No Noise Is Good Noise (Part 2 - Medium Wave)

This noise destroys the MW band here. I thought I knew roughly where it was coming from, but it seems to be 'everywhere' !!

I tried my running my medium wave DX setup from a leisure battery, switching off the electricity supply in my house, but it did not stop the noise.

The noise puts in two appearances each day. From approximately 1500 - 1900 and again from approximately 0600 - 0800.

The bad news is that as we head deeper into the MW DX season, the peak DX times also move into the noise periods.

Using my Degen DE1103, I have walked around all corners of my garden and the noise is at full scale deflection on the signal meter. It does, however, seem to be slightly quieter in one corner of the garden. I will be clearing this space to put my flag there as soon as possible.

Based on this information, and if I am correct, the noise is coming from a northerly to north-easterly direction. Further investigation is needed.

Even when this noise is absent. there are other elements of noise across the band, ranging from burbling, buzzing and general hash across many frequencies.

Medium Wave DXing is going to be a challenge this season.

I like conifer trees, but ....

I like conifer trees, but when they interfere with my hobby, they have to go!

Once again, the neighbour's conifer tree overhangs my garden. Both of us agree that it's too big now and needs to be cut down. About a year ago, I offered to cut down this monster, but I have only just got around to doing this having obtained a bow saw.

Here is a (rather poor quality) screen grab taken from Google Street View around the time of my antenna installation, three years ago:

Google Street View capture

As you can see, the antenna was equal in height to the top of the tree. I could raise the antenna so it cleared this. The problem was, I was not allowed to site the antenna anywhere else on the property due to planning restrictions laid down by the housing association. Today, the offending tree is about 30 feet tall and towers above the antenna.

I have had to keep cutting chunks out of the side of the tree over the last few years so my antenna doesn't come into contact with it when rotated. I have had bent elements twice now.

The tree grows at a rate of about three feet per year and has become well established. Had I not made a start on this today, it is likely that it would have become too heavy to tackle. As it is, a single branch is difficult to pick up by myself. The larger branches are about five inched in diameter, so it has been challenging to cut the branches at the correct angle so they fall in the right direction, i.e. away from the antenna. I had two close shaves with this but the antenna survived. Phew!  I haven't finished yet, however. In fact, I've only just started. Please wish me luck!

Starting to cut the overhanging branches

Making an indentation into the branches which catch my antenna

One of the main offending branches. My antenna is free to rotate again!

I'm about half way through now, as at June 13th, but I am beginning to realise that the branches are too big and heavy to deal with easily. Luckily, my neighbour let me borrow a branch cutting tool. This made very short work of branches up to an inch and a little more in diameter, so I have been able to cut own the ever-growing mountain of branches into something more manageable. A few trips to the skips are necessary. More photos as I progress.

Eight days later (June 19th):

My plan was to cut down the last three branches of the tree tomorrow, June 26th, but I noticed that my neighbour had beaten me to it! The tree is down! Well, considerably lowered. Now to see if it has affected my VHF reception.

Good DX!

John.

A happy antenna!

Just a bit of mess to clear up now!

Taking A Break

My marriage came to an end almost two months ago. My second failed marriage in fact! (I must be doing something wrong!) This resulted in me moving to a new address.

My new home is in the coastal community of Seathorne, just up the road from Skegness. I have a small top floor flat (there are three flats below me), situated right by the sea and with my own access to the beach.

It seemed like a good idea to rent such a place at the time as I thought this would lift my spirits. DXing right at the beach, etc.!! While this might sound like a DX dream come true, the flat is quite small and my enthusiasm to play radio has taken quite a tumble.

On the occasion when I do listen to band 2, using just a barefoot Sony XDR-F1HD and an unamplified Triax FM5 beam in the living room, pressed up against the east-facing window looking straight out to sea, I hear dozens of German signals from as far as the Baden-Württemberg and Thuringen regions and even the nearer parts of Bavaria, sometimes with noise free signals!

This is 'scatter', mostly aircraft scatter of course, but with some other interesting ducting effects, all of which are very much more apparent than at my old place. The problem is, it's the same signals over and over again. Dutch stations proliferate! I want something new.

It's all very nice and I'm sure that many radio enthusiasts would dream of DXing from such an advantageous location, but it's not really registering in my life at the moment.

My Körner 9.2 antenna would surely bring in some amazing scatter at this location were it on the roof, but it stays at the old place for now.

Medium wave DXing is not really possible at the new flat. My flag antenna and Perseus receiver are still at the old place, lying dormant. I don't really have much room for storage at the new flat, so some things will have to remain at the old address until I can find somewhere larger. I have a six month contract unfortunately, so I may not be able to escape without losing my deposit.

Right now, I am trying to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the new location, but I am struggling. If I am able, I might move away and try to make a fresh start somewhere else, but I don't know where. The thing is, I can't really afford to at the moment so I will have to stay put. There are much worse places I could be though.

