of the 730 kHz reach

the recording can be heard below

a recording of OCU4J Bethel Radio can be heard on the following link OCU4J BETHEL RADIO
i have many more recordings to go through especially ss on 680 1010 1130 and i usually delete the Perseus files in the evening for the following morning but i think this mornings files will be saved on dvd for a bit more listening.

14 september 2011....cont

2011-09-14T09:19:00.001+01:00

update from Henrik Klemetz on the realdx yahoo group " Informó: Radio Belgrano...". Previously, weather data for Buenos Aires " big thanks to Henrik

14 september 2011

2011-09-14T08:59:00.002+01:00

my recordings failed this morning apart from 0100 and 0300 and i am not sure what causes this when using auto hotkeys for my overnight recordings and thankfully it does not happen too much. there is other software to use but auto hotkeys is very easy to use and i have always used it and i setup a couple when i got up and they worked fine so it might have been a hang/freeze on the pc that caused it.

not allot to report on what i did get but i have a " presumed " LR3 RADIO BELGRANO Buenos Aries Argentina at around 0302z which i am sure i hear Argentina and belgrano and i think he is saying radio belgrano id. i have a weak ss or pp on 870 at 0100z which i am trying to pull an id from. a recording from 950 can be seen on the following link " presumed " LR3 RADIO BELGRANO 950 kHz and at roughly 6983 miles from here its not too bad on the indoor antenna

13 september 2011

2011-09-13T10:19:00.000+01:00

not much to report this morning as i forgot to unplug my router last night so lots of qrm on my recordings and i have a routine before i go to bed to make sure everything that's not needed to be plugged in gets pulled out but i forgot the router DUH ! however 1130 was clear ish and i managed RADIO NATIONAL which is either from Brazil Argentina or Uruguay and it will go down as a presumed as i cant hear any location on my recording. you can see a clip on the following link RADIO NATIONAL 1130

when listening to my recordings i sometimes use WRplus as i can hear audio/ids better sometimes and i have just noticed that this morning WRplus is showing the wrong time as my recording was around 0512z but WRplus is showing 0612z and i think this is the first time i have noticed this and when the file is played back on the perseus software its showing the correct time. i was chatting to paul over in troon this morning on the mw dx chat on skype and he was saying he was hearing WBBR on 1130 which there was no trace of it on my 240 deg pennant and its good to know the pennant is doing its job as its a bit smaller that my NA flag but it seems to have good directivity on it.

10 september 2011

2011-09-10T13:12:00.000+01:00

i was in the shack nice and early this morning ( 0330z ) and i wished i was tucked up back in bed as when i switched the radio on it was totally dead and the common east coast power houses were only weak carriers. the only station that was decent was Rebelde on 670/1180 and i left the recorder running but when i checked at 0530z it was more or less the same and i switched off and done some other things. i was stupid really as i should have switched to the 240 deg pennant just to check the band but at that time in the morning and the way conditions were looking i just wasn't in the mood lol

it seems i have hit a raw nerve with some dxers on the ferrite test and again via email and why they don't comment in the box below ???? and most using hotmail/yahoo email ads it seems they don't want to be known. the mails range from i wound the balun wrong or used the wrong turns and even used the wrong wire for the windings. anyway the baluns i make seem to work ok on my antennas and i have had no complaints from the dxers that are using my baluns and i can only report what is happening in the tests as i make them and i can only report what is happening on my system and results may differ on other dxers setups. i was not trying to prove dxers wrong etc and i would have loved the Amidon to make a difference on my setup but with the tests i did there was nothing in it between the Amidon and random ferrite i used from the junk box. the only big difference i noticed is when i changed from a standard ferrite ring balun to the binocular balun which resulted in lower noise and no change in signals and the binocular balun is what i am using at the moment on my NA antenna and again i have no idea what type the ferrite is on the tubes.

