KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - THURSDAY 3rd DECEMBER 2015

 

DX UPDATE FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH:

I really have been having a poor and noisy season this year. I have been discussing the various levels of heightened QRN experienced by dxers in recent years, and seen many have to more or less give up their mw dxing hobby due to local noise from various sources. I had always hoped I was not going to become one of these statistics, yet more and more I have been subjected to local QRN.

But my antenna is definately not what it was I don't think.

But a test the other day with a fellow dxers beverage antenna close by revealed similar results, though I still have a lot of qrn. In fact I haven't felt right about the background noise for example on x band, 1600 - 1700 for some time. It sounds more like perseus generated noise. ie like perseus sounds with no antenna connected.

A test the other morning revealed Davie H hearing a signal on 1700, which I could also hear, but as soon as I by passed the preamp, the signal just was below the noise level..

I have 400m of new cable connected to the beverage, as well as about 200m of new coax, all be it crap satellite tv coax. I have fed audio up the coax from the shack and heard some music up in the woods approximately 300 or 400m away!!

This is an ongoing story. I have tried a walk along the field at the back of me where the antenna woods are. It was too dark to try fighting through the woods last night. But I had a portable radio, and even walking below the power lines that the beverage runs below produced no significant QRN.

Work in progress!!!!

 

NEW DX TOYS - ELAD SDR:

I have treated myself to a couple of additional dx tools. First off I have followed many of the other dxers of the world and opted for an ELAD FM2 SDR, which should be a good assistance to the band 2 FM dxing. The Elad also covers SW and MW of course, but the software is not nearly as convenient as the benchmark Perseus software. But once a few basics were learned and discovered, it works like is says on the box.

One thing I did note about the band 2, is that the basic sensitivity and selectivity is very similar to the other FM band receivers I have, eg the Sony XDR, and the Sony 920, Perseus FM+, which in turn are not much different from the old Grundig Sat 3400.

Out here in the sticks, I usually compare ILR Belfast 97.4 with 97.5 Local ILR relay and see if both are audable, and separatable. I do other sensitivity tests, but I hasten to add that that was the first test and I have more time to spend to find my way around it.

None of the above are troubled by overload here at this qth. City guys often talk of the Sony XDR as a wonder receiver, though I truthfully find it a bit slow to tune compared to the 920, or the FM+.

Back to the Elad, and I am no fan of the dreaded DRM, but I thought I would give it a try. Once I found a couple of broadcasts, the Elad locked on no problem. Unlike trying to use Dream and the Perseus, or any other receiver for that matter. I am not sure if I had ever had audio from any of the MW broadcasts the band used to be jammed with. I had a lock and ID once on possible 1575 or 1593, but no proper audio locked.

More time will be required to familiarise myself with the software before I can comment properly. But it ain't no Persues software that's for sure.

My own wish list would be a simple mode button row for AM LSB USB etc , and not a tiny drop down menu.

I would wish for a decent size frequency read out, and not the unfortunate tiny red thing.

And oh how easy the Perseus is to click the desired mouse wheel steps to tune the receiver in 5, 9 or 10kHz steps for example. The control is there below the frequency.

And isn't the Persues "mouse over" individual digits on the decent sized frequency readout to change the freq just a dream by comparason..

PERSEUS VERSION 5 ALPHA:

The long awaited version 5 of the Perseus software is now available, and I already have taken the plunge. I can't use it for automated timer recordings during the night, due to the GUI changing to full screen after the first recording, and messing up my hotkeys settings. But that's OK. Nothing I don't think has changed in the wideband recording side of things, so I can continue to record with version 4.xx. I am in no hurry to change the autohotkeys script, as I am led to believe that there will be an inbuilt timer in version 5 at some point.

I am unsure what to make of the gui that fills the higher res screens. It does not stretch the GUI in proportion to the size of the screen as such. The buttons can end up fairly small compared to what we have been used to.

DANISH SW CLUBS INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES:

The old DSWCI have recently published an advert for their complete archives on DVD!! This archive goes back to 1957, and includes all issues up to 2002.The DSWCI is another dx club that keeps much of their web site secret for members only, which is a pity.

The club is winding down next year, so who knows what will happen with their archives then...

But a few interesting links below:

The advert for the DVD with the back issues,

http://www.dswci.org/dvd/index.html

A page with 17 sample issues over the years.

http://www.dswci.org/dvd/swn-dvd.html

Dissolution of the DSWCI

http://www.dswci.org/news/2015/dissolution_of_dswci.html

Vintage QSLs and pennents from Niels Jakob Jensen (Well worth a look, and I must stress my approval at someone that knows how to maken a decent res scan for a change!!!)

http://www.dswci.org/specials/njj/QSL_World/index01.html

 

I wonder what other decent res vintage QSL pages we can find. I myself have 70's QSL cards that are in need of uploading, though they are already scanned.