Excellent.
Does the way you lay down the wire effect the directivity?
Does the way you lay down the wire effect the directivity?
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747 Netherlands
- Thread starter kilokat7
- Start date
kilokat7 said:
Have you been able to compare the Perseus with higher end traditional receivers like the R4B or the AOR? All comparisons I have seen have been for SW or other HF stuff, not medium wave.
kilokat7 said:
No more DX-440?
Thanks to your catches last year, you've really lit the fire under my butt, regarding the DX-440's potential. I've caught 747 Radio 5 in August (along with UK's Absolute Radio on 1215kHz), as posted earlier. I haven't had too much DXing opportunity, yet this season, but I've found het returns to have been 'hit and miss' so far. Sun spots must be a little more active than last year???~BG
I don't have any high-end communications receivers to compare with, but everything I've read puts the Perseus right up there with the best of them. I've been more than happy its MW performance.
Yes, but only as a backup now. It's fun to see how you've been pushing yours to the limit. It's a great portable that sparked my interest in DXing again, but I decided it was time for a long overdue upgrade in the receiver department.
So much of successful medium wave DXing comes from your antenna and the location from which you DX.
While I am presently using a Drake R8B and cannot imagine Perseus be a better receiver, I am seriously considering buying Perseus SDR. I like the idea of DXing at night and early morning, but I am too lazy to actually do it. The Perseus solves my problem. My justification for buying a Perseus is that the Drake and the Perseus will be used for two differenct DXing situations.
I prefer to sit down, tune to a frequency on medium wave, and begin rotating the antenna. I guess that's the way my brain is wired.
Does anyone know if Perseus is planning a hardware upgrade anytime soon?
While I am presently using a Drake R8B and cannot imagine Perseus be a better receiver, I am seriously considering buying Perseus SDR. I like the idea of DXing at night and early morning, but I am too lazy to actually do it. The Perseus solves my problem. My justification for buying a Perseus is that the Drake and the Perseus will be used for two differenct DXing situations.
I prefer to sit down, tune to a frequency on medium wave, and begin rotating the antenna. I guess that's the way my brain is wired.
Does anyone know if Perseus is planning a hardware upgrade anytime soon?
So much of successful medium wave DXing comes from your antenna and the location from which you DX.
While I am presently using a Drake R8B and cannot imagine Perseus being a better receiver, I am seriously considering buying Perseus SDR. I like the idea of DXing at night and early morning, but I am too lazy to actually do it. The Perseus solves my problem. My justification for buying a Perseus is that the Drake and the Perseus will be used for two differenct DXing situations.
I prefer to sit down, tune to a frequency on medium wave, and begin rotating the antenna. I guess that's the way my brain is wired.
Does anyone know if Perseus is planning a hardware upgrade anytime soon?
While I am presently using a Drake R8B and cannot imagine Perseus being a better receiver, I am seriously considering buying Perseus SDR. I like the idea of DXing at night and early morning, but I am too lazy to actually do it. The Perseus solves my problem. My justification for buying a Perseus is that the Drake and the Perseus will be used for two differenct DXing situations.
I prefer to sit down, tune to a frequency on medium wave, and begin rotating the antenna. I guess that's the way my brain is wired.
Does anyone know if Perseus is planning a hardware upgrade anytime soon?
I was experimenting with 2 Grundig AN200 loop antennas, have one connected to the back of the receiver and use the other to provide inductively coupling next to it. The second was used for rotating for the best signal. This is in my apartment in VA. The radio is the old JRC NRD-515 recently purchased used in good condition from Ebay, without the .6 and .3 kHZ filters. I also have a new Quantum QX loop which I've using frequently, really liked this antenna. The 2 AN200 combination, which I heard the 1215 with, seems to work well at night, though I haven't yet compared it with the QX used alone.
I know nothing about the SDRs since I've never used one.
I know nothing about the SDRs since I've never used one.
Icangelp said:
Yes, the Perseus will allow you to sleep at night as you can set it to record at any hour you want (using 3rd party software). I have never been able to get this working correctly (due only to limitations with my computer hardware). I find myself recording "on the spot" during interesting times and I'll review the recordings later when it's more convenient. One problem this has created for me is now trying to find the time to go through all of these spectrum recordings that I've made! I still have a few from last March that I haven't gone through yet. A good "problem" to have I guess
As with the Drake, the Perseus can be used for live DXing as well, which I do all the time. Some things to keep in mind while recording with the Perseus: During a recording season, you can still tune the radio "live" in real-time while recording, as long as you're tuning within the bandwidth that you are recording (say for example 110 through 1710 khz). In other words, if you're recording the MW band, you can't tune the shortwave band, and vice-versa. Also, it's important to realize that when recording a wide chunk of spectrum, you'll need a broadband antenna. If your antenna requires tuning for every frequency then it's not going to work with the recording feature of the Perseus. This is primarily why I ditched my Quantum Loop in favor of the long-wire which requires no fine tuning. A broadband loop would also work good.
I really doubt there is ever going to be an upgrade to the Perseus hardware (the black box) as features are driven by the software component which is frequently updated and refined. As far as I know, there has never been an update or change to the hardware since it was first introduced a few years ago.
Before taking the plunge I would highly recommend going here and downloading the free demo version of the Perseus software, then grab some Perseus recordings made by other DXers here, and play around with the features and controls of the Perseus and see how you like it. It's a great way to get familiar with the radio and know if your computer is up to the task.
Icangelp said:
For me, it has to be location, as my catches have been on my internal antenna.
I have a far size yard (1 1/3 acres), however the orientation of our home on the property hinders the setting up of a Beverage or even simple long-wire out in the direction of Europe. My wife would disapprove of other metalic objects sticking out of our yard. :-X Having said that...I'm not complaining. This season I'm pushing for a certain station on 1566...which may be very much a challenge to confirm, as AIR does not broadcast on-line.
