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Atmospherics (merged) (Part 3)


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Old 25-09-2014, 11:44
catherine91
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This morning I'm receiving hissy stereo signals from Belgium. This also happened on Tuesday morning when I also heard some Dutch and French stations.
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Old 27-09-2014, 10:49
Nick_G
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Some interesting conditions over the last 12 hours or so with one or two Germans heard yesterday evening (hr3 from Biedenkopf and Grosser Feldberg) and Brocken earlier this morning on 91.5 and 101.4. None of them have been any better than weak. Also some good enhancements towards London with low power stations heard including Resonance FM, Reprezent, Rinse FM, London Greek Radio and a Nigerian pirate on 101.1. Needless to say Wrotham has been in at local strength!
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Old 27-09-2014, 12:08
ACL777
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Great conditions, stations from Germany down to France coming in very stable. I wonder if anything from Denmark will come in.
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Old 27-09-2014, 13:25
radioredcat
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Here weak HR 3 87.6 and Hollands Radio 10 87.7 UK RAW 87.5 London pirate has been noise free all morning.

Andy
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Old 27-09-2014, 14:02
Vince800
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Got a few good ones coming through with RDS.

91.5 CULTURE
99.6 INTER
102.6 BLEU,B,N

95.6 ? Sounds French, this has a good signal but I think a combination of 3CR on 95.5 & Capital on 95.8 are preventing RDS.
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Old 27-09-2014, 14:18
Adam792
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Got a few good ones coming through with RDS.

91.5 CULTURE
99.6 INTER
102.6 BLEU,B,N

95.6 ? Sounds French, this has a good signal but I think a combination of 3CR on 95.5 & Capital on 95.8 are preventing RDS.
All those are the Caen-Mont Pinçon transmitter in Normandy in Northern France. 95.6 is France Musique from there.
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Old 27-09-2014, 17:18
Nick_G
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Just come back home and Brocken is still in here, up to fully quieting mono/hissy stereo with variations in signal on 91.5 and 101.4. Haven't had a thorough look around yet.
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Old 27-09-2014, 17:41
ACL777
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Any reception from Denmark, Poland or Czech Republic on here? Hepburn is suggesting possible reception.
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Old 27-09-2014, 18:29
Adam792
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Getting tons of French stations here on Berry Head near Brixham. As well as the usual nationals getting lots of the 500W/1kW local transmitters from Brittany and Normandy. Just picked up Radio FG 98.7 Caen.
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Old 27-09-2014, 19:14
catherine91
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My Belgian signals are improving all the time - the stereo is becoming less hissy.

Nothing on DAB when I checked earlier but will try again.
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Old 27-09-2014, 22:00
Nick_G
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Long-range tropo has all gone here this evening.

However, and it's to be taken with a huge pinch of salt, the map for Friday October 3rd is looking very droolworthy at the moment! I'm sure it'll get progressively downgraded the nearer we get to that date.

Listening to a remote tuner in Skegness and ORF Radio Salzburg is in as I type on 94.8, so I suspect the tropo has shifted to the east of here.
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Old 28-09-2014, 10:36
catherine91
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By 11pm I had hissy stereo reception of the Dutch Radio 2 on 97.8 as well as the Belgians. I didn't hear anything on DAB.
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Old 28-09-2014, 11:32
Nick_G
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Any reception from Denmark, Poland or Czech Republic on here? Hepburn is suggesting possible reception.
Yes John Faulkner (Skywaves) has been receiving the Czech Republic and Poland this morning from Skegness. Stunning tropo. Furthest tx has been Ostrava in the Czech Republic not far from the Slovak border.

Needless to say it's not reaching here.
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Old 28-09-2014, 12:46
ACL777
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There's nothing much reaching here either now. Hepburn has already been downgraded for today. Great reception for John though.
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Old 28-09-2014, 17:54
ShallowFire
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Had fantastic reception to Belgium again today. Netherlands coming in clear as well, nice and far inland. The French statoins are on and off. Have heard a few other language stations fading in as well, possibly German
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Old 02-10-2014, 19:48
catherine91
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Dutch, French and Belgians coming in again. Anyone else hearing anything?
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Old 02-10-2014, 21:41
fmradiotuner1
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Yes getting quite a few dutch and french things here to.
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Old 02-10-2014, 21:42
Vince800
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Not getting anything out of the usual really. Rowridge is slightly up though with the nationals coming through in Stereo. Wave105 from Chillerton Down is also wiping out Release.
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Old 02-10-2014, 22:49
Nick_G
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Looks like things may be starting to happen with Tacolneston nationals up and stable plus Wrotham above normal. This lift looks like it will peak tomorrow ahead of the cold front coming down from the NW.

