| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - TUESDAY 30th JUNE 2009: |
CANADIAN TV VIDEO CLIP:
Video clips have been added of the American and Canadian TV reception the other day, scroll to the foot of the article, or click below.
Click first for the clip of American unid tv, A2 with analogue/ digital loop tape (10 meg .avi)
Click for a clip of CTV, Canada from CKLW channel A2 (9 meg .AVI file)
HISTORICAL PHOTO FOUND IN OLD NEGATIVES:
I found this band 3 test card on one of my old family photo collections, on an old negative. I thought it may be interesting.
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - SATURDAY 27th JUNE 2009: |
CKCW MONCTON, NB, 100KW CH A2 - TRANSATLANTIC TV DX AND BAND 2 !!!!!!!!!!
I really can't believe that it happened. No sooner had I written yesterdays entry in this dx diary about the 6th anniversary of TADX received by Davie and Logan in 2003, than in came Canada and USA on band 1!! I have never ever heard English audio on band 1 from across the Atlantic. I have heard weak bursts of Spanish, but that has been it. OK yes, I have seen carrier level reception a few times, but never got very excited about it. In fact last night, Davie H was calling me about carriers on channel A2, which is really more or less E3 area. I checked it, made my usual grunts, and started watching an old Sherlock Holmes movie. (Oddly it was titled Sherlock Holmes in Washington).
But around 2126GMT, I heard all this shouting. It was Davie, who had just heard sound on the A2 audio freq of 59.750. Of course I jumped up at that, and switched all unnecessary electrical rf noisy stuff off, and there it was. Canadian TV audio. I ran out and manually turned the beam around and monitored the freq. Frequency for Canada was 55750 and 55760 for an unid American station that had just closed it's analogue service, and broadcasting a quite anon loop message about changing over to digital. Sad that they never had frequent id's of how to find the new digital signal of whatever station it was!!! Damn!!
I would think with David H's ID of CTV, the station coming through was CKCW MONCTON, NB, 100KW CH A2. As it happens, I have a QSL of that station from MW 1220!!
During the good peaks of both stations, I had unlocked video on the TV. I did have a muck around with the vertical hold to try and lock it, but signal was too variable to achieve success. I may try and get a screen shot of what was coming through.
I was amazed by G7IZU's real time dx map. All the lines in Europe were going across the Atlantic!!!!!
Andy Smith, G7IZU sent this 2nd map of all sporadic e between 2100 and 2200 last night. Amazing opening.
I often checked the FM, especially when A3 was open, but heard nothing. Not so for Logan in Northern Ireland though. Again he has received TADX on FM. 97.3 WENJ (NJ, A stn that comes in on MW!!) AND 94.1 WYSP PA. Well done!! What great dx!! And on his own anniversary of 2003 dx as well..What are the chances of that!!!!!!!!!!
I would not have left the shack, but do wonder what would have been heard on my local high spot??
I was so carried away with this I forgot all about ringing Trev in Killie about this. OOPS. Trev is on high ground with a D100, so possibly would have got better results!! I was just too carried away with the dx to think straight. I did also manage to make a couple of screen shots, during a lull with the audio.
Left 2214 approx 55.259, and right 55.249
LOGS FROM LAST NIGHT:
2120 - EE Nx, sounding like CBC would do
2124 - Financial news
2126 - Loop tape of digital changeover, slightly hf on 55760
2127 - SS, and I thought mentioned Antenna 1, but prob SS ann that goes with the digital loop tape.
2132 - Digital loop
2134 - Great wx report for the Maritimes
2139 - Digital loop again
2144 - Advert for Cape Breton. Great peak Also video level here on tv. weak unstable picture seen
2155 - Same digital loop ann on A3, 65758 ish!!
2156 - Advert for holidays in NB
2159 - Good pk on loop tape
2221 - Beacon 50.005, not translated the cw yet.
2224 - Loop again.
2252 -
Aquafresh advert then Jacko talk
AUDIO CLIPS FROM LAST NIGHT:
090626_2120_59750_canadian_tv_audio_typewriter_and_tiger_woods.mp3
090626_2126_59750_canadian_tv_audio_poor_clip.mp3
090626_2134_59750_canadian_tv_audio_great_wx_re.mp3
090626_2142_59760_us_tv_audio_loop_tape.mp3
090626_2144_59750_canadian_tv_audio_cape_breton_and_festival_of_life.mp3
090626_2151_59760_us_tv_audio_loop_tape.mp3
090626_2155_65760_us_tv_audio_loop_tape.mp3
090626_2156_59750_canadian_tv_audio_ad_for_nb_and_golf.mp3 (very poor poss id at end)
090626_2159_65760_us_tv_audio_loop_tape.mp3
(There are none of the files above 1.6 meg, and most only a few hundred k)
VIDEO CLIPS FROM LAST NIGHT:
Click first for the clip of American unid tv, A2 with analogue/ digital loop tape (10 meg .avi)
Click for a clip of CTV, Canada from CKLW channel A2 (9 meg .AVI file)
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - FRIDAY 26th JUNE 2009: |
SS ON 950:
I was up at 0400 UTC chasing noisy geese away, and I thought I would try the MW. I was pleasantly surprised to hear SS on 950 for a change. There were ID's just past 0400, but I had switched off the recorder by mistake, so I have no idea what it was.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DAVIE:
No it is not David Hamilton's wedding anniversary, but the anniversary of the day he picked up the unbelievable. Transatlantic DX on band 2!!! Impossible??
