Skegness Log: 17-10-14 (FM)

Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
 89.3 1912 POL RMF FM, Koszalin or Lublin Madonnas La Isla Bonita, as web **
 91.5 2054  G  BBC Radio 3, Keelylang Hill (SC-ORK) Presumed site. Frequent bursts  681km **
 93.7 1722 CZE Radio Helax, Ostrava/Hostálkovice (MO) Distinctive pop song, as web  1287km **

** Personal Skegness 'First'

Good DX!

John Faulkner
Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <3m ASL.
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/skegnessdx

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification

Aerial:
Körner 9.2 @ 5.5 metres agl. QTH is 3 metres asl.

Rotator:
Yaesu G-5500 azimuth & elevation rotator, allowing antenna to be vertical or horizontal, etc.

Skegness Log: 16-10-14 (FM)

Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
 90.0 0004 SVN Slovenija 1, Plesivec (Urslja Gora) (sg) Shnia-ish Country song, as web  1282km **
 90.0 0009  S  SR P1, Norrköping/Kolmården-Krokek Orrbergen TM (og) Usual waves  1174km **
 90.0 0016 POL PR Radio Kraków, Szczawnica/G.Prehyba (MP) Polish YL, as web  1459km **
 90.0 0212  D  Deutschlandradio Kultur, Röbel (mev) Rock concert, as web  807km **

** Personal Skegness 'First'

Good DX!

John Faulkner
Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <3m ASL.
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/skegnessdx

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification

Aerial:
Körner 9.2 @ 5.5 metres agl. QTH is 3 metres asl.

Rotator:
Yaesu G-5500 azimuth & elevation rotator, allowing antenna to be vertical or horizontal, etc.

Skegness Log: 15-10-14 (FM)

Band 2 Sporadic E:
 87.7 1109 ALG Radio Chlef, Aïn N'sour (48) OMs and phone caller, as web  1913km
 88.9 1115  E  Radio Marca, Sierra de Carrascoy (MUR-MU) OM talk, as web  1706km
 89.2 1117  E  COPE, Lorca (MUR-MU) YL, as web  1729km
 87.6 1138  E  RNE Radio 5 Todo Noticias, Marbella/Castillejos (AND-MA) YL talk, as 87.9  1884km
 87.9 1138  E  RNE Radio 5 Todo Noticias, Cambil/Sierra Almadén (AND-J) YL and OM, as web  1740km

Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
102.1 0239  D  sunshine live, Mudau (bwü) Electro music, as web  732km **
102.1 0257  D  Radio Chemnitz, Chemnitz-Reichenhain (sac) Olly Murs song, as web  903km **
102.1 0516  D  RPR 1., Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Bruno Mars song, as web  550km **
102.1 0541  D  WDR 2, Olsberg (nrw) Proclaimers song, as web  592km **

** Personal Skegness 'First'

Yet another surprise out-of-season Es opening!

Good DX!

John Faulkner
Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <3m ASL.
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/skegnessdx

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification

Aerial:
Körner 9.2 @ 5.5 metres agl. QTH is 3 metres asl.

Rotator:
Yaesu G-5500 azimuth & elevation rotator, allowing antenna to be vertical or horizontal, etc.

Skegness Log: 14-10-14 (MW)

1600 0100 USA WUNR Brookline (MA) Spanish OM on the hour. English OM ID WUNR Boston 30 seconds
              past the hour Fair  5251 km
1330 0330 USA WRCA Waltham (MA) Caught a mention of 13-30 WRCA at precisely the bottom of the
              hour Weak  5251 km
1500 0400 USA WFED Federal News R., Washington (DC) Federal News Radio ID heard in mush Weak
              5860 km
1050 0400 USA WEPN ESPN Deportes, New York/East Rutherford [NJ] (NY) Clear ESPN Deportes Radio
              (Spanish) ID in 1053 splash Fair     5541 km **
1190 0400 USA WLIB New York/Lyndhurst [NJ] (NY) This is your home for gospel, inspiration and
              information, 11-90 WLIB and WBLS 832 New York Fair  5543 km

** Personal Skegness 'First'

Good DX!

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

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  10ft x 25ft flag at 28 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; Mestor

Skegness Log: 14-10-14 (FM)

Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
102.1 2339  D  BB Radio, Casekow (brb) Phone in, as web 923km **
102.1 2346 AUT FM4, Bregenz or Bruck. India song, as web **

