FM: Stations from Ottawa and Huntsville

There was a good opening this morning from the north and northeast and it yielded four new stations for the Toronto log - three from Ottawa and one from Huntsville. I probably could have caught more but I had to leave for work:

• CJMJ, 100.3 MHz, Ottawa ON. 12:25 to 12:30 UTC (08:25 local). Fair signal. Majic FM with pop music and talk. Ads for Ottawa businesses. 100 kw.
• CISS, 105.3, Ottawa ON. 12:31 to 12:35 UTC. Poor signal. Kiss FM. News, Ottawa traffic report. Mixing with CFCA (Kitchener-Waterloo). 84 kW.
• CHEZ, 106.1, Ottawa ON. 12:36-12:41 UTC. Poor signal. David Bowie's "Space Oddity", CHEZ 106 ID. 100 kW. Relog but first logging from Toronto.
• CBL-FM-1, 106.9, Huntsville ON. 13:00-13:02. Poor signal. CBC Radio news. 70 kW.

Four new stations for the Toronto log and three for the the overall log. Counts are now 150 and 371.

FM: CKJJ 102.3

One new logging on FM today:

• CKJJ, 102.3 MHz, Belleville ON, at 11:05 to 11:34 UTC (07:05 local time). Poor to very poor signal. UCB Canada - Christian pop music and morning talk. News on half hour, followed by weather for Belleville and Kingston, and traffic report for Belleville. 15 kW.

Toronto FM log count: 146, Overall FM log count: 368.

FM: WHTK-FM, WSYR-FM, and WCTL

Today's FM DXing yielded three new ones for the log:

• WHTK-FM, 107.3 MHz, South Bristol (Rochester) NY at 13:15 UTC (09:15 local). Fair to poor signal. Sports talk, slogan "Sports Talk 1280" (parallel to 1280 kHz), ads for Rochester, WHAM, etc. 6 kW.
• WSYR-FM, 106.9 MHz, Solvay (Syracuse) NY at 13:19 UTC. Fair to good signal. News talk. IDs. Parallel to 570 kHz. 9 kW.
• WCTL, 106.3, Erie PA at 13:25 UTC. Religious, preaching/sermon. ID on half hour. Mixing with CJBC-5 in Peterborough. 3.4 kW. Relog - first logged on July 10 in Port Dover - but first time logged in Toronto.

Overall FM log count: 367. Toronto FM log count: 145.

Two NOAA Weather Stations

There was enhanced propagation from the south on VHF today and it gave me two new NOAA weather stations, although the identity of one is uncertain:

• WNG539, Spencerport NY, 162.525 MHz, at 02:10 - 02:20 UTC (22:10 July 16 local time). Poor signal. Weather for area around Rochester, NY. Callsign ID.
• Unidentified: 162.45 MHz at 12:25 UTC (8:25 a.m.). Poor signal mixing with VFI621 in Normandale ON. NOAA weather for the southern tier of New York State. Faded out after a few minutes. Is likely either (a) WXN55 in Mt. Washington NY, 300 watts, or (b) WWH35 in Cooperstown NY, 100 watts.

WXN29: 162.425 MHz

I logged another NOAA Weather Radio station today: WXN29 in Cat Hill, NY on 162.425 MHz at 12:33 to 13:00 UTC (8:30 a.m. local time). Weather information for the southern tier of New York State, including Elmira, Corning, Wellsville, and other places. Tropo. 300 watts.

Taxi Dispatcher

Tuning around 162-163 MHz this morning, heard one thing to note:

• Taxi dispatcher issuing instructions to cars. 163.29 MHz at 11:35 UTC. Excellent signal. Looked this one up at radioreference.com and it says this is Toronto's Arrow Cab, callsign XNG53.
  

FM: CBLA-FM-3

Today's FM tropo logging:

• CBLA-FM-3, 100.9 MHz, Wingham ON from 11:56 to 12:06 UTC (07:56 a.m. local time). Fair signal. CBC Radio One with program "Ontario Morning". News on hour. 11.8 kW.

Overall FM count: 365. Toronto FM count: 142.

FM: Loggings from Port Dover

I visited Port Dover today, a nice beach town on the north shore of Lake Erie. While there I spent some time tuning the FM band on the Honda car radio in my Civic. Logged six new stations:

• CJDL, 107.3 MHz, Tillsonburg ON, at 18:45 UTC (2:45 p.m. local time). Excellent signal. Talk, country music. URL given on air: country1073.ca. 4.5 kW.
• WKZA, 106.9, Lakewood NY (near Jamestown), 18:52-19:00 UTC. Excellent signal. "Kiss FM", playing pop music. 5.1 kW.
• CIKZ, 106.7, Kitchener-Waterloo ON, at 19:00 UTC. Very good signal. "Kix FM", country music. 1.7 kW.
• WCTL, 106.3, Union City PA (near Erie), at 19:07 UTC. Good signal. "Life 106.3" playing Christian rock. 3.4 kW.
• CFHK, 103.1, St. Thomas ON (near London), at 19:20 UTC. Fair signal. "Fresh FM" with talk and ads. 16.7 kW.
• WEFR, 88.1, Erie PA. 19:22-19:30 UTC. Poor signal. "Family Radio". Religious with ID on half hour. Mixing with WUBJ from Jamestown NY. 630 watts.

