Ultralight DXing - 300 Stations

May was a productive month for ultralight DXing. I reached three milestones I've been working towards:

• 300 stations received.
• 40 stations heard on the "graveyard" (local) channels.
• 6 Canadian provinces logged.

I'm pleased to say that the Ultralight Awards Committee has issued me awards for these three milestones. I'm also pleased to have reached these goals because now I can take a break from ultralight DXing. It has been fun but I need a rest from it!

Here are the latest ultralight loggings:

• 1240 WSKI Montpelier, VT 0802 UTC 04-May-2009 DT-400W
• 1610 CJWI Montreal, QC 0145 UTC 07-May-2009 SRF-59
• 1290 WHIO Dayton, OH 0204 UTC 07-May-2009 SRF-59
• 780 CFDR Halifax, NS 0620 UTC 10-May-2009 DT-400W and E-100
• 1160 WABY Mechanicville, NY 0415 UTC 16-May-2009 DT-400W
• 1260 CKHJ Fredricton, NB 0420 UTC 18-May-2009 E-100
• 1400 WRAK Williamsport, PA 0559 UTC 19-May-2009 DT-400W
• 1400 WBFN Battle Creek, MI 0710 UTC 19-May-2009 DT-400W
• 540 CBK Regina, SK 0502 UTC 20-May-2009 CC-SWP
• 1650 CJRS Montreal, QC 0507 UTC 20-May-2009 CC-SWP

Total ultralight count is now 304. Total Canadian provinces is now 6. And total graveyard frequency stations is now 41. The radios used for these loggings were the Sony SRF-59, the Eton E-100, the Sangean DT-400W, and the new C Crane CCRadio-SWP.

CFDR 780 from Halifax, Nova Scotia yielded province number 5. This was a challenge. I heard country and western music underneath WBBM. Inaudible most of the time, but occasionally it rose up enough to allow me to compare the music with CFDR's webcast at www.780kixx.ca. Every time I checked it for over half an hour the music matched up (the two sounded like they were out of synch, with the webcast lagging quite a bit). I also heard a brief voice announcement once that I couldn't make out, and when I checked the webcast a moment later I heard a 780 KIXX ID in similar cadences. So it seems certain that this is CFDR. Not a new station to the overall log, but this is the first time I've heard CFDR from Ontario. The only other logging I have of this station is from Trinity, Newfoundland in 2007.

Another maritime province station, 1260 CKHJ Fredricton, NB, has the honour of being station number 300. Carries country music and IDs as KHJ Country.

Province number 6 was Saskatchewan, and the station logged for this was 540 CBK SK Regina (CBC Radio One). I've logged this station several times from elsewhere in Ontario, but this is my first logging of it from Toronto. This is also the first new station I heard on my new CCrane CCRadio-SWP, which I bought in February but never used until now. I hadn't used it at night yet, and I took it outside my apartment to give it a spin. CBK was one of the first things I heard. Actually, when I turned on the radio it was on my local CFRB 1010, and as I tuned down from there I heard CBW 990 in Winnipeg coming in. So on a hunch I switched to 540, and there was CBK. I guess the thing works!

And graveyard station number 40 was 1400 WRAK Williamsport, PA.

Recent Ultralight Loggings

Here's the latest batch of loggings of AM stations using ultralight receivers. The radios used here are the Sangean DT-400W, the Sony SRF-59, and the Eton E-100:

• 1450 WMAJ State College, PA 0527 UTC 20-Apr-2009 DT-400W
• 1450 WCTC New Brunswick, NJ 0546 UTC 20-Apr-2009 DT-400W
• 1450 WKIP Poughkeepsie, NY 0838 UTC 20-Apr-2009 DT-400W
• 1450 WTRO Dyersburg, TN 0919 UTC 20-Apr-2009 DT-400W
• 950 WWJ Detroit, MI 0359 UTC 23-Apr-2009 SRF-59
• 1200 WKOX Framingham, MA 0150 UTC 25-Apr-2009 SRF-59
• 1570 WPGM Danville, PA 0229 UTC 02-May-2009 E-100
• 600 CKAT North Bay, ON 0355 UTC 02-May-2009 E-100

Total ultralight count is now 294. Hope to reach 300 soon.

Two of these (WWJ on 950 and CKAT on 600) are stations that I've been trying to log for months because I originally thought they'd be easy catches. Especially WWJ, which is 50 kW and only a few hundred miles from me. They proved to be tough to catch but I've finally logged them.

The four stations on 1450 were all logged from an overnight recording. I've found that's an effective way to DX the local (graveyard) channels as hours can go by between intelligeable IDs, and when they do happen, they're usually weak enough that you have to listen to the ID several times before you can decipher it. With these four, the count of graveyard-channel stations is now 38.