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Hunting For NDB’s In CLE 207
25 May 2016 | by  |
| 'LU' - 214 kHz Abbotsford, BC |
This coming weekend will see another CLE challenge, this time in the LF band from 275 - 425 kHz. with a bit of a twist.
'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 but this time around, the challenge has been expanded.
From CLE coordinator Brian Keyte (G3SIA), comes the following reminder:
Hello all,
Our special 'Channels Challenge' listening event is nearly here:
Days: Friday 27 May - Monday 30 May
Times: Start and end at midday, your LOCAL time
Range: 275 kHz (or 325) - 425 kHz (see below)
Target: Try to log ANY ONE NDB in each channel
The main challenge is to try and log ONE NDB on each of the 151
channels in the range from 275 kHz up to 425 kHz inclusive.
The 'channel' means the NDB's NOMINAL (published) frequency
(it may not be quite where you heard the Morse ident).
An NDB on a 'half frequency' would be OK. E.g. 345.5 kHz would
count as OK for channel 345, etc. - show it in your log as 345.5 kHz.
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 target of 151 CLE loggings in all - that
will be VERY difficult to reach, probably impossible away from Europe.
If you don't have much time, or if you want to avoid those tough
frequencies shared with DGPS, you can try a reduced challenge of
325-425 kHz. That would give a possible total of 101 NDBs, still VERY
hard for most of us to achieve.
When we first tried this in CLE170 (end of May 2013) the average number
of channels heard was 83 for Europe listeners, and 41 for Rest of the World.
If you have extra time and want to make the challenge more interesting
you could hunt for 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 CHANNELS WITH MIDDAY LOGGINGS
i.e. heard within 2 hours of midday by your local winter clock time.
Send your 'Final' CLE log to the List, if possible as a plain text email
(not in an attachment) with CLE207 at the start of its title.
Please show on EVERY LINE of your log:
# The full date or day no. e.g. '2016-05-27' or '27'
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.
Always tell us your location and brief details of your receiver, aerial, etc.
I will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email at about 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 at the very latest
by 08:00 UTC on Wednesday 1 June.
I hope to complete making our combined results on that day.
Good hunting,
Brian
----------------------------------------------------------
From: Brian Keyte G3SIA ndbcle'at'gmail.com
Location: Surrey, SE England (CLE co-ordinator)
----------------------------------------------------------
TIPS!
Try the channels from 325 kHz first - if you start on the more difficult
lower frequencies it might dim your enthusiasm!
As always, you can find advice about CLEs generally and about this
special one by visiting our CLE page: http://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm
This time you won't need a normal seeklist to help you. However,
from our CLE page you could quickly display details of the NDBs on
a particular channel using REU, RNA or RWW as appropriate to you.
Just enter e.g. 345 - 345.5 in the frequencies boxes and click 'Go'.
(REU shows, for example, that hearing an NDB from England on 287
would be a 'first' since 1990!)
If you wish you could use any one remote receiver (e.g. Twente) for
your loggings stating the 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.
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 ... 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.
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2 Responses to “Hunting For NDB’s In CLE 207”
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This was curiously timely. Approximately half of VK aero NDBs are scheduled to close on 26 May. Still leaves a fair swag for future LWLs (like SWLs only lower…).
Our aero NDB are mostly 200-422 kHz on 3 kHz spacing. A few are around 480 kHz. Powers range 15-3000 W, mostly 100 W into top-loaded (T) 70 foot vertical aerials. uTube has plenty of fare showing VK NDB loggings in the last couple of months.
Boots … NDB’s are slowly trickling away here in NA but not wholesale closures as in Australia. I have noticed this happening a little faster with the ones in Alaska. They will get turned-off for ‘servicing’ for a specified time period and then just never return. There are now several U.S. states that have no NDB’s at all. It will be sad to see them all go as they make fascinating propagation indicators for the MF band. Truly, I suspect that the vast majority are rarely used any longer unless it is by private pilots or when they are specified in certain runway approach procedures.