KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - FRIDAY 25th MARCH 2011

1710kHz AT 0526 TODAY, FRIDAY:

Such was the signal level of the music on 1710 this am, that I have included an audio clip. There are two clips, one from this morning and the other from a few days ago, with unid lingo. I feel these are tadx, and not Dutch. I also think they are not Balkland at that time of morning. There is a couple of possibilities. Radio Soleil in Haitian French, or Celestrial stn in SS. There may be others.

110322_0558_1710_unid_lingo.mp3

110325_0526_1710_unid_mx_strong.mp3

 

OTHER AUDIO CLIPS FROM RECENT DAYS:

Below are a few DX clips from recent days. X Band has been so choc a block that many stations are heard with strong signals at the same time. Result? A mess. But a few clips are also included here.

110322_0600_1520_ss_lv_unid_poss_columbia.mp3
(Seemed to be after the Libertad IDs just before the hour on the same station)

110315_0600_1620_rebelde_amazing_echo_then_1180_clip.mp3

110315_0600_1630_wrdw_augusta_gd.mp3

110322_0500_1660_amazing_mix_wwru_avenue_poss_krzi.mp3

 

 

NO TRACE OF DX TEST:

The dx test this past Saturday on 1250 was sadly not heard here. Thanks to all for their efforts though in bringing the test to the dx community.

 

NEW STATIONS LOGGED:

A couple of new stations heard here. 1390 WMER. Meridian, MS at 0600 Monday 21st in the WEGP silence. WMER is reputed to be 101 watts night time according to some lists. A strange figure. Where did this come from I wonder?? I have heard a WMER before when the call was allocated to 1440 in Maine, now WRED. WMER 1390 announced // 93.1.

I have also noted a Columbian on 610, Friday 18th at 0600. I'm not sure which one of the two that are listed. I suspect the 30kW stn, Carinosa 610, Bogota. But maybe the station just carries RCN news or something from Bogota?? My SS is not that good here. I was complaining about reception on LF end of the band, in the last week. So much so, I walked the antenna the other night to make sure things were fine. They were, and I can only put the signals down to band condx. But on Friday, this strong signal was heard, while most of the rest of the band was not worth talking about, except the stations on X band, which have been noticably good recently..

On 14th and 15th I also had SS on 1520 which for me was unid, until Paul and Stu came to my assistance with more SS than I knew. The PR station id was in fact for another of the Radio Voz network, 1580 WEKO. Yes. it's easy to hear whjen you know what to listen for. But the day before, the station heard was LIBERTAD from Columbia. Again, there were IDs heard OK when you know what to listen for.

 

BAD SEAGATE DRIVES:

I read an article last year written by AB regards Seagate drives. Having a large number of drives around me, filled with Perseus DX files from the excellent 2009 and 2008 seasons, I thought it better to investigate a little. Seems Seagate produced some poor quality drives a few years ago, including the Barracuda 7200.11 series. Info is vague on the Seagate site, but it seems that there was a release of a fix in the shape of a firmware upgrade. The first drive i looked at was a 500g Barracuda 7200.10. According to a wiki article, those drives are fine. It was the 7200.11 series that there were problems with, inc dead drives, dying suddenly at switch on and being unrecoverable. But as I had quite a number of 500 gig removables I opened the usb cradles to see what was in them. The Iomega USB drives bought in 2008 are all bad ones. I have about 8 of these.

UPDATE: I have been using the Seagate serial number tracker, to see if the drives I have desire a firmware upgrade. Seems that all drive serial numbers put into the system all come up clear and no update required. I will keep my fingers crossed.

None of the drives so far have shown any signs of failure I should add. This is a precautionary measure, as I don't have back ups of most of the Perseus files. It would reach to quite a cost to back up all the Perseus files I decided to keep a hold of during the great Winters of 08 and 09. Luckily not all drives used here are Seagate.

 

BAD DVDs AND CDs:

Sometimes we hear horror stories of the wonderful technology we have in 2011 failing miserably. DVDs and CDs that were written here approximately 10 or more years back, and have been kept in boxes as back ups, untouched for years, are simply failing.

I'm finding that in these days of 2TB drives being common place, a pair of these drives is desired. For radio archive material and other data, the main drive can be backed up to the second drive every now and again, or when there are changes or new files added. This is the way I am going with the large amount of historical recordings and scans and archives I deal with here.

But what of my old recordings of Radio Caroline from the Astra Satellite when they were part time? I used to keep recordings on CDs then. No DVDs in those days, and hard drives may have been a mere 6gig or 10 gig. So I used to record much of the output of Radio Caroline and transfer onto CDS. The back up was put in a warmer environment, and never touched from the day the disks were created. But even these are now refusing to play, or copy to hard drive. Not all. Just some files on some disks. But more than half the disks I'd say are now faulty. Why does this happen?? Anyone who has never experienced this with CD media, I would say has not really been using their PCs flat out in the past. I have often found this problem, not only now, but also years ago. I have tried digging out older CD ROMs and tried many different pieces of hardware. But it looks like I have lost many of my recordings!! These were made direct to the PC from Satellite receivers, so there are no tape back ups available from these files. Anything recorded onto video tape or audio tape of course will still play reasonably fine, but even these tapes have short comings. Eg an old AMPEX reel from the 1980's that is simply falling to bits when played. Ampex was meant to be a name like Seagate, and associated with good gear. On both counts not, as the case may be.

