Transmission1

hi,does anyone still do dx,ing of band 2,anyone still actually still doing this,if so what gear you using and what results are you getting.taking delivery of a 6 element band 2 beam this week,which will be going on a rotator,see what I can here,hooked up to two sony st500,s and a sony st700,heres hoping,should be fun,just another part of the hobby.although I know aint got long to play around wi this due band 2 being phased out due to dab.cheers,mark...

I can't see FM being phased out in the near to middle future, the government abandoned the 2018 switchover date last year and the most recent figures suggest only 23% of listeners use DAB.

ah ok,cheers for that bit of interesting news,must have passed me by that one,not been keeping up to date wi whats happening,really should.so looks like still a few more yrs to play around with it then,thanks,mark...

I use an Elad Fdm s2 and a dipole attached to the railings of my balcony. I also have a Degen 1103 modified which actually outperforms the Elad for sensitivity. I have my dipole polarised horizontally for German and Scandanavian tropo dx but still pick up strong Dutch station's on a daily basis. I'm not sure about a UK switch off date but don't really care as it is continental signals I'm after.

I also have a Kenwood 6040 for backup which has also been modified. I rarely use it though even though it is the best dx machine I have in regards to sensitivity. I just hope Scandanavia continues to broadcast on band 2 for a while yet. Anyway what dx have you received so far? The SpE season has been non existent.

hi,antenna not up as yet,so no receiving at present,the 6 ele beam will be mounted horizontal,just waiting get the mast and rotator up.im more interested in rx uk stations rather than European/continental,not to say I wont have a listen out for them,just more interested in receiving band 2 uk stations. I did do this many yrs back,receiving europen stations frequently,but been away from hobby for a while so just getting started again.by the way,how does the kenwood 6040 perform,and what mods have been done to it..cheers,mark..

The Kenwood is more sensitive than the Sony XDR F1,if the signal is there it can hear it. Its selectivity modified allows use of normal and narrow mode being able to seperate from very strong locals by 200khz. For example the most powerful local is Heart on 102.4mhz. Unfortunatley 102.3 and 5 suffers from adjacent splatter but 102.2 and 6 is clear for dx. The mods done can be googled as it is the standard Kenwood mod. A friend did it for me as I am not very technical.

The important thing about this KT-6040 is that it has sockets fitted for all 8 ceramic filter positions. If you don't like the current brew of filters then you can just take the lid off and plug in different bandwidth filters. No soldering, easy!

The current filters are something like:
Wide = 4 x 150kHz
Normal = 2x 150kHz + 1 x 110kHz + 1 x 80kHz
Narrow = 3 x 110kHz + 3 x 80kHz
I can't remember exactly what I last put in it!

Best wishes, John.

Sorry, forgot to say:
The KT-6040 also has the capacitor mod on the tuning knob, shaft encoder. This is to stop the frequency jumping and maintain smooth tuning as the encoder becomes worn with use.

Best wishes, John.

Thanks for posting the info.

grafter wrote:I can't see FM being phased out in the near to middle future, the government abandoned the 2018 switchover date last year and the most recent figures suggest only 23% of listeners use DAB.

Most recent figures are 36.6%, but the biggest independent broadcaster, Bauer Media, claim 49.1 of their listeners tune in on DAB, so it's edging closer... slowly.

My prediction that streaming will replace broadcasting is showing tentative signs of reality. Ford and VW both predict that car radios as we know them will soon die to be replaced with connectivity, and any audio will be streamed in. It won't be universal for decades, but I predict more than 50% of listening will be by streaming in a decade.

That's going to take a quantum leap in cellular coverage in some parts of the country for that to become reality, probably involving a rethink on the infrastructure too allowing seamless roaming between domestic networks.

Absolutely, but with 4G the concept is at least now feasible. If major manufacturers have stated that's the direction they are going then it'll become ubiquitous, and the rate of take up will be a lot faster than DAB.

Im using it now, I have DAB in my car TBH its all or nothing with DAB when you lose the signal its gone altogether and I dont think the quality of some stations are as good as they said they would be due to costs, the only reason I fitted it was for some of the stations like absolute 80's and rock etc although if these were on FM that would be my prefered choice, we dont get absolute 70s up my way so I plug my mobile into the aux socket on my car stereo and stream it,I use GiffGaff for my unlimited internet, watch films and stuff its a great service especially if you want all these stations without buying a DAB set up.

An android device in the car is the way to go now with a screen and sim slot.