368 VX, Dafoe, Saskatchewan. Medium-height, guyed antenna mast (mimicking a small mediumwave BCB station operating around 1600 kHz). Photographed near sunset as we drove right by it, I didn't immediately recognize it as an NDB, and we kept on driving for a few km before I thought to check the longwave portable to see if was an NDB - sure enough, it was (!), so we drove back to take pictures. VX is located far from any airport, etc., in a field with nothing else around. While we visited this beacon, the skies were full of migrating flocks of Canada Geese! I've heard this one in here California (400 Hz pitch USB modulation - monitor 368.4 kHz narrowband CW/SSB mode). McGreevy, September 1993. 368_vx.jpg 32,727 bytes.
353 - 5E, Fox Creek, Alberta. Just another example of a typical low-power (usually 25-watt) Canadian number/letter ident beacon usually found at small airports (see 328 5J photo just below). I photographed this one from afar, through binoculars, from the entry road to the airport, being on my way south on Hwy 37 with the goal of Waterton Park in southen Alberta at the end of the day (and it was threatening to rain). S. McGreevy, June 1996. 5E_353.jpg 28,855 bytes.
328 - 5J, Coronation, Alberta A good close-up of another small, number/letter beacon. Metal lattice mast and self-supporting 6-spoke umbrella top-hat with wire skirt and two red marker lights. Occasioanlly heard in California, weakly, when conditions are good (monitor 328.4 kHz in narrowband CW/SSB mode). S. McGreevy, September 1993. 5J_328.jpg 36,049 bytes.
224 DN - Dauphin, Manitoba. This beacon is a fine example of a Canadian NDB employing a medium-height lattice antenna mast and drooping wire-capacitance tophat/umbrella (a mini-version of former Omega-D North Dakota and many Loran-C installations!). This (400 Hz USB ident modulation pitch) beacon was spied right along the Highway south of Dauphin - we were not DFing it. I've heard this one in California regularly when conditions to Canada are good (monitor 224.4 kHz in narrowband CW/SSB mode). S. McGreevy, September 1993. DN_224.jpg 32,757 bytes.
307 M5 - Manning, Alberta. Very similar installation to 5E and 5J above. I saw this one at the airport right next to the Mackenzie Highway as I was traveling southward, and turned off the highway into the airport to take this photo in the rain. I didn't know what this beacon was until I checked my Sony portable. Seemed a weak signal even close. S. McGreevy, June 1996, driving southward during my Solar-Minimum Natural VLF Radio recording expedition (Initially, I thought this beacon was 306 kHz as I had no beacon listing of it with me on the trip.). M5_306.jpg 23,902 bytes.
N5 224, Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. Gail and I drove right to the RMH airport looking for 411 RM (which was apparantly off the air) and saw this little beacon similar to all the other small, number-letter beacon installations. I had to check the radio to ID it. S. McGreevy, September 1993. N5_224.jpg, 30,718 bytes.
Another view of N5 - 224, Rocky Mtn. House, AB. N5_224B.jpg, 32,100 bytes.
239 OJ, High level, Alberta. This photo was taken while in motion southward on the Mackenzie Highway returning from the Northwest Teritories. I had previously spied this beacon while driving northward to the NWT, so I was prepared to take this quick (tilted) shot as I passed by it again. The beacon antenna is the taller mast on the right (telephone tower is the left one). I wish I had taken the time to visit this site. Weak to occasionally fair 2-hop signal in the S.F. Bay Area and eastern California, it is a quite-strong 1-hop signal (400 Hz USB ident modulation) in southern (Lakeview) Oregon where I also resided and monitored it (on 239.4 kHz narrowband CW/SSB mode) for good northward conditions. S. McGreevy, June 1996. OJ_239.jpg, 31,810 bytes.
320 YQF, Red Deer, Alberta. This strong, high-power NDB uses a tall self-supporting mast similar to many U.S. NDB's (namely, the powerful LOM/ formerly-TWEB beacons). Similar antenna mast to 239 OJ - Alberta and 320 HTN Montana (see HTN below). Gail and I drove many miles out of our way to find this beacon, but could not get closeer than this somewhat distant shot. Strong signal throughout western North America with 400 Hz USB ident modulation pitch (monitor 320.4 kHz in narrowband in CW/SSB mode) S. McGreevy, September 1993. 320YQF.jpg 25,049.
