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Atmospherics (merged) (Part 3) |
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#2776 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: In My Own Little World
Posts: 1,644
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Quote:
Not much to report dx wise, MW is full of plasma noise and FM is pretty dead, no tropo or sporadic e to report of
![]() Same here with the Plasma TV's on MW and the HF Amateur Bands, I've also noticed Plasma interference up as high as the 144 MHz Amateur Band. I'm getting very disillusioned now with a hobby that I've had for 55 years.
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#2777 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Grimsby, United Kingdom
Posts: 848
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Quote:
I've totally given up on Band ll, the pirate situation here in London appears to be getting worse and OFCOM now only appear to take stations off if there is a complaint.
Same here with the Plasma TV's on MW and the HF Amateur Bands, I've also noticed Plasma interference up as high as the 144 MHz Amateur Band. I'm getting very disillusioned now with a hobby that I've had for 55 years. ![]()
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#2778 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: In My Own Little World
Posts: 1,644
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Quote:
....it's just like a blanket of white noise..... I suspect the plasma is causing this
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#2779 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Grimsby, United Kingdom
Posts: 848
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Lots of Dutch stations coming through here! Most noise free stereo!
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#2780 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Some very patch E-skip trying here in the last 20 minutes with the occasional burst of signals from Romania. Much more miss than hit so far...
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#2781 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Norwich
Posts: 2,220
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Quote:
Lots of Dutch stations coming through here! Most noise free stereo!
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#2782 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Mid-Herts
Posts: 535
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To be honest, this summer, while generally nice has been pretty poor for tropo and sp-e round my way.
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#2783 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Norwich
Posts: 1,317
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Quote:
To be honest, this summer, while generally nice has been pretty poor for tropo and sp-e round my way.
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#2784 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Grimsby, United Kingdom
Posts: 848
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There was a big opening today, I heard Romania, Hungary, Italy and Bosnia just to name a few!
Surprised no one posted in hear about it! |
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#2785 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Yes I managed to catch some of it but had limited time for listening today. A lot of the opening happened whilst I was at work too. However I did hear quite a few signals from the Balkans including Serbia, Bulgaria and probably others. I did ID BNR Horizont from Bulgaria on 87.6 on the car radio on the way to Basingstoke earlier on.
I really need to get a tuner that displays PI codes or an RDS tuner that doesn't mute while tuning or has a 'squelch'. Either of those features would be very useful. |
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#2786 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Norwich
Posts: 2,220
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I didn't hear any of this opening but a couple of nights ago there was a very slight enhancement of some BBC national stations. Quote:
I really need to get a tuner that displays PI codes or an RDS tuner that doesn't mute while tuning or has a 'squelch'. Either of those features would be very useful.
![]() I've just bought a new hi-fi system capable of receiving DAB+. Haven't people on here received German stations through DAB+ before? I've noticed that it seems to be a bit more sensitive on FM than my old system (picks up that station on 89.4 easily, whereas my old one didn't). Will have to see how it performs next time we get any atmospherics! |
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#2787 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Quote:
I didn't hear any of this opening but a couple of nights ago there was a very slight enhancement of some BBC national stations.
How many tuners would that take your total to, Nick? ![]() I've just bought a new hi-fi system capable of receiving DAB+. Haven't people on here received German stations through DAB+ before? I've noticed that it seems to be a bit more sensitive on FM than my old system (picks up that station on 89.4 easily, whereas my old one didn't). Will have to see how it performs next time we get any atmospherics! Although I only have 3 connected to the hi-fi system, with the other two in storage.The new hi-fi system sounds good Catherine. How fast is the RDS decoding? And yes, German DAB stations were receive last September by, amongst others, Knob Twiddler. I remember he posted a video of one of them, which was using plain DAB. |
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#2788 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Norwich
Posts: 2,220
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Quote:
Well if I got another one it would be 6
Although I only have 3 connected to the hi-fi system, with the other two in storage.The new hi-fi system sounds good Catherine. How fast is the RDS decoding? And yes, German DAB stations were receive last September by, amongst others, Knob Twiddler. I remember he posted a video of one of them, which was using plain DAB.
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#2789 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Bristol UK
Posts: 944
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Quote:
There was a big opening today, I heard Romania, Hungary, Italy and Bosnia just to name a few!
Surprised no one posted in hear about it! |
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#2790 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Grimsby, United Kingdom
Posts: 848
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Quote:
Yes I managed to catch some of it but had limited time for listening today. A lot of the opening happened whilst I was at work too. However I did hear quite a few signals from the Balkans including Serbia, Bulgaria and probably others. I did ID BNR Horizont from Bulgaria on 87.6 on the car radio on the way to Basingstoke earlier on.
