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DigiDX weekly schedule:
Sunday 2130 - 15770kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Sunday 2330 - 11580kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Monday 2000 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Daily 0530/1830 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Any other extra broadcasts will be on
http://www.digidx.uk
If you enjoy DigiDX and find the service useful please consider donating
via Paypal to reports@digidx.uk
Latest Shortwave News:
Radio Liberty in Russian (Radio Svoboda) to leave shortwave
After 63 years on the air, the Russian services of Radio Free Europe /
Radio Liberty is to stop broadcasting on shortwave on the 26th June. The
Radio Svoboda (meaning Freedom) programming will only remain on the
internet, satellite and on medium wave.
The last broadcast will probably be on 9540kHz from 21-22UTC on the 25th
or 26th of June.
Extra broadcasts from IRIB Iran
With the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starting on the 6th of June, IRIB
from Iran have added several extra broadcasts in Azeri, Arabic, Kurdish
and Turkish.
It is expected that some other broadcasters such as BSKSA Saudi Arabia,
Voice of Turkey and Radio Algeria will also add extra broadcasts between
June 6th and 5th July.
Mighty KBC back to two hours
While MightyKBC recently reduced its airtime to one hour on shortwave
every week at 0000 on Sunday, from Sunday the 12th June it will be back
to a two hour broadcast.
This will be on 9925kHz from the Nauen, Germany transmitter from 0000.
VOA Burmese cuts
From the 4th of June many of the VOA Burmese shortwave broadcasts will
cease. 4 and half hours of broadcasts throughout the day will be
replaced by 2 hours on 2 frequencies.
Thank you for all the reception reports sent to reports@digidx.uk for
the usual broadcasts on WRMI and the extra broadcasts on Channel 292
every day. Please check out website www.digidx.uk and Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/digidx/
for news of extra broadcasts.
The extra broadcasts on Channel 292 have given people in Europe (and
beyond) plenty of opportunity to experiment with decoding the text and
images using different equipment and methods. Merkouris (SV2HWM) in
Greece has emailed some of his observations about the image decoding.
Has anyone else noticed a difference between the size of the PNG image
file saved on their PC after two separate decodes of the same episode
and has the smaller file-size of the same image indicated a better
less-noisy decode?
On the extra broadcasts on 6070kHz at 0530, Fred Albertson in Virginia
USA emailed in to say that he managed to decode the May 31st broadcast.
This is Digidx signing off, please email
reports@digidx.uk....
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DigiDX weekly schedule:
Sunday 2130 - 15770kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Sunday 2330 - 11580kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Monday 2000 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Daily 0530/1830 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Latest Shortwave News:
Radio Liberty in Russian (Radio Svoboda) to leave shortwave
After 63 years on the air, the Russian services of Radio Free Europe /
Radio Liberty is to stop broadcasting on shortwave on the 26th June. The
Radio Svoboda (meaning Freedom) programming will only remain on the
internet, satellite and on medium wave.
The last broadcast will probably be on 9540kHz from 21-22UTC on the 25th
or 26th of June.
Extra broadcasts from IRIB Iran
With the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starting on the 6th of June, IRIB
from Iran have added several extra broadcasts in Azeri, Arabic, Kurdish
and Turkish.
Mighty KBC back to two hours
While MightyKBC recently reduced its airtime to one hour on shortwave
every week at 0000 on Sunday, from Sunday the 12th June it will be back
to a two hour broadcast.
This will be on 9925kHz from the Nauen, Germany transmitter from 0000.
VOA Burmese cuts
From the 4th of June many of the VOA Burmese shortwave broadcasts will
cease. 4 and half hours of broadcasts throughout the day will be
replaced by 2 hours on 2 frequencies.
Thank you for all the reception reports.
The extra broadcasts on Channel 292 have given people in Europe (and
beyond) plenty of opportunity to experiment with decoding the text and
images using different equipment and methods. Merkouris (SV2HWM) in
Greece has emailed some of his observations about the image decoding.
Has anyone else noticed a difference between the size of the PNG image
file saved on their PC after two separate decodes of the same episode
and has the smaller file-size of the same image indicated a better
less-noisy decode?
This is Digidx signing off, please email
reports@digidx.uk...
|
DigiDX weekly schedule:
Sunday 2130 - 15770kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Sunday 2330 - 11580kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Monday 2000 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Daily 0530/1830 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Latest Shortwave News:
Radio Liberty in Russian (Radio Svoboda) to leave shortwave
After 63 years on the air, the Russian services of Radio Free Europe /
Radio Liberty is to stop broadcasting on shortwave on the 26th June. The
Radio Svoboda (meaning Freedom) programming will only remain on the
internet, satellite and on medium wave.
