TransAtlantic Multi-Hop E Skip!

[Mike-CT]

These stations were all heard and seen in Southern Portugal by Hugh, a fellow who is in a great location for DX. Some of his Es receptions from North America will blow you away.

There is one unidentified Spanish A2 reception here and we hope someone can come up with an ID on this one for him. Check it out.

And I think we can almost be certain he heard WKYC 3 Cleveland by Es, but can someone give us a 2nd opinion on this. I say definitely yes.

[w9wi]

And I think we can almost be certain he heard WKYC 3 Cleveland by Es, but can someone give us a 2nd opinion on this. I say definitely yes.

I don't think there's any doubt about this one (the WTAM-1100 promo cinches it). Likewise the two New England catches.

There's a mention of "Puerto Rico Television" in the first clip. I don't think it's enough to ID the clip as WKAQ -- for one thing I'd be quite confident Puerto Rican programs air in other Latin American countries. But I know when foreign programs air on Telemundo they don't go out of their way to identify the source country.

(you do usually see a logo for the originating broadcaster in the show credits but I've not heard any audio identification. I wouldn't think the information that a program was produced in Puerto Rico would be considered a reason to watch that program by viewers in any other country. With the possible exception of the mainland U.S. where many viewers might be ethnically Puerto Rican.)

In other words I think that clip is more likely to be WKAQ than any other station but it's nowhere near enough to go on.

[NickNJ]

I also hear an ad for Middleburg Heights (Cleveland suburb) around :43 in the WKYC clip, further confirming that one.

Also, it's not enough to go on for a log, but at :27 in that same clip I hear another newscast breaking in with mention of "the red hot Tigers". If I had to make a wild guess, I would say WWMT Kalamazoo is a possibility with the Detroit Tigers being the team mentioned. Maybe more can be investigated into that one.

[Robert Grant]

No, I think "The red hot Tigers" reference would be from WKYC. The Tigers (Detroit AL team) and Cleveland's Indians (also AL) are tight rivals. Put another way, one will often hear the score of an Indians game on Detroit's WJBK (2) or WDIV (4).

Rob Grant, N8NU

[mrhoover]

Hi from Hugh

Does anyone have an idea on the Spanish speaking clip which seems to say Sabor De Cubaat one point(Flavor of Cuba?).Received on Channel 2 in June last year I'm assuming it's not Cuba & more likely Puerto Rico.

Other clip might be of interest,a long one about healthcare in South Carolina,
around 6:45 into the clip can just make out the id WCBD.Typically all
breaks up just at the critical point.That was there on its own one afternoon
here in 2004,about midday East Coast time.

Have a few videos on youtube of several DX signals
www.youtube.com/hughtvdx

[Danny]

Welcome.

I enjoyed seeing and reading about your DX.

[Mike-CT]

I hear two references to "News 2" after the calls at 6:57 and 7:06 mixing with WCBD. Just checked Google and WFMY (NC) is News 2. You might have another new catch here !

[mrhoover]

Hi,thanks Mike and Danny

Posted some more clips recorded in Portugal.Two are of NBC Open Golf coverage last year on Ch 2 I'm assuming this might be WCBD as they are an NBC affiliate ???

Also NTV Canada last year on Ch 2 and CBC on ch 3 in 2004 with reference
to "Labrador" in a commercial,they're promoting "Coronation Street" which
is a long running UK Soap opera.

[w9wi]

Hi,thanks Mike and Danny

Posted some more clips recorded in Portugal.Two are of NBC Open Golf coverage last year on Ch 2 I'm assuming this might be WCBD as they are an NBC affiliate ???


A2 NBC affiliates in states on the Atlantic Coast:
WESH Daytona Beach/Orlando, Florida
WLBZ Bangor, Maine
WCBD Charleston, S. Carolina
WKTV Utica, New York
WGRZ Buffalo, New York



Also NTV Canada last year on Ch 2 and CBC on ch 3 in 2004 with reference
to "Labrador" in a commercial,they're promoting "Coronation Street" which
is a long running UK Soap opera.

The only NTV transmitter on A2 is CJOX-TV-1 Grand Bank, Newfoundland. 9.26kw, 47-05-17N/55-46-23W.

