Arctic DX: 08/01/2025

As many will know, the KONG crew also operate beverages and SDRs at Smøla island, southwest of Trondheim. It was time for our annual trip to the island. Smøla is flat, it's boggy and surrounded by treacherous waters. Visitors were Bjarne and OJ Sagdahl. Unfortunately, only two of the "Gang of Three" could make it there as Ole Forr was busy with other appointments. Our host at the site is radio amateur Rolf.

A lovely site for DX-ing!

DX equipment needs maintenance. In this case, the 315‑degree beverage had suffered a gain loss, so it was clearly in need of repair. The PC I had deployed there — a relatively new Dell MFF — was experiencing LAN connectivity issues and required replacement. One of OJ’s Intel NUCs was also suffering from overheating. And, as it turned out, there were a couple of nasty surprises waiting for us as well.

Thursday AUG-21

The taxi picked me up at 04:30 local time for a flight from Vadsø via Alta and Tromsø, south to Trondheim, where OJ was waiting at the airport. After a while, we drove through heavy rain showers towards the 18:45 ferry crossing and arrived on site around 20:00. We had brought along some amazing sushi from Trondheim. With dinner done, we settled in with a few beers and Rolf's excellent AV system to watch Roger Waters’ Us + Them before calling it a day.

Sushi, with IPA from Hogna

Friday AUG-22

Time to inspect the beverages and the transformer/preamp boxes. Both the 290‑ and 315‑degree beverages need to cross a narrow strait that falls dry at low tide. The 290 appeared to be fine, although we didn’t check the far end until later. The 315, however, had suffered a break and needed repair.

Back at the antenna starting points, we had a nasty surprise — both boxes containing the transformer and preamp had been taken over by ants! Not a pretty sight. Fortunately, they hadn’t caused any damage to the hardware inside.

Cozy ant condo

My Dell MFF was replaced with a refurbished Intel NUC PC, and OJ’s extremely hot‑running NUC was swapped for a newer model.

We also replaced the power supply for a device not used by us, which had been causing a lot of RFI. The new one seems to be much quieter — result!

As at the KONG HQ, we do enjoy a good meal. Dinner that day was six (two each) 150‑gram Angus beef burgers, flavoured with Chili Ginger topping from Wildfire, topped with Gruyère cheese, and served with fried onions and a salad.

The REAL Burger King

We had a Scarpa Piemonte red wine with the burgers, followed by a few beers and a bit of grappa and gin afterwards. It was hard to stay awake, so although we watched most of Remember That Night — David Gilmour live at the Royal Albert Hall — we had to pause the rest until the following day.

There were occasional rain showers throughout the day, but the winds were calm and the temperatures pleasantly mild, around 10 to 12 °C

Saturday AUG-23

Time to deploy the anti‑ant boxes! I had brought along a couple of S‑sized DriBox units, rated to IP55. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fit both the transformer and the preamp inside, so the transformer went into the DriBox and the preamp into the cleaned — and hopefully well‑sealed — old box. Future upgrades may include M‑sized DriBoxes, since the super‑small ants seem to find their way inside in the unlikeliest of places.

In the afternoon, when the tide was low, we repaired the broken 315‑degree beverage antenna. While the fix is temporary (the wire will likely be replaced next year), we believe it should last through the coming winter. The effect on the band signal was immediate and most welcome.

Standing at the point where the 315 broke, facing SSW (the 290 crosses the strait somewhere...).

Dinner! Salmon fillets marinated in a mix of chopped ginger and garlic, balsamico crème, olive oil, lemon juice, and a herb-and-spice blend from Wildfire called Harvest. Baked in the oven at 200 °C for seven minutes — though six would have been perfect. Served with plenty of pasta tossed in pesto. Good stuff!

We paired the salmon with a Leitz Riesling, and afterwards retreated to Rolf’s AV room with a couple of beers to watch Yacht Rock on HBO Max — an amazing story about the music and musicians that shaped our youth. We then finished the evening with the last part of the David Gilmour concert, featuring guest stars such as Graham Nash, David Crosby, and David Bowie.

Salmon fillets and pasta with pesto

Cloudy, still a few hefty showers but mostly dry. Not much wind. 10-12 Celsius.

Sunday AUG-24

Fixing things took less time than expected, so we enjoyed doing very little, apart from the usual routine — checking the overnight recordings (nothing new). We noted that Radio Northern Star has resumed broadcasting on 1575 kHz. For anyone curious about how it sounds, here is an MP3.

Rolf had to leave early, so we ferried him to his car. Later, we went to the boathouse where all our radio gear is stored and carried out further equipment checks, including a last‑minute repair to the far‑end grounding of the 315‑degree beverage. We seem to have eliminated any RFI that could affect reception — very happy with that.

Sunday dinner was simple: salmon and pasta leftovers from Saturday. For dessert, we had sourdough bread with Roquefort Papillon.

It was a cloudy Sunday, with the sun peeking through for just a few minutes. Otherwise, it was dry and calm.

We’ll leave Smøla tomorrow Monday around noon. I have an appointment with my son Henning for go‑kart racing in Trondheim in the afternoon. Should I survive, I’ll catch a plane to Bodø later and spend two more days there on work‑related matters. Below are some photos from the area.