FM – DAB+: my logblog!

Word of DX-ing

October 20 2024

Posted on by FMDABDXer
OIRT

MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km
69.68 1016 BLR BR Pershy Kanal/OIRT, Zhlobin/RTPS (ul. Marksa 1a) (GO) // stream 1739km
71.03 1016 BLR BR Kanal Kultura/OIRT, Zhlobin/RTPS (ul. Marksa 1a) (GO) // stream 1739km
71.45 1017 BLR BR Pershy Kanal/OIRT, Bobruysk/RTPS Yasny Les (MA) // stream 1692km
69.44 1018 BLR BR Radio Brest/OIRT, Slonim/RTPS Novaja Strazha (HR) // stream 1433km
68.45 1019 BLR BR Gomel FM/OIRT, Zhlobin/RTPS (ul. Marksa 1a) (GO) // stream 1739km
67.76 1020 BLR BR Pershy Kanal/OIRT, Gomel/RTPS (ul. Pushkina, 6) (GO) // stream 1808km
71.81 1021 BLR BR Radio Stalitsa/OIRT, Zhlobin/RTPS (ul. Marksa 1a) (GO) 1739km
73.01 1021 BLR BR Radio Stalitsa/OIRT, Bobruysk/RTPS Yasny Les (MA) 1692km
71.69 1023 BLR BR Kanal Kultura/OIRT, Osipovichi/RTPS (MA) // stream 1648km
68.57 1025 BLR BR Radio Stalitsa/OIRT, Soligorsk/RTPS Dubei (MI) 1567km
68.96 1025 BLR BR Kanal Kultura/OIRT, Bobruysk/RTPS Yasny Les (MA) // stream 1692km
66.20 1027 BLR BR Radio Stalitsa/OIRT, Gomel/RTPS (ul. Pushkina, 6) (GO) 1808km
66.02 1028 BLR BR Radio Mogilev/OIRT, Bobruysk/RTPS Yasny Les (MA) // stream 1692km
70.28 1033 BLR BR Radio Stalitsa/OIRT, Smetanichi/RTPS (GO) 1641km
70.79 1035 BLR BR Pershy Kanal/OIRT, Berezino (Berazino)/ARTPS (MI) // stream 1666km
73.19 1036 BLR BR Radio Stalitsa/OIRT, Vasilevichi/RTPS Zashchebye (GO) 1737km
69.26 1041 BLR BR Kanal Kultura/OIRT, Gomel/RTPS (ul. Pushkina, 6) (GO) // stream 1808km
69.11 1043 BLR BR Radio Stalitsa/OIRT, Bragin/RTPS (GO) 1765km
68.30 1045 BLR BR Kanal Kultura/OIRT, Bragin/RTPS (GO) // stream 1765km
67.10 1046 BLR BR Kanal Kultura/OIRT, Pinsk/RTPS Posenichi (BR) // stream 1475km
67.22 1046 BLR BR Pershy Kanal/OIRT, Smetanichi/RTPS (GO) // stream 1641km
66.98 1047 BLR BR Gomel FM/OIRT, Gomel/RTPS (ul. Pushkina, 6) (GO) // stream 1808km
66.44 1048 BLR BR Gomel FM/OIRT, Smetanichi/RTPS (GO) // stream 1641km
69.92 1056 BLR BR Gomel FM/OIRT, Bragin/RTPS (GO) // stream 1765km
68.00 1102 BLR BR Kanal Kultura/OIRT, Smetanichi/RTPS (GO) // stream 1641km
67.88 1103 BLR BR Radio Stalitsa/OIRT, Pinsk/RTPS Posenichi (BR) // stream 1475km
67.37 1104 BLR BR Pershy Kanal/OIRT, Bragin/RTPS (GO) // stream 1765km
66.32 1106 BLR BR Pershy Kanal/OIRT, Pinsk/RTPS Posenichi (BR) // stream 1475km
69.08 1158 BLR BR Radio Brest/OIRT, Pinsk/RTPS Posenichi (BR) // stream 1475km
69.68 1158 BLR BR Radio Brest/OIRT, Brest/RTPS Rakitnitsa (BR) // stream 1334km

Map

MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km
92.40 1259 F France Musique, Lyon/Mont Pilat (42) 623km
100.40 1425 D Radio Regenbogen, Hornisgrinde/SWR (bw ) 365km

