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Hunting For NDBs In CLE262
18 November 2020 | by  |
| ZYC-254 courtesy: http://www.ve3gop.com/ |
Propagation on MF has been excellent this past week and hopefully will continue to be good.
A challenge target for listeners in North America is ZYC - 254kHz in Calgary, Alberta. It's widely heard throughout North America thanks to its lower than usual modulation frequency. Listen for ZYC's upper sideband on 254.361 kHz with your receiver in the CW mode.
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,
This coming weekend we have another chance to forget the current problems for a while and enjoy a Coordinated Listening Event.
All CLE logs will be very welcome, short or long.
Days: Friday 20 Nov. - Monday 23 Nov.
Times: Start and end at midday, local time at the receiver.
Normal NDBs in the ranges:
240.0 - 259.9 kHz plus 420.0 - 439.9 kHz
(BOTH ranges are for ALL listeners)
Please log the NDBs you can identify that are listed in the ranges, plus any
UNIDs that you come across there.
You can find details of the beacons in those ranges, lists and maps, if you
go to http://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm and click on the 'CLE SEEKLIST'
link.
Send your final CLE log to [email protected] with CLE262 and FINAL in the
email title.
Please show on EVERY LINE of your log:
# The full Date (or Day no.) e.g. '2020-11-20' (or just '20')
and UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC)
# kHz (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). 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.
We will send an 'Any More Logs?' email at about 20:00 UTC on Tuesday evening so you can check that your log has been found OK.
To be included in the combined results your log must have arrived by 09:00
UTC on Wednesday 25 Nov. at the very latest.
We hope to complete making the Combined Results within a day or two.
Good listening
Brian and Joachim
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From: Brian Keyte G3SIA ndbcle'at'gmail.com
Location: Surrey, SE England (CLE coordinator)
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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.
( 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!
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