Tonight, I enjoyed watching this youtube presentation by Mark Bauman, KB7GF. This presentation is easy to understand because of his kind and precise explanations. I am really interested in higher Relative Direction Factor(RDF) achieved by this antenna. You can download the presentation material fromhere. Here in Japan, I could find onlya test result of this antennaintroduced by Japanese amateur ham operator Fukayama-san(JE1KUC）.
I think this antenna is most likely a next candidate for MW DXing. I would like to manage to do some experiments on this antenna next year.
BCL時代を現役で過ごした50代の方なら、Super Rock Station KYOIは、記憶の中に鮮明に残っていると思います。1980年代にサイパンからSONYのコマーシャルを流しながら、ロックミュージックを短波でかけまくっていたあの放送局です。1980年代と言えばインターネットやユーチューブなんて想像もできなかった時代です。音楽を聴くとしたら、FMのエアチェックやステレオセットさらには、ウォークマンを腰につけてヘッドフォンで聴くしかなかった時代、そしてその音質の追求と言えば、学生らはクロムだ、フェリクロだ、さらにはメタルだとカセットテープに拘っていた時代でした。
KYOIは私にとっては、「なぜ短波でわざわざやるのか？」と思う放送局でもあったわけですが、ビルボードヒットチャートに登る曲を次々とかけてくれていたし、サイパンからの送信ということもあり、たまに深いフェージングがかかることもありましたが、良好に聞こえていることが多かったので、大学の夏休みの時など、自室に置いた八重洲のFRG-7をつけっぱなしにして聞いていたことを憶えています。そんな夏の暑い日の最中に聞いた曲の中で印象に残った曲が、このMadonaのCrazy for youという曲です。
の、”crazy for you" と"know"の部分、前半と後半で音の並びが違います。コードは、EとC#ｍで、”know”の音は前半はF#、後半はC#でマドンナがシャウトしているのですが、この音の違いで凄く印象が違っています。後半の"crazy for you"で音の流れが変わって、続く"know" のC#でグッときますよね。なぜこの音の変化でこんなに印象が変わるのかについて、いろいろ当時考えたのですが良くわかっていません。こういう音の味付けができるミュージシャンは凄いなと思った次第です。ここはひとつ音の魔法と結論しておきましょう。もしわかるかたがいらっしゃったらぜひご教授ください。
後に、同級生にKUAMの受信音を録音したテープを聞かせて曲名等を教えてもらい、彼の兄貴が持っていたLPレコードを借りて、KUAMで聞こえた彼女の歌、”How am I supposed to live with out you”の拝聴となりました。彼女の歌声は、この歌のタイトル"How am I supposed to live with out you？" (あなた無しで私はどうやって生きていったらいいの？）にピッタリだったと今でも思います。また、楽曲も素晴らしく、ピアノサウンド、そしてそれに混ざるEQの効いたローズ・エレクトリックピアノの音、リバーブの深くかかったギターサウンド等、1980年代のアダルトコンテンポラリーミュージックの王道を行っていたのではないでしょうか？ 今聴いても全く褪せることない魅力が彼女の声にはあると思います。1984年の東京音楽祭ではラッキーワンという曲を熱唱していたかと思います。テレビで放映されていたことを薄っすらと憶えています。
I found a message on RealDX mailing list that was asking station ID of an unknown station. The message of inquiry was from Italian MW DXer, Giampaolo Galassi. I listened to an attached audio clip on the news and I confirmed the audio is from KBRW because the announcement was the same one that I could catch in our MW DX-pedition in eastern Hokkaido conducted on this November.
I could hear the announcement "This is KBRW Silakkuagvic Communications Inc..."
I responded to him quickly with my message " Congratulation on your achievement in catching KBRW!"
Giampaolo-san and I became Facebook friends, and he accepted that I introduce his achievement in catching KBRW in Italy that is about 7300km from Barrow, Alaska on my blog. Giampaolo-san, thank you very much for your acceptance!
