Arctic NDBs

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pjxii

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Last night I came across UP 399 kHz Upernavik Greenland around 0300 UTC. A distance of 3374 miles into Naples FL, about the same as my record of 3388 from Holman NT Canada (HI 361) which I heard early July last year. Both are NDB "powerhouses"of 2kW. Though its a small sample size, I'm starting to wonder if seasonal propagation along this path is occurring. Probably not, but worth investigating.

Do any of you other NDB hunters notice any type of seasonal paths in your locations?
 

spongella

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That's a pretty good catch pjxii, congratulations. Only thing I've experienced is that the dead of winter when the QRN is low is the best time at this location for NDB reception on longwave. This past winter was very favorable for Canadian beacon reception, thankfully there are plenty of them left to hear.
 

phask

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Years ago, and I mean like mid '60's. I had a BC348-M, ex-military receiver and a 300' plus long wire. I logged nearly every available NDB in N. America and a few elsewhere.

QRM was low back then, no wi-fi, computers, etc. Of course, you would get noisy spark plug wires a mile away. Wish I still had the logs.
 

WA8ZTZ

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Nice catch !... especially for this time of year.
What RX and antenna are you using ?
 

WA8ZTZ

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This past winter was very favorable for Canadian beacon reception, thankfully there are plenty of them left to hear.

Get 'em in your logbook while you can... looks like Canada has started to decommission many of it's NDBs...
see the post further down this forum concerning this.
 

WA8ZTZ

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K Index has been very low and Dst has been recovering to a more quiet level since the beginning of the month.
 

pjxii

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Nice catch !... especially for this time of year.
What RX and antenna are you using ?

Thanks, I heard it using a Dansk M3000 (AKA Marconi Oceanic) with a FSL plugged into an AOR LA320 loopstick tuner.
I was very surprised when I came across it, as the only beacons I was hearing all evening were from Florida and Georgia, not a good night but mostly free from lightning crashes at least. What made it stand out was the spacing between letters being shorter than NDBs in the US (most of them anyway, there's one in Georgia which is very rapid but I forget which one).
 

pjxii

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K Index has been very low and Dst has been recovering to a more quiet level since the beginning of the month.

I've only been DXing NDBs for a few years, but have been a SWL all my life. Does the opposite generally occur, when overall conditions are good for SW its bad for LW and vice versa? What will the eventual rise in the solar cycle do for longwave reception?
 

pjxii

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Years ago, and I mean like mid '60's. I had a BC348-M, ex-military receiver and a 300' plus long wire. I logged nearly every available NDB in N. America and a few elsewhere.

QRM was low back then, no wi-fi, computers, etc. Of course, you would get noisy spark plug wires a mile away. Wish I still had the logs.

That must have been a blast! NDB hunting has become my favorite hobby.
 

Boombox

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Theoretically, good years for SW are relatively poorer for MW and LW, and vice versa. But -- being a MW DXer -- I've found that good years for SW were also better for MW (even on the low part of the band) than they are now. LW is obviously its own animal, and probably YMMV regardless of sunspots.
 

WA8ZTZ

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I've only been DXing NDBs for a few years, but have been a SWL all my life. Does the opposite generally occur, when overall conditions are good for SW its bad for LW and vice versa? What will the eventual rise in the solar cycle do for longwave reception?

Generally speaking, nighttime, winter, and solar cycle low are best for LW (and MW) propagation.
 

WA8ZTZ

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Thanks, I heard it using a Dansk M3000 (AKA Marconi Oceanic) with a FSL plugged into an AOR LA320 loopstick tuner.
I was very surprised when I came across it, as the only beacons I was hearing all evening were from Florida and Georgia, not a good night but mostly free from lightning crashes at least. What made it stand out was the spacing between letters being shorter than NDBs in the US (most of them anyway, there's one in Georgia which is very rapid but I forget which one).

Nice RX.

The rapid Georgia beacon may be 415 DJD Canton. Have not logged it recently, but in the past it was sending the ID all as
one string with no breaks.
 

pjxii

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Okay, there is something serious going on with the ether because I'm 66% positive that I just logged a beacon in the Czech Republic on 492 kHz. Very, very weak (had to carefully use manual Gain, a 1 kHz filter and the notch filter in CW mode for a loooong time) through some lightning noise but eventually I clearly heard T & B though I could not confirm the V. That's 5200 miles to me. There were a couple of more signals above 429 kHz which I heard the heterodyne but couldn't pull in even a dah. This frequency range is all eastern Europe.
You guys with SDRs with DSP NR might want to spend some time above 429 kHz and see if you can dig anything out.
 

WA8ZTZ

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Ionosphere had recovered from a CME on Friday, K Index was 0 - 1 and Dst was nearly back to 0.
You were in the right place at the right time.
 

WA8ZTZ

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Geomagnetic storm in progress per various sources, K Index = 6.
 
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