I have now got a Kenwood L-1000T tuner which I will write a full report on in due course once I've had some more time to play with it.
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Old 03-10-2014, 23:39
Nick_G
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Hi all.

I saw one of these on eBay last week with a starting price of 99p and free shipping (despite weighing about 10 kg) so I put it in my watch list and kept an eye on it. It had some holes drilled on the top panel for ventilation purposes as apparently these tuners run hot due to a big toroidal transformer inside. It included the manual (tatty) and the all-important remote, which is needed to access most of the functions on this device. Apparently the seller had inherited it from a friend who had died recently who had bought it second-hand from a high-end audio emporium. It finished early on a Sunday morning so about 10 minutes before the end of the auction I put in a maximum bid of £101 using Gixen and was lucky enough to be the highest bidder.

It arrived here on Wednesday all intact, apart from the plug which was cracked and split exposing bare wire, so I didn’t get it up & running until yesterday evening after obtaining a new plug for it. The tuner is built like a tank, and comes in what I would describe as ‘graphite grey’. It has 2 aerial inputs, fixed and variable outputs (I wonder if RDS data would be accessible from one of these?), and multipath outputs for an oscilloscope. As most of the functions are on the remote the tuner is minimalist and industrial-looking with just an on/off button on the left, the central display (in a muted amber colour), and rotary tuning knob on the right with a small button for auto or manual tuning. The remote accesses the other functions such as Ant a?B, IF bandwidths (3, labelled Wide, Normal and Narrow), Mono/Stereo, Direct/Distant (like local/DX modes), presets (20), Active Reception (where the tuner decides on the bandwidth, stereo or mono depending on signal/conditions) tuning up/down and output level for the variable outputs.

So, how does it perform? Very well indeed! The selectivity in Narrow is excellent for a stock tuner, and is in the same league as the Denon TU-800L (and therefore the Onkyo T-9990 and probably similar to the KT-6040). I have noticed that compressed pop stations in Narrow sound rough with some obvious distortion, but sound fine in Wide and Normal. This is probably due to the very good selectivity, although the Denon doesn’t sound as rough in Super Narrow. From what I have read, the European version (and UK, judging from the performance) has 8 ceramic filters, but I don’t know the configuration used for Narrow. If all 8 are in line then this may explain the increased distortion. The L-1000T also tunes in 25 kHz steps, unlike the Denon’s 50 kHz so it probably has a slight edge over the Denon for this reason. The steps increase to 50 kHz when Auto tuning or when the tuning up/down arrows are held down. The result of this is that it scans up and down the band more slowly than my other tuners. An interesting feature is that when the bandwidth is changed or the tuner stops tuning a relay clicks, which is something I’ve not come across before. I think that apart from the Sony XDR-F1HD this Kenwood is probably the best stock tuner I have used for DXing. It really is very good for these purposes.

Sound quality in Wide on a good broadcast is excellent with a clean, relaxed sound and good stereo imaging. The bass seems to be better than average too. I did notice whilst listening to Radio 2 earlier this evening in Wide some slight grainy harshness to vocals on some records that wasn’t present on the AAC internet stream. However, there was no such distortion on Radios 3 and 4 so I can only assume that it was at the BBC’s end, not mine. It could be that this tuner is more revealing of source material and is not as forgiving with sloppy broadcasts.

So this was definitely a lucky find at £101 as I have seen these go for several hundred Euros on eBay Germany. Perhaps some were put off by the holes in the top cabinet, but I took a chance, and it was definitely worth it! I suspect with hand-picked filters it would be even better.
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Old 05-10-2014, 18:52
radioviewer
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873 AM Radio Norfolk coming through well in Scunthorpe earlier today.
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Old 05-10-2014, 20:48
Jonathan1990
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Got Manx Radio on 1368khz AM along The Yorkshire Coast yesterday in a car.
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Old 05-10-2014, 22:56
FmBandScan
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873 AM Radio Norfolk coming through well in Scunthorpe earlier today.
Yes, for a low power station 873 does get out quite well!
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Old 06-10-2014, 22:35
ACL777
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Wellbrook loop ala 1530, 30khz to 30mhz for sale. Collection only £120. Please message if interested.
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Old 09-10-2014, 13:53
radioredcat
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A new DX forum has been formed covering all bands and has come online this week.

http://skywavesdx.org/index.php

All new members welcome.

Andy
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