| 560 | WEBC | Duluth, MN | 
25/01/09 0900 ESPN (5kW) (Old File) |
| 1070 | Radio Santa Fe, Columbia | 29/8/10 0530 | |
| 1260 | WSUA | Miami, FL (CARACOL) |
27/8/10 0500 (20kW) (Tip Paul C) |
| 1350 | Radio Buenos Aries, Argentina | 0300 28/08/10 1st decent ID. Tip DH | |
| 1420 | WACK | Newark, NY |
25/12/09 0900 (5kW / 500w) (Old File) |
New / Personal first's this month = 5
100829_0530_1070_radio_santa_fe_columbia.mp3 100827_0500_0504_1260_caracol_miamu_wsua.mp3
A real huge difference from the other day when Winnipeg was showing it's head above the noise in August!! Yesterday morning, the 0500 recording was such a surprise with a band full of SS. Not much in the way of IDs sadly. This morning I used the short west pointing beverage instead of the usual 500m NW facing wire. The drawback being the length of the shorter wire, which has reduced performance by comparison, at the lf end of the band. The shorter wire is roughly 170m - 190m I recon. From memory, the former termination point which is prone to hedge cutters, was more or less 200m, and because of the said hedge cutters, I have held the earth point back into the woods a bit. Anyway, around 2300 last night I was pleasantly surprised by the sound of the GLOBO transmitters on 1220 and 1100. Also some other signals around, inc 980 Brazil. 1130 and 1140 and even 1010 had much lower signals. So all the mucking around trying to improve aerials last summer for Latins, which was completely in vain, really couldn't beat the conditions. At that time of night, I am troubled by Euro splatter. The beverages are fine for dawn dxing, and indeed I can not complain, but they sure do bring in the Euros at night time. An American dxer recently commented to me of his surprise that he could hear Euros on a beverage pointing to North America!!! LOL...I guess the chap is under some illusion that the beverage is more like a satellite dish that an mf aerial. Trust me, unless you have a much more sophisticated antenna than the simple beverage, the stations from the back will still come through, even if with reduced signal strength.
PERSEUS REFUSES TO RECORD LIVE: I also had a small problem of my own making last night in the excitement to record 2300, and the GLOBO signals. The recording failed. Perseus went through the motions and looked as though it had recorded, but there was no recording. What was wrong?? Well I had forgotten that I had renamed the folder already, to something like the following. "2010.08.25_la_0500" This is so that I don't sweep the drive carelessly and delete the Latin files by mistake. Folders are normally only called something like the following "2010.08.25". But last night in my haste, I hit record, and forgot there were a load of underscores on the folder name, which is a no no when recording. This is just a peculiarity to the Perseus software. It ain't no big thing, but you must always remember it. Playback from a folder with underscores is fine. The file that was created instead of 2300_000.wav, was in fact 2010.08.25_la_500.wav, and this was created up a level, outside the folder of the same name. And because I couldn't see the file within the folder, which was open, I tried again after the top of the hour. Guess what. Same thing happened. But this time I discovered the error, but it was too late. The software had created new files, the same name as the files from the top of the hour, and overwritten them!! Ach well. You can't have everything.
NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A LATIN ID: As stated above, I had some rare signals from Latins, and the 1290 recording below is the way I like to hear my IDs. The best ID is at 46s in the second part of the short rec. GLOBO 1100 has an ID, but something happened to the audio recorded, and it sounds like a bad bit rate recording. Apolo is appalling ,lol, but there is an id there. The other Globo 1220 has no id at the time of the recording. Prob best I have heard it in years. Virgin was talking at the time, on 1215. There are a few other audio clips today. Unid 1580, as well as yesterdays poss CJMR on 1320. Snds kinda FF. I think that snds like a call at the start of the rec, but I ask for a second opinion. Rebelde 1620 has been good, as has 1180 and 670. Progresso is more unusual on 640. Usually NFLD is big here. The signal on 920 prob only says 920 am it's something o'clock. It was right at the end of my recording, so maybe there is more which I missed. Both Paul C and I had unids on 1270 yesterday. Paul had sort of classical, but I thought mine was more like easy listening sort of tunes, as well as another SS mixing. Today didn't seem to have the same signals on 1270. I have absolutely no idea what the signals were. I really don't like to make any claims like I have seen in the past in the dx press that go something like this. "OM in SS. Pres 2 watter from darkest Peru". OK, I may be exaggerating a little. lol. Unfortunately the most of the other stations on the band at 0500 the last couple of days, have been just that. OM in SS. But I do wonder what a native SS dxer would get from the last couple of days Perseus recordings. Do any native SS guys want to try the last two day's 10m recordings at 0500??
