kkonrad – Page 13

September Tropo ’13

by kkonrad08-10-201311-03-20150

7th September seems to be again a lucky day for the tropospheric propagation, just like exactly a year ago. This time stations were coming from Finland, Estonia and Sweden. Tropo peaked around 8 UTC and I beat my personal RDS-quality record – three stations from Anjalankoski reached fair stereo+RDS signal at distance 1005km, with levels up to about 20dBf. Enhanced tropospheric conditions lasted from 4th to 9th September, but the strongest and the farthest ducting took place on 7th September.

Pierwsze letnie tropo 2013

by kkonrad29-06-201305-03-20160

Nareszcie po ponad 7 miesiącach przerwy pojawił się troposferyczny dukt z prawdziwego zdarzenia, nie licząc słabych sygnałów z dalszej Danii w lutym. Jeżeli chodzi o odległości to tym razem jednak bez zbyt imponujących wyników, ale siła propagacji – wysoka. Mocno podwyższone warunki zauważyłem po włączeniu radia wieczorem około 22. Zresztą to nie była jedyna atrakcja tego dnia, ponieważ wcześniej nad Czechami i Słowacją rozszalała się jonosfera i MUF osiągnął grubo ponad 144MHz. Odebrałem dzięki temu wiele bałkańskich stacji, w tym także premierowy sygnał z Bośni!

tropo

Aurora FM-DX 17.03.2013

by kkonrad18-03-201315-12-20190

Yesterday I noticed a very weak station on 91.2 and after a while I realised it is a Swedish voice. However the antenna direction was wrong, it was heading Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Well… everything was clear – finally first reception via auroral propagation for me! The best signal strength was around 16 UTC with an antenna aimed at 0-30° azimuth.

aurora17032013

Dual DAB 4

by kkonrad30-01-201314-12-20191

I have recently bought a portable radio receiver called Dual DAB 4. It supports DAB (MP2), DAB+ (AAC) and the analog FM. It is equipped with a monophonic speaker and a telescopic antenna (although it is too short for the FM reception). Frontier Silicon Verona FS2052 tuner module contains Apollo 2 RF front-end IC and Kino 3 DSP. It is possible to use an included external 7.5V switching power supply or 6x AA batteries.

BS.412-9 in Czech Republic

by kkonrad25-11-201214-12-20190

Once you listen to any Czech FM broadcast channel, you can always recognize their modulation. Why? Czech Republic performs the loudest audio processing in this part of Europe. However, each FM broadcast in this country must comply the ITU-R BS.412-9 recommendation till the end of this year, including both public and commercial programs. What does it mean? The average deviation will be greatly decreased.

September 2012: Long-range FM & OIRT ducting

by kkonrad28-10-201204-03-20190

Autumn is well known as a perfect season for tropospheric ducting. First notable long-path ducting occurred this year on September 7, but it was just a short propagation. This time, good tropo conditions lasted much longer. Everything started in the evening on October 18 with strong tropo from Lithuania and Belarus. I also got some stations on OIRT band (66 – 74MHz) including Babrujsk (~650km, 73.01 stereo O=5-). Actually I don’t have any OIRT-dedicated antenna and my all receptions were made using Körner 19.3. Stations from Vilnius reached RDS & clear stereo signal (98.3, 102.6, 106.8). Although the distances were not so great, I have received some stations for the first time.