KONG53 - Day Seven. Including a Question to RFI Experts!

So, time to get back to updates in reasonably regular intervals.

Windy conditions all of yesterday, overnight and into the morning. Here is how it looks at around 06:20z, 25 minutes after sunrise - I slept long. Still dry, and 6-8 Celsius. Wind levels 13-20 m/s.

Conditions across the pole still aren't the best. One station of interest off the alt-Loran site was KVSF-NM 1400.

Notes on RFI: At the alt-Loran site we have had some RFI across the Mediumwave band for several years. The noise varies somewhat in intensity. I made an MP3 that you can listen to here. It is mostly uniform in strength, but decreases a bit a few seconds at apparently random intervals. One such decrease is audible in the audio clip

So, the question was; Is it from an external source, or from within the Zarges case? After all, the noise level and characteristics is the same as it was before we moved a few hundred metres from the original Loran C site. Inside the Zarges case we have the 100Ah Li-Fe-PO4 battery that powers an Intel NUC and a 4G modem. The NUC powers the Perseus in addition to the data connection (two separate USB connections). There is also a Bodnar Mini-GPS device powered by the NUC, which transmits a weak signal on 1705 kHz for Jaguar calibration  

In order to find out, yesterday we put 75-type, 1.4" internal diameter toroids on the NUC-Perseus data USB cable and power USB cable. 15-20 turns if memory serves us correctly. In addition, we put five clamp-ons to the coax cable between the transformer and the Perseus.

We didn't come to a conclusion. The audio file above is actually from after we had installed the toroids and clamp-ons. The noise is identical to that before. So, the clamp-ons and toroids had no effect. That, or the noise comes from outside. 

It is worth noticing that the noise was present even when the antenna was disconnected (but transformer and ground was connected). A transformer change did not change the noise.

Expert opinions on this issue would be most welcome. Perhaps the characteristics of the audio is a clue? It may be worth mentioning that there is really no alternative to having everything inside the Zarges case.

After attempt to trouble-shoot the RFI, and some other issues we had to sort out, we had another visit to the Berlevåg swimming pool, including its excellent jacuzzi and sauna. Nobody else than us - we had booked it for an hour.

Back at the KONG-HQ it was time to prepare our second signature dish, reindeer tenderloins!

Reindeer tenderloins after fried 60 seconds on each side, and 5 minutes in the oven at 180 Celsius.

Served with paste of root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, seleriac) and a sauce based on game fond with fried onions and red chili, and cream. Lingonberry jam and lingonberry chutney besides. A Scarpa Piemonte red wine was served with the main course.

For dessert we had something we had never done before, Lemon Posset. It was actually quite good, especially with lingonberries or bilberries on top. A bit of grappa didn't make it worse.

Time to call it a day, but before I went to bed - rather early actually - I took this photo with the waxing moon doing a play of lights with the clouds.

Moon and clouds

KONG53 Day Six (a bit late) - Visit From Finland

A belated post due to lots of activities. So finally, yesterday started with clear skies and just a light breeze. It wasn't calm for long though, and the rest of the day and following night we had 12-15 m/s winds gusting above 20. I was out early in the day and took a few photos:

View from the house

KONG-HQ. A longwire starts from the pole in the front left

Leftover seagull after migration?

Pointing north

When I checked the signal levels via remote control at alt-Loran in the morning I found - nothing. Not one signal present. Since we record continuously, I could go "back in time" to see what had happened. It turned out that the day before, 10 minutes before we drove to Berlevåg (and actually passed the alt-Loran site), the signals had disappeared. We weren't checking alt-Loran at that part of the day because nothing interesting is heard then. And we had been there 3 hours earlier to replace the battery and SSD. 

Conditions weren't the best so we probably didn't lose much interesting DX. Anyway, the most likely cause was that the antenna wire had somehow detatched from the transformer, and that proved to be the case when we arrived there a few hours later. So, a quick fix.

DX-wise we did get the impact from the solar disturbances. Not much to report, really. So instead:

We had a visitor! Finnish DX-er Jim Solatie drove up from the northern Finnish DX sites Aihikiniemi and Lemmenjoki to pay us a visit. Not very coincidental, we had planned to have our signature dish King Crab with Carbonara that day! He arrived at 17 local.

So, lets talk about eating! For starters, we had goose liver paste on bread with fried onions and prunes. The main course was king crab baked in the oven at 250 degrees C on a bed of sea salt. Pancetta replacing the bacon improved the  carbonara a lot. For dessert: True vanilla, cream-based ice cream with forrest berries.

