Sunday, September 24, 2006

SDR-tests at King s Village - noise

After some tests I found the same problem as JOLOS-qth: QRN from external usb-hard disk LaCie Porsche 250 G. The power supply seems to be the source of bad noise on many frequencies. I am going to fix a new hd inside of the computer later on. Also an UPS-system is needed as there are often small power-out situations at my Village. When using SDR14 doing the recordings you can always (and must often do so!) turn off the LCD-screen - also uplug the power - to avoid noise from the LCD. What is more you have to use good calibration stations. I have found one of the best on upper MW to be the British syncro stations like 1215 kHz, probably also 1449. FR1557 seems to be pretty accurate as well. These can be used to check calibration when you do RF-recordings on upper band. Usually as a general station Pori 963 is widely used, however, it seems it can be 1-2 Hz down from the nominal as far as calibrating with other signals like 1215 & 1557. Of course you can hear TA stations during good conditions when the noise occurs, however you need at least 10 dB better signals. But there is a risk to loose the weakest stations ! Although you can use another RX (like I do usually using my ICOM9000) the noise can come via the splitter system!More results later on. Next thing I hope to put up my KAZ 10x40m (NW-SE) with fiber mast ("DX-wire") and soon a NE BOG will be put on the ground.

TK

Friday, September 15, 2006

More SDR-test at King's Village-QTH

Yes. Started to test SDR14 to do some RF-recordings! You have to use UPS with table top computers & external hard disks - that is for sure! Just lost RF-recording of (mostly) Latin American stations on 19 ! channels on Sep 15 at 04 UT when power was down at my cottage for 1 second! Anyway, did some recordings earlier between 1405 and 1595 kHz. Maybe later on (some day) I can say if there are more than usual morning Latins like Vida AM 1520, Medellin (Santa Maria de la Paz) 1560, a few Venezuelans & Brasilians on several channels between 0330-0400 UTC. It is cool also to analyse and do some frequency measurements later on. Antenna was just a longwire of 150 meters. Other RX. Icom9000. (TK)

Sunday, September 10, 2006

King's Village DX

Yes. This is the first message from King´s Village DX-QTH of TK = Tarmo Kontro, Espoo. I hope to add some DX-comments every now and then.
MW DX.-season has started and first "High Latitude" signals have been received also by me. The station of the (last month) was however heard at my home QTH (Espoo) with modest equipments: CIAO H101 SDR-rx & ALA100 (7x4meters) loop: surprise conditions down to Chile: 1490 Radio Malleco Victoria August 31 0332ut.Just waiting to be able to lay my NE-bog towards Far East in the next few weeks...73 tk