Equipment & Test

Actually, everything was not a problem. The components were assembled, the elements assembled, the wire roll positioned in a bicycle trailer, and we went out to the neighboring meadow. There, first the earth piles with the connection components were cut into the dry soil, then the galvanized 300 m cable was towed from point A (NE) to B (SE), the 80 m long coax was laid out to the hut, and the RPA- 2 connected. The first test showed remarkably good signals over the entire medium wave, no additional amplified noise due to the preamplifier, in short: the perfect antenna for receiving from the NE direction. A two-hour recording showed me later, how good 300 m antenna cable can be.

I sat in my garden hut in front of the waterfall screen and listened intently, likening the reception to the now weak K9AY, it was around 1930z when I heard voices unknown from outside. When they did not stop, I left my seat, walked to the shack, and watched a person slam through the blackberry hedge. I would not want to go through that, I said. Police, was the answer. In the light of the flashlight I could see the lettering on the man's jacket. In fact, I said.

Displaced dog owners carrying their Fiffies on the meadow suspect a power cord, the policeman said, while his companion expertly examined the coaxial cable. It's an antenna, I confirmed, and that's guaranteed no electricity in it. Good - the law did not come to the dicuting. Now the identity card was checked, a radio check was made, and then I was allowed to roll up the quickly mounted antenna again. So that the dog owners can perform their Fiffies again the next morning. We'll check that later, they said before I let them out through the official entrance to the garden. No, we do not want to go through that again, they said, and disappeared in the darkness of the night.

Days later, I realized that the preferred direction of arrival from NE was not guaranteed at all, because one earth point was in the wrong position. So it is not even a pity that the experiment did not work out. It was exciting enough, from planning to firing.

40 safe meters remain me, NE 4-5 m pulled over the impenetrable blackberry hedge, soon. After all, it's my garden, and I do not keep dogs.

Antenna building material for a 350 m BOG. The line should run in NE / N direction, be largely invisible, and waterproof. Most of the material comes from a pasture fence shop, secret slogan: "Your partner for good MW-DX". The antenna is placed as soon as conditions permit on the neighboring meadow.

For construction: The Beverage boxes are installed in watertight HT tubes, the cables are routed through watertight cable feedthroughs. The ground wires at both ends are bolted to the ground rods. An approximately 60 m long coaxial cable is laid underground to the shack. If necessary, the ring insulators are placed in the ground at long intervals, bolted to wooden bars to keep the BOG flat and tight.

The BOG is connected to an RPA-2 Modular Receive Preamplifier by DX-Engineering.

On 26.6. in the morning around 03 UT I was able to record good MW conditions to Peru. Overall, conditions have improved again after weeks of receiving very poor signals from South America. The following stations could be identified perfectly.

2018-06-26 (Screenshot)

1470 0245 PRU OAU4B Radio Capital, Lima/Pantanos de Villa (lim) ID 10752 km
1510 0250 PRU OCX6Q Radio Alegría, Arequipa (are) sev. Alegria IDs, strong 10739 km
1490 0258 PRU OCX4P Radio La Luz, Cerro de Pasco (pas) ID 10572 km
1570 0258 PRU OCU4J Radio Bethel, Lima (lim) ID 10732 km
1480 0300 PRU OAZ7G Radio Espinar, Yauri (cus) ID R Espinar 5685 km
1500 0300 PRU OBX4I Radio Santa Rosa, Lima/San Miguel (lim) sev. IDs

2018-06-28

1490 0300 PRU La Voz de la Liberación via Radio Cadena Sur, Cusco ID
(Thanks to Christoph Ratzer from Austria)

2018-06-30

1570 0256 PRU OCU4J Radio Bethel, Lima (lim) IDs 10732 km
1500 0300 PRU OBX4I Radio Santa Rosa, Lima/San Miguel (lim) ID 10745 km
1470 0305 PRU OAU4B Radio Capital, Lima/Pantanos de Villa (lim) ID, strong sig, long skip 10752 km

2018-07-02

1500 0303 PRU OBX4I Radio Santa Rosa, Lima/San Miguel (lim) ID 10745 km
1470 0306 PRU OAU4B Radio Capital, Lima/Pantanos de Villa (lim) ID 10752 km
1570 0337 PRU OCU4J Radio Bethel, Lima (lim) ID 10732 km

All Logs of 26-6-2018 by MW-LIST

Summer is the time to check or repair the station and antennas. The Beverage Antenna matching Set from lowbandsystems has been in a waterproof plastic box for over a year. Fortunately, no rust has formed, although - after opening - the waterproofness must be questioned. A new grounding rod was inserted and connected with thick copper wire. All openings for the pipes were re-sealed. Next check is in a year.

The 60 m long wire antenna, mounted in the direction of NW, works perfectly. The noise floor is about -120 dBm. It apparently has no pronounced directivity and can also be used very well as a South American antenna. However, signals from NE / SE are correspondingly quiet.

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 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!

Thanks to Günter Lorenz, MWLIST Database-Administration

All Logs of the day ....

A real challenge was the receipt of DZRV 846 kc from Quezon City. On the frequency was also IRRS from Milano, another religious transmitter, with English-language program. It was difficult to separate both programs, since Radio Veritas also broadcast an English program section around 1919z. The ID came already around 1836z as Radio Veritas. Later still gospel and other announcements were heard, from which once again the location Quezon City and the stationname were audible. The skip was over for me around 1942z, Ireland and Iran came as further disturbing factors. So overall about an hour of excitement with a nice ID and a new Radioland on the mediumwave. Antenna was K9AY in NE-Direction.

All logs of the day ....