Often we joke about watching out for the "usual" fishing programme on CBC!!!
In all my 29 years since I heard my first sporadic E on FM in 1980, I have never ever heard anything from across the Atlantic. I remember a friend from Kilbirnie ringing up saying he could hear all these Italian stations all over the FM band. I thought, yea, I can never hear that stuff way down in a deep river valley.. How wrong I was. I could not believe it. Radio Express, Radio Eisak, and Radio Zagreb were 3 of the stations I heard that first day. A few days later the band was full of Spanish!!
All I can say here is congratulations again to Davie, and Paul Logan in Northern Ireland on their 6th anniversary of their great dxing achievements. Logan has a couple of web sites up with his logs including a new one.
Click
for Logan's old site including his TADX logs from 2003
Click for Logan's new web pages from 2009
Mark on the Skype sent a nice map with rings drawn out from this area in 1000's of km, (which is a fancy new French way of measuring distance I am told..). Anyway, the map shows very clearly where the common 1500 - 2000 km reception areas are. It also shows how far Jordan is compared to Newfoundland!!
SATELLITE TV NEWS CHANNELS POOR TECHNICAL STANDARDS:
Am I the only one that can't see the point in satellite news channels having a picture that takes up the full screen, while they have annoying huge scrolling banners and flyers at the bottom. Why can't they redesign their picture, by having the flyers at the bottom if they must, and make the picture a bit smaller. There is nothing worse than showing part of a report, and banners getting in the way of the main theme of the report. They don't seem to care, as this has went on for years now. I noticed poor standards with a report today on a clip of Michael Jackson's infamous moonwalk on stage. Obviously the main focus of this particular report was his funky footwork, but you couldn't see his feet for flying banners!! How clever is this?? Where are the editors and producers I wonder.
MUSIC LEGENDS:
Talking of music legends. My "Eagles" tickets arrived today for a week tomorrow at Glasgow... Yeehaaa..
And not to be out done on the AC DC tour, I have just this week managed to obtain tickets for the gig on Tuesday night. Double Yeehaaa....
I wonder if Joe Walsh will bring his ham radio gear with him?? Maybe I can talk myself into an invite to the party afterwards if I can contact him on the bands!!!!! lol. Get a top band dipole up over Hampden Park Joe..lol
Joe's call sign, WB6ACU, his shack seen here from QRZ.com
ITALIA 7 GOLD TV:
It seems that the unid I had the other day from Italy, during E21 fade, and before RAI faded up seems to be 7 GOLD. I guess I am unsure if it was on E3 or the nearby 1A. At any rate, it was not dominant for long enough. I only made one other snapshot, which was much worse than this!! Because this looks like a rarity, I decided to include that other image here, as well as a close up of the logo as seen here, as good as I have it. The higher res images are also better. I'd say the shading at the top of the 7 shows up on my image.
Thanks to Paul and co on the Skype chat for the bit of investigating. I never thought anyone had noticed my unid..lol.
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - WEDNESDAY 24th JUNE 2009: |
IS YOUR HOUSE BUGGED?
What would you do if your house was knowingly bugged?? Would you think it was funny?? Or would you say "Oh I better watch what I am saying"..
Am I joking? No I am being deadly serious.
A rather badly educated girl seems to have moved into the village, complete with her own house bug. (Analogue 49mHz baby monitor/ alarm.) She is aware that her alarm can be heard, and that their conversations in their own house are anything but private. But still they persist!!! It was so easy to find out about what kind of scams they are up to!! Not that I deliberately set out to monitor her. She uses a machine that completely jams E2 and R1 here, and is right next to the 50mHz ham band. I can not help but hear it!!
I know if someone told me they could hear everything that went on inside the house, I would put a hammer through the offending machine. How thick can some modern day folk be? I know this is the non thinking, kind of generation the authorities seem to wish to create, but come on. How ignorant of basic general knowledge do you need to be, before you turn into a turnip?? I am glad I don't read newspapers or watch mainstream TV for entertainment.
TVDX IN EUROPE - OFF OR ON?
Some TV dxers often talk about their dreams of strong Euro common stations leaving the air. EG TVE, RTP, and in fact everything in Europe. I personally would probably lose interest in TV dx altogether if everything in Europe went off. How long would I have to sit with blank screens till the rare arabic popped up, or the even rarer TADX?? Years I should think. No, in all my time tv dxing, I have always enjoyed the mess sometimes a large opening gives, and you never really know what is going to pop out at you. It gets less and less popping up by the year, but I for one am glad we still have the common Italians, Spanish, and Portugese to look forward to. It would be a poor tvdx season with no screen captures, and only a few fluttery carriers to watch!!
WDTW, DEARBORN, MI - 1310:
I have discovered another personal first in the old Perseus files from 23rd January. 1310 WDTW Dearborn, MI. Time 0800. This one has also been logged up north by Martin earlier in the season.
