HFU HF Underground
General Category => General Radio Discussion => Topic started by: Capt. Radio on November 13, 2013, 0310 UTC
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Anyone notice propagation on the SW bands nearly dead tonight? Solar Flare, or has someone put a pin in my coax? :D
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No major flares recently: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5m.html
Nor has the K index been very high: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/kp_3d.html
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Ionosphere has been really odd as of late. I hear nothing at the home QTH, take my radio 40Km away to a "known HF hole" for LF listening and it's ALIIIIIIVE all over the SW bands! :o
Peace!
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Ionosphere has been really odd as of late. I hear nothing at the home QTH, take my radio 40Km away to a "known HF hole" for LF listening and it's ALIIIIIIVE all over the SW bands! :o
Peace!
I think its down to reversing the polarity of the neutron flow
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The first thing I thought about when the sigs went away was a flare. It was really strange... WWV was non-existent at this location. I dialed up and down the bands and heard nearly nothing but locally generated digital QRM noise from cable and satellite systems.
Neutron flow...
Is that the result of discharging the flux capacitor? ... hi ... hi.
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Neutron flow...
Is that the result of discharging the flux capacitor? ... hi ... hi.
Great ghost of Rassilon! Does nobody spot a Doctor Who reference?
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Echo_One,
Your reference to Dr. Who went totally over my head, so to speak. I must admit I have never watched an episode. The only thing I know about the show are that there are "Daeleks" (sp?), whom I believe to be some sort of robotic nuisance to the good Doctor.
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HEH "Daeleks" (sp?)... Oh those things... kinda sorta like angry over sized salt shakers...
And yes the band has settled down to little or nothing after a few days of really great conditions... <sigh>
I've got some stuff I need to post but I have been working hard at the bench... aka... creating... mostly audio filters from mag diagrams... fun tho when the bands are dead.
73
Vince KA1IIC
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*E1 emits mental QRM in anger*
It is "Daleks"
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Thanks for your correct spelling of "Daleks" Echo_One.
You must understand that I have only a fleeting memory of an image of a Dalek (in black and white of course) moving across a concrete surface, most likely in pursuit of the good doctor. That image was seen only briefly as I was changing the channels on the telly one day.
You have to give me some credit for missing the spelling by only one letter, you know. ;)
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Actually that was aimed at ka1iic
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My mistake my good friend! All is well. (and you must know I've been "applying" a dry sense of humour in my posts with you). :)
You know, this forum is a great place to meet and chat with some very interesting radio enthusiasts, such as yourself.
Cheers!
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Chiming in a little late. Nobody's stuck a pin in your coax, unless they've yanked a few cables over here at the same time. Propagation was marvelous this weekend, but now it's shot to blazes. I went from a clear catch of SLBC Sri Lanka and a tentative Radio Fana to not much at all, including flutter on Radio Nacional da Amazonia on 25 and wavery Ontarians on MW. Oof. Hopefully it sorts itself out soon, because this is a drag.
Brrrrr, daleks. Ick. :( Those things are frightening!
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Chanter,
Thanks for the signal report. I was hoping some other ops would have noticed the same event. It was kinda spooky here. I heard some strange activity on 10Mc where WWV was supposed to be. I didn't pay much attention to it because I was looking elsewhere up and down the bands.
It's a weird feeling when I noticed HF ham activity was basically non-existent at this QTH.
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Actually that was aimed at ka1iic
Spelling was never one of my strong points ;-) HEH
73
Vince ka1iic
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Wed evening (CST; Thrs morning UTC) was an odd night on MW.
Tuned into 740 hoping to hear CFZM from Toronto and it wasn't there. But, picked up WVLN from Illinois. They're supposed to be 7W, non-directional at that time (2347Z), but guessing they were still on daytime power. Short while later, heard KVOR from CO. CFZM was WAY down in a mish-mash of a mess. Then turned the loop to the NW and tried for KVOX in Fargo. Got it (it peaked right at the TOH too. Thanks ionosphere!). It was like this from 2230~0100 UTC. Then CFZM started coming up & being more reliable, but every once in a while, would fade out.
