New SDR-Equipments & Tools

While waiting for a new NetSDR with the latest versions of software I made some tests with SDR-Radio SOftware. I was not very satisfied to measure frequencies accurately or maybe I just do not know how to do it? However it works OK and especially the easy connection with remote RXs is interesting.

The software has a nice tool to analyze IQ-files to make quick waterfall charts of several files. What I would like to add here is lines of frequency steps (like vertical lines / grids for every Hz or so).

Here is an example of a typical situation on 1580 kHz - the TA conditions were rather poor, but the dominant TA carriers can be seen around the nominal (usually: Maria Barranquilla right below, Bogota station on around +4 Hz and the Dominican on around +16 Hz. I had to adjust contrast to show only the strongest carriers as there are a lot of RFI at my home QTH. Interesting smearing can be seen also before the sunrise.

King´s Village DX Station September: Radio Fly, Papua-New Guinea

It is not very often that a new shortwave station starts transmissions on tropical bands. However, during the summer the first signals from this new station in Papua- New Guinea was first time picked up in Finland.
After I got my Asia-BOG working in September I could listen to Radio Fly on 3915 kHz very often, sometimes with good signal during the night time broadcasts of mostly music with some IDs and announcements. The best time was always before the local dawn.
However in the end of the month this frequency has been silent. I have heard them on 5960 kHz but very seldom and always with the very heavy intereference from China which has a powerfull transmitter on 5960.
The station is run by the Ok Tedi Mining Company and there is more info on their web-page here
Let´s hope the station will resume using 3915 kHz in the future.

Trying to Catch the Harvest Moon and check the Autumn Equinox in Northern Germany!

I had a very nice overnight (21-22 Sept.)visit to a wellknown DXer Jürgen Bartels at Süllwarden near the coast of North Sea. JBs QTH seems to be one of the best in the Continental Europe, as being in the countryside there is no big manmade noise - and being at the edge of Europe facing towards the North America, it is ideal for TransAtlantic DX. I was amazed of the set ups of JBs equipment: everything including FM and TV was controlled by a sigle PC and you can even do simultaneous listening with sdr-rxs (Perseus / WinRadio)and exact measurements of carriers by SpectrumLab - the demodulation was done by SpectrumLab as well - and the antennaselection by the famous JB´s StationList. Jurgens photo of the setup with some TVDX going on is here.
We did note some of the most easier North American stations on MW but something was coming through by tropo on FM and even something by Es on TV. But we so much to talk during the night that the real listening was impossible.
You can see more about the Jürgen´s set up at his web pages:http://dx.3sdesign.de/
When flying back from Berlin later that week I noted also a very rapid temperature change in the troposphere - later on I heard that a good ducting with big tropos on FM were noted (from Finland to Romania and Eastern Europe)!

And yes - we were very near the Autumnal Equinox moment - and the Harvest Moon was almost 100% Full during the Night - wouuuu!

Thank You Jürgen - Danke Schön!
73 TK

Final Call For Reports of SWR 6th August

This is the final call of all reception reports of the special SDXL-Summer Meeting 2010 broadcast over Scandinavian Shortwave Radio on August 6th.

All correct reports will be answered with a special QSL.

Furthermore there will be prizes:
1st Prize to the most distance listener - WRTH 2011 from World Radio TV Handbook-
check: WRTH

2nd The most distance Scandinavian
and
3rd The most distance Finnish
Dxers will get a special prize as well.

Please send your reports with the return postage to SWR (before 1st November 2010):
SWR

DX-Station August 2010: CX154 Radio Patria Treinta y Trés, Uruguay 1540 kHz

On August 21st I had one of the best Uruguay-openings on mw for years. Although I could "listen" (record) on 1390 - 1580 kHz, several - for me new - captures were found. Again, Thanks to Henrik Klemetz some of these were solved/verified, like Treinta y Tres 1390, Radio San Carlos on 1510 and the station one 1540 which turned out to be from Treinta y Trés as well.

The station of August on 1540 is RADIO PATRIA, TREINTA Y TRES, URUGUAY and it is easy for me to announce this as the station of August as it made it through interference by other Latins and Europeans (on 1539)!

I thought the station has been heard earlier in Scandinavia, but I am not sure as the station writes "Es la primera confirmación de recepción a larga distancia que recibo".

Thanks for the material send by the stations technical personel Sr Gian Carlo Fallini as well as Paolo Fallini CX2UA for the photos!
More pictures at the blog of CX2UA

It really seems the start of the season has favoured some stations further South, like from Uruguay and Argentina, but also some from Peru. So the conditions might be a bit different of that of the season 2009-2010.

