I was just updating my web pages, adding the last few entries from my 2015 to my personal all-time E logbook, then it struck me - my 2015 season was finally over ... AT LAST!
2015 was the first Es season where I had used a band 2 SDR. It was something of an experimental process, resulting in me acquiring a large number of SDR files, all produced by my Elad FDM-S2 SDR receiver. It was all very exciting, knowing that I could record large chunks of the FM band, the whole band in only four chunks in fact! Very nearly three chunks, thanks to the 6MHz bandwidth!
DXing in this manner means that I am less likely to miss stations which are coming through. No more single channel DXing, it's now SIXTY CHANNEL DXING !!!
What did this mean?
* Lots of files to check through (well over 500 or 600 in my case - I didn't count them).
* Each file could take half an hour or longer if I wanted to investigate reception closely.
* There was never enough time to check the files ...
* Therefore I got well behind on log reporting - over seven months behind at times!
But there was a very big positive:
* Almost 9000 loggings!
* More double hop spotted than you can shake a big stick at!
The quantity of loggings never outweighs the quality of loggings, but I was very pleased to report double hop reception to Israel, Cyprus, Libya, Lebanon and Turkey - that's Istanbul AND Asiatic Turkey, right down to Adana, not that far from the Syrian border. Turkey was received on several occasions. One day I had GOOD signals right to the top of the band! It was like living in Istanbul.
The important question is, would I have had this double hop reception had I only had single frequency DXing? I estimate that between 60% - 90% if it would have been missed. I may have still had Cyprus and Turkey, but in limited quantity. It's possible I may have missed all of it. The Istanbul reception was only possible due to the recording facility. I was not at home at the time!
The whole thing was an experiment to find out what was possible with broadband FM DXing, finding out the pros and cons, but I had to check through EVERY single file. That now having been accomplished, I can say that I definitely WON'T be so eager in the future. It's just too much! In future I will record far less files. Yes, there are obvious benefits of recording large quantities of files, but it comes with diminishing returns. More files = more repetition of the same stations. Useful, perhaps, but probably not worth the extra effort, unless you are extremely keen or have a lot of spare time on your hands.
In 2016, I plan to record far fewer files and I will target certain countries. Checking hundreds of SDR files held my attention and remained interesting only for so long. I was determined to achieve my goal, and I am pleased to say that I did, but NEVER AGAIN! Ocverall, it was interesting and mostly fun, but there are limits.
Happy DXing!
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