MWDX Loggings 2013-02-05

I had very good signals from the midwest this night.  Its always good to catch new loggings.  CHIN from Toronto and CKDO from further up the 401 in Oshawa were both new.  Montreal was forgiving and let CHHA through as well.  I also got another Cuban ‘rebelde’ on 1620….as if there weren’t already enough of them :-)~~

There were also some signals that I had logged before with different calls.  I got CBEF on its new frequency of 1550 – formerly logged as CBE.  Also Miami came in on 1700 with WJCC – formerly logged as WAFN.  I had already received two out of Iowa so I expected KBGG from Des Moines to make an appearance however Miami dominated 1700.

NDB – Non-Directional Beacon OW 397kHz – Stoughton MA USA

Location: 42.119598, -71.128304

City: Stoughton, MA USA

Freq: 397 kHz

Call: OW

Power: <25 Watts

Associated Airport: OWD

Today I visited the transmission site of non-directional beacon OW in Stoughton MA.  I knew I was going to be in the area so I allocated a little extra time for this nerd-venture.

The antenna on the left with the “top hat” is the NDB.  It sends out a transmission on 397 kHz consisting of the repeating morse code of the NDB’s identification call.  In this case it is sending  “OW” (dash dash dash, dot dash dash).  Navigational equipment on a plane receives signals from NDB’s and uses them to triangulate location.  Back in the day pilots did this manually with a directional antenna at their control.

The v-shaped antenna on the right is a separate navigational aide co-located at the site called an “outer marker”.  It sends a signal on 75 mHz straight up which is received by a plane notifying that it is in direct line for runway approach.

Here is a YouTube video of the audio transmission from OW.

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!!

LWDX Loggings 2013-01-30

Up until today I did not have a receiver that covered 290-510kHz.  Since these are my first loggings in this range, some are simply local beacons that I have never heard before. Although not technically distance listening, they are listed here anyway.

The noteworthy loggings are beacons from Canada.  YMW bounced down all the way from Maniwaki Quebec – about 68m/108km north of Ottawa.  That’s a total distance of about 360m/580km!  The other logging was ML from La Malbaie Quebec which is northeast of Quebec City on the St Lawrence.  Oddly enough, the total distance is about the same!

LWDX Loggings 2013-01-27

A got a couple of new LW loggings.  Just when I think I’ve run out of things to receive on my little Sangean portable, I get surprised.

France Inter (FF, confirmed via webstream) came in on 164 kHz.  I know the station is listed at 162 kHz and sites like MWLIST report no offset  however the audio seemed way more on-channel at 164.  My radio lacks the precision to really measure this though.  Also nabbed a beacon that is located about 30 miles away.

MWDX Loggings 2013-01-27

I logged a few good new ones.  I finally logged Cuba on 530.  I know for 99% of DX’ers that’s a no-brainer.  However with CIAO, TIS and RVCI (before hurricane transmitter damage), IDing on that frequency is a bit more complicated.  I also logged a Cuban on 600 kHz which was a decent feat for me as the splatter from local 590 is generally intense.  The other major accomplishment was XENQ from about 70 miles NE of Mexico City!  This is my second mexican logging ever!  WFIL was new for me as well. Typically WGAN dominates that frequency only to rarely allow WHYN in.

MWDX Loggings 2013-01-26

Canadian domination was last night’s theme.  There were some first time loggings too!  CFMB, CJWI and CJLO were all new!  I spent a brief time around 19:15 local time on 800 khz and then much more time later that night.

MWDX Loggings 2013-01-24

This marathon length mediumwave session netted me five new loggings!  WURA 920 from Quantico VA was pretty clear for such small night signal.  Format was SS/Latin with a TOH ID in english as well.  WELI and WPRX are smaller signals as well but the distances arn’t that impressive.  Getting Radio Rebelde way up on 1180 was new to me because typically WHAM is impenetrable.  I closed the session with a new logging out of Cape Breton – CJCB!

MWDX Loggings 2013-01-23

This was interesting night.  In addition to the usual suspects, I had some great virgin loggings!  The conditions were very favorable for signals in the Carribean and Mexico to make their way northward.

I lost my mexican virginity!  I logged Mexico for the first time with TDN’s Estadio programming on XEX 730 from Mexico City.  Once CKAC was directionally nulled, XEX’s quality was very good with long periods of no fading.  This was a first for me with a portable radio this far north.

I also logged a new Cuban.  Radio Rebelde on 710kHz was crushing WOR which I’ve never experienced before. Not sure which signal I was receiving (Marti? Chambas?).  Their TOH ID uses a bad 1980’s sounding keyboard trumpet sound.

It should also be noted that there were a couple other interesting UNID spanish signals.  On 730kHz, there was another signal battling both CKAC and XEX.  There was also another interesting spanish broadcast on 730kHz.  I classify both of these signals as emanating from countries other than the United States.  Since my spanish skills are non-existent, this deduction is based on format and presention – no commercials, ID’s, tone etc.   This is no surprise based on how well stations toward the equator were coming in all night.

LWDX Loggings 2013-01-22

First off – yesterday I posted about a faint logging of BBC Radio 4 on 198khz.  As you can read in that post, the logging could be open to debate depending on how hardcore of a dx’er you are.  Well after last night, there’s no need for debate.  BBC Radio 4 came in stronger and clearer and I was able to listen to the morning news for a bit.

In fact it was a really good night for northern Europe.  In addition to the BBC, I logged Europe1 on 183kHz for the first time!  It was a fair signal that was constant with hardly any fading.  This is a french language station aimed at France from a transmitter in Germany.  There is an extensive website about the transmitter here.