Two More Repeater Loggings

The only recent loggings to report are two new amateur repeaters heard. These are just local stations, but logging these things is still a new activity for me, since I've spent so little time exploring the VHF amateur bands.

• Mon. January 24, 2011 at 0015 UTC: VA3GTU, Toronto, ON, on 145.13 MHz with Morse code ID.
• Sat. January 29, 2011 at 1345 to 1445 UTC: VE3RTC, Scarborough, ON, on 146.745 MHz with Morse code ID. There were two amateurs having a chat here but it was in Chinese and I didn't catch their callsigns.

Amateurs on 2 Metres

Today's loggings come courtesy of the 2 metre amateur radio band:

• 1615-1630 UTC, 145.13 MHz. Heard several stations checking into the morning ARES net. ARES is the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. This net is run by the Toronto ARES Group. I think they meet here every morning at this time. First time I've heard them, mostly because I seldom visit the VHF amateur bands.
• 1645 UTC. Heard the Morse code ID (in FM mode) of VE3RTR on 145.15 MHz. This is a repeater that covers a large swath of the north shore of Lake Ontario. It is located near Baltimore, Ontario. It is operated by the Heritage Amateur Radio Club.

BARTG RTTY Contest

Today's radio activity: I was on the air making a few contacts in the BARTG RTTY contest and I kept a log of the stations I heard. Nothing special. Despite this being a British contest, the only stations I heard were in the U.S. and Canada, only 14 stations. Conditions didn't seem very good today. Listened between 1832 and 1923 UTC, and again from 2146 to 2219 UTC. 20 metre band, around 14.1 MHz.

CJY241 - 152.87 MHz

Continuing with the casual exploration of what can be heard on VHF, I caught an interesting one today. This morning, Fri. Jan 21, 2011 at 1320 to 1335 UTC (8:20-8:35 local time), I found a frequency that CBC Radio reporters use to talk to the studio. At least that's what I heard. Specifically, I heard a silent carrier on the frequency from 1320 to around 1330. Then one half of a conversation was heard. I already thought this was a CBC feed so I turned on an FM radio to CBC Radio One at 99.1, and heard the same conversation there. The CBC was broadcasting the news and the anchorman was talking to a CBC reporter at some location. What I heard on 152.87 was that reporter's half of the conversation. According to RadioReference.com the callsign of this CBC media feed station is CJY241.

I actually first heard this station on Jan 14 (that's why I was sitting on the frequency today) but on the 14th I didn't hear enough material to ID it.

There's such an incredible variety of signals on the radio bands and I'm always surprised when I discover yet another way in which radio is used.

Miscellaneous Loggings

Heard / seen on the radio today:

• At 1544 UTC I heard VE3NUS on 224.3 MHz with a strong signal. VE3NUS is an amateur radio repeater in Unionville, Ontario (just north of Toronto). No traffic heard; just the repeater's automatic Morse code ID. This is the first amateur station I've ever heard on the 222 MHZ (1.25 cm) band. (I don't spend much time on the VHF and UHF amateur bands).
• Saw two amateur stations operating in SSTV on 14230 kHz. At 1941 UTC caught K05Z from Krugerville, TX calling CQ SSTV with a weak signal. A few minutes later I caught another image from him, now working AB0HB. Then at 2040 UTC I got WA4PEQ working some stations, including VE3IYA. Decoded using MMSSTV.
• Back on VHF, tuning around and caught one of the dispatch frequencies of one of Toronto's big taxi companies, Beck Taxi, on 150.28 MHz. Excellent signal. Issuing instructions to cars. This was at 2240 UTC. (I stumbled across this one while setting up computer control of one of my radios).
• At 2246 heard an unidentified amateur radio net in progress on 146.810 MHz in the 2 metre band.

Amateur Loggings

DXing the amateur bands today. What I logged:

• SSTV: Received KC4RP, McDonough GA, on 14230 kHz at 1538 UTC calling CQ. Only received a single image and no sign of an answer.
• PSK31: Logged KT4WI in Ormond Beach FL, on 21072 kHz at 1653 UTC. In contact with F6EQZ, who was not audible here.
• ARRL RTTY Roundup contest: Logged a lot of RTTY stations between 1700 and 2215 UTC on the 15 and 20 metre bands. Most were in the U.S. and Canada, but I did log a few from elsewhere: PZ5RA in Paramaribo, Suriname (15 metres); P49X in Aruba (15 and 20 metres), HI3TEJ in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic (15 metres), and XE2K in Mexicali, Mexico (15 metres).

SSTV on 20 Metres

One of the many transmission modes that radio amateurs can use on the HF bands is slow-scan television (SSTV). SSTV lets one transmit pictures using a narrow bandwidth signal, one narrow enough to fit in the 3 kHz legal bandwidth limits on the HF bands. The tradeoff is that low bandwidth means slow transmission and low resolution. In fact, it can typically take between 30 and 120 seconds to send a single frame. There is also no audio. So SSTV doesn't allow for the transmission of video. Instead, it is more like a slow slideshow, with pictures in SSTV mixed with talk between them in standard SSB.

