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Old 8th Feb 2017, 3:33 pm   #1
neutronic
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Default Website that spoiled my DX hobby

It was always fun to listen to SSB amateurs.
Sometimes a bad reception and often a lot of hassle with long-wire antennas for max.reception.
Always nice to compare my Realistic DX302 ,Sony ICF2001D and ICF7600GR plus Sangean ATS-505 and 909.
But now all of them have lost,due to this website :
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
This SDR-site receives 10 times more than my simple equipment.

And a coupling between microphone and headphone jack-plugs at the PC gives me for the first time the opportunity to follow some CW Morse communication.
(using this program, but signal sometimes to disturbed for a computer),
http://ly3h.net/?p=550

I´m disillusioned
Jard N.
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Old 8th Feb 2017, 3:56 pm   #2
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Yes, but your simple equipment is entirely under your control. That in my opinion is what amateur radio should be about, communicating without the use of infrastructure provided by someone else. Apart from the mains supply of course, but you can always use batteries.

I can repair most of my amateur radio equipment down to component level too.
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Old 8th Feb 2017, 5:59 pm   #3
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Must admit, I rather like the various Internet-connected-SDR sites; they're a brilliant way of getting a quick feel for HF propagation-conditions when I'm out and about [I surf to them from my phone...] so I know if it's time to fire up the PRC320 when I get home; also used with suitable audio-capture software they're great for listening to your own signal to get a feel for the effects of things like different microphones or speech-processing adjustments (a PRC320 was never designed for ~broadcast quality~ transmitted audio though).

For me, remote SDRs will never actually *replace* having proper radios to hand: I consider them an interesting and supportive "tool" for my radio activities in the same vein as DXClusters and "spotters" and their 1960s/1970s paper-and-snail-mail equivalent the famous Geoff Watts "DX News Sheet".
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Old 8th Feb 2017, 6:15 pm   #4
G4YVM David
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Why on earth are you disillusioned? The SDR can hear ten times as much...can you resolve ten times as much at once? Amongst that 10x are the rare DX islands and countries popping through or are they still constrained by propagation?

I sometimes listen to Hack Green SDR but it isnt a patch on my 250ft doublet and FTDx 3000...oh sure, it hears more sometimes, but not always, but so what? I cant tweek it and fettle and simply hear the warmth of the (in my case) CW coming through. Im not disillusioned at all! Sometimes I will compare the SDR to my set up...

I also look on the DXCluster sites...then see what I can gear on MY set up and se who I can work.

Its a bit like remote working...G4YVM here old man, im in Salisbury...oh but my transmitter and aerials are on top of the Eiger! <scratches head>

Nah, let me se what I can do from home,...I suggest you do likewise.

David
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Old 8th Feb 2017, 6:47 pm   #5
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

I have one of these http://ecom.eladit.com/FDM-DUO/en best of both worlds, proper knobs and SDR too. If I suspect a slow day at work I link it to 'tinternet and play remotely, best of all I can use digital modes (hellscriber is my latest thing) from the keyboard and it looks like work!
 
Old 8th Feb 2017, 8:01 pm   #6
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

I find these 'web SDRs' fascinating and I often use the Hack Green or Derby ones to check my daytime ground-wave on Topband.
However, for proper listening I like my own equipment.
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Old 8th Feb 2017, 11:23 pm   #7
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

As a counterpoint, I spent years of disinterest in amateur radio. Found a WebSDR site a year or so and am now all over it like a seagull on chips.

I've been lurking on 40m CW receive only for about six months. I'm doing this with the following receiver, a variant of the 'sudden':

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It's pretty crap, the antenna is a random long wire about 20m long, the counterpoise is a socket earth pin and the thing is noisier than a school playground but I can just about copy people's CW on 7030KHz now

This wouldn't exist without WebSDR! It's marvellous.

Next step, license and proper QSO time.

Edit: I've also designed most of a proper SSB transceiver in chunks over the last 6 months in LTspice and on paper.
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Old 9th Feb 2017, 12:11 am   #8
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Smile Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew2 View Post
I find these 'web SDRs' fascinating and I often use the Hack Green…
On reading Andrew's post, I tried the Hack Green SDR on a whim. I'm currently listening to a Spanish language station on 7018kHz. How do I find out what it is? Pretty much drawing a blank on the internet search. 7018kHz doesn't seem to fit in with the 41m band (7.2–7.45MHz) or the 49m band (5.9–6.2MHz).

Oh - it just identified itself at 23:00hrs - it's China Radio International broadcasting in Spanish by the sound of it! Gosh, I've not listened to Shortwave in years - I'd forgotten how mush fun it is!
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Old 9th Feb 2017, 2:11 am   #9
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

That may have been a receiver artifact. Some of the SDR sites suffer from a bit of front-end cross-modulation, resulting in high power broadcast stations appearing in the wrong places.

