LEM DXpedition News of 2014-2015 Season
Jari Ruohomäki (JPR)
No further information given.
Jari Ruohomäki (JPR)
Thursday 05MAR2015 - Sunday 08MAR2015
LEM355 is over. Ecceptionally bad conditions from Thursday the 5th till Sunday the 8th. Something from Brasil and La Plata on Sunday morning, but I do not know yet if there are any clips worth checking.
73s JPR
Tuesday 03MAR2015 - Wednesday 04MAR2015
The last two mornings have offered mainly southern stations. Especially this morning the 4th of March, around 04utc, was pretty interesting. I found even some new stations for me. Most fq´s have not been checked yet. Here are some loggings:
600 R Neuquen, Neuquen
620 R Nacional, Resistencia/Rio Turbio
630 R Rivadavia, BA
740 La Carretera, Allen
750 R Nacional, Cordoba + unid "7-50 Radio ..." (short name)
760 R Cooperativa, Santiago
780 R Nacional, Ushuaia/San Tome
800 R Maria, Vina del Mar
800 R La Unión, Asunción
840 R General Belgrano, BA
1120 Em Santiago y Copla
Hardly any NA on the band.
Saturday 28FEB2015 - Monday 02MAR2015
LEM355, listening and skiing expedition, is on. Not much to tell about the conditions. Sat-Sun night I had some LA like R Folha, Boa Vista 1020 and R Nuevo Mundo, Santiago 930, but probably not any really interesting ones. This morning NA around 04 utc, but I haven´t had time to check the files. AM band has been totally empty after 06utc as Janne reported earlier.
Next report will be sent when I have something interesting to tell concerning the conditions.
Jan-Erik Österholm (JEÖ) and Heidi Österholm (HHÖ), as skiing avec
Friday 27FEB2015
The last night and morning followed the same pattern as earlier days, although the cx towards BRA/LP was more moderate and peaked between 01-02 UTC. Short burst of Caribbean and VEN/COL around 05, band closed well ahead of 06. No NA signals. Summarizing the LEM354 using the 4-10 grading: BRA/LP 8; HJ/VEN/Andes 5; NA 5; Oceania 4; JP/Far East 5; Mid East 9; Overall grade: 6--.
The QTH is now clean (Heidi washed even the mirrors and insides of the windows) and awaiting the following After Ski pedition in the form of JPR+avec RLK and LEM355.
LEM354 is now closing.
JEÖ&HHÖ
Thursday 26FEB2015
The last 18 hours have been mediocre even though BRA/LP appeared around 2230 Wednesday evening. Cx died around 03 UTC and there was nothing to report about at sunrise. Some weak NA/CA signals on the upper band appeared around 05 UTC but died quickly. As of writing (12 UTC) the band is completely empty on all antennas as it has been during our 10 days here. The 78 degree AUS-antenna is now disconnected. The plastic box at the feeding point needs to be renewed next autumn since the old one had cracked after five years of service. One more night to go. Lets see if some more northerly stations appear. The indecies for tomorrow are promising, but a new period of unsettled to active conditions are predicted for the weekend and early next week.
78 degree antenna feeding point prior to disconnecting the balloon.
Wednesday 25FEB2015
Opposite to my expectations yesterday, I was positively surprised to notice Brazilians fading in just before 22 UTC after 24 hours of complete silence. Despite high A-index (exceeding 20) the band was amazingly clear and with minor splash from EU-stations. The effects from the Coronal holes had vanished. The band quickly filled up with stations from Argentina, Paraguay and to a lesser extent Uruguay in addition to Brazilians. This turned out to be the so far best opening during this pedition since BRA/LP occupied the clear band until after 06 UTC. On the 280 and 290 degree antennas stations from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and the Caribbean started to emerge around 0430. Due to the aftermath of the disturbance and the remaining high A-index the path towards North America was completely closed. All in all, the last 24 hours saved my pedition and two more days to go. Daytime was spent on the skiing track in mild and calm weather.
Tuesday 24FEB2015
Here we go again! The increased proton level has almost returned to normal levels but the Coronal holes CH655 and CH656 pushed the K-index up to 6 in the morning but has now decreased to 3. During the last 24 hours there has been hardly any audiable AM signal regardless of choice of antenna. I do not expect any major or even moderate TA openings during the last three days of this after ski pedition. It seems, that the excellent 3 hour BRA/LP opening on 22 FEB will be the only files worth while to spend some time on once returned home to Borgå. I suspect, that the AM season 2014-2015 will be remembered as clearly the worst one after the millennium shift. As I write this at 16 UTC still no signals on the AM band, not even europeans. Hmmm...... Today I disconnected our 60 degree JP-antenna and on Thursday the 78 degree will be disconnected. JPR will be hunting for Kiribati next week and will disconnect the rest.
Fortunately the weather has been mild and calm so many hours has been spent on the skiing tracks both on Kuivajärvi and in Saariselkä. Nice!
Pre-lunch forest walk.
Thursday 19FEB2015 - Monday 23FEB2015
The first four days have been a slight disappointment what comes to cx. A minor storm with K-indeces in the beginning of the period peaking at 5 then declining. On 21FEB the proton level increased one decade above normal which is enough to block the signal paths especially towards NA. The increase in proton level resulted in an excellent opening toward BRA/LP on 22FEB 03-0630 UTC. This has been the highlight so far and there will be lots to scrutinize since stations are present on almost all 10-frequencies and most of them sounds as GY-frequencies. R Novo Tempo, Belem, PA 1080, R Boas Novas, Belem PA 1270 as well as Argentinians La 1420 (ex. La Marea) and R Impacto 1440. Even though the presence of disturbances NA stations have come through with some nice peaks, e.g., 21 FEB WNWC 1190 and surprisingly KRAP Washington MO 1350 carrying local sports from Washington University. Simultaneously also KRNT was running sports. Every morning the cx has died around 06 UTC and during daytime the band has been closed. Early evenings gave openings towards JP and CHN but nothing observed from Oceania, not even on 120 mb.
On the bright side the weather has been perfect for skiing and Heidi and I have spent hours on the LEM 7km track on Lake Kuivajärvi and today 23FEB in Saariselkä in magnificent weather.
Our old QTH has started to disappear in the snow.
Wednesday 18FEB2015
We arrived in LEM HQ at 11 UTC in a wonderful winter weather. Clear skies, bright sunshine, -3 C and absolutely calm. Teijo and Juha, the 353 crew, had left the HQ in perfect condition, thanks for that! All the equipment are now up and running. All antennas seem to work equally well, i.e., no stations on AM around 14 UTC on any due to the effect of a minor storm expected to last a couple of days. Now, at 14.35 UTC some Asians emerging on the 78 degree wire. More news on Feb 23 when our webmaster returns from his vacation.
Prologue
LEM354 will commence on February 18 2015 around 16 UTC. The pedition will be a combined DX and skiing pedition (both active skiing on the Kuivajärvi track and on the tracks in nearby ski resort in Saariselkä). I am accompanied by my wife. Fortunately, the skiing World Championships in Falun will take place during the pedition so in case of heavy disturbances there will be something to do. More news once we are in position.
P.S. LEM Web Master makes his Winter Holiday Trip on February 19-23, so most of the updates will be available after February 23. / ed
Juha Vehmas (JVH) and Teijo Mäenpää (TSM)
Saturday 14FEB2015
Night-cx developed in the already normal Brazilian way. But at about 0245 R Salta 840 from Northern Argentina was noted with nice signal and carneval program. At 0310 sounds from Argentina rapidly changed to melodies from Columbia and Venezuela. For the next one hour we enjoyed some powerful signals from Caribbean too, especially the hot rythms of WSTX 970 from US Virgin Islands.
LA-cx turned slowly to NA-cx. NA stations signals were noisier than in other mornings.
Local sky was clear and sun was bright, and temperature was minus 33 degrees. Hot Caribbean cleaning senoritas arrived at 0700 and we just relaxed and enjoyed to see professionals in hoovering, dish washing and packing of our equipments.
