Skegness Log: 09-01-15 (FM)

Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
105.1 0347  S  Mix Megapol, Jönköping or Hudiksvall E243 ______L_. Suspect
               Jönköping **
 96.1 0706 CZE CRo Vltava, Ceské Budejovice/Kluk (Kozí kámen) (JC) 232D  1083km **
 91.2 2321  I  R101, Multi-tx 5215 ____01__ **
 92.5 2321  I  Radio Maria, Multi-tx 51CC R.MARIA_
 91.1 2325  I  RAI Radio 1, Multi-tx 5201
 91.7 2325  I  RAI Radio 2, Multi-tx 5202
 92.8 2325  I  Radio Studio Delta, Cesena/Monte Cavallo (fc) 53FB  1328km
 93.5 2325  I  Radio Mater, Ancona/Località Paterno-Via del Cimitero (an) 5158
               1434km **
 91.4 2342 POL PR 2, Lódz/Komin EC-4 (LO) 3222  1307km **
 92.6 2342 POL PR 2, Gizycko/Milki (WM) 3222  1419km **

** Personal 'First'

Beaming north-east with the 9.2 vertical produced virtually nothing overnight. I recorded a few minutes at the end of the evening in an attempt to boost the log, this time beaming south-east and there were a few interesting results. Three new sites were received from the Czech Republic and Poland - all three of them vertically polarised transmitters! So it looks like meteor scatter is still able to differentiate between horizontal and vertical. I really have no idea why the north-east was so poor. Probably just the luck of the draw regarding conditions.

I am still adding videos on my YouTube page, but the last few uploads have no audio. I have tried every possible setting in CamStudio but nothing will bring the audio back. However, the RDS is clearly shown and I didn't want to miss the opportunity of backing up some decent catches. https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp

Thanks to Patrick on the Elad SDR forum for telling me how to tighten up the RDS performance even further using RDS Spy with the FDM-S2. I had not got "Vol 2" set to its optimum level. Reducing the output to around "15-20" has knocked another 50% or so off the bitrate error. Can this software get any more sensitive? Check out my video of 92.8 Radio Studio Delta from Cesena http://youtu.be/mHkLFuOFMUk which demonstrates how the PI code can be extracted from even the briefest of weak pings. This is not unusual and happened with some of yesterday's Italian MS signals too.

Uploading videos is no longer a simple matter lately. File sizes have increased roughly ten fold and for no apparent reason. I wonder if the lack of audio renders these rather pointless now. Anyway, nuff waffle.

Good DX!

John Faulkner
Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <3m ASL.
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/skegnessdx

Receiver:
Elad FDM-S2

Aerials:
Körner 9.2 @ 5.5 metres agl. QTH is 3 metres asl.
Triax FM3, one metre above the ground as a phasing antenna.
Fringe Electronics 20dB & Labgear 30dB band 2 pre-amps.
HS Publications Antenna Phaser.

Software: Elad FDM-SW2 & RDS Spy via VAC.

Rotator:
Yaesu G-5500 azimuth & elevation rotator, allowing antenna to be vertical, horizontal, etc.