The last broadcast will probably be on 9540kHz from 21-22UTC on the 25th
or 26th of June.
Extra broadcasts from IRIB Iran
With the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starting on the 6th of June, IRIB
from Iran have added several extra broadcasts in Azeri, Arabic, Kurdish
and Turkish.
Mighty KBC back to two hours
While MightyKBC recently reduced its airtime to one hour on shortwave
every week at 0000 on Sunday, from Sunday the 12th June it will be back
to a two hour broadcast.
VOA Burmese cuts
From the 4th of June many of the VOA Burmese shortwave broadcasts will
cease. 4 and half hours of broadcasts throughout the day will be
replaced by 2 hours on 2 frequencies.
This is Digidx signing off, please email
reports@digidx.uk....
|
|
Hello and welcome to DigiDX 16 ,
a weekly review of the latest shortwave
and DX news broadcast mainly in MFSK32 mode. This broadcast includes
shortwave news, the second part of the comparison between the SDR Play
RSP and an RTL SDR by Akos Czermann, listeners letters and an
over-the-air QSL card.
DigiDX weekly schedule:
Sunday 2130 - 15770kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Sunday 2330 - 11580kHz via WRMI (Okeechobee, FL, USA)
Monday 2000 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Daily 0530/1830 - 6070kHz via Channel 292 (Rohrbach Wall, DE)
Thanks to Channel 292 broadcasting the extra daily repeats of DigiDX, to
buy shortwave time from Channel 292 at very reasonable prices go to
http://www.channel292.de.
Any other extra broadcasts will be listed on http://www.digidx.uk
If you enjoy DigiDX and find the service useful please consider donating
via Paypal to reports@digidx.uk or via our Patreon page. Any money
donated will go towards paying for airtime to keep DigiDX on the air to
Europe and North America.
Every donation will help no matter how little
-https://www.patreon.com/digidx
/ reports@digidx.uk
Thanks very much to listeners Alan Gale, Jordan Heyburn, Fred Albertson,
Mike Stapp, Mark Braunstein and Richard Langley for contributing to the
Patreon campaign.
Latest Shortwave News:
Radio Liberty in Russian (Radio
Svoboda) to leave shortwave
Extra broadcasts from IRIB Iran
Mighty KBC back to two hours
VOA Burmese cuts
Radio Liberty in Russian (Radio Svoboda) to leave shortwave
After 63 years on the air, the Russian services of Radio Free Europe /
Radio Liberty is to stop broadcasting on shortwave on the 26th June. The
Radio Svoboda (meaning Freedom) programming will only remain on the
internet, satellite and on medium wave.
With RFE/RL mission statement being to provide uncensored news in
countries where “a free press is banned by the government or not fully
established”, it seems strange decision when Russia’s ranking in the
Press Freedom Index has fallen 30 places in the past 14 years. While
RFE/RL’s main Russian website isn’t blocked in Russia, its Crimea
news site “Krym.Realii” has been blocked in Russia and Crimea on May
12th which could indicate more parts of the RFE/RL site could be blocked
in future. 30% of Russian also do not have internet access.
On medium wave Radio Liberty will continue to be broadcast on 1386kHz
from Lithuania but only from midnight to 6am and 9pm
to 10pm Moscow time
(2100-0300UTC and 1800-1900UTC). The transmitter in Lithuania is
currently being replaced with a new solid state 200kW transmitter to
replace the current 75kW broadcasts.
The last broadcast will probably be on 9540kHz from 21-22UTC on the 25th
or 26th of June.
Extra broadcasts from IRIB Iran
With the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starting on the 6th of June, IRIB
from Iran have added several extra broadcasts in Azeri, Arabic, Kurdish
and Turkish. These will be on the following schedule:
1953-2250 on 7375kHz - Azeri
2200-2330 on 5930kHz - Arabic
2200-2330 on 7250kHz - Arabic
2253-0050 on 7420kHz - Azeri
2323-0020 on 7410kHz - Kurdish
0023-0120 on 7410kHz - Turkish
It is expected that some other broadcasters such as BSKSA Saudi Arabia,
Voice of Turkey and Radio Algeria will also add extra broadcasts between
June 6th and 5th July.