These online SDR's can be very useful. If you live in a built-up area with S9 noise levels from domestic equipment, broadband internet, solar panels etc, they can be the only way to receive HF radio.

The Twente University SDR covers the entire LF- MF - HF spectrum and it is a useful guide to propagation. It is also interesting to watch sounders sweeping up the band and disappearing at the maximum usable frequency. They also have a recorded waterfall display of the last 24 hours, which gives a very good indication of radio fadeouts caused by solar flares.
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Old 9th Feb 2017, 7:43 am   #10
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Quote:
Originally Posted by m0cemdave View Post

These online SDR's can be very useful. If you live in a built-up area with S9 noise levels from domestic equipment, broadband internet, solar panels etc, they can be the only way to receive HF radio.
This might be my noise problem. There are 23 WiFi SSIDs showing up near me and I live in the Heathrow approach corridor. Not ideal RF location.
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Old 9th Feb 2017, 3:49 pm   #11
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wellington View Post
I'm currently listening to a Spanish language station on 7018kHz. How do I find out what it is?
The University of Twente site has a tab labelled Station Info, that links to various databases. You still need to check though when multiple stations use the same frequency.
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Old 9th Feb 2017, 3:53 pm   #12
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

I didn't realise that these SDR were accessible online but, apart from getting a feel for the idea it would not interest me. Most anything can be done in software, virtually, if not control in reality. They may well be useful when a specific station is required (I remember listening to Czechoslovak Radio when they freed themselves of Communism).

I have recently bought a NooElec USB SDR module and now ploughing up the steep learning curve learning how to use it and the available free software. First impressions are that it will complement well my (now) fairly old HF communications receiver for access to higher frequencies, plus decoding encoded transmissions. There is also the ability (and probable requirement) to produce aerials etc for various bands.

As I like to spend a good proportion of my time programming I see it as a useful device, but, being somewhat old fashioned in my approach, like to do it myself rather than just use an 'app'
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Old 9th Feb 2017, 4:09 pm   #13
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

The only downside of using an SDR with a PC and a waterfall display is that you can see all the interference caused by PLT (data via mains cables), I can't hear it but even just knowing it's there annoys me.

Back to the bright side, even the 'cheap' ones (fun cube dongle plus for example) knock the socks off almost all conventional sets. My FDM DUO mentioned earlier behaves just like a proper 'knob driven' radio with supurb performance. I lilke and use my analogue sets but when it comes down to sucking the last bit out of radio these are the best.
 
Old 9th Feb 2017, 5:38 pm   #14
G6Tanuki
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
The only downside of using an SDR with a PC and a waterfall display is that you can see all the interference caused by PLT (data via mains cables), I can't hear it but even just knowing it's there annoys me..
Interference has always been there, only in different forms.

Go back to the time a decade either side of WWII and your "Panadaptor" display would have shown up loads of staccato car-ignition-system interference.

From the 1960s-onwards to the middle of the last decade your waterfall would have TV line-timebase harmonic 'stripes' interleaving at 10 and 15KHz intervals everywhere up to about 20MHz.

Add in the "Russian Woodpecker" radar in the 70s and 80s for good measure.

All the above are now gone, only to be replaced by SMPS noise and broadband-burblies.

Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose, as they say in France.
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Old 10th Feb 2017, 7:47 pm   #15
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Surely the idea of DX is not simply to receive long-distance transmissions per se, but to receive them with the equipment available, under the prevailing conditions? It's a challenge to the operator's skill more than anything.
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Old 10th Feb 2017, 9:18 pm   #16
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

The D of DX can mean Distance or Dificulty, both great fun. BTW what does the D in ID stand for?
 
Old 10th Feb 2017, 9:25 pm   #17
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Dentifacation!
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Old 11th Feb 2017, 12:32 am   #18
neutronic
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Default Re: Website that spoiled my DX hobby

Quote:
Originally Posted by dseymo1 View Post
Surely the idea of DX is not simply to receive long-distance transmissions per se, but to receive them with the equipment available, under the prevailing conditions? It's a challenge to the operator's skill more than anything.
Funny to mention this
I made long wire antennas all by the book and put my home made active antenna on the highest point of the house.
But connecting the receiver to the central heating pipes gives me the best reception .
These pipes are earthed for safety
The earth here is probably a better antenna than a real one in the air.
I have to admit that our house is at sea level,surrounded by large trees and digging two feet deep in the ground already puts you to water.

Jard N.
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