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November 10, 2021 1:41 am  #1


Mini DXpedition

Every fall I pick a day and head out into the country for a few hours to do some DXing on the short wave bands. I call it my Mini DXpedition. I take along a radio or two and some wire for erecting an antenna I go to the same location every year. It's a conservation area, about 35 miles from the city, about ten miles inland from Lake Huron. The area is perfect. There are no power lines or any other source of man made noise around. There are trees around so I can get an antenna up off the ground.
 
It's becoming a little more of a challenge every year, because, one by one, the big international broadcasters are shutting down. The challenge is even greater this year because we're still deep in the trough between solar cycles
 
I always pick a day in early November, after we have reverted to standard time. This allows me to take advantage of the earlier darkness. I arrive there around 4:00 PM. This gives me enough time to get set up before it gets dark. I stay there for 4 or 5 hours
 
The day I picked for this year was Monday, Nov 8. The weather can be unreliable at this time of year, but in the twelve years I've been doing it, I've never had bad weather. Indeed, on one or two occasions, it's been balmy, Indian summer weather. This was one of those years
 
It wasn’t a very productive day, but a few hours of solitude in the country is priceless.
 
Before heading home I always stop at the Timès up there to warm up with a bowl of chili.
 
The day’s loggings
 
3330 KHZ - CHU
6070 KHZ - CFRX
5800 KHZ - Radio Taiwan
6501 KHZ -USB – US Coast Guard Command, Norfolk VA
2598 KHZ – Canadian Coast Guard Newfoundland
5505 KHZ – Shannon Volmet, Shannon Ireland
9690 KHZ – Spanish National Radio, Madrid.
5960 KHZ – Voice of Turkey
13750 KHX – Radio Thailand
5990 KHX – Radio Romania International
7350 KHZ – China Radio International
6165 KHZ – Radio Havana
 

 


 

 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
 

November 10, 2021 8:52 am  #2


Re: Mini DXpedition

Thanks for posting that. Interesting. I should do the same. Who made your radio?
Gotta love Tim Horton's Chili!

 

November 10, 2021 9:21 am  #3


Re: Mini DXpedition

Nice!  A great way to chillax and experience another side of radio.

 

November 10, 2021 9:26 am  #4


Re: Mini DXpedition

Looks like a Palstar R30A - pricey but really nice features.

http://www.palstar.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=9002601

 

November 10, 2021 9:28 am  #5


Re: Mini DXpedition

Did you check out the AM dial as well or did you already have a good idea of what you would likely receive?

 

November 10, 2021 1:53 pm  #6


Re: Mini DXpedition

Any broadcasters still operating on Long Wave?  I see your radio covers 100 khz upwards.  Any loggings?

 

November 11, 2021 12:52 am  #7


Re: Mini DXpedition

Yes, it's a Palstar R 30 A. I bought it in 2010 as a retirement gift to myself. And it's a good thing I did. It went out of production shortly thereafter. I talked to a lady at Palstar this week. She said they're working on the development of a new, more up to date model but it's still pretty far back the pipeline.

It's a great radio. Built like a tank. It doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles that some others have. But, what it does, it does very well.

I didn't spend much time tuning the MW band. I used to do a lot of MW Dxing but now, most stations don't even ID and they all sound the same.
On the way home that night in the car, I scanned the AM band and it wasn't a good night for reception. It was more like daytime conditions. Station I normally get only during the day were coming in that night. The clear channel blowtorches that are usually pounding in at night, weren't there at all.

I always look for the long wave navigational beacons. Long wave conditions that night were similar to those on MW, so there was no DX. The thing I like about the beacons is, they always ID. That's all they do. They continuously broadcast their call letters in Morse Code.

Only three to report this year.

278 KHZ ADG Adrian MI

332 KHZ PH  Port Huron MI

353 KHZ  QG  Windsor 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
     Thread Starter
 

November 11, 2021 8:51 pm  #8


Re: Mini DXpedition

turkeytop wrote:

Yes, it's a Palstar R 30 A. I bought it in 2010 as a retirement gift to myself. And it's a good thing I did. It went out of production shortly thereafter. I talked to a lady at Palstar this week. She said they're working on the development of a new, more up to date model but it's still pretty far back the pipeline.

