Christmas holiday NDB logs!

[Chanter]

It's about time I uploaded these!  Since my lovely little DX-398 is back in operation (!!! and thank you to some Wisconsin local electrical engineers with gigantic hearts, seriously), I took the opportunity to get out of the noiseball that is the city and do some scanning when holidays with family came around.  Well, there was quite a lot of family holidayness in there too... but the late evenings were mine.  I'd include the AM logs as well, but that mostly amounted to CBC Radio 1 out of Winnipeg.  Surprise?  Nah, for anyone who's met me.  

So, NDBs!  I've only recorded the first instance of when I heard a station, whether or not I caught them later on.  Some I did, in the cases of OS, AQ, UNU, YMW and YLD, just to name a few, but some weren't heard again.  Related, if anyone's got tips for hearing stations that fall within the DGPS region of the LW band, please fill me in?  There's about a 50kHz block that's all warbly crackly noise, matched to the sound of undecoded DGPS signals, and I can't hear CW in there for anything.  Here's what I got: 

December 22: 

0435Z: 
OS - Oshkosh, WI (local) 
ML - La Malbaie-Charlevoix, QC 
YY - Mont Joli, QC 
YAT - Atawapiskat, ON 
DL - Duluth-Pike Lake, MN (new for me!) 
YPH - Inukjuaq, QC 
YTL - Big Trout Lake, ON 

0505Z: 
YLD - Chapleau, ON 
NM - Matagami, QC 
SB - Sudbury, ON 
UNU - Juneau, WI (local) 
GW - Kuujjuarapik, QC 
PN - Port Menier, QC (new for me!) 
AQ - Appleton, WI (local) 
ZSJ - Sandy Lake, ON 
YXL - Sioux Lookout, ON 

December 25: 

0406Z: 
YZE - Gore Bay, ON 

0432Z: 
YEL - Elliot Lake, ON 
YKQ - Waskiganish, QC 
YMW - Maniwaki, QC 

0439Z: 
UL - Montréal, QC 

0445Z: 
RJ - Roberval, QC (new for me!) 

0508Z: 
QT - Thunder Bay, ON 

0510Z: 
IN - International Falls, MN 

0512Z: 
YER - Fort Severn, ON 

December 26: 

0444Z: 
YPO - Peawanuck, ON 

0459Z: 
YWP - Webequie, ON 

[pinto vortando]

Pulling NDBs out of the DGPS band can be a challenge.  That portable, even in NARROW mode,
may not have enough selectivity to peel away the warble covering a NDB.
Try for 289 Latuque QC and 300 YIV Island Lake MB... they seem to have good signals most of the time.

[pinto vortando]

Also, what are you using for an antenna ?

[jFarley]

Welcome back, Chanter!  Very glad to hear that the 398 is operating again.

[ChrisSmolinski]

How were things last night in NDB land? Specifically around 0245 UTC. Any unusual propagation from Europe? I had the best ever DGPS decoding session, hands down.

[jFarley]

Things were awesome if you lived on the right coast.  Many TAs logged in Nova Scotia, and even one Russian.  Here in the Flatlands great reception from South America, but not much from the East.  Chuck Norris prob don't like me.

[ChrisSmolinski]

Last night was amazing as well, although perhaps not quite as good.  I am still processing the I/Q files and will post the results later today.

It is interesting how propagation in this frequency range favors certain locations. I am curious as to the mechanism involved. A few months ago I came across some rather old articles/papers (from the 70s or 80s?) discussing long distance propagation on the HF bands. The author suggested that the traditional theory of multiple hops was not correct (or at least was not always the case), but rather some mechanism close to ducting was at work. This better reproduced the higher signal strengths noted, vs multiple hops which introduce a severe loss penalty with each hop.  I wonder if something similar can occur on the MW and LW bands. It would go a long way to explaining what we see - a number of DX stations from one particular area A being received in area B, but not from other locations and not being received in other locations.

[jFarley]

I wonder if you are referring to papers published in the Fine Tuning "Proceedings" in the late 80s early 90s by John Bryant and Dave Clark?  They analyzed reception of primarily 90M PNGs and Indos and hypothesized that some form of whispering gallery or chordal hop prop model could explain why some stations could be heard at far distances but be inaudible at intermediary points.

As for LF, I have no iodear what's going on up there.  I kinda believe a commonly imagined model in which there is not an actual hop at a presumed reflection point, but rather a low angle "brush by" of the earth's surface.

Conditions over the last cupla days have been very good at times, but I have not been able to capitalize on the dramatic N and NE props others have been seeing.  I have spent the better part of this morning trying to push my reception envelope out past GRL by looking for ISL and a couple in the Azores but no luck there.  I HAVE, however, been noting excellent props to SA the last 2 nites.  I have logged 21 from SA the last couple of nites, and have once again logged the NDB down in Puntas Arenas (>10000 kM) so I am not complaining.  Those are just the cards that Chuck and the other Great Gods of Propagation have dealt me.

[ChrisSmolinski]

Yes, that was one of the papers. I also recall another, I believe by a Canadian DXer (his name escapes me).

Even though conditions to Europe (from here) were excellent, they were about average, or even less than average, to the Pacific NW / Alaska. With the loss of the US stations in the NW CONUS I no longer have them as a reference, but Richmond BC was not spectacular, and nothing from the rest of BC or any from AK.

There are supposedly some DGPS stations in Latin America (besides Panama) but I have never logged them, and I do not think I have ever seen any logs. There are a bunch in Australia that have been logged on the western US, I believe from an ocean cliff in OR or WA that has some special magical properties for DXing. Would be a nice catch from here but I am not holding my breath. I did log HI once on DGPS before the stations went QRT.

The DK0WCY Magnetogram (available on the HFU propagation page https://www.hfunderground.com/propagation/index.html ) seems to be a reasonable predictor of DGPS DX, when it is 1 (or better yet 0) for an extended period, results are usually excellent. Does not look promising for tonight, we'll see.

[jFarley]

Yes, that was one of the papers. I also recall another, I believe by a Canadian DXer (his name escapes me).

Dave Clark was Canadian.

Does not look promising for tonight, we'll see.

Still gotta play the game.

[ChrisSmolinski]

Aha I found it.... http://k3bu.us/propagation.htm

Electromagnetic Wave Propagation By Conduction
BY YURI BLANAROVICH, VE3BMV (another good Canadian name) 

[jFarley]

Thanks, Chris!

[pinto vortando]

 YURI BLANAROVICH,  (another good Canadian name) 

What NHL team is he on ?