LEM DXpedition News of 2015-2016 Season
Hannu Niilekselä (HN)
This surprise DXpedition was not actually one in the true sense of a DXpedition. When staying at Ylläs, 210 km from Lemmenjoki, I decided to try with an unmanned expedition by hauling a few Perseus for automated recordings to the DX site upon our arrival to the north and fetching them back prior to heading back south.
We stayed in Lemmenjoki 4-5APR, skied outside on Kuivajärvi ice and set up the receivers. It was already quite late for the season for MW DX'ing and it actually seemed quite hopeless, as during our stay overnight, there were absolutely no cx anywhere in the evening, during the night or in the morning.
Having had a first quick run-trough the files it was interesting to note that in general during those 10 days there seemed to be practically no cx at all, except for 9APR, when the signals to the North American continent were all of a sudden quite good. The same was towards the eastern direction, with quite decent signals of some of the most common Australian stations from SA on 10APR. On other evenings practically nothing. I will be posting some of the more interesting loggings in OLL as I get a bit deeper into the material.
Fetching back the equipment on 14APR started by skiing the first 55 km from Ylläs to Levi and continuing the remaining 155 km by car ...
73 HN
Jari Ruohomäki (JPR)
Monday 14MAR2016
Promising conditions to North-America and Brasil/La Plata in the early night but these conditions didn't progress to satisfactory level. When I woke up at 04 utc La Plata stations had really good signals, however, almost all of them disappeared in 15 minutes. This night is surely worth digging. I have not had time to check if NA stations were audible later in the morning.
I will send a report tomorrow in the morning if there is something to report. We will head to Oulu tomorrow at noon.
73s JPR
Sunday 13MAR2016
This is the second time on LEM369 I have had TA-signals after 05 utc. There was really nothing extraordinary audible, but common stations like KXQZ 1340, KGRE 1450, KNSS 1330, KGGS 1340 were audible till 07 utc. So this was an empty day again.
Saturday 12MAR2016
Quite sharp opening towards Brasil on the upper AM band around 23 utc. Unfortunately most stations disappeared after 0000 utc. Here are some results after a quick check: R Cultura, Santo Dumont MG 1580, R Difusora Pentecostal CE 1560, R Capinzal SC 1540, R F8, Botucatu SP 1540, R Cultura de Guanambi BA 1530, +R Cabo Frio RJ 1530, R Liberdade, Gangucu RS 1500, R Alvorada Guanambi BA 1480, R Agreste CE 1460, R Caicó RN 1290 etc. I was lucky to notice some clear signals from the Mountains (KGEM 1140 and KLIX 1310, f. ex.) just before going to sleep. There is theoretical hope for daytimers from MST-zone.
It seems that higher the K-index better the propagation is.
Thursday-Friday 10-11MAR2016
It is easy to describe the conditions during the last two days: could not be much worse.
The highlight has been to take part in the springtime poroerotus with the Jomppanen brothers. It was quite an event about 25 kilometers north of Lemmenjoki next to the main road between Inari and Angeli. More than 1500 reindeers were gathered to one huge herd for forthcoming operations. We were pleased to meet there some famous Lapp persons like Ursula Länsman, the other singer of Angelin tytöt vocal group, and Outi Länsman. Outi has recently been selected as the Lapp person of the year in Finland.
This expedition will probably continue till Tuesday the 15th.
Wednesday 09MAR2016
Clear improvement compared to the previous day. Pretty good conditions towards La Plata and Brasil from 22 to 02 utc. NA stations from central and western parts started to fade in after 02 utc. The band was really not full of stations, but I am curious to check the identity of them. I noticed alive Spanish station announcing 105.5 FM on 1350 (KZTD?). Morning was suprisingly poor without any interesting signals.
Tuesday 08MAR2016
Almost unusable conditions in the night and in the morning in any western direction. Some La Plata stations were audible between 03-05 utc, but most likely not anything interesting.
