LOGS / NEWS - SEPTEMBER 2013 A site mainly dedicated to Mediumwave Dxing |
| 930 | WRVC | Huntington, WV | 
0527 8/9/13 SUPERTALK 94.1 / 930 ESPN (5/ 1KW) |
| 1160 | WCVX | Florence, KY (Cincinati stn, AM 11-60) |
0600, 23/9/13 (Topaz lists as WQRT) |
| 1450 | WLEC | Sandusky, OH |
23/9/13 0600 |
| 1470 | WPDM | Potsdam, NY |
29/9/13 2256 DAYTIMER |
= "Play Clip" button
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The end of September already?? Wah. Time slows down for no one. At least I managed a few daytimers over the last days. 760 WCHP, 1190 The Chinese stn, WCRW is it. A new
one on me though is WPDM, Potsdam, NY, closing around 2256, so the
file for 2300 only just caught the id, and the strong signal.
A FEW OTHER LOGS: 630 CFCO
fair 28/9 0600
The band is in general quite good. Dxers in England report Vancouver on 1320 today, but no trace here. CJMR far too strong at that time. No trace of KOMO or 1470, 950 and other beacon west coast stations.
WLW COMPARASON FILE: UPDATE: I have found the settings for the output sample rating and set to a standard 44.1k. I wonder why the default was so poor... Audio sounds much better now... I need to find the time to remake some audio files. I have made an extra file in my entry comparing HDSDR and Perseus audio. Listening to both, there is no comparason. The HDSDR is like listening through a phone line, see below.
The weekend and early part of the week have been rather good for tadx. It may look like I have not been listening, as this site has not been updated in a few weeks, but every time I start writing, I never seem to get the articles finished!! I did make a montage of a bad band. Now I have made some recordings from the last few days loud signals, mainly from 23rd. Other text I want to include and articles are unfinished and will have to wait. At least I have thrown something up on line..lol.
530 WUNO
PR 0600 23/9
Here is a sample of the strong singals heard here in the last days, mostly 23rd. 1110
WBT
960 WEAV
950 CKNB
A MESSAGE FROM A GUY: An interesting email arrived the other day from Guy in the States about something pretty close to my own heart. Greetings DXers, As you will remember, in past years I hosted Perseus WAV files that you had sent to me for the former "Five Below" Perseus blog. These files still exist on my MediaFire.com storage space on the Web. I've been asked by Thomas Witherspoon (of the www.SWLing.com blog) for permission to submit copies of your files for a coordinated effort to archive radio spectrum recorded with SDR receivers. Thomas has introduced me to the following interesting project: I have been recording and digitally archiving spectrum with the idea that, in the future, people can tune through archived spectrum and do a little radio "time travel." I can imagine a broadcast or radio museum finding this invaluable in the future. I imagine, now, what it would be like to tune through a circa 1950's 31M band spectrum recording, for example.
Thank you for considering participation in this interesting project! Best DX this season to you, Guy
Atkins
MY OWN COMMENTS: I have my own thoughts re this project, and yes I 100% agree with the other dxers that passed comment about the desire to have immediate direct public access. It really would be a very easy and surprisingly cheap project. It would cost nothing for example to daisy chain a 2TB drive that I sent over with certain wideband files, many of which already have historical content, by which I mean that many of the stations on my earlier recordings have closed down for good. All that would be needed would be an index page created, with a description of the files. Similar for International important events. Even hurricanes. In my experience in Scotland though, anything to do with the local authorities ends up a complete mess, done in the most stupid, complicated and expensive way possible, and in a project like this I fear, they would try and limit access somehow. Over here, they spent goodness knows how much on a supposed archive of a local town. The images are on line at 640 x 480, about the res of the first digital cameras. Pathetic. My interest in this project would only be if unlimited, free, open public access was made to any files supplied. We as SDR users are aware of the price of drive space. 2TB SATA drives currently around 70 quid I think. So bullshitting cost claims doesn't work. I must add that in my own experience of any official channels here in Scotland, the powers that be, the men with the sweaty suits that have to give the nod, tend to be clueless idiots. They give the impression that they were perhaps given their posting not out of qualification, passion or knowledge, but perhaps by being in the right "lodge" or something. Well it is the only reason I can think of for many of them being in their jobs. Many of this rot has festered in local government for half a lifetime or more, and to quote a more forward thinking polititian that I spoke to, "xxxx is a bigger drawback than an elephant's foreskin", LOL... I founded, funded and still run a local historical archive, and have