Flight "Ascot 6986" on 9016 khz

I was scanning around the milair bands this afternoon when I heard some activity on 9016 KHZ. It was ASCOT 6986, a Royal Air Force transport aircraft requesting weather information for Nice and Akrotiri. I didn't even know this was an RAF frequency, but I do now! It is part of the TASCOM network.

FM RDS DXing 1068miles to Sveg, Sweden

On 2nd July I got an email alert telling me there was an Es opening, so I switched on my radios and sure enough the FM band was alive with stations towards the east. Here is a video of those captured moments.

This morning, of course, the band is closed again, and all I can hear is Radio 2 and Radio 3!

Eton G3 Review

I've called this a review so that google users might more readily find it, but it is not really a review at all, but more of an opportunity to hear for yourself how cool the Eton G3 actually is. I found when I was considering purchasing it for FM RDS DXing, that there was not a whole lot of info out there about this radio. Sure, there were the early, detailed reviews that banged on about its poorly implemented sync detector and other early production teething problems, but I saw very little about how the radio actually performed NOW, how the sync worked, and how sensitive it was on FM and at FM RDS decoding.

I sold my Sony 7600GR, as I've said elsewhere on this blog, because of its ridiculously useless battery indicator, which to my mind was a crucial feature in a portable radio. It continually annoyed me, having taken it out for the day and it having worked perfectly the previous evening with no signs of battery drainage, to get to the top of said hill and get the battery flat indicator flash at me. I swapped it for the Tecsun PL660. And I was delighted. See elsewhere for my detailed comments about the PL660.

But then I decided to give the Eton G3 a try as I wanted to use it for the sporadic E season of FM DXing, particularly trying to decode the RDS signals from these distant broadcast stations. I found nothing on the net really except for a few youtube videos of people rushing through the entire FM band with their G3 and which did nothing to illustrate to me the sensitivity of the radio as far as RDS decoding was concerned. Here is my Youtube Video of my early experiences of its RDS capability. Boy, is it one cool radio for this aspect of the hobby! With a little patience, I found it can decode quite weak stations, and bear in mind that the Eton is especially sensitive anyway on the FM band, so what is a little weak on the G3 could well be practically inaudible on other radios. I have since tried an RTL SDR Dongle for FM RDS decoding using SDR#. but the Eton beats it hands down, every time.

It is good on SW as well. This morning I was listening to WHRI, World Harvest Radio Intl, on 11635khz and recorded a short video for you to show you how well it smooths out audio that is otherwise very tiresome to listen to.

 

One other thing I want to mention is MW and LW reception. The Sony 7600GR was exceptionally good on these bands with a terrific ferrite bar antenna and neither the Tecsun PL660 nor Eton G3 match its performance here. BUT, with the Tecsun AN200 AM loop or my homebrew MW loop, and with my homebrew loop for the LW NDB Beacon band, both the PL660 and the Eton G3 perk up dramatically to a point that compares favourably with the Sony 7600GR using those same antennas. What I am trying to say is that standalone on its built-in ferrite antenna, the 7600GR is quite a lot better. But put a small loop next door to these three radios and you'll be hard-pushed to tell which is the better performer. I would say the PL660 and Eton G3 perform pretty much equally on these bands. Here is a short video of my Eton G3 this morning, picking up MLX (Morlaix) NDB beacon in Brittany, just across the channel from my QTH in Devon:

I hope these videos and posts are useful if you are considering a purchase, and please feel free to contact me via the comments if you would like any advice or want to ask me any questions.

FM RDS DXing - My First Experiences

This is a short video showing my new Kenwood FM/RDS car radio capturing RDS IDs from 4 stations during a short FM band opening this morning. I think it's really cool to get a text ID of the station before you've even looked it up in the WRTH and I am interested in pursuing this aspect of radio DXing in more depth.

I think I may use some birthday money to put towards a Grundig G3 as I have seen Youtube vids of it capturing RDS data from really quite weak stations and was mightily impressed. It would also be nice to do a bit of portable FM DXing when out and about locally and on holiday.

I may also build a basic dipole for this band.

5455khz French Naval Air Station Lorient

I thought it might be helpful to post about some activity in French I have come across on 5455 khz. The callsign is "Lorient Ecole" and it is the French Naval Air Station training school in Brittany, Northern France. Signals come in loud and clear to my QTH just across the Channel and it has been very active the last few mornings around 06-08UTC. I will try and send an email to Photavia Press in the hope it may get an inclusion in their next publication.

