KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - THURSDAY 24th NOVEMBER 2011

DX LOGS IN THE RECENT DAYS:

Band conditions since Monday have been very average. I still have nightly reception of the daytimer on 1190 closing at 2200. I suggest the station parameters have altered somewhat, as this has not been heard in previous times. There seems to be no dawn enhancement worth talking about, and the Euros remain a nuisance. But Saturday and Sunday brought a few surprises, both for me and other dxers.

It is time to add some of the logs that have come to the receiver in recent days and even weeks. This has not been a great month for keeping long lists of logs. Only the less usual stations have been noted. So where do I begin.... With a few scribbles that have been made on bits of paper. So much for keeping these pages updated with the scribbles, instead of the paper version....

 

A WASTE OF A GOOD FIELD:

I have not yet been actively trying to repair my temporary beverage in the middle of the open field. This was put up last month after the big fermer told me he was not using the field until the spring, and it was OK to use it for antennas. But when the band crashed, so did my enthusiasm, as it always does. And as a result, I have not got the thing working yet. Sure it receives signals, but noise level is very very much higher than the permanent antenna through the woods. Maybe there is a break in the coax feeder?? It is a long feeder. I have my suspicions about one of the lengths used. I was going to send an audio signal through it and check the sound at the other end. But I have too many other projects on the go this winter, and other things have taken up the time, not least a major archiving project.

But if the band is going to give us one or two unusual days, and a few dxers have already been seeing carriers and brief audio from KBRW, I really must get the finger out!!

 

 

KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - FRIDAY 18th NOVEMBER 2011

FIRST ENTRY AND IT'S NOW MID NOVEMBER:

I have a habit of becoming less intense with my mw dxing, when the band is dead. It has been an uphill struggle this season re motivation, due to either only common stations heard day after day, or sometimes virtually nothing. This is reflected in the writings on these pages. And it is just a task when this happens, to even add a new page for a new month!! But here we are at long last. You guessed it, the band has again picked up!!

 

OLD FRIEND BACK ON 1680:

The last couple of days has seen the return of a loud jamming type noise on 1680, heard in the past and at one time traced to the North Sea region north of the Benelux by MWC dxers.

NOVEMBER MW DXING:

We have seen the situation before. Signals booming in around midnight UTC, yet at the dawn peak, the band seems depressed and bland. Maybe this is what has been called the November Anomoly.

 

WCRW, LEESBURG / WASHINGTON - COMMON DAYTIMER:

It seems that the daytimer on 1190 is one of the most common daytimers now. Heard signing off on 1190 at 2200 most nights, since the first log last week. I wonder if the station parameters have changed somehow recently?? Listed as 50k day and 1300w from a different night site.

 

OTHER PROJECTS - THE BIG SCANNER:

Throughout the years at various times, I have been hamperred by lack of good equipment to complete a certain project, and so often had to work away with old scrap. With the PC and scanners, I have often struggled to scan large items in an a4 scanner and joined them up. Sure, it's a great way to keep your PC skills fresh, but such a time waster. If you have larger items to scan, an A3 scanner is certainly a good investment and a welcome addition to the office.

The Epson A3 "scanner only" new can be £1000 to £2500 or so, depending on model and supplier etc. Even second hand units fetch quite high prices. I was recently in PC World, and saw that Brother have an A3 all in one printer / scanner, priced around 200 quid. Hmm, I think to myself, making the noise of a bee. I have seen cheap junk too often, and it never ever, or at least hardly ever turns out to be a real workhorse. I had used a friend's Epson 1200 A4 scanner some years ago, so thought that a new unit, an Epson 1250 would be everything the 1200 was and then some. WRONG AGAIN!! It was pathetically slow, and one of those units that the motor sounds as though it is going to give up. If you are doing high volume scanning, the speed thing is a major concern. If you are doing three scans a year, then it would have been sufice. The transparency adaptor on the 1250 machine was a joke. So it was sold on at half price to a pal, and I cut my losses. I managed to source another Epson 1200 on the second hand market. (They had stopped new production for some reason) This time success. And the A4 Epson 1200 is still here, a great and fast workhorse.

