KVOL Lafayette LA 1330 Verification

Coolest catch from North America on my part so far this season is KVOL, a 1000-watt station with a very modest lobe to the north. It just suddenly popped up at 0731 on October 24 with "We are the voice of Lafayette, 1330 AM KVOL"; faded down and was never heard again. Operations Manager Charles Sagona emailed me a verie this evening, informing me that mine was the second of two reports this year; the other came from Finland.

I'd never have caught it without the SDR-IQ.

WFNN Erie PA 1330 Verification

Heard a few times during KONG17, though this reception in particular was just after the expedition ended on October 24. A superb signal at the time. Charles G. Lelievre emailed a confirmation to me this afternoon; also attached several pictures from the station, one of which is a studio picture you see above. Thanks JA for the email address.

KFXX Portland OR 1080 Verification

"Sportsradio 1080 The Fan" was a rather regular guest in Kongsfjord during KONG17 even though it is a station I haven't heard before. Very good signal levels. Friendly email last evening confirmed my reception.

Radio Rhema, Auckland 1251 Verification

During a couple of hectic hours on October 17, New Zealand stations were literally occupying most of the upper part of the MW band. Radio Rhema in Auckland put up a nice signal on 1251 and I got an ID at 0946.

Dudley Scantlebury from Technical Administration confirmed my reception with an email this morning.

Strange Conditions Pt. II

Again a lousy night and morning, but as noon approached we had excellent signal levels from Oregon and Washington, well into the afternoon. Good signals as late as 3 pm local (1300 UTC). We're not quite sure yet what we heard, except I've noted in passing IDs from KQMS and KNND 1400. The SDR-IQs were running hot in RF Recording mode, so we'll learn later which secrets have been unveiled.

4QD 1548 had a super signal later on and we thought we might have another good Aussie opening, but only found traces of audio on 630 and 1512. The most common Pacific stations like Tonga 1017 and Marshall Islands 1098 were also present but not with impressive strengths.

On Monday evening I was called up by Chris Walker at CBC British Columbia, and we had a five-minute chat which was aired on CBC Daybreak North which originates from Prince Rupert (860) and Prince George (FM). The interview ended with Chris giving me an official verification of my reception of CFPR Prince Rupert BC 860, on the air! My first!

Te Reo Irirangi Maori o Te Upoko o Te Ika, Wellington 1161 Verification

Te Reo Irirangi Maori o Te Upoko o Te Ika, or 2XM as is their official call letters, was heard on 1161 kHz on the first of the two Fab NZ days (October 16).  2XM is a Maori station.  Wena Tait, Station Manager, emailed me a confirmation this evening.  Thanks Terry Nielsen in NZ for contact info!

Strange Conditions

Early night: Nada
Night: Nada
Late night: Nada
Morning: Getting better
Late morning: Better!! Stations like KRTA-610 and KPDQ-800 visited us along with many WA and OR stations. Kinda saved the day. Nothing exciting from Asia or the Pacific, and excessive noise on the easterly directed beverages.

It was sort of depressing to sit here during the night and have SMS after SMS from the Andøya gang reporting excellent DX. While there are always local differences that can vary over hours and days, I think it is quite obvious that the western, coastal locations of the Vesterålen (in the case of Andøya) and Lofoten islands are superb locations for trans-atlantic DX. About time they are tested.

I had a bit of time to do other things than DX as well. Olav Skår from Stavanger, who visited us a few days ago, left an Icom IC-R1500 receiver for me to test. I did some measurement tests, and tried to find out how it could work as a MW DX receiver. A quick conclusion on the latter issue is that it won't. The user interface may be good for scanning, but not for MW DX. It is simply too cumbersome to operate, whether you use the software interface or the remote control. I thought that it was very unsensitive on MW - well it is but not as bad as I had thought with sensitivity figures in the -96dBm range or around 4 uV. On shortwave sensitivity is around 1 uV. I assume that it has a 10 dB attenuation pad built in, which probably can be removed, if the receiver could work well otherwise. I'll spend more time with it though and make a write-up.

Weather: Still mild with 5C, and still windy, SW winds at around 40 km/h.

Things To Do When Conditions Should Be Improving

1. Twist the dials
2. Check antenna connections
3. Re-check antenna connections
4. Shake heads
5. Twist the dials
etc....

Seriously though: According to SWPC, conditions should be good now. But as is often the case in northern locations, the signals take time to recover. Not that it seemed to play much difference at Andøya, where our friends Jan, Ole, Geir and Tore had superb conditions towards Latin America last night. Only few, and mostly weak, signals here. Maybe someone fired off a rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range and put a hole in the ionosphere so that the signals leaked down through that hole?

