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.

Season Underway!

Got the first beverage up and going this afternoon, 450 meters at 58 degrees. Very auroral conditions so nothing exciting to hear although I had hoped to hear the first Aussie of the season. I am glad to see that the SDR-IQs live well with the long beverage, and the Loran C notch filter works fine. Still too light at night for any serious DX towards the Americas.

Hoping to have one or two more beverages up during the coming week. Yesterday saw a verification from WIND Chicago IL 560, truly a rare catch.

Anyone Looking For An Icom IC-7000?

With the two RF Space SDR-IQs up and running, I've decided to downscale my "ordinary" receiver shack. So if anyone's interested... This is the European version, with the 8 kHz tone removed and TV enabled by Swedish Radio Supply. Looks as new, transmitter never been used. Presently for auction on QXL.no. Unfortunately, due to the unfavourable exchange rate, North Americans may not find my price very attractive.

Radio Eldorado Reception On CVC Sua Voz

As per email from Brazilian DX-er Ulysses Galetti, CVC Sua Voz will air a feature on my reception of Radio Eldorado, Sao Paulo, 700 kHz, on the following dates:
Aug 3 at 1530 UTC on 15410 kHz
Aug 4 at 1100 UTC on 15410 kHz
Aug 5 at 0200 UTC on 11745 kHz
Aug 6 at 0000 UTC on 11745 kHz
Or, if you are unable to hear these frequencies, you can download a four-minute MP3 here.

The presentation is in Portuguese.

Radio Eldorado, Sao Paulo SP 700 Verification

One night in October 2006 brought many excellent signals from Brazil, and Radio Eldorado was one of them. Received a full-data QSL-letter as a PDF attachement to an email this evening, signed Geraldo Nunes. Seems to cooperate with DX Clube do Brasil so Eldorado should be a good verifier.

KLYC McMinnville OR 1260 Verification

KLYC surfaced briefly on the excellent DX morning October 10, 2006, amidst signals from Wyoming, Idaho and not least the dominant CFRN Edmonton AB. Amazing that 800 watts can penetrate a north-directional 50,000 watt signal like that of CFRN... A very friendly email from Stella Bonsack this evening confirmed my reception. Stella and her husband Larry have owned the station since 1990. McMinnville, to quote Stella, "is located about halfway between Portland and the Oregon Coast. To many of us there's no better place on earth to live. This is beautiful country with rolling hills of vineyards, filbert orchards and landscape nurseries. Tourists enjoy visiting the wineries and the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinnville featuring Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose."

KLYC is definately one of my best North America catches ever, and it was most rewarding to receive their verification.

Summer At The KONG DX Site

Not much to report these days, except I still test out the SDR-IQs with my ALA-100 large circumference loop. Above a picture of my DX location taken on July 1 at 2100 local; the view is due East. Lots of meadow buttercups and green grass form a nice colour balance with the blue house. Still snow on the distant plains, altitude 300-400 meters. To the right you see part of the house of the nearest neighbour. Not much RF noise to worry about from that end...

Recording Your DX Effectively

Further to the iriver DAP post some days ago, I have written a more comprehensive article about the iriver H100 and H300 series, and how to modify them to be excellent audio recorders for the DX-er. A small-sized pdf file is found here. Also, there is a more general (but older) article about MP3 players/recorders here.

Setting Up A Dual SDR-IQ Monitoring Station - Final Thoughts

The system has been up and running for many hours during this weekend; one session lasted more than 12 hours with many adjustments to setups and other parameters. Spectravue has not crashed once, and the two SDR-IQs haven't failed once. And the PC system with Vista Home Basic has been totally stable.

Total cost for this 380 kHz monitoring system, including a brand new PC, was around USD 1500, or approximately the same as a new Icom IC-746Pro or an IC-7000 costs. Much less than a new JRC NRD-545, and much less than a Flex-Radio SDR-1000 system. Good value for money. I am looking forward to the start of the coming season in September.