Other Catches in York Harbour

I also caught the following while in York Harbour, NL. All are relogs:

• JT, 390 kHz, Stephenville NL, at 0027 UTC with good signal. Non-directional aeronautical beacon with Morse code ID. This is one of the only longwave stations from Newfoundland that I've heard from Ontario.
• BBC Radio 5 Live, 693 kHz, from the United Kingdom. 0241-0300 UTC. Fair to poor signal (weak but relatively little interference, some fading, but good enough to follow the programming). English with British accents. Talk about the early days of Apple Computer. ID on hour. BBC Radio 5 Live transmits from several locations on this frequency, including Droitwich (150 kW), Stagshaw and Start Point (both 50 kW) and Burghead (25 kW). I don't know which this is. Relog - I caught the BBC on 693 in 2007 from Twillingate, NL.

Listening in Deer Lake

I stayed the night at Deer Lake, NL and spent a bit of time tuning the radio bands. Here's what I heard.

Mediumwave:

• WUNR, 1600  kHz, Brookline MA, 0050-0100 UTC. Poor signal. Religious programming in Spanish. ID on hour in English, then into a religious program in English. Relog.
• Unidentified station in Spanish at 0105 on 1485 kHz, which means it is probably from Europe. Very weak with only a few brief fragments of talk heard.

Longwave:

• FK, 335 kHz, Deer Lake Junction NL, 0904-0908 UTC. Good signal. Non-directional aeronautical beacon with Morse code ID. New.

FM:

• Unidentified station on 107.75 Mhz (slightly off the 107.7 channel frequency) at 0920-0930 UTC with excellent (local quality) signal in English. Audio from CPAC (Canadian Parliamentary Access Channel), a cable TV station. My guess is that this is someone's personal FM transmitter, like those used with wireless headphones, and is located close to the place I was staying in Deer Lake. New.
• CKXX-FM, 103.9 MHz, Corner Brook NL, 0930-0934 UTC. Good signal. English. News, sports, weather. ID with callsign and slogan "109.9 K-Rock". 40 kW. New.
• Unidentified station on 103.5 MHz at 0935-0937 UTC. Very weak and unintelligible. There is a station in Grand Falls-Windsor on this frequency; my guess is that this is it.
• VOAR-5-FM, 102.1 MHz, Deer Lake NL at 0938-0940 UTC. Excellent signal in English. ID at "Listener-supported VOAR". 50 W. New.
• CFDL-FM, 97.9 MHz, Deer Lake NL, at 0944-0946 UTC. Excellent. Campaign for school supply donations. ID as CFCBradio.com. (CFDL is parallel to CFCB). Only 16 watts. New.
• CBDT-FM, 96.3 MHz, Deer Lake NL, at 0946-0949 UTC. CBC Radio One. Excellent signal. 670 W. New.
• CKMY-FM, 95.9 MHz, Grand Falls-Windsor NL, at 0950-0958 UTC. Fair signal. OZ FM with hot adult contemporary dance music. 50 kW. New.
• CBNR-FM, 95.5 MHz, Ramea-Burgeo NL. 1000-1002 UTC. Fair signal. CBC Radio One with news. 780 W. New.
• CBN-FM-3, 90.5 MHz, Deer Lake NL, 1003-1005 UTC, with excellent signal. CBC Radio Two news. 980 W. New.
• CBN-FM-2, 91.1 MHz, Corner Brool NL, at 1005-1007. Fair signal. CBC Radio Two. 3 kW. New.

Listening from Labrador

Today I am in Labrador, staying in a little town called L'Anse au Clair. Labrador is part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, but is on the mainland separate from the island of Newfoundland. I had hoped to do some DXing from here in a truly RF-quiet environment, but unfortunately there is an annoying electrical buzz across much of the AM band in my lodgings. This is coming from outside - I can hear it on the car radio while driving through much of the town. However it is possible to null it out by reorienting the radio and it isn't audible outside of town so there may be DXing possibilities here.

For today, I have two loggings of AM stations which I heard on the car radio, a longwave logging, and a bunch of FM stations logged from inside my room.

Mediumwave:

• WLAM, 1470 kHz, Lewiston ME, at 0010-0020 UTC with fair signal in English. Oldies, IDs, and mentions of Lewiston. Relog.
• WNYY, 1470 kHz, Ithaca NY at 0015 UTC. Poor signal. English. Mixing with WLAM, ID heard. Relog.

Longwave:

• YMH, 250 kHz, Mary's Harbour NL, at 0053 UTC. Very weak but very little interference so no problem understanding ID. Morse code beacon. New to log.

