Weekend DX In Kongsfjord - Surprising Aussie Opening

Another weekend was spent in Kongsfjord to check conditions and gear. We are enjoying a mild and dry autumn, with temperatures well above an average day in July, so there is no sense in sitting at home. Solar conditions were mostly quiet to unsettled, due to a coronal hole, but it didn't do very much damage. It's still very early in the season on this latitude, but I did get some nice catches.

From North America, stations of interest were WMDR Augusta ME 1340 and rarely heard (here, but common further south) CKDY Digby NS 1420 on Saturday. Sunday brought WRVA Richmond VA 1140, WOMT Manitowoc WI 1240, WMFJ Daytona FL 1450 and an unusually strong KOLM Rochester MN 1520. It takes something to get by WWKB. The overnight waterfall shows signal peaks around 01:00 and 01:30, somewhat weaker at 02:00 and fading as dawn went into sunrise at 03:10 UTC. Poor signal levels in the bottom half of the MW band.

From Asia and the Pacific, Friday afternoon and evening brought some astonishing signals from Japan, plus KUAM Agatna Guam on 630. Tentative reception also from KGUM 567 and KTWG 801, the latter with great signals. Also the odd Australian. All heard before so nothing spectacular. .

All the more spectacular were the Australians that showed up on Saturday though. Excellent reception both in-band and in the x-band, the latter producing super signals from The Vision Network on 1611 and 1629, also 4KZ great on 1620 and 2ME/3ME on 1638. Signals further up to be checked. What was really surprising was in-band, with our old friend 2BS Bathurst NSW on 1503 excellent on top of the hour, also tentative 4AY Albury NSW on 1494 but running syndicated programming at the time they peaked. On 1350, 2LF from Young, NSW is a new log, and we also have tentative logs from 2SM Sydney, NSW 1269 and 2GF Grafton, NSW 1206. ABC was heard on a large number of frequencies, including extremely unlikely 1602 where the main suspect is ABC Western Victoria, 250 watts. Favoured stations were located in NSW with some QLD and Victoria stations.

So: What can we expect the coming afternoon? Time will show, SDR recorders have been set as I return to Vadsø. The photo below was taken on Sunday around 08:30, and although it has a clear autumn tint with wind and dark clouds, the temperature is still 15 Celsius. (Yes, that fiber glass pole on the right is an antenna, it's a Mini-Whip).