First TA Signals (and then some)

First signals from over the pond were recorded on Aug 29, and Argentina was the first country this year. The day after saw nice signals from the usual ARG stations, like 1110, 1190, 1270 and 1350. A little Cuba and Brazil mixed in. Nothing from North America so far.

The above were logged on the 310 beverage, which went quiet during yesterday. I went out to see what was wrong. It was totally devastated. Including extremely solid supports, thrown around as were they matches. In the middle of it all: A very grumpy reindeer bull, his antlers entangled in beverage stuff. I managed to cut as much of the wire as I dared, and off he went, leaving me to pick up the pieces.

Today the 310 is up and running again, in the hope that Mr. Reindeer has learned a lesson. Actually he shouldn't be here at the coast at all now, he should be up on the plains looking for reindeer girls. Maybe he missed the biology class.

It's the first reindeer catch since I started erecting beverages here in 1997.

A new radio project is underway. I will be going to East Africa in February and thought I'd bring a small radio with me and do some MW band scanning. So I ended up with the Tecsun PL-380, which fits "small" comfortably. But I need to rely on its internal ferrite rod for MW reception, and as we know small is not good for ferrite rods. So I got two 7.5" ferrite rods from Amidon yesterday, and I'm waiting for some Litz wire to complete the project. Thanks Gary DeBock for the write-up on this mod. The picture shows the difference in size between the stock ferrite and the new one. Now I only need to find out how to make it fit in the enclosure...