The figure below shows the propagation path between Barrow, Alaska and his reception site in Italy. The propagation path is almost on the north pole. He used K9AY antenna to receive the signal of KBRW. According to Giampaolo-san, the propagation of KBRW is quite uncommon. So for Italian MW DXers, KBRW is one of the very rare MW stations.
Generally speaking, the radio wave propagation on MW band around north pole is not easy due to Polar Cap Absorption (PCA). They also say that aurora disturbs the propagation too. In this season, very low solar activities can allow the rareness like this. Fortunately, Kp-index on Dec.24 was less than 1.0. The disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field was very weak.
The propagation path between KBRW, Barrow, Alaska and Italy
This is an audio clip of received KBRW that Giampaolo-san provided me. He received KBRW at 05:00UTC (06:00 Italian local time) on Dec.24. According to Giampaolo, he could hear KBRW in only a few seconds of time where splash from RNA Spain was less.
KBRW-680kHz received in Italy at 05:00UTC on Dec.24 shared by Giampaolo Galassi.
You can hear "This is KBRW Silakkuagvic Communications Inc,..." at 0:18. (Using a headphone would be much better.)
Once again, Congratulation on your catching of KBRW, Giampaolo san!!
おめでとうございます！ Good DXing!
I sent a reception report including all DX-pedtion member names to WBZ NewsRadio 1030 today by EMS today. The post office was so crowded because many people came to buy new years greeting postal cards. I enclosed a CD-ROM where an audio clip of received WBZ and pictures of our DX-pedtion in eastern Hokkaido.
Thank to kind foreign MW DXers, I got some destination (person's name ) and postal address of WBZ. I believe our reception will reach them in a week. We sincerely hope to get official verification letter or card including our member names.
I share MW DX audio clips on my Google drive but Google drive seems to limit shred files temporarily after too many accesses. I am trying to bypass this problem but I haven't found any good idea yet. Does anyone have a good idea to solve this problem?
私は、ダイアナ・クラークの歌が好きで、Youtubeでだいぶ前に見つけたこの歌は、私のお気に入りの一曲になっています。A case of youという言葉には、この歌の主人公である女性が、おそらく恋人であろう男性のこと、さらにはその彼との別れがもしかしたらあるかもしれないと若干意識しながら、男性のことをケースにいっぱい入ったお酒のボトルに例えて、”飲み干してみせるわ（あなたがいなくてもやっていけるわ。あるいは、そんなあなたを全て受け止めてみせるわ）”という意味が込められているように思います。歌詞の中にある、”Still on my feet”（まだ立てるのよ。）の部分、”それでもまだあなたのことを愛しているわ”と私は解釈しますが、相反する2つの気持ちを抱きながらも、そこには強い女性の感情が隠れているように思います。ダイアナ・クラークの声と彼女の奏でるピアノが、この歌を聴く者の琴線に触れてきます。なんでしょうか、若い頃にはわからなかった大人の気持ちとでもいいましょうか。私にとってこの曲は男女云々以外のこと、自分のこと、人生のこと等いろいろ思い起こさせる歌になっています。英語の歌詞も味わい深いものです。夜中に聴くのがオススメです。
We knew that another Japanese DXer whose nickname is LFT-san could receive WBZ-1030kHz, Boston by his youtube video. You did it too! LFT-san!! LFT-san knew our reception of WBZ on Nov.25 by an audio clip that Futo-san who is one of the members of this DX-expedition uploaded toDX-audio clip site (eBBS改) and LFT-san tried to dig and find the station fortunately in his Perseus data recorded on the same day and time. What a coincidence!!
