LWDX Loggings 2013-03-28

Atmospheric conditions were in my favor for longwave broadcasts coming from southern Europe and northern Africa.  I logged Medi1 transmitting from Nador Morocco on 171kHz for the first time!  Content was ethnic music, language was arabic.  Confirmed via webcast.  The signal was very listenable and above the noise level.  Radio1 on 183kHz was also very strong at the time.

LWDX Loggings 2013-03-06

I just logged another new NAVTEX!  Bermuda!  Approximate distance is 780m/1255km over open ocean.

At this point there are only two or three more navtex signals that I can hope to receive…. Thundar Bay ON, Goose Bay Labrador NL and the super rare possibility of Greenland, Iqaulit NWT (seasonal).  I think the Antilles and New Orleans are out of the question…. but we shall see.

LWDX Loggings 2013-03-05

I logged two new NAVTEX’s!  First one is from inland Canada… Prescott Ontario.  Distance over land is approximately 270m/435km.  The second is from Miami… approximate distance is 1265m/2035km over the ocean.

LWDX Loggings 2013-03-03

I have never logged this very loud and local beacon before.  There is no way humanly possible I could have missed this.  I’m going to assume that it has been off the air since I began logging beacons after New Year’s.  It’s there now…

LWDX NAVTEX Loggings 2013-02-21

I snagged the regional FF language NAVTEX out of Fundy (St John) New Brunswick.

The most exciting NAVTEX broadcast received so far…

This morning 22-feb-2013 around 05:00 local (10:00 UTC) I received the most exciting NAVTEX broadcast so far….. a ship taking on water!   I mean….that isn’t something one should celebrate… but it was still kind of cool!

Apparently the ship is called the Megan-Marie and at one point it was about 85 miles east of Nantucket island taking on water.  A link to the news story is here.

LWDX Loggings 2013-02-20

Two brand new NAVTEX loggings!  Portsmouth VA confirmed with ID and my first regional language NAVTEX on 490 kHz from Quebec.  The FF broadcast on 490kHz was identical to the national broadcast on 518kHz from Riviere-Au-Renard.

I also logged my first 600 meter experimental station.  WE2xGR/1 is not far (10m/15km) so its not really a DX.  Also, I dont know the exact frequency because of the equpment I’m using however many sources on the internet put it at 506.3 kHz.   I’m hoping to catch more of these stations as time goes on.  More info on these stations available here.

LWDX Loggings 2013-02-19

I caught a new regional beacon. Distance on this one is about 16m/26km.

LWDX NAVTEX Loggings 2013-02-17

First off……what is NAVTEX?

NAVTEX (navigational telex) is a radio transmitted telex data signal that, when received by special equipment, is translated into text and either printed or displayed.  Its purpose is to provide a marine forecast for boats on the open sea.  All over the globe, these text forecasts are provided in english on 518kHz in  sideband (SSB) mode.  To the naked ear, these data streams sound like this.  Stations are grouped together geographically and cover between 200-300 nautical miles from their location.  They also transmit on an alternating schedule so each area forecast has a chance to be received.  Broadcasts seem to last anywhere between 2 and 25 minutes depending on how much information needs to be disseminated.  Now that we have that out of the way….

Yesterday I received my Tecsun-PL660 today which is the first radio I’ve ever had that covered 518kHz and had SSB modes for LW/MW.  This is the first time I’ve been able to DX and decode NAVTEX transmissions!  I then downloaded Black Cat System’s NAVTEX decoder for the iPhone.  The two work great together – hold the iPhone up to a headphone speaker about two feet away from the radio (phone causes interference when close) and the phone will display the text being transmitted.  Nerdgasm!

I first decoded the local transmission from Camp Edwards, Cape Cod MA.  The transmitter is about 60 miles away so it’s not really DX.  It was more of a practice run to get acquainted with the decoder app and the radio.  Later that night I went into DX mode.  Here is what I found!!  Be sure to check out the full texts!

There was one faint unidentified broadcast that mentions the Caribbean and Puerto Rico.  Also i received a broadcast that I could hear but was unable to do any decoding on.  Based on the time it came on the air, it probably was Goose Bay Labrador.  I will target this one in the near future.

LWDX Loggings 2013-02-01

I scored a couple new Canadian beacons as well as a semi-local regional.  QI on 206kHz came across the ocean from Yarmouth Nova Scotia with good signal strength. Distance from transmitter to radio is about 270m/435km.  ZV on 273kHz from Moisie Quebec (serving airport YZV Sept-Iles) was weak but consistant.  The distance on that catch was about 590m/950km!!