Recent Verifications

WMRN Marion OH 1490 is a station I heard several years ago. No luck with any reports until a friendly email arrived on Nov 17.

KARI Blaine WA 550 was quite a surprise catch on Oct 17 since it had apparently not been heard before on this side of the Pole. Their nighttime power or pattern must have improved quite a bit though, since it has been picked up by several DX-ers this autumn.

KGED Fresno CA 1680 is not an uncommon guest here, but I've had bad luck trying to ID it. At 1300 UTC on Nov 15 KGED finally came clear from the Seattle station, and gave an excellent ID. Thanks Pat Martin for a swift response.

"I consider king crab to be one of Nature's most heavenly treats" - those were the words from the v/s on WSYR Syracuse NY 570, heard on Sept 19. I did not expect this one, but they popped up with a fine ID one half-hour. He really knows what he's talking about!

CFCO Chatham ON 630 has been very high on my wish list, and during a few minutes on Sept 19 they and CHLT totally owned 630, dwarfing NRK Vigra.

WMMB Melbourne FL 1240 is only my second in-band Florida station verified in Kongsfjord - curiously enough both heard on 1240. Heard on the excellent east coast night on Sept 19.

WENE Endicott NY 1430 has amazingly enough not been heard by me before, but put up a superb signal on Sept 19.

Radio Club AM, Sydney NSW 1683 was heard with excellent signals at times during KONG18. They peaked with signal levels I haven't heard before from an Australian x-bander. Exact frequency 1683.23.

KNML Albuquerque NM 610 Verification

Hearing KNML has been rather high on my wish list, and when I finally got to hear them, I was taken aback at the superb signal level. KNML has been heard once before in Kongsfjord, in October 2007, but when I got to the frequency at the time they had already ID'ed and started to fade.

WKAR East Lansing MI 870 Verification

October 23 was a good evening for US daytime stations, such as WKAR which signed off at 2300 UTC with a brief identification. Not very strong, but for once WWL wasn't there.

Kongsfjord Pictures

A grey November morning, around half an hour before sunrise - windy, rainy, cold (+1C) but around this time KNML Albuquerque NM totally owned 610. A first time for me. View towards NW - the 30 degrees beverage antenna supports are visible.

I have uploaded some pictures from the KONG18 DX-pedition to my web album. You can access the album below.

KONG18 Pictures

Recent Verifications

I couldn't resist the temptation to send off a few reports, could I. Here are the latest in my inbox:

KPRO Riverside CA 1570 is a new station in our logs, but appeared frequently during the KONG18 DX-pedition.  The station is 30 years old in December.

WLBL Auburndale WI 930 was my second great surprise on 930 in only a few weeks. I received two replies from the station; they also mentioned a recent report from Jan Alvestad (AND3?)

KKIN Aitkin MN 930

For me to hear new stations nowadays requires extraordinary conditions. They don't come often, and sometimes the openings only last a few minutes. So, the name of the game is to be at the right spot at the right time. SDRs make this easier than it used to be.

KKIN has apparently not been heard on this side of the Pole before. So imagine my surprise when I noted big band jazz music on 930 on Sept 18, followed by a strong and crystal clear KKIN identification! KKIN runs 2500 watts day, 360 watts night, in a non-directional pattern. Aitkin is a small town, less than 2,000 people mostly of German, Swedish and Norwegian heritage.

A friendly response from KKIN's CE confirmed my reception.

Recent Verifications

KTCT San Mateo CA 1050 was heard with good signal levels some days during KONG18. Their CE responded quickly after returning from his Pacific Ocean sailing trip.

Islamic Voice, Melbourne VIC 1701 is a new station on the Australian x-band scene. Very good signal levels during KONG18.

One, Possibly Two SDR-IQs For Sale

I suppose they would need no further presentation for the readers of this blog.  Impeccable, both visually and performance-wise. Asking EUR 340 or USD 425. Preferably electronic bank transfer but Paypal accepted if 4% added. Shipping would be somewhere around EUR 30 or USD 35 (not insured). Email bm at kongsfjord dot no.

Update November 10: Both have now found new homes in Norway and Canada.

KONG18 Loran C Reflections

Sorry about not keeping you up to date on preps and events on the KONG18 DX-ped. OJ is maintaining this job excellently on this web update, so I'll rather post some specific comments instead.

Loran C has, as most of my readers will know, been a major challenge for good readability. Through careful planning, good cables and 100 kHz notch filters for each beverage feedline I have managed to reduce the Loran C noise to an acceptable level. But this autumn, the noise level has inceased substantially. So much in fact, that on many frequencies low signal level DX has become impossible. The picture to the left says a bit about the problem here. 1070 to 1110 used to be frequencies with only very light interference; now the noise bleeds through even quite strong signals. Similar problems are seen from 660 to 700, 860 to 900, 950 to 1010, 1270 to 1300 and to a lesser extent 1460 to 1490 and on the x-band. The strong signal on 1134 is RSt. Mayak, Murmansk RUS.

I don't know what has changed. I talked with the Loran C technician some days ago, he claimed there had been no changes done with the transmitter the last year. At any rate, surely locations without Loran C noise have a clear edge over Kongsfjord this year.

Recent Verifications

I don't send many reports anymore, but a few still goes out. The past couple of weeks I had the pleasure of hearing two stations in the Fargo, ND area that I hadn't heard before, KFNW-1200 andWZFG-1100 (Dilworth MN), and I received very friendly responses from both. WZFG is currently covering Norsk Hostfest (which would translate to Norwegian Fall Festival) in Minot; North America's largest Scandinavian Festival. I have been invited to Fargo. We'll see how this evolves.