DF 350 khz

Listening location: Rocky Harbour, NL, in Gros Morne National Park.
Receiver: Kaito KA-1103.

• DF, 350 kHz, Deer Lake, NL at 0204 UTC with good signal. Morse code aeronautical non-directional beacon from Deer Lake airport. This is about 40 km from Rocky Harbour. Relog - logged from eastern Newfoundland in 2007.

VE3WE 10 Metre Beacon

There's a new amateur radio beacon operating in Toronto: VE3WE, 28265 kHz. I received it today at 1540-1555 UTC with a good signal. Morse code, in English. Operated by the Scarborough Amateur Radio Club. 5 watts.

WE2XGR/1 on 501 kHz

There is a campaign underway to get a new band allocated for amateur radio at the 600 metre wavelength (500 kHz). You can read about it at the website of the ARRL 600 Meter Experimental Group. There are some amateur experimental stations authorized to operate on these frequencies for purposes of evaluating its prospects for amateur radio. Early this morning I caught one of these stations:

• WE2XGR/1 in Wayland, MA, USA on 501 kHz at 0436 UTC with a good signal (RST 569). The station was operating in beacon mode, repeating its ID. The operator is K2ORS.

Logged on the Kaito KA-1103 with its internal antenna, in Harrowsmith, Ontario.

More Longwave Beacon Loggings

More longwave non-directional beacons logged while in Harrowsmith, Ontario (near Kingston). As usual, these are all operating in Morse code. Receiver was the Kaito KA-1103 on its built-in antenna.

• UL, 248 kHz, Montreal Quebec, 0325 UTC, poor signal. Relog.
• VV, 326 kHz, Wiarton Ontario, 0344 UTC, fair signal. Relog.
• YFM, 332 kHz, La Grande-4 Quebec, 0346 UTC, good signal. Relog. This one is from northern Quebec on the La Grande river leading into James Bay.
• YLD, 335 kHz, Chapleau Ontario, 0347 UTC, good signal. Relog, but previous logging was from Manitoulin Island, which is much closer to Chapleau.
• YY, 340 kHz, Mont-Joli Quebec, 0354 UTC, good signal. Relog.
• SB, 362 kHz, Sudbury Ontario, 0415 UTC. good signal. Relog.
• YMW, 366 kHz, Maniwaki Quebec, 0416 UTC, fair signal. Relog.
• RJ, 378 kHz, Roberval Quebec, 0417 UTC, fair to poor signal. Relog. This is my first logging of RJ on 378, but there's an entry in my logbook from a long, long time ago for the same RJ on 379. That was probably actually 378 but I misidentified the frequency back then.
• RYS, 419 kHz, Detroit-Grosse Ile Michigan, 0432 UTC, poor signal. Relog.

Longwave Beacons

I logged the following non-directional aeronautical beacons on longwave today. Some are even new. All are Morse code beacons that just transmit their IDs repeatedly. Receiver: Kaito KA-1103 using built-in antenna. Received in Harrowsmith, Ontario, where the radio noise is almost non-existent.

• YSL, 404 kHz, St. Leonard, NB, Canada, 0504 UTC. Weak signal. New - never logged before.
• ZHU, 407 kHz, Montreal-St. Hubert, QC, Canada, 0507 UTC. Weak signal. Previously logged under former callsign of H, first time logged as ZHU.
• ML, 392 kHz, Charlevoix-La Malbare, QC, Canada, 0513 UTC. Weak signal. Relog.
• 3B, 391 kHz, Brockville, ON, Canada, 0514 UTC. Weak signal. New, which is a surprise, since Brockville is not far from here - thought I would have got this one already.
• ZZR, 317 kHz, Quite West-Severn, ON, Canada, 1326 UTC. Fair to good signal. Relog.

Two Longwave Beacons

I logged two Morse code non-directional beacons on longwave today. Both are relogs but both are good DX catches, and I`ve not logged either from Toronto before:

• YLD, 335 kHz, Chapleau, ON, Canada, at 0609-0612 UTC with poor signal.
• QT, 332 kHz, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada at 0616-0618 UTC with poor signal. My first logging of this was in 2008 from Espanola, ON, which is quite a bit closer to Thunder Bay than Toronto is.

Equipment: Sony ICF-2001D receiver, Sony AN-12 active antenna.