Is it a case of buying crap media?? I feel sure that is part of the problem. But even so called better quality media will give the message that the PC "cannot read from the specified device", or similar.

Has anyone came up with any solutions for this common problem?? I have even had dvds that played fine first watch, and then after some years in a box stored away, they simply don't play any more.

 

 

KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - SUNDAY 13th MARCH 2011

 

WKVQ DX TEST HEARD IN SCOTLAND:

WKVQ 1540 in GA was heard here in Scotland at 0630 yesterday, 12th, with both voice and CW. It is good to hear these DX tests, and long distance logs from across the water I feel should be reported to the stations to encourage future tests. So I now have my first e QSL in a long time. My first QSL of any kind for a long time I think. The QSL is shown below, as well as a couple of e-flyers. These were sent in around 30m.

CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO CLIP

 

 

 

UNID SWEEPER AT 0300UTC ON 1540:

I also have an unid clip from 1540 at 0300UTC on 12th. There is a very distinctive sweeper being used at the top of the hour. Anyone know this sweeper??

 

 

UNID SIRENS AT TOTH ON 1710:

I have included a couple of audio clips from my log last week on 1710. The other stations on X band were booming, so much so that they were a bit like graveyard channels, with so much coming through. The signal on 1710 was creeping through and at a time like this I do wish whoever it was I have heard, had an automated toth id!! Or I wish I had recorded the full hour!! First clip is of sirens at the top of the hour at 0500. The second clip is a change of music just before 0600. No ids sadly.

Sirens on 1710 at 0500

Some music on 1710 at 0558

 

 

MANX RADIO AND CELTIC MUSIC RADIO DOWN IN SIGNAL STRENGTH:

Both 1368 Manx Radio, and 1530 Celtic Music Radio from Glasgow are back on air after some down time. Manx was on low power, as BBC stations dominated here the last couple of days. Today daytime, they are back on at a normal signal level.

 

KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - WEDNESDAY 9th MARCH 2011

1440 - A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY:

Just incase anyone is relatively new to the hobby, and is unaware of silent periods, here in Europe one of the best opportunities to catch tadx on a Euro channel is on 1440, during the silent period of the big 208, Radio Luxembourg. Currently the top of the hour at 0200 and 0300 UTC are both well worth recording, even if only for the 1440 frequencies. Possibly the three most common to dxers in Europe are:

WHKZ Warren, OH - (The Word)
WRED Westbrook, ME (Sports)
WVEI Worchester, MA (Less common, Sports // WEEI 850)

 

Other stations have made it to Scotland this past winter. Those are:

WJJL Niagra Falls / Buffalo, NY,
WDRJ Detroit, MI,
WMAX Bay City, MI.

Other DXers have noted the other odd rarity on the channel.

The window is by no means only open at silent period. Often in these parts, the magical period around dawn brings in the TADX as the Euros fade, including the powerhouse 1440.

At the end of the month when the clocks go forward, the hours will no doubt shift.

 

1710 - GOOD AUDIO TODAY:

The 1710 stations are rare and conditions have to be good to be heard here in Europe, due to the lowish power they use. I have ided Radio Soleil / Radio Sunshine in the past, but only ided them once. Recently, on a number of nights, I have been hearing watery audio from something. There were sirens bang on the hour at 0500 today. And at 0600, I have 10 minutes of music of sorts, no ids or anything. There have been reports of an American hobby pirate playing oldies, a SS stn, and Haiti ex pat French station, Radio Soleil.

 

Radio Soleil International web site

Radio Celestial (Spanish) web site

 

 

KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - TUESDAY 8th MARCH 2011

 

AMazing AM - ANOTHER APPEAL:

I was recently asking after an e-book mentioned below, which I recon I have on a floppy somewhere, but of course I just can't put my hands on it. I was appealing for a copy in WORD format of the Amazing AM. Even Svenn the author seems not to have a copy any more. He only has an Excell table with lists. I found an old advert from March 1996 MWC, which shows these two items for sale.

The publications eventually were on line on the DX Listeners Club web site, but even they seem to have lost their archive files. Someone must have a copy out there on old disks or on an old PC in the loft????

I am asking myself if the old Word 6 is the version that had to have the images along side the word document, and were not incorporated within the .doc file?? I seem to remember that function came with Word 97.

