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LOGS / NEWS - JULY 2013 A site mainly dedicated to Mediumwave Dxing |
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SCOTTISH WEATHER REPORT: Well after what appears to have been the best summer for a number of years, the rainy season has again started. What a shame, but hey, we can't complain. July has been brilliant until the thunder storms came in last week. June was also rather good here for a change after the coldest spring for many a long year. Yet the wildlife came through it all, in leaps and bounds. The fish life in the local river was quite amazing till the rains came. Are they still there, or washed downstream??? I have absolutely no idea, as the river runs in spate as I type this. Last night, 30th, again I had the antennas and drives and everything I could all disconnected, as around 3 or 4pm we had the thunder and lightning and heavy rains again. There are black clouds rolling around as this is typed up on 31st July. I sure hope the summer heatwave comes back for a while here. It was long long overdue.
MW DXING AND THE EAGLES HISTORY DVD - DON AND KWKH: MW dxers are no doubt aware of a station which is a regular in Europe on 1130kHz, KWKH Shreveport, LA. But I was watching the HISTORY OF THE EAGLES DVD the other night, where Don Henley was talking about his influence from the big 50kW stations that came in to Texas from Louisiana, and in particular KWKH. Not named, but does he also refer to New Orleans WWL, another regular here in Europe?? Isn't it great how many of these great artists were influenced by radio. Download
clip of Don and KWKH, around 120mB. Fellow Eagle Joe Walsh is also a Radio Ham, see http://www.qrz.com/db/wb6acu Bob Dylan also spoke on a BBC4 documentary about listening at night to big 50kW stations that came in from far and wide at night time. The Who during their most recent documentary a couple of years ago really gave their thanks to Radio Caroline, for playing their music and giving them the much needed boost in the early days. These are folks that were brought up with AM radio as an important source of entertainment, a bit like myself. Unfortuantely here in Europe, there is now nothing particularly significant to listen to on MW at night. Fiddlin' Tom Cameron on Radio North 846 on a Wed night perhaps?? Gone are the high powered Arrow 675 and 10 Gold 1008 signals. And going back a bit, gone are the signals from the sea and Luxembourg, and Blue Danube Radio on 1476, Radio Sweden, BRT, etc.
AM RADIO - STILL IMPORTANT ACROSS THE WORLD: Today on the web you read these bulletin boards with so called enthusiasts debating the future of MW. They often talk in the past tense, and claim it to be hardly used. Yet show me the true clear channels. We only have 1476. And that development is only in the last few months!! Tune into MW at night and the band is still jam packed from end to end. Actually 927 is also clear now since BRT closed. OK gone are certain high power transmitters across Europe. Still with us are so many more, that from a selfish mw dxers point of view would be better closed. Who wouldn't like to see the back of high powered transmitters on 675, 1008, 1377, 1422, 1440, as well as the UK 1215, 1089, 909 stations. There are many many more large high powered transmitters still to the fore, that must be very low in KW per listener. Some broadcast services that are available also on FM. Back to the tired phrase - "The AM band is little used". Obviously not from someone in the know. Is this a case of what they believe, and do not even have an AM radio to tune to see?? Are they buying crap radios that make the AM band sound poor?? More concerning is that Prof Brian Cox, a well respected astronomer used the AM / FM band as a comparason recently in one of his many documentaries, and used the same phrase. I wish I had recorded that particular section of his documentary.
I have finally typed up some FM dx logs from mid month. See below. Anyone who is interested, do look back in the next few days as I will hopefully add audio clips and rds captures to some.
BEASTS FROM THE UNKNOWN: I was at a pals back garden lapping up the summer sunshine the other night and he was showing me the strange little beasts he has in a rain barrel. I can't say I have seen these before. There were literally hundreds of these little things sitting in the sun, in the water at the top of the barrel. But when anyone approached, they swam down into the depths of the rain barrel. To the naked eye, hey looked like a carpet tack, but on closer inspection of the close up photos, they look like a small screw nail, with a prop on their tail!!! Funny little things. The white circular pipe is the gutter from the garage roof, going into the rain barrel. On the web there are similar little things in the Mosquito Larve pages.