I had gone to these local council run pop in centres in the past to scan the odd item in A3. But they are all gone now I believe, and I guess along with the equipment. Mysteriously gone, even though it was paid for by public funds!! Anyway, these centres had large Epson A3 scanners, which were fast and tough workhorses, as opposed to a "3 scans a year" unit, such as what I would have expected with the clunky looking Brother thing. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't set up in the shop to test the speed. I just sort of assumed. Sure I could have spent a bomb keeping it going with ink, and printing some really nice large A3 sheets. But thats wasn't my primary objective.

My local history project takes up a lot of my time as well, and I have the chance to scan a collection of old newspapers, in A3 size, from the turn of the century. I had taken it in the teeth again this year that I wasn't going to the Radio Day in Amsterdam and Erkrath in Germany, so looked around ebay to buy myself an A3 scanner.

Initially I looked at the SCSI Epson 10000, which required a scsi card. This was an older pre USB model, but no doubt a real workhorse. After some chat with "Stu" I looked at the GT-15000 model which was a more modern USB2 model. There were a couple of both models for sale from guys claiming to be clearing offices and basically offering untested units. How difficult is it to test? Anyhow, I saw a 15000 going for about 50 quid, untested. Was I going to risk it?

I saw another working model just over a hundred quid. Nice, I thought. The geezer was upfront and said it worked ok, but the usb connection was a bit dodgy at the back, hence the price. I jumped at this one. There were a few e mails going back and forth, and the geezer sounded like he was one of these folks that don't have any old junk lying around. He was going to have to buy bubble wrap!! The packaging cost rose from his estimated £35 to £50!! For some old cardboard that can be found at the nearest shop, ready for the carboard bin day!! It is a hefty unit, and I knew postage would be expensive, so I had to grit my teeth and bear it. It is not everyone that has old packaging kicking around I told myself.

The unit was delivered in about 5 long days. The service used was Parcel Force. I was out when it turned up, which was a shame, as I was going to open it to check they had not wrecked it. But when I saw the package lying on its edge against a wall when I got in, I was cringing. Not only that, but the unit was not even boxed!! It was wrapped in maybe three layers of the small bubble wrap, and my address written on the plastic, in felt tip. I cringed. Surely this could be damaged easily, and it was wrapped as though a primary school kid had done it.

How NOT to wrap a piece of electrical kit for transporting

Amazingly, the thing worked first time, and has been running like a champion ever since. I can't imagine this is the kind of packing that is reccomended by Parcel Force, but they certainly must have treated it with care. My hat goes off to Parcel Force, and Epson for building tough units. A plastic hinge on the lid had got broken, which I had to do a rough job on. Hence the wooden peg holding the lid up on the photos below. That I can cope with. As you can see, it is a monster and dwarfs the A4 scanner beside it.

As for the USB plug problem, the one that was being used had a large rim of plastic all around it, making it physically too big, and another lead was found!! Cured..!!

I mentioned to a radio chap on Skype in a private chat that I was scanning the large Sunshine Radio booklet, pictured on the scanner. "Why are you doing that," was his unusual reply!!!

KEN'S DX DIARY AND LOGS - THURSDAY 10th NOVEMBER 2011

WCRW, LEESBURG / WASHINGTON DAYTIMER 2200 LAST NIGHT - 1190:

Noted a personal first at 2200 last night, WCRW on 1190. Nice one for me. 50kW / 1300W.

1190 WCRW Leesburg, VA Ending px for today 2200
1280 WPKZ Fichburg, MA Ann the new 105.3 FM 2300, ex WEIM
1400 CBC network using old toth chimes at 2300, // 600, 640, 540, 750, but not 1140!!

STILL NOT SETTING THE HEATHER ON FIRE:

Dx has been kinda poor here and uninteresting unfortunately on the MW band. The Aurora recently killed the dx and the recovery has been slow to nil. .