QSL: WBOB Jacksonville FL

Heard during their DX test on Jan 10. Although 35 kW, their pattern was pointing mostly away from us and conditions were poor. We were able to hear sweep tones a brief moment. Logged in Smøla, distance 7024 km/4365 miles.

QSL: KROX Crookston MN 1260

Facebook response from a January, 2015 reception.

The Rise and Fall of the Berlevag Loran C Station

On December 31, 2015 at 11:00 UTC the Norwegian Loran C stations closed down transmissions. Below is a brief history of the Loran C system, the Berlevag station and what impact this station had on MW DX-ing in my area. 

Loran C - A Navigation System

The following is an extract from Wikipedia articles.
Loran-C is a hyperbolic radio navigation system which allows a receiver to determine its position by listening to low frequency radio signals transmitted by fixed land-based radio beacons. The Loran system, beginning with LORAN, was inspired by the British GEE system, which entered service with the RAF Bomber Command in 1942.  At the time it was designed for aircraft navigation, at a much higher frequency than today's 100 kHz.  In 1958 the US Coast Guard adopted the system and over the years the system went from Loran-A to Loran-B to the current Loran-C.

Norway operated four Loran C stations; Berlevag and Bo i Vesterålen (Northern Norway), Stadt on the Norwegian west coast, and Jan Mayen, one of Norway's Arctic islands northeast of Iceland.


In 2009 the US Coast Guard announced that Loran-C was no longer needed for maritime navigation. US Loran-C stations were decomissioned in February 2010. The European Union had a different approach as one saw the potential of combining GPS, Gallileo and nine of the Loran-C stations into a single, integrated system (the Eurofix system).
However, Norway and France decided not to go along with this, and as a result, all four Loran-C stations in Norway closed on January 1.

The Berlevag Loran-C Station

The transmitter and guyed tower is located 4 km east of the town of Berlevag, and 14 km northwest of my DX location in Kongsfjord.

The power output was 250 kW on 100 kHz. It's placed on rocky soil, with a comprehensive ground radial system, comprising 180 radials with an average length of 250 meters. It had a diesel-fed generator for backup, and even a battery system enabling 45 minutes of operation.

The Berlevag Loran C mast

Guy lines

Impact on DX-ing

It was put into service in 1995, just as I was recovering from a rather long DX hiatus. I had purchased a JRC NRD-515 at the time, and the noise was horrendous. I could hear absolutely nothing on MW. I turned to long-time DX-er Stefan Wikander in Sweden (who had modified the NRD-515 for me), and asked what to do. "I'll make you a notch filter" he replied. The device centered on 100 kHz with 75 dB attenuation, and all of a sudden a large part of the MW band was DX-able again, albeit with lots of ticking noise on several frequencies especially below 1100 kHz. Many years later, Dallas Lankford from Ruston, LA refined the design with an additional 200 kHz notch filter combined with a high-pass filter, so the total attenuation on 100 kHz increased to 85 dB. Strangely enough there was no audible effect from the change. Anyway, these filters have been a vital part of every beverage antenna I have put up since.

Generally speaking, the longer the antenna the more inferference from the Loran-C. The direction is critical too - my two North America beverages are pointing more or less at the Loran-C tower and are a lot more susceptible to the noise than my Asia/Pacific beverage which is almost perpendicular to the transmitter. 

I had my SDRs running at the time of the shutdown. Unfortunately conditions were downright awful at the time, but I did have two of my most common Alaska stations audible at the time (albeit with low signal levels), incidentally also on two of the most noisy frequencies.