Not counting 10-watt relays, there are five CBC stations on A3 east of Manitoba:
Baie Verte, Newfoundland (12.2kw)
Port aux Basques, Newfoundland (840 watts)
Halifax, Nova Scotia (100kw)
Pembroke, Ontario (43.3kw)
Sept-Iles, Quebec (3.7kw. Yes, it's English - the French station there is on A13)

My gut feeling would be you had Baie Verte. But I wouldn't be 100% sure the Labrador mention automatically means a NL station in which case Sept-Iles would be a decent possibility.

[mrhoover]

Hi Doug from Hugh.
Many thanks for the very useful information
Just had a very quick look round your excellent website
will go back again now to look more.

There are two Italian private stations right at the bottom end of band1/lowband now which come in quite well during sporadic E openings here.
One is on 46.25 MHz vision 51.75MHz sound (same as Australia ch0)
& the other is around 47.4 MHz vision 52.9 MHz sound.Might be a
possibility for you

Not sure if "official" or not (doubt it).Presumably in an area with channel A
or B RAI 1 coverage & they want to get below this.

Italian analog is slated to close in 2012 apparently.

Good indicator for transatlantic Es for you would be the Azores 6 meter
beacon on approx 50.012 MHz.I find when that appears here it's a good
sign !!!

There's a group of vintage TV enthusiasts trying to get permission to
reactivate a 405 line transmitter in the London area on ch B1 45MHz vision
41.5 MHz sound from the original mast at Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally)
that was used from 1936-56 when ch B1 moved south of London to Crystal Palace.

They have the transmitter & can rent space on
the mast for the antenna,it's just getting regulatory approval...Apparently
not totally impossible,there's an outside chance but part of the
spectrum is allocated to the UK Ministry of Defence but may not be
actually used........hmmm.......

They're also looking for an analog Uhf channel possibility there after shutdown
in 2011-12.

Hugh

[Robert Grant]

I sure hope they do get their approval.

I got the Crystal Palace B1 several times in the winter of 1979-80 (radio sound only) by F2 skip. Still one of my favorive DX log entries.

I would love to get B1 again, hopefully I'll figure out a way to get video as well (with a computer, I might not need an old 405-line set!)

Rob

[mrhoover]

Hi

Darryl Hock makes standards converters in the USA for old TV systems
I have the 405 and 819 line ones.Includes an RF modulator.

ebay UK often has the 9" Sony TV990UB 405 625 line set dating from
1969-70,they were very reliable & often nobody wants them,I've seen
them go for £10,around $20.Picture of one attached using Darryl's converter
which has the old BBC "C" testpattern in flash memory which it defaults to
if there's no incoming video.You can see the coarse line structure

He uses one of these Sony's to test the 405 converters

http://converter.home.comcast.net/~converter/

Hopefully they may get permission for "Ally Pally" but think it's a medium-long term project.The original TV studio building is still there which they want to use as well.

Hugh

[cd637299]

Hi from Florida.

I was out of town when I got a notice to check out these clips. All I can say is WOW. WTAM, WLBZ, WGBH.....from Europe. Amazing.

The Spanish A2 I'd lean toward PR (WKAQ). Cuban TV stations are non commercial, and lack the enthusiasm of this voice. Another Spanish A2 is Tele Antillas in Dominican Republic. It could be even farther, like Central America.

I am not Portuguese, but I like Brazilian steak houses. :p

cd

[w9wi]

Hi Doug from Hugh.
There are two Italian private stations right at the bottom end of band1/lowband now which come in quite well during sporadic E openings here.
One is on 46.25 MHz vision 51.75MHz sound (same as Australia ch0)
& the other is around 47.4 MHz vision 52.9 MHz sound.Might be a
possibility for you

Not sure if "official" or not (doubt it).Presumably in an area with channel A
or B RAI 1 coverage & they want to get below this.

Italian analog is slated to close in 2012 apparently.


Most interesting. Apparently European TVs can tune between the official channels? Over here a station on, say, 49.25MHz vision would have absolutely zero viewership as no receivers will tune outside the official channels.