At any rate, it seems a shame not to have these items in the public domain after the work that went into producing them in the first place. I had quite an extensive input from this end, due to my interest and loggings of the Irish Pirate stations of the 1980's.

 

 

 

LESS PC NOISE ON HF:

I have not really had much to talk about regards MW in the last weeks. In fact I have only recorded this morning for the first time since the middle of last week. So I was having a rare tune around the SW and couldn't help notice that there was quite a bit of rf noise.

I have spent quite a time this week doing the Spring cleaning around the place including the shack. It was desperately in need of it!! Some nights I never even logged onto the Skype DX chat, as that would have stopped me and distracted me from the cleaning. The whole place really was a bit of a shambles.

So I have now cleared the junk and rubbish from the front of, and reconnected the NRD 515 and HF225E, and RA17. So those were the sets that I was using to tune the SW. I always liked using the NRD515 on SW, with the sturdy tuning knob and large traditional signal meter. But 6mHz on that meter had S8 of QRN, ie man made noise. So after trying the obvious like switching everything off in the shack, it seemed the noise level went to virtually zero from S8 when the main PC was switched off. Such is the length of time since I even had a tune around the SW bands, this was never noticed. So long as my precious MW band was quiet!!!

I rumaged around and found an unused OCTIGEN power supply I have had as a spare for some time, and threw it in. Noise level was only a fraction above what it is with the PC unplugged!! So there you go. Cured. I can't give the model number of the power supply, as the DELL PC I use is inside out and back to front. I don't have a side panel on it, but to sit on the bench like the former PC, I have to have it turned upside down!!

The noisy power supply can be used to repair someone's PC, but not any immediate neighbours. Will keep that for a machine miles from here. The make and model of the offending noisy unit is a "HIPRO HP-D3057F3P".`

 

 

RADIO NORD REVIVAL:

Swedish ex 1960's offshore broadcaster Radio Nord are on air today with a programme called Radio Nord Revival. The SW freq of 6060 is strong here, but no sign on the MW on 1512 here which is reputedly only 60w. The SW is said to be 10kW.

 

 

LASER HOT HITS QSY:

I noted Laser Hot Hits on SW yesterday moved from 6210 back to their old 6220 channel. Atlantic Radio also thumping in on 6960. Maybe the sunspot count is after all on the rise. Both these stations have been unreliable here due to long skip. On the programme side, Atlantic have only been airing non stop music, though frequent ids are aired. Laser has some programmes of listenable music, and others are of modern day trance / dance / rave / whatever it's called. To someone that likes Led Zeppelin, Rainbow, Bon Jovi, The Eagles ZZ Top etc, that music is completely unlistenable sadly. No Anorak Hour noted on Laser since the death of Colin (ex Radio Gemini) a few years ago. No idea where Colin Dixon's extensive tape collection went either, which is quite sad.

And still no trace here so far of Atlantic Radio's 1251 signal.

 

FRANCE 864 NOT GOOD RECENTLY:

A couple of us noted that 864 France was having audio problems the other night. Hopefully the fault will be too expensive to repair, and they will have to close the transmitter. I remember a time when France 1377, 864 and other channels all went silent But sadly they returned. This is from a TADX dxers point of view.

 

STILL HEARING WEAK AUDIO ON 1710:

I hear weak audio from time to time on 1710. Only once have I had enough for a good ID of Soleil / Sunshine. This is an ethnic station for Haiti ex pats in the USA. Boston or NY is it??

 

KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - FRIDAY 4th MARCH 2011

 

LOCAL TELEVISION REPEATER RAIDED:

Yet another remote mast in my area has been targeted by copper thieves. The repeater that serves the village in group B, closed at around 2130 on Wednesday night. It turns out the reason behind this is that thieves helped themselves to the coax cables or whatever. What is concerning is that my own beverages are out in the fields as well. Let's hope the beverage remoteness is their saviour.

 

UP"DATE" ON "KTRK - ARMY RADIO 1670":

I mentioned on last months page about KTRK 1670. I also mentioned writing the wrong date on my old tape because it was just into 1996. But even then I never clicked that the dates for the whole of February were all 2010!!!! Fixed now!!

 

NOT A LOT TO REPORT:

I don't have much to report from the wonderful world of MW dxing really. Last night produced music on 1520 at various times, but so far I have not found an ID.

 

ATLANTIC RADIO 1251 / 6960:

After many months of hearing short bursts of the above station on their SW channel, the signal in the last few days has been surprisingly reliable and strong. Signals are often skipping this qth. A search on the web suggests Co Mayo in Eire as the location. Now lets look forward to programmes, as all I have heard is non stop music, which can become tedious. A bit like weekend station, Energy from Dublin, that has been on air for a number of years, but only produce a programme once in a flood. It seems a shame to hear such decent and respectable signals reduced to non stop music. No sign of the 1251 signal so far, though strangely it has been heard in Dorset, at quite a distance from the site. Here only NOS and Saxon / ILR are heard.