Pleasant early morning walks over the dunes in the bright morning sunshine is very pleasant indeed. I usually take my 'IF narrowed' Degen DE1103 with me and hear the same continental stations coming through.

If I can develop the enthusiasm, I might try some overnight MW sessions out in the wilds of the nature reserves around The Wash. Maybe I'll give 10m a go again, but I really hate having to try to get through lengthy pile-ups in the hope of working someone. Not my idea of fun.

If this sounds like self-pity, I won't try to deny it. I am not myself at the moment and have no get up and go whatsoever. I am struggling with my work and have started lagging behind with orders, but I am eating reasonably well again. (I couldn't eat a thing for the first two or three weeks. My general health has suffered a little, but I have lost some weight, which isn't a bad thing! :O)

A Belated HAPPY NEW YEAR! But a disappointing start.

Hull's "City Of Culture 2017" fireworks display, entitled "THE BIG BANG"!

To bring in the 2016 new year, Jane and I drove to the St Helen's Church at West Keal. This hilltop location provides a great vantage point to the south.

Midnight on New Year's Eve offers the only time of year where you can guarantee an abundance of synchronised fireworks. The view from St Helen's Church is quite spectacular. It's not that high at only 70 metres above sea level, but the view over the flat plains of the Fens to the south is quite impressive. There's nothing else quite like it around here.

The evening of December 31st 2015 was dry and the air was still and crystal clear. At the stroke of midnight, the whole horizon was aflame with thousands of fireworks, providing a display of colour and light, making the horizon look like it was dancing. It was the most bizarre and mesmerising sight. I can't put into words just how magical this was. I had heard reports about how stunning this kind of fireworks-gazing was and we can wholeheartedly concur.

We could see fireworks as far away as North Norfolk. The Boston area was flooded with light. Yet not a sound could be heard, apart from the wildlife on the ground and in the nearby trees.

So we thought we would repeat the same experience again this New Year's Eve. But the display this time was extremely disappointing. At the stroke of midnight, we counted only three small firework displays on the distant horizon. This was an enormous reduction over last year's breathtaking spectacle. Apart from a couple of fireworks at the bottom of the hill, we probably didn't count more than a dozen in the distance. The air was the same. Cold, crisp and beautifully clear.

So why the dramatic reduction in fireworks? Is it now considered bad taste to let off bombs in the air? I could understand that. Or is it because money is tight? I hear that New Year retail sales are considerably down this year. The shops and the roads around Skegness this season are empty! You can see that there is a huge reduction of New Year visitors, which we always have. This follows one of the busiest summer seasons on record for the resort. I think I am opting for the financial reason. Or are fireworks just not in fashion anymore?

Skegness has had all its many fireworks displays cancelled in 2016. I don't know why, but I am not disappointed. Although I love a good fireworks display, I would happily support their ban as I have seen the terrible effects they have on pets.

Driving home from West Keal, feeling a little disappointed, Jane and I discussed travelling to Kingston Upon Hull the following evening. It's a 70 mile (110 km) drive from Skegness, but they were boasting that they were having a fireworks display which would be better than London's! Something I found hard to believe. But 2017 is Hull's "City Of Culture" year, which has many, many events to celebrate the city. Maybe we should go.

Come the following afternoon, we did indeed take the drive to Hull and witnessed their stunning fireworks display. It was probably the best one I have seen. I don't think I would class it as 'better' than London's New Year's display, but the only difference was that Hull didn't have a giant Ferris wheel as a centrepiece. Other than that, it really was a very impressive 12 minute display, carried out on two barges which were moored just off the Marina in the Humber river.

To get a waterfront seat for the fireworks, you had to book a year in advance. It was ticket only, but they were free. All 25,000 tickets were snapped up the moment they were released too.

A little planning on google Earth and Google Street View found us a good spot, right next to the Marina, where we could see the whole display. We chose the car park of the Odeon Cinema. Only a small handful of other people had thought of this. Most other people travelled slightly further away to St Andrew's Dock. But the fireworks were huge, so they could be seen from all points across the city.

According to local newspapers, the display consisted of 15,000 projectiles and weighed 3.5 tonnes. How that compares to the London display I am not sure. I have only ever seen that on the TV, but I have no doubt that the two are very similar in size after seeing Hull's effort.

It was certainly a big fireworks display and the fireworks were very loud, considering they were about half a mile away. One or two car alarms were being set off by the blasts.

Listening to BBC Radio Humberside interviewing the public after the event, I was surprised to find that a lot had gone wrong with the fireworks. It seems there was some problem with synchronicity of the fireworks and the video and soundtrack which were playing for those in the Marina. The fireworks were also slightly late starting, being billed to begin at exactly 2017. I don't know why the rather odd time. They were only about five minutes late, but I imagine this may have upset the timings of other events in the evening's celebrations.

