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Day 1 late Thursday – late Friday 8.-9.12.2017

Finally on DX-pedition! Our 4th DX-pedition started this year a bit earlier than before as the 6th of December was the 100th anniversary of Finland and day off. Timo moved to Vaasa already on Wednesday evening. Our trip started on Thursday morning at 07:30am. We stopped in Kempele to buy the most of our food and then in Rovaniemi for a pizza break. We were excited to hear that Inari Väylä (only some 20 km from our QTH) was the coldest place in Finland, about -35C in the morning.

We arrived to Aihkiniemi around 22:30 – after 15 hours of drive. When we approached the place, weather changed a bit warmer and it was only -24C when we arrived (it went up to -9C next day). We were very lucky and the final path to listening cottage had so little snow that we could drive our Skoda directly to the front of cottage. After some unpacking we were ready for the rocknroll.

Earlier in the weak propagation was dominated by a coronal hole which made radio propagation more or less disturbed. It continued till Thursday. We were lucky as the effect of coronal hole started to vanish little by little during the first day. Propagation was up and down and it wasn’t really really juicy to any part of the world but on the other hand mediumwaves were open to almost everywhere.

The first night started with La Plata stations which picked up at 0400z. Same time Brasilian stations continued till 07z with stations like 730 ZYH759 Rado 730 and 1050 ZYI203 Radio Capixaba. We were suprised that North America came in already at 2300z and propagation continued all night. Unfortunately stations were more or less usual suspects. In the morning at 06z we got the first new US catch 1070 KFTI Wichita KS when band was good to KS/SD/WY area. Band seemed to dive after 0715z but suprisingly it came up few hours later giving West Coast stations till 1500z! New stations so far noticed are 550 KOAC Corvallis OR and 1140 KXRB Sioux Falls SD. Same time Alaska was very strong (all common Alaska stations were heard) and even for the first time we got several new HI stations: 830 KHVH, 990 KIKI and 1040 KLHT. The real blast was 1035 Newstalk ZB at 1203z. Our first MW station from New Zealand! Other Pacific was not noticed except strong Majuro 1098. Maybe tomorrow …

During the evening we listened to earlier recordings so not so much to tell about Asian propagation so far. DWNX 1611 was heard during the sign off and sign on. 891 and 1296 Aussies were also heard. We also watched some icehockey from the computer.

Daily meal: chicken in cream sauce with rice and salad
The best beer: BrewDog Pump Action Poet

Me and Patrik Willför will return to Aihkiniemi of Inari for the 4th time. AIH78-DX-pedition is planned to start in the 7th of December (close to 8th) and lasts till the 16th of December. I will again publish here daily our best catches and other stories from the North. Forecast now is quite promising. The best catches from AIH66-pedition were:

711 AIR Siliguri
1359 JOBB NHK2 Osaka via Wakayama/Fukuchiyama
1377 IRIB Radio Kermanshah, Paveh
580 WHP Harrisburg PA
900 WDLS Wisconsin Dells WI
1030 WNVR Vernon Hills IL
1260 WSDZ Belleville IL
680 ZYH471 Rádio Clube, Santo Antônio de Jesus BA

We also heard 1017 Radio Tonga, 1098 V7AB Marshalls and 1440 Radio Kiribati + Aussies 729 5RN, 891 5AN, 1152 6PNN, 1296 6RN and 1620 4KZ. 443 USA/CAN/ALS stations were identified.

Weather web cam from Nitsijärvi, near Aihkiniemi site. (Photo: Liikennevirasto)

Thursday the 15th of December 2016

Thursday was our traditional trip to Kirkenes -day. It took us around 6 hours. We left the cabin around 9am and came back around 3pm. We wanted to maximize the daylight. As you know, we have kaamos here – the sun is not rising at all! So between 11am and 1pm there is shallow blue light, otherwise it is more or less dark or totally dark outside. We made our normal visit to Vinmonopolet of Kirkenes and visited also two grocery shops: Rema1000 and Kiwi. In Finland side of the border we did some shopping at K-Market Näätämö and Nordmarket Näätämö.

