LOGS / NEWS - FEBRUARY 2011 A site mainly dedicated to Mediumwave Dxing |
| 590 | CJCL | Toronto, Ont | 
28/01/11 0800 (50 kW) The Fan - 590 (Rare here thru VOCM) |
| 680 | WAPA | Puerto Rico |
0258 9/2/11 10kW (Tip Stuart H, London) |
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UPDATE ON "KTRK - ARMY RADIO 1670": I was in such a hurry to upload the other day while writing about the X banders, and including a recording of KTRK, I forgot to explain the significance of the ARMY RADIO recording. This was a soak test of a transmitter that was being sent to Europe. What a pity there isn't more of these kind of tests. Even the two DX tests over last weekend were canceled!! Bummer... The story of KTRK was published back in March 1996, in MWC. Click the pdf file below for a bit of history. I hope this is classed as fair use, to reproduce. Otherwise it may have to be removed. Pity their back archives are not all on line, and make use of a medium that is there for all, the www. If I had not looked up the archives, I would have placed this in 1995, which is the date on my old manky tape. You know, just after new year, and still writing the previous year by mistake.. Yes mistake... Human error...
1602 METRES MW: The other recording given is from an RSL, but I forgot to mention that it was quite amusing that my local ILR station never knew the difference between metres and kHz. They ann as 1602 metres!!! Give it a listen!!
BAHAMAS THIS MORNING - 1540: DX neighbour David H who is only about 150 yards away, alerted me to a reasonable signal from The Bahamas at 0725. So there I am, listening to 1540, and hear all music. But after David tells me there is an ID at 0725, I listen to the start of the 0730 recording. I have the very end of the ID!!! I don't even have Bahamas. I have "HA MAS", followed by a long gap and then the strong music. This would probably have been the best signal and ID I would have ever heard from them I think, ie one for the mp3 collection. Traditionally, many of their ids are muffled and bassy. O well, maybe another time . . lol
RADIO CAROLINE NOT ON 1071: It seems through comments on the web, that the authorities in France are not going to allow Radio Caroline to occupy the unused 1071 frequency. Why?? Well they claim that even though unused in years, they are now going to use it!!! That is typical of government bodies. It is hoped that the UK authorities will stop messing around and just pretend to be normal human beings and allocate a mw frequency without all the bullshit and pretence that has been ongoing since the 1960's!! If it was one of their government stations, there would be no problems in "finding" a channel. It would seem reasonable to allocate a channel that can be heard over quite a wide area, like a regional. Hopefully it will end up being a frequency which more than a few hundred watts can be used. No one seems to have mentioned the stupid allocations of the 1990's was it, when one station was allocated four or five separate transmitters to cover London. Now tell me, surely there is something wrong when they need to occupy three channels with four or five transmitters. Is that not just a joke??.
Suggestions have been coming in from enthusiasts:
540 - Belgium off but Hungary strong at night, but out the way of UK ILR stuff 567 - Old RTE channel but right next to Spectrum 558 (Old Tory Caroline jamming station) 576 - Caroline's old channel. Germany leaving this soon?? 594 - Germany off air now, but would need extra investment of a crystal to send out to Morocco on 595!! 612 - Ex RTE Channel. Next to RTB Belgium 621 630 - NRK leaving air soon, But BBC in South on here. 648 - BBC Leave this freq in March 819 - Next to Chiltern 828, but may be usable?? 846 - Watch out Radio North!!! 981 - Star in Ireland and next to London 972. 990 - Allocated to Spectrum as a back up around 1990 1512 - Clear of Belgium now and now not next to Crawley. Only TCR Ireland. 1521 - Next to Essex on 1530.
Another cold morning outside here in Scotland today. Snow and freezing temperatures afterwards ensured a thick coating of ice on car windscreens today. Scrape Scrape Scrape. Well even if MW is not quite like mid winter, it is still February after all.