Jim had brought some excellent wines for the dinner. We started off with a champagne from Gosset, Zéro Dosage. Gosset has a wine-making history that spans from the 16th century. Jim did a good job in selecting the white wine as well, a 2023 Chablis Premiere Cru from Domaine Laroche.

This is what proper king crab with carbonara looks like. 

We spent the rest of the evening discussing Jim's recent project, DX-ing, TIS stations, geopolitics and whatnot. It was past midnight local before we called it a day.

And for those who don't know how we look like (and would like to know), here is (from left) Jim, Ole, OJ and me.

Today Thursday we noted that conditions again were so-so. There was some problems with alt-Loran which can wait until tomorrow's post. Quite a lot of wind, but dry and partly cloudy. Around 6-8 Celsius. So we had a long breakfast with Jim, who went on to Vardø later on. Just as breakfast was over another visitor, LA9VFA Olav Skår showed up. A 250-km return drive for coffee and a nice chat. That's dedication!

More about today tomorrow!

KONG53 Day Five - Mostly The Dominants

Excellent signal levels overnight and well into the day. Unfortnately, few if any of the frequencies monitored so far have many stations of interest. It's quite typical to have a "bad" night after a good one. That said, signal levels were high, and someone less experienced with MW DX-ing than us would surely have a night and day to remember.

There was however a good opening towards Japan and the Pacific around 10z. I haven't checked into that yet.

Around noon we went out to do some maintenance on the beverages and prepare them for a long, cold, wet, snowy, windy winter season.

So, what's more to say? Oh yes, in the afternoon we drove to Berlevåg to shower off some dirt and had a nice swim in the public swimming pool, including a very pleasant stay in their large, warm bubble bath.

Some may wonder about our alt-Loran site. Below is a photo of the starting point, with a Zarges metal case to the left packed in tarpaulin (a NUC, SSD, Perseus, 4/5G modem and Bodnar GPS plus the transformer are inside). Then obviously the antenna reel, and to the right a 4/5G antenna mounted on a folded tripod. The small, boggy pond acts as a perfect grounding.

alt-Loran setup

The dinner today was a first in KONG history: Home-made pizza! OJ has made pizza for ages, and knows his craft. We ended up with three sourdough pizzas with various toppings, and one in reserve for tomorrow's lunch. Before that we started off with Crostini with cured reindeer beef and caramelised onion on toast. Somewhat "meh" to us. It wasn't bad but lacked that little extra taste. The pizza was so much that we decided to leave the dessert for another day.

Tuesday evening brought another aurora to our south The light in the foreground comes from the living room - our DX quarters.

As forecasted, the wind eased off a lot and it was mostly dry with temperatures just below the 10 Celsius mark. In one way, amazing. But a sign of warmer times to come. The forecast for the days ahead is mild, dry and somewhat windy. Current weather in Kongsfjord is always visible on the top right corner.

When I post this it will be Wednesday. Another night with good signals. But the K index is rising, likely due to effects from CH1405. How it impacts DX remains to be seen.

A bit blurry morning photo today, from 2h 15 min before sunrise. Today we will have a guest for dinner! More on that in tomorrow's blogpost.

KONG53 Day Four - Amazing Wind Levels - And Signal Levels!

 We can indeed confirm that the alt-Loran beverage is healthy and producing lots of interesting DX. But so did our beverages at the KONG-HQ! The night and day of the 19th produced good DX on all three antennas. The alt-Loran beverage was especially productive on the lower end of the MW band, since high ambient RF noise levels at the KONG-HQ make reception gradually worse below 800 kHz. The alt-Loran "scraping the surface of the SSD" gave us KARI-WA 550, WOW-NE 590, WREY-MN + KHOW-CO 630, KLTT-CO 670, KPOF-CO + KMTT-WA 910, KQMS-AZ 940, KNLV-NE 1060, KMSD-SD 1510 to name just a few.

The 900-metre beverage should be quite directive. But propagation favoured basically everything. On 1350 I was very surprised to hear a WEGA-PR id seconds after KSRO-CA. That's a 46-degree bearing difference!

The 340 beverage "back home" at the KONG-HQ was very productive as well but more pointed towards the target area, North America's western part. A frequency that requires a lot more investigation is 1610! It was literally swarming with TIS stations all through the night. WQPW217 The Makah Tribal Council Emergency AM Radio Station, Neah Bay, WA and WRMQ374 Snowville UT were positively identified, along with Travis AFB Information Radio, Travis AFB CA on 1710. Not bad for 10 watts!

