KONG23 - Arrival Day

We don't quite know what to expect from this year's KONG DX-pedition, given the recent solar activity. Actually we thought the band would be dead quiet last night from the aftermath of the M-class flare on Wednesday. It wasn't! It varied a lot, as one can expect with disturbed conditions, and the Jaguar overnight waterfall illustrates this nicely.

Good conditions towards the MI/OH/IN area at 01:00, stations like WBCK-MI 930, WSBT-IN 960, WMOH-OH 1450 and WBNS-OH 1460. Totally dead at 02:00, improving 03:00 and then a very nice opening toward the southern states at 04:00 giving me new stations from VA, KY and AR. Decent signals even at 05:00 but then the signal levels dipped as if someone switched the power off. From red to green in seconds.

At the time of writing this, 03:30 UTC on the 11th, the night has been quite uneventful with only the most common stations audible.

Weather permitting, the other KONG participants Arnstein Bue, OJ Sagdahl and TJ Bråtveit will land at 11:04 UTC. The weather is quite rough although temperatures are still just on the red side of the zero mark.

What we do know, is that even if we don't hear well, we will eat and drink well! Stay tuned for some hefty descriptions here and on kongsfjord.no's weblog.