Mighty KBC back to two hours
While MightyKBC recently reduced its airtime to one hour on shortwave
every week at 0000 on Sunday, from Sunday the 12th June it will be back
to a two hour broadcast.
This will be on 9925kHz from the Nauen, Germany transmitter from 0000.
VOA Burmese cuts
From the 4th of June many of the VOA Burmese shortwave broadcasts will
cease. 4 and half hours of broadcasts throughout the day will be
replaced by the following schedule:
0000-0100 on 6040kHz via Udon Thani (280 deg)
0300-0400 on 7305kHz via Udon Thani. (276 deg)
Other international broadcasts who produce Burmese programmes on
shortwave include BBC, All India Radio, China Radio International and
Radio Free Asia.
Upcoming relays and special broadcasts:
Alaska based SWL Paul Walker has another shortwave broadcast next week
with the latest episode of his Classics Experience. Also featured on
this two hour broadcast is some MFSK32 text (in the
2nd half hour of the
broadcast) and an image (in the final half hour).
Paul says the broadcast will be rock and roll music with some country
classics and will have the following schedule:
WINB 9265khz Saturday June 4th 0230UTC to 0430UTC
WRMI 7570kHz Saturday June 4th 0400 to 0600UTC
Reception reports are only accepted by regular postal mail and $2 is
appreciated to cover the costs of the QSL cards and return postage:
Paul B. Walker, Jr. PO Box 353 Galena, Alaska 99741 USA
VOA Radiogram will be on air this weekend on the following frequencies,
for more information on the modes to be used visit
http://voaradiogram.net/
Sat 0930-1000 5745 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All broadcasts are from Greenville, NC.
SDRPlay vs RTL-SDR by Akos Czermann from
http://rtlsdr4everyone.blogspot.co.uk (Part 2)
Gain
RF gain is the most important setting with a
receiver, and boy, you have
options with the SDRPlay. Remember the good ol' days when you had a
slider or knob for gain, played with it until you got the best
reception? Now, after installing the suggested plugin, in SDR# and HDSDR
a weird-looking flowchart replaces the single slider, which not only
looks complicated: i 's complicated. Why the need for
all the symbols?
Settings panel also cover a lot of screen estate in HDSDR and SDRPlay.
A mental recalibration for adjusting RF gain is necessary, as you set
"Gain Reduction". Higher number = less signal, but at least the slider
works as expected, pull up = more gain. Fortunately, manufacturer
provides a technical note (link), with such sentences as:
LNA_Threshold = Thermal Noise + 10 x LOG(IFBW) + NF with LNA Off +
SNRMIN + Margin
It makes sense after a few reads. Really.
Essentially, you can adjust a lot of variables, such as when the LNA
kicks in; I found that after some head-scratching, much better fine
tuning is possible, gain can be set in s dB
increments vs 2.5-3 dB steps
with RTL dongles.
Performance
The SDRPlay RSP offers better reception than any RTL-SDR dongle. That's
not a surprise, $150 beats $10 dongle. Wow. The RSP has better sound
quality on audio signals. It is small, but manifests every time during
long listening sessions due to intelligibility. Even on small and
grossly unsuitable antennas, the SDRPlay could receive weak signals
dongles could not; the difference was catching words from a conversation
or not hearing anything at all. If you love airplane chatter, the
SDRPlay is the weapon of choice, RTL-SDR.com dongle with a preamp
(bias-T LNA4ALL) could not get the same clarity and "be there"
sensation. Having a large frequency span is so great you'll wonder how
you managed to survive without it. See an emaciated worm in the
waterfall? Click and hear, or write down the frequency, to be used later
with a dedicated handeld scanner or in software.
The fly in the ointment
There's always a catch: in an urban environment, signals which should
not be there, primarily broadcast FM stations appear
everywhere. Here's
a shot around 160 MHz:
And I mean everywhere. Below 250 MHz, changing the local oscillator
frequency in SDRConsole might help a bit.
On upper VHF and low UHF, pandemonium reigns. Fancy some DVB-T? No?
Sorry, you'll get it. There's not too much action between 200 and 420MHz
in my part of the woods, but I can just as well forget this part of the
radio spectrum. Weather balloon telemetry? Gone.
Interference seems to disappear above 420 MHz, usual suspects merrily
come in.
Comparison against RTL-SDR dongles and a HackRF:
Same everything, strong broadcast FM signals with the SDRPlay. Whether
this affects you is down to personal listening habits and preferences.