We left all US antennas to record the MW band except one PC was recording with 30-degree-antenna. And we finally got ID from Radio Marshalls from Majuro, Marsall Islands! Actually V7AB was audible between 0900-1130 UTC, but during the sign off Korea was again too strong. Quick scan has not revealed any other Oceanian stations.

The morning was again quite good to USA. Propagation stayed to Ontario, Great Lakes and New England. Some of the good ones: 570 WKBN Youngstown OH, 610 CKTB St. Catherines ON, 950 WIBX Utica NY and also Mexican 1060 XERDO Reynosa TA. Iberia was also strong in the morning: 693 RNE1 Castilla La Mancha, Toledo as the best catch.

Last two postings will be published after returning to home. Day 7 is our last full day in Aihkiniemi.

Wednesday the 14th of December 2016

All the indexes were showing even better radio propagation. And good it was again. When we had West Coast on Monday, East Coast on Tuesday then Wednesday seems to be Great Lakes day. The band opened early morning to USA and continued until midday. Graveyard channels were open again nicely. I noticed special spot to Minnesota: 1370 KSUM Fairmont MN, 1420 KTOE Mankato MN, 1470 KMNQ Brooklyn Park MN, 1480 KAUS Austin MN and 1520 KOLM Rochester MN became audible all at 07z. Other catches from the morning: 580 WIBW Topeka KS, 610 KNML Albuquerque NM, 680 KFEQ St.Joseph MO, 1240 WSDR Sterling IL, 1240 KICD Spencer IA, 1340 WJRW Grand Rapids MI, 1340 WNCO Ashland OH, 1370 WLJW Cadillac MI, 1400 KVFD Ft Dodge IA, 1400 WMAN Mansfield OH, 1450 WLEC Sandusky OH, 1640 WSJP Sussex WI and 1690 WVON Berwyn IL so this morning was probably the best so far.

In the afternoon we went to Jounila for sauna and fill our water supplies. Aihkiniemi cabin doesn’t have running water. Only men are running out from the cabin to release some processed water …

The best beer was Barrel of Monks Father Christmas (from Boca Raton, FL – zero FL logged so far) and the meal was chicken in tomato sauce.

One of our gourmet breakfasts

Jaguar and Perseus

Tuesday the 12th of December 2016

The morning opened to USA/Canada very nicely! Today propagation peaked to the East Coast which is maybe not so common up here. WKRS Waukegan IL 1220, WGY Schenectady NY 810, WHCU Ithaca NY 870 and KRCM Shenandoah TX 1380 were the good ones. Lots of stuff to listen to at home. The west path closed earlier than on Monday, around 1200z I think. At 1130z we again tried to hear Majuro on 1098 but Taiwan (?) was too strong, only BBC news were heard at 1100z. Asia sounded a bit more quiet than yesterday but on the other hand we didn’t do much of “live job” in the evening. 729 and 891 ABCs were noticed again and also QSLed by Mr. Graham Himmelhoch-Mutton.

During the day we fed our pets: various tits, 3 squirrels and 2 Eurasian magpies. They were happy as temperature dropped to -20C and energy is needed. The daily meal was potatoes with chicken sausage. The best beer was North Coast Old Stock Cellar Reserve (Bourbon Barrel).

Cabin and Skoda

Cabin and Patrik

Monday the 12th of December 2016

Propagation!! Finally!! After reasonably quiet morning band started to boil towards the West Coast. Around 11z signals started to pop up from Rocky Mountains to California. MW band held open to USA at least to 15z, so there are lots of gigabytes to investigate later. Stations like 1250 KIKC Forsyth MT has been found from the disks.

Then band opened to east and Japan. Nine NHK2’s with the callsign sign offs at 1540z were easy catches. It will be interesting to see what else we will find later. At 1730-1830 two ABC Aussies from Adelaide were strong: 729 5RN and 891 5AN with a good copy during the ABC news break.

We finally got all snow job done and now our car is next to our cabin. Good exercise too to two fat DXers.

The best beer of the day was RUIG / Rooie Dop Dark Storm and the meal spaghetti bolognese.