ESPN WEB PAGES:
On the same day as the above, there was a web address spelt out on 1250 as 1250espn.com. what a struggle to try and find the station!! The web space is covered in silly sports flashing lights etc. Turns out to be only relatively common WEAE, and ESPN Pittsburgh. Talk about not advertising their frequencies or locations!!!! I often see that even for non ESPN stations, that their sites are so full of flashing lights, their location is hard to find!!
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - MONDAY 22nd JUNE 2009: |
RAI CH 1A:
I have had RAI and E21 in and out quite a bit today on E3/ 1A. But RAI peaked up to a really high level suddenly for the three shots below. I noticed the little JVC TV, as well as the old Pye can split RAI and E21.
Is anyone using old browsers having trouble getting the RAI photos to show?
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RAI SUPERB SHOTS ON 1A 1822GMT
Also logged today R2 Slovakia, R1 Latvia, R1 Nova, R2 RTL (see caption
below)
UNID E3:
I had a quick fade in and out from an unid station, during an E21 fade. E21 on E3 had been in for a while, but had just faded out when the unid came in. A few mins later RAI came in around E3/ 1A. This may have been a trailer or something when there were no logos transmitted, say on RAI, or E21. Or maybe not. There was no time to check sound etc, as it faded in and back out too quickly. We have had a lot of very fast fading this year.
RTL KLUB:
I just saw the caption below on RTL KLUB, which looks like some kind of a goodbye message. Can anyone confirm they are leaving band 1, or is there some kind of industrial action?? Strike?? This caption seemed to be there permanently, till fade out. This was unfortunately as clear as reception got at this time.
ANSWER: This was sent through the Skype chat. A rough translation..
rtl klub made illegal outlaw operation, then must off their broadcast from 17:20 to 18:05
I guess this is a fine of some kind for breach of contract/ broadcasting inappropriate material, that kind of thing. In the same way the authorities in this sorry country impose unrealistic fines on broadcasters.
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Right - RTL Klub. Looks like a goodbye message. Anyone confirm??
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - FRIDAY 19th JUNE 2009: |
CANADIAN STATIONS LEAVING AM:
I saw these
two interesting reports of Canadians leaving AM for FM. Saw it on the
IRCA web pages.
CBE WINSOR 1550:
"CBE Windsor – Conversion to FM band and new transmitter in Leamington: Application by CBE-1550 Windsor ON to move to FM approved by CRTC.
The application by CBE-1550 Windsor ON to move to FM (97.5 MHz, 3.2kW, 130.1 meters), with a relay transmitter in Leamington ON (91.9 MHz, 5.3 kW, 73.6 meters) has been approved by the CRTC. Excluding low power relay stations (LPRT's) , this was the last CBC English station on AM between Winnipeg and Newfoundland (I think - unsure of the status of CBI Sydney NS which ran into problems with its conversion and is still listed as operating on AM in the IC database)
< http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2009/2009-349.htm >"
NB: I can hear CBC on 540, 600, 640, 750 (All NFLD) and 1140 (Sydney, NS) as well as 1550 here.
CFLN - 1240 / CFLW 1340:
"The application of CFLN-1230 Goose Bay NF to move to FM (97.9 MHz, 1kW, 25.4 meters) to move to FM has been approved by the CRTC. Its relay station in Wabush NF, CFLW-1340, is also moving to FM (94.7 MHz, 1kW, -26.4 meters).Note what while CFLN operates at the now usual 1kW graveyarder level, CFLW still operates at 250 watts, one of the few graveyarders to still do so.
< http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2009/2009-348.htm >
CFLN Goose Bay and its transmitter CFLW Wabush – Conversion to the FM band 1.The Commission approves the applications by Newcap Inc. (Newcap) for a broadcasting licence to operate a new English-language, commercial FM radio programming undertaking in Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, to replace its AM station CFLN Goose Bay and for the conversion to the FM band of its transmitter CFLW Wabush. The terms and conditions of licence for the new station and its transmitter are set out in the appendix to this decision."
The question
was also asked about FM replacing AM properly ie re covergae into remote
areas. I am sure AM would get into remote areas that the FM simply doesn't.
I assume that doesn't matter in modern society then?? Watching the ICE
ROAD TRUCKERS helps to give someone from a very small country an idea
of what a vast expanse of wilderness is like. It is vast as well as
beautiful.
HELP RECEIVED REGARDS CANADA ON 1230 AND 1340:
CBC LOCAL ID QUESTION AGAIN: I had a very helpful e mail from Edgar in Toronto today. It is re my questions about id's on 1340 and 1230. I am glad I observed caution, and never classed them as proper ID's.
CBC 1340 - QUESTION AND ANSWER:
Q - Can anyone tell me if a CBC Radio 1 (or was it CBC overnight) ID on 1340 can be classed as a log of Yellowknife, without a local ID?? Are there other possibilities on the same channel??
A - Sorry, there are 7 CBC's on this freq!!! So you would need a definite ID.........
CBC 1230 - QUESTION AND ANSWER:
Q - CBC on 1230. Is there only one possibility?? NU??
A - No, there are 5 CBC's there.
