January | 2012 | Radio DXing

Our Kasterlee DX HQ 25-27 November 2011

Once a year the fine young men of DX Antwerp in Belgium get together at Kasterlee for a radio DXpedition. Late November is an ideal time of the year in Europe to hear long distance dx. The days are getting shorter and the nights longer. This was my first visit to Kasterlee. I had heard many stories about this location. It is in a forest and somewhat inland from the Belgian coast. I have never been too fond of inland dx sites but on this occasion I was in for a big surprise.

After a bit of a stuff up we finally moved into our chalet type accommodation later than what we had hoped for. A group of young whipper snappers had been there for several days and were reluctant to leave. But we had a belly full of chips and krokets from the local snack shop. Paul Baes opened up a nice bottle of hard liqueur and basically that was the start of a bloody good weekend of dxing.

Conditions to Nth America were certainly better on the Saturday night into the Sunday early hours. Early on up to 0000 hours conditions were quite nice with many Canadian’s being particularly well received. From around 0100 things started to get noisy and there was just so much splash around. However signals were still there and I managed to find some interesting things. They maybe fodder to some but for The Aussie there were so many new things.

I was pleased with the reception of 1130 KWKH in Shreveport LA. Its interesting that this is yet another station I have heard from Australia. But I have the feeling it is far more difficult here with the dominant WBBR in New York here. Others I have enjoyed so far are 640 CFMJ Richmond Hill (Toronto) as this battles it out with CBN St Johns. There is another music station underneath which is almost impossible to know what it is. The Cuban Radio Progresso made a brief visit. Quite nice at times. I find 640 khz to be one of those really interesting frequencies. So much candy in the lolly shop..

Propagation conditions from 0000 during the night were certainly interesting. There had been some radiation storming and paths were certainly affected. Signals were fading up and down more than usual and it gave a nice mix of things. Like KWKH popping up for a few moments.

If you go into the woods today you are in for a big surprise

570 CMBD Radio Reloj – Santa Clara Cuba. Terrible splash on this channel and then it popped out of the blue at 0030 UTC with an ID and mentions of Havana Cuba
580 CFRA Ottawa ON. Very noisy channel with splash. Got an ID just after 0200 with weather.
590 VOCM St Johns NB. Not exactly dx as this the marker station here in Europe.
610 WIOD Miami Florida “WIOD is now on the FM dial 100.3” Not bad at all.
640 CMBC Radio Progresso Cuba.Now this was another one of those stations that just popped out of the splash. Not a great signal but a clear ID heard. I think this is often heard better than this.
640 Unid Sports This is an unidentified sports station which is underneath CBN St Johns at around 2358 on Saturday 26 November 2011 at Kasterlee. You will hear the the two stations merge after about 15 seconds, CBN disappears and then towards the end of the recording Radio Progresso fades up with music.
650 UNID 0200 – This is probably WSM with its country and western. Gander is heard as well on this channel // 590 but with regional ads. This clip you hear some sort of music show ID after 20 seconds. WSM is 50kw so its probably a good presumption given the format.
680 CFTR Toronto ON. Now this clip sums up what we are up against dxing in Europe. Next door on 675 is Radio Maria from Holland. Have a listen how ID’s can get destroyed. I was lucky to get this as News 680 with a mention of Toronto.
700-WLW-Cincinatti OhioNice ID with time check and weather
730 CKAC Montreal.A bit messy on the hour but ID in French.
740 CFZM Toronto ON. Very tough channel with splash because of nearby 747 in Holland. It took a bit to find an audible ID. This is messy but if you listen hard you will hear the ID. Easy mentions of Toronto. 740 Heart and Soul as well. This mixes with CHCM Marystown which is // 590 VOCM.
760 WJR Detroit MI. Short and sweet. The only thing you can hear. The ID.
770 WABC New York. Here giving phone numbers for talk show.
780 WBBM Chicago IL. Another digging in the mud ID. This is in two parts with the first mentioning Chicago and WBBM. The second part WBBM news time 7.23
950-CKNB-CampbelltonNBGreat ID. Music station and one of the strongest over the weekend.
970-WZAN-MaineI found a better ID. Heard here at 0200 UTC.
1010 CFRB Toronto– Great ID. Strong and you can’t get much better than this.
1020 KDKA Pittsburgh PAA bit week but clear ID and CBS news.
1050 CHUM Torontowhich now ID’s as TSN. The station it is mixing with is WEPN New York whjch also has sport talk.
1100 WTAM Cleverland OhioAnother scratchy tough one. But its here.
1120 KMOX St Louis MOTough ID but its here. Past the female you will hear a male announcer. “KMOX news top and bottom of the hour”. Might find a better ID as I go through the Perseus recordings.
1130 WBBR New York.Dominant here with Bloomberg. Lots of sports.
1130 KWKH Shreveport LA– Nice ID on fade up over WBBR
1200 CFGO Ottawa.Sports station that loves its football.
1250 CYJE Oakville Ontario.If you stay on a channel long enough sometimes you get lucky and it was in this case. Heard playing gospel songs and then finally an ID. Calls itself 1250 JOY
1390 WEGP Presque Ialand MACoast to Coast radio. Talk of the county.
1580 CKDO Oshawa ON.A bit noisy but between songs clear CKDO ID.