THE HAMRADIO DOT COM

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)

At night there was some US propagation but we were sleeping until 03z. Then some stateside started to rise and finally also Central and South America (other than B and LaPlata). Southern stations (like Puerto Rico and Venezuela) are still now in the files but some US files we checked: some goodies from Lakes like WPNW Zeeland MI 1260 etc. Morning opening ended to Alberta area. Asia seemed to be ok today but we haven’t checked anything as we went to Nitsijärvi for sauna. I had to warm it up. It took some time but it was worth of it. No reindeers spotted today.

Tomorrow we will travel to Kirkenäs. Food was today rice and barley wine chicken. Yummy.

The beer of the day: Myanmar Lager (my beer country #154)

The conditionwise the fourth day was similar to others: indexes were not too good but no real bad disturbances either. During the night band was not very interesting, some BRA and common US. The band opened in the morning, 0700z brought some good ones like 1310 KFKA Greeley CO and 1590 KGFK East Grand Forks MN, but disc work has just begun. We didn’t check much Asia (which opened late), we have had some QRM from NorthEast during the early afternoon. But at least we noticed briefly 801 KTWG and at 1730z 891 aussie. “Tapes” have to be investigated later. The most of the day went from my side with the check of the 16th files. Seems that Colorado condx were great. So far found 560 KLZ, 590 CFAR, 600 KCOL, 610 CHTM, 670 KLTT, 710 KNUS, 780 KCEG, 790 KFGO, 810 KVLZ, 810 WHB, 820 KUTR, 950 KRWZ, 970 KBUL, 1110 WJML, 1290 KOWB, 1370 KXTL, 1440 KRDZ, 1470 KAIR, 1480 KLMS, 1630 KRND, 1660 KXOL, 1700 KVNS and so on. Great opening!

Other activities were some antenna/equipment check, the petting of our herd of reindeers (spent several ours around the woods next to us and also in our yard) and food&drink. We ate today spaghetti bolognese.

The beer of the day: Pyynikin Gluteeniton Kauppaipa – gluten free beer from Tampere

Our new pet

As told we heard some early bird US last evening but nothing really happened before the morning. US opening was strong and nice between 05-08 UTC. Also some Mexico here and there. The most of the day went while checking the first files. Only some cooking and snow work in between. From Asia we have not much to say so far as the time went by looking for older files. After listening to 0600 UTC files the best catches are: 950 KRWZ Parker CO, 970 KBUL Billings MT, 1110 WJML Petoskey MI (60 watts!), 1290 KOWB Laramie WY, 1370 KXTL Butte MT, 1470 KAIR Atchison KS, 1660 KXOL Brigham City UT and 1700 KVNS Brownsville TX. Even got some QSLs already! Much more to come when all files have been listened to.

Food was the pork fillets from Vähäkyrö, Botnia and spaghetti. For brunch we had baked potatoes and random fridge stuff.

The beer of the day: Buxton Battle Horse – black IPA or American style barley wine

Bathroom was -6C.

Day 3

On Sunday weather got warmer. All day we had around zero Celsius, during the day 1 we had some 6-7 minus before. Patrik did some snow work. Of course it is better to be done today when snow is heavier …

Band opened to west around 23z. But only common USA/CAN-stations. The night was mixed with La Plata and Brasil, stateside never opens really well before 0530z. At least now we logged the most common Alberta stations … we missed them last time. 1230 CHFC Churchill MB was probably the best catch. But we still need to dig some files. From La Plata the best one was 1150 LT9 Radio Brigadier López, Santa Fé. Asia never really opened. Weird QRM especially with 46 and 60 degrees antennas. We have not checked Asia files yet but I believe there is not much to talk about.

Just before local midnight we noticed at some CAN and stations like WFME are audible already at 2045z. I tried to catch some daytimers but seems that I was not lucky. Also 1700 WRCR was heard but we still need ID. Same time with NA, Brasil was strong already before 2100z. Very early”

Lunch: meatball-bacon scramble Dinner: cola chicken and potatoes

The beer of the day: Crooked Stave Hop Savant (Galaxy)
The special mention: BarlindBeer BjörköAle Session IPA 2,7 %

Finally arrived to Aihkiniemi! After 950 km drive from Vaasa we arrived around at 23:00 local time (Friday the 13th) to Partakko in Inari. We were received by plenty of snow so we had to do some work with the extra snow before we could drive in the yard of Aihkiniemi pedition site. Now as it is our second trip here, the place is familiar and we could put up our stations (4 of them) quite quickly. The daytime we mostly were just listening, doing some snow work and cooking (makaroonilaatikko & salad) + drinking some new beers from eg. Sweden, Croatia and UK.

The first real stations noticed were Brasilians around 2300z. La Plata was ok almost all night – first starting with many Brasilians (broadcasting soccer, no IDs) and then ARG/URG stations like 950 LR3 AM950, Buenos Aires, 1030 LS10 Radio del Plata, Buenos Aires, 1230 LT2 Radio Dos, Rosario and 1470 CX147 Radio Cristal del Uruguay, Las Piedras. We also got a local ID from 750 LRA7 Radio Nacional, Cordoba.

The first US stations noticed were at 04z KXEL and new one for us 1660 KQWB West Fargo ND (some common CAN already at 01z). Next few hours USA was up and down giving some common stations like 950 KCAP and 1430 KCLK. As solar condx should be ok we expect more from next night.

Daytime started very slow. We couldn’t hear anything from Asia until 1300z when band was full of Japan. Before that we were thinking what is going on, no signals what so ever on MW. We need to investigate files more later but we noticed some decent stations from Taiwan and China plus two tentative Aussies: 846 4CA Cairns and 1548 4QD Emerald at 17z.

The beer of the day: Uprising Treason – IPA from Windsor, England.

Patrik PW at AIH53

The cottage today.

Indeksit