Saturday-Monday 05-07MAR2016
I had a good start on LEM369. The first night and morning on Saturday were pretty good towards NA. Stations started to fade in before 2330 utc. So there was a chance to hear some daytimers. I succeeded in hearing KCLX Liberty MO alive on 1140 with KCTE 99.3 (ESPN) programming. I have checked some potential daytimer frequencies like 1190 and 1550, but I didn´t find a single id worth mentioning. According to HN, who was still in Lemmenjoki, NA signals in the morning were better than on other days on LEM368. I have checked some TOH id´s, but I did not find many new ones for me. Here they are: KTIS 900, WSLB 1400, WPNW 1260 and CHRN 1610. Anyway, this was an eligible beginning.
K-index rised up to even 8 in the evening on the 6th. I waited for a huge ZY- and L-invasion, but I did not get it. There were southern stations fading in and out all the night, but probably these conditions are not worth digging. I was suprised to notice some NA-stations like WRRD 1510 after 01 utc. Morning conditions were useless.
Australia, New Zealand, Japan etc.? I do not care. I concentrate on the most important.
Hannu Niilekselä (HN)
Friday-Saturday 04-05MAR2016
Thursday evening started almost as the evening before even if the NA signals started creeping in a bit later. Still in good time for potential daytimers. Many regularily heard stations were clearly still on daytime power and no “terrific” catches were noted. But stations like KCTO-1160 and KCXL-1140 at 00 UTC were a clear sign that recordings must be inspected with care.
Later in the night and Friday morning some stations here and there, mostly the usual Midwest but also some of the most common FL (e.g. WSBB-1230, WMMB-1240, WSUA-1260) for a while. And once again, by 09 the signals were almost totally gone. Later in the afternoon ABC-1548 and 630 with huge signals again. Stations also in the X-band, but nothing else in the standard bc-band.
Also late on Friday evening (UTC) some daytimer possibilities, but not as interesting as the evenings before. Some stations all night, but somehow European QRM, which has been bad all these two weeks, was terrible and destroyed a bunch of frequencies. In the morning concentrated in MN-IA-NE with good signals for a while, up until 08 UTC, then weaker with lots of atmospheric bruise.
Eastwards the band kept almost silent up until 15 UTC. All of a sudden ABC-1548 came with force, soon joined by 630. Both with huge signals for over one hour. Listening my recordings on 846 carefully as the powerhouses were strongest, I noted an aussie also on 846 for two short moments, very likely 4CA.
It is time to pack. But you have to leave in order to be able to return again ...
73 HN
Tuesday-Thursday 01-03MAR2016
During the night to Tuesday some weak Midwest beginning already 00 UTC and improving a bit 06-07 UTC, continuing with uninteresting level of signals to early afternoon. However, very unstable and clearly disturbed by CH effects. An example of the disturbed nature of signals was 680 AM at 07 UTC when 2 stations were audible with the same antenna: KNBR-CA on top and WRKO-MA under, but no trace of the two Canadians usually covering 680. Lots of frequencies totally empty. The easterly directions very lousy up until 15 UTC when ABC-1548 all of a sudden emerged with force. Also some Aussies on the X-band, but fading out rapidly. Nothing else of interest.
Tuesday evening started interestingly with first NA signals appearing at 22 UTC. But it took 5-10 minutes before any bigger amount of NA signals surfaced. The direction of the stations from daylight was around the upper parts of the U.S. and the Great Lakes area. Signals were not big and unfortunately died out before 23 UTC, which –being 1st of March- would have been ideal for catching daytimers. But not this time, unfortunately. Still, looking at the sunsetmap, identifying KXEL-1540 at 2230 UTC gives an idea from how far in bright daylight some of the signals came.
After this, just a few NA stations all night in the midst of horrible EU QRM. However, just past 00 UTC Brazil so strong that experts for those would probably have been going hot ... Between 06-07 UTC again better with more easterly signals, but just to the upper parts of the east coast. On Wednesday afternoon ABC-1548 appeared already 12 UTC and was more or less audible for several hours. Also better on the X-band, but no trace of any aussies in the standard AM band. However, by 13 UTC lots of Japanese stations with best signals in two weeks.
