LOGS / NEWS - MARCH 2014 A site mainly dedicated to Mediumwave Dxing |
| 1310 | WRVP | Mt Kisco NY |
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| 1330 | KCKM | Monahans, TX | 
DX test on 10kW 22/3/14 0525 |
| 1720 | Undercover Radio | USA pres |
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1430 WNSW Newark / New York City 0300 25/3
PERSEUS SCREEN SHOT FROM 594: There are a few strong hets heard here in Europe caused by various stations operating off channel. Every now and again, someone reports them wrongly as test tones. Even on a simple communications receiver, one can use the bfo to quickly determine if the tone is a het or test tone. On a car radio however, the two could easily be confused, especially as the 594 and 595 combination produce a 1kHz het, which sounds remarkably like the 1khz tone often used in tuning signals.
1300
WDGJ 0630 22/3 ID as talk 1300
KCKM 1330 DX TEST MAKES IT TO SCOTLAND: Not an easy one to hear here. In fact I was struggling. I thought it was the one that got away at first. But after some struggling with the settings and using a very narrow bandwidth, I have a partial piece of code. Part of MONAHANS, which is the QTH of KCKM, the Oilfield station. So what I hear is MONAHAN....losing it, as per the logs from the STATES, but the H sounds like a V. Below is the word that we are trying to hear. I have also included some weak sweepers.
--/---/-./.-/..../.-/-./...
With regards to the second dx test mentioned here a few days ago, the IRCA list is comical at this time. They just can't seem to agree which day the test is meant to be, Thurday night, Friday night or Sat night, far less what the GMT time will eventually be. LOL... I will be tempted to record tonight from 0300 - 0600 just incase... Maybe it has already gone?? I thought I was going to have to miss the dx test times for Saturday. As I was preparing to send off a report for 1330, we had a power cut here in the village. Sitting in the dark on a Saturday night, that I was meant to be on holiday just adds to the misery... lol
AMSTERDAM RADIO DAY 2014: I should update my report from a few days ago with regards the Amsterday Radio Day. I was under the impression again that the event was going to be carried live on a Dutch web stream, called Gold Extra. Sadly, like a fortnight ago, and the Radio Caroline 50th anniversary bash, the stream was a let down. All it was, was Gold making an outside broadcast / stream from the event. We were treated to oldies. I had wrongly assumed that the event would be heard live on Gold. What a great opportunity missed again. I can listen to Dire Straits and Abba anytime, so I had to go and get on and do something else. I had planned to get some Dutch beer in and sit and pop a few while listening to the event. I tried two local shops for Amstel, Heinniken, or Grolche, but unbelievable as it may seem, I couldn't even get any Dutch lager locally. I was even going to put it in silly half pint glasses and fill it only up to a quarter of a pint, and have a real "short measure" with a big head..lol... like they serve in Holland and Germany, with a straight face!!! (Bloody daylight robbery, the short measures you get over there!!) I was supposed to have been going to the Amsterdam Radio Day, but it was going to end up too dear at the finish up. This time around though I never lost any money over it. I had to cancel at the last minute once before, but I foolishly had flights booked in advance, and lost £150 quid over that fiasco.
Nothing recorded this morning. For some reason the 60 day vhf converter trial pop up screen appeared today for no known reason. The box hadn't become unticked or anything in the settings. What a shambles. So it stopped the overnight recordings working. This is not the first time silly time out messages and time out software has been associated with the Perseus. I am only glad it never decided to pop up at this coming weekend when there are two dx tests.
MW DXING: Yesterday
morning again, there was a powerhouse signal from KKLF Texas on 1700,
with it's new SS music format. Booming at 0300 and at 0600.
This weekend sees two dx tests. One Friday night / Sat am, and the other Sat night / Sun am GMT.
