Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower – Canadian Analog TV

By Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW, Guest Columnist

The eta Aquariids started on Sunday, April 19 and will be active until Thursday, May 28 with the peak occurring Monday and Tuesday, May 4-5.

I been busy today, Thursday, April 30 detecting Canadian analog TV via meteor scatter with the SDRuno coupled with a six meter dipole antenna strung between the house wall and the clothesline pole in the backyard.

Yes, Canada still has full-powered analog transmitters operational from rural places that run up to 180kW effective radiated power. There are only several active stations on each low-band VHF channel (2-6) in the provinces of Nova Scotia and Ontario.

It is easy to identify the station in question without the need of video and/or audio of a TV set, as each station broadcast on either one of three video carrier offset frequencies.

Example:

Analog TV-2

   Offset (-) 55.240 MHz

   Offset (z) 55.250 MHz 

   Offset (+) -55.260 MHz

Figure 1 is a map to give you an idea what can be done with a software defined radio that a standard analog cathode-ray picture tube television set with a blue screen feature (video squelch circuit) cannot do when the incoming signal is faint.

On the top center is a GACTVDX logo, the orange triangles are the stations received, the blue triangle is my QTH. The map shows eight Canadian NTSC analog stations that were detected via meteor scatter (Ms).

Channel Callsign Location                  ERP    Distance

                                                  (miles/km)

1. 6- CJOH-TV-6  CTV Deseronto, Ontario    100 kW 256/411

2. 2+ CIII-TV-2  Global Bancroft, Ontario  100 kW 331/532

3. 5+ CHRO CTV2  Pembroke, Ontario         100 kW 369/593

4. 5Z CICI CTV   Sudbury, Ontario          100 kW 496/798

5. 6+ CJCH-TV-6  Caledonia, Nova Scotia    100 kW 573/922

6. 2- CHBX CTV   Sault Ste Marie, Ontario  100 kW 610/981

7. 3+ CITO CTV   Timmons, Ontario          100 kW 613/986

8. 4Z CJCB CTV   Sydney, Nova Scotia       180 kW 843/1356

ERP= Effective radiated Power

Figure 2. SDRuno – Spectrum + Waterfall Displays

Date: April 30, 2020

Onset Time (local): 8:10:52 PM

Duration: 8 seconds

Channel: TV-3

Frequency: 61.260 MHz

Offset: +

Effective Radiated Power: 72.4 kW Average, 100 kW Peak

Callsign: CITO

Network: CTV

Location: Timmons, Ontario, Canada

Distance: 613 miles

Azimuth: 333 degrees (north-northwest)

Figure 3. CTV Network Logo

Figure 4. CTV2 Network Logo

Figure 5. Global Network Logo

Dominican Republic to UK TV DX

Mike, KA3JAW, reported that on June 19 around 1600 UTC, two UK TV-DXers in western London detected NTSC analog television channel 2 video carrier on 55.250 MHz, zero offset from callsign HIJB, Tele Antillas in the Dominican Republic. Path distance was over 4,300 miles with the half-way point over the Northern Atlantic Ocean at mid-latitude (40 N). No audio carrier was observed on 59.750 MHz.

During that time, 6 meters was open between the UK and Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic according to a ham radio operator in the UK.

What is puzzling, but also entertaining to me is what was the mode of propagation?

My initial thought was Sporadic-E with four hops with each hop being 1,075 miles. This would be a rare case that I have never experienced in 15 years of TV-DXing. If it was, the signal path attenuation from each consecutive hop would be too high. So, this rules out that mode in my mind.

The more logical mode would be F2 with two hops with each hop being 2,150 miles. In 15 years of TV-DXing, I have received one station from Peru via single hop F2 at 2,783 miles.

On June 19, there were no sunspots, noon 10.7 cm radio flux was 68 sfu and geomagnetic activity at quiet. We are at solar minimum, one of the deepest minima of the past century. Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation from the Sun is at its lowest level in a decade. How could this influence F2 ionization?

