DRNK
Posted by POB on September 16, 2014 at 00:37:55.
Ireland - Remembering Atlantic 252 - 25 years on
Radio Today
1 September 2014
(excerpt)
It’s exactly 25 years ago since Atlantic 252 first signed on the air, and in celebration here’s a tribute of the long wave giant. It was an official tribute created and broadcast as the station closed on Thursday 20 December 2001, created by Eric Murphy and Enda Caldwell, commissioned by Atlantic 252′s Managing Director John O’Hara.
The station launched at 8am September 1st 1989 and stayed on-air across Europe from Trim, County Meath till 2002. The frequency is now used for RTÉ Radio 1.
Simon Nicks: “25 years ago today – Long Wave Radio Atlantic 252 began broadcasting. First song being Tears For Fears – Sowing The Seeds Of Love – with the voice of Gary King coming out of the radio! I listened on that day and was lucky enough to be part of the history of this station a couple of years later, when I arrived in Trim Co Meath. Was an amazing baptism in radio, and was surrounded by creative, passionate and good people, all with the aim to make a great radio station."
Here’s a video report http://www.rte.ie/archives/2014/0811/636376-radio-tara/ of the problems the station caused with putting its 900 foot high transmitting mast up in Carkstown.
Full article: http://radiotoday.ie/2014/09/remembering-atlantic-252-25-years-on/ © Radio Today Re: Ireland - Remembering Atlantic 252 - 25 years on
Posted by Krystallo on September 02, 2014 at 19:43:31.
In reply to Ireland - Remembering Atlantic 252 - 25 years on posted by Mike Terry on September 01, 2014
Hey Mike,
252 is probably my favorite LW station.Although it DOES appear here (AT TIMES) it's not a "common" station. 90 % of the time(here at apt.) it's inaudible, or at best, weak.
There HAVE been times, when I'm set up at the beach, were it has come in well and occasionally was BOOMING in.More the acceptation than the rule though.The last time I did a LW dxpedition at the ocean it was quite strong with GREAT Irish music.
My best bets in order: France, Germany , Morocco and Algeria . Many nights, even during the winter , here AT the apt. they are often weak or not there at all.
France AT the beach would probably be a good bet "most" nights during winter.
K
Interest in HiFers
Posted by Krystallo on September 02, 2014 at 19:47:16.
Hey All,
Other than John Davis, how many of you guys "regularly" check for HiFers ? and if so, how often ?
I know that Summer may not be the BEST season (noise, folks being busy, etc). Just wondering how many folks try to log HiFers.
K
Re: Interest in HiFers
Posted by straytech on September 03, 2014 at 02:33:41.
In reply to Interest in HiFers posted by Krystallo on September 02, 2014
Hey! Re: Interest in HiFers
If you're worried about lack of interest in these beacons in general, be aware that there are many of us "lurkers" who stop by here and there ( to both the forums and the HiFer frequencies, but don't post. I see the hit counter at the bottom is coming in at at 700 or 800 per month. Even if the beacon ops don't see a lot of reports... your time is noticed.
Posted by Krystallo on September 03, 2014 at 11:52:24.
In reply to Re: Interest in HiFers posted by straytech on September 03, 2014
Hey Stray,
Just trying to get an idea of my "audience" (Hi !).
K
Re: Interest in HiFers
Posted by Paul on September 06, 2014 at 21:54:45.
In reply to Re: Interest in HiFers posted by Krystallo on September 03, 2014
I receive several reception reports for my HiFer, yet seldom see it mentioned here. Do not fret, people DO listen for them, and if they know you will QSL, they will send you reception reports.
Most people here seem primarily interested in "the watering hole" where a bunch of HiFers are cluster together.
Re: bad luck...
Posted by Douglas Williams on September 07, 2014 at 18:26:12.
In reply to Re: bad luck... posted by Douglas Williams on August 30, 2014
Got everything reinstalled and tested today. The R75, LF Converter, and antenna multicoupler seem to have survived whatever happened with functionality intact.
Re: Preamp for VLF/LF
Posted by marky on September 10, 2014 at 15:25:22.
In reply to Re: Preamp for VLF/LF posted by John Davis on January 30, 2014
I had the same thought. While an audio preamp might not Re: Preamp for VLF/LF
have the bandwidth, how about the video amp from an old
VCR? The bandwidth should be at least 4 Mhz.
Posted by John Davis on September 11, 2014 at 16:36:23.
