LOGS / NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2014 A site mainly dedicated to Mediumwave Dxing |
| 1100 | WHLI | Hempstead, NY |
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| 1180 | KOFI | Kalispell, MT |
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| 1230 | KXLO | Lewistown, MT |
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I was going to include a couple of clips from the last weeks, but I have nothing worthy here to let you hear. I started a montage of logs from 0600 one day when the signals were more interesting, but listening back, they are hardly worthy of web space. Check my logs from last year at this time and hear decent montages of common stations here. I can give you Radio Puerto Cabello from Venezuala 0600 29/9. 140929_0600_1290_radio_puerto_cabello_ven.mp3
RTE LEAVES LW 252 OCTOBER 27th: One of my 2008 Perseus files that will be kept and backed up is the closing down of RTE on 567kHz. This includes 567 signing off, but 252 continues. However even a few years later despite the large coverage of the signal, RTE has decided it is too expensive to run, and closed at the end of October. A message that seems to be inserted only on 252 is being broadcast, this heard at 0600GMT, when it breaks in and out of the normal programmes. See the relatively longish clip below for a piece of history that soon will be no more. I hope they do a special programme, and have a proper sign off.. I did
see some speculation of a deal to hire airtime.
INTERESTING MW LOGS......FROM 2008/ 2009!!!!!! I was listening to some old files and have found some logs of note 680 CJOB
VG 0957 1030 etc 20/11/09 1100
WHLI HEMPSTEAD, NY 16/12/08 Daytimer 2127. Not heard before!!
What was also cool was to hear on the air was stations like RTE 567, Belgium 1512, Radio Sweden 1179 and others that have gone in these few short years. The Perseus SDR is certainly a piece of apparatus we should be thankful for, and are able to keep files for the future. Looking back at these historical files will be interesting in the years to come, not for the dx heard, but for the European MW band that was. It is a pity we have no wideband recordings for the European evenings in the middle of the 80's when all the high powerhouse stations were on the air.
DO SOME DXERS STILL CURSE THE PERSEUS SDR ?? Some dxers will ask what has the above got to do with dxing... (serious...that is a direct quote from a dxer) Some dxers will say cheat. Some may cry in their milk that it is unfair. Some dxers can't see beyond.. well I fail to understand what they see in the Perseus recorder. ..lol. I can only assume they also refuse to watch a recorded movie that was on the television the night before, as it has absolutely nothing to do with watching a movie, and is really cheating, and unfair, or fishing for cod or whaever that story was. Because you were not available to watch it live??? Is it still a movie? Let me think. Is it still the same movie, hmmm.. let me think again.. Has it somehow became something alien on the recorder?? Never in my experience. Really, what an silly attitude towards a superb dx tool.
PROBLEMS WITH THE PERSEUS RECORDINGS: A recording problem has developed here. If it were during superb conditions I would have a new windows install made after the 2nd failure. But the band has been poor at best. But I really find it such a bloody nuisance. I have used the Perseus on timer mode for a while now, since probably 2008??? Sure, it works more or less flawlessly. Every now and then there would be the odd hour that doesn't record for some unknown reason. But other than that, things have run quite smoothly. Until just recently, when a strange problem reared up. I set the 10m at the top of the hours through the night to record. I get up in the morning and find that it is only the odd hours that have recorded. eg 0100, 0300, 0500... Then the next night it was only the even numbers ... 0200, 0400, 0600. (More suitable as 0600 is the peak here!!) So what could it be?? The only other thing I see is that the small icons in the quick launch bar look like what one of them looks like in "mouse over" mode, ie selected but not pushed if you like. That must be the clue. Short of staying up all night to watch what the hell is happening, or a complete windows reinstall, while a healthy option for any PC, I feel I should be able to master this quirky thing. Of course I already have had very poor advice on the MW dx chat. "That's what you get for using Windows XP", can certainly not be called helpful or even a remotely technical answer. In fact that is more like that dreaded visit to the doctor, when no matter what your ailment, even a broken leg, the question will always arise. How much do you smoke, how much do you drink, how many units a week. And after all that dxer also has record failures with his wonderful windows 7. Dxers use different tools to record. There are a few now. But they all report failures on a semi regular basis, but not in a regular traceable type fashion. It seems to be a quirk we have to live with having to use third party add ons, as there is no built in timer on the Perseus software. Imagine buying a dvd or video recorder with no timer these days. Quite an oversight really, as the record function is THE selling point of the Perseus SDR for most MW dxers I believe. Certainly for myself. It is nothing to do with having a shit hot receiver. I had the shit hot single channel receivers. Sometimes you get the impression that the record facility was an afterthought and the main design plans were for the so called shit hot receiver??? It's just some of the comments that have appeared over the years seem to suggest that the record facility is not seen as important. (Going back 20 seconds in a multi file recording for example still requires about 10 clicks, yet one click will advance forward to the next file flawlessly) But returning to my bizarre problem. I have tried a few things yesterday but woke up today, Saturday with still even hours only. I had uninstalled VLC player incase it was trying to