KONG53 Last Day, Part I - Update on Noise Problem

Amazing how time flies when you're having fun! This is our last full day at the KONG-HQ. Tomorrow, Monday morning we'll be leaving the site. I will return to my work as area planner in Vadsø, 170 km away. Ole and OJ have a long travel ahead of them. But the beverages at the KONG-HQ will continue to run. 

But the alt-Loran beverage will not. Sunday is time to reel in the antenna and move the Zarges box back to KONG-HQ. During the DX-pedition it has given us some challenges - and a surprising solution.

Notes on RFI - pt. 2: 

Many thanks to those who commented on our noise issue - in the blog comments and in private emails. What is absolutely certain is that the noise did not come from within the Zarges box. We would not have had a quiet spectrum with the antenna disconnected if that was the case. One advise we got from Thomas Berner was to replace the rod-based grounding with radials. On Saturday we laid out four radial wires on the ground in a (roughly) star-shaped pattern, connected all to each other and connected them to the transformer. It did indeed help. The noise level was reduced, but not eliminated. Then an idea came up: What if we ground the Zarges case? So, we used the old ground-rod solution and connected it to the aluminium case, and yes! Noise almost gone! Remaining at lower levels on some frequencies, but for the most part eliminated. We're quite uncertain about the physics behind this.

A check late on Saturday evening confirmed that the band was really quiet. It was very satisfying to see CBC-1230 barely making a small peak in Jaguar, yet almost 100% readable. Fingers crossed for another quiet night on the sun.

Despite the noise, the alt-Loran beverage was extremely efficient on the night to the 24th, compared to the KONG-HQ beverages. Too many good ones to mention, but here are some: KQCV-OK 800, WKDA-TN 900, KNTH-TX 1070, KBIZ-IA 1240, KFOR-NE 1240, KDLR-ND 1240,  KXPO-ND 1340, KWRT-MO 1370, KLFD-MN 1410, KWBF-TX 1420, KAUS-MN 1480,  KDRO-MO 1490.

Dinner! As we had calculated, the Barolo should be enough for two days, so on Saturday we added lots of vegetables and cooked it all for half an hour. There was still a little bit left, which was put into my freezer.

Barolo Leftovers

Still dry, partly cloudy, 5-6 Celsius. Windy at times. A few photos from Kjølnes lighthouse, 5 km from Berlevåg on Saturday:

Tourists! No, it's Ole and OJ

Kjølnes lighthouse

Pointing the coastline. Facing south.

Last Day, Part II will be posted Sunday evening.