In reply to Re: Preamp for VLF/LF posted by marky on September 10, 2014
The bandwidth would probably be adequate, but isolating the gain stages from the rest of the circuitry for input/output purposes might be a bit awkward.
There's probably quite a bit of variation among different specimens, but I'd also be concerned about noise performance. Some years ago, I used a video distribution amplifier (composite video, not RF) as a temporary low gain signal splitter for LF, and it was less than satisfactory in the noise department. Ipad App
John
Posted by Brian Chapman on September 12, 2014 at 14:12:32.
I just received this email this morning concerning my request to Black Cat Systems for an IOS app for QRSS.
From: Chris Smolinski
Date: September 12, 2014 at 5:10:07 PDT
To: Brian Chapman
Subject: Re: 5 5 5 Slow QRSS Morse
Hi Brian,
The QRSS / Waterfall app, Godafoss, is now available: http://www.blackcatsystems.com/ipad-iphone-ipod-touch-shortwave-ham-amateur-radio-app/godafoss-audio-spectrum-waterfall-qrss-cw-dfcw-fsk-cw-decoder.html
On Aug 30, 2014, at 10:57 AM, Brian Chapman wrote:
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/nHDUy1YPKfs
Sent from my iPhone
Chris Smolinski Re: bad luck...
Black Cat Systems
http://www.blackcatsystems.com
Posted by Lee on September 13, 2014 at 07:56:05.
In reply to Re: bad luck... posted by Douglas Williams on September 07, 2014
Good news! Glad to hear it was a simple fix! JAM is not up yet but I think end of the month first of October is reasonable. Remember folks.....the magic of JAM seems to happen Febuary thru March. Thanks to all who search! Lee. Message Board Time Stamps
KE6PCT
Posted by Webmaster on September 13, 2014 at 16:25:04.
Some time ago, I set the Message Board to show the date and time of postings in GMT, because the server's previous default time (Pacific) and the semiannual changes between standard and daylight savings time tended to be confusing.
Unfortunately, over the past few months, our hosting provider had a series of unfortunate incidents while upgrading software on the machine where our server resides. In the aftermath of the fixes,* its internal clock was eight or nine hours ahead and was also reporting a bogus time zone. This may have been causing intermittent problems with the LW Lobby page as well. Then, about two weeks ago, there was a day when the time stamps were a full year off! That really messed things up.
Since then, they seem to have corrected all that, and decided to run the machine on East Coast civil time, since the company is now located just outside Boston. However, I'm posting this message to determine what time zone this Board is actually reporting at present, because it was previously set for GMT based on the server's original Seattle location.
If the server's time is really set correctly and it's reporting GMT properly now, I may leave it that way. Or, I could change it to show EST/EDT, since nearly all of us in North America are accustomed to mentally converting Eastern Time to our own local zone, anyway.
[Update: Turns out, it is correctly reporting the date and time in UTC or GMT right now.]
That's just my own thinking, though. If you have a preference either for GMT or for Eastern Time, please feel free to post it below, and I'll take your feedback into account. Thanks!
John Re: Message Board Time Stamps
________________________
(* See, it's not just Windows where installing an "improvement" can suddenly cause things to not work! Our server runs on Linux.)
Posted by Lee on September 14, 2014 at 04:25:05.
In reply to Message Board Time Stamps posted by Webmaster on September 13, 2014
UTC, Universal Time Coordinated works just fine for me Thanks John. Deutschlandfunk 153 & 207 to close
Lee
Posted by Mike Terry on September 14, 2014 at 06:39:00.
Klaus Werner reports to the British DX Club:
Just been reading through the September edition of Deutschlandradio’s programme magazine. In an editorial by Dr. Chris Weck (Section Leader Technology & Infrastructure) it is stated that Longwave will be shut down on 31 December2014 and Mediumwave is planned for shutdown by 31 December 2015. On the recommendation of the KEF, the commission planning the financial resourcing.
Another broadcaster departing the lower frequencies.
WH2XIL
Posted by John Davis on September 14, 2014 at 07:09:27.
Operatedby Warren K2ORS, Part 5 station WH2XIL has been operating on about 185.3075 Saturday the 13th with QRSS30, and is scheduled to continue into Sunday. It has been widely reported around the northeast and mid-south, and was daytime copy by K3SIW in Illinois. The groundwave apparently did not reach quite all the way to southeast Kansas, although signal started showing up about an hour before dark. Sorry for the frequency drift...the building temperature varied 25 degrees over the time frame of this capture.