73s
JVH & TSM
 Whole world is reached from LEM headquarters. |
 Happy Caribbean highlights of the LEM35 pedition. |
Thursday 12FEB2015 - Friday 13FEB2015
Like earlier, our night capoeira with crashes and splatters was first in main role. English and Spanish speaking stations, as well as Greenland 650, joined the battle causing mixed samba. Morning sunlight gave welcomed boost to the NA with Mexican chili pepper. Better phase lasted until 10 UTC and for remarkable periods dominants from the Lakes politely gave path to newcomers, like WYLL IL 1160 to WSKW ME. Changing to 358° beverage opened nice cx to Alaska and even better to Hawaii: Powerhouses offered musical highlights and also news stations were noted.
Friday night disnoted our pure Brazilian madrugada tradition with YV and then welcomed LA openings to much further south: Almost all Uruguay stations were new cause JVH has earlier identified only 2 of them. Before sunrise at 06-07 cx rised again to Orinoco with HJ emphasis. Soon after 07 only a few NA dominants were left on the band. In the afternoon 358° aerial gave us an other nice AK-HI day, this time Alaska was in main role with many new catches for us.
Early Friday morning was extremely powerful beacon cx to the Brazil and Canada. MLZ-1645, Brazilian platform was shouting at 0219, with distance 11.911 kilometers. This beacon has earlier heard only twice outside Brazil. Another hero was YXP-218 aerial navigation beacon from Pangnirtung, Canada. Thanks to LEM-beverages also many other FFF level beacon signals was noted.
At Parkalompolo pedition site in Sweden (Pax Group) and Bjarne Mjelde at Kongsfjord, Norway have logged many special, difficult long distance beacons from Canada, Brazil and even from Papua New Guinea. This morning proved, that Lemmenjoki is among the best utility listening locations in Europe. That is not a surprise, but however very pleased experience. LEM location and antennas work nicely on low frequencies (200-400 kHz) too.
Honouring HN:s awesome skiing record on LEM352 the Kuivajärvi track received one hour exercise by LEM353 in -17°. Later on we avoided evening sauna in result that on 891 we noted ABC tunes with the main points of the news. Welcomed new distance record of 14481 km for JVH, like TSM made new utility record to Brazil.
Only one listening night left while on Saturday we have to catch a train to south. Final report to this site arrives later from home front, and hopefully major part of the logging will be published before new snow fall in fall.
¤¤¤
Special thanks for Hannu leaving for us clean house, firewood ready and nice variable cx in antennas.
Tuesday 10FEB2015 - Wednesday 11FEB2015
Tuesday starters were again Brazilians with heavy splashes and after R Rural, Porto Alegro 1120 little bit La Plata too. Morning porridge from 0430 UTC was filled with Prairies from Edmonton to Alabama peaking well before 07, while CO and UT had their traditional cockfighting around 08. Later on skiing, sauna and salmon delicatessen replaced AS attempts, but in the evening some Iberians were pulled to the seine.
Wednesday started with Brazilians wake up at 22 UTC and cx lasted almost until 07 with a variety of phases, including more and more Argentinians and a powerful peak at 02. Later on it'll be a great pleasure to be in flames with the recordings. LSR gave us again some NA, but less than earlier. Also AK was quite lousy and HI still in hideaway.
The weather in Lemmenjoki have offered nice sunshine and thanks to clear skies we have been able to do some additional scientific work concerning solar system. The one million kilometer record long filament in the sun inspirated us to take some historical pictures. Our calculatings prove that the sun will apart in two pieces at Sunday. So everything is OK, because our pedition will end at Saturday.
Visits of local landlords were nice relaxing moments in the hardcore dxing.
73s
JVH & TSM
 Morse code signal of PVQ-376 (NDB aviation beacon Deadhorse, Alaska) at Spectrum Lab (top left). Top right Perseus SDR with 19 Hz (not kHz) filter bandwidth. At middle the WWSU, the logging program for the NDB -beacons. And bottom left the REU NDB -webpage, including almost 15 thousands records about utility stations and loggings from 700 listeners. Bottom right the DX Atlas with gray line and azimuthal info. |
 The record long monster filament in the sun; on the Northern Lemmenjoki sky. In the skyline there is shining the lights of Inari City too. There is also our 320 degrees NA beverage in the picture. |
Monday 09FEB2015
Temperature dropped to minus 28 degrees and the number on Brazilians dropped too.
NA opened about at 0430 UTC. Variety of stations was quite nice and cx concentrated mainly to the Lakes and The Canadian Prairies, and then exploded to C2C conditions, even reaching California and Mexico (XEX Ciudad Mexico DF 730). Last NAs faded out around 1230 UTC.
Canadian NDB beacons were readable almost whole day. But better level beacons only a few from live listening, like AA-336 GRL, VC-317 CAN and YER-334 CAN. Almost sure, more is laying in the Perseus recordings.
| Our anxious routine with English lessons from Japan was suddenly breaked with Greek buzuki rhytms. We took some room on the floor and then we started joyful Zorbas dance. The instant performance was brutally broken when we realized that the origin of the transmission actually was from Australia (2MM Darwin 1656). |
After exploring the globe our hungry station hunters rushed to the wilderness for reindeer hunting, while we have licence to kill. Quite soon we managed to got a reindeer in the reticle: it was a perfect match to the bull's eye. Back in our galley the reindeer was with finesse converted to a delicious supper. Enclosed please find some key documents.
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Saturday 07FEB2015 - Sunday 08FEB2015
Our fascinating beginners crew was happy to arrive to the shining LEM-headquarters on Saturday evening just after local colourful sunset. Both listeners are now ready to enjoy for the second time the outstanding facilities and sunspot maximum time conditions. Both of us are Tampere-aboriginals and having daydreams of Australians. Main targets of TSM are various utility stations, especially NDBs; while JVH concentrates to Antique Modulation transmission.
First NA stations were noted eight hours after arrival, around 23 UTC. Fourty minutes earlier first Brazilians were found out. At local midnight we enjoyed a couple sharp electric blackouts. After darkness Brazilians succesfully marched to our headphones. Same time TSM tried to find out utility NDB-stations from SA and far distance WSPR -stations, but without result. Brazilians were ruling over four hours.
After effective naps we discovered NA stations from the Lakes area dominating the band at 05 UTC. The conditions were peaking just before 07 UTC. Alaska took the leadership at 09 UTC.
We started long waited and extremely useful English lessons with our Japanese friends after 13 UTC. Later in the afternoon only KEWE 1240 was heard from Hawaii. And then the Chinese occupied the band and we rapidly evacuated ourselves to the sauna.
 Snowy road to the LEM-headquarters, through the Finnish Lappland wilderness. |
 After our special Rotisseur-level supper, Vinum Potatum, we are ready for the coming week's adventures on the band. |
Hannu Niilekselä (HN)
Wednesday 04FEB2015 - Thursday 05FEB2015
No miracles on Wednesday - nothing in the evening, night and morning. Not even around 07 UTC, which was worst so far.
A couple of Spaniards and RNE Melilla again on 972 were the highlights of the morning - not even RNE-1 ID´s below 972 kc ...
With continuous monitoring for potential miracles, RETE and Vision for about 2 minutes around 1517 UTC. At 1530 ABC Naracoorte again vaguely on 1161 with newsfanfare.
Fairly decent COPE and SER breaks around midnight. Most surprising was the absence of Zeewolde on 1008. Radio Las Palmas was booming in and also most wanted SER Girona identified decently.
Thursday started with some venezolanos at night and early morning. For the first time during these 2 weeks the MW band felt “natural”, so that you have the feeling that soon NA will start gaining strength. And exactly that happened around 0630 UTC. At 07 UTC quite nice signals, but quite the usual offering from the upper East Coast. The highlight was to identify WFTH-1590, which -finally- was a new NA for me and the “skunk” was avoided !
The conditions proved to be quite unstable after all, stations nicely fading totally out in front of 08 UTC. They returned after 15 minutes, but it was not anymore the same fairly bright signals that were experienced earlier on. After 09 UTC all the stations were gone and the whole mw band remained exceptionally silent all the way to after 14 UTC when the most common South-eastern Asia and Near East stations started to come in. Absolutely the dullest opening to that direction ...
