So! For those who may have wanted daily updates from the KONG44 mini-DXpedition: Sorry. I’ll try to make a reasonably comprehensive update in this post.
As many
will know, we start off every KONG season with a prolonged (or “oval” as we say
in Norway) weekend in early September. While my radio gear and most of the
antennas are ready, Ole’s and OJ’s stuff needs to be set up and configured. And
there is quite a bit of work to set up the Mount Loran remote-controlled 1000-metre
beverage site. OJ and Ole are also part of the AND team, a 1200-km drive to the
southwest, so days are busy.
I was on
site early Thursday afternoon, and all three were present just after 17:00
local, 15:00 UTC. It was really too late for any useful activities, so instead
we had a couple of beers and later on we enjoyed a home-made fish gratin served
with a Kim Crawford white wine from our favourite country New Zealand! For dessert:
Chocolate pudding with custard. And a bit of Grappa.
Friday was
Mount Loran-day. It’s a 25-minute drive from here, plus an 800-metre walk with
all the equipment. The 1000-metre antenna spool and the 50 antenna support rods
had been left there last October. The walk came not without some cost though as
I stumbled in my feet and fell forwards. After a little while I realized I had
actually broken a rib. How convenient.
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| Mount Loran beverage starting point |
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| Mount Loran equipment |
Back at the
KONG HQ, we checked that the Perseus + Jaguar setup at Mount Loran worked well.
We then tested a couple of beers, and made ourselves some dinner: Baked fresh
salmon, tagliatelle with lots of pesto and parmesan, and a salad. We had a Chablis
from Christian Moreau with the salmon, and cancelled dessert due to too much
salmon (or tagliatelle. Or was it pesto). But we did have a bit of Grappa.
Saturday
became a real challenge. Unlike previous seasons, after the equipment had been
set up, we experienced some extreme noise levels. Some of it certainly accountable
to the dreary and noisy conditions on the MW band, but certainly not all. It
was a massive task, with multiple PCs, multiple Perseus, power supplies, splitters,
preamps and what have you. After many frustrating hours, we finally settled on an acceptable noise level, and could move on.
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| KONG HQ, facing north |
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| KONG HQ, facing south |
Not that we heard anything. Enhanced proton levels are the worst the sun can throw at Arctic DX-ers, and it’s been like that for several days. Not even at the quiet Mount Loran location were there any traces of trans-Atlantic or trans-polar reception.
So, what to
do? Test a couple of beers maybe! And then dinner, Bjarne’s fish soup based
on local haddock, vegetables, and spiced up a bit with red chili. Another white wine
day, this time Calles Riesling. We finished off the rest of the chocolate
pudding for dessert and had a bit of Grappa.
Sunday was
our last full day at the KONG HQ, and we really didn’t do very much. Checking last
night’s recordings didn’t take long – nothing heard. Just for the fun of it I checked the
22:00 UTC Saturday full hour and heard RAI’s final moments on 900 kHz, leaving
the channel for a much stronger IRIB Radio Quran and the Voronezh beacon “NE” –
both indicative of the lousy conditions.
OJ and Ole
went back to Mount Loran to do some maintenance and to set it up for scheduled
recording until October 21. I will attend the site at regular intervals to replace
the battery and the SSD. With some luck, conditions will improve, and Mount
Loran will again provide us with premium loggings.
After
testing a couple of beers, we had a meat soup made up of “pulled” pre-cooked,dried and
salted lamb’s ribs, and various vegetables, spiced up a bit with red chili. This
called for some red wine, of which we have a nice selection to choose from. OJ decided
on L'Ancien Le Buissy, which was absolutely fine. We opted for a very traditional
dessert from this area, fresh cloudberries in whipped cream. And… a bit of
Grappa. But moderately so since we are scheduled to leave early Monday morning.
Still disturbed conditions and apparently dull. Not so! Brief openings brought us KCSP-MO 610, KVOR-CO 740, WHOS-AL 800, WERC-AL 960 and KRCN-CO 1060 - and probably more. We also noted the Astoria station on 1230 is on with new calls KKOR, "The Beach 106.3" announcements and of course Oldies format. Tonga-1017 was up very early, but lost way to the Chinese powerhouses after 10:00 UTC. Nothing definite on Kiribati 846 and 1440.
