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Mini DXpedition 2019

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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Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:27 pm

Mini DXpedition 2019

Post by Turkeytop » Sun Oct 27, 2019 9:46 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. The challenge will be greater this year because we're deep in the trough between solar cycles

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 5 or 6 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 4. The weather can be unreliable at that time of year, but in the eleven 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.


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

fuzzpower
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2019

Post by fuzzpower » Mon Oct 28, 2019 7:14 am

I have a shortwave function on my portable radio but almost never use it. I’ve never done DXing with it.

Let us know what you pick up.



k8jd
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Location: Commerce, MI

Re: Mini DXpedition 2019

Post by k8jd » Mon Oct 28, 2019 7:52 pm

I spent many hours in campgrounds, on trails or at a campfire listening to an inexpensive portable, multiband BC and SW band radio. Maybe in the 1980s and would hear the broadcasts from Europe, Japan, S.America, S.Korea and Australia. coming thru loud and clear. One of my favorites (usually at home with the big antennas) Radio Tahiti, in French with a lot of beautiful Polynesian music.
One by one those voices went silent over the years and now all you hear is evangelist programs lamenting all the sin today.



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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2019

Post by Turkeytop » Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:52 pm

Some of my favourites were BBC, Deutch Welle, Swiss Radio International, and Radio Nederland. HCJB was a religious station but they also had a lot of general interest programs. I miss them all.


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

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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2019

Post by Turkeytop » Sat Nov 02, 2019 7:09 pm

So, I'm considering rescheduling this thing one day later to Nov 5. The weather forecast for Nov 4 calls for light rain. For the next day, Nov 5, it just says partly cloudy. I've never ever rescheduled the event before. I'm reluctant to start. It can become a slippery slope.

If my wife sees that the date isn't really carved in stone, she could come up with all kinds of creative ideas to get me to change it in future years.

I'll wait until about noon on Sunday to make up my mind.


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

cckadlec
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Location: Fremont, Mich. / Seoul, Korea
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2019

Post by cckadlec » Sun Nov 03, 2019 2:46 am

I'll speak from my own experience from my 100+ FM bandscan outings with the portable. Sometimes crappy weather can still work out for you. Of course, in my case, I often did bandscans on planned trips where the weather is gonna cooperate or I'm totally f*cked. And sometimes it just doesn't. I've been incredibly lucky though, but for the times I stood outside in the rain for hours on end and found a little tree for some shelter, I recall those memories - though crappy - as a challenge and a success. I persisted and accomplished my goal despite the crap thrown my way. My weather in Cleveland was NOT good at all - rain and overcast and wind the entire weekend - but the DX was actually very good nonetheless. My first Sleeping Bear scan was plague with time issues (lack thereof) and I was upset about that. I did it anyway and ended up with 600-mile tropo unexpectedly. (I later went back and did a whole other scan as well). Most of my AM and SW recordings from Seoul were done in the dead of winter on cold, snowy, and windy nights. It was absolutely miserable at the time. But the results from those nights are what thousands of people listened to later on my website and were a major accomplishment for me. Sometimes you remember what you hear and brush aside the mosquitoes (not a big concern this time of year, though my most memorable DX session got me 160 mosquito bites), terrible weather, or ... well, I won't even say some of my own downfalls from DXing.

But you have the chance to move things around a little to make it an easier time for yourself. You should take it. If it's only a single day, your wife should understand it's the ONE day you do your thing out of 365 days.


[ Radio and weather geeks, beware! Coastal tropo studies, the 3-hr. Seoul AM Radio Listening Guide, 6-hr. 500 Top-of-Hour IDs, and Chinese FM at www.chriskadlec.comTuner: Grundig G8 • Location: Fremont, Mich. ]

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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2019

Post by Turkeytop » Sun Nov 03, 2019 7:37 pm

Looks like I'm on for Monday. Weather says 40% chance of a shower. I read that as a 60% chance of no shower.

Because there are so few International broadcasters anymore, I plan to spend some time monitoring the HF marine and aeronautical bands.

Last year I had some success with long wave beacons. I like them because they're easy to get an ID. That's all they do. But a lot of those are now being turned off.

When I get there, I always stop at the local police station to let them know what I'll be doing. I don't want some cop interrupting me, checking out a report of suspicious activity.


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

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Turkeytop
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Re: Mini DXpedition 2019

Post by Turkeytop » Tue Nov 05, 2019 4:29 pm

So, the threatened rain didn’t materialize. The day turned out sunny and warm
Got there around 4:00 PM. Time enough to get set up and take a few pics before dark. I started my monitoring about 5:00 PM. Not a very productive session this year. Then to Tim's around 9:00 PM to warm up with a hot bowl of chili before heading home.

Loggings


3330 KHZ CHU Canada

7375 KHZ Radio Romania International

10000KHZ WWV USA

9980 KHZX WWCR Nashville

9955 KHZ Radio Argentina

9445 KHZ All India Radio

6080 KHZ WRMI Miami

6030 KHZ Radio Marti The U.S. anti-Cuban station

6020 KHZ China Radio International

3413 KHZ USB Shannon VOLMET Radio Ireland

5450 KHZ USB RAF VOLMET Great Britain

3485 KHZ USB Gander Radio Gander NL

6090 KHZ Caribbean Beacon Anguilla

6000 KHZ Radio Havana

5000 KHZ WWV USA




I also checked out the long wave beacons

246 KHZ YZE Gore Bay ON

277 KHZ YQA Muskoka Falls ON

289 KHZ YLQ Lutuque QC

326 KHZ VV Wiarton ON

332 KHZ PH Port Huron MI

335 KHZ ZKF Kitchener - Waterloo ON

340 KHZ YY Mont Joli QC

346 KHZ YXL Sioux Lookout ON

350 KHZ D7 Kinkardine ON

353 KHZ QG Windsor ON

366 KHZYMW Maniwaki QC

375 KHZ 7B St Thomas ON

382 KHZ XU London ON

392 KHZ ML Monroe IN

404 KHZ ZR Sarnia ON



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Parkhill is 1080 miles from Niceville.



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

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