Not sure what was going on, but got 3 new stations last night, including that one in IL that would be difficult under normal circumstances.
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While I had thought to TUNE AROUND!, instead left it parked on 740 for the evening, as was finishing replacing capacitors in a TransOceanic H500. Only when I was hearing the oddball stations on 740, figured I'd better grab something before it was over. Checked a couple of the nearby Chicago stations quick, and heard them, so went back to work on the TO.
Have had the TO for a few years and one of the dial strings broke. Kept putting it off until I cracked under the pressure of it sitting there, idle. So, fixed the dial string, which was far, far easier than what I was expecting. While the chassis was out, I stared at the Black Beauties and decided it was best to get them all out of there while it was disassembled. Last night was the second night of that, and wanted to make it the final night. So little DXing, more soldering.
New caps in, checked the tubes and prayed the 1L6 ($$) was ok. All ok. Turned it on. A few seconds later, its happily playing and no random noise/smoke/fire/explosion. Tuned around on MW & SW, and all was well and certainly performing better with the new caps. Was trying for RNZI on 15720 last night, but the band was dead. After all, it is a TransOceanic and it needs to receive a transoceanic signal.
Compared the TO to the Sony 2010 when they were side by side. When only doing simple tests with by listening to them both, the TO does a very comparable job (notable strengths of the 2010: slightly better sensitivity, AM-sync, narrower bandwidth, slightly more directivity in antenna. With the latter two, those are also a benefit of the TO - wider bw sounds better and the less directivity means less turning of the radio).
Tonight will be exploring the MW band and hopefully its still confused. Probably not with the TO, but with a National NC-183D connected to a Wellbrook ALA1530S+. The 183D with that loop is killer.
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Capt. Radio, strange activity on 10mHz? what did it sound like, or didn't you catch the details? I'm curious whether you got another time signal, somebody goofing around with a boat radio, or just weird atmospherics.
Things seem to have improved; CNR1 jammers are back as of last night, as is SLBC. Still no sign of Radio Fana though, darnit.
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Chanter,
No, I'm sorry I didn't pay attention to the 10mhz details... (another dumb move). All I know is that it wasn't another time station.
Being honest w/ you, I don't know what CNR1 jammers, SLBC, or Radio Fana is. I guess I need to do a lot more reading on this forum. If you have some tips on some interesting things to try to listen to, that would be great.
I've been concentrating on pirates, 27mc propagation, and ham band activity for awhile now, so I'm "out of the loop" on many things.
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740 seems weird again tonight (11/16/13 @ 0000 UTC). CFZM is weak with deep fades. Hearing another CBX on there, plus other indeterminate ones.
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I did notice that WWV on 5 MHz was particularly strong last night, also cuba on 5025 was coming in great and fade free. I contemplated "playing" tonight, but the A index was kinda high so I decided against it. I have lots of QSL's to catch up on anyway.
+-RH
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Capt. Radio, SLBC is Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, basically Radio Sri Lanka. They're not the easiest catch in the world; it really depends on how conditions to south Asia are on a given evening. Radio Fana is a broadcaster out of Ethiopia, and even trickier to hear than Sri Lanka! They're right in the middle of the 40 meter ham band, which can cause some problems, clear path or no. As for CNR1 jammers . . . oof! Those are broadcasts of China National Radio 1, which in itself is perfectly legit, used by the authorities over there to jam Voice of Tibet, Sound of Hope, and Mandarin/Uighur/Tibetan broadcasts from other countries - Taiwan, the States, France and Britain come to mind. I think they've stepped on Australia's broadcasts in Mandarin too. An all-around pain in the... er, ears. :P
As for signals to try for, Radio Nacional da Amazonia is pretty reliable, either on 11780kHz or 6180kHz, depending. Cuba and China are all over the darn dial. Romania is usually audible, either on 40 or 31 meters - I need to check their B13 schedule for exact frequencies and times. Hmm, let's see. Greece on 9420kHz is also pretty solid, at least here in the Midwest. Your mileage may very well vary depending on where you're located.
Watch out for the religious broadcasters from here in the States. They're loud, and they've got a tendency to be quite fringe. My take on things, not anything official (don't thrash me, folks).