100826_0457_0501_1290_radio_puerto_cabello_VEN_exc_ids.mp3 100826_0500_1320_radio_apolo_ven.mp3 100825_2300_1100_globo_(AUDIO_WENT_FUNNY_ON_CLIP).mp3 100825_2335_1220_globo_no_id.mp3
100826_0506_920_unid_time_check_end_of_rec.mp3 100826_0503_610_unid_yl_ss_poss_id_in_web_address.mp3
100825_05_0503_1320_unid_lingo_ff_or_ss_(POSS_JUST CJMR?_CALL_AT_START??).mp3 100825_0500_1430_unid_w_stn_poss.mp3 100826_0502_1580_unid_yl_15-80_am.mp3
100825_0500_640_radio_progresso.mp3 100825_0500_1290_wjno_west_palm_beach_poor.mp3 100825_0506_930_cjyq_(RARE_DX_NOWADAYS!!).mp3
MW DXING: Just before wiping files from this morning, Paul C reported a BBC Relay on 560, // the strong 555 St Kitts BBC relay. There wasn't a trace here, at 0500, but after checking the file at 0456, there it was, the BBC, exactly // 555. No idea where it was coming from, but Paul suspects possibly Guyana. Apart from that oddity, there was nothing to really interest me today. Band was well depressed on yesterday's opening. I often wonder who lives on an exotic island in the West Indies, and wants to listen to long winded news bulletins from the BBC, thousands of miles away.
MOROCCO STRONG LAST NIGHT 595: I noticed Morocco off channel last night on 595kHz, quite strong at times, though muffled audio. Initially I hoped it may have been more exotic. Nigeria for example.
VINTAGE RADIO MAP AND BOOK: UPDATE: Have fixed the London insert, where the join was pretty rough. Now it's only slightly rough. Same goes for the circle off Yorkshire. So anyone that needs to download again, then so be it. As mentioned a few days ago, I have a vintage Radio map of Britain on line. The download is large. The original map is OS map size, and had to be scanned in about 25 parts. It joins up not too bad, bar the top right in the London insert. I actually believed I had this fixed, but must have used the wrong scan in the finished article. I will repair. Anyway, the map seems to have generated quite an interest, judging by the number of downloads so far. The date was estimated to be in the 1920's, and closer may be 1922 - 1923. One of the experimental stations closed in 1923, but it is mentioned on the map. Mike at MDS975 web site inform me that the data is from between March 1923 when 5SC started, but before 2BD started on 10th October 1923. History of this map is this. I was given it by an architect friend who found it in an old building they were working on up the coast in Ardrosson I think it was. I have had it since the 80's. To go with the map, I have reproduced another heavy download. A 71 meg download of a pdf by Burrows from 1924. This is a very interesting book, and well worth a look. It would also be a rarity I think. coming from the 1920's and entitled the Story of Broadcasting. The foreword is by none other than Marconi himself!! Page 54 even mentions KDKA under the chapter entitled "1922". Apologies if a few of the pages don't seem as sharp as they could. Maybe the old scanner is getting a bit past it's best. Below are links to all the downloads I have produced in the last few weeks. ============================================================= The Story of Broadcasting - Burrows - 1924 - 184 pages - (71 meg pdf) BBC Jubilee booklet - 1947 (45 meg pdf) World Radio Television Annual 1947 - 6.4 meg pdf (Chronological developments only so far) Radio Weekly September 14th 1951 (15 meg pdf)
Philips Wireless Map of Great Britain - 1922/3 (25 meg jpg) Philips Wireless Map of Great Britain - Front of map (400k jpg) Philips Wireless Map of Great Britain - Full sized map in HTML file (to view in browser)
Although much of the common stations were heard today, the band seemed to be opening up a little bit, to begin to show powerhouse signals of common stations, and some less common stuff being noticed as well. So again, I have created a montage of various stations, mostly, though not exclusively from around 0400 - 0500. The file length is 5m or so, and includes some much weaker and less common stns today. I was a bit surprised that CFRW made it through the mess at 0400. UPDATE: DX neighbour Paul C had Sandy, Utah on 1640 at 0500. At that time I had a mix of Disney from Milwalkee, and WTNI with ESPN sports. We are mostly on different fades, and hear completely different stations when the band is open. Paul is about 20 miles North West, on the coast.