I'll leave my own video effort of the evening's proceedings at the top of the page, but mine is poor by comparison to some of those I have seen on YouTube. I will post a few links to some of the better ones below. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

SkywavesDX Forum - Back Soon! (Hopefully)

The SkywavesDX Forum is back online. Wondering why it went down? Read below to find out.

The SkywavesDX phpBB forum has been in operation for almost two years but was forced offline during the first week of August. There was a problem with the hosting company, 123-Reg. Here's a rundown of what happened and a little bit of info into the background of how things work.

The phpBB forum platform requires a certain range of versions of php to function correctly. If there is an incompatibility of php versions, it won't run at all. "php" is a scripting language used by the hosting company which, in our case, were 123-Reg. (Those 'in the know' will now be cringing!)

The problems began about 17 months ago when we suddenly found ourselves unable to update the forum software. Software updates are necessary to keep the forum functioning properly and include new facilities, bug fixes and, more importantly, security updates. However, the forum should continue to function satisfactorily without these updates, providing they are carried out at least occasionally.

When it came to performing the software updates, we decided not to install each update immediately on their release as there can be teething troubles which require software patches and further updates, so it's always a good idea to wait a week or two, or just keep the updates one version behind.

Back to 123-Reg, who stated they were running the latest versions of php on their servers, yet it seems they weren't. Something was obviously wrong, but 123-Reg claimed everything was fully up to date. We knew it was likely to be a php incompatibility issue because of the MySQL error messages which were displayed each time we tried to perform a software update.

We now had a real problem. Would 123-Reg eventually fix this problem? We assumed so as we knew it wouldn't only be SkywavesDX which had been having these problems, so we decided to wait and see. Besides, the alternatives, i.e. changing hosts, would be a nightmare in itself. (In fact, we have since discovered that this php issue was a common problem with 123-Reg.)

As long as Skywaves was running, that was the main thing, but we were aware that a major forum software update which required a newer php version would probably spell the end of SkywavesDX at some point in the future. As it happened, the forum didn't even get that far! On Saturday August 6th, there was a total breakdown of SkywavesDX with a new MySQL error which, yet again, pointed to 123-Reg being the problem. We contacted 123-Reg and asked them to fix the problem, but no replies were received. On August 8th, the decision was taken to promptly go through the upheaval of changing hosts.

1%1 Internet were chosen as they have the highest uptime of all the major hosting companies and I know people who have used them without fault. This includes an entire technology college who use 1%1 Internet and who have never experienced a single problem with 1%1 in several years! So the domain transfer and changover process has begun, but the problems haven't stopped there.

Although the transfer process was initiated almost a week go, it still hasn't actually taken place. 123-Reg are dragging their heels for some reason, but we do have a date of August 18th for the transfer to have been completed. Once this has happened, it then takes up to 24 hours for the new domain to fully propagate around the internet, so we still cannot see SkywavesDX being back before the 19th at the very earliest.

My own experiences of domain transfers are all horror stories. The worst experience I had was with a company called Web Mania. I decided to transfer my domains from them a few years ago due to a few issues, but they wouldn't release them. After SIX WEEKS of trying and many emails to them, most of which were ignored or fobbed off with standardised replies, I was forced to involve OFCOM, who got them to release my domains IMMEDIATELY! (OFCOM were equally as effective with two separate problems I had with Virgin Media. One regarding a mobile phone issue and another with a home multimedia package.) It became apparent that Web Mania were trying to steal my domains as they were TLDs (Top Level Domains) and therefore quite valuablem. (I was once offered £1000 for the Skywaves domain by an American marketing company. Needless to say, I refused as it was then used by our group.)

The fact is, all hosting companies seem to be as bad as each other. My own hosting problems didn't stop after moving from Web Mania to Dataflame as they too presented me with many problems. Also, their own servers were hacked one day and my personal web space became an illegal Lloyds TSB Bank login. Dataflame firmly put the blame on me and never apologised for their own security breach.

So, all things considered, I wouldn't be surprised if the SkywavesDX phpBB forum is offline for a while longer, but we are keeping a very close eye on things and aim to get the transfer done as soon as possible. As things stand, I anticipate the earliest return date for the forum to be August 20th. Fingers crossed!

An Enforced Break From The Hobby

I've been taking a few days away from radio while things settle at home. A family member has moved in with us and so access to the shack, where she has been sleeping, has been mostly off limits.

I haven't been in a hurry to move the radio equipment to another room as the current Es season has been largely non-existent at band 2 frequencies. All flag antenna and other radio projects have had to be put on hold.  

So it's been a week of minor frustrations, making all the necessary changes one makes when somebody moves house and moves in, including making several trips back and forth to County Durham. There's been no time for radio. Even when I have switched on the radio, I've just forgotten about it, only to return an hour or two later to switch it off again without even having listened to it! There are just far too many distractions at the moment.

I hope to be back in full swing again in a few weeks. 

Flag Time 2016!

