A site about the radio listening hobby and my activities therein - longwave, mediumwave, shortwave, FM, and television DXing. A site about the radio listening hobby in all its forms, or at least the forms that interest me.

I am also a licenced amateur radio operator, callsign VE3LXL. Information about my amateur radio station is found on my station website.

Thursday 30 June 2011

FM: WERG and CBE-FM. And CBCK

There was a good tropo opening to the southwest this morning, which netted me two more stations for the FM log:
  • WERG 90.5 Erie PA 11:55-12:00 UTC (8 a.m. local time). Very strong signal. Rock music, callsign ID. 2.75 kW.
  • CBE-FM 89.9 Windsor ON 12:00-12:15 UTC. Very weak signal. CBC news on the hour. ID for CBC Radio Two. CBE-FM is the only CBC Radio Two station on this frequency in Ontario. 100 kW.
There was also tropo from the east. I didn't log anything new in that direction but I did hear CBCK, 107.5, the CBC Radio outlet in Kingston, ON with a strong signal at 12:17 UTC.

Overall log count: 347. Toronto log count: 134

Monday 27 June 2011

FM: WFRG

There was a tropo opening towards the east this morning and it gave me another logging of an FM station.
  • WFRG 104.3 MHz Utica NY 12:29-12:33 UTC (8:30 a.m. local time). Poor signal. The Big Frog 104. Country music, news on the half hour from "the WIBX newsroom". 100 kW. Logged before from Clarington ON, but new to Toronto log.
Overall FM log count remains at 345. Toronto log count: 132.

Tuesday 21 June 2011

FM: WMHN, CKNX-FM, and WLLW

Another warm day and with it decent regional tropospheric propagation. Three stations added to the log - two of them first time loggings and the third new to the Toronto log.
  • WMHN 89.3 MHz Webster NY 04:25-04:40 UTC (00:25 local time). Weak signal. Christian broadcaster with show "Unshackled". Identified by comparing to station's webcast at marshillnetwork.org. 1 kW.
  • CKNX-FM 101.7 MHz Wingham ON 11:48-12:02 UTC (07:48 local time). Poor signal. Pop music. Ad for "weilerscleaning.com" which is in Wingham. Popping out from under dominant WLOF. No ID but confirmed by comparing to webcast at 1017theone.ca. Relog but new to Toronto log. 100 kW.
  • WLLW 99.3 MHz Seneca Falls NY 12:07-12:15 UTC. Poor signal. The Bob and Tom Show. ID for "The Wall 99.3" and frequent mentions of the Finger Lakes, including weather for the Finger Lakes. Mentions of NY State towns in ads, including Seneca Falls and Canandaigua. 5 kW.
Overall log: 345. Toronto log: 131.

The purchase of the Sony XDR-F1HD has really paid off. The number of new FM stations I've logged because of it is great. Most of the loggings have been on frequencies that are adjacent to strong dominant stations, meaning they're blocked by interference on my other FM receivers. The Sony's selectivity is very very good. And the new outdoor FM antenna has helped a lot too.

Sunday 19 June 2011

Radio Romania International

One shortwave logging for today: Radio Romania International on 11,955 kHz at 23:28 UTC with programming in Spanish.

FM: CBL-FM-4, WKKY, and CBBP

Another warm summery day with tropo enhancing regional propagation, and another three stations added to the log. Two of these are relogs but are first-time loggings from Toronto:
  • CBL-FM-4 97.1 MHz Owen Sound-Wiarton ON at 12:00 UTC (8:00 a.m. local). CBC Radio One with CBC Radio news popping up briefly over a rock station. Relog, new to Toronto log. 17.5 kW.
  • WKKY 104.7 MHz Geneva OH. 12:35-12:45 UTC. Country music and callsign IDs. Father's Day talk. New. 6 kW.
  • CBBP 103.9 MHz Peterborough ON. 18:55-19:01 UTC. Fair signal. CBC Radio Two with classical music. Received in northeast Scarborough on my Honda car radio, mixing with local CIRR. Relog; new to Toronto log. 17.5 kW.
Toronto log count: 128. Overall FM log count: 343.

Saturday 18 June 2011

FM: CBCM-FM and CJOS-FM

There was enhanced propagation from the Georgian Bay area this morning and this enabled me to add two more stations to the FM log:
  • CBCM-FM 89.7 MHz Midland-Penetanguishene ON 12:30-12:45 UTC (8:30 a.m. local time). CBC Radio One with weather for Ontario and program "Fresh Air". Weak signal. 28 kW.
  • CJOS-FM 92.3 MHz Owen Sound ON 12:48-13:03 UTC. Classic rock show "Flashback". Slogan "92.3 The Dock". Ads for Owen Sound businesses. Fair to good signal. 24 kW.
Overall FM log count: 342. Toronto log count: 125.

