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radio dx equipment. |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Norwich
Posts: 1,317
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radio dx equipment.
Hi. I've just bought a portable eton g3 radio for dxing mw, lw ,fm and shortwave . So far I've not picked up much and the reason I'm posting is to get advice on what I should buy . I live In a rented flat so can't put anything on the roof or hanging outside Windows. I was thinking about either buying a better reciever like the eton satellite 750 or buying amps and antennas etc. I have a small budget and don't really understand what is needed equipment wise to begin basic dxing. Any advice would be great.
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Cheshire
Posts: 6,462
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The very nature of DXing - listening to very distant "hard to capture" radio stations means that your aerial is going to be very important. This means some sort of small and cheap indoor aerial really isn't going to do the job. In fact I would suspect it's pretty pointless trying to pursue this hobby when your circumstances are so restrictive.
From the little I know about DXing I'd guess you would need to spend a couple of hundred quid on a compact aerial if you want to achieve any sort of distance. Even then, the aerial location is going to be critical. Buildings and power lines will block signals. Radios such as the Eton and Sony WorldBand radios are really for traveling. You can pick up the local stations wherever you happen to be and on whichever band they are broadcast. They aren't really tools for seeking out very distant stations. You'd be better off using internet radio as a way to start listening to radio stations from the far flung corners of the globe. Okay, you aren't going to get exactly the same stations, but at least you'll get something that's further away than 30-40 miles
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 1,046
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Hi,
OK, 'I have a small budget and don't really understand what is needed equipment wise to begin basic dxing' No problemo. I used to do this many years ago, so I'm speaking from experience. There are next to no costs involved initially, certainly for the LW, MW and SW bands. The best Aerial available is literally a long length of wire placed as high as possible in your flat, maybe £5 at the most. For the VHF/FM bands aerial costs are not much maybe £20 or something. Aerial amps are a complete waste of money they do nothing for either frequency range. Apart from that you need to look at Ionospheric propagation of radio signals. It varies depending on the frequency of interest. In the LW, MW, SW bands i.e. up to ~30 MHz it's the F1, F2, F3 ionospheric layers way above the earth that are used to reflect/refract the signals around the Earth. The far side to Australasia is easily possible in the 5-30 MHz region (SW) depending on those ionospheric layers an how they vary and so on. In the VHF/FM region of frequencies it's the E layer and refractive index changes in air layers (Tropospheric Propogation) that enables DX signals to be recieved. That's a very brief outline summary, so for extra details there are plenty of internet references. http://www.radio-electronics.com/inf...ion-basics.php |
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Norwich
Posts: 1,317
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Thanks for the info. I plan on getting the eton 750 satelite which seems to be a highly rated reciever and then I will make a shortwave antenna. I think the eton has external jacks for am and fm aerials that I can connect and hang outside my window.
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Norwich
Posts: 1,317
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Great link as well. I was wondering why I could recieve hf from distant countries all day long but could only recieve foreign lw and mw at night. The link explains it all clearly.
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 5
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HF radio
My first radio when a SWL (short wave listener) was a Yaesu FRG7700. When I brought it home I had it connected to piece of coax, (not ideal as an aerial at all!) and the first station I heard was an Australian radio ham, not bad I thought!
These radios are getting on a bit now but are excellent sets, if you're on a budget there is one on ebay complete with aerial tuner and VHF converter currently at £90 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yaesu-FRG-...31035653850085 |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Norwich
Posts: 1,317
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Thanks for the link, will check it out.
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