N1BUG: 160 Meter Sound Clips |
On this page is a collection of sound files representing some of the DX I have worked or heard on 160 meters. These files do not represent every DX station or entity I have worked. They are intended to illustrate the nature of DXing on 160. Recordings are made as a matter of convenience when doing so is practical and does not interfere with working the DX!
These files have not been processed or enhanced. This is audio exactly as I hear it from my receiver while operating. Files prior to May 2007 do have some distortion due to overdriving the sound card input while recording.
As of March 19, 2013, files have been converted to monaural and file sizes reduced without loss of quality.
For some long haul DX there can be several possible paths (short, long, and skew). Where known, I have indicated the direciton of signal arrival for the longer paths and polar paths.
I have sorted the files by continent, except Asia I have broken into three sections based on perceived difficulty. This is a rather "fuzzy" distinction. Japan might not be any harder than some of the paths in Mid Asia... while some of the paths in "Mid Asia" may become just as difficult as the Far Asia paths in times of higher solar activity. Also, some in Oceania are just as difficult as Far/Mid Asia... for example Guam.
| Far Asia These are the most difficult paths from Maine, because the direct (and long) paths are either high latitude or polar, traversing the auroral zones. |
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| 9M2AX | 2006 Nov 20 | Near his sunrise. Path unknown because all I had for transmit and receive antenna at this time was an inverted V at 75 feet. This is the strongest I have ever heard Ross. It seems likely his signal was high angle that day, though I cannot confirm that. |
| 9M2AX | 2012 Jan 03 | Near his sunrise working K1UO. |
| 9M2AX | 2012 Jan 03 | Near his sunrise working N1RJ. |
| 9M4SLL | 2013 Mar 11 | Spratly Is. Peaked on south path about 3 to 5 minutes after my sunrise. Excellent copy but was unable to QSO. |
| BU2AQ | 2010 Nov 09 | Heard via unknown path. Initially the path seemed to be alternating between southwest and northwest, but later his signal was about equal on south, southwest, west, and northwest Beverages. This suggests the signal may have been arriving at high angle from an unknown direction. |
| DU7ET | 2013 Mar 15 | Closer to his sunset than my sunrise, south path. |
| DU7ET | 2013 Mar 15 | After my QSO he got even stronger! But faded long before my sunrise. |
| JA1HQT | 2007 Jan 14 | Near my sunrise, northwest path. |
| JA8ISU | 2009 Oct 29 | Near my sunrise, northwest path. For the JA>Maine path, this is a huge signal! |
| JA0QNJ | 2007 Jan 14 | Near my sunrise, northwest path. |
| JD1BMH | 2011 Jan 02 | Weak, but workable. What a pleasant surprise! I believe I was Harry's first W1 from JD1/O. |
| JT1CO | 2009 Dec 11 | Shortly before my sunrise. North path. Notice how he comes out of the noise just long enough for a QSO, then fades again. I was lucky! |
| JT0YAB | 2010 Nov 01 | Shortly after my sunset. |
| RA0FF | 2010 Nov 06 | Near my sunrise, northwest path. |
| RA0QC | 2009 Jan 23 | Near his sunrise, north path. |
| V84SMD | 2012 Nov 20 | South to Southeast path between my sunset and his sunrise. |
| XU7ACY | 2010 Nov 09 | Via long path (south/southwest) just before my sunrise. Peter reported high QRN this day and I am shocked I got through! This was my first 160m Asia QSO on the S/SW path. |
| XU7ACY | 2010 Jan 28 | Near his sunrise. Skew path over Europe (Northeast). |
| XU7ACY | 2011 Feb 12 | It is amazing how oftem Peter is workable! |
| XU7ACY / JT1CO | 2011 Feb 14 | This was bizarre. I heard Peter and Chak only on my South Beverage on this evening. This is a large file. I am including the whole 10 minute segment as recorded during this unusual event. |
| YC0LOW/1 | 2011 Jan 15 | Jo had a good signal but was struggling with noise on his end. |
