It's been a very rough day in Skegness. Severe winds gusting to 70 mph (112 kmph) have literally battered the coastline causing a lot of damage, though we seemed to get away with the worst of it. Some towns and villages around here had to be evacuated. Most notably was the town of Boston where 18,000 people were told to leave their homes.
Obviously I was concerned about my FM antenna mast coming down but I am thankful to report that it didn't. The weight of this structure is about 75 kilos with the thick aluminium pole and the heavy duty rotator. Fingers crossed this stays up but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't. Some large trees were snapped just around the corner from here though.
What was of more concern today was the threat to life as weather forecasters predicted a large tidal surge of similar proportions to the storm which flooded Skegness in 1953. Severe "Red Alert" weather warnings and flood alerts existed across the east coast from Yorkshire down to Essex and they're not over yet.
The winds abated by early evening but the tidal surge was expected to cause flooding here around 6:45 to 7:30 pm. Curiosity got the better of me and I took my camera out to the sea front to see what was happening. The police had closed lots of roads along the sea front so it was difficult to get a clear picture of what was happening, but having seen local photos on Facebook depicting minor flooding I realised that the sea defenses had been breached.
The damage turned out to be 'relatively' minor here, though pathways have been torn up and there is flood damage to a few sea front properties. The real damage was down the coast in Boston, some 20 miles from here. BBC Radio Lincolnshire was reporting that much of the town centre was under two feet (more than half a metre) of water.
We're not out of the woods yet as more tidal surges are expected over the next 24 hours but hopefully the worst has passed.
I'll finish this off with a little grumble. This evening I learnt that Nelson Mandela had passed away. Obviously this is very sad news. I must point out that I do not wish to be disrespectful towards Nelson Mandela and all those concerned with his passing, but it really pisses me off big time how all the television news channels, including the BBC and ITV regional networks, suddenly stopped their coverage of the local flooding situation and gave us something which is not important to us locally, especially at a time when we need as much local information as possible about something which is far more important to us and potentially life-threatening.
Plus it has been the perfect day for this evil government of ours to bury all their bad news which we should be hearing about.
Friday, 6 December 2013
Tuesday, 3 December 2013
Skegness Log: 03-12-13 (FM)
Band 2 Tropospheric:
88.4 0622 D Bayern 2, Pfaffenberg (bay) German YL, as web 713km
89.5 0624 D Bayern 2, Wendelstein (bay) OMs talk, as web 1024km
89.9 0625 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Weinbiet (rlp) Dirty Dancing theme, as web 686km
90.6 0626 D hr1, Hardberg (hes) Pops, as web 712km
90.8 0628 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Bornberg (rlp) OM and music, as web 640km
91.4 0630 D Bayern 1, Büttelberg (bay) YL and OM, as web 813km
91.8 0631 D SWR2, Raichberg (bwü) YL, as web 813km
92.8 0632 D SWR3, Bad Marienberg (rlp) ID and traffic 592km
93.4 0633 D Bayern 3, Pfaffenberg (bay) ID and YL traffic 713km
101.2 0635 D hr3, Habichtswald (hes) OM info, as web 647km
99.0 0636 AUT Hitradio Ö3, Salzburg 1/Gaisberg (ORS) (sal) Pops, as web 1081km
95.3 0639 D You FM (hr), Hardberg (hes) Soft rock track, as web 712km
97.8 0644 D SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Heidelberg/Königstuhl, SWR (bwü) OM ID and pops 717km
101.6 0655 D hr4, Hardberg (hes) Soft pops, as web 712km
102.9 0656 D RPR 1, Bad Marienberg (rlp) Show promo and ID 592km
104.1 0658 D SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Heidelberg/Königstuhl, SWR (bwü) German song, as web
717km
104.8 0659 D hr1, Heidelstein (Rhön) [bay] (hes) Promo and jingle ID 729km
104.9 0700 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Ahrweiler/Schöneberg (rlp) Pops and ID 554km
105.3 0701 D B5 aktuell, Kreuzberg (Rhön) (bay) YL and OM news, as web 733km
106.8 0704 D Hit Radio FFH, Driedorf/Höllberg (hes) Katy Perry song, as web 605km
99.0 0719 D hr1, Hoher Meißner (hes) ID and Hues Corporation song 684km
103.7 1201 D Radio 7, Aalen/Braunenberg (bwü) Talking about banks, ID 835km **
91.1 1206 D SWR2, Aalen/Braunenberg (bwü) YL and classical music, as web 835km
107.1 1208 D Radio TON Ostwürttemberg, Aalen/Braunenberg (bwü) Pops, as web 835km
107.6 1209 D B5 aktuell, Hühnerberg (bay) OM ID 871km
107.8 1211 D 107.8 Antenne AC, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Pops, a web 484km
105.7 1213 D B5 aktuell, Wendelstein (bay) OM ID 1024km
103.6 1214 D RPR 1, Kalmit (rlp) YL ID and pops 687km
102.6 1216 D RPR 1, Saarburg/Geisberg (rlp) Pops, as 103.5 103.6 586km **
100.4 1218 D Radio Regenbogen, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) Robbie Williams, as web 748km
98.4 1219 D SWR3, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) Pops and YL ID 748km
92.1 1223 D NDR 2, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) YL song, as web 707km
106.3 1258 D Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) OM, as web 748km
106.4 1259 D B5 aktuell, Pfaffenberg (bay) OM, as web 713km **
107.7 1302 LUX Den Neie Radio (DNR), Blaschette/Kandel (gld) ID after news, then pops 557km
103.1 1312 D RPR 1, Bornberg (rlp) Warbling Whitney Houston, as web 640km
103.0 1313 D Antenne Bayern, Pfaffenberg (bay) Jack Michaelson, as web 713km
96.1 1320 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Koblenz/Dieblich-Naßheck (rlp) Light pops 591km
89.0 1330 D SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Witthoh (Tuttlingen) (bwü) German OM talking over music,
as web 834km **
88.2 1338 D Bayern 2, Büttelberg (bay) YL, as web 813km
107.6 2021 D Antenne Thüringen, Remda (Saalfeld) (thü) German YL song, as web 789km
107.8 2022 D MDR Figaro, Brocken (san) Discordant classical music, as web 713km
106.3 2024 D Antenne Niedersachsen, Torfhaus/DTAG (nds) Rock song, as web 707km
103.2 2026 D hr4, Habichtswald (hes) Piano pop, as web 647km
** Personal Skegness 'First'
The final stages of the tropo, which persisted throughout the day, increasing and subsiding, moving around slightly. Signals were mostly poor but noise free.
The day started with the last strands of Salzburg on 99.0, then conditions slowly moved to Nordrhein-Westfalen where the strongest signals were. Rheinland Pfalz was still up and down and a sprinkling of Bavarians topped things off nicely. Teutoburger Wald increased as the afternoon wore on and became the strongest German of the whole opening, peaking to three XDR bars, and it was the last to leave, still audible at local midnight.
Checking the band at 5am on the 4th revealed a post-tropo flatness.
Recording:
103.7 Radio 7, Aalen 1201 03-12-13
https://app.box.com/s/ntdenjgq72hf07m5a46n
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1.7m (5'9") ASL.
