Eldon-Mr.CFAY wrote:Jon I have a question for you, how would you rate Edmonton as a dx location for mediumwave dxing compared to your many years of dxing in Burnaby back in the 60s etc..??? I know several dxers were in IRCA back in those days dxing from Edmonton such as John Oldfield and the late Percy K... among others. In the 80s I found Calgary, Alberta to be a good dx location especially considering I was almost downtown. Testing out loop antennas in the day and at night generally I did not find much TVI or noise then, was on the ground floor of the apartment building with my office and workshop though. Perhaps the grounding was good in the building which might have helped. But was quite pleased with results there! I know you moved to a new home location in Edmonton in the past year Jon. Have you found the new Edmonton location better than your old one for AM reception?
Anyway just a few thoughts about this. I have often thought that one ideal location for AM Dxing aside from near the oceans would be a rural town location in Southern Saskatchewan perhaps a place like Assiniboia, a fair distance south of Regina. I am speaking about this in terms of Domestic North American DX from the States and Canada and perhaps Mexico. If you are interested in TP Pacific or Trans-Atlantic dx from foreign countries obviously the rural ocean locations like Newfoundland or west coast of Vancouver Island would be best!
Take care everyone! 73s
Eldon
Take care everyone!!! 73s
I took the liberty of starting a new thread, to discuss DX Locations.
Just last week, I was looking at Google StreetView, to figure out the best place to take a picture of the CFRN-AM towers, when I realized just how close I used to live to them. Previously, I thought CFRN was more to the West. I used to live at about 20 Avenue and 156 Street. And CFRN is at about 20 Avenue and 205 Street. That equates to just over 4 miles. At that distance, CFRN's 50,000 watts was even picked up on the telephone wiring in my house and could be heard behind every phone call. Using the internal antenna on the CCRadio-EP, you could hear CFRN's 1260 signal behind W-14-40 CKJR in Wetaskiwin!
I'm now 3 miles SSW, which put me a lot closer to CHFA-680: they were just over 2 miles South with the equivalent of 25,000 watts in my direction, given their North only pattern day and night with 10,000 watts. Thankfully, they are off the air now, moved to FM to make room for development, with Housing already built just East of them. CJCA and CHED are a little farther away, but fire the equivalent of 100-150KW in my direction at night.
My days in East and South Burnaby were nothing like this. When I started DX'ing, CKWX was the only 50,000 watt station North of Seattle and West of Edmonton and Calgary. CKNW was 10,000 watts day and 5,000 watts night, and actually went off the air for a few hours at least monthly on Monday mornings in the wee hours. Plus, there was a ridge running West to East through Vancouver and Burnaby, and I was North of it, which provided some help. Of course, a long wire was pretty much useless as the image rejection on even low-end communications receivers like my Lafayette HA-230 was nothing spectacular. Especially once CKNW, CHQM, CKWX and CFUN were all 50,000 watts. Mixing products filled the dial.
It took a 4 foot tuned (but not amplified) box loop to null out the interference. Even then, it was not long before the only interesting DX was after midnight Sunday nights in those waning years of "everyone" going off the air once a week for transmitter maintenance. CJOR and CKNW were the local exceptions. The North portion of South America, the East Coast of Asia and the Pacific Islands were then possible thanks to the U.S. clear channel stations all being off the air. Even regional frequencies like 1460, 1470 and 1480 were completely dead except when stations tested their transmitters, often daytimers.
Today, to DX this close to 50KW transmitters, I have to use an external small tuned unamplified loop antenna on the CCRadio-EP and an external audio amplifier (ghetto blaster with input intended for an MP3 player). When I was that close to CFRN (in the other house), I could only hear stations within 200 KHz each side of 1260 by detuning the loop farther away from 1260 than the frequency I was listening to AND moving the loop well away from the CFRN transmitter's direction.
As for RF noise, I am really impressed with improvements in noise reduction technology in even inexpensive radios like the CCRadio-EP. Though what I suspect is plasma picture tube RF interference is still pretty common. As well, being in new neighbourhoods means the utility company's power transformers aren't 50 years old.
There are Alberta DX'ers who still hear Asia/Pacific stations every year or two. But they are not anywhere near urban areas or even local transmitters. I don't expect to hear any myself.
On the other hand, Percy Kesteven and John Oldfield regularly got Scandinavian stations in the winter from within the City. But, in those days, the only local 50,000 watt transmitters were CBX and CFRN. I have yet to give it a try.
Moving South of the City, even just 20 miles, would help a lot, since the switch to 50,000 watts for most stations meant almost no signal South at night. That idea sounds good "on paper" but the truth is that a lot of the best DX here would be before local sunset when local stations would still be on Day pattern, some of which are non-directional. More important than DX'ing stations to the West on day pattern and, of course, Daytimers, is reception "over the Pole" often comes in well before sunset in the winter.
Finally, this far North means DX'ing in the late spring and summer requires staying up pretty late at night.
For the moment, I just don't have the time to put a priority on DX'ing. Interesting, but much too time-consuming to get the kinds of results that would hold my interest. Not to mention the fact that I much less likely to hear compelling live local content that would both attract my listening attention as well as making it easier to ID a station.