KONG43 - Day Eight - And a Visit From Abroad!

Still disturbed conditions and apparently dull. Not so! Brief openings brought us KCSP-MO 610, KVOR-CO 740, WHOS-AL 800, WERC-AL 960 and KRCN-CO 1060 - and probably more.  We also noted the Astoria station on 1230 is on with new calls KKOR, "The Beach 106.3" announcements and of course Oldies format. Tonga-1017 was up very early, but lost way to the Chinese powerhouses after 10:00 UTC. Nothing definite on Kiribati 846 and 1440.

One interesting observation on the 340 beverage the previous night, confirming a finding I had during very disturbed conditions a few weeks ago: Brazil! Almost perpendicular to the 340 antenna, and their carrier seemed to be smeared out over a 100 Hz or more at around 05:30 UTC. Below are three of them, on roughly 1569.98, 1569.95 and 1520.02 kHz. This was also the case on several other frequencies. 

We checked with the 305-degrees Mount Loran recordings where the signals should be closer to the main lobe and possibly stronger. Almost no trace of the Brazilian stations, and what carriers could be spotted, were relatively clean.

So, what has happened? Could it be that the skywave signals from the Brazilian stations were reflected back to the 340 beverage from a point north of us? Similar to FM backscatter? The audio from these stations were somewhat distorted, which may or may not matter. Many stations from Brazil aren't known for their excellent audio quality.

And if so, what happened to the ionosphere at 05:30? Nothing significant, to judge from solar data.

In the evening, a visit from Finland! Jim Solatie and Mika Mäkeläinen have been here before though quite a long time ago, and took the 4-hour drive on winter roads from their DXpedition site in Aihkiniemi for a quick gettogether and some serious dinner! 

From left: Mika, OJ, Ole, Jim, Bjarne. Beer, not orange juice.

We started off with Bruschetta based on OJ's sourdough bread, while the fresh King Crab was being baked on a thick base of sea salt in a large pot. The king crab was, as always, served with Carbonara, and a Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. For dessert we had fresh, lightly warmed Cloudberries with Cointreau and Grappa.

Weather: Occasional snow showers, up to fresh breeze but a bit of sun too. From 2 above to 2 below zero. Today Saturday will be the last full day of KONG43. There will probably be another update on Sunday morning.