So only Thursday evening and night left - not too much hope for pleasant surprises anymore ...
This has been the most awkward DXpedition for me for a long, long time. Trans-Atlantic signals never broke off totally, but still the 2 weeks did not hold one single day with something to remember.
But that is life. Weather outside has been harsh. Snowy and windy almost every day. But Aslak and Niiles took good care of me by preparing the cross country ski tracks on Kuivajärvi ice every now and then. I skied every single day, altogether 221 km by the measure of Sportstracker in my phone ...
LEM352 signing off !
73
HN
Monday 02FEB2015 - Tuesday 03FEB2015
Taking a thorough listen to the files around 1300 UTC to 1330 UTC of Sunday when a couple of the ABC stations surfaced, to my great surprise I also found short bursts of 1242-5AU, 1395-5AA and 1539-5TAB. 5AU happened to surface just in time for an announcement with ID and it was a strike of luck that also 5AA and 5TAB happened to have identifiable material as their respective signals were audible for just a few moments.
In addition to the aussies, also both AM 864 and Metro Plus 1044 from Hong Kong were identified, together with a couple of the most common Philipinos.
After this nice Sunday afternoon surprise, on Monday and Tuesday the cx have been back to square one. Only a few NA around local sunrise with disturbed signals, then the mw-band empty all day until late afternoon with Asia starting to open up after 14 UTC. Nothing noteworthy, but at 1542 UTC today (Tuesday) I “woke up” to the bell melody indicating the sign off of Japanese NHK-2 stations. This was heard on many of the frequencies, but I did not have my recordings on, so I missed the ID´s. Only a moment earlier there was no sign of any specific Japan opening ...
The highlight of the evening was ABC Emerald 1548 weakly with its news fanfare at 17 UTC. Nothing else of interest.
So here we go for the few remaining days…it does not look too promising, but surprises like Sunday still give a little bit of hope - anything can happen, even though miracles tend to happen only in the Holy Books ...
Saturday 31JAN2015 - Sunday 01FEB2015
On Saturday the protons kept themselves on the same level than the days before ... not a good omen. Still, in the morning a couple of the most common venezolanos (e.g. 1000 and 1290), as well as WCMN-1280 from Puerto Rico were fairly well audible, even if only for about half an hour. Listening vaery carefully, also 2 NA from Boston (1200 and 1510) were there for a minute at 0730 UTC. After that ... an empty day again.
In the evening Aslak, Jouni-Ilmari and Niiles, the 3 sons of our dear late landlady Kristiina, paid a visit for some coffee and cake to celebrate my 63rd birthday, which also (as of today) is the date of retirement for “old age” ...
Nothing in the night, but Sunday morning brought a nice surprise. The proton levels were back to normal and there was an instant improvement regarding the cx. Nothing terrific, but quite acceptable signals from NA between 07 and 08 UTC. No new stations, but hearing VOCM on 1240 and VSB-1 on 1450 with nice signals is always a promise for the better to come. For the first time in 8 days, a couple signals (mainly Colorado powerhouses) were there also later on, and KXA-1520 all the way to 13 UTC.
But the truly interesting development was the opening towards Asia already in front of 10 UTC. Most of them sounded like Chinese, but unfortunately my recording was corrupted due to the disk becoming full without noticing ...
As the MW spectrum sounded OK towards the east, I did monitor it all afternoon. I believe that true miracles are more or less something that happen only in the Holy Bible ... but around 1230 UTC I noted ABC Katherine 2485 to have a good signal, so I started monitoring 1548. And sure enough, at 1302 ABC news surfaced and after a while the signal was very good indeed for some 5 minutes. Some 20 minutes later, at 1330 UTC also ABC on 1161 and 891 were noted, though weakly.
So, in all, not all hope is lost, even if the situation seemed quite desperate only a day before today ...
Thursday 29JAN2015 - Friday 30JAN2015
So the little bastards called protons are here again. Anyone who knows anything about DXing the medium wave spectrum in the far north locations also knows what this means. These fellows eat up radio stations. Not even the bones will be left ...
However, this time the development of the proton levels started fairly slow, so still on Thursday morning - a bit surprisingly - some east coast NA appeared briefly around 07 am UTC, which is the best hour for the sunrise peak up in the north this time of the year.
But the fun, if any, was gone in about 15 minutes. After that all Thursday and Friday were DX-wise a waste of time. The only sensible DX since has been Spain in the morning hours. On Friday these cx lasted fairly long so the 0745 UTC break provided a good handful of local RNE5 identifications and Radio Rioja 1179 was still loud and clear around 0930 UTC.
The level of protons most often “shoot up” fairly high quickly and the start descending. This time the level has remained fairly low, but no descend has taken place after more than 2 days. This can mean that there may still be space for cross-Atlantic signals in the coming days, or - it may well mean goodbye with cx for the coming week ...
Tuesday 27JAN2015 - Wednesday 28JAN2015
No change on Tuesday - at least not for the better. Actually very interesting in that there seem not to be real cx to any direction. The only time when signals are more clear is in the evening hours when the Near east powerhouses boom in.
Tuesday morning some stations from NA briefly at 05 UTC, then again between 07-08 UTC. First (once again) upper East Coast - Ontario, later a few stations with lousy signals from the lower prairies (=KS, NE, OK), which tends to be the sign of “shit-cx”.
Asia non-existent in the afternoon ... strange ...
Wednesday was even more a disaster - nada all day. And in the evening the proton level started rising ... how can this be ...
Sunday 25JAN2015 - Monday 26JAN2015
Sunday started lousy with an empty night. After 06 UTC some weak LA, soon accompanied by nice Newfoundland signals in the lower end. Common NA from the upper east coast from around 07 UTC to little after 08 UTC. But then the signals were totally gone.
Asia started to open up - a bit surprisingly - already around 1130 UTC. Not many Japanese stations were noted, but still AFN from Japan on 1575, as well as from Korea on 1530 and 1440. Unfortunately none of these gave a local ID at 12 UTC, just “AFN”.
The new KEWE-1240 from Hawaii pushed through for an hour or so after 12 UTC, even if the only other HI station audible was 1570 and there seemed to be no specific cx in that direction.
The night between Sunday and Monday was “dark” again, but NA with some Cubans started to gain strength around 06 UTC. Some of the most common stations from the upper east coast and Atlantic Canada-Ontario had very good signals for a while, but the cx started quite soon to deteriorate and were completely gone around 08UTC.
The rest of Monday was totally blank - at the time Asia should have started to open up, the most common stations from the northern parts of Great Britain boomed in on the backlobe of the Asia antenna ... there was plenty of time to go skiing again and do various kinds of household work ...
Saturday 24JAN2015
LEM352 is on ! Arrived to Lemmejonki on Friday evening all alone because of a last minute medical issue with Pertti Äyräs (PÄ), who had to cancel the expedition due to further tests.
Driving 1140 km from Helsinki to Lemmenjoki took 14,5 hours obeying speed limits and with two pit-stops on the way. It was a lonely ride ... this is a fairly remoted place, which was also evidenced by the fact that during the last 150 kms, in about 2 hours between 7 and 9 pm on a “busy” Friday evening, I did not meet a single car on the highway ...
I stayed up to around 00 UTC, setting up the “station” and monitoring the cx. Around 2230 UTC some of the most common NA, mainly from the Great Lakes area surfaced with disturbed signals. It never developed to any level of cx and the night, as well as early morning, was lousy. A few LA signals closer to sunrise, but no cx. The only time when anything was even a bit better audible took place at 08 UTC on the top-of-the-hour . A short burst from eastern Colorado with stations like KRDO-1240, KFTM-1400, KGRE-1450 and KREL-1580. Also on 1550 a station with YSR sports peaked nicely exactly at 08 UTC, but the bastard (very likely KDCO, which would have been new to me) did not identify - just 10 seconds of dead air !
Practically nothing all day, so it was a good time to do some cross-country skiing on the Kuivajärvi ice in nice -20 C weather. Today it was just 11 km back and forth on a 3,5 km stretch, since I had to open the track for myself - tomorrow Aslak promised to open a longer track with his ski-doo pulled track plow.
