[Lowfer] K3SIW & DK7FC Partial Capture

[Dexter McIntyre W4DEX]

Michael Sapp wrote:
> Last night I
> had partial visual waterfall copies of Stefan on 137.610
>   
Stefan's signal started out fairly good here but went into the noise 
about the same time:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15095569/w4dex/2200meters/20feb13-0004.gif

Just bits detected the rest of the night.
> Interesting to note that Euro 1 on 183 kHz was full Q5 audio and moving the S meter
LFBC reception here was probably the best I've seen all winter.  153 kHz 
Germany was partial copy, 162 kHz France was near local BC quality, 171 
kHz Morocco, was local BC quality.  Morocco is usually the strongest of 
the LWBC stations I receive.  I could tell the German station on 177 kHz 
was there but weak.  183 kHz France was a bit better than the 162 kHz 
signal and 189 kHz Iceland was detectable.  Last week Iceland was 
booming in which doesn't happen often here.  I then started reception on 
136 kHz so I didn't venture up in the NDB band looking for BC stations 
like I normally do.

All the LFBC receptions were with an old Allied 2515 receiver I bought 
at a hamfest over 20 years ago.  It was dead, looked sad covered in 
nicotine and was cheap so I brought it home and stored it away.  Like so 
much cheap stuff I've bought and stored I had forgot about it until 
recently seeing it in a cabinet while looking for something else.  I 
found the major problem was a dead LO transistor and all the IF 
transformers were way out of tune.  Also most of the band coils were 
unaligned.  I suspect when the radio stopped receiving someone started 
adjusting coils.  I remember doing that many years ago :)

So I have been surprised how well this old receiver works.  The 
selectivity on the AM broadcast band is great.  There's a 1 KW station 
on 630 kHz that's 60 miles from my location I like to listen to during 
the day.  Good selectivity is needed to keep the digital garbage on 620 
kHz from a 5 KW 610 kHz station that is 29 miles away.  This old Allied 
does that a bit better than the stock R75. 

The cabinet and knobs cleaned up well.  The bottom had some rust but 
most of it buffed out with fine steel wool.  The chassis and circuit 
boards still look poor with all the nicotine tar.  But the radio is 
working so well I'm reluctant to try cleaning the inside.

Dex