HF Reception Is Still Terrible

[pjxii]

I've heard of people actually tossing a random length of wire into the water

I meant to head to a beach site 15 minutes from here with a very long roll of wire and see how it does. Just need to be sure to bring a preselector along with the receiver. It's deserted and away from interference at night, had my RF-B65 with me once and it did very well on the frequencies I tuned (80 meters SSB and LW). Algeria and Morocco were easy on longwave. Hopefully I won't be so lazy this winter!

 

[pjxii]

Nice to see old rigs still being used! I had a DX-160 during the 1990s in an apartment building when RFI was hardly what it is today. I really liked it, I'll always remember tuning in to Radio Mauritania one night as they were signing on, didn't even mind the frequency drift. . Medi 1 was an easy catch too on a random wire along the floor. It eventually got replaced with a Kenwood R-5000 which was just a bit better still...

 

[ridgescan]

I wonder if being so close to the ocean gives you an advantage. I'm landlocked here.

In many cases regarding the Asias and maybe that Botswana catch may have taken a long path to me over the water, yeah the ocean helps. But is that the case with Gander and the ensuing faint ACs? I doubt it.
And if you look at the waterfall display in the video you'll see some very strong signals between 5800 to 6200kHz surrounding that DX on 6080. Those are mostly coming from Cuba and the southern US.

 

[ridgescan]

Nice to see old rigs still being used! I had a DX-160 during the 1990s in an apartment building when RFI was hardly what it is today. I really liked it, I'll always remember tuning in to Radio Mauritania one night as they were signing on, didn't even mind the frequency drift. . Medi 1 was an easy catch too on a random wire along the floor. It eventually got replaced with a Kenwood R-5000 which was just a bit better still...

I use that DX-160 every single night! I found a secret with that drifting-I apply pressure with my thumb to the center of the tuning dial as I tune-in on frequency with my index finger at the same time. I don't know why but this makes it hang on frequency better

 

[ka3jjz]

In many cases regarding the Asias and maybe that Botswana catch may have taken a long path to me over the water, yeah the ocean helps. But is that the case with Gander and the ensuing faint ACs? I doubt it.
And if you look at the waterfall display in the video you'll see some very strong signals between 5800 to 6200kHz surrounding that DX on 6080. Those are mostly coming from Cuba and the southern US.

I gotta take a look and see if I can find it, but there used to be a tool you could use to show the path a HF signal takes. It usually follows a Great Circle path, and it may be stranger than you think

Southern US HF stations? You mean the religious flame thowers? Yeah I avoid them like Superman does Kryptonite...Mike.

 

[ridgescan]

I gotta take a look and see if I can find it, but there used to be a tool you could use to show the path a HF signal takes. It usually follows a Great Circle path, and it may be stranger than you think

Southern US HF stations? You mean the religious flame thowers? Yeah I avoid them like Superman does Kryptonite...Mike.

I recall K9RZZ using something like that and discovering that from his spot in the Midwest he was receiving an African DX whose path came from over the North Pole!

And yeah the holy rollers abound in that band but Habana owns it.

 

[majoco]

Hey Mike, it's...

Great Circle Mapper

Ridgy said:

I recall K9RZZ using something like that and discovering that from his spot in the Midwest he was receiving an African DX whose path came from over the North Pole!

That's why I don't get the African stations as my GC route goes nearly over the South Pole.


Nice new radio there, Ridgy, you should get a lot of fun out of that.

 

[GB46]

I gotta take a look and see if I can find it, but there used to be a tool you could use to show the path a HF signal takes. It usually follows a Great Circle path, and it may be stranger than you think

I use an offline program called EiBiView, which I downloaded from here:
http://eibispace.de

It uses EiBi's CSV database, available on the same site. The program displays a shortwave schedule based on your language choices, and a little world map that can display the signal's path to you, as long as you've input your local coordinates in the configuration dialog.

A screenshot appears below. The program is currently running, and I can hear RNZI, but only faintly.

