THE HAMRADIO DOT COM

Seems that I updated my QSLs last time over a year ago, so here’s the latest ones. Maybe lacking few earlier ones:

Asfaltstelegrafen, Borås 1596
WMR World Music Radio, Randers 5840
Radio OZ-Viola 5825
Medium-wave transmitter Joe, Erlangen 1476
RNE Radio 5 Salamanca 1314
SER Radio Cartagena 1602
CRI Xian 9470
CRI Kashi 9435
VOIRI Kalamabad 11850
JOIK NHK1 Sapporo 567
JOPG NHK1 Kushiro 585
JOLK NHK1 Fukuoka 612
JOCG NHK1 Asahikawa, Enbetsu 792
JOCG NHK1 Asahikawa, Wakkanai 927
JOJK NHK1 Kanazawa 1224
JOCK NHK1 Nabeta (Nagoya) 729
JOTK NHK1 Matsue, Izumo 1296
JOTG NHK1 Aomori 963
JOKP NHK1 Kitami 1188
Jiāngsū Gùshì Guǎngbò, Nanjing 1206
Jiāngsū Jiankang Guǎngbò, Nanjing 846
JORK NHK1 Kochi 990
JOBK NHK1 Osaka 666
JOSB NHK2 Kitakyushu 1602
V7AB Radio Marshalls, Majuro 1098 (new country)
KPRP Honolulu HI 650
KHCM Honolulu HI 880
KPHI Honolulu HI 1130
KCIK Kihei HI 740
KUAI Eleele HI 570
KXLE Ellensburg WA 1240
KTDD San Bernardino CA 1350
KUTI Yakima WA 1460
KSMH West Sacramento CA 1620
WXME Monticello ME 780
KCOL Wellington CO 600
KTRS St Louis MO 550
KJCR Billings MT 1240
KSEI Pocatello ID 930
KSCO Santa Cruz CA 1080
KHTK Sacramento CA 1140
KHIL Willcox AZ 1250
WGBW Denmark WI 1590
KCID Caldwell ID 1490
CHNL Kamloops BC 610
KONA Kennewick-Richland WA 600
KLYC McMinnville OR 1260
CFFB Iqaluit NU 1230
KOLY Mobridge SD 1300
CBR Calgary AB 1010
KOVC Valley City ND 1490
KIUL Garden City KS 1240
CKFR Kelowna BC 1150
KYKN Keizer OR 1430
KDAK Carrington ND 1600
KMJ Fresno CA 580
KDZR Lake Oswego OR 1640
KPDQ Portland OR 800
KBRE Merced CA 1660
CISL Vancouver BC 650
KOTZ Kotzebue AK 729
KONP Port Angeles WA 1450
KDWN Las Vegas NV 720
KDBI Boise ID 730
KCHU Valdez AK 770
WWOW Conneaut OH 1360
KNTS Seattle WA 1680
KFLD Pasco WA 870
CFBV Smithers BC 870
KSDP Sand Point AK 830
KUGN Eugene OR 590
KCBS San Francisco CA 740
KRJO Monroe LA 1680
KAPS Mount Vernon WA 660
KNPT Newport OR 1310
KGGS Garden City KS 1340
KIT Yakima WA 1280
KXNT North Las Vegas NV 840
KLTX Long Beach CA 1390
KSDO San Diego CA 1130
KBKW Aberdeen WA 1450
WPTX Lexington Park MD 1690
KBAR Burley ID 1230
KXTA Rupert ID 970
KEDO Longview WA 1400
KART Jerome ID 1400
WHBL Sheboygan WI 1330
KVNU Logan UT 610
KRKS Denver CO 990
WCCR Cleveland OH 1260
KEJO Corvallis OR 1240
WKLJ Sparta WI 1290
WWRU Jersey City NJ 1660
KJSK Columbus NE 900
KIHU Tooele UT 1010
KBLE Seattle WA 1050
WFED Washington DC 1500
WNZK Dearborn Heights MI 680
KCTA Corpus Christi TX 1030
WMCA New York NY 570
KOIL Omaha NE 1290
KXMR Bismarck ND 710
KWOD Kansas City KS 1660
KAZN Pasadena CA 1300
KERR Polson MT 750
WCCW Traverse City MI 1310
OA.. Radio Sabor, Arequipa 1560
ZYJ457 Rádio MEC, Rio de Janeiro 800
ZYK770 Rádio Aleluia Music (Rádio Vale do Tietê), Salto SP 1510
LRI218 Radio Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca 1240
Radio 88 (HNG)
SWR4 Radio Stuttgart – Baden-Württemberg
North Norfolk Radio
Radio Veselina
Veronica MyRadio
RTRS Radio Republike Srpske
Radio Dženarika, Čačak
(only 2019 FM QSLs)

