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Atmospherics (merged) (Part 3) |
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#1576 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Sittingbourne, N. Kent
Posts: 310
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Quote:
Can you please tell me what some of you are using to get these distant fm stations please ?
Do you have a roof rotating aerial ? Thank you. For horizontal polarisation I have two 5 element array - one facing east and the other facing South-south east. Plus a 3 ele facing north-east. Plus a 3 ele loft aerial facing south - oh and not to forget a horizontal dipole for the 65-74 MHz frequencies used by Eastern Europe. It sounds a bit OTT but it was cheaper than a rotator and it means I can monitor different directions simultaneously. As one of the 5 ele aerials is on the front of the house with the TV aerial it blends in with everybody else's TV aerials and dishes. The other with the three aerials is on the back of the house and replaced the existing TV aerial. If you can manage a 3 to 4 ele horizontal aerial - mounted in the clear outside and facing roughly south-east I think you would be well equipped for picking up SpE signals from a lot of Europe - even better if you do put it on a rotator. A vertical aerial is needed for The Netherlands and for quite a number of the Flemish speaking Belgian stations. David Sittingbourne |
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#1577 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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I use a Triax FM5 and have it fixed beaming due east as it brings in interesting stations from Belgium and Germany when the tropo is up, and it also means I can hear the London stations when there's no DX.
I may get a rotator installed later this year as there is a local aerial installer who quoted a sane price for the job. When I originally asked about this quite a few years ago I was given a figure in the several hundred pounds range!
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#1578 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,004
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After seemingly an age away from this, I'm back in business. Had a 4 element south-east facing Triax put on the roof this afternoon, hooked up to my old Sony ST-SB920. It'll need a bit of experimenting with- I think I may need to attenuate out the London signals- they're just hammering in, as is Guildford. The attempt to null out Hannington and Oxford seems to have worked.
I'll post a bandscan in due course, but I had Bleu Nord on 94.7 RDSing all afternoon. |
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#1579 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Billingham, Teesside
Posts: 878
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Good setup, I use a 5 element ISKRA antenna in the garden, on a 4 meter pole. This evening I've been using it to listen to TFM (could have used just a piece of wire to receive that, as TFM is local for me), until 7pm then I changed to 104.7 Minster FM which I'm currently listening to. I love the 5 element antenna as it works really well pulling in them distant stations.
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#1580 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Quote:
After seemingly an age away from this, I'm back in business. Had a 4 element south-east facing Triax put on the roof this afternoon, hooked up to my old Sony ST-SB920. It'll need a bit of experimenting with- I think I may need to attenuate out the London signals- they're just hammering in, as is Guildford. The attempt to null out Hannington and Oxford seems to have worked.
I'll post a bandscan in due course, but I had Bleu Nord on 94.7 RDSing all afternoon. I look forward to your bandscan.
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#1581 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,004
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And here is the full bandscan for a snowy day with completely flat conditions....