RADIO NEWFOUNDLAND 1230 - QUESTION AND ANSWER:
Q - Similarly, I have a Radio Newfoundland ID on 1230. Is this id-able, or are there multiple qrp relays here???
A - Yes, CFLN and CFGN, both independent.
The same caution should be observed for CBC stations on 990 and 540. I hope other dxers who claim these logs have some kind of local ID's and not just a hunch!! I have heard a delayed echo on 990 and 540 suggesting two transmitters at once. I should really class that as positive ID, but I still don't list them in my all time list. CBC 1010 is however a bit more than a hunch, and is the only CBC station on that freq.
Edgar also points me to these links which I haven't checked out yet, but will add to the extensive links page shortly.
See
www.dxfm.us for links to station list
downloads.
http://www.dxfm.us/Database/AM%20USA.zip
http://www.dxfm.us/Database/AM%20CAN.zip
http://www.dxfm.us/Database/AM%20WHEMISPHERE.zip
http://www.dxfm.us/Database/FM%20USA.zip
http://www.dxfm.us/Database/FM%20CAN.zip
You need a word processor/ excell to read the files, if you do not have,
go to www.openoffice.org
for a free download!
40 YEARS SINCE THE FIRST MOONLANDING:
The anniversary is about a month away from the first man on the moon. I have just bought an astronomy magazine with a great article etc of this astounding feat of engineering. There are sure to be some interesting documentaries around in a months time. .
Good to hear that at least the Chinese hope to land on the moon again, rather than the Americans, who have become somewhat stuffy about the subject throughout the last 30 odd years. Well done to the Chinese for their advances in technology for scientific purposes.
Isn't it odd that none of the wealthy oil states have space programmes?? Don't they believe in science??
I have heard it said about the huge Euro lottery wins. "What would I want with that kind of money?" It wouldn't look at an investment for a mission to mars for example. Some folks have little imagination.....
SHACK PHOTO: I found a photo from a few years ago, before I straightened the mast where the band 1 and band 2 aerials are. It is taken from the next door neighbour's roof, and at a different angle from normal, and showing the field when the beverage ran during the winter. The wood beyond the field is where I run a 500m beverage permanently. I am looking approx south west. What was I doing up on next door's roof then?? Well they were out..
OK, I was up looking at his satellite dish for him..lol. The place is a tip I know, but plenty room for aerials. Top band dipole is in a V from the top of the mast across the river, up and downstream as necessary for the length, with screen end in the upstream direction. There are no real close neighbours downstream for the live end.
STRANGE CONCEPTS: I was rummaging around through in my junk dept, which arguably is this whole place. But anyway, I was looking for something else when I found an old heathkit piece of equipment which I fell in with a number of years ago. I was given this from the son of a so called radio ham, who had passed on.
"Aye, ma faither spoke tae folk aw roon the world on this thing ah've goat fur ye", he told me.
When I
had a close inspection, it turned out to be a receiver only, covering
the common ham bands only!!! He must have had a loud voice then I thought
to myself..!!
The concept non radio folks have of us strange wireless chappie's never
ceases to amaze me!! I guess the old boy was an SWL then!!
On another occasion, my old father had been at a party in the 80's or maybe early 90's, and a tiresome gentleman was blowing his own trumpet about having worked in all these exotic countries throughout the world. He was becoming very tired of all this boasting about his worldwide employment, when it eventually clicked that he was a radio ham, and he had "worked" all over the world..... from his shack chair !!!!!! lol..
From that day on, the gentleman in question was nick named MARCONI!!
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - THURSDAY 18th JUNE 2009: |
BABY
ALARM TROUBLE:
Not too much to report except 1 very strong baby alarm that is causing
grief here. Ahhh!! 49.830. We had one last year, and now another!! Good
news is that I think I have tracked down the owner, quite accurately
by simple dfing and local knowledge. (Who's new in town etc).
LITHUANIA WEDNESDAY BRIEFLY:
Last night
I had a very brief opening from Lithuania on R2, and strong eastern
sound on R1 audio channel. Much mention on BELARUS, but of course not
ided. Sadly the video signal was blocked completely by a new silly baby
alarm.
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| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - TUESDAY 16th JUNE 2009: |
TCR 1512 - TYRONE COMMUNITY RADIO:
TCR has been on the air on 1512kHz mw since the end of August 2008. It is refreshing to hear good Irish radio like we had in the 1980's again. They have recently announced an e mail address and telephone number.
< tcr1512mw (XXXX) yahoo.co.uk > - (Replace the xxx etc with the at symbol)
tel 00 353 8633 45451 or 00 353 8777 25488
Thank you to Maurits in Belgium for reminding me I had not yet published this contact address.
TCR used to be heard here on FM sometimes, but now they are MW only. Their main id is only TCR, and a YL singing jingle which says "COUN - TRY - RA - DI - O".
They carry English satellite news at the top of the hour, strange for an Irish station.
It is also refreshing to hear real programmes and not simply someone playing a PC with non stop automated music.