311 kHz 9Y Pincher Creek airport, Alberta. Taken on 04 July 2001, this pretty beacon is located at the Pincher Creek airport. I drove right by 9Y on my way into Pincher Creek in order to get my van's oil-seal fixed there. This beacon employs the uppermost of three or four guy wires as its capacitance umbrella, as do many Canadian NDB's. It can be heard on its 400 Hz USB ident at 311.4 kHz between the US DGPS beacon data streams. Sometimes HY Hay River NWT accompanies it in good conditions. Last logged in the desert of Calif. Christmas morning 2005. S.P. McGreevy
540 CBK Watrous, Saskatchewan (CBC-1). Returning southward from northern Saskatchewan after my VLF Recording Expedition, and on my way toward Waterton Park, Alberta, I van-camped 10 miles from CBK. The next morning 03 July 2001, I stopped by this great AM/MW radio station to take some more pictures, augmenting my photo collection of CBK from September 1993. 540 CBK has a gorgeous-looking white and blue painted building to the east of Watrous, and CBK has the largest groundwave coverage of any North American AMBCB station - on a good car radio, the daytime groundwave is clearly listenable from the foothills of the Rockies in Alberta well southward into the Great Plains of SOuth Dakota and northward up to the NWT border. Nightime reception can be clear even in Hawaii, if western Samoa or XEWA San Luis Potosi, SLP, Mexico, is not interfering - during my travels in Sask. I noticed quite a number of residents tuning into CBK all over the Province - CBK's great coverage is important to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Three views montaged. Hi-resolution.
279russia_at_humbolt_ca_coast_may_93.mp3 My favorite, gorgeous recording of 279 Russia (Yuzhno_Sakhalinsk, FE_ ) (5.7 mb - 128 kbps MP3) recorded about 0500 Calif. time or so, sometime mid-May 1993, (bfl) Patricks Point St. Park, nor. California, Kenwood-R-1000, Yaesu FRT-7700 tuner w/homebrew Jfet preamp, 300 - to 400 foot end-fed wire trailed through shrubbery near campsite toward beach. My fave recording of lwbc dx from across Pacific Ocean - notice GOS 278 ident in background - snippits of 270 in there whilst I tuned around. lovely recording of 'Barcelona' and bfl Russian woman speaking - so soft voice! 1995 WRTH says 1 megawatt! - I can hear this faintly in Owens Vly, CA. 17-20 april 2007 on my 600 ft. wire to south-west! S-mcgreevy - 5.7 MB but high quality/hi-fi - a few minutes long in duration.
ndbs_27apr07_multi_dx.mp3 - Some NDB DX from southern Owens Valley, Calif., 209 AEC-NV; 404 MOG-CA; 351 NO-NV; 333 STI-ID; 293 PNA-WY; 353 LLD-HI; 368 SX-BC; 379 SF-CA; 209 AEC-NV agn. 27 April 07 - wee hours local time. Knwd R-1000, Bencher XZ-2 audio filter, 600 ft. wire to s.w. - 3.9 MB; 64 kbps MP3.
404 MOG: Another very interesting tidbit about the humongous 404 MOG non-directional radiobeacon located 5 miles south of the Siskiyou County airport (http://www.co.siskiyou.ca.us/dpw/airports.htm), near the town of Montague, California, is that a 404 MOG is a military vehicle - just do a Google search for "404 MOG" and you will be amazed! Also see: California State Military Museum (www.militarymuseum.org/SiskiyouAP.html). And so, it would seem that the 404 MOG non-directional radiobeacon at the Siskiyou County Airport commemorates (in a strnge way) the 404 MOG vehicle, or at least, this is sheer coincidence. 390k: Very-detailed scans of 4 original prints I took of the 382 MOG installation in June 1985 with inverted coathangar antenna! Image is 390k. Far better than first low-res. photo scan done 11 yrs. ago. S. McGreevy April 2007.
http://www.airnav.com/airport/KSIY
254 SPK, Sparks (Reno), Nevada. (scans from SLIDES - that's why they look a bit funky) Another ex-TWEB beacon, now off the air, that had a powerful 400 watt signal. I used to love to tune in this beacon as my antenna test beacon when I lived in the SF Bay Area, and for the weather. This was a LOM to Reno-Cannon Intnl. Airport - now only 351 NO remains as their LIM. Large lattice mast - views of transmitter hut and base of the antenna too. Another image of 254 SPK.