As you've probably gathered, analog is to close in the USA next February. Except for low-power and relay stations which don't (yet) have an official deadline.

Canada has a few more years, until 2012 I believe. Mexico has some years beyond that - I want to say 2021 but may be remembering wrong.

It should be noted that digital stations using the ATSC standard have a "pilot carrier" 310kHz into the channel. 54.31MHz, 60.31, 66.31, 76.31, 82.31, etc... There is no modulation - no way to know *which* ATSC station you're hearing on A2 - but at least you'd know you had a digital station from America!



Good indicator for transatlantic Es for you would be the Azores 6 meter
beacon on approx 50.012 MHz.I find when that appears here it's a good
sign !!!


Will have to keep an eye out for that. I've heard 48.25MHz video carriers on several occasions and 49.75MHz at least twice.



There's a group of vintage TV enthusiasts trying to get permission to
reactivate a 405 line transmitter in the London area on ch B1 45MHz vision
41.5 MHz sound from the original mast at Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally)
that was used from 1936-56 when ch B1 moved south of London to Crystal Palace.

They have the transmitter & can rent space on
the mast for the antenna,it's just getting regulatory approval...Apparently
not totally impossible,there's an outside chance but part of the
spectrum is allocated to the UK Ministry of Defence but may not be
actually used........hmmm.......

They're also looking for an analog Uhf channel possibility there after shutdown
in 2011-12.


I read about that - the B1 plans. It would certainly be interesting to try. As you may have read, there were some test broadcasts in the old 42MHz FM band over here to commemorate Armstrong's early FM work. They used the same tower in New Jersey Armstrong built for those tests. Unfortunately there was no propagation here so I didn't hear them...

[mrhoover]

Hi from Hugh

Yes,most European analog TV's will tune in the channel as a frequency
during a search,they're mostly multisystem now as well,even the cheap
ones,often including the French system L with positive going vision & AM
audio.

With Sony TV's you have to set which country you are in during the
initial installation & it searches with the correct system but channels can be
altered afterwards to whatever you want.

TV's often accept NTSC in on video input & will have HDMI inputs etc
+ the awful scart/peritel video in/out connector (+RGB) which is a great idea
but gives a lot of varying video/audio problems especially if the cable is
moved as the cable is quite thick from DVD/VCR/SATBOX & the plugs/sockets generally aren't very positive when you push them in,
the connector has 21 pins.

We don't see many TV's with DTV tuners yet here in Portugal(all Sony's
have them installed)

Thanks for the information regarding the ATSC pilot carrier,I'll have a listen
out this summer though want to really concentrate on analog reception
this year as it's the end! Next year when the lowband channels have settled
in to DTV with their final allocations/powers will start seriously looking.

Attached a clip of Brazilian audio received briefly on channel A2 in June last
year talking about Bob Dylan,it faded away very rapidly after the end of the clip.

Also Moroccan DTV,they have a film festival in Marrakesh,350 miles approx
to the south of me & put up an analog and digital transmitter there just for
the event!Fortunately tropo was good at the time.The clearer one is the digital signal
on European channel 56,the analog one was on 22

Hugh

[mrhoover]

Hi again from Hugh.
Just found 2 other audio clips

The first was recorded on 23rd July 06 at the incredibly early time of
0855 GMT.I noticed color bars on ch A3 with the antenna pointing east
& by the time it had turned round the signal had gone from the color bars to this
long intro/open up music which faded out right at the wrong time.

23rd July 06 was an incredible day,the other clip was CTV Canada on ch A2
recorded at 2200GMT.There wasn't much transatlantic skip activity after this
day in 2006 here

Somewhere I've got a clip on ch A2 of very brief cricket game commentary
recorded in 2004 which must be from the Carribean area ?????

Regards

[cd637299]

Okay Hugh!

I will try to help here....

The A3 is definitely Canada. The first tune is the Canadian National Anthem. I cannot narrow it down further, but check Bill Hepburn's excellent website on Canadian chA3's.... http://www.dxinfocentre.com/logos/3-can.htm

His site also narrowed your CTV on A2 down. From what I heard, the cities of Charlottetown, Bathurst & Halifax in "our region" were mentioned. Looks to me like it was CKCW Moncton, New Brunswick @ 56 kW visual. The only other CTV Atlantic feed is the 480-watt CJCH-5 Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia. I say, heck no.