So here's how it sounds when the Loran C station stops its noise on KBRW Barrow AK 680 and KFBX Fairbanks AK 970

November 2015 Verifications

5TAB Radio TAB, Adelaide SA, AUS 1539

KYYW Abilene TX 1470

KFLN Baker MT 960 (fb)

KMBZ Kansas City KS 980

LLE-4 Radio Northern Star, Bergen, NOR 1611 (75 watts, 1600 km)

WNER Watertown NY 1410 (tnx JHU)

WTNY Watertown NY 790 (tnx JHU)

October 2015 Verifications

WSOY Decateur IL 1340

KTOX Needles CA 1340

KYLT Missoula MT 1340

KZTD Cabot AR 1350 (fb) tnx ABU

KOKB Blackwell OK 1580 tnx ABU

KAMI Cozad NE 1580

KLMR Lamar CO 920 tnx OJS

KDAV Lubbock TX 1590 tnx OJS

WMYF Portsmouth NH 1370

WGIL Galesburg IL 1400 (fb)

WLMR Chattanooga TN 1450 tnx OJS

KCKN Roswell NM 1020

KONG31 Expedition Report - Day Eight

No DX at all due to the effect of the proton event, unless we count in a brief appearence from CKDO-ON 1580 and CHIN-ON 1540.

Instead we had outdoor activities like running and walking to the lighthouse in increasing winds, and a trip to Berlevåg for a little sightseeing, photographing, shopping and to witness the effect of unpredictable fall winds on the exposed coastal road.

The last three-course dinner of KONG31 started off with Västerbotten pie with Kalix vendace roe, courtesy OJ. Our main course was reindeer sirloins and tenderloins with potato/carrot/celeriac paste. Superb fried mushrooms and special recipe sauce was created by Arnstein and Heidi. To round it off we had another one of OJ's specialities, a perfect Créme Brûlée.

Another mild October day for this latitude and season, but gale force winds throughout the day and following night. Quite clear in the morning, later partly cloudy and dry.

This will be the last KONG31 update as my guests will depart at 7 am local (0600Z) Sunday morning. Time to get back to work. However not without good news: Conditions are now much better!

Saturday's pic below just at sunrise:

24-OCT 0550Z

KONG31 Expedition Report - Day Seven

The proton event triggered by the long-duration C flare early on the 22nd really had devastating impact on polar signal paths. Nothing at all heard from that direction on Friday!

So instead we listened to recordings, and enjoyed the clear and calm autumn air for a 6 km run to the lighthouse.

While we cope quite well on making our own dinners, once every expedition we have a "chef's day off" and eat at Kongsfjord Gjestehus. The menu was secret to us. It was also a secret (to some) that OJ's wife Lise and Arnstein's wife Heidi would be there when we arrived... So needless to say, it was a highly successful evening.

Heidi and Lise will be here until departure on Sunday morning.

Perfect weather with clear skies and almost dead calm, 2-3 Celsius. Towards the evening a bit cloudy and a little rain - but when writing this two hours before sunrise on  Saturday morning, it's another starry starry sky. Maybe the lack of aurora is a sign of better days. Predicted gale force winds today, so we'll see.

23-OCT 0550Z

KONG31 Expediton Report - Day 6

The prospects for the night looked good - alas it was not to last. The power company did a maintenance power outage starting at 12 Midnight local (2200Z) which lasted for almost five hours. We weren't quite aware of this, because the public statement about the outage was made to a hidden web page hidden deep in the company's menu structure. To add to the injury, when power resumed, the fuse responsible for the living room decided that the combined load of all electric appliances coming back to life at once became too much to handle. So it collapsed.

Eventually we got things running again. Not much of interest so far, except KTOP-KS 1490. However, after 0600Z there wasn't much left, and a solar flare didn't make things easier.

Asia surfaced at around 1200Z but levels were weak and uninteresting.

OJ and I decided to go to Berlevåg for supplementary shopping, and visited the Loran C site while there. It is scheduled to close at Midnight, December 31. An impressive structure, and an impressive 250 kW transmitter. And an impressive amount of noise.

Loran C mast, Berlevåg

The proton level has increased, which may mean no more DX this week.

But we don't despair! For dinner this calm and mainly dry Thursday we started with cured reindeer fillet, served with small almond potatoes and a dressing made from olive oil, orange juice and chopped small onions. The main course was fried duck fillets, sweet potato paste and red wine sauce. Assorted cheeses for dessert.

