KONG31 Expedition Report - Day Three

The ionosphere calmed a bit during yesterday so the night wasn't as uneventful as we feared. Low signal levels, but luckily low noise levels as well. Nothing spectacular - I noted WHGT-MD 1590 just before it powered down from 15 kW at 2230Z. Others noted in passing were KWBE-NE 1450 and KLMS-NE 1480,  A bit after 0500Z signals dropped to near zero, with a slight  recovery starting 0730. Eureka, CA stations KIHH-1400 and KGOE-1470 noted at 1000Z. Check our weblog for more details.

Basically nothing at all from the Pacific. East Asia surfaced at around 1200Z but conditions soon turned southern as they did yesterday. Old recordings were more exciting.

A little intro to the Jaguar software: It has the ability to separate stations that are only hertz away. The example below shows six minutes from 1548, where multiple, non-synchronized Chinese stations dominate, while 4QD from Emerald, NSW, Australia is visible - and audible - on the side. Jaguar also suggests stations based on known offsets - these suggestions are overlined here because they're not relevant.  The lowest signal is on 1547.968 kHz, the higest on 1548.044 kHz. Even non-audible carriers are easily visible on the waterfall. The accuracy of course depends on the Perseus SDR being properly calibrated.

Waterfall 6 minutes on 1548 kHz

Today was salmon day. We started off with bruschetta featuring today's sourdough bread (an OJS specialty). Main course was fried salmon with woked vegetables and basmati rice, and we finished it off with dark chocolate pudding with custard. And Amaretto. And some more Amaretto.

Below is today's pic. 7-8 Celsius today, a little breeze but dry, although cloudy.

19-OCT 0550Z

KONG31 Expedition Report - Day Two

Several C-flares late yesterday made the K-index rise to 4, and the signal levels fluctuated a lot overnight with the best signals around 0110-0200Z. Stations of interest: KFLN-MT 960, KNEU-UT 1250 and  WMOH-OH 1450,

Pacific started early today with Kiribati-1440 audible prior to 0830Z, also traces from Tonga-1017 at that time. Then it fizzled out into nothing...until just before 1000Z when New Zealand was all over the band! 25 stations identified, including several new ones in a peak that lasted for only around 5 minutes, but luckily included the top of the hour. As the peak ended, a major disturbance set in, and the band is now very noisy and very auroral.

OCT-18 Overnight and daytime 310 beverage

A few words about today's dinner: For starters, bacon-fat fried king crab with no accessories. The main course was pulled chicken with rice and woked vegetables, and cheese (some of it came from France and was very aggressive) rounded off the meal.

Below is the daily pic. Nice & calm today, maximum of 5 Celsius and dry.

18-OCT 0552 UTC

KONG31 Expedition Report - Day One (or actually two)

Friday was arrival time for the bold travellers OJ Sagdahl, Arnstein Bue and TJ Bråtveit. Weather was typical for October, 2-3 Celsius with gusty winds and rain/sleet showers. Eventually in the afternoon they settled in, and we could test some good beers (Nøgne Ø IPA, Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA), and some really awful ones (Prykmestar Double IPA, Kukko Vahva Pils and Mufloni Mosaic Vehnäipa to name a few).

Coronal Hole 695 has made a lot of trouble for us the past couple of weeks. It's finally begun to rotate out of geoeffective position, and a few NZ stations did surface at 1200Z yesterday just before the dominant Asians took over. Last night wasn't exceptional, but we did have decent signal levels from around 0030 until 0430. Mostly from the western time zones in North America. Noted of interest KAIR-KS 1470 and KBUD-CO 1550 and a few that need closer attention. A general impression of the overnight signal levels is below. The redder the better - the red lines on the sides give a visual impression of the fluctuation of signal levels.

Overnight, OCT-17

Today started with faint audio from Kiribati 1440 up until around 1000Z. Japan surfaced just before 1200, as did Newstalk ZB-1035. Otherwise an uneventful afternoon - no Aussies audible at any strength. More details on the weblog.

Dinners at KONG are always exciting. For starters we had duck liver paste served on home made bread. Main course was of course the King Crab, impeccable quality from the factory Polar Seafood Berlevåg AS, and treated with sufficient love & care to make a perfect meal. We had to postpone the dessert a bit, but it will be Creme Brulee.

King Crab legs - more than a mouthful

The temperature maxed out at around 6 Celsius today, relatively calm winds and light showers. And some not so light.

The motif below will be photographed every morning at around 8 am local, 0600Z. It's taken from a window in my living room. I expect the scenery to change during our stay here. Or maybe it won't.

