The past several years, I've done more FM than AM DX'ing. For FM E skip, I record multiple channels 24/7 ( also using TR ). So if there's an opening that lasts, say 3 hours, and I'm running 8 receivers, that's 24 hours of recordings. And often skip openings are spotty and can go longer. There were a couple of openings last year where I ended up with 50+ hours, and they came as part of a multi-day period of skip. It can take weeks to go through that. With an SDR, that would never happen, so I'd rather not have recordings that I can't get to sitting there and tempting me.
For AM, however, if I get to a point where the 2010's are no longer maintainable, I'll have to make some kind of a decision. Russ Edmunds 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia Grid FN20id <[email protected]> AM: Modified Sony ICF 2010's barefoot FM: Yamaha T-80 & T-85, each w/ Conrad RDS Decoder; Onkyo T-450RDS; Tecsun PL-310 ( 2); modified Sony ICF2010 w/APS9B @ 15'; Grundig G8 w/whip; modified Sony ICF2010 w/whip -------------------------------------------- On Sat, 1/11/14, Les Rayburn <[email protected]> wrote: Subject: Re: [NRC-AM] Reviewing SDR DX To: "Russ Edmunds" <[email protected]>, "[email protected]" <[email protected]>, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, January 11, 2014, 12:44 PM Best advice I've got so far was an off-list reply that said: Spent less time writing to, and reading responses from e-mail lists devoted to your hobbies. :-) Russ's is a close second. SDR's may simply be too much of a good thing. I remember a few years ago when I used "Total Recorder" to record TOH ID's on a single channel. I reviewed these during my half hour long commute to work in the morning, and again while driving home in the evening. Even then, I often couldn't get through an entire night's recordings. SDR's have just magnified the problem. Plus my SDR-IQ is a great, but not quite the performer that my old Drake R8-B was. And it's difficult to use an SDR with a phaser, because of the small latency issues. It makes it difficult to adjust for the best null. 73, Les N1LF On 1/11/2014 11:18 AM, Russ Edmunds wrote: > So far, despite the obvious temptation, my strategy has been to resist getting an SDR. > > :-} > > Russ Edmunds > 15 mi NNW of Philadelphia > Grid FN20id > <[email protected]> > > AM: Modified Sony ICF 2010's barefoot > FM: Yamaha T-80 & T-85, each w/ Conrad RDS Decoder; > Onkyo T-450RDS; Tecsun PL-310 ( 2); > modified Sony ICF2010 w/APS9B @ 15'; > Grundig G8 w/whip; modified Sony ICF2010 w/whip > > -------------------------------------------- > On Sat, 1/11/14, Les Rayburn <[email protected]> wrote: > > Subject: [NRC-AM] Reviewing SDR DX > To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Date: Saturday, January 11, 2014, 12:02 PM > I'm curious to hear how other DX'ers > tackle "data management" when it > comes to the use of I/Q recordings from SDR receivers. My > SDR-IQ allows > me to record 192 KHz of bandwidth, and using HDSDR software, > I've > started recording TOH periods overnight. I record about four > minutes per > hour, starting at local sunset and continuing through > sunrise. > This provides a total of 19 MW channels to be reviewed per > hour, > Recording for 4 minutes over a ten hour period, leaves me > with 760 > minutes of data to be reviewed daily. Some channels are > nearly > impossible to find new ones on, so these can be reviewed > quickly, > checking only for unusual conditions. But it's still a > massive amount of > data. > Since starting this just a few days ago, I've already > deleted days of > recordings, unchecked, simply because there is no practical > way to > review it all. Perseus owners would have an even bigger > issue, due to > the much wider bandwidth that can be recorded. The entire AM > band for > instance! > What strategies have other DX'ers found successful for > managing the > data? I've considered recording just the sunrise/sunset > periods, or > waiting for a night with unusual conditions to record TOH ID > periods > only, or even simply recording for a week in mid-winter, > then taking my > sweet time to review them during the summer. > -- > -- > 73, > Les Rayburn, N1LF > 121 Mayfair Park > Maylene, AL 35114 > EM63nf > 6M VUCC #1712 > AMSAT #38965 > Grid Bandits #222 > Southeastern VHF Society > Central States VHF Society Life Member > Six Club #2484 > Active on 6 Meters thru 1296, 10GHz & Light > _______________________________________________ > The NRC AM mailing list > Questions? [email protected] > Antenna Pattern Book Now Shipping > AM Radio Log is now shipping! > FM Atlas 21st Edition Close Out Prices! > Details at http://www.nrcdxas.org > _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