Wednesday evening started a little bit like Tuesday with NA opening early. Not as early as the day before, but around 2310 UTC, a good moment for daytimers. A bunch of interesting signals, many from the NJ-VA direction. Further inspection may bring something interesting into daylight. Just after 00 UTC the best going was over. Later in the night some NA station here and there, but nothing worth checking outside the hourly ID´s.
Later on Thursday morning absolutely dead all morning – and all this when there is no substantial difference in any geomagnetic values ... But the day was saved with huge signals from both ABC-1548 and ABC-630. Especially 630 came in as a local station for some 15 minutes around 16 UTC. This inspired to try for any other Queensland area aussies. Just one emerged: the ABC news fanfare on 1062. Not much is heard, but since the other station on the fq is in the SA timezone, no other ABC can have produced this signal than the tiny transmitter of 4TI on the tiny Thursday Island outside the far north tip of Queensland !
Otherwise, daily skiing has been the habit, just balance off sitting all day. And there is no shortage of snow here !
Sunday-Monday 28-29FEB2016
As expected, when Jim Solatie (“the guru of all directions and wavelength”) arrives in Aihkiniemi, I can always expect improvement in the quality of cx ... Jim himself thinks that he is a "proton magnet" ... well, I was right ...
Sunday night offered nothing until 05 UTC but from there on, up until 09 UTC nice and clear signals from the Midwest. Nothing big, but a clear change compared the week passed. This held high expectations also for the afternoon with easterly directions. And yes, strong with Chinese beginning around 13 UTC, ABC-1548 was noted at 14 UTC and some faint X-band aussies, as well. But any of the interesting signals were soon gone and the rest of the evening was just a mix of Europeans and southeast Asia.
Again no trace of early NA, the first signals only around 04 UTC. The remainder of the morning was again "acceptable" until 08 UTC, but after that interesting periodical bruises in the atmosphere started killing the signals gradually. And this day was "very quiet" by geomagnetic observation standards ...
Sunday afternoon offered nothing. Some Chinese tried to surface around 1330 UTC, but in about 30 minutes they were gone and the AM band never recovered before 15 UTC with uninteresting signals covered with a "soft blanket".
In all, so far the only better moments have concentrated in the Great Lakes and prairies areas. A good illustration of the direction of cx. The "data" collected from GY frequencies in 9 days well illustrates this:
- 1230: WSBB, KAYS, KWIX,KWSN, KTNC, KOBB, KEXO, KSTC, KORT, WHCO, WCDS, WCMC, KVAS, KFPW, KWYZ, WCLO
- 1240: WMMB, KRDO, KEWE, WEBQ, KDEC, KIUL, KFH, WJON, KLIK, KFMO, KJCR, KFOR, KODY, KTIX, KCCR, WOMT, WHFA, CJCS
- 1340: KGGS, KWOR, KWLM, KXQZ, WMID, WJRW
- 1400: CBC, WGIL, KCOW, KLIN, KART, KBJM, WMAN WATW, WBIZ, KKTL, KODI
- 1450: WPGG, KGIW, KGRE, WKEI, KMRY, KATE, KIRX, KOKO, KWBE, KZZJ, WLEC, KLBM, KYNT, KONP, CFAB
- 1490: WBAE, KCID, KRTK, WZOE, KKAN, KDBM, KOVC, WXTC, WOSH
Friday-Saturday 26-27FEB2016
Not an awful lot change. The positive thing about Friday was that there was some NA audible all morning. Also briefly some common east coast, starting around 04 UTC, but otherwise just the "same old dominants" from the midwest to the prairies. ABC-1548 and 4KZ-1620 in mid afternoon, but nothing else.
First sign of any evening stations on Friday evening as CKOC-1150 made its appearance at 2240 UTC, way before local sundown. Also a station briefly on 1160 shortly there after –probably WYLL- but listening live I did not note any NA on any other frequency, when you would have expected at least Ontario for example on 1200 and 1310, NA on 1500 and 1520. But not.
NA started opening around 04 UTC and signals were clear around 0430-0530 UTC with emphasis again on the Midwest to the rockies area, but also further down to TX and Mexico. With a bit of luck, searching the files outside the top-of-the hours may give something interesting.