Monitoring POCSAG Pager Messages on 138.150

1705452  14:29:43 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   LAMRT One of the spare radios is missing from mob 1. Please check your bags and return it as soon as possible. Steve 14:29hrs 19-04-14

0271905  14:37:49 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   EMCS WOULD LIKE TO CANCEL A CALL OUT

0944904  15:12:10 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   (891)15:11 DEVON SNOW BUNTING DAWLISH WARREN NNR 200YDS BEYOND LAST GROYNE SX989798  *HANTS SPOONBILL TITCHFIELD HAVEN NNR THIS A/NOON PO14 3JT SU534023

1981006  15:26:02 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   LLMRT Ref. R057744 12 YR OLD LAD HAS NOT BEEN SEEN FOR 2 HRS HAS WATER AND ON THE  LLANBERIS PATH 07714957260 15:25hrs 19-04-14 L @

1981006  15:38:15 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   LLMRT R057744 Continue to stand by no contact with informant John Grisdale 15:37hrs 19-04-14

0940412  15:45:30 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   KSMRT   tl taking call. Kath 15:45hrs 19-04-14

0944132  15:57:20 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   KSMRT   FT Call out . Ankle injury poss Yarlside. Respond to base or Cross Keys RV with Kendal Team. Adrian 15:57hrs 19-04-14

1999084  16:44:52 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   16.39 BMRT snatch incident @ Windgather Rocks. Vehicles required. Respond to  01298918918. Ta Janette

1999084  16:44:49 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   BMRT standby inc windgather. All mobs en route. Thanks Rob S

 0951348  17:53:11 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   KSMRT STAND DOWN CASUALTY ALL SORTED AND WITH NWAS 17:52hrs 19-04-14

0303562  17:59:41 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   PLS CONTACT BRIXHAM COASTGUARD 01803 882 704

0945873  18:01:29 19-04-14 POCSAG-4  ALPHA   1200   St John Ambulance Cumbria On-Call Team, Daily Test Message.

LAMRT Langdale/Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team

LLMRT Llanberis Mountain Rescue Team

KSMRT Kirkby Stephen Mountain Rescue Team

BMRT Buxton Mountain Rescue Team

EMCS East Midland Central Station (Alarm Monitoring Station in |Nottingham)

All monitored on 138.150MHz

I have just completed the easy discriminator modification on my Uniden Bearcat 9000XLT. I say easy,  the soldering to the PCB at point TP3 had me nervous as it was out of my comfort zone, having been used only to more basic soldering and I was worried about damaging the radio. But I wanted the discriminator tap so much that I figured even if I had to buy a new radio I was prepared to take the risk of possibly damaging this one. I turned off my mobile phone and house phone so as not to be disturbed, but even with shakey hands and a wide tipped soldering iron it was OK and I would do it again no problem. Like all things, it is mostly a case of confidence and being prepared to accept responisibility for any possible damage you may do!

Two tips: get a narrow-tipped soldering iron. If I did it again, I wouldn't use a wide-tipped one. And obvious really I suppose, tin the wire well before you attempt to solder it to the TP3 point.

Phew! With that out the way the world of VHF data decoding is at my fingertips and I have had hours of fun so far. Firstly with AIS using MultiPSK:

Then I experimented with POCSAG pager decoding, using the freely available PDW decoder software, the selected results being at the top of this entry.

I am only just uncovering the wide variety of pager users, and the mountain rescue teams really catch my interest.

I have also built a small line level adjuster, comprising a variable resisitor mounted inside a box with two 3.5mm jack plugs for the input from the scanner's discriminator socket and the output to the laptop, as I wanted to bring the RX level down to a more manageable level, but it functions OK without it if you can't be bothered with any more soldering.

So far I have only sat on 153.15 and the much more interesting 138.15mhz, so there are many more frequencies to try.

73 for now, M6RDP 

Review of Realistic DX394 Short Wave Receiver by RadioShack

DX-394 with Radio Shack Speaker 21-549A

Close-up of the superb display on the DX-394

This is a review of the Realistic DX394 Receiver by RadioShack. It is, in my humble opinion, a very much under-valued radio and I want to tell you why, having tried AOR 7030's, The Yaesu FRG100, The Lowe HF150, and numerous portable radios, my all-time number one favourite is the DX394!

The first thing I should explain is that, as far as I am aware, there are one or two, perhaps three, slightly different versions of this radio. I have serial number C006779 and on the back panel there is a small sticker with the letter "B" on it, identifying it as a "B" version model. The first DX394 I owned was an "A" model and years later when I purchased the "B" model I now own, there were a number of big differences immediately apparent. The first, and as a utility listener this was HUGELY important to me, was that the upgraded model didn't need to be offset by de-tuning the "fine tune" control. Let me explain: On the "A" model, if you wanted to tune to 8867 KHz, you would enter 8867 and then have to de-tune to approx 8866.8 KHz to be spot on. I also noted some frequencies needed more or less of an offset than others. This was fine when the frequency was active with plenty of traffic to enable the fine-tuning required, but seriously problematic for sitting on silent frequencies for hours waiting for that elusive call from far away. I missed some great stuff because of this short-coming, and I often woke up to a tape recording of aircraft over the South Pacific region calling Nadi or Auckland or Pascua Island only to discover I had forgotten to de-tune, and had 45 minutes of garbled rubbish. Very annoying! This does not happen with the "B" version. 8867 KHz is spot on 8867 KHz and I have never once had to de-tune a single frequency to correctly resolve a signal.