An online tool for calculating the great circle route is at http://tjpeiffer.com/crowflies.html

 

[GB46]

And yeah the holy rollers abound in that band but Habana owns it.

One can select either a frenzied sermon or a biased political commentary; I avoid both.

 

[ka3jjz]

Thanks to the folks who turned up those GC utilities. Actually I think they should be in the wiki somewhere, since they're vital to understanding just how a signal gets from one place to the next. Probably in the HF Propagation article...

Ridge you might want to plot your SF home to Botswana (Gaberone is your nearest reference). I think the path goes across the US, not so much over the Pacific. Makes it real clear why Africans are so tough on the West Coast..;.Mike

 

[majoco]

Anyone using a WinRadio SDR should download "StationList". It will turn the EiBi csv file into it's own database abd my downloading a small supplementary programme called SpecLab.xrs the SDR will talk to StationList and display the frequency that the radio is tuned to - conversely you can arrange all the countries just like EiBiView but click on them to tune the radio - very neat.

 

[Boombox]

Any of my observations are based on monitoring from 2011-now, using the same radios, same antenna, top of second story, 30 ft or so, indoor, woodframe building, low RFI, all at the same exact location.

I know if I had an outdoor antenna it would be a bit better, but considering that there has been such a slide since 2011-2012 I don't think it's the antenna alone.

 

[pjxii]

Southern US HF stations? You mean the religious flame thowers? Yeah I avoid them like Superman does Kryptonite...Mike.

Remember when the tropical bands were actually just used by countries in the tropics like the bands were meant for? The first American religious broadcaster on 60 meters set up in Costa Rica which still kept with the spirit of the band, but now they just completely disregard it outright. I'm all for spreading the word if they have a station license but its hypocritical to be putting out 100 kW from transmitters in Tennessee preaching Christianity when the ITU set aside that band for domestic broadcasters in tropical areas, regardless of whether there are fewer countires using it or not.

 

[ridgescan]

Hey Mike, it's...

Great Circle Mapper

Ridgy said:

That's why I don't get the African stations as my GC route goes nearly over the South Pole.


Nice new radio there, Ridgy, you should get a lot of fun out of that.

Thanks Marty Hoping for that famous Icom longevity as well. I bought it with the intention that it'll be my last.

I use an offline program called EiBiView, which I downloaded from here:
http://eibispace.de

It uses EiBi's CSV database, available on the same site. The program displays a shortwave schedule based on your language choices, and a little world map that can display the signal's path to you, as long as you've input your local coordinates in the configuration dialog.

A screenshot appears below. The program is currently running, and I can hear RNZI, but only faintly.

An online tool for calculating the great circle route is at "As The Crow Flies" Distance Calculator

Thanks for the links. Need to figure out how to use 'em.

Any of my observations are based on monitoring from 2011-now, using the same radios, same antenna, top of second story, 30 ft or so, indoor, woodframe building, low RFI, all at the same exact location.

I know if I had an outdoor antenna it would be a bit better, but considering that there has been such a slide since 2011-2012 I don't think it's the antenna alone.

Regarding drop-off of BC stations, I agree. But signal reception, it's there at least for me, as it has always been.
How is your reception of WTWW on 5085 at say 8:00 our time? I use this one as an example because I've been monitoring them as part of a nightly routine for a few years now for their music. They've had that reliable a signal that I can run 'em through the big A/V sound in the living room like that
This goes for BC reception in all the bands as well as utilities.

 

[ridgescan]

Thanks to the folks who turned up those GC utilities. Actually I think they should be in the wiki somewhere, since they're vital to understanding just how a signal gets from one place to the next. Probably in the HF Propagation article...

Ridge you might want to plot your SF home to Botswana (Gaberone is your nearest reference). I think the path goes across the US, not so much over the Pacific. Makes it real clear why Africans are so tough on the West Coast..;.Mike

Mike that makes sense when you figure that the Selebi-Phikwe transmitter, I assume, is directed toward the African continent-therefore I'm catching that directed signal from the east.