The following is from Wikipedia on F2 Propagation:

Since the height of the F2 layer is some 200 miles (320 km), it follows that single-hop F2 signals will be received at thousands rather than hundreds of miles. A single-hop F2 signal will usually be around 2,000 miles (3,200 km) minimum. [Yes in our case]

A maximum F2 single-hop can reach up to approximately 3,000 miles (4,800 km). [Not in our case]

Multi-hop F2 propagation has enabled Band 1 VHF reception to over 11,000 miles (17,700 km). [Not in our case]

Since F2 reception is directly related to radiation from the Sun on both a daily basis and in relation to the sunspot cycle, it follows that for optimum reception the centre of the signal path will be roughly at midday. [Not in our case, the Sun was between The Bahamas and Cuba.]

Clue: The DXers were not able to receive the audio carrier on 59.750 MHz. F2 has a high cut-off frequency near 60 MHz. [Yes, in our case]

Since these two propagation modes do not fit the parameters, more research is needed.

More Es and Not

Es

Early Wednesday morning at 6 AM EDT,  Mike, KA3JAW, in Easton, Pennsylvania, was hearing Alabama and Missouri stations on the citizen band. Then an unknown city in Wisconsin (minimum 663 miles) and Chicago (650 miles) at 6:30 AM.

Three hours later during the mid-9 AM hour, 6 meters opened up to Sheboygen, Wisconsin (674 miles).

At 10:07 AM, Es were plowing through the lower FM broadcast band on 88.3 with the first station identified as Cornerstone University, WCSG with RDS [5BCA] in Grand Rapids, Michigan (562 miles to the northwest).

Twenty minutes later, the second station rolled-in: The Faith Center, WFEN, "The Lighthouse" with RDS [6251] from Rockford, Illinois (727 miles to the west-northwest).

Not Es

Meanwhile, at WA1LOU, there were two additions to the log.

June 3 at 1826 UTC, WWF48 on 162.525 MHz, the NOAA weather on Mt. Greylock, Adams, Massachusetts, 70 miles to the north. Normally, 162.525 is dead quiet here. When propagation is good, I usually hear WNG575 on Pack Monadnock, Petersborough, New Hampshire, which is 30 miles more distant than Mt. Greylock, so go figure!

June 8 at 1205 UTC, WEER on 88.7 in Montauk, Long Island, New York, transmitting 1700 watts, 65 miles to the southeast. Normally, 88.7 is occupied by WNHU, the University of New Haven station, 23 miles to the south, but WEER was stronger than WNHU for awhile on Saturday morning. 

Equipment at WA1LOU: ICOM IC-R8600 receiver and ICOM AH-7000 discone antenna.

E-Skip Season

Driving home from a family picnic last Saturday evening (May 25), I noticed that the FM radio band was in E-skip mode. Since I was driving, I couldn't do any serious DXing and by the time I arrived home, it was too late – the Es were gone.

A few days later, Mike, KA3JAW, in Easton, Pennsylvania, sent me the following report.

On Monday, May 27 from 2234 to 2310 UTC, a single analog video carrier showed up on the Airspy HF+ using SDR Console software on analog TV channel 5 (z) 77.250.710 MHz ranging in signal strength from -115 to -110 dBm via sporadic-E.

I suspect this is Cuban, Tele Rebelde network, callsign CMEA in Santa Clara with 60.3 kW at it true azimuth of 190 degrees. My antenna was aimed due south of 180 degrees. Distance would be 1294 air miles.

Since this signal is very weak, it is not strong enough to view the video and/or sound on a TV set for a true verification.

The accompanying image are signal measurements snips from Airspy-SDR Console.

In  a second email, Mike added...

On Saturday evening, there was Es from my QTH to GA, FL, AL around 2330 UTC until it decoupled from FL state and scaled back into TN at 0057 UTC on Sunday.

Stay tuned!

First Es at KA3JAW

WSMR RDS on KA3JAW's Sony HD XDR-S3HD Receiver Display

Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW, reported his first 2019 'in-season' FM-DX reception via Es.

