Belka DSP Receiver

[mass-man]

My Belka finally got a workout away from the noise of my home and the city. In the mountains of NM and WOW!!! With no noise, it hears so much more than I am used to. Saw post earlier that Gander Radio on 8891 was being heard in Montana...turned on the Belka and it was a solid copy here. I hold it just right so not to attenuate the signal by touching the antenna and signals come popping out. Guessing once I finally get some wired earbuds it can rest on a table, bench or whatever and I don't have to worry about how its sitting.
I may have to get online and order another as a holiday gift to give it plenty of time to get here.
Has anyone found an external speaker they like to use with the squirrel?

 

[mass-man]

Mine arrived a few days ago. I’m about 200’ ASL and my Belka- DX is deaf on the supplied antenna. The noise floor is pretty high and I can’t hear anything except for a few birdies.

Is the sensitivity maxxed out? Are you touching the antenna while holding it in your hand? Just a couple of things I had to learn the hard way...I guess it is possible the radio is at fault, but Alex has shipped a lot of them that people are very happy with.

 

[WB6WQF]

Are you using your Belka indoors or outdoors?
Indoors I have so much noise that I don't hear much.
Outdoors it's a lot better.
On my outdoor 80m OCFD located about 200 ft. away from the house, this little radio is a fantastic communicatins receiver.

73 - de DJ0IP

 

[WB6WQF]

Well, that was strange - an empty post. Let's remedy that situation. Mods can delete post #43.

@DJ0IP: yes, I tried it indoors and outdoors. The noise level decreases outdoors to the point where I can hear faint signals but nothing is intelligible. Very deaf.

@mass-man: I'm using earbuds for counterpoise and not touching the antenna. The sensitivity is turned up to max.

I'm also wondering about the sloppy tuning knob. There's quite a bit of rotational play in mine.

 

[mass-man]

Hmmm...could be a problem, I dunno?!?! probably time for an email to Alex.

 

[mass-man]

Hmmm...could be a problem, I dunno?!?! probably time for an email to Alex.

Sorry that post wasn't much help...I hate to be Capt Obvious, but have you tried the WWV frequencies?

 

[WB6WQF]

Sorry that post wasn't much help...I hate to be Capt Obvious, but have you tried the WWV frequencies?

If I go outdoors on my 7th floor balcony then I can hear WWV at 10 MHz but it's very faint. Everything else that I hear is jut birdies, gronks and other garbage. I'm going to see what happens in an entirely different geographical location 100 miles away.

 

[13dka]

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here.

@WB6WQF: What level indications are you getting when you're not tuned to a station, indoors and outdoors/balcony?

 

[mass-man]

If I go outdoors on my 7th floor balcony then I can hear WWV at 10 MHz but it's very faint. Everything else that I hear is jut birdies, gronks and other garbage. I'm going to see what happens in an entirely different geographical location 100 miles away.

While I can copy signals here at the house, as I posted earlier, a move to the mountains, away from man made and other types of noise sure made a difference in what was audible. Good luck at the different QTH!

 

[WB6WQF]

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here.

@WB6WQF: What level indications are you getting when you're not tuned to a station, indoors and outdoors/balcony?

In the range of about 20-30. In my office on the 15th floor, and by the window, I was able to a weak signal from WWV on 15 MHz. I tried moving it around outside in Sacramento and away from buildings and where all of the electric service is underground. I could, if I was lucky, find WWV on 10 MHz (not 15 MHz), but, no 80, 40 or 20 M ham stations, shortwave or anything else. As I tune through the frequencies, I get a lot of squeals, pops, and other garbage. I can hear a few stations in the broadcast band around 1620 but that's not the idea. The receiver is completely useless indoors (which is what I bought it for) and not much better outdoors.

Unfortunately, I spent money on something that I'm going to toss in the drawer as a reminder to only buy equipment that I can return.

 

[13dka]

Hi John,

20-30 microvolts equals around S5-S7 of noise,, the "garbage" you described could just be the typical narrowband manifestations of digital QRM within the omnipresent wideband noise in cities. I personally wouldn't even expect to receive anything but noise in a high-rise, particularly on a whip.

That it receives the noise and WWV generally suggests that it's not dead, and in my personal experience the Belka is even a little better than plastic radios in noisy enviroments (contrary to my own theory that this shouldn't be the case). Have you recently tried another portable in that high-rise, or do you have one to generally compare the Belka with?

I just checked the KiwiSDRs in the Bay Area and - apart from the Half Moon Bay SDR with their massive antennas - they seem to indicate that the noise situation isn't great there and none of them currently (nighttime) receive WWV on 15 MHz. N3KA's SDR on a low-flying 40m dipole in Sunnyvale:



That being said, due to a HSS influence, the conditions are currently a bit disturbed on top and signals are not great, so maybe it's just a typical case of Murphy's radio law: "condx always turn bad while you unbox a new radio"?

 

[mbott]

Hi everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster here.

Welcome!

--
Mike

 

[13dka]

Hey Mike, thank you! Hope all is well on your side!