OCT-17 0552Z

August, September Verifications

WTLN Orlando FL 950

WLOB Portland ME 1310

WRED Westbrook ME 1440

WELI New Haven CT 960

KKXL Grand Forks ND 1440 (fb)

WKAJ St. Johnsville NY 1120 (fb)

WPSE Erie PA 1450 (fb)

WBOK New Orleans LA 1230 (fb)

WQAM Miami FL 560

KLCN Clinton IA 1390

CJLI Calgary AB 700 (Alberta # 40)

July 2015 Verifications

KELY Ely NV 1230 (tnx OJS)
KBZZ Reno NV 1270 (tnx Ole Forr)
KSGG Reno NV 1230
WILM Wilmington DE 1450 (via FB, last remaining US state confirmed; USA #900 excl. Hawaii, I was asked to submit a liner for their morning show)
Radio Carve, Montevideo 850 (tnx Horacio Nigro)
WJDA Quincy MA 1300 (via Google Hangout)
WBRK Pittsfield MA 1340
WPRO Providence RI 630
WPRV Providence RI 790

RFSpace CloudIQ samples 1500 kHz!

It didn't take long for RFSpace to do a firmware update to allow sampling of 1500 useable kHz with 16 bits. For the MW DX-er, this is indeed good news!

RFSpace CloudIQ: Sensitivity & I/Q Bandwidth

Sensitivity may not be an important issue for many DX-ers, especially if they live in a high signal level environment. To me, sensitivity is an important issue, and I always make sure to measure the sensitivity levels of my receivers.

Up until now, all SDRs have been somewhat inferior to the best conventional receivers. Such as the NRD-525 (-114 dBm) and the R-390A (-116 dBm).

My SDRs of various guises have weighed in at -93 to - 106 dBm, with the exception of the Winradio G33DDC which made the -110 dBm mark with the preamp engaged.

RFSpace promised the CloudIQ to be considerably more sensitive that the SDR-IQ, and indeed we have a new SDR winner of the weak signals prize. The sensitivity was a uniform -111 dBm from 500 kHz (my lowest measurement) to 20 MHz (my highest). The measurements were done in AM mode, 6 kHz bandwidth, 400 Hz tone into 30 % modulation.

Pieter Ibelings at RFSpace informed me that they had spent a lot of time on the matching of the ADC. Evidently their efforts paid off.

The 19 meter band on the CloudIQ

The I/Q sample rate maxes out at 1 MHz, 24 bits. Now, this is a little less than desired for recording the MW band for later analysis, as 160 kHz on the 540-1700 kHz range is missing; 173 kHz for the European/Asian 531-1704 kHz range. The older NetSDR also has a 1 MHz, 24-bit limit, but in addition it has two 16-bit bandwidths, 1.3 and 1.6 MHz. 

I sincerely hope that the CloudIQ will be given a similar option.

CloudIQ I/Q bandwidth (NetSDR bandwidth for comparison in green frame)

New Toy

A new radio is ready for testing. I was lucky enough to be among those who got the first batch of 100 or so receivers, and I will look forward to testing it the coming weekend. For anyone not familiar with the CloudIQ, here's the story:

More as it happens.

Recent Verifications

(Well, not so recent... since March actually)

WGVA Geneva NY 1240
WAEB Allentown PA 790
WMAL Washington DC 630
WMLM St. Louis MI 1520
WMEL Cocoa Beach FL 1300
WDAE Tampa Bay FL 620
WRTA Altoona PA 1240
WTVL Waterville ME 1490 (tnx OJS!)
KNEU Roosevelt UT 1250

An Alternative Way To Power Your Perseus

While the stock, switching 5VDC power supply for the Perseus is among the quieter ones, it doesn't perform adequately in an extremely low noise environment. Linear 5V power supplies aren't abundant, and they often come at a price.

Unlike the RF Space SDR-IQ, the Perseus draws too much current to be powered from most  PC's USB 2.0 outputs which are usually limited to 500 mA. However, with the advent of the USB 3.0 standard, this has changed. The Perseus typically draws 700-750 mA, while a standard USB 3.0 output will deliver around 900 mA - more than enough for a Perseus.

This needs a proper power cord with a USB connector in one end and a 2.5 mm connector in the other. It is perfectly feasible to build your own, and there are several DIY instructions on the net. I wanted to avoid potential problems related to poor soldering skills though, and then I found this on Ebay:

It's a custom made power cable for the Perseus. It sells from the USA for a nickel short of $20, + shipping. I've bought three of these, and they work perfectly. The seller claims they are "roughly 6 feet", which is roughly true as the last cable I bought measured in at 5.75 ft/175 cm.

A cable like this is an absolute must have if you want to do an outdoor DX session. You can power your Perseus from a laptop or a battery pack, and use the laptop to run the Perseus from a different USB port.

All my three Perseus in Kongsfjord are now powered from PCs and they seem to cope well.

This particular item will pop up if you do a "perseus sdr" Ebay search.

Admittedly there are literally hundreds of Chinese-made USB-to-2.1 mm cables on Ebay, with prices as low as 0.99 USD/EUR including shipping. I haven't spotted any 2.5 mm cables though.

Whatever you do, always check the polarity of the connector before you power up the Perseus. Mistakes do happen.