FM:

• CBSI-FM-21, 107.1 MHz, Blanc Sablon QC, at 0220-0224 UTC with excellent signal (as expected, as Blanc Sablon is only a few km from L'Anse au Clair). French, SRC Premiere Chaine network. Talk, music. 78 watts. New to log.
• CBMS-FM, 102.7 MHz, Blanc Sablon QC, at 0225-0227 UTC. Excellent signal. English. CBC Rado One with show "Saturday Evening Blues". 78 watts. New to log.
• CBYM, 98.7 MHz, Mount St. Margaret NL, at 0227-0230 UTC. Excellent signal. English. CBC Radio One. 10 kW. New to log.
• CBTB, 97.1 MHz, Baie Verte NL, at 0230-0233 UTC. Poor signal. CBC Radio One in English. New to log. 24.2 kW.
• CBTR-FM, 92.9 MHz, Roddickton NL, at 0233-0236 UTC. Fair signal. CBC Radio One in English. New to log. 2 kW.
• CBNJ, 90.5 MHz, Port Saunders NL, at 0236-0238 UTC. Good signal. English. CBC Radio One. 260w. New to log.

All these CBC Radio One outlets were carrying the same programming. I didn't bother to wait for IDs - CBC stations seldom identify with their callsigns. Anyway, all of them are either semi-local or are the only plausible candidates.

Final Day in Rocky Harbour

For the final DX session in Rocky Harbour, NL, I have loggings of two longwave stations, two mediumwave stations from Ontario, and two FM stations from the local area:

• JT, 390 kHz, Stephenville, NL, at 0025-0030 UTC. Fair to good signal. Non-directional aeronautical beacon. Relog.
• AY, 356 kHz, St. Anthony, NL, at 0035-0036 UTC. Fair signal. Non-directional aeronautical beacon. Relog.
• CFRA, 580 kHz, Ottawa, ON. 0044-0047 UTC. English, fair to good signal. News/talk, phone-in show. ID. Ads for AlarmForce, BMR Builders, etc. Relog.
• CFZM, 740 kHz, Toronto, ON, at 0100-0108 UTC. Good solid signal, dominating the frequency. English. "AM 740" with oldies. Relog, obviously.
• CBNF-FM, 89.1 MHz, Bonne Bay, NL. 0140-0143 UTC. English, excellent signal. CBC Radio One, show "Q" with end of an interview with Daniel Radcliffe. New.
• CKOZ-FM, 92.3 MHz, Corner Brook, NL, at 0147-0252 UTC. Poor signal. English. "OZ FM". ID for sister stations in Argentia and St. John's. Ads. Hot adult contemporary music. New.

YHR 276 kHz

Little time for radio today; only one logging to report:

• YHR, 276 kHz, Chevery-Harrington Harbour, Quebec, at 0130-0139 UTC with fair signal. Non-directional aeronautical beacon, repeating ID in Morse code. Received at Rocky Harbour, NL. New to log.

Absolute Radio 1215 kHz; BX 220 kHz

Just two stations logged today. Reception location: Rocky Harbour, NL. Receiver: Kaito KA-1103.

• Absolute Radio, 1215 kHz, United Kingdom, at 0220-0236 UTC with poor signal. Pop music, including song by Lionel Ritchie. Absolute Radio ID. This is a relog, but the last time I logged it, in Newfoundland in 2007, the station was still calling itself Virgin Radio.
• BX, 220 kHz, Lourdes-de-Blanc-Sablon, QC, at 0240-0244 UTC with fair to good signal. Aeronautical non-directional beacon with repeated Morse code ID. Relog.

One cool feature of DXing in Newfoundland is that transatlantic reception of mediumwave stations is not difficult there. I got Absolute Radio using the KA-1103's built-in ferrite bar antenna. The saltwater path plus the fact that Newfoundland is much closer to Europe than is Ontario are the main factors. But another important factor is that Newfoundland is so much farther east than the United States and the rest of Canada. This means that for a period of time after sunset, there's nighttime propagation to Europe while most of the rest of North America is still in daylight. So the transatlantic signals are coming in while North American DX stations are not yet competing with them.

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.

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.

Navtex on 490 kHz

In addition to 518 kHz, there are also Navtex broadcasts on 490. 518 is the main frequency and is used for English language broadcasts. 490 is used for other national languages. Today I heard a Navtex station on 490 for the first time ever. This was at 0435 UTC with a fairly good signal. Unfortunately I did not have the equipment with me to decode it so it remains unidentified.

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.