The cx are not here - but there are still 14 days to go, so I´m optimistic !
Jarmo Patala (JP) and Vesa-Jussi Rinkinen (VJR)
Monday 19JAN2015
LEM351 proceeds now under cover of automated recordings until the end of our session January 24. We have already returned to the south and we have left two Perseus SDRs and preset antenna switches at the LEM QTH to do the job for us.
Time will tell but it seems as if this session could be our most successful LEM DXpedition. Conditions were different than before, offering new stations coast to coast, and not just dominant stations. We recorded a lot, at least 10 hours per day with the best North America wire. The first top-of-the-hour recording (made on arrival Saturday at 1100 UTC), is just checked out and the result is 35 logged NA stations. Probably we don't need to think how to fill our free time in this year.
Now we say THANKS to all who made LEM351 possible. We conclude our report with the LEM351 slogan, which was often said during the first three days of our session (in Finnish):
"Kelit tykkää kun niitä kuunnellaan!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViN2bRGrBx8
73 JP, VJR
Saturday 17JAN2015
Changing conditions offered now more Latin American stations, specially from Colombia, in the early morning. Also strong North American stations, but again, mainly old friends of us from earlier DXpeditions.
We got some new snow last night and the outside temperature is raised to -5 °C.
Friday 16JAN2015
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Yesterday at 21 UTC we enjoyed another juicy opening to the Philippines and we nailed also Hong Kong on 675 and 1044. Not bad at all! The morning of 16th offered again promising North American signals and now Colombians as well but the type of conditions has clearly changed. Mixed conditions was stuck at the Lakes area. Typical improvement was noted between 07-08 but the stations were weaker than before and mainly already familiar to us. Graveyards were open but now they sounded more like a porridge pot than a proper AM DX channel. At noon we headed to the end of the Aussie wire to fix the termination resistor which was found to be broken at our earlier antenna check. We installed a new mass resistor of 500 ohm. We can not say if this had any true impact, but around 17 UTC we noticed four X Aussies simultaneously: 1620, 1656 (2 stations) and 1701. |
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Thursday 15JAN2015
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Night conditions to North America sounded promising around 01 UTC. Regular east coast stations, some Brazilians with good signals and probably the best night towards La Plata. The band opened properly by 06 UTC. North American stations appeared nearly on all frequencies. East Coast and the Lakes, Cubans again, and 940 WMAC GA. The first Japanese powerhouse stations appeared as early as 08 UTC which would indicate Pacific conditions. Then logically we started to scan familiar Pacific frequencies. Unfortunately we did not get any 100% observations about those goodies, however we made a long recording on 540 in the hope of Samoa, as at least some sort of signal was heard under Hungary. At noon we had a small break with real-time listening so we went for a little walk to fix the Japan wire. A new joint between the transformer box and the antenna wire made the trick. The afternoon towards North America was relatively modest today. The best opening was noted between 1245-1330 UTC. Then also graveyards were in good shape offering KKTL WY, AM 1400 ESPN. After 14 UTC we noted Vietnamese stations and also Turkmenistan 279, which is a fairly tough nut at home QTH in the south. (Don't try this at home, hi!). |
Wednesday 14JAN2015
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We think we are back on track. Great NA signals already from 03 UTC and also nice Cubans, 530 Enciclopedia and 1450 Mayabeque. In the morning hours NA offered stations from the east coast, peaking around 07 UTC, 570 WMCA and 970 WDCZ as an example. Also graveyards were open all day long. The last stations from NW corner started to vanish after 15 UTC.
Today when the outside temperature had raised above -30°C for the first time during our session, it was time to check some antennas. Two NA wires and all east wires were checked. The Japan wire 60° has caused some disconnection problems, so we try to investigate it more specifically tomorrow. In the evening a couple of X Aussies were noted on 1620 and 1656 with decent signals. And then between 2100-2130 UTC we noted a very good opening to the Philippines: at least 558, 666, 846, 1188, 1242, 1314, 1323 and 1530 offered stations. |
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Tuesday 13JAN2015
East coast stations with promising signals at 05 UTC, also graveyards offered fair signals. 07 UTC was a very good moment to the east coast today. 1120 WKAJ, 920 WHJJ, 570 WKBN, 870 WHCU. Signals started to vanish soon after 0730. NA stations were available throughout the day but we noted only those regulars and the graveyards were not in that good shape than in previous days.
At 13 UTC a short opening to the Philippines, DWRV Radio Veritas 1233 was heard as a new station, also 1062 DZEC.
In the evening we recorded RNE5 and COPE breaks as usual and found also Nigeria on 594.
It looks like the conds are changing but we still keep our fingers crossed.
 Vesa-Jussi Rinkinen (VJR) |
 Jarmo Patala (JP) |
Monday 12JAN2015
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Oh Monday Monday... Morning started with loud and clear signals from North America. Also COPE breaks at 0557 and 0628 were noted. The outside thermometer is going nuts. Conditions opened to interesting directions in the morning, to the Lakes and even further southwards. KWIX 1230, WFDF 910, KROS 1340, WJAS 1320, WBNS 1460, KYHN 1650, KOKL 1240. NA signals tailed off after 1230 UTC and we thought the conditions are finally over, but no mercy, signals from the US's northwest corner and British Columbia became stronger after 1400 UTC and kept us busy for the rest of the afternoon. At least CIVH 1340 and KEYF 1050 were identified live. KONP 1450 was booming like a local station still after 15 UTC. Around 16 UTC when WA and BC were all gone, lots of Alaskans and KUAU HI 1570 with a nice signal. Dinner: Fillet of pan fried pike perch served with a creamy lampaankääpä (forest mushroom) sauce. |  |
Sunday 11JAN2015
Life is good and in balance. Mediocre and mixed opening to the Lakes was noted at 04UTC at the first check. Conditions improved a lot during morning hours and between 05-09 we enjoyed probably one of the best openings of this season. KDMA 1460, KQDS 1490, KQSP 1530, KOVC 1490, KICD 1240, KRDO 1240 were identified live, just to mention a few. This LEM351 is our 10th consecutive joint expedition to LEM QTH. Today we have remembered our first gig, LEM222 in January 2006, when the conditions were also very good right from arrival Saturday. |
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2122 UTC On this Sunday we didn't have time to monitor Irish churches on 27 MHz but we listened to Catholic mass from Billings MT on 1240 instead. North America offered again nice stations in the afternoon. Highlights: KARI 550, KAGO 1150, KEWE 1240 and KLAM 1450. The new Italian private station I AM Radio was logged on 1350 after 2030 UTC. In the evening, after a tasteful Burgundy stew dinner, we took a nap of an hour. Then we made a pot of dark roasted French coffee and continued celebrating our 10th joint expedition with cinnamon-cheesecake and two fingers of Napoleon VSOP brandy. |
Saturday 10JAN2015
|  1121 UTC LEM351 crew arrived to LEM DX paradise at 1030 UTC. Good driving conditions (around -25C, lowest even -34.5C) and no complaints about radio cx either. Nice signals from the Rockies, the first identified station was 1400 KART at 1100 UTC. It plays nice country with great signal at the background, while we unpack our equipment. 1531 UTC We were positively surprised about afternoon conditions to NA and Japan. 1450 KBMW, 1240 KCVL and 1400 CIOR as highlights. Japan offered commercial stations on such frequencies as 1116 and 1449, NA faded out until after 15 UTC today. Also propagation forecast looks fairly promising for the coming week so we keep our fingers crossed! |
Jim Solatie (JMS) and Jari Ruohomäki (JPR)
Friday 09JAN2015
Friday offered mediocre NA conditions. Some new stations anyhow, like KKTS Evansville, WY 1580. In the evening a very strong opening to Japan, which gave us even a new NHK2 station: JOCB Takayama 1125.
Time to say good bye and thanks once again to our loyal reader.
