Hooked On QSLs

Ever since receiving my first QSL in the mail, as an 11 year-old SWL in Cycle 19, I've always loved getting new cards. Strange as it sounds, I can still recall the fresh ink smell and the brown manila envelope that arrived from "Switzerland Calling". In those days the world was a much larger place and Switzerland may as well have been on the moon. It was a world away ... and the envelope was addressed just to me!

I had a similar thrill this week, when my rural mailbox revealed a much-needed card from Afghanistan. It was from Shuravi, T6T, worked a few weeks ago on 20m ... surprising, as he was using just a low wire dipole supported with bamboo poles.

The card confirmed DXCC country #335 for me with most of them, like T6T, being on CW.

I keep a separate country count, and albums, for my two favorite bands ...160m and 6m, where it seems that new ones come either very slowly or in bunches.

As of today, my 160m total stands at 154 worked and confirmed while my total on the magic band stands at 86 worked and 85 confirmed ... proof of the Pacific  Northwest's 6m black hole phenomenon. Sadly I neglected to quickly post a card to 4U1UN for a Saturday morning F2 QSO during Cycle 21. Later attempts proved futile as the logs were subsequently destroyed in a small fire.

The nine remaining DXCC countries will be tough, as, from what I can determine, there is little or no regular amateur radio activity from most of them:

H40  Temotu Province
FT/TO  Glorioso Island
HK0  Malpelo Island
KP5  Descecheo Island
P5  DPR of Korea
SV/A  Mt. Athos
VP8  South Sandwich Islands
Z8  Southern Sudan
ZL9  Auckland / Campbell Island


I've stayed away from e-QSLing as the look and the feel of a written paper card, was one of the first things that attracted me to the hobby and it seems, to me anyway, an important ham radio tradition to keep alive as long as possible. After all these years, I'm still hooked on QSLs.

Hunting For NDB's In CLE193

SN-408 courtesy: Alex Wiecek

It's CLE time once again! For you low-frequency buffs, another challenge awaits. This months frequency range covers the high end, 400-419.9 kHz. Perhaps you can log little 13-watt SN (St. Catherines, Ontario) on 408kHz, last logged here in February 2014.

Conditions have been up and down so lets keep our fingers crossed for some good propagation.

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



"Our 193rd co-ordinated listening event starts on Friday. After the Navtex

CLE last month, this is a gentle return for us to normal NDB listening.
Do join in even if you only have an hour or so to spare over the weekend.

Days: Friday 24 - Monday 27 April 2015
Times: Start and end at midday your LOCAL time
Range: 400 - 419.9 kHz

Just log all the NDBs you can identify with nominal (listed)
frequencies in the range - it includes 400 kHz, but not 420 kHz -
plus any UNIDs that you come across there.

Please send your CLE log to the List (no attachments and ideally in a
plain text email) with CLE193 at the start of its title. Show on each line:

# The Date (or Day No: 24 to 27)
# The Time in UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).
# kHz - the nominal published frequency, if known.
# The Call Ident.

Please show those main items FIRST. Any other optional details such
as Location and Distance go LATER in the same line.
If you send any interim logs, please also send a 'Final' (complete) one.
And, of course, tell us your own location and brief details of the
equipment that you were using during the Event.

I will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email soon after 17:00 UTC
on Tuesday so that you can check that your log has been found OK.
Do make sure that your log has arrived on the List by 08:00 UTC
on Wednesday 29 April at the very latest.
The combined results should be completed on that day.

You can find full details about current and past CLEs from the CLE page
http://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm including access to the CLE193 seeklists
for your part of the World prepared from the loggings on Rxx.

Good listening - enjoy the CLE.
Brian
----------------------------------------------------------
From: Brian Keyte G3SIA: <ndbcle'at'gmail.com>

Location: Surrey, SE England (CLE co-ordinator)
----------------------------------------------------------

(If you would like to listen remotely you could use any one remote
receiver such as http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ for your
loggings, stating its 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)"

__._,_.___

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. If you are a member of the ndblist Group, results will also be e-mailed and posted there.

The very active Yahoo ndblist 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.

If you are contemplating getting started on 630m, listening for NDBs  is an excellent way to test out your receive capabilities as there are several NDBs located near this part of the spectrum.

You need not be an ndblist member to participate in the CLEs and all reports, no matter how small, are of much value to the organizers. 'First-time' logs are always VERY welcome!

Reports may be sent to the ndblist or e-mailed to either myself or CLE co- ordinator, Brian Keyte (G3SIA), whose address appears above.

Please...do 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.

More Magic

LU6QI

For the third day in a row, someone has sprinkled 6m magic-dust over the Pacific Northwest with more long-haul propagation into southern South America. The openings have been characterized by their very small footprints and today, unlike the previous two days, the footprint locked-in on my own QTH for over an hour.