On Saturday, the AM band was more or less silent all the way to around 15 UTC. I received a note telling that in Kongsfjord there was good going with New Zealand. And sure enough, as the bruise got weaker, Newstalk ZB surfaced on 1035 at 1525 UTC for 10 minutes. The same program was noted on 1008 as well, but no other signs of NZ.
Otherwise nice with crispy sunshiny weather – good to ski and do some antenna checking. Now in the evening it is -31 C...
Wednesday-Thursday 24-25FEB2016
Catch-phrase of the two days: "One step forward, two steps back"...
There seemed to be nothing wrong with the developments when finishing my report two days ago. But for no obvious reason, the two past days have in terms of any cx been a total disaster. I haven't yet had a minute-by-minute check on what potentially has been going on both nights, but the odds for something surprising are not good.
On Wednesday a handful (and definitely not more ...) first NA stations appeared for a few minutes at 07 UTC and I was able through the bruise to identify exactly two stations of any quality: KSEK-1340 and KIUL-1240. Right there after everything was gone. Nothing more all day and on the Asian side, the bruise covered the AM spectrum all the way to around 15 UTC. Then some southeast stations of no interest. So it was a blank day ... time to search the files from previous days and to enjoy skiing in beautiful sunshiny weather – the first sunshine on this trip, it has been snowing every day until then. The depth of snow in the woods is around one meter...
I woke up in front of 06 UTC on Thursday, only to note that there were some signals with the more westerly antennas, but that they disappeared in less than 15 minutes. After that it has been another blank day with Asia opening exactly as late as on Wednesday. However, upon checking the recordings from the night, first NA appeared at around 03 UTC. By 04 UTC there was no improvement, but at 05 UTC it did not sound bad at all. Stations from around the Great Lakes were starting to push through and one could have made a prognosis for a decent morning by sunrise. But here we go: some disturbance arrived and by 06 UTC there was nothing...
Once again, there are no indications what may have caused the two steps back... we'll see what will come...
Monday-Tuesday 22-23FEB2016
It seems that any opening towards North America late evening-early night is not something likely to take place anytime soon. The first NA on Monday morning appeared only around 05 UTC. Positive about the morning was that signals were slightly better than on previous days and the cx were oriented more easterly, although only to the upper parts of the East Coast. Station of the morning was CHRN Montréal 1610 with music and test announcements.
Another positive development was the appearance of first Japanese stations already around 0930 UTC. A handful of NHK-1 stations were identified 10 UTC, together with TongaBC-1017. AFN Misawa-1575 had a huge signal for half an hour with local 4th Support Squadron breaks before VOA Thailand took gradually over. ABC Emerald-1548 was identified at 13 UTC and later in the evening ABCs on 891 and 1161 made their daily appearances.
No sign of NA again on Monday evening up until around 00 UTC when I hit the sack. No knowledge yet, what may have happened later in the night. At 06 UTC all the way to 10 UTC fairly nice NA signals, strongest from the Mid-West, which is difficult in terms of finding anything new. Also the most common Hawaii was audible for a couple of hours later in the afternoon. In contrary to expectations, Asia started opening only around 14 UTC with some Philipinos and once again ABCs on 1548 and 891.
In all, it is not that bad, but yet nothing like some of the best days in January-February so far.
Saturday-Sunday 20-21FEB2016
I arrived here late Friday evening. After setting up the station it did not seem a bad idea to get some sleep – after 1150 km of driving and noticing that nothing of any interest from the western hemisphere was going in the AM band.
WOOD-1300 was the highlight of the morning. Then “free time” until 13 UTC, when the band quickly opened to the easterly direction. Unidentified AFN was noted on 1575 alongside with mediocre JPN stations. Soon first of the most common Australian stations started joining (4KZ-1620 and ABC Emerald-1550). Gradually also the Adelaide region presented its ABC powerhouses on 729, 891 and 1161. The signals were in and out for many hours with the commercial stations Cruise 1323 and 5MU joining and being somewhat audible for fairly long periods, best around 19 UTC.