~BG
Tincap said:
Now that would be a challenge! If they don't provide a feed online, perhaps they have a shortwave parallel you could program into your DX-440 for a quick comparison? Global Tuners might be another way to confirm what you're hearing. As for catching India, it looks like there's a narrow opportunity for this being possible when looking at a greyline map. For a brief period of time, it looks like there's darkness between you and India, but it doesn't last long. Here's a good greyline map that allows you to key in any time to see where the greyline is:
http://www.daylightmap.com/
I heard TWR Benin, Africa last year on 1566 using my DX-440 (and longwire). Poor reception but enough audio to confirm and get a QSL from them.
kilokat7 said:
Thanks for that excellent link! Here's an example of what I've been using to determine day/night hours from various locations ~> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=44 Scrolling down to the section 'Sun', you'll find twilight times for that particular location. And yes, perhaps signing on at Global Tuners could put an extra quiver in the belt.
AIR does have some excellent SW signals coming my way, at certain times, but trying to find one which parallels the 1566 MW signal would be a challenge indeed!
~BG
I don't normally attempt transatlantic DX, but this thread got me interested. That...and knowing that 747 in the Netherlands puts out a monster signal. Audible in central London 24/7.
So.... I fired up the old DX 375, and flipped the switch to 9khz spacing to see what I could discover. This was about 10pm Central, which would've been 5am (and before sunrise) in the Netherlands. There was definitely something there...in and out behind WSB, which I had nulled. Never could identify it nor make out what sounded like talk. Later came what sounded like music, but also unidentifiable. I'll keep at it from time to time as the winter season goes along to see if something I can ID eventually pops. IIRC there's a fairly wide variety of programming on the Dutch station....sounding almost like brokered.
While I was at it, I tried for the BBC on 693, Algeria on 891, and Croatia on 1134. On 693, WLW's noisemaker blew out everything else, 891 yielded nothing but WLS, and 1134 was pure noise.
So.... I fired up the old DX 375, and flipped the switch to 9khz spacing to see what I could discover. This was about 10pm Central, which would've been 5am (and before sunrise) in the Netherlands. There was definitely something there...in and out behind WSB, which I had nulled. Never could identify it nor make out what sounded like talk. Later came what sounded like music, but also unidentifiable. I'll keep at it from time to time as the winter season goes along to see if something I can ID eventually pops. IIRC there's a fairly wide variety of programming on the Dutch station....sounding almost like brokered.
While I was at it, I tried for the BBC on 693, Algeria on 891, and Croatia on 1134. On 693, WLW's noisemaker blew out everything else, 891 yielded nothing but WLS, and 1134 was pure noise.
Don't forget to check 531 khz for Algeria. They have consistently been pumping out a strong signal here and it has been the most reliable TA signal for me this season. If you tune to 530 and hear a loud het, it's probably them on 531. Also heard 1521 Saudi Arabia tonight for the first time at a distance of 6300 miles, but this one took more work. Confirmed by flipping to the shortwave parallel on 9870 khz. Their signal was actually more readable on MW! 945 was also strong here tonight - France Info. Mexico City also booming on 1060 when KYW is nulled. Also WMCL on 1060 when nulling KYW. Overall DX seems good tonight!
I'm pulling in Radio Farda on 1575, for the first time this season. It's fading in and out, but getting enough audio to check against the on-line stream ~>
http://www.radiofarda.com/audio/broadcastprogram/live.html
Happy hunting!
Saudi will be a real challenge as Buffalo's progressive talker WWKB, comes in like a local. :-\
~BG
http://www.radiofarda.com/audio/broadcastprogram/live.html
Happy hunting!
Saudi will be a real challenge as Buffalo's progressive talker WWKB, comes in like a local. :-\
~BG
kilokat7 said:
I'll do that, but I'm "on the road again" for the next five nights, so it'll have to wait until next week. All I have with me is the SRF 37, which is a good enough radio but probably not suited for TA. Besides, the hotels I'll be in are all "signal killers".
But I'm definitely curious about 531. Cuba has been very steady and reliable lately on 530, with CIAO also in the mix. And for whatever reason, for me at my home (far northwest suburbs of Chicago) there's very little noise on the channel. So...we'll see what happens when I move it up one tick, and I'll report any successes.
Tincap said:
I don't know if it means anything, but when I'm in the UK, neither 531 or 891 from Algeria has a particularly impressive signal. I'm going over there in two weeks (UK and Germany). I'll be pretty busy working, but time permitting, I'll check these out....along with the other suggested Europeans, just to get a feel for how strong they are and what they sound like. If anything of note jumps out at me, I'll report. I normally only travel with the SRF 37 to save space when packing , but I've made the "executive decision" to bring the DX-375 this time.
BTW, as for CIAO and the Cuban.....where I live near Chicago, both are reliable, but not quite strong enough to qualify as "pest". Tonight, I'm in Austin TX, where the Cuban is alone with a modest, but clear, signal.
cyberdad said:
Cyberdad-- as long as you're bringing "The heavy artillery" I'd be interested to know if you can snag any North America DX while you're in the UK. As you know the best time to try would be right before UK sunrise.
cyberdad said:
I'd have to dig through my old 1991 copy of WRTH and see if I checked these guys off, while living in The Netherlands. I do recall pulling in a number of the Arabic stations in, during those long, damp Northern European winter evenings.
Hey, Cyber, while through Germany could you possibly pick up a copy of 'Auto und Sport', as you're whisking by one of the kiosks? You can mail it to me, when you get back stateside, and I'll cover the costs. PM me, if at all possible, I'd appreciate it!
~BG
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