View Full Version : 9870/ 9815 kHz HCJB test to Europe
New transmission from HCJB to Europe:
0400- 0630 UTC on 9870 kHz
Please post results here.
Currently only a weak signal and interference from the adjacent channel below, SNR about 4 dB.
Simone
Very weak signal, SNR about 4-7 dB
maxpower
30-04-2007, 04:54
Signal gets in here, but no audio :-(
(or lets say: a little bit of rumbling noise; problems with audio feed?)
More later.
Stephan
maxpower
30-04-2007, 05:01
Much better now at 5.00 UTC: Musica del ecuador! :)
South America in my World Traveller! But too weak signal for constant reception.
More later (of course)
Edit: A strong AM station has "joined" HCJB now. :mad:
maxpower
30-04-2007, 05:13
05.09 UTC: AM Signal startetd at 9865 :mad:
So signal gets disturbed heavy.
@Doug: Maybe its possible to get up 5 kHz to 9875 khz the next days?
Unfortunately a strong AM signal on 9865 kills most of the fun. :mad:
I started my log around 0420 UTC and the AM 5 kHz down was already causing heavy QRM at that time. Yes, no audio, just a lot of "empty" bits in the wav file. Then at 0500 after the time signal I got audio. The SNR with and without decoded audio is about 20 dB.
0600 UTC: Now perfect reception! The antenna signal is about +30 dBuV. :)
Funkerberg
30-04-2007, 05:39
weak signal, only Frame Sync, no Label :-(
Good reception after 06:00 UTC.
See screenshot.
73, Klaus
78% audio since 0800 UTC.
It might be the first low-German program on DRM! :)
Funkerberg
30-04-2007, 06:38
and now with some seconds audio :-)
maxpower
30-04-2007, 06:47
@DRMDAB: You are probably right with the first transmission in low german :)
Here's my log from this (first) morning. Not that bad with much QRM from 9865kHz. :)
Note: The first zwo peaks (04.10 UTC and 04.25 UTC) are not from hcjb!I tried to get DW after some minutes of quiteness at 9870 to assure that my web-controlled receiver works properly. It seems like Dream did not recognized that.
The HCJB Signal rises arround 4.30UTC (about 1 hour after sunrise?!).
Some of the dropouts (most in the last half hour) are caused by (about all 10 minutes recurring and through all am-bands) local noise which is arround at the whole neighbourhood. :mad: If i only knew what causes that?!?
73, Stephan
Good morning all.
Her is my log .only last 38min. but transmitter from HCJB on 4Kw give very god "Super " signal her in Sweden. Absolute clear cannel from QRM and very stablie signal stringth S7/S9 under all 38min.
Low bitrate on 11.64kbps give only telephone audio on 4.5Khz.CDA 98%ok
:) :)
3 TX brake 0617 0621 and 0628 UTC !!!
Sorry TX location and distance not OK .
To add to my first entry, here is the log from Switzerland. Unfortunately, there were three TX breaks at 0615, 0619 and around 0626 UTC, otherwise the last 28 minutes were perfect. I added Pifo in the log list, my distance to the TX should be OK.
PS: Even Morphy enjoyed receiving DX signals from overseas... :D
I wrote to Iris Rauscher (German service) about the reception conditions this morning. She just answered my message and said it might be possible to go up 5 kHz.
But I think you know more, Doug? :rolleyes:
They have got a very nice QSL card (train) for DRM reports: drm @ hcjb.org.ec
Or to the German service: german @ hcjb.org.ec
Have a nice evening
Douglas Kähler
Here are my results from this morning, interference from -5 kHz from the beginning, also a weak signal at the start, did not watch it later.
Simone
This morning at 0419 UTC there was a weak signal and no decoded audio until 0440 UTC. The segment 0441 - 0511 UTC resulted in 97% decoded audio with 17.46 kbps. From 0512 up until 0545 "our friendly neighbour", 'Radio Farda' [w3_radiofarda_dot_com], on 9.865 MHz started blaring pop music with signals up to S9 +30 dB. :mad: I did not notice the change to Mode C and 9.18 kbps until 0554 UTC. Well, even that could not beat the QRM -5 kHz.
0559 UTC: R. Farda switched off. (I used the Morphy Richards in AM Mode on the same antenna to monitor Ra.Fa.).
The programme from 06 UTC in German was perfect. Perhaps it would have been better to transmit in Mode C and 9.18 kbps at the start and then switch to 17.46 kbps? At least at my location the HCJB signal stayed around S9 (> +30 dBuV) during the last half hour. QRT at 0629 UTC.
0719 UTC: Added the log.
maxpower
01-05-2007, 06:49
Hi all!
Almost the same here with me. Reception seemed a little bit weaker today (or mode c works a little bit worse than mode c with the qrm at 9865).
I'm wondering: How many hops does the signal make here to germany? One? If so i think the signal rises at the point where sunrise begins at that region (somewhere over the atlantic ocean).
No local noise here today. Is it because of the work-free day in germany?
Here's the screenshot.
Stephan
This morning come HCJB in her very strong ,signal stringth S9+20/30db !!!
But I have very problem for splatter from VOR on 9880 . S9+30db
Small splatter also from 9865 . 0530 UTC switch HCJB over to low bitrate 9.18kbps and now very small problem for splatter . 0520 propagation go very fast down so signal stringth from S9+20db to S8 over 5min. and splatter from 9865 give more influence on DRM . But 0545 9865 close down and cannel is now clerar. log 132min and CDA 94% ok only for splatter problem.
I have tune up my 8m vetical to 9870.
:) :)
Hi all,
perfect after 6:00 (station 5 kHz down closed). Signal around 100 µV on the 30 m long wire, weaker with the EWE or ALA1530.
Bernd, DF9RB
Best results from 0430- 0500, not much later even with the lower bitrate.
Simone
With the racket caused by QRM from 5 kHz below, chances to decode HCJB are very small - at least in Switzerland. :mad:
Now after 0600 UTC without the QRM from -5 kHz, the reception is perfect. Still I am of the opinion that 9.18 kbps would be better up until 06 UTC, then switch to 17.46 kbps AAC+ and Stereo. :confused:
0650 UTC: Added the log. Definitely unwise to lower the bitrate when the QRM is gone and the conditions generally improve with the daylight.
With the racket caused by QRM from 5 kHz below, chances to decode HCJB are very small - in Sweden .:mad:
Signal stringth S9+10db but only CDA 65% for splatter. Peferct from 0600UTC 9865 transmitter close down.
maxpower
02-05-2007, 06:45
Same with me here in the northwest of germany: 9865kHz is disturbing to much :mad:
17,4 kBit in Mode B until 5.50 UTC with good audio-sound, but bad decoding because of AM QRM, then switch to 9kBit Mode C with a more reliable signal but not so good sound. Would be better the other way round.(No QRM from 6.00 UTC - 6.30 UTC :D
Greetings,
Stephan
Hi all,
Thanks for the reception reports. I will have to see what we can do about moving the frequency. My Frequency Manager is somewhere on a boat in the Amazon jungle looking for listeners to our Portuguese programs to Brazil (I hope he finds some :) ) I will work on it though and get back to you all.
Someone asked about the number of hops to Europe. It would be at least 3 and probably 4 to places like Sweden.
Doug
A weak and interfered signal, good decoding only in the last half hour with the low bitrate.
Simone
Hi all,
too much QRM from 5 kHz down...
Bernd, DF9RB
Funkerberg
03-05-2007, 04:20
Report from 02.05.2007 , weak signal, small SNR, no Audio :(
Today nothing signal to receive ???
Now, at 0455 UTC they've gone up to their 9.915 MHz QRG, but there is an AM (seems to be BBC) slap bang in the middle :mad:
HCJB is struggling with BBC there (9.915 MHz) just now, just after 0500 UTC...
Funkerberg
03-05-2007, 06:36
HCJB is struggling with BBC there (9.915 MHz) just now, just after 0500 UTC...
at 0627 UTC too ....
maxpower
03-05-2007, 06:45
I found out too late that HCJB has gone to 9915khz. So no report today from me. :(
Hopefully i will have a report again tomorrow.
Stephan
Doug, get your Frequency Manager out of the Amazon Jungle as quickly as possible !! With a 30 dB stronger AM propaganda station just 5 kHz down it is not possible to log HCJB, at least not here in Switzerland.
mitajohn
04-05-2007, 05:37
Hi all,
This TX would be received here with a good signal but the splatters of a strong QRM made the decoding impossible as seen in the attached image .