Last two days went with Tromsa K-index in the bottom: zero/one. It also means that propagation was quite boring – now Great Lakes and Canadian dominants were really loud on the band. About Canadians: we finally got IDs from 530 kHz CIAO Brampton ON. “Ciao” was audible on several mornings, usually with one or two Cubans (Rebelde and probably Encyclopedia). On Friday 14th MW band opened to West really early – 1140 and 1400 were there already after 19z. We still need to check our recordings but we noticed several daytimers/daytime power stations like 1360 WWOW Conneaut OH and 1510 WRRD Waukesha WI. On Saturday morning Japan was also very early – we could hear 0859z regional programmes from NHK1 and then 0959z local IDs.

We “closed” our station local time in the afternoon and set up few “cold stations”: laptops and hard disks for Aihkiniemi owner gang. Then 12½ hour drive back to Vaasa with one pizza stop in Rovaniemi. Another Aihkiniemi adventure was behind. Now next 12 months we spend by listening to our recordings and sending reception reports. See you next year!

Pizzastop. Reindeer, bacon and kebab. Huge size. at Memo’s Restaurant, Rovaniemi.

It is always difficult to follow the propagation when pedition goes on as we are usually working with the earlier days files. Plus we have other activities. On Thursday we went to our annual trip to Kirkenes, Norway at 9am and returned around 3pm. As beer connoisseurs we make pre-order to Norwegian alcohol monopoly Vinmonopolet and pick up 100+ different Norwegian beers. The manager of the shop greets us like the old friends. Why not, we have been there last five years – once a year and we are the only ones who import beer from Norway to Finland… We also went to two local grocery shops Rema1000 and Kiwi and found some new lighter Norwegian beers. And as usual at the border in Näätämö we did some food shopping at NordMarket and K-Market for the remaining days. Patrik also bought some reindeer meet for home.

So what about the propagation? K-index (Tromso) was almost all day zero. On radio it means that now West Coast propagation was over … now band is
open all over and the dominants are back. I noticed that at 09z East Coast was loud and I found from the files few very interesting catches: 760 WLCC Brandon FL (1st time in Finland) and 1190 WIXE Monroe NC (2nd time in Finland). Probably in NC stations were running daytime power because of heavy weather conditions. We need to check more files at home.

We also have a friend here who we have not seen. From the tracks we would say it is a fox. He/she has also shitted two days in a row just next to our front door. Usual suspects are the birds who seem to like peanuts. As well as squirrel…

For dinner we had beef stew in a beer sauce and rice. It was very good as we cooked meat for over an hour. The best beer was Jämmerdalen Astronauts. Jämmerdalen is quite new and very small brewery in the Northern Sweden. The beer world has not heard of them but they should as Jämmerdalen brews world class sour/wild beers.

I am writing this on Friday and we are leaving on Saturday. Probably the last parts of DX-pedition blog will be published next week. K-index is still zero …

Sorry our report is short this time: we spent a lot of time with earlier files and we hadn’t time to listen Wednesday files much. Solar propagation is getting better as coronal hole’s effect is away. But same time here it seems to mean that bands get dull to North America. Those dominants which were not present at the beginning of this trip are back again. Hopefully we get something new later on. Some new ones included 1010 KIHU Tooele UT, 1080 KRLD Dallas TX and 1550 KMRI West Valley City UT. Also nice Hawaiji opening at 11Z: 590 KSSK Honolulu HI and 760 KGU Honolulu HI were new ones.

In the afternoon we went to Sauna. There are the rentable cabins some 5+ km away, where you can use sauna. They also have the dish washing machine and proper water toilet … We enjoyed sauna, Finnish TV and couple of beers.

Our dinner was spaghetti with minced meat and cream sauce. The best beer of the day (and the week) was Evil Twin / Westbrook Imperial Mexican Biscotti Cake Break. Runner-up mentions to Bryggverket Kaakao Kaakao and Stigbergets Galore.

We log what we hear almost in real time to HCDX Online Log (OLL). From US/CAN we normal log the stations which we have heard 0 to 2 times before in Aihkiniemi.

4th day and weather was fine – sky was clear and we could see stars, probably Venus and red Moon. Temperature dropped to -18C but it warmed back up to -12C. The day went with some outdoor activities, radio listening and beer drinking. Although forecast said that the geomagnetic field would be quiet, we got Tromsa K-indexes from zero to five during the day.

