The Wash - Mini DXpedition

This was a productive trip, despite the 380m BOG pointing at 307 degrees, that's slightly south of north-west and not quite the north-by-north-west direction I would have preferred. I was pleased to hear lots of good signals from North America. In particular, the US States and Canadian provinces around the Great Lakes were dominant, together with the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Sadly, the west coast didn't materialise.

Using the cover of darkness, I laid down the BOG during the evening when nobody was around. I hate explaining myself to passers-by as it must look very strange, running out hundreds of metres of wire along the ground. I was set up for local midnight and recorded the top of the hour. After this I returned home to catch a couple of hours of sleep before returning again at 04:00.

My return journey had me set up and recording for 05:00. Conditions were good, but not overly impressive. By 07:00 I noticed Alberta setting in on 1060 with Calgary's country station CKMX. Then the band was alive with plenty of exotic stations. I am still checking the recordings and so a few more stations might be added. Here is the log so far, in chronological order:

 740 0000 CAN CFZM Toronto ON. IDs as AM 7-40  5697 km

 860 0000 CAN CJBC Toronto ON. Premiere Chaine ID & news jingle  5697 km

 960 0000 USA WEAV Plattsburgh NY. ID as WEAV Plattsburgh, Burlington  5233 km

 840 0500 USA WHAS Louisville KY. Id on the hour  6445 km

1040 0500 USA WHO, Des Moines IA. Newsradio Ten Forty WHO ID then ABC News  6649 km

1680 0500 USA WTTM Lindenwold NJ. ID in pile-up mentioning Lindenwold 
                   Philadelphia  5665 km

 740 0700 CAN CBX  Edmonton AB. CBC NEws jingle heard under CFZM  6696 km

 940 0700 CAN CJGX Yorkton SK. GX94 Yorkton ID. Country music. Fair peaks  6366 km

1060 0700 CAN CKMX Calgary AB. Classic Country and AM Ten Sixty IDs  6924 km

1280 0700 USA WNAM Neenah-Menasha WI. WNAM Neenah-Menasha, a Cumulus Station ID  
                   6179 km

1290 0700 CAN CFRW Winnipeg MB. CFRW ID in pile-up  6223 km

1510 0700 USA WLAC Nashville TN. Newsradio 15 Hundred WLAC ID  6685 km

1550 0700 CAN CBEF-1 Windsor ON. Premiere Chaine ID and French CBC news jingle  
                   5987 km

1630 0700 USA KCJJ Iowa City IA. Now ... KCJJ News ID   6546 km

1650 0700 CAN CINA Mississauga ON. CINA ID and Radio India jingles  5682 km

1000 0730 USA WMVP Chicago IL We are ESPN Chicago ID  6322 km


 950 0701 CAN CFAM Altona MB. Presumed with classical symphony
                   6318 km

1640 0730 USA WKSH Sussex WI. Song with distinctive beat, followed by Radio Disney 
                   ID  6237 km

 680 0800 CAN CJOB Winnipeg MB. CJOB call letters heard under CFTR  6230 km

 920 0800 USA KDHL Faribault MN. KDHL, a Cumulus Station and ABC News heard in 
                   pile-up  6438 km

1150 0800 USA WHBY Kimberly WI. WHBY 11-50 WHBY Kimberly, Appleton, Fox Cities, then 
                   CBS News  6177 km

1290 0800 USA WKBK Keene NH. WKBK call letters heard under CFRW  5274 km

1670 0800 USA WOZN Madison WI. Weekdays on WOZN Madisomn ID  6312 km

1680 0800 USA WPRR Ada MI. Public Reality Radio WPRR Ada Grance Rapids ID  6086 km

 920 0801 CAN CFRY Portage La Prairie MB. Country music. Weather (down to -37!). Sung 
                   CFRY jingle  6266 km

1310 0801 CAN CIWW Ottawa ON. Thirteen Ten News ID. Rolling news ID then taken over 
                   by strong spots station  5331 km

1250 0807 CAN CHSM Steinbach MB. Presumed with classical symphony  6231 km

1380 0853 CAN CKPC Brantford ON. Country 13-80 IDs & country music  5766 km

1130 0900 USA KTCN Minneapolis MN. FM 103 ... more talk on the radio (?) and AM KTCN 
                   Minneapolis. Twin Cities ... Talk ID. Tricky in noise  6414 km

1460 0900 USA KXNO Des Moines IA. Presumed. Fox sports with regular G-o-o-o-o-o Now 
                   slogan, then sports news. Difficult in pile-up. Was being reported 
                   elsewhere t the time  6661 km

 730 1609 CAN CKAC Montréal QC. Radio Circulation ID after advert. French  5202 km


Other stations heard but not identified and "tentative" or "presumed" due to conditions and formats, etc. were:

 660 CFFR Calgary AB
 770 CHQR Calgary AB
 960 CFAC Calgary AB
1140 CHRB High River AB


Positively identified while mobile but the ID has so far not been found on my recordings included:

 830 WCCO Minneapolis MN


I have uploaded Perseus files for 07:00 and 08:00 here:

12-01-13 07:00
12-01-13 08:00


Hopefully there might be one or two more to add to this. I will also check for NDBs in due course and add any loggings here.

I would also like to thank Paul Crankshaw in Troon, Scotland for help with identification of some of my recordings:


Recordings:

  960 WEAV Plattsburgh NY 0000 12-01-13
  740 CFZM Toronto ON 0000 12-01-13
  730 CKAC Montreal QC 0000 12-01-13
1010 WINS New York City NY 0000 12-01-13
1680 WTTM Lindenwold NJ 0500 12-01-13
  840 WHAS Louisville KY 0500 12-01-13
  740 CBX Edmonton AB 0700 12-01-13
1040 WHO Des Moines IA 0700 12-01-13
1060 CKMX Calgary AB 0700 12-01-13
1080 WTIC Hartford CT 0700 12-01-13
1290 CFRW Winnipeg MB 0700 12-01-13
1510 WLAC Nashville TC 0700 12-01-13
1650 CINA Mississauga ON 0700 12-01-13
1520 KOKC Oklahoma City OK 0730 12-01-13
1000 WMVP Chicago IL 0730 12-01-13
1670 WOZN Madison WI 0800 12-01-13
1680 WPRR Ada MI 0800 12-01-13
1310 CIWW Ottawa ON 0759 12-01-13
  920 CFRY Portage La Prairie MB 0801 12-01-13
1130 KTCN Minneapolis MN 0900 12-01-13
  940 CJGX Yorkton SK 0700 12-01-13

Some of these recordings will require headphones. I have included one or two of the more regular stations so you can hear the phenomenal strengths they can reach with a beverage.

Good DX!

John

Location: The Wash, Lincolnshire

Receiver: Perseus SDR

Antenna: BOG (Beverage lying On the Ground)