| HS0ZKX 1 HS0ZKX 2 |
2013 Dec 03 | Via SW path. First file (1) is our QSO; second file (2) is the peak about 3 to 4 minutes later. |
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| Mid Asia These are challenging or infrequent paths due to being relatively high latitude. |
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| 4S7NE | 2007 Jan 18 | Evening, northeast path. |
| EY7AF | 2007 Jan 29 | Near his sunrise, northeast path. |
| EY8MM | 2013 Feb 20 | Evening, northeast path. |
| EY8/K4ZW | 2009 Jan 31 | Evening, northeast path. |
| RZ0AF | 2008 Nov 22 | Evening, north path. This is an incredible signal for a polar path! |
| RZ0BA | 2010 Nov 03 | Evening, north path. |
| UA9YAB | 2007 Feb 11 | Evening, north path. |
| UK8DAN | 2011 Feb 02 | I had worked this station before, but this is probably the best I have ever heard him. Not bad for 70 watts to a low wire antenna! |
| UK8GK | 2007 Feb 12 | Evening, northeast path. |
| UN5J | 2011 Feb 13 | Not an easy QSO but we made it! |
| VU2BGS | 2010 Jan 17 | Near his sunrise, northeast path. Kumar was running 70 watts to a 12 meter high wire vertical on the roof! |
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| Other Asia These are relatively easy, mid latitude paths. |
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| 4L/UT5EO | 2010 Nov 26 | |
| 4Z1UF | 2010 Nov 26 | |
| 7O6T | 2012 May 13 | Nice signal. I failed to record the QSO I had earlier. |
| A45XR | 2008 Feb 21 | |
| A71EM | 2010 Jan 29 | |
| A73A | 2010 Nov 01 | |
| A7/M0FGA | 2010 Jan 15 | |
| HZ1FI | 2012 Jan 02 | |
| OD5NJ | 2011 Mar 18 | |
| VU7RG | 2007 Jan 19 | |
| YI9PSE | 2010 Apr 03 | |
| YK9G | 2008 Aug 15 | |
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| Africa | ||
| 3B9WR | 2010 Mar 23 | |
| 3XM6JR | 2006 Nov 10 | |
| 5A7A | 2006 Nov 18 | |
| 5N7M | 2013 Mar 29 | |
| 5N7MGI | 2009 Nov 25 | |
| 5R8X | 2010 Nov 09 | |
| 5V7TT | 2010 Oct 15 | |
| 5X8C | 2013 Feb 12 | |
| 5Z4HW | 2008 Mar 09 | |
| 7Q7BP | 2007 Jan 29 | |
| 9J2BO | 2007 Jan 29 | |
| 9Q50ON | 2010 Dec 06 | |
| 9U4U | 2013 Feb 15 | |
| 9X0CW | 2010 Feb 10 | |
| A25NW | 2009 Nov 25 | |
| C50C | 2010 Nov 25 | |
| C52T | 2006 Oct 27 | |
| D2NX | 2008 Jan 30 | With QRN and QSB, this QSO was a bit of a challenge... but I've seen tougher ones on topband! |
| D3AA | 2013 Jan 20 | Typical 160m. Weeks, months go by and you just can't hear a particular station. Then all of a sudden, boom! He's loud! |
| FR/DJ7RJ | 2010 Oct 02 | |
| J20RR | 2007 Feb 03 | |
| J28AA | 2011 Feb 04 | |
| S79GM | 2010 Mar 24 | |
| S79K | 2010 Nov 01 | |
| S9DX | 2011 Feb 08 | |
| ST0R | 2011 Aug 05 | And some poeple think 160m is useless in summer!? |
| TJ9PF | 2011 Feb 13 | |
| TL0CW | 2011 Oct 28 | |
| TN2T | 2012 Jan 22 | |
| TN5SN | 2009 Jan 10 | |
| TO7RJ | 2009 Oct 06 | DXCC entity Mayotte (FH) |
| TU2T | 2011 Nov 07 | Bit of a rough go of it with QSB but got him. |
| TU2/F5LDY | 2007 Jan 23 | |
| V51AS | 2009 Oct 17 | |
| VQ9LA | 2010 Oct 04 | I wish I had a clip of Larry during our first topband QSO, March 2005... he was 599+ at my sunset that day, as was 8Q7DV. |
| VQ9LA | 2011 Feb 12 | |
| XT2C | 2007 Jan 14 | |
| XT2TT | 2013 Feb 23 | Worked on CW right in the middle of a major SSB contest. What a great signal! |
| Z21BB | 2010 Nov 19 | About half way between my sunset and Fernando's sunrise. |
| ZD8O | 2010 Nov 23 | |
| ZD9T | 2010 Nov 21 | |
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| Oceania | ||
| 3D20CR | 2009 Oct 04 | Conway Reef |
| 3D2RX | 2013 Feb 18 | Rotuma at last! Several prior operations from here had been unworkable. |
| 5W0RE | 2007 Feb 27 | |
| A31A | 2009 Nov 23 | This is about as weak as they can get and still have confidence the QSO was good! |
| E51QMA | 2006 Nov 04 | North Cook Islands |
| FO8RZ | 2010 Nov 06 | French Polynesia |
| FO/JA8BMK | 2008 Feb 19 | Austral Islands. Nice big fade in the middle of the QSO. |