It is a serious shortcoming in an urban environment, and disappears the
farther you're away from cities. But it's not black and white, there're
256 or 4096 shades of gray, especially when cost enters into the
equation.
Compared to plain RTL-SDR dongle
Don't want shortwave or can't
stand static? At the end of the day, a
vanilla RTL dongle will get you about 50-60 % of the RSP's performance
(between 24-1800 MHz) for significantly less. Additionally, a top
RTL-SDR dongle, such as samples from Nooelec or rtl-sdr.com will offer a
ready-to-go package with usable antennas. However, the SDRPlay's
advantage is there and will be audible in a side-by-side comparison. But
sleep well, you won't miss really weak signals with RTL dongles: you
simply won't see them.
Compared to RTL-SDR with LNA4ALL
Still no shortwave, but this setup lets you place the preamp at the
antenna. Imitating a newbie I didn't do that, still with two identical
antennas and 30 feet / 10 m coax runs, in over two weeks, I managed to
find only a few signals that I could not tune with this combo and the
SDRPlay could. It must be also noted, again, that the RSP was better on
my ears for extended listening sessions due to less noise and crackling.
For $150, I'd get an rtl-sdr.com dongle and an LNA4ALL, enable bias-T
and place a nice discone as high as possible. Radio signal reception is
all about antennas and antenna placement, plus especially with long coax
runs in an urban environment, an antenna mounted LNA will beat a
receiver-mounted LNA.
Compared to RTL-SDR with upconverter
Lazy shortwave listeners rejoice: tuning reallA weak broadcast stations
on a discone (just about visible in waterfall, fading in and out with
headphones) with the RSP was each_and_every time a positive surprise. If
you can't erect a longwire or wish to use one antenna for everything,
the SDRPlay is a good solution. Using a 20 ft dipole with a 9:1 Balun
and RTL dongle based setup I could easily copy hams, listen to AM
broadcasts etc; doing the same was easier with the RSP due to to better
sensitivity, filtering or whatever: it was easier with the SDRPlay. In
an electrically quiet environment, read middle of nowhere, the RSP
excelled on broadcast AM stations for evening-long listening sessions.
Like listening to the breakfast news on the way to work, only the source
was on the other side of the world. Was it twice as good? Hell no. But
that tiny bit of advantage wax enough justification to choose the
SDRPlay if I wanted to hear something. I was also testing shortwave s
antennas for the Third Edition, and the antennas played a bigger part in
listening enjoyment than the receivers. However, a
performance
improvement wth a better antenna was much more
evident with the
SDRPlay.
Drift and temperature
TCXO dongles are spot-on, the SDRPlay is less so: the difference is
minuscule, and nobody will care about it, especially that the RSP does
not drift and, unlike RTL dongles, does not get excessively warm.
No bias-T
At this price level I want software-selectable bias-T (like HackRF), or
simply the option to enable it with a hardware mod (like rtl-sdr.com
dongles). Very likely it will be included with the next revision.
Only one antenna port
Why? The SDRPlay is made by hams for hams, and nobody uses one antenna.
In a fixed setup: - one Yagi and one general for shortwave, - one for
airband and 160 MHz-ish for action, - one for UHF, - two more for
special interests such as Weather Sats or Balloon telemetry or ADS-B.
Antenna switches are soooo last century, it could be done in software,
would cost a few extra connectors. Two more would be great. Speaking of:
please provide N-type for pro antennas, and a 9:1 UnUn terminal for
longwires. Few cents on an industrial scale.
Day-to-day living with an SDRPlay
The RSP is extremely simple to use, connect antenna to receiver and
receiver to computer, fire up software and off you go. This, plus 5 MHz
span and the warm fluffy knowledge that if the antenna can get the
signal, the receiver will do a great job makes it a winner in my book.
Convenience is the key word with the RSP: Not having
to screw components
together is priceless. Changing from VHF to HF requires no switch as
with a Ham-It-Up and no offset adjustment in software. These are small
things, but I didn't had to get up. Carry driver installer and
SDRConsole on a memory stick, a collap1 o ?tenna on a magnetic mount
and be ready for nearly anything. Demonstrations or explanations are
much more convincing if the item in use looks simple and works simply. A
dongle and upconverter with pigtails and USB cables
looks like a nerd's
Sunday afternoon; an SDRPlay looks like kid's play and just as easy to
assemble.
Evolution
Learn to walk before you run. If you're a beginner or novice reading
this to decide whether should you invest in an RSP: the answer is no.
