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.

MWDX Loggings 2013-02-21

Oh look…more Cuba…just what we needed.  🙂

First, under my local 590 I could hear classical music.  I had never heard this before and I couldn’t null out local WEZE completely.  I was able to deduce and confirm via webfeed that it was a Cuban – Radio Musical Nacional, a new one for me.  I also logged Rebelde on 620 and 670 for the first time(s).  In addition to Cuba, I picked up CFCO 630 for a Canadian first.

The remarkable highlight of the night?  WELD 690 from Fisher WV came in with an ID jingle followed by Christopher Cross’ “Fly Like The Wind”.   I needed to confirm this but neither the audio feed on their website  nor the feed link in the TuneIn app on the iPhone was working for me.  The station has their own iPhone app so I downloaded it and tuned in to confirm my reception.  This little station from the area of the state by the Virginia and Maryland borders has a night power rating of 14 watts!

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.

MWDX Loggings 2013-02-16

Two new Cuban loggings this evening.  WHAS from Louisville KY was getting clobbered by Radio Revolucion.

SWDX Loggings 2013-02-12

I definitely received Radio Habana on 6165.  Nowhere on their site or any other site is this frequency listed but I heard a solid ID.  Not sure what the situation is…

SWDX Loggings 2013-02-07

I caught a couple of interesting sideband broadcasts just by happenstance.  WLO is is a commercial maritime weather station in Mobile Alabama.  In addition to weather, they also do ship-to-shore communications in the Gulf, the Pacific and other places.  You can see the antenna farm here.   The other catch was “New York Radio” WSY70 which transmits from New Jersey about 70 miles south of New York City.  This is an transatlantic aircraft weather service that is part of the VOLMET system.  You can see the antenna here.

SWDX Loggings 2013-02-04

Just a couple random shortwave loggings this night.  Yet another Rebelde from Cuba (have logged many on MW).  The more interesting logging was Radio Japan’s spanish language service transmitting from French Guyana.