THUNDER AND LIGHTNING STORM TUESDAY 23rd: We have not had a thunderstorm like that in a while. I was tearing around slightly mad ripping out any antennas and mains leads that I could find, and disconnecting hard drives. Oh yes, I don't like those electrical storms, due to the potential damaging flashes!! On a funnier note, the wee dog jumped clean out the window onto a flat roof. He was sitting on the upstairs window sill, window open, watching the torrential rain, and suddenly was spooked by a loud crack of thunder. He was tearing around the garden after this, barking and wondering where all the noise was coming from..LOL.. So funny..
PERSEUS SDR - ONE DOWN ONE TO GO!!! I have a problem with the Perseus SDR, number 2. Devine retribution some would say for my remarks the other day..lol.... But in the panic to dismantle everything that was connected to anything during the thunder and lightning, and then the panic to reconnect when I realised there was a sporadic e opening when I came back into the shack much later, I think I have given the Perseus the FM+ supply. Damn. My own fault, but this brings home another problem. Two identical power leads / sockets, one 12v and one 5v. This is a very bad idea!! The power connections wont be the same for long now!! I will have to have a chase around for a better solution!!!! Incidentally I had recorded MW on the night before the thunder storm, but never noticed if the lightning had damaged the rx. I think it was prob a wrong supply. I was reading through the Perseus group, and there was another dxer had the same symptoms, which was deaf on MW and serious images above 1.6 mhz. I recall the circus a dx friend in Ireland had to go through to have his unit repaired. It had to be sent to the UK first to Lynch, then Lynch sent it to Italy. The Italians sent it back to Lynch and Lynch had to return it back to Ireland. Price charged was acceptable, but time wasting wasn't, by the silly roundabout way it had to be posted. It would put one off trying to get it repaired. But I shall have to at some point. All I can say is thank goodness I had a spare!! I have always stated that the Perseus receivers are too expensive to have sold my spare, even if I could have done with the extra cash. If one breaks down / struck by lightning etc, a spare would be so helpful, I used to say. And here I am at that stage now!!
FM DXING AND THE MICTOTELECOM FM+: I have to tell you that the FM+ is just superb for FM dxing.... I have been fortunate enough to have quite a few openings to various parts of Europe today, 24th July. I initially was tired of switching the PC off and back on when a weak and fading single signal came up. Davie up the street was telling me band 2 is open, but I am honestly not really interested if one hissy fading thing is coming up and down teasing us, which is exactly what was happening earlier. It annoys the hell out us all I guess, and I kept switching off thinking it was one of those annoying days. Not so. Eventually, not long before I was about to switch off again for good, the lower part of the band opened, though some random signals were also heard up the band. My initial listing is better being typed here, as the last few logging efforts have been scribbled on bits of scrap paper and not typed up. So I apologise if I have not looked up the FM lists for qth etc. Tuesday's dx was reported, but I have to say I disconnected everything I could to try and protect me from the lightning. Before the logs is a screenshot of the FM+ during spordic e. There are also a few sample RDS screenshots with the logs.
87.6
FRANCE - France Inter 1940 25/7
LOGS FROM WEDNESDAY 24th JULY 2013 87.6
SWEDEN - SR P1 Sweden 1100 24/7 POLSKIE RADIO IDS 0954 LOGS FROM THURSDAY 18th JULY 2013 87.7
POLAND - Polskie Radio Jedynka, 18/7 1225
LOGS FROM TUESDAY 16th JULY 2013 This was a mainly Italian and French opening, and my PC clock was out, though fixed at 1043, which became correct time of GMT 1143!! The time listed before correction is the PC clock time, so I can find the correct part on the recordings if relistening. 87.6
Virgin Radio 1146 inc audio id 16/7
NB
At 1006 RTL was noted no less than on 102.1, 102.2, 102.3, 102.4,
102.5, 102.8!!!
