Jim Douglas wrote:

JimC wrote:



I recently bought a Realistic DX-160 on Ebay, hooked up about 100 feet
of outside antenna and an indoor ground, and find that it picks up all
sorts of signals. (Although I understand that, as an older, single
conversion circuit, it's not the greatest, I do have a more modern,
dual conversion set (RS DX-398, similar to the Sangean ATS-909), with
digital entry and memory.) So far, I enjoy using the DX-160, with
analog tuning, more than the digital set. I have several novice-level
questions.-

First, I can pick up lots of stations on the 40-50 meter bands, and,
in the daytime, a few on the 15 - 20 meter bands. I'm not getting many
HAM or code signals or marine broadcasts. In addition to these
stations, there seem to be lots of other transmissions that can be
heard and that cause the S-meter to jump over, but which aren't speech
or code. - Some of them sound like a rushing noise, and others are
like a whine produced by an electric motor or other machine. Some are
just a noticeably silent station, with no voice or message. - Can
anyone suggest what these "broadcasts" are? Is there any way to filter
them out? - Since there are so many of them, would this suggest that
I have an antenna that is too long?

The DX-160 has bandspread tuning in addition to the main tuning, seen
on a large main tuning dial, and I'm using the bandspread tuning to go
back to a station that couldn't be tuned easily with the main dial. -
I'm wondering how most operators use the bandspread. - Do you actually
"zero" it and then scan (to the left in my case) by a given number of
KH/MH, or do you just go back and forth near the station of interest?

I'm somewhat disappointed in what's available in English (or French)
most of the time. I had hoped to pick up stations from Europe and
England, but there don't seem to be a lot of them. - I can sometimes
pick up BBC stations that I think are in England but haven't noticed
much of anything from France. Is this typical of what others are
receiving? (I'm in Texas, so probably am not in the best US location
except for Cuban and Mexican stations and US religious broadcasts.) On
the other hand, there seem to be lots of oriental language broadcasts.
- I haven't figured out what countries most are from, but the dial on
my RS DX-398 indicates some are from Japan. -

Last, I understand that sunspot activity isn't good at this time. -
When will it improve?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Jim Cate

I am also in TX north of dallas and found stations are hard to come by
done here.


I'm in one of the suburbs of Houston, and I suspect we don't have very
good conditions. However, I'm getting lots of signals on the 30 - 40
meter bands.