Alaskan opening last night

[Toomas Losin]

Last night signals from Alaskan longwave beacons made it to the Lower Mainland. RWO on 394 kHz and EEF 391 kHz. The usual indicator of Alaskan propagation, SQM 529, was strong too.

Not much else though, I wonder what tonight'll bring.

[Anotherwpgguy]

Neat .... what rx and ant are you using for the NDB logging?

[Toomas Losin]

I'm using the same 8x4 metre Pennant antenna that I use for mediumwave. I'm not sure how well it works on longwave compared to something like a large tuned loop. The radio is an Icom R71a.

Trivia: The radio's preamp is not designed for longwave use; in fact, a mod is needed to enable it for mediumwave and longwave. Below about 350 kHz it becomes an attenuator and I have to remember to switch it off!

[Anotherwpgguy]

Thanks for the info.

I had about half the parts required to build this K9AY loop but then was given a beautiful commercial shielded loop about 6 ft in diameter that came from a DEW Line station and when I figure out a way to remotely tune to peak, I intend to mount it on a mast with a TV rotator .... that should work really well.

My favourite AM Band DX RX is my RACAL RA-17C12 .... so beautifully selective that you can hear the dead air between AM frequencies due to the guard bands ..... only radio I've ever owned that can do that. Mine is kind of like this one on youtube ..... http://youtu.be/D1SyNh-QYYA

AWG

[Toomas Losin]

There was some more Alaskan longwave propagation last night but not as good, at least while I was listening. The only voice I heard was on 529 and it was faint. I did hear a carrier on 530. That could be a TIS in Washington, CIAO in Ontario, Radio Enciclopedia in Cuba, or possibly the NDB on Adak Island in the Aleutians that I didn't know about.