Re: [IRCA] Elad FDM S1 + Miscellaneous Mumblings
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [IRCA] Elad FDM S1 + Miscellaneous Mumblings

Good luck with the SDR, Michael. As you know, Perseus is the present kingpin among MW DXers, so you've got a good user base to refer to if there are things that don't make sense on opening the package. But the Elad does look like a good deal if you are feeling adventurous.
It's an interesting point that you raise about regression analysis as applied to overseas signal strengths. I have very little experience with it, pretty much limited to deriving coefficients for a known equation using someone else's program, and that quite some time ago.
Two things are a concern to me. One is that the late Bob Brown, NM7M, who studied the daylights out of 160 meter (and other bands) propagation, was a retired physicist, and to my recollection, never mentioned regression analysis as a way of making sense of reception patterns, though I would imagine it must have been part of his professional toolbox. I suspect that even the relationships with A-indices look pretty random, barring "high A-indices (almost always) suppress good reception of Asiatic signals in Victoria, except on occasional October mornings"
The other is that although it is fairly easy to get times of peak signal strength from an SDR recording, it is more difficult, at least for me, to derive a really accurate signal strength on a given signal, as most of our DX is polluted by varying levels of local and atmospheric noise, as well as domestic splatter. Of course, then there is the question of whether 1575 was VoA (usually), or whether AFN or R. Farda were "interfering" with it on a given morning (bring it on, hi)...the raw data might tell you, if you have a high enough quality recording to derive signals a Hertz or two apart.
But if you have some ideas, I have a sunspot cycle's worth of data on JOAK, 4QR and HLAZ signal strengths (with some 4QD thrown in), or perhaps more accurately, "signal to noise" strengths. Bob Brown made some suggestions about how I should handle that, but regression analysis didn't enter into it. 

best wishes, & HNY to you also.

Nick


At 03:42 31-12-13, you wrote:
Hi everyone and Happy New Year - I'm thinking of making the jump into an SDR, largely because I never seem to have time to sit and listen when conditions are good and I want to do some timeshifting through the recording capabilities of an SDR. I've been doing a bunch of research, mostly around the Perseus and Winradio products, but came across the Elad today and was wondering if anyone has any experience with it. The price seems really good, and it seems to be able to record a huge bandwidth. I also have heard that a new version, the S2 is due out soon.
On a completely unrelated topic I have been giving some thought to the data that is collected on the TP's every day. It seems to me that there must be some way to determine sets of local variables associated with each data point (ie lat/long, height above sea level, terrain type, soil conductivity, weather, minutes before/after sunrise at receiver etc) and global variables (ie sunspot count, A/K indices, etc) and take the data points themselves (frequency, tx location, tx power, minutes before/after sunrise/sunset at tx, some sort of signal strength estimate based on SIO or something more accurate like dBm etc) - run them through a regression analysis and try and determine the primary variables for TP reception - which might allow greater signal level predictability from various parts of the Pacific to the west coast. I say the west coast only because we seem to have a cluster of listeners here that are close enough together and yet far enough apart (from Seaside to Haida Gw! aii) that I think it may be easier to do than if the same exercise was conducted continent (or world) wide. I dunno - maybe it's been attempted and I just don't know it, but I'm not aware of anything like this. It's just that I think that a whack o'data is being collected, and maybe there might be a use for it. Does anyone have access to a university or corporate level regression analyzer? We'd need many months of data (at minimum) to start, and probably initial atttempts won't find anything really significant and we'll have to look for other variables or (what I think is more likely) the regression for day 0 will be correlated with some variable(s) a/w days earlier. I would like to be part of any effort to do something like this 'cuz I'd like to know what days it will be worthwhile getting up early in the AM... :-) 

Thanks very much everyone, and HNY again!

Regards,

Michael Yule
Lions Bay BC
_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca
Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers 

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx