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Writer's pictureDX Central: Loyd, W4LVH

MW Frequency Challenge - Week 13 Results and Week 14 Announcement - 1150 kHz


What an absolutely tremendous week we had in week 13! Not only did we here at DX Central thoroughly enjoy the 810-891 kHz challenge while netting a bunch of new ones (12 new logs, to be exact) but watching the results coming in from all of you was such a treat. To see the excitement on social media, watching people post new countries heard, some even breaking into new continents for the first time! THAT is what these challenges are all about!


Once again, the week culminated in our usual DX Central Live! livestream on YouTube from our Northshore Studios. The chat room was packed and the conversations/tips/tricks were flowing!


As a reminder, our live streams on Sunday nights have been so much fun getting to interact and hear about what you heard in the previous week. If you haven't been able to make it to a livestream yet, you are missing out! Join us Sundays at 1945 CST / 0145 UTC (Monday morning, UTC) on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/dxcentral


For week 13:

A total of 25 DXers from four countries (AUSTRALIA, Mexico, Canada and the US), 17 US States and 4 Canadian provinces took our challenge to log stations between 810 and 891 kHz on the mediumwave band. Any and all stations between those frequencies were fair game. DXers brought in 389 logs of 137 unique stations in 36 U.S. states, 6 Canadian provinces and 11 DX countries! There were 70 logs submitted JUST of DX logs!


Most Logged Stations: We have a new crown sitting on top of the mountain as Indiana's Tom Laskowski brought in 36 loggings this week to take the top spot! Not far behind, Steve McDonald (BC) with his 33 logs and Troy Porter (OH) with 28 receptions were keeping pace right up to the end of the week.


Most Logged US States: It isn't always that the person with the most loggings also takes home the most U.S. states, but this week, Tom's 18 logged states were enough for the top spot. States he brought in this week were: AL,CO,FL,GA,IL,KY,LA,MN,MO,NC,NY,OH,PA,TN,TX,VA. Troy Porter (OH) and Jonathan Baldwin (GA) both were just behind Tom with 16 states logged.


Most Logged Countries: Tom also snagged the most countries with SIX total logged countries this week: Bahamas, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic and USA. Several DXers were close behind with five countries logged.


Furthest Logging: We have a new DX Central MW Frequency Challenge distance record in our logbooks, as our friend Paul Walker in McGrath, AK joined the party this week with his C. Crane Skywave and Gary DeBock FSL to grab a station from South Korea at a distance of 3,565 miles! Paul also added not one, not two, but THREE North Korean stations at a distance of 3,520 miles from his location in the remote Alaska tundra. This was a great week for distance as Steve McDonald (BC) heard 860-Radio Reloj at a distance of 2,905 miles; Bill Coury (MI) and Tom Laskowski BOTH landed 810-HJCY-Caracol Radio at the exact same distance of 2,663 miles; Steve McDonald (BC) heard Mexico's 830-XEITE at 2,435 miles; James Niven (TX) heard 810-HJCY as well at a distance of 2,345 miles; Steve McDonald (BC) made his third appearance on our top 10 distance list with his reception of my hometown station: 870-WWL in New Orleans, LA at a distance of 2,173 miles; Mike Jeziorski (Mexico) heard 880-WCBS in New York at 2,095 miles; and Neil Wolfish (ON) also snagged Mexico's "Radio Omega": 830-XEITE at a distance of 2,026 miles.


Loyd/DX Central Numbers:

  • 36 stations logged (12 were brand new to our logbook!)

  • 15 states logged: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, KS, KY, LA, MN, MO, MS, NY, TX, VA

  • 6 countries logged: Bahamas (a new one for the logbook), Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, USA

  • 2,054 miles (810-HJCY in Colombia)

Most Logged Station: With so many frequencies and so many dominant clear channel 50kwers, I wondered who would be top dog. Turns out it was 890-WLS in Chicago with 15 loggings. 820-WBAP in Ft. Worth, TX and 840-WHAS in Louisville, KY (14); Radio Reloj (multiple freqs) and 870-WWL in New Orleans, LA (13) rounded out the top five.