Band 2 General Scatter:
 90.2 1046  D  NDR Kultur, Lingen-Damaschke (nds) Classical music, later ID. 25dB noise free
               477km
 92.1 1245  D  NDR 2, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) V weak pops, as web  707km
 94.6 1242  D  MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) ID and Queen song. Almost noise free
               on fluttery peaks  712km
 97.2 1616 DNK DR P3, Rangstrup/Gammel Tøndervej 28 (sdk-sjy) V weak pops, as web  617km
 97.6 1255 HOL Radio Decibel, Rotterdam/Alticom Toren (Waalhaven) (zho) 86F0 DECIBEL_. Still
               blasting through in these dismal conditions  313km
101.7 1612  D  Radio Salü, Saarbrücken/Schoksberg (saa) Phone caller, jingle ID and pops  628km
102.1 2333  D  RPR 1., Scharteberg (Eifel) (rlp) Troposcatter? Second steady fade-in in 30
               minutes. YL on phone, as web  550km
103.1 1611  D  Radio ffn, Aurich (nds) Jingle ID and Ultravox song. Almost noise free  478km
105.7 1128  D  Antenne Niedersachsen, Steinkimmen (nds) D388  543km

** Personal Skegness 'First'

I had to lower the 9.2 mast on Monday due to high winds. I suspect this may stay lowered for the forseeable future now, unless some exceptional tropo comes along in which case I will pop it up again. I am pleased to say that scatter doesn't seem to have suffered one bit. In fact, in some ways, the scatter has benefited from less opposition from English stations as they are a good 6-8dB, perhaps more, lower in strength. The scatter is still arriving via the sky and so isn't being affected. Even though it has been lowered, the 9.2 is still a couple of metres above the roof.

Good DX!

John Faulkner
Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <3m ASL.
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/skegnessdx

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification

Aerial:
Körner 9.2 @ 5.5 metres agl. QTH is 3 metres asl.

Rotator:
Yaesu G-5500 azimuth & elevation rotator, allowing antenna to be vertical or horizontal, etc.

Skegness Log: 13-10-14 (MW)

1030 0000 USA WBZ Newsradio 1030, Boston/Nantasket Beach (MA) WBZ ID on the hour Weak  5232 km
1390 0000 USA WEGP, Presque Isle (ME) WEGP AM 13-90 Presque Isle ID in mush Weak  4760 km
1290 0100 VEN YVLF Radio Puerto Cabello, Puerto Cabello (cbb) Lively Latin music, ads and ID Weak
              7637 km
1450 0100 USA WPGG WPG Talk Radio 1450, Atlantic City (NJ) WPGG Atlantic City ID  Weak  5670 km
1410 0159 CAN CJWI CPAM 1410, Saint-Constant (QC) IDs as CPAM Clear ID before the hour Fair
              5191 km
1070 0200 USA WAPI, Birmingham (AL) WAPI Birmingham, on ... online, on ....    station. Muffled
              ID in noise Weak  6916 km **
 650 0230 USA WSM, Nashville/Blaw-Knox Mast (TN) Mention of WSM and WSM online Weak  6710 km
1120 0230 USA KMOX, Saint Louis (MO) Presumeed with commercial for the Central Bank Of St Louis
              Fair  6690 km
1400 0400 USA WOND Newstalk-1400, Pleasantville (NJ) Newstalk 14 Hundred WOND, South Jersey's
              Newstalk leader Weak  5673 km
 820 0500 CAN CHAM Funny 820, Hamilton (ON) Comedy. 20 to 20 with CHAM ID Fair  5729 km **
 640 0600 CAN CBN CBC Radio 1, Saint John s (NL) CBC Radio 1 jingle in mush Weak  3731 km
 660 0600 USA WFAN, New York/High Island (NY) Listen to WFAN on your mobile app Fair  5518 km
 970 0600 USA WZAN, Portland/Sunset Park (ME) This is ... talk ... 9-70 WZAN Portland heard in
              noise. CBS News Weak     5104 km
1200 0600 USA WXKS Bloomberg 1200, Newton (MA) Bloomberg Business Radio jingle Weak  5251 km
1296 1900 TWN BCC News Network, Tainan (TN) Top of the hour jingle Weak  9754 km

** Personal Skegness 'First'

Improved conditions at last and two personal firsts. Very pleased with WAPI.

Good DX!

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

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  Movable 10ft x 25ft flag at 300 or 028 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; Mestor

Mobile 10 Meter Band Activity

After reading all the recent low VHF reports on the Skywaves forums I decided to venture out in my car to a noise-free location just outside town to try my hand at 10m again.

Using an Icom IC7000 and 100 watts into a Sirio Hy Power 4000 mobile whip, I heard some excellent signals from Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, a few Caribbean islands and many US States as far west as Ohio.

I worked stations in Crete, Athens, Russia, The Azores and the US state of Virginia, all with 5/8 or 5/9 signals. It made a refreshing change to the dull conditions we currently have on band 2 and medium wave.

Skegness Log: 06-10-14 (FM)

Band 2 Scatter:
 96.0 0925  G  BBC Radio 4 FM, Divis (NI-ANT) Discussion, as 93.1  446km
107.3 0936  G  Nation Radio, Kilvey Hill (WA-SWA) Pops, as web. Followed for 15 minutes -
               very weak occasional peaks  334km **
107.4 0951  G  Tempo FM, Wetherby (EN-NYK) Slow indie song, as web  142km

** Personal Skegness 'First'

A few bits and bobs from yesterday.

