Il giorno 28 febbraio 2016, alle 11:00 UTC, è stato trasmesso il secondo episodio del programma DigiDx sulla frequenza 6070kHz.
Anche per questa occasione è stato utilizzato il modo digitale MFSK32 e sono state trasmesse notizie sul mondo del radioascolto.
La stazione ha voluto ringraziare gli ascoltatori del primo episodio con una QSL spedita via etere, contenente i nomi di tutti coloro che hanno inviato un rapporto di ascolto … è presente anche il mio 😉 !!!
Chi si fosse perso il primo episodio può consultare l’articolo: DigiDx, trasmissione in MFSK32 sui 6070kHz, contenente le news e l’immagine trasmessa.
Ed ecco l’immagine trasmessa in questo secondo episodio:
e questo il testo:
Channel 292
info@channel292.de
www.channel292.de
tne e0ao*
Before RSID: <<2016-02-28T11:00Z MFSK-32 @ 6070000+1503>>
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Welcome
Hello and welcome to the second episode of DigiDX, a review of the latest shortwave and DX new·g=e Channel 2§DZgktttu-Oe. The first broadcast of this episode is Sunday 28th February at 1100, to find
out when we are next on the air visit http://www.digidx.uk. Hopefully after several more test broadcasts we will have a fixed time weekly or every two weeks.
As well as news, this broadcast includes your letters and reception reports and a review of the Kaito KA108 radio courtesy of Thomas Witherspoon of SWling.com.
Please send any reception reports, comments or suggested stories to reports@digidx.uk
News Headlines:
BBC to Launch Korean News Service to N. Korea Q3 2016
Special station for Uganda Elections
China Radio International “financial difficulty”?
Upcoming relays and special broadcasts
BBC to Launch Korean News Service to N. Korea Q3 2016 – Report from KBS World (South Korea)
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will launch a shortwave radio service to North Korea this fall.
A BBC insider said the British government has given final approval to the public broadcascw plan to broadcast news to North Korea and has even earmarked a budget.
The 30-minute daily broadcast in the Korean language will include news from the two Koreas, China and Japan. BBC will also run a website with a listen again section.
The source said that a team of ten has already begun preparing for the launch of the service and that BBC will hire a radio anchor and reporter proficient in Korean.
The news program will be produced at the BBC headquarters in London and transmitted via shortwave from locations including Singapore. Many North Korean residents are known to own a shortwave receiver.
BBC is also considering broadcasting its Korean news service in South Korea as well.
Report from http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_In_detail.htm?No=116870
Ugandan Diaspora P10 Radio Station continues
As mentioned as o shssibility in the last edition of DigiDX, the Ugandan Election Station run by the P10 groÃnPontinue daily on 15405kHz. This broadcast from 1630 to 1700 is scheduled until the B15 season
finishes on 26th March 2016.
In a message to Glenn Hauser and posted on the DXLD Yahoo Group, Michael Puetz
Sales Consultant in the Business Unit Radio at MEDIA BROADCAST GmbH confirmed that the Ugandan Diaspora P10 Radio Station has used broadcast facilities in Germany and France. The 15405kHz daily
transmission uses the Issoudun, France site.
CRI “financial difficulty”?
Several reports have come in from SWLs over the last few months where having sent a reception report to China Radio International they have been told that no QSL cards can be send out due to “financial
difficulty”. CRI have in the past been very quick at sending QSL cards, magazines and other items to listeners so this is a big ee= Y ure from the station which dominates the shortwave bands. Hopefully this is
not a sign of things to come at CRI with shortwave broadcasts in future also being dropped due to “financial difficulty”. DigiDX will bring any more news on this that comes out of CRI over the next few
months.
Upcoming relays and special broadcasts:
VOA Radiogram will be on air at the following times and frequencies over each weekend, the transmission is normally in MFSK32 but also includes other digital modes.
VOA Radiogram transmission schedule
(all days and times UTC):
Sat 0930-1000 5865 kHz
Sat 1600-1630 17580 kHz
Sun 0230-0300 5745 kHz
Sun 1930-2000 15670 kHz
All via the Edward R. Murrow transmitting station in North Carolina.
For full details of the programme to be transmitted and the modes used go to http://voaradiogram.net/
Mighty KBC continue on 6040kHz from Nauan every Sunday from 0000 to 0300 UTC. The station have spoke about their financial problems recently, Eric van Willegen is looking for new sponsors and advertiser
s for the station and can contacted via www.kbcradio.eu and www.facebook.com/TheMightyKbc. MightyKBC also include a a minute of MFSK32 Sunday at about 0220 UTC to decode.
Gilles Létourneau who runs the excellent OfficialSWLchannel channel on Youtube has another of his weekly radio related Hangouts this week with his Shortwave Radio Hangout this week. To watch the
hangout at 2100UTC on Saturday 5th March or any of his videos go to https://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialSWLchannel
ITALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION – IBC, will broadcast again as follows: – Saturday 27 February 22.00-02.00 UTC on 6970 kHz USB TO THE AMERICAS
Sunday 28 February
08.00-12.00 UTC on 6970 kHz AM TO EUROPE
16.00-21.00 UTC on 6970 kHz USB TO ASIA AND OCEANIA
During the broadcasts they will broadcast some old transmissions in English, Italian and Farsi as well as new transmissions in English and Italian, including a mailbox (La posta degli ascoltatori) and “Italian
Shortwave Panorama” co-produced with Marconi Radio International.
