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Hunting For NDBs In CLE289
22 February 2023 | by  |
| YYH-290 Taloyoak, NU - courtesy ve3gop.com |
Another month has zoomed by and it's CLE time once again. This is a challenge for all newcomers to NDB listening and the ultimate test of your medium frequency receiving capabilities. Can you meet the challenge?
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, transmitted on 365 kHz and its upper sideband CW identifier was tuned at 366.025 kHz while its lower sideband CW ident could be tuned at 363.946 kHz. Its USB tone was actually 1025 Hz while its LSB tone was 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.
From CLE organizers comes the following info:
Hello all
Our 289th co-ordinated listening event is this coming weekend.
It spans a 50 kHz frequency range - about three times wider than usual.
Rxx suggests that there are plenty of NDBs to hear and they are not
changed much since CLE274, the last time we used these frequencies.
Days: Friday 24 February – Monday 27 February
Times: Start and end at midday, your LOCAL time
Range: 270.0 - 319.9 kHz (NDB signals only)
Any first-time CLE logs will be extra welcome, as always.
Please log all the NDBs that you can identify and any UNIDs that you
may come across there.
Please don’t report the DGPS signals in part of this frequency range.
Send your final log to the List (not in an attachment, please)
with 'CLE289’ and ‘FINAL' in its title (important).
Show on each line:
# The Date (e.g. '2023-02-24', etc., or just '24' )
# The Time in UTC (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).
# kHz - the nominal published frequency, if known.
# The Call Ident.
Please show those main items FIRST. Other optional details such as
Location and Distance go LATER in the same line.
As always, of course, tell us your own location and give brief details of
the equipment that you were using during the Event.
We will send the usual 'Any More Logs?' email at about 19:00 UTC on
Tuesday so you can check that your log has been found OK.
Do make sure that your log has arrived on the List by 08:00 UTC on
Wednesday 1st March at the very latest.
We hope to complete making the combined results within a day or two.
You can find full details about current and past CLEs from the CLE
page https://rxx.classaxe.com/cle It includes access to the CLE289
seeklists for your part of the World, prepared from all the previous
loggings in Rxx.
Good listening - enjoy the CLE.
Brian and Joachim
(CLE coordinators)
(If you would like to listen remotely you could use any one remote
receiver for your loggings, stating its location and owner and with their
permission if required. A remote listener may NOT also use another
receiver, local or remote, to make further loggings for the same CLE)
CLE's provide 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 CLE289”
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For those of us that might not know what NDBs are, it turns out it stands for “Non-Directional Beacons.” 🙂
I just got an Eton Elite 750. I currently don’t have the best antenna setup – using only the internal antennas AM/FM. I live in Fargo – so I am able to pick up the AA signal on USB 363 kHz. I am very new to this but when I found the signal this morning I was very happy!!!! I’m learning morse code slowly…. but when I heard the dit dah dit dah I said to myself “I found a signal!!!”. As for the antenna setup, for now it will have to be indoor type – maybe a loop of some sort. I’m working on that. 73 K0JNS Joel