73,tk

SALUDOS CORDIALES Y GRACIAS AM 1540 RADIO PATRIA TREINTA Y TRES!

DX-Station of the Summer 2010: Radio Corporación, Cerro de Pasco 1540 kHz

Before the medium wave season really starts (actually it has started already) I decided to announce a DX-Station of the Summer Season - this station was observed first time already in March 2010 and was identified first in Sweden by several dxers with the help of Henrik Klemetz - it has been noted also after that a copule of times even in summer months. Thanks to the stations frequency which is a bit above the nominal, it can been "seen" often and there is also a "het" easily audible on the upper side band of 1540 with the favourable propagation conditions to Peru. The station is located very high - at the altitude more then 4300 meters - maybe one of the reason it can be heard so well and often although there are several stations around 1540 kHz often present. The station identifies also as "La Voz de Cerro de Pasco" but often just "Corporación" is heard. I don´t know if the station is active on its sw-frequency 6170.

Saludos Cordiales a "Radio Corporación"!

It´s Harvest Time!

This years Harvest Time of DXing Latin America has begun indeed! Some nice openings to Peru and LaPlata area has been noted.
Particularly interesting conditions has been observed before the current (23-26 August) Coronal Hole distururbance.
On August 20th the conditions favoured more Argentina while on August 21 some interesting stations from Uruguay were noted. As an example of the mixed stations can be seen on the screenshot of an IQ-recording containing pictures at 0230 when Radio Belgrano on 1509.99 was dominating (it has been on this "split" quite a long time) - but soon another station just above it was noted - also from LaPlata - the second screenshot shows the situation at 03.00 when another one was dominanting. After 03 utc with some commercial spots for Maldonado and San Carlos are was heard and a full ID after that ""...15-10 kHz Radio San Carlos, una radio regional cubriendo este y sur del Uruguay.." (Thanks to Henrik Klemetz for checking the ID).
Once again an example how modern SDRs help us to see there is something else on the channel than the normal dominant!
Some other (for me new) stations were noted on August 20-21 like Argentinians 1550 LT23, 1560 LT11 and a few still unidentified Uruguayans on 1520 (pres. one of these was from Uruguay) and 1540 (commercials mentioning Uruguay, tentatively this could be Radio Centro). It seems quite a few new split frequenccies were noted as well. Stay tuned for more info and the station of the month to be revealed soon!
73 TK

The MW-DX-Season 2010-11 Officially Started!

This season´s mw-dx was officially opened during the "SDXL-Summer Meeting 2010" at Haapavesi. The Fireworks at the end of the meeting together with a heavy thunderstorm (sic!) marked the "official start" this year.

It seems there has been some good Trans Atlantic DX-openings like the one on August 9th with some nice loggings of Bolivia (at least on 1440 by JVH) ! and a few Peruvians (1540.16 seems to be rather common now, noted also at my home QTH). It seems we will see some good openings towards Latin America also later this month.

More about the Summer Meeting with some pictures later on. Stay Tuned. In the meantime please try to identify some of the DX-stations from the small video of the performance by our special guest star at the meeting Sauli Heikkilä ("DXing in 1970´s").
73 TK

Special Broadcast from the SDXL Summer Meeting - and a Competition

A Special broadcast by the Scandianvian Weekend Radio on 1602 kHz & HF will be broadcasted from the SDXL Summer Meeting at Haapavesi on August 6th - 7th. More info at swradio.net.

Competion for DX-listener´s

SDXL in co-operation with Northern Dimenson DXers, Haapavesi Folk High School and King´s Village DX will announce a competition for DXers in Finland and abroad!

Who will be able to pick up the broadcasts on August 6th-7th from the biggest distance (from the TX site at Virrat, Finland N 62°23' E 23°37').

The competition will have 3 categories:
1) Finnish listeners
2) Scandinavian listeners
3) Rest of the World

All reports should be sent (with a return postage) to SWR (see SWRadio.net). Please give a distance and/or your coordinates with the report.

Correct reports will be replied with a special QSL-Card.

More info about the convention at http://dx2010.blogspot.com/

Best 73s
SDXL Summer Meeting Team

Happy Summer Solstice !

So we are again wittnessing the time when the "sun is standing". Although the sun was behind some clouds at 14.28 local time (11.28 UT, the exact time of the solstice) it seems we are starting to move towards the next medium wave season - slowly. As the sun stands so did my little friend on the tree, staring at my ALA100 loop under the old oak tree in my backyard. The antenna is having a summer rest for a month or two...

King´s Village DX wish you a Happy Summer Solstice 2010!