別の日本人MW-DXerの方が、アメリカ東海岸にあるWBZ-1030kHz,ボストンを我々と同日、同時間に茨城県の平井海岸で受信されていたとをYoutubeで知ることができました。受信された方はLFTさんです。LFTさん、受信達成おめでとうございます！LFTさんは、eBBS改に今回のペディションメンバーの一人である、太さんがアップロードされたWBZの受信音を聞き、たまたまLFTさんが同日同時刻に平井海岸でペルセウスで記録したデータを再生し確認してみたところ、WBZが受信できていたことがわかったとのことです。すごい偶然ですね！ LFT-san received WBZ at Hirai coast in Ibaraki using a K9AY antenna with null of west direction. The propagation distance between Hirai coast and WBZ is 10767km and this distance is about 1000km longer than the distance between our DX-pedition site in eastern Hokkaido and WBZ. This could be a 1-hop difference of skywave reflection by E-layer of the ionosphere under an assumption where the hight of E-layer is 100km and the elevation angle of transmitting antenna of WBZ is about 10.5 degrees.
It is very interesting to compare these two receptions conducted at different places, the same time and date. This comparison must be valuable for MW DXers.
I am contacting LFT-san to compare these receptions of WBZ at different places in detail. From his youtube video, rapid fading seems to occur more often on WBZ's signal than our reception.
Please note that we could receive KBRW-680kHz, Barrow, Alaska in good condition at our DX-pedition site in Hokkaido but on the other hand, LFT san told me that KBRW was weak and difficult to confirm the signal due to side splash at Hirai coast. This difference is very interesting too.
One of foreign veteran MW DXer, Nick-san from Canada told me that our MW DX-pedition is introduced in a famous European MW DX circle's journal (”MEDIUM WAVE NEWS”, December 2018, Vol.64.No.7) The circle is Medium Wave Circle that went into its 64th year in 2018. This is a big Christmas gift for us. Each of us is feeling happiness very much.
We think this article in the journal kindly introduces the steady presence of enthusiastic MW DXers like us even in Japan.
According to this journal, KBRW-680kHz is one of MW DX stations for European MW DXers, but this station had been caught even in Italy in this season. I think this season would be the best for MW DXing since the last good MW DX season of 2009.
This figure shows the propagation path of the U.S east-coast MW stations that we caught at our eastern Hokkaido MW DXpedtion. You can see the propagation paths of KBRW-680kHz(Barrow, Alaska) and KOTZ-720kHz(Kotzebue, Alaska) are on the path of the U.S east-coast MW stations.
Click this figure to enlarge.
These are audio clips of KBRW and KOTZ (presumed) that are recorded at the same hour when we caught the U.S.east-coast MW stations (WTPX and WBZ).
KOTZ(presumed) didn't say any ID and was playing music for a long time. I confirmed this station tends to play only music for a long time by its streaming radio on the Internet.
KBRW-680kHz at around 08:00UTC on Nov.25
You can hear "KBRW Silakkuagvic Communications Inc, Barrow, Alaska."
KOTZ(presumed)-720kHz at around 07:00UTC on Nov.25
Both signals of the radio stations came in our MW DXpedition site very well.
Such wonderful receiving condition of KBRW seems to be rare here in Japan. I think these stations would be pilot stations to know the propagation condition for the U.S.east-cost MW radio stations. What do you think?
We (nickname,Siesta -san, Shinzo-san, Futo-san and I) conducted an eastern Hokkaido DXpedition from Nov.23 to Nov.26, and we achieved in receiving U.S. east-coast MW stations(WBZ-1030kHz, Boston, MA and WPTX-1690kHz, Lexington Park, MD). We expect that the reception of WPTX-1690kHz might be the first-ever record in Japan. We haven't found any other record of the reception in Japan in past years. We could contact a program director of WPTX, and she has kindly confirmed our reception by an audio clip that we sent to her.
Eastern Hokkaido DXpedition from Nov.23 to Nov.25 2018
We flew to Eastern Hokkaido from Tokyo in the early morning on Nov.23.
Every MW DXer knows that sun activity is almost minimum this year and it will continue for more 2 years. Those years are good for MW DXing and very precious chance to catch much longer distance MW stations.