IS THAT AN ARAB?:
Hey it
is, replied David H. I at first assumed I had seen a news programme
on RTP or something. Thank you to John and Paul on the Skype Chat, it
is 100% JORDAN. Very unusual up here in Scotland. The audio was also
very strong at one point. Another 2 images came through while I was
trying to get an id. Perhaps marginally better. John also send a grab
from satellite, which is what I have been seeing. For the record, the
time on my camera is set to local time. (GMT + 1) Pay heed to the bottom
image though!!
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JORDAN on channel E3 16/6/09, AROUND 0930
I have stuck another half dozen of so images on JORDAN TVDX page.
BE SURE
OF YOUR IDS THOUGH.
THIS IS NO ARABIC!!
It is an example of RAI news!!!
(Of course I was a little jumpy initially!!)
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| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - MONDAY 15th JUNE 2009: |
TVDX:
This coming weekend brings us the longest day. How time flies. Not much to report from yesterday. I slept through the first opening of sporadic e, which Davie H received.
In the afternoon and evening all my antennas and electrical equipment were unplugged and disconnected where possible, due to local thunder storms. Too risky. I had a good signal from NRK, mixing with TVE on E2 around 1830 though. This was using a vertical band 2 antenna. With the beam, TVE was dominant.
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HEAVY DUTY SWITCHES:
Sometimes ex military equipment that one falls in with can be of high quality. A friend of mine regularly goes to an auction some miles from here, and buys odds and ends, which come as a lot. So often he brings electrical gear which he has no interest in, and often I take it off his hands!! This is one of a few heavy duty switches that he brought in last year. One of them is rated at 8kW!! A solution waiting for a problem??
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - FRIDAY 12th JUNE 2009: |
SPORADIC E AT LONG LAST:
We here in the north have had an opening yesterday that could be described as the first decent opening of the year. The FM band was open for much of the day and for a time around lunchtime, all the way to 108, where it stayed for some time. There was a Spanish ham heard with good signals on 144mHz. David H has his recording up on youtube already. I don't think I managed to record it, due to being up to my neck with other dx.
Some kind of log list will appear here shortly, but there are TVDX logs in the TV DX table. No exotic TV DX was seen, but some good signals were to be seen from NRK Norway on E2, E3, and E4 which could be our last logs. NRK are closing their analogue services shortly.
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TV DX FREQUENCY TABLE:
I have made a new TVDX table, with frequency listings of the common "channels" which is at the top of the TVDX table page. The logs table is also on this page. The frequency table is something I should have made ages ago. A link to the TV DX table can be found on the FM / TVDX menu at the top left.
Incidentally the multitude of old TVDX photos from the 1980's mainly I stuck on line the other week should all link fine. I found a few that had bad links etc, but I think they are all sorted now. Do e mail me if any more links are broken.
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - WEDNESDAY 10th JUNE 2009: |
MINI DX PEDITION:
David H
and I were receiving some weak E's tonight, and decided to go up to
our local high spot. This initial place we chose was about 3 and a half
miles from here, at a place that used to be very good for the Irish
pirates in the 80's. On a clear day the hills along the Irish coastline
are seen. When we were up the hill, it was a superb clear day, and although
I had the camera, I was wishing that I had brought the tripod. You could
see across to Ireland, Southern Kintyre, as well as The Paps of Jura
to the North West.
I have a much closer high spot, which must be scarcely a mile North
East, and after not finding too much of interest at the first hill,
we moved location. The Irish coastline was also seen from here. I guess
I am close to high ground but sadly sitting in a very deep gorge, which
destroys radio signals.
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A
few views looking towards Ireland from my local high spot about
three and a half miles from here. This was a superb spot for FM
from Ireland during the 80's when all the stations were on the
go. The second image shows the southern tip of Arran and to the
left, the southern tip of Kintyre, and to the far left is SANDA
ISLAND, left of the clump of trees. (not very clear in this one).
If you ever wondered why I don't mention the villages in the text,
it is because I would prefer the search engines don't find this
page by village name searching. Main reason is that so local schoolkids
don't find photos of beverages out all over the place!! Knowing
what kids are like!! |
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| Left:
Beyond the cliffs/ heads. are the hills on the Irish coastline.
The second image shows the Irish ferry steaming past SANDA ISLAND,
off Kintyre. Image three is from the high point about a mile up
the road, where the ferry has passed SANDA. Image four is looking
towards Arran, and to the North of the island, The Paps Of Jura!
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| Davie's
aerial for mobile work. Designed for band 1. The second image
had the distant hills of Northern Ireland in the background. Image
three is at the closer high spot, and image four shows the view
to the south from high location number two, about a mile up the
hill from here. |
A map showing the area that is being seen on this clear
day
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - TUESDAY 9th JUNE 2009: |
SKYPE CHAT AND DX CLUSTER:
David H
recently closed his Skype DX CLUSTER, even though it was still in regular
use. I have started a new one, and hope that it will be used just as
much. The cluster is public, and for dx tips only. NO CHATTING. Abusers
and spammers will be banned. Let's try it for a time and see how it
goes. I may require to be contacted to be added. Just so as we know
who is who.
Please give yourself a recognisable name, and not any anon thing. Country
of origin would be appreciated as well. EG I am Scottish_Dxer_Ken.