We have not checked much of nighttime files – South American (especially Brazil and LaPlata) propagation was down. At 07Z stateside started to rise and what an opening it was. Condx were peaking to the states of MT, NV, ID, UT, WA, OR, CA and BC in Canada. 0800z hour sounded good but then 0900z hour was probably the best ever we’ve had in Aihkiniemi. Those files are still in process but we already got several first timers for us: 580 KMJ Fresno CA, 650 CISL Richmond BC, 700 KXLX Airway Heights WA, 720 KDWN Las Vegas NV, 750 KERR Polson MT, 890 KYWN Meridian ID, 930 KMPT East Missoula MT (afaik FFF!), 990 KTMS Santa Barbara CA, 1050 KBLE Seattle WA, 1060 KDYL South Salt Lake UT (using its daytime power) 1390 KLTX Long Beach CA, 1460 KTYM Inglewood CA (2nd time in Finland?), 1540 KMPC Los Angeles CA and KBLA Santa Monica CA. But more will be found from the files for sure.

Band opened to Hawaiji as well. It was open already at 0800z and then 1400z. 900 KMVI Kahului HI was the new one.

From Asia we noticed that propagation is really getting better as Japan was strong from time to time. Nothing was heard during NHK1 sign-on at 20z but some NHK2s were strong at their sign-off at 1540z. We also noticed few Aussie-stations: at least 1548 and 1620 were audible and then later few possible 6th district stations.

Our dinner was this time Aihkiniemi Ramen Wok with pork, beef and vegetables. The best beers were Olutmylly Rautarouva pils and Lockeby Imperial Stout.

On Monday coronal hole stream and unstable conditions were still going on but some good things were happening – perharps because of this. In the early morning LaPlata and Brazil were strong. We need to check our files but stations heard included 1050 CX26 RNU Radio Uruguay and 800 ZYJ457 Rádio MEC. The band was totally closed to USA during the night. But it became alive at 08Z and especially to West Coast and Rocky Mountains. After peaking at 0830Z band dropped down to rise up again around 13Z. All time new ones noticed were 590 KID Idaho Falls ID (their ID has been heard before from KWIK), 870 KLSQ Whitney NV, 960 KALE Richland WA (with Christmas format and “Santa 106.1” slogan), 1230 KBAR Burley ID (our 700th NA station in Aihkiniemi), 1340 KPRK Livingston MT (simulcasting KMMS) and 1390 KLGN Logan UT. At 0830Z also few Mexicans were noticed but no new ones.

In the afternoon Timo noticed that Aussie stations 729 and 891 were quite strong and decided to check if there are any other signals from Australia. Suprisingly the band seemed to be open to South Australia between 1630-1800Z. New ones 720 6WF ABC Perth WA, 765 5CC Port Lincoln SA, 1161 5PA ABC Naracoorte SA, 1197 5RPH Adelaide SA and 1242 5AU Classic Hits Port Augusta SA were found with few others who didn’t give any ID. Otherwise we didn’t pay much attention to Asia. Condx were poor/zero to Japan.

Our dinner was oriental sweet and sour pork with boiled rice, cucumber and tomato. The best beers of the day were Põhjala Szechuan Bänger and Oud Beersel Bersalis Sourblend Grand Cru.

The second day – the first full day. It is always like a day to get used to DX-pedition-life. You start to remember all your routines and start to work by them (this is our 5th trip to this same place!). Weather was stable, only some new snow in one point which was nice as we got some outside work to do.

Coronal hole’s stream was in action. Propagation was unstable but we were still able to catch a couple of interesting stations. The morning was good to South America. Brasil was strong, one of the best catches was 1380 kHz ZYJ831 Radio Frequencia, Garopaba SC. But it was mixed bag – Rebeldes were also strong and lasted till 0800 UTC. Nighttime propagation to US was weak. During the day NA condx were spotty, only new one was 1680 KRJO Monroe LA. Propagation was to East Coast (nothing special) in the early morning then shifting to West Coast. Suprisingly FBC Fidzi 990 was strong at 1049z with some common Hawaijian stations. In the evening coronal hole stream started to effect more and we couldn’t hear any Far East etc. India and Iran were strong. From East we got 1215 CNR7 Voice of Old China (Huaxia zhi Sheng), Zhuhai (GD), but we haven’t check much of those files. Propagation forecast claims that condx will be better on Tuesday. We will see…

Our dinner was the almond potatoes with chicken and Koskenlaskija cheese in cream sauce with Aihkiniemi Salad. The best beers: tie with two strong Swedish beers – Dugges Plum Spices Imperial Stout and Electric Nurse Barrel-aged Dark Skull.

