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Hunting For NDBs In CLE267
21 April 2021 | by  | |
| YUT - Replulse Bay, NU (courtesy: ve3gop.com) |
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 YUT - 335kHz in Repulse Bay, NU, at the north end of Hudson Bay. Even though running just 25 watts, it's widely heard throughout North America and Europe and is a good target for listeners everywhere. Listen for YUT's upper sideband on 335.406 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
Here are the full details for this weekend's co-ordinated listening event.
It is open to everyone including CLE new-comers:
Days: Friday 23 April - Monday 26 April
Times: Start and end at midday, your LOCAL time
Range: 335.0 - 349.9 kHz
Wherever you are, please join us and log the NDBs that you can positivelyidentify that are listed in this busy frequency range (it includes 335.0 kHz but not 350 kHz) plus any UNIDs that you come across there.
Very short logs and very long ones are welcome (in-between ones are OK too!)
Send your CLE log to the List, preferably as a plain text email (not in an attachment) with ‘CLE267 FINAL’ in its subject line.
Please show on EVERY LINE of your log:
# The date (e.g. '2021-04-23' or just the day no. '23') and UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).
# kHz (the beacon's nominal published frequency, if you know it)
# The Call Ident.
Show those main items FIRST on each line, before other optional details such as Location, Distance, etc. If you send any interim logs to the List during the event, please also send your 'FINAL', complete one.
Always make your log interesting to everyone by giving details of the listening location and brief details of the receiver, aerial(s), etc.,that you were using.
We will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email at about 19:00 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 28 April. Joachim and I will then hope to complete making the combined results within a day or two.
You can check on all CLE-related information from the CLE Page
http://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm
It includes a link to seeklists for the Event from the Rxx Database.
Good listening
Brian
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From: Brian Keyte G3SIA ndbcle'at'gmail.com
Location: Surrey, SE England (CLE coordinator)
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(REMINDER: You could use any one remote receiver 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 make 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!
2 Responses to “Hunting For NDBs In CLE267”
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ARRL did it it again. Acronyms acronyms. The article focuses on NDBs and CLEs. It is great that the article tells us what CLE means but neglected to tell us what NDB means. Please, acronyms are great because they save time. But school taught us that an acronym when first used in an article should be identified in parentheses or in some appropriate manner after which the acronym could be used freely in same article. Your own example… It’s CLE time! ‘CLE’s are ‘Co-ordinated Listening Events, …
ARRL did it it again. The article focuses on NDBs and CLEs. It is great that the article tells us what CLE means but neglected to tell us what NDB means. Please, acronyms are great because they save time. But school taught us that an acronym when first used in an article should be identified in parentheses or in some appropriate manner after which the acronym could be used freely in same article. Your own example… It’s CLE time! ‘CLE’s are ‘Co-ordinated Listening Events, …