More DGPS Loggings

I had another session trying out DXing of DGPS stations on longwave today. This yielded a few good catches. As previously, I'll refer to them with IDs like DGPS-123 (meaning the station's transmitted identifier is 123):

• DGPS-110, 309 kHz, 0545 UTC, poor signal. Location: Pickford, MI, USA.
• DGPS-176, 325 kHz, 0616-0618 UTC, poor signal. Location: Medora, ND, USA.
• DGPS-094, 324 kHz, 0620 UTC, poor signal. Location: Hudson Falls, NY, USA.
• DGPS-036, 319 kHz, 0633 UTC, poor signal. Location: Savannah, GA, USA.
• DGPS-044, 290 kHz, 0645UTC, poor signal. Location: Penobscot, ME, USA.

North Dakota, Maine, and Georgia on longwave - not bad. Gear: Sony ICF-2001D receiver, Sony AN-12 active antenna, DSC Decoder software.

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.

DGPS Loggings

Today I tried out something new: DXing DGPS stations. DGPS stands for Differential GPS and is a ground-based system that operates on longwave (around 300 kHz) for augmenting the satellite-based GPS system. Standard GPS is accurate to within about 20-30 metres, but for some applications this is insufficient. For example, the pilot of a large ship navigating through a narrow channel needs to know his position much more accurately than that. Using DGPS it is possible to get a location that's accurate to less than a metre's error.

I was using software called DSC Decoder to decode the DGPS signals. The decoded signal is mostly positioning information, but each line transmitted begins with a station identifier number. I found a guide on the web, the World DGPS Database, that lists all the DGPS stations worldwide. Using this guide you can look up the stations you receive by frequency and identifier to find out where they're located.

Here are the DGPS stations I received today. I'll refer to them with IDs like DGPS-123 (meaning the station's transmitted identifier is 123):

• DGPS-118, 322 kHz, 0515-0522 UTC, good signal. Location: Youngstown, NY, USA.
• DGPS-116, 319 kHz, 0547-0548 UTC, fair signal. Detroit, MI, USA.
• DGPS-184, 291 kHz, 0551-0554 UTC, fair-poor signal, Hawk Run, PA, USA.
• DGPS-136, 297 kHz, 0600-0602 UTC, poor signal. Location: Bobo, MS, USA.

All of these are obviously new loggings, since this is the first time I've logged DGPS stations. The logging of station 136 is particularly exciting because it's from Mississipi. This demonstrates that long-range DGPS DXing is possible, and it also demonstrates that my new setup for DXing longwave is actually working.

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.

DXing Longwave with the Sony AN-12 Antenna

I've always liked DXing the longwave band, but I spend very little time on it because DXing it from home is nearly impossible. There are high levels of electrical noise on those frequencies in my building, and I have no place here to put up a suitable outdoor antenna. At least, DXing from home has been impossible until now. I came up with a solution that works. Some months ago I purchased a Sony AN-12 outdoor active antenna (from an eBay seller in Japan) which works well at longwave and mediumwave frequencies. Tonight I hooked it up to the old Sony ICF-2001D (the same radio as the famous ICF-2010 minus the air band) and the combination of the two work really well on longwave. There were lots of signals apparent. So finally there's a way to DX longwave from here.

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.

And Even More Navtex DXing

I did an overnight Navtex DX session on Oct. 9. I left the computer on decoding what came in on 518 kHz and then checked it the next day. Here's what put in an appearance:

• NMF ($04F), Boston MA, 0447 - 0510 UTC, good signal with marine weather forecast for northeastern U.S. waters and four navigation warnings.
• VCK ($04C), Sept-Iles-Riviere-au-Renard QC Canada, 0601 UTC, good signal with meteorological warnings, reporting gale force winds in the Cabot Strait, Northumberland Strait, Gulf Magdalen, Chaleur-Miscou, Anticosti, etc.
• VCK ($04C), Sept-Iles-Riviere-au-Renard QC Canada, showing up again at 0654 UTC with more meteorlogical warnings.
• NMG ($04G), New Orleans LA, 0700 - 0735 UTC, fair signal with marine weather forecast and navigation warnings.
• NMF ($04F), Boston MA, 0854-0856 UTC, good signal with navigation warnings.
• XLJ895 ($04P), Thunder Bay ON Canada, 1032 UTC, good signal with marine weather forecast (for Great Lakes).
• NMG ($04G), New Orleans LA, 1102-1113 UTC, good signal with marine weather and navigation warnings.

All of these are relogs, except for XLJ895 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is a new station for me. As usual, I used Frisnet Navtex Decoder 2.1.5 to decode the signals.

More Navtex DXing

Another Navtex DX session and two stations received, both of them relogs. Frequency: 518 kHz, date: Oct. 7, 2010, decoding software: Frisnet Navtex Decoder 2.1.5.

• NMG ($04G), New Orleans LA, 0305 to 0315 UTC, fair signal with marine navigation warnings.
• VAR-9 ($04U), Saint John NB, 0321 to 0330 UTC, fair to good signal with marine navigation warnings.

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.