8 september 2011....cont

2011-09-08T22:01:00.000+01:00

a very good post from Ken on the ethics of ids and claiming stations can be found here ID OR NOT TO ID and some of the claims of dxers will make you laugh

8 september 2011

2011-09-08T17:52:00.000+01:00

once again nothing too much to report on the MW band apart from the more common stations but there is some nice dx around as Ken and Paul over in Troon have been getting some good dx over the past couple of days but this is when i struggle with the indoor antenna when signals are marginal.

Amidon FT 114-43 v junk box ferrite pt 2

i tried both baluns in the evening time and again at dawn when there was some TA dx coming in and once again i found no difference between the two ferrite's so just incase i picked an Amidon from the junk box i found 6 ferrite rings and let my daughter choose what one to try and once again i made a 48/11 turns on it and tried it against the Amidon and once again the random ferrite for the test was much smaller than the Amidon but again in the tests i did i don't notice any difference between the two ferrite's and maybe a VERY slight noise difference in favour of the Amidon on the last test but not enough for me to pay £5 with posting for one Amidon when the junk box rings are doing the same job.

to log or not to log......

i was lurking in the MW chat on skype when Maurits in Belgium posted a log of WVEI Worcester MA on 1440 which he posted a link of the recording which i had a listen which i replied there was no id on that recording to which he says the following

[07/09/2011 18:33:04] Maurits Belgium says: no but he talks about Massachusetts that's the same

which he then goes on to say someone on face book told him it was WVEI

me personally there would be NO WAY i would claim that ie i had WWKB talking about Nevada before any id was said and would you claim it as Nevada and i had WMVP talking about Seattle again would you claim KOMO just because you heard talk about Seattle ???? i then asked him

[07/09/2011 18:38:48] David H Scotland says: u claiming that Maurits without id ???

which he replied

[07/09/2011 18:41:25] Maurits Belgium says: yes I do most of the guys living in the US self ,so..........

personally i would have said " presumed or tentative WVEI " and not claimed the station just because there was talk about a certain place name and no id. whats it got to do with me what other people log i hear you ask well first if logging was done that way i could have loads of exotic dx going by place names mentioned and i have said this on a previous posting i see it often in the MWC logs page with a typical log as xxxx 1420 man talk about California or xxxx 1390 peru music and yes thats with no ids and i would love to see what would happen if i started posting on MWC or the skype dx cluster a dx station just because i heard alaska mentioned. feel free to comment below on the above and would you log a station on mw just because you heard a place name.

5 september 2011

2011-09-05T12:03:00.001+01:00

nothing too much to report on MW there was some good signals around this morning but nothing new as yet

Amidon FT 114-43 v junk box ferrite

a dxer contacted me via YouTube and asked me if i would like to try a Amidon FT 114-43 ferrite ring for a balun which he kindly sent me and the ferrite i use for my own antennas are ones that i find in the junk box or take out of old psu"s etc and i haven't a clue what type they are but they seem to work at my location and there are many articles on the web and constant ranting from certain dxers that you have to use xxxx ferrite on xxxx antenna so i was interested to see the difference if any.

the ferrite arrived and apart from being larger and more chunky than the junkbox ferrite it looked like a normal ferrite ring so i rigged up a switching system and on the Amidon i made 48/11 turns ss as that's what i have been using on the current ferrite and i tried the first test at noon as this is when signals are usually at their weakest and i would notice any difference. first i tried on 1130 which is in the clear and checked both baluns for noise and switching between both there was NO difference at all in noise level and both were more or less the same so i went to 531 and did the same on the faroe isl and once again NO difference in signals received which i then went to 846 radio north which in the daytime is usually about a s6 with me with no preamp and you guessed it NO difference at all between the two baluns. as i said the balun i normally use the ferrite is one i found in my junk box which i don't know the type and maybe it was a Amidon but it has a smaller diameter than the Amidon FT 114-43 and the next test will be in the evening time and also at dawn when hopefully some TA is coming in and also Ken wants to do the same test with it on his beverage.