Nothing much from North America either, very quiet on the band. But then the ionosphere again acts in mysterious ways as KSMA Santa Maria CA suddenly appeared on 1240 with a good signal! Just about alone! But followed by the more common KTIX Pendleton OR seconds later. Again and again we see that even when conditions appear totally useless, excellent DX can be heard.

Here is the latest weather update: Very mild and calm during the night, increased wind and a little rain at the time of writing, but still very mild with around 5C.

Things To Do When Conditions Are Poor

1. Listen to recordings from previous days. It's amazing how many hundred IDs of WOOD you can get from that.
2. Jog. With 60 km/h winds only OJ is brave enough to try, and he will surely break the Veines Lighthouse world record - on the way out. He will surely crawl the way in.
3. Write reception logs and reports. We will try to use Google Docs as a mean to coordinate our efforts.
4. Listen to KBRW. Now and then they put a volunteer behind the mic who is more interested in playing a heavy-metal/death-metal mix than put his voice on the air for any talent hunters to hear. Maybe just as well. But we do like the music!
5. Make up for lost sleep. Arnstein slept 12 hours during the last 15 hours, roughly the same as during the first week.
6. Wait for Kongsfjord Gjestehus to open their doors for us.

KONG17 Update; CFPR Prince Rupert BC 860 Verification

A most welcome reception on October 16, followed by a most welcome verification today from CBC Prince Rupert 860! A very difficult station to hear, since during the night easterly located stations dominate, and later on CHAK Inuvik tends to put out a very strong signal towards us. Luckily though, after the CBC News at 1300 UTC I did hear both stations, and heard a clear Prince Rupert announcement when CHAK kept quiet for a while.

Friendly email from Chris Walker today confirmed my reception, making it my first KONG17 verification.

Otherwise, conditions have been very much on-off today, though mostly off due to the coronal hole. See the kongsfjord.no update for details.

Very strong winds today didn't prevent me and OJ from making a 7 km jog out to the Veines lighthouse. During the evening and the king crab meal it calmed to around 37 km/h and weather will improve further during the night although the temperature is around 0C.

Expect The Unexpected

Far too often, when solar disturbances occur, one tends to believe that nothing's going to be heard. Some of the time it may be true. But Kongsfjord is an extraordinary location. Even if NA conditions in general were poor, we did hear a few nice ones. And the unexpected New Zealand opening later on was record-breaking, in that we heard 3YW from Westport on the South Island, 1458, transmitting with a mere 400 watts. Now, with a distance of 16,000 km it is a logging that is hard to beat.

A few nice Australians also showed up later on. Right now we're preparing dinner, a reindeer steak with slow-gratinated potatoes. The highlights are flashing by like telephone posts from a train window...

Weather has taken a definitive turn for the worse though, with 55 km/h NW winds and rainshowers, expected to get worse overnight. +4C right now, will drop to +1C by tomorrow morning.

KONG17 Update, Wednesday

Phew! Sleep deprivation already, and we're not even half-way! DX-ing with this intensity is tough work.

The kongsfjord.no updates should speak for themselves so I need not make the same listing here. Yesterday was the best New Zealand day that far. Today topped that with a good margin. With 900 watt stations and both islands being heard, we now know that even for such an elusive target there really is no limit.

Conditions towards Asia are still quite good but after such an ordeal it is difficult to find motivation for DX-ing more common countries and stations. Preparing tonight's dinner: Reindeer cirloins with cloudberries and cream for dessert. We're hoping for at least another night and another morning with good NZ conditions before the effects of the Coronal Hole hit us.

Weather update: Dead calm today after a windy evening and night; very light drizzle and still around 6C.

We Wait No More, And KUAM Noted On New Frequency

With the effects of the Coronal Hole waning, conditions improved quite a bit overnight, with results you can read about here. I was particularly satisfied with CISL Richmond BC 650, KVOK Kodiak AK 560, KMVI Wailuku HI 550 all alone from the pest KZTN for a few moments, enough for a good ID, and that KUAM Agana Guam was heard with a very good signal on their new frequency 630 (ex-612).

As I write this around 1230 UTC, signals from North America, Pacific and Asia are very much present, and we are looking forward to an interesting afternoon!

Weather still very nice, 6C and light SW winds.

Still Waiting

Jan says the coronal hole is still influencing reception, and it appears to be so. Lots of stations in the band, but nothing spectacular. Last night gave no daytimers; the Maine stations dominated the early hours (1470, 1160, 1390, 1370 etc) and when they were gone we went to sleep.

