Thursday 12 February 2009

DF Receiver

Our meeting on the 11th February went well with Tony's presentation of the 160/80M DF receiver and the multiple choice paper and prizes. I'm sure I won't forget what MES stands for...
Miniature Edison Screw (type of cap on electric bulb)... DOH!

If you are interested in obtaining one of the DF receivers and boosting club funds get in touch with Tony and he will take your order - g7dgw (at) shares.uk.net

There were some questions about data modes and RTTY. If you run QRP or are a foundation licence you may find using data the easiest way of working DX, I have worked JA on 10Watts on RTTY!! You should enable to work the world using PSK31. Here are some useful links and downloads...

  • If you would like to try demodulating some of those weird sounds you hear on the HF bands I found MultiPSK is the best package. You can download it here -

  • I won't go into this in too much detail as there is a presentation on the site. But you will see that once installed there in't much this can't decode. Well not HF DRM..
So when do we get a DRM decoder for the DF receiver Tony?? ;o)

  • I have had good results running Olivia using MultiPSK, you can hear Olivia on 14.105 - 14.108 Mhz and on 3.5825 . Olivia is a very resillient mode enabling communication over low signal paths or where there are hight levels of interference. More information can be found at -

  • Although Olivia works on RTTY my preference for this mode is the dedicated RTTY package MMTTY written by JE3HHT - Makoto Mori. RTTY is a much older mode derived from the era of mechanical teleprinters. The transmission doesn't include any error correction but its very common on the amateur bands and works okay most of the time. If you want to have a go at monitoring or working others on RTTY you can download the program here -

  • So how can you tell what each mode sounds like? Have a look/listen here -

The next meeting is in two weeks on the 26th February.

73 and good DX Rex & Tony


3 comments:

Nick said...

HI Tony and Rex et All

I've just subscribed to the blog (at last) its good to hear what is goingon. I'm currently in the Dominican Republic and next stop is Cuba.Since leaving the Canaries 've had a problem with my Set. Each time i try to transmit the set turns it self off! I have some stray crrent connected to the earth on the boat and i think that is the problem - when it is sorted out Hopefully i can contact you.

73

Nick

Nick said...

ps

I used to sail with an ex Navy when i was younger and he had a DF which we used to navigate all over Ireland with.

SHARES Radio & Electronics Club said...

Hello Nick,
Okay on the sailing you lucky...
Maybe put 4 or five coils in your coax feeder (if you have coax) as a choke. Also try running the set at 50 watts?
73 from a chilly Surbiton G8UBJ