Website: http://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
88.4 0622 D Bayern 2, Pfaffenberg (bay) German YL, as web 713km
89.5 0624 D Bayern 2, Wendelstein (bay) OMs talk, as web 1024km
89.9 0625 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Weinbiet (rlp) Dirty Dancing theme, as web 686km
90.6 0626 D hr1, Hardberg (hes) Pops, as web 712km
90.8 0628 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Bornberg (rlp) OM and music, as web 640km
91.4 0630 D Bayern 1, Büttelberg (bay) YL and OM, as web 813km
91.8 0631 D SWR2, Raichberg (bwü) YL, as web 813km
92.8 0632 D SWR3, Bad Marienberg (rlp) ID and traffic 592km
93.4 0633 D Bayern 3, Pfaffenberg (bay) ID and YL traffic 713km
101.2 0635 D hr3, Habichtswald (hes) OM info, as web 647km
99.0 0636 AUT Hitradio Ö3, Salzburg 1/Gaisberg (ORS) (sal) Pops, as web 1081km
95.3 0639 D You FM (hr), Hardberg (hes) Soft rock track, as web 712km
97.8 0644 D SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Heidelberg/Königstuhl, SWR (bwü) OM ID and pops 717km
101.6 0655 D hr4, Hardberg (hes) Soft pops, as web 712km
102.9 0656 D RPR 1, Bad Marienberg (rlp) Show promo and ID 592km
104.1 0658 D SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Heidelberg/Königstuhl, SWR (bwü) German song, as web
717km
104.8 0659 D hr1, Heidelstein (Rhön) [bay] (hes) Promo and jingle ID 729km
104.9 0700 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Ahrweiler/Schöneberg (rlp) Pops and ID 554km
105.3 0701 D B5 aktuell, Kreuzberg (Rhön) (bay) YL and OM news, as web 733km
106.8 0704 D Hit Radio FFH, Driedorf/Höllberg (hes) Katy Perry song, as web 605km
99.0 0719 D hr1, Hoher Meißner (hes) ID and Hues Corporation song 684km
103.7 1201 D Radio 7, Aalen/Braunenberg (bwü) Talking about banks, ID 835km **
91.1 1206 D SWR2, Aalen/Braunenberg (bwü) YL and classical music, as web 835km
107.1 1208 D Radio TON Ostwürttemberg, Aalen/Braunenberg (bwü) Pops, as web 835km
107.6 1209 D B5 aktuell, Hühnerberg (bay) OM ID 871km
107.8 1211 D 107.8 Antenne AC, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Pops, a web 484km
105.7 1213 D B5 aktuell, Wendelstein (bay) OM ID 1024km
103.6 1214 D RPR 1, Kalmit (rlp) YL ID and pops 687km
102.6 1216 D RPR 1, Saarburg/Geisberg (rlp) Pops, as 103.5 103.6 586km **
100.4 1218 D Radio Regenbogen, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) Robbie Williams, as web 748km
98.4 1219 D SWR3, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) Pops and YL ID 748km
92.1 1223 D NDR 2, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) YL song, as web 707km
106.3 1258 D Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) OM, as web 748km
106.4 1259 D B5 aktuell, Pfaffenberg (bay) OM, as web 713km **
107.7 1302 LUX Den Neie Radio (DNR), Blaschette/Kandel (gld) ID after news, then pops 557km
103.1 1312 D RPR 1, Bornberg (rlp) Warbling Whitney Houston, as web 640km
103.0 1313 D Antenne Bayern, Pfaffenberg (bay) Jack Michaelson, as web 713km
96.1 1320 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Koblenz/Dieblich-Naßheck (rlp) Light pops 591km
89.0 1330 D SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Witthoh (Tuttlingen) (bwü) German OM talking over music,
as web 834km **
88.2 1338 D Bayern 2, Büttelberg (bay) YL, as web 813km
107.6 2021 D Antenne Thüringen, Remda (Saalfeld) (thü) German YL song, as web 789km
107.8 2022 D MDR Figaro, Brocken (san) Discordant classical music, as web 713km
106.3 2024 D Antenne Niedersachsen, Torfhaus/DTAG (nds) Rock song, as web 707km
103.2 2026 D hr4, Habichtswald (hes) Piano pop, as web 647km
** Personal Skegness 'First'
The final stages of the tropo, which persisted throughout the day, increasing and subsiding, moving around slightly. Signals were mostly poor but noise free.
The day started with the last strands of Salzburg on 99.0, then conditions slowly moved to Nordrhein-Westfalen where the strongest signals were. Rheinland Pfalz was still up and down and a sprinkling of Bavarians topped things off nicely. Teutoburger Wald increased as the afternoon wore on and became the strongest German of the whole opening, peaking to three XDR bars, and it was the last to leave, still audible at local midnight.
Checking the band at 5am on the 4th revealed a post-tropo flatness.
Recording:
103.7 Radio 7, Aalen 1201 03-12-13
https://app.box.com/s/ntdenjgq72hf07m5a46n
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1.7m (5'9") ASL.
Website: http://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
Monday, 2 December 2013
Skegness Log: 02-12-13 (FM)
Band 2 Tropospheric:
94.6 0036 D MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) Pops, as web 713km
105.9 0106 D Hit Radio FFH, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Pops, as web 648km
104.9 0107 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Ahrweiler/Schöneberg (rlp) Phone caller, as web 554km
104.0 0108 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Koblenz/Kühkopf (rlp) Phone caller, as 104.9 590km
102.5 0109 D hr4, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) German song, as web 648km
103.6 0109 D RPR 1., Kalmit (rlp) Jazzy music, as web 687km
89.0 0111 D 89.0 RTL, Brocken (san) Pops, as web 713km
97.4 0113 D Deutschlandradio Kultur, Brocken (san) Relaxing guitar music, as web 713km
98.4 0114 D SWR3, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) German pop, as web 748km
106.3 0115 D Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) German OM, as web 748km
100.4 0117 D Radio Regenbogen, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) Pops, as web 748km
107.8 0129 D MDR Figaro, Brocken (san) Violin concerto, as web 713km
107.1 0131 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Haardtkopf (rlp) German song, as web 593km
101.0 0134 D WDR 2, Bärbelkreuz (Eifel) (nrw) Pops, as web 520km
105.5 0134 D WDR Eins Live, Bärbelkreuz (Eifel) (nrw) Indie song, as web 520km
101.3 0135 D ANTENNE 1, Stuttgart-Frauenkopf (bwü) Back to back pops, as web 790km **
102.3 0136 D AFN Stuttgart-The Eagle, Stuttgart-Frauenkopf (bwü) US accent in Lincs FM
splatter 790km
105.7 0144 D SWR2, Stuttgart/Hoher Bopser (bwü) Classical, as web 790km
94.0 0147 D SWR2, Koblenz/Dieblich-Naßheck (rlp) Classical, as web 591km
88.0 0153 D SR 1 Europawelle, Göttelborner Höhe (saa) Pops, as web 629km
95.3 0200 D You FM, Hardberg (hes) Black Eyed Peas song, as web 712km **
95.5 0203 D SR 3 Saarlandwelle, Göttelborner Höhe (saa) German OM, as web 629km
99.6 0206 D hr-info, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) German OM, as web 612km
101.4 0208 D Radio SAW, Brocken (san) Pops, as web 713km
87.6 0211 D hr3, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) German OM, as web 612km
104.3 0211 D hr4, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) Film song, as web 612km
89.9 0212 D NDR Kultur, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) Piano concerto, as web 707km
91.1 0213 F France Inter, Villers-Cotterêts/Fleury (02) French OMs, as 103.7 474km
91.5 0216 D MDR Jump, Brocken (san) Struggling against Holme Moss 713km
92.1 0216 D NDR 2, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) Pops, as web 707km
105.6 0218 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Donnersberg (rlp) YL song, as web 657km
106.9 0221 D B5 aktuell, Grünten (Allgäu) (bay) OM and YL, as web 942km
101.0 0222 D BR Klassik, Grünten (Allgäu) (bay) Piano music, as web 942km
90.7 0223 D Bayern 1, Grünten (Allgäu) (bay) Freaky chillout music, as web 942km
101.6 0228 D hr4, Hardberg (hes) Light pops, as web 712km
104.0 0238 D SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Feldberg (Schwarzwald) (bwü) Jolly tune, as web. Briefly
over Koblenz 799km
93.8 0240 D SWR3, Feldberg (Schwarzwald) (bwü) Falcos Amadeus, as web 799km
107.8 0242 SUI RSI Rete Uno, Säntis (ar) Opera, as web 917km
105.7 0246 D B5 aktuell, Wendelstein (bay) ARD Infonacht, as web 1024km
102.3 0248 D BR Klassik, Wendelstein (bay) Classical, as web 1024km
98.5 0249 D SWR3, Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Pops, as web 550km
89.5 0251 D Bayern 2, Wendelstein (bay) Classical, as web 1024km
92.0 0252 D SWR2, Donnersberg (rlp) Classical, as web 657km
107.3 0255 D SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Raichberg (bwü) Beach Boys song, as web 813km
87.9 0300 D MDR Figaro, Inselsberg (thü) OM news, as web 739km
89.8 0303 D SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Feldberg (Schwarzwald) (bwü) OM news, as web 799km
90.6 0304 D hr1, Hardberg (hes) Presumed site. OM and traffic. Producing echo against another
ARD service 712km
91.8 0305 D SWR2, Raichberg (bwü) Opera, as web 813km
93.0 0306 D SWR2, Haardtkopf (rlp) Opera, as 91.8 593km
94.3 0307 D SWR3, Raichberg (bwü) Indie track, as web 813km
99.0 0310 D hr1, Hoher Meißner (hes) Madonna track, as web 684km
104.8 0313 D hr1, Heidelstein (Rhön) [bay] (hes) Nickelback song, as web 729km
105.6 0314 SUI Radio SRF 3, Säntis (ar) Pops, as web. One bar. Noise free stereo 917km
95.4 0316 SUI Radio SRF 2 Kultur, Säntis (ar) Classical, as web 917km
105.3 0321 D B5 aktuell, Kreuzberg (Rhön) (bay) YL, as web 733km
107.9 0321 D BR Klassik, Kreuzberg (Rhön) (bay) Classical, as web 733km
106.7 0322 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Kalmit (rlp) OM, as web, mixing with Langenberg 687km
91.7 0327 D MDR 1 Radio Thüringen, Sonneberg/Bleßberg (thü) Slow pops, as 94.6 793km
92.2 0327 D SWR3, Stuttgart/Hoher Bopser (bwü) Pops, as 94.3 790km
102.9 0336 D RPR 1., Bad Marienberg (rlp) Pops, as web 592km
107.6 0338 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Bornberg (rlp) Phone caller, as web 640km
107.2 0339 D SWR3, Kettrichhof (rlp) YL and pops, as web. Mixing Ederkpof 674km
99.9 0851 SUI RTS La Première, Säntis (ar) Echoey French OM, as web. Two bars, noise free 917km
91.0 0855 D hr1, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) OMs and music, as web 612km
91.1 0856 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Abba, as web 550km
98.6 0900 F France Inter, Épinal/Bois de la Vierge (88) ID on the hour. Jingle, as web.
