LOGS / NEWS - DECEMBER 2013 A site mainly dedicated to Mediumwave Dxing |
| 1350 | XEQK | Tropicalisma, Mexico | 0800 26/12/13. Also noted 0800 25/12 |
| 1450 | WKAL | Rome, NY | 
0400ish 15/12/13 (1kw CW DX TEST) |
| 1530 | XEUR | Mexico City. Radio Fiesta |
0800 26/12/13 Tnx AB for the help (Also noted in recordings from 24/12
0600) |
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It was with much regret that I had to cut the feeder cables today from my two beverage antennas. They cross a normally reasonably average river, with plenty room to avoid fishing lines etc. But not today. Scotland was hit by persistant rain over night, and the results were felt this morning. Water levels were up about 7 feet maybe, and I had part of a large tree almost snarl in one of the feeders. These cables are the helix coax which I rescued from the dreaded scrappie's some years ago, and are the type that you see on mobile masts. Very thick and tough, and rather than breaking the cable, it was possible that the amazing force of nature would tear the roof from the shack in an instant or some similar fate. So with a heavy heart, I took the big snips to the two feeders that may have created more problems than I care for. As a result, there will be no tadx recordings till I can get across and reconnect. But the forecast doesn't look great for the coming days. I may be able to reach it and throw a rope across to retrieve. I am not sure yet!!! But one thing. I am not taking any chances and doing any heroics. I don't wish to travel by river to the coastal town 15 miles away thank you.. LOL. I don't mind driving!!
Not much of interest today, not like the Mexican opening yesterday on the HF end of the band.
Not had any time this holiday season to do anything. But it was good to log the LF station again on Christmas Eve. Also I note a few SS Mexicans at 0800 today, 26th.., but not fully diugested the recording today.... due to time.
1710 and 1720 both had carriers around 0400 and 0500.... Checking for hints of audio
INTERESTING UNID THREAT WARNINGS: I have included an old recording found on an old ID tape while copying them. Listen to the clip which was clear unencrypted SSB on 3mhz daytime. NATO exercise???? Comments welcome.
It may not always be easy to get your antenna working well enough to be able to tune in to one of the lowest frequency broadcasts there is. SAQ in Sweden do a Christmas Eve broadcast most years at 0800GMT on the low frequency of 17.2khz. This year was no exception, and I was also here live to check out a couple of things. First of all the signal was only heard when I by passed any balun in circuit. The baluns seem to cut off VLF, but they DO help cut the noise on MW. Second thing I noticed was that the RPA 1 preamp was not making any difference at this low frequency. Third thing was that I could hear the signal on 2 or maybe it was three different antennas. It had signed off before I was able to try any other combinations of receceiver.
MW was slightly more lively today than of late, thought not exactly setting the heather on fire. I had 1070 WFLI, Lookout Mountain at 2200 last night, KTOE 1420 at 09, KTSP 1500 (ESPN St Pauls) 0900, and a load of what I term as common stations.
I think it was 0700 that was the proposed GMT time of the dx test from WCIT. No trace here sadly, even though 940 has a pretty clear LSB. The USB side of 940 is a bit splattery with Euro QRM. I wish the organisers would also have GMT time in their press releases!!
DX TEST FROM 1450 WKAL, ROME, NY: Yesterday's DX test was in fact repeated today, heard at 0600, and much weaker at 0700. Initially I heard the 0600 CW, and thought it was stronger than the previous day's 0500 reception, but really it was much the same. 0700 today was very much weaker. But it makes the band seem as though there is life in it, when you hear something coming out the ether that is new!! I spent some time yesterday afternoon trying to email the IRCA who's mailing list I was able to contribute to, but wasn't sure if emails were getting through. The first email appeared a day later!! I am not sure the reason why. I perhaps haven't quite got the hang of their reflector, but at any rate, I was sure the station itself would be more than interested in reception from across the water. DX Neighbour Paul C on our Skype DX Chat this morning reported hearing nothing, but soon found the CW. My own initial reports had been looking at a few peeps around 1446.7. There were some distinctive CW peeps round there. But it was also heard better on 1451 at the same time, of 0401 or 0402ish. This would make it I guess a 1kHz tone that was used. I still haven't confirmed the source of the definite tones on 1446.7 as from the dx test. Higher frequency tones / harmonics, or ?? Or musical notes from 1449!! LOL. But 1451 was there at any rate. Note, LSB in Europe would have the tone bang on 1449, a Euro channel. A thought for other engineers testing hoping to make it to Europe. Sometimes the tones are lower in frequency, and one dx test in particular on 1590 was just too low a tone during the test, because of the dreaded DRM we used to have to suffer on the freq (1593). It has now closed down thankfully. But at the time it was felt that if we had a tone that would be just away from the Euro, we would have had a fighting chance. (I think it was a 2khz tone that was needed, I can't really remember to be honest.) A couple of Perseus screen shots are given below as well as the two audio clips. "DE WKAL AM 1450 ROME NEW YORK"
CW AND ME: Thanks to Mark and Finbar for the emails translation, for I would have to sit and look up my old book letter by letter. There are some familiar strings. CQ is easy for me to recognise on the ham bands, and so is DE which was used today. I have never really stuck in at the CW. Maybe I should!! Gees I never had time to decypher that small bit of CW, never mind try and learn the complete alphabet. I used to, and probably still can, recite the first half, but only in alphabetical order. ie start at A and go as far as possibly I. And of course I know selected letters after this. Like S, and V, K etc. But I am not fluent by any standards!! Morse is listed below, if anyone wants a look while listening to the dx test.
