Category Archives: Tropo

Elad FDM-S2 Not Deaf!

During the Whitsun week I tested the Perseus FM+ against the Elad FDM-S2 at the Carcassonne QTH. Now here’s the rub……..I identified a dodgy F female to BNC male adapter. And on testing the FM+/Elad/XDR I found they are all about the same sensitivity on 93.3 RNE Radio Nacional Cataluña from Rococorba – slight edge to the XDR. So I take it back (see previous post 21 April 2015) – the Elad is not deaf on Band II. Leaves me with some egg on my face but I’m happy that the discrepancy between receiving in London and Carcassonne has been resolved.

So why do some dxers find the Elad deaf? Dodgy connectors? Sample variations? Hmmmmm………….

Tropo Enhancement in Carcassonne

Some excellent tropo enhancement in Carcassonne yesterday with 19 Catalan stations making it across the Pyrenees. Logs can be seen here:

http://www.fmlist.org/fm_logmap.php?datum=2014-02-07&omid=3154&band=ALL&target=ALL

I performed the Konrad mod on the Sony XDR I have out here and it is a superb performer with a horizontal Triax FM5 in the clear beaming 150 degrees. I also have a vertical FM5 available at the press of a button – 101.6 MHz in Horizontal brings in France Bleu Roussillon while switching to vertical you have RTL. Interesting to note the over-rated Hepburn maps showed no signs of tropo  for this area – http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html

Tropo in Carcassonne

A bit of tropo in Carcassonne afternoon of 02 October 2013 . Duct was very narrowly focused to the SE across the Med to Sardinia. Video shows how RAI Radio 2 95.3 MHz from Tempio Pausania/Monte Limbara was sounding (and looking) on the Perseus FM+ with Triax FM5 at 125 degrees.

All the stations logged yesterday afternoon can be seen at http://www.fmlist.org/fm_logmap.php?datum=2013-10-02&omid=3154
The Catalan stations are in virtually all the time wheras the Sardinians were tropo enhancement. Interesting to see the Catalan path just to east of where Pyrenees really start and to the west of the Alberes range.,

Incredible Signal Strengths

During yesterday’s tropo lift there were some incredible signal strengths – particularly from Belgian stations. Video below shows how RTBF’s Classic 21 was coming into London like a local.

The tropo was very narrowly defined as can be seen by my log on FMLIST. I did try beaming at 70 degrees but there was no duct to The Netherlands.

http://www.fmlist.org/fm_logmap.php?datum=2013-09-28&omid=2121

 

 

 

Tropo Again in London

Another tropo lift has been under way since yesterday.  The video shows the Perseus FM+ in action with my Triax FM7. You can hear stations from France/Belgium/Germany and Luxembourg as well as UK nationals. The poor RDS performance of the FM+ is clear and the spurs on 87.4 and 87.5 are disgraceful. The only saving grace of the FM+ is its ability to record 1.6 MHz of spectrum.