1 september 2011....cont

2011-09-01T12:40:00.001+01:00

another personal first at 0501z on 1230 with HJKL Radio Calidad cali clm which can be heard here
HJKL RADIO CALIDAD CLM 1230

this one came out of nothing which i am sure is 1450 VSB1 AM 14-50 GOLD bermuda and i couldnt really hear it on usb or am but not too bad on lsb and using the notch ... you can hear it here
bermuda 1450

1 september 2011

2011-09-01T11:51:00.000+01:00

pretty much the same as yesterday and at the same time 0445z the Latins started to come in which i got a personal first with help from Gert Nillson on the " realdx " yahoo group with RADIO SUPER CALI CLM on 1200 kHz at around 0505z and while not the strongest signal i have had its always good to get a pf. you can hear a recording here RADIO SUPER CALI CLM 1200

once again there were quite a few Latins coming in but once again no ids that i can hear and most of them were playing music non stop in my recordings. there was a strange one on 1450 at around 0502 which i asked Paul over in troon to have a listen on his own recording and he thinks it could have been Bermuda with 14-50 AM Gold - Bermuda which i can hear the 14-50 am but it went into a fade and came up with the doobie brothers quite good after. i still have a few recordings to go through and will post as i get them.

31 August 2011

2011-08-31T20:35:00.001+01:00

again it was like a switch getting turned on and from 0445z onwards the band was full of Latins which either don't id that i could hear or they were playing constant music but i did manage RCN Bogota on 980 at 0500z and also Radio Reloj on 1020 and YVWP Radio Apolo on 1320 all at good signals. i love to receive the Latins on MW as you can receive some exotic dx but for me personally they are a pain in the ass to id. there was strong Latin music on 1050 and 1130 and 1200 at 0500z which is weird to hear as those freqs are usually dominated by the usual east coast USA/Canadian stations.

30 August 2011

2011-08-30T07:02:00.000+01:00

yesterday morning once again gave good signals from the more common east coast USA/Canadian stations on MW and nothing new was received. KWKH Shreveport once again came in on 1130 at around 0433z and that is the only one worth a mention. i didn't record this morning simply as i forgot to set the Perseus hot keys but i was in the shack around 0500z but it was the usual stations that were coming in and i don't think i have missed too much. nothing much else to report and no gossip over the past few days.

27 August 2011

2011-08-27T13:47:00.000+01:00

once again some good signals on MW this morning but nothing new as yet on my recordings. there was a nice fade at around 0433z on 1130 in which WBBR new york went down which allowed KWKH Shreveport to come in which can be seen here KWKH Shreveport 1130 and also the more common stations were at very good levels which an example can be seen here good signal/audio

i seem to have the same problem as last season on the north American flag as from 530 - 1390 kHz it seems to work fine but from 1390 - 1700 there is something quite not right as signals seem to be down to what else is coming in but i have to remind myself i am using an indoor antenna and maybe i am expecting too much out of it. i recorded 0200 - 0500 z but i have only checked 0430 - 0500z and sometimes there is not enough hours in a day to check them all.

26 August 2011

2011-08-26T12:32:00.000+01:00

some signs that MW is coming to life this morning with good signals from Chicago, new Orleans etc and some good signals at 0515z and i should have recorded 0530z. nothing new was noted in my recordings as yet but some good signals from WMVP 1000 ( which i think i heard KOMO in the mix at 0515z ) WLW etc and i got a nice id from WWVA Wheeling WV on 1170 which usually magic from the UK is dominant and you can hear my reception here WWVA Wheeling 1170 i have still 0200z - 0330z to check and i will report as i get them.

22 August 2011....cont

2011-08-22T22:35:00.000+01:00

Matthias has made a short video of his mobile setup which can be seen here mobile dx setup

22 August 2011

2011-08-22T22:08:00.000+01:00

another message from Matthias regarding the balun

Hi David, thanks for the info. That's just what I've observed in the meantime ( i told him the main improvement will be seen on MW ). I did another test of the balun on Friday at the same time and same place as before. Unfortunately, there were poor SW conditions towards the Pacific, even the Aussies on 120 m were completely absent. The only thing I could hear on 90m was a weak UNID on 3363 kHz playing Greek folk songs, so this was obviously an MW pirate's 2nd harmonic. The S/N ratio was clearly better with the balun while the signal was stronger without it, but with more background bubbling {John Märsylä from Holland noticed as well there is a definite cutoff on the balun i sent him above 3 MHz which is good or bad whatever way you look at it ). On MW, signals were strong and clear, including China on 1521 booming in like a local and Korea on 1566 amazingly strong (the latter one without the balun, though).

