Frank's NON DIRECTIONAL BEACONS (NDB) Page
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Within the hobby of DX-ing (listening to distant [DX in telegraph lingo] radio stations) there are many challenges: Some people listen to radio-amateurs (Hams), others to broadcasting stations on Medium Wave, the tropical bands or shortwave, others again spend their time listening to utility transmissions (such as ground-to-air traffic and vice-versa) or specialise in "numbers stations" (as operated by various secret services).

Another form of DX-ing, which I have discovered only recently (July 2001) is receiving Non Directional Beacons. These are transmitters that in practically all cases only transmit an ID in morse code, consisting of 1, 2 or 3 characters. Since the signal is transmitted in slow morse code, it doesn't require too much time to learn to decipher these IDs. An added advantage is that the IDs are repeated every couple of seconds, so one can take his/her time combine the dots and dashes into the characters they represent.

These beacons are intended for (both civil and military) air and maritime navigation. By tuning into two different beacons by means of antennas with directional sensitivity it is possible to determine ones exact position. The exact locations of the beacons are known and thanks to their ID (and the format of this ID) they can be easily identified. Each NDB has its own format. One may transmit 1 ID, followed by a 3-seconds' gap (pause), another ID and 3-seconds' gap, etc; another one can transmit 2 IDs, followed by a 17-seconds' tone and then repeat the whole procedure; some may also transmit 1 ID, followed by a 3-seconds' gap and an 8-seconds' tone, etc.

Since these signals are mainly intended for airplanes and ships at not too great distances, they don't need much transmitting power, which makes them especially attractive for DX-ers, because in spite of their reduced power, very often distances of over 2,000 or even more kilometers can be bridged. They concentrate mainly on low frequencies (I suppose because of the reliability of reception on these frequencies) below the Medium Wave band, although there are also NDBs in the actual Medium Wave band. For use in Europe the range between approx. 250 and 520 kHz is used, but there are also beacons on lower frequencies (the Long Wave band is not being used for broadcasting in the Americas).

Since there are many beacons and only a range of approx 300 kHz, this implies that many stations share the same frequencies. This should not be a problem for the intended users, who only use them for short distances, but for DX-ers it may mean that 3 or more beacons can be heard on the same frequencies. Worst of all is that sometimes the dots and dashes have the same pitch for different stations, so that 2 IDs may melt into another, non-existent, one. In those cases an antenna with directional characteristics can come in quite handy. Even a simple home-made loop antenna can be a great help for separating these signals.

There are various types of modulation for these signals, which I won't specify here, but as a consequence of which some signals can be heard on their nominal frequencies, but other signals at 400, 800 or 1020 Hz (the "off-set") above or below their nominal frequencies. Due to special circumstances the signal may be transmitted in "negative" mode, where the gaps between the dots and dashes are audible, whereas the actual dots and dashes cannot be heard. By drawing out the dots and dashes it is possible to restore the original ID, but this is not as easy as it sounds. In below list I have included -in red between square brackets ([..])- this "negative" ID in those cases where it has been heard and identified .

Anyway, I didn't really want to give a complete introduction into NDB-listening, just a few details. If you want to know all the ins and outs of this hobby, the best I can suggest is that you visit Alan Gale's excellent and very complete "The BEACONWORLD Website", which stores all sorts of information, both for the beginning and the advanced NDB-listener. Or you can also visit another site at "The Radiobeacons Webring" (highly recommended) - see below this introduction for links.
On this page I mainly want to proudly share with you the beacons I have received since July 2001 from my house in a village at some 25 km North of Amsterdam. The receiver I use is a Lowe HF-225; I listen in CW mode (which is intended for morse signals) and with a bandwidth of 200 Hz (the narrower the bandwidth, the lower the number of beacons you hear at the same time). My antenna initially was a 15-meter "long" wire, but since mid-February 2002 I am using a commercial loop-antenna (the renowned Wellbrook ALA-1530). Although beacons can be received with any receiver and antenna as long as you can tune into the range of 250/500 kHz, sometimes local interference (caused by computer monitors, TV sets, fluorescent lights) can be a real pain in the neck. Due to these problems, and in order to generally improve my reception, I purchased two very useful pieces of software: Spectrogram, which visually displays the signal you receive and enables you to actually SEE the morse code; and SR5, a DSP-program, which enables you to drastically reduce the bandwidth of the received signal. A good compromise for me has been a bandwidth of 80 Hz, because I find that too narrow a bandwidth tends to confuse the signals (you will hear e.g. thunderstorms in the same pitch as the morse signal you are listening to)

For these low frequencies the best results can be obtained during the dark hours of the day, in winter and during periods of low solar activity, but local beacons may be received all day long.

Well now, here goes for "my" beacons. The distances (which have been calculated from my home) are from my own "personalized" copy of Michael Oexner's excellent «European NDB Handbook CD». The formats are as observed by myself - I didn't write them down when I began listening to beacons, so in some cases they are missing. In other instances the signals were so weak that I didn't know exactly whether there was a pause between IDs or the signal simply was too weak to hear.
Some stations have meanwhile moved to other frequencies, or have simply been decommissioned. The relative entries have been written in (red) italics, inasfar as I am aware of these changes.
At some occasions (e.g. during holidays) I have also received beacons in other places. In those cases I have written the entries in green, and instead of distances I have mentioned the place where I received them (e.g. "Spain").

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