Location- Farnborough, Hampshire Antenna- Triax 4 element rooftop facing south east Tuner- Sony ST-SB920 88.1 BBC R2 Guildford RDS 3kW 88.5 BBC R2 Rowrodge RDS 250kW 88.8 BBC R2 Crystal Palace RDS 4kW 89.1 BBC R2 Wrotham RDS 250kW 89.5 BBC R2 Oxford RDS 46kW 89.8 BBC R2 Reading Hemdean Stereo 1kW 90.0 Unid Pirate Mono 90.3 BBC R3 Guildford RDS 3kW 90.7 BBC R3 Rowridge RDS 250kW 91.0 BBC R3 Crystal Palace RDS 4kW 91.3 BBC R3 Wrotham RDS 250kW 91.7 BBC R3 Oxford RDS 46kW 92.0 BBC R3 Reading Hemdean Stereo 1kW 92.5 BBC R4 Guildford RDS 3kW 92.9 BBC R4 Rowridge RDS 250kW 93.2 BBC R4 Crystal Palace RDS 4kW 93.5 BBC R4 Wrotham RDS 250kW 93.9 BBC R4 Oxford Stereo 46kW 94.1 BBC R4 Reading Hemdean Stereo 1kW 94.9 BBC London Crystal Palace RDS 4kW 95.2 BBC Oxford Oxford Stereo 5.8kW 95.5 OnTop FM (Pirate) RDS 95.8 Capital Croydon RDS 4kW 96.1 BBC Solent Rowridge Stereo 10kW 96.4 Eagle Guildford RDS 3kW 96.7 BBC Kent Wrotham Stereo 8.7kW 96.9 Choice FM Croydon Mono 50W 97.0 Heart Thames Valley Reading Broad St. Stereo 500W 97.3 LBC Croydon RDS 4kW 97.7 BBC R1 Guildford RDS 4kW 98.0 BBC 3CR High Wycombe Mono 200W 98.2 BBC R1 Rowridge Stereo 250kW 98.5 BBC R1 Crystal Palace RDS 4kW 98.8 BBC R1 Wrotham RDS 125kW 99.1 BBC R1 Oxford RDS 46kW 99.4 BBC R1 Reading Hemdean Stereo 1kW 100.0 Kiss Croydon RDS 2kW 100.3 Classic FM Rowridge Mono 250kW 100.6 Classic FM Crystal Palace RDS 2kW 100.9 Classic FM Wrotham RDS 250kW 101.3 Classic FM Oxford RDS 46kW 101.6 KMFM Wrotham Stereo 400W 101.7 Flight FM (Pirate) RDS 102.0 Unid Pirate Mono 102.2 Smooth Croydon RDS 2kW 102.4 Heart Sussex Heathfield Mono 8.2kW 102.5 Garrison FM Aldershot RDS 20W 102.7 Heart Sussex Reigate RDS 3.6kW 102.9 Heart Thames Valley Hannington RDS 4kW 103.1 Heart Kent Bluebell Hill Mono 4kW 103.3 London Greek Alexandra Palace Stereo 50W 103.4 Heart Thames Valley Henley Stereo 100W 103.5 BBC Essex Great Braxted Stereo 12kW 103.7 Kane FM Guildford RDS 100W? 104.0 BBC Surrey Reigate Stereo 3.8kW 104.1 BBC Berkshire Hannington RDS 3kW 104.3 Unid Pirate Mono 104.4 BBC Berkshire Reading Broad St. Stereo 1kW 104.6 BBC Surrey Guildford RDS 3kW 104.9 XFM Crystal Palace RDS 2.9kW 105.2 Wave 105 Chillerton Down Mono 10kW 105.4 Magic Croydon RDS 4kW 105.8 Absolute Crystal Palace RDS 4kW 106.2 Heart London Croydon RDS 4kW 106.5 Unid Pirate Mono 106.8 Rinse FM Mono tx and power unknown 107.0 Reading 107 Reading Park Royal RDS 100W 107.1 Choice FM Alexandra Palace Mono 100W 107.6 Breeze Basingstoke Fanum House Stereo 100W 107.8 Radio Jackie Tolworth Tower RDS 800W Can't wait for a bit of tropo!! |
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#1582 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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A great bandscan adc. I presume your Triax is horizontal? Some good low-power logs in there including the pirates. 101.6 from Wrotham is impressive.
Are you getting any signs of Lille? I was trying 103.7 earlier on today and it was there but it was frequently dropping out. Very poor conditions at the moment with the snowy weather. |
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#1583 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Sittingbourne, N. Kent
Posts: 310
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Low Noise Pre-amplifier Project
At the 2nd attempt I have successfully completed a small preamplifier based on the design on this web page: http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=22378 - the one at the bottom using a BSX20 transistor.
