Early January 5th, 2008 was another good day to Greenland. SF, FH, HB, UP, JV and HB were all copied. HB on 328 kHz -401 from Sisimuit, Greenland apparently was using a secondary transmitter as they were IDing as "HB E." As recently as December 29, 2007 they were recorded as using their regular "HB" ID (see below). I made a recording around 0600z of their "HB E" ID. I included with that a recording made at 0400z on December 31, 2007 of FH from Paamiut, Greenland on 331 kHz -404. HB E  FH.mp3
A variety of other stations were also copied today. They include CHE on 440 kHz from Panama (they were readable for a long time), JDN 360 kHz from Columbia and UTS from Huntsville, TX on 307 kHz +1035. That frequency for UTS differs from their licensed frequency of 308 kHz.

Early December 29, 2007 started out with excellent propagation. UP from Greenland was copied just after sunset while the western sky was still lit with twilight. Many Canadian beacons in NU, NT and northern QC were copied. After a normal mid-evening lull, propagation became interesting after 0430z. HB from Sisimuit, Greenland on 328 -401 was copied along with the Greenland regulars JV and UP. I recorded both HB and JV's slow ID's. Particularly JV's ID almost puts me to sleep, although it's not sent too much slower than HB's.
By 0800z I was listening on 305 kHz. YQ always has a strong signal there from Churchill, Manitoba with its 500 watts and 300' tall vertical antenna. Inbetween YQ's ID and DAID tone I had been hearing another DAID tone for the past couple of days. It was probably from LT in Alert, NU Canada but I never could confirm that. This day the station was stronger, although just around 7 Hz below YQ's frequency. With extreme IF and audio filtering I was able to get the signal's ID to "beat" with YQ's DAID tone and permit copy. I could then copy a solid LT. Their ID periods are close to the same length, which means that this condition stayed the same for some time (and took a while to achieve). I thought that I had 10 minutes of this audio recorded, but after it was over I found that I just had 10 minutes of hum due to a bad connection. Oh well...
By 0825z I was tuning up the band and stumbled on to another station on a "Canadian offset"--LLD in Lanai, Hawaii on 353 kHz -399! They had an amazingly strong signal. Their new offset makes them much easier to hear.
Looking for more Hawaii, I listened on 332 kHz for POA. With their standard stateside offset, the interference there makes reception much more difficult. I never did hear POA, just the uncommon VK in Devils Lake, ND (along with the strong "regulars")...
Back into the tuning mode, I heard MA on 365 kHz from Mayo, Yukon again. With Mayo's location and just after hearing Hawaii, I decided that it was time to look for Alaska. After several failures with other stations, I heard SIT on 358 kHz ~-1053 from Sitka, Alaska. It had a somewhat rough tone on their signal, which is not unusual for stations further north (even though Sitka is in southern Alaska). That combined with strong interference from TKX in Kennett, Missouri didn't make for a good recording.
To hear the night's recordings of JV, HB and LLD hit: JV HB LLD.mp3
Propagation to Greenland came and went after that, followed by my calling it a day...

*** To get a better feel of the daytime signals in Nebraska I've added pictures of a HP spectrum analyzer showing the signals here. To see those go to NDB Spectrum Analyzer

Another late start to NDB DXing in December 2007. Many weak QC beacons were heard yesterday (2Q, YXK, YKO, etc.), while propagation moved a bit west early today, December 28, 2007. MA in Mayo, Yukon on 365 kHz +401 and ZFA in Faro, Yukon on 378 +419 were both good copy.
UP on 399 -367/+464 in Upernavik has proven to be the first Greenland beacon to heard again. UP was copied with a fair signal early today, while JV in Ilulissat, Greenland was heard with a weak signal. I made a recording of UP. I also recorded K2's 1 watt signal from Olds - Didsbury, AB Canada on 376 +1033. I began recording K2 after it started going down in strength so you have to get accustomed to its much softer cw after hearing UP's easy to copy signal. It might take a couple of times playing before adjusting to its sound. UP K2.mp3

