Skegness Log: 11-10-13 (MW)

1290 0300 USA WJNO West Palm Beach (FL) Can just make out call letters on the hour under
              Venezuela  7044 km
1590 0500 USA WARV Warwick (RI) You're on 15-90 AM Life Changing Radio WARV Warwick -
              Providence.     5308 km
1400 0600 USA WOND Newstalk-1400, Pleasantville (NJ)
              WOND ID atop CBG  5673 km
1450 0600 USA WPGG "WPG Talk Radio 1450", Atlantic City (NJ)
              Clear WPG ID. Fair!  5670 km

An improvement! It seems a while since I have heard North American signals like this. New York City stations were particularly good overnight between 0300 and 0600.

More good news in that 0700 is now waking up.

Other observations:

It was a more Florida morning this time with quite a few bits and pieces of audio from the more regular Florida stations. Although I didn't ID them, look for 610 WIOD Miami, 1020 WURN Kendall and 1360 WKAT (Spanish religion - IDs as Radio Luz). I think they were all present this morning, particularly at 0300.

1200 WXKS is becoming one of the strongest and most regular North Americans. This can be heard with Bloomberg IDs on the hour.

I will be looking towards the far east this afternoon.

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  10ft x 25ft flag at 350 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor

Skegness Log: 08-10-13 (MW)

1280 0501 PTR WCMN NotiUno, Arecibo (PR) Talk and ID  6848 km

It was a struggle to hear this. WCMN used to be a regular pest too. It's exotic DX now!

What has happened to the conditions? The indices are low but the DX keeps getting less and less. North America is almost non-existent with nothing getting through from NYC or NE Canada. Only one heard this morning on 1540, the station with the "your ideas matter" slogan at the top of the hour. There's never an ID with this one.

Only one other station of interest heard overnight on 1390 at 0500. Perhaps WISA Isabella with back-to-back Spanish slow/love songs. No IDs.

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  10ft x 25ft flag at 350 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor  

Skegness Log: 07-10-13 (FM)

Band 2 Tropospheric:
 94.6 0117  D  MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) Pops, as web  713km
 97.4 0119  D  Deutschlandradio Kultur, Brocken (san) Irish music? As web  713km
 92.1 0120  D  NDR 2, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) Carly Rae Jepson song, as web  707km
101.4 0120  D  Radio SAW, Brocken (san) Robbie Williams song, as web  713km
 89.0 0121  D  89.0 RTL, Brocken (san) Adele song, as web  713km
 90.6 0122  D  WDR 5, Teutoburger Wald/Bielstein (nrw) OM talk, as web  591km
 91.5 0123  D  MDR JUMP, Brocken (san) Jingle ID between pops  713km
 89.9 0126  D  NDR Kultur, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) Concerto, as web  707km
 98.0 0127  D  NDR 1 Niedersachsen, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) Kylie, as web  707km
 91.0 0900  D  hr1, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) ID and news  612km
 93.2 0902  D  WDR 2, Teutoburger Wald/Bielstein (nrw) OM news  591km
 97.0 0907  D  WDR 3, Teutoburger Wald/Bielstein (nrw) Classical, as web  591km
 99.6 0908  D  hr-info, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) OM info, as web  612km
106.3 0912  D  Antenne Niedersachsen, Torfhaus/DTAG (nds) Jingle ID and pops  707km
107.2 0914  D  WDR Eins Live, Ederkopf (nrw) Pops, as 106.7  593km
107.8 0929  D  107.8 Antenne AC, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Pops. V weak  484km
102.8 1002 BEL Zen FM, Gent/Opgeëistenlaan (vlg-ovl) Relax, its Zen FM! As web. On horizontal 9.2  328km
103.5 1005  D  Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Torfhaus/DTAG (nds) V weak. YL, as web  707km

This is the only tropo which materialised. Signals were weak and barely noise free. There was nothing from Poland or beyond, as the maps suggested.