Making an early start this year. A  new coax and a new flag is going up in the front garden.

There are a few things I would like to experiment with as I construct the new flag over the next few days: Matching transformers; Flag size; Making the flag properly mobile; etc.

I have some minor adjustments to make to the balun since I am using RG6 on the feed this time.

I also have a flag pre-amp this year, thanks to John G3PQA, who kindly constructed one for me. It has a similar function to the popular RPA-1, but has slightly higher gain while maintaining a good, low noise figure..

Stage one today saw the routing of the new coax (next to the compost heap). As with everything these days, it all takes time. Frequent rain showers have prevented me from doing this last week. My plan is to have this up and running with all tests complete by the end of the week. As if! :O)

Feeding the new coax through the wall next to the compost pile

New flag coax pushed though wall with metal rod,
just below the cables for my FM antenna and rotator

The EU Referendum and "British" politics. Disgusted with the whole thing.

The word which comes to mind here is "concerned", but I would have said the same thing had we voted to stay in the EU. 

I don't vote as I have never taken an interest in politics until recently. Quite simply, I have never felt qualified to vote, plus I have never found any politician or political party body I would want to vote for. "Shame on me" for not voting. Perhaps. But I feel slightly more inclined to want to vote after this fiasco. 

Firstly, our politicians have let themselves down very badly in the way they have behaved in their campaigning concerning Brexit. If our overseas friends don't already know this, our politicians have been using scaremongering tactics and outright lies to scare us into voting one way or the other. That is totally unacceptable, not to mention embarrassing. Telling us that we are all racist if we vote LEAVE is one example of something which is completely wrong. The whole campaign has been manipulative on all sides. 

I don't know who to believe in politics, which is one reason I never vote. Party A says one thing, Party B says the opposite is true. How do I know who is telling the truth? Politicians don't do much more than just have a go at each other. Forget about hearing the the actual facts! 

As I see it, the BREXIT (stupid word! What's the opposite? BRAYIN?) campaigners simply want us to be in control of our own country. Nothing more, nothing less. Also to get rid of some of the restrictive and unfair rules and regulations the EU impose on us. 

Common sense tells me two things. 1. "Better the devil you know". 2, "Strength in numbers" and, hopefully, a willingness for us all to get along together nicely". So my immediate leaning was more towards REMAIN. Then I started to read a bit more into the detail of the EU thing. Some things did not seem to be fair at all. I then started leaning towards LEAVE.  I have no idea what is right and what is wrong. My knowledge is simply insuffcient for me to decide one way or the other.

At the end of it all, I was back to being undecided, but possibly still favouring REMAIN, but I could see good and bad if we stayed in the EU or left. Surely safer to stay as we are for many reasons. 

At the end of the proverbial day, I think all sides need to get their act together and the EU should stop being so controlling in some ways. "Fair's fair", but what is ever fair? The bottom line for me is that something needs to be done with our corrupt political system and my concern is that this exit will cause a lot of unnecessary trouble and that our governments will take even more advantage. 

Just my personal opinions, for what they are worth.

New Web Hosts - 1&1 Internet. Here We Go Again! :O(

Some years ago, a good friend told me that all web hosting companies are, more or less, exactly the same. The message he was putting across said that any one was equally as bad as the next. They all have their problems and they all offer a level of customer support which can best be described as poor or worse. In my own experience, his comments were completely correct.

My first experience of a web hosting company was with Web Mania. Their service was unreliable at times and their customer support was a joke. I stuck with them for a few years, but I decided to move to new hosts when things went from bad to worse. They literally refused to let me go and ignored all my attempts to migrate to new hosts.

The last straw with Web Mania was taken when I realised that they were trying to steal the top level domain I owned at that time, which was hosted with them. I had to get NOMINET (the OFCOM of the web world) to force them to release me. NOMINET were excellent and sorted out all the problems in less than one hour - something I had failed to achieve in six weeks.

Next came Dataflame. To be fair, I had several years of fairly reliable service with them, with the odd hiccup. then a couple of CMS websites I had been running were hacked. One day, my hobby domain, g1vvp.co.uk was hacked and turned into an illegal Lloyds TSB Bank login page. It was quite a shock to find that my domain suddenly became what looked like the front page of Lloyds TSB's customer website. Dataflame threatened me with the police over this, but a little digging told me that it was their servers which had been hacked, yet that didn't stop them trying to pin the blame on me. There was no apology.

Earlier this year, I chose to leave them, but they insisted on billing me for excessive amounts of money I did not owe. Luckily, I managed to sort that out myself.

Dataflame's service had collapsed. about two weeks after I left Dataflame, I received an email to say that Dataflame were no more and that a new company were taking over.

After some research, I moved to 1&1 Internet. A company which did not have a good reputation for customer support, but they are a large and established company, which told me that they should at least have the power to deliver. But only a few weeks into the contract and I find that their system is failing me spectacularly. My FTP accounts have not worked for about six weeks, despite phone calls to their hopeless telephone support service, based in the Philippines.