Briefly over Egem 704km
89.4 0901 F France Musique, Épinal/Bois de la Vierge (88) Classical and YL, as 88.7 704km **
98.7 0903 D AFN Wiesbaden-The Eagle, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) AP news 648km
99.0 0905 AUT Hitradio Ö3, Salzburg 1/Gaisberg (ORS) (sal) Briefly OM news, then pops, on
Hoher Meissner fade, as web 1081km
99.4 0907 F France Culture, Sarrebourg/le Donon (57) Thoughtful OM, as web 704km
100.6 0912 D RPR 1., Ober-Olm (rlp) YL song, as web 649km **
101.9 0917 D Antenne Bayern, Heidelstein (Rhon) (bay) Madonna song, as web 729km
102.1 0917 D RPR 1., Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) YL info over music, as web 550km
106.2 0926 D hr3, Heidelstein (Rhön) [bay] (hes) Grungy song, as web 729km
107.3 0927 D hr4, Heidelstein (Rhön) [bay] (hes) German YL song, as web 729km
107.7 0929 D Antenne Bayern, Hochries (bay) Promo for BB Radio Bayern then ID and weather
1034km
90.2 0937 D MDR Jump, Inselsberg (thü) German pop song, as web 739km
91.6 0938 D SWR3, Koblenz/Dieblich-Naßheck (rlp) Pops, as web 591km
92.6 0941 D SWR2, Blauen (bwü) Opera, as web 793km
100.4 0955 D Radio Regenbogen, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) ID and ads. Two bars, noise free stereo
748km
103.4 1006 D Antenne 1, Raichberg (bwü) Pops, as web 813km
89.3 1013 D hr3, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Pops, as web. Holme Moss fade 648km
93.3 1016 F France Musique, Chaumont/Chalindrey (52) OM, as 88.7 694km
93.6 1018 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) French and German songs, as web
550km
94.8 1019 D SWR3, Linz (Rhein)/Ginsterhahner Kopf (rlp) Pops, as 94.3
560km
97.2 1021 D Deutschlandradio Kultur, Inselsberg (thü) Gentla eong, as web 739km
97.4 1022 F France Musique, Verdun/Septsarges (55) OM and YL talk, as 98.0
548km
97.4 1022 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Linz (Rhein)/Ginsterhahner Kopf (rlp) German song, as web
560km
107.1 1031 D B5 aktuell, Ochsenkopf (bay) YL, as web. Over Haardtkopf 865km
107.6 1034 D B5 aktuell, Hühnerberg (bay) OM, as web 871km
105.0 1059 D Radio 7, Iberger Kugel (bwü) ID and news 923km
101.9 1212 D WDR 5, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) OM and YL, as web 484km
101.2 1216 D hr3, Habichtswald (hes) Cher song and ID 647km
99.8 1218 F France Inter, Metz/Luttange (57) OM on phone, as web 600km
106.8 1218 F France Info, Metz/Luttange (57) YL and OM, as 105.2 600km
106.6 1219 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Pink song, over Smooth 550km
89.8 1225 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Bad Marienberg (rlp) Earth and Fire song, jingle ID 592km
89.9 1226 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Weinbiet (rlp) Pops and ID, as 89.8 686km
92.7 1239 D hr3, Hardberg (hes) Peeping over Sutton Coldfield with Duffy song, as web 712km
97.8 1244 D SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Heidelberg/Königstuhl, SWR (bwü) Billy Ocean song, as web
717km
98.7 1245 D SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Grünten (Allgäu) [bay] (bwü) Billy Ocean song, ID 942km
103.0 1248 D SWR3, Grünten (Allgäu) [bay] (bwü) Pops, as web 942km
103.4 1249 F France Info, Lyon/Mont Pilat (42) OM, as 105.2 917km
104.1 1259 D WDR 4, Olsberg (nrw) Adverts, as web 592km
92.8 1316 D SWR3, Bad Marienberg (rlp) OM ID and soft pops 592km
96.3 1321 D? UNID, ? Classical. German OM. No parallels found
94.4 1601 D hr1, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) OM news peaking above Swingate 648km
101.8 1606 D WDR 2, Ederkopf (nrw) ID after traffic. Jingle ID 593km
105.1 1607 D Hit Radio FFH, Hoher Meißner (hes) Jingle ID 684km
95.9 1912 D WDR 3, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) YL, as web, Coming up over Humberside 484km
93.9 1915 D WDR 4, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Rock and roll, as web 484km
95.4 1916 D SWR2, Bad Marienberg (rlp) OM and YL, as web 592km
106.8 2100 D Hit Radio FFH, Driedorf/Höllberg (hes) Jingle ID 605km
90.0 2249 D SWR3, Haardtkopf (rlp) Pops, as web 593km
91.5 2251 BEL RTBF Vivacité, Léglise/Vlessart (wal-lux) French song, as web 524km
93.3 2253 LUX RTL Radio, Dudelange/Ginsterberg (gld) Jingle ID between pops 574km
90.6 2257 D SWR3, Saarburg/Geisberg (rlp) Pops, as web 586km
93.8 2257 D SWR2, Saarburg/Geisberg (rlp) YL talk, as web 586km
97.7 2300 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Haardtkopf (rlp) YL new, as web. Over Manningtree 593km
100.1 2302 D RPR 1., Haardtkopf (rlp) ID after news. Over Sutton coldfield 593km
103.2 2305 BEL NRJ, Léglise/Vlessart (wal-lux) Phone caller, as web 524km **
106.9 2309 D Radio Euskirchen, Schleiden/Broicher Höhe (nrw) Lively pops, as web 515km
Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
91.4 1200 CZE Radio Impuls, Plzen/Krasov (PL) YL news, as web 947km **
91.4 1200 HOL Radio 4, Markelo/Alticom Toren (ove) Short ME burst following Plzen 425km **
** Personal Skegness 'First' via the respective mode
December 2nd saw a weak but widespread tropo which brought in a few new catches here. The Salzburg transmitter put in yet another appearance!
One thing which has amazed me over the last year is the regularity of the reception of the FM3 Salzburg transmitter on 99.0 via tropo. It wasn't that long ago that popular discussions about the limits of tropospheric reception in the UK questioned whether we would ever receive Austrian tropo. Suddenly, about a year ago, there it was, and it has been a fairly regular occurrence ever since! "Fairly regular", that is, compared to the lack of the same reception prior to this.
The meteor scatter loggings came by accident and an interesting catch came in the form of Holland. I had to leave the tropo for about half an hour around midday and I noticed that the German reception area was nearing the Czech border. So I left WaveLab recording 91.4 while I was away from the receiver, hoping that Radio Impuls from Plzen would appear. It did! But not via tropo. I recorded 91.4 on the left channel and Radio Impuls's web stream on the right channel so I could make comparisons with anything which appeared on the recording. When I played it back I discovered a large meteor burst with Radio Impuls clearly bursting through and in parallel with the web stream. I could also hear the Dutch Radio 4 on 91.4 and immediately after Plzen had crumbled away I heard the same Dutch OM as per Radio 4 off-air replace Plzen. This is 425 km meteor scatter!
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1.7m (5'9") ASL.