More on the domestic scene is Ole's debut as a sourdough bread baker. He's done extremely well, and here is from his second batch:

Proper bread. Very proper bread

Dinner! For starters we had salmon tartare, a mix of fresh and smoked salmon placed on roasted loafs of bread and sour cream. Main course was also "fishy" - fried and then baked cod loins with Sriracha, root vegetables and pancetta. For dessert we had chocolate pudding with vanilla sauce. A Kim Crawford white wine went well with the fish. For the dessert we had a taste of grappa.

Monday was rainy and windy. Especially towards evening and eaerly night when wind gusts reached 28 m/s and precipitation increased a lot. Temperatures increased steadily throughout the day, peaking at above 10 Celsius just as the wind and rain levels maximised.

As usual, here's the image from Tuesday morning, half an hour before sunrise. The wind has gradually decreased to a more pleasant 10-15 m/s and it seems to dry up for a few days now. Looking at tonight's Yaslog images as well as listening live, we have a lot of stations to hunt for.

KONG53 Day Three - alt-Loran Resolved!

The previous night and day was not bad at all. It started off early on with logs like WDZY-VA 1290, WFIF-CT 1500 and WHGT-MD 1590, peaking at 05z with lots of west or near-west coast stations, most notably KNBR-CA 680, KALL-UT 700, KCBS-CA 740, KABC-CA 790, KRLV-NV 920, KWSW-CA 980, KRSK-OR 1080, KJJC-UT 1230 and several others. In the afternoon a few New Zealand stations showed up like Newstalk ZB-1026 and 1035, RNZ National-1143 and a strong signal from Te Upoko o Te Ika 1161. 

 As mentioned in yesterday's blogpost, the alt-Loran 1000-metre beverage site was a major disappointment when we tested the signal levels after deploying the antenna yesterday. We couldn't pinpoint the cause, although we knew that a new installment nearby had the potential of disturbing reception. That was something we could do nothing about. What we could do was to check our own equipment. First and foremost: Could it be a faulty transformer? The DX-Engineering transformer was quite old, so we decided to test one of our brand new transformers from Jan, OK2ZAW.

And that did the trick! Obviously the DX-Engineering transformer was not up to the task any more. With the new transformer, we see a noise floor of typically -135 dBm or lower. Now, we're hoping that propagation will stay good, with lots of catches from the eastern part of North America.

Today's hero

With a noise floor like that a preamp would have come in handy during sunrise and sun up conditions. Unfortunately, we have an NDB nearby on 399 booming in with -27 dBm, and on the other end of the range just below 1700 a marine info station at a similar signal level. Those combined will cause intermodulation and could also cause saturation if the antenna input is amplified.

Before we drove to alt-Loran, I did a brief antenna inspection. There were some issues to sort out, but they can wait for better (drier) weather. The first picture below is from the end point of one of the dual-340 beverages. the second is from - well - somewhere nearby

.

Dinner: Sausages! But not just any sausages, they were locally produced near Ole's home town. We had four types: Frankfurter, Umami, Garlic and Chorizo. Served with a home-made paste of mashed potatoes, regionally grown. We enjoyded a Scarpa Piemonte red wine with the sausages. For dessert, Bjarne's blueberry (bilberry) pie, made from super-local bilberries (literally from just outside the front door). Served with vanilla sauce and Amaretto.

And Ole finished his first sourdough bread, with success!

Bilberry pie

Monday morning update:

Image taken at 05:26, 10 minutes before sunrise. Windy overnight, and milder so most of the snow is gone. But it's going to be a rainy day.

Good conditions overnight, and alt-Loran seems to be very much in business, judging from the Jaguar Yaslog created at the remote PC. More details in my next blogpost.

KONG53 - Day Two

Friday night's aurora display didn't do too much harm on propagation overnight as signal levels were quite strong from midnight UTC to around 09, peaking around 04.

At around 11z we drove off to alt-Loran to erect the 1000-metre beverage. It all went well, but when we checked the signal levels we disovered huge RFI on large parts of the MW band. Why??? We do know that a new antenna site has been erected. nearby. Could it be the reason? We let the recording start and hoped for the best. However, when checking in via remote control on Sunday morning the RFI was still present.

Weather was reasonably nice while we were there, but the last half hour was demanding to say the least, with increased wind and wet sleet. I suppose the photo below on the drive back doesn't quite illustrate how bad the weather was.