Following my last telephone call to them yesterday regarding my FTP problems, their operators demonstrated once again just how clueless they really are and sent me 'around the houses' for an issue I did not have - email. I don't have problems with their email service, only with FTP access. I had to abandon the phone call due to serious language barrier issues. My message was not getting through to the girl who took my call. She would not listen to a word I said, talking over me all the time. I hung up.

Another problem I have is that my g1vvp account has disappeared from my Control Panel. They deny that I have ever had one! Well look here www.g1vvp.co.uk I most certainly do!

My initial problem, six weeks ago, was a simple case of losing access to my FTP accounts. After a telephone call to their operators, I discovered that my FTP password had been changed. I had definitely NOT changed this myself.

Complaining to 1&1 Internet is far from simple. It took me an hour to research who to contact.

Why am I complaining about this here? Because I am going to need some muscle in getting this sorted. 1and1 Internet do not like their customers making their problems public. So I may be writing yet another blow-by-blow account of the shoddy service I have been receiving from yet another useless, 'don't-give-a-shit' company I have encountered.

I will add more as I go along as necessary.

To get the ball rolling, I submitted an email of complaint yesterday to their complaints department at complaints@1and1.co.uk It's about 12 hours since I contacted them and I have not received an acknowledgement as I had expected. That is fairly customary with these companies, but nothing so far. Next I will write to their head of support at m.wolf@1and1.co.uk

Tropo / Temperature Inversion

While at the new Gibraltar Point Visitor Centre this afternoon, I took a few photos out over The Wash from the viewing platform. The platform is no more than about 20 feet above the ground.

When I returned home, I used a distance-to-horizon calculator and I discovered that the visible horizon at only 20 feet above the ground is only 5.5 miles, yet I could clearly see the other side of The Wash some
15 miles away, plus a few vessels about ten miles down the coast, seemingly floating in the air. I didn't think anything of it until I entered some data into http://www.ringbell.co.uk/info/hdist.htm. So what I was able to see was only possible because of the temperature inversion. I guess this all ties in with the level of tropospheric ducting is in the atmosphere at the moment.

Temperature Inversion over The Wash

Photo1 shows trees a the far end of The Wash near Boston. The Pilgrim Hospital and clock tower of the Boston Stump can be seen on the right hand half of the horizon.

Photo 2 shows a vessel roughly ten miles down the coast, used for target practice bu the miiltary.

German signals from the Aurich and Steinkimmen transmitters are S9+50dB here in broad daylight. This is a BIG tropo and, with a bit of luck, it will spread elsewhere inland this evening.

Good DX!

John

BBC 1 Tropo Forecast?

Almost!

Spring Snowstorm

We didn't have a single flake of snow over winter, but we've been having snow showers for the last few days in Skegness. The shower we just had was fairly heavy for a time. We also reached a whopping 12C today too! If you think that's cold, it's been 6C in recent days. Perhaps we'll skip spring (and summer no doubt) this year and head straight to autumn.

Ice build-up on shack window 

Unseasonal spring weather!

 Unseasonal spring weather!

Unseasonal spring weather!

Unseasonal spring weather!

 Unseasonal spring weather!

Crystal, one of our fearless Rottweilers, was terrified of the snow!

A little spring hail!

A little spring hail!

A little spring hail!

We had no snow over the entire winter, then we get this - and it's almost May!

Spring Antenna Maintenance Delayed By Chicks

Time to get the tree cutting equipment out again. That enormous conifer on the neighbour's garden continues to eat my Körner 9.2 antenna's front director. The front director surely cannot withstand another straightening. Time to deploy the tree cutting equipment again.

The conifer has to go, but not yet.  :O(

This time I intended to cut down two of the main branches, close to the base of the conifer. Well, that was the plan, but I had to down tools when I heard lots of tweeting. No, nothing to do with the social media site, but a nest of birds, deep within the tree. Mother was at the top of the tree, waiting for me to disappear so she could feed them.

 Chicks waiting for food

In the meantime, I daren't move my 9.2 further clockwise than 180 degrees. Hopefully, the birds will have flown their nest soon. :O)

'Closed' DX Clubs & Societies: Is There A Place For Them Today?

I have been wondering whether to make this post as I know it will probably come across in the wrong way, but here are a couple of things I have been pondering lately.

I was browsing through a well-known DX club's printed bulletin a few months ago, reading through the various articles and browsing their DX loggings section, and it got me wondering to myself if the traditional paid subscription type of hobby radio club still has a place in our society.

This is probably going to read like a rant, but I hope not. I am not criticizing DX club/s in general, but two thoughts keep coming back to me:

1. Is there still a place in today's society for the traditional "paid subscription" type of DX radio club.
2. Sharing loggings in realtime so everybody benefits: Do you mind other people getting DX tips from you?