CLICK HERE FOR 2 MEG AUDIO FILE FROM THIS MORNING
700 WLW Also noted but not included 1240 VOCM, 1470 WJDY, 670 WSCR, 830 WCCO, 1320 WILS, 1200 WOAI, 820 WBAP and lots of other common stns, and a few unids. What sounded like KCKK was on 1510, but it did sound like a possible new toth ann. Old toth is given below.
A COUPLE OF CHIN RECORDINGS FROM 1540: I saw on the IRCA lists, someone wondering where China Radio on 1540 came from. It is common here in Europe, and in fact a pest. Below are two separate IDs, both slightly different. 100303_0400_1540_chin_inc_fm_id.mp3
I must
really take some time to improve and update the audio clip page by
freq. Another half finished project. My idea was to include as best
as possible top of the hour clips of many many stations that are heard
here in Europe.
I have been chasing Merseyland Alternative Radio for a long time. They broadcast weekends on 1386 and sometimes 1314kHz as well. I assume to a different area?? MAR used to be a very loud and powerful station here in Scotland, about 30 years ago. The signal of the current MAR is no where near that of the old Merseyside Pirates that used to come in well here in Southern Scotland. I have included three audio clips of today's poor signal but a definite log, and an old recording from MAR from 30 years ago. There is also another recording of MFR, probably the strongest station ever heard here from Merseyside. 1386 today also gave me Carillion I think it was in the mess. Incidentally Energy Power AM from Dublin was still good on the next channel up on 1395. I should have recorded a clip of Energy for comparison.
100822_1932_1386_mar_weak.mp3 (id at 20s) 800622_1200_1125_mar_recorded_scotland.mp3 (2,488k) 830417_1200_1242_merseyside_free_radio.mp3 (3,933k)
The BT guy was out today and found the fault on the line....A hell of a nice chap, all the way from Dumfries on a Saturday as well!!! I came in from the pub last night and set my timer to record MW, but forgot to plug Perseus in!!! lol.... So nothing overnight!!!
BROADBAND STILL DOWN: Still my broadband is broken. It seems the joker I have been speaking to on the phone the last 3 days was not taking my call as a complaint, and he simply repeated like a budgie, that everyone North of Newcastle has broadband issues!!! I finally got a hold of someone, through using a number I had Davie up the road look for on line. It worked!! I guess I may well be off line till Monday!!!! The phone line is also hanging on by the skin of your teeth, but is very very crackly, worse than MW dxing in a thunderstorm.
MERRY CHRISTMAS - DX IN OLD FILES: A couple of old logs noted here...
1570 20th December 2009 I had a reasonable WNSH 1570 Beverley Ma id at 2200 1420 25th December WACK 1420 Newark, NY 0900 (Pers 1st) 1330 WLOL 1000 30/12/09 1280 WADO NY 1280 1000 30/12/09
There was a brief opening yesterday evening from station M1 in Hungary. DH also reports NOVA Czech and 1+1 Ukraine. I am not suficiently enthusiastic by this time of year, for minor TVDX openings.
MW DXING: A few common stations heard this morning at 0400/ 0405 / 0430 or 0500: 540 CBC
I have not even logged any of this lot in the log book. These are the common stations that I would expect to receive on an average night. There are other common stations I never ided today, but this will serve as a rough guide to what is being heard here in SW scotland. I don't usually list many of these stations on a daily or even weekly or monthly basis. I do
know of enthusiasts that have not heard one single signal from across
the Atlantic, perhaps due to a noisy QTH, or sometimes even lack of
antennas. I have heard some stations without the aid of an external
antenna sometimes in mid winter when signal levels are traditionally
high.
My broadband has died off on me unfortunately. The company are aware of the problem, and at the time of writing, it still hasn't kicked back in.
OLD UK RADIO MAP FROM THE 1920's: I have an old UK map reproduced here. It is map size, and has been scanned and joined up on the PC, maybe a little bit rough in parts, but it is a reasonable scan. The original file size of half the map, was over a gig, and I was running out of memory tring to make a full sized map from that resolution. Anyway, the on line high res version is 5000 pixels wide, and around 25 meg if you want to try. Apologies if some of the joins are not perfect, and in fact the London area needs redone, the insert at the top. Remember NASA and their hi res images of Mars are not perfectly joined sometimes. Click the images below to view in your browser, or click HERE for a direct download.