HICUP ON WEB SITE ON SATURDAY: I think it was Friday night that I was sitting over in the next village, with a portable drive, and updating this site with more extensive menus. I was also glued to the TV, watching that silly old fool in Egypt stand up to the masses, almost causing riots in the streets, before finally standing down. So the concentration on the site was lost to the CNN news reports. I copied updates to the wrong folder, and then deleted more than necessary, after realising the errors of my way!! But I soon realised that I hadn't brought the complete web site with me on the portable drive for some reason. So overnight on Friday, apologies if some pages were either older, wrong or blank, depends how deep into the links you went!! lol... We are only human after all..!!!
AUDIO CLIPS OVER LAST FEW DAYS: I have included a couple of common stations here, mainly because WEGP are including sister stn on 780 at their top of the hour ID quite a lot. I would think this may lead to confusion during conditions that are less than favourable, with the strange call sign being heard on 1390. There was one of their regular good peaks around 2300 the other night. I have also included an ID from the accented OM on 1650 from WHKT. Under certain condx, it doesn't really sound like that.
110204_0100_1680_wttm_ss_id.mp3
AUDIO CLIPS FROM THE ARCHIVES: We were chatting on dx chat about WWRU 1660, a common NY station here in Europe. This started life as WJDM Elizabeth, NJ, and was one of the first stations on X band in 1995. It was amazing being able to hear the stations coming on air, one by one on x band. Now that part of the band is well used. But anyway, while digging the archives, I found a recording or KTRK, Army Radio on 1670. This was a test of a transmitter that the military were taking out to Bosnia at that time, so active only a few days. No instant messages on e mail in those days, or at least for most of us. In the same box there was a recording of a football RSL the local ILR AYR station ran for Killie FC. Does anyone have a scan of the QSL cards ILR AYR offered dxers for 1035?? My local station, and I have never seen one.... I do have a Clyde QSL though. Anyway, listen to them ann as 1602 metres MW!! Thirdly, I found a recording of Radio 864. This was a great clear channel before France returned to it. This was a station in Co Monaghan, Eire, from memory, although was there not an 864 stn in Co Louth at one time?? I must look through the archives.
960207_airchecks_army_radio_ktrk_1670_up_to_0245.mp3 950513_around_1700_bst_1602_radio_kfc_kilmarnock_ann_1602m.mp3 950513_date_pres_radio_864_test.mp3
I had my first trouble with the Perseus over the weekend. The set died. Dead. No lights, no anything. My immediate thoughts were that which was reported a while back, about the dc connector on the power supply. I checked the voltage coming out of it, and it was 5v. Hmm. Power supply fine. I had never been inside the Perseus. It is well out of guarantee now, so I had no worries about breaking the plugs that hide the screws. To dismantle, prise out the four little black plugs. (2 on front, 2 on back) Find an Alan Key of the right size. I am not sure if that is what the screw heads are called in all countries?? Maybe yes, maybe no?? Anyway, leave the centre screw alone. Otherwise a nut may fall in the back of the set. It holds a regulator or something in place. (That does sound as though I am writing from experience..lol. I am saying nothing) My problem was not obvious, but common easy to repair problems are always looked for first. Even through a magnifier, the power in connections on the main board looked reasonably OK. I soldered them anyway. Life. The set was back to normal. Well I guess it has barely been switched off since 2007 really. An easy fix this time. This gave me the opportunity to take some internal photos of the beast that costs in the region of 600 - 700 £££....
PHASER BOX - MW DX 6: There was talk of phasers on our DX chat recently. I am not sure if I ever published images of this rats nest of a phaser, built in the 1990's. The unit is based on Mark Connolly's MW6 design, although mine hasn't the preamp built in. It is very effective in nulling single channel locals, but for skywave reception and constantly changing conditions, it is not much use. I find easier to achieve a null on than on the MFJ 1026. But the MFJ is still good. Click on the bottom image to enlarge. It is really made up from old junk, including the tin box, which came from a rally at one time or another.
