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.

KONG52 Final Season Preps - Day Two

Friday - Antenna day!

The goal was to erect the dual, staggered 340-degrees beverage, and replace the current 310-degrees beverage wire with the new UL wire. The 340 was set up with the original Hofi wire at one site, and the new HDS-NEU at the other.

Starting point of the HDS-NEU 340 wire

All of this went well. We were a bit surprised though to note that the 310 had a 2.5 - 3 dB gain loss with the new wire. We have a nearby NDB that we use for regular antenna gain checks. We did not see a similar effect on the 340. A snapshot from just before 01Z to 03 shows that the UL does work. The question though is - will it last? We will leave the old wire in reserve in case the UL doesn't survive the coming autumn winds.

310 Beverage, first night

Some indoor chores were finished as well. OJ and Ole have a lot of gear to configure for the coming season. From the photo below it looks like they mean business! Btw the drawing above the HDDs is from a photo taken around 1925 when the house was relatively new, and a lot smaller than today.

 

The weather was perfect. Calm, partly cloudy and 12-13 Celsius. No mosquitoes this late in the season. We couldn't ask for more.

Dinner! Bjarne's fish soup, made from scratch, is a tradition on the September gatherings. The usual Norwegian stuff - chopped carrots, seleriac, potatoes, leak and haddock, with a red chili thrown in for extra flavour. The Kim Crawford white wine from New Zealand is a traditional companion.

For dessert we enjoyed creamy dessert ice cream with wild forrest berries, topped with locally made cloudberry chutney. The chutney had so much clove flavour it almost felt like Christmas. A bit of Amaretto with the ice cream.

A couple of photos below showing the autumn colours.

Late afternoon sun (obviously facing west)

KONG-HQ (facing north)

KONG52 - Season Final Preps - Day One

 Greetings from the KONG-HQ! Bjarne, Ole and OJ are here for an "oval" weekend, preparing for the coming MW season.

KONG Crew with KONG Caps. From left: OJ, Bjarne, Ole

This year sees new antenna wires from DX-Wire in Germany. Light-weight and quite a bit more flexible than the Hofi wires we have used so far. We bought two kinds for testing, the Ultra Light version with a 1.5mm diameter, and the HDS-NEU cable, heavier and more resilient yet only 2mm diameter. If they work well over the winter, we will likely replace all our wires next year - or maybe earlier! Size and colour comparison below.

DX-Wire - Will they be the new standard?

Quick but not particularly light dinner yesterday (Thursday) 2 x 160g Angus burgers each, with Brioche burger bread and red wine or beer.

Today Friday is calm, partly cloudy and 11-12 Celsius. Perfect for outdoor work! More as it happens.