AmateurRadio.com

This past weekend's CLE saw typical summer conditions ... poor propagation and lots of lightning noise. The MF NDB band was noisy on all three nights, almost everywhere.



As usual, I put my Perseus SDR to work, recording the assigned frequency slots and came away with 24 catches, including some of the 630m experimental stations.

28 11:00 260.0 YSQ Atlin, BC, CAN
27 08:00 260.0 AP Sedalia, CO, USA
27 07:00 261.0 7J Forestburg, AB, CAN
27 09:00 263.0 OAY Norton Bay, ALS
27 08:00 266.0 VR Vancouver, BC, CAN
27 09:30 266.0 SL Turner, OR, USA
27 09:30 266.0 SAA Saratoga, WY, USA
27 09:30 266.0 ICK Annette Island, ALS
29 12:00 266.0 BZ Bozeman, MT, USA
27 09:30 268.0 ZWL Wollaston Lake, SK, CAN
27 12:00 269.0 ZW Teslin, YT, CAN
27 09:30 269.0 YK Castlegar, BC, CAN
27 09:30 269.0 UDE Delta Beach, MB, CAN
27 08:30 512.0 HMY Lexington, OK, USA
27 08:30 515.0 SAK Kalispell, MT, USA
27 08:30 515.0 CL Cresent Beach, WA, USA
27 08:00 521.0 INE Missoula, MT, USA
29 11:30 524.0 MNL Valdez, ALS
29 11:00 525.0 ICW Nenana, ALS
27 11:00 529.0 SQM Big Level Isl, ALS
27 07:30 473.8 WI2XJQ Edmonds, WA
27 07:30 475.0 VA7MM Coquitlam, BC
27 07:30 475.2 WG2XSV Vancouver, WA
27 07:30 477.6 VE7CNF Burnaby, BC
29 13:00 474.0 VE7BDQ Delta, BC

One nice surprise was the strong showing from Alaska towards dawn on night three. Not a peep was heard from the mainland Alaskans on the first two mornings and I was fully expecting to find the same thing on Monday morning but that was not the case.

The last time that this frequency range was covered was during CLE 191 in February, 2015 ... prime winter conditions. At that time I logged 42 beacons compared to 24 this time. The furthest one heard was 4023km away while this time the best was at 2873km. My average distance back then was 1670km compared with 1046km this time.

From Brian Keyte's (G3SIA) summary posted via the Yahoo ndblist Group, come these stats:


In last weekend's CLE we were listening for NDBs in the range
260 - 269.9 kHz and above 440 kHz, including several Amateur beacons.

Here are the combined results tables for listeners away from Europe,
attached as CLE210a5.xls. Soon they will also be available
from the CLE page http://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm

19 Reporters
37 Radio Countries heard
83 different beacons heard
212 reports supplied

Most Heard NDBs:

Rprts kHz C/S Location Cou.
=============================================
9 512 HMY Lexington OK USA
9 260 AP Denver CO USA
9 521 INE Missoula MT USA

8 266 VR Vancouver Lulu Is. BC CAN

7 269 YK Castlegar Brilliant. BC CAN

6 515 SAK Kalispell Smith Lake MT USA

Missing NDBs? (not including Amateur beacons)

The following list shows NDBs with 6 or more loggings in
the similar event in Feb. 2015, but not reported this time.
They may have been withdrawn, changed frequency or ident,
be temporarily out of service or just be inaudible due to conditions.

Then Now kHz C/S Cou Location
=====================================
13 0 260 AVZ USA Terrell TX
11 0 260 BVQ USA Glasgow Beaver Creek. KY
6 0 260 GHJ USA Gastonia NC
9 0 261 2H CAN Lebel sur Quevillon QC
6 0 261 D6 CAN Fairmont Hot Springs BC
7 0 263 JDN USA Jordan MT
6 0 263 LB USA Angleton Lake Jackson TX
10 0 264 ZPB CAN Sachigo Lake ON
6 0 269 AR USA New Iberia LA
11 0 269 CII USA Choteau MT
6 0 269 PK USA Park Rapids MN

10 0 515 OS USA Columbus OH
6 0 521 GM USA Greenville SC
6 0 521 TO USA Topeka KS

Overall conditions should be much better by this time next month as September propagation can often be superb, as long as the lightning activity has died down. Over the past few seasons I have noticed that it seems to be hanging in a few weeks longer than in the past, hopefully not a long term trend but with all of the bizarre weather changes we are seeing, I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.