COUNTRY ALL TIME LISTS UPDATE: Below I mentioned some unusual rules that were discussed recently on the Skype DX chat by a Norwegian DXer for first loggings of mw dx stations. The story was about the all time MW list. Any new entry reputedly had to be verified by the station to qualify. Thankfully this seems not the case. Arild in Norway writes to say that in 25 years of dxing, he has never heard of this. Thanks for the input Arild, and the kind comments. Like Arild, I am also quite happy if I have the recording, and therefore know the station has been heard. Only in very few cases, more so in the past in days of tapes, do I not have recordings. And the reason would be because I recorded over by mistake or something, or the tape wasn't running and the ID came on too fast to get the tape switched on!! I can't seem to find one or two tapes as well.... Ah, fun and games. This site and David H's blog have many regular readers in Norway, because of the similar stations that can be heard. So input is always welcome. I wonder just how many country all time lists are available on line. If I can find any, I will create links to them here.... The UK one is available in public a year or so behind the current one, which is kept for MW Circle club members only. I tried to find a Norwegian all time list on line, but of course I am not sure what to search for in google. If it is available on line, but is in Norwegian, then I am sorry to say I would never find it. And then again, it takes someone to physically do the work. Here in the UK, Andrew B is doing a sterling job, after some time with no updates. Thought: I wonder if this old rule discussed above was at one time the case??? I recall featuring some clippings from old dx publications a few months ago about some odd rules thought up by dx clubs in the 1960's. This was one of the controversial pieces I unearthed, published here in June 2010.
AMAZING AM: Some years ago, maybe as long as 1996, I recon I had a copy in word format of Svenn Martinsen's excellent AMazing AM book. This was a listing of MW stations heard in Norway from 1945 / 1995. Now, all this time later and countless PC's later, I can't seem to find the file. Svenn recently sent me the excel format, being unable to find the word version. I do recall it came on floppy. Does anyone have this in WORD format after all this time?? It seems it was once on line, and a shame Svenn doesn't have it as a pdf on his excellent AM Radio Days pages. Was the WORD version exactly the same as the published book?? There was also a QSL book as well I believe, listing QSL's received by Norwegian Dxers from the same years.. http://www.northernstar.no/norwegianradiodays.htm
I have created a separate page for the recent Perseus Server / Client comments that I wrote .I started with a few comments, and let it grow, so it is probably best in the menu system with other Perseus material. Click PERSEUS / Equipment to enter the Perseus related articles.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LATEST PERSEUS VERSION 4.0 CLIENT / SERVER OBSERVATIONS
I have made a few new observations, which overcomplicate some of the writings from yesterday below. Give me a day or so to update. The over complications are in relation to the IP box on the server settings. It is not necessary to enter my IP address daily after all. It seems to be an automated process!!! More soon.
680 WAPA - PERSONAL FIRST : I had a quick shifty at the files from this morning, a very quick shifty. There was nothing of note, just the usual stations. But thanks to a tip from Stuart in North London, I have a new station from Puerto Rico. It was also heard by Maurits in Belgium. At the
same time WIOD 610 was good. Tnx for the tip OM. I also included CJCL 590 this month. It was logged for the first time here on 28th January, but it is not written up here, on the January page. |
PERSEUS CLIENT / SERVER ARTICLE MOVED: Initially on today's entry, I had an extensive Perseus Server / Client article. I have now moved it to it's own page. Initially it began as a few comments, but I just kept on writing....
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LATEST PERSEUS VERSION 4.0 CLIENT / SERVER OBSERVATIONS
MUST SEE MOVIES: I was recently sent a couple of links to youtube videos, and thought that I must share. The first one is a compilation of near death / near misses / lucky escapes. I have no idea who compiled this or anything, but please take a minute to watch the bank robbers in the middle of the movie. There was a group of us laughing about that all weekend.
