Re: [IRCA] New logbook started and new antennas tested

[Todd <todftscytj7707@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Tim,
Sorry to hear about your fire. I am excited for you that you are giving dx'ing another shot. I too lost my logs book under different circumstances and have about 1300 stations after 7 years. George Sherman had alot of my past dx catches in his logs but im sure idea be around 1500+. It is discouraging but as I started again them excitement renewed for me.

Im also looking forward to your future loggings such as your 1010 logging of Salt Lake City. I dont have that one yet so that gives me something to shot for.

73 Todd

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

Tim Hills <thills@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>After losing all my old logs and equipment in a fire I gave the hobby up 
>for a while but I'm starting over.
>
>I have been working on 2 different approaches for antennas to handle the 
>RF zoo I live in.
>
>One is a dual spiral, 10 turns total and 30" diameter in 2 layers 1" 
>apart with varactor tuning and a single turn pickup loop.
>The other is an 11" ferrite rod made from 2 5 1/2" rods from same model 
>Panasonic thrift store radios also with varactor tuning and a low noise 
>preamp. 102 turns of wire center tapped for the resonant winding and a 
>12 turn pickup coil. Several trial winding schemes were tried with #30 
>solid before I made the final with the Litz.
>Both are wound with 40/44 Litz. Both have their advantages. The dual 
>spiral is very sensitive for it's size but more prone to off channel 
>splatter and local QRM and it seems to do better below 650KHz than the 
>rod. Because there's 2 spirals working together the null is along the 
>axis of the windings and sharper than the traditional coil or spiral.
>The active rod's only real disadvantage is the touchy tuning but it 
>covers from 500KHz to 1900KHz, 2MHz if I push the voltage over spec on 
>the varactors. Neither antenna has shown any sign of intermod or 
>overload but I do have to reduce the gain on stronger signals with the 
>active rod. I'm also working on a LW version of the active rod using the 
>7 1/2" rod salvaged from an S350DL. That POS is more useful in my 
>junkbox than on the bench.
>
>The last 4 entries made in the wee hours show that my efforts have been 
>worth it. KXRB is 100W Directional aimed right at this location and just 
>over 4 miles from here.
>
>Receiver, DX-440 slightly tweaked. Added shielding.
>Antenna used for these was the active rod.
>All times are UTC.
>
>990 CBW, Winnipeg, MB. CBC news with ID at 10:13 and "Weekend Morning 
>Show" following. This one came in clear with a few lightning crashes but 
>no interference from KXRB. CBW runs 46K at night but I'm on the back of 
>the pattern
>1000 KXRB Sioux Falls, SD, Local CW station with ID at 10:18
>1000 UNID OM with Southern/Texas accent talking. Not clear enough to get 
>any ID but nulling KXRB enough to get anything was a surprise to me.
>1010 KCPW Salt Lake City, UT YL with British accent discussing "Female 
>mutilation" with guest. BBC World Service 24/7. 11:30 ID
>Imagine my surprise at hearing a YL with a Brit accent when I tuned to 1010.
>Radiolocator still lists 1010 as a religious station but according to 
>the article at Radio Netherlands Worldwide 
><http://blogs.rnw.nl/medianetwork/bbc-world-service-to-be-available-247-on-am-in-salt-lake-city> 
>KCPW is only running 194W at night and it's over 800 miles away! Maybe 
>after a nap I'll have to do some inverse square calculations...
>There was some splatter from KXRB but tuning the radio to 1011 and 
>tweaking the tuning on the rod eliminated most of it.
>
>Tonight I'll see how it does with the 5KW directionals aimed at my back 
>yard....
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