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Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Fri Jun 30, 2017 7:29 am
by CaptainNemo
Thanks Noel for your answer.
Generally speaking I'm interested in whole radio spectrum.
At the moment the scope of my question was (is)
A) 250khz--450khz (NDB)
B) 520kHz NAVTEXT
C) 1500kHz--3000kHz (Coastal Radio)
So to keep thing in a qualitative/semi-quantitative approach -- taking into account there are a lot of "variables" you can't control (noise, propagation, ...) -- maybe you can post (if you have time to waste)
A) how many distinct NDBs did you logged, nearest station (km), farthest station (km)
B) how many distinct Navtext stations did you logged, nearest station (km), farthest station (km)
C) how many distinct coastal station did you logged, nearest station (km), farthest station (km)
with your EF-SWL from January up to now?
Of course I know these 9 numbers are far from a "technical report"... it is just to give the flavor...
it is just a to understand how my DIY random wires experiments
compares with a fine and good quality commercial product.
Thanks in advance.
Gio.

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2017 7:40 pm
by NoelC
I'll be happy to try to capture some data...

I don't know how to decode NDB signals, not having done so before. If you'll let me know what software / decoding to use I'll give it a try. I do see some signals down in the VLF range right now. I'm getting some pretty strong lightning QRN - not surprising for an afternoon in Florida. In this screen grab you can see what signals I'm pulling in between 250 and 450 kHz right now. Doesn't look like all that much, but note the strength of the AM band signals.

Image

Right now I'm not getting anything around 520 kHz, but I have decoded NAVTEX with YaND or fldigi on that frequency before. At the time it was strong and I got a good copy. You can see from the screenshot that I had put it into my memory panel. I'll try to remember to listen in and capture it for you in the near future.

As with NDB, if you'll give me a little more idea what you're looking for in the "Coastal Radio" range I'll look for it. Here's a screen grab of the frequency range that I see right now. Note that several of the "signals" that appear to be showing are aliased local, strong AM band stations, even though as you can see the AGC has the attenuation up a fair bit. Between 2400 and about 2900 kHz I always seem to get a bit of 60Hz QRM, which you can also see.

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For fun, here are groups of screen grabs showing frequency spectra 5 MHz at a time, captured both last night and today. Everything frankly seems pretty dead, but in the interest of accuracy I'm posting them anyway. I can barely pick up WWV on any frequency right now, which is atypical. I'll follow up with more screen grabs when I see the bands get more active.

Night:
Image

Day:
Image

-Noel

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Sat Jul 01, 2017 8:15 pm
by NoelC
OK, at 20:00 UTC Some NAVTEX/SITORB started up at 518 kHz loud and clear...

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-Noel

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2017 10:53 am
by NoelC
Another anecdotal bit of into that implies my antenna is strongest up to about 15 MHz...

I just noticed that most of the stations I've added to my MEM. PANEL over the past 6 months are between roughly 500 kHz and 15 MHz.

-Noel

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 5:40 am
by NoelC
Are these some of those beacons you were talking about?

I don't know how to decode them digitally yet.

Image

-Noel

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 7:29 pm
by NoelC
I got to thinking... The CB band is up near 30 MHz, right? Not that I want to listen to any of that chatter, but I thought I'd tune around that area to see whether I'm receiving anything. Looks like a fair bit, and most CB transmitters aren't too powerful, so I guess the antenna actually is receiving signals at the higher frequencies...

Image

-Noel

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:40 pm
by NoelC
OK, I figured out that MultiPSK can decode DGPS stations. Here are a few grabs (I'm in southeast Florida; the furthest station in this set was from Tampa, I guess). One of the stations is listed only as "station 17". Not sure where that is.

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-Noel

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2017 8:24 am
by CaptainNemo
(Back from a short vacation...)
Thank you very much Noel for sharing these info.
Gio.

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 2:38 am
by NoelC
Got some more distant stations tonight; propagation was apparently better...

07/10/2017 02:28:45
Message type : 6 (GPS null frame)
Station number : 192 (Kensington SC USA 292.0 Khz TXID 778 100bps)
Z-count : 2896 ( 28 mn 57.6 s )
Sequence count : 3
Number of words : 1
Health : 0 (UDRE scale factor=1.0)

07/10/2017 02:30:45
Message type : 9 (GPS partial correction set)
Station number : 18 (Cape Canaveral FL USA 289.0 Khz TXID 809 100bps)
Z-count : 3100 ( 31 mn 0.0 s )
Sequence count : 2
Number of words : 5
Health : 4 (UDRE scale factor=0.2)

07/10/2017 02:34:08
Message type : 9 (GPS partial correction set)
Station number : 136 (Bobo MS USA TXID 297.0 Khz TXID 792 200bps)
Z-count : 3440 ( 34 mn 24.0 s )
Sequence count : 4
Number of words : 5
Health : 3 (UDRE scale factor=0.3)
Sat. ID|SF|UDRE|Pseudorange corr. |Range rate corr.|IOD|CRC
24 |0 |1-4m| -4.10 m | 0.000 m/s |55 |Error
28 |0 |1-4m| -1.08 m | 0.000 m/s |71 |Error
3 |0 |4-8m| -11.44 m | 0.000 m/s |77 |Error

07/10/2017 02:34:53
Message type : 9 (GPS partial correction set)
Station number : 246 (Angleton TX USA 301.0 Khz TXID 828 100bps)
Z-count : 3514 ( 35 mn 8.4 s )
Sequence count : 4
Number of words : 5
Health : 4 (UDRE scale factor=0.2)
Sat. ID|SF|UDRE|Pseudorange corr. |Range rate corr.|IOD|CRC
24 |0 |4-8m| -3.68 m | 0.000 m/s |55 |Error
27 |1 |4-8m| -358.08 m | 0.000 m/s |49 |Error
29 |0 |1-4m| 0.02 m | 0.000 m/s |71 |Error

07/10/2017 02:36:55
Message type : 9 (GPS partial correction set)
Station number : 244 (Tampa FL USA 312.0 Khz TXID 827 200bps)
Z-count : 3720 ( 37 mn 12.0 s )
Sequence count : 5
Number of words : 5
Health : 3 (UDRE scale factor=0.3)
Sat. ID|SF|UDRE|Pseudorange corr. |Range rate corr.|IOD|CRC
19 |0 |1-4m| -0.70 m | 0.000 m/s |44 |Error
16 |0 |1-4m| -0.04 m | 0.000 m/s |62 |Error
18 |0 |>=8m| 1.24 m | 0.000 m/s |180|Error

07/10/2017 02:37:09
Message type : 9 (GPS partial correction set)
Station number : 16
Z-count : 3742 ( 37 mn 25.2 s )
Sequence count : 0
Number of words : 5
Health : 3 (UDRE scale factor=0.3)
Sat. ID|SF|UDRE|Pseudorange corr. |Range rate corr.|IOD|CRC
10 |0 |4-8m| -14.16 m | 0.000 m/s |38 |OK
13 |0 |1-4m| 0.20 m | 0.000 m/s |20 |OK
15 |0 |1-4m| 1.24 m | 0.000 m/s |34 |OK

-Noel

Re: Great experience with PAR Electronics EF-SWL

Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2017 2:50 am
by NoelC
A few more...

07/10/2017 02:40:48
Message type : 25 (Non decoded DGPS message by this soft)
Station number : 537 (Punta Rosca CNR 285.0 Khz TXID 368 100bps)
Z-count : 3184 ( 31 mn 50.4 s )
Sequence count : 1
Number of words : 16
Health : 6 (Transmission not monitored)

07/10/2017 02:43:45
Message type : 6 (GPS null frame)
Station number : 196 (New Bern NC USA 294.0 Khz TXID 771 100bps)
Z-count : 4399 ( 43 mn 59.4 s )
Sequence count : 7
Number of words : 1
Health : 0 (UDRE scale factor=1.0)

07/10/2017 02:49:17
Message type : 9 (GPS partial correction set)
Station number : 6 (Moriches NY USA 293.0 Khz TXID 803 100bps/Gladstone QD AUS 313.0 Khz TXID 706 200bps)
Z-count : 4955 ( 49 mn 33.0 s )
Sequence count : 7
Number of words : 5
Health : 3 (UDRE scale factor=0.3)
Sat. ID|SF|UDRE|Pseudorange corr. |Range rate corr.|IOD|CRC
10 |0 |1-4m| -13.78 m | 0.000 m/s |38 |Error
12 |0 |1-4m| 1.28 m | 0.000 m/s |20 |Error
15 |0 |1-4m| 0.96 m | 0.000 m/s |34 |OK

-Noel