1:/ KCKM 1330 Monahans, Texas Saturday March 22nd - 0500 GMT - 1330khz (Friday night into Saturday Morning). The test will be be at full daytime power and pattern .… 12,000 Watts Non-Directional into a 5/8th wave tower. The test will consist mainly of Morse code, sweep tones, and sound effects known to cut through the mud. There will be a few voice announcements spread throughout the 30-minute test. KKCM prefers reports sent by email but will accept snail-mailed submissions. If you send an email, please send MP3 attachments only; WAV files would be too big. Snail mail reports can be sent with a CD or cassette cued up to the best part of the reception. The mailing address is: PO Box 990, Monahans TX 79756. Emails should be sent to bob@kckm1330.com
2:/ WWXL 1450 kHz, Manchester, KY Sunday March 23rd - 0300-0400 GMT - 1450kHz Rerun of the test which failed to materialise last weekend. Late minute details will no doubt be announced here.
http://www.mail-archive.com/irca@hard-core-dx.com/maillist.html
MW DXING: 1430
CHKT Chimes 0700 18/3 not hrd chimes before. Thought something obscure
was going to come through.
AMSTERDAM RADIO DAY MARCH 22nd 2014: I unfortunately will not be able to attend the event of a lifetime on Saturday. The 50th anniversary of Radio Caroline. I think I will get a few Dutch beers in and listen live on line. The Radio Day events will be carried live on GOLD EXTRA apparantley. This link can be pasted directly into WINAMP. Right click the play button etc. More details here http://stream.idpromotions.nl:8006
CLASSIC SHELL: I discovered the following link recently. It is not everyone that wants their PC to have childish high contrast big baby style icons and silly sliding menus etc on the operating system. After all, it is only an operating system, ie a platform to run the software you actually wish to run. Not a breeding ground for someones ridiculous ideas of how they want your PC to look. I have always turned off all the babyish crap I can find in Windows. But after trying WIN 8 on a laptop a while back, I thought to myself, how does anyone manage this dross. It was a nightmare even trying to switch off the pc. No start button etc. The basic win 95 shell has been used in all versions of WIndows since then, although they have tried to modify it since Vista in a way that does not necessary give users the desired control over many of the settings. The forums are full of tips and moans of basic functions that Windows used to have that are now gone or a nightmare to try and find now. But anyway, Classic shell is worth a look if you want an on off button again in Windows 8..lol.. This is an example of an entry in one of the forums: It's a little program called Classic Shell. Go to www.classicshell.net and read more about it. It's free and it doesn't have any junk or adware attached to it. It just works. Being a computer tech and that being my main business I could go on and on about this. But it seems mildly (if not definitely) off-topic. As far as I can see, you can't buy a PC with Windows 7 anymore in any store. Manufacturers have gone to Windows 8 and have been for a while. You CAN, however, continue to get a Windows 7 PC from a PC builder such as myself. Even in the future, your local PC shop can order Windows 8 Pro for your new PC and then invoke downgrade rights and put Windows 7 Pro on it. So 7 will be around for a while. I sure hope so. 8 is not well-liked at all. The only way I've been able to get my customers to use it is to install an add-on that makes it work like 7 so you get a start menu back and do not have to use those crazy tiles. And yes M$ is not going to support XP anymore. It's the biggest "scare" I've seen in a while. No the world won't end. No your pc will not cease to function on April 8th. No your pc will not blow up. No you can't call Microsoft and ask them a question about XP (who does that anyway?). If you have XP, relax. Your PC will be fine. You won't get anymore windows updates and it might be a bit less secure. Just keep your anti-virus updated and you'll be fine until you are ready to move on to a newer operating system. Sorry but my days are very stressful right now with people freaking out over the whole XP thing. I am typing this on my office PC as we speak and I still have XP.
MW DXING UNINSPIRING LAST FEW DAYS: I don't have very much to report here over the weekend, except the fact the dx test 0300 Sunday was canceled at the last minute due apparantly to the engineer not being able to get his car started to drive to the tx site. (If it had been me, that would maybe have been the cover story to cover up getting stuck in a pub or something..lol) 1390 WCAT Burlington, VT with the 93.7 Burlington weather forecast, followed by "Chicago, If you leave me now". 0800 17/3
I must say I have not been inspired the last few days with the MW. Well maybe we are turning the corner as we approach the equinox, during what they call solar max. What can you expect.
