Reflections about a remote mediumwave listeners station

One year is long, and sometimes it's better than the previous one. What does the station look like at the end of 2018?

The question is not easy to answer. I had to fall back on the notebook after the failure of the tablet. In a 220V environment no problem, but in the 12V mode, you are constantly confronted with run-down solar batteries. The solar system could be expanded to 10 times, and even then I would not be safe from failures. Therefore, I will keep the plant in its current status. But the reasons are elsewhere. The 12 / 19V voltage converter causes slight disturbances in the MW range here and there. They were not available in tablet mode, because the power was converted from 12 to 5 V with a length-controlled power supply. That's why I plan to buy a 50 Ah Lion battery in 2019. He should supplement the existing 22 Ah Lion battery. Together with the notebook battery, I would then come to a running time of 5-7 hours. That is still little, but a bit more comfortable with a corresponding operation.

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.

After nature began to grow in the spring, the formerly good reception passed away on the WiFi antenna. Now I could find a reasonably good new point at which arrive about 43% signal (formerly 67%, at 370 m distance and clear view). The small DX expedition through the garden showed surprisingly that 8m high masts and a clear view are not always the best choice. This access point is only 3.50 m high. The aluminum reflector could still tickle out 1% more signal. At times, there are longer-lasting connection problems that are dependent on the time of day. But it seems to be the only place in the garden where reception is possible in the summer.

The 1mm green coated garden wire is connected to a classic beverage antenna matching set with 50 Ohms from / lowbandsystems.com /. It is a directional antenna which should be good on NA stations. First tests shows it's good working - also in the opposit direction East Africa - and some dB improvement compared to the K9AY switched into a NW-direction.

My remote site is located in a gardening area near the city of Giessen. In a summer night everything is available, what one needs for DXing, even if the conditions are not so good. There is always a lot to do during daytime. In a warm summer night you can hear the crickets chirping. This is the background for this picture.

An exception was on Aug 14, 2016, when R Bata from Guinea Equatorial was on the air on 5005.040 kc and audible for around an hour up to 2115 UT. It was a music program broadcast and only a few announcements were heard. The recording comes with the station identification.