One of the common refrains I was hearing from DXers on social media during week 17 was that 540 kHz was a tough egg to crack. The lower frequencies in the AM band are in and of themselves, a bit tougher. Signals propagate a bit further, the frequencies are more prone to distant lightning strikes and noise, and antennas that work great on the upper end of the band tend to not be as stellar on the low end. So, diving into the basement is definitely what many AM DXers would consider "a challenge".
As such, we saw our lowest output of logged stations of the entire MW Frequency Challenge this week with only 47 loggings from 15 DXers. These DXers represented 12 states and 3 countries.
There were a total of 24 unique stations were logged from 6 countries, 14 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces.
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 6 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 17:
Most Logged Stations: With such a tough frequency, it actually isn't too surprising to see 2 DXers tie for the top spot. Alan Sykes (GA) and Troy Porter (OH) both brought in 7 receptions this week for the top honors. Mark Connelly (MA) was not too far behind with 5 loggings.
Most Logged US States: Alan Sykes took top honors for most heard U.S. states with 7 states logged this week: AL,FL,GA,LA,NC,TN,VA. Troy Porter was close behind with 5.
Most Logged Countries: It is only fitting that veteran MW DXer and legend in the community: Mark Connelly took top honors in this category. His New England listening adventures are the stuff of legend in MW DXing, and this week he used that expertise to squeeze four countries out of this frequency: Canada, Colombia, Cuba, USA. Several other DXers all brought in 3 countries this week.
Furthest Logging: Greg Harris (IL) brought home the mileage gold this week with his reception of YNOW (R. Corporacion) in Managua, Nicaragua at a distance of 2,904 miles. This station's offset at 539.860 made them an attractive target for DXers to hunt for this week. Additional notable distances were logged by: Mark Connelly at 2,569 miles for HJKA in Colombia; Troy Porter with XEWA in Mexico for 1,587 miles; Linda Brodsky (NY) at 1,313 miles for Radio Progresso in Cuba; Bill Coury (MI) with CBK in Saskatchewan, Canada at 1,213 miles; Steve McDonald (BC) with XESURF in Mexico at 1,173 miles; Mark Connelly with WFLF in FL at 1,126 miles; and David Flottman (MO) with CBK at 1,082 miles.
Loyd/DX Central Numbers:
4stations logged
2states logged: LA, AL
3 countries logged: USA, Mexico, Nicaragua
1,282 (YNOW in Nicaragua)
Most Logged Station: WFLF in Florida brought in the most loggings with 6 receptions this week. Right behind them though was CBK-SK (which is the station I targeted all week long) with 5 receptions.
Most Logged State/Province: WFLF's loggings helped FL take the top spot for U.S states this week and SK took top Canadian province with 5 receptions.
Most Logged Country (outside of US): Mexico had the most receptions with 7 loggings for countries outside of the U.S. Canada (6), Cuba and Nicaragua (2 each) and Colombia (1) rounded out the countries heard this wek.
Busiest Time of Day: I knew that DXers would have to leverage grayline DX a bit more than usual this week and that was absolutely evident in the data. Overnight still took the top spot with 44% of loggings, but this lead was much less than normal weeks as Sunset (28%) and Sunrise (21%) both were much bigger portions of the DX work this week than usual. Daytime DX maintained nearly normal averages with 6% of receptions.
Most Used Receiver: 31 of the 47 stations logged were received using an SDR, and SDRPlay SDRs took the top spot back this week with 13 of those logs. Airspy's HF+ Discovery (12 logs) was just behind. Perseus use (6 logs) remained strong as well. Portable use was still bring in the DX, though, with 8 total logs with half of these (4) coming from Tecsun portables.
Most Used Antenna: Terminated Loop antenna usage this week made a big leap with 14 loggings to take the top spot. KAZes, EWEs and a cardioid loop brought in the DX! Mag Loops still were bringing in great DX with 13 logs (with the W6LVP loop bringing in the most among mag loops with 7 loggings). We even had a beverage show up this week with several loggings!
See the full export of data at our Google Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11yvZBIEuL4_V-OQ7rXNQo-K1eeHZfOT8J_YOiDGSHnw/edit?usp=sharing
Our focus now turns to week 18 and a requested and very interesting frequency range: 999-1053kHz. An interesting mix of dominant stations, international options, and more! As always, our international friends are welcome to join as any MW station received in this range is fair game.
Submissions should be made for this week's challenge using the Google Form found at: https://forms.gle/njYGEkK6DCkbUfK39
RULES:
Logs for Week 18 will only be accepted for stations received between 0200 UTC Monday, March 21st, 2022 and 0200 UTC Monday, March 28th (will be announcing the closing during our live stream of DX Central Live!). Logs must be for licensed stations received between 999-1053 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/njYGEkK6DCkbUfK39 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