From around 0500 mostly prairie-type conditions with strong Canadians from Manitoba and westwards, some Mexico and signals on every channel but mostly heard before. So: Still waiting. But as I write this, CJRJ Victoria BC 1200 is entertaining us with Indian music at excellent strength. Hopefully we will enjoy better conditions towards the Pacific today.

IBOC noise: As reported from the Lemmenjoki expeditions, the IBOC noise is very much noticeable, and obscures reception on several frequencies.

Weather: Cloudy but dry, 35 km/h wind from the south and the temperature is at the freezing point.

Will upload some pictures later today.

Clear Skies, No Aurora!

A brief post before we take a few hours rest. Semi-good conditions today, Australia heard well until a solar disturbance hit just before TOH 1400. Conditions improving later in the afternoon. Nothing much from the Pacific, only the common Hawaii stations and Marshall Islands 1098 and hints of a few others. See kongsfjord.no for details.

The King Crab and Carbonara was delicious. Weather has improved a lot; tonight -1C with clear skies, calm and not a trace of Aurora! Things could be a lot worse than this.

KONG17 Update, Saturday Morning

Right...so what did we hear this night? The Coronal Hole did have its impact yesterday but conditions improved during the night. We did hear Maldives 1449 around Midnight UTC with fair levels competing with Italy - although there were NA signals during the night nothing exciting was logged. During the morning conditions were spread, like KGO and WGY noted on 810 almost at the same time. Some other stations noted were KBUL-970 and KHNC-1360, and possibly Colorado on 1060.

Soon it is time to check out the Pacific stations.

Weather: A little better; wind is now 41 km/h from WNW and the rain is a bit lighter. Temperature: +4C.

Safe Arrival; Wine List

All three arrived on schedule! Widerøe does a good job even in the roughest of weather. Not too spectacular conditions at this time of the day, but we've tasted some of the beer and schnapps. Tarmo asked for the wine list, well here it is:

Torre del Falasco, Valpolicella, Ripasso 2005 (Valpantena)
Allesverloren, Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 (Landgoedwyn)
Quinta des Saes Reserva 2005 (CVR Dão)
Moulin de Laussac, Bordeaux 2006 (Moulin de Laussac)
Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2005 (Gerard Tremblay, Domaine des Iles)
Rheingau, Estate Rauenthal 2006 (Georg Brauer)
Natural XO, Calvados du Pays d'Auge (Domaine Dupont)
Gilde Non Plus Ultra Aquavit (Arcus)
Brøndums Snaps (Aalborg Akvavit)
Brøndum Kummenakvavit (De Danske Spritfabrikker)
Specially imported Sapporo Premium Beer
Significant amounts of not specially imported beer

Weather: NW winds 60 km/h, rainshowers, +3C. Supposed to calm a bit overnight.

Michael asked who is the chef or are we taking turns. We don't really know.

KONG17 Menue Translated

OK, so Sami wasn't your first choice of languages. Here is the English version then:

12.10 Bjarne's Fish au Gratin
13.10 King Crab with Carbonara
14.10 Baked Wild Salmon fillets
15.10 Sirloin from Reindeer, Cloudberries with Cream for Dessert
16.10 Wok'ed King Crab
17.10 Baked Cod fillets with wok'ed vegetables
18.10 Slow-Grilled Leg of Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary
19.10 King Crab with Carbonara (Take 2)
20.10 The Cook's Day Off: Dinner at Kongsfjord Gjestehus
21.10 Grilled Wild Salmon with Potatoes and Sour Cream
22.10 Meat Soup with Lamb and Vegetables
23.10 Leftovers

These are only the main courses. The hors d'Oeuvres and desserts are very exciting stuff too.

Weather is an important factor at the Arctic Coast so I'll bring updates every time I post. This morning: Gale 63 km/h from NW, rain, +4 Celsius.

Expect 2-3 posts per day from now on!

KONG17 Preps, Menue

After a mild and calm September, this autumn has suddenly smacked us in our faces with fierce winds, snow and hail! The rest of the KONG crew is supposed to land at 1.07 pm local tomorrow; whether they do or not is an open question. Let's hope Widerøe fights off the wind gusts!

Some have expressed interest in what we eat during the KONG expeditions. We all appreciate good food and good drinks, and here is what we plan to eat:

12.10. Bjarnes guollegratiidna

13.10. Gonagasreabbá carbonarain

14.10. Oapmanis basson luossa ja ruotnasat

15.10. Bohccobiergu, luomelákca bajáluššan

16.10. Gonagasreabbá wok-bánnos

17.10. Oapmanis basson dorski, wok-ruotnasat ja sovssa

18.10. Obban bassojuvvon lábbáčoarbbealli

19.10. Gonagasreabbá carbonarain

20.10. Gaskabeaivvit guosseviesus

21.10. Basson luossačaskkástagat ja buđehat ja loahppelákca

22.10. Lábbábiergomálli

23.10. Seaguhus bázahus borramušaidguin

Sounds good, eh?