One interesting observation on the 340 beverage the previous night, confirming a finding I had during very disturbed conditions a few weeks ago: Brazil! Almost perpendicular to the 340 antenna, and their carrier seemed to be smeared out over a 100 Hz or more at around 05:30 UTC. Below are three of them, on roughly 1569.98, 1569.95 and 1520.02 kHz. This was also the case on several other frequencies.
We checked with the 305-degrees Mount Loran recordings where the signals should be closer to the main lobe and possibly stronger. Almost no trace of the Brazilian stations, and what carriers could be spotted, were relatively clean.
So, what has happened? Could it be that the skywave signals from the Brazilian stations were reflected back to the 340 beverage from a point north of us? Similar to FM backscatter? The audio from these stations were somewhat distorted, which may or may not matter. Many stations from Brazil aren't known for their excellent audio quality.
And if so, what happened to the ionosphere at 05:30? Nothing significant, to judge from solar data.
In the evening, a visit from Finland! Jim Solatie and Mika Mäkeläinen have been here before though quite a long time ago, and took the 4-hour drive on winter roads from their DXpedition site in Aihkiniemi for a quick gettogether and some serious dinner!
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| From left: Mika, OJ, Ole, Jim, Bjarne. Beer, not orange juice. |
We started off with Bruschetta based on OJ's sourdough bread, while the fresh King Crab was being baked on a thick base of sea salt in a large pot. The king crab was, as always, served with Carbonara, and a Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. For dessert we had fresh, lightly warmed Cloudberries with Cointreau and Grappa.
Weather: Occasional snow showers, up to fresh breeze but a bit of sun too. From 2 above to 2 below zero. Today Saturday will be the last full day of KONG43. There will probably be another update on Sunday morning.
Day seven was variable, to say the least. Under the effect of CH1038, the signals varied wildly, as seen on the red index on both sides of the yaslog below. From 06:00 to 09:30 UTC the signal levels dropped down to zero, before restoring somewhat. The afternoon had mostly signals from Alaska and Hawaii (KUAU 1570 very strong, as you can see).
Not too interesting stuff heard from what we've found live and on the recordings, but these may be worth mentioning: KFOR-NE 1240, KUYO-WY 830 (day power), WKBH-WI 1570, and KABN-AK 960 with a good signal in the afternoon.
Dinner tonight was not home made but at Kongsfjord Guesthouse, a place to visit if you visit this part of the country. It's only 200 metres away from the KONG HQ. We started off with a much needed shower and sauna, and was then treated with a reindeer stew with mashed potatoes, and a tiramisu for dessert. Excellent stuff, and we were well treated by their Italian Chef!
First off, a few photos taken at noon today, showing the area around the KONG HQ:
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| View to the northwest |
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| Balcony with FM antennas, looking southwest |
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| South: neighbours, my bay, sun dog |
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| More sun dog, frozen car |
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| View to the east |
Not a very lengthy post this time.
Conditions continue to supply us with rare and new stations, and the 340-degrees beverage produced signals from North America for 16 hours yesterday. Even if the signal level dipped quite a bit after 04:00, there were some interesting signals very late in the day, like KQLL-NV 1280. However the most interesting loggings were done early in the night, like WHNL-NY 620, WLNL-NY 1000, WKOK-PA 1070, WCJW-NY 1140, WEBO-NY 1330 and WMLP-PA 1380.
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| 340-degrees beverage Yaslog |
A few New Zealand stations were audible in the afternoon, but the Chinese powerhouses were just too strong for us.
So then, what's for dinner?
For starters, we had home made (of course!) Salmon Tartare, served with a wine we haven't had access to for many years, the excellent Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand!
Time then, for one of our signature dishes, Tenderloins from reindeer grazing in just this area. Served with a brown sauce and paste from root vegetables, and a Cornas Les Chailles red wine from 2018.
And to keep the meal all Nordic (except for the wine), we had Cloudberries and whipped cream for dessert. A bit of Cointreau on the side didn't spoil it.
Weatherwise, the strong winds eased off a bit, and much fewer snow showers, but the temperature dropped as well, to just above 0 Celsius, and during the evening even below. Now, Wednesday morning it's clear skies and -5 and the outlook for the rest of the day is good. Not so for Thursday and Friday.
