RADIO-MONITORING STATION
DXER'S EQUIPMENT.
This section is destined to the equipment that can need an enthusiast of radio-monitoring hobby: receivers, antennas, amplifiers, tuners, etc. Many bobbyists enjoy doing a "minimalist DXing", exploring the radio bands of a portable radio receiver maybe helping only for a simple external antenna or recording device. But many others develop a true passion for experiment with communications receivers, new antenna designs, decoders and computer automatization; mounting your own "radio intercept station" or "radio-monitoring station" similar to a "Ham Station" of any radio-amateur enthusiast. You comments and contributions for this section are welcome to .
Check out what we can find in a complete «DXers' Station»:
RADIO RECEIVER: The "heart" of any DXer's station. There are many and varied types: from small portable to communication tabletop receivers; receivers that only cover AM/FM brocast band to «widebands» scanners; old "valves" radios to modern computer-controlled receivers. All kinds are useful for DXing, but is required a good sensitivity. Popular manufacturers brands are Kendwood, Icom, Japan Radio, Sony, Sangean, Grundic, WinRadio, TenTec, Phillips, Tonomac, etc.
ANTENNAS: Nothing improves your reception more than a good antenna. Oddly many newcomers to the radio hobbies will spend large amounts of money on a good receiver, and then insult it with a poor antenna. Sure, the quality of the receiver can make up for some problems, but a good antenna will improve reception of most receivers quite nicely.
In 1988, Radio Canada International published a pamphlet about SW antennas called "Antenna Handbook". This is a great illustrated and easy-to-understand antenna guide for beginners, that's reason I reproduce it in two parts:
- Antenna HB (1): Introduction to antennas.
- Antenna HB (2): Construction of diverse antennas.
Others useful devices:
ANTENNA TUNERS: Sometimes called antenna matcher, this device can be placed between the antenna and the receiver to «match» the impedance of the antenna the receiver's impedance.
Proper matching is important. It's particularly noticeable on weak signals which can be boosted to levels significantly higher than the background noise. Antenna tunners usually consist of a tapped coil of wire, tuned by two variable capacitors but they come in different versions.
PREAMPLIFIER: this device amplify the radio-signal received by the antenna. But it amplify the noise and not desired signals too.
- PRESELECTORS: the aim is to filter out all the signals operating on the radio dial except the one selected on the receiver dial. That is needed because even fairly short SW antennas receive very strong signals from all parts of the spectrum and these are all presented to the front end of the receiver. Too much signal is often as bad as too little signal.
- AUDIO FILTERS: This device improve the reception quality filtering noise and interferences in the audio signal between receiver and speaker (or headphones).
CASSETTE RECORDER: Very useful to record the listenings, specially when the reception quality is poor. Some stations accept reception reports recorded in cassette tapes.
OTHERS SECTIONS:
DX SOFTWARE: a list of some computer's programs useful for DXers and radio enthusiast: logs managers, audio editors and recorders, Media players, radio decoders, etc.
DX PROJECTS: In this section I published some diagrams to built
antennas, tuners and others devices.
I wait your collaboration for this section to my e-mail.
GRUPO "TECNODX": I open this Yahoo's Group to complement the spanish version of this section. It's a forum to talk about technical topics on radio monitoring and DXing for spanish-speakers: news on receivers, antennas experiences, learning about radio waves propagation, etc and all related with DXing (except radio logs and broadcast schendules). Remember, main language are spanish but not-spanish speakers are welcome too. Suscribe from the Yahoo! Grupos or writing to .