For most of Japanese MW DXers, the reception of MW stations around U.S. east coast is a dream because of its rareness of reception. The propagation paths have to go through north pole area, and aurora absorption (Polar Cap Absorption) makes the altitude of ionosphere where MW signals reflect more lower than normal altitudes dramatically changing their propagation paths. This phenomenon is considered to make MW propagation from the U.S east coast area so rare.
According to the aurora forecast by NOAA, the probability of visible aurora around north pole area of the North American continent at that time was relatively low.
Aurora forecast for 2018-11-25 08:10 UTC
(https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/)
Fortunately, geomagnetic activity was quiet too during our MW DXpedition.
幸いなことに、我々のペディション期間中の地磁気活動も静穏でした。
This chart is extracted from NICT's 27-days K-index chart
(http://hirweb.nict.go.jp/sedoss/geoact-j)
For receiving antenna, we adopted a Twisted Double Delta Flag (D-Kaz)antenna. Siesta-san who represents MW DXer in Japan designed it with his excel know-how and experience. The antenna assembly was so easy that it took only about 20 minutes to deploy the antenna. Usually, we use a TDDF antenna with a 20m bottom line for the most case of MW DXpedition in Japan but we used a TDDF antenna with 40m bottom line in this MW DXpedtion. The antenna gain is about +10dB higher. At the same time, We used a +10dB very low noise Norton preamplifier and CMC filters that Siesta-san made too. His total tuning of the antenna and every equipment is superior and that is why we succeeded in receiving such a long distance MW radio stations clearly.
I'm sorry to have kept you waiting to get here. There are audio clips of received the U.S.east coast MW stations.
The first one is WPTX-1690AM, Lexington Park, Maryland. We caught its signal at around 07:00UTC on Nov.25.The sound is incredibly clear even though transmitting power was only 1kW.
After Billy Joel's song ”Honesty", You can hear "You are listening to southern Maryland favourite adult standards on WPTX 16-90 AM, Lexington Park Maryland.." by a female voice. We were so glad to hear this signal from MD.
ビリージョエルのオネスティの歌の後に、女性の声で、 "You are listening to southern Maryland favourite adult standards on WPTX 16-90 AM, Lexington Park Maryland.." と出ています。
The second one is WBZ-1030AM, Boston, Massachusetts. We caught its signal at around 08:00UTC on Nov.25. We were so excited about this reception too!
You can hear "WBZ News radio 1030, WBZ Boston WXKS FM - HD2, Medford and Iheart radio station, This is WBZ, News radio 1030" by a male voice.
男性の声で、" WBZ News radio 1030, WBZ Boston WXKS FM - HD2, Medford and Iheart radio station, This is WBZ, News radio 1030 と出ています。 今回はここまでとします。実はこの北米東海岸局が受信出来た同日は、アラスカでも北極に近いバローにあるKBRW 680kHz他が大変良好に、ちょっとした国内ローカル放送並みに聞こえていました。このKBRWの伝搬路と北米東海岸局の伝搬路との間に興味深い関係がありましたので、それは次のブログの記事で紹介いたします。（続く）
This is my preliminary result of Sanriku MW DXpedition in Oct. 2018. We could dig more than 100 TP-DX stations from North America and South America. Especially, from North America, we could catch the signals from 23 states of the U.S. and 3 states of Canada. The figure below shows confirmed states（Green) where we could catch at least one MW station. We haven't confirmed any MW station from the state of Arkansas yet.
States of the U.S. and Canada where we could confirm TP-DX stations
Let me introduce some recorded sounds of TP-DX stations of the U.S. and Canada as follows. You can hear the sound by clicking each call sign.
In this DXpedition, I felt that reception of east coast stations from Japan is still difficult.
I have checked the recorded files over 510GB since I came back from Sanriku area. It is my fun time to find new TP-DX stations after I came home from work.
Tonight, I could find KOTA in South Dakota on 1380kHz at 08:33 UTC in my recorded files. KOTA is a just 5kW station and usually, KRKO in WA is dominant on this frequency. I am glad to dig this station! Here is the recorded audio.