AIH91 DX-pedition kind of started already on Friday when Timo (TIK) and Patrik (PW) traveled 14 hours from Vaasa to Ivalo. This year we drove our trip in two parts as we stayed for the night at River Camping Ivalo. Basic new cottage for two cost 45 euros. They also served breakfast (for money) but we went to Hotelli Kultahippu for a bit better breakfast buffet. Our aim was to be in Aihkiniemi at 12:00 local time as this was the time when AIH90 JY & YK finished their DX-pedition. Before driving to Partakko, we visited The Samí Museum Siida. Very interesting exhibitions about Finnish sami history. Then to the DX cottage – we noticed several reindeers on the way. Not so much snow on the ground this year.

We changed few words with Juha and Ykä and started unpacking. The boys told that propagation has mostly been to the West coast. We started listening immediately and 11 UTC the first recordings were made. The bands to North America didn’t sound very promising but after careful listening of 1100 UTC file produced two new stations for us: 940 KFIG Fresno CA and 980 KFWB Los Angeles CA “La Mera Mera”, which sounded like an ad first. Next hour produced 1220 KHTS Canyon Country CA so the best propagation was to California. Weak opening continued till 1400 UTC when another new CA was heard: 1650 KFOX Torrance CA. Coronal hole from the sun made band unstable and India & Iran were strong quite early at 13 UTC. We even noticed two Africans 845 and 950. 891 and 729 aussies were on the band briefly but so far we have not found anything interesting from East. We also recorded a bit on shortwaves and got new Danish station Radio OZ-Viola on 5825 kHz.

Brasilian stations were noticed already at 2100 UTC. At 2130 UTC there was a short US opening before the band closed to USA. No daytimers identified anyhow. Propagation forecast says that the effect of CH will be on the band next two days, on Tuesday condx should improve.

And yes we also had a dinner – pasta and ground beef with cream sauce with Aihkiniemi Salad. Our beers for the first evening were below average but the best ones were Braufactum Clan and Brewski Pango IPA.

Me and Patrik (PW) are soon on the road towards Partakko in Inari and Aihkiniemi DX Cabin. On Saturday the 8th of December will start our 5th Aihkiniemi DX-pedition, to be known as AIH91. We expect less snow than before this year but temperatures should be around -15C at the start of our trip. Propagation looks promising too.

Es-season on FM has been a bit lame in Finland so far. We had nice strong Russian opening on the 11th of May, a bit worse one a day before, then there was a long silence till the 1st of June. The 1st of June started nicely with 20 minutes opening to UK. Midlands/Wales-area brought to me a couple of new ones such as 96.3 Radio Aire, Capital FM South Wales, Smooth Radio West Midlands, Dee 106.3, Sunshine Radio and Signal 107. Then es cloud switched to Middle-Europe, especially to Czech, Slovak and Poland. From Poland I got several new ones like Radio WAWA, PR Radio Opole, Radio ZET Bydgoszcz, Radio Elka and Radio Żnin FM.

The three days later in the 4th of July after 1520 UTC I noticed Es-warning from Botnia saying that band is open to Sevilla. Before this band had been totally dead in Finland but SW Europe had a huge ES-opening. By my suprise the first station I heard on 88.7 MHz was talking in Portuguese. Wait … A quick stream comparasion and yes, it was RDP Antena 2 from Serra de Montejunto, 3239 kilometres away! I just have had my first Portuguese FM station after 34 years of trying! Next went to 90.20: Rádio Renascença was booming there! And actually FM lowband was full of Portuguese stations. Unfortunately I couldn’t get ID from all of them. 89.70 Antena Livre was playing only music but 91.70 RMF IDed nicely. Huh! Propagation lasted 20 minutes and it was one of the highlights of my 38 year DXing career! ES continued with another UK opening. Now Free Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Lincs FM and Capital FM Leicestershire were new catches. Then clouds moved to France and then to Italy but not much interesting was heard.

Suprisingly next day at 1706 UTC 88,7 MHz started to talk in Portuguese again! This time it was Rádio Comercial from Lamego-tx. Signal was not so strong as a day before but this station continued alone in the band for 15 minutes! Just few hours earlier I had received QSL-note from Rádio Comercial heard a day before on 90.80 MHz! You can listen to audio from here. It was booming on 90.80 MHz!