I also logged one new station later when I stopped in Normandale, a bit west of Port Dover.

• WXKC, 99.9, Erie PA, at 20:15 UTC. Very good signal. "Classy 100". 50 kw.

This brings the overall FM log count to 364.

FM: WRKT and WTWF

FM DXing from home this morning. Logged new stations, both from the Erie PA area. Tropo.

• WRKT, 100.9 MHz, North East PA. 12:28-12:36 UTC (08:28 local time). Fair-poor signal. "Rocket 101" with rock music (oldies). 4.2 kW.
• WTWF, 93.9 MHz, Fairview PA. 12:45-13:00 UTC. Fair-poor signal. Country music "93.9 The Wolf". Verified against webcast at 939thewolf.com. 6 kW.

Toronto FM log count: 141. Overall FM count: 357.

Digital TV DX: W42CO Rochester NY

This morning there was good tropo propagation from the south and it yielded a new digital TV station logging (the first in two years):

• W42CO, Rochester NY, from 11:55 to 12:08 UTC (around 8 a.m. local time). This is digital channel 42 and also operates on RF channel 42 (638 MHz). This station is a Christian broadcaster in the TCT network - I think it is actually rebroadcasting the programing from WNYB 26 in Jamestown, NY. It had four subchannels: (1) Religious programming, (2) health infomercial, (3) TCT Family with children's cartoons, and (4) TCT La Frente with children's cartoons in Spanish. It operates at only 8 kW so it's a good catch.
  

This is the 29th distinct digital TV station I've received here.

Equipment: Toshiba TV connected to outdoor four-bay UHF antenna through Tivax STB-T8 digital TV converter.

VFI621: 162.45 MHz

There was some tropo to the southwest today and because of it I received another Environment Canada weather radio station:

• VFI621, 162.45 MHz, Normandale ON, 00:35 - 00:42 UTC (8:35 p.m. July 7 local time). Poor signal. Weather for north shore area of Lake Erie. Normandale is on Lake Erie, a bit west from Port Dover. ID with location also heard.

William Hepburn has compiled an excellent list of Canadian weather radio stations here.

VAD320: Environment Canada Weather

I recently bought a small VHF/UHF outdoor antenna (actually a mobile antenna with a magnetic mount) and put it out on my balcony. It's hooked up to a receiver I got recently that can tune those parts of the radio spectrum, a Uniden BCT-15X.

Today I was tuning in the weather band at 162 MHz. There are two regular stations here: the Environment Canada weather station here in Toronto (XMJ225) on 162.4 MHz, and the NOAA weather station in Buffalo, NY (KEB98) on 162.55 MHz. Today I heard another one: VAD320 on 162.475 MHz, the Environment Canada weather station in Thorold, Ontario. This was at 11:50 UTC (just before 8:00 a.m. local time) with weather for the Niagara region. Poor signal.

It's funny. Thorold is closer to me than is Buffalo, but the NOAA station in Buffalo is a regular, whereas the Thorold station is not.

FM: Loggings from Milton

I went for a hike today on the Bruce Trail at Crawford Lake Conservation Area in Halton Region. Afterwords I spent about half an hour tuning the FM band on the car radio. This yielded three new FM stations for the overall log.

• CHES 88.1 MHz Erin ON. 20:58-21:05 UTC (5 p.m. local time). Erin Radio, with the "Crooners Show". Very good signal. 50 watts.
• WNJA 89.7 Jamestown NY. 21:13 UTC. Fair-poor signal. Classical music program, WNED ID (WNJA simulcasts WNED from Buffalo). 6 kW.
• WCOT 90.9 Jamestown NY. 21:21-21:30 UTC. Poor signal. Family Life Radio - Christian rock. 12 kW.

I also heard an NPR station on 90.1 MHz at 21:15 UTC, but nothing to identify which one it is.

Overall log count: 355.

FM: CBLA-FM-1, 90.5 MHz

Today's FM logging:

• CBLA-FM-1 (CBC Radio One) 90.5 MHz Crystal Beach (Niagara) ON at 00:50-01:15 UTC (8:50 p.m. Sat. July 1). Fair/poor signal. Parallel to CBLA 99.1. 320 watts.

Overall FM log count: 352. Toront FM log count: 139.

Noted in Passing

Tuning around the VHF & UHF bands with a wideband receiver, heard two things of interest:

• TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) communications on 412.6125 MHz at 16:20 UTC. ID as "CCIS".
  
• Air Canada Flight 359 in contact with Toronto Pearson airport on 132.8 MHz at 16:40 UTC.