I was letting time run away from me the other day when I put the yearbook as I call it on line. The PDF still contained a shed load of dead links, which I forgot to disable. So the updated pdf is now available, same link.
Click here for the dxing in SW Scotland annual summer 2009 - summer 2010
ALL THOSE YEARS AGO: Today is now some 43 years since the closure by the Wilson Labour government of the offshore radio stations around the shores of the UK. Radio London, Radio 390, Radio Scotland, Radio England, Radio 355, Britain Radio, Radio City, Radio 270 are just a handful of the stations which were well known back in the 60's. Almost all closed after the Marine Offences Act came into force. Radio Caroline continued defiantly, with Johnnie Walker and Robbie Dale at midnight, playing we shall overcome. As we all know, Radio Caroline is still going today, on satellite and on the web. This is certainly Radio Caroline, under a slightly different guise, despite snide remarks from some former offshore broadcasters, who like to pretend that it is not somehow the real Radio Caroline that we have on the air today, but an imposter!!. Yet any "slow to learn" person could even manage to trace the history through the last 20 years back to the time at sea. There seems to be some kind of jealousy in some former ranks of the offshore scene. There are the clowns that sit and gripe, usually anon, on silly message boards. Then there are the guys that actually do something and strive to provide a service. I know I prefer to listen to my old favourite 70's presenters on Caroline, than sit and make cheap shots at guys that are do'ers. But the gripers think they are being funny, or maybe even feel they are somehow, in their own mind, being clever. As I have said on these pages in the past, these people that like to post anon on message boards, wouldn't come up to you in the pub and start mouthing off. I'd like to see them come to the door of my local pub and shout in that we were all a bunch of ignorant crap!!! Imagine the reaction!!! lol. But maybe it is the way of the web. It is not just radio boards that have anon entries having a go, simply because they can. The latest rubbish I have read on one of the radio message boards complains about how rude the Caroline guys are, when they don't speak to their enthusiastic fans at conventions. I get the impression the gripers expect to be spoken to, despite being complete strangers. I went up and said hello to Buzby and co at the last convention I was at, and ended up knocking the corks off a few bottles. Telepathy doesn't work. You have to use the old fashioned art of conversation!!! Back in 1988 I was at a convention in Blackpool, chatting to Heddy Eddie, at that time the engineer at Boyneside Radio in Drogheda, Ireland. (1305kHz). We became aware of these two guys standing staring, but not saying anything initially. It turned out they were after Eddie's autograph...lol..... Eddie of course was happy to help, as they looked on in awe at their hero!!! It takes all sorts to make a world..... Back to the story. What do I think of the current day Caroline? I take my hat off to the guys that have somehow kept the service running on a shoestring for the last 2 decades. In 1991 we had no Caroline. Now we have it on the satellite and on the web for all. It is such a shame no one has won the lottery that is enthusiastic enough to hire airtime on stations like 1314, or 675, etc. Imagine a powerhouse pan European night time service again on MW. They still have the 1980's ship, the Ross Revenge. At the end of the month, they again bring the sound of offshore radio to the AM band on 531kHz with flea power. The signals, like those of the former 576 and 558, just don't quite make it to this part of the country. I have received many of the RSL broadcasts from the Ross, but never on 531. I have logged 1503, 1584. But 531? The Faroes are far too strong. If I null the Faroes, there is a station from either Spain, or is it Portugal, I don't remember. I have never even managed to hear the distinctive bell at the top of the hour. I was not of an age in the 60's to have heard any of the era's offshore stations, but as a ten year old in 1973-74, I began to listen to Radio Northsea and Radio Caroline / Seagull. The Dutch era, with the ships anquored off the Dutch coast. Again in the month of August, this time 31st, 1974, The Dutch government brought their own Marine Offences Act into being. Caroline upped anquor and sailed again to the English coast, where the Mi Amigo remained until she broke andquor and sank in March 1980. By this time I was well and truly hooked on the enchanting album format they broadcast at that time. Luckily these days, web sites like AZ Anorak have downloadable recordings available. There is quite an archive of 1970's recordings. I have quite an archive on line here on this site as well, but not so many of the late 70's. I didn't have unlimited amounts of tapes, and had only very basic recorders.
