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.