COMICAL MAP: I was sent a link to a comical map the other day, but sadly all in French. The link I will post here if I can find it again. http://ak.pinterest.com/pin/523473156659880221/ images/sebastien-laurent-carte-europe.jpg But it reminded me of a couple of items I was send a few of years back, and I thought I would reproduce. I haven't a clue as to the source, so I can't credit..
I noted KKLF Texas today and instead of Sports, it is carrying SS music. Booming 0300 and heard at other times. This was reported elsewhere as silent, but as you can hear, it is anything but.
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST - SACKVILLE:
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE FOR A BAND 2 SDR: I know we all have been using some kind of an SDR for 15 years or so now. Yes, maybe more. The first TV cards for a PC could be classed as SDR's in a loose kind of way. You also had radio incorporated in many. But to be honest I never had the slightest real interest till I realised that by 2007 the Perseus SDR could record at the time 400kHz. Up until then I had seen only smaller portions recordable with WINRADIO equipment. Last month I mentioned the ELAD SDR, which is generating a lot of interest. A similar interest perhaps that the Perseus generated initially. Is it time to move onwards and upwards and bite at the ELAD SDR and it's 6mhz bandwidth?? It covers mw / sw as well as band 2 and another segment of vhf around 2m. Yahoo group link below. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/elad_sdr_en/conversations/messages It has annoying gaps though, including the OIRT FM band which has been phased out in most Eastern European countries. It is still used by Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia at least. During the summer months when we have the exciting powerful sporadic e openings, the OIRT band, 68 - 74mHz or thereabouts can be jumping. It would be nice to be able to make a few wideband recordings before the old Soviet era FM band finally disappears into history. But that won't be with an ELAD!! Will any of the others mentioned last month be worth while?? But I did ask what was happening with the Perseus SDR and Nico "Perseus" Palermo in their Yahoo group recently. The silence was deafening, not exactly the responce I had in mind. Would that encourage you to buy from Microtelecom? It is very off putting, but I really would hope for a Perseus style front end rather than the messy software the ELAD group is putting out. Here is what I asked, courteously enough i think.
I have been watching the developments in the SDR world, and the latest set to generate an interest amongst broadcast band dxers is the ELAD. With it's 6Mhz bandwidth for recording band 2, which is a great advantage over the Perseus FM+ and it's 1.8mhz. My question... I hear rumour on the dx jungle drums of Nico working on another receiver. Can we ask after this receiver??? Is it the Gemini?? If it is, then that would probably make it insignificant due to prohibitive price?? Or so the speculation suggested a couple of years ago.... Or is it a wider bandwidth SDR that would have direct competition to the ELAD? Or is there nothing coming off the shelf any time soon?? The
WINRADIO receiver with 32 mHz bandwidth seems to be HF only sadly,
and not designed to include band 2. I would certainly prefer to have a Perseus style GUI than anything else, and is a certain selling point as far as I am concerned. Hence my interest, before I plunge after the wider bandwidth ELAD. Ken Scotland
THE ONLY RESPONSE (EXCEPT FOR A LITTLE JOKE) WAS A SHORT STATEMENT FROM ALBERTO......
No,
it is not the Gemini... something completely different. But Nico only
can
NB: No hints forthcoming... All that is really required from band 2 dxers are basic details so they know whether to take a plunge at an ELAD or hang off for a bit. With the forthcoming sporadic e season closing in (in theory), a little more information may be helpful. It may be this is some kind of radio ham set, or hf only set that has no real significance to FM broadcast band dxers. A few simple details that would be helpful to allow dxers to decide are listed - 1: Recordable bandwidth 2: Frequency coverage 3: Is WFM included and RDS capability? 4: Estimated price 5: Estimated availabliity.