done for the last 15 years or so, when the humble PC and scanners were classed as new technology. Trying to get any asistance, whether it be a simple contingency plan for when I am "deed and away", never mind get a full time job in this line of work, was like some kind of a nightmare. I would have been as well talking to the boy scouts. Only last year after showing some of my archives at an annual local event, two very nice and well meaning nationalist councilors wanted to do something to assist. I had gone down that road 10 years before, and what a waste of time that was. But this time around I attended meetings rather foolishly in hindsight, only to find these new kids on the block had no proper ideas either and nothing to offer. They did chance their luck by offering web space on their own servers, which they openly admitted would be at the cost of control of my own work!! Great idea I scoffed!! Hand over 15 years of work to the local government body, in return for ... wait for it... nothing!!!. Two words can answer that and one of them is OFF. lol. But back to the subject, let's hope that the Americans are more forward thinking than the dead wood over here in Scotland. Maybe they will surprise us all and end up assisting creating a proper archive!!! There was one suggestion to become part of the Radio Herritage Foundation. I would not be interested in anything to do with that outfit. These are the folks that mail out endless begging emails, scrounging thousands of pounds, claiming their costs are 16 or 20 grand or whatever it is, to run a twenty quid web site, whose indexing is all over the place. Maybe they have an actual museum somewhere, I have no idea. (I may write more on this subject in the coming days, so keep checking)
The MW band was very depressed this morning, and the Canadian graph showed a lot of orange peaks around our peak dx time.
The MW band has been producing some pretty good signals this week, and although I was not at home Wed, Thurs, Fri, I was able to record all but Fridays dx. But Friday seemed to give a very unusual emergency / storm stn in NJ on 1710, heard by Mark on the Borders. Well done. Mark was also hearing KOMO on 1000, and heard here 17th with a bit of work. I did hear the snarl up of stations on 16th, but deleted the files. So after trying around 0531, there it was, mixing with ESPN Chicago. I would once have become excited over this, but KOMO is heard every winter here these days at some time or another, and it certainly wasn't classed as a west coast opening today. But I give a recording anyway, poor may it be.. And just before deleting todays files, I tried 0600 again, and noticed a sports station in the mess. It did id in the mush at 0600, as WOKY Milwalkee. This station I have in my all time lists, but heard when it was the more exciting sound of 9-20 THE WOLF.
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AUDIO WITH PERSEUS SDR AND WINRAD / HDSDR SOFTWARE: Much speculation, and debate has went on amonst us dxers about the audio from Perseus and other SDR radios. HDSDR is much better for dxing, I have heard it said. Hmm, I say. So I thought I would play a few audio clips of both, side by side, both stretched to maximum. The first is the KOMO clip above. To my ears, the compression rate on the HDSDR audio is so poor as to make the audio whine almost. I don't hear the attraction.
And finally, this update. This recording is of WLW 700, a common station in Europe, but it is listened to on USB only here due to heavy BBC signals from 693. It can also be listened to on AM using USB only. But what of the reputedly wonderful HDSDR now. How can I get AM, 1 sideband only?? I am not sure I can. On the Perseus, the powerful secondary filter window makes life so easy by right clicking, and dragging flter to suit, and a turnn of the mouse wheel to get it just right. The WINDRAD derived GUIs just don't have the same power in their filter windows. And the audio on SSB and AM sounds like it's being fed down an old 70's phone line, similar in quality to some of those Spanish FM stations that used to come through during the summer openings.
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UNID SIGN ON 927 AT 0300: I have been hearing a sign on at 0300 on the perfectly clear 927 these days. I just don't get the language. Eastern of some kind, but that's easy for me to say. There is nothing to the west for thousands of miles!!
====================================================================== RONAN NOT KEEPING TOO GOOD: Word is reaching us here that the founder of Radio Caroline, Ronan O'Rahilly is not keeping so good. The Offshore Echos site suggests that he has been in decline and has moved back to Ireland to be with relatives. Ronan has also hit hard times, according to the report, and OEF claim to be starting a fund raiser shortly. Sad news indeed, for the man responsible for Caroline in the 60's, the 70's and the 80's era's. He has not had much to do with the landbased Caroline over the years, though was heard on air in 1998, along with Johnny Walker, see offshore downloads section.