Anyone with a shortwave receiver that supports SSB and a computer with a soundcard can decode SSTV signals. I use free software called MMSSTV for this. MMSSTV also generates SSTV signals that can be sent to a radio transmitter, of interest if you're a radio amateur that wants to try out this mode.

Radio amateurs using SSTV tend to stick close to a small range of frequencies so they can find each other. On the 20 metre band they're usually found around 14230-14240 kHz.

Today I had MMSSTV running, monitoring 14230 kHz to see what would pop up. I caught two stations operating in SSTV:

• WB5UXC, Pearlington MS at 2200-2220 UTC with a fair signal. He was in contact with KA0UNB (who wasn't visible to me) and with an N9 station. At 2219 he was calling CQ using a special CQ image.
• XE1RK, Mexico City (D.F.), Mexico at 2221-2230 with a good signal. This station answered WB5UXC's CQ call and they swapped pictures and talked in SSB. Fairly clear picture.

It may just be a slow slideshow but I think it's great that amateurs can transmit a type of television signal on shortwave.

Note that SSTV is different from ATV (Amateur television), where amateurs transmit standard broadcast quality television signals. ATV allows for full video with audio, but is restricted to the UHF bands because of the wide bandwidth needed.

Loggings on Highway 7

I drove back to Toronto today from Ottawa and DXed the AM band while I drove. Car DXing is simple enough - leave the car radio on some frequency while one drives. If something worth logging pops up, pull over, then note down the details. The pulling over and stopping isn't necessary if one uses a voice recorder to make notes, but I don't.

Conditions on the AM band were great today. Occasionally, around the time of the winter solstice, some amount of skywave propagation can remain in effect all day. Normally there is no skywave propagation on mediumwave frequencies during daylight hours because of the ionizing effect of the sun on the D layer of the ionosphere. This layer absorbs signals at these frequencies, preventing them from propagating further. At night, the D layer disippates, which allows signals at mediumwave frequencies to pass through it to the higher F layer, which reflects them back to earth. This is the reason for long distance propagation on the AM band at night. However, around the time of the winter solstice the days are the shortest of the year, and the sun is at the lowest elevation in the sky. So the D layer does not get as strongly ionized and skywave propagation on mediumwave doesn't entirely disappear during the daylight hours. I would expect this phenomenon would be stronger, more frequent, and occur over a longer period of time at more northerly latitudes. Here in southern Ontario I've only ever seen it happen within a couple of weeks of the winter solstice. And it was happening today.

I logged the following stations. I heard more stations than this, but as I was driving I didn't think it was worth stopping to log stations I knew I'd heard before. Four of them turned out to be new catches, which is a fantastic haul. Combined with the three new ones I caught in Ottawa earlier, I got seven new stations on mediumwave today. I can't remember the last time I got so many new ones. This brings the overall mediumwave log count to 963.

• WPNI, 1430, Amherst MA at 1810 UTC (2:10 p.m. local time) with fair signal. 5 kW. Playing folk music. ID as WUMB. WUMB is the University of Boston FM station on 91.9, WPNI is carrying its programming at the present time. First time logging. Received in Ottawa, ON.
• WENE, 1430, Endicott NY at 1815 UTC with fair signal. Sports. ID as "The Team" and gave location as Binghampton. Received in Ottawa. Relog.
• WEOK, 1390, Poughkeepsie NY at 1835 UTC, poor signal. 5 kW. Heard ID and frequency. Received in Carleton Place, ON. First time logging.
• WNIO, 1390, Youngstown OH at 1858 UTC. Fair-poor signal. 9.5 kW. Sports talk, ID as "The Sports Animal". ESPN. Callsign ID on the hour. Received in Carleton Place. Relog.
• WROW, 590, Albany NY at 2015 UTC. Poor signal. Christmas music, ID as "Magic 590". Relog.
• WHBL, 1330, Sheboygan WI at 2100 UTC, around sunset local time. Poor signal. 5 kW. News with items about local events in Wisconsin. Mentions of Sheboygan. Received on Highway 7 in central Ontario. First time logging.
• WIGN, 1550, Briston TN at 2130 UTC with poor signal. 35 kW. Religious. Several IDs and location heard. Received in Havelock, ON. First time logging.

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.

Two Stations on 690 kHz

While driving up to Ottawa this afternoon, I had the car radio on 690 kHz and caught two new stations. I was on Highway 7 between Perth and Carleton Place, Ontario at the time.

• WELD, Fisher WV at 2140 UTC with fair signal. Faded out after a few minutes. Oldies music, ads, and ID. 3 kW.
• WZAP, Bristol, VA at 2145-2201 UTC with a fair signal. Religious programming. ID on the hour with callsign and location. 10 kW.