I'll certainly do more tests and I'm convinced you didn't waste your time making the balun. Hopefully, I'll succeed in getting up early enough to try some TA DXing soon. At least in Scotland, the season has obviously started as Mark demonstrated with his latest impressive video.

73
Matthias

not too much to report the past few days as MW has been average and the usual east coast stations quite strong. there is still some life on b1 as NOVA M1 BELARUS 1+1 etc coming in the past few days and there was even a TA opening on 50 MHz with a couple of USA stations heard on cw but no TV signals were seen from the NW or W

18 August 2011

2011-08-18T11:23:00.000+01:00

first report from Matthias on the balun i sent him ....

Hi David,

I've just conducted a first test of the balun tonight. I drove to the place where I recently received the South American stations featured in my latest videos (a dirt path running West/East). My aim was to try if there was something to be received on the tropical bands from Indonesia, PNG and Australia in the 1900-2100 UTC time slot. So I put the 100 m wire along the path pointing to approx. 90 degrees (without a resistor at the end though, so it was bi-directional) and switched on the AOR AR7030.

My first impression of the balun is that the signals are notably weaker compared to just plugging the wire into the 600 ohm terminal. On the other hand, the signal to noise ratio is indeed better with the balun, just as you promised. What bothers me a little bit is that I had to switch on the 10dB preamp of the AR7030 to get a reasonable strength on weak signals. Without the preamp, the rig sounded somewhat deaf. Maybe there was something wrong with one of the connections or perhaps the ground post (a 20 cm screw) was too short.

With the preamp on, however, I could indeed receive some signals from the Asia/Pacific region on the 120 and 90 m bands:

the Australians on 2310, 2325 and 2485 with fair signals
3325: presumed RRI Palangkaraya, weak to fair
3345: UNID, very weak, perhaps RRI Ternate
3365: possibly Radio Milne Bay from PNG, weak, low modulation
4750: UNID with music, weak to fair, possibly RRI Makassar - at 2000 UTC, there was a fair signal from China National Radio with ID on top of the hour

Unfortunately, there was very heavy static this night so that the results aren't really "uploadable". I also made a short video of the balun and antenna setup which I will certainly upload soon.

Later on, I tried MW and had very clean signals, a.o. China on 1521 kHz and several Dutch pirates on the x-band.

I hope to get better conditions and MUCH less static crashes during my upcoming DXpeditions and I'm curious how the balun will work with the HF-225 (which has no preamp).

73
Matthias

hopefully it was just conditions and the signal to noise level is what i aim for in a antenna & balun as i would rather have a s1 signal with no noise than a s9 signal backed up with noise and the balun should improve MW allot and to be honest the baluns that i have made i have only ever tested them out on MW and i don't know how they are working above 2 MHz .... i look forward to hearing from him in future tests.

17 August 2011

2011-08-17T06:39:00.000+01:00

another day different conditions on the MW band and at my qth on this mornings recordings it was just the usual east coast USA/Canadian stations that were received and at the moment the peak seems to be around 0400z onwards. Ken has very kindly loaned me his spare Perseus again which i will do my usual and get his some stomach burning El cheapo wine lol and its good to get back to recording the full MW band again as although the PMSDR is a great receiver on MW the downside is i have only 100 kHz of band to play with and with the good conditions yesterday i missed allot and its good to record the full band and not worrying what i am missing.

