Tour of a medium wave spectrum with over 20 transatlantic signals
Hi there, I thought some of the readers of SWLing Post might be interested in a review of a MW spectrum with multiple transatlantic signals – all with audio. This is one of the recordings I took with the 200 metre Beverage antenna and although I haven’t properly counted, I believe it generated about 50 catches that were either personal firsts or best-ever receptions. You will note that this video is nearly 20 minutes long, whilst the recording is only just over 5 minutes, thus to capture the signals listed below and demonstrate audio to you, it was necessary to effectively ‘rewind’ a few times. I haven’t annotated the video, however, the stations I’ve paused on to demonstrate audio are listed below. There are actually more catches in this spectrum, but hopefully the video will give you a good idea of propagation on the morning of 10/10/16 and the effectiveness of the Beverage/Elad FDM DUO combination. Also note, I didn’t have time to fully optimise the demodulation settings, so for example, I haven’t used AM SYNC in this demonstration. Individual videos of all catches, with optimised settings appear on my YouTube channel Oxford Shortwave Log. I hope you enjoy it! Recorded in Oxford UK on 10/10/16 at 02:00 hrs UTC. Thanks for watching and I wish you all great DX!
590 kHz VOCM Saint John’s
600 kHz CBNA Saint Anthony
620 kHz CKCM Grand Falls-Windsor
660 kHz WFAN New York
710 kHz WOR New York
730 kHz CKAK Montreal
750 kHz CBC Radio 1 Bonavista Bay
790 kHz WAXY (presumed)
800 kHz VOWR
970 kHz WBGG
1010 kHz CFRB Toronto
1030 kHz WBZ Boston
1130 kHz WBBR New York
1190 kHz WLIB New York
1280 WADO New York
1390 WEGP Presque Isle
1400 kHz CBC Radio 1 Gander
1440 kHz WRED Westbrook
1510 kHz WMEX Boston
1520 kHz WWKB Buffalo
1570 kHz XERF La Poderosa, Mexico
1580 kHz HJQT Verdad Radio 1580 kHz, Bogotá, Colombia
1610 kHz Caribbean Beacon, Anguilla
1660 kHz WGIT Puerto Rico
Clint Gouveia is the author of this post and a regular contributor to the SWLing Post. Clint actively publishes videos of his shortwave radio excursions on his YouTube channel: Oxford Shortwave Log. Clint is based in Oxfordshire, England.
Amazing reception! You must be in a very quiet area. There is so much EMI here in Toronto that AM DXing isn’t what it used to be. I’m surprised at how well you received CHHA as it isn’t a very powerful station.
The call sign for 1010 in Toronto is CFRB. There is no CTFR but there is a CFTR at 680. CFRB and CFTR are both 50 kW.
Michael
Thank you very much! There was a typo on 1010 kHz which I had already corrected on YT, now corrected on here. Recently I received a QSL card in the post from 1010 CFRB and CFRX (shortwave), having emailed a link to my reception videos. A great service, which most stations are not interested in it seems. I was out in a quiet wood in Oxfordshire for this recording, which is necessary due to local QRM; there’s noise almost everywhere! I was surprised to hear CHHA on 1610 kHz as that frequency is dominated by The Caribbean Beacon. Thanks again and 73! Clint
Clint, I’m amazed at the number of NYC channels you’ve logged, some which I listen to daily on the commute to work such as WOR-710 and Bloomberg Radio News on 1130 (1130 was formerly WNEW). Others that come to mind back when I lived in NY were the ethnic radio station WADO (the announcers sometimes ID’d as “Wah-dough”) which used to play the greatest Italian music, and the Long Island station WLIB. Both stations have been broadcasting as long as I can remember. Glad to hear they are still going strong.
Interesting that the Caribbean Beacon is now on 1610; decades ago, before the AM band expanded, you could hear them above the AM band along with navigation systems such as DECCA and CubicArgo. Early generations of cordless telephones used AM frequencies above the BCB too. Not sure if the Caribbean Beacon was operating higher up the band a few decades ago; perhaps some of the older AM DX’ers might chime in.
Thanks Clint for the interesting loggings on the BCB; that small segment of the radio spectrum is a treasure trove for DX’ers. Stations fade in an out at night time and come from all over the globe; some can be remarkably strong thanks to Mother Nature.
Hi Mario, thanks for your comments.
The Caribbean Beacon on 1610 kHz was just about the only transatlantic signal I’d ever hear on that frequency until a couple of mornings ago I logged CHHA Voces Latinas, Toronto. As for WADO and WLIB I logged those stations for the first time, using the Beverage antenna. If you’re interested in what they sound like on the other side of the Atlantic, links to the reception videos follow below. Thanks again and best DX. Clint
CHHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33fiW1RqeLU
WADO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZ56T1UBrbI
WLIB