Not nearly as much NDB DXing for me in early 2007. Early GMT on February 12, 2007 had another good opening into Greenland. JV on 367 kHz (+401/-409) in Ilulissat, HB on 328 kHz (+407/-405) in Sisimiut, UP on 399 kHZ (+461/-373) in Upernavik, and SF on 382 kHz in Sondre Stromfjord were all copied. As compared to last year, this year JV's ID is sent at a slower speed with a shorter gap between ID's. I made a recording to show the change. The 2007 ID is first followed by what they used in 2006. JV 07 06.mp3
Each of the four Greenland stations were the strongest from there at different times of the night. The other ID's sounded the same this year. SF was getting strong interference from YPL, but HB and UP had reasonable signals as the following recording shows. HB UP 07.mp3

On January 31, 2006 I noticed that CLO on 210 kHz from Cali, Colombia has a unique ID style. It sends 7 ID's in a row with normal spacing (3.5 seconds of quiet inbetween). After the 7th ID there is a longer 11.8 seconds of quiet. With it taking about 5 seconds to send the CLO ID, this longer pause almost precisely equals one ID period, plus two short pauses in length. I recorded this happening 11 times without any change in this style. A shortened version of this ID follows. It has the 6th and 7th ID's on it with the short pause between. Then you hear the longer period of quiet followed by the 1st ID of the ID sequence restarting. I wanted to keep the recording as short as possible. Remember, there are 7 ID's with short pauses between, then the one longer pause. It's what I term as QA7ID (Quiet After 7 ID's): CLO.mp3

From CLO to FLO -- January 25, 2006 provided good reception of FLO from the Azores on 270 kHz +1017. It was drifting down in frequency 2 to 3 Hz during the 20 minute period that I was listening to it. With a local NDB on 269 kHz (SWT) just 15 km/9 miles away (complete with strong sideband harmonics) hearing FLO from 5449 km/3386 miles away isn't too common. But FLO was pretty good copy as the recording shows: FLO.mp3
The day was a recovery one for more northerly paths due to recent minor geomagnetic activity. UP on 399 kHz was easy copy from Greenland, but was the only one heard from there on that day.

January 18, 2006 was a good day to South America. URC and BRR from Brazil were copied along with the South American regulars. A recording of BRR on 375 kHz +1201 Barreiras, Brazil follows. It's nice to have a Brazilian on what amounts to a clear frequency. BRR.mp3

I thought the I would provide much better YGZ audio along with a hard to receive closer signal. Both recordings were made on early January 16, 2006. 8A on 310 kHz +1016 from Carlyle, SK Canada (1082 km/672 miles away) is hard to receive due to it having near 1 kHz modulation and being mixed in with the more powerful DGPS signals. This interference was mostly nulled via my MFJ-1026. And with much better reception lately of YGZ from Grise Fiord, NU Canada (3996 km/2483 miles away) on 365 kHz +417 I thought that I would get a better recording of it. Both follow: 8A YGZ.mp3

January 12, 2006 was the best day yet this season for an opening to Greenland. QQ, UP, SI, NA, SF, FH, HB and JV were all copied. First, a recording of UP and NA follow. UP from Upernavik had a good signal in the clear on 399 kHz -360 (and +441, which was in the middle of some Canadians). I can say no more about UP's signal that the recording doesn't immediately tell you... NA from Narsarsuaq on 359 kHz -401 had a more normal, weak signal. UP was heard consistantly for 5 straight hours. NA was heard during almost the same amount of time, however was only copied about 50% of that period. UP NA.mp3
SI and QQ were heard a half hour apart, each for only about 15 minutes. Strange -- SI (279 kHz -404) in Simiutaq is near the southern tip of Greenland while QQ (336 kHz -408) is in Qaanaaq, the furthest north NDB in Greenland. Both were fairly weak, but not that tough to copy. I think that QQ is long going to be my furthest north 25 watt beacon copied: SI QQ.mp3
A December 2008 recording of just QQ is at QQ.mp3