access the web. I also changed my filthy manky keyboard incase I had random intermittent keys sticking, I made sure auto updates was still unticked etc. But no luck. I have since changed back to a back up drive, which is a 250 gig, and working perfectly. I had previously stuck in a 500 gig with a 50 gig partition for C:\ just to give more storage space. I am beginning to think I'd be better using an old 80 gig for C drive only and forget about the extra D drive storage, and keep that on a separate physical drive. Software in use here. Windows XP, Sce pack 2, Autohotkeys, and scripts for every top of the hour. It is a PC that is never connected to the web, and all silly updates to my knowledge are all switched off, and no security or antivirus installed, or even windows firewall. All should be disabled. Why do I need it?? The main PC is never on line. I have brought the subject up before of older software that seems to sometimes have built in redundancy. Even though it may run smoothly for years, and never be used on a web machine. I still remember I had odd times when software just refused to work smoothly again. Going back here to Windows 95/ 98 times, and I can't recall the exact packages I am referring to. Too much time has passed. But I was wondering if XP was beginning to behave like this, as I use no real up to date software bar for the Perseus. Who knows, and time will indeed tell. I would prefer to continue using XP on the main everyday PC for as long as possible. Win7 can make even the simplest of file managing and simple audio functions seem like a nightmare. Check the forums for complaints about the lack of control over audio in for example. When you have to use third party software to emulate a real classic style windows explorer, then the operating system developers should take a step back and think what they have done. I have just shown a young fella classic shell for his new windows 8 laptop. He was delighted. But surely there should be the clasic shell built into windows!!
SKYPE AND YAHOO FORCED "UPGRADE" / DOWNGRADE: While on the subject of software upgrades, don't you just hate being railroaded into forced upgrades that do not function better than the older versions, or even create such hassle, that you are ready to give up and uninstall. Skype has just recently shut down its perfectly healthy simple earlier versions and forcing upgrades to a clumsy pain in the back side of a version. Like many of the more up to date pieces of crap software, they tend to become bloated beyond belief. I am also harassed by a silly certificate pop up that can't be gotten rid of with skype. OK, I need to update the web PC. I have a spare Vista PC that is a dual core thing etc, that may be more ideal as a web PC seeing as dxers using my Perseus on the server network can't seem able to read a simple message about using 125khz only due to the spec of the current web machine. But still I have folks that cant read trying to run it at 2mhz, and quickly closing. I know it stutters at that setting, hence the text on the map!! So yes I know I do need to upgrade that PC. I have been particularly busy this last little while and just haven't had the time to change it over as yet. It can be such a pain copying bookmarks etc and then finding they are not in the order they used to be in, and are all over the place and all that kinda thing. Back to the forced upgrades. What of the YAHOO GROUPS forced upgrade. I have not heard a good word said about that disaster. Who designs this stuff??? 7 year old backward kids?? Gees. Again, there is no way back to classic settings. And I just don't see the point of WIN 8... LOL.. If you have ever seen it!! When you had to use third party software just to get a start / off button back, you would think the design team that created a version of windows that was completely unrecognisable and almost unusable to begin with, would be simply fired!!!! The first time I saw it on a laptop, my thoughts were... OK, what happens now . . LOL . Imagine the off button in windows being at the same place for about 20 years, and then suddenly, there is no off button. (like Japanese nuclear power stations.. rant rant rant....) I saw an amusing comment on one of the forums that the writer was thankful microsoft didn't design cars. You would jump into the new microsoft windows model and find the steering wheel on the floor, and the brakes in the back seat.. and the gearstick in the boot, and built such that there was no way to alter this new innovative design back to the preferred classic steering wheel, brakes and gearstick layout..... LOL. At least WINAMP when they brought out a clumsy silly exploded version, they had so many complaints they brought out WINAMP LITE which continued to be a favourite here. But can we whine about Skype, Winamp, Yahoo etc, or is that the price we pay for free downloads? My last comment with regards to bloated software. (There must be a better choice of word than bloated, that is more fitting of the description, but bloated will do for now). Has anyone ever seen these PC World type machines that come, like most do nowadays, pre installed with software. The operating system is on a hidden partition, and a series of keys will restore a factory default setting, ie a new out the box setting. But my oh my what a pile of crap can be found installed on these items. It takes twice as long to uninstall all the absolute shite trial versions and unwanted rubbish, than it does for the initial reinstall. It is quite amazing. In the past a fresh windows install would get rid of all the crap and let you start again. With these machines, the crap is so unbelievable that you have to spend a shocking amount of time uninstalling!!! And this is not free software, this is a paid for operating system and a pc supplier that bundles unwanted crap on you at point of sale, whether you want it or not! Surely that can hardly be described as the price of free software. Look below at a Windows 7 Advent leaflet that came with the PC. Installing silly trial versions in a new pc!!!! Gees.