Back to the DX bulletin I was reading: The first thing which crossed my mind was how 'elitist' the bulletin seemed. Some of today's DX clubs and societies began 20 or more years ago. We didn't have the internet back then and online magazines and DX forums wouldn't have been considered as an option by most of them.

In the late 90s, a few groups were forward-thinking enough to look at possibilities of going 'electronic' and ultimately ditching their printed publication in favour of something free and more accessible to everybody. The British FM & TV Circle was one such group, now simply known as "Skywaves".

The British FM & TV Circle did start out by having a paid subscription system, which worked perfectly well. Once the internet started becoming popular, we soon introduced a free pdf version of our DX magazine so people could download it free of charge. Those who still preferred to have a 'hard copy', delivered by post, could still do this, but the printing costs which had to be met. No profits were made.

A year or two after Skywaves became electronic, most of the original paying members were taking advantage of the free pdf version. As expected, the number of those paying to receive the posted version decline. At the time, I remember a certain co-ordinator of a well known medium wave DX club, publically stating in their DX bulletin, that the move from 'printed' to 'electronic' had caused the downfall of the British FM & TV Circle! This is totally incorrect and I have no idea whay they reached this conclusion and also stated such. Or have I? Going digital and becoming free had the exact opposite effect! The group became known simply as "Skywaves" and its publication became fully 'public', thus developing into a much larger and global community as a result. 'Membership' was open to everybody, free of charge, and everybody could help each other in 'realtime' as a result! What could be better?

I don't have a problem with paid membership groups, personally. I'm a bit of a traditionalist myself when it comes to having a printed bulletin you can touch and feel. I was actually slightly sceptical myself when it came to migrating the Skywaves bulletin from 'printed' to 'electronic' as it was an unknown, but it has worked very well indeed so far, far better for everybody and in many ways! Well, apart from one individual - the very last person who was in regular receipt of the printed bulletin. We continued this until the end of the year, but then decided to pull the plug  on it completely.

The comments made by that medium wave DX club were rather cruel and not called for. I still cannot imagine why on earth they continue to insist that members paying for the printed version of their bulletin if they only wish to receive the pdf version. Surely that should be free? Why would there even need to be a charge for a free digital publication if propit were not in mind? Well, that's their prerogative I suppose, but I think it's completely wrong. Just my opinion.

When I post my loggings in the FM List or MW List, my loggings are then shared, so other DXers can see what I have heard and when I have heard it. If they so wish, they can then check the bands at the same time as me to see if they have heard the same thing. This is mutually beneficial to us all. I usually always give credit to the original logger if I receive something thanks to another DXer's logging.

I have to ask myself "Do I understand why DXers want to keep loggings to themselves?" I think I 'get it', in a way. Coming from an amateur radio perspective, there are DX contests where people collect totals in order to come top of a league table or to win a certificate, etc. They call it Radio Sport and I see the fun in this. I have entered such DX contests myself for the fun of it, though I haven't come close to topping any table. I do understand that side of the hobby, but to keep loggings to yourself? Well, people clearly do and I suppose I shouldn't knock that too heavily. Each to their own, but there's so much benefit for us all when everything is shared. DXing is a great hobby and it's such a shame that a few do not wish to share. Would you mind other DXers receiving a rare catch you had one day?

Some years ago, I received a Brazilian station on 1470. I'm fairly sure it was a 'European First' and I only received this thanks to another DXer having received it himself. I still had a recording of that particular overnight session and checked the frequency on hearing the good news. I too had the same station at the same time! I thus concluded that this was now a joint European First. The originating DXer was not amused! He was furious that I did this and still managed to claim the European First solely for himself. Other DXers also agreed that what I did was completely wrong. I was chastised for this in no uncertain terms.

Looking back at this, I believe the originating DXer should definitely be able to claim the European First as it was he who spotted it. It's all about giving credit where the credit is due. Had it not been for him, I probably wouldn't have heard this station. He was King. But am I right to take the view that there is some form of snobbery involved here? I suppose it all boils down to giving him that original 'credit'. Had it not been for him. etc. I was thankful that he told me. Oh well, each to their own.

So, just what are the pros and cons of having a closed group system in a DX club? I've stuck my oar in and given my opinion here, but I don't expect everybody to agree with the above. What are your opinions? Especially if you disagree? Please tell me why. We all have different views and it's good to talk and get a balance.

Migration To New Hosts

After much disappointment concerning the reliability of my current hosting company, Dataflame, I am just about to start on the process of migration to the new hosting company.

Decision who to move to has not been an easy decision as no one single company ticks all the proverbial boxes. I was tempted to look for something 'cheap and cheerful' as I have often heard it said that all the hosting companies are just about as bad as each other. So why pay a lot? But, after analysing several different hosting packages, it seems that they all work out at roughly the same prices anyway.

But it's always about the luck of the draw. Some people use a company for years and don't have a single problem, while somebody else uses the same company and experiences many problems.

