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Prepping For Winter DX!

SomeRadioGuy

SomeRadioGuy

I'm getting extra batteries, extra audio cables (to go between the recorder and the radio), another radio, and another recorder. Oh and some hot hands hand warmers. Also have some extra gloves and hats ordered too.. getting prepped for winter dxing well ahead of time! I already have 4 extra 32GB sd cards.

THe hand warmers are as much for my gloves as they are for my digital recorder... AA batteries dont last long during continuous use in extreme cold

i also have a portable battery and extra cable so i can use it for my phone, those lithium ion batteries hate cold even more than aa alkaline batteries... they will shut off in the cold.. and you have to not only warm it up but charge it.. the cold causes it to think tis dead.... and even warming it up wont work

Something will fall and break or even shatter in the extreme cold, so I want a back up and a back up to the back up so I'm ready to go and dont miss any DXing time.

My Radio is just a CC Skywave and a DeBock FSL 5" antenna... (hit youtube to learn more about the antenna)

Paul Walker
Program Director, KSKO 89.5 McGrath, Alaska
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
I'm getting extra batteries, extra audio cables (to go between the recorder and the radio), another radio, and another recorder. Oh and some hot hands hand warmers. Also have some extra gloves and hats ordered too.. getting prepped for winter dxing well ahead of time! I already have 4 extra 32GB sd cards.

THe hand warmers are as much for my gloves as they are for my digital recorder... AA batteries dont last long during continuous use in extreme cold

i also have a portable battery and extra cable so i can use it for my phone, those lithium ion batteries hate cold even more than aa alkaline batteries... they will shut off in the cold.. and you have to not only warm it up but charge it.. the cold causes it to think tis dead.... and even warming it up wont work

Something will fall and break or even shatter in the extreme cold, so I want a back up and a back up to the back up so I'm ready to go and dont miss any DXing time.

My Radio is just a CC Skywave and a DeBock FSL 5" antenna... (hit youtube to learn more about the antenna)

Paul Walker
Program Director, KSKO 89.5 McGrath, Alaska
Click to expand...
Sounds like you are prepared and ready to go! I’ll be interested to see if you can snag any of the Chicago clear channel stations or anything from east of the Rockies along with any European stations coming from across the North Pole. Good luck and keep us posted!
 
asugeorge1 said:
Sounds like you are prepared and ready to go! I’ll be interested to see if you can snag any of the Chicago clear channel stations or anything from east of the Rockies along with any European stations coming from across the North Pole. Good luck and keep us posted!
Click to expand...

I've heard one chicago station, WYLL 1160, one detroit station, WWJ 950 and one ontario station., CFAJ 1220........
 
WWJ 950 and WYLL 1160 are highly directional, with equivalent IDF "ERP" (the FCC doesn't define AM ERP, but generally 300 mV/m at 1 kW at 1 km plus or minus) to the North exceeding 500 kW. You might also hear WFDF 910 at 25 kW Night (when the transmitter is working properly), WXYT 1270, and WOOD 1300. WFDF sometimes airs ESPN at Night, which is a daypart currently confusing DXers.

WFDF 8 tower array near Carleton, MI, designed by the late Glen Clark, who also designed the new WWJ, WXYT, and WMVP (pictures may show WCFL on the transmitter building) arrays.

910AM-Antennas-Campus.jpg

Our fellow poster fybush took this one, showing the WCFL call letters on the WMVP transmitter building. WMVP ia generally beamed East, which may limit DX opportunities to the NNW.

wmvp-bldgs.jpg
 
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Once fall quarter returns here, I can't really DX outside of my apartment, because of the constant traffic of college students going in and out of my apartments (i.e., 'lookie-loos'.) In any case, there is an HF SDR receiver 6 miles E of me in Kittitas that I use for my DX, and count all my logs that way (unless it's 2:00 in the morning and I can go out and DX on the picnic benches...albeit it gets very cold here at night during fall/winter). You folks with the homes in the middle of nowhere, 500 feet of wire and dipoles have it all....it's not easy for an apartment dweller, especially when the RFI is crazy AND...the concrete walls block E-W reception like a faraday shield.
 
crainbebo said:
Once fall quarter returns here, I can't really DX outside of my apartment, because of the constant traffic of college students going in and out of my apartments (i.e., 'lookie-loos'.) In any case, there is an HF SDR receiver 6 miles E of me in Kittitas that I use for my DX, and count all my logs that way (unless it's 2:00 in the morning and I can go out and DX on the picnic benches...albeit it gets very cold here at night during fall/winter). You folks with the homes in the middle of nowhere, 500 feet of wire and dipoles have it all....it's not easy for an apartment dweller, especially when the RFI is crazy AND...the concrete walls block E-W reception like a faraday shield.
Click to expand...
Same here, apartment life isn't real conducive to DX. Yes I make good use of the SDRs, particularly Edinburgh, and no, I do not count a logging from an SDR other than the one here in Knoxville as a local logging.
 
Schroedingers Cat said:
WWJ 950 and WYLL 1160 are highly directional, with equivalent IDF "ERP" (the FCC doesn't define AM ERP, but generally 300 mV/m at 1 kW at 1 km plus or minus) to the North exceeding 500 kW. You might also hear WFDF 910 at 25 kW Night (when the transmitter is working properly), WXYT 1270, and WOOD 1300. WFDF sometimes airs ESPN at Night, which is a daypart currently confusing DXers.

WFDF 8 tower array near Carleton, MI, designed by the late Glen Clark, who also designed the new WWJ, WXYT, and WMVP (pictures may show WCFL on the transmitter building) arrays.

910AM-Antennas-Campus.jpg

Our fellow poster fybush took this one, showing the WCFL call letters on the WMVP transmitter building. WMVP ia generally beamed East, which may limit DX opportunities to the NNW.

wmvp-bldgs.jpg
Click to expand...
Never heard WFDF, WXYT or WOOD... doesnt mean I won't ever, though.
 
Norway has always been a country of DXers, and they would probably hear about the same stations in Edinburgh, Scotland as Norway. That was my confusion.

As far as getting a better radio, you may also need to find a location outside the house or apartment with a lower noise level. I have had access to a Potomac FIM-41 from FCC surplus for the last few months. 20 or so years ago, I had one for a while and could measure 50 uV/m or lower inside the house. Now, there has to be 150-200 uV/m to be above the noise level. Some of it is outside. But if I take the radio out to the garden, the noise is a lot less.
 
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