It's a great radio. Built like a tank. It doesn't have all the fancy bells and whistles that some others have. But, what it does, it does very well.

I didn't spend much time tuning the MW band. I used to do a lot of MW Dxing but now, most stations don't even ID and they all sound the same.
On the way home that night in the car, I scanned the AM band and it wasn't a good night for reception. It was more like daytime conditions. Station I normally get only during the day were coming in that night. The clear channel blowtorches that are usually pounding in at night, weren't there at all.

I always look for the long wave navigational beacons. Long wave conditions that night were similar to those on MW, so there was no DX. The thing I like about the beacons is, they always ID. That's all they do. They continuously broadcast their call letters in Morse Code.

Only three to report this year.

278 KHZ ADG Adrian MI

332 KHZ PH  Port Huron MI

353 KHZ  QG  Windsor 

 
Unfortunately a lot of the Canadian longwave non-directional radio beacons (NDB) have already been decommissioned with more to come.

Longwave beacons in Canada are slowly declining.

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/ndb.htm

 

November 11, 2021 9:45 pm  #9


Re: Mini DXpedition

I have a great spot for FM radio DX'ing on top of Spy Rock on Foley Mountain in the Conservation area that overlooks the village of Westport, Ontario which is approximately 55 kilometers north of Kingston.

Spy Rock on Foley Mountain Conservation area overlooking the village of Westport. Camera facing the southerly direction.


My Grundig G8 Traveler II Digital radio. The FM is AMAZING on this thing just something like a car radio. The LW/AM and shortwave aren't the greatest however. Note I saved this image from the internet as some of the print has been worn off on my radio.


The farthest FM signal from the west I've received via tropo on Spy Rock/Foley Mountain was on September 19, 2021 when I heard WFUM 91.1 Flint, Michigan "Michigan Radio" and WLLZ 106.7 rock Detroit, Michigan.

The farthest eastern FM signal I heard via tropo was Sherbrooke, Quebec but from in the village in August 2021. The southern most FM signal I heard was Binghamton, NY and WCIH 90.3 Ridgebury, Pennsylvania until CBC Radio One's transmitter relocated from 104.7 to 90.3 at Belleville, ON which is pretty much all I hear now. To the north such as Arnprior, Renfrew and Pembroke are usually blocked off with some interference on the Ottawa stations and CHLK-FM 88.1 transmitter in Perth, Ontario approximately 31 kilometers from my DX location is blocked by WSLZ 88.1 Cape Vincent, NY/Kingston, ON.

I've also received a 250 watt translator W221CL on 92.1 FM which rebroadcasts news/talk WYSL 1040 AM and some WHEC NBC 10 newscasts in the Rochester, NY area.

When there's no tropo, I can still receive CJRT-FM 91.1 Toronto, ON on top of the mountain almost any day which varies from almost local sounding to nearly nothing!

Looks like not much FM tropo in the forecast maps from Hepburn's DX Info Centre site and may not go up as often so hopefully I'll get up there this summer and fall 2022 if I'm not too busy. https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

 

November 11, 2021 10:10 pm  #10


Re: Mini DXpedition

Nice photo. Looks like you're a more serious photographer than I am.

I used to travel up in that area to a place called Chaffey's Locks. Is it near there?


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
     Thread Starter
 

November 12, 2021 7:29 pm  #11


Re: Mini DXpedition

turkeytop wrote:

Nice photo. Looks like you're a more serious photographer than I am.

I used to travel up in that area to a place called Chaffey's Locks. Is it near there?

 
Yes, Chaffey's Lock isn't too far and it's around a 20 minute drive from Westport.
Screenshot of distance from Westport to Chaffey's Lock.

upload pic

 

November 12, 2021 8:17 pm  #12


Re: Mini DXpedition

andysradio wrote:

Thanks for posting that. Interesting. I should do the same. Who made your radio?
Gotta love Tim Horton's Chili!

I do love Timmies chili. The rest of the menu I wouldn't feed to a dog.
 


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

November 12, 2021 8:46 pm  #13


Re: Mini DXpedition

I also post on a Michigan board. One of the users there takes his G8 all over to remote locales to DX and always reports some pretty amazing results.



https://mibuzzboard.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=47799&p=577806&hilit=Thunder+Bay#p577806
 
 


I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.
     Thread Starter