Website: http://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
94.6 0036 D MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) Pops, as web 713km
105.9 0106 D Hit Radio FFH, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Pops, as web 648km
104.9 0107 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Ahrweiler/Schöneberg (rlp) Phone caller, as web 554km
104.0 0108 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Koblenz/Kühkopf (rlp) Phone caller, as 104.9 590km
102.5 0109 D hr4, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) German song, as web 648km
103.6 0109 D RPR 1., Kalmit (rlp) Jazzy music, as web 687km
89.0 0111 D 89.0 RTL, Brocken (san) Pops, as web 713km
97.4 0113 D Deutschlandradio Kultur, Brocken (san) Relaxing guitar music, as web 713km
98.4 0114 D SWR3, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) German pop, as web 748km
106.3 0115 D Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) German OM, as web 748km
100.4 0117 D Radio Regenbogen, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) Pops, as web 748km
107.8 0129 D MDR Figaro, Brocken (san) Violin concerto, as web 713km
107.1 0131 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Haardtkopf (rlp) German song, as web 593km
101.0 0134 D WDR 2, Bärbelkreuz (Eifel) (nrw) Pops, as web 520km
105.5 0134 D WDR Eins Live, Bärbelkreuz (Eifel) (nrw) Indie song, as web 520km
101.3 0135 D ANTENNE 1, Stuttgart-Frauenkopf (bwü) Back to back pops, as web 790km **
102.3 0136 D AFN Stuttgart-The Eagle, Stuttgart-Frauenkopf (bwü) US accent in Lincs FM
splatter 790km
105.7 0144 D SWR2, Stuttgart/Hoher Bopser (bwü) Classical, as web 790km
94.0 0147 D SWR2, Koblenz/Dieblich-Naßheck (rlp) Classical, as web 591km
88.0 0153 D SR 1 Europawelle, Göttelborner Höhe (saa) Pops, as web 629km
95.3 0200 D You FM, Hardberg (hes) Black Eyed Peas song, as web 712km **
95.5 0203 D SR 3 Saarlandwelle, Göttelborner Höhe (saa) German OM, as web 629km
99.6 0206 D hr-info, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) German OM, as web 612km
101.4 0208 D Radio SAW, Brocken (san) Pops, as web 713km
87.6 0211 D hr3, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) German OM, as web 612km
104.3 0211 D hr4, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) Film song, as web 612km
89.9 0212 D NDR Kultur, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) Piano concerto, as web 707km
91.1 0213 F France Inter, Villers-Cotterêts/Fleury (02) French OMs, as 103.7 474km
91.5 0216 D MDR Jump, Brocken (san) Struggling against Holme Moss 713km
92.1 0216 D NDR 2, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) Pops, as web 707km
105.6 0218 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Donnersberg (rlp) YL song, as web 657km
106.9 0221 D B5 aktuell, Grünten (Allgäu) (bay) OM and YL, as web 942km
101.0 0222 D BR Klassik, Grünten (Allgäu) (bay) Piano music, as web 942km
90.7 0223 D Bayern 1, Grünten (Allgäu) (bay) Freaky chillout music, as web 942km
101.6 0228 D hr4, Hardberg (hes) Light pops, as web 712km
104.0 0238 D SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Feldberg (Schwarzwald) (bwü) Jolly tune, as web. Briefly
over Koblenz 799km
93.8 0240 D SWR3, Feldberg (Schwarzwald) (bwü) Falcos Amadeus, as web 799km
107.8 0242 SUI RSI Rete Uno, Säntis (ar) Opera, as web 917km
105.7 0246 D B5 aktuell, Wendelstein (bay) ARD Infonacht, as web 1024km
102.3 0248 D BR Klassik, Wendelstein (bay) Classical, as web 1024km
98.5 0249 D SWR3, Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Pops, as web 550km
89.5 0251 D Bayern 2, Wendelstein (bay) Classical, as web 1024km
92.0 0252 D SWR2, Donnersberg (rlp) Classical, as web 657km
107.3 0255 D SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Raichberg (bwü) Beach Boys song, as web 813km
87.9 0300 D MDR Figaro, Inselsberg (thü) OM news, as web 739km
89.8 0303 D SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Feldberg (Schwarzwald) (bwü) OM news, as web 799km
90.6 0304 D hr1, Hardberg (hes) Presumed site. OM and traffic. Producing echo against another
ARD service 712km
91.8 0305 D SWR2, Raichberg (bwü) Opera, as web 813km
93.0 0306 D SWR2, Haardtkopf (rlp) Opera, as 91.8 593km
94.3 0307 D SWR3, Raichberg (bwü) Indie track, as web 813km
99.0 0310 D hr1, Hoher Meißner (hes) Madonna track, as web 684km
104.8 0313 D hr1, Heidelstein (Rhön) [bay] (hes) Nickelback song, as web 729km
105.6 0314 SUI Radio SRF 3, Säntis (ar) Pops, as web. One bar. Noise free stereo 917km
95.4 0316 SUI Radio SRF 2 Kultur, Säntis (ar) Classical, as web 917km
105.3 0321 D B5 aktuell, Kreuzberg (Rhön) (bay) YL, as web 733km
107.9 0321 D BR Klassik, Kreuzberg (Rhön) (bay) Classical, as web 733km
106.7 0322 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Kalmit (rlp) OM, as web, mixing with Langenberg 687km
91.7 0327 D MDR 1 Radio Thüringen, Sonneberg/Bleßberg (thü) Slow pops, as 94.6 793km
92.2 0327 D SWR3, Stuttgart/Hoher Bopser (bwü) Pops, as 94.3 790km
102.9 0336 D RPR 1., Bad Marienberg (rlp) Pops, as web 592km
107.6 0338 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Bornberg (rlp) Phone caller, as web 640km
107.2 0339 D SWR3, Kettrichhof (rlp) YL and pops, as web. Mixing Ederkpof 674km
99.9 0851 SUI RTS La Première, Säntis (ar) Echoey French OM, as web. Two bars, noise free 917km
91.0 0855 D hr1, Sackpfeife (Biedenkopf) (hes) OMs and music, as web 612km
91.1 0856 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Abba, as web 550km
98.6 0900 F France Inter, Épinal/Bois de la Vierge (88) ID on the hour. Jingle, as web.
Briefly over Egem 704km
89.4 0901 F France Musique, Épinal/Bois de la Vierge (88) Classical and YL, as 88.7 704km **
98.7 0903 D AFN Wiesbaden-The Eagle, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) AP news 648km
99.0 0905 AUT Hitradio Ö3, Salzburg 1/Gaisberg (ORS) (sal) Briefly OM news, then pops, on
Hoher Meissner fade, as web 1081km
99.4 0907 F France Culture, Sarrebourg/le Donon (57) Thoughtful OM, as web 704km
100.6 0912 D RPR 1., Ober-Olm (rlp) YL song, as web 649km **
101.9 0917 D Antenne Bayern, Heidelstein (Rhon) (bay) Madonna song, as web 729km
102.1 0917 D RPR 1., Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) YL info over music, as web 550km
106.2 0926 D hr3, Heidelstein (Rhön) [bay] (hes) Grungy song, as web 729km
107.3 0927 D hr4, Heidelstein (Rhön) [bay] (hes) German YL song, as web 729km
107.7 0929 D Antenne Bayern, Hochries (bay) Promo for BB Radio Bayern then ID and weather
1034km
90.2 0937 D MDR Jump, Inselsberg (thü) German pop song, as web 739km
91.6 0938 D SWR3, Koblenz/Dieblich-Naßheck (rlp) Pops, as web 591km
92.6 0941 D SWR2, Blauen (bwü) Opera, as web 793km
100.4 0955 D Radio Regenbogen, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bwü) ID and ads. Two bars, noise free stereo
748km
103.4 1006 D Antenne 1, Raichberg (bwü) Pops, as web 813km
89.3 1013 D hr3, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Pops, as web. Holme Moss fade 648km
93.3 1016 F France Musique, Chaumont/Chalindrey (52) OM, as 88.7 694km
93.6 1018 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) French and German songs, as web
550km
94.8 1019 D SWR3, Linz (Rhein)/Ginsterhahner Kopf (rlp) Pops, as 94.3
560km
97.2 1021 D Deutschlandradio Kultur, Inselsberg (thü) Gentla eong, as web 739km
97.4 1022 F France Musique, Verdun/Septsarges (55) OM and YL talk, as 98.0
548km
97.4 1022 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Linz (Rhein)/Ginsterhahner Kopf (rlp) German song, as web
560km
107.1 1031 D B5 aktuell, Ochsenkopf (bay) YL, as web. Over Haardtkopf 865km
107.6 1034 D B5 aktuell, Hühnerberg (bay) OM, as web 871km
105.0 1059 D Radio 7, Iberger Kugel (bwü) ID and news 923km
101.9 1212 D WDR 5, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) OM and YL, as web 484km
101.2 1216 D hr3, Habichtswald (hes) Cher song and ID 647km
99.8 1218 F France Inter, Metz/Luttange (57) OM on phone, as web 600km
106.8 1218 F France Info, Metz/Luttange (57) YL and OM, as 105.2 600km
106.6 1219 D big fm (Rheinland-Pfalz), Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Pink song, over Smooth 550km
89.8 1225 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Bad Marienberg (rlp) Earth and Fire song, jingle ID 592km
89.9 1226 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Weinbiet (rlp) Pops and ID, as 89.8 686km
92.7 1239 D hr3, Hardberg (hes) Peeping over Sutton Coldfield with Duffy song, as web 712km
97.8 1244 D SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Heidelberg/Königstuhl, SWR (bwü) Billy Ocean song, as web
717km
98.7 1245 D SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Grünten (Allgäu) [bay] (bwü) Billy Ocean song, ID 942km