Early January 9, 2006 was a super day to South America, plus Greenland was coming in good again. Best was the opening to Chile. At 0520z I heard a weak station on 355 kHz +942. It slowly grew in strength until it became easy copy as SNO in Santo Domingo, Chile (8,687 km/5398 miles away). Having recovered from that I went looking at other frequencies with Chilean NDB's on it. The first frequency that I checked was 384 kHz. There I heard ERO in Quintero, Chile (fairly close to Santo Domingo). I went looking for more, but didn't find any additional. Rechecking SNO, I found that I couldn't copy it any more. The following recording has three of the fast SNO ID's (without much of a pause between them) and two of the ERO ID's: SNO ERO.mp3
Other less common stations also heard on the same day included CJN-415, STM-350, YMS-340, MCO-340, REU-340, CHI-221, FIOE-212, YSX-215, LMS-370, SMR-287, and SF-382.

Early December 28, 2005 was a good day to the south and southeast. MRA in Marilia, Brazil on 415 kHz was copied from 0200 - 0250z. It took a long time to get a certain ID. By the time that I thought about recording it, its signal was going down. It was just far enough higher than CBC's (Cayman Islands) frequency to be free of interference.
CHE in Chitre, Panama (440 kHz) was copied at 0430z. I got the recorder going on that one. SMR in Colombia was copied most of the night so I also added a short bit of it to the recording. I also added a short segment of JV (Greenland) that was recorded on December 24. SF and HB, also from Greenland, were copied on that day as well, but due to interference didn't make for good recordings. I was somewhat surprised that JV was again the first signal from Greenland heard on a night that had only a very small amount of geomagnetic activity. CHE SMR JV.mp3

Early December 12, 2005 was a day for the northern coast of Colombia. In addition to the more common SMR in Santa Marta, ECB in El Cabo (410 kHz) and PTE (420 kHz) in Portete were copied. Both used regular style ID's (rather than the DB3ID style previously reported as used by ECB). ECB and PTE were heard as follows: ECB PTE.mp3

There were a couple of better receptions on December 8, 2005. BGI on 345 kHz from Bridgetown, Barbados (2,968 miles away) was heard. Normally PUF (the "Magic NDB") from Estherville, Iowa rules that frequency. As can be heard on the following recording, PUF could not be heard at all then with the 143º Beverage antenna that I was using. I needed a clear frequency with BGI's weak signal...
CLO on 210 kHz from Cali, Colombia (a bit closer at 2,893 miles away) is a "frequently heard infrequent Colombian NDB." IOB in Mount Sterling, KY had been dominant on the frequency earlier on the 8th, but CLO was all that could be heard at the time of the recording: BGI CLO.mp3  Unidentified TDN on 414 kHz could be copied today at 1800z (noon local time).

Early December 6, 2005 had a number of interesting stations heard. There were two unidentified stations copied. TDN had a good signal on 414 kHz +1025. As the following recording shows, there's no doubt about hearing the ID correctly on that one...
An unusual NDB was heard on 251 kHz +390. It's ID was simply "4," without any DAID. Based on propagation then, the signal level of "4" and the fact that 4O from Swan Hill, AB Canada wasn't heard then on the same frequency, it seems like that "4" was actually 4O with a bad IDer that also wasn't producing the DAID tone. The recording has the stronger YCD in BC on it as well. My receiver was tuned to minimize this interference.
There were many stations heard from the Yukon and Northwest Territories at this same time. Probably the most interesting of those was DA on 214 kHz (close to the standard +400 Hz) from Dawson, YT. I timed its ID cycle as 10.15 seconds. I just have one ID on the following recording because it's one of those that you need to "squint your ears" to copy (easier with headphones on). Dawson, YT is close to Alaska. I went looking for Alaskan NDB's a bit later. Perhaps I waited a bit too long as propagation in that direction tapered off before I heard anything from there.
TOY in Tongoy, Chile on 260 kHz was heard again on the 6th. Just a quick bit of it is added to the recording due to the interference level and my number of other TOY recordings.
Finally, the recording has YSX Ilopango, El Salvador on 215 kHZ +1025. It was back to IDing as it had done previously (on 5FEB2003) as YSXE (generally to indicate that a backup transmitter is being used). With its non-stop IDing style, adding this "E" leaves a bigger "hole" between ID's to hear other stations.
All of the above mentioned December 6th receptions can be heard on the following 53 second recording: TDN 4 DA TOY YSXE.mp3