The Cross, Pohnpei Micronesia 4755 Verification

Friendly email from Roland at PMA this morning confirmed my reception of The Cross. Indeed my first Micronesia verie. Since the 1kW signal seems to travel well across the world, many DX-ers will be able to add another country to their count.

Some SDR-IQ Logs

I have recorded rather much from September and so far in October - and had little time to check them. Trying to be at least a bit methodically, I will present small logs now & then here while the complete logs will be available on kongsfjord.no and continously updated.

So then, here's from the first part of the night of September 15 (Rarely heard or new stations in Bold):

Freq	Date	UTC	Station	Cont
1220	15.09	0132	XEB La B Grande, Cd. Mexico	CA
1220	15.09	0100	WHKW Cleveland OH	NA
1230	15.09	0100	CFFB Iqaluit NU	NA
1240	15.09	0030	UNID US, When Radio Was	NA
1250	15.09	0112	CJYE Oakville ON	NA
1250	15.09	0059	WSSP Milwaukee WI	NA
1270	15.09	0002	WXYT Detroit MI	NA
1280	14.09	2328	CFMB Montreal QU	NA
1290	15.09	0100	CJBK London ON	NA
1290	15.09	0052	WHIO Dayton OH	NA
1300	19.09	0022	WOOD Grand Rapids MI	NA
1310	19.09	0008	CIWW Ottawa ON	NA
1320	15.09	0143	CJMR Mississauga ON	NA
1320	14.09	2325	CKEC New Glasgow NS	NA
1360	15.09	0032	WKAT North Miami FL	NA
1370	15.09	0007	WDEA Ellsworth ME	NA
1370	15.09	0000	WXXI Rochester NY	NA
1380	15.09	0155	WTJK Beloit IL	NA
1380	15.09	0036	CKLC Kingston ON	NA
1380	15.09	0013	CKPC Brantford ON	NA
1390	15.09	0000	WEGP Presque Isle ME	NA
1400	14.09	2358	CBG Gander NL	NA
1420	15.09	0104	WHK Cleveland OH	NA
1460	15.09	0108	KXNO Des Moines IA	NA
1460	15.09	0014	CJOY Guelph ON	NA
1470	15.09	0032	WMBD Peoria IL	NA
1470	15.09	0046	WBKV West Bend WI	NA
1480	15.09	0141	WLMV Madison WI	NA
1480	15.09	0101	WHBC Canton OH	NA
1480	15.09	0030	WGVU Kentwood MI	NA
1500	15.09	0032	WLQV Detroit MI	NA
1510	15.09	0100	WAUK Waukesha WI	NA
1520	15.09	0100	WWKB Buffalo NY	NA
1540	15.09	0132	KXEL Waterloo IA	NA
1540	15.09	0100	CHIN Toronto ON	NA
1550	15.09	0059	CBE Windsor ON	NA
1560	15.09	0042	WQEW New York NY	NA
1580	15.09	0032	CKDO Oshawa ON	NA
1600	15.09	0016	WAAM Ann Arbor MI	NA
1161	19.09	1705	5AN ABC Naracoorte SA	OC
1233	19.09	1640	2NC ABC Newcastle NSW	OC
1503	19.09	1605	2BS Gold Bathurst NSW	OC
1512	19.09	1605	2RN ABC Newcastle NSW	OC
1548	19.09	1540	4QD ABC Emerald QLD	OC

PMA Micronesia 4755 Heard

No sensation; it's already been heard in Finland and other places, but I did pick up a fairly good signal from PMA on 4755.25 this evening; signal improving as they were getting closer to dawn. I got a nice prerecorded ID at 1832 and also at 1900. Otherwise they were obviously on nighttime programming with uninterrupted inspirational music.

On MW very boring and auroral conditions today.

WAUK Waukesha WI 1510 Verification

Quite unexpectedly, WAUK was heard on Sept 15 with local announcements from ESPN Milwaukee, including a WMCS (Greenfield, WI 1290) legal ID. ESPN Milwaukee is split between WMCS and WAUK as the homepage logo implies but WAUK stayed on for a while after WMCS took over the program.

Email from Eric Anderson at ESPN Milwaukee Sales confirmed my reception tonight. First premium verification of the season!