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1.7m (5'9") ASL.
Website: skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk

Personal All Time VHF Logbooks: https://sites.google.com/site/skegnessdx/vhf-band-2-logs
VHF Band 2 DX Recordings: https://sites.google.com/site/skegnessdx/skegness-vhf-band-2-fm-dx-recordings

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD (tropospheric)
Kenwood KT6040 (sporadic E & meteor scatter)
Icom IC7000 (OIRT)
Conrad RDS Manager

Aerials:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL www.box.com/s/h1a5z3bu94vppln3zsfn
Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator

Software:
RDS Spy v1.00r2 www.rdsspy.com

Skegness Log: 07-10-13 (MW)

07-10-13
1290 0300 VEN YVLF Radio Puerto Cabello, Puerto Cabello (cbb) ID at the top of the hour  7637 km

Conditions still dreadful to North America, although there was a slight recovery around 0100 when WXKS re-appeared on 1200 and CBG returned to 1400. These had gone by 0200.

Good DX!

John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  3m x 7m flag at 350 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor  

Skegness Log: 06-10-13 (MW)

06-10-13
 981 1700 CHN CNR1, Many sites. At least three lots of Chinese time pips and Chinese YL
1098 1700 KOR HLCJ KBS 1, Jinju (gsb) Presumed with familiar time signal  8978 km
1467 1700 KGZ TWR Asia, Krasnaya Rechka (cuy) Interval signal and ID  5409 km
1521 1700 CHN China Radio Int., Ürümqi/Hutubi-SARFT654 (XJ) ID on the hour  6041 km
Heard on my 1700 SDR file on 06-10-13:

 720 Chinese pips
 738 Chinese pips - x2?
 891 Chinese Pips
 918 Chinese pips
 936 Chinese pips
 981 At least three Chinese pips here, Chinese music, Chinese OM
1044 Chinese pips
1134 Oriental?
1170 Oriental?
1287 Oriental music?
1359 Chinese pips
1377 Chinese pips
1413 Chinese pips x2?
1467 TWR Kyrgyzstan xd South Korea?
1494 Chinese pips x2 or maybe 3, plus Chinese music
1539 Chinese pips
1593 Chinese pips

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  3m x 7m flag at 350 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor  

HS Publications Band 2/UHF Antenna Phaser

My HS Publications antenna phasing device arrived a few days ago and I eagerly gave it a try to see what I could remove from the FM broadcast band. I will document the results, step by step below, in order to show the trial and error aspects when using such a device as the success of the ability to null an unwanted signal is based entirely on getting your antennas in just the right place, as opposed to the ability of the phasing it itself, which is a resonant 'parallel tuned rejector' circuit. In other words, using the wrong antennas, or having the antennas in the wrong place, will not allow you to create the nulls where you want them. It may be necessary to play with a few antenna types and try them in various locations in order to achieve the desired results.

In my case I have a rooftop antenna for the DX, a Korner 9.2, which picks unfortunately also receives varying degrees of electrical noise from neighbouring properties. To bring about a successful removal of this noise, I need a suitably placed second antenna, a 'noise' antenna which, ideally, only receives that noise and not the signal I want to hear. You then mix together the signals from both antennas in order to cancel the noise, leaving the wanted signal. 

The phaser consists of two controls, one to control the signal amplitude and the other to effect a 180 degree phase shift of the unwanted signal. The 'noise' antenna is fed into this and then out to a Triax signal splitter where the signal is mixed with the signal from the DX antenna. 

So, in my case, the 9.2 on the roof receives the DX signal but also receives some noise. The 'noise' antenna in the loft receives the noise and, ideally, no DX. Mix the two together and the noise, common to both antenas, is cancelled out, leaving the DX, which is only present on the 9.2. That's the theory. The practice may be different, but I must stress this will be entirely down to the correct placement of the 'noise' antenna. Be prepared for a fair bit of experimentation with the antennas, but the results will hopefully be worth it. 

