Re: [IRCA] An unusually good TP morning?

[Brian Rachford <azswdxing@xxxxxxxxx>]

Gary,

Thanks for all the information!  I didn't have a chance to research the pip
pattern for NHK, so you saved me the effort.  I'm glad you post your
recordings, gives us landlocked folks something to shoot for.

One slight clarification, although I'm using an SDR, I'm doing it on the
cheap with a $20 USB dongle and a basic upconverter, instead of a "proper"
high-grade SDR.  The main limitation is being only 8-bit, but with
oversampling it has enough dynamic range to work well as long I'm careful
about gain levels.  It's sort of a perverse form of "ultralight" as far as
SDRs go.  But, indeed any SDR provides a nice digital output, and these
recordings were with a 4kHz (full width) filter, just narrow enough to
avoid the worst of the splatter from 1560 and 1570.  Then I roll off the
low-end junk and tweak the level when I edit the audio.

Brian Rachford - Prescott, AZ
azswdxing@xxxxxxxxx
http://azswdxing.wordpress.com/

On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 5:37 PM, <d1028gary@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Again Brian,
>
> Thanks for posting this morning's TP-DXing MP3's from Arizona. Arizona's
> propagation from Asia is usually trickier than what we enjoy here in
> Washington state and BC, so the sunrise enhancements that show up
> here don't often make it so far south.
>
> <<<   Unattended recordings with my software defined radio (SDR) had
> yielded progressively stronger signals for presumed HLAZ 1566 kHz out of
> Korea over the previous three mornings, at best being marginal audio.
> Propagation went up a significant notch today and the star of the morning
> was HLAZ. As usual, this is more about getting the audio signal at all as
> opposed to getting âarmchairâ quality.   >>>
>
> Your first and second MP3's (at 1052 and 1131 UT)  are from 1566-HLAZ's
> Chinese service, with Chinese female speech at a fair level on the second
> MP3. As usual, the Perseus-SDR recordings sound almost high fidelity,
> compared to Ultralight radio reception in the 1 kHz DSP mode.
>
> <<<   The second best station was presumed JOUB on 774 kHz out of Japan.
> The audio was pretty weak, but I did hear a voice at 3:46am (1046UT),
> before I started recording. The following recording isnât much, but if you
> listen carefully you can hear the time pips leading to the top of the hour
> at 5am MST/12UT, under splatter from adjacent domestic stations:   >>>
>
> The 3 + 1 time pips on your 774 MP3 are typical of the Japanese NHK
> stations (like JOUB) at the top of the hour. There are other networks that
> use the 3 + 1 pips (like the Koreans on 558, 603 and 972) but Chinese
> stations (and the New Zealand RNZ network) use 5 + 1 time pips.
>
> 1566-HLAZ also is capable of huge signals here in Puget Sound, well before
> sunrise. This MP3 of HLAZ's Japanese service (at a near meltdown level) was
> made last Saturday at 1344 UT on my modified Ultralight radio and 15" FSL
> antenna
> http://www.mediafire.com/view/5yfi9h97l87s987/1566-HLAZ-1344z022815CCSW.MP3
>
>
> 73, Gary DeBock (in Puyallup, WA)
> 7.5" loopstick C.Crane Skywave + 15" FSL antenna
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Brian Rachford" <azswdxing@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America" <
> irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2015 2:56:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [IRCA] An unusually good TP morning?
>
> Ok, I had a chance to put a few audio snippets up on my blog:
>
> https://azswdxing.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/log-am-bcb-march-4th-trans-pacific-reception/
>
> Nothing spectacular, but much better than usual here, especially for
> 1566-HLAZ.  I'm still looking for an intelligible TOH identification from a
> TP station, but I did get time pips from presumed 774-JOUB.
>
> Brian
>
>
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