I'd like to hear the cricket talk. I don't think cricket is popular in Canada (it sure isn't in the US!)....I did not see the date of this clip-----if it is 2006 or later, the only A2 in the English Caribbean that would fit would be ZIZ TV St Kitts. If it were 2005 or earlier, TTT TV in Trinidad might be the one (but they closed down in 05).

By all means......you need to find the websites of these stations, if any exist, and e-mail the mp3's. Tell them you are in Portugal. They would be absolutely thrilled! (Tell them it was not the internet feed!)

cd

[cd637299]

I see the cricket thing is 2004. I *might* be able to find out for you if it is Trinidad. Let me know.....

cd

[mrhoover]

Hi CD
Many thanks for all this.

The cricket clip was very short & is of a game taking place in England
at the time(2004)-I've just found it after a search! There's quite a 60Hz buzz on the sound I notice.

There's another clip is of possible 9Y4AT 6 meter beacon recorded last year.
My morse code knowledge is virtually zero though.

Third clip is of the Azores beacon which should play as CU3URA, located on Terceira Island(I make it 50.012 on my receiver but see it's listed as 50.013).

This beacon is a very good indicator of conditions here & should be on your side too.It has a very distinct rythm with the dashes between the id

There are quite a few beacon lists about,link to one is below.

Regards

http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/50.htm

[Robert Grant]

The words at the very end of your A3 recording are the beginning of a sign-on announcement used by CBC English language network stations, I've heard it on CBET (a channel A9 station in the US border town of Windsor).

A sign on at 0855 UTC strongly implies eastern part of Canada, at 0855 UTC is 0625 in Newfoundland DST, and 0555 in Atlantic DST (observed in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia [CBHT] and Prince Edward Island). EDT (Ontario and Quèbec) would be 0455, and any station wanting to sign on at 0455 would usually stay on all night anyway.

I am very curious about the song between "Oh Canada" and the CBC sign-on announcement. I wonder if the song is meaningful to Newfoundland or Nova Scotia. I'll try to get my mother to hear this (both her parents were from Newfoundland).

Thanks for sharing this great DX!

Rob, N8NU.

[Robert Grant]

I wound be very surprised if that beacon is 9Y4AT.

The Morse ID reads:
"GB3BAA IO91 PS"

check this website

http://www.77hz.com/

[mrhoover]

Hi Robert from Hugh

Thanks for all the information on that Canadian clip.
Thanks for identifying that beacon,I should really try and understand morse.

According to that 6 meter beacon list there's a test beacon in England
on 40.050 MHz GB3RAL Near Didcot,Oxford.

Might be worth listening out for it,I will try here.

[cd637299]

I just heard the cricket thing. I would have no idea which station it was----it was too faint, and the voice I heard seemed British (as opposed to Caribbean-accented). Since chA2 in Trinidad is closed, one would have to find a TV schedule from Jul 3, 2004 to match it.

It still could have been St. Kitts' ZIZ TV. You could try contacting them at www.zizonline.com

If Trinidad, all I could say is to contact some TV stations there in Trinidad & ask if anyone on staff used to work at TTT ch 2. I know of www.wintvworld.com & www.gayelletv.com

cd

[w9wi]

Hi from Hugh

Yes,most European analog TV's will tune in the channel as a frequency
during a search,they're mostly multisystem now as well,even the cheap
ones,often including the French system L with positive going vision & AM
audio.

With Sony TV's you have to set which country you are in during the
initial installation & it searches with the correct system but channels can be
altered afterwards to whatever you want.


We are at once lucky and possibly unlucky in that there's only one technical standard and one channel plan in use in the Americas.. (unless you count a handful of small French overseas territories which presumably import all their equipment from France..) American TVs only tune the A-plan channels and there's considered to be no need to support PAL, let alone SECAM or System L.