Map

October 17 2024

Posted on by FMDABDXer

MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km
93.80 1109 E Radiolé, Mijas (AND-MA) ID PI logged: E238 1763km
87.60 1110 E Canal Sur Radio, Málaga/Santo Pitar (AND-MA) PI logged: E332 PS logged: CANALSUR MALAGA__ 1732km
89.10 1110 E Onda Cero, Algeciras/El Alamillo (AND-CA) PI logged: E588 PS logged: ONDACERO 1843km
90.50 1110 E JAMMFM, Mijas (AND-MA) PI logged: 98AA 1763km
90.80 1110 E Onda Cero, Mijas (AND-MA) PI reg logged: E4EE 1763km
91.60 1110 E Radio Andalucía Información, Mijas (AND-MA) PI logged: E333 PS logged: R_____ 1763km
91.90 1110 E SER, Vélez-Málaga (AND-MA) PI logged: BAD3 1726km
95.20 1110 MRC SNRT Quran, Goulmima (8) Very tentative – Quran 2287km
88.90 1111 E Talk Radio Europe, Mijas (AND-MA) very weak 1763km
89.20 1111 MRC MFM Casa, Béni-Mellal/Tazerkounte (5) PI logged: 1283 PS logged: MFM_ 2286km
92.10 1111 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Settat/Regraga (6) or Khmis Oulad Ayad? PI logged: 1201 2242km
93.50 1111 MRC Radio 2M, Oujda/Meghrez (2) PI logged: 1005 1889km
94.40 1111 MRC Hit Radio, Marrakech/Oukaïmeden (7) PI logged: 1118 PS logged: HITRADIO 2432km
95.50 1111 MRC SNRT Chaîne Inter, Chefchaouen (1) Presumed location PI logged: 1202 PS logged: SNRT-INT 1942km
96.00 1111 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Casablanca/Merchiche (6) PI logged: 1201 PS logged: SNRT-Nat 2191km
87.90 1112 MRC SNRT Chaîne Inter, Rabat/Zaer (4) PI logged: 1202 2116km
91.60 1112 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Kénitra/Mehdia (4) PI logged: 1201 PS logged: SNRT-Nat 2075km
92.90 1112 MRC SNRT Chaîne Inter, Béni-Mellal/Tazerkounte (5) PI logged: 1202 PS logged: SNRT-Int 2286km
93.40 1112 MRC SNRT Chaîne Inter, Boukhouali (Taourirt) (2) or Aghbalou NKerdous PI logged: 1202 PS logged: SNRT-Int 1944km
94.00 1112 MRC Aswat, Béni-Mellal/Tazerkounte (5) PI logged: 1116 PS logged: ASWAT___ 2286km
94.20 1112 MRC SNRT Quran, Rabat/Zaer (4) PI logged: 1204 PS logged: COR-MED6 2116km
95.00 1112 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al Amazighia, Tanger/Cap Spartel (1) PI logged: 1203 1892km
95.30 1112 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al Amazighia, Casablanca/Merchiche (6) PI logged: 1203 PS logged: SNRT-Amz 2191km
89.80 1113 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Oujda/Meghrez (2) PI logged: 1201 PS logged: SNRT-Nat 1889km
90.60 1113 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Tétouan/Hafa Safa (1) Tentative location PI logged: 1201 1904km
89.80 1114 E COPE, Ceuta/San Roque (CEU-CE) PI logged: E045 PS logged: COPE____ CEUTA__ 1863km

COPE, Ceuta/San Roque


94.00 1114 MRC Radio Plus, Casablanca/Aïn Chock (6) PI logged: 1387 PS logged: US_ 2184km
95.70 1114 MRC Aswat, Rabat/Zaer (4) PI logged: 1116 PS logged: ASWAT 2116km
88.50 1115 MRC SNRT Chaîne Inter, Kénitra/Mehdia (4) PI logged: 1202 PS logged: SNRT-Int 2075km
90.00 1115 MRC SNRT Chaîne Inter, Casablanca/Merchiche (6) PI logged: 1202 PS logged: SNRT-Int 2191km
91.00 1115 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Rabat/Zaer (4) PI logged: 1201 PS logged: SNRT-Nat 2116km
94.50 1115 E RNE Radio Clásica, Jerez de la Frontera/San Cristóbal (AND-CA) PI logged: E212 1815km
95.10 1115 MRC SNRT Chaîne Inter, Meknès/Jebel Zerhoune (3) Presumed location PI logged: 1202 PS logged: SNRT-Int 2059km
95.50 1115 MRC SNRT Radio Régionale de Marrakech, Essaouira/Jbel Lahdid (7) PI logged: 1901 2437km
89.40 1116 MRC Medradio, Khouribga (5) PI logged: 125B PS logged: MEDRADIO 2225km
92.60 1117 GIB Radio Gibraltar, O’Hara’s Battery (gib) People in Gibraltar ID PI logged: A201 1838km