I start 0430UTC this time was signal very strong S9+20db and AM on 9865 not so strong . Reciption of DRM perfect. 0515 go AM up to S9 and splatter stop DRM . So after this time HCJB go down in signal stringth. Log 60min. and stop 0540UTC . Only splatter in cannel.
:confused:
maxpower
04-05-2007, 06:42
Propagation ok, Signal Strength ok, but still channel QRM. :(
But the 70% Audio that i got, is not that bad for this. Some heavy fading caused some dropouts at the last five minutes of the transmission.
BtW, another premiere today: The frist low-german childrens-programming in DRM :D
Stephan
Hi all,
Thanks for the reports. My Frequency Manager comes home tomorrow so I will get him working on this first thing Monday morning. I am encouraged with what you all are getting when the 9865 station goes off. That is good. Seems we cannot move the frequency up just 5 KHz cause there is another big station on 9880 KHz, so that would not really help us. So we are going to have to take a little larger jump in the frequency.
I'll get back to you when we have a new frequency to give you.
Doug
Hi all and Doug.
Propagation ok, signal strength very good from start S9+20db . 0525 UTC signal strength go down to S9 and splatter from 9865 influence in DRM . 0600 9865 QRT and HCJB S7/S9 in QSB but andio was ok in 3Khz from 9.18 kbps.
:)
Overslept this morning, but usually only the last hour is possible to follow. Therefore a shorter log today.
maxpower
05-05-2007, 08:14
Hello to all!
Here my log from this morning (this time unattended):
With the lower bitrate through the whole transmission the QRM from 9865 kHz didn't distrub that much like the last days.
But sadly today the signal got weaker here in the northwest of germany until about 6.00 which caused major audio breaks between 5.50 and 6.25 UTC. Otherwise the log would have been almost perfect!
Maybe tomorrow combines the first part of the signal with the last parts the last days!:)
Hi,
one good period even during the station 5 kHz down active. After 6:00 100 %.
Bernd, DF9RB
Better conditions today, good results using the DWT for a change, dropouts only at 0500- 0530.
@ Doug: Maybe you could also try to find someone to check the CS, you are not transmitting time in UTC!!
Simone
This is my first log of this tx and QRG. Perfect results only in the last 30 minutes, when the strong AM interference on 9865 khz was gone. I think that teh results would be better if using Mode B instead of mode C.
Hi all,
daily better...
Bernd, DF9RB
Perfect only after 6 UTC.
Reception at Paris. QRM by Radio Farda in AM on 9865 kHz.
Daniel
Reception in Stockholm, only 30min QRM from 9865 Khz. Very stabile signal.
:)
Good results for about 45 minutes in the first hour, too much interference then, perfect again in the last half hour, don´t think mode C has any advantage.
Btw time was still wrong.
Simone
maxpower
06-05-2007, 17:41
Hello to all,
brrr, i forgot to start the log at the beginning, so i could log only a little more than the last half hour today. :(
Stephan
feinstei
07-05-2007, 04:27
I know it's not directed towards North America, but....
Fine reception of HCJB on 9870 kHz at 0425 UTC in Detroit, MI USA. Very few dropouts, using TenTec RX-350 receiver, Butternut 80/40 vertical antenna, DRM Software Radio 2.0.38. SNR averaged between 14.5 and 19.0 dB.
I didn't bother getting up early to log this morning and that was no loss. Before 6 UTC I could not even get a title to show up in Dream :mad:
The QRM from 5 kHz below topped at levels 40 dB stronger than HCJB. No chance.
From 0600 UTC clear reception, but I think the signal was weaker than last week. The input level to my RX was only in the range of +15 to +20 dBuV.
maxpower
07-05-2007, 07:19
Hi there!
Same with me here today. Propagation conditions to South America are not good in these hours.
Again i started the log late manually (i have to learn to understand carstens drm-logger better; does ist just switch the log-field in dream from "off" to "on" and if the dream log IS started it turns it to "off"????).
Apart from that it looks like my elektor DRM Receiver (2003 Edition) is at the end with its latin (like we use to say in a german idiom) with very low input levels. :( .
I'm waiting for the new elektor SDR radio to arrive ...
The AM Transmission from Quito to Europe from 6.30 - 7.30 UTC with 100 KW is today almost unreadable at my position, too.
Regards, Stephan
Hi all .
Very strong signal stringth from start WOV S9+40db first 30min. after this S9+20/30db to 0500UTC now fast down to S9 . And 0530UTC come 9865 up to S9+10db. Now problem to close down 0600UTC . 0610 HCJB down to S2/S3 .
Last 15min . S9 again.
:) :)
Again not so good over here.
Simone
Hi all,
Thanks for the tip on the incorrect time. We didn't even notice that :D Hopefully we have it corrected now.
Doug
I know it's not directed towards North America, but....
Fine reception of HCJB on 9870 kHz at 0425 UTC in Detroit, MI USA. Very few dropouts, using TenTec RX-350 receiver, Butternut 80/40 vertical antenna, DRM Software Radio 2.0.38. SNR averaged between 14.5 and 19.0 dB.
If you are in Detroit you should check us out on 15680 KHz during the day and 9915 KHz in the evening (until 0400 UTC). There are separate threads for each of those. Our beam is pointed more or less at Chicago for those transmissions.
Doug
Quite a strong signal today, but the propaganda channel 5 kHz down is a nuisance. After 06 UT the channel is clear and reception is perfect. Would be a good idea to quit Mode C and 9 kbps, at least from 06 UTC. How about Mode B, 16/16 and 14.56 kbps?
Also here in Central Finland almost 100% reception after 06:00 to the end of the transmission. I cannot make logs now but I have a small audio sample here: http://www.infoverstas.fi/mp3/9870.mp3.
Not so strong this morning, propagation go down again, but S8/S9 . 0430 to 0505UTC most TX stop. 9865 give QRM to close 0600.
"" I sleep this time so I can only read from DRMcalc !!!!! ""
maxpower
08-05-2007, 07:47
Similar at my RX Location here in the northwest of Germany. A little bit crazy log. :eek:
I would like to hear 14 kBit AAC+ or 14 kBit AAC at Mode B, 16/16, too. Maybe it is possible to try that mode sometimes this or the next weeks?
@ Digger: Thanx for your advice with dream and the dreamlogger, Terje! I think i got the log now back to normal :)
Stephan
A very weak start today, best results in the last half hour.
Simone
Hi,
I woke up early, so I gave HCJB my first try.
Time: 04:25 - 04:55 UTC. 30 minutes resulted in 30 % CDA.
maxpower
09-05-2007, 06:45
Hi all!
Still heavy QRM from 9865 kHz, but got a nice log today. If you cut off the first 15 Minutes (HCJB fading in) I get a correct decoded Audio of 96,95%. I always have to remember that HCJB uses a only 4 KW-Transmitter! :)
Stephan
I woke up early too, just to tune in to AIR, but there was no trace of signal. HCJB was also very weak, so I did not log much. The last half hour was good as usual.
Funkerberg
09-05-2007, 08:20
a little better today, the first time audio from HCJB in Königs Wusterhausen
, the birth place of the broadcast in Germany :-)
I tune in my reciver 0510 UTC and heard DRM so log start now . Propagation was not so bad , signal stringth peak btw S9/S9+10db in QSB . Small problem from 9865 Khz in QSB down on HCJB.
A very weak start, best results in the last half hour.
@ Doug: Thanks for correcting the time settings :)
Simone
Hi all,
OK, Allen and I have found a new frequency for the European transmission. In fact, we are going to have to change our North American frequency too in order to make this work for our little transmitter. We will have 1 more day on 9870 KHz and then we will move to 9815 KHz. We will also use that freqeuncy for the North America release from 0100 UTC to 0400 UTC. 9815 KHz should be clear in Europe, at least according to the databases and bandscans we have done.
So one more day on 9870 KHz and then we move to 9815 KHz.
Thanks all,
Doug
Last log. Looking forward to the new frequency. The new QRG was very clear including +/ 5 , 10 and 15 kHz at 0540 and now 0635 UTC.
Sayonara Farda :p
Good results in the last 30 minutes.
Hi Doug.
