THE HAMRADIO DOT COM

Not much radiowise to tell. Aurora borealis was visible last night and it killed some of the propagation for sure. We went after the sunrise to Norway, Kirkenes (to buy lots of expensive beer) and we have not checked much of the files. Seems that there was some propagation to USA in the morning but mostly dominants. Better catches need more investigating. Early morning at 0300 I was recording the band with 160 degrees antenna. Unfortunately no Sudan or Ethiopia were found (so far). So another day with not much to tell. Tomorrow will be our last full day. Maybe we will take off our 210 “Gibraltar” antenna.

Menu and beer of the day: ham cassarole with green side salad, HaandBryggeriet Norse Porter

Day 5 was listening all day. For me it mean listening to Day 4 morning 0630z file which took almost one day to go through. That morning was interesting mix of Great Lakes, Midwest and Mexico. Some goodies from Day 4: 570 WNAX, 590 KXSP, 600 WTMJ, 880 KWIP, 1060 KGFX, 1140 KSOO, 1150 KSAL, 1260 WXCE, 1400 KLIN, 1420 KTOE, 1470 KNMQ, 1550 KKOV so even 3 stations from South Dakota. From Mexico I found from these from this one file: 610 XEGS, 740 XECW, 860 XENL, 1030 XEMPM, 1050 XEG, 1260 XEAW and 1320 XECPN.

Last night band was open from Brasil to East Coast but we need to investigate the files more. In the morning Patrik went through West Coast files and found some new AK-stations: 930 KNSA, 1080 KOAN but the absolute highlight was 1500 KHKA Honolulu HI with good callsign identification! Asia didn’t sound particulary strong but we will see the files later. Patrik also snagged some new RNE5-stations.

Menu and beer of the day: pasta with minced meat, Anspach & Hobday The Porter.

Our kitchen. Yes, it is small.

Not much to tell about this day: we mostly checked older files and kept computers running. Possibly propagation is getting better but this day was overall bad – but there might lurk suprises: in the morning at 0630 UTC MW opened to USA and Mexico. Files needs to be checked but there were 3 South Dakota stations 570 WNAX, 1060 KGFX and 1140 KSOO during this opening. Another goodies are 590 KXSP Omaha NE, 600 WTMJ Milwaukee WI and 880 KWIP Dallas OR. The better Mexicans were 610 XEGS, 740 XECW, 860 XENL, 1030 XEMPM. We have not checked Asian files but that direction sounded not so good today. From Iberia got mostly stations from Galicia. There was also Brasil opening in the early night.

We spent the most of light time outside checking the antennas. 13 antenna network in the twilight is a bit confusing. Aihkiniemi’s antennas are coax feeded and starting points are far away from the cottage. The rest of time was spent with the older files, beers and cooking.

Menu and beer of the day: Finnish potatoes with the broiler-onion sauce, Maku Brewing Golden Ale.

Listening room

Patrik going to antenna work

Temperature has dropped quite a lot recently. In the morning it was still something like -12 C but it has come down to almost zero degrees.

The sun was still active, but only one C-flare today and still no CMEs. Night was quite quiet. Some South America tried to come in, but nothing special found from there so far. We both slept most of the night, I was checking the band frequently between the naps. In the morning around 0430 UTC there was nice opening to Ohio: 1370 WSPD, 1470 WLQR and 1520 WNWT were heard. Another peak was around 0700 UTC with goodies like 1030 KBUF Holcomb KS and 1340 KCBL Fresno CA. Later during the day the band was open to West Coast but our files are uninvestigated. Morning produced also very nice RNE-break with the super catch 972 RNE1 Melilla, Melilla.

The Eastern propagation was again different than the previous days. The start was slow but later Chinese and Indian stations came up with some strong JAs. Evening IB-breaks gave some new ones for us. Some catches: 837 COPE Burgos, 1053 COPE Zaragoza, 1224 COPE Mallorca and 1224 COPE Lérida.

This was also “the cleaning day”. Our cottage does not have running water, but there is a cottage village nearby which has very nice apartments with sauna and shower for our use. Sauna was super!

Sauna in Inari

During the second day of the DX-pedition we had a strong M 5.7 flare plus several smaller C-flares. Fortunately it seems that no CMEs happened. The first night of AIH40 started under the minimal opening to Brasil. Later MW band suprisingly opened quickly to North America at 0100 and then again at 0430 UTC (the peak). Latter opening was very interesting with the MidWest/Rocky Mountain-stations. The most interesting ones were 570 KNRS Salt Lake City and 920 KVEL Vernal, both from Utah. Even bigger suprise was Mexico-opening at 0430 UTC. So far we have found 990 XET, 1220 XEB, 1470 XEHI and 1570 XERF from our hard disk.

Unfortunately the morning was poor. USA gone and we didn’t find any stations from CA/SA. Then in the late morning band opened earlier to East than at day one. Japan was very strong, then later China. We have not checked much of those files yet, but the station of the day was 801 KTWG Agana giving the new MW country on Mediumwaves to the both of us. KTWG peaked around 1140 UTC. Later propagation went down and Iran&India was dominating the band. The best catches so far are 1494 IRIB R Khorasan-e Razavi, 1458 IRIB R Khorasan-e Jonubi, Gayen, 981 AIR Raipur adn 1143 AIR Rohtak. But as said, mostly the files are still uninvestigated. Late part of Day 2 had quiet bad propagation. Hopefully they will improve during the day 3.

Menu and beer of the day: pasta with tomate sauce and beef&pork, Dugges Blåbärliner.

Patrik, OH6GDX

Me and Patrik travelled from Vasa to Aihkiniemi in Inari by car. We had to travel almost 950 km and it took some 12 hours with few stops on the way. We arrived just in time to check propagation on Saturday morning at 0800z, the first “TOH” after sunrise. We had some techinical problems at the start but finally got 4 stations up and running. Weather started very cold: -26 C but it warmed up and we finished day with temperature around -7C.

Two M flares during the day one is not promising start and pedition started with very few signals on Mediumwaves. Finally at 1300 UTC the band opened to Alaska. So far we have found 590 KHAR, 630 KIAM, 650 KENI, 680 KBRW, 700 KBYR, 750 KFQD, 780 KNOM, 920 KSRM and 970 KFBX IDs from the hard disks. We also heard eg. 550 giving ESPN announcements. Around this time band opened breafly also to Japan but then it changed to China and Korea. Almost every channel had one or more stations from CHN/TWN/KOR with good signal strengths. It takes lots of time to solve all of them. Later Iran started come in loud and band went to all Arabic.

Menu and beer of the day: macaroni casserole and CREW Republic Detox.

Aihkiniemi, Partakko, Inari 15.11.2014