On Friday, May 10, from 10:55 AM to 12:14 PM EDT, Mike heard and saw (RDS text) classical station WSMR on 89.1 FM in Sarasota, Florida, from 1,023 miles distance to Easton, Pennsylvania, via Sporadic-E.

Prior to the reception of WSMR, at 9:35 AM EDT, the MUF was 77 MHz over Maidenhead grid square FM07 (Lynchburg, Virginia) when he was hearing Alabama, Florida and Georgia on the Citizen Band Radio Service (27 MHz/11 meters).

At 11:30 AM EDT, 88.3 WPOZ in Orlando, Florida, also with RDS was received via Sporadic-E.

At 11:59 AM EDT, the MUF rose to 95 MHz above FM06 (Roxboro, North Carolina).

KA3JAW's antenna is an outdoor Antennacraft Y526 designed for VHF-low band TV that is only 114 inches (9.5 feet) off the ground, just 4 inches past the peak of his backyard shed roof, aimed south-southwest. This proves you do not need a high antenna on a tower to receive FM-DX via Es as the signal path is coming in on a low radiation angle.

Mike has posted a couple of videos on YouTube documenting Friday's DX, here and here.

A Very Happy New Years Eve

Conditions New Years Eve afternoon and evening were interesting.

Earlier, Mike, KA3JAW, alerted me to a geomagnetic storm and possible aurora propagation. Not sure if that was the cause of what I heard, but something was playing tricks with the ether yesterday.

About 3 PM local time, I started tuning up and down the LW and MW bands. LW was dead, but MW was interesting. I immediately logged a new station: WCPA in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, transmitting 2500 watts, 288 miles to the west on 900 kHz. That distance at that time of day was a bit unusual.

As I continued to tune up and down the band, I noticed stations to the west and southwest pounding in — stations I normally don't hear until after dark like WLW on 700 kHz in Cincinnati, 635 mile away, which is way beyond ground wave propagation.

I took a break for dinner and when I returned, the band was still hopping. I could hear Cuban stations up and down the band. All were old loggings except for one new one that was very strong challenging WHAM on 1180 kHz: Radio Rebelde in San Cristobal, Cuba, transmitting 1000 watts, 1433 miles to the south-southwest.

After dark, LW became interesting, too. I was hearing beacons I rarely hear like and DIW on 198 kHz in Dixon, North Carolina, and SJ on 212 kHz in Saint John, Nova Scotia. I did log one new one: RMQ on 222 kHz, but I don't know where it is located because it does not show up on any navigational beacon lists. 

By the way, RQM in Maine transmits on 221 MHz and I had to make sure that I was not transposing its Q and M when I heard RMQ. Also, by the way, RMQ is located in the USA because it did not transmit the long dash between identifications like the Canadian stations do. Still one more by the way, RMQ is the three-letter designator for an airport in Taiwan — I am pretty sure I did not hear Taiwan on LW last night.

Radio equipment used: ICOM IC-R8600 receiver, 80-meter dipole antenna, ICOM IC-AH700 disco antenna.

Loud and Clear via Aurora

(Source: www.swpc.noaa.gov)

Mike, KA3JAW, wrote that the reason for the loud and clear transatlantic signals heard here on Wednesday evening was because during that time, aurora was active between my Connecticut location and Polskie Radio Jedynka in Solec Kujaski, Poland.

The center of the aurora was near 60°N 37.5°W (see figure above). The orange line indicates the path between my location and Poland. The thin yellow line is the mid-point at 2,024 miles.

A minor G-1 class geomagnetic storm was the result of a coronal hole spewing both low and high speed streams of solar winds towards Earth, which sparked the aurora.

Geminids and WCY?

📡  Easton, Pennsylvania's Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW, wrote, "Geminids meteor shower (MS) from parent object 3200 Phaethon asteroid peaked on December 13 during the 1530 UTC with a ZHR rate of 97. The prediction was 120.

"The majority of analog FM radio stations received via MS was from south-eastern or south-central Ontario, Canada region. No digital HD Radio in-band on-channel (IBOC) using OFDM modulation was decoded.

"No digital ATSC television stations were detected via MS on any of the three bands."