CLICK HERE TO ENTER THE CLUSTER. (Skype required)
WCHL - CHAPEL HILL, NC - 1360 AM:
I have logged another personal first on 1360kHz. This time it is not from recent days, but from an old recording of an overnight single channel rec. I noticed it was logged in the log book, with a question mark, but when I looked up the North American freq lists, there it was, in North Carolina. (I wonder if it wasn't in the list I was using at the time) Date was 23rd Sept 2007, at 0245utc, 1360.
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - SATURDAY 6th JUNE 2009: |
WOOPS, FIXED DATES:
I just noticed my dates were all a day behind. Fixed now......
A TV DXERS HANDBOOK:
I have been looking through an old book from the 80's that was given to me by Davie up the road. Roger Bunney's "A TV DXer's Handbook"
This excellent old publication from 1986 also included a freq chart with the European band 1 channels listed. Click below for a high res version.
I would assume there are no copyright issues with a page sample reproduced here. If there are any problems, please contact me and I shall immediately remove the image. The book itself is long out of print, and quite a rare find on ebay nowadays.
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - FRIDAY 5th JUNE 2009: |
SPORADIC E AT LAST:
It has been a long time coming, but we had a reasonable amount of sporadic e this morning. I have a couple of nice ID's from today to include. Radio Gamma 89.9 from Italy, and Le Mov 87.8 from France.
090605_0907_89_9_radio_gamma_italy.mp3
090605_0915_87_8_le_mov_bordeaux_great_id.mp3
ITALIAN PRIVATE STATIONS:
I was always very impressed by the Italian stations, and their fast talking presenters and their audio was always much louder and better processed than any of the FM stations on the band here in Scotland. There was a time when ILR Ayr on FM sounded so flat and very amateurish. They never even had any compression till the mid 90's!!
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Interestingly Radio Gamma was right on top of BBC Radio 2 from Blackhill,
near Glasgow. The logs also included Capital, Radio Milano, Kiss Kiss,
RMC, K-ROCK, and a host more. It also put me in mind of the nice selection
of stickers the Italian stations always have.
A google search suggests Gamma Radio 89.9 is in Alessandria. The Italian stations are forever changing though. There is a movie type thing on their web site, and it also includes an image of the above old GAMMA logo.
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Radio Milano used to also be on SW 7295, as well as a brief appearance on MW 1300kHz. I have heard them also on their old 101 channel from Milano in years gone past as well.
TVDX TABLE:
I have decided to create a list by freq of stations seen this summer so far, as a guide to what's still on. It is only from my own observations. Click on the TVDX menu, or click on the link below.
(Click
here to go to the TV DX logs and frequency tables)
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - THURSDAY 4th JUNE 2009: |
MID SUMMER MW DX!!!!:
I had a fair signal from 930 WPAT Paterson, NJ this morning at 0300. (Fair for a dx signal..) This is a very unusual station on this frequency, and a personal first!! There were no other unusual stations noted at this time that I can hear on my recording. I had 1080 WTIC, 1190 WLIB, and a load of the more common summer stations. 920 only had CKNX. I have not seen WPAT in the all time UK lists. Maybe I shouldn't be so dismissive of MWDX conditions in mid summer. I think I will also record 0300 tomorrow morning!!
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE AUDIO CLIP
VERY BRIEF TVDX OPENING:
RTP Television (Portugal) crept in briefly, and very weakly on channel E3 around 1530GMT. If that was the best sporadic e could offer, I would be as well hang up the tvdx headphones!!
DX CLUSTER CLOSED - YET AGAIN..!! :
David H has again closed his DX cluster without warning. I think I have got rid of any links on this site to the cluster. If anyone finds any old dead links, let me know.
I will
probably open a window for the purpose of a cluster during the MWDX
season later in the year. Maybe I will have found a way of incorporating
such a dx cluster within these pages by then, and there will be no need
for third party software. Again suggestions welcomed.
PERSEUS TRICK FOR ANY VERSION:
I meant to mention this many months ago. I had been storing the Perseus releases on the desktop, and keeping the various releases in folders so named. eg version 1.1c was in a folder called "PERSEUS_1.1C".
The only pain came when a new release came out, and all the overnight .ahk text files for autohotkeys had to be altered. It also meant that anyone who wanted a copy of the autohotkeys text files I had created, would have to change the path to their own desktop, because the users name is included in the path,
eg C:\Documents and Settings\CLARENCE'S_PC\Desktop.
So now I simply store the PERSEUS folder on c:/, more importantly, I call the folder of the latest release, PERSEUS_NEW. Now if I should change to another PC, or someone else wants my text files, all the have to make sure is that the path is the same. Everyone has a C drive. Not everyone has a D or an E partition, which would have been preferable.
C:/PERSEUS/PERSEUS_NEW.
I never have to alter my overnight text files now either. Simple, but I overlooked this for many months!!
PERSEUS FILES FROM NEW YORK CITY:
I wonder if anyone reading this web site would like to hear a few Perseus files from New York?? I know I would. I don't know how this can be arranged. Anyone with any suggestions, do get in touch. Short of going over myself and throwing a wire out somewhere away from the QRN, I don't know how I would achieve this.