So, beginning the trials: I had just hooked up the phaser and fed in a 10m length of coax which ran into the loft and had no antenna connected at this point. This is a useful test as it will only receive the strongest of local signals, in my case, Belmont. I fed this into the splitter with the 9.2 and then into my Sony XDR-F1HD. I found I was immediately able to completely remove ALL local Belmont frequencies with the greatest of ease. This did not remove weaker signals because the coax is barely capable of receiving anything and only 'saw' a very weak Belmont and nothing else. Since Belmont was common to both antennas it was possible to remove it completely. I was pointing south-east in this instance:

https://app.box.com/s/tfew0t7k5lcsqbk95igg

Next I installed a horizontal Triax FM5, placing it it in the middle of the loft one metre above the floor. Unfortunately this didn't receive much of the offending electrical noise so I didn't expect any real nulling of that noise, which was exactly as it turned out. The null was certainly there but it was minimal and there was a general nulling of everything as the FM5 was picking everything up reasonably well. It just wasn't receiving enough noise. 

I tried boosting the noise antenna with a Fringe Electronics 22dB pre-amp. This actually induced more noise, but I was still able to phase out a good deal of 'everything' I was hearing! Back to that board with the drawing on it. 

There was no an ever-increasing quantity of coax patch leads on my desk. These link the splitter to the phaser, then to the pre-amp, the psu for the pre-amp and ultimately the antenna. There is lots of coaxial spaghetti across my table and I can barely see my computer screen. Did I also mention the large number of Belling Lee / F Plug apapters and connectors? It's not good to have all these extra cables inline as, despite them being short, could still receive stray signal and potentially ruin the effects of the phasing so I have tried to keep the patch leads as short as possible, the longest being about 40cm although, typically, they are half that. I will shorten them more in due course.

The above trials were done with the 9.2 antenna pointing south-east and with the Triax FM5 noise antenna in the loft pointing anywhere between north-east and south-east, right where the noise is. Even so, the fact exists that the FM5 is not receiving enough noise and probably too much 'wanted' signal, hence the above results.

The final trial using the FM5 in the loft as the noise antenna involved me rotating it 180 degrees to so it pointed directly at Belmont. Once again, the phaser still did a fair job at nulling Belmont but this time did not affect any of my wanted continental signals to the south-east, so neighbouring Lille 88.7 and Dudelange 88.9 remained untouched. This was done without the pre-amp inline, so I repeated the nulling with the pre-amp and found the null was still present, perhaps slightly deeper, but was more 'precise' and fiddly to locate with the phaser controls.

It was also possible to rotate the FM5 and the 9.2 in order to deepen the nulls even more. With this test I was able to reduce local Belmont from three bars to a very noisy zero, leaving it open for potential DX. Lille 88.7 and Dudelange 88.9 remained unaffected. I tied the same with Belmont 93.1 and obtained the same results. 93.1 seems to be a little stronger that the other Belmont outlets, or at least it has always been the most difficult frequency to null or for the DX to breach. It is so refreshing to lift out this transmitter and leave 93.0 and 93.2 splatter free.

So far, the most successful nulling of Belmont was brought about when I only used the 10m coax feed as my noise antenna. The results with the Triax FM5 were different so I wondered if I might get better results if I used a simpler noise system. Here is a recording of Belmont being lifted out by a good 95% to leave a weak Langenberg mixing in. First you will hear the null being induced, then you will hear Langenberg struggling to compete, then I play a bit of WDR5's web stream to confirm to myself that it was genuinely Langenberg that I was receiving. Towards the end of the recording you will hear quick snippets of me tuning down to Lille on 88.7 and Dudelange on 88.9 to ensure I hadn't lifted them out too. This is another big step forward.

https://app.box.com/s/voezgqs7yk8btqloe582

Moving ahead another day ... it's now Sunday the 6th and I have been using only the driven element of the FM5 on a rotator in the loft. The phasing with this is pants. I decided to just DX with the 9.2 barefoot and immediately noticed an increase in noise. Hmm. Now then, does the simple fact of having the noise antenna connected in with the 9.2 reduce the noise? It seems it does! More experiments show that there is no 'obvious' loss of signal when the loft antenna and phaser are inline. But this actually cleans up some of the general noise and not to the detriment of the wanted signal. Very interesting indeed! Conditions are quite flat today, if not slightly less than flat, and I am hearing more continentals with these inline than without, so there is definitely a null on the general noise which is helping. The only concern is that the extra bits and pieces that are connected don't spoil the beam of the 9.2. It doesn't seem to be doing. Also, I no longer hear the rise in noise levels when I swing the 9.2 round from south to east. This is a big improvement.