103.0 1248 D SWR3, Grünten (Allgäu) [bay] (bwü) Pops, as web 942km
103.4 1249 F France Info, Lyon/Mont Pilat (42) OM, as 105.2 917km
104.1 1259 D WDR 4, Olsberg (nrw) Adverts, as web 592km
92.8 1316 D SWR3, Bad Marienberg (rlp) OM ID and soft pops 592km
96.3 1321 D? UNID, ? Classical. German OM. No parallels found
94.4 1601 D hr1, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) OM news peaking above Swingate 648km
101.8 1606 D WDR 2, Ederkopf (nrw) ID after traffic. Jingle ID 593km
105.1 1607 D Hit Radio FFH, Hoher Meißner (hes) Jingle ID 684km
95.9 1912 D WDR 3, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) YL, as web, Coming up over Humberside 484km
93.9 1915 D WDR 4, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Rock and roll, as web 484km
95.4 1916 D SWR2, Bad Marienberg (rlp) OM and YL, as web 592km
106.8 2100 D Hit Radio FFH, Driedorf/Höllberg (hes) Jingle ID 605km
90.0 2249 D SWR3, Haardtkopf (rlp) Pops, as web 593km
91.5 2251 BEL RTBF Vivacité, Léglise/Vlessart (wal-lux) French song, as web 524km
93.3 2253 LUX RTL Radio, Dudelange/Ginsterberg (gld) Jingle ID between pops 574km
90.6 2257 D SWR3, Saarburg/Geisberg (rlp) Pops, as web 586km
93.8 2257 D SWR2, Saarburg/Geisberg (rlp) YL talk, as web 586km
97.7 2300 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Haardtkopf (rlp) YL new, as web. Over Manningtree 593km
100.1 2302 D RPR 1., Haardtkopf (rlp) ID after news. Over Sutton coldfield 593km
103.2 2305 BEL NRJ, Léglise/Vlessart (wal-lux) Phone caller, as web 524km **
106.9 2309 D Radio Euskirchen, Schleiden/Broicher Höhe (nrw) Lively pops, as web 515km
Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
91.4 1200 CZE Radio Impuls, Plzen/Krasov (PL) YL news, as web 947km **
91.4 1200 HOL Radio 4, Markelo/Alticom Toren (ove) Short ME burst following Plzen 425km **
** Personal Skegness 'First' via the respective mode
December 2nd saw a weak but widespread tropo which brought in a few new catches here. The Salzburg transmitter put in yet another appearance!
One thing which has amazed me over the last year is the regularity of the reception of the FM3 Salzburg transmitter on 99.0 via tropo. It wasn't that long ago that popular discussions about the limits of tropospheric reception in the UK questioned whether we would ever receive Austrian tropo. Suddenly, about a year ago, there it was, and it has been a fairly regular occurrence ever since! "Fairly regular", that is, compared to the lack of the same reception prior to this.
The meteor scatter loggings came by accident and an interesting catch came in the form of Holland. I had to leave the tropo for about half an hour around midday and I noticed that the German reception area was nearing the Czech border. So I left WaveLab recording 91.4 while I was away from the receiver, hoping that Radio Impuls from Plzen would appear. It did! But not via tropo. I recorded 91.4 on the left channel and Radio Impuls's web stream on the right channel so I could make comparisons with anything which appeared on the recording. When I played it back I discovered a large meteor burst with Radio Impuls clearly bursting through and in parallel with the web stream. I could also hear the Dutch Radio 4 on 91.4 and immediately after Plzen had crumbled away I heard the same Dutch OM as per Radio 4 off-air replace Plzen. This is 425 km meteor scatter!
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1.7m (5'9") ASL.
Website: http://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
Saturday, 30 November 2013
Skegness Log: 30-11-13 (MW)
738 1500 CHN Xinjiang RGD 738 Zonghe, Ürümqi/Hutubi-XJTS631 (XJ) YL. Pips and ID Weak 6042 km
900 1500 ? Unid, Oriental YL vocals under Milano. V weak
972 1500 KOR HLCA KBS Hanminjok Bangsong 1, Dangjin (ccg) Time pips and jingle V weak 8740 km
981 1500 TWN Han Sheng GD Kuanghua zhi Sheng, Hsinfeng (HC) Flute signal V weak 9626 km
4835 1818 AUS VL8A ABC Alice Springs, Alice Springs (NT) Rod Quinn. Talk about Tom Baker's scarf,
as web Weak 14956 km
2325 1823 AUS VL8T ABC Darwin, Tennant Creek (NT) YL talking about Dr Who, as web
V weak 14610 km
2485 1823 AUS VL8K ABC Darwin, Katherine (NT) YL talking about Dr Who, as web V weak 14001 km
615 1826 XOE "OM", Gorm C Platform OM beacon in morse code Weak 364 km
1290 1859 RUS "TU", Bely (TV) TU beacon in morse code Weak 2109 km
A gentle return to Asiatic DX conditions after a few days of relatively little of it. The giants like 1098 RTI, 1557 RTI and 1566 HLAZ have still been received on a daily basis, with poor signals, but they returned to reasonable strength this afternoon.
One thing I have not really tried from here much is tropical band DXing. Given the decent Asiatic conditions on MW I thought I should look for Asia at the low end of shortwave. I was pleasantly surprised to receive the three domestic Australians, which even showed a little improvement an hour or so after I logged them.
I wonder if the old RRI stations are still active in the 120, 90 and 75 metre bands. I have never heard Indonesia so it would be great to catch these stations if I can. I understand that a lot of these stations have left the tropical bands now, sadly.
I noticed a lot of beacons across MW when I first moved my flag to 15 degrees. I thought I would start to note them in my log. There are others but conditions must have changed as they weren't audible today. From memory, 650 and 680 were two of them but they were not present today. I forget the other frequencies.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna: 10ft x 25ft flag at 15 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor
900 1500 ? Unid, Oriental YL vocals under Milano. V weak
972 1500 KOR HLCA KBS Hanminjok Bangsong 1, Dangjin (ccg) Time pips and jingle V weak 8740 km
981 1500 TWN Han Sheng GD Kuanghua zhi Sheng, Hsinfeng (HC) Flute signal V weak 9626 km
4835 1818 AUS VL8A ABC Alice Springs, Alice Springs (NT) Rod Quinn. Talk about Tom Baker's scarf,
as web Weak 14956 km
2325 1823 AUS VL8T ABC Darwin, Tennant Creek (NT) YL talking about Dr Who, as web
V weak 14610 km
2485 1823 AUS VL8K ABC Darwin, Katherine (NT) YL talking about Dr Who, as web V weak 14001 km
615 1826 XOE "OM", Gorm C Platform OM beacon in morse code Weak 364 km
1290 1859 RUS "TU", Bely (TV) TU beacon in morse code Weak 2109 km
A gentle return to Asiatic DX conditions after a few days of relatively little of it. The giants like 1098 RTI, 1557 RTI and 1566 HLAZ have still been received on a daily basis, with poor signals, but they returned to reasonable strength this afternoon.
One thing I have not really tried from here much is tropical band DXing. Given the decent Asiatic conditions on MW I thought I should look for Asia at the low end of shortwave. I was pleasantly surprised to receive the three domestic Australians, which even showed a little improvement an hour or so after I logged them.
I wonder if the old RRI stations are still active in the 120, 90 and 75 metre bands. I have never heard Indonesia so it would be great to catch these stations if I can. I understand that a lot of these stations have left the tropical bands now, sadly.
I noticed a lot of beacons across MW when I first moved my flag to 15 degrees. I thought I would start to note them in my log. There are others but conditions must have changed as they weren't audible today. From memory, 650 and 680 were two of them but they were not present today. I forget the other frequencies.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna: 10ft x 25ft flag at 15 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Skegness Log: 28-11-13 (MW)
1470 0300 CAN CJVB Vancouver BC. Time signal poking out of the noise again. V weak. 7453 km
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna: 10ft x 25ft flag at 15 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna: 10ft x 25ft flag at 15 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor
Skegness Log: 28-11-13 (FM)
Band 2 Tropospheric:
107.8 2017 SUI RSI Rete Uno, Säntis (ar) Song, as web stream 917km
105.6 2020 SUI Radio SRF 3, Säntis (ar) Latin rhythms, as web 917km
105.9 2113 D Hit Radio FFH, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) YL and pops, as web 648km
103.8 2118 SUI Radio SRF 3, Rigi/Kulm (sz) YL song, as web stream 892km
106.9 2306 D B5 aktuell, Grünten (Allgäu) (bay) YL presenter with OM on phone, as web 942km
107.1 2309 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Haardtkopf (rlp) Appearing briefly and fluttery on scatter 593km
105.7 2320 D B5 aktuell, Wendelstein (bay) OM and YL as web 1024km
106.2 2331 SUI RSI Rete Uno, Rigi/Kulm (sz) Chirpy Italian YL and jingle, as web 892km
A surprise tropo, thanks to Andy in Wigan for the alert.
