Yesterday, Saturday, was relatively calm, so given the high proton levels that made hearing anything impossible, we opted to dismantle the LoranD installation while daylight remained. The tasks included 1) severing the wire at both the far end grounding and the near end transformer, 2) gathering over 50 fiberglass rods, 3) disconnecting battery power, which turned off the PC, GPS, and modem, 4) removing the 4G modem antenna along with its substantial support, 5) winding in over 1000 meters of antenna wire, 6) securing the antenna reel and fiberglass rods in tarpaulin for next year's use, and 7) transporting the Zarges case, battery, and 4G antenna to the car. Having honed this procedure over several years at the Mount Loran site, we completed the task in a mere 37 minutes.
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| "See you next year!" |
We checked some of the LoranD recordings from previous days, and noted KTNN-AZ 660, KDFD-CO 760, KATQ-MT 1070, KBRX-NE 1350 from Oct 23, and KLIN-NE 1400 from Oct 22. All relogs. Bjarne did a quick check of the back lobe of the 340 beverage from Oct 26 and noted a few of the Dutch low-power stations.
Dinner time! For starters, the traditional Västerbotten pie, a Swedish course served with sour cream, roe (in this case, whitefish roe since the original Kalix roe is next to impossible to find) and finely chopped red onion.
Main course: A traditional Norwegian course which is surely eaten in any country where there are sheep: "Fårikål", or Får i kål. Directly translated to English: Sheep in Cabbage. We chose meat from a lamb's thigh, with generous amounts of chopped cabbage, cooked for 2-3 hours. We added garlic and some herbs for additional flavour. The trick for the ultimum fårikål eating experience is to let it cool down for a few hours after cooking, then re-heat it.
And for dessert: Home-made Crème Brûlée.
We had red wine for the starter and main course, and enjoyed some Amaretto and Grappa with the dessert.
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| Fårikål first few minutes of cooking. Cabbage covering the meat |
Not much to do this Sunday except check the few recordings that have decent signal levels, maybe go outside a bit for a real windy experience, and start to prepare our Monday morning departure. But! We will have a magnificent last-day dinner tonight! More on that later. Maybe much later.
Weather: Much the same as previous days; partly cloudy, windy, between 4 and 6 degrees Celsius. Next week will be colder. But then we're not here!
Sunday morning update!
I went outside to try to capture the waves in the bay near the house. A 2D image makes it much less impressive than really seeing it, but there you are. Trying to stand upright was the hardest challenge.
6 comments:
Hi Bjarne, and greetings from the north-west of Scotland. I've enjoyed reading this series of posts about KONG49 - a shame DX conditions weren't better for you, although your meals have been as mouth-watering as ever! You mention using fibreglass poles at the Loran site - can you give details, please, since I've been considering using some to replace the bamboo canes used on my own beverages in certain places, but haven't found anything suitable. 73, Martin
Martin: Thanks for the feedback. We use fiberglass poles produced by DeLaval, see https://www.delaval.com/en-gb/fencing/electric-fencing/posts/fibreglass-post-bw150/ At the KONG-HQ we use a mix of these and 180-cm Octowood wooden posts (180 cm), see https://www.octowood.se/en/ We started off with bamboo canes around y.2000 but they didn't last long.
Thanks for the info, Bjarne. I think the BW150 must be 1.5m long, which is shorter than I would like - I really need 1.8m or 2.1m to let the local livestock and wildlife go under the wire. I use 75mm square wooden posts of various lengths up to 2.4m long at each end of the beverages, and 40mm square posts at intermediate points, usually 150m apart, with bamboo canes in between every 5-8 metres. My experience is also that the bamboo canes aren't strong enough for the job and those in exposed spots break periodically. I'll keep looking! 73, Martin
Martin, you need trees, and lots of them ;-) 73, Walt (Masset, BC)
When you say "(1) severing the wire...", do you cut it, and leave the grounding and transformer in place for next time? If so, how do you reconnect to them next time?
Hi Walt, trees - ha ha! On the north west coast of Scotland we mainly see trees in sheltered spots. Around here, the few trees in exposed positions that survive the gales grow horizontally, so aren't much good for supporting antennas :o)
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