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Atmospherics (merged) (Part 3)
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fmradiotuner1
26-05-2014
Originally Posted by KnobTwiddler:
“I'm not surprised, Wave Radio broadcasts from the tower on 96.5, so it would probably be flattening the front end of your radio even though it only runs 400 watts. ”

Do you think this radio does good with overload?
As I could still pick up 96.1 and 96.9
Shame it was really windy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1oBATIE734
What is your radio like when driving past the tower?
fmradiotuner1
27-05-2014
Seems to have gone a bit quite on this forum lately.
Here is my only other one I did when away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfzhECifq6o
Was a far better spot than the tower.

Also the weather not got any better May been really disappointing this year.
Hope June is hotter.
KnobTwiddler
27-05-2014
Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1:
“Do you think this radio does good with overload?
As I could still pick up 96.1 and 96.9
Shame it was really windy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1oBATIE734
What is your radio like when driving past the tower?”

On your video you can see that the radio was being overloaded by Wave, the signal levels on the meter on the other signals being received was much weaker than they should have been (had you been able to switch the Wave Tx off, then you would have had fantastic reception).

I have the Eton G8 Traveler II which probably uses much the same circuitry as your radio. I noticed sometime ago that when I switched on my naughty little low powered transmitter, that signals on other stations dropped in strength on the meter and weak stations disappeared completely. I did some tests adjusting the power output of my little transmitter and found that signals from my little transmitter that were over 65 dBu level on the meter started to de-sensitise the radio.

As you can Imagen, the signal level from the Wave Tx on the tower would be enormous into the front end of your radio, so you would be suffering severe de-sense on the radio hence the poor reception on the rest of the band.

These radios are excellent little dx machines, but I doubt if there is any radio that could withstand being next to a transmitter like that without suffering some kind of overload or cross modulation.
KnobTwiddler
27-05-2014
Just had a short late night very strong burst of Es on 87.7, it sounded French probably Algeria - It completely wiped out the London pirate playing oldies that I was listening too on the frequency.
ACL777
31-05-2014
Does anybody know what the Dutch station I am receiving could be on 104.1. I usually get Joe FM or occasionally Sheffield on this frequency but have changed my dipoles position and polarisation and with a fair enhancement tonight am receiving this.
catherine91
01-06-2014
Originally Posted by ACL777:
“Does anybody know what the Dutch station I am receiving could be on 104.1. I usually get Joe FM or occasionally Sheffield on this frequency but have changed my dipoles position and polarisation and with a fair enhancement tonight am receiving this.”

Not sure about that one.

This morning I'm hearing a few weak French and Dutch stations. Also a pop music station on 103.6 but I didn't catch the jingle - does anyone know what this might be?
ACL777
01-06-2014
Originally Posted by catherine91:
“Not sure about that one.

This morning I'm hearing a few weak French and Dutch stations. Also a pop music station on 103.6 but I didn't catch the jingle - does anyone know what this might be?”

I'm not sure but was also receiving it last night. Have you tried any amateur radio repeaters? There are a few of them that regularly come in from Holland although I have only received Den Haag on 430.350.

Incidentally does anybody know of an SpE alert service that isn't twitter based. I would particularly like to be alerted to 6 and 2m activity. I've searched the net and can't find anything.
Jim_AFCB
01-06-2014
Originally Posted by ACL777:
“I'm not sure but was also receiving it last night. Have you tried any amateur radio repeaters? There are a few of them that regularly come in from Holland although I have only received Den Haag on 430.350.

Incidentally does anybody know of an SpE alert service that isn't twitter based. I would particularly like to be alerted to 6 and 2m activity. I've searched the net and can't find anything.”

www.dxmaps.com is as good as any. Doesnt give alerts as such, but shows what people are spotting on the DX Clusters.

With reference to the Es, I think it has been a rather poor start to the season. 6m has been sketchy at best and I have caught two decent openings on Band 2 (FM) both to Italy/Spain/N Africa, and a brief one to the Balkans.
Also today had an opening to Iceland lasting about half an hour, but apart from that I have had a few seconds here, a few seconds there and thats it.

If you live 10 degrees east of here, then it has been a good season, but here in the UK, we are wondering what has happened to the Es.
brumlad36
01-06-2014
Originally Posted by ACL777:
“I'm not sure but was also receiving it last night. Have you tried any amateur radio repeaters? There are a few of them that regularly come in from Holland although I have only received Den Haag on 430.350.

Incidentally does anybody know of an SpE alert service that isn't twitter based. I would particularly like to be alerted to 6 and 2m activity. I've searched the net and can't find anything.”

Hi Alex,

This one is email based, and seems the most reliable. All you need to do when an email DX warning arrives, is click on the link. You then see a map of the DX paths for that band.
http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/warnings.php

Cheers,

Chris.

PS. I just noticed Jim_AFCB's reply, which refers to the same web site.
ACL777
01-06-2014
Thanks to you both for the website advice. I will sign up. The season so far has been disappointing. In terms of tropo it seems like low pressure is back again this coming week.

edit; looks a very good site but you need a callsign to register which I don't have.
brumlad36
01-06-2014
Originally Posted by ACL777:
“Thanks to you both for the website advice. I will sign up. The season so far has been disappointing. In terms of tropo it seems like low pressure is back again this coming week.”

There was a bit of Sporadic E on 6 metres this afternoon. I spoke to someone in Sardinia, another in Majorca and several in mainland Spain on 6 metre band, earlier this afternoon.
I've received one good sporadic E opening on TV to Ukraine and Belarus (the morning after I complained on Skywaves about a poor start to the SP-E season).

Very poor performance on band II, so far this SP-E season.
As Jim says, 5-10 degrees east of the UK, they have been enjoying quite a good SP-E season, already.

73,

Chris 2E0NDT.
ACL777
01-06-2014
When on 6 meters do you camp out on a particular frequency or mode. I remember you saying on band 2 you monitor 87.6 as a good SpE indicator often getting Algeria. I was just wondering if there was one for 6m or even 2m. Cheers.
brumlad36
01-06-2014
Originally Posted by ACL777:
“When on 6 meters do you camp out on a particular frequency or mode. I remember you saying on band 2 you monitor 87.6 as a good SpE indicator often getting Algeria. I was just wondering if there was one for 6m or even 2m. Cheers.”

I must admit I had to look at the Frequency Plan for 6 metres.
http://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-...hf/50mhz-band/
Listen using USB to frequencies from 50.130MHz to 50.300MHz. This is for contacts on the same continent (in our case, Europe). The international calling channel (for other continents) is 50.110MHz.
There are also many international beacons, between 50.000MHz and 50.099MHz.
Use your receiver in CW mode to resolve these.
http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/50.htm (I printed this out and highlighted the most likely beacons to be received in the UK).

As for 2 metres, the SSB (USB) calling channel is 144.300MHz. By tradition, all SSB and CW contacts use horizontal polarisation.

Hope this helps,

Chris 2E0NDT
ACL777
01-06-2014
Thanks for the info Chris.
KnobTwiddler
02-06-2014
Es starting to appear around 87.6 - sounds East European.

Update; Italy is starting to peak now.
KnobTwiddler
02-06-2014
Good peaks from Italy, unfortunately I have either a RSL or pirate carrier running on 87.7 which is not helping.
brumlad36
02-06-2014
Originally Posted by KnobTwiddler:
“Es starting to appear around 87.6 - sounds East European.

Update; Italy is starting to peak now.”

Received this http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/...psc3606255.jpg in Lincoln, UK, about 30 minutes ago.
It was on 88.0MHz

Yesterday, I had quite a few 6 metre amateur radio contacts, e.g. Sardinia, Majorca and several in mainland Spain.

At long last, it looks like things are warming up on the bands.

73, Chris 2E0NDT
KnobTwiddler
02-06-2014
Originally Posted by brumlad36:
“Received this http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/...psc3606255.jpg......... Yesterday, I had quite a few 6 metre amateur radio contacts, e.g. Sardinia, Majorca and several in mainland Spain.

At long last, it looks like things are warming up on the bands.

73, Chris 2E0NDT”

It's been a poor season for Es so far this year, unfortunately here in London we are plagued with pirates clogging up the whole of Band II which doesn't help in Dx'ing. I've been trying out a home brew full wave loop on Band II which works very well, but it doesn't solve the pirate interference problem.
I think the loop will be morphing into a Moxon 2 ele beam, one of which I've been trying out on 2 metres with excellent results for such a simple aerial.

It's nice to hear that 6 metres is improving as also should 4 metres be at that rate. Unfortunately I have a very high electrical noise level which makes those bands almost unworkable except for very strong signals.

Good Dx'ing Chris, 73.
fmradiotuner1
02-06-2014
Can you not just move a few more miles out say 30 to 40 from where you are?
Where the band might be less crowded?
Is there any place?
Colchester way its very dead in most places.
brumlad36
02-06-2014
Originally Posted by KnobTwiddler:
“It's been a poor season for Es so far this year, unfortunately here in London we are plagued with pirates clogging up the whole of Band II which doesn't help in Dx'ing. I've been trying out a home brew full wave loop on Band II which works very well, but it doesn't solve the pirate interference problem.
I think the loop will be morphing into a Moxon 2 ele beam, one of which I've been trying out on 2 metres with excellent results for such a simple aerial.

It's nice to hear that 6 metres is improving as also should 4 metres be at that rate. Unfortunately I have a very high electrical noise level which makes those bands almost unworkable except for very strong signals.

Good Dx'ing Chris, 73.”

I guess you've already tried this... but, I've found that many household gadgets are the cause of interference (noise) on or around 50MHz. These include:-

Sky/Freesat/Freeview boxes (especially the ones that contain hard drives), switch-mode power supplies (you'll be surprised how many items use these) and desktop computers. There are other things, but these are the main culprits.
I'm lucky enough to live in a detached property, so can just switch off the offending items. I guess that people living in shared accommodation are not so lucky.

Best regards,

Chris.
Hybrid tellies
02-06-2014
No Es on FM today but have seen pictures from Ukrain on band 1 ch R1, 49.75Mhz and R2 59.25Mhz
FmBandScan
02-06-2014
Originally Posted by fmradiotuner1:
“Can you not just move a few more miles out say 30 to 40 from where you are?
Where the band might be less crowded?
Is there any place?
Colchester way its very dead in most places.”

If it was that easy I'd be living in a field in the countryside away from all the electrical crap AM DXing to my hearts content!

*dream mode over*
sleeper77
02-06-2014
Radio Stalitsa just in. It was not Ukraine as I reported earlier. Thanks to Nick for the correction.
Last edited by sleeper77 : 02-06-2014 at 19:18
sleeper77
02-06-2014
92.2 active. Also presumed Shumen on 87.6.
brumlad36
02-06-2014
Greece is now being received in Lincoln, UK.
88.0MHz http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/...psc66e9844.jpg

Chris.
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