Re: [IRCA] Greetings from Florence

["Michael Yule" <michaeldyule@xxxxxxxxx>]

Buona sera Andrea e grazie! This is good information for sure, and kind 
of falls in line with what I was thinking would happen. IÃm about 2 
minutes away from the Via Romana entrance to the Boboli, and was 
thinking that I would put together one of those hard shell briefcases 
with my ELAD and laptop in it, and also have the FSL to carry with me 
and go and sit on one of the benches by the big fountain until the 
Carabinieri wonders what I'm up to with the strange looking gear! I can 
even take a local bus to Fiesole which is only a few more minutes away 
and is in the hills overlooking the city which would no doubt be even 
better. I've been thinking of a Tecsun as well, maybe a 660, it seems to 
have very good reviews.

I really appreciate your offer of help, and once I get things pulled 
together I'll let you know and find out how you think I might be able to 
get the best use of what I have. BTW thanks also for the audio clip, 
great stuff! I'll may be get down to Sicily in August next year (or 
maybe Tropea) and I'd definitely try and bring my DX gear.

Thanks again!

Michael

------ Original Message ------
From: "Andrea Lawendel" <lawendel@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Michael Yule" <michaeldyule@xxxxxxxxx>; "Mailing list for the 
International Radio Club of America" <irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 27-Nov-2017 6:12:12 PM
Subject: Re: [IRCA] Greetings from Florence

> Hi Michael, buona sera!
>
> I've enjoyed your florentine report on IRCA's mailing list and on 
> behalf of the small Italian community devoted to serious AM band DX I 
> wish you a warm welcome in our country!
> Living in a crowded urban area, albeit largely built at least two 
> centuries ago, will not help your DX monitoring. The situation usually 
> gets dramatically better if you're lucky enough to spot some 
> countryside location (even better a seaside one) within a reasonable 
> distance. Sometimes, it even helps having a town-park (like the Boboli, 
> in your case) at hand. Anyway, I strongly suggest you to include a 
> non-SDR portable in your portable equipment, an ultralight like the 
> Tecsun 390, or the PL660 would be fine: it can assist you in further 
> exploring your "remote" opportunities.  [hereby attached, via my Google 
> Drive link, please find a short clip of Taiwan's superpower on 1557 
> logged on a beach in Sicily with a barefoot Tecsun PL390, to show how 
> it feels like, one can experience similar receptions on some TA 
> signals]
>
> â
>  IMG_0011.MOV 
> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cagruSYfnJBcB0hqjEnYIxSCCSuAS9Pr/view?usp=drive_web>
> â
> Essentially, there's a single geographically spread Medium Waves 
> community active here. Some of us are located in the North West 
> (Lombardy/Piedmont), some other in the North East (Friuli Venezia 
> Giulia) or in Emilia Romagna. Very few of us are able to DX from home, 
> however, and many relies upon a few remoted (Perseus based) listening 
> posts. There's even a longwire/beverage antennas site mid-way between 
> Venice and Trieste, close to the Adriatic Sea coast.
> I'll be happy to assist you in your hunt for new DX point of 
> references, so please don't hesitate asking.
>
> Andy Lawendel
> Milan
> www.radiopassioni.it
> whatsapp +39-348-2245512
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 27, 2017 at 5:07 PM, Michael Yule <michaeldyule@xxxxxxxxx> 
> wrote:
> > Hi everyone - as some of you saw about 4 months ago, my wife and I 
> > moved to Florence Italy, which explains the complete absence of 
> > loggings from me ever since. We spent the first 3 months in a tourist 
> > apartment while we looked for a permanent home, and we found one and 
> > moved in thereat the beginning of November. Now we are getting 
> > settled, and have some furniture etc I have been assessing DX 
> > possibilities from this location and will be unpacking the ELAD and 
> > trying to get a sense of RFI levels. We live on the third floor of a 4 
> > floor 15th century palazzo in the Oltrarno district (the 'left bank' 
> > of the Arno, so to speak) so I shouldnt really have to contend too 
> > much with rebar faraday cages, but I do look into an interior 
> > courtyard on the balcony, with no real clear view outward - one story 
> > of the building completely surrounds my location, about 25 metres 
> > away. The balcony is the full length of the apartment, but is very 
> > narrow.
> >
> > It is quite likely that I will find a fair degree of RFI once I get 
> > things set up, and that I will want to go out on mini-dxpeditions into 
> > the Tuscan countryside (which starts about a 20 minute bus ride away), 
> > so I am thinking I will want to do as portable a setup as I can. So 
> > this is leading me to believe that what I should do is build (or buy, 
> > if possible!) a broadband FSL and be sort of a mini-European Gary 
> > DeBock. This will give me the portability I want, and also make it so 
> > I dont have to try and erect an antenna either inside (at which 
> > thought I shudder, having just come from the realm of the fantastic 
> > DKAZ...) or navigate any potential problems with neighbours or the 
> > buildings owner when trying to erect one outside on or around the 
> > balcony. Just as an aside, the place I live was, as I say, built in 
> > the 15th century by the Frescobaldi family and it is still owned by 
> > them, the current Marchese (Marquis) living on the floor above me.
> >
> > So the next steps are going to be to review all the literature on FSL 
> > construction, decide how big I want to go, and start assembling 
> > materials. I dont know if Guy Atkins ever published anything on making 
> > the FSL broadband, but if he did could someone send me a link? And if 
> > anyone has one for sale, please let me know as well!
> >
> > Thanks very much everyone, I'll let you know as things progress. I 
> > might be able to help a bit on TA identification once I get going 
> > since I will be closer to the source as well!
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Michael Yule
> > Firenze, Italia
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