344 BKU, Baker, Montana. Another example of an older installation, BKU has a two-wire flat-top antenna supported by wooden poles - these particular ones painted red and white. Fairly easily heard in California but on a crowded frequency. We had to drive a bit through and around the town to find this one! S. McGreevy, September 1993. BKU344.jpg, 33,393 bytes.
374 BOD - Bowman, North Dakota. BOD has guyed steel-lattice masts supporting a wire flat-top antenna. This beacon is harder to catch in California (on a busy frequency and does not radiate skywave too well for the antenna size). S. McGreevy, September 1993. BOD374.jpg, 37,867 bytes.
327 CI - Chico, California. Standard FAA 25-watt installation, CI has a 6-spoke top-cap. umbrella and self-supporting tubular mast with center loading coil. a 76 MHz marker beacon antenna is just to the right of the NDB antenna. Sheldon Remington, John Seamons, and myself spent a couple of hours and many miles DFing down this beacon which is hard to spot from afar and located well away from the airport. We had to hike in a bit to the installation, and also the temperature was about 100 deg.-F. S. McGreevy, June 1985. CI327.jpg, 39,806 bytes.
274 CQI, Council, Idaho. This beacon was notorious in the early to mid 1980's when it had severe negative keying on its carrier signal (carrier dropped when the ident tone was keying) leading to many reports of an unID "IAEIK" beacon, and CQI also radiated a well-heard negatively-keyed 7th-harmonic in the 160 meter ham band on 1918 kHz! In March 1988, I deviated 160 miles from my planned route in order to see this notorious beacon, which by then was behaving almost normally. CQI then had an older flat-top wire antenna supported by wooden poles. During1997 - 1999, it's ident and carrier has not been heard in California, and I think it might be off the air now, or is very weak. Photo taken March 1988 by S. McGreevy. CQI274.jpg, 18,250 bytes.
375 EMC, Winnemucca, Nevada. EMC, located about 8 miles northwest of Winnemucca on the dirt road to Sulphur and Jungo, Nevada, has a standard FAA tubular, center-loaded mast with an 8-spoke umbrella with wire skirt - a variant of the hard-to-spot standard 25-watt FAA installation (a la 327 CI and 263 UAD, etc.). Winnemucca Mtn. is in the background, and this photo is one of my favorites. Sometimes, EMC has an ident malfunction, sending "EAC.". S. McGreevy, June 1987. EMC375.jpg, 31,300 bytes. (The nicer, more-recently-scanned EMC image is at the top of this page).
356 FR, Medford Oregon airport. FR, a location-inner-marker (LIM) beacon installation not far from the northern end of the MFR runway, FR uses a single-wire flat-top antenna. S. McGreevy, June 1985. FR356.jpg, 16,393 bytes. (See 373 MF Medford below.)
373 MF, Medford Oregon area. MF, a location-outer-marker (LOM) beacon installation, is similar to FR above. Note the back-up fiberglass mast antenna! Two photos in this image, and John Seamons - KF6VO; Steve McGreevy - N6NKS; and Shel Remington - formerly NI6E / now KH6SR are in the top photo in front of the beacon with two Sony ICF-7600D's (gray-market model equiv. to the ICF-2002). We used the Sony's to DF this beacon. S.P. McGreevy June 1985.
219 GNA, Grants Pass (Merlin) Oregon We had to DF this one in order to find it. GNA uses a 2-wire flat-top antenna and wooden support poles, well hidden in a pine woodland. S. McGreevy, June 1985. GNA219.jpg, 25,293 bytes.
211 HDG, Gooding, Idaho HDG has a large flat-top wire antenna and fairly tall guyed lattice masts suporting the flat-top antenna - large so it can radiate on this relatively low NDB frequency. Located next ot the Gooding airport. Photographed late May 1984 by Stephen McGreevy. HDG211A.jpg, 19,948 bytes
211 HDG, Gooding, Idaho Another view of HDG. HDG211B.jpg, 23,234 bytes
392 HEI, Hettinger, North Dakota HEI gets out very well and is heard well throughout California and within 1-hop range (within 1300 miles). Also heard well in Hawaii by myself and others. HEI uses a fairly standard, old-style 2-wire flat-top supported by wooden poles. S. McGreevy, 9/93. HEI392.jpg, 30,838 bytes
320 HTN, Miles City, Montana Like most former medium and high-powered TWEB (Transcribed WEather Broadcasts) outlets, HTN has a lattice antenna mast. HTN also has an elevated ground-counterpoise to aid in signal radiation (this photo), and owing to frequent high winds in this part of the High Plains/badlands country, HTN has its mast guyed (see the next HTN photo)! Gail and I had to do quite a bit of searching and DFing to get to this beacon - the large mast was easy to spot miles away, however, it took time to find the right road through strange terrain to get to it. S. McGreevy, 9/93. HTN320.jpg, 68,983 bytes
320 HTN, Miles City, Montana. View of entire installation, including the antenna mast, guy wires and surrounding fields. S. McGreevy, 9/93. HTN320B.jpg, 35,078 bytes
332 IA, Portland (Troutdale), Oregon. IA has a single-wire flat-top antenna and is visible just to the north side of I-84. When I visited, there was moss hanging from the antenna wire! S. McGreevy, 3/88. IA332.jpg, 20,819 bytes
296 LGD, La Grande, Oregon. This is a view of the transmitter hut and feedline to the two-wire flat-top antenna. As you can see in the photo, it was snowing in spots all around me when I took this photo March 1988 the same day after visiting 274 CQI Council, Idaho and 303 ONO Ontario, Oregon. LGD is an aeronautical beacon within the marine DGPS marine-sub-band of 285 - 325 kHz, ansd so it now suffers considerable DGPS interference, thus requiring narrowband receiving techniques to clear up its ident. LGD296A.jpg, 39,810 bytes
296 LGD, La Grande, Oregon. A more distant view of the transmitter hut and one of the two wooden poles supporting LGD's wire flat-top antenna. S. McGreevy, 3/88. LGD296B.jpg, 32,559 bytes
Middletown, California LORAN-C (100 kHz) slave station Gail and I were cruising around the area and decided to pay the U.S. Coast Guard run LORAN-C radionavigation station a visit. We were told to leave at once by a very impolite man, surprisingly. Before we asked to visit and were turned away, I shot this photo of the base of the huge (700 foot-tall) antenna mast, with three of its top-capacitance-hat (umbrella) guywires visible. S. McGreevy, 8/93. loranc.jpg, 47,388 bytes
374 LV, Livermore, California. A good 1985 picture of LV's small, three-wire flat-top antenna fed by one vertical wire attached only to the middle flat-top wire. Two wooden poles support the antenna. Being an old photo, this antenna may have been replaced by a newer free-standing tubular mast antenna with the umbrella top-cap. hat, like 375 EMC, Nevada, 263 UAD, Calif., etc. S. McGreevy, 4/85. LV374.jpg, 27,436 bytes
374 LV, Livermore, California. A view of LV's transmitter/tuning-unit enclosure and antenna feed-line. S. McGreevy, 4/85. LV374B.jpg, 32,733 bytes
414 LYI, Libby, Montana . Such a wide antenna - I had to tape the two prints together get the entire (2-wire) flat-top wire antenna in view. LYI no doubt uses locally cut timber from the nearby National Forest for its two antenna support poles. LYI gets out the best amongst the 414 kHz western US beacons, no doubt due to its relatively large antenna. This one took some time DFing and walking to through the woods! S. McGreevy, 9/93 LYI414.jpg, 42,546 bytes
310 MB, Morrow Bay, California. MB is a former marine marker NDB and used a vertical whip antenna. A former installation farther out on the jetty is seen in the distant background - probably too difficult to maintain in the wave spray! MB is off the air- replaced by the USCG DGPS beacon system in the marine 285 - 325 kHz sub-band. Photo by S. McGreevy, 1/88. MB310.jpg, 26,888 bytes
307 N, Noyo Harbor (Ft. Bragg), California (former marine marker beacon) N is another example of a small marker beacon situated in harbors and jettys. It also uses the standard USCG fiberglass whip vertical antenna. The transmitter hut is also fiberglass. This 10-watt beacon was taken off the air in the early 90's, replaced by the DGPS system in the marine sub-band. S. McGreevy 4/87. N307.jpg, 21,932 bytes.