As I understand it, there is supposed to be a 3dB loss when inserting the Triax signal splitter. In reality, I don't notice anything drastic, if at all, but I could always insert the Fringe pre-amp between the splitter and the XDR in order to boost any losses. It doesn't seem necessary though. This is a 'before and after' comparison with the phaser tuned in and tuned out again. I do this quite rapidly so hopefully you will hear the results easily. You can hear the noise levels lift up and out while I am tuned to a very weak BBC Radio 2 from Manningtree on 88.1.

https://app.box.com/s/dsc3zl8hyrwzck784pi1

It's not a great example as the noise antenna wasn't picking up much noise, but it was one of the first tests I did a couple of days ago and you might just appreciate how a very weak tropo signal could be buried in that little bit of noise but would otherwise get through. You can hear how the speech gets buried under that noise.

https://app.box.com/s/dsc3zl8hyrwzck784pi1

Ideally, I need that noise antenna in a better position, but with the noise now much quieter I think I would need another external 9.2 in order to hear it.

One really useful side-effect of the phaser is the ability to null the general background FM white noise. A small loss of treble can occur on the wanted signal sometimes, but this can be really useful for very weak, down-in-the-noise tropospheric DX.

So far, I am finding the phaser to be a VERY useful device for removing unwanted broadcasts as opposed to the ability to reduce the noise. It would therefore be very useful for me to leave a rotatable, directional aerial, such as a  loft-mounted FM5 so I can remove unwanted stations. A third aerial, designed to receive the noise, would still be very useful. I am seeing great potential in this device for DXers who live in areas where the FM bands are congested.

I will add more recordings below as I continue to experiment with this device. I can see there will be some very good results once the noise antenna is more suitably positioned. 

Skegness Log: 03-10-13 (FM)

Band 2 Tropospheric:
 99.0 0813  D  hr1, Hoher Meißner (hes) Scatter. OM talk, ID and 70s song  684km
 94.6 0814  D  MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) Scatter. YL talking, as web  713km
 93.8 0815  D  bremen eins, Bremen-Walle (bre) Scatter. Pop song, as web  565km
 93.2 0816  D  WDR 2, Teutoburger Wald/Bielstein (nrw) Scatter. Pops, as web. Mixing Bruxelles  591km
 92.0 0818  D  WDR 5, Münster/Baumberg (nrw) Scatter. OM  YL, as 90.6  494km
 97.4 0821  D  Deutschlandradio Kultur, Brocken (san) Scatter. OM talk, as web. Mixing Linz  713km
 97.4 0824  D  SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Linz/Ginsterhahn (rlp) Scatter. 70s song then OM, as web  560km
100.0 0827  D  WDR 4, Münster/Baumberg (nrw) Scatter. Abba song, as web  494km
100.8 0828  D  WDR 2, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Scatter. Adeles Deep song  484km
101.0 0829  D  WDR 2, Bärbelkreuz (Eifel) (nrw) Scatter. Adele, as 100.8  520km
103.1 0831  D  Radio ffn, Aurich (nds) Scatter. German OM promo, as web  479km
102.8 0832  D  Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Wesel-Büderich (nrw) Scatter. String concerto, as web  456km
103.3 0834  D  Funkhaus Europa, Langenberg/Hordtberg (nrw) Scatter. Alex Barck track, as web  505km
103.8 0834  D  WDR 4, Nordhelle (nrw) Scatter. Dire Straits song, as web  554km
104.0 0835  D  big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Koblenz/Kühkopf (rlp) Scatter. Weather report and ID  590km
105.6 0837  D  SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Donnersberg (rlp) Scatter. YL song, as web  657km
105.7 0837  D  Antenne Niedersachsen, Steinkimmen (nds) Scatter. Chumbawamba song, as web  543km
105.9 0840  D  Hit Radio FFH, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Scatter. No Angels, as web  648km
106.3 0841  D  SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Bad Marienberg (rlp) Scatter. German OM talk, as web  592km
107.2 0842  D  WDR Eins Live, Ederkopf (nrw) Scatter. Pink song, as 106.7  593km
107.0 0843  D  WDR Eins Live, Olsberg (nrw) Scatter. Pink, then Blur song, as 106.7  592km

Quieter noise levels today but scatter conditions weren't actually that great. Signals were mostly very weak but were able to puncture any remaining mushiness.

