Wow! I was a little worried that with big gun stations like WLW, WSB, WGN, WJR and WBBM, that this week would be a bit of a bust for many DXers. Not the case at all! 273 loggings were submitted from 20 DXers located in 15 U.S states, 2 Canadian Provinces and 3 countries.
107 unique stations were logged from 6 countries, 33 U.S. states and 6 Canadian provinces. This week, our all-time mileage record was broken more than once!
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. There are only 7 episodes left as we will be ending Season 2 of DX Central Live! on Sunday, May 1st. If you haven't been able to make it to a livestream yet, you are missing out! Join us Sundays at 1945 CDT / 0045 UTC (Monday morning, UTC) on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/dxcentral
For week 16:
Most Logged Stations: We had a first-timer top the charts this week as our friend Mike Jeziorski in Mexico brought in a week-leading 28 loggings! Close behind Mike was Duane Randall (VA) with 26 receptions and Steve McDonald of British Columbia with 23!
Most Logged US States: With Mike bringing in a lot of stations from South of the border this week, the U.S. State crown was actually a tie between two Virginia DXers: Duane Randall and Dennis Bannister with 11 states logged each. Bill Coury (MI), Niel Wolfish (ON) and Steve McDonald were just behind with 9 states each.
Most Logged Countries: Niel Wolfish (ON) and Bill Coury (MI) both took the top spot with receptions from 4 countries this week: Canada, Cuba, Mexico and USA. While there were several DXers just behind with 3 countries logged, special recognition goes out to Steve McDonald (BC) and John Johnson (AZ) for both bringing in Japan this week! But more on that in the next section.
Furthest Logging: Our existing record for furthest reception stands at 3,565 miles from our friend Paul Walker in McGrath, Alaska for his reception of South Korea during week 13 of our MW Frequency Challenge. We now have a new record in the books and this will be a tough one to break! In fact, we had three loggings this week that would have each set the record, but top honors goes to John Johnson of Arizona for his reception of 774-JOUB in Japan this week! John used his SDRPlay RSPduo and Wellbrook 1530LNP to bring in the Trans-Pacific powehouse. Honorable mention goes to Steve McDonald in British Columbia who also heard 774-JOUB in Japan for a distance of 4,490 miles as well as his reception of 747-JOIB in Japan for a distance of 4,293 miles. Either of these would have also broken the distance record this week. More notable distances came from: Niel Wolfish (ON) for XEX in Mexico at 2,026 miles; Steve McDonald for WJR (MI) at 1,973 miles; Bill Coury for XEX-Mexico at 1,818 miles; Mike Jeziorski (Mexico) for WJR (MI) at 1,791 miles and KCBS (CA) at 1,785 miles; and Steve McDonald for WBBM (IL) at 1,771 miles.
Loyd/DX Central Numbers:
27 stations logged
10 states logged: AL,FL,GA,IL,KY,LA,MI,NY,OH,TX
5 countries logged: USA, Canada, Cuba, Mexico and Colombia
2,058 miles (HJKH - RCN in Colombia)
Most Logged Station: There were actually three stations all heard a total of 14 times each by DXers this week: 780-WBBM (IL), 760-WJR (MI), and 700-WLW (OH). 750-WSB (GA) was just behind with 13 receptions. These big guns with non-directional 50,000 watt clear channel signals are among those that newer DXers should be on the lookout for to get them started in DXing!
Most Logged Frequency: It actually shouldn't be surprising that the frequency with the most domestic stations available: 730 kHz, was the most logged frequency this week. 37 total loggings on 730 kHz were reported by DXers. Just behind though was 770 kHz which I know for me personally was a wealth of great DX!
Most Logged State/Province: Between WBBM and 720-WGN on 720, IL took the top U.S. state spot with 27 loggings this week. 740-CFZM "Zoomer Radio"'s wide coverage area brought in 12 loggings to lead all Canadian stations this week.
Most Logged Country (outside of US): Canadian stations brought in 26 receptions this week, with a new record for the MWFC - six Canadian provinces heard. Mexico was just behind with 23 receptions.
Busiest Time of Day: With big powerhouses in play and DXers chasing deep into Latin America and across the ocean, it isn't surprising that Overnight continued its dominance with 61% of all loggings. Sunset (19%) and Sunrise (14%) were just behind with Daytime (5%) rounding out the dayparts.
Most Used Receiver: SDR usage continues to dominant loggings with 159 out of 273 receptions being made with an SDR. Among those, SDRPlay led the way again with 57 receptions. Perseus brought in 44 receptions; Airspy's HF+ Discovery was responsible for 22 loggings; Winradio SDRs brought in 19 logs; the Elad FDM-S3 (sitting to my left as I type this) brought 12 loggings; and this week we even saw some loggings from the RTL-SDR dongle (5 logs) make the list. Portable use was still strong with 64 receptions. This was led by Tecsun portables with 37 logs and C. Crane portables which brought in 21 receptions.
Most Used Antenna: Mag Loops are officially king of the frequency challenge, with another 112 loggings this week to take the top spot. However, it was the W6LVP loop and 47 logs made with this outstanding antenna that led the way. Wellbrooks brought in 38 logs with the MLA-30 contributing 20. Other loops such as Grundig and Tecsun passive loops were also widely used with 50 receptions. Terminated loops (such as KAZes) brought in 27 receptions, 26 logs came from DXers using the internal antenna of their receiver and 13 were made using simple wire antennas such as longwires and slopers.
See the full export of data at our Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VIun7bpWKXWhq4uPHIoBvMOAH1IVWobrv9WhR50VWR8/edit?usp=sharing
Our focus now turns to week 17 and a requested and very interesting frequency: 540 kHz. This should be fun to see what all can be heard, especially during grayline sunset/sunrise periods.
Submissions should be made for this week's challenge using the Google Form found at: https://forms.gle/EtpYiSNaXTd8PF1q9
RULES:
Logs for Week 17 will only be accepted for stations received between 0200 UTC Monday, March 14th, 2022 and 0200 UTC Monday, March 21st (will be announcing the closing during our live stream of DX Central Live!). Logs must be for licensed stations received on 540 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://forms.gle/EtpYiSNaXTd8PF1q9 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