Nice propagation to North America - and finally some New Zealand!
The night started early, with stations like WNCO-OH 1340, KOOQ-NE 1410, KBNP-OR 1410, KLGN-IA 1560, KTGE-CA 1570. In the morning, conditions turned towards the west coast with massive signals from KERN-CA 1180 (whacked antenna system? Supposed to run to the SW on both day and night pattern), KSDO-CA 1130, and several other not commonly heard stations from the area.
Signal levels were very good, but it was difficult to find new stations. We'll see if closer scrutiny of the IQ files may reveal some surprises.
A bit after noon, we drove to Berlevåg for some shopping, a visit to the local café (which turned out to be closed on Mondays!) and to replace the SSD drive on Mount Loran. Mount Loran is not a mountain at all, but a flat area 90 masl where the dismantled Loran C antenna was set up. Perfect for a 1000-metre beverage antenna. The daily trip is described by the pictures below:
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| On the dirt road towards the box with the PC, SDR and battery |
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| OJ (left) and Ole ready to unwrap the tarpaulin |
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| Inside the box: 100Ah Li-Ion battery, PC, Perseus, modem, SSD, Bodnar GPS |
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| Back to the car |
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| Leftovers + new baked bread |
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| Moon (and a little aurora) |
Exceptionally strong signal levels from North America! Propagation started at 22:00 UTC yesterday, and WILB Canton OH 1060 was noted with their sign-off announcement at 22:45. Other stations of interest were KBLE-WA 1050, KYSP-WA 1340, KKAQ-MN 1460, KMVI-HI 900 (among other Hawaiians) and the 100-watts NHK-1 relay of Aomori, Japan on 1584 at 10:00.
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| Pre-sunrise at the KONG HQ |
Unfortunately, Asia and Pacific conditions were uninspiring for the rest of the day. Signals from North America remained into well into the afternoon, but nothing of particular interest was noted.
Just after lunch veteran radio amateur Olav, LA9VFA, paid a visit and brought a moose sirloin and cloudberries to make sure we had enough to eat! Like we hadn't...! Which brings us to the subject of dinner. The usual calf shanks were replaced with lamb shanks this year, cooked for 5 hours in Barolo, and served with potatoes. We enjoyed a quite intense Rioja Gran Reserva 2011 with the meat.
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| Lamb shanks in Barolo - before |
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| Lamb shanks in Barolo - after |
For dessert, a home made chocolate mousse, perfectly perpared by OJ, accompanied with Amaretto, and a little Grappa to finish it all off.
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| Chocolate mousse with Amaretto |
Weather: Much of the same, just a bit more. Not too much rain, but the wind increased in the afternoon and may get stronger still. Temperatures around 4 Celsius. As long as it doesn't snow, we're happy.
To round off this post, here's a link to one of the most common stations heard in this part of Europe during good conditions. We'll leave it up to you to find out which one! Happy DX-ing!
Arrival day, so nothing much to say.
Ole arrived very early in the morning after a mammoth drive in inclement weather conditions from Andøya - 1170 km! OJ Sagdahl arrived to Tana by bus from the Kirkenes airport terminal at 12:00 UTC, and we arrived at the KONG HQ at 13:35 after a short stop to buy reindeer tender loins from a local herder. The mountain passing was somewhat slippery. Ole and OJ then went off to replace the battery at the Mount Loran remote site, and collect 6 days of IQ recordings.
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| Just after arrival |
The afternoon was uneventful, except we noted KPEN Kenai AK 840 at 15:40 and onwards. It's a new logging, but how long it's been on the air we don't know. We wonder if it may be the first day of broadcasting?
During the afternoon and evening we enjoyed a few beers, and the Lervig SuperSonic remained its position as a no. 1 beer. Non Puls Ultra. No sorry, that was the aquavit.
For dinner we had a rather traditional fish soup: Chopped carrots, seleriac, rutabaga (or swede?), potatoes, red chili, leak, and not least: Superb quality cod loins. We cooked a large pan, and expected leftovers. Not so.
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| Le Fish Soup |
For dessert: Home made chocolate pudding with custard, and a Disaronno Amaretto.
So, that's it for today! Temperatures maxed out at 4 Celsius, with relatively calm winds and only very light showers. According to the weather forecast, we ain't seen nothin' yet....