Since the main concern is that the company I use should be 'reliable', I decided in the end to go for a major player who, in theory, should be 'big enough to deliver'. So I now start the task of leaving Dataflame, getting everything unlocked and hopefully back online with my new hosting company, 1&1 Internet, within 24 hours. Am I being optimistic? Probably. Let's see.

So all my emails and both websites will be offline for a short period. It's possible that a few emails might get lost in the process, however, any stray emails should be re-presented to me over the next two to three days after the the new hosting takes effect.

Thanks to those on the Skywaves Group who gave me hosting suggestions. I didn't take up any of the suggested companies and, in fact, chose to go with the one company which I was advised NOT to move to ... 1&1 Internet. About ten years ago, I used to manage a website for a company who had their website on 1&1 Internet's servers and I was always impressed by their reliability and connection speeds. Hopefully I will enjoy the same reliable service today.


2016-02-27 01:10 Edit: 
Yesterday afternoon, a 1&1 Internet operator in the Philippines told me that the migration from Dataflame's servers to 1&1's had begun and advised that I should now wait for a few hours for migration to take effect. 

I understand a little about how migration works and how it takes time for domains to spread around the WWW. I've been here twice before, so I can remember that much. 

However, some seven hours after being told that the migration from Dataflame's servers had already begun (and all my emails suddenly stopped working), I am receiving email from Dataflame's servers once again. Something has clearly gone wrong. I am wondering if 1&1 have passed me back to Dataflame, lol. "Not that John Faulkner, send him back, QUICK!" :O)
Did I really expect this migration to go that smoothly? Of course not!

So more phone calls tomorrow. And this comes the day after eBay delete 161 of my shop listings! So it's 'business as usual' in the Faulkner household. 

You really couldn't make this up!


2016-02-28 13:25
... and several hours later, more telephone calls to 1&1 confirmed my suspicions, that no transfers had taken place at all! 

Today's problem was that I had to make further payments in order for the transfers to take place. 1&1 were trying to charge me for an extra domain - the one which is included free of charge for the first year. I can only assume this was the reason for the hold-ups. The Philippino operator insisted I had to pay for both domains. I told her she was wrong but she wouldn't listen. 

Then I telephoned Sales in the USA where the operator conformed that the first domain was free. So it was back to the Philippines and, as luck would have it, I got through to the same Philippino operator who had changed her mind and agreed that the first domain was free, therefore she would now initiate the transfers and take care of the nameservers, etc.

Christ on a fucking bike! How complicated is this?

An hour later and, still, everything points to Dataflame. Another entry for my Daily Shit page!


2016-02-28 13:55
At last, something is happening. Both domains are now showing in my 1&1 account and I have been able to test email on one account. That one is working at least. My G1VVP account is still stuck with Dataflame - and this one was transferred first - supposedly. I don't think so!

Just over 24 hours from initiating the transfers and only the second one has fully transferred. So it's yet another phone call to the operator in the Philippines. 


2016-02-28 20:55
Finally, it's all working. Not sure why it took quite this long but it could have been much worse. Minor cock-ups on the part of 1%1 and Dataflame behaved. 

Admittedly, these have only been minor problems, but I can't say it has been a great start with 1&1. I can only hope that my new hosting lives up to 1&1's 'uptime' figures, which were 99.98% last week. 

Medium Wave ..... OBLITERATED!

A few weeks ago I abandoned DXing the medium waves from home as there was some interference, not hugely strong, but strong enough to bury all those nice weak DX signals.

Wondering if it had passed, I put the flag back on the garden this afternoon, intending to move it to another part of the garden should the interference still be there, but this time the band was completely saturated with strong noise. I presume it's PLT but I don't know for sure. Maybe somebody will recognise the patterns in this video I just made.

Even BBC Radio 4 long wave and my local BBC Radio Lincolnshire have lots of noise mixing with them.


Edited January 23rd 2016:
About a week ago, my noise problem disappeared. Since then I have had virtually no noise at all across the bands, apart from occasional daytime bits and pieces, which are usually very weak. 

I can only guess that whatever it was may have been a device or, more likely, a power supply which had become faulty, though it did seem like PLT a lot of the time. I say this because the noise became progressively worse over the weeks, peaking at S9+40dB. 

I was going to contact OFCOM again, but the bands have enjoyed a whole week of relative silence and, throughout the night time, medium wave has been as quiet as when out and about in the wilds using a Beverage. 

Medium Wave DXing Abandoned At Home Due To Noise

A pulsating, growling din now resides over most of the medium wave band here. It started a few weeks ago, masking most of the upper parts of my medium wave band. Lower regions are also affected but not so severely.

It peaks at about -70dB on my FDM-S2 and therefore kills all weak DX while creating an unpleasant racket on stronger signals. I know the approximate direction of the noise. It sounds (and looks) like a cheap psu. It has also been suggested that it could be a plasma TV.

