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.

WIRED: UVB-76

There's an interesting article in the October 2011 issue of Wired magazine about the mysterious Russian shortwave station UVB-76 (on 4625 kHz). It's not often that a non-radio magazine writes about shortwave these days. The article is well worth reading.

You can also listen to this strange station online at uvb-76.net.

Saudi Arabia and Mexico on 10 Metres

Two interesting amateur radio stations heard today on the 10 metre band:

• HZ1FI, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 28116 kHz at 1429 UTC in RTTY mode with a fair signal. He was working stations in the CQ Worldwide DX RTTY amateur radio contest. This is the first amateur station I've heard from Saudi Arabia.
• XE3D, Merida, Yucatan, Mexico at 2223 UTC on 28215 kHz with a weak signal. This one was operating as a Morse code beacon.

Loggings on Shortwave

Today's loggings. Receivers: Drake SW8 and Yaesu FT-817:

• W1AW, Newington, CT, USA, from 0247 to 0255 UTC, on 1802.5 kHz in the 160 metre amateur radio band. Fair to poor signal. W1AW is the club station of the American Radio Relay League. They were on the air with one of their regular Morse code practice transmissions.
• Voice of Turkey, 9515 kHz, broadcasting in English from Turkey at 0345-0351 UTC. Good signal. Turkish music, news headlines, and broadcast schedule. Off air at 0351.
• Radio Exterior de España, 9535 kHz, transmitting from Noblejas, Spain, at 0356-0401 UTC in Spanish with fairly good signal. Rap/house music in Spanish, then ID and into news.
• Deutsche Welle, 9480 kHz, via Kigali, Rwanda relay station at 0410 UTC in German. Fair signal.
• Voice of Greece on 9420 kHz from Avilla, Greece from 0415 to 0455 UTC in Greek. Good signal. Greek music and talk.
• Unidentified digital station on 10100 kHz at 0500 UTC. Strong signal with digital traffic in unidentifed mode.

Two Utility Stations and Two CB Loggings

Still in Harrowsmith. I logged two utility stations on shortwave today, using the Kaito KA-1103:

• KAG, 8462 kHz, at 11:50-12:00 UTC with poor signal. SITOR channel marker with "KAG" morse code ID. I have no idea what this station is - I can't find any information on the web about any maritime service stations called KAG. The transmission pattern is typical of other maritime stations like WLO, TAH, IAR, etc. I suppose it's possible I miscopied the ID but it's pretty hard to believe I'd mess up something as simple as that.
• WLO, 17362 kHz, in Mobile, AL, at 12:15 with good signal. Transmission in English, in SSB, with weather from National Weather Service and notices to ships, etc. WLO and KLB IDs, and then off air.

I also caught a couple of CB radio transmissions around this time:

• Unidentified CBers on 27025 kHz (channel 6) at 1221 UTC in incomprehensible jabber plus heterodynes.
• CBer identifying himself as something like "Six Five" in Mobile, Alabama with fair to poor signal. 1222 UTC on 27215 kHz (channel 21).

Mediumwave Loggings, Including a Pirate Station

I'm still up in Harrowsmith for the Labour Day weekend. I logged three mediumwave stations today, two of them new and one of them a radio pirate. Receiver: Kaito KA-1103.

• WCKL, 560 kHz, Catskill NY, at 0357 UTC (11:57 p.m. EDT Sept 4) with fair signal. "Family 560" playing nostalgia music. This station is 1 kW daytime, 43 watts at night. If it really was at the night power, then this is a good catch. Relog - logged once before in Toronto.
• WLIE, 540 kHz, Islip NY, at 0359-0402 UTC with poor signal. ID on hour, also with slogan "South Asian Radio". 2.5 kW day, 220 W night. New to overall log.
• Pirate, 1710 kHz, 0405-0410 UTC. Talk in Haitian-accented French and Caribbean music. Signal coming from south east. Very weak but strengthened at times to listenable levels. This is likely to be one of the French language pirate stations known to transmit from Boston, MA and operated by people in the Haitian population there. New to overall log, and only the second pirate ever logged on 1710.
  

This brings the overall mediumwave count to 967 (counting the pirate).

Shannon Volmet, 3414 kHz

I'm up in eastern Ontario, in Harrowsmith (near Kingston). One logging to report for today:

• Shannon Volmet, 3414 kHz, from Shannon, Ireland. 03:00 to 03:11 UTC, in English. SSB. Aviation weather for Ireland and U.K. Lots of static crashes from thunderstorms. Receiver: Kaito KA-1103. New logging - Shannon Volmet is not new but this is my first logging of it on this frequency.

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.