Longwave Beacons

I logged three Morse code non-directional beacons on longwave. Two were local:

• TZ, 257 kHz, Gibralter Point (Toronto), ON. Good signal. 0526 UTC. This one is located on Toronto Island - I believe it is the beacon for the Toronto Island Airport.
• KZ, 248 kHz, Buttonville, ON. 0528 UTC. Fair signal. This is the beacon for the airport in Buttonville (Markham), just north of Toronto.

I also logged one non-local beacon:

• YGK, 263 kHz, Kingston, ON. Fair signal (better than KZ's). 0536 UTC. This is the beacon for Norman Rogers airport in Kingston. This is an old friend - when I was a teenager in Kingston in the 1970s I lived near that airport and YGK was a familiar sound on longwave. But I don't think I've ever logged it from Toronto before.

All of these are relogs.

Amateur 10 Metre Beacon - N1FSX

Logged another amateur Morse code beacon on the 10 metre band today. N1FSX, Matheson, Colorado, USA at 2112 UTC on 28232 kHz with a weak but copyable signal.

Loggings on 10 Metres

I logged a bunch of amateur stations today in SSB on the 10 metre band while participating in the CQ WW DX SSB contest. Countries from which I logged stations were: Austria, Canada, Corsica (France), France, Germany, Guyana, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Turks & Caicos Islands, USA, and Wales (UK).

I got one 10 metre beacon: K5AB, Georgetown TX, USA, on 28280 kHz at 1618 UTC in CW. He was running 20 watts.

I also logged several American amateur stations running in WSPR mode on 10140 kHz between 1304 to 1356 UTC.

The reason I post these reports of amateur radio stations logged is to suggest an alternative form of shortwave DXing to SWLs. It's no secret that shortwave broadcasting is in a real decline, and it is common for SWLs to lament how there are many countries that they can no longer hear on shortwave. But many countries that are difficult or impossible to find broadcasting on shortwave still support lots of active amateurs and can be heard on the ham bands.

That being said, since the amateur stuff is probably not of much interest to most SWLs, henceforward I'm going to stop posting reports of amateur stations heard, except for particularly noteworthy ones.

Two 10 Metre Beacons

As today is Thanksgiving Monday here in Canada, I had the day off work. The weather was nice so I decided to go out of town to go for a short hike in the woods to see the fall colours. I went to Mount Nemo Conservation Area in Halton, about an hour west of Toronto. I brought a portable radio with me, the Grundig G5. After the hike was done I spent a bit of time tuning the bands there. Logged two 10 metre amateur Morse code beacons. Both are relogs - I got both of these the previous weekend while in Algonquin Park:

• K5GJR, 28244.5 kHz, Corpus Christi, TX, USA, at 1835 UTC. Good signal. 5 watts into vertical antenna. CW.
• N7MSH, 28226.5 kHz, North Powder, OR, USA, at 1837 UTC. Weak signal but copyable. CW.

W5TXR Beacon

Today's logging: Amateur 10 metre band Morse code beacon W5TXR on 28,260.8 kHz. Location: Schertz, TX, USA. Time: 2220 UTC. This beacon runs 5 watts into a vertical antenna. Heard here in Toronto with a weak but copyable signal (RST 339). Sending V markers "V V V de W5TXR...".

Loggings from Algonquin Provincial Park

I went to Algonquin Provincial Park today to get in some hiking and to see the fall colours. This is about 250 km northeast of Toronto. I also did a bit of DXing while I was there and heard some interesting things.

In the car park of one of the hiking trails near the centre of the Highway 60 corridor I caught two local Environment Canada weather stations. One was in the regular FM band and the other in the weather band:

• CJNK, Lake of Two Rivers, 100.1 MHz, at 1835 UTC in English and French with fair signal. Environment Canada Weather with weather conditions and forecast for Algonquin Park and area. 50 watts.
• VEF956, Lake of Two Rivers, 162.4 MHz, at 1842 UTC. English and French with good solid signal. Environment Canada Weather, parallel to CJNK.

The other loggings are from late in the afternoon. I was finished hiking and dusk was about an hour off. I stopped at the picnic grounds at Tea Lake Dam, near the west gate to the park. I sat at a picnic table tuning shortwave, using my trusty Kaito KA-1103 with its built-in telescopic whip antenna.

