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| ZSJ - 258 courtesy: http://www.ve3gop.com/ |
This coming weekend will see another monthly CLE challenge. This time the hunting grounds will be: 240.0 - 259.9 kHz and 420.0 - 439.9 kHz.
For those unfamiliar with this monthly activity, a 'CLE' is a 'Co-ordinated Listening Event', as NDB DXers around the world focus their listening time on one small slice of the NDB spectrum.
An easy challenge in this one is to hear the Sandy Lake (ONT) NDB, 'ZSJ', on 258 kHz. At 500W and a 150' vertical, it's well-heard throughout North America. Listen for its upper-sideband CW identifier (with your receiver in the CW mode) on 258.408 kHz.
Hopefully the propagation will co-operate but the Sun has been doing some strange things once again this week, as Cycle 24 continues its downward trend.
If
you are interested in building a system for the new (U.S.) 630m band,
the CLE will give you the chance to test out your MF receiving
capabilities and compare against what others in your area might be hearing.
When tuning for NDBs, put your receiver in the CW mode and listen for the NDB's CW identifier, repeated every few seconds. Listen for U.S. NDB identifiers approximately 1 kHz higher or lower than the published transmitted frequency since these beacons are modulated with a 1020 Hz tone approximately.
For example, 'AA' in Fargo transmits on 365 kHz and its upper sideband CW identifier is tuned at 366.025 kHz while its lower sideband CW ident can be tuned at 363.946 kHz. Its USB tone is actually 1025 Hz while its LSB tone is 1054 Hz.
Often, one sideband will be much stronger than the other so if you don't hear the first one, try listening on the other sideband.
Canadian NDBs normally have an USB tone only, usually very close to 400 Hz. They also have a long dash (keydown) following the CW identifier.
All NDBs heard in North America will be listed in the RNA database (updated daily) while those heard in Europe may be found in the REU database. Beacons heard outside of these regions will be found in the RWW database.
From CLE organizer Brian Keyte, G3SIA, comes the details:
Here are the brief details for our 230th Co-ordinated Listening Event.
In the last Event we used a very big frequency range - 50 kHz.
This time we have 40 kHz to search in, a wide range again, but without QRM from the DGPS beacons and relatively free of NDBs too, all giving us some 'easy listening'?
Days: Friday 23 March to Monday 26 March
Times: Start and end at midday, your LOCAL TIME
Range: 240.0 - 259.9 kHz plus 420.0 - 439.9 kHz
(BOTH ranges are for ALL listeners)
Please listen for the NDBs whose nominal frequencies are in those ranges, plus any UNIDs you hear there.
The LF range will be very challenging from most of Europe.
The HF range will be very challenging from most of North America and from Australia.
S E Asia has some in both ranges.
First-time CLE logs will also be very welcome from anyone, anywhere.
Send your final CLE log to the List, preferably as a plain text email, not in an attachment, with CLE230 and FINAL at the start of its title.
Please show on EVERY LINE of your log:
# The full Date (or Day no.) and UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).
# kHz (show the beacon's nominal published frequency if you know it)
# The Call Ident.
Other optional details, Location, Distance, etc., go LATER in the same line (or in footnotes). Any extra details about UNIDs, especially strong ones that may be near to you (maybe their approximate direction, etc.) will help us to discover more about them. Please make your log useful to old and new members alike by ALWAYS including your own location and brief details of the equipment and aerial(s) that you were using.
Good listening
Brian
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From: Brian Keyte G3SIA ndbcle'at'gmail.com
Location: Surrey, SE England (CLE co-ordinator)
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If you are interested in some remote listening - maybe due to local difficulties - you could use any one remote receiver for your loggings, stating its location and with the owner’s 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
*** NEWS FLASH ***
The Yahoo ndblist Group has just been moved to Groups.io and The NDB List Group will now be found there! The very active 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!
1 comment:
Excellent
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