351 NO, Reno, Nevada. (LIM beacon on approach corridor to Reno-Cannon International Airport) NO uses a single-wire flattop antenna supported by short wooden poles. It islocated just north of the approach lights to the airport runway across Rock Blvd. This beacon gets out remarkably well in western North America for its listed 25 watts. S. McGreevy, 10/87. NO351.jpg, 22,627 bytes.
Another view of 351 NO, Reno, Nevada. S. McGreevy, 10/87. NO351B.jpg, 22,272 bytes
Omega-D, La Moure, North Dakota A distant view of the 1200-foot tall antenna taken from near the entrance road to the installation, on 23 Sept. 1993. Omega-Station-D, one of eight Omega transmitters worldwide transmitting in the 10.2 - 13.8 kHz range, left the air at 0300 UT on 30 September 1997. Unlike the extremely unfriendly staff at the Middletown, CA Loran-C installation (above), the USCG personnel at Omega-D were VERY hospitible, and took us on a nice tour of the facility and even partook in a group photo, holding two of my WR-3 receivers. At the time we were visiting, the transmiter was down for routine maintenance that very day, and we listened to the beeping sounds of Omega-C Hawaii. - a truly fine group of people there in September 1993! Since this visit, Omega was shut-down Sept. 1997. Also See OMEGA-D TOUR, September, 23, 1993. Four more Omega photos. S. McGreevy 9/93. omega.jpg, 35,482 bytes
305 ONO, Ontario, Oregon, March 1988. This is a photo of ONO's former antenna, a single-wire flat-top, when I made my first visit to ONO on my way from 274 CQI Council, Idaho earlier that day in March 1988. ONO is next to a golf course. The FAA has slowly been replacing aging wire and post antennas with newer free-standing tubular masts with the umbrella top capacitance hat. See the next photo for a look at ONO in late September 1993. S. McGreeevy, 3/88. ONO305A.jpg, 27,062 bytes.
305 ONO, Ontario, Oregon, September 1993. This photo shows the replacement antenna, a tall and hefty tubular antenna mast and 16-spoke umbrella top. cap. hat with a wire skirt - a hitherto unseen antenna type by me, but one that I am aware of that is replacing the wire antenna installations. 30-watt (listed) ONO gets out very well, often mixing with RO Roswell, New Mexico - the two beacons are surrounded by the slow-speed digital data sounds of the marine DGPS system, as both aeronautical beacons reside in the marine sub-band of 285-325 kHz. I am not sure if ONO's signal level changed when the antenna replacement was made - it was a good signal back in 1988 too. (This antenna would make a fine LowFER beacon installation!). S. McGreevy, 9/93. ONO305B.jpg, 37,601 bytes
366 PLV, Wilsonville, Oregon. PLV can be easily spotted on Interstate 5 about 30 miles south of Portland. This beacon uses a guyed steel-lattice mast and 7-spoke top. capacitance hat without the skirt wire. I has not seen this particualr variation of an NDB antenna before. Please see next photo below, too. S. McGreevy 3/88. PLV366.jpg, 27,548 bytes.
366 PLV, Wilsonville, Oregon. This is a view of PLV's transmitter enclosure and heatsink, the feedline to the tuning system and antenna mast feedline. The antenna was shiny and new, but the transmitter box looked vaguely familiar - indeed, I had been told back in Burns, Oregon earlier that week that the old 396 BNO (off-air now, replaced by a VOR) beacon transmitter was now in use at PLV! (Sheldon Remington and I had visited BNO back in May 1984 when it was on the air still). S. McGreevy, 3/88. PLV366B.jpg, 31,385 bytes.
392 PNA, Pinedale, Wyoming. I like PNA - it often is atop the 392 mixture and was always one of those beacons I wanted to visit someday. Gail and I, on our big road tour of September 1993, detoured a bit off the more direct highway to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone Nat. park to visit PNA. PNA is right at the airport in an adjacent field. The beacon uses a steel lattice mast, guyed, but with the top third of the three guy cables acting as a top capacitance hat/umbrella! A new variant of an NDB antenna configuration I'd never seen before. The Wind River Range is in the far distance. S. McGreevy, 9/93. PNA392.jpg, 45,174 bytes.
