Einträge von Willi Westrupp

It should be more correct, the system was not running anymore, so it was changed.

The disaster with the Trekstor tablet since November has now come to an end. Even after the second inspection of the device - shortly after it came back from the 1st - at Trekstor no error could be found. My subsequent in-house inspection revealed that the battery is no longer providing enough power to power the SDR and WiFi adapters. Unfortunately, the battery is excluded from the warranty, permanently installed and obviously not available as a spare part. Even an external current hub is no longer useful.

The device is still functional and useful for other purposes, but unsuitable for the remote station. The dream of a functioning station based on low power consumption has to be redesigned. The solar-powered 12 V DX system needs a new heart.

About the progress of my efforts to build a small but nice station in the garden, I will continue to report when I have found and tested appropriate devices.

Maybe I'll get new ideas and suggestions at Ham Radio.

Until then, the break screen remains here.

I wish all of you reading this a great time - and maybe you'll see each other in Friedrichshafen!

73, Willi

A new solar panel creates more energy, and a thankful discovery. During the installation of the 50 Wp panel, I discovered an unclean line connection at the 1st 100 Wp solar panel. It was the reason for more than a year accepted but insufficient charging situation. With the 2nd panel and the now clean wire, the current strength of about 0.7 A could be increased to an adequate 3.0+ A. In full sunshine this is a quadruple of the energy supply. The charging time of the batteries will be shortened by a few days. In addition, a large 4.7 Ah notebook can be operated almost lossless during the day.

The new panel in the middle of the picture, on the left a 15 Wp panel for a pond pump. Both panels are connected in parallel.

Also new is a 47 Ah car battery, which can serve as a reserve for the two 100 Ah liquid / gel batteries.

In this category are some of my historical recordings of short and medium wave broadcasts, which I have preserved over the years. I will post a new recording every month.

It starts with a station that sent in the 25 &19-meter band into the 80's, and particularly attracted early risers to the receivers in the spring months.

may-puzzle.mp3

The solution of the puzzle will be next time. Good luck solving!

A TP-Link TL-WN8200ND 300Mbps Wireless USB Adapter provides a perfect connection to the access point 370 meters away. The adapter, hidden behind an aluminum cover, receives the signal at about -70 dBm. Both antennas provide a gain of 5 dBI. The access point is in free visibility. An initial 18 dBm Yagi antenna is not necessary at the moment. The further development determines the nature of the garden area. If visibility is obstructed by trees or branches, reinforcement may be useful.

The farthest station I've logged on medium wave, over a distance of 12932 km: Radio Belen from Puerto Montt. The 5 kW transmitter from the province of Los Lagos could be received on 25.03.2018 between 01:41 and 02:05 h UT on the frequency 1400 kHz with the ALA 1530 S + Imperium. A short time later took CBG Gander CAN again the frequency.

This section displays the status of my logged USA & Canada states. It will be updated.







List of abbreviations for states

Pin board at Google Maps

Status 23 March 2018

Heard states/green (USA): 25
Confirmed states/red: 0
Latest heard or confirmed: 1440 WGVL South Carolina

Heard states/green (Canada): 5
Confirmed states/red: 1
Latest heard or confirmed:

Map source: Free Software Foundation. The source has been changed.

That was quite a piece of work until the refurbished station was allowed to present itself as in this picture. The new heart of the station, a 7-port USB 2.0 hub with 12V / 5V seperate output, reliably controls the current flow to the ELAD FDM-S2. A new linearly regulated 5-V power supply ensures in the background that this works smoothly. The Trekstor Tablet still hangs on a conventional 5-V power supply without any RF interference detected so far. I used the opportunity to lay cables and devices even better than before. A downer remains: SDR-Console V.3 can not be persuaded to timed automatic recordings. It never stops with the station work. But first I'm happy that everything is up and running again - time for DX!

The hub, which should relieve the battery, works well - at least to 220 V via power supply! The tablet can now draw its power only via the OTG cable via external battery or and the solar battery. The upcoming tests will be done live in the remote station. On this occasion I have the latest version of the SDR-Console V3 build 1049 installed. She is now also running on the tablet. I could not operate previous versions. Since there is a timer for recording in this new version, the 235 GB SSD can now be used more purposefully. It looks all right again!

... update ...

Meanwhile, it has become the beginning of March, and for a long time nothing has happened here in the blog. The trigger was the broken tablet, which was sent for repair at the end of November 2017, and did not return until mid-February 2018. It had disappeared

Thanks to Günter Lorenz, MWLIST Database-Administration

Frozen are not only the K9AY but also my DX activities at the remote site. The tablet is in "repair". In my home QTH, I relocated the ALA 1530+ to a better location outdoors. The rotatable antenna is now located on a window projection in about 8 m height. If the disturbances are absent, you can also go modestly on wave hunting.

After the space on the tablet was too low I had to make a decision: the thing must be "cleaned", or put on again. The "cleaning process" ended in a disaster. The operating system WIN 10 did not start anymore. After 2 days of futile measures I found the crucial file over the Trekstor service. After another day of downloading 4.5 GB of data, the system could be restored. Another day went on for testing. The update brought some innovations, which did not make the "fish box" Windows better. However, updates to the SDR console promise to improve performance. The station is now running with version 3 and can resume operation in the coming days under my Argus eyes.

Update (1) from Argus eyes: v3 beta of SDR Console is not suitable to run here for now. So v2.3 is still the best.
Update (2) from Argus eyes: The tablet does not recognise USB devices. Prob. a accu issue. I am in contact with Trekstor about this issue.
Update (3) from Argus eyes: Tablet was sent to Trekstor. Dx is not really possible right now.

Due to problems with the tablet I decided to start the built of a air-sun-collector. The device replaces the woodburner inside. The pole in the middle is part of the 45 m horizontal loop.