Jari & Jim
Thursday 08JAN2015
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Wednesday afternoon was truly unbeliveable with powerful signals from stations like KOKB 1580, KDCO 1550 and KPMO 1300. It doesn't happen often that Washington is totally absent. Midnight offered daytimers popping up very strangely. Stations like WBTX 1470 or WCHL 1360 were heard a few minutes with strong signals, while the band was otherwise almost empty (from NA signals). Again the main dominants were gone. No sign for example of Presque Isle 1390! The sun is really doing its magic again, thanks to the solar maximum. No wonder it has been observed smiling slightly. |
Wednesday 07JAN2015
A strong solar storm put the K-index up to 7 and gave us an excellent NA evening. Strong signals from Oklahoma to Nevada. No wonder Jari is smiling.
And these two clips from the previous mornings aren't too bad neither ... ;-)
USA: WLIK Newport TN - 1270 AM - 05JAN2015 0900 UTC
USA: WTTL Madisonville KY - 1310 AM - 06JAN2015 0600 UTC
Tuesday 06JAN2015
320 degree antenna in perfect shape,
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 ... guarded by a local shaman. |
Pretty good NA between 23-08 utc, the peaks being at 02 and 07 hours. Our highlight was the booming WTTL Madisonville, KY on 1310 kHz.
Monday 05JAN2015
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-31.9 degrees Celsius today, but no wind at all, which made skiing lovely. Yesterday we had no dx-conditions at all, but today was different. North America opened up at 01 utc, became better at 0230 utc and excellent between 08-09 utc. Lots of interesting stations from Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado, e.g. KRDZ Wray, CO 1440 was booming in. Usually it is Alberta dominating this frequency during NA openings, but today Wray was heard loud and clear. |
Saturday 03JAN2015
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Onni on oma latu - luck is your own track Maybe not the best translation, but it sounded funny ;) Lots of Asia yesterday and some Brazil at night. Thanks to a coronal hole, the morning was useless. Now in the afternoon Asia is recovering with Japanese and Chinese stations. |
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Thursday 01JAN2015
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The same pattern continues. Some Brazil at night (22-06 utc), a bit better Brazil opening in the morning (around 07 utc) and nothing after that. Some of the stations identified live this morning were Radio Novo Milenio from Sertaozinho SP 1540 kHz, Radio Bomdespachense from Bom Despacho, MG 1540 kHz and Radio Encantado, Encantado, RS 1580 kHz. The temperature has reached + degrees, so we got a little bit of rain today! It’s good news for the antennas, because still yesterday they were overloaded with snow. Now all is gone (from the wires). Walking outside and checking the antennas is getting quite tough. Snow is on the knee level and quite heavy, so our daily walking routine becomes good sports. 8 * 1000 meters have been checked, 3 * 1000 meters remains for the coming days. |
Jo loppui tipaton tammikuu - Time to end the redwinefree January
Tuesday 30DEC2014 - Wednesday 31DEC2014
Happy New Year from Lemmenjoki!
Team Honda has arrived and is enjoying some good La Plata and Brazil openings. Asia is mediocre, NA nonexistent. Some Irish Churches available today on 27 MHz.
Below is a picture from the last crew in Lemmenjoki: Team Ghost ;) Locals tell that someone has been here earlier in December ... but is it just a rumour?
Let’s hope for lots of great DX to everyone in 2015 !!!
Best regards,
Jari and Jim
Saturday 27DEC2014 - Monday 29DEC2014
LEM350 is on!
I arrived here just before midnight on the 26th. So I have been checking the band for 3 days now. Not so much to tell about the conditions. Mediocre cx towards La Plata and Brasil in the night and in the morning. Also Orinoco on sunday and monday morning, but it will be hard to find something very interesting. I suppose that Brasil will offer something worth mentioning. I have not checked files yet. I have concentrated on older files to release terabytes for this expedition.
Jim is just about to arrive to LEM-headquarters.
73s Jari (JPR)
Jussi Korhonen (HJK) and Jari Korhonen (JJK)
Uhtuan Sudet jenkkijahdissa? Vaiko menossa antennien lumikuormaa vähentämään?
Saturday 13DEC2014
Summa summarum, During the week NA was available with nice signals only for a two or three hours, maybe a dozen or so new stations were reported. Mexico also very weak. December is not best month for AS & OS, too. But if you are an IRIB fan, this is the best time to enjoy the signals until 0630 utc.
73! HJK & JJK
Friday 12DEC2014
The conditions moved westwards. La Maquina 1310 was audible for many hours, two new stations for me from California KATA-1340 & KCVL-1340, KVEL-920 from Utah. Some Pilipinos in the afternoon and 2MM Darwin 1656 again with a totally different programme than yesterday. The ID was “2 Double M Melodikos Stathmos”. The X-band was full of Greek-speaking stations, the majority of them were Greek pirates. Later in the evening, 2-3 hour visits by Jouni Ilmari and Aslak. Smoked reindeer by Aslak was the highlight.
Thursday 11DEC2014
A little better day… Cuba was very strong on many frequencies, and so were a couple of FL stations. The best catches for the morning were WKAJ-1120 NY, WPRO-630 RI and WIXI-1360 AL Some X-band Aussies in the afternoon, the only new one was 1656 Greek station from Darwin.
Wednesday 10DEC2014
Radio Imagen, Castelar 1710 was heard in the night, followed by ETWN programme with echo on 1460, those were the NY stations. Colombia in the morning, as side product Radio Oltenia, Craiova-1314. Some Yankees in the morning, like WMOB-1360 AL and CJAR-1240 MB.
Tuesday 09DEC2014
Today was the day to catch Chechnya 1287 and another station from that direction was IRIB Jollfa 1323. Metro Plus Weather Update was heard at 1604 on 1044.
Monday 08DEC2014
RNE1 & RNE5 breaks at 0625 and 0650 with good signals. Nice IDs from a couple of Midwest stations at 1000, some of them giving new reports like KATE-1450 and KRFO-1390.
Sunday 07DEC2014
The first Yankees faded in around 2100 utc, but nothing spectacular to report. Some Brazil in the morning hours, Asian stations in the afternoon. Challenger Radio-1368 with IRRS programme later in the evening.
Saturday 06DEC2014
We were not invited to the Presidential House for the celebration of the independence day of Finland, and didn´t watch the celebration from TV. But we tried to be internationally oriented by listening to the radio. Radio Constanta 1530 and Cesky Impuls 981 were the first reported stations. Later in the evening SRTC Kordofan State Radio 1602 and ERTU El Minya 1476 with local programmes were noted.
We noted that almost all antennas were affected by snow, and started to relieve them from the snow burden.
Hannu Tikkanen (HAT) and Håkan Sundman (HS)
Friday 28NOV2014
73s
HAT & HS
Friday 28NOV2014
Welcome to another day of broadcasting activities. Usually the conds get worse, when the indices improve – but at least this time they focused to the eastern part of the continent! Signals started to improve around 2230 utc (no daytimers/no worries) with a general, wide coverage from New York to Great Lakes. But it was nice to listen to the strong, clear signals in the late evening for a change! In the morning there were YV/HJ-stations mixing with regular eastcoasters, but nothing really interesting, and the southern signals weren’t really that good either. The total lack of South American conds was an unpleasant surprise of this expedition, especially as HAT got really badly hooked with them last year, after a long break that had lasted some decades ...
The assortment stayed in the same area of East Coast/Great Lakes the whole day, so for a change we had totally different stations to tune in than during the first five days of the expedition! Regulars had a very nice reception, but it was very hard to find anything new among the stations. WPPG-1450 dominated its’ frequency from early night, just like WMID-1340 & WCMC-1230 their own respective channels. So we ended up identifying other good old friends eg. WIOD-610, CFCO-630 (always nice to hear this station, brings back memories from the Summer of ’77 in Garden City MI), CHRF-980 again being naturally a pest, WSAL-1230, WIRA-1400, but also WLEC-1450. Late afternoon gave just a few westcoasters, of which a strong split 1469,710 gave a need to identify it: KBSN Moses Lake was the verdict as anticipated, but the ID was also very weak. Still, we feel comfortable to announce this split.