Signals were not great here. Well done to Andy on getting the DX on the other side of the Pennines!
Here's an observation. I have a suspicion that the tropo might have been caused by a humidity inversion. Yesterday evening was quite warm (for the time of year anyway) and we did not have the heating on during the evening. At 1am I had to check to see if the heating had come on as Jane and I were suddenly overheating. The heating was still switched off. Checking the local weather station revealed that the humidity levels had soared to 100% so I wonder if this was the mechanism which kicked off the tropo. Speculation of course but it does happen this way.
It's still mild for the time of year. We had 11 degrees in Skegness two or three days ago and fresh flowers have appeared on our garden - something we have noticed elsewhere in town.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1.7m (5'9") ASL.
Website: http://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
107.8 2017 SUI RSI Rete Uno, Säntis (ar) Song, as web stream 917km
105.6 2020 SUI Radio SRF 3, Säntis (ar) Latin rhythms, as web 917km
105.9 2113 D Hit Radio FFH, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) YL and pops, as web 648km
103.8 2118 SUI Radio SRF 3, Rigi/Kulm (sz) YL song, as web stream 892km
106.9 2306 D B5 aktuell, Grünten (Allgäu) (bay) YL presenter with OM on phone, as web 942km
107.1 2309 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Haardtkopf (rlp) Appearing briefly and fluttery on scatter 593km
105.7 2320 D B5 aktuell, Wendelstein (bay) OM and YL as web 1024km
106.2 2331 SUI RSI Rete Uno, Rigi/Kulm (sz) Chirpy Italian YL and jingle, as web 892km
A surprise tropo, thanks to Andy in Wigan for the alert.
Signals were not great here. Well done to Andy on getting the DX on the other side of the Pennines!
Here's an observation. I have a suspicion that the tropo might have been caused by a humidity inversion. Yesterday evening was quite warm (for the time of year anyway) and we did not have the heating on during the evening. At 1am I had to check to see if the heating had come on as Jane and I were suddenly overheating. The heating was still switched off. Checking the local weather station revealed that the humidity levels had soared to 100% so I wonder if this was the mechanism which kicked off the tropo. Speculation of course but it does happen this way.
It's still mild for the time of year. We had 11 degrees in Skegness two or three days ago and fresh flowers have appeared on our garden - something we have noticed elsewhere in town.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1.7m (5'9") ASL.
Website: http://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
Another Antenna Goes In The Wash!
Well they get dirty every now and again. OK, I'm kidding. I don't actually wash my antennas but I do put them in "The Wash" (sorry, it's a tired joke now). That means I run out a Beverage antenna in The Wash, a large bay and estuary on the north-west corner of East Anglia, where Lincolnshire meets Norfolk!
For those who don't know what a Beverage antenna is, it's a very long 'longwire' or 'wave' antenna, principally used for receiving on the medium and short wave bands. It was created by Dr. Harold Henry "Bev" Beverage from North Haven, Maine in 1921. It is also used in amateur radio and military applications. More about it here.
This little radio trip should have happened two months ago but the 'one thing after another' law has prevented me from doing this. It's a law most of us live our lives by and can be very frustrating. Part of the problem was that everything was done 'last minute', as is often the case. I am late for everything. I wonder if I will be late for my own funeral, as the saying goes. I was 20 minutes late for my own wedding, so there's every possibility.
"It's 10am and I think I will make that Beverage trip this afternoon! Now then, I need to be set up for 1300 to catch any early fade-in of exotic Asiatic DX." Ha! The clock has rolled on to 11:30 am after getting a bite to eat. My wife asks me to go to the shop, not for a pint of milk and a loaf of bread. No! For a whole week's shopping (almost). I rush to the shop and back as quickly as I can, forgetting half the things I went for, but I got the most important things so she is reasonably happy. It's now 12.00 midday and I haven't even started to sort out the gear. I think I'd better forget the 1300 slot.
A quick sort through the gear I will be taking and packing it in the car has me wondering what I might have forgotten. There's bound to be something. Earth rods! "Where are the earth rods?" I never found them and so had to bodge some short lengths of copper plumber's tubing, one only eight inches in length, and some crocodile clips to clamp the wire to the tubing. Oh dear! This is turning into another of my "Bodgitt & Scarper" routines.
12:30 and I am setting off. That's after getting out of the car and going back into the house THREE TIMES to fetch things I had forgotten. I arrive at The Wash at 12:50 to find a few dog walkers at the spot but they disappear in minutes. I don't like to roll out hundreds of metres of wire and bash copper tubing into the ground with a hammer with people watching. Occasionally I am approached by members of the public who ask me what I am doing. The answers don't come easily. I just inform them that I am a radio ham and I am doing some listening or antenna experiments. That usually has them running.
The beverage antenna and coax feed is already to be rolled out from a plastic garden hose winding device. It weighed a ton because it already had about a km of thinner wire underneath which I used last season. That proved to be useless as there it was far too thin and produced too much resistance along its 380 metre length. There was also 100m of RG58 on this reel so you can imagine the weight. I deliberately kept all this on the reel as it would create a larger diameter base on which to wind the new beverage wire, and so wind it on more quickly after use. The 'new' wire, much thicker military specification field telephone wire, was obtained from Anchor Army Surplus in Nottingham a few weeks earlier. It is two core and I decided to connect the ends together to further lower any resistance.
For some reason I had thought there was a fence at his location on which I could suspend the wire and make a proper beverage, rather than just running it along the ground. There wasn't!
From the car, 50 metres of RG58 goes out to the balun box, which contains a binocular core and a 3:1 turns ratio of enameled copper wire. This gives inductive coupling to the antenna and cuts off the electrical noise from the car. Believe me, my car emits a huge amount of noise, even when you think everything is switched off! A copper earth rod (the eight inch excuse for one) grounds one side of the primary coil while the other side of that goes to the Beverage wire itself. I didn't trim the Beverage wire (and had no idea of how much was on the reel) and discovered it was approximately 370 metres in length. Perfect! The far end of the Beverage wire was terminated straight to earth as I ran out of time to wire in a terminating resistor. Once again I adopt the Bodgitt & Scarper technique of binding the wire to the copper tubing (this one's about two feet in length!) with a strong crocodile clip.
A Beverage on the ground has a low terminating resistance, something around 200 ohms I believe, and so running the far end of the wire straight to ground should not be a big problem. I had asked my wife, a ham herself, to come along with me today so I could make a better job of the termination resistance, using 2m walkie talkies to make the adjustments, one of us at the receiver, the other making adjustments to the resistor. She declined since there was some awful film on the telly she wanted to watch.
It's approaching 1400. The Beverage is in place. I am sat in the car, Perseus recording, and I see that the computer clock is several minutes fast. Damn! I update it while listening to the time signal on BBC Radio 4 198 kHz. At least the time will be correct for 1500 hours after another adjustment.
Conditions were rubbish at 1400 so I took a walk along the length of the Beverage to make a better job of the connections, though everything seemed to be working perfectly well. While I was out I came across some dog walkers and was mauled by two little Fox Terrier doggy type things, resulting in lots of mud all over my jeans. They had a third dog. A much larger one which thankfully left me alone. Instead, it took a keen interest in the Beverage wire. No fear, it's tough stuff so I can't see the dog causing any damage to it.
1500 came and it was back to the car and the next Perseus recording. This all passed uneventfully. I could barely hear Urumqi on 1521 so I just had to put it down to very poor conditions, but I was expecting this anyway. At least I could now do some more experiments with the Beverage.
Time to relax now since conditions were rather rubbish. The next exercise was to remove the balun to see if it made any difference. Wow did it! Noise returned across the whole band, largely produced by the laptop power supply. The noise was strong enough to render even good signals unintelligible. Noise levels were evenly down to -135 dB with the balun in place, according to Perseus. That's VERY quiet indeed. Too quiet perhaps? I have more signal at home on my flag antenna! Can that be right for a 370 metre Beverage?