104.2
Radio Monte Carlo 1015 mix with same mx as Radio 101 16/7
105.0
Radio 24 1015 16/7
LOGS FROM 12th JULY 2013 87.9 RNE 5-J (E215) 0922 12/7 RDS ID ONLY
LOGS FROM 11th JULY 2013 88.8 CAD 100 2047 11/7
TROPO TO IRELAND: I have a load of frequencies heard I should really list, noted during the recent tropo opening to Ireland.
100.5 Q Radio Newry Area, Northern Ireland 1626 11/7 MW LOGS: I have not been particularly bothered about recording every night in the last few weeks, but the odd day here has produced some results. Around 04 on the morning of the 23rd, the North Americans were again being heard, after a spell of Latins. Nothing startling, but WBBR 1130 and CBC 1140 etc were noted during a quick scan. 1360 Unid 0300 Mon 8/7 ss id
MICTOTELECOM FM+: NB: I can not stress enough that I write the following articles with the opinion that the Perseus SDR is still the best tool I have ever had for MW dxing. I also write this as having tried and tested the FM+ add on frequency converter, and I am of the opinion that the FM+ is also the best FM dxing tool I have ever bought. Both sets for want of a better word, of the Microtelecom Perseus family are exclusively desired for dxing here because of the wideband record facility. Yes the filters are superb, but so is the NRD 545, or the AOR 7030 etc. My attraction of using the SDR from day 1 was the wideband record facility. The Perseus software is also a dream to operate compared to any other SDR interface I have tried. But there are some serious issues with regards the FM+, and the particularly stupid restrictions imposed by the Mussolini attitude of the developers. Read on, while remembering that the Perseus and the FM+ combined would set you back a cool 1000 quid from Lynch in the UK.
FM+ AT LAST - 2ND HAND UNIT ON EBAY: I have been meaning to buy an FM+ since they were developed, but only got around to it this week. Who was I bidding against by the way on ebay. I was watching one here in Scotland for sale, which was sitting at £120 all week and no bids. Was no-one interested I thought to myself. But the hit counter looked quite serious. Maybe it was folks looking at the other items from his other sale, I was telling myself. But at the last seconds the price jumped. I was lucky that I had already been down the pub!!! Otherwise I might not have put the heavier bidding on . . lol!! As I walked from the bar to the hoose, I was wondering what to bid on the item. I was going to stick 200 on it, then I thought right, 220, and finally with seconds to go I stuck in 227, the old Dutch pirate band and also the Radio Jackie channel. That may bring good luck I thought to myself. I was still hoping the 1 bidder by this time had not put much on it, and it would go for 125 quid or something. But there was a sudden jump to £176 with seconds to go, before I even struck!! I won it with nothing to spare. It went for my upper limit of £227. The fella below me was at 222 something!! I wonder if it was anyone I know?? Much more and it was going to get silly as you would be approaching the price of a new unit. Anyway, the seller sent the item fast, and I have now spent some time getting used to the FM+.
WARNING TO POTENTIAL MICROTELECOM FM+ CUSTOMERS: WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU IN THE GLOSSY ADVERTS!!! My first problem / issue was that the unit can hardly be called a simple plug and play machine. There is a bit of a rigmarole to go through to get a so called license file from Microtelecom. It is an automated process if you are connected to the web with the PC you are using. The screen below comes up when you first click the FM+ software .exe file.