Please spread the news and send your reception reports to ibc@europe.com .
Review of the Kaito KA108 by Thomas Witherspoon:
Recently, I learned about a new portable by Kaito Electronics: the Kaito KA108. While there are a number of compact portables on the market, the KA108 really caught my attention because it features a
built-in digital recorder. Which is to say, you can listen to a station on shortwave, press a button, and the KA108 will record it to a MicroSD card. Pretty cool, right? It’s also the first shortwave portable I’ve
ever known that offers a scheduling feature for recordings.
In the past there have been a few shortwave portables with digital recording capabilities, but most of these have been plagued with poor performance. So this time, I had my fingers crossed that Kaito might
have produced a winner.
Having used the KA108 for several days now, my initial review follows, with a focus on shortwave as well as mediumwave performance.
User’s Manual
The KA108 actually ships with two manuals: a quick start reference guide and a proper highly-detailed user’s manual.
The manual is written in English and is quite descriptive, despite a number of spelling and grammar errors that should have been caught before going to print. It’s obvious that Kaito didn’t hire a native English
speaker/professional editor to check their copy. (I don’t understand why a company would go to the expense to produce a manual without having it professionally edited…Kaito, please take note!) Fortunatel
y, these spelling and grammar errors, while annoying, can be overlooked and/or deciphered by most English-speaking readers.
Tuning
On the plus side, the KA108 sports a full number keypad for direct frequency entry. This makes tuning to a known frequency a very simple process––with one exception (see below). There’s also a tuning
wheel on the right side of th eradio.
Using the keypad requires some getting used to, however. Most of us––myself included––are familiar with traditional numeric keypads, but the KA108 inexplicably changes the game plan: as you can see
above, the “0” button is located on the lower right side of the main keypad. So it took me a few hours of use before I could reliably key in a frequency without looking at the radio.
In my humble opinion, Kaito should have moved the number pad up one row, positioned the “ATS” button to the lowest row on the left, the “0” button to its immediate right, and completed the bottom
row with the “Rewind/Play/Fast-Forward” buttons.
Another annoyance––and this is a big one for me–-is that the KA108 has extended muting between frequency changes. It makes band-scanning a frustrating experience. I made a short video demonstrating
this:
Audio
The KA108 is designed around a very innovative small speaker with an acoustic chamber that significantly boosts bass response. This is the same speaker used in the Melson S8 that I reviewed some time ago.
The audio fidelity is excellent on FM, and when playing back a full-fidelity digital recording. Unfortunately, when tuned to the AM broadcast (mediumwave) band or to the shortwave bands, the KA108 falls
short; the bass response actually becomes an impediment to listening.
In a nutshell: the KA108 audio has issues. A further explanation of the KA108’s audio is described in the performance notes that follow.
Shortwave Performance
Kaito-KA-108
I’m quite disappointed with the KA108’s shortwave performance.
Almost immediately after unboxing the KA108, I inserted a battery, walked outdoors, and tuned through the 31 meter band.
Oth Teµ couple of blow-torch North American private broadcasters, I heard…nothing. It was during this fir[@and scan that I realized how annoying the tuning mute could be. And the audio, meanwhile,
sounded muffled and garbled: I assumed that there was some local interference, and simply turned the radio off, hoping the following day would produce a change for the better.
The following day, I spent a great deal of time with the KA108 on the air, and compared it with the Eton Traveller III and the Tecsun PL-310ET––both capable, similarly-priced compact DSP radios.
Sure enough, when compared with other portables, the KA108’s reception is, sadly, rather poor.
At first I thought it might be an issue with receiver sensitivity, but the KA108 could receive almost every station the Traveller III and the PL-310ET could receive. But the audio was so muffled on the KA108,
even with the use of headphones, that spoken word was hard to interpret. Additionally, the over-active AGC (Automatic Gain Control) meant that audio levels were all over the place. That combination makes
for fatiguing listening.
Over the next few days with the KA108 on shortwave, I drew a few conclusions.
After recognizing that the audio fidelity did not improve significantly when using headphones, I realized that at least three factors are having a negative impact on shortwave audio, as follows:
The default AM bandwidth is too narrow for broadcasts, and cannot be adjusted
The AGC setting is over-active and causes audio pumping; it, too, cannot be adjusted
Portions of the shortwave bands are polluted by internally-generated noise/interference
This combination makes for sloppy shortwave performance.
MP3/WAV Playback and recording
There are some redeeming virtues with the KA108, however. Here’s a positive: digital playback with the KA108 is fantastic. I’ve played a wide variety of audio files on the KA108, and am very impressed with
its on-board MP3/WAV player. While audio characteristics unfortunately cannot be adjusted––i., there’s no equalization––I find the default audio settings well-balanced for both music and voice.