Good signal today but influence from 9865 .9865 was also stronger toady S9+10db.
log. 131min. CDA 97% ok. Ok new freq. next day. 9815 Khz was very clear her in Stockholm today.
:)
maxpower
10-05-2007, 14:37
Nothing from me today. Dream hang up and used more than 99%CPU Power so it was difficult to even get back control over the PC via Remote. When i got it, transmission was almost over. :(
Lets wait and see what the new frequency brings for us tomorrow. :)
Stephan
Here's what the signal looked like in the Northwest USA last night using an indoor loop antenna:)
maxpower
11-05-2007, 05:28
Hi all!
Today HCJB changed (at 5.30 UTC) to the new frequency 9815kHz. Please post results here.
Stephan
Surprised to find HCJB here this morning. An unattended log. Surprisingly good when you look at the log, but QRM from -5 kHz is hoplessly strong. Came in 0530 UTC and found nothing either here on 9870 or on the new frequency. However, now it looks like the frequency has changed.
Looks even better in the last 30 minutes than on 9870 khz. But why use Mode C with only 9kbps? Audio sounds terrible. I think that at least Mode B with 14.5 kbps and SBR
should work fine. But it is really amazing how good an intercontinental connection with only 4KW works if the frequency is clear.
maxpower
11-05-2007, 06:45
Hi again!
I very much agree with you, carsten. Now It would be nice to hear 14 kBit AAC+.
I have some Problems with Image Frequencies at 9815, so i changed to 8905 (9815 - 910 kHz) which works fair good at my single conversion elektor receiver. I still have some local noise Problems which i'll try to eliminate this weekend.
Here's my log for the last 45 Minutes today.
Stephan
Happiness is a clear channel. :)
But nearer to complete happiness would be Mode B and a little bit better sound quality. :confused:
Good signal stringth toyday small influence from 9865.
:)
Super free cannel ,signal stringht up to S9+40db !!!!!! SNR 28.5db . Short DRM brake 0531 only carrier.
Mode B and a little bit better sound quality no problem to hi bitrate.
:) :)
Funkerberg
11-05-2007, 09:39
last report for 9870 kHz
Hi all,
Sorry for the confusion on the time for the frequency change. We had it all planned out here in the main office and then realized last night that we had no engineers at our transmitter site to make the change until after midnight our time.
Thanks for the reports though. Hopefully this will be a clearer channel for us. We will play with the modes and bit rate over the next several weeks. From the looks of the SNR readings most of you were getting, we probably can increase the bit rate and reduce the protection. Stephen may have trouble decoding audio when we do that, we will just have to see.
Why are we using 9 Kbs? Because that mode was created for long distance transmissions and we are at such low power. So 9kbs seemed like a reasonable starting point. Our intention though is to experiment with the modes and see what we can do and where the break points are.
Doug
The channel was not clear just before the start at 0400 UTC. Because it is Saturday? :confused:
At the very beginning the bitrate was 17.46 kbps and the sound was better than normal. Sadly, it was soon after reduced to 11.64 kbps. The rest of the log was unattended except for the last 30 minutes. At that time the bitrate was down to 9.18 kbps and with muffled sound.
At my place the S Meter was at S7 at the start, and towards the end of the transmission it swayed between S6 and S7. This corresponds to a level of 23 - 27 dBuV from a signal generator.
Hello,
nearly perfect.
Bernd, DF9RB
mitajohn
12-05-2007, 07:23
Hi all,
A very good result to nearly excellent here for 115 mins (unattended log).
maxpower
12-05-2007, 08:17
Hi all!
My log today is less about shortwave conditions or drm-mode-testing but a little more about someone's (in this case mine ;) ) approach to solve a problem. :D
04.00 - 05.30 UTC: some ups and downs (first hour unattended)
05.30 - 06.10 UTC: like the last days signal strength goes down. I tried to get rid of the mirror frequencies and undefined products (of whatever) which disturbed the reception in my Elektor RX (Tried some kHz up and down, then same on the mirror arround 8905 kHz), but nothing helped...:mad:
06.10 - 06.30 UTC: found my old self-build active Preselector (from ADDX's club service / Charly Hardt) and plugged it between Antenna and Receiver and tuend it to 9815kHz. Voila: more then 20 dB SNR! :)
So I'll buy a new batterie for that thing and hope that will work through the next week(s). The better bitrates can come, Doug! :cool:
Stephan
Hi all.
Cannel free from AM her in Sweden +-20Khz good signal today S9/S9+10db only QSB . Log 133Min.
:)
mitajohn
12-05-2007, 08:57
Hi Stephan and all,
....found my old self-build active Preselector (from ADDX's club service / Charly Hardt) and plugged it between Antenna and Receiver...
I use also an Elektor RX with very good results. Now I have added an active preselector and AGC with much better results. Look at :http://www.elexs.de/drm12.htm and http://www.elexs.de/drm13.htm#komplett you can add this extender pcb to to your Elektor RX easely. This will suppress mirrors and add also sensitivity. I think it's worth the try.
Great results today on the new frequency.
I still can´t understand why mode C is being used, I think it is not a matter of distance, only a matter of delay and that does not seem to cause a problem over here, mode B is working fine.
Simone
henrikthiil
12-05-2007, 22:33
Reception was excellent here in the middle of (RF) noisy Copenhagen, Denmark, this morning, May 12, 0457-0602 UTC, on 9815 kHz: constant data and audio, S/N in the vicinity of 20dB. S9 at first, falling to just above S7 towards the end of the 60+ minutes period I listened.
This is my first T/A DRM logging.
Shack: WiNRADiO G313e/180, Wellbrook ALA1530 with rotator.
Henrik Thiil Nielsen,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Congartulation!!!!!! 100% in South East Germany
Bernd, DF9RB
mitajohn
13-05-2007, 06:36
Hi all,
Except of the problematic start and end the rest result was good to very good. The BR at the beginning was 11.56 kbps and sometime (~05:00 ?) it changed to 9.1 kbps. The best result was between 04:30 and 05:40. (a semi-unattended log).
An unattended log this morning. Still I cannot understand why you keep switching to Mode C at 0500 UTC :confused:
The signal was around 31 - 42 dBuV around 0615 UTC. The decoding must have been 100% - the only flaw was the 6 seconds break during the mode change.
Doug, please start experimenting!
Great results today .
I still can´t understand why mode C is being used, I think it is not a matter of distance, only a matter of delay and that does not seem to cause a problem over here, mode B is working fine.
My log start with antenna to USA from HCJB.
:) :)
maxpower
13-05-2007, 07:59
Hi folks!
Here's my log today. I made some more improvements to my long wire antenna and started the log at 01.oo UTC with the start of transmissions to north america.
It's nice to see, how good your stearable antenna works, doug! I hope, you can build it up again after closing pifo because of the quito airport.
The euopean transmission worked very well. With the new equipment within and between 4.00 UTC and 6.30 UTC I got an SNR average of 25.6 dB with about 99,87% Audio which dropped out only at changing to new bitrate. I'm looking forward to the better bitrates coming up next week.
@mitajohn: Thanks for your tip! I think I'll take that in my mind, but I ordered the new elektor sdr last week(which should hopefully arrive some day next week) and i will try out that device first. But i think with my old active preselector working that well on the frequecy i surely will spend some more € for the extender to bring the elektor up to more RX Quality!
Greetings, Stephan
Perfect results this morning.
Simone
mitajohn
14-05-2007, 06:38
Hi all,
Not good propagation conditions this morning hour. A moderate and bumpy result with a very bad period right after the BR switching, although the signal sometimes reached +30 dBuV.
Congratulations. A perfect reception all the time. A very constant SNR and signalstrength. Amazing for 4kW and 10.000 km!
maxpower
14-05-2007, 07:37
Hi all!
Very nice reception here in the northwest of germany with the added active-preselector. 99,72% with an average SNR of 25,1 dB from 4.00 UTC - 6.30 UTC. Even a drop of audio at arround 2.00 UTC from the north american broadcast.
SNR could be even better if my elektor rx didn't add a little noise at the upper side of the signal. (as you can see at the free-channel screenshot), but I don't want to be impudent. :D Reception is almost perfect at my place!
@Mitajohn: do you see the same interferences on your elektor rx, too?
Stephan
Regarding the Decoded Audio the reception was fine all through. Towards the end of the transmission the signal strength decreased a little and the SNR was bumpy.
mitajohn
14-05-2007, 11:45
Hi Stephan,
@Mitajohn: do you see the same interferences on your elektor rx, too?