Most Logged State/Province: Surprisingly, it was New York that took the top spot for most heard state with 27 receptions this week. Virginia (21) and Texas (20) were not far behind. Top Canadian province was Ontario (18) followed by British Columbia and Manitoba both with three each. There were 70 loggings for non-U.S/Canadian stations.


Most Logged Country (outside of US): With a dominant station like CJBC on 860 bringing in large numbers, it is no surprise that Canada (with loggings from 5 other provinces as well) took the top spot with 28 total logs. Cuba (24) and Mexico (23) rounded out the top three. I should mention though that we had receptions as well of stations in Bahamas (10); Colombia (4); North Korea (3); Honduras (2); Australia, Dominican Republic and South Korea all with (1).


Busiest Time of Day: Fully 59% of all receptions were made during overnight hours when conditions really opened up and allowed distance receptions to flow through. However, 19% of logs came from sunrise and sunset DX with daytime loggings only representing 4% of all submitted (the lowest of the challenge thus far).


Busiest Day: For the first time, I took a look at which day of the week brought in the most logs. Looks like everyone started the week strong with Sunday bringing 16 logs right off the bat. Then, on Monday DXers submitted 152 logs! Logs slowly tapered off during the week with logs coming in on Tuesday (89); Wednesday (51); Thursday (32); Friday (22) and Saturday (25)


Busiest Frequency: With multiple frequencies to monitor, where did people spend the most time? Unsurprisingly, it was the one with the most opportunity to avoid a dominant station: 810 saw 60 loggings this week. Logs also came in on 850 (50); 820 (48); 830 (45); 840 (41); 890 (40); 860 (37); 880 (34) and 870 (29). Logs were also received on split freqs (9 kHz spacing): 891 (2); 819, 864 and 873 all with (1) each.


Most Used Receiver: Like we saw in the Expanded Band challenge a few weeks ago, SDRs a huge help with this many frequencies to cover. 281 total logs came from SDRs with the Perseus SDR taking the top spot for the first time since the beginning of the season with 89 submitted loggings. Airspy's HF+ Discovery was just behind with 86 receptions; SDRPlay SDRs (48); Elad (35) and Winradio (23) rounded out the usage. Portables still remained popular, though with 76 total logs submitted from portable use. For the first time, it was Tecsun that took the top spot here with 28 submitted logs. C. Crane (24) and GE portables (18) rounded out the top spots.


Most Used Antenna: Just about everyone is using some form of a loop antenna, with the popular magnetic loops on the market taking the lion's share of the work. 216 loggings came in from DXers using a Mag Loop with Wellbrook (84) seeing the most usage. The W6LVP loop (57); Airspy YouLoop (50) and MLA-30 (25) were also widely used. Terminated loops such as KAZes and DKAZes saw significant use with 41 receptions coming from these fantastic antennas. "Other" loops such as the AN-200, Quantum Loop, box loops, DeBock FSL and Tecsun loops also brought in a significant amount of DX with 41 loggings. Barefoot/Internal antennas (40); longwires (19) and other types of antennas (24) also saw some action!



Our focus now turns to week 14 and the next challenge: 1150 kHz For me, this will be a frequency of struggle with near-local WJBO in Baton Rouge, LA nearby. But that is the very reason we are doing these challenges: to stretch our skills and force out of our boxes a bit!



RULES:

Logs for Week 14 will only be accepted for stations received between 0300 UTC Monday, February 21, 2022 and 0300 UTC Monday, February 28th (will be announcing the closing during our live stream of DX Central Live!). Logs must be for licensed stations received on 1150 kHz. Logs must be from your own equipment using WebSDRs is allowed for reference, but will not be counted towards the challenge (unless it is YOUR WebSDR). If you do log from a WebSDR, be sure to mark your location as from the location of the WebSDR itself, not your home location. All loggings must be submitted using our Google Form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdKgg4yIWY_FBBtYI_7g6YheKBcE212ciNJ-RJzmLEMVwzmmw/viewform Submissions by any other form including social media, email, etc. will not be accepted.


An eCertificate will be sent to the DXer with the most logged stations during the challenge time period. Additional eCertificates may be presented at the discretion of DX Central.


Have fun, 73 and best of DX!


Loyd - W4LVH



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