DRNK
Posted by POB on September 16, 2014 at 00:37:55.
Does anyone know of the beacon on 6902 call drnk, it also says MOJAVE DESERT, curious of it's nature. It comes in around sunset for about 2 hours then fades away. Re: DRNK
Tnx/POB
Posted by Webmaster on September 16, 2014 at 14:35:40.
In reply to DRNK posted by POB on September 16, 2014
Sounds like one of those illicit HF pseudo-beacons that seem to be surprisingly common out west. Would be interesting to know where you are located, to get some idea of the propagation mechanism involved,though.
That's a fairly elaborate message, and thus was probably a fair amount of effort to put into something that could be siezed by the authorities at any time (if anybody bothered to notice it), or be vandalized at random, or fall victim to weather calamities...all for no return on investment other than to draw the curiosity of the occasional eavesdropper in that frequency range, or maybe allow the builder to get his kicks from feeling like a bad-boy radio rebel of some kind.
You can probably find a newsgroup or a couple of email reflectors specializing in pirate signals of this kind. Since our emphasis at this site is on longwave and, secondarily, operation under Part 15 of the FCC Rules and Regulations on other bands, we probably won't be able to help you very much here with your inquiries.
John
Re: DRNK
Posted by pob on September 17, 2014 at 23:19:00.
In reply to Re: DRNK posted by Webmaster on September 16, 2014
Agree probably a pirate, I am located in SOUTHERN INDIANA...
POB
Re: DRNK and HiFers Heard
Posted by EdWSlidell,LA on September 18, 2014 at 00:57:05.
In reply to Re: DRNK posted by pob on September 17, 2014
Hi all. I listened over the past two days(15-17 Sept., 2014,UT), and only heard Spanish LSB below(6900 KHz), and USB USAF(?) MARS (6904 KHz) above the frequency. A lot of noise maybe due to the storm systems in the SW US and MO areas. From a YouTube posting reagading it, there seems to be a great deal of weather/climate conditions being broadcast, which vary with time. With all the military bases in the Mojave area(and Nellis just over into NV) it may be funded by them. Or, it could be related to the Death Valley "Rock Movement" studies a little further to the north. At 1900 UT on, 17 Sept., on 22 m, I am hearing SZX ~13563 and GNK ~13564 KHz very well, both reaching about 3/4-5-9 at times. Nothing from the CW beacons on the lower part of the band, or from FRC above. The past three weekends I've been able to hear MTI, AJO, SZX, GNK, and K6FRC fairly consistently. Ed WSlidell EM50cg
RIP Radio Shack
Posted by Douglas Williams on September 19, 2014 at 18:42:45.
Just saw this in my latest e-mail from the ARRL:
http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter?issue=2014-09-18#toc13
A Great NDB Season Start
Radio Shack is on the verge of bankruptcy. This news makes me sad. Hope they can find a way to stay in business. Evolve or die.
Posted by Bill Marvin KB9IV on September 19, 2014 at 20:41:36.
Over the summer I have changed to a better receiver (QS1R) and improved my noise issues. Last night a 10:30 PM Central I logged the NDB beacon "DB" 341 Khz in the Yukon at Destruction Bay with weak but easily copied in UP of Michigan despite storm static. Distance to my QTH is 3,550 miles all land route.
The QS1R is the finest SDR receiver when used with the Pixel Pro 1-B loop and the HDSDR software. The QS1R sensitivity is about .2uV from 50 KHz-50MHz .... a joy to operate.
I was very surprised to log the Yukon so early in the season.......I am hopeful to log Alaska and Greenland NDB's this year. Also the QRSS bands.
Best Dx
Bill KB9IV
Re: A Great NDB Season Start
Posted by Douglas Williams on September 20, 2014 at 12:32:26.
In reply to A Great NDB Season Start posted by Bill Marvin KB9IV on September 19, 2014
Nice job, Bill. Sounds like your NDB season is off to a great start.
SDRs are rather amazing, aren't they? The versatility of the filtering options is almost unlimited. I'm using a Winradio G33DDC (Excalibur Pro), and it's the best receiver I've ever used, hands down.
Re: A Great NDB Season Start
Posted by Garry, K3SIW on September 22, 2014 at 12:08:20.