332 POA, Pahoa, Hawaii.POA really belts out a big signal from the Big Island of Hawaii - nothing like 353 LLD, Lanai, but pretty good anyway - heard easily from coastal North America and even inland when conditions are good to the Pacific. POA is situated just off of the Pahoa Highway, halfway between Keaau and Pahoa (Hawaiin Paradise Park), and uses a three-wire flat-top antenna, fed by one vertical wire to the center wire of the flat-top portion, supported by two wooden poles. This second photo of POA is of one of the pole supports and the end of the three-wire flat-top section. Both photos by S. McGreevy, 8/86). (POA may have a new umbrella antenna by now). (POA332a.jpg and poa332b.jpg about 24K each.)
POA 332 Pahoa, Hawaii (lsb 331.0 kHz) recorded 20 April 2007 at 1130ut - A quick recording of one POA ident made while accidently moving the rcvr. dial - Kenwood R-1000, 600 ft. wire aimed southwest, recorded at my home near Lone Pine, Calif. an an Olympus digital voice recorder. (98 kb)
NOTE ABOUT 353 LLD - LANAI, HAWAII!: Reception in Keeler, CA in Owens Valley (near Lone Pine, Calif.), using 600 foot. wire to southwest from my rural home has bagged me LLD every morning past 1000 ut (to near local sunrise) since 19 April to 22 April, 2007 very strongly - NOTE - LLD is now, for some reason, double-sideband 420 Hz modulation pitch - making them **IN the clear for DXers** - check 353.42 kHz or 352.58 kHz - they are a powerful signal capable of penetrating well inland into North America, and all over Pacific Ocean. Audio file of LLD is below - steve mcgreevy 24 april 07..
353lld_lanai_22apr07_1030z.mp3 353 LLD Lanai, Hawaii recorded on an Olympus dig. recorder 22 April 2007 at 1130ut. Recorded via Kenwood R-1000 to 600 ft. wire to southwest in Owens Valley, California. I switched betw. SSB and AM mode on rx, using no audio filter. Also audible is stronger 353 LWT Lewiston, Montana. McGreevy 4/07. 46 sec / 1.5 mb 96 kbps MP3.
263 RLL, Rolla, North Dakota. Gail and I van-camped (the evening after visiting Omega-D North Dakota) in a field about 10 miles north of Rolla, and about 10 miles south of the Manitoba, Canada border. The next morning, (September 21, 1993) I remembered that Rolla had an NDB, and scanned the Sony, finding RLL, though it seemed really weak for being so close - almost as weak as some of the large Canadian NDB's 500 miles away! So we rolled southward toward the airport hoping to spot the beacon, and here it was. It is a rare catch in California. One end of its two-wire flat-top antenna is supported by the airport light-beacon platform. S. McGreevy, 9/93. RLL263.jpg, 32,678 bytes
222 MY Marysville, California. Sheldon Remington, John Seamons and myself DFed this beacon on our final day of a long, two state trip to photograph NDB's. McGreevy June 1985. We then went down to the Sacramento area and visited 356 SA Sacramento Photos from Slides June 1985.
379 SF, San Francisco International LIM (Foster City), California. SF is a (literally) bayside beacon right south of the western on-ramp to the San Mateo Bridge. SF, back in July 1987 when this photo was taken, employed a three-wire flat-top antenna. It is an location inner-marker for the approach runways to SFO. There is also a 76-MHz marker installation and dipole antenna along with the SF beacon. This photo was taken right before I dropped Sheldon Remington (ex. NI6E/ now KH6SR) off at the airport (SFO) the day he was moving to Hawaii. S. McGreevy, 7/86. SF379.jpg, 24,927 bytes
266 SL, Salem, Oregon. SL was another unusual installation, employing a wire-cage T-configuration antenna. The actual location is just on the north edge of the small town of Turner. S. McGreevy, 3/88. SL266.jpg, 18,056 bytes.