Off to the end of the Beverage next to experiment with the terminating resistor. I had one with me, ready to put in place. Perseus was still recording so I could hear the difference on playback. On reaching the end of the wire I discovered it was open ended as it had been pulled away from the crocodile clip, possibly by the aforementioned large dog. Still, I intended to make some 'before and after' comparisons with the wire being earthed and then not earthed, and then with the variable resistor, everything synchronized to the clock so I could check things when I returned home. Unfortunately, on checking the recording of the terminating resistor tests I found that there was no audio on that file. The previous file had audio and you could hear and see the differences with the wire earthed and then not (very little actually) but the following file with the variable resistor test was just five minutes of silence!
So what did I learn today? Hmm. 1. The most striking thing was the beautifully quiet band when the balun was in place. 2. The termination resistance of a Beverage on the ground might not be necessary. Just put the far end of the wire straight to ground. 3. Conditions to Asia were awful! and 4. Set out earlier next time.
Here's a short file from the 1500 slot to demonstrate how quiet the antenna is. Just don't expect any DX!
File: http://www.mediafire.com/?umvrydt3na8qr
PS: I would like to add a quick 'shout' for a couple of Yahoo Groups which have been a huge help to me over the last few years. They are the Beverage Antennas Group and the Real DX Group.
The former, as the name suggests, is a dedicated group of people who have a wealth of experience with Beverage antennas. They recently helped me with a couple of questions I had regarding these antennas.
The Real DX Group helps people who have recordings of unidentified DX. Their membership is truly global and the extensive language skills and general knowledge of broadcasting the world over means they can often identify your unidentified DX. Both groups are very helpful when it comes to newcomers too, but as with all groups of this kind, your input could be very useful too. Please support these excellent groups.
Good DX!
John
Miles and miles of nothing!
I was going to title this ramble "It Shouldn't Happen To A DXer - Skegness Edition" as some of today's experiences reminded me of the disasters which occurred when Beveraging it out in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. You can read about those by clicking here.
For those who don't know what a Beverage antenna is, it's a very long 'longwire' or 'wave' antenna, principally used for receiving on the medium and short wave bands. It was created by Dr. Harold Henry "Bev" Beverage from North Haven, Maine in 1921. It is also used in amateur radio and military applications. More about it here.
This little radio trip should have happened two months ago but the 'one thing after another' law has prevented me from doing this. It's a law most of us live our lives by and can be very frustrating. Part of the problem was that everything was done 'last minute', as is often the case. I am late for everything. I wonder if I will be late for my own funeral, as the saying goes. I was 20 minutes late for my own wedding, so there's every possibility.
Altocumulus above The Wash
"It's 10am and I think I will make that Beverage trip this afternoon! Now then, I need to be set up for 1300 to catch any early fade-in of exotic Asiatic DX." Ha! The clock has rolled on to 11:30 am after getting a bite to eat. My wife asks me to go to the shop, not for a pint of milk and a loaf of bread. No! For a whole week's shopping (almost). I rush to the shop and back as quickly as I can, forgetting half the things I went for, but I got the most important things so she is reasonably happy. It's now 12.00 midday and I haven't even started to sort out the gear. I think I'd better forget the 1300 slot.
A quick sort through the gear I will be taking and packing it in the car has me wondering what I might have forgotten. There's bound to be something. Earth rods! "Where are the earth rods?" I never found them and so had to bodge some short lengths of copper plumber's tubing, one only eight inches in length, and some crocodile clips to clamp the wire to the tubing. Oh dear! This is turning into another of my "Bodgitt & Scarper" routines.
12:30 and I am setting off. That's after getting out of the car and going back into the house THREE TIMES to fetch things I had forgotten. I arrive at The Wash at 12:50 to find a few dog walkers at the spot but they disappear in minutes. I don't like to roll out hundreds of metres of wire and bash copper tubing into the ground with a hammer with people watching. Occasionally I am approached by members of the public who ask me what I am doing. The answers don't come easily. I just inform them that I am a radio ham and I am doing some listening or antenna experiments. That usually has them running.
The beverage antenna and coax feed is already to be rolled out from a plastic garden hose winding device. It weighed a ton because it already had about a km of thinner wire underneath which I used last season. That proved to be useless as there it was far too thin and produced too much resistance along its 380 metre length. There was also 100m of RG58 on this reel so you can imagine the weight. I deliberately kept all this on the reel as it would create a larger diameter base on which to wind the new beverage wire, and so wind it on more quickly after use. The 'new' wire, much thicker military specification field telephone wire, was obtained from Anchor Army Surplus in Nottingham a few weeks earlier. It is two core and I decided to connect the ends together to further lower any resistance.
For some reason I had thought there was a fence at his location on which I could suspend the wire and make a proper beverage, rather than just running it along the ground. There wasn't!
Freshwater Marshes
From the car, 50 metres of RG58 goes out to the balun box, which contains a binocular core and a 3:1 turns ratio of enameled copper wire. This gives inductive coupling to the antenna and cuts off the electrical noise from the car. Believe me, my car emits a huge amount of noise, even when you think everything is switched off! A copper earth rod (the eight inch excuse for one) grounds one side of the primary coil while the other side of that goes to the Beverage wire itself. I didn't trim the Beverage wire (and had no idea of how much was on the reel) and discovered it was approximately 370 metres in length. Perfect! The far end of the Beverage wire was terminated straight to earth as I ran out of time to wire in a terminating resistor. Once again I adopt the Bodgitt & Scarper technique of binding the wire to the copper tubing (this one's about two feet in length!) with a strong crocodile clip.
A Beverage on the ground has a low terminating resistance, something around 200 ohms I believe, and so running the far end of the wire straight to ground should not be a big problem. I had asked my wife, a ham herself, to come along with me today so I could make a better job of the termination resistance, using 2m walkie talkies to make the adjustments, one of us at the receiver, the other making adjustments to the resistor. She declined since there was some awful film on the telly she wanted to watch.
Sunset, looking south-west
It's approaching 1400. The Beverage is in place. I am sat in the car, Perseus recording, and I see that the computer clock is several minutes fast. Damn! I update it while listening to the time signal on BBC Radio 4 198 kHz. At least the time will be correct for 1500 hours after another adjustment.
Conditions were rubbish at 1400 so I took a walk along the length of the Beverage to make a better job of the connections, though everything seemed to be working perfectly well. While I was out I came across some dog walkers and was mauled by two little Fox Terrier doggy type things, resulting in lots of mud all over my jeans. They had a third dog. A much larger one which thankfully left me alone. Instead, it took a keen interest in the Beverage wire. No fear, it's tough stuff so I can't see the dog causing any damage to it.
1500 came and it was back to the car and the next Perseus recording. This all passed uneventfully. I could barely hear Urumqi on 1521 so I just had to put it down to very poor conditions, but I was expecting this anyway. At least I could now do some more experiments with the Beverage.
Perfect location for a Beverage!
Time to relax now since conditions were rather rubbish. The next exercise was to remove the balun to see if it made any difference. Wow did it! Noise returned across the whole band, largely produced by the laptop power supply. The noise was strong enough to render even good signals unintelligible. Noise levels were evenly down to -135 dB with the balun in place, according to Perseus. That's VERY quiet indeed. Too quiet perhaps? I have more signal at home on my flag antenna! Can that be right for a 370 metre Beverage?
Off to the end of the Beverage next to experiment with the terminating resistor. I had one with me, ready to put in place. Perseus was still recording so I could hear the difference on playback. On reaching the end of the wire I discovered it was open ended as it had been pulled away from the crocodile clip, possibly by the aforementioned large dog. Still, I intended to make some 'before and after' comparisons with the wire being earthed and then not earthed, and then with the variable resistor, everything synchronized to the clock so I could check things when I returned home. Unfortunately, on checking the recording of the terminating resistor tests I found that there was no audio on that file. The previous file had audio and you could hear and see the differences with the wire earthed and then not (very little actually) but the following file with the variable resistor test was just five minutes of silence!
More nothingness!
So what did I learn today? Hmm. 1. The most striking thing was the beautifully quiet band when the balun was in place. 2. The termination resistance of a Beverage on the ground might not be necessary. Just put the far end of the wire straight to ground. 3. Conditions to Asia were awful! and 4. Set out earlier next time.
Here's a short file from the 1500 slot to demonstrate how quiet the antenna is. Just don't expect any DX!
File: http://www.mediafire.com/?umvrydt3na8qr
PS: I would like to add a quick 'shout' for a couple of Yahoo Groups which have been a huge help to me over the last few years. They are the Beverage Antennas Group and the Real DX Group.
The former, as the name suggests, is a dedicated group of people who have a wealth of experience with Beverage antennas. They recently helped me with a couple of questions I had regarding these antennas.
The Real DX Group helps people who have recordings of unidentified DX. Their membership is truly global and the extensive language skills and general knowledge of broadcasting the world over means they can often identify your unidentified DX. Both groups are very helpful when it comes to newcomers too, but as with all groups of this kind, your input could be very useful too. Please support these excellent groups.