Radio Gibraltar, O'Hara's Battery

94.30 1117 MRC Chada FM, Tanger/Cap Spartel (1) PI logged: 1259 PS logged: CHADA_FM 1892km
95.00 1117 E SER, Arcos de la Frontera (AND-CA) PI logged: E950 PS logged: SER_95.0 1790km
91.50 1118 E Canal Sur Radio, Prado del Rey/Cerro del Verdugo (AND-CA) PI logged: E332 1778km
95.30 1118 MRC Médi 1, Tanger/Cap Spartel (1) PI logged: 1281 PS logged: MEDI_1__ 1892km
96.40 1118 MRC Hit Radio, Tanger/Nouinech (1) PI logged: 1118 1885km
93.00 1119 E Radio María, Barbate (AND-CA) PI logged: E1CC PS logged: R_MARIA_ 1851km
95.60 1119 MRC SNRT Chaîne Inter, El Jadida/Sidi Bounouara (6) Presumed location PI logged: 1202 PS logged: SNRT-Int 2248km
91.80 1121 MRC Hit Radio, Ben Slimane/El Hajiba=Jbel Al Hjiba (6) PI logged: 1118 PS logged: HITRADIO 2160km
89.80 1122 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Talâat N’Yakoub (7) PI logged: 1201 PS logged: SNRT-Nat 2464km
90.20 1122 MRC Medradio, Rabat/Zaer (4) PI logged: 125B PS logged: MEDRADIO 2116km
92.70 1122 E SER, Vejer de la Frontera (AND-CA) PI logged: E418 1847km
88.50 1124 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, El Jadida/Sidi Bounouara (6) PI logged: 1201 PS logged: SNRT-Nat 2248km
89.20 1125 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Chefchaouen (1) PI logged: 1201 1942km
89.70 1125 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al Amazighia, Marrakech (7) PI logged: 1203 PS logged: ______mz 2393km
92.00 1126 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Takati Soufra (8) PI logged: 1201 PS logged: SNRT-Nat 2183km

Map

October 16 2024

Posted on by FMDABDXer

MHz UTC ITU Program + Location Details Remarks km
88.50 1838 POR Rádio Clube de Arganil, Arganil / Serra da Aveleira (coi) PI logged: 84E7 1556km
89.50 1838 POR TSF Rádio Notícias, Lisboa/Monsanto (lis) PI logged: 8343 PS logged: T_S_F_ 1743km

TSF Rádio Notícias, Lisboa/Monsanto

91.40 1838 POR Iris FM, Benavente / Samora Correia – Rua dos Operários Agrícolas (san) PI logged: 801B 1709km
91.60 1838 POR Cidade FM, Lisboa/Monsanto (lis) PI logged: 844C 1743km
92.40 1838 POR Mega Hits, Lisboa/Monsanto (lis) 1743km
87.60 1839 POR RDS, Seixal (set) PI logged: 8040 PS logged: RDS_ 1751km
89.50 1839 POR TSF Rádio Notícias, Lisboa/Monsanto (lis) PI logged: 8343 1743km
93.90 1841 POR RTP Antena 2, Fundão/Serra da Gardunha (cab) PI logged: 8202 PS logged: ANTENA_2 1535km
94.40 1842 POR RTP Antena 2, Lisboa/Monsanto (lis) PI logged: 8202 PS logged: ANTENA_2 1743km
95.20 1842 POR RTP Antena 2, Serra do Arestal (avo) // 93.9 1517km

Map

October 15 2024 – Qt-DAB-6.X update

Posted on by FMDABDXer

Jan Van Katwijk has updated Qt-DAB-6.X.
You can download the new Qt-DAB and the manual on Jan’s Github releases page.
Jan Van Katwijk appreciates your comments and feedback on his Qt-DAB Github issues page.

What’s new in the October 15 2024 update?

  1. The TII threshold setting now has a minimum setting of 3 preventing a TII decoding loop.
  2. The logger has been updated. Once the logger box is ticked the setting is retained and Qt will continue logging the next time you fire it up.
    The continuous log file can be found in C:\Users\XXX\Qt-DAB-files.
  3. You can easily access the Qt-DAB-files by using the button at the top of the Main Widget.
October 15 2024 update

October 11 2024 – Qt-DAB-6.X update

Posted on by FMDABDXer

Today Jan Van Katwijk released an updated version of Qt-DAB-6.X.
You can download the new Qt-DAB and the updated manual on Jan’s Github releases page.
Jan Van Katwijk appreciates your comments and feedback on his Qt-DAB Github issues page.