Sunday 12 June 2011

CB Channel 6

The only thing to report for today is this. I was tuning around 27 MHz at 16:40 UTC and on 27025 kHz I heard a cacaphony of interference, feedback, and gibberish. What I could make out was in English, in southern U.S. accents, but none of it made much sense to me. This was CB Radio channel 6. Not sure what these guys are trying to communicate when they transmit this sort of stuff.

Friday 10 June 2011

FM: WFHM-FM and WREO

I logged another two new FM stations today:
  • WFHM-FM 95.5 MHz Cleveland OH. 04:35-04:55 UTC (just before 1 a.m. local time). Very poor signal with long fadeouts. Christian rock music. Ads. Cleveland area phone numbers. Verified by comparing to the webcast at www.955thefish.com.
  • WREO 97.1 MHz Ashtabula OH. 11:55-12:06 UTC (@8 a.m. local). Poor signal. Popular music of 70s, 80s, and 90s. IDs as Star 97.1 and with URL of station. ID with callsign and location on the hour, then into news from "the Action 24 newsroom".
Overall FM log count: 340. Toronto FM log count: 123.

Both of these were tropo loggings. Tropo has been decent this season, but I have not yet heard any E-skip propagation this year at all. Strange, that.

Thursday 9 June 2011

FM: CJBC-4-FM

Another tropo logging this morning.
  • CJBC-4-FM 99.3 MHz London ON 11:45-11:56 UTC (07:45 local time). French. Radio-Canada Première Chaîne network. Parallel to CJBC 860 kHz. Weather, talk about Ontario schools. 22.5 kW.
Toronto log count: 121. Overall count: 338.

Wednesday 8 June 2011

FM: WBBS and CJBX

Another day, another two stations added to the FM logs. Both are tropo loggings:
  • WBBS 104.7 Fulton (Syracuse) NY 04:10-04:30 UTC (midnight local time). Fair-poor signal. "B 104.7" - Country music, show "After Midnight". Ads for Syracuse. 50 kW.
  • CJBX 92.7 London ON 11:52-12:10 UTC. Fair-poor signal. "The New Country BX 93". Country music. News on the hour "from our sister statrion 1290 CJBK". 50 kW.
Toronto log count is now 120. Overall log count: 337.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

FM: CHBM and WZXV

I added two more stations to the Toronto and overall FM logs today, although only one is really new. The other is a local Toronto station with a new callsign, and as I've explained before, the logging system I adopted years ago has me counting callsign changes as new stations. This was adopted in the pre-Internet days when we didn't have the resources available to tell the difference between a mere callsign change and two different stations operating from the same city on the same frequency a few years apart. And it's too late to change it now.
  • CHBM 97.3 Toronto ON. 04:50 UTC with excellent signal. Boom 97.3. Local station, formerly CJEZ. Rock music.
  • WZXV 99.7 Palyra NY (south of Rochester). 04:58-05:02 UTC. Good signal. Religious, with show "Sound Words". ID on the hour followed by news. 2.8 kW. Tropo.
Overall log count: 335. Toronto log count: 118.

Saturday 4 June 2011

FM: WLGZ and WKGS

There was tropo coming in from across Lake Ontario this morning, as is often the case during the warm weather months here. And because of it I added two Rochester NY area stations to the log.
  • WLGZ 102.7 MHz Webster NY 13:44-13:50 UTC (9:44-9:50 a.m. local time). Weak signal. Ads for Rochester. ID as "WLGZ" and as "Legends 102.7". Oldies rock music. 6 kW.
  • WKGS 106.7 MHz Irondequoit NY 13:52-14:13 UTC. Fair signal. Kiss FM - playing pop music. 3.5 kW.
Overall FM log count is now 333. Toronto FM log count is 116.

Friday 3 June 2011

FM: WDNY and CBLU

This morning before leaving for work I spent a bit of time tuning the FM band. There was some tropo to the south and north, and I had time to log two new stations before I had to leave.
  • WDNY-FM 93.9 MHz Dansville-Wayland NY 12:10-12:25 UTC. Weak signal. Classic rock, slogan ID "Y93-9". Phone number for station and callsign ID. 2.5 kW.
  • CBLU-FM 94.3 Huntsville ON 12:25-12:30 UTC. Weak signal. CBC Radio One with program "Ontario Morning". 70 kW.
Overal FM log count: 331. Toronto FM log count: 114.