For the most part, signals were in the 559 range but at times would build up to true 599 levels, reminiscent of the previous cycle's F2 north-south openings in the afternoon.

During the entire opening, strong sporadic -e signals from California, Arizona and Nevada were present so I suspect that the propagation mode was Es to TEP and from there to southern SA who knows! I doubt there was any F2 involved (unless it was ver SA) as the solar flux just doesn't seem to be high enough to support that mode. In all likelihood, the present coronal hole stream that is impacting the ionosphere has been the trigger for these unheralded openings.

courtesy: https://maps.google.ca/

During the opening, the following stations were worked, mostly on CW but some on SSB as their signals were very loud at times:

CX90IARU, LW6DG, LU6QI, CE2AWW, CX3AL, LU5FF, CX1DDO, LU4FPZ, CX6DRA and CE3SX.

As mentioned in my last blog ... who knows what this cycle will do next as the surprises just keep coming!

Is there enough dust left for a fourth day in a row?

Persistent Cycle 24

If you've wondered why the bands have been so volatile of late, it's because Cycle 24 just won't go away quietly. It seems that for the past several months, our planet has been besieged by one solar bombardment after another. Most of it seems to be coming via Coronal Hole Streams.

courtesy: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

This UV image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite clearly shows the large coronal hole presently facing earth. The arrowed vectors represent material spewing from the hole, with much of it earth-bound. The material from this hole is expected to arrive between April 21-22, possibly causing more auroral activity.

Our Sun's latest rotation is showing several new large sunspot groupings, all very capable of unleashing a new round of solar flares and associated disruption ... if nothing else, Cycle 24 is persistent!

courtesy: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/

Peeks at the geomagnetic activity for April 16th illustrate just how active things have been of late ... making the high HF bands sound like the middle of the night as well as making LF and MW propagation depressing.

courtesy: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

The software gurus at NOAA have been busy once again, this time revamping several of their visual models to an 'animated' mode. The Ovation Auroral map is particularly interesting when run in this mode as it shows the auroral field's activity visually over the past 24 hours. The display gives one a new appreciation for the dynamics of such large scale events:

courtesy: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/radio-communications

An auroral event on Thursday evening gave 6m conditions a bit of a kick in the backside on Friday afternoon with signals from southern South America making it into various regions of the U.S. including the PNW, usually left out of such affairs. At one point, CE2AWW was hearing / working both the west coast (W7's) and the east coast (VO1's). Sporadic-e was definitely involved on the west coast end as the band was open to California / Nevada for most of the day.

courtesy: http://www.dxmaps.com/

No one can be certain of what lies ahead for Cycle 24 but it's certainly not going away with a whimper!

The Lonely 49 Meter Canadians

It's been many years since I've cruised through the SW broadcast bands but of late I've had a yen to tune through some of the low band frequencies ... 5-6MHz. In searching some of the helpful online frequency references, the Short- wave info site in particular, I was reminded of Canada's tiny voice still whispering away on shortwave, even after the demise of Radio Canada's shortwave presence in 2012.

Apparently there is still activity coming from CKZU (6160KHz), CKZN (also on 6160KHz), CFVP (6030KHz) and CFRX (6070KHz). These are all low-powered (100-1000W) relays of local AM station content and make for interesting DX targets for listeners.

The nearest to me, CKZU, is directly across Georgia Straight and line-of-sight from me. It relays the local AM-band powerhouse, CBU-690. Needless to say its signal is very strong.

courtesy: https://maps.google.ca/

With its antenna system located on the mudflats of Richmond (Steveston), near Vancouver, it should get out pretty well despite its 500W power limit.

courtesy: https://maps.google.ca/

 

 

 

 

 

The antenna system, I am told, consists of a four pole (wood) support for a two-element wire beam of sorts ... one element being the dipole driven-element and the other a reflector. From the looks of the orientation I would say that it is beaming south-east towards the central USA.

Are you able to here CKZU on 6160 from your location? Its overwhelming strength here blocks any chance for me to hear its east-coast cousin, CKZN in St. John's, Newfoundland, rebroadcasting local CBN. If you are in the eastern half of the continent, perhaps you are able to here CKZN's 300W signal?

CFVP is in Calgary and relays local CKMX on 6030 at just 100W. I can hear a carrier there in the daytime but long before my local sunset the frequency becomes dominated by Radio Marti (in Spanish) from Florida ... perhaps you can do better from your location.

Lastly is CFRX, relaying CFRB from the city of Toronto, on 6070. This gets out well and is heard here even before local sunset at 1000W.

It appears that most of these stations have, at one time or another, been slated for decommissioning, and have only been saved by the dedication of station engineers who basically maintain these on their own time, with station owners paying the rent and electricity bills.

Please let me know if you are able to hear any of the 'lonely' Canadians on 49 meters.