My friend Maurits from Belgium has recently started a blog spot ready for the dx season. Click to look at Maurits' logs and comments, mostly in the Dutch language. http://dxbelgium.blogspot.com/
ANOTHER ANNUAL DX E-BOOK FROM SW SCOTLAND: Again, I have included all the text from the last year, from August - July in one so called e-book. This pdf document had 301 pages this year, up on last year's 243. I seem to remember that last year, there were quite a large number of downloads of the annual pdf. The previous versions are linked through the logs and news index page. NB: All the audio clips and high res images of photos are not embedded in the pdf. That would have made the file rather large. As it stands, it is about 5 meg. The reason why the annual is not produced in January at the start of a new year, is really to do with the mw dx season, which runs traditionally during the Autumn and Winter months. Thus from August - July will include the full MW season. This is also a great way to save these ramblings, anyone that's interested enough. UPDATE: If you downloaded this file on Friday or Saturday, you may want to re download it. I forgot to disable all the dead links, which link to audio files which aren't there. This saved half a meg too!!!
Click here for the dxing in SW Scotland annual summer 2009 - summer 2010
DX FOR FRIDAY 13TH: Unlucky for some it seems, but I recorded today to see what this time of year would bring as far as mw dxing was concerned. We are still far too early in the season to become even remotely excited, and by the time you read this, the Perseus files will be already deleted. But I have included a montage of common stations heard as follows: WINS 1010, WTIC 1080, WBBR 1130, CKNB 950, VOCM 620, WWKB 1520, WEGP 1390, WDEA 1370, WZAN 970, WFAN 660, CFTR 680 None of these stations can really be classed as difficult dx here at these lattitudes, and are rarely even written into logs etc. But even at this time of year, there are a few reasonable signals around. Recordings all made around 0400, or 0430 this morning. Best peak seems to be around 0430 at this time.
BBC BOOKLET FROM 1947: I assume no one at the Beeb is going to be worried about copyright from a pamphlet from over 60 years ago. I have scanned the said booklet and created a pdf, available here. There are many great old photos of the BBC including wartime damage. Worth a look. Click the image for a 45 meg download.
Incidentally, I have another book I may scan and put up on line here. It is from the 1920's by A.R. Burrows, and is called THE STORY OF BROADCASTING. It is a very interesting book, published in 1924. I
doubt if there is anyone who would have copyright issues with another
old book that is rarely seen these days.
PERSEUS AGAIN: Do I have the 70's time warp attitude? Let me explain myself. In "real life" so to speak, the "folks down the pub" often accuse me of being musically selfish and stuck in a 70's time warp. So why do I care about the top 40 these days, when I can listen to classic acts from ACDC, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, or Thin Lizzy, Bon Jovi, and the Eagles. I do like a much wider spectrum than that of course, but that would be the core style of my musical taste. The Eagles had a new album last year, which is just great. Does that qualify me as being into new music?? I doubt it. I think I will always be a dinosaur. I don't care. I like what I like. I can't stand silly screechy idiotic sounding girlie adverts on mainstream tv and radio, backed by mind numbing dance music. Listen to older recordings of NOVA for example and compare with the dumb blonde style adverts of today. Anyway I digress. I have a feeling I may have the 70's time warp attitude with regards to the Perseus software. Have I become so used to the GUI that anything else I try I simply scoff at? Well I have tried the WINRADIO Excalibur software on playback only, and have no doubt that I have seen absolutely nothing to interest me with this receiver. I see no advantage (for the type of dxing I do) of the Excalibur over the Perseus, with regards performance, and I also see a much much less user friendly software screen in front of me. I gave the software a real good go, with the few files that are available. I have to say I was a little disappointed. Would I have felt the same if I had been thrown in at the deep end, having never used either the Perseus software or the Excalibur software? What if I had never used an SDR, and I was thrown a few SDR's to test using WINRAD, WINRAD HD, Excalibur, Perseus and SDR IQ software all to try and make a judgment?? I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea, because I have the "70's rock time warp" block in my mind now after nearly three years of running the Perseus. But now, I am of the opinion that the Perseus software is way way out in the lead, compared with any other SDR front end I have seen to date. I doubt that attitude can change now!! Or is it a mental block????? Because of the time of year, the MW dx season has not really started. I would have liked to hear a recording of the same complete MW band using Perseus and Winradio Excalibur. That would prove interesting to compare tight dx situations. I suspect they will be very much the same, from what I have seen so far.