What’s new in today’s update?
In the Configuration and control widget a new spinbox can be found in which the TII decoding threshold can be set. The lower the value the more false positive TII codes will be generated. The default setting is 4.

I also noticed when using the updated Qt-DAB and a RTL SDR V4 dongle and setting the TII spinbox to 0, Qt completely crashed. The only way to get it working again was unplugging the RTL SDR, restarting Qt-DAB with another device and then setting the threshold to a higher value.
After changing the device back to RTL SDR the problem was solved.
In the October 12 update the minimum setting is 3, preventing the user to start a TII decoding loop.

New TII spinbox

In the Configuration and control widget the user can now set the audio handler i.e. PORTAUDIO or QT_AUDIO.
The change will be effective after a Qt-DAB restart.
With QT_AUDIO there’s a volume slider on the right hand side of the Main widget.

Qt_DAB update with new audio handler

September 23 2024 – Qt-DAB-6.X update

Posted on by FMDABDXer

In the September 18 Qt-DAB update unidentified TII codes were shown, but not logged.
Today Jan Van Katwijk updated Qt-DAB and codes not matching with the database entries are now saved in the tii-files.txt log which can be found in the
C:\Users\XXX\Qt-DAB-files folder.
(Linux: the file is in the tmp directory in the subdirectory Qt_DAB-files.)
Data in this file are NOT deleted after a session.
The tii-files.txt file will get bigger and bigger and the user will have to manually delete it if it becomes too large.
Mind you TII codes are only logged in the DX mode.

You can download the update Qt-DAB on Jan’s Github releases page.
Jan Van Katwijk appreciates your comments and feedback on his Qt-DAB Github issues page.

Qt-DAB unid TII codes

September 22 2024 – AbracaDABra 2.5.92 (RC)

Posted on by FMDABDXer

A few days ago Petr Kopecký released AbracaDABra 2.5.92 (RC) with some new features.
I’ve been using AbracaDABra for quite a while mainly for casual listening while doing other stuff on my computer.
AbracaDABra is easy to use and in my view not really a DAB DX tool like QIRX or Qt-DAB.
But this has changed with version 2.5.90 and up!
You can download AbracaDABra from Petr’s Github release page.
AbracaDABra is great with a RTL SDR stick. You can also use Airspy, Soapy SDR or RTL_tcp.

What’s new in 2.5.92?
° Audio can be (un)muted via the tray icon.
° Ensemble info can be exported in a .csv file.

Starting with 2.5.90 (beta) great features like a map and TII decoding have been added.

  • Via the settings (1) (3 dots) and the TII tab you can add your location (3) and import data from the fmlist. Do check the ‘Show spectrum plot’. Activate the map and spectrum plot (2) via the three dots and TII decoder.
  • At the top left of the map (4) all TII info can be seen and sorted. Clicking a line will highlight this code on the map (6) and vice versa! Highlighting a TII at the top left or on the map will activate an info box (7) at the bottom right of the map. Unknown TII codes are shown too.
  • An info box at the top right (5) of the map shows Ensemble, ECC, EID and the channel.

MIND YOU: the TII and map features only work in expert mode (Settings–>Others).

AbracaDABra 2.5.92 (RC)

September 21 2024 – DAB preamp

Posted on by FMDABDXer

With great Indian summer weather and some time to spend on the hobby today some modifications were made.

My Körner 15.11 performs excellently, especially after the maintenance I did last June.
A few weeks ago I had a look at some old mails from Peter Körner in which he pointed out the 15.11 coax balun shouldn’t touch the boom directly as this could influence performance negatively.
So I made sure this was fixed, but admittedly I couldn’t find much difference in the 15.11 performance.
Then again I guess this fix won’t hurt performance anyway.

Balun free from boom

Next step was installing a new preamp for the stacked FUBA DAT 307 DAB antennas.
I’ve been using the RTLSDR Wideband LNA for quite some time and with good results.
Then again I was pointed at the TGN-Technology ULNA3018 DAB MK V DAB preamplifier which doesn’t use BIAS-T but an external power inserter.

ULNA3018 MK V preamplifier
ULNA3018 MK V with case

When doing these small upgrades the antenna mast was lowered to almost ground level.
I did some comparing of DAB signal strengths on very local strong muxes with very stable signal levels.
The new ULNA3018 MK V did slightly better than the good old RTLSDR LNA, but only slightly.
So I was rather pleasantly surprised by the performance of this cheap RTLSDR Wideband LNA.
With the mast up again the brand new ULNA3018 MKV does well with strong overall signal levels.

Körner 15.11 and FUBA DAB antennas with new preamp.