The Secret of the "Kantelemies" revealed!

During a short visit at Haapavesi with some preparations for the next solar minumum (more about that later on)I got the answer of the strange "Kantelemies" / "Kanteleman" standing at the backyard of the DX-Summer Meeting Venue´s Buildings at Haapavesi: the guy is playing with this nice instrument the first version of an old traditional Finnish song which has been an interval signal of YLE "Suomen Yleisradio" - Finnish Broadcasting Company since 1931! Actually the very first tune was played with kantele and the later version with other instruments and finally by the computer. A Kantele is a tradional instrument of the people of North Eastern parts of Europe at least. A kantele (pronounced [ˈkɑntele] in Finnish) or kannel ([ˈkɑnːel] in Estonian) is a traditional plucked string instrument of the zither family native to Finland, Estonia, and Karelia. It is related to the Russian gusli, the Latvian kokle and the Lithuanian kanklės. Together these instruments make up the family known as Baltic psalteries (Wikipedia). Haapavesi is very well known of this instrument and has been called also as a "Kantele Town" of Finland! You can listen to the original YLE-interval signal by clicking the video above.

More details with programs (in Finnish) now about the FDXA Summer meeting blog: http://dx2010.blogspot.com/.

The next picture shows that the preparation for the next solar minimum has been taken place at my Haapavesi QTH: totally 238 birches has been planted in two rows (to the north west, towards North America) - so maybe I have to start more activily to dx North America after 5-6 years when the trees should be of about 5 meters high. I will be back of the results then...

More details of the SDXL Summer Meeting in August

...will be published soon. In the meantime, you can take a look of the symbols of the event: maybe the first one is a guy tuning an old tube receiver and another one, erecting antennas during the winter dx-pedition or maybe "following the tracks of a DX" (which seems to be a new habbit among sdr-dxers...).
Stay tuned for more information at sdxl-summer meeting 2010

King´s Village DX-Station April: Radio Victoria, Arequipa

This station was finally IDed in April after many recordings on this very interesting channel, often dominated by the Venezuelan or Colombian stations. As Radio Victoria is a bit low on the frequency it is easy to see even without audio. Now on April 10th the channel was free of other stations and the station ID was heard almost in the beginning of the IQ-recording starting at around 0250. In about an half an hour the station had only this announcement and non stop music programmes.
As my sister´s son (Jarkko) visited Arequipa he made some recordings with an "semi ultralight" Philips receiver & MP3-recorder (Transcend MP330, which is a nice little device with a line-in!) and he managed to make some observations of the Peruvian stations in Arequipa. More about his observations later on - the recordings have been analyzed by Henrik Klemetz. Among other things some announcements and slogans of Radio Victoria were found:”Radio Victoria, llegando a todo el sur del Perú, presentó ‘Los Protagonistas’ en Victoria deportiva”. “Transmite, transmite, radio, radio, radio, Victoria. Radio Victoria, la emisora de Arequipa para el Perú”. “Radio Victoria, en todo superior, superior, superior”.
Thanks also for the logo of the station, Henrik!

Saludos cordiales a Radio Victoria, Arequipa!

King´s Village DX-Station March: Radio Cóndor Manizales

This station was heard on the nice "Manizales" dx-opening on March 26th. As in my earlier post the identity was found by Henrik Klemetz (TNX HK!) and the station also verified that it was really Radio Cóndor although the word "Cóndor" was just lost in the very deep fade at around 04.00. A nice email from the station´s director pointed out of a nice coindicence as my DX-QTH is near Kotka city in Finland (Kotka in English = eagle and "cóndor" is a big "Andean eagle" as well. The director Mrs. Ana María Mesa writes "Sí, el cóndor es un ave andina de gran envergadura. Es una bonita coincidencia."
Below is a clip with both the ID captured on March 26th and an "original" from the web (tnx HK!). Although it is hard to hear the "Cóndor" when the station was heard, the station verified that the program was from them, as well as the (canned) ID although it fell down fading out at the critical moment. Thanks for the picture of Manizales,Henrik.

Muchas Gracias Directora Ana María Mesa!

