Friday, January 05, 2018

Antenna problems

First, a very happy new year to you all. 

I've been suffering with some increased noise levels on MW just recently which has been bothering me, so I did some investigating on Thursday afternoon. It turns out that my loop wasn't operating at full capacity due to a short in the coax cable which had water sloshing around inside it. I dried the cable off a little bit as a temporary measure but will be installing a new cable as soon as possible.

Here are the Dutch MW pirates heard at our location in England during the last few days. The antenna has been the Wellbrook ALA1530LP, and the receiver the Lowe HF225:

Freq       Time      Station SINPO

Thursday, January 4, 2018
1629       1520       Polka Express 25322 qsoing
1625       2315       Batavier 35443 music programme
1620       2319       Curacao 25222 qsoing
1643       2322       Ros Am 55444 testing with non-stop music
1617       2322       Monte Carlo 24322 qsoing 
1636       2327       Odynn 25222-35443 music programme 
1615       2335       Monte Carlo 45444 qsoing
1625       2345       Verona 25222 asking for report


Observations

  • I've seen a few logs elsewhere for Polka Express, so it was good to catch him myself today. He was qsoing with various other stations this afternoon, but I was trying to sort my antenna problems at the time!
  • Odynn was trying out a new sound processor this evening with his 100 watt transmitter. There was a nice bass on the audio and his signal was peaking up very well. Here are a few sound clips from the broadcast:
  • 1643 was on air for some time but without any ID. I'm quite sure this was Ros Am testing. The signal was excellent. More programmes please!
  • When you hear Monte Carlo and his signal is lower than it usually would be, it's often the case that his antenna is lower than it usually is. That was the case on 1617 kHz tonight. A few minutes later and he was much stronger on 1615 during his qso with Curacao. Presumably he had pressed the button and raised the mast

Tuesday, January 2, 2018
1620       1840       Moonbreaker 25222
1650       2103       Marianne 34333 music programme

Monday, January 1, 2018
1635       0059       Bandoeng 45444 music programme
1660       0059       Driland 34333-45444 music programme
1625       0105       Odynn 25332-35333 music programme
1611       1757       Rebel (Drenthe) weak signal-24332 music programme
1640       1757       Veronica 35333 music programme
1620       1807       Musky weak signal music programme
1637       1812       Dikke Betta 45333-45444 music programme
1647       1813       Armada 35333 music programme
1645       1818       Oldtimer 35333-45444 music programme
1615       2101       Bluebird 45444 music programme
1648       2201       Pereboom 44434 report for Oldtimer

Sunday, December 31, 2017
1629       0825       Vriendschap weak signal qsoing
1629       0830       Mike 25322 qsoing
1633       0841       Noordzee weak signal qsoing
1650       1815       Zwarte Panter 45444 music programme
1620       1820       Desperado 33433 music programme
1671       1820       Viking en Tante Foek 25332-35333 music programme
1656       1837       Digitaal 45444 music programme

No comments:

Post a Comment