In reply to A Great NDB Season Start posted by Bill Marvin KB9IV on September 19, 2014
Doubt you heard the Yukon NDB DB on 341 kHz, but instead heard the Iowa NDB with the same callsign on 341 kHz. There aren't many cases where two beacons have the same callsign on the same frequency but this is one of them. You didn't say what offset frequency or repeat period you heard. The USA station this morning was at +1042 Hz USB with a 6.28 sec interval. The Yukon station was last reported at +402 Hz offset with period around 10.2 sec. That offset is difficult to copy because NDB YYU is at almost the same offset and being high-powered is strong enough to copy in daylight. But the Canadian use of offsets around 400 Hz compared to the US standard of 1000 Hz makes it easy to distinguish between the two DB stations. Check http://www.classaxe.com/dx/ndb/rna/signal_list for details on what other listeners have reported. You'll notice Dave Tomasko, a very experienced listener with great equipment, logged DB Iowa on 9/12/14 but not DB Yukon. The last reported reception for the Yukon station was from a listener not that far away in WA.
RTE 252 to close
Posted by Mike Terry on September 24, 2014 at 08:28:37.
RTE Press Release
Ireland
24 September: RTÉ Radio 1 Moves from Longwave Transmission in new focus on FM, DAB and Digital Access.
RTÉ Radio 1 is announcing the cessation of its Longwave 252 service. The service will cease transmission on Monday 27th October 2014 as RTÉ Radio 1 focuses on FM and DAB transmission, and digital access points.
The vast majority (98%) of RTÉ Radio 1 listeners will be unaffected by the move. However, RTÉ Radio 1 will be embarking upon an awareness campaign to inform remaining Longwave listeners of the superior alternatives to LW transmission.
Tom McGuire, Head of RTÉ Radio 1 said: “This development is an opportunity for the listener to tune in to the varied output of RTE Radio 1 in a new way. The availability of the radio service through new digital platforms provides a much improved sound quality and broader access for all programmes. Just as the audience migrated from medium wave to FM in the past the end of long wave is compensated for by the availability of RTÉ Radio 1 on various digital platforms through the television in your home, the phone in your pocket, the tablet on your lap or the digital radio in your region.”
JP Coakley, RTÉ Radio Director of Operations, says: “The RTÉ Radio 1 Longwave signal covers the island of Ireland and carries also into Britain. This technology gives further reach than FM, but at the expense of quality, and it is rare in modern radios. Nowadays, digital platforms mean that quality and reach do not have to be traded, especially for those listening overseas. The longwave service on 252 has only been in use by Radio 1 for 10 years, and while the service was financially and technologically viable for a short time, this is no longer the case.”
RTÉ Radio 1 is available on national FM, on DAB digital radio, on Saorview, SKY and UPC Digital TV platforms, online globally on the RTÉ Radio Player and on the RTÉ Radio 1 and RTÉ Radio Player mobile apps. It is also available on the UK satellite TV service, Freesat.
RTÉ Radio 1 on Longwave carries the same content as RTÉ Radio 1, except where the service “splits” to carry programmes from the digital station RTÉ Radio 1 Extra. These programmes include Mass and Services every Sunday morning and total 2 hours per week approx. Masses and Services will continue to be available on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra on DAB digital radio, Saorview digital TV, UPC digital TV, online globally on the RTÉ Radio Player and on the RTÉ Radio Player mobile app.
JP Coakley continued: “This move to digital platforms is in line with other public service broadcasters such as the BBC in the UK and VGTRK in Russia, who have announced the closure of their longwave services. This service is a very expensive one for RTÉ and is unsustainable in terms of the organisations current financial position. RTÉ reported a break-even in 2013, thanks to rigorous cost-cutting and financial management, and there remains an emphasis on value-for-money across all services and technologies.”
RTÉ Radio 1 will conduct an on-air information campaign and will distribute literature to affected audiences via a range of support bodies. You can find out more about the move to FM and digital on www.rte.ie/staytuned
http://www.rte.ie/about/en/press-office/press-releases/2014/0923/645685-rte-radio-1-moves-from-longwave-transmission/ Re: A Great NDB Season Start (Maybe Not))
Posted by Bill Marvin on September 25, 2014 at 23:40:55.
In reply to Re: A Great NDB Season Start posted by Garry, K3SIW on September 22, 2014
Yes!! Garry you are correct pointing out my reception error of "DB" 341 Khz. I should know the Canadian format by now.
What fooled me most was my Pixel Pro-1B was pointing NW from the UP of Mich....240 degrees and thought "DB" in Iowa was nulled....... apparently not. "DB" in Iowa is a whisper here even when point at it directly.
Best Dx
Bill KB9IV
potrzebie