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - WEDNESDAY 3rd JUNE 2009: |
UPDATED
TVDX PAGES:
I have uploaded a pile of 1980's TVDX photos to each individual country page. Some new pages were created in the process. There are about 100 additional images. Enjoy.
PS: There
was a very very weak unid on band 1 this morning around 0615. I gave
up very quickly!!
| KEN'S
DX DIARY AND LOGS - TUESDAY 2nd JUNE 2009: |
TVDX
- LATEST REPORT FROM THIS QTH:
BAND DEED. A repeat of last year. Sporadic E all around us, and we are getting nothing at all!!
UPDATES ON TVDX PHOTO PAGES: Work in progress, but I am adding a load of old 80's and 90's photos to the TVDX country pages. (tvdx.html). Bear with me a few days to complete the task.
NEW / OLD BOOKS:
My old friend from the days of doing the TV City & Guilds course came in the other day with a couple of old books, for doing a job on his PC. I was hoping it was going to be WRTH's he had, but it was two ham radio books, both from 1948. Covers below. For a hoarder, they are still very collectable!!!
TADX MONDAY MORNING:
I was up and about briefly at 0300UTC on June 1st, and found myself checking the radio. About 0250 there were some quite strong North American signals around. At the top of the hour there were also the usual common stations around, but a little down on a few minutes earlier. I have not been a walk over to the beverage for a few weeks, and was a little concerned when some local kids began to play in the woods a few weeks ago. Luckily my aerial is in very rough terrain, and hopefully it is too rough for them!! But with the signals the other day, as well as this morning, I guess the wire is fine!!
TVDX BACK IN 1988:
I have been scanning some old photos again, this time of old TVDX images from the late 1980's. My first TVDX was in earlier years, 1979 to be exact. But I never had the camera to take the photos till much later.
If you say it fast, 1988 seems to be still in the recent past, compared to say 1978. But it is 21 years ago, and yes, a generation ago. I remember vividly the closedown's of the Irish pirates at the end of that year, and being very bitter that there was nothing on the band left worth listening to. The MW band had been full of the Irish stations. There was nothing on FM locally, bar BBC and some ILR crud, but if you went to a high spot, you could hear many of the higher powered Irish stations in those days. Today there is still nothing on FM locally. The village pub's were thriving at that time, and I was using a Racal RA17 for my main DX receiver. Perhaps I was enthusiastic about life in general then, probably waiting for something greater just around the corner. It seems it must still be around the corner!!!
A good VHF TV was difficult to come by in the UK because we were UHF only. More so, a set with a continuous fully manual tuner, like a standard radio dial. Many of the old dual standard black and white sets would click to a "channel" and tune a little either side of the official freq. Modern sets had self seeking auto tuners with presets. Commercially available new sets were still quite a price in those days.
It was in 1988 I fell in with the old Pye VHF TV. I seem to remember it was given to me by an old pal, "Rough Geordie". This was as I discovered, a great little set, sensitive, and selective. I didn't have a vhf tv of my own. I had in the past used a small b/w 5 inch JVC portable, which a guy later offered me for sale for £30 in the early 1980's. That week I was broke, and wasn't able to buy it. What a great wee set that was too though. I had always used temporary ones, borrowed etc till I picked up the old PYE black and white portable which I still use. Another one I had used was a 3 inch JVC, which I eventually got back years later as a scrap set, due to having no sound. I still have that. I see from notes in an old log book from summer 1987, that I had TVE, as well as German TV on a SELECO colour set. This would have been borrowed as well, so I guess it was between then and summer of 1988 that I did pick up the good old PYE portable, and finally had found a dx tv set of my own!!
I also had an old Grundig SVC format video recorder I fell in with. This was another one of Grundig's silly ideas of trying to recreate the wheel which someone else had already invented. It was a horrible old square tape that this thing took. And it was a very unreliable old piece of crap. But it had a VHF tuner on it. It was possible to use the tuner part to watch band 1 TV.
Nowadays I have a couple of the JVC CX-610GB's found on ebay. These are more sensitive than the old Pye portable, although sometimes one seems better than the other, and vice versa, both from the same aerial!! So it took me about 20 years to find something that bettered the TV, and something that bettered the old satellit 3400!! But both pieces of older equipment are still very respectable performance wise.
1984. The last days of Kirk O'Shotts on VHF band 1
I remember in the very early 1980's the village was being fitted with a cable system to supply the normal 3 television channels with better reception than most folks could get through their aerial. The main station at Darvel was only maybe 6 miles to the North, but there was a large wooded area between us and the transmitter, and the ghosting and variable signal strengths made reception awful, especially on a windy night. The village here is in a deep valley, which makes it very restrictive for high freq DXing. Some of the residents had "aerials up the wid" and some had large masts etc. The local aerial company at the time were contracted for the job of a cable system. It turned out to be a nightmare of complaints, cross modulation and left hand ghosts, but much better than what the residents had put up with for a long time!! Some years later the village managed to talk the BBC into erecting a low power repeater, and the cable relay became redundant. I am still using some of the coax from that!! Anyway, to make a long story longer, the two lads who were contracted to do the work on the laying of the cable system were both radio hams. Barry, (I can't remember his callsign) came in one day and got on the chat. I have never seen TVDX he said. I took him out to the shack with the small 5" JVC and plugged in, and as luck would have it, there was a test card from GRUNTEN, Germany on E2, just like that. He came up with a simple horizontal band 1 dipole for me shortly afterwards, which I had for some time. I can't recall the antenna we received Grunten on initially. Maybe even the telescopic, or an old cross (BBC1) aerial.