My Elektor RX output without/with antenna is as seen in the attached pdf. Interference appears only with the antenna connected. I use Dream 161cvs.
Funkerberg
14-05-2007, 13:18
no comment
Hi all.
One word Perfect ,reciption but bad audio only 3Khz .
Perfect decoding today.
Simone
Hi,
An early start in order to be able to listen to HCJB.
The new frequency really helped to improve the signal here in Europe. Despite a fairly low signal strength, at around 26 dBuV the total listening time resulted in a CDA of 99 %. Hours of listening: 04:17 - 05:39.
Now off to the office. ;)
maxpower
15-05-2007, 06:51
Hello again!
Today i logged the image-frequency of 9815 kHz (9815 kHz - 910 kHz = 8905 kHz) with my elektor RX. Here's my report for last nights transmission to north america & europe tuned to 8905 kHz:
Seem's to me like the programming began a little late to north america (01.45 UTC)? At that time i got some drops of 17,4 (?)kBit Audio.
Next few drops of high-bitrate Audio came in arround 04.00 with the steerable pointed to europe.
Then 2 1/2 hours programming to europe in lower bitrates which were only interrupted by a bitrate-change. (Its interesting that the change from 17.4 to 11 kBit does not cause an interruption of the audio)
Again good reception with 99,87% correct decoded audio at an average snr of 24,1 dB from 04.00 UTC - 6.30 UTC.
@ John: Thanks for the screenshot! Looks like my elektor has problems at the same frequencies arround 14 kHz in the spectrum at that QRG.
It's with the antenna plugged in. But it's worser here. Maybe wrong antenna-tuning? Without antenna its quite at the sprectrum, too.
Stephan
PS: It's amazing: I think we would get good audio the whole night at that broadcast-band with the antenna directed to europe all night on. :cool:
The same perfect and very stable results as yesterday!
Funkerberg
15-05-2007, 10:18
it becomes day after day better here, but not yet well
A timer-started unattended log. A very good result, but when will HCJB let us enjoy a bit better sound quality? With 9 kbps it is impossible to hear the difference between an "f" and an "s", let alone trying to enjoy the music.
mitajohn
15-05-2007, 12:22
Hi all,
Here is an auto-log, unattended of course. As seen in the attached file until 05:00 the result was perfect then propagation seems that had changed and caused dropouts. But nevertheless this is an amazing result for my area from 11000 km away and for a transmission actually beamed to C,N-Europe !
Pretty good again today.
Simone
Hi all,
OK, we are bumping up the bite rate for tomorrow's broadcast. We will start at 14 kbps for the first hour and then drop down to 11 kbps for the rest of the transmission. If that works well, we will continue moving up the bit rates and see how far we can go. We will try each step for several days though so that we can see some consistency in the results over several days.
Thanks for the reports.
Doug
Good morning!
First time I try the since the frequency-change and PERFECT RECEPTION!
In the first minutes, many drop-outs but it went better and better! :)
Now 24 dB SNR. Now the broadcast went to 14.56 kbps, still good reception.
Greetings
Morning,
A fairly weak signal this morning, 16 dBuV compared with 28 yesterday.
This resulted in a CDA of 77 % today after 36 minutes listening.
Time: 04:26 - 05:02 UTC.
Now German broadcast, still good reception at 11.64 kbps.
maxpower
16-05-2007, 07:09
Hello everybody!
Wow, the first hour sounded very well! Nice to hear the "mosaic world music" that much better than the last days. :) Has it been 14 kBit + SBR or 17,4 kBit SBR?
As the last days, transmission worked very well. I got an average SNR of 26.,9 dB from 4.00 UTC - 6.30 UTC with 99.7 % correct decoded audio.
Like almost every day the last weeks there's a signal-strenght valley which took place today from about 05.10 - 06.00 UTC with lowest SNR of 16 dB.
But that didn't interrupt the audio at all because you changed bitrates to 11kBit (which doesn't sound different to 9 kBit at all to me?!?)
Summarized a very nice bump of bitrates. Please more of that. :)
Stephan
Hi all,
this morning only a short look ( between breakfast and work ) on my PC was possible. I confirm SNR was 31 db at 4:45 UTC, S-Meter on RX was S 9.
Audio with 17 Kbs sounds good.
I´ll send screenshot on todays evening. I´m hopefull to make some logs next days.
Absolute no problems with the higher bitrates here in Frankfurt.
Fine! Now, with the increased bitrate it sounds much better. The carrier that was present on 9815 khz, which was about S9 just before 04 UTC seems to disappear just at or after 04 UTC. However, there is something hampering the first 8 minutes (same as yesterday). Stereo and 17.46 kbps, 16/64 sounds much better. :)
The Stereo changed into Mono 14.56 kbps at 0442 UTC, but the SNR remained high. The audio went back to :rolleyes:
At 0501 the bitrate changed to 11.64 kbps. Around 0529 the SNR nose-dived for some unknown reason. The S-Meter swayed around S7 - S9 +5 dB, which corresponds to an antenna input level of +27 to +35 dBuV.
Max SNR was 31.93 dB at 0457 UTC.
Oh, by the way, the clock left UTC again.... :rolleyes:
mitajohn
16-05-2007, 10:18
Hi all,
Another unattended log. Bumpy decoding with higher BR at the first hour. 98.79% CDA, a very good overall result for my area being one hour ahead C-Europe.
Screenshot from this morning.
Not sure about the first drop. Second was BR change.
IPR looks good.
A few dropouts today, transmitted time was again not UTC!
Simone
Good morning all.
Perfect reciption from all Mode B 16/64 17,46kbps 11khz audio . 16/16 14,56kbps only 5Khz audio. 4/16 .17,78kbps UEP And mode A 4/64 .
Not problem of this mode switch.
But best is Mode B 16/64 17,46kbps =11khz audio.
:)
maxpower
17-05-2007, 06:52
Hello again!
Here's my report for todays transmission:
Very interesting: Mode A with 17.78 kBit UEP AAC+ over a distance of roundabout 10 000 km!
But reception was not bad at all with at this more Medium-Wave DRM Mode: With an average SNR of 27.7 dB between 04.00 - 06.30 UTC there has been only one hearable dip in Audio between 05.00 UTC and 06.30 UTC (arround 06.25)!
But thats shurely not 100% Audio like DRMCalc tells me. Dream seems to have miscounted at 6.20 UTC when it counted 3000 Frames one time. (I think i've caused that by playing arround with dreams Evaluation-Dialogs) If i overjump that event i get 99,82% Audio, which is exellent! Very nice Work, Dough and Allan!
Stephan
Perfect reception in Finland too, after starting my daily listening at 05:00 UTC. No logs attached but for sure, a great experience. It would be really nice to hear Jorge on a more regular bases. ( http://www.infoverstas.fi/mp3/9815.mp3 )
Once again perfect and very stable. I think that we all just got the same dropouts, caused by mode and bitrate changes.
Ich hope you could use 14.5 kbps with SBR. That sound quite OK and is a very robust mode.
Quite good results again today.
@ Doug: Please can someone check the CS and set it to transmitting UTC again, that´s really confusing for the radios.
Simone
Very good results this morning. Before 04 UTC I cannot get any decoding at all. I am not sure what is running on the same frequency, today this TX was stronger, sometimes up to S9 +20 dB, but it goes off the air just before 0400.
I noted Mode B, 17.46 kbps AAC+ and P-Stereo in the beginning, noted Mode Changes at 0445 and 0500, the last was Mode A, 17.78 kbps AAC+ and Mono.
All together very stable with SNR topping >31 dB and >99% Decoded Audio.
Funkerberg
17-05-2007, 08:24
the first reception with an Dipol antenna, the results are very good!
mitajohn
17-05-2007, 12:11
Hi all,
Another unattended log. Bumpy decoding and a period with severe decoding problems.
Hello,
perfect even in mode A (after 5 UTC) except the last 15 minutes. At the beginning the fieldstrength was approx. 50 µV RMS, at the end below 10 µV and decoding stoped.
Bernd, DF9RB
The first 8 minutes suffers from some kind of interference, the rest until 06 UTC was very good. The almost complete loss of signal after 06 UTC was probably because of a solar event. The input signal suddenly dropped more than 25 dB. The Proton Density rose sharply and the Interplanetary BZ tilted just before 06 UTC. Could that perhaps have been the reason?