A LITTLE PERSONAL HISTORY OF "ME AND MY PC": Now after 16 years I guess I can no longer be called a beginner when it comes to the humble PC. But I never profess to be an expert. I am still learning. Everybody is still learning. I have no idea of my way around Windows 7 for example, and embarrassing as it may be, I have never ever been able to get a noise out of LINRAD. I tried many times and had to give up!!! I also remember when I had to get a local lassie to switch on my first PC. An old 386 that you had to type WIN to start windows. I do remember thinking, phew, I can never learn this. I was a relative latecomer to the PC in about 1994, with Windows 3.1. Someone impressed me by altering the autoexec.bat file I think it was, to include the WIN command, and allow this basic 20mhz pc to start up straight into WINDOWS. I also had an amazing 330 meg of hard drive space to fill up. I discovered that a lot of secrets of the PC are actually concealed in books, and so I read a lot of what is now basic stuff, to try and get through this uphill struggle. I also learned by my many many errors, and harassing people I knew had worked these machines for years before me!! I also observe that the folks I used to harass with only few exceptions, really were glorified typists and hadn't a clue. But I only realised this once I had passed a certain stage of that learning curve. Many years before the WINDOWS REVOLUTION, I tried to learn BBC computers. Incidentally the revolution can hardly be described as anything else, despite the anti Gates brigade. It was the development of Windows that made the PC what it is today. No doubt we would not be using the Perseus had it not been for Bill!! Anyway, I had tried to learn BBC computers and Spectrum etc in the 80's I guess that was. Boy did I have NO clue whatsoever. None. I could not grasp this LINE 10 Let a#="b* etc type of programming. Some guys used to tell me it was so easy, but I must have had the dinosaur mind at that time too. George Wood used to talk computers talk on Radio Sweden when I was working with a manky old manual typewriter with dodgy keys to type up a column in Danish SW Clubs. I was the last of the "editors" to go computer in 1994. I used to cut handwritten logs into single strips, sit them out on the floor in order, big bit of sellotape to keep them in order, before anyone opened the door and blew them away, or before a dog would come in, and then laboriously type it all up. A nightmare that really became a chore. So when I had the old 386 and an old copy of WORKS, this was like...amazing man.... One thing I learned though, was not to be scared to try and improve the PC with useful software. I also learned that machines that are slowing up need formatted every now and again, to get back to having a responsive PC. I also learned quickly that many people in positions of employment who supposedly "work every day with computers" have no clue, and just bumble through their well paid positions. I meet many on my travels that I guess would struggle to start winamp. I often hear the same tale from many old wives, "Yea, my boy works with computers". It probably turns out he is a check out boy at Tesco!! I have even met some of these experts, who turn out not to be quite what the old mother imagines her son to be. Heavens, a young chap I was friendly with a few years back swapped me a laptop for a TV, but he wanted his personal files wiped and hadn't a clue how to do it. Enter another young HND student. This guy reckoned he could easily enough create a large shopping web site like ebay, and I have no reason to doubt his claims. However the two of them tried to format this laptop drive for many many hours and failed. Enter an aging, PC self taught long haired joker, slightly the worse for wear from being at the pub. After a few minutes, the job was done. That same long haired joker had the laptop at the side of his bed one night, and promptly stood on it and smashed the screen, after coming back from the pub... O yes, and about that joker. .. You are reading his ramblings...lol
PERSEUS UNATTENDED RECORDINGS: I have been reading on the Perseus group recently about many dxers that have never made unattended recordings with Perseus. I find this quite amazing, and unnecessary. Unattended recording is very important for MW dxing "like the way we do with Perseus" . The Autohotkeys script was the second best piece of software that came around, second to the Perseus software itself. I think the biggest problem is fear among some dxers of installing third party software. Well I had to ask myself this. Did I want to record unattended files overnight, or did I not. If you do not want unattended files, then don't install, but if you do... just do it. Then worry about the consequences!! Scary?? Well I used to think so too, but you never learn if you don't bugger up things!! I read on the Perseus Yahoo group a couple of years ago that Mathias had come out with the script for unattended recording, and thought O