 |
| LF-336kHz courtesy: http://www.ve3gop.com/ |
It's CLE time! '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.
Propagation
on MF has been both hot and cold for the past few weeks, seemingly
depending on where you live and the amount of geomagnetic activity
affecting your region. As well, the Sun has been throwing a lot of Coronal Hole Streams toward earth which may or may not affect this weekend's propagation ... but this is all part of the radio-magic fun.
A 'challenge target' for listeners in North America is LF - 336kHz
in La Salle, Manitoba, in the southern central part of the province. Even though running just 50 watts, it's widely heard
throughout North America and is a good target for listeners everywhere. Listen for LF's upper
sideband on 336.390 kHz.
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' near Fargo, ND, 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. These databases have recently been re-vamped and are slicker than ever before!
From CLE coordinator Brian Keyte (G3SIA), comes the following CLE info:
Hello all,
Our sixth special 'Channels Challenge' listening event is
nearly here.
These are the full details.
Days: Friday 28 May
- Monday 31 May
Times: Start and end at midday, your LOCAL
time
Range: 275 kHz - 425 kHz (see below)
Target: Try to
log ANY ONE NDB in each channel
The main challenge is to try and log ONE
NDB in each of the
151 channels in the range from 275 kHz up to 425 kHz
inclusive.
The last time we did this was in CLE248 in September
2019.
The 'channel' means the NDB's NOMINAL (published) frequency.
(It
may not be quite where you hear the Morse ident of course).
In parts of the
World some NDBs are on intermediate frequencies,
such as 321.5 kHz. Logging
an NDB on a 'half frequency' would be OK.
E.g. OK for channel 321 would be
EITHER one on 321.0 kHz
OR one on 321.5 (shown as 321.5 in
your log of course).
Each NDB must be a 'normal' one - no DGPS, NAVTEX or
amateur.
(If you hear any UNIDs, please show them in a separate
list).
So it means a highest possible total of 151 CLE loggings in all -
and that
will surely be impossible for everyone!
If you have extra
time and want to make the challenge more interesting you
could include NDBs
which:
Give you the greatest number of DIFFERENT RADIO COUNTRIES
heard.
(See our Countries list at
http://www.ndblist.info/beacons/countrylist.pdf
Each State/Province in USA, CAN and AUS is a separate radio country)
OR
give the greatest TOTAL DISTANCE from you to all of the NDBs.
OR include
the greatest number of MIDDAY LOGGINGS
i.e. heard within 2 hours of
midday by your local clock time.
Send your 'Final' CLE log to the List,
ideally as a plain text email (not in
an attachment) and, IMPORTANT, with
CLE268 and FINAL at the start of its
title.
Please show on EVERY LINE of
your log:
# The full date or day no. e.g. '2021-05-29' or just
'29', etc.
and UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).
# kHz -
the beacon's nominal published frequency.
# The Call Ident.
Show
those main items FIRST on every line, before other optional details
such as
Location, Distance, Offsets, Cycle times, etc.
Tell us your location of
course and details of your receiver, aerial, etc.
We will send the usual
'Any More Logs?' email at about 19:00 UTC on Tuesday
so you can check that we
have received your log OK.
Do make sure that your log has arrived on the List
at the very latest by
08:00 UTC on Wednesday 2 June.
We'll try to complete
making the combined results within a day or two.
Good hunting,
Brian and
Joachim
-------------------------------------------------------------------
From:
Brian Keyte G3SIA ndbcle@ndblist.info
Location: Surrey,
SE England (CLE
coordinator)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
(Reminder:
You could use any ONE remote receiver for your loggings,
stating its location
and owner - with their permission if required.
A remote listener may NOT also
use another receiver, whether local or
remote, to obtain further loggings for
the same CLE).
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.(
e.g. see kiwisdr.com ) A remote listener may NOT also use another
receiver, local or remote, to make more loggings for the same
CLE.
These listening events serve several purposes. They
• 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 DXers 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!
No comments:
Post a Comment