There are people that actually want to use their PC to run applications that suit them, for which you need an operating system. Whether that be office applications, photo manipulation, audio, or video, or gaming for that matter. Those of us that wish to use our PC don't want to spend time fighting with a crazy colour schemed operating system, that makes the simplest tasks a nightmare. I can see where linux users get their ideas from.
MW LOGS: I have a few logs.. 1350
Europa Radio Italy
I never thought I would ever have to write this sorry piece of text. I am now officially embarrassed to describe myself as a patriotic Scotsman. I had assumed an easy landslide victory for the pro independence campaign at the very least!! The whole world it seemed was cheering for Scotland on Thursday. Other satellite channels like France 24, RT, Bloomberg, etc etc all carried extensive news coverage of the event. I even saw flags being flown in The Ukraine, and Belgium. The Americans people were with us, even if their leaders were not. But there we had it on Thursday. Scotland's only chance to gain it's freedom from the union. A once in a lifetime opportunity for Scotland. And the brain dead Scottish public could not even see past their Britain's Got Talent mentality. We saw some of them being interviewed after the polling had finished. Heaven help us. I wonder how many of these NO voters will get married in a kilt one day, or attend a family wedding or some other event, dressed in their national dress. I wonder how comfortable they will be the next time they recite the Immortal Memory at that next Burns Supper. I hope they feel proud. My own voting days are well and truly over unless some of the elements that stand for election finally start to boast loudly about reversing their ridiculous "speed bump" mentality. I see no point in voting for the SNP any more. What a wasted vote that would be. The nationalists themselves were not exactly busy with any campaigns. You wouldn't have known there was an election coming up at all in this area. And to vote for any other party in the future would be like voting for the Westminster puppets that sold the country down the river. The only thing left for us to do here in Scotland is to wish the freedom fighters across the world all the best with their election campaigns in Catalonia, Quebec, Ukraine, The Basque Country, Venice, and any other peoples stuck in a messy independence campaign. The best of luck to you all in your future struggles. Sadly Scotland is dead in the water. We'd be as well to become a county of northern England. When all the hopes and dreams are gone in a flash, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth, and a bad gut feeling about the whole sham. I feel Alex Salmond made the right decision to resign. If the country doesn't support him, f**k the country. They are not deserving of him!! Get the hell out of Dodge. He can go knowing the country let him down. Not the other way around.
Well here I am back again for September 2014. I guess they call what we are experiencing this last few days as an Indian Summer. The wx conditions here in haggis land have been superb. And even having a little heat in the back end sun by day. It is sad however to see the end of the summer months here and I can see sometimes why some folks move to the sun. Even if they are making it harder to get the BBC on satellite down in the sun!! A very dull and dark day today, Monday though.
NOT MUCH DX TO REPORT: I have not had much of interest to report on from MW, except the superb Laser signals. But dx has been kinda thin on the ground. I will of course be getting back into the mw dxing etc, but when signals from WWKB are weak and watery, the band fails to interest me. Some dxers were reporting that Sat night was quite good for Latins, but of course I did not have the recorder running that night. On Sunday night / Monday morning signals here were a bit rough, and noisy. I also have a long length of my thick coax that runs over to the 500m beverage to re route, since it was dug up by a digger working in the field across from me. Lucky it is armoured cable as it was undamaged. It would have been shredded if it was the cheap stuff. So running only the shorter west pointing beverage at this time.