dear O dear. I remember dx neighbour Paul C managed to get Autohotkeys running, after some hours. I did not have the confidence to tackle that myself at that time, till he had his working. When Paul managed to get it going, he sort of talked me through. After this, I never looked back. Maybe again because of the 70's time warp mentality, I see no reason to try any of the other timers. They seem to require an operating system size download to work, in the shape of the dotnet framework. That will download about 240 meg. I have used AUTOHOTKEYS script since it was released, and made a set of script files for every hour. In July, I was only recording a couple of hours, because it was mid summer, so all I have to do before bed time is click the 0330 and 0400 text files, and go. Two clicks. It couldn't be easier. I see guys on the PERSEUS yahoo group that won't even try this. I am not sure why. I think the reason I use this script is simply because it was the first, and was always reliable, with very few exceptions, so why change. I also saw comments about a RAR file I have had on line for a while, of Autohotkey essentials for Perseus. A chappie couldn't open it. Fair comment, maybe it should have been a zip instead. Windows have since XP, had the built in ZIP function without using WINRAR or WINZIP etc. So I have recreated the file below as a zip, adding a 47 page pdf file, which starting on page 6 includes autohotkeys instructions. The pdf is a collection of various Perseus articles I have written on these pages in the last year or so. It also includes the Windows 7 installation guide in ENGLISH. The Microtelecom instructions are include a lot of Italian. (As you would expect from an Italian company..hi) NB: This file is for Perseus version 2.1i. The BETA 3 versions have a slight change in the way one of the windows opens, and renders the script useless. I shall update the script in due course. I was going to wait till a version was released that wasn't named BETA, but my thoughts are that it may now be some time due to work being done on the GEMINI SDR, and I suspect there will not be so many upgrades in the coming years.
PERSEUS AUTOHOTKEYS ESSENTIALS (6 MEG ZIP FILE)
NOTHING TO SAY: Well for a few weeks I have made no entries on this blog. I have been recording the odd days, but nothing much to report until thursday morning, when the aurora etc caused a bit of LA reception again on MW. Davie H ided a Peruvian on 1540 on Wed morning. I hear SS here but can't hear any real ids. Not to say there isn't any there. My SS is poor unless IDs are jumping out at you. Like for example Radio Coro, with the shouting style IDs.
OVER ENTHUSIASTIC SPAM BLOCKERS: Doe's anyone else see some overenthusiastic form of spam blockers on the go these days?? They seem to be blocking simple e mails with live links. This happened to me recently with a chappie in South Africa who was enquiring about the NRD 545 I have for sale. My reply with live links ended up in the spam folder for no real reason. By the way on investigation of prices to send 10kg to South Africa, it was a whopping £150 or thereabouts!!! Also checked DHL and they were similar!! Phew...
NRD 545'S ON EBAY: I see there are 2 NRD545s on ebay just now. A few days to go on both, but both have bigs. £699 and £460 I think as I type this. I will watch with interest. UPDATE: The £460 NRD from Leeds eventually sold for £680 I think it was. The other one in Aberdeen sold for over £700, but I had not bookmarked that properly, so missed the final price. There was a buy now price of £1000 on it.
WWVA 1170 ANTENNAS FALLEN: An entry on the IRCA message board alerted me to the following story yesterday. All three towers were reduced to junk after a major storm. They have been part of the skyline for many years. The towers were all free standing, ie not guyed. This 50kW monster is a regular here in Scotland in the winter months. Below are a couple of clips taken from last winter, of reception here in Scotland.
In days gone by, WWVA was a powerful AM music radio station, but now sadly carries all the talk radio network dribble that many other former famous AM stations are reduced to. But I always like their deep voice overs that have such an AM growl - WWVA - WHEELING, heard at the top of the hour. I always find it cool when their signal sits right on top of the Euros, including all the ILR stuff from the UK. In the last couple of excellent DX winters, the station is classed here as a common log. Some web links that will be interesting. NB. The kind of latest news type addresses may update with newer stories, but hopefully that photo gallery will remain.
http://www.wwva.com/cc-common/mainheadlines2.html?feed=119921&article=7439986 http://www.wwva.com/cc-common/gallery/display.html?album_id=244870 http://www.wegw.com/pages/tyson.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5ByhpBFriM&feature=player_embedded. (same video as above) http://jeff560.tripod.com/wwva.html http://www.chuckthewriter.com/wwva.html |