16 August 2011....cont....

2011-08-16T19:42:00.000+01:00

here is a couple of unid from this morning which i have had no luck yet on realdx in getting an id if any

16 August 2011....cont

2011-08-16T13:09:00.000+01:00

this is how wins was sounding just before the band changed to the west and by good luck i was up doing some live dxing as when wins faded i switched over to the 240 deg pennant and a ss station started to come in which i am trying to get an id. WINS New York 0422z

16 August 2011

2011-08-16T12:05:00.001+01:00

from 0400z - 0420z the usual north Americans and Canadians were quite good this morning which i will upload a clip to YouTube later to show how WINS new york 1010 was sounding and at 0420z it was like a switch clicking and all of a sudden the band was full of SS stations which i am still going over my recordings and i have possible id"s on 1230 and 1540 which i have put on realdx and hopefully someone can id them. on my recordings there was some strong talk in ss on 1250 1280 1290 but nothing that sounds like id"s so far but i have more recordings to check and i was actually up doing some " live " dxing this morning. hopefully more to report later.

14 August 2011....cont

2011-08-14T13:38:00.000+01:00

this time another test on a recording using PowerSDR v2.0.20 RC2 only on playback as my pmsdr doesn't work with it and its very similar to the Perseus software in the ways you can move the filters etc but once again a total pain in the ass that there is no navigation on the recorded files and once again if you hear an id or some talking there is no way i can see of putting the recording back/forward and you have to start the file again and wait untill it comes up again. i really like this version for moving the filters etc but i don't think my patience will hold out long when listening to a long file. you can see a recording of RADIO MIAFLORES Peru from the 31 July 2011 using the software here powerSDR V2.0.20 RC2 . i will have a look on yahoo to see if they have a group and put forward a suggestion for a navigation bar for recordings which will make it 100% better for playing back files.

14 August 2011

2011-08-14T09:08:00.000+01:00

i was trying out power sdr iq on a overnight recording from this morning with CJMR on 1320 at 0400z and while the controls and filters are very good to use the playback of files is bad as there is no navigation that i can see and if you hear a weak call id you have to start the file from the start and listen again which is no good if you have a 10 min recording and the id is at 6 Min's unlike winrad variants or the Perseus software where you can select the part of the recording and play it untill you get the id. you can see a recording of CJMR from 0400z this morning on the following link power sdr iq but i think i will be using power sdr iq when i am dxing live as i don't fancy listening to long recordings from the start to get an id from the middle of a file. once again i recorded my usual 1230 - 1320 and so far i have heard the more common stations.

13 August 2011

2011-08-13T10:36:00.000+01:00

i was in the shack around 0345z and i had a tune around MW as i didn't set any overnight recordings but nothing of interest was heard but the usual east coast stations like WBBR WWKB etc etc were quite strong until 0430z when i switched off and i put B1 on to see if there was any meteor scatter which i did a few unattended recordings which i have yet to watch. some news for PMSDR users.... Martin has a mod to reduce the LO spurs on the pmsdr which can be seen here PMSDR spur mod which i don't need to do as on MW and 50 MHz there is virtually no trace of the LO spur or any ground loop buzz since i started using this upgraded PC but i do notice it on a couple of freqs but as MW and 50 MHz / b1 are my main interest i am not too bothered about the mod.

10 August 2011

2011-08-10T08:01:00.000+01:00

not allot to report over the past few days apart from a few single hop openings on B1 TV and Iceland made an appearance on the 8th which i also heard Greenland beacons on 50 MHz but it just didn't make it to Canada. nothing to report on MW and i usually record from 1230 - 1320 kHz overnight as 1230 1240 kHz sometimes throws up an interesting one but over the past few days MW has been poor.

Matthias Gatzke ( Germany ) received one of my baluns which he will be giving it a test on his usual mini dxpeditions to the quiet spot in the country and if you check out his YouTube page he gets some really good dx with various receivers and 100 meters wire antenna and hopefully soon he will be reporting on here how he finds the balun. Matthias youtube channel

6 August 2011

2011-08-06T06:48:00.000+01:00

nothing too much on MW this morning and i actually got up at 0300z but the band seemed below average and the only two that are worth a mention are the Caribbean beacon 1610 kHz and WDHP 1620 kHz us virgin isl just because they were strong at 0400z . i had a look outside to see if there was any aurora but nothing was seen and i have not seen any sign of aurora yet on B1 TV or 50 MHz at the times i have been listening.

