Last night I got Voice of Croatia on 1134 and Great britain on 1215 (Absolute Radio) I paralleled Croatia with their shortwave station and GB with their website. I received them with a Hammarlund SP-600 and a 160 meter dipole. The dipole has really surprised me with it's BCB DX capabilities. I have just put up another dipole and will phase them with my Misek phaser as soon as I get some more ladder line for lead in. I am also going to put up either a full wave or half wave BCB dipole. I have one straight shot that runs for approx 1000' through the woods, the antenna will run almost N/S which will be nice for Europe.
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Anyone here listen for TA DX?
- Thread starter KB1OKL
- Start date
You've come to the right place! 
1134 Croatia was my first ever TA DX, from here in eastern Ontario, while Absolute Radio is quite regular. The furthest I've gotten (so far) is Radio Farda, on 1575. I use a Realistic DX-440, though my Sangean PR-D5 has made some catches too, including BSKSA on 1521. I go bare-foot, using the internal antennas, on both radios.
~BG
1134 Croatia was my first ever TA DX, from here in eastern Ontario, while Absolute Radio is quite regular. The furthest I've gotten (so far) is Radio Farda, on 1575. I use a Realistic DX-440, though my Sangean PR-D5 has made some catches too, including BSKSA on 1521. I go bare-foot, using the internal antennas, on both radios.
~BG
You guys are lucky. Down here on the Gulf Coast all I ever seem to hear is Mexico and Cuba. Mostly Cuba.
I'd love to have some sort of massive antenna strung up, but I live within a few hundred feet of the local AM station. 2.5 kW days and 43 watts night. I'm wondering if a long wire would even net me anything when they're at day power.
I'd love to have some sort of massive antenna strung up, but I live within a few hundred feet of the local AM station. 2.5 kW days and 43 watts night. I'm wondering if a long wire would even net me anything when they're at day power.
Zach said:
You could build a trap for their frequency Zak, there should be numerous plans online. I have some locals at 50KW but nothing as close as a few hundred ft. The closest station to me is a 1 Kw at about a mile and it doesn't bother my radios. 50 Kw WCRN does occasionally overload them but it is not often and I can phase them out. I had Arabic last night on 1422 but it wasn't R Coran as I can access their online stream, it was Arabic dance music, it was blasting in for a few minutes though, looks like it's going to be a good TA season.
Here's a link for wave traps, they look pretty simple to build especially for only a single frequency.
http://www.dxing.com/tnotes/tnote06.pdf
Would a Select-A-Tenna increase overload and bleed from KIXI, KKNW and KXPA? I live 2 miles from 880 KIXI which is 50kw in the day and causes horrible interference on various frequencies, and the same distance from KKNW 1150 and KXPA 1540. I'd really love to have one of these boosters, as it would help me get some more nighttime logs!
-crainbebo
-crainbebo
C
cd637299
Guest
crainbebo said:
I have an S-a-T, and it is good for boosting the weak signals while keeping the locals kinda at-bay. It takes some work, knowing how to rotate, how far from the radio to put it, tuning the S-a-T's knob just right, etc.
In July I bought a Grundig Loop at Radio Shack, on clearance (only $15 if you can find one), and although I like the S-a-T much better, it's pretty good for that price.
I bought it because---embarrassment of embarrassments---I forgot to bring the S-a-T on a DX trip to Cape San Blas, FL. Nevertheless, like I said once here, I still heard KVNS 1700 in the daytime, around 3:50pm, with that Grundig.
d
crainbebo said:
I don't think a loop would make images worse. I'm not sure how much a loop would help listen through an image, though. I've got two loops, an S-A-T and a Radio Shack loop I bought in the late 1990's or early 2000's. Both loops work the same, the RS Loop seemingly having a hair more Q to it. Each one seems to work best with different radios.
The only image I had to deal with was when KIRO-710 placed an image on 620 khz for a while a couple months ago, on all of my radios (digital portables as well as a couple walkman radios, and a boombox). The image disappeared a couple weeks later.
The loops didn't make that image worse, but I wasn't able to eliminate the image with my loops, either. I had to ignore it and listen through it. At the time DX in the lower AM band wasn't kicking in, so I can't really say whether the loops would have helped me hear anything on that frequency.
When I've visited my grandma's house 1/3 mile from a 50kW on 1430, KMRB puts a strong, nearly full-quieting image on 530 on single-conversion radios that use a 450 kHz IF, like my Panasonic RQ-SW20 and Sony SRF-M37W. With a Select-A-Tenna, though, it's possible to clearly hear the LAX Airport TIS on that frequency. I haven't yet had a chance to try using the SAT to get 1280 KFRN in the vicinity of 640 KFI's tower yet, though. Also I used the SAT to bring in 594 JOAK on my PL-380, even though I live only 7.7 miles from 5kW IBOC-spewing 600 KOGO. It also helps bring in 1110 KDIS in the daytime on my RQ-SW20, which would normally be completely splattered over by 10kW 1130 KSDO just 6.3 miles away in almost the same direction. My SRF-M37W, with its modified filter, does a much better job at separating 1110 and 1130, but has considerably worse stop-band attenuation - 1170 KCBQ, 50kW (112kW ERP) at 9.3 mi, can be heard on 1370 on the M37W, but not on the SW20. On the other hand, tuning the SAT to the strongest signal in the area and putting it up to a utility pole ground wire or another long metal object will usually overload the radio and have the signal splattering loudly across the entire band. (I've even heard 1170 up in the FM band when doing that near their transmitter site.)
pianoplayer88key said:
KXPA 1540 has a NASTY IF on 640 khz here. Can barely hear KFI anymore due to this. It's almost non-nullable.
boombox said:
KIRO did the same thing here too! KPOJ and sometimes KWAL would make it, but usually 620 was KPOJ and the KIRO image.
I've also got images on 660 (KXPA and KIXI), 610 (KIXI and KKNW, LOUD), 760 (KIXI), 1080 (KIXI, only to the South), 1270 (KIXI and KKNW), 1320 (KIXI and KKNW, only to the South), 1420 (mainly KIXI) and sometimes 1710 (KIXI). Living two miles from a 10kw blaster doesn't help either...
I will be moving possibly to Monroe, WA in the next several months. The AM interference will FOLLOW ME! KKXA and KRKO are the next suspects, as both transmitters will be spewing 250kw of IBOC right at me, from about three miles away. Goodbye KXTL 1370, KWOD 1390, KGA 1510 and KFBK 1530. We'll miss you.
-crainbebo
crainbebo said:
What kind of receiver are you using Crainbebo? You shouldn't be having problems like that. I have a 50KW AM less than 10 miles from where I live and a 1 KW less than 1 mile away and I have image problems even with very long wires and dipoles even if I phase them toward the stations.
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