The irony is that my quieter band has coincided nicely with the arrival of my antenna/noise phasing device. It's early days but initial experiments with this unit have been promising and I will report back with any results soon.

Signal / noise cancellation has been pretty good so far, but my 'noise antenna', a Triax FM5 in the loft, is not ideally situated since it isn't receiving enough of the noise itself, but its ability to take out Belmont has astounded me with a 100% removal of all Belmont's frequencies. Much more playing around is necessary but I am confident that, with careful positioning of the noise antenna and sufficient noise signal, this will have been a worthwhile investment and I would recommend that every FM DXer should have one.

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1.7m (5'9") ASL.
Website: skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk

Personal All Time VHF Logbooks: https://sites.google.com/site/skegnessdx/vhf-band-2-logs
VHF Band 2 DX Recordings: https://sites.google.com/site/skegnessdx/skegness-vhf-band-2-fm-dx-recordings

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD (tropospheric)
Kenwood KT6040 (sporadic E & meteor scatter)
Icom IC7000 (OIRT)
Conrad RDS Manager

Aerials:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL www.box.com/s/h1a5z3bu94vppln3zsfn
Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator

Software:
RDS Spy v1.00r2 www.rdsspy.com

Skegness Log: 03-10-13 (MW)

1320 0544 USA WLQY Hollywood FL. Presumed with Creole-sounding language. Reaching good levels at this time but
              faded well before the hour.   7110 km
1570 0545 PRU OCU4J Radio Bethel, Lima (lim) Clear "Bethel" ID at 05:45:49. Slow songs. Regular YL vocal drop-ins.
              Weak but clear and mixing with a weaker second Spanish station.      10255 km

A very frustrating morning where conditions seemed very good to areas like Peru, Florida and the Caribbean, but it was a morning where so many stations got away.

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  3m x 7m flag at 350 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor    

Skegness Log: 02-10-13 (MW)

1670 0200 CAN CJEU Gatineau QC. No ID, but presumed with children's nursery rhymes  5309 km
 920 0300 USA WHJJ Providence RI. ID - The stories Rhode Island are talking about -
              Newstalk Nine Twenty, WHJJ Providence  5296 km **
1470 0300 USA WLAM Lewiston ME. Mentioning Lewiston Auburn. WCSH ... a ?? station (relay of
              TV channel) 5069 km **
1500 0400 PRU OBX4I Radio Santa Rosa, Lima/San Miguel (lim) Clear ID, Radio Santa Rosa,
              la primera emissora, .... etc.   10258 km

** Personal Skegness 'First'

The geomagnetic forecast gave unsettled conditions overnight. Instead, we had a much bigger disturbance which resulted in a near total wipe-out of North American activity from around 0400. There were many Spanish stations on the band at this time but still plenty of North Americans at 0300. Conditions were interesting with one or two less common stations, as can often be the case at the point when conditions blow-out.

Listening tonight, however, the band seems to be almost devoid of any kind of transatlantic activity with only a few very weak carriers visible.

Wishing the band a speedy recovery. Get well soon! :O)A

Recordings:
920 WHJJ Providence RI
1500 OBX41 Radio Santa Rosa, Lima, Peru

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  3m x 7m flag at 350 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor

Skegness Log: 01-10-13 (MW)

1440 0200 USA WHKZ, Warren OH. Mentioning SRN and "The Word" ID. Mixing sports station and Saudi Arabia  5939 km

Just the one today.

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  3m x 7m flag at 350 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor