Band 2 Meteor Scatter
87.6 0245 S SR P1, Visby, Hudiksvall or Storumen E201
87.6 0326 NOR NRK P1, Nordhue (he) F201 _NR_____. AFs: 87.6 88.9 1094km
OIRT Sporadic E:
71.54 1625 BLR BR Radio Hrodna, Geranyony/RTPS (HR) ID and pops 1659km **
71.33 1626 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Minsk/RTPS Kalodziscy (MI) Pops, as web 1806km **
71.45 1626 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Babrujsk/RTPS Yasny Les (MA) Pops, as web 1922km **
71.18 1627 BLR BR Radyjo Stalitsa, Mahilyow/RTPS Polykovici (MA) ID between pops 1969km **
70.91 1628 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Brest/Rakitnica (BR) Pops, as web 1593km
70.43 1629 BLR BR Kanal Kultura, Minsk/RTPS Kalodziscy (MI) Piano coincerto 1806km
70.10 1630 BLR BR Radio Mahilyow, Mahilyow/RTPS Polykovici (MA) Pops 1969km **
71.96 1630 BLR BR Kanal Kultura, Mahilyow/RTPS Polykovici (MA) Piano concerto 1969km **
72.11 1631 BLR BR Radius FM, Minsk/RTPS Kalodziscy (MI) News, over music, as web 1806km **
72.32 1632 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Geranyony/RTPS (HR) OM and pops, as 72.74 1659km **
72.74 1632 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Mahilyow/RTPS Polykovici (MA) Pops, as 72.32 1969km **
72.89 1633 BLR BR Radyjo Stalitsa, Minsk/RTPS Kalodziscy (MI) Rock music 1806km **
73.01 1634 BLR BR Radyjo Stalitsa, Babrujsk/RTPS Yasny Les (MA) Rock track, as 72.89 1922km **
66.02 1635 BLR BR Radio Mahilyow, Babrujsk/RTPS Yasny Les (MA) Disco song, as web 1922km
66.20 1635 BLR BR Kanal Kultura, Hrodna/RTPS Vul. Gorkogo (HR) Classical, as web 1551km **
66.56 1636 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Slonim/RTPS Novaja Straga (HR) OM and pops, as web 1671km
66.98 1637 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Hrodna/RTPS Vul. Gorkogo (HR) Ads, as web 1551km
67.22 1640 RUS Radio Mayak, Moskva/Ostankino (MV) OMs talk, just audible and as web 2397km **
67.76 1641 BLR BR Radio Hrodna, Hrodna/RTPS Vul. Gorkogo (HR) ID after ads 1551km
68.39 1642 BLR BR Kanal Kultura, Geranyony/RTPS (HR) Classical, as web 1659km
68.57 1643 BLR BR Radyjo Stalitsa, Salihorsk/RTPS Dubei (MI) Pops and OM, as 72.89 1807km **
68.72 1643 BLR BR Radyjo Stalitsa, Svislach=Svislac (HR) Pops, as others 1581km
68.90 1644 BLR BR Radyjo Stalitsa, Hrodna/RTPS Vul. Gorkogo (HR) Pops, as others 1551km
68.96 1644 BLR BR Kanal Kultura, Babrujsk/RTPS Yasny Les (MA) Dramatic classical, as web 1922km
69.26 1645 BLR BR Radyjo Stalitsa, Geranyony/RTPS (HR) Pops, as others 1659km **
69.44 1646 BLR BR Radio Brest, Slonim/RTPS Novaja Straga (HR) Presume with ops 1671km
70.28 1649 BLR BR Radyjo Stalitsa, Smyatanichy/RTPS (GO) Pops, as others 1891km
70.79 1649 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Berazino/RTPS (MI) OM, as web 1883km **
67.22 1652 BLR BR Pershy Kanal, Smyatanichy/RTPS (GO) Pops, as others 1891km
67.40 1653 ? UNID, ? OM talk, later instrumental music. Very poor
70.31 1655 BLR BR Kanal Kultura, Myadzel/RTPS Telyaki (MI) Weird classical, as others 1731km
68.45 1705 BLR BR Gomel FM, Zhlobin/Vul. K.Marksa 1A (GO) Presumed with pops 1974km **
** Personal Skegness First
A nice midwinter Es opening in the OIRT band. I did not notice any band 2 Es around this time.
This is my first experience of OIRT DXing on the modified Sony XDR-F1HD. It was just like listening on band 2.
It seems meteor scatter is also doing the business since I did the i2c
modification, but I think this is more likely to be down to the
conditions, but there has been a huge drop in my general noise levels at
times over the last couple of days which I suspect has also helped. I
used to need a minimum of 35dBf before I saw any RDS, but now it seems
to be as little as 25dBf. Background noise levels are as low as 4dBf in
places, though a large part of today saw a return of the dreaded noise. I
wonder if I'll ever get to the bottom of this. It's amazing what can be
heard clearly when the noise is not present. Radio Salu on 101.7, noise
free, for instance when it peaks up and conditions are hardly inspiring
at the moment.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <2m ASL.
Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification & XDR-GTK software.
Aerial:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL & Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator
Friday, 27 December 2013
Thursday, 26 December 2013
Skegness Log: 26-12-13 (FM)
Band 2 Meteor Scatter
87.7 1407 E RAC 1, Barcelona/Collserola (CAT-B) E251 __AC1___ 1311km
Band 2 Scatter:
102.8 0528 D Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Wesel-Büderich (nrw) Opera, as web 456km
103.4 0533 BEL Joe FM, Genk or Antwerpen YL news, as web. On H **
100.3 0534 HOL L1 Radio, Roermond/Alticom Toren (lim) Dutch pop, as web 443km
105.6 0536 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Donnersberg (rlp) Christmas song, as web 657km
107.1 0537 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Haardtkopf (rlp) Winter Wonderland song, as 105.6 593km
93.5 0539 D WDR 2, Nordhelle (nrw) Police record, as web 554km
96.6 0540 BEL RTBF Pure FM, Anderlues/Mont-Sainte-Geneviève (wal-hnt) YL ID 409km
90.0 0545 D SWR3, Haardtkopf (rlp) Rock track, as web 593km
91.1 0546 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Cyndi Lauper, as web 550km
92.4 0547 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Linz (Rhein)/Ginsterhahner Kopf (rlp) Cyndi Lauper, as 91.1 560km
93.9 0548 D WDR 4, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Light pops, as 101.3 484km
90.7 0552 D WDR 4, Bonn/Venusberg (nrw) Pops, as web 538km
94.4 0557 F France Inter, Hirson/Landouzy-la-Ville (02) French YL, a 103.7, briefly. Presume tropo 446km
95.5 0558 D SR 3 Saarlandwelle, Göttelborner Höhe (saa) Back to back pops, as web 629km
89.6 0608 F France Culture, Villers-Cotterêts/Fleury (02) OM, as 98.0 474km
92.9 0609 F France Musique, Villers-Cotterêts/Fleury (02) OM, as 88.7 474km
98.4 0613 HOL Radio 1, Markelo/Alticom Toren (ove) OM, as web 425km
93.3 0614 LUX RTL Radio, Dudelange/Ginsterberg (gld) Sax solo in song, as web 574km
107.7 0615 LUX Den Neie Radio (DNR), Blaschette/Kandel (gld) Just overriding a nulled Kiss, as web 557km
90.8 0623 BEL RTBF Classic 21, Profondeville-Rivière/Sart à Soile (wal-nam) Bad Company track, as web 441km
90.6 0624 D SWR3, Saarburg/Geisberg (rlp) Katy Perry, as web 586km
101.7 1322 D Radio Salü, Saarbrücken/Schoksberg (saa) Rock track, as web 628km
** Personal Skegness First
All listening done with the 9.2 horizontal. Poor conditions but again with a quiet band at this time of the morning. It's the first time I have heard RTL on 93.3 via scatter.
It was interesting to see the livemeteor scatter reception of RAC1 while I was in town - I have a new Note 3 tablet and I have set up virtual private networking so I can operate the home computer while I am out and about.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <2m ASL.
Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification & XDR-GTK software.
Aerial:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL & Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator
87.7 1407 E RAC 1, Barcelona/Collserola (CAT-B) E251 __AC1___ 1311km
Band 2 Scatter:
102.8 0528 D Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Wesel-Büderich (nrw) Opera, as web 456km
103.4 0533 BEL Joe FM, Genk or Antwerpen YL news, as web. On H **
100.3 0534 HOL L1 Radio, Roermond/Alticom Toren (lim) Dutch pop, as web 443km
105.6 0536 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Donnersberg (rlp) Christmas song, as web 657km
107.1 0537 D SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Haardtkopf (rlp) Winter Wonderland song, as 105.6 593km
93.5 0539 D WDR 2, Nordhelle (nrw) Police record, as web 554km
96.6 0540 BEL RTBF Pure FM, Anderlues/Mont-Sainte-Geneviève (wal-hnt) YL ID 409km
90.0 0545 D SWR3, Haardtkopf (rlp) Rock track, as web 593km
91.1 0546 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Cyndi Lauper, as web 550km
92.4 0547 D SWR1 Rheinland-Pfalz, Linz (Rhein)/Ginsterhahner Kopf (rlp) Cyndi Lauper, as 91.1 560km
93.9 0548 D WDR 4, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Light pops, as 101.3 484km
90.7 0552 D WDR 4, Bonn/Venusberg (nrw) Pops, as web 538km
94.4 0557 F France Inter, Hirson/Landouzy-la-Ville (02) French YL, a 103.7, briefly. Presume tropo 446km
95.5 0558 D SR 3 Saarlandwelle, Göttelborner Höhe (saa) Back to back pops, as web 629km
89.6 0608 F France Culture, Villers-Cotterêts/Fleury (02) OM, as 98.0 474km
92.9 0609 F France Musique, Villers-Cotterêts/Fleury (02) OM, as 88.7 474km
98.4 0613 HOL Radio 1, Markelo/Alticom Toren (ove) OM, as web 425km
93.3 0614 LUX RTL Radio, Dudelange/Ginsterberg (gld) Sax solo in song, as web 574km
107.7 0615 LUX Den Neie Radio (DNR), Blaschette/Kandel (gld) Just overriding a nulled Kiss, as web 557km
90.8 0623 BEL RTBF Classic 21, Profondeville-Rivière/Sart à Soile (wal-nam) Bad Company track, as web 441km
90.6 0624 D SWR3, Saarburg/Geisberg (rlp) Katy Perry, as web 586km
101.7 1322 D Radio Salü, Saarbrücken/Schoksberg (saa) Rock track, as web 628km
** Personal Skegness First
All listening done with the 9.2 horizontal. Poor conditions but again with a quiet band at this time of the morning. It's the first time I have heard RTL on 93.3 via scatter.
It was interesting to see the livemeteor scatter reception of RAC1 while I was in town - I have a new Note 3 tablet and I have set up virtual private networking so I can operate the home computer while I am out and about.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <2m ASL.
Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification & XDR-GTK software.
Aerial:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL & Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator
Possibly The Best Christmas Present Ever! ( ... from a radio perspective)
Had I thought it would be possible to ask for "nothing" from Santa this Christmas, I would have done! "Nothing" refers to my noise levels. I'll have no noise please!
During the early part of this afternoon, I noticed my noise levels across band 2 had suddenly dropped. Since installing the Konrad i2c modification to my Sony XDR-F1HD radio, I could see just how much noise I was getting. This registered at 16 to 20 dB at the top of the band and between 18 and 22 dB at the bottom. Even these figures would have been a big improvement on the state of play a few months ago as I know my noise levels had reduced the day after I received my HS Publications noise cancelling device. Today, my noise levels register 7 to 8dB across the whole band. Why? I wonder what has happened.
Almost immediately after I noticed today's marked reduction in noise, I received almost a PI and PS from RAC1 in Barcelona on 87.7, thanks to meteor scatter.
The really interesting thing I noticed with this quiet band was that it only took 25 dB of signal to get that RDS. I needed at least 35 dB for the RDS to push through before the noise dropped down. So I guess I know why meteor scatter has never been much good here. Having a good amount gain is useful, but it comes second to having a good signal-to-noise ratio.
While typing this entry, I see that the noise levels have increased again slightly. My assumption is that something in the neighbouring property has been switched off and moved to a different location. I have about 12 to 14 dB of noise now at the bottom of the band. It's still 7 or 8 dB of noise up at the top, so there is still a good level of improvement, possibly confirmed by the fact that I am now seeing more meteor scatter results.
Doubtless it will all change again at some point, but it's a joy to have no noise and be able to hear really weak signals which are usually buried out of sight.
Here's wishing us all a Noiseless New Year!
During the early part of this afternoon, I noticed my noise levels across band 2 had suddenly dropped. Since installing the Konrad i2c modification to my Sony XDR-F1HD radio, I could see just how much noise I was getting. This registered at 16 to 20 dB at the top of the band and between 18 and 22 dB at the bottom. Even these figures would have been a big improvement on the state of play a few months ago as I know my noise levels had reduced the day after I received my HS Publications noise cancelling device. Today, my noise levels register 7 to 8dB across the whole band. Why? I wonder what has happened.
Almost immediately after I noticed today's marked reduction in noise, I received almost a PI and PS from RAC1 in Barcelona on 87.7, thanks to meteor scatter.
The really interesting thing I noticed with this quiet band was that it only took 25 dB of signal to get that RDS. I needed at least 35 dB for the RDS to push through before the noise dropped down. So I guess I know why meteor scatter has never been much good here. Having a good amount gain is useful, but it comes second to having a good signal-to-noise ratio.
While typing this entry, I see that the noise levels have increased again slightly. My assumption is that something in the neighbouring property has been switched off and moved to a different location. I have about 12 to 14 dB of noise now at the bottom of the band. It's still 7 or 8 dB of noise up at the top, so there is still a good level of improvement, possibly confirmed by the fact that I am now seeing more meteor scatter results.
Doubtless it will all change again at some point, but it's a joy to have no noise and be able to hear really weak signals which are usually buried out of sight.
Here's wishing us all a Noiseless New Year!
Wednesday, 25 December 2013
Skegness Log: 25-12-13 (FM)
Band 2 Scatter:
96.1 0723 BEL RTBF La Première, Wavre (wal-bra) French OM alternating with BBC Solent 397km
99.1 0725 BEL RTBF Classic 21, Anderlues/Mont-Sainte-Geneviève (wal-hnt) Gerry Rafferty. Noise free peak. 33dB 409km
103.0 0742 D BFBS Radio, Bielefeld/Hünenburg (nrw) OM Christmas sermon, as web 565km
100.4 0743 D WDR 2, Bonn/Venusberg (nrw) Enya track, as web. Briefly noise free 538km
98.1 0750 D WDR 3, Nordhelle (nrw) Stable peak. Almost noise free 554km
100.0 0751 D WDR 4, Münster/Baumberg (nrw) Vocal ID, Rod Stewart Christmas song 494km
103.8 0751 D WDR 4, Nordhelle (nrw) Stable peak. Almost noise free. As Langenberg 101.3 554km
101.7 0752 D WDR 4, Kleve/Bresserberg (nrw) Nice peak. Stable-ish, as 100.0. 30dB 421km
101.0 0754 D WDR 2, Bärbelkreuz (Eifel) (nrw) Christmas song, as web. 28dB 520km
87.7 0815 HOL Radio 10, Lelystad/Alticom Toren (fle) Still getting through on the horizontal this morning 351km
87.9 0816 HOL Omroep Zeeland, Goes/Alticom Toren (zee) Still getting through on the horizontal this morning 303km
97.8 0817 HOL Radio 2, Westdorpe/Verkavelingsweg (zee) Still getting through on the horizontal this morning 323km
98.7 0821 D AFN Wiesbaden-The Eagle, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Down in the noise 648km
98.8 0830 F France Culture, Reims/TDF Hautvillers (51) Suddenly up to 30dB then squashed by Wrotham 516km
91.8 1616 F France Musique, Bourges/Neuvy (18) Classical music, as 88.7 672km
Some early morning scatter.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <2m ASL.
Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification & XDR-GTK software.
Aerial:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL & Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator
96.1 0723 BEL RTBF La Première, Wavre (wal-bra) French OM alternating with BBC Solent 397km
99.1 0725 BEL RTBF Classic 21, Anderlues/Mont-Sainte-Geneviève (wal-hnt) Gerry Rafferty. Noise free peak. 33dB 409km
103.0 0742 D BFBS Radio, Bielefeld/Hünenburg (nrw) OM Christmas sermon, as web 565km
100.4 0743 D WDR 2, Bonn/Venusberg (nrw) Enya track, as web. Briefly noise free 538km
98.1 0750 D WDR 3, Nordhelle (nrw) Stable peak. Almost noise free 554km
100.0 0751 D WDR 4, Münster/Baumberg (nrw) Vocal ID, Rod Stewart Christmas song 494km
103.8 0751 D WDR 4, Nordhelle (nrw) Stable peak. Almost noise free. As Langenberg 101.3 554km
101.7 0752 D WDR 4, Kleve/Bresserberg (nrw) Nice peak. Stable-ish, as 100.0. 30dB 421km
101.0 0754 D WDR 2, Bärbelkreuz (Eifel) (nrw) Christmas song, as web. 28dB 520km
87.7 0815 HOL Radio 10, Lelystad/Alticom Toren (fle) Still getting through on the horizontal this morning 351km
87.9 0816 HOL Omroep Zeeland, Goes/Alticom Toren (zee) Still getting through on the horizontal this morning 303km
97.8 0817 HOL Radio 2, Westdorpe/Verkavelingsweg (zee) Still getting through on the horizontal this morning 323km
98.7 0821 D AFN Wiesbaden-The Eagle, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Down in the noise 648km
98.8 0830 F France Culture, Reims/TDF Hautvillers (51) Suddenly up to 30dB then squashed by Wrotham 516km
91.8 1616 F France Musique, Bourges/Neuvy (18) Classical music, as 88.7 672km
Some early morning scatter.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <2m ASL.
Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification & XDR-GTK software.
Aerial:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL & Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator
Merry Christmas!
Yes, it's that time of year again (groan) and it won't be over quickly enough for me.
I think we all know that the true meaning of Christmas has been lost under the weight of evil commercialism. In fact I am sure the name Jesus used to take centre stage not so many years ago. But hopefully it's a time of year for us to spend with our families, our friends, those who are important to us, etc., or just to relax a little.
Whatever you are doing, here's wishing you all a very happy, peaceful and pleasant time over the festive season.
Have a great Christmas!
John
I think we all know that the true meaning of Christmas has been lost under the weight of evil commercialism. In fact I am sure the name Jesus used to take centre stage not so many years ago. But hopefully it's a time of year for us to spend with our families, our friends, those who are important to us, etc., or just to relax a little.
Whatever you are doing, here's wishing you all a very happy, peaceful and pleasant time over the festive season.
Have a great Christmas!
John
Saturday, 21 December 2013
Skegness Log: 21-12-13 (FM)
Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
87.7 0020 E RAC 1, Barcelona/Collserola (CAT-B) E251 _R______ 1311km
94.6 1121 D MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) YL talk, briefly while listening to
scatter and comparing with web stream 713km **
99.0 1127 F France Culture, Marseille/Grande Etoile (13) Nice sustained burst. 40dB.
OM, as Lille 98.0 1149km
103.6 1136 F France Bleu Provence, Marseille/Grande Etoile (13) YL talk, as web
stream 1149km **
94.2 1142 I RAI Radio1, Menconico/Monte Penice (RAI) (pv) YL heard, as web stream
while looking for Marseille 1136km **
94.2 1210 F France Musique, Marseille/Grande Etoile (13) Piano concerto, as 88.7 1149km **
** Personal Skegness 'First' via this mode
Apart from 87.7 RAC 1, all other MS loggings were made listening live.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <2m ASL.
Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification & XDR-GTK software.
Kenwood KT6040, Conrad RDS Manager & RDS Spy.
Aerial:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL & Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator
87.7 0020 E RAC 1, Barcelona/Collserola (CAT-B) E251 _R______ 1311km
94.6 1121 D MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) YL talk, briefly while listening to
scatter and comparing with web stream 713km **
99.0 1127 F France Culture, Marseille/Grande Etoile (13) Nice sustained burst. 40dB.
OM, as Lille 98.0 1149km
103.6 1136 F France Bleu Provence, Marseille/Grande Etoile (13) YL talk, as web
stream 1149km **
94.2 1142 I RAI Radio1, Menconico/Monte Penice (RAI) (pv) YL heard, as web stream
while looking for Marseille 1136km **
94.2 1210 F France Musique, Marseille/Grande Etoile (13) Piano concerto, as 88.7 1149km **
** Personal Skegness 'First' via this mode
Apart from 87.7 RAC 1, all other MS loggings were made listening live.
Good DX!
John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <2m ASL.
Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification & XDR-GTK software.
Kenwood KT6040, Conrad RDS Manager & RDS Spy.
Aerial:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL & Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator
Skegness Log: 21-12-13 (MW)
1413 1500 J JOIF KBC-Kyushu Asahi Hoso, Fukuoka (kyu-fuk) Presumed. Time signal.
Too weak for vocal clarity V weak 9225 km
1557 1500 TWN RTI iLoveMusic 1557/Radio Taiwan Int., Kouhu (YL) Time signal and ID Weak 9715 km
972 1600 KOR HLCA KBS Hanminjok Bangsong 1, Dangjin (ccg) Time signal and ID, just below
Germany Weak 8740 km
1575 1600 THA Voice of America/Radio Saranrom, Ban Phachi/Rasom (pay) Asiatic language (Thai?)
and Voice Of America ID Weak 9410 km
Again, a slight improvement in Asiatic conditions.
North American DX continues to go downhill. There were barely any North American carriers visible this morning at 0200, let alone audio. I know DXers in southern Scotland have been hearing more, but this is probably the worst morning for North American MW I have experienced since moving here. Once again, it seems that when the Asiatic DX lifts up, I lose North America, and vice versa.
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; Mestor
Too weak for vocal clarity V weak 9225 km
1557 1500 TWN RTI iLoveMusic 1557/Radio Taiwan Int., Kouhu (YL) Time signal and ID Weak 9715 km
972 1600 KOR HLCA KBS Hanminjok Bangsong 1, Dangjin (ccg) Time signal and ID, just below
Germany Weak 8740 km
1575 1600 THA Voice of America/Radio Saranrom, Ban Phachi/Rasom (pay) Asiatic language (Thai?)
and Voice Of America ID Weak 9410 km
Again, a slight improvement in Asiatic conditions.
North American DX continues to go downhill. There were barely any North American carriers visible this morning at 0200, let alone audio. I know DXers in southern Scotland have been hearing more, but this is probably the worst morning for North American MW I have experienced since moving here. Once again, it seems that when the Asiatic DX lifts up, I lose North America, and vice versa.
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; Mestor
Friday, 20 December 2013
Winter Es!
While listening to BBC Oxford on 95.2 just after midday today I heard an Italian male appear out of nowhere and drowned out BBC Oxford. Assuming it was meter scatter I didn't act on it immediately, but decided to check the bottom of the band a few seconds later to see if there was anything down there. I found a mixture of pop music and Italian language stations from 87.5 to 88.0. They sounded too stable for meteor scatter. Checking the 6m page on DX Maps showed some Es activity between the UK and Italy and I noticed there was a report of band 2 Italian Es in Shropshire. Unfortunately, the Es had already started to drop out and were gone in seconds. A minute later, Es returned to 88.3 for a few seconds. So no log here but I will be watching more closely around midday tomorrow with a bit of luck.
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
Skegness Log: 18-12-13 (FM)
Band 2 Tropospheric:
94.4 0716 D hr1, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Cher song, as web 648km
94.6 0718 D MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) Pops, as web 713km
94.8 0718 D SWR3, Linz (Rhein)/Ginsterhahner Kopf (rlp) Light ops, as web 560km
98.1 0721 D WDR 3, Nordhelle (nrw) German YL, as web 554km
98.7 0722 D AFN Wiesbaden-The Eagle, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) ID, phone
number and Gloria Branigan track, Just about noise free 648km
104.8 0730 HOL Radio 1, Roermond/Alticom Toren (lim) Ads and clunky jingles 443km
100.0 0732 D WDR 4, Münster/Baumberg (nrw) German pop, as web 494km
100.8 0733 D WDR 2, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Noise free. Weather and ID 484km
103.0 0735 D BFBS Radio, Bielefeld/Hünenburg (nrw) V weak but clearly as web stream 565km
107.1 0737 D Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Bremen-Walle (bre) German OM, as web. Almost noise free 565km
107.0 0743 D WDR Eins Live, Olsberg (nrw) Black Eyed Peas, as 106.7 592km
107.2 0743 D WDR Eins Live, Ederkopf (nrw) Black Eyed Peas, as 106.7 593km
88.0 0750 D WDR 5, Bonn/Venusberg (nrw) Documentary? As web 538km
103.8 0809 D WDR 4, Nordhelle (nrw) Light pops, as 101.3 554km
97.0 0813 D WDR 3, Teutoburger Wald/Bielstein (nrw) German YL, as web 591km
99.0 0814 D hr1, Hoher Meißner (hes) Rolling Stones Start Me Up, as web 684km
107.7 0816 LUX Den Neie Radio (DNR), Blaschette/Kandel (gld) Pops, as web 557km
** Personal Skegness 'First';
A spot of early morning DXing today!
I have been playing around with the source code of the i2c mod/Seeeduino board, now I have an idea how to do this. I reset all the antenna alignment figures to values which corresponded to the peaks i found with live adjustments across the band. So the XDR is now fully aligned across the band. Improvements are mostly very subtle but the default values were quite a way out in places. 61 to 63 is fairly typical and some of the values were set down as 53. The drop in signal is very noticeable when lowering these values from 61 to 53 but much more stable above, so 61 to 70 makes little difference.
I made a video of a quick band-sweep around 8am this morning and uploaded this to my YouTube channel. Scatter conditions were about average but there was a minor enhancement to south-east England. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8pCcG4JMmo
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 with i2C mod. (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
94.4 0716 D hr1, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) Cher song, as web 648km
94.6 0718 D MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) Pops, as web 713km
94.8 0718 D SWR3, Linz (Rhein)/Ginsterhahner Kopf (rlp) Light ops, as web 560km
98.1 0721 D WDR 3, Nordhelle (nrw) German YL, as web 554km
98.7 0722 D AFN Wiesbaden-The Eagle, Großer Feldberg (Taunus)/hr (hes) ID, phone
number and Gloria Branigan track, Just about noise free 648km
104.8 0730 HOL Radio 1, Roermond/Alticom Toren (lim) Ads and clunky jingles 443km
100.0 0732 D WDR 4, Münster/Baumberg (nrw) German pop, as web 494km
100.8 0733 D WDR 2, Aachen/Stolberg (nrw) Noise free. Weather and ID 484km
103.0 0735 D BFBS Radio, Bielefeld/Hünenburg (nrw) V weak but clearly as web stream 565km
107.1 0737 D Deutschlandfunk (DLF), Bremen-Walle (bre) German OM, as web. Almost noise free 565km
107.0 0743 D WDR Eins Live, Olsberg (nrw) Black Eyed Peas, as 106.7 592km
107.2 0743 D WDR Eins Live, Ederkopf (nrw) Black Eyed Peas, as 106.7 593km
88.0 0750 D WDR 5, Bonn/Venusberg (nrw) Documentary? As web 538km
103.8 0809 D WDR 4, Nordhelle (nrw) Light pops, as 101.3 554km
97.0 0813 D WDR 3, Teutoburger Wald/Bielstein (nrw) German YL, as web 591km
99.0 0814 D hr1, Hoher Meißner (hes) Rolling Stones Start Me Up, as web 684km
107.7 0816 LUX Den Neie Radio (DNR), Blaschette/Kandel (gld) Pops, as web 557km
** Personal Skegness 'First';
A spot of early morning DXing today!
I have been playing around with the source code of the i2c mod/Seeeduino board, now I have an idea how to do this. I reset all the antenna alignment figures to values which corresponded to the peaks i found with live adjustments across the band. So the XDR is now fully aligned across the band. Improvements are mostly very subtle but the default values were quite a way out in places. 61 to 63 is fairly typical and some of the values were set down as 53. The drop in signal is very noticeable when lowering these values from 61 to 53 but much more stable above, so 61 to 70 makes little difference.
I made a video of a quick band-sweep around 8am this morning and uploaded this to my YouTube channel. Scatter conditions were about average but there was a minor enhancement to south-east England. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8pCcG4JMmo
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 with i2C mod. (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, 16 December 2013
Konrad i2C Modification of the Sony XDR-F1HD
Konrad, in Poland, has produced a modification to the Sony XDR-F1HD whereby it can be linked to your home computer, via a Seeeduino "open source hardware facilitator" board, and then controlled from your computer. The modification doesn't just provide a way for your computer to tune the radio, but it also adds a host of really useful features via a clever interface, which can actually improve the performance of the XDR-F1HD.
There is also another good reason for having this modification. I have heard from several DXers that their XDR-F1HD's displays have failed. While the tuner itself continues to work, they are suddenly left in the dark, not knowing what frequency they are tuned to, etc. This modification extends an enhanced user interface to your computer screen which allows full visibility and control over the XDR, so should your XDR fail in this way, you can continue to use it, thanks to this modification.
The details of the modification are explained, step by step, on the Konrad website. Unlike this article, there is no waffle there. In this article, I will talk you through some of the fears I had before performing this modification.
What I found rather worrying on the page was their disclaimer, which reads: "Warning: This modification is provided ‘as is’. Do everything on your own responsibility! There’s always a risk of a permanent damage to your tuner!! Always unplug the power cord before doing anything inside it and use a properly grounded soldering iron.". Hmm. That put me off straight away!
My soldering abilities are good, but the soldering irons I own are not really suitable for working with small components, however, there are no micro-components involved in this modification.
Going back to the early 80s, I used to work for an electronics company in which in I assembled PCBs. One of my jobs was to assemble PCBs for multi-standard television receivers. These were for the MOD and were to be used on ships in the Falklands Task Force. So I had good training and clear instructions, though I had no understanding of how the circuits worked. I remember being amazed when those circuits were eventually tested and I learnt that all eleven of them worked first time! So with that knowledge, and the confidence it gave me, I thought I would risk tackling the soldering in this little project.
Breaking it down, step by step: To perform this modification you will need to: 1. Solder four wires between the XDR-F1HD's internal circuit board and the Seeeduino circuit board; 2. A transistor needs to be soldered in too; 3. Software needs running and code needs compiling for upload to the chips inside the Seeeduino board. All this is possibly simple(ish) enough for somebody with a basic knowledge of soldering and maybe a little help from friends who are technically more competent than I am.
Knowing that a fair number of DXers were wanting this modification for their own XDRs, but were reluctant to tackle the job themselves, I thought I would include a detailed account of everything I did. I hope this will be useful and I even wondered if I might offer my services to carry out this modification for others, should I be successful and find the job reasonably simple. Unfortunately for me, I found the job extremely stressful and far more time consuming than I had expected. Those who know me are aware that I do not deal with stress well at all. Just be prepared for a bit of waffle!
Thursday, 13-12-2013
The Seeeduino board dropped on my doormat this morning. Not much time to attempt this job today so I will wait until tomorrow. Actually, I am still trying to decide if it is a good idea for me to tackle this job. Could I find somebody to do this for me? I knew this was unlikely.
Saturday, 14-12-2013
Bravely, I unscrewed the lid of the XDR-F1HD and looked in fear at the components within. How much dust? !!! A thick layer of dust had accumulated in several areas. A Dyson cleaner, with a small, soft brush attachment, was brought in to suck out most of the dust. So far, so good.
Ah - I had not taken the XDR's cooling fan into account. I added this when I first bought the radio. Did I superglue it? Hmm. It felt solid and wouldn't shift at all, so the available internal space was going to be very tight for the soldering iron. I could get the soldering iron where I needed it - only just, but I was probably going to melt some of the internal plastic casing or cause some other damage. I persevered nonetheless. Personally, I don't mind too much if there are a few scratches and dents here and there. I'm the same with cars. I look after these things, but they are there to do a job, not to look pretty.
After an hour of messing around I had to give up and accept that there just wasn't sufficient room to poke and prod around in there with the fat soldering tip - the smallest one I had. The tip wasn't in good shape either. Would it last long enough for me to get the job done?
From the start, my intention was to take photographs of each stage of the modification. In view of the enormous blobs of solder which were accumulating across the PCB I thought it best to abandoned that idea or risk serious embarrassment. My workmanship was becoming embarrassingly shoddy, especially as I had re-soldered all the wires several times to ensure there weren't any dry joints.
That cooling fan was not going to let me in, so I got a large flat blade screwdriver and prized it away from the tuner casing and plastic rear panel. It came away thanks to some brute force and ignorance (two good friends of mine) and I had room to manoeuvre at last. Go away Blogger! (Blogger is telling me I have spelled manoeuvre incorrectly. NO I HAVEN'T!) I re-soldered the wires and transistor one more time, feeling satisfied that each one was making a good contact, despite loosening all the jumpers on the PCB my soldering iron came into contact with.
Finished! Well, the XDR PCB side at least. The rest should be relatively simple. Next to feed the wires through a hole I made in the rear of the XDR casing, re-attach the cooling fan and perform a last-minute idiot check on my connections for possible shorting. DAMN! While I was prodding around the BS170 decided to wave goodbye to one of its legs. It had snapped off right at the casing.
I didn't have another transistor so I needed to locate some quickly. Would Maplin have any? Don't be silly John! It's an electronic component's shop! "The Electronic's Specialists" they call themselves. Not a BS170 in sight! Time to locate an alternative. A spot of Googling told me that the 2N7000 was a common enough alternative transistor and appeared to be suitable. Now then, would my nearest Maplin store have any in stock? I would have to wait until the morning to find out. Don't you just hate it when you are keen to get a job done and have all these unnecessary hold-ups?
Concluding today, I spent three hours on the soldering and I was thankful that everything appeared to work properly after I returned the radio to its original state. Well, "bodged" the radio back to it's original state. It now looks like an elephant has been inside.
Sunday, 15-12-2013
Maplin in Boston had TWO 2N7000 transistors in stock. Their Lincoln store had five. The Boston store is only 25 miles from here against Lincoln's 45 miles so I reserved my order online and drove to Boston.
On entering the store I was greeted (pounced on in fact ... I kid you not!) by the most irritating man who thought he was God's gift to the retail trade. I don't like to be rude and always make an effort to be polite but, in this case, my lack of response to his OTT sales tactics left him slightly bewildered. I simply pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and showed it to him. It contained my order number. Undeterred, he shot into the store room with it, still bursting with enthusiasm, and I still hadn't uttered a word to him! I did try to be more polite when he returned with the goods, but I was tempted to express my disgust at the price of these transistors - 1.09 each! While that's hardly a large sum of money, this was ELEVEN times more expensive then the same transistors at RS Components. There was no way I was going to chance the Christmas post. Oh, I purchased a nice new soldering iron while I was at Maplin Ripofftronics.
The next issue I faced was to wonder which wires on the 2N7000 transistor were the base, the collector and the emitter. These were now labelled as the gate, the drain and the source. Hmmm. Which was which? I have forgotten about these things and it's 27 years since I studied this for the RAE (Radio Amateur's Examination). Thankfully, Andy Webster in Wigan came to the rescue via Skype chat and pointed out that my understanding of transistors was a little prehistoric. I wondered why there was no longer a little red dot on the body of the transistor - apparently that went out with the dinosaurs! :O) Andy explained which pins were which but I eventually noticed that all the relevant information was explained on the Konrad website! Silly me for missing it.
Right - waffle over and down to business! Bah! It's getting a bit late and I feel like collapsing to bed. Maybe I'll finish this tomorrow ... or the day after ... or next week ..... perhaps.
Monday, 16-12-2013
I made a start on the re-soldering the wires inside the XDR, mid-afternoon. It was an unlucky start as that nice new tip on my nice new soldering iron had burnt away already, rendering it useless. I had no choice but to use an old and totally unsuitable large-tipped soldering iron. I was as careful as I could be, but I continued to deposit even larger blobs of solder on to the PCB. I made sure there were no shorts and I could see that the mountainous blobs were holding the wires in place rigidly. Personally, I just got to the point where I didn't care how unprofessional my soldering looked, as long as I got the job done and everything worked. I finished the XDR wiring after about an hour.
The next job was to solder the wires to the Seeeduino board. I actually completed this task very quickly and also very neatly. It looked quite professional too! No problems here at all! Moving on ...
The final stage - installing the software. Firstly, I must say enormous thank yous to two fellow 'Skywavers', without whom I would probably not have completed this job: Julian Hardstone, who gave me some solid advice at the onset of this project; Stuart Heathcock, who donated a substantial amount of his time on the Skywaves Skype Chat, going through the software procedures and ensuring the source code and software ended up in the correct directories on the computer. This actually proved to be a major headache and took two to three hours to sort out. The problem was eventually solved though and it was time to install the drivers, run the "sketch" software, upload the data to the Seeeduino chips and fire up the XDR-GTK software. These last stages I worked out for myself. But, without the help of Julian and Stuart, .... etc. Who knows what might have happened?
I ran the XDR-GTK software and watched the XDR display go dim. Hmm. Had I broken it? NO! A second or two later and the XDR sprung to life! The XDR-GTK screen displayed all those nice features I had seen on various YouTube videos over the last few months. The display showed 87.5 so I entered 88.8 for my local BBC Radio 2 Belmont transmitter and there it was! It worked FIRST TIME! What a relief!
If you're still with me, you will understand why I found the whole procedure quite daunting. It actually made me feel ill while I was doing it. Not only had I no idea if this was going to work, but that fear of permanently destroying the XDR-F1HD was eating away at me throughout. This was the most complex operation of its kind I have performed on any of my radio equipment and I really do not want to do it again. Famous last words, as you will discover below.
As I stated above, I deliberately wanted to construct a blow-by-blow account of everything which happened throughout this procedure as I thought it might be useful to other DXers. If you have learnt something from my mistakes, then that's a good thing. We ALL make them! I really couldn't face having to go through this all again, especially on somebody else's equipment. It would drive me mad!
Just one more problem: Just as I thought I had got everything set up correctly, it all stopped working. Every time I pressed "Connect" on the XDR-GTK software, I got a message saying "Could not start radio". To say I was worried would be an understatement. I spent the next two hours trying all kinds of things, even going as far as to start the software installation again from scratch, uninstalling the drivers and re-setting the Seeeduino board along the way. Even after installation there was a Windows message which kept appearing on the bottom right corner of the computer screen, informing me that the USB device was damaged or not connected. Naturally I was beginning to fear the worst, but I hadn't made any changes to cause this problem, as far as I was aware. It took an hour or two before I realised that the issue was down to the fact that the XDR-F1HD had to be powered up before the XDR-GTK software was started. It was that simple! It seems the XDR-GTK software will not start the radio by itself. Phew!
Don't forget to allow time for the radio to 'warm up' before running the software. Turn on the XDR and wait between 15 seconds or so and a minute. Valve radios are quicker! The colder the ambient room temperature, the longer it takes for the XDR to initialise. While out in the car one cold winter's evening, it took 20 minutes! 10 seconds seems to be adequate for a hot summer's day.
Folks - this was a tough one for me. If you are more technically skilled than this then please go ahead and try the modification yourself, but if you are like me or don't know one end of a screwdriver from the other, steer well clear.
Good luck if you do decide to give it a go. Please ask me any questions - I am happy to help if I can, but this project is NOT for the faint-hearted and I survived only by the skin of my teeth - and also because of the help I received from Julian, And and Stuart - oh, and I must mention my lovely wife, Jane, who bought me the Seeduino board as a Christmas present!
Hopefully I will publish some demonstrations of the XDR-GTK software in the coming days on my YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
There is also another good reason for having this modification. I have heard from several DXers that their XDR-F1HD's displays have failed. While the tuner itself continues to work, they are suddenly left in the dark, not knowing what frequency they are tuned to, etc. This modification extends an enhanced user interface to your computer screen which allows full visibility and control over the XDR, so should your XDR fail in this way, you can continue to use it, thanks to this modification.
The details of the modification are explained, step by step, on the Konrad website. Unlike this article, there is no waffle there. In this article, I will talk you through some of the fears I had before performing this modification.
What I found rather worrying on the page was their disclaimer, which reads: "Warning: This modification is provided ‘as is’. Do everything on your own responsibility! There’s always a risk of a permanent damage to your tuner!! Always unplug the power cord before doing anything inside it and use a properly grounded soldering iron.". Hmm. That put me off straight away!
My soldering abilities are good, but the soldering irons I own are not really suitable for working with small components, however, there are no micro-components involved in this modification.
Going back to the early 80s, I used to work for an electronics company in which in I assembled PCBs. One of my jobs was to assemble PCBs for multi-standard television receivers. These were for the MOD and were to be used on ships in the Falklands Task Force. So I had good training and clear instructions, though I had no understanding of how the circuits worked. I remember being amazed when those circuits were eventually tested and I learnt that all eleven of them worked first time! So with that knowledge, and the confidence it gave me, I thought I would risk tackling the soldering in this little project.
Breaking it down, step by step: To perform this modification you will need to: 1. Solder four wires between the XDR-F1HD's internal circuit board and the Seeeduino circuit board; 2. A transistor needs to be soldered in too; 3. Software needs running and code needs compiling for upload to the chips inside the Seeeduino board. All this is possibly simple(ish) enough for somebody with a basic knowledge of soldering and maybe a little help from friends who are technically more competent than I am.
Knowing that a fair number of DXers were wanting this modification for their own XDRs, but were reluctant to tackle the job themselves, I thought I would include a detailed account of everything I did. I hope this will be useful and I even wondered if I might offer my services to carry out this modification for others, should I be successful and find the job reasonably simple. Unfortunately for me, I found the job extremely stressful and far more time consuming than I had expected. Those who know me are aware that I do not deal with stress well at all. Just be prepared for a bit of waffle!
Thursday, 13-12-2013
The Seeeduino board dropped on my doormat this morning. Not much time to attempt this job today so I will wait until tomorrow. Actually, I am still trying to decide if it is a good idea for me to tackle this job. Could I find somebody to do this for me? I knew this was unlikely.
Saturday, 14-12-2013
Bravely, I unscrewed the lid of the XDR-F1HD and looked in fear at the components within. How much dust? !!! A thick layer of dust had accumulated in several areas. A Dyson cleaner, with a small, soft brush attachment, was brought in to suck out most of the dust. So far, so good.
Ah - I had not taken the XDR's cooling fan into account. I added this when I first bought the radio. Did I superglue it? Hmm. It felt solid and wouldn't shift at all, so the available internal space was going to be very tight for the soldering iron. I could get the soldering iron where I needed it - only just, but I was probably going to melt some of the internal plastic casing or cause some other damage. I persevered nonetheless. Personally, I don't mind too much if there are a few scratches and dents here and there. I'm the same with cars. I look after these things, but they are there to do a job, not to look pretty.
After an hour of messing around I had to give up and accept that there just wasn't sufficient room to poke and prod around in there with the fat soldering tip - the smallest one I had. The tip wasn't in good shape either. Would it last long enough for me to get the job done?
From the start, my intention was to take photographs of each stage of the modification. In view of the enormous blobs of solder which were accumulating across the PCB I thought it best to abandoned that idea or risk serious embarrassment. My workmanship was becoming embarrassingly shoddy, especially as I had re-soldered all the wires several times to ensure there weren't any dry joints.
That cooling fan was not going to let me in, so I got a large flat blade screwdriver and prized it away from the tuner casing and plastic rear panel. It came away thanks to some brute force and ignorance (two good friends of mine) and I had room to manoeuvre at last. Go away Blogger! (Blogger is telling me I have spelled manoeuvre incorrectly. NO I HAVEN'T!) I re-soldered the wires and transistor one more time, feeling satisfied that each one was making a good contact, despite loosening all the jumpers on the PCB my soldering iron came into contact with.
Finished! Well, the XDR PCB side at least. The rest should be relatively simple. Next to feed the wires through a hole I made in the rear of the XDR casing, re-attach the cooling fan and perform a last-minute idiot check on my connections for possible shorting. DAMN! While I was prodding around the BS170 decided to wave goodbye to one of its legs. It had snapped off right at the casing.
I didn't have another transistor so I needed to locate some quickly. Would Maplin have any? Don't be silly John! It's an electronic component's shop! "The Electronic's Specialists" they call themselves. Not a BS170 in sight! Time to locate an alternative. A spot of Googling told me that the 2N7000 was a common enough alternative transistor and appeared to be suitable. Now then, would my nearest Maplin store have any in stock? I would have to wait until the morning to find out. Don't you just hate it when you are keen to get a job done and have all these unnecessary hold-ups?
Concluding today, I spent three hours on the soldering and I was thankful that everything appeared to work properly after I returned the radio to its original state. Well, "bodged" the radio back to it's original state. It now looks like an elephant has been inside.
Sunday, 15-12-2013
Maplin in Boston had TWO 2N7000 transistors in stock. Their Lincoln store had five. The Boston store is only 25 miles from here against Lincoln's 45 miles so I reserved my order online and drove to Boston.
On entering the store I was greeted (pounced on in fact ... I kid you not!) by the most irritating man who thought he was God's gift to the retail trade. I don't like to be rude and always make an effort to be polite but, in this case, my lack of response to his OTT sales tactics left him slightly bewildered. I simply pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and showed it to him. It contained my order number. Undeterred, he shot into the store room with it, still bursting with enthusiasm, and I still hadn't uttered a word to him! I did try to be more polite when he returned with the goods, but I was tempted to express my disgust at the price of these transistors - 1.09 each! While that's hardly a large sum of money, this was ELEVEN times more expensive then the same transistors at RS Components. There was no way I was going to chance the Christmas post. Oh, I purchased a nice new soldering iron while I was at Maplin Ripofftronics.
The next issue I faced was to wonder which wires on the 2N7000 transistor were the base, the collector and the emitter. These were now labelled as the gate, the drain and the source. Hmmm. Which was which? I have forgotten about these things and it's 27 years since I studied this for the RAE (Radio Amateur's Examination). Thankfully, Andy Webster in Wigan came to the rescue via Skype chat and pointed out that my understanding of transistors was a little prehistoric. I wondered why there was no longer a little red dot on the body of the transistor - apparently that went out with the dinosaurs! :O) Andy explained which pins were which but I eventually noticed that all the relevant information was explained on the Konrad website! Silly me for missing it.
Right - waffle over and down to business! Bah! It's getting a bit late and I feel like collapsing to bed. Maybe I'll finish this tomorrow ... or the day after ... or next week ..... perhaps.
Monday, 16-12-2013
I made a start on the re-soldering the wires inside the XDR, mid-afternoon. It was an unlucky start as that nice new tip on my nice new soldering iron had burnt away already, rendering it useless. I had no choice but to use an old and totally unsuitable large-tipped soldering iron. I was as careful as I could be, but I continued to deposit even larger blobs of solder on to the PCB. I made sure there were no shorts and I could see that the mountainous blobs were holding the wires in place rigidly. Personally, I just got to the point where I didn't care how unprofessional my soldering looked, as long as I got the job done and everything worked. I finished the XDR wiring after about an hour.
The next job was to solder the wires to the Seeeduino board. I actually completed this task very quickly and also very neatly. It looked quite professional too! No problems here at all! Moving on ...
The final stage - installing the software. Firstly, I must say enormous thank yous to two fellow 'Skywavers', without whom I would probably not have completed this job: Julian Hardstone, who gave me some solid advice at the onset of this project; Stuart Heathcock, who donated a substantial amount of his time on the Skywaves Skype Chat, going through the software procedures and ensuring the source code and software ended up in the correct directories on the computer. This actually proved to be a major headache and took two to three hours to sort out. The problem was eventually solved though and it was time to install the drivers, run the "sketch" software, upload the data to the Seeeduino chips and fire up the XDR-GTK software. These last stages I worked out for myself. But, without the help of Julian and Stuart, .... etc. Who knows what might have happened?
I ran the XDR-GTK software and watched the XDR display go dim. Hmm. Had I broken it? NO! A second or two later and the XDR sprung to life! The XDR-GTK screen displayed all those nice features I had seen on various YouTube videos over the last few months. The display showed 87.5 so I entered 88.8 for my local BBC Radio 2 Belmont transmitter and there it was! It worked FIRST TIME! What a relief!
If you're still with me, you will understand why I found the whole procedure quite daunting. It actually made me feel ill while I was doing it. Not only had I no idea if this was going to work, but that fear of permanently destroying the XDR-F1HD was eating away at me throughout. This was the most complex operation of its kind I have performed on any of my radio equipment and I really do not want to do it again. Famous last words, as you will discover below.
As I stated above, I deliberately wanted to construct a blow-by-blow account of everything which happened throughout this procedure as I thought it might be useful to other DXers. If you have learnt something from my mistakes, then that's a good thing. We ALL make them! I really couldn't face having to go through this all again, especially on somebody else's equipment. It would drive me mad!
Just one more problem: Just as I thought I had got everything set up correctly, it all stopped working. Every time I pressed "Connect" on the XDR-GTK software, I got a message saying "Could not start radio". To say I was worried would be an understatement. I spent the next two hours trying all kinds of things, even going as far as to start the software installation again from scratch, uninstalling the drivers and re-setting the Seeeduino board along the way. Even after installation there was a Windows message which kept appearing on the bottom right corner of the computer screen, informing me that the USB device was damaged or not connected. Naturally I was beginning to fear the worst, but I hadn't made any changes to cause this problem, as far as I was aware. It took an hour or two before I realised that the issue was down to the fact that the XDR-F1HD had to be powered up before the XDR-GTK software was started. It was that simple! It seems the XDR-GTK software will not start the radio by itself. Phew!
Don't forget to allow time for the radio to 'warm up' before running the software. Turn on the XDR and wait between 15 seconds or so and a minute. Valve radios are quicker! The colder the ambient room temperature, the longer it takes for the XDR to initialise. While out in the car one cold winter's evening, it took 20 minutes! 10 seconds seems to be adequate for a hot summer's day.
Folks - this was a tough one for me. If you are more technically skilled than this then please go ahead and try the modification yourself, but if you are like me or don't know one end of a screwdriver from the other, steer well clear.
Good luck if you do decide to give it a go. Please ask me any questions - I am happy to help if I can, but this project is NOT for the faint-hearted and I survived only by the skin of my teeth - and also because of the help I received from Julian, And and Stuart - oh, and I must mention my lovely wife, Jane, who bought me the Seeduino board as a Christmas present!
Hopefully I will publish some demonstrations of the XDR-GTK software in the coming days on my YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
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