Brazil opening around 21 UTC, but no NA until 04UTC. The highlight of the morning was KRCM-1380 for a short while, otherwise mostly around Minnesota, however with only the most common stations. Everything died out already after 05 UTC, so it was time to ski and do household duties.
Sunday afternoon was nothing like Saturday, most likely the relatively high electron levels kept a “cloud cover” on the AM spectrum, which did not open up decently all afternoon. It cannot get any worse ...
Jan-Erik Österholm (JEÖ)
Sunday 21FEB2016
LEM367 ended on Sunday Feb 21. Now waiting for the plane to Helsinki at Ivalo Airport. Below a brief report of the period Thursday 18FEB-FRIDAY19FEB.
73
JEÖ
Friday 19FEB2016
The zero day spent on checking files. G2 geomagnetic storm. Hannu Niilekselä arrived late in the evening. Nice!
Thursday 18FEB2016
Mostly bad conditions with weak NA signals appearing after 00 UTC. This lasted all night. Between 0420-0720 increased signal strengths peaking between 0530-0650. CX remained around the Lakes and Mid West with some short openings more westerly and easterly. Albuquerque noted on 1350 and some new for me from KY, IL and OH. Also KAMI NE on 1580. Some mexicans also audiable. Otherwise hardly any signs of SA. Asia and OC absent.
Hard to find my rental car after an additional 20 cm from the skies.
Snow depth in antenna forest between 80cm-1m. Hard work to check antennas.
Tuesday-Wednesday 16-17FEB2016
As expected the G1 geomagnetic storm increased the K-index to 5-6. Tuesday day-evening gave zero reception in all directions. As anticipated, Brazilians emerged already well before 21 UTC with strong signals that lasted to around 00 UTC when the band emptied completely regardeless of antenna. Some new Brazilians for me are R Macambira, CE 1020, R Montevideo, Cedro 1160 and R Caico RN 1290, all noted before 22 UTC.
Between 00-05 UTC was more or less empty with the exception of some super strong signals from, e.g, KBRW 680 and some other common AK stations. Most Northernmost Canadiands came in as well. Around 05 UTC the band, despite the horrible indecies, started to fill up with weak signals also from the US Mid West. I was surprised, that the only channels worth checking was the GY frequencies between 05-06.20. So far identified are on 1450 KAVP Colona, CO; KGIW Alamosa CO, KFIZ Fond du Lac WI and KQYX Galena KS. KVCK Wolf Point MT was mostly dominating the frequency. After ca 0730 UTC the band has been completely dead. Now waiting for a new local sunset in Brazil, especially since the major G- impact is over for the time being. Time to get some sleep.
Nice Aurora Borealis during evenig of 17FEB2016.
Monday-Tuesday 15-16FEB2016
Weak NA during night hours with a lot of EU splash. Conditions improved after 04 UTC with pretty nice signals until 07 during both mornings. Conditions was again primarily centered around the Great Lake area and the Mid West. Some common CA station were also noted such as KSRO 1350. Weak openings towards the Caribbean and Colombia-Venezuela, but it is impossible to dig out something new. La Plata and Brazil almost non-existent. At the time of writing a very nice aurora borealis covers the sky. Hopefully this short G1 storm will bring back cx towards LP and southern Brazil which is many times the case. All in all, these two days gave a lot of recordings of which probably 90% can be deleated.
Saturday-Sunday 13-14FEB2016
Back in Lemmenjoki for the 30th time (including two summer visits with Heidi). Flying from Helsinki to Ivalo went smoothly. However, driving from Ivalo to Lemmenjoki was hazardous. Lots of snow on the Inari-Kittilä road and reindeers made me keep the speed around 60 km/h.
After arriving safely I quickly connected the equipment. NA West Coast dominants were audiable with pretty nice signals. Around 16.40 UTC aussies were emerging. Most X-band frequencies were occupied and the 120 m.b. stations on 2325 and 2485 had enormous signals. ABC on 729 and 891 was heard with nice signals. Checking the files might reveal other aussies. During the night NA was present with very clear signals until 0649 UTC on the 300 degree antenna. Stations heard include KRCM 1380, WZTG 1100, KMAJ 1440, WDLS 900 and KTIS 900. Very weak propagation towards South America with the exception of some signals from Brazil between 00 and 02 UTC. All in all a good start on this pedition. Expected G1 geomagnetic activities tomorrow gives time to scrutinize the files recorded.
