We take a look this time at some questions and tips about the best bets to hear some hard-to-hear political areas, and Steve Francis takes us on a radio tour of the U.S. state capitals. Got any areas you would like to hear, or tips on how to hear other areas? Let us know…

Doug Smith, W9WI <w9wi@w9wi.com>: Neil, is 1080 the best bet for Oregon around here? I may have to run the recorder on 1080 tomorrow night. (probably just get a bunch of KRLD...)

Neil Kazaross <neilkaz@interaccess.com>: Hi Doug, Don't you (if I recall) have a BOG aimed WNW or NW? If you want to try for KOTK I suggest that (if possible) you orient said BOG, in what ever WNW to NW direction at 90 degrees from KRLD!! While I am further from Dallas than you. my WNW BOG has NO TRACE of KRLD (in contrast to longer elevated mini Bev the same direction!!) since KRLD is 90 degrees to this BOG.

KOTK will be in the main beam of any WNW or NW BOG from your QTH as will the other possibility of KEX.

On 1190..how strong is your WOWO and other QRM? KEX was as common as KOTK b4 cheating "Fox Country" in MN came back on the air!! Maybe you can phase any QRM from other directions?!?

So...keep in mind Portland will switch to night pattern and power at 2130 CDT tomorrow and take a stab at these from around 2115 onward prior to Oct 1..ie tomorrow :).

CX deteriorated tonite but I still had bits of talk from likely KOTK (didn't stay as was chasing other stuff) around 2120 CDT.

KPNW has also been heard here on 1120 on a loner West BOG but I think Nashville- Eugene is too close to Nashville to S.L to get it past super pest KMOX.

Doug Smith W9WI: Yep. Unfortunately I can't move it any further north of west. (well, I could, but if I start driving stakes in the road they're going to get chewed up by cars pretty quickly <grin>)

(On 1190) WOWO is not a big deal here. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever run 1190 on the recorder, that may be a more effective choice than 1080.

Yes, KMOX is essentially unnullable here. (the BOG does do a pretty good job at *receiving* KMOX during the day...)

Eric Loy <eloy@wdws.com>: Midwesterners looking for Montana need to get up early and try for KGHL-790. Just before sunrise look for Country music looped NW and wait...I've gotten many IDs here in the early mornings from them.

Kaz has said 1050 is easiest for him, not probable here with WDZ on AN...

The only other Montana IDed her was Baker on 960, QSLed from Sunset a long time ago...

Rick Kenneally <woodlandview@yahoo.com>: Speaking of Delaware, how widely heard is 930 WYUS in Milford, DE? They are my last remaining unheard in DE. I've tried quite a bit, but no luck.

Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@nrcdxas.org>: In its various prior incarnations, this station was never heard in North Jersey, and is heard only rarely even from here!

Rick Kenneally <woodlandview@yahoo.com>: I had the CBC theme interlude on 540 a couple times the other night on my east/west wire. Might have been NF, might have been SK – either would be new here. I have to remember to listen to 540 on good TA nights.

Bruce Conti <BACONTI@aol.com>: Does the CBC French service use the same theme music? I don't remember. CBEF and CBGA1 with CBC French are my 540 regulars. Often during the early morning I receive them both with "synchro echo." I've caught CBT Newfoundland too, but not on a regular basis. I believe Mark Connelly receives CBT on a more regular basis in Billerica, Massachusetts, perhaps because he has less land blockage over down-east Maine. I've been trying for CBK as a sunrise target for years, no luck yet.

My best signals from Newfoundland are 740 CHCM relaying VOCM, received here on almost any given night, and 750 CBGY with CBC English on a semi-regular basis.

Rick Kenneally: After hearing a brief snippet of CBC English service some weeks back on 540, I decided to camp out on 540 for many nights. Reward finally arrived with a weather forecast by a male announcer, ending with "...and that's the latest forecast for Newfoundland and Labrador. You are listening to CBC Radio 1..." then chimes and news. This was at 8:00pm on October 22, and ended a long quest to log NF.

Also heard was French CBGA in QC with a call-in show with people from Montreal & other Quebec towns.

Now, if I could only get that station in SK...

Harry Helms <ak6c@earthlink.net>: Congratulations, Rick! NF is definitely a tough province these days.

Bruce Conti: It's amazing how different our reception can be considering the short distance between our locations. 540 has always been one of the most difficult signals from Newfoundland. The two easiest for me to receive on almost any given night are 740 CHCM (VOCM relay) and 750 CBGY (CBC English). 640 CBN (CBC English) is typically the next most common, usually pre-sunrise with local IDs and weather on the half hour. 540 is usually too clogged up by XEWA, WLIE, WWCS, WDMV, CBEF, and CBGA1 for positive local ID of the CBC English heard here on occasion. I've also been trying for CBK Saskatchewan (CBC English) with no luck so far.