Today's pic: Gray and rainy morning but weather improved. 4 degrees maximum temperature, and calm.

OCT-22 0550

KONG31 Expedition Report - Day Five

This was not a good night. Fair signals on the top part of the band from around 2300, and WXTG Hampton VA dominated 1490 for an hour. Nice signal from WRHC-FL 1550 when on day power.Then into mostly nothingness until around 0300 when signals appeared to recover. However very wide conditions, Brazil on one frequency and Seattle on another. So nothing much happened, and from 0430 the signals fizzeled out into the noise.

Asia/Pacific surfaced just after 1000Z. Nothing from New Zealand at that time, but Radio Kiribati 1440 had a nice signal for a few minutes and a "You are listening to Radio Kiribas" ID. From there on only the usual stuff from Asia.

More on our weblog!

Another interesting feature with the Jaguar/Perseus combo is the Monitor. Below is a 60-minute waterfall of 1490. It shows how stations can be tentatively separated by their small offsets, and it gives the user the possibility to "point and shoot" on the station of interest. During these 60 minutes, WXTG  (1489.997) was the dominating station, confirmed by multiple IDs throughout the hour. An interesting signal was spotted where the hollow circle is placed. It was only audible at that short time span, and by clicking on the waterfall I sure enough heard good audio from another station which unfortunately wouldn't ID at that time (but I guess/suspect it was WBAE because of the nostagia music format). As I mentioned on the Day Three report, it requires the Perseus to be calibrated against a station or signal where the exact frequency is known.

One hour on 1490

Below is another example on 1230 with two dominating stations; the one to the right is presumably CFFB Iqualuit NU, while the one to the left is actually wobbling 1 Hz in apparently regular intervals (around 35 minutes).

One hour on 1230

Of course the Monitor will only help you if you have a continous recording.

Weatherwise it's much the same. The wind increased to strong breeze overnight, and the temperature fell to around 3 Celsius. A few rain showers as the wind calmed, and then the clouds went away. Max temp was 5. Outlook for the rest of the week is chances of light rain, windy at periods and cooler. We're happy for every snowless day.

Today's three-course dinner started off with cured duck breast on sourdough bread covered with gruyere and baked in the oven. The main course was simple enough -  flaming hot Holy Cod fish soup - no further explanation required. For dessert: Artificially flavoured strawberry jelly with custard. And Grappa. And some more Grappa.

Today's pic: Since the weather changed quite a bit here are two.

OCT-21 0550Z

OCT-21 0915Z

KONG31 Expedition Report - Day Four

Fluctuating signals throughout the night, from quite strong to almost nothing. 0100, 0400 and 0500Z were ok full hours. After 0600 the band died,

Nothing new or exciting. Among the slightly less than ordinary we might mention KSEI-ID and KOGA-NE 930, KODY-NE 1240, WOTE-WI 1380, KVSI-ID 1450 and KAIR-KS 1470.

Yaslog 310 degrees beverage 20-OCT

Asia started very late. Only just before 1200Z did we hear the first faint signals from Japan, as usual the Hokkaido stations were first to show. But at 1200, Newstalk ZB 1035 surfaced with a good signal for around 25 minutes. Not much else from NZ though. To our surprise we found 4TAB, Adelaide SA, 1539 kHz later in the afternoon. Nothing else from the area was found. Please remember to check the weblog in the morning.

So! Time for dinner! As usual there was a three-course meal: We started with salmon sashimi slightly treated with a superhot mix of sesame and grapeseed oil, served with pin sticks of fresh ginger, coriander leaves, sesame seeds and fresh ground pepper. Absolutely yummi!

The main course was lamb sirloin and tenderloin, passionately prepared by Mr. Bue. Pearl potatoes, junior onions, apple gelly and magic sauce. Yummi Yummi!! This was a KONG first, and certainly not the last.

For dessert we enjoyed chocolate pudding and custard, and some Grappa. And some Aquavit.

Below is today's pic from this morning. 6 Celsius, cloudy and some wind early on, but the wind calmed down in the afternoon,

OCT-20 0552Z