How not to do it

From time to time its possible to hear bad signals in the amateur bands. Wide SSB signals, overdriven audio. In fact about a week ago I discovered I was getting some RF into my Kenwood MC80 base Mic and have swopped to a hand microphone whilst I get the problem sorted out.
But take a listen to this, far worse than any amateur signal I have ever heard.Its a Broadcast station on the 49 Metre band. I have noticed this awful transmission for a few weeks. It is I believe Radio Cairo, the signal splatters all over the band and is impossible to demodulate. Just to show its not a problem with my old Kenwood R5000, I switch quickly in the video to a "normal" AM signal.

In fact since taking this video I have found that Radio Cairo is supposedly transmitting on 6270, reception was no clearer there but with my R5000 tuned to 6285 you can see how wide and awful their signal is!

Enjoy!

Intermittent

My Trio R1000 receiver is working again! I didn't even take off the covers either. It seems the action of removing it from the shack desk has cured it for now, obviously a dry joint or loose connection then but I will have to wait for the fault to re-occur before I can Investigate.

My laptop is running Winrad nicely now with the loaned Elektor SDR receiver attached. I now have three receivers connected to the Wellbrook loop and it is interesting to compare them.
Findings so far are that the Kenwood R5000 is the best receiver, the R1000 a close second and the Elektor a good way behind these two. Weak signals that are audible on the two old receivers are not present on the SDR. It does however sound very lively on Medium Wave so I will give it a try on that band tonight.

This weekend there are many "Special Event" stations on the Air. I believe it is international lighthouse weekend and many lighthouses around Europe have been activated on the bands. I have worked a few, mainly on 80 and 40 metres but band conditions are not too good. A pity as the weather here is so bad its an ideal day to spend in the shack!

The TS450

I thought I would write a little more about the Kenwood TS450S I recently added to the shack. This rig is a Kenwood, produced I think in the early 1990s and should not be confused with the Yaesu FT450 which is a totally different beast. The TS450 although it does have a limited menu system is controlled in the main from its front panel.

You can see from the photo above that the TS450 is identical in dimensions to the R5000 receiver (the receiver is on the left). The TS450 was bought primarily for use on PSK, WSPR and other data modes. It has a rear connector which is suitable for a data interface and this makes for a neat setup.

From time to time I have also been using the rig on SSB and  it seems to work very well. The front panel power meter appears pretty accurate, I have checked it against an external meter and that makes it very easy to set the rig to the QRP levels required for modes like WSPR.

 I have found the TS450 to be almost as good a shortwave receiver as the R5000. The Am filter gives a nice clear sound from broadcast stations. The only major difference is sensitivity on medium wave is well down on the R5000 but under 500Khz it picks back up so this set would be OK for LF listening.

All in all I am pleased with this little rig.