333 STI Mountain Home, Idaho. Back in late May 1984 when this picture was taken (with a poor-quality 110-type camera), STI used a large two-wire flat-top wire supported by two wooden poles painted red and white (very similar to 374 BKU Baker Montana above). The antenna look a bit dilapidated when Sheldon and I visited STI, and one of the two vertical wire feeds to the flat-top section of the wire antenna was broken. STI still is on the air but with a somewhat reduced signal since the early-mid 1980's, and I presume the antenna has ben replaced/updated. S. McGreevy, 5/84. STI333.jpg, 21,190 bytes.
264 SZT Sandpoint, Idaho. SZT uses a large wire antenna supported by wooden poles - again similar to STI and BKU. S. McGreevy, 9/93. SZT264.jpg, 45,111 bytes.
245 TLR, Tulare, California. This photo was taken by John Headlee, (formerly N6NRK) taken sometime July 1987. He didn't get closer to the NDB than this photo, but it looks like TLR uses steel-lattice masts supporting a one or two-wire flat-top antenna. TLR245.jpg, 23,814 bytes.
263 UAD, Chualar (Salinas), California. UAD uses a standard, 25-watt FAA tubular mast with center-loading coil and 6-spoke umbrella top cap. hat. S. McGreevy, 1/88. UAD263.jpg, 24,669 bytes.
324 U Umpqua River Mouth, Oregon (former marine NDB)U was a tiny beacon - listed as 10 watts - formerlly located in the parking-lot next to the mouth of the Umpqua River in Oregon. Marine beacons like these tiny gems have all been removed from the former marine beacon sub-band 285 to 325 kHz, replaced by the DGPS beacon system, which is a whole-lot more unromantic than these old Marine-marker beacons (or the fascinating-sounding sequenced beacon chains like W 304 right below) were. Photographed March 1988 - S.P. McGreevy.
304 W, Yaquina Head Lighthouse (former marine NDB) W was one of three 304 kHz marine-sequenced beacons on the Oregon Coast. It had higher power than the other small harbor marker beacons shown in the pictures on ths page and employed a taller whip antenna. Nice photo of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse (taken in damp weather). This beacon is off the air too. S. McGreevy, March 1988. W304.jpg, 22,503 bytes.
212 TST/OVE Oroville, (northern) California - Three images from slides of a Dfing trip Sheldon Remington and myself undertook on a gorgeous and sunny spring day in mid-March 1985. We had heard an unID beacon on 212 kHz sending "TST" for months prior to the trip, and long-distance loop bearings pointed toward Oroville, but also toward a few other small airports in the northern Sacramento valley, and so we took a trip to find TST. After a day of enjoying the beautiful scenery and spring greenery alsong the way, we located TST at the Oroville airport. Close-in DFing was accomplished using only the loopsticks of two Sony ICF-7600D portable receivers. Later that day, TST went off the air (we did meet airport personnel inquiring about this beacon). It later returned to the air for a few years as ident OVE. Photos by S. McGreevy March 1985.
Three Montana NDB's visited during June 2001 trip to Saskatchewan. 236 kHz FOR, Forsyth, MT, next to I-90; 359 kHz SDY Sidney, MT; 410 kHz GDV Glendive, MT. mid-June 2001 - S.P. McGreevy.
347 SBX Shelby, Montana - I deviated from my trip southbound on I-15, coming back from Saskatchewan to do VLF recording. July 2001. - S.P. McGreevy. 92k high-resolution photo of T-antenna and wooden-pole supports from afar.
209 AEC "AEC Basecamp" central Nevada I spied this beacon while driving eastbound on US 6 on my way to Great Basin National Park June 2001. I turned back, flipped on my receiver and was very plesantly surprised to have 209 AEC blasting out the speaker - with AWOS voice weather saying "Basecamp" at each beginning of message. I have heard this for years since the late 1980's, usually mixing with HGT Hunter Ligget, Calif and a barrage of PLC's. Heard many times on DXpeditions throughout the intermountain west since 1984, and it has a fairly good daytime groundwave signal at my Owens Valley home, now w/o AWOS -- just ident only. - S.P. McGreevy June 2001, July 2007. 296 kB very high-resolution, gorgeous photos.
201 IP Mobile, Arizona Good friend Kirk W. DFed this beacon site on 26 September 2006. IP is located about 7 miles NW of Mobile, Arizona, and is solar-powered. 193K nice-resolution photo. Photo by Kirk W.
