Transatlantic Band 2 DX June 26 2003

This day will live with me for probably for the rest of my life and it all actually started when I was on the way back home from work. I put on the radio in the lorry and it was in scan mode. It stopped on 87.7 where a strong arabic station was received on just a small antenna. This made me in even more of a hurry to get home. I finally arrived home and quickly got washed and fed. The wife knew something was up, as I was rushing around like a madman.

So finally I was sat in front of my Sony and band 1 TV. The antennas were turned to the south east. Band 1 & 2 were just awash with stations. Signals weren't just from the one direction. It seemed the whole of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa were all coming in at once, so it was actually quite hard work trying to identify anything. Band 1 TV was especially difficult. The band was saturated with so many signals coming in at once.

The time was around 14.00 local and this opening lasted until 16.00 local when things dropped off a little. Then around 18.00 local it all started back up again, and this time it "seemed" to be an even bigger opening, and again it seemed the whole of Europe, North Africa and to a lesser extent the Middle East were coming in all at once.

Then I noticed on the ON4KST 50 mHz chat page that the UK was working into Canada and USA on 50 mhz so the antennas were swung to the NW, and sure enough i was receiving 60 hz tv tones on 55.250 mhz and even higher A3 and A4 were coming in. I did start to receive actual pictures from USA TV, but the video was rolling and it was hard to id the logo and also the band 1 opening to europe was still extremely strong so it was just a mess.

Then the phone rang, and it was Paul Logan from Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Paul told me he was getting American and Canadian stations mixing on 88.5 mhz, and at the time of the phone call he didn't even have his recorder running. A few choice words were said to him to get it on. So that was it. Paul had the first UK transatlantic band 2 recording. Not only that, but he also went on to break the world sporadic e reception (known) record for band 2 .

The Sony was tuned to 87.75, 88.3, 88.5 but nothing much was heard apart from weak tv audio on 87.75, and weak french stations on 88.3 and 88.5. But remember there was still a huge sporadic e opening in full swing, and again it was hard to id anything so I tuned around for a clear "ish" frequency. 97.1 seemed not too bad, and I actually left it on in the background, never thinking anything was going to happen. I started to concentrate on the USA band 1 TV frequencies, but then out of the noise I started to hear a weak woman talking, which got stronger and stronger and at this time my heart was pounding as the Canadian accent could be heard. She was talking about a court case in Canada so the recording button was hit, and the station turned out to be CBTB, Baie Vert, NFLD with the show "On the Go". This featured a story about a court case about a traffic accident. Then up came John Murphy with the fisheries broadcast. After this my hands were shaking so much I could hardly tune the radio to see if I could find anymore, but actually nothing much more was heard. So it was a case of being on the right frequency at the right time.

I checked the recordings to make sure everything was ok and emails were sent to the station who confirmed it was definitely them. They phoned me up the next day, and I was interviewed about my reception, which made the news the next morning. It was a little bit of a disaster as my dog wouldn't stop barking, so she went into orbit lol. My wife couldn't stop laughing as I had my so called "posh" voice on, but in reality I sounded like a glasgow "ned".

The strange thing was CBTB is not what you would call a power house station and it actually runs less that 4 kw. The engineer was amazed at my reception as he said the transmitter was running much less than the 4 kw which it normally does, and was in need of some repair.

The MUF did go higher that night as paul was receiving USA stations up to 99.1 mhz and i posted on at least two 144 MHz chats and clusters that myself and paul were receiving USA and Canadian stations up to 100 MHz but did anyone actually have a listen on 144 MHz in that direction??

I find it strange as myself and Paul did announce many times to the b1 and b2 groups/chats that a transatlantic path was open, but some guys "seemed" more interested in the big European opening that was happening. Each to their own I suppose.

Could this happen again on band 2? Well it certainly happend again for paul logan via sporadic e but alas not for me. BUT I did receive a presumed canadian station via intense aurora on 106.9 but the audio had the normal aurora rumble and mush and only a few words were made out and I couldn't really claim that one.

So it was finally achieved. The UK to USA and Canada on band 2. It did break a few myths about that direction on band 2, ie too far, bad path etc etc. I certainly hope it happens for me again as the adrenalin rush was amazing at the time. But for the moment I have taken up MW dxing to get my USA and Canadian fix again. Ken Baird got me started with it last year, but I only dabbled with it. After tests with the indoor flag loops here at the new qth just up the road from Ken, I am completely hooked. They do actually receive quite good transatlantic signals on MW. Thanks a lot Ken lol.

And talking about Ken, I have given him the actual Sony receiver that I used for that TADX band 2 reception. But not only that, I also gave him one of the yagis that I used in the 2 x 6 element stack antenna used for this UK mainland known first. So now he has a little piece of dx history at his own place.

Distance from Cumnock to Baie Verte is 3410 Km

Equipment used at that time
Sony ST SB920, 2 x 6 element horizontal stack
Icom PCR 1000, dsp, 4 element band 1 yagi
Plustron TVRC 5D band 1 tv
Spectrum Lab software




(Read about the DX that day by clicking here.)


From dxing.info

UK DXers pick up trans-Atlantic FM stations

A very rare case of trans-Atlantic FM reception occurred on June 26 when at least two DXers in the United Kingdom managed to identify U.S. and Canadian FM stations. First Paul Logan in Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, identified WHCF () Bangor ME on 88.5 MHz at 1900 UTC. Soon at 2000 UTC David Hamilton in SW Scotland received the Fisheries Broadcast () hosted by John Murphy on 97.1 MHz via the CBC transmitter CBTB-FM at Baie Verte, NF. Paul Logan also heard CBC stations in English (CBVG Gaspe PQ) and in French (CBAF Moncton NB) on 88.5 MHz, as well as CBTR Roddickton NF, and CKLE () Bathurst NB, both on 92.9 MHz. Details of the logs are documented on Mark Hattam's website.

Previously, Derek Hilleard had identified CBC Sydney NS on 95.9 MHz during intense Sporadic E conditions on June 15 and 22, 1994. Also Mark Hattam has identified TV audio from WECT Wilmington NC on 87.75 MHz in November 1999.

(DXing.info, June 27, 2003)