TV's often accept NTSC in on video input & will have HDMI inputs etc
+ the awful scart/peritel video in/out connector (+RGB) which is a great idea
but gives a lot of varying video/audio problems especially if the cable is
moved as the cable is quite thick from DVD/VCR/SATBOX & the plugs/sockets generally aren't very positive when you push them in,
the connector has 21 pins.


I've seen photos and technical details of the SCART connector. Looks bizarre. We had S-Video come out about that time but it only supports video (the audio must be carried elsewhere) and in any case really never did get off the ground. Component (which is Y/Pb/Pr here instead of RGB) and HDMI and composite. Most large-screen TVs will take a VGA in from a computer too.



We don't see many TV's with DTV tuners yet here in Portugal(all Sony's
have them installed)


For about 18 months now, TVs imported into the US have been required by law to contain a DTV tuner.



23rd July 06 was an incredible day,the other clip was CTV Canada on ch A2
recorded at 2200GMT.


There are three CTV transmitters on A2 east of Ontario. One (New Glasgow, Nova Scotia) is only 5 watts. The other two are a 1,500-watt transmitter at Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia and a 100,000-watt rig at Moncton, New Brunswick. It was probably Moncton you saw/heard; that station is pretty frequently reported domestically.

I should however qualify that statement... If I'm converting properly, 2200GMT is 1830 Newfoundland Time. The NTV stations there would be running provincial news. While they carry Global entertainment programs, they carry CTV news and while the newscast on at 2200 would be local, it would probably also incorporate CTV national stories. (there is no national newscast on NTV until 2330 NT/0300GMT)

There's a 9kw NTV transmitter on A2 in Grand Bank.

So if the CTV reference you heard might have been in a newscast it could have been NTV.

The "possible 9Y4" clip is indeed GB3BAA IO91ps in the UK. (which I suppose would be skip anyway, but not multihop!) Interesting that they use frequency shift keying - the carrier is always on but shifts in frequency - beacons over here usually turn the carrier off and on.

There are programs you can download that will decode Morse - "CW Get" is supposed to be one of the better ones. But yes, I think it's worthwhile to learn to copy by ear - for one thing, it's a lot faster than launching some program!

CU3URA probably comes in on 50.012 because that's where you have to tune to get an audible beat note. Your receiver works (in Morse mode) by mixing the received signal with a locally-generated signal on a nearby frequency and playing the "beat note" between the two through the speaker.

If you tuned exactly to Cu3URA's frequency the beat note would be zero - and all you'd hear would be some clicking. By tuning 1kHz low, you get a 1kHz beat note you can listen to.

[mrhoover]

I've seen photos and technical details of the SCART connector. Looks bizarre. We had S-Video come out about that time but it only supports video (the audio must be carried elsewhere) and in any case really never did get off the ground. Component (which is Y/Pb/Pr here instead of RGB) and HDMI and composite. Most large-screen TVs will take a VGA in from a computer too.


The scart is good for auto AV switching.You switch the DVD player on,pin 8
goes to +12 volts & the TV switches to the AV input.Switch it off & the TV
reverts to off air or whatever it was doing.The quality of some cables sold
sometimes isn't so good & the pins start to give poor contact over the years.
Originally designed in France (I believe) for the Canal Plus off air pay channel
in the early 80's which used a line shuffle & basic audio encryption.

The decoder just plugged into the scart socket of the TV.Canal Plus
still is on lowband with French channel allocations,lowest being around 56MHz
video I think with around 49 MHz AM audio.The French close analog at the
end of 2011.






There are three CTV transmitters on A2 east of Ontario. One (New Glasgow, Nova Scotia) is only 5 watts. The other two are a 1,500-watt transmitter at Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia and a 100,000-watt rig at Moncton, New Brunswick. It was probably Moncton you saw/heard; that station is pretty frequently reported domestically.

I should however qualify that statement... If I'm converting properly, 2200GMT is 1830 Newfoundland Time. The NTV stations there would be running provincial news. While they carry Global entertainment programs, they carry CTV news and while the newscast on at 2200 would be local, it would probably also incorporate CTV national stories. (there is no national newscast on NTV until 2330 NT/0300GMT)

There's a 9kw NTV transmitter on A2 in Grand Bank.

So if the CTV reference you heard might have been in a newscast it could have been NTV.