Log start 0500 UTC and Smeter peak S9+20db Mode A and 16/64 UEP give also very stabile audio in 11Khz. Signal stringth go down to end, last 45min. QSB S7/S9.
maxpower
18-05-2007, 06:54
Similar here at my RX: Good conditions first but starting from about 05.15 UTC on SNR (26 dB) went down till 06.25 UTC (10dB). Audio was disturbed from 06.07 - 06.29 UTC.
But overall 98.43% correct decoded Audio at an average SNR of 23,5 dB from 04.00 - 06.30 UTC.
BTW: Nice and interesting double-feature of "Country and People in South America" in german language. :)
Stephan
Good again.
Same log like all others today.
Perfect results again, but signal strength decreased a lot towards the end of transmission. With some dropouts. Interesting is the high peak in signal strength just before the signal started to decrease.
mitajohn
18-05-2007, 11:51
Hi all,
An unattended log. It seems that there were bad propagation conditions this morning, and loss of signal due to, probably, of a solar event.
I only listened in the first half hour, strong signal, no problems, sorry no logfile.
@ Doug: Can´t you find someone to check the CS? Time was still wrong.
Simone
Funkerberg
18-05-2007, 18:32
result of two receivers, drb30 and SDRelektor, again with an Dipol antenna. looks very beautiful
mitajohn
19-05-2007, 06:37
Hi all,
Due to an electric power failure I only got the last half hour with a pretty good result. Most of dropouts caused by instant electrical disturbances.
Stereo until 0503 UTC this morning, then Mode A and AAC+ in Mono. Noted that there was AM in Spanish on 9.820 MHz just when HCJB went off the air. The DRM signal was about 5 dB weaker at sign off than at 0520.
Decoding a little longer than yesterday.
Bernd, DF9RB
maxpower
19-05-2007, 07:46
Hello!
Here's my report for today:
Not a glimps of a sign from the north american transmission (is it over?) . Fade in of the signal at about 04.20 UTC with audio since 04.25 to 06.30 UTC.
A lot of better than yesterday, but not completly recoverd to normal. Some more hearable dropouts arround 06.15. The plot looks a little bit like a roller coaster ride ;)
If you count the results from 04.25 - 06.30 UTC you get an SNR average of 20.3 dB with 99.46% correct decoded Audio. Still s very nice result with Mode A and 17.7 kBit at the last one and a half hours.
Stephan
It started very weak today. But perfect after 4:14UTC.
Funkerberg
19-05-2007, 10:46
result of two receivers an two antenna, drb30 with Dipol ,
SDRelektor with indoor Loop
Propagation was not so good this morning. Signal stringth S7/S9.
Log 145Min. CDA 91% ok.
I just managed to catch the HCJB label when I started the log at 0400. However, the signal was weaker than it used to be, only 7 - 12 dBµV. The usual "weak 8 minutes" became 19 minutes this morning. Perhaps the Mode change improved the reception?
The rest, except the last 10 minutes were unattended. At the end I remembered to switch my receiver to EXTREME SLOW AGC, which pushed up the SNR. The signal had then risen to 30 - 35 dBµV.
Better than yesterday. Signal was just a little bit weak at the begining. But no audible dropouts except the mode change at 5 UTC. And also a high fieldstrength peak at 4:28:confused:
Hi,
nearly perfect this morning.
Bernd, DF9RB
Not so good last morning.
Signal was very weak ( S6/S7) around 5:30 UTC. So i couldn´t hear complete the nice DRM-Programm with music from Ecuador. At the second half signal was stronger , up to S9+10 db
maxpower
20-05-2007, 16:03
Hi there!
Here's my report for today:
The signal faded in a little earlier than yesterday, but its still not at the same level like before the little (solar?) event 2 days ago.
With highest SNR of 23,0 signal has been much lower than the last days.
But apart from that decoding was ok with 99,73% correct decoded audio between 04.17 - 06.30 UTC.
Stephan
Btw: I'm still fascinated by the fact that you are using only 4 kW of DRM power and we can get this signal really good here in Europe (and the fact that Mode A gives us almost perfect (multihop) reception over about 10 000km distance!), Doug. :)
Hi Doug.
Very good signal from 4KW power.
64min . log perfect in mode B 16/16 and 14,56 kbps. Very good. S9/S9+10db small QSB.
:)
The log starts at 0410, so I lost the first, normally weak, minutes. From that time onward there was only one mode, 14.56 kbps AAC Mono 16/16 P1/1 and the clock is still wrong. The log was mostly unattended. Especially the worst bit between 0607 - 0622 puzzles me, this part is usually much better.
0410 - 0508: 99 % CDA
0509 - 0606: 97 % CDA
0607 - 0622: 35 % CDA
0623 - QRT: 99 % CDA
maxpower
21-05-2007, 07:21
Hi Doug, hi all!
Things seem to get back to normal. Today i could get some signs of the north american drm-broadcast again and from 04.00 UTC on the SNR to europe was much higher that the last two days, too.
With an average SNR of 22,9 dB at the european transmission i got almost perfect 99,89% correct decoded audio with 14 kBit AAC.
Here at my place ( and with my elector) it seems not to make a big difference in correct decoding percentage if you go down to the 14 kBit- Mode So have to say that I liked the 17,4 AAC+ or 17,7 AAC+ better :D
(Does your transmitter offer an 14 kBit AAC Mode with SBR at that bitrate, too? Would be interesting how that works out?!)
Regards,
Stephan
@ Digger: Interesting, "My" SNR makes the same ups and downs at my place, but overall you got much lower SNR than I here (lowest at my place at that time 20 dB with a long wire, too). Maybe still AM interference at your RX which doen't make it to here?
Perfect reception today only until 6 UTC. What happened then? As the signal strength does not decrease then, I thing that heavy interferences started then. Or mode change?
Here at my place, Central Finland, good reception during the last half-an-hour too to the end, unlike at Carsten. (I guess I must see if I could start making logs again).
mitajohn
21-05-2007, 11:37
Hi all,
Here is an unattended log, not a good one. Alike my #137 post.
Hi all,
Thanks for the reception reports. I was gone on holidays over the weekend so I was not watching your reports. We have discovered that the clock on the Content Server loses time very quickly. It is not currently synchronized to anything to help it maintain the correct time, but we will try to keep a closer eye on it so it does not stray so far off in the future.
Frankly, I am with Stephan. I am amazed that you al are getting such good reports with such high bit rates and low power. I never expected that. This is a learning process for us as well and I appreciate your participation with us in this test. It was interesting to see the propagation effects of the solar event in the reports too.
Thanks all and keep the reports coming.
Doug
Hi all.
Transmission start very good S9+20db but from 0520UTC propagation go very fast down so 0548 S5 . And log stop now.
:confused:
maxpower
22-05-2007, 06:51
Hi all!
Not much from the north american broadcast last night.
But as the antenna was directed to europe dream started decoding with about 21/22 dB and kept rising to the highest SNR of 25.9 dB.
Then, like almost every day with normal conditions at my QTH, there was a "signal valley" which today was more heavy than usual and got me down to the lowest level of 13 dB at 05.40 UTC. That "way down" caused some minor frame errors but unlike Sixten QTH it reached never 12 dB at my place and so decoding kept going on at my RX. :cool:
After about 06.00 UTC SNR went up again with 24 dB SNR from 06.15 - 06.29 UTC (end of transmission)
All this got me an 99.72% Audio with an average SNR of 20.6 dB at the european transmission.
Stephan
PS: I had for some Minutes a terrible "qeeeeeeek" sound in the audio which disappeared a few minutes before the end of transmission. Did anybody hear that, too? Or was it just a problem in my Computer?
The log starts at 0400, and I lost the first, normally weak, minutes as usual. The AM station goes off the air just seconds before 0400, but for some reason it just won't work in the beginning. Bad Channel Impulse Ratio did not do anything to improve the reception either.
0406 UTC: Signal +27 dBµV and crackling local QRM
0433 UTC: max SNR at 32.9 dB
0503 UTC: Mode change to Mode A
0534 UTC: Signal +19 ... +23 dBµV
0614 UTC: Signal +27 dBµV
0625 UTC: Signal +28 ... +31 dBµV, the Channel Impulse Ratio had not improved much.
On the whole, the reception was very good, all things considered. :)
only good for a short period both days
Today it was the first time, that I could listen live to the programme from 5 UTC on. The signal was quite weak today and it got even weaker from 5:40 UTC. Only 10dBµV:eek: bUt there were no audible dropouts and the sound qualtity was really good! But I don't think that this is a signal to receive indoors with a Morphy. It became a bit stronger in the last 20 minutes.