====================================================================== WORLD DX CLUB: WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A BIT OF WEB SPACE: We have seen recently the demise of the World DX Club. It seems that when the web site subscription runs out, that is it. Gone. Forgotten. History. I find it a shame that the dx clubs do not as a rule create themselves an archive of past issues. What an on line reference that would be. Past issues at the click of a button. The cost is sweeties nowadays. For all the web space that would take up, a mere twenty quid a year would cover it, to save using these so called free services, many of which are ad infested, or here today gone tomorrow. I despair when I hear of another DX club that has plenty gigs of spare web space, and doesn't seem to want to put it to good use! It's as though the "membership only / secret society" mentality kicks in. I have reported here before of this highway of thought, and even found some very odd thinking relating to one of the Nordic DX Clubs in the past. Was it the Arctic DX Club, ah yes, see June 2010. Modern thinking dx "open" clubs would be beneficial to all, instead of all these constant $$$$$$ signs!!
OLD DX FILES: Listening to my old files is always interesting. I have just been hearing something on 1350 on 4th June, when there is no notes here in the log / blog, call it what you like. There are some other signals around, 930, 1570 and 1470, 1360, and others. These files need further investigation one day.
I noted this WV station the other day on 930, which I don't see in AB's UK lists, so possibly a first known report???. It is a 5kw / 1kw station, poss on day power?? Or just a fade at the right time. The station was an ESPN station. WBEN is a relatively common station here, and heard a few times this season already. But I do recall hearing sport that seemed to be mixing with the rest of the mess on 930 at times in the past, but I was never 100% sure if it really was another station, or WBEN carrying sport. CJYQ and CFBC are the two common ones on that freq here in Europe.
OTHER MW DX: I meant to mention a poor ID noted from KYHN 1650 the other day in OK. Reactivation of the KWHN txer from Fort Smith I believe? I missed the ID, as it was just before the hour, but Stu spotted it, and I had it as well. It was initally by passed here as simply probably WHKT the ex Disney station that is a talker now. Chicago area was good on 9th I think it was. Logs are not kept particularly great here, and I certainly don't list every time I hear WWKB...
780 WBBM
IS YOUR MIND PAST IT'S BEST? I do not read such comics, but I can't help but scoff at this article that appeared in the UK SUN recently. I was raking the bin at the YL's one day for something to read, as she planned to go in to a dreaded shop!! lol.. I knew I would have along boring wait, unless I found reading material. I had no reading material with me, as this took me by surprise, and unfortunately the UK SUN was the only thing I could find. How sad. But anyway, now that the disclaimer is out the way, I will show the article I found. Imagine printing this kind of rubbish!!!!! What if you are not a reader of the crap newspapers, or not a viewer of pathetic mainstream tv. Some of us have more interest than Big Brother, or Britain's got Talent, Coronation Street etc. Gees. Even grown men talk about these silly screaming style shows that are aired on a Saturday night.
NAME THESE FACES, OR BE CLASSED AS DEMENTED!!! COME OFF IT!!! My own results are as follows... only 4 from 16.
1. Heard of. Wouldn't know face or anything more about her. 2. Never heard of. 3. Possibly heard of, but know nothing of her. (Update, I obviously know nothing of this person, as I thought she was perhaps to do with Monte-Carlo!!) 4. Never heard of. 5. Yee Ha. Here's one I do know, the one they burn photos of in my area, and celebrate her death!! 6. Never heard of. 7. Never heard of. 8. Wouldn't have got Whitney from that photo. 9. Never heard of. 10. Yes old Nelson. Easy one 11. I couldn't place the painting, but then it isn't Rabbie Burns is it.. 12. Never heard of. 13. Of course!!! My era!! 14. Never heard of. 15. Heard of, but no idea what she looks like 16. I am no football fan, but I got this one, surprisingly!!!!
But let's think for a bit. How about a quiz from my side.... How many of the great "talent / stars / big brother" style readers of the UK SUN would know the following faces?? Ronan O'Rahilly, Andy Archer, Tony Allan, Chris Cary, Peter Chicago, Peter Moore, Johnny Lewis, Nigel Harris or Bob Lawrence (Radio Caroline people) Or music legends such as Neil Young, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Dave Gilmour, Roger Waters, Bon Jovi, Pete Townsend, Roger Daltrey, Angus Young etc etc. I would have thought that if you CAN name these self aclaimed superstars, you are reading these type of newspapers and watching that type of television, and that most certainly is the first sign of dementia . . lol
Gone are the boring political talk shows and in comes the boring sports commentators!! No wonder AM radio is going down. Noted on Thursday night here in Europe as ESPN. See todays montage. Actually a montage of the last few days. 1520
WWKB new ann, and old ann
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