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Mini DXpedition 2016

The technical side of broadcasting. Think IBOC is a sham? Talk about it here! How about HDTV? Post DX reports here as well.
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Turkeytop
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Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by Turkeytop » Wed Nov 02, 2016 9:44 pm

Every fall I pick a day and head out into the country for a few hours to do some DXing on the short wave bands. I take along a radio or two and some wire for erecting an antenna I go to the same location every year. It's a conservation area, about 35 miles from the city, about ten miles inland from Lake Huron. The area is perfect. There are no power lines or any other source of man made noise around. There are trees around so I can get an antenna up off the ground.

It's becoming a little more of a challenge every year, because, one by one, the big international broadcasters are shutting down.

I always pick a day in early November, after we have reverted to standard time. This allows me to take advantage of the earlier darkness. I arrive there around 4:00 PM. This gives me enough time to get set up before it gets dark. I stay there for 4 or 5 hours and then head for the nearby Tim Horton’s and warm up with a hot bowl of chili before driving home.

The day I've picked for this year is Monday, Nov 7. The weather can be unreliable at that time of year, but in the nine years I've been doing it, I've never had bad weather. Indeed, on one or two occasions, it's been balmy, Indian summer weather.

I'm looking forward to it. Had to cut short my Florida vacation to get home for it.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

tapeisrolling
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Location: go ahead, I'm listening

Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by tapeisrolling » Thu Nov 03, 2016 7:51 pm

Did you ever listen to this on Radio Netherlands? Northern Finland in Winter to DX.
http://jonathanmarks.libsyn.com/media_n ... ition_1996



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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by Turkeytop » Tue Nov 08, 2016 3:16 pm

Not a very productive outing this year. Propagation conditions were lousy.

But the weather was great. Weather can be pretty unreliable around here in November. In the nine years I've been doing this, I've lucked out every year.

My loggings were meagre, but a having few hours of solitude in the country is good for the soul.





6160 KHZ CKNZ Newfoundland

6090 KHZ Caribbean Beacon Anguilla

6195 KHZ BBC World Service

990 KHZ CBW Winnipeg

5960 KHZ Voice of Turkey

6000- KHZ Radio Havana

6020 KHZ China Radio International

6030 KHZ Radio Marti (Spanish) The U.S. anti-Cuban broadcaster

5616 KHZ USB Gander Air Radio working KLM Flight 642, then next, United Flight 40

5960 KHZ Radio Romania International

10,000 KHZ Time signal station (not WWV.) Announcements were in spanish.

7465 KHZ BBC World Service to Middle East

6080 KHZ Radio Educacion Mexico City (Spanish) I've heard this one often in Florida but this is my first logging of it up here.

6115 KHZ WRMI Miami FL



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Last edited by Turkeytop on Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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audiophile
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Location: Between 88 and 108 MHz.

Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by audiophile » Tue Nov 08, 2016 3:56 pm

Well done.


Ask not what your country can do FOR you; ask what they are about to do TO YOU!!

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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by Turkeytop » Tue Nov 08, 2016 4:02 pm

It was depressing. Broad swaths of bands with no signals at all. MUF at about 10 MHZ. Must be the low solar activity. The bands were noisy. Almost sounded like lightning.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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audiophile
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Location: Between 88 and 108 MHz.

Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by audiophile » Tue Nov 08, 2016 5:10 pm

Well at least no MUFF's needed to determine the MUF this year :-)

Good weather again!


Ask not what your country can do FOR you; ask what they are about to do TO YOU!!

k8jd
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Location: Commerce, MI

Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by k8jd » Tue Nov 08, 2016 9:18 pm

Nice site. What kind of antenna(s) did you put together there ?
I just checked the specs of that Palstar receiver. Cute, but For the bucks I would have expected some kind of passband tuning and at least a 500 & 250 Hz CW filter on it !
I guess it's made for ease of operation and not bells and whistles.
Maybe what I would want would drive it to 4 figure pricing.