All in all, before the closing down words and without knowing what kind of a selection will run over us tomorrow, we must confess that this week has been fun once again! We were blessed with NA signals from the very start of the expedition, and even though it’s been hard to find new catches, it’s always fun. That’s why we’re here every year.
It’s now early evening, the house has been electroluxed (couldn’t find the hoover) and the floors have been flooded; next is sauna, then it’s dinner time and some prepacking. As we’re gradually contemplating about returning to the civilization, it’s time to stop beating around the bush and get back to business:
The final tip of the day follows. And it's weekend down there in the south anyways, right..?!
ps. Apologies about the link of yesterday. We really didn’t hear five new Hawaiians last Sunday, the 23rd. Just one, KEWE-1240, but it deserved a High Five. To pick up a new Hawaiian with the overoptimistic attitude “maybe it’s already on the air though there are no such news about it”, and to identify it exactly four minutes later, was some kind of a record for its’ listener. The station had inaugurated broadcasting already a day before, on the 22nd with its’ current 1000-watt test level, but we spent that day travelling and unpacking. Damned.
Thursday 27NOV2014
A new station a day helps you sit, listen and play!
There’s still not much to say about the evening conds, nor the nighttime dxing, though lots of common NA stations could be found there at night. This morning finally changed the receiving direction from Idaho and surroundings, from which it’s always challenging to find new stations. Already yesterday there was a short break to East Coast giving old suspects such as WNZS-1340, WIKE-1490 etc, but this morning the conds remained on the coast line a bit longer. Unfortunately nothing fancy, only common stuff, thus stations such as CFCO-630, WCMC-1230, WGVA-1240, WBAE-1490 and a handful of Rebeldes and Relojs were heard. The commonest West Coast throughout the day, as always.
What else? of course ... the tip of the day, already from last Sunday and ever since, to be exact!
Wednesday 26NOV2014
Groundhog Day. We could have copied the comments and the list of the identified stations from yesterday, but we didn’t. On the other hand, we haven’t said anything about the evening conds, simply because there’s nothing to say about them, except: half a dozen of weak NA signals in the early evenings. Now it’s said. And it’s sad.
Instead we’d like to take this opportunity to thank JUS and JJN for cleaning, mopping and hoovering the house. Job well done!
What else? of course this ... link of the day is the hint of the day!
Tuesday 25NOV2014
We tried hard to keep our promise of yesterday, but the conditions neglected our mission to catch all of those states today – a few remained missing. In fact, the stations started once again from the Great Lakes/Great Plains in the very early morning. Gradually the listening area broadened, and the rest of the morning/midday/early afternoon was spent west of the Rockies. The stations were audible with strong signals throughout the day, but this kind of a station assortment is a tough challenge, if one is seeking for new catches…Lots of regular graveyarders were noted in addition to even more common regional channelers, eg. KOBB-1230, KHAS-1230, KWSN-1230, KGFW-1340, KODI-1400, KKTL-1400, KYNT-1450, KATE-1450, KBBS-1450, KOVC-1490, KRIB-1490, and XENU-1550 being an example that we really didn’t forget Estados Unidos Mexicanos either. KCAP-call was now heard on 950 (ex KMTX, a very recent call change), and KREL-1580 seems to be heard whenever one tunes into this frequency.
Letfovers from the Pacific Islands were heard as we promised, KTWR-801 being the sole example. Japanese had a very strong and short opening at the same time, but nothing of interest was heard, however. And finally it was time to pay a visit to Inari Kultahovi and to purchase some fresh groceries for the rest of the week at the same time.
What else? ohh, the link of the day of course!
Monday 24NOV2014
Nighttime offered nil, the early morning hours were pretty much equal, but gradually the conds travelled from the Great Lakes towards Rockies and remained there for the rest of the fairly short opening, until the Canadian Prairies took over. Graveyarders and some regionals offered the Great Plains at the same time; KODY-1240, KCOW-1400, KWBE-1450, KOVC-1490, KJAM-1390, KGIM-1420. Some Mexicans were noted in the mix, XEHX-860 for instance, but there was no real cx to the south of the border. Mañana? Daily pattern seems to offer also AK and HI, so eg. KXXJ-1330 was audible with a booming signal. Asia was a disappointment, but what else to expect in late November, tbh?
What else? ohh, of course this ...
Tomorrow’s schedule naturally offers LOTS of rare NA stations to report, and after recording terabytes of exceptional catches from all the 50 states + the leftovers of the Pacific islands, we’ll enjoy the traditional dinner in the Inari Kultahovi!
Saturday-Sunday 22NOV2014-23NOV2014
LEM348 is now on. HS and HAT loaded the car in Pasila and found their traditional table reserved for them in the restaurant wagon, as planned. After passing Tampere JM and JHT were identified sitting in the nearby table, on their way to Aihkiniemi, so some time was spent chatting together.
The driving conditions were very nice from Rovaniemi to Lemmenjoki, sunny and a few cm of snow. Couldn’t have been better! Some NA was also heard in the very late afternoon hours after the receiving equipment was installed; a few west coast big guns, a handful of AK and HI - so this all looks promising.
The first night offered some regulars from Great Lake, and the morning hours scattered the cx westward reaching AK and HI once again. Late afternoon included some common Philipinos. So, nothing spectacular for starters (not expected either), but it was indeed very nice to see that the path is open towards NA. If the promised R1 stays away, the conds might have a decent chance to improve during the next days!
Jopi Nyman (JJN) and Jussi Suokas (JUS)
Friday 14NOV2014 - LEM347 Howling Off
Today's NA session started a bit later than yesterday, and lasted about an hour longer. The final results are not yet fully available, but at least KRDO CO 1240 was IDed live. As a piece of interesting information, CJSL 1280 was approved to change the transmitter location and frequency last May, and the station was heard on its new frequency of 1150 AM.
When the signals died out it was time to round off the week and enjoy a rather tasty All Day IPA Session Ale from Grand Rapids, Michigan. The menu for the closing night: Pasta Carbonara and Lindeman's Bin 50 Shiraz The house has been hoovered, mopped and emptied of protons and particles for HAT and HS to come next.
This is LEM347 howling off.
Thursday 13NOV2014
Today's hour of fervent DXing (between 6 and 7 utc) was directed to the Great Lakes and gave us a couple of new stations (WOKY 920, WMAX 1440) until the band became practically empty around 7.30 utc. The Spaniards have been surprisingly silent if not non-existent for several days, so in the afternoon we recorded some more audio material for our future Chinese numeral lessons. And practice we'll need, because at the moment we still sound like two hesitating sheep with our er-er-bah-bah sounds, very much like those devoured at today's dinner: The Classic Uhtua Lamb Feast with creamy goat cheese potatoes and Las Moras malbec followed with Lapland squeaky cheese and cloudberry jam.
Wednesday 12NOV2014
When the protons leave, then come the solar winds. For the first time there was some action on the AM band before 21 utc, but that didn't materialize into anything better, and the night and the morning went along similar lines as yesterday. Our only pleasure today was Argentina that produced good signals for a while. For example, Radio Tres, Trelew 780, AM 1330, Rosario and R Fé y Alegría, Asunción 1300 were received with enjoyable signals. The time after 6.30 utc was mainly spent listening to and destroying files from the previous days.
Today's meal Fish Chili Garam Masala with Leyda Pinot Noir.
Tuesday 11NOV2014
Last night was like a typical Christmas, silent night, silent morning, and the presents went elsewhere. At some point after 6 utc even the regular very talkative Spaniards went silent. And after the few Brazilians disappeared, November gloom started to creep in. But, to our surprise, even though all the other directions were quiet, the antenna wire to the north produced clear signals from Alaska, and also a couple of Hawaiians were heard. And just before 7 utc also the wire to the US midwest woke up, although that's where the progress stopped. Hours of hard work and mediocre conditions, however, gave us a couple of surprising stations here and there, like KVSI 1450 and KTWR Guam 801. An optimistic sign right after the A-indeces hit the above 20 mark. Lots of new snow here, but the antennas have been checked now. And yes, Hoopi, we heard your howling test loud and clear!