 

[nanZor]

Tough times for sure, but thought I'd mention something about amateurs from an *SWL* standpoint in these lean times of the cycle...

The plug is for becoming what I'd classify as an "amateur-swl". But not just ssb ragchew listening, which is also basically lean these days, and for some perhaps completely boring.

Believe it or not, what I'm suggesting is that in tough times, it might be worth it to learn morse code - even from just an swl standpoint. Nope - not used commercially any more, but plenty of amateurs use CW for fun, and the fact that generally, it gets through noise and bad propagation quite a bit better than ssb.

The fun I'm talking about as an swl that has no intention of becoming a ham is this:

1) Who are these guys tickling my s-meter when for all intents and purposes, the bands seem closed?
2) Where are they?
3) How much power are they running?
4) What antenna are they using?

This basic information is usually exchanged at the start of a conversation. As an swl, if they went beyond that into a ragchew, I just moved on to hunt down the next pair of stations and so on.

Without having to run a decoder, learning cw - even just for swl'ing - can be a blast. And maybe put that expensive rig to use when broadcast reception is so bad that you want to just pull the plug.

An interesting development, is that aside from just quick exchanges of information, normal rag-chews, and big-time contesting, is the quickie-contests that have appeared in recent years. I'm talking CWT when the band just pops up with these guys and then can seem to fade away just as fast.

https://cwops.org/

So there you are looking at your panadapter and the cw portions of the bands just explode for a few hours, and then goes quiet again. What the heck was that?

What I'm saying is that instead of trying to beat an swl over the head to become an amateur, I'm just saying that you can incorporate morse-code used by hams to be part of your radio toolkit and have a lot of fun.

I started out this way with a little Heathkit radio as an swl and had NO intention of becoming a ham. I just wanted to know who/what/why these signals are heard on my radio when everything else seemed dead.

Started out learning the classic characters of E, I, S, H, T. A few words from those characters run together could be found. One of them is a swear-word, which I found charming at the age of 16. From then on, I wanted to learn more characters, and even though I missed many during my actual listening sessions, it got better over time. Keeping it FUN and not a job was crucial. And awaaaay you go!

I got a kick out of having skill that many swl'ers didn't have - making more use of my radio than ever. Becoming a ham wasn't the driving motivation.

 

[Turbo68]

Conditions in my location tasmania,australia is not bad main intrest for me is monitoring hf aero and hfdl at home dont get much aero anymore but i do go down the beach which is a few km away use my Alinco DX-R8 receiver,Wellbrook ala1530 active loop and can get lots of aero traffic from asia,europe,middle east and the states as for hfdl that has been awesome using multipsk for decoding even at home..

Regards Lino...

 

[pjxii]

Conditions in my location tasmania,australia is not bad main intrest for me is monitoring hf aero and hfdl at home dont get much aero anymore but i do go down the beach which is a few km away use my Alinco DX-R8 receiver,Wellbrook ala1530 active loop and can get lots of aero traffic from asia,europe,middle east and the states as for hfdl that has been awesome using multipsk for decoding even at home..

Regards Lino...

Thumbs up on this! I find DXpeditions, even if they're local like to a park down the street, are just plain fun.

 

[w2xq]

Re the azimuth headings discussion earlier in the thread, the https://ns6t.net/azimuth/azimuth.html quickly produces a great circle map on user-supplied coordinates. Works nicely even on my tablet, the output is a PDF. The result reminds me of the paper maps that were sold bc (before computers).

And for those bemoaning the low solar flux, SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids recently reported the first sunspot of the new cycle was identified. The polarity of the solar storm was reversed, thus identifying same. Giddyup.

 

[ka3jjz]

It will be a few years before we start any real improvements - if any - for Cycle 25. Cycle 24 activity was the lowest in nearly a century, so there's no way to predict with any certainty if this cycle will be better. On the other hand, if you're down in the basement, there's no way to go but up - anyway, one can hope (heh)

Mike