I made the effort this year to spend some time at the dials during the Halloween weekend to judge the current state of pirate activity on the shortwave bands. This is the first Halloween weekend in many years that I’ve done this, and there was no disappointment in the amount of activity taking place! Below are some of the stations that I noted. I had the Perseus recording the whole 6.9 mhz band during various times of high activity and will be reviewing these files for some time to come. After reading reports from others, this is only a fraction...
Pirate Radio Saint Helena heard well enough here on October 16th to earn this nice e-QSL verification. Thanks to the station for verifying and providing the broadcast! A recording of the broadcast, as heard from my location, can be heard here: 11092 Khz Pirate Radio Saint Helena 16OC10 2305 UTC.mp3
Here’s a (admittedly incomplete) daytime AM bandscan from the Outer Banks of North Carolina that might interest other medium wave DXers. We camped at the Cape Point Campground August 10th-11th, 2010. I hauled my radio gear including a DX-440 portable / Quantum Loop combo and my Perseus SDR and an 800 foot beverage antenna. I was able to do a little DXing between other family activities. Here’s what I caught using the DX-440 and loop around solar noon. It’ll take me some time to go through the spectrum recordings taken during the pre & post sunset hours. Unfortunately I wasn’t...
As part of our family summer vacation, we tent camped at the Cape Point Campground located on Hatteras Island at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The campground features a grassy open flat area and nice views of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Though very scenic, this is an operational lighthouse that illuminated the tent during darkness when the beacon’s light rotated towards the direction of the campground. The kids loved it! All three of the National Park Service campgrounds were considered on OBX: Oregon Inlet Campground, Cape Point Campground, and Frisco Campground. Reservations cannot be had for any of these three...
All logs from June 20th, 2010. Of particular interest is 700 KHSE which has been creeping in under powerhouse WLW lately. VLF Bandscan: kHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km 24 0300 USA NAA, Cutler (ME) Presumed NAA w/ 5 second tones spaced 5 seconds apart (marker?) 942 km 25 0300 USA NML4, Lamoure (ND) 60 0300 USA WWVB, Fort Collins (CO) 984 km 74 0300 CAN CFH, Halifax (NS) MW Logs: kHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km 700 0300 USA KHSE, Wylie (TX) Presumed under WLW w/ Asian music & programming, strong at times....
Below are long wave and medium wave North American receptions for the month of April, 2010. Many of these have been logged before, but they are new to my mwlist.org logbook that has now replaced my traditional spreadsheet log. April 2nd, 2010: kHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km 1070 1400 USA WTSO-ESPN, Madison (WI) Poor, just above noise floor, TOH ID 160 km 1090 0249 USA WCAR, Livonia (MI) EWTN Global Catholic Network programming 153 km 1110 1400 USA WUNN, Mason (MI) Slogan: Family Life Radio, religious 99 km 1140 1359 USA WVEL, Pekin...
Prior to ordering the Perseus I was conflicted with what kind of computer I would need to successfully DX with the SDR. None of the computers I use at home run Windows (I prefer linux), and none are modern enough to successfully utilize the Perseus to its full potential (full bandwidth recording). Not wanting to spend a lot of money on a new computer just for this purpose, I decided to buy a MSI Wind U100 netbook strictly for using with the Perseus. My decision was based on a favorable review by Guy Atkins using the U100 with the Perseus....
During the 1980s, I recorded many American pirate radio stations on cassette tape and actively traded tapes with other DXers. A slow and long process of transferring these cassettes to MP3 was undertaken a few years ago with many more tapes left to convert. Below is the start of a list of stations that I have recorded and archived, with more to follow as time permits to process them. The quality varies from decent to down right horrible (depending on band conditions at the time, recording media, etc.), but nonetheless they are presented here for historical purposes. All recordings were...
I have been using the Perseus for a few months now and thoroughly enjoy it. The spectrum recording capability of the Perseus came into good use during an auroral opening last month. From my Michigan location, the medium wave band was not recognizable the night of the April 7th, 2010, thanks to this event. Signals from the South replaced those more familiar to my ears and it made for some interesting DX to say the least! Two Perseus recordings were made of the MW band on the night of the 7th at both 8pm & 9pm EST to capture and...
I’ve been casually DXing for about a year now after being away from the hobby for a long time. Since catching the radio bug again I’ve been thinking it would be nice to upgrade to a better receiver. Though the old DX-440 has served me well I was looking for something with a few more options. I’ve been wavering between a Drake R8B (used market) and a new Perseus software defined receiver for a year now. Both cost the same and both are great receivers based on every last reference I’ve read on the net concerning both. My decision came...