I really need to get a tuner that displays PI codes or an RDS tuner that doesn't mute while tuning or has a 'squelch'. Either of those features would be very useful. ![]() But that one decodes RDS quick, doesn't mute when you tune it, and also displays PI code, it's the first and best FM tuner I've ever had! |
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#2791 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Well I ended up buying a Sony ST-SA5ES from eBay Germany in the end. It is similar to my first proper DX tuner, which was an ST-SA3ES, although it is heavier and I think may have bigger transformers in the audio section. Apparently it has also been adjusted for minimum distortion figures. Selectivity won't be as good as the Denon tuner I use but I'm hoping it'll sound just as good and it should have the same fast, sensitive RDS decoding as my old tuner, plus it'll be good to have access to PI codes after nearly 7 years.
Delivery is estimated on Friday (don't know if this takes the Bank Holiday into account or not) so it would be good if I could give it a test run on some juicy September tropo!
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#2792 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Sony ST-SA5ES tuner
I bought one of these on Monday from a seller in Germany and it arrived today so I have been putting it through its paces. I have been curious about these tuners as my first 'proper' tuner for DXing was an ST-SA3ES and this tuner is its 'big brother', so to speak. Apparently it has had some adjustments to the distortion levels (THD I assume) and the signal strength readout - I was chatting to Andy about this in the Skywaves chat and he can probably explain this bit in more detail.
Anyway, it is very solidly built, weighing 6.3 kg (compared to the 4.5 kg for the SA3ES) and has the same set of features including full RDS (PS, PTY, CT, PI, Traffic, News, EON) and I must say it is good to have access to PI codes back again for the first time since late December 2006! A very useful feature, particularly during Sporadic E openings, of course. There are a couple of other minor features added on top of those of the SA3ES but not of relevance to DXing. The selectivity of this tuner is also a pleasant surprise, as it is definitely better than my old ST-SA3ES (a UK model) despite the selectivity specs for the SA3 and SA5 being the same. I wonder if the Euro models have slightly narrower filters installed than the UK ones (I'm not even sure if the SA5ES was available in the UK). Todd Emslie reports that the SA5 has 180 and 150 kHz filters installed and this sounds about right to me. I can tune 200 kHz either side of the Wrotham BBC nationals (about 27-28 dBf) without splatter, something that wasn't quite possible with my old SA3. Sensitivity as you would expect is excellent. There is a slight quirk with this particular tuner (isn't there always?) in that there appears to be a small amount of 'MPX leakage' when mono is selected. So it doesn't quite shut down the stereo circuitry with the result that there is a low-level hiss on marginal signals and a vague sense of stereo separation. I seem to remember reading something about this on the Yahoo FM tuner forum regarding another Sony tuner but I can't remember where. It isn't a big problem though. I'd guess that something needs adjusting somewhere. Maybe it happened when the tuner was tweaked? The sound quality is very good, but again, it seems to have a slightly rolled-off upper treble compared to the Denon TU-800L. It is more ruggedly built though and looks very attractive. I was hoping to test it out during E-skip today so I could assess how quickly I could get PI codes and PS names from continuously varying signals but alas it was not to be as the Es cloud was just a little bit too far east for me to tap into. I hope there will be at least one more opportunity to test this before the end of the season. |
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#2793 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Norwich
Posts: 2,220
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France and Belgium
A few things starting to appear from the above countries on my phone and my new hi-fi.
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#2794 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Yes Catherine it looks like we may get some interesting conditions over the next couple of days. Not a lot of note happening here yet.
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#2795 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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It is starting to lift up now with the main Lille stations becoming more stable and reaching RDS levels. Vivacite was weak but stable on 101.8 from Tournai earlier on.
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#2796 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 226
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My car radio as I was traveling earlier on picked up BBC Three Counties radio and BBC Derby on 104.5.
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#2797 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Mid-Herts
Posts: 535
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Studio Brussel was around yesterday evening on 102.1, and there was something French coming through very poorly on 87.7 but that was about it
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#2798 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Worcester
Posts: 4,850
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The past couple of mornings on my way into work in mid Staffs, Classic FM has been interfering with Heart 100.7. I'm guessing either Arfon or adjacent channel interference from Crystal Palace. Haven't managed to have a scan around otherwise though.
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#2799 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Classic 21 in on 87.6 here. It is very weak as I type but about 15 minutes ago it was in good mono. Lille, Benfleet, Tacolneston (usuals) are enhanced.
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#2800 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,004
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Yep, straight to RDS on Lille, BBC Essex on 103.5 in like a local. Southend Radio in on 105.1, but suffering splatter from France Info on 105.2.
Depending on house sale, should have moved on from Farnborough by early next year- new location planned to be in the New Forest. And... my wife has said I'm allowed a larger aerial with a rotator on any new house
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