Leaving alt-Loran

Not much activity the rest of the day. We did note 4RO-990 Rockhampton early afternoon when the Chinese were silent for a couple of seconds. Apart from that, not a lot that could penetrate the massive signal levels from China.

But OJ made a fantastic sourdough bread! He's black belt sourdough baker, and there's a reason why. Look at this;

Later in the evening we had salmon loins with bacon, tagliatelle with pesto and parmesan cheese. Who could resist a good riesling with this meal! For dessert we had real vanilla ice cream, Amaretto and a touch of Grappa. The salmon was the lone local ingredient in this meal, but also the main one.

Salmon, bacon and tagliatelle with pesto

For those who wonder how our super.thin beverage antenna wires are doing: Excellent! So far. The fierce winter storms haven't arrived yet.

Weather: Rainy! And sleet. 1-3 degrees Ceslius. Quite windy as well. Close to zero in the evening, but expected a little bit higher later on Sunday with less wind and precipitation.

Sunday morning update:

Just above freezing when I took the picture below after waking up at 04:40, sunrise still an hour away.

More important though, the band (except at alt-Loran) isn't bad at all. Varying signal levels which is normal during disturbed conditions, but "red is good". Late evening brought a few unusal ones, presumably still on day power. Such as WDZY-VA 1290 at 23:30.

During daylight we'll drive to the alt-Loran site and see what we can do to reduce the RFI levels. We do know a bit more now about the RF activity of the antenna site mentioned earlier. There may be ways to reduce the impact.

KONG53 - Day One (Friday)

Travel day! Ole had to get up at 03 local to catch the train to Oslo Airport. OJ quite a bit later but still early, for his Trondheim-Oslo flight. They were both on the Airbus A320 to Kirkenes at 09. A lot easier for me - I left home at 13:45 to pick them up at the Varangerbotn bus terminal. Norway may not be a large country, but it's long!

After a brief pit stop to pick up some fresh and still warm fish cakes (fish balls only they're fried) we arrived at the KONG-HQ a few minutes before 17.

After unpacking, we settled in with a SuperSonic Double Dry-Hopped DIPA. surely the best beer in the world.

Later on we had what some (not me!) say is the best fish gratin in the world, together with a Riesling white wine. Chocolate pudding with vanilla sauce and an Amaretto completed the meal. 

Recent logs of interest: KENO-NV 1460, KABI-KS 1560, KZQQ-TX 1560, KNTH-TX 1070.

Early to bed after a long day. Before that, I went outdoor and saw a hefty aurora to our south. A nice reflection in my car's roof.

The Aurora didn't hamper reception that much, we had reasonably good signal levels on the 340 beverage from North America from 00z to 06, peaking around 04.

Today is Saturday morning, gale force winds and scattered rain showers. Around lunchtime we'll be going to the alt-Loran site to deploy the 1000-metre beverage and the PC and SDR. 

KONG53 Minus Five Days

I had a brief visit to the KONG-HQ on Saturday and Sunday. All of a sudden, after an extraordinary mild September and early October, winter struck. It may look tranquil and nice on the photo below taken at the highest part of the mountain crossing. But to the west (left) loomed dark clouds with snow and hail showers, and the black tarmac was actually icy - blind ice as we call it. I met a German campervan on the way, They drove with great care, contrary to what many other foreign tourists do in the winter season. I had my winter tyres on last Wednesday.

Appearances can be deceiving...

After arriving at the KONG-HQ, the rest of the day was spent indoor. There were a few chores waiting - I had brought with me most of the food and beverages we need for the DX-pedition that start next Friday - and my readers will know that we eat a lot. I also had to replace a PC that wasn't performing as it should. That, and a software issue turned out to take a lot longer than I expected. Which probably was to be expeced....

Of course, I couldn't resist the temptation to make a proper KONG-HQ dinner, with a fried and baked salmon loin and tagliatelle with proper pesto. I had half a bottle of a Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc left after Ole and OJ three weeks ago. A white wine from Down Under is never wrong!

Windy with showers throughout the rest of the day, but calming a little bit in the late evening. I stood at the front door a couple of minutes to try and capture the mood. I'm not sure if I succeeded, but this is what my mobile phone camera saw:

Blustery Saturday evening at the KONG-HQ

Temperatures were low, but luckily stayed just north of the zero mark. I have a somewhat complicated water delivery system - a part of it is on the ground and as we know, water tend to freeze.

Saturday was my planned outdoor day, and the weather had improved quite a bit with less wind, fewer snow showers and a bit "warmer" - if you can call +2.5 Celsius that.