Jussi Korhonen (HJK) and Jari Korhonen (JJK)
Monday-Tuesday nite 08-09FEB2016
There was a surprise waiting for us before leaving the LEM site. The yankees became audible at 2139 UTC as a whole band presentation. La Mega 1160 AM became audible at around 2245 utc. The condx were still on when we plugged off at 0400 utc. The graveyard channels were giving this night best signals during the whole LEM366 trip. So Happy End.
73
HJK and JJK
Monday 08FEB2016
Very promising opening in the morning, but again a break in electricity during the best time of reception. The day was empty of stations on AM, but around 1430 the Asian stations faded in (JJ, CC, Pilipinos). Aslak visited us in the evening.
Sunday 07FEB2016
The lack of electricity killed the DX in the morning. However, an opening towards FL was noted inbetween the breaks. The stations peaked again at 1000 utc, WHHQ-1250, WOMT-1240. At 1130 very nice and longlasting FE opening. Radio Vostok Rossii 765 was heard with a huge signal, then nice signals from Pilipinos and some RRI stations, like RRI Palembang-1287 and RRI Medan 801. Jouni Ilmari visited us in the evening.
Saturday 06FEB2016
On Saturday, Brazil was the main target in the morning. Some stations were noted with superclear signals Later on, from NA, a few "ylämummo" stations were noted.
Friday 05FEB2016
The morning condx were poor but we managed to hear one new Mexican for us XEWD NotiGAPE, Cd. Miguel Aleman 1430 with theis new format. Friday evening was promising as a couple of Philippine stations were heard, like DZNG-1044.
Thursday 04FEB2016
Some new Colombian stations were heard at night, like La Voz de la Patria, Barranquilla 1309,7.From the morning, the highlight was KCHJ-1010 "El Gallito 10-10" that was audible for 1.5 hours.
Wednesday 03FEB2016
Nothing special from the morning and afternoon. In the evening, the signals from NA in the evening were much better than yesterday at 2130 utc. WSKW-1160 and WCVX-1160 were audible at 2200 UTC.
Tuesday 02FEB2016
"Early bird catches a worm", but only one worm this time - Some NY stations were audible around on Feb. 1, 2130 utc, but this was not the day when daytimers will go marching in. The only reported station was X-bander WRCR-1700.
At the time of wake-up alarm at 0455 UTC the band was full of the most common yankees.. JJK managed finally to hear finally (a not so rare Mexican) XEAI Radio Formula 1470 after 43 years' trying in Lapland! One hour later, WLJW Cadillac MI peaked on 1370. The sunrise affect did not give anything. During the daylight, we decided to have some oxygen & physical exercise for the body and mind.
Aslak was having the afternoon Coffee Avec with us. Torres 10 received 10 puntos from the jury. 10 puntos goes also to Perseus which worked without the "capitán" for more than two hours - As a result, about 10 new Japanese stations, mostly NHK1 stations with regional breaks, were heard (but no sign of New Zealand and Australia). VOA Deewa Radio, Khost 621 was noted at around 1500 UTC.
Monday 01FEB2016
Sleepy Sleepers-mode was taken into account after the reception of Challenger Radio 1368 late in the evening. So nothing to say about the night. After morning sauna Jussi drove to Inari to have a video conference at the local branch of Luke. Very boring morning,giving nothing new from NA. However, lots of RNE1, RNE5, SER and COPE breaks were recorded in the morning.
Newstalk ZB Wellington 1035 made a two hour appearance on 1035 with rather good signals, but nothing new from that country. However, lots of interesting Japanese stations like YBC Yamagata Hoso 918. Later on Kampuchea on 918 with good signals at 1530 utc. Small traces of suspected 2ME on 1638.