三陸の中波DXペディションから戻ってから510GB以上ある記録ファイルを解析しています。仕事から帰ってきてから、新しいTP-DX局を見つける作業は、私にとって楽しいひと時ですね。
今夜、とうとう、サウスダコタのKOTA 1380kHzを記録ファイルの中に掘り当てることができました。KOTAはたった5kWの局です。この1380kHzは通常、ワシントン州のKRKO 50kWが優勢な周波数です。個人的にはKOTAの受信はとても嬉しいです。KOTAのステーションコールの様子をアップしておきます。
IDは、”News radio KOTA 1380 (AM) ,100.7FM..." とハッキリと出ています。（カッコの中は聞き取れない部分）。後半のFMの周波数アナウンスの部分100の発音hundred は早口ですね。
South Dakota is here. サウスダコタはここ。
According to FCC, KOTA uses a directional antenna with three vertical antenna for night time only and the transmitting antenna beams to the north. From South Dakota, the direction to Sanriku area is about northwest. So we had an advantage for the radio wave propagation between South Dakota and Sanriku.
I joined the TP DX-pedition on the Sanriku coast last weekend from Oct.6 to Oct.8. This DX-pedition was conducted by three of my senior Japanese DXers and me.
The Sanriku coast has been very popular expedition place for TP DX in Japan. First of all, the level of noise is very low compared to big cities in Japan and we can fully benefit from the Pacific ocean. It's sea gain. The Sanriku coast has beautiful ria shorelines. During our stay, we enjoyed fresh seafood too.
We stayed an inn near the coast for two night and one of my respecting DXers brought his hand-made Twin Double Delta Flag antenna (TDDF) with a 10 dB Norton type preamplifier there. The K-index for those days were relatively low and we felt the TP DX condition for North America was good but the condition for South America was not good.
Each of us used Perseus SDR or Exculiver SDR and recorded all of MW band into each notebook type PC with external HDD.
I haven't finished analyzing the recorded files over 550GB yet but I think more than 80 TP DX stations have already been confirmed with clear IDs.
I colored states of Canada and U.S. that have our confirmed TP DX stations (Green). The MW stations on the east coast seem to be still very far away from us on the point of radio wave propagation on MW band!!!
Let me show some video clips of TP DX stations in North America that we caught there. We could hear the signal of several W-call stations from Louisiana, Texas and Iowa states as follows.
I found an interesting article about USB isolator on ¡BAMLog!A homemade USB groundbreaker is also introduced there. My eye was caught on a figure that shows the noise floor is reduced by 3 to 6dB! I guess this noise reduction helps me dig a very weak MW DX station. According to the article, the HiFiMe High-Speed USB Isolator reportedly is not yet released. But The device has been available on its site (https://hifimediy.com/high-speed-usb-isolator-480Mbps) The price is 89 dollars. I think it is reasonable. This USB isolator supports up to the data rate of 480Mbps that is enough for data transferring from Perseus SDR to PC.
The HiFiMe High-Speed USB Isolator
I ordered this device tonight. I will review this device with my Perseus SDR after the device is delivered to me from Hong Kong.
This is a very small USB-DAC headphone amplifier "Sound Blaster E1".
My Lenovo ThinkPad X201 has already been an old laptop computer but I changed the hard drive to 256GB SDD and installed 64 bit Windows 10 with 8GB memories. This PC is quite enough for my MW DXing with Perseus SDR and Excalibur SDR. But unfortunately, the original sound from this PC is a bit cheap and sometimes it is burdensome to listen to MW DX audio files because of lack of its intelligibility. This tiny headphone amplifier helps me a lot in such a case.
I also enjoy music video on Youtube with this.
I joined a TP-MW DXpedition at Taitosaki, Chiba with other 4 members of TDXC on Sep.23. The weather was good with the autumn sea wind. We set up a Twisted Double Delta Flag (D-Kaz)antenna of 20m of the bottom line length. Space weather news didn't report any anomalous message regarding the geomagnetic phenomenon.