If like me you have a PC that is not connected to the web, like my main PC for example, it is a chore to get your FM+ working. You have to create a text file with your code number and serial number of the Perseus, by pressing "save request to file". Even Windows software works after installation from the CD and the install code inserted. Amazingly, you have to wait from a response from Microtelecom, and copy the file attachment they send you into the FM+ software folder. Then and only then does the Perseus FM+ burst into life. I did try connecting my old web PC to the Perseus and received the file for the first receiver automatically. That was pretty quick. In fact instant. I was able to copy the file into the FM+ folder on any other PC and it worked fine. No problems. In the meantime, it was only many hours later I had an email back from Microtelecom with the attached file, but I already had the machine working by the time they got back to me. What happens if you have two Perseus receivers?? Some dxers do. I do. I connected the other Perseus to another PC, and the FM+ won't work again!! At this stage I was not really aware that the license file was directly associated with the Perseus serial number. So I connected the machine to a web PC and try and get the automated license file for the second Perseus. NO WAY. I have reached my limit with that serial number. (1!!!!!!!!) What is that all about!!
At the time of writing, I still have not been able to get MY second receiver to work with MY FM+ that I bought in good faith that it would work. So be warned.
I do not sometimes feel right about copying personal emails, but this is not personal, but rather instructions of what I am allowed and not allowed to do with my own receiver, from the mind of the manufacturers. Dear Ken, each activation
code allows FM+ software activation on two different Perseus receivers. Kind Regards,
The following email was in response to a cut to the chase type question of "how much" for an extra license file. No mention was made of a price, it was not even mentioned. I am not allowed!!! Well sorry teacher!!! I don't get why they would even consider limiting the use of a 300 quid receiver in the first place, and still hope for sales. FM DXERS and potential customers be warned!! They don't tell you this quite as straight as I am, in the glossy adverts. Hi Ken, We
normally allow each FM+ receiver to be activated on two Perseus receivers.
( LOL...REALLY????) (What has this to do with giving the FM+ to my dx friend to try out on his Perseus????????? Believe it or not, that could lead to future sales.... This is a joke!!!)
Do you own more than one Perseus? Did you buy your FM+ second hand? If it is any of your business, I do, and yes!!!!! What planet are they on!!!!! I happened to be gifted the second Perseus from Nico the inventor for assisting translating Italian English to English English for the initial instruction manual, most of which I had written on line here as publicity to a breakthrough in mw dxing!!.
OK, I realise that the previous owner counts as one time license file, but that is hardly the point is it. Limiting a 300 quid receiver = less sales!!! What happens when Microtelecom one day disappears overnight and can not be contacted?? The unit would make a nice doorstop, as the FM+ is unsellable without the license .dat file from the company. Excessive security??? Some would agree with this statement I'm sure. Downright ridiculous that a £300 frequency converter will not work without someone in Italy giving you the nod. What happens heaven forbid that I have to make a quick sale of my two Perseus receivers in an emergency, and eventually manage to buy another one. Will I not be allowed to run the FM+ because someone in Italy says I have reached my limit. Or if that sale is made when Microtelecom are no longer trading. See what I mean... What is this all about.. What if I want to loan it to another dxer to have a look / go at.... etc etc... I have already loaned my main unit to other dxers to show them the benefits of the SDR technology. This is the thanks you get for promoting their goods!!! Imagine buying a DVD recorder and finding out that it has to be matched up to only two televisions in the house. You couldn't remove it and use it on the third TV in the Kid's bedroom, because someone with an attitude in China says so!!!! You would take it back to the shop and get your money back? I should think so.
REPORT ON THE RECEIVER ITSELF: So now I am back to the first Perseus receiver, and the FM+. What is the receiver itself like?? The unit itself does not require drivers. The FM+ software WILL surprisingly play back pre recorded files of the FM band, without ever having been near a receiver. I am not sure if it is permanent, or a silly time out thing. You would not have thought there would be any time out stuff near so called pro receivers/ sdr software, but a couple of timed out versions have been issued in the past for the Perseus itself. It
did surprise me that it did not have a power supply or a bnc/bnc connection
lead.... There was a power connection, a DC plug. There is NO polarity
diagram anywhere near the FM+, or on the PDF file on the CD I don't
think. A polarity image is included with the latest downloads though.