But I don't think that this is a signal to receive indoors with a Morphy.
Well my Morphy utterered a bathroom-sounding grunt the other morning sitting on a table near a window facing to the south. Once. :D
mitajohn
22-05-2007, 12:17
Hi all,
Here is an unattended log. After 05:12 it seems that the signal lost and never recovered so I cut the log after that time.
A weak start yesterday and today, also some weak periods later but not too bad overall.
@ Doug: Concerning the clock, it seems more like a time zone problem to me, like using wrong time offset, not just incorrect time.
Simone
mitajohn
23-05-2007, 06:38
Hi all,
Here is a partially unattended log. Until 04:25 the result was perfect with a BR of 14.48 kbps, then the signal begun slowly to get weak and decoding problems started. Sometime the BR changed to 17.7 kbps. After 06:00 the decoding got worse until the end.
When the AM transmitter on the frequency closed down at 0400 there was no trace of DRM signal here at 0400. I started the log anyway and left. The label showed up around 0450 UTC and my log starts there. SNR entries started at 0448. Something ended at 0529 and from that point on the CDA was 100%. The mode change to MODE A was at 0502 UTC.
1000 UTC: Oops, here is the correct log from this morning!
maxpower
23-05-2007, 06:54
Hi all!
Here in Ostfriesland (Northwest of Germany) conditions were better than at your place, John (Have you been able to try to give more gain to your Elektor by an ADDX AT-2?)
Reception window opened a little bit late and HCJB faded in at about 04.30 UTC. But it was good from that on with 99,8% correct decoded audio between 04.30 and 06.30 UTC with an average SNR of 21.7 dB.
Reception of the north american broadcast was not possible: I got only one time some little signal arround 01.00 UTC.
Btw: I found out what causes the two little dips in the Spectrum at 14 kHz ( http://www.drmrx.org/forum/showpost.php?p=38325&postcount=98 ). It's the Fritzbox 7050 from AVM ( DSL Wlan-Routerbox with Landline/ISDN/VOIP Telephone Functions). I got the same disturbances here in Oldenburg with the new elector SDR (which arrived yesterday) and i could bring that noise to zero by plugging out the power of the Fritz-Box Device for a moment.
Stephan
Hi all.
Log start today 0515UTC in Mode A , mode A give more instabilite in this propagation . But CDA 99% ok from 73min. SNR swing up and down more ,compare to Mode B.
Funkerberg
23-05-2007, 10:57
first report from Hamburg / Germany, indoor location (Hotel room), window to SW, Elektor RX / mobile Loop , Dream crashed on 0503 utc, system restart at 0552 utc.
mitajohn
23-05-2007, 13:06
@ Stephan
Have you been able to try to give more gain to your Elektor by an ADDX AT-2?
No. For a long time I use a simple tunable LC infront the antenna input with very good results. The extender added to the Elektor RX includes an auto-preselector, but I have noticed an overload at signal levels approx 60 dBuV which did not happen before the addition. I sent a notice for that to AK MODUL-BUS (where I bought it from) but they havent yet answered to my questions...
mitajohn
24-05-2007, 06:33
Hi all,
That's the result this morning. Not too bad, 89% CDA.
maxpower
24-05-2007, 06:59
Hi all!
Todays report:
Bumpy start here at my place, seems like band was not open stable. Apart from that i got a complete loss of signal arround 04.13 UTC. Has it been some kind of transmitter problem or a short propagation problem?
After that time signal got up quite well, but not as strong as usual and gave 99.24% correct decoded audio from 04.25 - 06.30 UTC ( 90% from 04.00 - 06.30 UTC) with 11kBit Rate (which suited very well with todays conditions. :D )
I think HCJB got a new neighbour at 9805 kHz. RFI in a language i don't know (arabic/african?). But their signal is well cutted, like it seems to me (see schreenshot).
@john: ok, i see. i'll try to get this addon for my elektor, too, because it's much more useful, if the pre tunes automatically! But first i'll try the new Elektor SDR which arrived two days ago. :)
Stephan
Interesting how different it is at different locations!
Started logging 0445. A very weak signal here did not produce much sound at all, mostly because of AM on the channel. A few minutes into the log you could hear a male voice talking. Just before 05 UTC I could see AM on the channel and on +/- 5 kHz also.
The switch to 11.64 kbps at 0502 improved the situation a little, but the signal dropped to around +10 dBuV which was not enough for anything.
Around 0535 when the Doppler went below 1 Hz (seems to be a good indicator, really) things improved. From then on I got >95% CDA.
Strange conditions generally did not help either :confused:
Surprise! I believe this is the best logging so far here. More than 99.5% CAD. P-Stereo for the first 30 seconds of the log, then 14.56 kbps in Mono until 0500. It hadn't been necessary to switch to 11.64 I think.
maxpower
25-05-2007, 09:16
Hi all!
If I remember right today was the next to last day of the HCJB Tests to europe?! (30.04. - 26.05.?)
Ok, here's my report for today:
Nothing from the north american tests, but as antenna was steered to europe, the 31m Band was already open to europe and transmission started with an SNR of 16 dB and 14 kBit with no problems to decode audio.
At 05.00 UTC there was the usual change-bitrate-break with a change to 11kBit.
So, what can I say: No problems with highest SNR of 22 dB and 99.35% correct decoded audio. at 11 / 14 kBit. If you take out the change of bitrate i get 99.95% correct decoded audio. :cool:
Stephan
Perfect results today and correct time zone :)
Simone
I have to repeat myself: I believe this is one of the best loggings. More than 99.5% CAD. P-Stereo for the first 30 seconds of the log, then 14.56 kbps in Mono until 0500. It hadn't been necessary to switch to 11.64 I think.
The signal was between +23 ... +27 dBuV. Only a couple of dropouts I cannot explain around 0620. Very good, except for the sound quality with 11.64 kbps.
Propagation instabile this morning . S7/S9 .
mitajohn
26-05-2007, 06:49
Hi all,
Here is an auto-log with an attempt to receive also the transmission to C. America, but nothing received.
Log starts 30 Min. later. At 04:15 UTC Signal was a bit weak.When i start the log, signal comes up.
Unattendend today, but for a 4 KW HF-Signal i mean:
Perfect !
Hi all,
very good this morning. SNR very similar between "nr Munich" and "150 north of Munich"
Bernd, DF9RB
Some dropouts at the beginning, not much decoding in the last 20 minutes.
Simone
maxpower
27-05-2007, 00:54
Brr, i somehow ruined my logfile with another instance of dream.exe (by starting iq.bat?)! But anyway: Almost perfect reception here in the northwest of germany.
If i heard right HCJB has extended the test for one more week. Great! I hope, reception stays like it has been the last few weeks. Maybe we can get some more AAC+ (SBR) tests?!
Stephan
Hi all,
I didn t come out of my bed today. Log of the last 30 minutes. Very bad today...
Bernd, DF9RB
maxpower
27-05-2007, 14:15
Hi all!
I found out the course of the loss of the log yesterday: the receive_iq.bat in the dream-directory which is meant to be used if you have an IQ RX had two lines in it which delete the log files .... :(
But now i modiefied the .bat and everything should be back to normal.
So here's my report for this mornings transmission. In deed HCJB has extended its tests to europe and reception worked - like last weeks - very well! :)
But as it has been a unattended log today i only could check out the recorded wav afterwards: Which Bitrate/Mode did you use, Dough? Seems to me at least 14 kBit or more, but without SBR?
Stephan
Quite good except for the last half hour, using the DWT/ longwire today.
Simone
A late start (yawn), but the fun was soon to be over. After 0535 there was not much to enjoy. Seems I have some rattling QRM here today around this frequency; this might have been a reason for the bad result. :confused:
mitajohn
28-05-2007, 06:51
Hi all,
Here is an auto-log. After 05:12 the result turn to very bad.
Hi all,
100 % untill 6:00 then signal going down and some drop-outs.
Bernd, DF9RB
Good result here until 06:00 UTC.
SNR peak here at 04:23 UTC with 29 dB.