Calm Sunday morning at the KONG-HQ

Road conditions were even worse than Saturday though. The main tasks was to inspect the new, ultra-slim wires after we had 27 m/s wind gusts on Thursday. All is well. I  also set up physical markers for the alt-Loran beverage antenna. It's very easy to stray off course when walking the wire out, especially when the target point is out of sight. Moving the wire back into its path is time consuming - we've done that a few times. Yes, we do use GPS but hand-held units do lack some accuracy and you tend to forget to check. Two weeks ago I walked the path and sprayed red paint on rocks along the way. Today I supplemented with fibreglass rods that are easier to see and navigate by from a distance.

Inspecting antennas at the KONG-HQ. A dense snow shower moving in from the north.

Leading the way - marking the antenna path at alt-Loran

If all goes well, the next post will be on Friday October 16th!

KONG52 Season Preps - Final Day

 A bit more windy today, 10 m/s gusting at 13, yet sunny and temperatures above the 10 Celsius mark. When we were out yesterday we heard the odd shot in the distant, telling us that grouse hunting season has started. Maybe we should have worn those red KONG caps...

The MW band was amazingly noise-free last night. This early in the season only 2-4 hours of trans-polar DX is possible. We had a good peak at 01z. Mostly mid-west - Michigan and Wisconsin stations were very clear as indicated in the yaslog below (that peak on 1240.0258 is WOMT).

WOMT Manitowoc WI

Less common is KNIM Maryville MO 1580, surfacing just enough for an ID after the full hour. The signal is visible inside the white circle. CKDO is the 1580 dominant in conditions like this, it's the steady signal to the left.

KNIM Maryville MO

Since my guests Ole and OJ have a long drive head of them, we decided to end KONG52 with a hefty lunch at 11:30 local with fried (with proper butter) and baked chicken fillets together with Jasmine rice, a sweet chili sauce with ginger, and blueberry (bilberry), cloudberry and lingonberry chutney. At 12:40 they were off, heading towards Finland, Sweden and then back to Norway. That's the shortest route.

Lunch. KONG-style

We will meet again for KONG53! Starting October16th, ending on the 25th.

KONG52 Final Season Preps - Day Three

 Another magnificent day in the Arctic!

Last evening, the 19 and 20z full hours brought a few interesting logs. A handful of Aussies, a few from the Philippines (like DXUM Davao City 819 and DXKS Suriago City 1080) and some of the former NHK-1 (now NHK-AM) stations, plus RFC Radio Fukushima on 1395. The most surprising catch however was AFN The Eagle 1512 kHz from Pohang, South Korea. 500 watts listed.

Overnight, the new, ultra light 310 beverage proved its value with an unusual low noise level and a nice peak before and at the 02z slot. Nothing out of the ordinary, though.

The most important task today was checking status at our alt-Loran site, 30 km away. Everything seemed to be in good order, the antenna reel and fibreglass support rods were untouched since last October. On the way we drove into Berlevåg for some supplemental shopping, at what is claimed to be the world's northernmost SPAR store (for most non-Europeans: SPAR is one of the largest food chains in Europe). That's me (left) and OJ posing in the face-in-the-hole board...

No further comments please...

 Back at the KONG HQ we had a beer or two outside in the excellent weather before finishing the antenna works with improved grounding and termination on the "far" side of the dual 340 beverage. 

A beer or two. Ole (left) and OJ. Dead calm.

Dinner! No KONG without salmon. This time with Carbonara. With proper Pancetta. We fried the salmon in the Pancetta fat for some extra flavour and it worked out very well. Another bottle of Kim Crawford white wine was a perfect match. Later on I strolled outside at twilight to try to catch the evening mood. I didn't quite succeed, but this one worked out reasonably well.

Earlier in the afternoon OJ had been out walking, and took this beautiful picture of the 50-degrees beverage. 

Weather: The day started cloudy, but by 14:00-15:00 local the sky was clear. 13-14 Celsius and not the slightest breeze until evening. It looks like Sunday is going to be a bit milder still. 

Evening conditions are good, with strong signals from Japan. Some with signal levels exceeding -50 dBm. At 20z we noted AFN The Eagle again, confirmed offset is 1511.9862. A few of the low-power (100 watts) NHK-AM stations also surfaced at that time, such as Kumamoto 1341 and 1503, Yamagata 1584 and maybe Akita (two outlets) on 1017.

Tomorrow Sunday is departure day so we will only stay to around lunch time. We will see if the few hours are worth a blogpost.