(Centre +, outer -) Initial customers would have had to have an educated
guess!!!!!! A lot is assumed that the FM+ enthusiast is fit to hold
a soldering iron, and assuming mine didn't have a patch lead when
new, assuming they have bnc-bnc patch leads lying around. For FM dxing I use both a Sony SB920 and a Sony HD XDR set. Both are good. My favourite for tuning around has to be the 920. I used a Grundig Sat 3400 until recent years, before moving on to RDS receivers. The HD is kinda slow, though selectivity on the HD set for those living in the city with loads of powerful FM stations close by, is certainly very good. The 920 although good, can not quite get in as close to that annoying local. The Perseus certainly can. I have already had a very difficult channel here. FM 104 in Dublin, 104.4, right next door to local BBC Radio 4 on 104.3. As far as sensitivity goes, the HD set and the SB920 are very similar. Both are not that far in front of the satellit 3400 in the sensitivity stakes. What about the Perseus?? Well I shall have to carefully check during flat conditions for sensitivity. At the time of writing, we have a prolonged period of tropo on the FM band, and of course we are still in July, and sporadic e is still around. Luckily I have had a chance to use the FM+ during a sporadic e lift.
THE FM+ MOBILE ON MY LOCAL HILLSIDE: I have been using a UPS (Uninterruptible power supply) which is used in offices etc to give office lassies time to save their work if there is a power cut. The unit gives only 30m or so of mains for recording, but at least I can take a spin up to my local high spot, and set up a laptop and perseus. Luck wasn't on my side the for the first visit to the hill. I drew up and there were roadwork traffic lights right at the spot I normally go to. Time was running out, and I drove around the corner to a less favourable spot, and tried to get the top of the hour. But the laptop wouldn't kick in properly. Later in the afternoon, the power unit wouldn't kick in and I missed another top of the hour. They call that sods law I believe!!
RECEIVER OBSERVATIONS: Another thing I must discuss is the fact that the FM+ seems much more memory hungry than the basic Perseus. In fact on my main PC which is a dual 3gig machine I believe, and running a gig of RAM, just can not cope with 2mHz recordings, or indeed 2mHz sampling. I have yet to find a larger RAM chip to try. But the little laptop that runs it easily has 2g of RAM, and dual core etc. I have also tried another machine with 4g RAM running the dreaded VISTA 64 bit version. with even better results. I may add an observation here. We talk of 2mHz recording. This is not quite true. The receiver gives 1.6mHz, perhaps a couple of extra stations at either end of the recording can be coaxed from the secondary window. But the secondary window can't be dragged like in the main Perseus software unfortunately, to squeeze a little more. Wouldn't it be nice to have a 4mHz Perseus, with WFM?? The competition already has 4mHz. It looks sometimes as though the inclination to develop the Perseus farther isn't there. What a pity that is, when it is for me the most user friendly GUI by far amongst any of the SDR front ends that I have tried, and that includes the WIN Radio unit.
More soon........
LATICE TOWER / MAST FOR SALE: NB - MAST SOLD SO NO LONGER AVAILABLE. THANKS TO ALL INTERESTED PARTIES AND WATHCERS.
LATICE TOWER / MAST FOR SALE: I still have a mast to sell, which will be on ebay until Saturday. Search for 60 foor lattice tower. More info and high res scans are on the following page. click the following link. There is no navigation menu on the mast page, so use the back button to return here.
VERTICAL BAND 2 / FM DX ANTENNA: I have written and photographed a vertical FM antenna that I have been using here for a number of years. It is a copy of a bought item, but the manufacturer is forgotten to me. It was originally used as an FM RSL antenna in the Glasgow area some years back. See equipment_vertical_band_two_antenna.html. The antenna page is also found in the equipment menu.
SPORADIC E SEASON: I have still not completed my log book for FM dxing in June. There is no surprise there. I have years of large wav files of audio recorded and scribbles of the times of the ids in log books. Will I manage to get this years updated before the mw dx starts to roll in again??? Who knows.
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