Log was unattended.
maxpower
28-05-2007, 09:49
Hi all!
Hm, Signal seems to be much more reliable here: If i don't count the dip from the bitrate change i get something about 99.97% correct decoded audio at the european transmission with an average SNR of 20.8 dB from 04.00 - 06.30 UTC. Like usual ( ;) ) , a very good result! Maybe I´m lucky and in the center target of the steerable antenna?!
Stephan
Pretty good results here as well :)
Simone
A disappointing result. From 06 UTC heavy QRM from France in Hausa on 9.805 MHz.
Today was signal stringth very low and SNR also. My vertical give so low SNR so no sound . My inv.V dipole 2x20m and 600 Ohms feeder give better SNR . I have also tunderstorms in Sweden so it give brake in sound.
mitajohn
29-05-2007, 06:54
Hi all,
Here is an unattended log. After 05:00 the signal lost.
Bad results at the start and in the last half hour.
Simone
maxpower
29-05-2007, 18:39
Not bad here at my place - still with the classic Elektor DRM. ;)
Similar process like simone's but always some dB higher and audio till the end of transmission. 99.88 % with an average SNR of 20.3 dB
Stephan
mitajohn
30-05-2007, 06:41
Hi all,
A longer reception this morning. Not bad.
Woke up early and switched on before 0400. There is AM on the frequency, but it shuts down just when HCJB changes the beam to Europe. The Station Label shows up immediately, but there was no decoded audio until 0406. Funny, my screen shots read 17.46 kbps at 0400 and 0407 but John's log states 17.38 kbps :confused:
I noted three Mode changes during the transmission: At 0445, 0500 and 0501. On the whole the reception here was very good during the whole transmission.
maxpower
30-05-2007, 11:38
Hi there!
Here's my report for today:
Starting with nice audio at 04.00 UTC i had an SNR of about 24 dB with 17 kBit. I had two bigger dips in reception at about 04.20 UTC and 04.40 UTC (local noise or changes at the transmitter?) but apart from that the higher bitrate-modes worked very well here at my place at that hour.
At 05.00 UTC mode changed to 750 Frames until end of transmission at 06.30 UTC. In this time interval SNR climbed up even up to 30 dB shortly and went down to 19 dB at the end. At about 06.07 UTC i had the last and much smaller Audio-Failure.
This all gives me an average SNR of 24.3 dB with today only 99.24% correct decoded audio.
Stephan
Funkerberg
30-05-2007, 18:05
back to the indoor loop an back to weak signals, no good results in the last two days
mitajohn
31-05-2007, 06:35
Hi all,
Not good conditions here this morning, thus not good results. The signal after 05:35 almost disappeared until finally lost.
Logged on at 0447 and the reception was bad and the signal was +14 ... +23 dBuV with quite heavy Fading. The Mode Change at 0459 did not improve anything, really as can be seen in the log. From 0517 and on the reception was more or less perfect. At the end there was less Fading and the signal hovered around +20 dBuV.
Terrible sound quality (worse than analog, only 3 kHz of bandwidth), lots of fading (I could hardly follow the programme), very cheap made content (maybe DRM special programme?) :rolleyes:
Under these circumstances, DRM makes no sense for that station at such bad conditions ...
BTW: Language was German, not English.
Edit: Sorry, of course this is Equador, not Moosbrunn ...
A perfect reception, except in the last 15 minutes. Looks like some interferences started then.
maxpower
31-05-2007, 09:40
Hi together!
@ andimik: I don't agree with you!
First you have to know that these are TEST-TRANSMISSIONS! HCJB uses a transmitter with about 4000 Watt power (4kW) and targets with that power almost 10 000 km distance. Thats just nothing in comparison e.g. DW Portugal which sends with about 90 kW and needs only to bring a signal a 1000 km away!
Second: HCJB has a very different "business model" than the other typical DRM Stations. The staff isn't paid by a country or comercials or even as a scrambled pay-radio. It is payed by christian people that donate to them to make the radio go on. And so HCJB pays the staff only indirect: Every member of the staff brings its own donated money from people that know them (mostly in personal) in order to keep their work up and going.
Apart from that they don't only make radio but they also operate hospitals on the same basis. ( Please take a look at http://www.hcjb.org )
Third: The german department doesn't have many coworkers: There are mostly < 8 People that works continuously in the german departement. And some of them work in the hospital same time, too. And they produce daily mostly word-based programs (music programs like most german commercial stations are likely more cheap content!) in high- and in low-german, even partly different for europe and north- and southamerica. (http://www.hcjb.de )
(Apart from that the programming in this DRM-Test is not the same than the standard daily programming, but only Test-Programming- like we have been told at the beginning of every half hour! ;) )
You maybe like the programming - you maybe not. But please keep this in mind!
But, for last point: You are right with the sound-quality of the lower DRM-Modes. Its much more bad then a good AM Transmission. :(
But i wonder how a 4kW AM Station from Ecuador would sound here in Europe in the analog mode?! maybe we would hear mostly nothing in the background-noise?!
Ok: Here's my (sadly short) report for todays transmission:
At my place band opend again something about 03.20 UTC when the north ameican signal appeared. At 04.00 UTC the SNR jumped up to 24 dB 17 kBit with good audio.
At 04.43 UTC my HDD did not have any more free space and the log stopped. :( So my report ends there.
I store the test as wav-files and they use much amounts of space. So i have to rip them as mp3 and logging will continue next days. :)
@Doug: The 14 kBit Mode with SBR seems to me like the good compromise between SNR height and Audio Quality for the last period of transmission. If you Expander is capable of that mode it would be very nice to test that out.
Stephan
I have to agree with Stephan as for HCJB philosophy and strive in drm.
But there is still one point more. HCJB has succeeded in restoring the basic magic of radio. Or what should one think, if its signal, at its best, sounds like
the neighbouring FM station at a place more than 10.000 km from the weak source.
I have listened to drm on sw almost daily since 2004, whenever possible (possible nearly daily), and at my location I would call HCJB tests another great victory. The previous alike was CRI testing drm a couple of years ago from Qiqihar and Kashi.
Not so good in my location today.
Simone
Hi all,
Yes, we have decided to continue transmissions to Europe on DRM based on your responses and help with the signal reports. There will be some changes though.
We are going to cut the transmissions back to just one hour. It seems that the transmissions are fading in the last half hour of our current transmission, so we have decided to continue the DRM transmissions from 0500 to 0600 UTC. The frequency will continue to be 9815 KHz.
The programming will change as well. We have been supplementing the programming with English programs because we don't have 2 1/2 hours of daily programming available in German. So the programming will be more closely aligned to what we do in our analog transmissions with a few differences especially for DRM.
I have not heard back from the engineers yet on the bit rate, modes, etc, but we will keep some of your suggestions in mind.
Thanks all,
Doug
mitajohn
01-06-2007, 06:09
Hi all,
A late start this morning. A good signal until 05:25 when started to get very weak and affected the decoding. Good sound with 17.46 kbps. Label in "English" but in German though.
I thought today's transmission would start at 5 UT, so my log is just a little more than one hour long. But it is perfect! And the sound quality was very good.
maxpower
01-06-2007, 10:18
Hi there!
Similar results here at my place: Almost 100% Audio (99.97%) and SNR between 24 dB at the beginning and 19 dB at the end with good audio quality.
Nice programming special for starting regular DRM Tests to Europe from now on till autumn and - for my ears - a little bit ugly music at the beginning and the good old dance "classic" Ecuador from Sash at the end. :cool:
I'm strained how the reception will be through summer months.
Stephan
Radiofan
01-06-2007, 11:34
Hi all,
Yes, we have decided to continue transmissions to Europe on DRM based on your responses and help with the signal reports. Doug
Hi Doug, hi all
congratulations to the decision of your team to continue with DRM!
I enjoyed HCJB's German program mixed with Ecuadorian Music (traditional and modern) and the interview with a German Alpinist in the Andes this morning around 5hoo till ca 5h25 UTC.
I tried this morning different reception conditions with my Morphy Richards DRM Radio: in the first part I was very successfull and happy to get your crystal-clear sound (because of your 17kBps without any dropouts due to my connection to a simple 15m longwire antenna in about 6m height (SNR between 18 and 24 db).