I had written November 22, 2005 off as a day not to provide any audio -- at the last minute it turned into a Costa Rican day! First FIO Fiora, Costa Rica on 212 kHz was heard. Its ID was swimming around in frequency, centered around +740. A weaker negative offset was also heard around -600. I found that it was FIO's modulation frequency drifting rather than its carrier. Next, CHI in Los Chiles, Costa Rica was heard on 221 +970. This higher offset than that heard previously put it much closer to some carriers. Both of those stations are on the following recording along with a quick JV-367 Greenland (again having a good signal). FIO CHI.mp3

November 21, 2005 was noisy (static) and I was involved in several things. Propagation to the north was limited by geomagnetic activity but good to South America again. Not really listening for new ones, I decided to record a couple of semi-regulars. First is SMR on 287 from Santa Marta, Colombia. With its high power near the Caribbean Sea I hear it often. Next is YSX on 215 kHz from Ilopango, El Salvador. While not as regular as SMR, it's frequently heard. YSX is probably more limited by the busy frequency that it's on. SMR YSX.mp3

Early November 20, 2005 (UTC) was a South America day. While there was returning weak copy of JV Greenland, things south were better. Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and standing out most were the Brazil stations copied. Those included TUP on 345 kHz, BHZ - 520 and URT on 235. A recording of URT from Uruburetama (near Itapipoca) Brazil follows: URT.mp3   The second ID on it is easier to copy. TUP in Tupa, Brazil is significantly further south, but due to interference doesn't make for a good recording.

On November 19, 2005 JV Greenland returned at an earlier time, 0125 - 0210z. It vanished then reappeared from 0345 - 0800z. Then HB on 328 kHz from Holsteinsborg (I like that name)/Sisimiut, Greenland was heard between 0355 - 0430z: HB.mp3 HB's 60M tall antenna and transmitter building are shown to the right. Most of the Greenland beacons are using 50 - 100 watts and feed a 24M tall vertical tower antenna. Exceptions to that are that HB and OZN both feed 60M tall vertical towers. KU uses a T antenna now, however that will change to a 60M tall top-loaded tower next year. OZN and KU are the exceptions regarding transmitter power, both are transmitting 1,000 watts. Another recording of HB (when HB's signal was better) can be found on my Filters page: Filters

Early November 18, 2005 (UTC) was a good propagation day to a lot of places. The following recording first has MTU from Mitu, Colombia. It had a cw signal about 11 Hz below its listed frequency of 412.5 kHz. You can hear a weak signal from RPB in Belleville, KS between the MTU ID's. RPB has a carrier frequency of 414.5 kHz and you are hearing its second audio harmonic. MTU was copied most of the time from 0250 - 0700z. That's followed by another return of JV - 367 kHz, Ilulissat, Greenland. After getting blown away by MTU's signal, the first JV ID is hard to catch on the recording. Once you become used to the audio, the second ID is obvious. MTU JV.mp3

JV - 367 kHz from Ilulissat, Greenland has repeatedly had a good signal recently. Shortly after hearing JV, MA on 365 kHz in Mayo, YT Canada was copied on 16OCT05. To hear both, hit: JV MA.mp3