Navigational Beacons Galore!

I never heard so many navigational beacons on LW as I heard on my top-of-hour recording at 0500 UTC today. Most of them were already in my log, but I did add two new ones:

ZMX on 317 kc, transmitting 20 watts from St. Janvier, Quebec, 288 miles to the north-northwest.

UWP on 323 kc, transmitting 1,000 watts from Argentia, Newfoundland, 1012 miles to the east-northeast.

I also logged a new AM broadcast station near the top of the band:

WWCS, "Yahoo sports radio 540," on 540 kc, transmitting 500 watts from Canonsburg, Pennsylavania, 389 miles to the west-southwest.

As usual, equipment used was an ELAD FDM-S2 with an 80-meter inverted Vee. 

More 0500 UTC Top-of-the-Hour Loggings

I have been recording the 0500 UTC top-of-the-hour each morning for a week and have logged the following new stations.

Sept. 9:

• CMLA  on 640 kc from Las Tunas, Cuba, transmitting 10 kW, 1447 miles to the south

Sept. 11:

• Europe 1 on 183 kc from Felsberg, Germany, transmitting 2000 kW, 2771 miles to the northeast
• Rikisutvarpid Ras on 189 kc from Gufuskalar, Iceland, transmitting 300 kW, 2482 miles to the east-northeast

Sept. 12:

• PTD navigational beacon on 400 kc from Potsdam, NY, transmitting 25 watts, 235 miles to the north-northwest
• WSJW on 550 kc from Pawtucket, RI, transmitting 500 watts, 82 miles to the east-northeast
• WCSS on 1490 kc from Amsterdam, NY, transmitting 1000 watts, 112 mils to the north-northwest
• WNBP on 1450 kc from Newburyport, MA, transmitting 1000 watts, 135 miles to the northeast
• WGAW on 1340 kc from Gardner, MA, transmitting 1000 watts, 83 miles to the north-northeast 

Equipment used was an ELAD FDM-S2 with an 80-meter inverted Vee.

Eight New Loggings!

Conditions were excellent at the 0500 UTC top-of-the-hour on September 6... so good that it took me two days to listen to my recording of that top-of-the-hour. It resulted in eight new stations in the log including WDAE in St. Pete, Florida (1095 miles). I also heard previously logged WWL in New Orleans (1256 miles).

Here are all the new loggings:

WSVA on 550 kc from Harrisonburg, VA, 1000 watts, 384 miles south-southwest

WDAE on 620 kc from Saint Petersburg, FL, 5500 watts, 1095 miles  south-southwest

WFNC on 640 kc from Fayetteville, NC, 1000 watts, 556 miles south-southwest

WNIS on 790 kc from Norfolk, VA, 5000 watts, 362 miles south-southwest

WPHB on 1260 kc from Philipsburg, PA, 34 watts !, 277 miles west-southwest

WMID on 1340 kc from Atlantic City, NJ, 890 watts, 175 miles south-southwest

WCED on 1420 kc from Dubois, PA, 5 watts !!!, 307 miles west-southwest

WPGG on 1450 kc from Atlantic City, NJ, 1000 watts, 175 miles south-southwest

Equipment used: ELAD FDM-S2 SDR receiver and 80-meter inverted Vee antenna.

By the way, I also heard some stations that were affected by aurora, but I did not log any because they were unintelligible.

This Day in History… Farnsworth's First TV Demo

On September 7, 1927, inventor Philo T. Farnsworth made his first successful presentation of the “image dissector,” a crucial part of the first televisions. Read the rest of the story here.

Busted Vee

Walking the dog in the rain Wednesday morning, I noticed that one leg of my 80-meter inverted Vee antenna was missing!

Trying to investigate further with a leash in one hand and an umbrella in the other, I discovered that the antenna had come undone after the wire passes through the end insulator and wraps back around itself. It is an easy fix and I will get to it this weekend.

I gathered up the pieces and wrapped the loose end of the wire around the base of my tower to get it out of the way. By the way, the bungee cord that spanned the air between the end insulator and an eye hook bored into a tree was nowhere to be found.

And for what its worth, I listened around the LW and MW bands and did not notice much of a loss of signal strength using the busted antenna with the ELAD FDM-S2 receiver.