Recording directly from shortwave and mediumwave is also quite good. I believe its on-board recorder is perhaps the best I’ve tried in recent portables; it’s a marked improvement over that of the Kaito KA29,
for example. It seems to capture the receiver’s produced audio well, with only a slight, high-pitched “hiss” injected in the audio, though this is not a major distraction.
Sadly the main distraction is that the recorder is recording audio, as I’ve outlined above, from a sub-par receiver.
Still, as an MP3/WAV player, it’s brilliant, and boasts excellent audio.
Summary
Invariably, all radios have strengths and weaknesses; here’s a list of my notes from the moment I put the KA108 on the air:
Pros:
Great portable size
Clear back-lit display
Numerous recording and playback features
Audwe6nalO or headphoncIyg, considering the small speaker with acoustic chamber provides more bass response and volume than comparable portables (see con)
Excellent FM reception
Excellent MP3/WAV playback with well-balanced audio fidelity
Recorder schedule function
Alarms and sleep timers easy to use
Dedicated MicroSD and USB slots on top of chassis
Cons:
Mediocre sensitivity on SW and MW
Internally-generated noise on MW and SW
Audio (nth»gndti½Ceaker) is:
too bass-heavy, lacks treble on MW/SW
garbled and mushy on MW/SW
“hot” and often splatters/distorts when signals are strong
Tuning
extended mute between frequency changes
no “scan to next station” function (only ATS)
Any local RFI garbles reception even further on SW/MW
No SSB (in fairness, few radios in this price class have SSB)
Antenna swivel to the front somewhat blocked by the radio’s chassis
Conclusion
I really wanted the Kaito KA108 to be a strong––or even average––performer. Why? Because, like many of you, I would love to have a capable shortwave/mediumwave radio with built-in digital recording and
playback.
For the full review including Thomas’s view on the MW and FM performance please go to http://goo.gl/jteIgg
Reception Reports
Thank you for all the reception reports sentttpCor our first episode, in total there were about 50 reports from all over Europe and the US and Canada via remote receivers in Twente, Sweden and Spain.
Andreja Kostic from Kiel in Germany sent a nice detailed report for the 1700UTC broadcast:
“Hello,
I’ve listened to the broadcast from Kiel, in Northern Germany, on the border between CIRAF zones 18 and 28NW. Precise locator is JO54bi.
My receiver is a Sangean ATS 505 radio and ANT-60 7 meter long reel antenna placed indoors. I’m in a ground floor of a concrete building, surrounded on all sides with even more concrete buildings, so it’s a
bad location to listen to radio.
Normally, I cannot receive Channel 292 broadcasts and in rare cases when I do, it’s almost unusable without use of adaptive filtering for noise suppression.
During entirety of this reception, I was receiving interference from China Radio International. I think I’ve had some interference between two carries.
In general, when FL-DIGI reported SNR od around -8 dB, I’ve had usable reception. At around -11, it would turn into gibberish.
Text was mostly readable, but there are sections which were unusable. First few seconds of reception were lost due to mistuning, since for some reason the center of AF was on 1452 Hz instead on expected
1500 Hz. Entire received text is attached.
Reception of image at the end was extremely poor. Only in few places is it possible to see what was transmitted.”
Thanks Andreja, hopefully on this second broadcast we are centered on 1500Hz. The interference from CRI and later from Vatican Radio was a good test of the robustness of the MFSK32 mode.
Don Wycoff from from Connecticut, USA used his Android phone to recieve the broadcast via the University of Twente SDR. Which app did you use Don?
From Florida Al Holt tried to tune in over the air but ended up listening to a remote receiver in Sweden:
“I tuned in for the inaugural broadcast of DigiDx Report on Feb 2, 2016 at my location in northern Florida but was not able to receive the signal over the air, but was able to use a SDR located in Sweden to
receive and decode the broadcast from about 2030 to 2050 UTC.
I’m located in Alachua, Florida which is a rural/suburban area in the north central part of the state. We’re not too far off the I-75 Interstate roadway. My receiving setup consists of a Kenwood R-1000 receiver
and a 44 meter longwire antenna mounted about 7.6 meters above ground level. It’s orientation favors reception to the NE and SW.
As you know, the frequency 6070 kHz is used by CFRX in Canada and when I tried tuning in that frequency on the Kenwood, I was just barely receiving them but there was no sound of your MFSK32
modulation.
I was able to connect to a KiwiSDR in Fernebo, Sweden ( http://kiwisdr.sk3w.se:8073 ) and listen to the broadcast. Signal strength at location was fair with their S-Meter registering between S5 and S7. I
would say, SINPO of 34343 during the time period”
Al also sent the image received via email and then continued –
“I also tried the WebSDR at Univ. of Twente but it was not receiving a signal.
I’m a regular listener to VOA Radiogram and it’s good to see another European digital mode broadcaster. As far as ideas for program information it might be popular to solicit station photos from users and
retransmit. The text information you provided in this broadcast provided good reading and at the moment, I can’t think of other stories to present.
I hope you are able to continue your project!”