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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by Turkeytop » Wed Nov 09, 2016 8:21 pm

k8jd wrote:Nice site. What kind of antenna(s) did you put together there ?
I just checked the specs of that Palstar receiver. Cute, but For the bucks I would have expected some kind of passband tuning and at least a 500 & 250 Hz CW filter on it !
I guess it's made for ease of operation and not bells and whistles.
Maybe what I would want would drive it to 4 figure pricing.

i bought the Palstar in 2009, just a few months before I retired. A retirement gift to myself. The sad irony, of course, was that when I had finally reached a point in my life, when I could afford a decent radio, we had already entered an era when international broadcasters were paring back or shutting down their operations. Then too we were about to enter an era of anemic solar cycles that is likely to continue beyond my lifetime.

But I'm happy with the radio. At the time I bought it, I said it would be the last radio I ever buy. Of course, it wasn't. I've continued to acquire radios. One never has enough of them. But it's still my best radio and probably always will be. It pulls signals up out of the mud where other radios don't even get a sniff. It's so well made. Built like a tank. And made in the U.S. It doesn't have a lot of fancy features, but what it does, it does very well.

The antenna I was using was a simple long wire, tossed up into the trees.
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I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by Turkeytop » Sun Nov 13, 2016 10:26 pm

In my loggings I reported a Spanish language time signal station on 10 MHZ.

I got that wrong. It was PPE - Observatório Nacional. Brazilian Time signal station. Power : 1 kW.

The language is Portuguese.


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2018

Post by Turkeytop » Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:23 pm

So I did my 2018 Mini DXpedition today. Pretty much a disaster. Murphy's Law was being rigidly enforced. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. By the time I got there and got all set up,. it was almost dark. No time for scenic photos.

Band conditions were awful.

The list gets shorter every year, but I still enjoy getting away to a secluded spot in the country for a few hours.

3330 KHZ CHU Canada

5000 KHZ WWV U.S.

10000 KHZ WWV U.S.

6070 KHZ CFRX Toronto

3485 KHZ USB Gander Radio, Newfoundland (Aviation Weather)

2285 KHZ USB Shannon Radio, Shannon Ireland (Aviation Weather)

9960 KHZ Radio Exterior Espana

5960 KHZ Voice of Turkey

9395 KHZ WRMI Miami

5990 KHZ China Radio International

7220 KHZ Radio Romania International

5935 KHZ WWCR Nashville TN

6090 KHZ Caribbean Beacon, Anguilla

6000 KHZ Radio Havana

6030 KHZ Radio Marti U.S. Anti-Cuban station.

7315 KHZ Voice of Vietnam


Lonwave Beacons

245 KHZ YZE Gore Bay ON

269 KHZ YQ Castlegar BC

278 KHZ ADG Adrian Mississippi

326 KHZ VV Wiarton ON

335 KHZ ZKF Kitchener ON

338 KHZ DE Detroit

353 KHZ QG Windsor

366 KHZ YMY Maniwaki Quebec

382 KHZ XU London ON

404 KHZ ZR Sarnia ON

419 KHZ RYS Detroit


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

Arthur Mometer
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by Arthur Mometer » Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:33 pm

AM BC Critical Hours has been hot the last week or so. Logged a few new ones and some I haven't heard in many years, like WBAL 1090 Baltimore.

Heard what I think was WBTM 1330 Danville, VA about 4:30 PM today. Classic Hits or Oldies. 5000 watts non-DA-D.


"I'm meteorologist Arthur Mometer."

"Those of you who think you know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."

"Lies have to be repeated and repeated to be believed. Truth stands on its own merit."

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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2016

Post by Turkeytop » Tue Nov 13, 2018 12:14 am

I used to do MW DXing but they've taken all the joy out of it. Whereas AM stations used to all have their own unique character, now they all sound exactly the same. The same syndicated talk shows. The same national ads. They hardly ever ID.

Longwave beacons might be boring, but at least they ID. That's all they do. :lol


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

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