The second difference was in the sound quality. On both sideband but especially on AM, the audio quality was far superior. It seems to my ears (forgive me as I am not aware of the technical differences between the various models) that the "B" version uses better quality filters. I wouldn't want to go back to an "A" version. Just thought I'd mention this before I start telling you more about the radio as it is important.

I do not know of ANY short wave radio receiver with so many timers! There are 5, yes FIVE, separate timers on the DX-394. Many times have I set up a few minutes of recording on WWV Fort Collins at 18 minutes past each hour for the propagation report. For example: at 0217, 0317, 0417 and 0517 for 2 minutes each time. Just think of the number of late-night DX your could try to identify on the hour!

Another thing I love about this radio and that sets it apart from others I have tried is the excellent medium wave performance. It hears weak MW signals far better than my Yaesu FRG-100 or my portables. I have made a small, passive, medium wave loop covering 540khz to 2500khz and feed it directly into the 50ohm input of the DX-394. It is a terrific combination. If you are interested in medium wave broadcast or maritime MW utility listening, the DX-394 would be an excellent choice.

However, the NDB beacon band is not so good. In fact it is appallingly bad. Do not buy the DX-394 if you are an NDB beacon DXer. It is just totally deaf on this band. Even with a high quality RF Systems DX-10 amplified vertical antenna outside, it hears nothing at all.

The audio quality is OK. Fine for utility listening, but only adequate for broadcast listening. Years ago I had read that the Radio Shack speakers were very good and to consider them in preference to the costly Yaesu and Icom optional speakers. Well last month I was lucky enough to come across one at my local radio club equipment sale. And so for only £3 I bought one. In my opinion it is simply made for the DX-394. I hadn't realized before connecting the speaker, but afterwards it was evident that what I didn't like about the DX-394 audio was the fact it was somewhat muffled. It lack clarity and sharpness and isn't all that pleasant to listen to for any length of time. And during fading there is quite a lot of hiss evident. But through the Radio Shack speaker, the audio is beautiful. I prefer it to my Yaesu FRG100 and Icom 703 both of which I would rate highly for audio in their own right. When there is QSB on the signal, the signal deterioration is far less marked on the Radio Shack speaker, and I find I can listen for hours through this speaker, when on the DX-394 alone I would long ago have switched off. Gone is that muffled, almost processed characteristic. It has nice bass tones, but not too much so. And the higher, treble tones are much more soothing on the ear. As you can see, I can't recommend the combination of DX-394 and Radio Shack speaker highly enough.

The DX-394 also has another really cool feature: it will tune below 150khz all the way down to VLF and ELF. This is nicely demonstrated on this nicely demonstrated You Tube video
This means you can hear time signals, submarine communications, beacons and all sorts of other interesting utility stations. On his You Tube video Steven is using only a long wire and getting acceptable results. I was lucky enough to already own the RF Systems DX-10 antenna, which hears all the way down on VLF, and I can hear a plethora of stations down here. Just to re-cap: the button sequence to open your DX-394 up for VLF and ELF is:

LIMIT
PGM
1
FRQ
ENT

I have tried, somewhat half-heartedly, to listen for some natural radio sounds, but have so far had no luck.

Something else I love about the DX-394 is how easily it lends itself to quickly entering and then swapping between a number of frequencies. If you knew for instance that RAI Radio Uno in Italy were on 657, 900 and 1575khz and you wanted to quickly jump to and fro between these frequencies to see the best one, or to spot when the changeover to RAI's regional programming had occurred, this is all the key presses that would be required:

FRQ 657 ENT PGM 1 ENT
FRQ 900 ENT PGM 2 ENT
FRQ 1575 ENT PGM 3 ENT

then all you would need to do to quickly jump between them is to enter their respective memory channel number. So simply pressing 2 will take you straight to 900khz, another single press of the number 3 will take you to 1575khz etc etc I have used this facility numerous times to help identify different stations or to check for new frequencies of the same station. It has been invaluable. I know you can do this on all radios. But it is the ease with which the DX-394 lends itself to this task with so few key presses that I so appreciate.  

I hope I have covered everything you might have wanted to know, and I hope this review has been helpful. As always, if you want to contact me please do so via comments and I will reply that way too.

73 and as I have finished this on 24th December: Merry Christmas