[IRCA] NE Oregon TPs, Saturday
With Friday morning MW TP very poor probably due to the solar activity, this Saturday morning was much better with 738 presumed Tahiti back peaking at weak level with woman talking at 1208 utc, continuing with talk and RR music poor/weak level, gradually fading away at 1228. 648 with very poor talk at 1203 utc. Other weak/medium hets 567, 639, 702, 765. Very poor hets on DU 891 and 1116. Steve NE Oregon ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] Pirate activity on 6925U
Walt, Expect more pirate activity on the upcoming July 4th Weekend. The pirates tend to hoist the Jolly Roger and breakout their grenade transmitters on holidays. Arrghh! Gil ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] WWV Solar Report
:Product: Geophysical Alert Message wwv.txt :Issued: 2009 Jun 27 1806 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # # Geophysical Alert Message # Solar-terrestrial indices for 26 June follow. Solar flux 67 and mid-latitude A-index 2. The mid-latitude K-index at 1800 UTC on 27 June was 3 (20 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Trends -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Date 26 26 26 26 26 26 26 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 UTC 0300 0600 0900 1200 1500 1800 2100 0300 0600 0900 1200 1500 1800 SFlx 68 68 68 68 68 68 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 A-in 77777732222222 K-in 21011002001123 ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] WWV Solar Report
:Product: Geophysical Alert Message wwv.txt :Issued: 2009 Jun 28 0006 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # # Geophysical Alert Message # Solar-terrestrial indices for 27 June follow. Solar flux 67 and mid-latitude A-index 5. The mid-latitude K-index at UTC on 28 June was 2 (12 nT). No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are expected for the next 24 hours. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Trends -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Date 26 26 26 26 26 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 27 28 UTC 0900 1200 1500 1800 2100 0300 0600 0900 1200 1500 1800 2100 SFlx 68 68 68 68 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 A-in 77773222222255 K-in 01100200112312 ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
[IRCA] PL-300WT Tests On Going - Part Two
Just kind of an interim Part Two for tonight. I took the FM antennas off and the stock ferrite loops out of all three units and put them to work as 8 Sliders. Set up that way, one receiver seemed to produce just a bit better S/N ratio on the weakest signals, so it was converted back to a Barefoot Class PL-300WT. I was able to spend a couple of hours comparing one of the PL-300WTs and a stock IF E100 with both set-up as 8 Sliders. I moved down our mountain, at least 150 feet from any man made structure and (most importantly) out of and away from my metal-clad house. The first outdoor tests were very interesting. The first thing that I discovered was that I had forgotten how nearly useless an E100 Slider is here on Orcas Island. The multi-powerhouses serving Vancouver and Victoria are all within 20 line-of-sight seawater miles of me here and an E100 Slider just overloads like crazy. More than 50% of the dial is unusable from splatter, birdies, images, slop and I don't know what all else its just awful. The PL-300WT was a real revelation, though. Reception was possible on every 10 kHz. channel. Adjacent channel rejection was just excellent. The only channels with any slop/splatter at all were just a few frequencies where I was next to the most powerful of the Vancouver stations There, I noted some splatter, but the station assigned to that adjacent frequency was very listenable/ ID-able to a DXer. The near bullet-proof nature of the PL-300WT will be a real boon to urban DXers, allowing the use of larger antennas, just as Gary has reported. With all this wonderfulness surrounding the 300WT, I was surprised to find that - in raw weak signal sensitivity - my E100s out-performed the DSP circuitry of the PL-300WT on the lower half of the band. There were only a handful of frequencies in the 700-900 range that had weak signals that could be heard amongst the overload crud on the E100... The most memorable was KXL-750, Portland (I was testing 6 hours before sundown.) This far North, KXL is really quite weak in the day time. Time after time, the two E100 Sliders heard KXL better than did the either of the two PL-300WTs. The same things was true with a couple of stations in the 800s. However, above 1000 kHz., the PL-300WT was the equal and usually the superior to either E100 (these were all with stock filters.) I rush to say that all of the differences were quite small... and usually involved S/N ratio. It will be very interesting to see how these babies compare out on the Coast. I also noted the AGC pumping that Pete Taylor and a few others have mentioned. I listened to a lot of weak signals today, and I only heard the pumping three or four times. It seems to take the perfect signal level to trigger it. At the weakest discernable audio, things are very linear and normal. However on a signal that is about language recognition level, there is a definite rather large up/down movement in the volume with slight fades in strength. I don't think that this is the AGC. If it were the AGC cutting in/out, the volume would decrease from the existing setting as the AGC began to control a signal. If my ears were working, in this instance, the volume actually INCREASED abruptly and then dropped back down Like a pre-amp was cutting in for just a bit and then dropping back out. In any case, its most likely in the gain algorithm (the software definition of gain response) and something that we'll likely learn to live with. Just slightly stronger signals or really weak signals don't seem to exhibit this behavior. I'm certainly in Ratzlaff's camp this radio seems to have a few quirks, but it is such an outstanding performer overall that I'll probably abandon my beloved E100s for domestic DX and almost certainly for TP/TA work, too. I'm learning more about the S/N and overall Signal strength readings, too. They appear to be instantaneous readings a brief snapshot taken every two or three seconds. There appears to be no averaging or smoothing in these raw numbers I'd much rather see some small amount of averaging to calm the readings a bit, but I do still think that they will be a real help when comparing antenna systems. Also, it appears to me that 25 is the best signal-to-noise reading that the system can award... I haven't yet noted the maximum raw strength reading. I suspect this numerical read-out is worthy of study and discussion. I'd love to know if my observations match or disagree with those of others... Tomorrow. I'm going to marry up the PL-300WTs to a 1 x 32 Ferrite bar and to a 3/8 x 48 bar and try to do some comparisons... What fun!!! John Bryant Orcas Island, WA Winradio G313e and various Ultralights Wellbrook Phased Array + Superloops ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages
[IRCA] PL-300WT Tests On Going - Part Two
Hi John, Thanks for your detailed observations, which certainly agree with most of the PL-300WT (and G8) experimentation here. It was a big surprise for me to discover the bulletproof nature of the new DSP radio, with its extreme resistance to overloading. I had been testing a new 9-foot (side) PVC-framed passive loop in my backyard, which previously had managed to overload any portable brought within 1 foot of its large coil. The E100 (both Slider and stock) was especially bad, with multiple birdies and false peaks all over the place. (With analog radios, the monster loop simply took over all the tuning, forcing its resonant frequency into the radio regardless of what frequency the radio dial showed). The PL-300WT had no such problem, however. Both the stock and 7.5 loopstick PL-300WT's were extremely well-behaved when inductively coupled to the monster loop, receiving a great signal boost on the loop's resonant frequency, but only when the radio's tuned frequency was the same as that of the loop. The radio showed no false peaks, even when the loop was tuned to local sloppers. This fact alone was amazing, and put the radio in a class by itself among the portables I've tested. In the shootout between a 7.5 Slider E100, 7.5 Slider SWP (both with Murata CFJ455K5 filters) and a 7.5 fixed-coil loopstick PL-300WT, my results basically agreed with yours, John. The DSP-produced selectivity of the PL-300WT was easily a match for the Murata CFJ455K5 filters in the Slider units, and had the added benefit of no muffled audio on the frequency of choice. In the sensitivity comparisons, I found that the 7.5 loopstick PL-300WT had a slight advantage over the fully-modified E100's and SWP's, primarily because of the muffled audio from the Murata narrow filters on the frequency of choice. Tuning these radios 1 kHz up or down improved intelligibility of the audio, but slightly decreased signal strength, thereby giving the PL-300WT a slight advantage (at least in my subjective opinion :) The Slider-only units (E100 and SWP) were competitive in sensitivity with the 7.5 loopstick PL-300WT, however, with the Slider-only SWP showing a slight edge over both the Slider-only E100 and the 7.5 loopstick PL-300WT on all AM frequencies. Unfortunately, a Slider-only SWP is a non-starter for TP DXing, with barn-door selectivity. Like you, John, I will be taking quite of collection of stock and hot-rodded Ultralights to Grayland, eager to see how they perform in actual TP-DXing. The PL-300WT shows a lot of promise, but until it performs a few miracle receptions like we have come to expect from the fully modified E100's, I guess we will never be fully convinced, right? :) 73, Gary In a message dated 6/27/2009 8:24:45 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, bjohnor...@rockisland.com writes: Just kind of an interim Part Two for tonight. I took the FM antennas off and the stock ferrite loops out of all three units and put them to work as 8 Sliders. Set up that way, one receiver seemed to produce just a bit better S/N ratio on the weakest signals, so it was converted back to a Barefoot Class PL-300WT. I was able to spend a couple of hours comparing one of the PL-300WTs and a stock IF E100 with both set-up as 8 Sliders. I moved down our mountain, at least 150 feet from any man made structure and (most importantly) out of and away from my metal-clad house. The first outdoor tests were very interesting. The first thing that I discovered was that I had forgotten how nearly useless an E100 Slider is here on Orcas Island. The multi-powerhouses serving Vancouver and Victoria are all within 20 line-of-sight seawater miles of me here and an E100 Slider just overloads like crazy. More than 50% of the dial is unusable from splatter, birdies, images, slop and I don't know what all else its just awful. The PL-300WT was a real revelation, though. Reception was possible on every 10 kHz. channel. Adjacent channel rejection was just excellent. The only channels with any slop/splatter at all were just a few frequencies where I was next to the most powerful of the Vancouver stations There, I noted some splatter, but the station assigned to that adjacent frequency was very listenable/ ID-able to a DXer. The near bullet-proof nature of the PL-300WT will be a real boon to urban DXers, allowing the use of larger antennas, just as Gary has reported. With all this wonderfulness surrounding the 300WT, I was surprised to find that - in raw weak signal sensitivity - my E100s out-performed the DSP circuitry of the PL-300WT on the lower half of the band. There were only a handful of frequencies in the 700-900 range that had weak signals that could be heard amongst the overload crud on the E100... The most memorable was KXL-750, Portland (I was testing 6 hours before sundown.) This far North, KXL is really quite
[IRCA] Russian on 1710 ?weaker tonight?
Not sure whether it's simply propagation, but 1710 seems to be more feeble these past couple of days. Anyone else notice any difference? Just barely audible on my south facing corner fed loop. Main signal remains of 1709.985, but as others have noted, I'm seeing all sorts of other signals just above this frequency, and up to 1710.005Walt ___ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com
