For FM antenna specs, tuner mod info, phasing, filter info, look under LINKS above.
NEW DTV LOWBAND Es PHOTOS FOR 2020 ARE HERE
**New September 7 2020 Super Tropo DTV Photos Are HERE**
My raw FM log sheets for 2020 are now on the FM logs page
February 2021
I recently watched a YouTube video from SDRPlay that showed me
how to add RDS Spy to SDRUno, which is what I need to use with my RSPDuo and its diversity mode. I appreciated that
especially since I really like RDS Spy because of its sensitivity but was never able to get it to
work with Virtual Audio Cable on my Dell desktop. Before buying the Duo I was "stuck" using SDR
concole with my RSP2 instead. Console is good but Spy is even better, so I installed it and got it running and it
is so much better than Uno's own RDS display in that it shows you everything (PS/RT/Pty/PI) completely
and quickly. If you have a SDRPlay product, consider adding RDS Spy to SDR Uno. If you don't want to
mess with virtual audio cable, use the Hi-Fi Cable option instead. It's much easier. That's what I used.
June-July 2020
I changed SDRs in March, after the urging of two of my friends. I'm now the owner of an RSPDuo
from SDRPlay. This radio has been out for two years now but I just got around to buying one. The thing that
makes this SDR different is that it has two tuners, and you can phase one against the other to
null (phase) out your local and semi-local stations. It just works great in nuking HD sidebands and
it's also easier to create a null than a Bolin Phase Box or anything else. I've already used it
during skip openings to hear skip through my local HD sidebands. It works very well. I've already
gone through an RSP-1, an RSP-2 and an Elad FDM-S2. I keep the RSP-2 for a spare and use the Elad
strictly for medium wave (AM) DXing in the winter. I no longer have the RSP-1. How many SDRs do
you need, anyway?
Also I have two screengrabs of new lowband DTV stations. Both were seen recently on ch2 during
skip openings in late May and June. With luck I hope to see more. So far I've seen thirteen.
See the link above.
FM skip has been running slightly better than last year, so far. The best skip event up to this point has been
on May 20th from 6pm to 8pm. Very minor events were seen on 6/3, 6/9 and 6/15. A slightly stronger
event was noticed on June 15th from 9:30 to 12:45pm off and on. I caught 7 new stations during that
opening. The last Es opening noticed here was on June 26 to Florida on FM around 2pm for 30 minutes.
There were no Es openings noticed in July 2020. I'd rate this skip season a D-, after giving it an F last year.
March 2020
I've just renewed this domain for another year. I'll be around for another twelve months.
THE STORY BEHIND THE PICTURE. The TV antenna you see at the top of this page is an Archer VU-190.
It was originally sold by Radio Shack as a VHF-UHF combo. This antenna is brand new and has been
sitting in the basement for the past 5-6 years until just recently when I decided to put it together
and do something with it. I decided to try it as a phase antenna along with my APS-13 and Bolin
phase box. The UHF elements were removed. The result is an antenna that works really well on FM
and works fine as a phase antenna. It has enough gain that it does not need a pre-amp between it
and the input to the combiner. The antenna was bought at a yard sale for just a few dollars, sold
by a person who either didn't know what it was, or just didn't care.
HELLO!
Hello! My name is Mike and I'm retired. I spent 35 years in the office copier industry as a technician
for Minolta, Saxon, Savin, Ricoh and (my favorite) Canon office copiers. I also serviced Canon fax machines and
those old IBM selectric typewriters, which were a horror show. I spend my time playing with Linux distros
on my computers and searching for weak, distant AM and FM radio signals using my SDRs. I also dabble with
HTML and have built this simple website from scratch. My goal here is to show you a simple, clean, uncluttered
website. I have time to play, so why not. Learning is fun.
FM BANDSCAN FROM NORTHERN CONNECTICUT IN THREE PARTS
Thanks for stopping by! Hope you found something worthwhile here. Come back again because who knows what I'll be rambling on about next time!
©2015-2021 M. Bugaj No reprints of any page on this site without permission. Updated 02-15-2021
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