Kirk writes on 25 March 2008: I have some good news regarding IP on 201 kHz. Frank informed me that this beacon is now back on the air. It had been off the air for several weeks but I checked last week and it was back in service. Not only that, it now appears to be on the air 24 hours daily. Formerly, it had turned off at 1900 MST every evening and remained silent all night until 0600 MST the following day.
I wonder if this had been to conserve power, as IP receives its only power from a bank of large solar panels. (I know some other beacons that are that way, too!) I observed no above-ground power lines feeding the beacon in its desolate location in the Rainbow Valley, sandwiched between the Maricopa and Estrella Mountains in a sparse Sonoran Desert landscape. Now the beacon IP operates continuously.
This shouldn't create a power shortage, as this is the sunniest time of the year in southern Arizona and there will now be more daylight than nighttime hours for the next six months. Of course, there may be unrelated technical reasons for the beacon having been QRT for a few weeks and changing its schedule. This is good news for you, as it gives you a better opportunity to hear IP during nighttime propagation conditions.
The best time for you (SpM) to listen for it would most likely be just before sunrise, when noise from thunderstorms in the east has faded down but nighttime conditions are still in existence farther west.
(K.W. - 25 Mar 08)
Prior to seeing RYN for the first time, I was actually expecting a more substantial antenna for a high-power beacon in its special 400-watt class. More specifically, I thought I might find a red and white vertical tower of several hundred feet. Instead, I found a very typical aeronautical NDB installation consisting of a vertical wire suspended from a two-conductor top hat strung between two wooden poles.
It was almost anticlimactic. Of course, it makes sense to keep any structures at an airport as low as possible.
The two poles are perhaps 50 feet in height and the top hat consists of two horizontal wires, one above the other. The two horizontal top hat wires are parallel in the vertical, not horizontal plane. Very high voltage insulators are used to attach the top hat wires to the support poles. A small white cubical structure lies beneath the center of the top hat and the vertical wire appears to originate from it.
Another, larger white cubical fiberglass-like structure lies 100 feet away near a VHF antenna structure. I wonder if the smaller structure contains just the tuning network and the larger structure contains the beacon electronics and its power supply. The larger cubical, boxlike structure was very reminiscent of the structure that exists at IP, 6 miles northwest of Mobile, AZ. (IP has been off the air since approximately Wednesday, February 6th, 2008. - back on - see above - SpM) RYN's antenna and top hat are basically identical in size and form to that used by IP.
SpM writes: 338 RYN often battles it out at night throught the desert southwest with PBT Proberta/Red Bluff, California (audio file of PBT and RYN on 337 kHz a few nights ago around 19 March '08), which does employ a tall vertical mast antenna--I visited PBT in '85 - can't find the slide though...SpM
100 kHz Loran-C Master Station, Searchlight, Nevada Four towers support a large capacity-hat and vertical cable antenna suspended between them. The towers are 721 feet tall and are located about 15 miles south of Searchlight, Nevada, 5 miles east of US Hwy 95. S.P. McGreevy 08 December 2008.
298 kHz DGPS Beacon, Essex, California, in the eastern Mojave Desert employs a 299 ft. mast and twelve capacity-hat wires. Located closeby the historic Old Route 66 Highway. S.P. McGreevy 08 December 2008.
Mid-1986 QSL of Dave Stinson's "NTS" Nevada Test Site 181.35 kHz LowFER beacon, Mercury, Nevada - CW and SSB - QRO - as much as 50 watts! Heard very strongly into northern Calif. - operated at the NTS until mid-1990 or so.
LONGWAVE CLUB OF AMERICA
BEACONWORLD by Alan Gale, G4TMV
On The Art of NDB Dxing by Shel Remington, KH6SR
Photos and page by Stephen P. McGreevy, N6NKS, P.O. Box 928, Lone Pine, CA 93545-0928. Page first completed 20 March 1999 (updated 10 Dec. 2008). I wish you all good NDB visiting and DXing!
Natural VLF Radio Top Page
ship on the sea with Farallon Isl. in background - you can see out 100 miles to the horizon - photo taken from Firtop Hill in the Point Reyes Nat. Seashore in late 80's - S. McGreevy - I love photography too!
