Running Using Batteries

Some excellent and simple advice on how to really improve reception on a portable receiver: run the radio using batteries.

New York Radio, 3485 kHz

New York Radio, 3485 kHz, New York City, 00:30 to 00:38 UTC in English, in SSB mode. Aviation weather for eastern and central U.S. cities: Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Detroit, Boston, etc. Relog.

Digital TV: CICA-DT

CICA is the local Toronto TVO station. Today is the day they switched over from broadcasting in analog to digital. Logged them this morning at 1204-1215 UTC (8 a.m. local) with children's programming. Not DX and not a new station, but a new addition to the digital TV station log. Digital channel: 19-1. RF channel: 19 (500 MHz). Callsign: CICA-DT. This is the 30th distinct digital TV station I've received.

Radio New Zealand International, 11725 kHz

I was up late and decided to check out shortwave before going to bed. This yielded a good reception of Radio New Zealand International. The time was 05:10 to 05:22 UTC (01:10 local time) this morning. Frequency was 11725 kHz in the 25 metre band. The surprising thing was that the signal was quite good, fairly strong, steady, and clear - 44434 on the SINPO scale. This was on an older portable Sony receiver on its built-in telescopic antenna. The station had a program of local news and current affairs.

The next morning I also was listening to Radio Australia on 9580 kHz (31 metres) at 12:10 UTC (08:10 local). Fairly good signal. This one is nothing unusual - Radio Australia has been on this frequency for many years and is a regular in the morning.

No Sporadic E Propagation

As the FM DXing season winds down, one of the most surprising things about it this year was the complete absence of any sporadic E propagation. I spent much more time on FM this year than in past years, and I heard no sporadic E propagation on the FM band at all. There probably was some when I wasn't listening, but nothing while I was.

No complaints, however. I've been very successful with receiving new stations via tropo. And the season's not quite over yet so maybe there's more to come.

FM: WYRK, CFLZ, and WQHZ

Today's FM DXing yielded some interesting catches:

• WYRK, 106.5 MHz, Buffalo NY at 04:25 UTC (00:25 local time) with country music and excellent signal. This one is interesting. There is a local station on 106.5 in Toronto, CKAV (Aboriginal Voices Radio), and it had a solid, excellent signal. 50 kW WYRK in Buffalo is normally not audible here. But WYRK broadcasts in HD Radio as well as analog, and the Sony XDR-F1HD can recieve HD Radio. There was strong tropo from the south tonight. So CKAV controlled the frequency, but when the HD signal from WYRK was captured it took over the frequency. Occasionally it would weaken and CKAV would return for a few moments. It was interesting in that the two stations were not interfering with each other - one would own the frequency and then the other would take over, until the first returned. This is a relog for the overall log, but is my first logging of WYRK from Toronto.
• CFLZ, 105.1, Niagara Falls ON, at 04:33 UTC. This one is interesting because it's the second logging today of a distant station on a frequency with a local Toronto station on it. Local CHOQ was transmitting a silent carrier. I was getting CHOQ on the outdoor FM antenna, but CFLZ owned the frequency when I switched to the indoor dipole. CFLZ was playing 80s music and identified as "105.1 The River". 4 kW. Logged once before when I was in Niagara Falls; new to the Toronto log.
• WQHZ, 102.3, Erie PA, at 04:46 UTC. Good signal. "Erie's Z-102" playing classic rock. Only 800 watts!

Toronto FM log count: 157. Overall FM log count: 376.