The the typical distance of the stations was 300 to 600 miles from Mike's location.

📶  Meanwhile, I keep monitoring the AM band for new stations. My top-of-the-hour recording at 1100 UTC on December 20 revealed a new logging on the 1400 graveyard channel. The first three letters of the station identification were WCY, but the signal dropped out on the last letter.

Radio-Locator indicated two stations on 1400 with WCY(?) call signs: WCYN in Kentucky and WCYR in Maine. I listened to the recording again and preceding the station identification was a PSA for Maine veterans. So I added WCYR to the log.

Located in Veazie, Maine, WCYR transmits 810 watts, 309 miles to the northeast. Equipment used was my ELAD FDM-2/FDM-SW2 receiver and my 80-meter inverted Vee antenna.

E-Skip Time

Yesterday, Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW, alerted me that E-skip season is upon us.

Mike wrote, "Es season in western EU started on Sunday, May 14th. Es season in US started yesterday, along the west coast inland towards Texas. Today Es started in Virginia and reached as far north as Wisconsin."

So today, I began monitoring the VHF Propagation Map and all day long so far (it's 1700 UTC now), there have been big openings in the southeastern USA. The map does not differentiate between types of VHF propagation, but whenever a big red footprint appears on the map, it is worth investigating if you are under that footprint.

1710 Mystery Station

Mike, KA3JAW, asked, "Do you hear a multicultural station on AM 1710 that also comes in during the day time at about  the same signal strength?"

I replied, "I have never heard it during the day. I do hear it occasionally at night (maybe once every two or three weeks). I thought it might be a pirate. If you are hearing it during the day, it is probably a lot closer to you than me."

That exchange started a weeklong quest to figure out what we were hearing. 

The only other stations I hear on 1710 are the Springfield (MA) Armory TIS and WQFG689, the Hudson County (NJ) TIS. I usually hear one or both each night, but the mystery station is a little rarer.

For about one week, I monitored 1710 whenever I had the radio on at home and in the Subaru. This is what I discovered:

When the station shows up, it is usually around sunset for 15 to 30 minute appearances. One time, I also heard it very briefly on the car radio at sunrise.

One evening, I was able to receive it very weakly on the directional antenna (a C.Crane Twin Coil Ferrite on a turntable). The signal peaked to the southeast/northwest, approximately 135/315 degrees. There is not much to the southeast... just some small towns in southeastern Connecticut, the eastern tip of Long Island and then the Atlantic Ocean. The northwest is more likely the source... Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, NY and Toronto and Hamilton, ON.

Mike mentioned that he thought he heard Canada mentioned a few times, so perhaps it is a Canadian station.

The station remains a mystery... maybe a little less mysterious, but still a mystery.

TV E-skip from Mexico

Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW, in Easton, Pennsylvania, sent me a report about some great sporadic E propagation he experienced last month. 

Mike wrote, "The summer Es season had ended on August 1. But ten days later I grabbed a 1,580 mile Es double-hop television station in southern Mexico. It was an analog channel 4 call sign, XHKYU in Valladolid, Yucatan emitting low power at 4 kW."

Equipment used:

• Memorex MVDR-2102 - Full Format DVD Recorder, Analog TV Tuner
• Panasonic SA-DP1 DVD Stereo System 100 Watts
• Visteon HD Jump HD Radio
• No Brand TFT Color Monitor - For Automobile
• 55 Ft. RG-6 Quad (25' near antenna end, 30' near TV tuner end)
• Antennacraft Yagi model Y526 (cut-to-band) for VHF channels 2-6

Notes:

1. Antenna azimuth: West (270 deg.), Elevation: +30 deg. (shed roof pitch)
2. No antenna preamplifier was used

Mike posted videos of the event on YouTube:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB2BRgujBks (this is an online QSL card for the event)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zi5rDZmSoQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DWWktSKUgg

STL-SDR for TV-DX Meteor Scatter

By Mike Schaffer, KA3JAW (fn20iq)

This is a follow-up to the October 4, 2013 article titled $20 Multimode Software Defined Radio.

