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Old November 5th 06, 12:10 PM posted to rec.radio.shortwave
dxAce dxAce is offline
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Jun 2006
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bpnjensen wrote:

wrote:
bpnjensen wrote:
Here in SF Bay Area, CA, weak but barely readable at 22:30 onward on
11092.50 kHz USB. Basically doesn't move the needle, but the frequency
is quiet, and modulation is pretty good. Would be fairly easy to read
if the local noise levels around here weren't so high.

Bruce Jensen


You did better than I did here in San Jose, California. Tried off and
on from 1800 to 2130, and listened continuously from 2200 to 0100.
Might have heard some hints of voices or music under the noise, or it
could have been my imagination. Using a Drake R8 with a 10m longwire
running N-S. Got RSH on two out of five previous attempts.


It had to be the noise at your QTH - although the RSH signal was weak,
it finally came through clear and readable after about 23:00. The
switch to NA was a bit wobbly at 23:30 - some cut outs reportedly due
to physical interference from an adjacent comm tower - but finally I
was able to nab better than 95% copy once they went to N. America.
This on a R75 with two antennas, both effective - a 15m random wire N-S
and a DX Ultra, separately and phased together. It really helped to
have all three preamps on to simply get the volume up, but it would
have been possible without them. Listened all the way through 01:10,
when their "sign-off music" finally quit :-)

And by the way, a BIG thanks to John Plimmer, Terry and DXAce who
brought this to my (our) attention - it really boosted the spirits on a
somewhat mediocre day :-)


It was fun, but after over 7 hours of listening I find that today I'm suffering
from RSH burnout!

I had the radio on 11092.5 here from 1700 and during that hour I could have
sworn that they were testing the transmitter and indeed they confirmed that they
were later on.

Not much of a signal here at 1800 sign on and audio a bit muddy but I soon
discovered that switching to a narrower filter cleared that up nicely.

All in all an interesting bit of fun, though I would have liked to have seen
just how much of a difference the directional antenna would have made here had
they been able to rotate it this way without a problem.

Past transmissions as I recall used a fixed antenna aimed at Ascension Island
which put it on a heading to North America all the time.

It seems as though they'll be back next year, or sooner? It would be nice I
suppose if they just kept the equipment running and relayed their regular MW
service.

dxAce
Michigan
USA