Then I took this "kitchen-type" radio with me downstairs to have breakfast and placed it without longwire-antenna right above the toaster :rolleyes: (this was the only place to get almost dropout-free reception with the build-in telescope antenna). Again successful reception (SNR between 14 and 18 db) despite the thick brickwalls and the usual EMI in our house. Very, very amazing!
Thank you again and your team for producing fresh and unconventional DRM-Programs!
Keep on going!
Georg
Hi all,
quite good until 6. After 6 no audio modulation.
Bernd, DF9RB
Hi all.
I start my reciver 0530UTC but no totaly blackout only S4/S4 so log is only 15min.
:mad:
As Bernd wrote, no audio. Good idea to transmit Mode A over a distance more than 10.000 km :confused:
Hi Doug.
Propagation is back again . Now signal stringth S9+10db in 60min. After 0600UTC no audio. I stop log 0615UTC .
:)
Perfect until 6
Bernd, DF9RB
maxpower
03-06-2007, 08:59
Hi all!
Yesterday morning dream crashed on my computer into some kind of loop which needed more and more CPU power. I saw that late and so i could see drm-reception "dying" at the log. Maybe i was too much playing arround with different soundcards the afternoon before. :D So that screenshot is for interest only and not a real log of the reception yesterday. I don't know exactly when Dream crashed but i think its more early than 05.45 UTC (05.10?). It's almost looking like heart monitoring till zero-line. :eek:
Today reception was back to perfect in Mode A and 17 kBit. It's really interesting that this mode with very nice audio-quality still workes so well over that distance.
And it seems to be a good idea to use the timespot between 05.00 UTC - 06.00 UTC as times for regular Transmission: SNR went down a little bit after 6 o' clock like at Bernd's place.
So for this transmission i can resume an average SNR of 23.8 dB and 99.93 % correct decoded Audio.
Stephan
Great results, stable signal, good configuration with mode A and using UEP, the Dream version used for this log does not support UEP, no bad effects from UEP when listening with decoders that support UEP.
Simone
maxpower
04-06-2007, 06:51
Hi all!
Starting with > 24 dB SNR decoding was no Problem.
At 05.10 something must have happend and SNR went down very quickly to 15 dB which caused a few loosed audio frames at about 05.15. UTC.
After that event SNR climbed up the next 40 minutes to reach 24 dB again at 05.54 UTC.
Apart from the dip in audio at 05.14 and another one at 06.15 UTC (which is out of regular transmission time) I had 99.83% correct decoded audio with an average SNR of 23.4 dB.
Stephan
I switched on just before 05 UTC and the signal was between +30 ... +40 dBuv. The programme started at 0500. I left the radio unattended until just before 0530, but I have exactly the same pattern as maxpower, except mine is worse around 0515. Looking at my DRMShow plot it looks like splatter from an adjacent AM channel. I was not there, so I have no explanation.
The Plattdeutsch is not exactly one of my favourites (difficult to understand, that is) but the sign-off was in German just at 0600. After that there was no programme, only the carrier wave with DRM with +27 ... +32 dBuV until QRT at 0625 UTC. The dip around 0615 must have been an interruption in the DRM stream.
NOTE: Perhaps the Solar Flare caused the dropout? :confused: (See enlcosed attachment)
mitajohn
04-06-2007, 10:22
Hi all,
Very weak signal here. Some decoding for ~10 mins then nothing.
Good results today.
Simone
Good till 7:45 local time, then it faded away.
Remarkable results with mode A, good sound processing (bible choir).
mitajohn
05-06-2007, 06:36
Hi all,
The transmission started at 04:45 and ended 06:29. There was a very good result during a stormy morning.
Perfect reception in Central Finland with no dropouts from the beginning to the end. Say my ears. Because of new DWT-XP crashing habits, no logs. (Neither XP used.)
My log starts 0452 and the transmission ended seconds before 0625 in Switzerland. ;)
The programme started at 0500 with "Land und Leute" and "The Geschichte Equadors" until 0515. From 0530 until 0600 it was Low German.
99.9% CDA and the signal was strong all through the transmission.
maxpower
05-06-2007, 07:36
I cutted off the first and last minute of the log:
It's the best reception of HCJB I got so far: 100% Audio of 4 kW and 10 000km in Mode A!!! Average SNR: 25.3 dB at the 99min long reception. Perfect! Wow!
Stephan
@Ager: I don't know exactly, but i think Dream should be able to control the DWT, too. Maybe dream works better with the device?!
Perfect results today.
Simone
Again, reception with no problems at all! Only no programme transmitted between 05:30-6:00.
@ Stephan: thanks, I had forgotten the great Dream. I shall try it as I shall have time.
Hi all.
Pefect signal S9+10db from my start 0519UTC but no Audio from 0530, log stop 0610 UTC .
mitajohn
06-06-2007, 06:42
Hi all,
Another unattended log. Transmission started at 05:00 and ended 06.29. Looking at the log I conclude that if the transmission would started one hour earlier and ended half an hour earlier (ie 04:00 - 06:00) then there would have been better reception results here.
Good reception here this morning. As the log was partly unattended, I noticed the silence around 0543. The jump in the SNR was me switching the AGC to SLOW. Nice time signal at 0600, but that was all the audio I noticed. The transmission ended just before 0630.
maxpower
06-06-2007, 12:25
A little bit lower SNR than yesterday, but still very good reception today.
Perfect decoding apart from two little dips in (silent) audio, which seem to be caused by the transmitter, because i can see them on Diggers log, too.
99,9% correct decoded audio with an average SNR of 21.8 dB
Stephan
mitajohn
07-06-2007, 06:15
Hi all,
Here is a partially unattended log. The transmission started at 04:44 with a weak signal which turned weaker after ~30 mins. Then got weaker and weaker until around 05:30 almost disappeared and finally I stopped the log. The sound outpout was much better than it is assumed looking at the log.
FritzWue
07-06-2007, 06:50
My very first try with the new Elektor IQ SDR. :)
Used no attenuation and only the onboard sw highpass filter.
SNR seems to be a little low compared to what I see from others on previous days.
Must run more tests. :confused:
Hi all.
Good propagation today also.Log start 0540UTC Audio of 0600UTC TX of 0616.
Switched on at 0454 UTC. Just before 05 UTC there was a sign on in German. The first half hour was "Music from Equador" followed by "Land und Leute" after the time signal at 0530 UTC. From just after 0600 there was only the DRM stream with no audio. The station went off the air at 0616.
Very good reception with >99 % CDA.
maxpower
07-06-2007, 07:30
Hello Friedrich!
You're right: Not the best day to start logging HCJB's DRM Tests: Much weaker signal than usual here at my place.
Beginning with about 24 dB Signal went down to 15 dB at 06.17 UTC (End of transmission).
Seems to be that today signal searched it's way more to Switzerland. ;)
I had some "noisy" moments here: 4 little breaks (break is not the right word: it has been only a little bit rumbling) Audio. But overall good 99.72% Audio over the 91min transmission.
Stephan
Good results with low SNR, mode A works great, dropouts caused by changing antenna.
Simone
Brendan1
08-06-2007, 01:12
From Doug at HCJB:
Hi all,
Just a note to let you know that HCJB has decided to continue their
DRM broadcasts to Europe for a few more months. We had such good
reception in Europe from the tests we did last month that we decided
to keep going. Fredric caught our broadcast on 9815 KHz. We broadcast
from 05:00 to 06:00 UTC. The language is German so you might not
understand too much. On the other hand, you can brush up on your
German :)
In case you wanted to know....
Doug
================================================== ====
I haven't been able to receive this broadcast at all here! I thought all the EU based listeners might like to know this.
mitajohn
08-06-2007, 06:06
Hi all,
Surprise ! A nearly excellent result this morning. That's propagation "games"...
A nearly perfect hour here too. But what happened to the SNR?
maxpower
08-06-2007, 07:17
Same here, too. Lower SNR than ususal. Maybe Doug and his colleagues changed the angle of the antenna?
But although: About 16 dB SNR (very stable) and 99.94 % Audio today.
Btw: I searched the HCJB steerable antenna in Google Earth and found it. Wasn't easy! :cool:
If you like to take a look, too, I attach the zipped .kmd file for your google- earth.
Stephan
Hi all,
I just called our transmitter site and they don't know of any changes in the transmissions that would cause such a drop in SNR. We will check it before tomorrows broadcast though just to make sure that someone didn't bump something and change the tuning.
Doug
Perfect decoding but limited SNR.
Simone
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