Thanks for all that.Hope things will be good again this summer.Video is usually
a mess & I have difficulty recording 525/60 video directly.
For video reception I use a D100 converter

http://homepage2.nifty.com/ffk/d100.pdf

where you tune the TV to the top end of the Uhf band & then tune with the converter + adjust the bandwidth.Helps a lot with weak signals _& if you're
trying to get 55.25 MHz video next to a strong French 56 & Italian 53.75 MHz
carrier.For audio I split the signal ffrom the antenna (amplified first) & feed to
an AOR AR5000 receiver.




The "possible 9Y4" clip is indeed GB3BAA IO91ps in the UK. (which I suppose would be skip anyway, but not multihop!) Interesting that they use frequency shift keying - the carrier is always on but shifts in frequency - beacons over here usually turn the carrier off and on.

There are programs you can download that will decode Morse - "CW Get" is supposed to be one of the better ones. But yes, I think it's worthwhile to learn to copy by ear - for one thing, it's a lot faster than launching some program!

CU3URA probably comes in on 50.012 because that's where you have to tune to get an audible beat note. Your receiver works (in Morse mode) by mixing the received signal with a locally-generated signal on a nearby frequency and playing the "beat note" between the two through the speaker.

If you tuned exactly to Cu3URA's frequency the beat note would be zero - and all you'd hear would be some clicking. By tuning 1kHz low, you get a 1kHz beat note you can listen to.

I do have CW get find it's "so so".You're quite right about the CU3URA offset
my mistake.

I received 9Y4AT (the ham not the beacon) 2 or 3 years ago on 6 meters
+ Spanish audio talking about "Dos Milliones Bolivares" in prize money on channel A2 Could this be Venezula??
I have the clip somewhere on an old hard drive,must try and find it.

Hugh

[w9wi]

I received 9Y4AT (the ham not the beacon) 2 or 3 years ago on 6 meters
+ Spanish audio talking about "Dos Milliones Bolivares" in prize money on channel A2 Could this be Venezula??
I have the clip somewhere on an old hard drive,must try and find it.
Hugh

Probably. The unit of currency in Venezuela is the Bolivar.

[mrhoover]

This is a beacon to keep a lookout for on 50.034MHz this summer.
HK76MV from Cape Verde.It's only been operational for a few months
I believe.

Received it last night probably via TEP at 20.15 to 21.15 GMT.
E2 TVE backscatter was also present at the time.

Cape Verde is a great DX location,a group of German Dxers went there a few
years ago & received Portugal via tropo,Brazil on FM.They use highband & Uhf
with South African channel allocations on highband using 6MHz sound vision
spacing which would be easy to identify for me in Southern Portugal
but it is 1800 miles away,rather a long haul for tropo!

Hugh

[KW4RZ]

This is a beacon to keep a lookout for on 50.034MHz this summer.
HK76MV from Cape Verde.It's only been operational for a few months
I believe.

Received it last night probably via TEP at 20.15 to 21.15 GMT.
E2 TVE backscatter was also present at the time.

Cape Verde is a great DX location,a group of German Dxers went there a few
years ago & received Portugal via tropo,Brazil on FM.They use highband & Uhf
with South African channel allocations on highband using 6MHz sound vision
spacing which would be easy to identify for me in Southern Portugal
but it is 1800 miles away,rather a long haul for tropo!

Hugh

Great beacon, the actual call letters D4C are spaced in-between the grid locator HM76MV in the Morse Code. I found this on the web:

http://www.d4c.cc/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=9&Itemid=26

[mrhoover]

One more to try for on your side of the Atlantic is 50036.6 CT1ART fairly near me in Southern Portugal.
It's beaming westwards with a multielement antenna,if the Azores beacon
is being received try for this one.

[mrhoover]

Have attached soundfile of it

[mrhoover]

Received the GB3RAL beacon from Didcot,Oxford England on 40.050MHz
at 18.30GMT today via Es in Portugal.Should be possible for transatlantic
reception.There's a short clip with just the ident & a long one with various tones prior to the id.
Apparently it's currently on low power(3 watts!) and is omnidirectional
with horizontal polarisation.

Hugh