I added a 1mH axial inductor between the output connector and the phono socket I used initally for battery power to power it up the coax cable. It is built into the smallest size Eddystone diecast box. The main reason for building it is to overcome splitter losses as I am splitting the signal from the main East facing aerial 4 ways. Given the high background noise a two way split doesn't reduce sensitivity - but a four way split does. To that end it is mounted in the loft where there is an existing cable join. This is prior to the splitters - and the splitters have DC pass-through on one leg (not all do). The pre-amp is claimed to give a around 12dB gain with a 1 db nf. The gain checks out about right and after running the signal through two two way splitters the residual gain appears to be around 4-7dB based on before/after comparisons. Maybe it will give a slight edge on M-S reception because of the slightly higher signal level?? The amplifier is untuned so doesn't need any adjustment and being relatively low gain shouldn't suffer overload. I might add a bandpass filter before or after the pre-amp later. For those who go off portable DXing it would improve the sensitivity if external electrical noise levels are very low. Weather-wise - no snow! The town is in the lee of the North Downs and whilst the radar [www.raintoday.co.uk] shows it is snowing heavily to the north and to the south a little island stretching from Gillingham to Faversham is snow-free. David Sittingbourne |
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#1584 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,004
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Quote:
Are you getting any signs of Lille? I was trying 103.7 earlier on today and it was there but it was frequently dropping out. Very poor conditions at the moment with the snowy weather.
No sign of Lille today. I'm satisfield with the position of the aerial though (it's horizontal- I may loft mount a vertical dipole for the Sony's other input). 105.2 from Chillerton Down is sufficiently nulled out to give me a fighting chance of France Info. Not a hope of 103.7 though- that's Kane FM in Guildford these days. I had 94.7 yesterday with RDS while I was testing the system.Looking forward to the E-Skip season without having to rely on the car stereo. |
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#1585 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Quote:
No sign of Lille today. I'm satisfield with the position of the aerial though (it's horizontal- I may loft mount a vertical dipole for the Sony's other input). 105.2 from Chillerton Down is sufficiently nulled out to give me a fighting chance of France Info. Not a hope of 103.7 though- that's Kane FM in Guildford these days. I had 94.7 yesterday with RDS while I was testing the system.
Looking forward to the E-Skip season without having to rely on the car stereo. I can hear Kane FM very weak in the background on 103.7 when Lille isn't there. |
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#1586 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,004
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That's quite impressive picking up Kane FM in Whitchurch. I have no idea what power it's on, or even if they use the same Hog's Back transmitter as the others
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#1587 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Billingham, Teesside
Posts: 878
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I imagine 90.0 would be Hot Digital Radio from London.
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#1588 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Quote:
That's quite impressive picking up Kane FM in Whitchurch. I have no idea what power it's on, or even if they use the same Hog's Back transmitter as the others
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#1589 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,004
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Quote:
I imagine 90.0 would be Hot Digital Radio from London.
Thanks
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#1590 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Between wigan and St Helens
Posts: 1,942
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Quote:
No sign of Lille today. I'm satisfield with the position of the aerial though (it's horizontal- I may loft mount a vertical dipole for the Sony's other input). 105.2 from Chillerton Down is sufficiently nulled out to give me a fighting chance of France Info. Not a hope of 103.7 though- that's Kane FM in Guildford these days. I had 94.7 yesterday with RDS while I was testing the system.
Looking forward to the E-Skip season without having to rely on the car stereo. I received Spain on my vertical dipole during a tropo opening last year much better on vertical as Cadena fm is vertically polarised and I used 1/2 inch tubing for my dipoles and dipole centres can be bought from the link below. http://www.sandpiperaerials.co.uk/in...6a7cea9364f9e1 Andy |
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#1591 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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I've just had a thought adc. I see that 105.6 is not on your bandscan - if you can eliminate the splatter from 105.4 and 105.8, then with your beam pointing SE you should look out for Switzerland on this channel. DRS 3 is carried on here from Säntis. I've had it here myself. It doesn't happen often but that is one of the best channels to monitor for tropo DX from this country.
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#1592 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Sittingbourne, N. Kent
Posts: 310
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Quote:
At the 2nd attempt I have successfully completed a small preamplifier based on the design on this web page: http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=22378 - the one at the bottom using a BSX20 transistor.........
