Excellent Conditions On AM

[NQC]

Hey All,

Summary  from last night , 0400 UTC onward :

Highlight : CMLA 640 Cuba up to a very rare  high signal level . Never a common station ( even in  winter ) , it was up to 3/4 scale ( WITHOUT Select -A Tenna  ) on the ATS 803a ( which is "sensitive" , but has a   ferrite bar that is shorter than desired) . Near full pin when  S-A -T was used and, at  times, actually made it worse (unheard of  for this station !). Some rapid QSB  at times  but pleasant enough to copy music for long periods.

Yet- NO traces of  Radio Reloj CW  from CMED 570 or CMGD 870 despite   a big  digging effort  with  the atomic clock to line up RR cw id's  exactly on the minute. You can't have everything ! . Odd, with the  Cuban path seemingly open , I would have expected at least CMED. Nope.

WSB 750 GA up strong  ( a rare word for them). SB is my normal  "deep fringe" station during "average" conditions.
KDKA 1020 PA elbows BZ 1030 and INS  1010 right out of the way. No trace of QRM from either. DKA usually only "mediocre" here.
WHO 1040 IA good ( another rare word)

The usual  Eastern US 50 Kw suspects throughout  the band busting in  at stable arm chair copy .

LOTS of activity from lower powered Dx  stations on frequencies below 1000Kc  that are usually not so hot,  too many to wait for Id's.

Pile ups  of MANY outlets on grave yard frequencies, MUCH hotter than normal  .

 My ATS 803a does not do X band  , but  it was the  "receiver of the evening" , having "some " advantages  over the Panasonic 840. So I went with  it for the entire session. The Pan is actually better for listening to isolated long Dx  stations (IMHO), but the Sangean is digital and has a BFO , so it's  better for fast paced sessions  that bounce around the band and for seeking  RR CW Id's.

K

[ThaDood]

I am also a fan of the Sangean ATS-803A, since Dec. 1989. Some of the very 1st SW pirates, as well as AM band and FM pirates, have been had with mine. And, keyboard FREQ entry is certainly nice. The only real flaw, as with most portables, is front-end overload from local AM / FM blow torches. That RF Gain is nice to have in it, but limited. Try yours on one of those godz-eye antennas. They can DX to over 2MHz and you can even use amateur info 160M gate-way station WA0RCR Saturday nights after mid-night to 4AM on 1860kHz AM from MO as a nice upper MW test FREQ. And, BTW, that portable isn't a bad beacon hunter on LF below 520kHz. And, see how many TIS and pirate stations you can get from 1710kHz to 1730kHz. You may even catch a 100mW Part #15 station. So, you have a nice portable to AM DX'ing, fo' sure, I just hope that 1030WBZ doesn't dig IMD into it, like Rochester's 1180WHAM did on mine, when I lived only 1 1/2 miles from that TX 20 years ago. https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=2814

[NQC]

Hey Dood,

Thanks for the reply.
 
I am in a  sweet spot .Despite some very , very strong signals , none runaway. 3 or 4 miles  in certain directions and I'd be in trouble.

My old 2 X 660/46 litz crystal could well separate   least + 40  vs S-9 on  1st adjacent (  using  the Icom's  guess meter as guide) -  used  old 100' ft. Rig and ant long gone.

No really noteworthy   intermod or image issues  on any rig inside the apt., especially  when the soil in my area  is not saturated. If REALLY wet , maybe some slight issues in the X band (maybe ).

The car radio is more prone to intermod, only  in the  X, especially when cruising around  2 or 3 miles in some directions.


High Q is still important here.

The 803 does get "some" monkey chatter on some of the big guns, even in narrow mode. Usually not TOO horrible unless I am working a REALLY weak signal on a  1st adjacent blow torch.Turning loop and turning rig clean really clean things up at times. 1/4 " placement can make or break reception. Even fussier on longer bar  Pan 840 rig , 1/8"!

RF gain on mine = useless.Not a big deal to me.

HF section blown , so  nothing above  1620 Kc into X band. I don't really  care that much if this receiver gets HF or not anyways .Also  not too fuzzy that X band is not on ferrite.But not Sangean's fault , rcvr  is just TOO old.

LW AM FM  still op at full sensitivity.

Single BFO knob not too bad for MW   b'cast band use. It was just "OK" on true  HF SSB. I got spoiled back in the day by Icom R-70 , R-71a , IC 735 ,etc, all  having a separate  U/L ssb  . All long gone.
 
Eventually building an indoor 12' X 14' horizontal  square which will feed as a loop or an end fed . Certainly NOT like the old 100 sky wire I had here but oh well, better than nada and simply another option. A 3 way cold return also in the  works :  As- 1: a short  18 '  unterminated c poise. 2:  18 'direct  to heating  pipe. 3: 18'  coupled to heating pipe.This return should be fun to try on the new Xtal set I am building.

Not sure how much many beacons are  left around here, probably not many.

Touch pad is quite nice to use in total darkness.

I actually LIKE the 1 KC chug,  it's easy to count up or down one channel by ear.

K

[pinto vortando]

Much improved conditions on LW and AM past couple of days.