At first, the noise was audible around 1500 when I would start to look for Asiatic signals, but had gone by 1600 and did not return in the evenings. For the last two weeks, however, it has existed non-stop, around the clock.

Only the strongest signals can be heard through the noise.

So my medium wave DXing is now out of the question from home. Maybe this will encourage me to venture out more and stretch out some longwires in remote locations again.

This Season's Sporadic E / Scatter / General Band Assessment and Other Stuff!

Here in Skegness, the sporadic E season didn't get going until mid June. Openings had mostly been sparse, with poor signals and very much 'bottom of the band'. The same poor conditions seem to have been felt elsewhere in the UK too, whereas band 2 DXers in eastern parts of Europe had openings more consistent with an average Es season.

Once we'd cleared the 20th June, things took off in a big way with the more familiar cross-band 'soup' you'd expect from more intense Es propagation. Signals were strong at times, but still not as strong as those experienced in the 2014 season. I base this on signal measurements taken on the Konrad XDR-GTK software. The strongest Es signals this year were from the Italians (usually the case), giving an approximate 7dB down compared with the strongest Italian signals from the 2014 season.

It wasn't all bad. In fact it was a season of contrasts. I feel like I have just been through my worst and best sporadic E season ever. Conversely, the 17th July saw my first 'double-hop' Es into the Middle East, with Istanbul stations reaching the top of the band. I thought I had moved to Istanbul! Signals actually reached GOOD levels with instant RDS right up to 108.0 MHz. Cyprus and Lebanon also made their debut appearance this year.

Had it not been for my Elad FDM-S2 SDR receiver, I could easily have missed most, if not all of those exotic catches. I had to go out during the peak of the conditions and left the FDM-S2 recording the bottom of the band which, in this case, is 87.4 to 93.4 MHz.

The Elad FDM-S2 has been nothing short of revolutionary and, without this, I would certainly have seen my smallest annual Es logbook ever, but the opposite has been true, with hundreds of loggings made on many days. This major advancement in receiving technology comes at a cost though - and I am not referring to the price. I have written elsewhere about the pros and cons of band 2 SDR DXing, but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, the main disadvantage being the huge number of recordings which result. These are going to take me until Christmas to go through, so if anybody is wondering where my logs are this season, I am almost two months behind with these and will post as I have finished going through each day's files.

Aside from sporadic E, tropo and scatter has been hugely disappointing this season. There have been a few nice tropo surprises along the way, but most of the enhancements felt in East Anglia and the south-east of England have missed me completely. "So near and yet so far", as the saying goes. Good continental conditions have frequently been right on my doorstep, but never quite made it over the threshold and into the shack. The boundary seems to have been set in The Wash, the large bay immediately to the south of Skegness.

Scatter has been considerably down compared to last year with very few days of anything close to normal. But why? One of those annual variations I suppose.

Speaking of the weather, The Wash has had a very definite blocking effect on things this summer. The heavy rain and severe storms which have frequented this side of England this summer have just stopped or fizzled out completely after reaching The Wash. I often wonder exactly what effect The Wash has on DXing. I know parts of The Wash usually freeze over in the winter due to the waters being so shallow. In fact this part of the North Sea is shallow too and is only around 50 metres deep off our coast.

We haven't had a summer this year. Officially the sunniest coast in the UK, the east coast has probably seen more days of cloud than sun. I can recall an entire week when no sun was visible at all. Temperatures have often been around 15 degrees C. In the event of any heat arriving, the atmosphere just becomes unbearably humid as it mixes with the cooler air. When the rest of the country were enjoying their hottest July day on record with temperatures into the mid 30s (in the south-east of England), Skegness reached 27 C. I don't mind this, personally, as I don't like hot weather.

Summer 2015 has been a season of unseasonably high winds too. I have raised my antenna on a number of occasions, only to have to lower it again the following day due to high winds which have not been forecast. High winds have been another feature, hardly ever letting up. The real problem has been sudden violent gusts, the likes of which I have never experienced before. A powerful gust will appear very suddenly and we are sure we have felt the bungalow move. Venturing out reveals tree branches in the roads and the odd litter bin lying in the path of traffic. We have had a few trees blown down in the the more severe winds.

We simply don't have a local weather forecast here. What happens this side of the Lincolnshire Wolds is rarely predicted with accuracy in any weather forecast. It sounds like an exaggeration, but after having a radio friend staying here for a week recently, he too commented on how unusual our weather has been.

Rounding it all off, it's been a year of mixed fortunes, which is usually true to form, but without any real extremes, apart from the glorious sporadic E conditions of July 17th. But maybe even these were more 'normal' than we might think since the Elad FDM-S2 receiver misses very little.

Good DX!

Dramatic Sunset

A spectacular sunset from a few days ago. I thought I would upload them here for posterity. No filtering or processing was done, other than cropping. The camera used is an old Fujifilm Finepix F100 FD