Barry McLarnon <bdm@bdmcomm.ca>: CBK has eluded me too. You've got your work cut out for you, Rick. :-) I have exactly the same pests as Bruce. I have heard CBT in NF on occasion, but its a rarity. Aside from XEWA, the only station I've heard that is significantly west of here is KWMT in Iowa, and that was heard just once. The CBEF/CBGA1 twins are the major problem... sometimes aurora beats them down, but that's not gonna be a good time to bag Saskatchewan. Still, you never know...

Patrick Martin <mwdxer@webtv.net>: Rick, Congrats....Not an easy catch. NF is a very tough Prov. to log. Quite a few years back I bagged CBY-990, but before that CBT was logged in AK in the 60s. Not easy.

Jim Bagge <K1ygg@aol.com>: If you want to listen to other stations from NF, 6160 on shortwave has been in very well lately, at least into western Mass. I really enjoy hearing the weather forecasts for that area.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION <MarkWA1ION@aol.com>: CBT is dominant on 540 here in Billerica, MA. My antennas clobber most stuff to the W and SW, so only CBGA Quebec is a serious QRM contender.

CBN-640 is usually tops on that channel, over Venezuela, Guadeloupe, Cuba, and Spain-639 het.

CHCM-740 is over/under WJIB with CHWO phased.

CBGY-750 is about even with WSB and Venezuela.

CBY-990 is sometime there through the Quebec, RI, and NY stations.

Neil Kazaross: I want to point out something that Mark stated. His antennas clobber most stuff to the W and SW. Mark lives in a typical suburban lot (I've been to his house) He is interested in TA and LA DX and therefore has his outdoor phased LW systems set up to aid in rejection of back end domestic QRM for that DX.

Again, with today's crowded bands and worsening QRM, I cannot stress how important it is to reject QRM via the antenna system.

CBEF should be the only major problem to your logging CBK. Back in the day when the CBC stations signed off at night, I could hear CBK a few times per season from either RI or ME. If you have some kinda cardiod type antenna or phasing you should be able to null CBGA-1 and DX to the west.

Barry McLarnon <bdm@bdmcomm.ca>: My antenna options are pretty limited, since I have a tiny (50 x 100 ft) urban lot with overhead power lines running across the back.

Just for the heckuvit, I recorded on 540 overnight after catching the WDFB test. At 0300 EST, I had a fairly clear CBC Radio One that got my hopes up... however, they had just ended hour three of the Overnight program, which starts at 0100 local, so this had to be CBT rather than CBK. I'll give it another shot when the solar activity quiets down a bit.

Kevin Redding <amfmdx@fastq.com>: Mark, I see your logs and you have great catches, but I never see Mexico. Do you get any Mexican stations up there in Mass?

Mark Connelly, WA1ION: I have reported Mexicans from time to time. Their best reception time, local midnight to dawn, just isn't that compatible with my normal DXing schedule. If it's auroral (removing Canadian QRM), the best bets here in MA in the wee hours of the morning are the Mexico City outlets on 730, 900, 940, and 1060. When my parents were alive and had a house in W. Yarmouth, MA on the Cape, I'd often hear these (and boatloads of Cubans) during overnight stays. The last two hours before dawn were best. During various W. Yarmouth visits I managed to get all those above plus XEWA-540, XEABC-760, XEB-1220, somebody on 1580, the Cancun area stations on 860 & 1050, XEG Monterrey also 1050, XERF-1570, and even XEROK-800 from Juarez (next to El Paso, TX).

In this part of the country, you have to be either a stay-up-late type or an early bird. Most of my DXing is in the immediate post-sunset period when Mexicans aren't available. At home I will DX 11 p.m. to midnight occasionally and, if it's auroral, some of the Mex biggies might show. The antenna systems and terrain profile at my house are more tweaked up for signals from the northeast (Europe, Atlantic Canada) rather than south or southwest, however.

Steve Francis <Amdxmail@aol.com>: Rick's logging of Concord (NH)'s only AMer reminded me of something nobody seems to do anymore: count state capitals. They range from the easy to the very difficult. I've been at 39 for the past eight years. I'd like to hear a 40th, but it would almost certainly require a DX test. Here are the ones I've heard:

Tallahassee: all of them at one time or another

Atlanta: ditto

Columbia: ditto

Raleigh: all but 570

Richmond: no 990 or 1320

Charleston: all

Annapolis: all three

Dover: both

Harrisburg: 580 and 1460, but neither graveyarder

Trenton: 1260 heard once on a Monday morning in 1975, was probably off-pattern

Albany: 1540 fairly easy when CHIN was a daytimer, never heard now

Hartford: 1080 still easy at sunrise and post-sunset, 1360 and 1410 at one time, but no more

Boston: 1030 and 1510; and thanks to CPC tests from this remarkably DXer-friendly market, 850, 950 and 1090

Providence: 920, 1110 and 1220, thanks to Craig Healy DX tests

Jackson: all

Montgomery: all

Nashville: all

Frankfort: both

Columbus: all

Lansing: 1320 heard on an equipment test in 1974, that was it until they showed up on an overnite tape last year

