Post-Season Antenna Works

Well, "post-season" is a bit premature as today APR-12 I heard several North American stations on the 310 beverage with good signal levels; CJWI-1410, CHKT-1430, WMBD-1470, WGVU-1480, WLAC-1510 etc. And we hope that the two Asia beverages will still provide a week with good signals from Australia. But the most productive beverage, the dual, staggered 340 beverage, was taken down yesterday. After a six-week pause, both Covid-19 and weather related, I finally found a weather window to visit my Kongsfjord site on APR-11. A snow-packed entrance awaited me.

Snow shovel strategically placed outdoor!

March and April (so far) have been challenging months this year, weather-wise. Lots of snowfall, and lots of wind that packs the snow in certain areas and cleans the terrain in others. As luck would have it, the starting point of the easternmost wire is in the "packed" area. Though 150 cm high, the support was covered by another 75 cm of snow. It took quite a bit of shoveling, and not least find the correct spot to shovel! The end points were also covered - in ice! The rest of the wire was above the snow, and in excellent condition. So, after a 1h 45min exercise, 2 x 350 metres of wire had been reeled in.

340 starting point

I think next year I will attach a fiberglass mast to the pole so at least I know where to begin.

The other beverages were up and in good shape. But the 310 beverage starting point is buried in even more snow. It will likely come down the coming weekend, along with the 50 beverage. Happy days...

Next, I connected the standard KiwiSDR antennas to KongSDR and ArcticSDR. The 70-metre longwire and the NCi Megadipol were connected, and an outdoor connector failure for the Megadipol was repaired. The Kiwis are now back to their excellent SW reception. The Megadipol on ArcticSDR is superior for higher SW reception (12 MHz and up). KongSDR is a good alternative for lower SW and MW reception. DRM reception has been enabled. Kiwi users please observe that the Stats tab now has sunrise and sunset times available. Times of course UTC.

Sunrise and sunset times, thanks to Jari Perkiömäki.

To end this blogpost, the photo below was taken upon departure at 16 local. The clouds had finally given way to a very bright sunshine. The 100-km return trip was a breeze.