On October 26, 2013 at 22:47 UTC (6:47 pm EDT), a negative 4.00 stellar magnitude meteor (less than a category negative 4.50 magnitude fireball) from the Orionids meteor shower caused by small fragments of comic debris from Halley's Comet streaked between the boroughs of Mountain Top and Freeland, then over Kunkletown, reaching into the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.

Seconds later, its light yellow flame was seen overhead in Nazareth, then the Delaware River and finally making its way to Marble Hill, New Jersey, while blazing at a velocity of 41 miles per second (67 km/sec).

It was determined the meteor tracked 3.7 miles north of Center Square in Easton, PA.

Closest approach was 3.0 miles to the northeast when it fragmented into smaller pieces while cruising at a 45 degree inclination during its 3.5-second flight journey through Earth's atmosphere.

The Orionids meteor shower was active from October 4 to November 14, 2013. Peak nights occurred on October 21-22. Meteor rates were expected to be 50 to 75 per hour.

At the time of event on October 26, I was home in south Easton with two NTSC analog television sets turned to channel 2 with the volume set at a comfortable listening level waiting for a chance of TV-DX via Sporadic E or F2 propagation. Unfortunately neither occurred.

Something very rare did occur at 6:15 pm EDT, exactly 32 minutes prior to the meteor event stated above overhead near Easton, while hoping to catch the Canadian network CTV, call sign CKCO in Wiarton, Ontario via meteor scatter (Ms) on 55.240 MHz (minus offset) at a distance of 941 miles. Without warning the TV's audio steady background noise rapidly flared producing what sounds similar to a burst of high pressure air leaking through a cracked pipe. That effect instantly startled me for about three seconds.

Later, I realized that sound effect was not the result of a meteor forward scatter mode, but rather the ionized atmospheric gases (plasma) surrounding the meteor while leaving a vapor trail overhead. It seemed as if the meteor was exiting through the TV tube! After nine years of TV-DXing I never experienced this phenomenon!

It was this rare event that inspired me to take a more active roll in finding other techniques in meteor detection --- using the $20 STL-SDR dongle. After some experimentation, I can confirm that this inexpensive device has enough sensitivity to detect, spot and track meteors.

I would like to share snapshot images of what a meteor looks like on the SDR# (SDR Sharp) waterfall display.

The above snapshot shows the STL-SDR device tuned (red dial line) to a frequency of 55.250 MHz. On both sides of this frequency (55.240 and 55.260 MHz) you can see two vertical meteor scatter traces starting at the date/time stamp displayed at the left margin. The first trace (on 55.240) is a moderate signal strength signal from CKCO in Wiarton, Ontario, over 421 air miles distance. The second trace is a weak signal strength signal on 55.260 from CIII in Bancroft, Ontario over 320 air miles distance. More sample images can be found here on Photobucket

To detect meteors via forward scatter propagation there has to be powerful (25 kW or more)radio frequency transmitter at one end point that is on the air 24 hours a day, such as a
full-power TV facility that radiates 100 kW on their video carrier with 10 kW audio. In my technique, I am not concerned with the audio portion of the signal.

The above statement would meet half of our requirements. The US TV broadcast conversion from analog to digital went into effect on June 12, 2009, per Congressional mandate. Unknown to many citizens, there are analog US TV signals on the air since the DTV transition (currently 72 low-powered analog TV stations are on the air in the US). These stations are Class-A , low-powered translators that run from 2 watts up to 3 kW on channel 2. Again, the power is not strong enough for Ms detection.

By now you may be wondering how will we be able to find any full-power 100 kW broadcasters in which to do TV-DX via meteor scatter using the STL-SDR dongle. There is one other option to peruse. Our maple leaf friends up along the Canadian/US border have five analog TV-2 channels that remain active since their DTV analog-to-digital transition went into effect on August 31, 2011. This option has an extra advantage as there will be no US-based high-powered NTSC analog television stations to cause any radio frequency interference issues.

By the way, normal meteor scatter range is up to 1,400 miles.

Good DX!