5 August 2011

2011-08-05T17:39:00.005+01:00

i recorded TOTH & BOTH from 0200 - 0400z and 0400z seemed to be the peak here and once again OAX4L Radio Miraflores Peru 1250 kHz was heard around 0407z with the words " Voz de Liberación " heard on my recording ( thanks to Andrew Brade ) and there was also a mumbled id on 1270 kHz at around 0400.14 with ss talk but really too weak and low audio to bother with. it seems the recent solar activity will reach the earth at some point today so it might be worth recording MW tomorrow morning.

there was also a little B1 activity around 1130 with M1 1+1 & Nova seen on r1 and A2/3 60 Hz carriers for a few minutes but as i type ( 1348 ) its went quiet.

4 August 2011

2011-08-04T08:27:00.000+01:00

there was a small transatlantic opening on B1 yesterday with carriers noted up to A4 67.250 but they didn't get to video level and i had weak audio from 55.240.047 with a om talking about Stockholm which was probably Canada and only lasted a few seconds. there were some strong signals to the USA on 50 MHz of which most were heard on cw and it was a nice surprise to get a transatlantic opening in august. i recorded MW but nothing of interest was noted. i was going to give MW a rest for a couple of weeks as the past couple of recordings were just to make sure everything was ready but again there seems to have been a few solar flares reported which sometimes brings up the latins so i will record the next couple of mornings and see what happens.

2 August 2011

2011-08-02T08:08:00.000+01:00

the old for and against the use of wide band recordings has popped up again this time on the skywaves yahoo group which i am not going into too much as i have covered this before and some of the comments range from if its not live dx i wont do it and is this real dxing well all i can say is they must not have much of a social or family life etc in the case of mw dxing if they can get up at 3 in the morning and do a couple of hours live dxing then go out to work or make time for the family etc through the day. personally i am quite happy to be tucked up in bed while my PMSDR is doing all the work recording TOTH and then checking the recordings at my leisure and after all its my radio and antenna that's doing the receiving and the pc hitting the recording button instead of me and i would have missed my past two Peru receptions if i didn't do it as to hell with getting up at 3 in the morning and being like a zombie for the rest of the day.

i have nothing to report on b1 or mw the past day or so and its been pretty quiet apart from some 1 hop openings on b1.

1 August 2011

2011-08-01T16:53:00.000+01:00

with thanks to Mauricio Molano with help in the id yet another personal first from the 31 July 2011 this time on 1320 kHz with OAX4I Radio La Cronica Lima Peru which a recording can be heard on the following link
OAX41 Radio La Cronica Lima Peru 1320

as i type i am trying to pull some more ids out and hopefully more to report later

31 july 2011

2011-07-31T11:44:00.000+01:00

with the disturbed conditions i decided to record MW this morning with the 240 deg pennant and it certainly paid off as i got a personal first with OAX4L Radio Miraflores Peru on 1250 kHz at around 0336z and big thanks goes to Alessandro Groppazzi and Andrew Brade with the id and my reception can be seen on the following link and at roughly 6251 miles from here its not too bad a signal
OAX4L RADIO MIRAFLORES PERU 1250 KHz

i recorded from 1230 - 1320 kHz and i have a few ss recordings to go over especially 1230 1240 and 1320 and i will post if i get any id"s

30 july 2011

2011-07-30T10:17:00.001+01:00

after a few more tests on the KAZ antenna i decided to put the flag back up simply because the KAZ seemed to have a much wider capture area which is good or bad whatever way you look at it and as i have a pennant at 240 deg for Latins i needed the antenna to have a tighter capture area for north Americans etc and the flag does that well. there was nothing really wrong with the KAZ as i could get roughly the same back null as the flag and it receives well enough but just a bit too wide for my taste and its better to find out now before the season starts as i hate to mess around with antennas during the season. the flag is the usual design and fed in the middle of the vertical leg i want max direction and i used the binocular balun from the kaz and a variable resistor on the middle of the opposite leg for the back null and now i am more or less ready for the season which i would say for me is still about a month or so away for serious dx.