OTHER LOGS AND BITS AND PIECES: I heard a quite lively sounding band tonight, Monday night at 2200. First time in a while.. I even squeezed a daytimer.
POLARITY TRICK : I mentioned some time ago that I couldn't recall a simple trick to make any DC apparatus free from worry of reverse polarity, but couldn't remember what it was. It is from an old Practical Wireless I'm sure, but from when I don't remember. I have found a poor reprint of it I have done at one time, which has lain in a damp area as you can see. Sadly no date on the page to go and find the original to scan.
GMT TIMES ON THIS WEB SITE: Times on these logs/ dx pages of this web site are always going to be in GMT. Some dxers use their own local time, but here at least, it is all traditional GMT.
1930's WIRELESS LICENCE: I found this on ebay last year and thought I would share a decent scan with everyone. I have another one somewhere from a local resident, from later times. There was a very interesting site "Mike" found, with older and loads of different and various types of licences, but sadly the scans are very poor.
I heard todays dx test with CW around 0503 on 1451ish. It was heard just after 0400 as well, but signals were much better at 0500. Signal reasonable, and will be a personal first. I have not written the contents of the cw yet. That takes me a while..lol.. But I shall tomorrow I guess..
131215_0503_1450_wkal_rome_ny_cw_dx_test.mp3
BAND CONDITIONS: I have not heard much of interest on the bands this weekend.
GM100RSGB ON 1858: I don't tend to log hams much, but I rarely hear local guys on top band. I heard this guy on Saturday night, who said he was from Killie!! I actually noticed the strong signal at the end of the Perseus screen, and had a listen. Pity I wasn't here to give him a call. A superb signal from what, 12 miles away???
MASSACARE IN GLASGOW AS THE COPS COME THROUGH THE CLUTHA ROOF: I came in from the pub on Friday night and happened to turn on the TV to be greeted initially with the shock news about a pub I am very familiar with. The Clutha Bar in Glasgow was destroyed by a Police chopper crashing through the roof on a busy St Andrews Friday night. For the first few minutes, the announcements were only about a City Centre pub in Glasgow, but shortly afterwards, it became clear that it was the Clutha! This Clydeside pub is one of the top venues in the city for live music. A SKA band was in progress on Friday night as disaster struck. Some of my own favourite rock cover bands play the Clutha. Let's hope that the cops have access to a blank cheque to immediately pay to cover funeral expenses for the families of their victims. It certainly should not be up to these poor individual families to find that kind of extra expense at this time of year, when they are completely innocent victims. It should also be hoped that the same blank cheque is used to immediately pay for a fast rebuild of the premises, and not spin it out for two years or five years or whatever, claim the building is unsafe and demolish it, and hope everyone goes away, and get off scott free. That cheque should also be used for loss of earnings to the owners of the bar, as well as the bar staff and bands that have lost bookings through absolutely no fault of their own. Why should bar staff and entertainers be denied their little extra cash especially at this time of year when every penny is a prisoner. These poor people were completely innocent victims of this tragedy. Yet I have heard no mention of this in the news reports. Journalists are not usually so tactful. It should certainly not be up to the pub insurance to cough up, that's for sure. But I ask this. What would have happened to the driver of a truck, if it was a lorry that had ploughed into the building, also accidentally. I was shot down at the weekend for even asking this question. But lets look at the "blame" society the government and the puppet media have created over the last decades. If that had been a truck driver, there would already have been calls of "manslaughter" on the media. I guarantee that, even if it was simply a tragic accident, and should have been treated as such. I don't honestly believe the cops should be accused of any sort of manslaughter for what after all was a terrible accident in Glasgow on Friday. But please remember that those self same punk cops would be the first to try and build a case around our ficticious truck driver and create completely unnecessary media hysteria which always degenerates into a witch hunt!! I even heard a hint of a suggestion on an early bulletin from another pilot I think it was that these guys were heroes for "possibly" deliberately missing a block of flats!!!!! Perhaps the large flat roof did look like an unlit piece of waste ground from the air in the dark. We will never know for sure. Maybe they never even had a chance to take any evasive action, as there was no radio call to suggest an emergency. But heroes they certainly were not, ploughing through a busy pub on a Friday night, and it was a very selfish and unwelcome comment from this half wit, with no consideration for the families of the victims trapped inside the Clutha.
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