This was around dusk, but before these stations would have switched to their night powers (a measly 14 watts in both cases).

This brings the count in the overall mediumwave log to 957.

WWVH 5000 kHz, Radio Enciclopedia 530 kHz, and WNNZ 640 kHz

December 26, 2010: While in Harrowsmith, in eastern Ontario (north of Kingston about 20 km) I spent a bit of time tuning the bands on the Kaito KA-1103, my usual travel radio, using its built-in antennas. Made three noteworthy catches:

• WWVH, 5000 kHz at 0509 UTC. WWVH is the time-and-frequency station in Kaui, Hawaii. I heard it under WWV in Colorado. The two stations transmit the same format, but WWVH is identifiable because it uses a female voice for the time accouncements, while WWV uses a male one. WWVH also announces the time before WWV. Signal was poor but clear. I've logged WWVH on 5000 kHz before, but it is seldom audible here, and I don't think I've ever caught it on a portable receiver with no outdoor antenna before.
• Radio Enciclopedia, CMBQ, 530 kHz, Havana, Cuba, 0545-0601 UTC. Radio Enciclopedia transmits cultural programming across Cuba. I caught them playing so-called "beautiful music" tonight - e.g., the theme from the 1940s movie "Laura". Musical numbers with announcements between them in Spanish by a female announcer. ID and location on the hour. Didn't catch the ID but did catch the location. Fair signal in null of CIAO in Toronto. New station for my overall log.
• WNNZ, 640 kHz, Westfield, MA, 1320-1340 UTC. Morning (after sunrise) logging. Fair to good signal, strongest on frequency, in null of Toronto's AM 640. Carrying NPR program "All Things Considered". 50 kW. Logging a 50 kW station from Massachussetts isn't unusual here, but this is my first reception of this station. Normally the frequency is blocked by my local AM 640.
• I also did a scan for WiFi WAPs using my netbook computer, running inSSIDer. Found four WAPs, all probably local. I don't know if there's any point to doing this sort of WiFi DXing - it's a good way to add quantity to the logbook, but there seems to be no way to know where the WAPs are so there's no way to distinguish between routine local receptions and DX. But they are radio "stations" of a sort, so there must be some way to turn this into a branch of DXing.

The two mediumwave stations were new, so this brings the count in the mediumwave overall log to 955.

CIQW 99.3 FM, Quinte West, Ontario

Added a new station to the FM log. I was driving to Eastern Ontario today and while stopped in Trenton, I caught a new FM station: CIQW, 99.3 MHz, from Quinte West, Ontario (which makes it a local station where I heard it). This is Quinte West Information Radio, an automated station broadcasting information of interest to residents and visitors: Environment Canada weather information, public service and community announcements, highway conditions, etc.

This is the 320th station in my overall FM log.

2010 ARRL 10 Meter Contest

The 2010 ARRL 10 Meter Contest was on today and I spent some time making contacts with amateur stations that were taking part in it. The band was open and conditions were good. I kept a log of all the stations I heard. I was listening between 1630 and 2145 UTC. Mostly I was logging stations operating in Morse code (operating from 28.0 to about 28.05 MHz) plus a few in SSB (around 28.5 MHz). Logged stations from the United States, Canada, Belize, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. 10 Meters is interesting. It's closed much of the time, then opens and easily supports global propagation at modest power. Sometimes it opens to one particular part of the world. Today, from here, it seemed to be open only to part of South America - I didn't hear stations from very many countries, but I did log six Brazilians, all from the southern part of the country, plus one Argentinian from the same general region.

I've said this before but will repeat it. DXing amateur stations is something SWLs should consider doing more often. With shortwave broadcasting on the decline, there are many parts of the world that you may only be able to hear on shortwave on the amateur bands.

Sunday Morning Nortown Net

Every Sunday morning from 11:00 to 11:30 local time (16:00-16:30 UTC) the Nortown Amateur Radio Club here in Toronto (North York) has a net or roundtable on 28,300 kHz in the 10 metre band. I occasionally check into this net despite not being a member of that club. 10 metres is good for local communications when long-distance propagation isn't happening there (which is a lot of the time) but most amateurs don't use it for that - the VHF and UHF bands are used instead. Today I heard three stations in the net, all located in Toronto: VA3AAD - John the net controller, VE3ENA, and VE3BKA. It's a nice, relaxed net, worth checking into if you're a radio amateur in the GTA area.

Some Routine Shortwave Loggings

Did a bit of tuning about the shortwave broadcast bands during the afternoon today. Just a few routine loggings:

• Radio Exterior de España on 17850 kHz at 1910-1940 UTC in Spanish from relay in Costa Rica. Fair signal.
• Radio Nederland on 15315 kHz at 2220-2224 UTC in Dutch from relay in Bonaire. 250 kW. Poor signal.
• WYFR, Family Radio, on 11740 kHz at 2225-2256 in English from Okeechobee, FL. Fair signal. Religious.