Good DX!
John
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Skegness Log: 27-11-13 (MW)
1470 0300 CAN CJVB Vancouver BC. CJVB's time signal penetrating the noise. V weak. 7453 km
This one was hardly above the noise. Had it not been for that familiar time signal I would never have known it was CJVB.
There are three pips of a certain frequency (slightly above 1 kHz). I compared these with a recording of my last reception of CJVB and they were clearly the same. What makes these even more distinctive is the fact that there is a slightly larger gap between pip numbers one and two. But perhaps more noticeably pip number two is longer then the others. Such is the peculiarity of CJVB's time signal! Occasionally I hear CJVB when the signal is strong enough to give an audible Fairchild Radio identification.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna: 10ft x 25ft flag at 15 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor
This one was hardly above the noise. Had it not been for that familiar time signal I would never have known it was CJVB.
There are three pips of a certain frequency (slightly above 1 kHz). I compared these with a recording of my last reception of CJVB and they were clearly the same. What makes these even more distinctive is the fact that there is a slightly larger gap between pip numbers one and two. But perhaps more noticeably pip number two is longer then the others. Such is the peculiarity of CJVB's time signal! Occasionally I hear CJVB when the signal is strong enough to give an audible Fairchild Radio identification.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna: 10ft x 25ft flag at 15 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor
Amateur Radio Vs Broadcast DXing
Here's something I didn't think I'd ever say: "I prefer broadcast DXing to amateur radio ... and by a mile!" It's a personal thing of course and I am not suggesting one is better then the other, but I find certain aspects of amateur radio irritating and unnecessarily challenging.
I decided to rekindle my interest in amateur radio a few days ago by erecting a dipole for 10m. It only took me a minute or two before I worked St Vincent and the US state of Georgia, both personal firsts. Then I heard a station in Sudan calling CQ, operating on a split basis - that's calling on one frequency but listening on another. Or, on this case, several others! All my attempts to work him failed due to an insane pile-up. The calling frequencies occupied 28.500 to 28.525! - a sizeable part of the most commonly used SSB DXing frequencies. Why so many? It was a joke! There was very little chance of getting through, despite me calling for about half an hour. How did I know which frequency he would be listening on? Frankly, I was getting fed up with the number of irate stations asking me to move frequency. Yes, I did the decent thing and checked the frequency TWICE to see if it was in use before I called. You'd think there would be plenty of room available for all those calling with that amount of frequencies. I ignored them in the end. They were asking lots of other people to move too. I won't allow bullying to dictate what I do on the air.
But looking back at my amateur radio activities over the last few years I have to say it's all been good fun, though it has never come close to the excitement I have had from broadcast band DXing. BCB DXing is where I began and it still wins me over today. But why?
Familiarity may be the main reason. I know where I am with medium wave and the FM broadcast band. I know what to expect regarding propagation. I have been lucky enough to keep up with the technology surrounding this side of the hobby, progressing from drifty old valve radios and analogue tuners (I still have a great fondness for them) to modern broadband IF devices with computer control. So many years of happy association with these things makes you feel like you've been in the driving seat, steering the hobby to your own advantage, helping to shape it with active involvement on internet forums.
These days BCB DXing, like amateur radio, has its own communities: DX clubs and societies; Global online logbooks; Online discussion and chat; DX maps and clusters. So there are a lot of similarities and they all add to the fun. The main difference is of course the fact that you can talk to people on amateur radio, you can only 'listen' with BCB DX, but they are basically the same DX radio hobby.
When I first actively became involved with amateur radio, I would take to the hills of Derbyshire and DX! I miss that. It's something I briefly dabbled in when I moved to Lincolnshire, but the BCB side of DXing takes precedence once again. If I were to conduct any mobile radio exercises these days it would be BCB, in nearby open countryside and with beverage antennas. That would certainly be the case in winter. Perhaps I will try 2m again in the summer although I suspect band 2 will take over once the Es start flying in.
If I was blessed with a large garden and didn't have so many ridiculous planning regulations regarding antennas, I would have several antennas up for the amateur bands too, but the emphasis would be on DXing and probably digital modes like WSPR and JT65, etc. Call it laziness, but my aim would have to be to automate as much of my amateur radio exercises as possible as I really don't see the point in spending an hour or two trying to break through a pile-up and ultimately failing. Each to their own though. Not knocking any of it, but I know which bands I would rather be listening to.
Good DX!
John
I decided to rekindle my interest in amateur radio a few days ago by erecting a dipole for 10m. It only took me a minute or two before I worked St Vincent and the US state of Georgia, both personal firsts. Then I heard a station in Sudan calling CQ, operating on a split basis - that's calling on one frequency but listening on another. Or, on this case, several others! All my attempts to work him failed due to an insane pile-up. The calling frequencies occupied 28.500 to 28.525! - a sizeable part of the most commonly used SSB DXing frequencies. Why so many? It was a joke! There was very little chance of getting through, despite me calling for about half an hour. How did I know which frequency he would be listening on? Frankly, I was getting fed up with the number of irate stations asking me to move frequency. Yes, I did the decent thing and checked the frequency TWICE to see if it was in use before I called. You'd think there would be plenty of room available for all those calling with that amount of frequencies. I ignored them in the end. They were asking lots of other people to move too. I won't allow bullying to dictate what I do on the air.
But looking back at my amateur radio activities over the last few years I have to say it's all been good fun, though it has never come close to the excitement I have had from broadcast band DXing. BCB DXing is where I began and it still wins me over today. But why?
Familiarity may be the main reason. I know where I am with medium wave and the FM broadcast band. I know what to expect regarding propagation. I have been lucky enough to keep up with the technology surrounding this side of the hobby, progressing from drifty old valve radios and analogue tuners (I still have a great fondness for them) to modern broadband IF devices with computer control. So many years of happy association with these things makes you feel like you've been in the driving seat, steering the hobby to your own advantage, helping to shape it with active involvement on internet forums.
These days BCB DXing, like amateur radio, has its own communities: DX clubs and societies; Global online logbooks; Online discussion and chat; DX maps and clusters. So there are a lot of similarities and they all add to the fun. The main difference is of course the fact that you can talk to people on amateur radio, you can only 'listen' with BCB DX, but they are basically the same DX radio hobby.
When I first actively became involved with amateur radio, I would take to the hills of Derbyshire and DX! I miss that. It's something I briefly dabbled in when I moved to Lincolnshire, but the BCB side of DXing takes precedence once again. If I were to conduct any mobile radio exercises these days it would be BCB, in nearby open countryside and with beverage antennas. That would certainly be the case in winter. Perhaps I will try 2m again in the summer although I suspect band 2 will take over once the Es start flying in.
If I was blessed with a large garden and didn't have so many ridiculous planning regulations regarding antennas, I would have several antennas up for the amateur bands too, but the emphasis would be on DXing and probably digital modes like WSPR and JT65, etc. Call it laziness, but my aim would have to be to automate as much of my amateur radio exercises as possible as I really don't see the point in spending an hour or two trying to break through a pile-up and ultimately failing. Each to their own though. Not knocking any of it, but I know which bands I would rather be listening to.
Good DX!
John
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Skegness Log: 26-11-13 (MW)
760 0500 USA WJR Detroit MI. ID - The Great Voice Of The Great Lakes, W..J..R. Good. 6009 km
1190 0500 USA WOWO Fort Wayne (IN) Scratchy ID but alone. Newstalk Wowo. Call letters spoken
as one word. V weak 6227 km
1300 0500 USA WOOD Grand Rapids MI. ID - This is Newsradio Wood 13 hundred and 1069. Call letters
spoken as one word. Fair 6111 km
1540 0500 USA KXEL Waterloo IA. Good signal. ID and ABC News. Good 6546 km
780 0600 USA WBBM Chicago IL. WBBM Newstime. CBS News coming in late at 10 seconds past the hour.
Fair 6311 km
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna: 10ft x 25ft flag at 15 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor
1190 0500 USA WOWO Fort Wayne (IN) Scratchy ID but alone. Newstalk Wowo. Call letters spoken
as one word. V weak 6227 km
1300 0500 USA WOOD Grand Rapids MI. ID - This is Newsradio Wood 13 hundred and 1069. Call letters
spoken as one word. Fair 6111 km
1540 0500 USA KXEL Waterloo IA. Good signal. ID and ABC News. Good 6546 km
780 0600 USA WBBM Chicago IL. WBBM Newstime. CBS News coming in late at 10 seconds past the hour.
Fair 6311 km
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) 1m ASL
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.com
Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna: 10ft x 25ft flag at 15 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; HDSDR v2.63; Mestor
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