After that of course if it is a band 2 receiver, a bit about the spec would be helpful. Overloading seemingly was a problem with the Perseus FM+ in high RF areas. There were no problems noted here I have to say. It should go without saying, but with Microtelecom, you never know if there are restrictions imposed on your receiver like there are with the FM+, or if more stupid timout software was planned. If you were selling, wouldn't you butter up all potential buyers? I know I would.
As listeners to the Radio Caroline web stream on Saturday would have heard, the Caroline 50th anniversary was celebrated at the Corn Exchange in Rochester on Saturday. I was settling down for a good old anoraky listening session on Saturday afternoon, and was surprised when I switched on to find live programmes from the event were in progress. Fantastic I think to myself. I have to say that I was excited of the prospect of a live feed, and canceled any immediate plans for that sunny afternoon. The brilliance was not to last. They very kindly closed the feed at 1pm, and passed us on to some pre recorded top 40 album programming!!! Insignificant by comparason to what was going on in the Corn Exchange. At least I heard a track from the latest Paul Rogers album!! It seems that you were meant to click on a link on the Caroline site to hear the live stream of the event. It never worked here!! A few folks seemingly got it working and uploaded a recording over the following days, but the audio quality was like something a bunch of kids in the next street would come up with on a drunken night. What a let down. Almost as big a damp squib as the "Hallo Tom" format on a certain Saturday at high noon back in August 1983!! I wonder why despite this being a real landmark for the station, that this was not carried on the main Caroline stream. This was 50 years on and we are treated to a superb build up, and then.. nothing.... It wasn't a one night stand with the woman next door. This was a biggy. The much anticipated 50th anniversary.. Come on fellows, that was hardly a fair exchange after 50 years of support, or 40 in my case. We have had some great anoraky events on air over the years when you think on all the Sunday Joints, Nice and Easy, Christmas broadcasts, NewYear celebrations, ships tours, Easter weekends etc. The music listeners would still have been there the next day. Most will surely have been those enthusiasts that couldn't make Rochester, or failed to get a ticket. "Distant enthusiasts abandoned" could be another way to describe it. It reminds me of the old cliche from the old days of TV. "This is BBC2. Here is the late night film, except for viewers in Scotland, who will have the cricket!!" LOL... Well at least those that attended the event, like all conventions I have heard of in the past, had a great day out. It is always memorable to meet up with old friends, and meet others that you have never met before. I have been at a number over the years, and I really love the magic of the days. I'm just full of sour grapes because I can't go to any of the events this time around. I had planned for the Radio Day in Amsterdam, but alas, I am not going to be able to make it. So let's hope Martin and co have the sound streams all fired up this year again.
I have heard the broadcast at the weekend on 1720 from Undercover Radio. It was heard on air at 0400, noted at 0500, but I managed an id at 0600. Sadly I never recorded more of the night around this time, so I guess I was quite lucky to find a station ID from Undercover Radio on MW here in Scotland!! I have heard this station in the past on 6.9mhz area, but never on MW. This would qualify as the first transatlantic proper pirate station I have heard on MW. (Discounting the ethnic things like Sunshine on 1710)
MW LOGS: 1350
Mid Downs Radio 0501 9/3 UK LPAM
Many thanks to Mark in NJ for the rec of Radio Vision Christianas from 1330 NYC, which is // 1310, which I noted a few days ago. Personal first here. I wonder if they really were running 30watts..lol
MW LOGS: Today I noticed the band still lively at 0800 etc, when in the last few few weeks it has been virtually a waste of time.
1270
WXYT 0900
Today the band sounded very lively around 0900 when I checked.
I may have overlooked the fact the band was wide open at 0800 today.. I only recorded 3m, which is not good when many foreign and Canadian stations do not use proper toth ids. I was surprised to hear the band still knocking on. A lot of lower power stations in NY State coming thru today. 980 WOFX
Troy 6/3 0300
1470
WSBR Prog ending with wsbrradio.com address which is // WWNN. 4/3
2256
MW DX LOGS: 1470
WWNN 0202 3/3
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