| FW5RE | 2009 Feb 01 | |
| K4M | 2009 Oct 15 | Midway Island |
| KH2/N2NL | 2010 Nov 03 | Weak, propagation not especially good this day. All those years of EME were good training for copying in conditions like this! The power was out on Guam, so Dave (running on a generator) had very quiet receiving conditions. |
| KH6/N6KB | 2006 Jan 29 | |
| NH8S | 2012 Sep 11 | |
| T27A | 2009 Feb 20 | I was very lucky with the QSB on this weak one. |
| T30RH | 2011 Mar 15 | |
| T30YA | 2011 Feb 16 | |
| T31A | 2011 Apr 27 | |
| T32MO | 2007 Jan 30 | |
| T33ZZ | 2008 Oct 23 | |
| TX3A | 2009 Nov 04 | Chesterfield Island |
| TX4T | 2010 Feb 29 | French Polynesia |
| V73QQ | 2010 Dec 12 | |
| VK6GX | 2008 Oct 22 | Near my sunset, but VK6 is nearly antipodal from here and is just as workable the other way around at my sunrise. |
| VK6HD | 2006 Nov 08 | Also near my sunset... but really, they are workable the other way around! |
| VK6HD | 2011 Dec 24 | See! This QSO was near my sunrise. |
| VK9CNC | 2008 Oct 10 | Norfolk Island |
| VK9DNX | 2007 Feb 21 | Norfolk Island |
| VK9DWX | 2009 Oct 17 | Willis Island |
| VK9GMW | 2009 Apr 01 | Mellish Reef |
| VK9LA | 2009 Mar 26 | Lord Howe Island. Weak. |
| VP6DX | 2008 Feb 12 | Ducie Island |
| VP6T | 2012 Jan 23 | Worked on a QSB peak. |
| ZK2A | 2010 Nov 24 | Weak! |
| ZK2C | 2012 Feb 10 | QSB. |
| ZL1AZE | 2010 Dec 06 | |
| ZL7T | 2009 Mar 10 | |
| ZL8X | 2010 Nov 20 | |
| ZL8X | 2010 Nov 26 | SSB. |
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| Antarctic | ||
| 3Y0X | 2006 Feb 10 | Peter I Island |
| DP1POL | 2010 Jan 16 | |
| RI1ANF | 2012 Sep 12 | South Shetland Is. |
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| Europe | ||
| 1A4A | 2007 Jan 13 | |
| R1FJT | 2006 Oct 27 | Franz Jozef Land |
| TA2AL | 2013 Mar 09 | |
| TB4/DJ7RJ | 2013 Mar 04 | |
| ZA3HA | 2010 Nov 23 | |
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| North & South America | ||
| 4A4A | 2011 Mar 18 | |
| CX/N3BNA | 2010 Nov 11 | |
| HC2AC | 2013 Jan 21 | Outstanding signal for 100 watts. |
| HK0NA | 2012 Jan 11 | |
| PT0S | 2012 Nov 12 | |
| TI9KK | 2008 Feb 10 | |
| TO5FJ | 2008 Jan 16 | St. Barthelemy |
| VP8BUG | 2009 Nov 20 | Falkland Islands. Nice callsign :-) |
| VP8DMN | 2010 Jan 24 | Falkland Islands |
| VP8ORK | 2011 Jan 31 | |
| VP8ORK | 2011 Feb 05 | Typical enhancement of north-south (especially transequatorial) paths during a geomagnetic storm. |
| WL7E | 2012 Jan 03 | I dare you to try to copy WL7E with severe echo on his signal. This was an unusual propagation phenomenon. |
| XR0ZA | 2010 Jan 27 | |
| ZY0T | 2009 Oct 19 | |
I have been asked what plasma TV noise sounds like on the bands. Here are two samples. The first one is noise from a plasma TV on 10 meters. At the beginning of the file I was using a 2.4 kHz filter with the receiver tuned to the center of the noise. Later I tuned back and forth through the noise with both wide (2.4 kHz) and narrow (300 Hz filters). The time line is as follows:
0:00 - 0:47 steady noise, 2.4 KHz filter
0:47 - 1:20 tuning through the noise with 2.4 kHz filter
0:56 brief silence as I tuned out of the noise
1:10 brief silence as I tuned out of the noise
1:20 I switch to 300 Hz filter and begin tuning back and forth through the noise
1:43 brief silence as I tuned out of the noise
1:48 brief silence as I tuned out of the noise
Plasma TV on 10m Band
Next is plasma TV interference on 160 meters, first with a wide filter, then narrow, as before.
0:00 - 0:25 steady noise, 2.4 kHz filter
0:25 - 0:50 tuning through the noise with 2.4 kHz filter
0:30 brief silence as I tuned out of the noise
0:42 brief silence as I tuned out of the noise
0:50 I switch to 300 Hz filter and being tuning back and forth through the noise
1:01 brief silence as I tuned out of the noise
1:18 brief silence as I tuned out of the noise
Plasma TV on 160m Band
Last update January 4, 2022