• NMG, New Orleans, LA, 8502 kHz, from 2140-2150 UTC. Fair to good signal. In English, in SSB. Marine weather conditions and weather forecast. Mentions of NOAA Ocean Prediction Center and National Weather Service Hurricane Prediction Center.
• N7MSH/B, North Powder, OR, 28226.5 kHz at 2155 UTC. CW (Morse code) amateur radio 10 metre beacon. Good signal.
• K5GJR/B, Corpus Christi, TX, 28224.5 kHz at 2155 UTC. CW with fair signal. Amateur 10 metre beacon.
• K6FRC/B, Sutters Mountain, CA, 28250 kHz at 2157 UTC. CW with fair to poor signal. Amateur 10 metre beacon.
• WI6J/B, Bakersfield, CA, 28287 kHz at 2157 UTC. CW with poor signal. Amateur 10 metre beacon.
• K4SAK/7, Reno, NV, 28348 kHz at 2200 UTC. SSB with good signal. Net Control in Northern Nevada Sideband Net.
• K5HK, Reno, NV, 28348 kHz at 2200 UTC. SSB with good signal. Checking into Northern Nevada Sideband Net.

Loggings in Ottawa

Dec. 29, 2010: My last day in Ottawa and I found some time to tune the radio dials today. Had the portable Kaito KA1103 with me. It always seems that radio reception is far better when I'm out on a trip than when I'm at home, probably because I'm not inside a steel frame box and am away from the electronic noise of hundreds of neighbors. Here's what I heard today:

• On 507 kHz at 0233 UTC, I heard a Morse code beacon: WE2XGR/6. This is one of the experimental amateur stations operating on the proposed 600 metre band. This one is located in Penn Yan, NY. Signal was good.
• WDEV 550 kHz, Waterbury VT, at 0240 UTC with sports program "The Score", mixing with co-channel WGR. Fair signal.
• WMAC 940 kHz, Macon GA, at 0300 UTC with news, weather, and clear ID. Poor signal.
• Unidentified station or stations in Spanish on 690 kHz heard at 0248 and at 1130-1145 UTC. Talk, Cuban-sounding music. No ID heard. There are several possibilities of what this station could be. If it is a Cuban, then most likely it is CMBC, the 20 kW outlet of Radio Progreso in Jovellanos. That would be a relog for me, as I logged it many years ago.

WDEV and WMAC are new stations, so that brings the overall mediumwave count to 959.

30 Metre Beacon

Today: my first reception of an amateur radio beacon on the 30 metre band. WA4SZE/B, Manchester, TN, USA, heard from 1210 - 1250 UTC Oct. 22, 2010 on 10148.6 kHz with a fair signal. The beacon was sending a continuous stream of dash-dot beeps with a "WA4SZE/B" ID in Morse code every few minutes.

Navtex DXing

Last year I briefly tried out Navtex DXing, but then didn't keep it up, despite the encouraging results of that first experience (for instance, receiving the first station I've ever heard from Greenland). Today (Oct. 6, 2010) I decided to come back to it. Here's what I found:

• 0420 - 0425 UTC, VCK ($04C), Sept-Iles-Riviere-au-Renard, Quebec, with navigation warnings. Good signal.
• 0426 - 0436 UTC, NMA ($04A), Miami FL, with navigational notices. Weak with garbled messages, but station identifier clear.
• 0445 UTC, NMF ($04F), Boston MA, with marine weather forecast for northeastern U.S. waters. Good signal.

All these stations were logged on 518 kHz, just below the bottom end of the AM broadcast band. VCK and NMF are relogs, but NMA from Miami is a new one for me.

Navtex is transmitted in a mode called SITOR-B. To receive Navtex, you need a receiver that supports SSB reception, and a computer to decode the signal. I use a software application called Frisnet Navtex Decoder to do the decoding.

Navtex stations on 518 kHz all broadcast in English. The world is divided into regions called Navareas. The stations within a Navarea take turns transmitting according to a predefined schedule. Each station in a Navarea identifies itself by a single letter (e.g., "A"). William Hepburn, at his DX Information Centre site, has a comprehensive list of the stations in each Navarea, with their identifiers and transmission schedules.

Navtex DXers identify stations using the format $NNI, where "$NN" is the Navarea number and "I" is the station's single letter identifier. For example, $04F is station "F" in Navarea 4, and from Hepburn's station list you can see this is station NMF in Boston, MA.

I also heard an aircraft navigation beacon on 516 kHz at the same time (0420 UTC): YWA in Petawawa, Ontario, with a fairly decent signal. This station is a regular visitor here in Toronto.