Timo is the king of birds (lapintiainen)

Sunday the 11th of December 2016
The weather here in Inari, Lapland is good. The wind has calmed down and the skies are almost clear. And on Saturday it was not so cold either, around -10C. Radio propagation to USA in the morning was not very good. Only few old friends like 560 KLZ and 910 KCJB Minot ND were heard. Station came up and down very quickly. We still have too many protons on the air but it will get better!

Very quickly up came also Hawaiji stations around 0930Z. They were audible about 15 minutes. We identified the following: 940 KKNE, 1240 KEWE, 1420 KKEA, 1460 KHRA and 1570 KUAU. Few hours after this, at 1130z Patrik heard on 1098 kHz some country music, fade out and hints of national anthem. We almost got Radio Majuro from Marshall Islands!

The evening files are mostly untouched yet but at least 891 5AN ABC Adelaide was strong some time. Hopefully we get more Aussies from the files.

No reindeers spotted in the premises yet. Some birds appeared just in minutes when I threw some old bread to the garden for them.

We drank one new beer country! Corsaire from Guadeloupe was beer country #155 to Timo and #171 to Patrik. The best beer was Avery Anniversary Twenty Three. Daily meal: macaroni casserole (courtesy of Pat’s mom).

Good morning!

Still some work to do!

Me and Patrik (PW) arrived to Aihkiniemi on late Friday evening around 11pm. AIH66 is our 3rd DX-pedition to Aihkiniemi. What was waiting for us was half meter of snow to get rid off. We decided to do only part of the job but it still took 1,5 hours to get into the house and get everything on.

Some disturbed condx were expected but by our suprise the first night provided some short openings to the Great Lakes. CHRN Montreal QC 1610 and WDTW Dearborn MI 1310 were the first ones for us. Solar disturbance made NA path very difficult and openings in the morning were very short – almost all old friends except KFXD Boise ID. In the morning around 06-07z band was hot to La Plata and Brasil. ZP5 Radio Encarnación, Encarnación 760 and ZYJ277 Rádio Difusora do Paraná, Marechal Cândido Rondon PR 970 were the nice ones. To Asia we had some technical problems at first but then band opened nicely to Taiwan and China. I believe that we have 891 aussie also in the files. Late night band was full of Koran stations – we will see what we will later find from the files.

The best beer was Funky Buddha’s Nikolai Vorlauf imperial stout. The meal for the day was the “perunarieskatortillas”.

PW

TIK

The last full day. We were mostly fooling around and checking antennas and equipment and files. At night there was condx from East Coast America to Argentina. At 04z Brasilians peaked. Like every morning, in the morning condx to USA/VE opened. This time after 0830z to West Coast. We need to check the files for catches. From Asia Japan was early with some powerhouse on already after 0945z. But .. we have not listened those files yet. Indexes are better than anytime before this week, so we expect some goodies tomorrow morning. Our plan is to leave around midday.

Other activities today were birdwatching. I spotted “lapintiainen” and “närhi” for new one in Aihki for me. Also 2 reindeers (last yer total 0 all week) visited our yard. We ate pork, cream sauce and spaghetti.

The beer of the day: Ægir / Beavertown Bæver Double White IPA

Not much to tell radiowise as we didn’t make a lot of realtime listening. Some Brasil and some US in the morning (eg. KRWB Roseau MN 1410). Japan started quite early today (11z). Few common Brasilians early on the band. Some stations found from earlier files: KGRE Greeley CO 1450 (16.11.), KQSP Shakopee MN 1530 (16.11.), KBJD Denver CO 1650 (16.11.) and CB76 Radio Cooperativa, Santiago 760 (18.11.). Some QSLs are coming too, eg. KHAS Hastings 1230.

Today’s activity was a trip to Kirkenes, Norway. Whole trip took a bit less than 5 hours. Visited Vinmonopolet in Kirkenes and two shops in Näätämö … After the trip made some pasta with minced meat and sweet&sour sauce.

The beer of the day: Crooked Stave Surette Provision Saison (last night)