Hunting For NDBs In CLE258 - Pick Five!

Next weekend's CLE is something a little different. Listeners are asked to pick five frequencies only, to listen on, and then find as many beacons as they can!

During these stressful times, CLE258 might provide some much needed distraction for you.

I'm sure most listeners will find their own strategy for picking their five frequencies. Will it be the five that have given you the most loggings? The five that have provided the most loggings in North America or Europe? Will it be the five that are not being bothered by your stronger pest signals? Choose wisely and enjoy the challenge.

'CLE's are 'Co-ordinated Listening Events, and NDB DXers around the world focus their listening time on one small slice of the NDB spectrum.

From CLE coordinator Brian Keyte (G3SIA), comes the following CLE info:

Hello all

 

Here are the final details for this weekend’s unusual Coordinated Listening Event. 

We are each invited to choose, for our own listening, FIVE PRECISE FREQUENCY SETTINGS in the NDB range.  

 

     Days:    Friday 24 July - Monday 27 July

     Times:   Start and End at midday, your LOCAL time

     Target:   NDBs (including any UNIDs) heard using your choice of any FIVE frequency settings at least 10 kHz apart in the range 190–1740 kHz

                   

For each of your chosen frequencies, use of a wide filter, or no filtering, will allow you to hear the NDBs within a few kHz on either side.  The signals will depend on the time of day and the aerial(s) that you are using, etc.   You could choose a frequency setting like 345.6 kHz if you wanted (i.e. you are not limited to whole kHz).

 

What frequencies would be good ones for hearing several NDBs in your own situation? 

 

Many of us away from Europe will find this more of a challenge, though if you are in the Southern Hemisphere your mid-winter conditions should help.

 

It will add extra interest for everyone if, before the CLE, you could say in an email to the List the five frequencies that you hope to use.  (In the Results we shall probably flag where listeners were using pre-selected frequencies).  Of course your choice of a frequency will not stop any other listeners from using it too!  Each of your five frequency settings should remain exactly the same throughout the Event.

 

Please send your final CLE log (before Wednesday) to the List, if possible as a plain text email and not in an attachment, showing 'CLE258' and 'FINAL' in its title.

 

Please include with every one of your loggings:

 

    #  The date (or just the day 'dd') and UTC (days change at 00:00 UTC).

    #  kHz - the beacon's nominal frequency.

    #  The Call Ident.

 

It is important to show those main items FIRST - any other optional details such as Location, Distance, etc. go LATER in the same line.

You could show the loggings in frequency order, with the receiver’s frequency setting on a separate line before each of the five groups of loggings. 

 

Don't forget to give your OWN location and details of your receiver and aerial(s), etc.

 

If you have a very basic receiver such as a ‘1AD’ and probably home made, you will know that its wide bandwidth often receives several signals at the same time.  That might be a good candidate to use for listening on one or more of your frequencies.  However, be aware that aerial changes and adjustments can alter its tuning very significantly.  To correct for that, try to use a reference NDB, ‘mid-distance from you’ so that it is audible all the time and keep it tuned to a low audio note so that the actual central receiving frequency doesn’t alter (or use an external signal generator set to the chosen frequency). 

 

Please make sure that any waterfall facility on the receiver is not being displayed.

 

If you have advanced recording facilities you COULD of course record everything during the CLE and do no live listening. However, please bear in mind that we should each stick to the five frequencies that we’ve selected in advance. While playing back recordings, the receiver’s frequency should always be set to one of your five pre-selected frequencies and not be changed to enhance a possibly difficult-to-hear signal.

 

Good listening!

  Brian and Joachim

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From:          Brian Keyte G3SIA        ndbcle'at'gmail.com

Location:     Surrey,  SE England       (CLE coordinator)

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If you wish you could use any one remote receiver for your loggings,

stating the location and owner - and with their permission if required.

A remote listener may NOT also use another receiver, local or remote,

to make further loggings for the same CLE.

 

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These listening events serve several purposes. They:

• determine, worldwide, which beacons are actually in service and on-the-air so the online database can be kept up-to-date

• determine, worldwide, which beacons are out-of-service or have gone silent since the last CLE covering this range

• will indicate the state of propagation conditions at the various participant locations

• will give you an indication of how well your LF/MF receiving system is working

• give participants a fun yet challenging activity to keep their listening skills honed

Final details can be found at the NDB List website, and worldwide results, for every participant, will be posted there a few days after the event.


The NDB List Group is a great place to learn more about the 'Art of NDB DXing' or to meet other listeners in your region. There is a lot of good information available there and new members are always very welcome. As well, you can follow the results of other CLE participants from night to night as propagation is always an active topic of discussion.

You need not be an NDB List member to participate in the CLEs and all reports, no matter how small, are of much value to the organizers. 

Remember - 'First-time' logs are always VERY welcome!

Reports may be sent to the NDB List Group or e-mailed to CLE co-ordinator, Brian Keyte (G3SIA), whose address appears above. If you are a member of the group, all final results will also be e-mailed and posted there.

Please ... give the CLE a try ... then let us know what NDB's can be heard from your location! Your report can then be added to the worldwide database to help keep it up-to-date.

Have fun and good hunting!