Buy an RTL dongle, try to understand why and how radio works, then spend
savings on a good antenna and time with ont-end software. The SDRPlay
is the only choice after an RTL dongle, anyone asks and I'll
wholeheartedly recommend it. Airspy and its derivatives are
fundementally flawed as require an upconverter: it's not just one small
black box. The HackRF is silnioinentlf more expensive, but
transmit-capable, looks and feels a more upmarket premium product. Yes,
review soon. The SDRPlay's strengths are evident even on inferior
antennas, but buying a Ferrari to drive to the nearest convenience store
is kinda silly. You'll need a proper antenna system and LOTS of time and
knowledge to get the best out of it. If money matters, RTL-SDR dongles
and associated paraphernalia will get you close performance-wise, but
will be more hassle.
Conclusion
Large frequency span, everything in one small box and manufacturer /
community support are key selling points. However, if money matters, you
can get almost the same performance with an RTL dongle, suitable
accessories and knowledge for less. Total beginners: buy an rtl-sdr.com
dongle, supplied antennas are great and will be compatible with the
SDRPlay when you upgrade. Read, learn, build antennas, and when
impedance matching, UnUns or Baluns become second nature buy an SDRPlay.
Steep learning curve awaits if you jump directly into the higher
echelons of radio head-first, and I'm afraid you'll give up before you
surmount the peak. The SDRPlay is a great radio engineering milestone,
and I'm happy that it's available: it gave me joy when I digged out a
weak station from the noise floor. Add software-selectable bias-t,
smooth silky metal case, two more antenna ports, and keep up the good
work with support and we'll have a world-beating receiver. Upgrading
from an RTL-SDR setup is warranted IF the antennas are in place AND the
receiver is the bottleneck in your setup. Transitioning will take weeks,
but a mind once subjected to a new experience will never go back to its
old dimensions to paraphrase Kurt Hahn. Do you got the money and time?
If so, head over to the manufacturer's website and order one.
Read the full article including images at
http://rtlsdr4everyone.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/sdrplay-vs-rtl-sdr.html,
thanks again to Akos Czermann for letting include his
article. You can
find his RTL-SDR e-Book on Amazon for US$ 5.00 -
https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Everyone-Second-including-Raspberry-ebook
/dp/B01C9KZKAI?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0
Thank you for all the reception reports sent to
reports@digidx.uk
for
the usual broadcasts on WRMI and the extra broadcasts on Channel 292
every day. Please check out website
www.digidx.uk and Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/digidx/
for news of extra broadcasts.
The extra broadcasts on Channel 292 have given people in Europe (and
beyond) plenty of opportunity to experiment with decoding the text and
images using different equipment and methods. Merkouris (SV2HWM) in
Greece has emailed some of his observations about the image decoding :
“I usually receive DigiDX via WRMI as well as via Channel 292 and VoA
Radiogram on both frequencies targeted to Europe. Sometimes, I even use
two receivers for the same broadcast. This results in
the reception of
the same image two or more times. While most of the times the difference
in the quality is obvious, sometimes the images seem
to be of the same
quality, although the noise on the pictures is not identical. A way to
tell which one is better is by comparing the size of the png files. PNG
is a raster graphics format supporting lossless compression, the
efficiency of which depends on the number of adjacent pixels of the same
colour. Since the noise in the received images decreases the number of
the pixels which otherwise could be compressed into single-colour
blocks, the compression becomes less efficient, resulting in the
increase of the file size. Therefore, the smaller the png file size, the
better the image quality. Of course, on some rare occasions there will
be exceptions to this, due to the random nature of noise. “
Has anyone else noticed a difference between the size of the PNG image
file saved on their PC after two separate decodes of the same episode
and has the smaller file-size of the same image indicated a better
less-noisy decode?
Merkouris has also sent me an audio file which should draw the DigiDX
logo onto the waterfall view of FlDigi or MultiPSK. The audio will be
broadcast at the end of this programme.
On the extra broadcasts on 6070kHz at 0530, Fred Albertson in Virginia
USA emailed in to say that he managed to decode the May 31st broadcast -
“I was able to copy both modes during the 0530Z transmission despite
the fact that CFRX was coming in at S8-9. The tones were inaudible, but
showed on the MultiPSK waterfall. There were some long fades in the data
but I would say that it was a good test.” He also added that using the
WinRadio software for his SDR he used at 1250-2500Hz.to help improve the
decoding when CFRX were playing music.
This is DigiDX signing off...
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