Having some late starts has its advantages when it comes to LF DXing. This morning I was not needed in the office until 9am which meant some time having a look around the MW band for some US and Canadian stations. Don’t get me wrong I am up with the birds so if there is DX about at 6am then I am there to catch it! The sprogs do not as yet understand what a laying means …

I normally like to check 1010 KHz and 1050 KHz as both are pretty strong to me on the loop, well I was rewarded well this morning, Perseus was showing very strong carriers on all the 10 KHz channels across the MW band.

CFRB and WWZN were like locals to me. Pretty amazing to think that the 1.1 meter ALA330S loop was working that well! It’s not designed for MW DXing as the gain falls off below 2 MHz but even so – the recordings I’ve made this morning show that even at 8.45am they were still very audible. Much more so that the inverted L that I have up which is swamped by locals the moment the sun rises all trace of TADX more or less vanishes, whereas the loop is still going strong. That is one area that the wideband antenna and the Perseus are made for each other – showing the 2 MHz of the LF end of the spectrum at one time in waterfall mode allows you to spot the TADX a mile off.

With this in mind and what it seems a new aspect to my Perseus listening I have decided that father Christmas is bringing me something better for TADX – the ALA100 – this large aperture loop looks ideal for my QTH and would allow some lower frequencies to be DX’ed a little better. The ALA330S is great for UTEs higher up and to some extent the LF bands and the inverted L works very well all over, but the reviews of the ALA100 make it very tempting. I know what I will be doing on the 25th December this year! With the turkey in the oven cooking away I will be running some more RG58/U down the bottom of the garden to my new toy.

The TADX mp3 recordings are below; they were made at 8.43am and 8.45am. Most remarkable from my modest setup considering it was pretty much daylight by then.

CFRB-WINS1010.mp3 (4.58 mb)

WWZN_AM.mp3 (942.49 kb)

73

Not being a huge TADXer I recently had the opportunity to have a few late nights (or is that early mornings) which gave me the time and the band conditions to try some TADX. Going back in time I used to spend many late nights armed with my Kenwood R2000 and shortwave magazine looking for these elusive TA stations which “popped” up for everybody all the time it seemed! From the logs I could see that WINS on 1010 kHz and CJYQ on 930 kHz should be simple catches with my “DX” setup! Back then I knew that you needed an outside aerial and an ATU … That was it! TADX only happened at night and that it needed to be the depth of winter before you would hear anything. Fast forward and with the improvement in receivers, aerials and knowledge the TADX season seems longer and a lot more can be heard – if you spend enough time in headphones replaying that toth identification over and over.

It’s pretty easy with the Internet to get an idea of how well flags, pennants and beverages work for TADX and I must admit I am in awe of some of the logs and recordings I hear from people in QRM/QRN quieter parts of the UK and EU. Ken and David (Ken a big Perseus lover) I salute your logs! A true inspiration; to anyone who wants to try out TADX. And that is me included!

So what have I done then? Armed with my trusty 1.1 meter Wellbrook loop and Perseus I hit the medium wave band in the early hours. A quick scan of the 10 kHz channels in waterfall mode allows you to see the TADX carrier’s in-between the UKs 9 kHz spaced stations. A wondrous sight as they are pretty much inaudible but very visible on the waterfall. A godsend; no doubt to serious TADXers.

I’ve uploaded a few stations which I know to true TADXers are regarded as “easys” but for my 1.1 meter loop I am pretty impressed!

My logs for the night include:

880   WCBS New York
920   CKNX Wingham
1010 WINS New York (very deep fades over the 1/2hr I was listening)
1010 CFRB Toronto
1030 WBZ Boston
1050 WEPN New York
1200 CFGO Ottowa
1320 CJMR Mississauga
1390 WEGP Talk Radio (could have been a local at one point)
1430 WENE Endicott
1430 CHKT Toronto
1470 WLAM Lewiston
1500 WFED Washington
1510 WWZN Boston
1520 WWKB Buffalo
1700 KVNS Brownsville

Have a listen to the mp3’s below and see what you think. Not bad for such a modest setup would you not agree?

1520kHz wwkb.mp3

1010kHz cfrb.mp3

1030kHz wbz.mp3

880kHz wcbs.mp3

1390kHz wegp.mp3

After waiting a while I have decided to take the plunge and purchase a ALA330S magnetic loop antenna for running as the main antenna for Perseus.

Currently I have a 35mtr inverted L up about 40ft at the end and 35ft at the 'L' to the ground then into a RF system MLB. This works very well but the layout of the QTH and the location of the shack means that from time to time in the upper HF bands my own QRM was audible. Perseus makes it very easy to spot rises in the noise level across bands, my Plasma TV (a well known brand) causes all kinds of spikes in 24 MHz when running. So with this in mind a search of the sites with reviews of the ALA330S was conducted and credit card in hand off I went to purchase one!

On arrival the antenna could not be more compact, you get an aluminium loop about 1.1mtrs and the mounting box at the base of the loop if you could say a loop has an up or down; along with a control box (12v power injector I assume) and being in the UK a 240v PSU and short fly lead. By default the loop comes with BNC connectors so that’s +1 for the loop as the Perseus has a BNC input - no need to change the BNC or put an adaptor on the input lead.

For testing I mounted the loop on the shack window sill (which is about 30ft up) in a loft conversion where the 2nd sprogg has now forced me to move into! With this in mind that *everything* I have is on in this room I began to do some testing. The first results were mind blowing and I mean it. I could null 909Khz BBC Radio 5 to remove the side splatter to hear 900Khz and 918Khz! Something the inverted L never allows - I have decent signal levels off the wire and 909Khz is very strong. The loop was amazing!

So I moved lower in frequency to try a couple of tests. First RTE on 252 KHz was found and peaked - then a rotation of the loop to null RTE and leave the other station audible. I was soon hooked on my new found "antenna" power and checked the lower frequencies and found the same effect. I could null from around 80 KHz upwards. This meant that the beacons and Navtex on 490 KHz and 518 KHz could be peaked or a stronger station nulled to allow the signal or signals underneath to be heard. This was very very good on 518 KHz!

As listeners are aware Navtex broadcasts tend to transmit over each other which would not be an issue to the ship(s) that were in local range to the station as they would only hear that one - however DXers have a bit more of an antenna and as a result the weaker stations tend to compete at the same time and normally result in no decoded text. The loop allowed me to null signals so that copy was 100% from the wanted station! LF DXers remember the ALA330S has lower gain at LF and MF than the 1530 or 1530S! So this loop was not even designed to work this low in frequency this well!

Moving to HF you see the 330Ss gain begin to show as Perseus reminds you in bands with high levels of signals by lighting the ADC clip light. Now that is something I saw from time to time on the inverted L but never like this. Anywhere about 4Mhz and I was greeted by the clipping LED and had to employ the attenuator - note only 10db was needed - but it was needed.

Going beyond the 10Mhz region of short wave and the nulling of the loop beings to drop away. You notice a very slight change in signal that's all nothing like LW, MW and the Tropical bands. But at 17Mhz I am lucky? that a PLT device is just audible - this can be nulled out; so maybe the local QRM can be but on signals coming from far off the effect is lost. I am not sure, but I can say it does well very well at HF should you have a signal that is local and causing as PLTs do some QRM.

As the bands have not been very busy of late I cannot say how well the loop performs on an opening but Sunday yielded some DX on 28Mhz which the inverted L could not hear at all - they were lost in the noise - whereas the ALA330S could.

So is it worth £220 YES, and would I buy another or recommend one YES!

As an idea of its performance; below is an image (taken just now) of the true level of signals that it provides.