Indianapolis: all

Springfield: all three

Madison: 1670; both 970 and 1310 heard on 1975 DX tests arranged by pioneer DXer Ross Hansch, 970 was never heard again

Baton Rouge: all but 910

Little Rock: all

Jefferson City: 950, no 1240

Des Moines: five of 'em, no 1390 or (despite years of sunset stakeouts) 1350

St. Paul: 1500 at sunset, rare at night

Austin: 590 once in 1994; 1370 heard once in 1992, but by then they were licensed to Rollingwood so I couldn't accept it

Oklahoma City: all but 800

Topeka: 580 and the former 1250

Bismarck: 1130 on a 1994 DX test

Denver: 850 and (once, right before Portsmouth went 24 hours) 1650; 560, 910 and 950 on regular sked way back when; 1280 on a 1974 DX test

Cheyenne: long-gone 1530 with a Monday morning sign-off in '74, and a 1976 equipment test with Cincinnati off

Helena: finally pulled a voice ID out of 950's March 1980 frequency check, the tones had been heard at the right times for a few years - we don't have THAT frustration to deal with nowadays, do we? [grin]

Salt Lake City: 1160; 1550, common on Monday morns in the '76-'77 season

Boise: 1140 was out-of-whack and widely heard in the winter of "72-'73

Sacramento: 1530, a Monday morning cinch at one time

Salem: 1390 with Morse IDs on an April '76 DX test

Never heard:

Concord: one graveyarder, Montpelier: ditto, Augusta: two graveyarders, Lincoln: I sure wish 1530 could have stuck around, Pierre, Santa Fe, Phoenix, Carson City, Olympia, Juneau, Honolulu.

I think Lincoln, Santa Fe, Pierre and maybe Phoenix could make it here with code on a DX test. Chances for the others are slim to none.

Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@nrcdxas.org>: I'd have to check how many I have, but it likely won't be as many as 40. I'm at one end of the country, and there's just too many state capitals which have only small or relatively-small stations.

Mike Brooker <aum108@idirect.com>: How about counting PROVINCIAL capitals? And for Americans, who might not know the capitals of Canada's provinces and territories, here they are:

BC – Victoria, AB – Edmonton, SK – Regina, MB – Winnipeg, ON – Toronto, PQ - Quebec City, NB – Fredericton, NS – Halifax, PEI –Charlottetown, NF - St. John's, YT – Whitehorse, NWT – Yellowknife, NU - Iqualut (Frobisher Bay).

With a couple of exceptions (BC, PQ), the capital is the largest city in the province, unlike many U.S. states where the capital is in some one-horse (or one-station) town.

Eric Conchie <econchie@reach.net>: Interesting idea. I’ve been thinking about doing just this (trying to see how many capitals I can log). Also, I'm trying to get the longitude and latitude of my loggings to see how wide a range I have.

Steve Carter <ve7stevecarter@yahoo.ca>: Hi; Here is an excellent url link to a page that will give you the exact Lat & Long of the location you want. As well, it will give you the bearing from your location and the distance as the crow flies. http://www.indo.com/cgi-bin/dist

Eric Conchie: Thanks for the tip.

Steve Carter: Hi All; Now that you can find the Lat and Long of a station, you will be able to take this information and determine the Grid Locator for the site. There is also a url where you can go to calculate the Grid Location. This site is: http://www.uksmg.org/grid.htm

There is approx 33,600 specific grids that make up the surface of the world. In the ham world, there are several awards for working specific numbers of unique grids.

Do you think there would be interest in starting an awards program for verifying a specific number of grids via AM radio? Say for instance 100 different grid locations, then 200, etc… Comments please?

John Callarman <JohnCallarman@msn.com>: I floated that trial balloon a couple of years ago. At that time, it went over as if it were made of lead.

I still believe there are some advantages to an alternate program, say for contests, based on grid squares because programs based on states give eastern DX'ers an advantage. Using grid squares, rules could be developed where coastal DX'ers could use "mirror squares" -- a second station in an inland grid that matched an all-water grid where one would not expect to find a ship-board broadcast station!

Welcome to the target range.

Paul LaFreniere <plafren@boreal.org>: A few days back, Mike Brooker mentioned counting provincial capitals as well as state capitals. I started counting both at the same time. Got stuck at 31 state capitals and 5 provincial capitals some years back. Then provincial capital #6 showed up last winter. Logged CFAX-1070, Victoria, BC by accident while I was trying for CBA. Still have not logged CBA.

The only maritime station I ever logged was CHTN Charlottetown, PEI when they were on 1190. They were a semi-regular here in N.E. MN back then. Did they change their night pattern when they went to 720?

Russ Edmunds <wb2bjh@nrcdxas.org>: This one I can do without checking the logs - I'm missing:

BC – Victoria, YT – Whitehorse, NWT – Yellowknife, NU - Iqualut (Frobisher Bay)

And the only one I have any chance of hearing is the first one.