Good DX!

John Faulkner
Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <3m ASL.
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/skegnessdx

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification

Aerial:
Körner 9.2 @ 5.5 metres agl. QTH is 3 metres asl.

Rotator:
Yaesu G-5500 azimuth & elevation rotator, allowing antenna to be vertical or horizontal, etc.

New Skywaves Forum Goes Live!

After several weeks of construction and testing, the brand new Skywaves bulletin board has gone public! This marks a major milestone in the history of the group. Click on the image to visit.

The new look Forum of the Skywaves DX Group

"Skywaves" began life as the monthly DX publication of the British FM & TV Circle in October 1995. In 2000, Skywaves dropped the magazine and became an online internet forum with Yahoo Groups.

At the beginning of 2014, Yahoo Groups downgraded their system and took on the "Neo"platform, which had many problems for almost all of the membership.

After a lot of discussion and testing behind the scenes, it was agreed that a new platform should be trialed. Some members maintained that the existing Yahoo Neo Group should be continued, at least for the time being.

We cannot guarantee the reliability of the service from Yahoo and so we expect that the new bulletin board will ultimately replace it, after which time the Yahoo Group will be locked but still hopefully used for its archives.

We hope all our members take the time to give the new board a try. It offers so much more than a mailing list,and you can still opt to receive email alerts. Here is a brief rundown on the new Skywaves bulletin board which we hope will dispel some of the concerns raised.

Notes:
The new Skywaves forum is hosted privately and does not take any form of advertising. All member's email addresses are hidden. We have also removed some aspects of the gimmicky side of bulletin boards.

Security is paramount in the new forum. We have developed our own personally styled "Captcha" registration images which you have to get past on the registration page. I use the words get past because these registration tests are supposed to be difficult in order to prevent spam bots registering and these have been 100% successful since their implementation, but please contact the group Admin or moderators if you have any problems with the registration process.

Member's first posts will automatically enter a moderation queue, thus further ensuring that only only genuine radio-related posts get through.

You can subscribe to individual posts, topics (threads) and entire sub-forums as you choose. This will send a notification via the email address you signed up with, which also includes a link to the post itself and a separate link to the forum.

The only thing you cannot in the new bulletin board system is reply to the notifications, but you can go to the posts directly by clicking on the link. Furthermore, there is no need for any extra clicks or logins, providing you have logged in at least once before and have ticked the "keep me logged in" box. Our members were concerned there would be lots of messing around involved in reaching the posts. This will not be the case.

We regret that we can not simply transfer your memberships across as these are two different platforms.

As with all new things, there may be some teething problems, so please bear with us if so. The forum will evolve and adapt to membership needs. We welcome your comments and ideas.

There is an FAQ section at the top right which should answer most of your questions, otherwise please ask if there is anything which is not covered.

The new site was constructed by myself, but it wouldn't have been possible without the technical know-how of Lynton Towler. Special thanks also go to Jim Smith, Andrew Webster and Nick Gilly for testing the new forum over the last few weeks. Julian Hardstone and and Günter Lorenz are still at the helm and share Group Ownership. Apologies if I have forgotten anybody there.

We hope you will enjoy the new look Skywaves.

Skegness Log: 05-10-14 (MW)

1080 0100 USA WTIC, Hartford (CT) Presumed with CBS promo over the hour and news, then killed by
              Euros. Fair  5390 km
1020 0200 USA KDKA, Pittsburgh/Allison Park (KDKA Drive) (PA) KDKA ID in noise Weak  5929 km
1360 0200 USA WMOB, Mobile (AL) Presumed with OM over the hour saying right here in Mobile.
              Promo for WTOF Mobile. Presume 5kW day power. Weak  7223 km
1510 0200 USA KCKK, Littleton (CO) Marmalade song Reflections Of My Life mixing WUFC on the hour.
              Thanks to Paul Crankshaw for the tip! Vweak  7442 km
 870 0300 USA WWL, New Orleans (LA) Lots of splatter here. Could just make out "WL New Orleans"
              on the hour Weak  7427 km
1100 0400 USA WTAM, Cleveland (OH) WTAM call letters heard Weak  5978 km
1230 0600 USA WCMC, Wildwood (NJ) Full ID, mentioning WCMC and WMID (brother station on 1340). Thanks
              Ken Baird for help.  Vweak  5721 km **

** Personal Skegness 'First'


Recordings:
https://app.box.com/s/8sc0379nqdguvgjcu3lm 1230 WCMC Wildwood NJ 0600 05-10-14
https://app.box.com/s/od52gzzv9q9k3eyigkzv 1360 WMOB Mobile AL 0200 05-10-14


Good DX!

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

Receiver: Perseus SDR
Antenna:  10ft x 25ft flag at 28 degrees
Software: Perseus v4.1a; Mestor