AM and FM DX

Strong signals from Coffs this morning.

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Strong localised signals tonight, from Port Macquarie down to about Nowra. KIIS at 70 dbuv.

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Rockhampton into Brisbane tonight including commercials.

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I’ve done a @Radiohead and am staying right in the Melbourne CBD…unfortunately the hotel room, despite being off street level a bit, is a wall of noise. I can barely get Ballarat and Geelong on the TEF.

Lol, I usually stay at Southbank when I’m there, better reception! :laughing:

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Did the XPT this time as I’ve never done it- so staying near Spencer St- and yes I did go from Bungendore-Goulburn on the train as well :slight_smile:

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Did you try any DXing on the train? I did a quick bit on my trip up to QLD one time when there was no one sitting next to me and reception was (as expected) awful!

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I’ve been trying to improve the software side of my DXing setup. So with the assistance of AI, I’ve built a custom interface for FM-DX Webserver that controls all four of my receivers and coordinates their DX searching. Some screenshots…

This is the main page, which allows switching between the audio streams and antennas on all my receivers seamlessly, as opposed to having to go to a different URL, also showing TX information from Signal and a list of TXs on that frequency:

Where there’s no RDS received, it also gives a prediction of the likely station being received based on that specific antenna’s direction:

It keeps long-term spectrum scan logs:

You can show just specific frequencies you’re interested in:

Or zoom into a specific frequency - here we can see the signal strength on 98.7 for the past week, showing tropo on the Friday and Saturday:

Noise floor analysis:

Live view of which antenna is giving the best signal for each frequency:

Detailed RDS decoding, including traffic info:

It also auto-records all DX RDS decodes, so you can play them back later:

View signal strength over several antennas and time for a particular station:

Dashboard view of all RDS signals received, including debug info - identifying things like stations broadcasting nulls in the PS , invalid PI codes or incorrect time:

Automatic audio recording of DX - which works both via RDS detection, or signal strength jumps over the baseline average captured through the spectrum scans:

This is the 91.9 recording. Sounds like perhaps someone’s car transmitter using AI to read news headlines: (coincidentally, headlines about AI :sweat_smile:)

Auto detection of where observed RDS doesn’t match with what’s listed on @ozbark’s RDS spreadsheet or Signal’s internal database: (e.g. it noted ABC ILLA on the RDS spreadsheet instead of ABC ILLW as broadcast - probably not something I would’ve otherwise noticed [I’ve since fixed this])

DX stats:

Mapping of DX reception:

Logging of RDS RT:

Distribution of RDS groups:

FM-DX Webserver listener stats:

Customisable Telegram alerts:

Alerts also include audio recordings so you can listen right away:

Ability to optimise scanning for SpE or meteor reception:

Server availability monitoring/alerts:

Automatic learning of best IF bandwidths, offsets and antennas to get the best RDS decodes:

Detailed scanning configuration to optimise for your particular setup/conditions:

Other features are still to come, like RadioDNS support, EQ display and links to station streams for DX verification.

All this works together with FM-DX Webserver, so the public still has access to the usual interface also.

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No, didn’t bother as the train was fairly full and yes, pretty much a Faraday cage in there.

All this software development work of yours is absolutely awesome & an absolute dxers dream come true.

I would however make one suggestion. There is widespread usage of dBf for signal & noise references by many of the average TEF & webserver users. The dBm reference is far more common in the technical industry. I suspect the reason why some many webserver users & the TEF users use the dBf reference is because this is the ‘default’ measurement setting on the TEF6686 radios. If you take a look at much of the software for the SDR radios available you will dBm used far more commonly or something similar.

It would be my suggestion to use dBm instead or provide the user with a choice of dBm or dBf or dBuV for the numerous screen signal measurement displays, if you haven’t already done so that is :slight_smile:

Perhaps dBm could be more difficult to generate charts for given that it is a -ve (negative) displayed number ?

Anyway, keep up the AWESOME work - thank you you so much.

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Thanks :slight_smile: .

Yes, that should be easy to implement. I’ll add a persistent universal measurement unit toggle once my Claude quota resets.

In the meantime, I’ve enabled view access to the FM module of Signal for select users. If you don’t have access and want access, let me know. Ozbark - let me know your username on Signal (if you have one) so that I can give you access.

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Just landed in Cat Country (Portarlington) briefly.

TEF managed huge signals from Swan Hill just up from the wharf as well as As from 97.3 Griffith. Hamilton ABCs and 101.3 Horsham also good.

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Welcome to Melbourne!

Yes can confim tropo around tonight, at home getting all the usual western stuff incl Mt Gambier, Hamilton, Portland, Warnambool ect

Buxton getting Horsham and Nhill (ABC 95.7 and 3WM translator on 92.9)

Big signals from Ballarat too in Buxton

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Welcome to the beautiful Bellarine.

Funnily enough, I always struggled with Western Victoria signals when down there as they were mostly cochanneled with NE Tasmania and those ones almost always won out.

My sister lives at the top of the hill in Leopold and if I could ever bring myself to do it (and have the Tech know-how to install it) I reckon it’d be a great place for a DX webserver node - largely unobstructed views in most directions. Though with that you have too many local signals to worry about I guess.

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That’s my challenge too, I think there are about 30 of the standard 100 FM frequencies that I’ve only ever received one station on, mostly local, Central Coast and Sydney stations.

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Same here in Melbourne as in Geelong, especially in summer, Launceston is almost in every day. On rare occasions West Vic can still boom in though (strong enough to overpower joy). Usually lines up with strong Mt Gambier reception.

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Portarlington faces north/west so Lonny can be nulled. There was a characteristic Bass Strait inversion haze so I knew tropo was a possibility.

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2BAC 100.9 was off-air for a bit. Sky Racing Bathurst was coming in quite well during the brief outage on the western facing aerials.

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Getting a first time catch in Melbourne tonight, 89.1 ABC RN from Wagga Wagga, peaking near RDS level.

In Buxton it has RDS, plus Orange is right over the Melbourne stations.

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I am surprised you haven’t logged that one before given that 3MFM can be nulled, unlike the other Ulandra co-channels. Should have tried the TEF out at Oakleigh before, but now back at Spencer St.

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