K-index 27 days chart from NICT
The last green bar shows a geomagnetic status of Sep.23 2018.
http://hirweb.nict.go.jp/sedoss/geoact-j/do?d=2018.09.23
We monitored all MW band with each Perseus SDR and also recorded all MW band from 16:00 to 19:00 J.S.T. Regular TP TDX stations on the west coast were dominant. But I couldn't get KKOL that is one of the regular TP-DX stations on 1300kHz. Instead of KKOL, I could get KAPL(K-Apple) luckily on this frequency. According to Wikipedia, KKOL has been off-the-air since this February because of its transmitter problem.
After I came home, I could dig a weak signal on 1340kHz in my recorded data. It was KATA with 1kW of transmitting power from Arcata, California. The transmitting antenna of this station is very close to Arcata Bay at the side of the Pacific ocean. I guess sea gain effect helped to propagate such a small powered radio wave.
The recorded audio file of KATA ID on 1340 kHz
You can hear " 1340 AM KATA.."
We are Japanese MW DXers. We would like to interact with other MW DXers.
Special thanks to Sawapon for this picture.
I found a very interesting video tonight. ( I really regret that it was late to notice it.) I need to study about Linrad more. Tonight, Just quick notification.
This video seems to show adaptive noise cancelling by two SDRs and Linrad.
I went to the National Diet Library this morning. This is the first time for me to visit the library. I could get many copies of articles regarding MW DX complied in DX year reports from 1980 to 1983. These DX year reports were published by Japan BCL league that was dissolved in 1983. I could also get some copies of articles of MW DX compiled in the monthly magazine "Shortwave" published in 1977 and 1978.
Все когда-то слышали историю о Золушке. Эта история о девочке, которая потеряла своих маму и папу и была оставлена с теми, кто не мог любить её также сильно, как её родители.
I went to Tokyo Ham Fair 2018 at Tokyo Big Site on Aug.26. It was such a hot and sticky weather, and I felt like I was in a steam oven or sauna.
今日は茹だるような暑い日でしたが、ハムフェア2018を見に、東京ビッグサイトへ行ってきました。
Today was the second day of the fair so that the number of visitors didn't seem to be so many. Japanese transceiver manufacturer like KENWOOD, YAESU and AOR were exhibiting their transceivers and their accessories at each booth. The exhibits were not so new things to me. The colourful display of SDR such as waterfall and frequency spectrum has already been a standard function of amateur radio transceivers. The basic concepts of reception dynamic range enhancement and noise cutting have not changed at all. The large and heavy u-tuning circuit unit made by YAESU was eye-catching to me, but the technique is very old-fashioned one that was used in a rocket-shaped crystal radio in my elementary school days. But there must be some know-hows to achieve high resonant Q value of the circuit by choosing optimum devices and case.
Many tiny antenna analyzers were displayed in the fair. Most of them were the 1-port type. The price range was between about 28,000 yen to 50,000 yen.
This is an introduction video of impedance and antenna analyzer SARK-110 by Seed in China. SARK-110 has a spectrum analyzer and a signal generator, and you can make the small display to big one by using your PC display too. Frequency range is from 100kHz to 230MHz.
This is an introduction video of a new Vector antenna analyzer FA-VA5 made by Funk Amateur in Germany. The frequency range is from 10kHz to 600MHz, much wider than SARK-110. The FA-VA5 also works with another VNWA software running on a PC via USB connection. You can see the bigger measuring screen. You can purchase a kit of this analyzer too.
Well, What kind of analyzer do I want? I would say I want to have a VNA for 2 port measurement. Measurement of input-output characteristics of filters needs the function. To design and make good filters and resonant circuits, a VNA for 2 port measurement is very helpful. Many OMs who introduce their good hand-made circuits on their blogs seem to have instruments like these VNAs. I am interested in miniVNA Pro2.0 from mini Radio Solutionsnow.
