Greetings from Northshore Studios! This is our initial BlogLog post, with receptions made on the AM/MW band for the past week. My goal is to update this each Friday in conjunction with our weekly DX Central Live! livestreams that take place here each Friday at 1845 CST (0045 UTC Saturday mornings).
Total Stations Logged This Week: 22
Total US States Logged This Week: 12 (including one new state, WA)
Total Canadian Provinces Logged This Week: 2 (both new, BC and MB)
Total "DX" Stations Logged This Week (Non-US or Canada): 3 (including a new country: Algeria)
Furthest Reception This Week: 5,151 miles (891 - Algeria)
Notes:
What an amazing week of DX, honestly. It started almost immediately on Saturday when I heard my first ever reception (from home) of Washington state: 1000 KNWN. I was doing a review of my morning IQ recordings from that morning and had wrapped up when I decided to check 1000 to see if KNWN was around. I had been trying for several days with no luck, as this station was being widely heard (including on the East Coast). However, XEOY-Mexico, KTOK-OK and WMVP-IL had made this impossible thus far. I would try nulling XEOY first through my phaser, as they were broadcasting music which would make pulling a weak WA station more difficult. But when I would null XEOY, KTOK and WMVP would come to the top.
When I dialed up to 1000, I heard two stations with network ads (no sign of XEOY). I figured one was KTOK and the other probably WMVP. I pulled up the Whidbey Island KiwiSDR to see if I could match up what I was hearing, and to my surprise, it was a direct match! Still, I figured these were just network ads and nothing to get excited about. Both of these stations were strong, surely KNWN wouldn't be coming in like this!
Then I heard it: "Northwest traffic."
Wait, what?
Then I heard mentions of I5, Mount Vernon, Turnwater and Seattle. I heard "Northwest Newsradio" and a weather forecast that seemed to match what Seattle was getting at the time. The melodic sounders they were using matched what I had been hearing on the Whidbey SDR from KNWN. I couldn't believe it.
I just heard Washington from Louisiana!
But the night wasn't over. A few hours later, after I had noticed that multiple DXers were hearing Vancouver's CKWX in British Columbia on 1130, including East Coast DXers. Why not give it a shot?
At first, nothing, but then, I noticed what sounded like a match for a talking female from my SDR and the KiwiSDR on Whidbey Island. I recorded the on-air signal I was receiving and monitored. There were a few peaks, so I asked some DXer friends if anyone had been recording the CKWX signal on any PNW SDRs. Jacob Hammond in Minnesota came through with a recording that was during the EXACT same timeframe I was hearing the peak of what I thought was CKWX.
Sure enough, I was able to find multiple matches on my recording with his. I compiled them all together in this YouTube video so you can hear for yourself what a reception of 2,152 miles sounds like!
As Billy Mays once excited proclaimed "But wait, there's more!"
I had been trying to log Manitoba for nearly 2 and a half years from Mandeville with no success. Inspired by my recent luck, I decided to try my hand on Sunday night at doing exactly that! I have a local on 990 kHz, where my best option for MB seemed to be: CBW.
Armed with my newly erected 340° SuperLoop antenna (12'x56' in size), my recent addition of a 22'x73' SuperLoop pointed at 15° and my PA0RDT Mini-Whip mounted in a tree at 45' in height, I felt confident it would happen.
And it did! CBW, with my local on 990 nulled using a vactrol on my 340° SuperLoop (and a little bit of my 305° NW SuperLoop of 22'x97' in size), was received here in Mandeville with a top-of-the-hour (TOH) ID!
But, we are still not done!
Right on the heels of finally adding Manitoba to the logbook, I was sitting on 730 kHz with my PA0RDT mini-whip listening for CKAC in Quebec (hey, I was on a roll, why not?!). To my surprise, I instead managed to snag CKDM-Dauphin, Manitoba (with a much lower-than-CBW 5kw signal)! I had heard these guys on a business trip to Omaha, Nebraska but never imagined I would hear them from Louisiana!
And that was just the first two days of the week!
I was later able to add a station I hadn't heard since my days in Charleston, SC: 891-Chaine 1 in Algeria. At 5,151 miles, this was my new furthest reception (by about 100 miles) and my 21st country received from Mandeville!
Other catches of interest this week included:
- 1250 | WSSP | Milwaukee, WI
- 1080 | WWNL | Pittsburgh, PA
- 1680 | WPRR | Ada, MI
- 1130 | KLEY | Wellington, KS
You can see all of my logs at my online MW logbook.
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