Measuring Latin American frequencies

During a few nice mornings in March I made some more offset measurements of the typical (and some more rare) stations of Colombia (& some other Latin American countries).
Especially on March 26th during a nice opening to Colombia favouring Manizales - Cali area, quite a few signals were well above audio level making IDing also by audio possible. The list of the statations heard is on picture below the article. The band was captured simultanously by IQ- and SDR-14-receivers at the King´s Village QTH covering 1190 - 1580 kHz. I have kept also one IQ on at home more to review the current conditions and make some observations during the sunrise period (usually about 15 minutes by daily basis) with a ALA100 loop (3x7 meters) in the garden. Although the urban RFI is heavy. sometimes signals do make their way up from the noise. On 26th March nice signals from some of those Colombians were noted also at home. The clearest was Sonora Cali mixed with Maria Manizales on 1500 kHz. At the picture you can easily see the slight drift of Maria and Sonora closing down (a clip with the Sonora sign off with QRM of Radio Maria).

The second figure shows a three days analysis on 1540. It is very easy to do with the SpectraVue automatically just to "listen" afterwards with waterfall and "allow file chaining" on. All measurements are done on a resolution of 0.19 Hz, but there is a calibration error of (below) 1 Hz. On 1540 it was nice to note that besides the common Bahamas (dominates during conditions favoring the Caribbean/Colombia) or TurboMix Cajamarca (during conditions favouring Peru) a Colombian station on 1539.994(5) could be noted. The waterfall shows it being the dominant on March 26th.

The station turned out to be Radio Cóndor Manizales which could be an "easy guess" as Mainzales was also strong on 1450.027 (no ID though) and 1500.005 (Maria). Thanks to Henrik Klemetz (again) to solving the ID!
On the bigger view a station on 1540.154-5 can be seen. This was first noted in Sweden by Gert Nilsson. On March 26th the close down was at 04.17 after instrumental music. A Peruvian or from Bolivia? Any ideas?
Remarks 17 April: According to Swedish DXers the station is Radio Corporación, La Voz de Cerro de Pasco (Tnx TJ, HK)


The whole list (mainly 26 March & a few others can be found by clicking the text below)
The list of offsets (google docs).

73 TK

King´s Village DX-Station February: Taiyuan PBS China 1422

It took some time to announce the February DX-Station as I tried to found some info about this one - Taiyuan PBS, Voice the Elderly, which was first noted already in November - it must have raised the power as soon it become a dominant Asian station on this channel. Often it is also stronger than the German station, at least in Eastern Scandinavia. The ToH id starts always with a Time Check (like at 13 hrs) "Beijing shi jian er shi dian zheng" (Beijing time exactly=zheng 21) followed by "Taiyuan ren men guang bo diantai" (Taiyuanin People Radio Station) " and the channel "Laonian ren yisheng" (for Elderly People life) the frequency "AM yi si er er" (AM 1422) and at last "Huanying shou ting" (Welcome to listen). On screenshot you can see the station being quite strong on 1422.995 while Germany is on 1422.00. It seems this channel is only on AM as usually these Chinese channels gives first the FM then the AM frequencies.
The Chinese stations on MW are always a challenge as there seems to be always new transmitters and program channels to be found. Several new have been observed this winter as well. And well, the language is another challenge indeed!
Ni Hao!
TK

SDR- IP impressions

SDR- IP impressions during a one night listening tests
at Muhos:

As there has been earlier posts about the SpectraVue´s approach to listening and measuring the frequencies (see posts on the KingsVillageDX-blog) this is not discussed here rather we try to make a summary of the lsitening tests by TuA in Lapland, some comparisions by listening to mw-band at Muhos (about 1000 m beverage to the West) on March 5-6th and the analysis of the recorded files by afterwards.

Go to the full story at pudxk.blogspot.com !

Feelings from the PUDXK Winter Meeting

Some feelings & pictures from the PUDXK 2010 Winter Meeting. Impressions of SDR-IP will be published soon at the PUDXK-Blog.
73 TK

Happy Spring Equinox!

So it is time to turn into Spring time now with more sunshine and less Northern Dimension DX-conditions. But be prepared for the nice Trans Atlantic dx, maybe again a bit better for the Andies and later to Brazil and La Plata. Meanwhile you can look at the sunrise around 06 local and listen to the spring birds!
73 TK

MW-conditions Nov. 2009 - Feb 2010

Maybe the best mw-reception conditions particulary to Northern Dimensions (actually from Japan to North America West Cost) were observed in Scandinavia during the last few months. The conditions did change however in February. Is this the normal annual change towards more active sun during the spring equinox or is this due to the rapidly increasing solar activity will be seen soon.

However I make a small analysis of the "Auroral level Indexes" (POES measurements) making a graph of smoothed indexis (about 9000 observations of the satellite measurements over the Northern Hemisphere) from November to February.

It seems that the lowest average of Auroral levels for a long time were on December 2009 with an averaged value of 2.64 while the averages for Nov. was 3.05, for Jan. 3.12 rising to 4.21 in February.

73 TK