nothing much to report B1 tv wise and the past few days i have been getting some strong signals from the 1 hop stations and i was trying to get a good snapshot/video of M1 Hungary showing its info for its close down in august but every time i hit the record button either 1+1 or nova came over it. there are two tx from Hungary on R1 and from the information i have been sent only one of them are closing which again is good or bad whatever way you look at it as during one of the openings a couple of the middle east stations on E2 were at video and audio level but M1 etc on R1 were so strong there was no chance of getting any video on E2 even with the d500 in narrow. if these stations were gone it would make life easier on E2 BUT !!!! it would be one boring season if the double hop propagation wasn't in and nothing to see. as i type 1014 it is totally dead on B1 and not a voice on 11/10 m and there seems to have been a flare around 0245 this morning and with the nice weather i don't think i will be in the shack much today.

27 july 2011

2011-07-27T19:47:00.000+01:00

at around 1830 E2 opened to the middle east with 48.239.6 & 48.251.1 & 48.259.2 all coming in at the same time and the following video is probably coming from Iran on 48.239.6 and as no id can be seen it will go down as unid UNID MIDDLE EAST E2 as i type 1945 the 1 hop stations on R1 are very strong and mixing with each other and hopefully the path moves NW or W or the double hop conditions return to the middle east

25 july 2011

2011-07-25T10:59:00.000+01:00

i have done a few more tests with the KAZ antenna and i have noticed it has a much wider capture lobe than the flag which i don't like. the KAZ is in the same direction as the flag was ie roughly 320 deg and the flag was very poor to the west etc but it got the north Americans etc very good and for example on 740 kHz on the flag i could get Canada and when i switched it over to the pennant at 240 deg i could get Brazil. i will give the KAZ a few more tests but i can see in the near future i will be changing back over to the flag. here is how YVLF Radio Puerto Cabello on 1290 was sounding at 0400z this morning on the KAZ YVLF 1290 KHz there were a few ss on 1230 1240 1270 at 0400z but no ids that i could make out.

22 july 2011....cont....

2011-07-22T10:53:00.000+01:00

nothing much on my recordings apart from the more common stations ie WWKB 1520 AND WDCD 1540 at around 0300 but it was more of a test just to see if the equipment and the kaz was doing ok and on the following link you can hear how boston was sounding at around 0348 .... far too early for serious dx yet but good to see the antenna is working Boston 1510

22 july 2011....cont

2011-07-22T09:40:00.000+01:00

for Thomas Nilsson

last night i set up a switch at the resistor side of the kaz and on one side it had the 540 ohm and the other side i tried various values from 900 - 1000 ohm but 540 ohms had the best rejection on various stations up/down the MW band BUT ! this is not to say this will be the same with other dxers as each qth etc will be different. i suggest a variable resistor and get the best null you can and either leave it or take it off and measure the ohms and replace it with a fixed one with the same value. once again i recorded MW from around 0300 - 0400 and i will report back later if anything interesting is found.

22 july 2011

2011-07-22T09:28:00.000+01:00

a big thanks to Sylvain Naud who posted the following on my B1 ta dx last night

Hi David,

At 03:52, you hear the ID of the program "Nuestra América deportiva" which is beginning. After doing a simple Google search, it leaded me to TeleSUR from Venezuela. There is a short trailer on YouTube of the program where you can see, listen and later compare with the speaker heard on your clip. To my ears, it matches

i was also left a comment for my unid audio on A2 from the 16 june UNID A2 AUDIO

Hello nice capture! but this isn´t Venezuela broadcast... i think that is Mexican for local acent, I´m Venezuelan and we don´t speak with this tone... great work... greetings from Caracas, I´m swl listener, ham operator and scanning lover.

hopefully more conditions like that before it ends