Today's meal Classic Chicken Curry, Saag Paneer, nan bread and rice with lager beer.
Monday 10NOV2014
The morning broke with an empty band towards the Americas, but we got some consolation from the direction of the UK (JCom 1386, Flame CCR 1521). After a while the North Americans returned with dominants and also some better-quality stations (KHAS 1230, KJCR 1240, KBMW 1450). Today's other important events: a school lesson of Chinese numerals with Weifang PBS 1161 and a lovely dinner of Porco Savoniano con zucchine fritte e patate al chili with Mayu Carménère Reserva.
Greetings to our devoted readers ANA and HAT. Thank you for your constantly encouraging support to our humble toilings up here.
Sunday 09NOV2014
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Instead of just one, we sinners enjoyed two wee drams of port cask finished single malt last night, and thus were not granted any American pleasures today, but had to spend several hours in an Irish radio church bench. There were many sermons to choose from, but the contents were dull: no identifications between every song nor local commercials. Today's top AM catch CFAB Windsor and today's menu: Fish stew à la Little Red Riding Hood's Grandma and Kungfu Girl Riesling from Ylämummo. |
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Saturday 08NOV2014 - Howlin' Howlin' Howlin'
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Keep howlin', howlin', howlin', Though they're disapprovin', Keep them wolfies howlin' Rawhide! Don't try to understand 'em, Just food and drink and love give'em, Soon they'll be scanning high and wide. Boy our minds calculatin' Full hard discs will be waitin', be waiting at the end of this week |
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The wolves drove non-stop from Joensuu to the cabin and arrived many hours in advance this time missing the joys of Saariselkä because HN had departed the dx-premises wisely before his time was due. The first checks around midnight didn't promise much, but between 06 and 08 utc there was good huffin' and puffin' on the band. Some of the best stations noted live are Radio Impactante, Santo Domingo 1440, KJCR 1240, WWWL 1350, WLQR 1470 and KREL 1580. The band died out around 09 utc, and as there is virtually no snow here, it was a real pleasure to walk in the antenna forest after this promising start. This year's very short gourmet season at Lemmenjoki started with Chili con carne con chocolate and Tommasi Valpolicella Ripasso.
Hannu Niilekselä (HN) full time and Hannu Asikainen (HAS) only until 01NOV2014
Wednesday-Thursday 05NOV2014-06NOV2014
Nothing new - no cx ...
The proton event is over, but our dear earth is passing through some ”windy” area and aurora borealis has been more spectacular than in a long time - even according to our locals at Lemmenjoki.
As the K-index has reached 4 on a contuinuing basis, there is no actual chance for any real NA. On Wednesday morning BRA-La Plata was less impressive than days before; at sunrise I noted 4 NA stations in the bruices, all being powerhouses from the west coast ; 152, 1510, 1410 and 1380.
Not much improvement on the last morning on Thursday: a bit better BRA-La Plata and a dozen most common NA again around 06 UTC. Remarkable was how weak Europe in general was: Iberia almost non existent and also the British Isles really weak.
So, it is time to pack and head south. The good news this time was one week of decent (even if not very good) NA cx in midst of all these sunspots with continuous flaring. And the other big issue being our totally interference free listening place - absolutely no man made noise since the horse fence, which has been a nuisance, has been torn down for good - no horses in Lemmenjoki anymore, just the reindeer and us !
Until next time
73 de HN
Old QTH as of 04NOV2014: The facade is still beautiful in November sunshine, but the roof has rottened, water has come in through the roof and the smell inside is disgusting - it is "in memoriam".
Monday-Tuesday 03NOV2014-04NOV2014
No surprises ... anyone a bit deeper into DX'ing NA on the high latitudes will know that increased levels of protons will kill the atmospheric skip. There seem to be no exceptions.
This time the increase started on Saturday and stayed on the higher level all Sunday. The slow decline started on Monday and by the end of Tuesday we should be back to basic levels. Usually cx will reappear a day around one day after that.
This time the level of protons did not jump very high, so it may well be that the effect are not as serious as some other times. However the Kp index was at the level of 4 on Tuesday and the solar wind was on the increase, which is not necessarily a sign of suddenly reappearing conditions across the Atlantic.
Still, on Tuesday morning the first 4-5 most common east coast powerhouses made a brief appearance around 06 UTC. BRA and La Plata has been present on both nights and mornings until around 07 UTC. Signals have been moderate, but the true quality of the cx into that direction is so far unknown.
Friday-Sunday 31OCT2014-02NOV2014
As expected, Friday was not a disappointment. NA signals started appearing around 21 UTC (Thursday), but it took another 30 minutes before there was anything noteworthy. It looked good around 2130 UTC, as the amount of stations on the band increased fairly rapidly. Still, the positive development ended before 22 UTC and it was, in fact, worse than just 10 minutes before.
Having had a fairly extensive run-through the files up until 23 UTC, the end result was less than impressive. Some daytimers, yes, but just the stuff you would expect and not really that many stations. Many without ID´s, but based on experience you know who they are ...
In spite of the solar wind remaining around 400 and above, the cx lingered on all night, which you would not normally expect. For some reason this time many things seem defferent. Having followed the discussion on expert sites, noone seems to really know why the extensive amount of flaring from the past huge sunspot produced no noteworthy CMEs.
In the morning mostly midwest with acceptable signal strengths, later in the day more westerly all the way to 14 UTC.
Saturday´s cx started to open up a little later, but otherwise very much the same way as the day before. The exception, though, was that signals from around Missouri started to come in very early, with KZQZ-1430 identified already at 2236 UTC, around one hour before their local sunset. Cocentration in the same area continued also around 2330 up until 2345 when many stations in that area power down in October.
In the morning VEN-COL and Cuba dominated quite late with some NA squeezing in a bit later. At 0830 we left for the Ivalo airport to catch the plane for HAS back to Helsinki. Upon arrival back to Lemmenjoki HN experienced fading signals, which died out already in front of 13 UTC. The worst had happened...while we had escaped all the threats of the huge sunspot all week, "out of the blue" (e.g not out of any sunspot) we got a proton flare...no NA in the night or all day on Sunday.
Now it is a good time to start digging into the files of the past week !
Wednesday-Thursday 29OCT2014-30OCT2014
We have been most fortunate... sunspot 2192 is now fairly safely out of sight. There were altogether 6 class X and an incerible amount of 26 (!!) class M flares during its passage through the sun´s visible disk, but none (!) of the produced a CME or a proton event...
Thus the cx across due west northwest across have developed positively, although the westerly parts of the continental US have strongly dominated. Also AK and HI have been strong. In spite of good signals across the pole, no openings to the rest of the Pacific have occured. Also Japan has been very modest.
On both nights stations have appeared a little late, but on wednesday evening the first daytimers were noted (WFIF-1500 and WHGT-1590). On wednesday, west coast, especially Oregon, was very strong. Somehow stations from the Seattle-Vancouver corner were, however, not at their best. A good example of this was KACI-1300 competing evenly for a longer period with its companion KKOL, even if the latter one has 100 times the power of KACI !
Thursday was about the same, but afternoon not quite as strong as IOregon on wednesday. For the first time also Asia opened up before 10 UTC with a few NHK-1 stations, but soon "The Chinese" (=most of southeast asia) took over. No openings further to that direction.
On thusday evening we experienced the first real daytimer opening with lots of signals appearing around 2130 UTC. Nothing worth mentioning was noted listening live, but there always is a chance for some goodies from openings this early. After 22 UTC, not so interesting anymore, as the signal levels did not develop and only the strongest "regulars" were noted.
In all, the development has been good and we stand a good chance for the cx to reach also east coast and deeper down in the days to come.
Monday-Tuesday 27OCT2014-28OCT2014
In spite of the huge threats from sunspot 12192 we are still on the right track towards improving conditions. Even if flaring has been immense with 6 class X-flares and -at its "best"- almost hourly M-flares, all of them have so far been "dry" without earth directed CME´s. The threat is not over, but we keep our fingers and toes crossed all the time, knock on any wood found nearby, etc ...