The second movie. or to be more exact, group of movies, comes from a Scottish guy who is a genius on a pushbike. His name is Danny MacAskil. His control and sense of balance of his bikes is really awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z19zFlPah-o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbJ1sseQVbY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw
NORWAY FIRST, DX LOGGINGS AND RADIO CLUBS: I was hearing on the Skype chat the other night, that in Norway if a dxer heard a station that had not been knowingly logged in the country before, to register on an all time list, there had to be a verification from the station!!! Hmm.. This seems odd behaviour. I wonder why the dxer wants to be part of a club in the first place, that holds up to these self made rules. (Made up by grown men) There are two reasons that I would not be bothered with that carry on. 1. Stations are poor verifiers these days. Does this mean you can't claim a station that doesn't reply. What nonsense. I haven't written to ANY stations in years. That must mean my logs are null and void in their eyes. 2. I have a couple of QSLs from stations I never heard. One from Greece 1008 springs to mind, from when I was about 14. I genuinely thought I had heard this, due to the split times listed for sign on in the WRTH. (0450 or 0350 from memory) But the report must have been vague in those days. I can now easily tell listening to that recording from 30 odd years ago that it IS in fact Dutch. So I heard Lopik signing on!!!! But Greece were decent enough to send a QSL to a young inexperienced dxer!! On a separate occasion, a Dutch pirate named Radio Ali Baba verified a report for a report sent to Radio Milano (another dutch pirate)!!! (I also have non verifiers that are claiming my report is not correct, when I have clearly heard them) I am not convinced that dxers in general particularly like to be dictated to in this manner these days!!
UK FIRSTS vs FIRST KNOWN UK LOG: I have never been a fan of the well used phrase UK FIRST. I never make these claims here. I find it too arrogant. These reports are FIRST KNOWN UK LOGS (FKR-UK), not FIRSTS. Not every dxer is a member of a radio club. In fact the non acceptance of logs by some radio clubs, sort of puts me off these groups altogether. I am content to bumble away, and publish logs of any significance on here. I do believe however that listings have to be verified somehow for a countries' first dx club loggings, if records are to be kept. But records are one thing. Availability of such records is another sad story, which I won't go into here. Look at how a log of mine was not accepted a few years ago. I'd say taking things to extreme. I don't know quite what's supposed to be dodgy about hearing a daytimer on the air late or forgetting to turn the power down??? I have quite often heard this type of signal, and anyone who reads the IRCA messages will have seen the same. At the time of the log, I reported it to an e group. I was also met by a snide comment that "WHYL" is a daytimer. Yes, I can also read the same listings Sherlock. What of it??? LOL. Incidentally,
the audio clip has been on this site for years. Something seems to have
been a miss with the recorder of the day, levels too high, but signal
is easily heard.
I
had similar comments re a first log of KRZI 1660, now a relatively common
Texan sports station. KRZI ROCKs was a comment I received on an e mail
group, from a reputed experienced dxer. I did think that this was probably
a modern day phrase, like "That new Tom Hanks movie rocks",
meaning it's brilliant, good log om, all that kind of thing. But NO.
Seems it meant that the log was in doubt, because the writer wrongly
was convinced KRZI was a rock station!! Again, what's unusual about
stations changing format? Nothing unusual hearing music stations carrying
sport either!! In any case, a quick GOOGLE search would have revealed
that KRZI was indeed Central Texas Sports Leader!!!!. Some dxers I think
dispute logs for the sake of it, even before hearing any recordings.
DO WEB LOGS VANISH WITH WEB SITES? It was once said that web sites come and go, and when they go, they are gone. That is true, especially with "build on line" style freebie sites. I'm especially thinking on all the Geocities sites that vanished last year was it. That is why I produce an annual pdf of the 12 months from summer to summer of these ramblings. And I have been surprised by the large number of downloads!! So maybe in years to come my ramblings from north of the border will be read by future enthusiasts somewhere down the line. It is a shame the pdf is created with only the text and low res images. None of the audio clips are built in. Maybe something to think about?? |
