National Education Radio, Taipei 1494 Verification

NER is heard quite frequently here, at least until St. Petersburg starts to dominate 1494. The use to run BBC World Service earlier on the day. I heard NER with French programming (which turned out to be Radio France International) up until 1700 on Sept 5. An email from their engineering department today confirmed my reception.

The Kongsfjord Spider Web

Here are my beverage antennas:
1: 30 degrees, 610 meters. Aimed mainly at eastern Pacific (from NZ eastwards), very good for Hawaii, Alaska too.
2: 58 degrees, 550 meters. Aimed mainly at Japan, eastern Australia, Guam
3: 85 degrees, 600 meters. Aimed mainly at SE Asia; Australia. The back lobe hears Brazil and Argentina well.
4: 315 degrees, 220 meters (old). Aimed mainly at eastern North America, also good towards Mexico and northern South America.
5: 315 degrees, 470 meters (new). This is a back lobe beverage. Otherwise same as 4 but more gain. Also more EU interference so sometimes the old 315 provides better SNR.
6: 340 degrees, 350 meters. New; replaces the old 333 degrees, 290 meters beverage. Aimed mainly at western North America.

Average height above ground is 2.5 meters.

Beverages 4 and 6 start roughly at the same spot. You will note from the map that beverages 2 and 3 go quite high in elevation and have some steep climbs. Apparently without compromising directivity too much (or at all). Altitude displayed in meters.

Luckily my neighbours have a very laid back attitude towards my antenna farm...

Good Afternoon For Australia

What was supposed to be a brief visit to Kongsfjord evolved into an interesting hunt for Australia. Between 16 and 17 UTC I had signals from the following Aussies:

1161 5AN ABC Naracoorte, SA
1233 2NC ABC Newcastle, NSW
1503 2BS Bathurst, NSW
1512 2RN ABC Newcastle, NSW
1548 4QD ABC Emerald, QLD

Some hefty signals later on x-band too, especially 1638. I also heard Japanese on 1650 which puzzled me a bit since all the Japanese low-power coastal stations are listed on 1670.

Recent Developments (And The 475-meter Was Not A Dud)

Fair conditions towards North America although I haven't had too much time to listen, and the IQ-recorded material hasn't been checked yet. Interesting though that the 475-metre beverage antenna which was said to be a dud in a previous post, certainly isn't! Yes, interference levels from Europe and the Middle East was hard to beat, but after dawn when the signal levels dropped the antenna proved to be an excellent performer. North America signal levels at least 10dB better than the old beverage. The picture shows the first 150 meter run; you can see where it climbs up on the cliff and continues at a higher altitude.

I will keep the old, short one though since it enables DX at nighttime with its excellent rejection of EU/ME signals.

The 5th beverage is now up, a 330-meter directed at 333 degrees or western North America. Only one waiting, the 600-meter directed at 30 degrees (Pacific).

Finally, I finished an AELPAF (see description), and connected it to my audio distribution and a large Tandberg vintage speaker. Excellent audio and rejection of selective fading distortion!

WOAM Peoria IL 1350 Verification

WOAM is heard now and then with their Nostalgia-type music format. A nice reception from October last year resulted in a report to owner Bob Kelly, who emailed a confirmation in time to spice up my breakfast. And finally I have a 100% reply rate from Illinois with 17 QSL'ed of 17 reported.

A Few Early September Logs

Freq	Date	Time	Station
630	01.09	1915	4QN Townsville QLD
684	01.09	1918	2KP Kempsey NSW
882	04.09	1900	DWIZ Metro Manila
1143	05.09	1700	Yuye Guangpo Diantai, Penghu
1332	05.09	1800	JOSF Tokai Hoso, Nagoya
1350	05.09	1800	JOER RCC Hiroshima
1386	05.09	1700	CC UNID
1404	05.09	1800	JOVR SBS Shizouka
1404	05.09	1730	Hubei RGD
1422	05.09	1800	JORF RF Radio Nippon, Yokohama
1440	05.09	1730	JOWF STV Sapporo
1467	05.09	1700	HLKN KBC Mog'po
1494	05.09	1800	JOYR RSK Okayama
1494	05.09	1700	National Education Radio, Taipei
1503	05.09	1800	WYFR Pinglui
1548	01.09	1905	4QD ABC Emerald QLD

A 475-metre Dud

I wanted to replace the current 175-metre "Eastern North America" beverage with a longer one with the same bearing. I needed to make it a backlobe beverage because of a nearby seafront but since these antennas are bi-directional I thought that wouldn't matter.

Erecting it was an ordeal... through difficult terrain. But after many hours outdoor I had managed to get a very straight, no-sagging beverage. Time for testing. The "old" beverage was up so with the help of my two SDR-IQs I could make direct comparisons.

Well, the new one did bring increased signal levels on North American carriers. 4-6dB, which is not bad, but I had hoped for more. However, signals from the other end just about exploded with 15 to 25dB higher levels! So, instead of an improvement I got a 10 to 20dB worse SNR!! One notable example is my North America indicator station NRK Longyearbyen, Svalbard 1485. On the old antenna I had a strong, clean signal. On the new one the signal was stronger, but audio was distorted from several interfering stations.

Sooo.... longer is not always better.

KDAL Duluth MN 610 Verification

Email from Brad Bennett, host of a 10-12 pm talk show at KDAL, confirmed my reception of the station this evening. I heard KDAL about a year ago; not very strong but a first time for me.

WDMN Toledo OH 1520 Verification

The low-powered "Dominion 1520" was sort of a dominant on 1520 for an hour or so on October 26, 2006, despite the massive signal from WWKB Buffalo. A most welcome catch and a most friendly letter from PD Sabrina Williams today confirmed my reception. Dominion 1520 has a gospel-oriented music format and so is easy to separate from the usual channel dominants.

Aussie Season Begins!

Despite rather high solar activity I had some nice signals from Japan and Australia this evening. 4QD Emerald QLD very good at 1905 UTC on 1548, and as I tuned down the band I heard old acquaintances from last October's KONG dxpeditions such as 4QN Townsville QLD 630 and 2KP Kempsey NSW 684! Also strong signals from low-band Japanese stations, like the NHK stations on 594 and 729.

Nothing noteworthy on Australia x-band.

I have set the two SDR-IQs to record an hour each tomorrow from 1830 UTC onwards, covering 531 to 918 kHz.