WMVX BEVERLEY / BOSTON: I was caught out with the above station, which is one of the daytimers that you can sometimes hear in Europe. They obviously were on day power on 4th Sept when I caught the following id, which had me trying to match up a // Florida station to 1400khz!!!
But as I later discovered via a stream, the station was the Boston station, with a // in FL on 1400. Unusual. But mystery solved.
LASER HOT HITS BOOMING ON MW 1476: I was stunned by a signal first noted last Saturday night that Laser Hot Hits were shoving into Scotland. Bloody awesome it was... on good old MW 1476. Have a listen to how the signal sounds here in Scotland at night.
SHANWICK RADIO ON 6667KHZ: Over in the remote SW corner of Ireland lies the ATLANTIC AREA air traffic control station Shanwick Radio. They use various frequencies around 6.6mhz, but have recently been heard using 6667. (also 6622, 6547, 6595) There lies a problem with a group of rather stupid operators of QSO stations. They continue to use 6670kHz sometimes as a calling channel and are leaving themselves wide open for any accusations of deliberate interference to air traffic! How bloody stupid can you get? If Shanwick are now using 6667 as an alternative to their 6622, the very least you would expect from any sensible unofficial user of the spectrum is to steer well clear of those spot frequencies that are in use!! Gees that surely isn't rocket science!! More so if you consider that the QSO stations will be using 6670 LSB while Shanwick will be using 6667 USB!!! Listen to Shanwick warning someone off the frequency.
SCOTLAND AND IT'S INDEPENDENCE BATTLE: Scotland's fight for liberation is on, in the shape of a public vote for independence this coming week. One amusing leaflet caught my eye that came in the door from the UK government that seem desperate to hang on to Scotland. So much so they have resorted to scaremongering tactics, while the SNP seem to have a very poor half hearted hit back. The front page of the leaflet below is like some of those old communist propaganda leaflets and books the sw stations of the eastern block used to send out in the 70's. I thought I would have a look through the old box of stuff sent from the various international broadcasters and reproduce some of the heavy material I was sent as a 14 year old when I was writing to these communist stations for QSL cards!! In all honesty, the Scottish Nationalists give you the impression they are only half hearted at this campaign. There are no lamp post banners or large hard hitting posters such as the Maggie poster I picked off a pub wall.. Those small a5 leaflets were obviously done by a nationalist of some kind off his own back. But why there are no large poster size posters of this type of thing is anybody's guess. The yes campaign was given plenty money for their cause from lottery winners here in Scotland. I wonder if the money has vanished??
SOME OF THE OLD COMMUNIST LEAFLETS THE SW STATIONS SENT ME IN THE 70'S AND 80'S: Some of the wonderful selection of propaganda leaflets and books sent out by the international broadcasters from former Iron Curtain countries are shown below. I wonder if there were many dxers who kept all this material, like I did. I was never one for tossing stuff in the bin, especially radio related. I wonder if these publications were printed in every language that these radio stations broadcast in??? Think about the money involved there!!! A quick search on ebay showed a pile of about 125 of the Peking Review mags going for around 80 quid + postage!! Possibly of interest to political historians?? Or Andrex factory??
ALTHOUGH RADIO PEKING SENT NICE CALENDARS AND SOME GLOSSY MAGS, THE PEKING REVIEW WAS LIKE THIN RICE PAPER OR SOMETHING AND VERY HEAVY READING. NOT THAT I EVER READ ANY OF THE STUFF I WAS SENT. IT ALL WAS FILED IN A BOX, AND HASN'T BEEN LOOKED AT IN DONKEYS YEARS.
BULGARIA HAD GLOSSY MAGS, BUT ALSO HAD THE ART AND CULTURE OBZOR!! GRIPPING STUFF!!!
RADIO HABANA CUBA NEVER TRIED TO IMPRESS AND WENT STRAIGHT FOR THE THROAT WITH THEIR HARD CORE PROPAGANDA. LOOK AT THE SMALLER BOOKLETS ABOVE AND THE TITLES. WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER ETC....LOL.
THE STUFF FROM RADIO MOSCOW WAS ALSO PRETTY GRIM!!!
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