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PHOTOGRAPHING TVDX LIKE ROGER BUNNEY:
I did read with interest the column every month in "Television" magazine. Incidentally that relaunched last year, only to fail again almost immediately. Initially I had been in awe at the logs, and photographs that appeared until I saw sporadic e for myself. But I do remember the foreign interference received on 405 line VHF transmissions of BBC1 which would obviously have been sporadic e in mid summer..
I tried taking some photos from the first reception I saw on the old Pye. I had a capable camera by this time, but I had black bands across the screen. It wasn't until another old friend who is now sadly long gone, showed me what settings to use on the old Zenith camera, that I had success. The best setting on the old camera was 1/30th second, close enough to the desired frame speed of 1/25th of a second. This still caused a little shading, but it was far from the large black bands. I never had a tripod in those days either, so photos were all taken freehand. All this was in 1988, almost 10 years after my first TVDX!!!.
My first efforts photographing TVDX with an instamatic
auto camera!!
"Never wait till the picture gets better", old Ian would tell me, "It might never get any better, so take it when you can".
So some of the test cards photos were taken on the correct advice of the late Ian Mason when they peaked briefly. Sometimes they never did peak much more, other times they came up even better. So another snapshot was taken. A film held 36 shots, maybe a couple more if you were lucky. Not like today, when a digital camera will take as many as you like at no extra cost. Or screen capture software can be used to even take movies.
As mentioned last month, my first TVDX reports sent to stations were DDR TV, and Swedish TV. These would have been accompanied by hand drawn test cards as proof of reception. My log book states Sat 2nd June 1979 I saw DDR TV start at 1825, and I also had lots and lots of unid signals according to the log book.
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Mine looks very different from the right hand image. Maybe it was, or maybe it is a bad hand made drawing!!
QSL from DDR TV 1979
Ian was an old friend for many years. He was as eccentric as a retired chemist would be I suppose. He gave me an old Drake SSR-1 years ago, and he also had a Grundig Satellit 3400 at one time too, which he gave me when it broke down on him. I still have it to this day, and is in better nick than my own original sat 3400 I bought myself. It was a simple fault, but that was not important to Ian. What was though, was that I was to get the use of the set. Ian eventually became more of an RTTY dxer than a broadcast band dxer, and eventually went on to have quite a shack. He had a Drake R8A, and NRD535 when he died. I am not sure which year that was, but probably mid 1990's. He always liked his TVDX though and even if I hadn't seen him in many weeks, we were always in touch when the TVDX season was "happening". Sad as it may be, even his house, and much of his street in the next village has been demolished.
My old pal,
Ian Mason, who taught me how to work my old camera!!
1988 was long before digital cameras of course, and I had to wait until the next time I was in town about 12 miles distant, take the film to be developed, and then return some days later to pick it up. Problems arose when inspecting the negatives. More often than not, the companies, and it didn't seem to matter much who it was, never printed all the photos. This little scam seemed to be going on for years, and never to my knowledge was any publicity ever given to these rogue traders. So I used to run back and forth to various shops with the complaints. This included a wee fellow that did a 1 hour photo thing, and he did not like being showed up as a trickster, and was always very apologetic, but it continued to happen. I wonder if others had this problem? I doubt that it was a machine/ automated problem, but rather than a scam to save the companies money. Call me cynical, but money does often seem to be at the root of much evil....!!
Another problem that occurred with TVDX photos was badly centred images, with part of them cut off, and some of the images were even split between two photos. This happened to me countless times!! Again I had to run back and forth to various shops with the numbers carefully written down and returning the shoddy workmanship. It really was such a pain in the neck.
My old Zenith camera eventually gave up the ghost, after too many long damp winters kept in the shack, when the shutter eventually became sticky and unreliable, and even the good old "Servisol Super 40" could work no magic.
At this time the early digital cameras were on the go, but were no use for TVDX photos. So I never had anything to take photos from the TV in the years between the old camera giving up, and the current digital camera, which I got in 2005. Since then however, using the close up setting, flash off, and for the first time ever, a tripod, I have taken thousands of images, all nicely centred, and of course, they all come out!!
The only annoying thing with digital cameras is the "non instant" snapshot. There is always a very annoying slight delay. This can mean a good caption or nothing at all, knowing the fast fading of sporadic e.
Isn't it amazing to think back to former times when there was no e bay, and second hand goods were small ads in a newspaper or magazine. We never had any boot sales locally, like we have now. Such is the surplus of electronic gadgets nowadays, that everyone and their dog has multitudes of camera's, TV's, any amounts of music players, mobile phones, and all. Perfectly good working items get thrown away nowadays, rather than sold, or hoarded as a spare. Well most folks do. That is why I am piled to the ceiling with boxes of junk!! lol.