- the pre-amp is oscillating at some frequency and I'm finding images of the stronger stations around 9.5MHz away e.g. Heart 102.8 is showing up on 91.35 and BBC R1 89.1 on 98.5. It only showed up when I carefully tuned the whole of the band.I tried the Fringe Band 2 preamp in its place - no spurious signals noted. Back to the drawing board - the obvious omission is I did not put a shield between the input and output. Dave |
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#1593 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: In My Own Little World
Posts: 1,644
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Quote:
And here is the full bandscan for a snowy day with completely flat conditions....
Choice on 96.9 is 30W from Crystal Palace. Smooth on 102.2 is 4kW Absolute on 105.8 is 3.73kW Rinse FM on 106.8 is 150W from Bermondsey. |
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#1594 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 2,055
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Quote:
90.0 Unid Pirate Mono
101.7 Flight FM (Pirate) RDS 102.0 Unid Pirate Mono 104.3 Unid Pirate Mono 106.5 Unid Pirate Mono 90.0 Hot Digital Radio (Central/East London) 95.5 OnTop FM (South London) 101.7 Flight FM (Croydon/Sutton area) 102.0 Concious FM (North East/East London) 104.3 Logic FM (Kingston/Sutton area) 106.5 Project Radio (Romford/Brentwood area) |
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#1595 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 2,004
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Quote:
I've just had a thought adc. I see that 105.6 is not on your bandscan - if you can eliminate the splatter from 105.4 and 105.8, then with your beam pointing SE you should look out for Switzerland on this channel.
Yes, 105.6 is not picking anything up. I must have nulled out Breeze Newbury nicely. Splatter from 105.4 and 105.8 could be a problem- those London stations are real powerhouses. Any suggestions how I can adapt an ST-SB920 to narrow the bandwidth even more? ![]() smorris- Thanks for the pirate IDs. Thanks knobtwiddler for the additional info Adam |
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#1596 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Sittingbourne, N. Kent
Posts: 310
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Improved Tropo
Tropo reception has improved somewhat with Fr Musique on 88.7 RDSing on peaks - 94.7, 105.2 are not so good but Lille on 98.00 just is only appearing weakly. Egem is only coming in with pi code only. So a bit better than the last few days
David Sittingbourne |
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#1597 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Quote:
Tropo reception has improved somewhat with Fr Musique on 88.7 RDSing on peaks - 94.7, 105.2 are not so good but Lille on 98.00 just is only appearing weakly. Egem is only coming in with pi code only. So a bit better than the last few days
David Sittingbourne I wonder if it's connected with the weather front/low pressure approaching the SE from the near continent? |
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#1598 |
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Sittingbourne, N. Kent
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Quote:
Yes I have noticed that BBC Essex on 95.3 is enhanced a bit tonight with slow fading. Tacolneston has also been up and stable and Lille has been better today as well.
I wonder if it's connected with the weather front/low pressure approaching the SE from the near continent? The more I listen and log the more aware I am becoming that passing weather fronts provide enhanced signals - if only for a few hours. |
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#1599 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Whitchurch, Hampshire, England
Posts: 4,323
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Quote:
Yes, 105.6 is not picking anything up. I must have nulled out Breeze Newbury nicely. Splatter from 105.4 and 105.8 could be a problem- those London stations are real powerhouses. Any suggestions how I can adapt an ST-SB920 to narrow the bandwidth even more?
![]() Someone who has done this could go into more detail than me. BTW I have noticed a slight enhancement here since late yesterday evening ahead of the weather front ushering in milder weather for the weekend. |
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#1600 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Bournemouth
Posts: 201
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Yes Nick - was checking a software upgrade of my SDR software last night and noticed R4 Tacolneston was quite strong, normally it's just detectable on the spectrum trace.
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I look forward to your bandscan.
- the pre-amp is oscillating at some frequency and I'm finding images of the stronger stations around 9.5MHz away e.g. Heart 102.8 is showing up on 91.35 and BBC R1 89.1 on 98.5. It only showed up when I carefully tuned the whole of the band.