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.