Monday started surprisingly well: "standard midwest" NA throughout the night. No specific highlights, but we cannot remember when there would have been so many stations throughout the night - the "night conditions" have just not been there for quite some years.
Still, morning was a bit of a disappointment with the cx becoming weak, very unstable an directed to the upper rockies-west coast area. Some of the common stations fading in and soon disappearing totally, with lots of atmospheric noise killing the signals only too often. By noon UTC the path directly due north opened up with lots of the common AK and HI stations with occasionally very nice signals, e.g. WQLE259-1610 Prudhoe bay with its 10 watts of power booming in from time to time. However, especially the lower end of the MW spectrum did not offer too much of anything - just bruises from the still disturbed conditions, most likely the lingering effects from CH640.
Stations from the westerly and northerly directions were heard all the way past 13 UTC. Also asia opening up around then, but nothing interesting, except a ferw Philipinos and the first sign of AUS on the X-band with Vision Radio Network identified on 1611.
Tuesday began the same way as Monday with stations from NA heard throughout the night. This time from a bit more easterly directions, but not really the east coast. This was quite surprising considering that at midnight we experienced K-indecies up to 4 !
Signals in the morning were more stable than on Monday, but in the morning and throughout the day still westerly directed and varying very much: at one point 10 minutes strong to MEX, but only to disappear completely very shortly.
Very strong at times due north in the upper half of the spectrum. Interestingly CBC low power stations from NT still noted on 1150 and 1230 with "The Trailbraker" originating from Yellowknife later in the afternoon.
A couple of most common Japanese stations in the afternoon, but otherwise uninteresting Asia.
The threats have not subsided yet... As AR2192 approaches the sun's horizon, it is no longer facing Earth. However, the odds of an Earth-directed radiation storm are higher than ever. The reason is, the western limb of the sun is well-connected to Earth. Solar magnetic fields springing out of that region spiral back to our planet (see picture below). If a sunspot passing through the area explodes, those spiralling magnetic fields can funnel energetic particles in our direction.
Source: http://spaceweather.com/images2014/13jul14/science_of_impact_c.gif
Saturday-Sunday 25OCT2014-26OCT2014
We arrived at Lemmenjoki a little after 08 UTC, found the cottage tidy and warm after PÄ and JEÖ, who had headed south about an hour earlier. There was no hurry to get to DX´ing, since the AM band was completely blank due to lingering Coronal Hole effects, which had been there practically all the time with the LEM345 crew.
The largest sunspot of this cycle was directly facing the earth with daily class X flares, which at any moment could spoil the cx for a long time... As of writing this we have survived them, since all of the 5 X-flares so far have been "dry", e.g. without any earth directed CME effets or p..... (we do not even wish to mention the word).
The effects from large CH640 - which more or less spoiled the conditions for the second week of LEM345 - are gradually easing up. So already upon our day of arrival, e.g. on Saturday, we had a brief encounter with some of the most powerful U.S. West Coast stations, as well as with 1570 and 1500 Hawaii. No great signals, but a good thing to happen. Later Asia opening up to the direction of China and Thailand.
At night some BRA and ARG and by 05 UTC fairly nice VEN - COL accompanied by a hanful of Puerto Ricans and most common NL. The Latin American stations disappeared very rapidly just in front of 06 UTC and never returned. However, with the 320 degree antenna, just 5 minutes later we experienced a 5 minute opening to the upper prairies. The very interesting item about this extremely short lived peak was that it took place exactly at 06 UTC - something that very seldom tends to happen. Not many decent signals, but very nice ID´s from KREL-1580 and KWBE-1450.
Soon again the MW band was empty, but a little bit of Britain emerged for while, together with the most common West Coast, AK and Hawaii for short moments. Asia opened up in front of 13 UTC, but never brought anything of interest.
We are crossing our fingers and toes, so that this huge sunspot would continue with only dry flares until it is behind the limb again in a few days time. Should that happen, we might stand a chance for some decent cx in the coming days ...
Pertti Äyräs (PÄ) 11OCT2014-25OCT2014 and Jan-Erik Österholm (JEÖ) 16OCT2014-25OCT2014
Saturday-Sunday 18OCT2014-19OCT2014
Totally useless TA-cx these days. Nothing to report from these days. Very depressing indeed.
Friday 17OCT2014
Morning cx more or less lousy and only the 05 TOH was reasonable, After that the cx disappeared completely and have not returned for several days. Maybe some loggings of Iranians could have been made but for some reason they have not been of interest to us.We still have one week to go so we hope something will appear ...
Thursday 16OCT2014
In the morning may be the so far best NA cx. Stations such as WJRW 1340, KLIK 1240, KGIW Alamosa CO 1450 and KQYX Galena KS also on 1450. Around noon PÄ picked up JEÖ from Ivalo airport and after some food etc. shopping we returned to the HQ around 13 UTC only to find the band almost empty. Later in the afternoon some X-band Aussies emerged as did ABC on 729 and 891. If we are lucky som other Aussies can be found from the recordings. Early in the evening lousy cx from Brazil. Recordings on and to sleep!
Wednesday 15OCT2014
Nothing during the evening and night. During sunrise some Brazilians and X-band Argentinians. A weak an short East Cost NA opening during sunrise. The rest of the day was silent as golden.
Tuesday 14OCT2014
During sunrise pretty much the same East Coast stations as the day before. WSAN Allentown PA was new for me. KGOW 1560 was heard as almost the only NA throughout the day. Some X-band Aussies appeared again in the evening as did some common East Coast NAs around 22 UTC. A solar storm distroyed the rest of the day.
Monday 13OCT2014
Hardly anything during night hours. At sunrise some East Coast NA turning pretty rapidly towards the Mid West with stations such as WILS 1320 and WIBA 1310. A little later a better one, namely KTOP Topeka KS 1490. In the evening Asian stations as usual and some weak X-band Aussies.
Saturday 11OCT2014 - THE NEW SEASON HAS STARTED
Sunday 12OCT2014
Hello again!
To keep the things simple I pick the opening text from my pedition last autumn 2013 since the starts of the two peditions were practically the same. Like this: "Greetings from the Lemmenjoki Headquarters in northern Finnish Lappland. I have a "solo" DXpedition for the next two weeks and try to report on what's going on here. Arrived here Saturday evening, Oct. 12th after spending a night in Oulu as a guest to Jari Ruohomäki. Thank you Jari very much, for providing a bed and company (not in the bed!) after driving some 700 kms from my home QTH in Kaarina to Oulu. Way up north some other 600 kms brought to me to Lemmenjoki the next day.
The house was clean and in good conditions but the antennas were disconnected for safety reasons (thunder storms etc during the summer...) so there was a lot of work to do. During the first evening I managed to fix some 5 aerials for operation. Connecting the aerials to the receivers and putting them into work is always a high tension moment ... do they work or not. This time all went OK and good signals were received from the very start, but only on 5 of the 10-11 antennas. Any extra electrical noise was not observed."
The next day, on Sunday, I went through the rest of the aerials and connected them to the "boxes and coxes". One of the aerials was broken and lying on the ground, it is the 30 degrees antenna (pointing to Japan) and will be fixed on Tuesday I guess.
The first evening provided Brazilian stations and later some Spanish speaking ones from Argentina, Uruguay etc. In the morning then stations from the North American Continent took over. Huge signals from States like Colorado, North Dakota, Idaho and so on. The conditions lasted until 2-3 local time PM. In the Sunday evening also some more common Australians were noted, like 729 and 891 plus some X-band Aussies.
Sunday night started again with about the same Brazilian stations as the previous night but the European stations were too strong this time. On the monday morningside the NA stations started to be heard, with good signals again.
This time the conditions favored more the Central and Eastern Parts of the Continent. Again the conditions lasted to late afternoon but at 15 local time the signals were very weak and, of course, only the strongest dominants were audible. Later stations from Japan etc. bopped in and out in an interesting way until the Europeans conquered the AM- band. X-band Aussies were again noted but weak compared to the previous evening.
It seems likely that the prevailing good conditions will continue. Luckily then, I have 7 Terabytes hard disc space available for my recordings.
Pertti