Sunday 31JAN2016
The night did not offer much, but the best condx were towards Brasil and La Plata. The first identified yankee was CKPC Brantford ON 1380 at 0608 utc but the interesting thing on 1380 at 0611 UTC was a Spanish-speaking station. The station idenfied itself as Radio Aleluya 1590 AM, and gave the legal ID of KMIC Houston TX. This turned out to be +KRCM Shenandoah TX which has been listed as an APP status station in FCC AM Query. Not bad! The station was audible for almost three hours. A couple of other yankees were reported, too, e.g. KCKN Roswell NM 1020. AK and HI had nice signals, but no NZ nor Aussies next. The afternoon coffee time was shared with Jouni Ilmari.
Saturday 30JAN2016
After 8 hours of sleep at Jari's eldest son's house in Rovaniemi, we started the final 370 km part of our 1000 km trip at around 0600 utc from Rovaniemi. We did not see Santa Claus at the Arctic Circle. Was this a good or a bad sign? However, a couple of reindeers were noted on the highway A4. We had a break at Little Germany in Sodankylä, then we had a lunch in Saariselkä and later on we enjoyed the beautiiful Lake Inari landscapes for a while. We arrived in Lemmenjoki at 1400 utc. It was very interesting to note that the level of interference from European stations had decreased significantly from last season. The first reported stations were stations from Europe, namely Bretagne 5 on 1593 and I Am Radio 1350.
Pertti Äyräs (PÄ), Kaarina
Thursday 28JAN2016
The night did not provide much since the europeans did still have extra strong signals, as in the previous night. First in the morning the band opened with NA and SA signals and soon there was something interesting to listen to. Quite a many ecuadorians were heard and some peruvians likewise. These disappeared along the rising sun - yes, the sun can already be seen here in the North, and then some NA was left but all signals disappeared around 0820 utc.
This was not a final countdown, the signals reappeared now and then but anything really interesting was not heard live. The last stations to be heard were around 12 utc CJAR 1240, KJCR 1240, KART 1400, CJSN 1490, and some more yet to be found. These signals were accompanied by some noise which was on and off on an irregular basis. Maybe caused by the snow lying on the electricity lines? This phenomenon has been observed here also on earlier expeditions. It may disappear when you connect two or more aerials together but then you also can miss the signal wanted.
The pedition is ending and tomorrow I will leave the Lemmenjoki Listening Headquarters for a while. Maybe back again next fall?
I take the opportunity to express my greetings and thanks to the Jomppanen Family for the facility provided, thanks to The Pooli for the aerials and other valuable things needed, and thanks also all of my sponsors (which are not too many), thanks to Tapio for taking the time for editing these expressions of mine, and thanks to the readers of this column for the patience. Hopefully we will meet again on these pages.
Hasta la vista and 73
PÄ/LEM365 Pertti Äyräs
Wednesday 27JAN2016
This night was disastrous as the european stations had magically powerfull signals spoiling all 10 even channels. No SA, no NA. But in the morning things became to change and first stations from Colombia and Puerto Rico appeared around 04 utc and shortly then a session of more than 10 hours of NA listening took place. No spectacular live IDs noted but surely there must be some on the "tapes". The conditions changed along the time or along the sun, starting from east (no real east coast stations, however) and moving to the west. Then there was a period when the whole bunch of regions of USA, Canada and Mexico was heard together, quite a mess. Not many stations identified live as one could not stay on any certain channel because there was so much to be heard. This messing around was not possible or at least dangerous during the past old days of usual communications receivers! I should perhaps mention 1580 KAMI Cozad NE, new to me. Most of the time this channel was occupied by CKDO, which fact describes the general character of the conditions. Also the Alaskan stations on 550 and 590 were heard on almost any antenna any time of the day.
Tuesday 26JAN2016
The previous night did not show any highligts, no interesting SA stations. And NA started to come in around 04 providing - at least at first listening - only regular guests. Interestingly, however, lower frequencies provided more stations than is usual, for example KCOL 600 from Fort Collins CO, Mexico on 610 (probably XEGS), FSR on both 620 and 630 etc. NA still on 0830 like CJSN on 1490. Much country music was heard all over the band since all the Canadians were well up.
Monday 25JAN2016
Radio conditions were much worse than before, signs of solar activity. Nothing of interest noted last night, only very weak signals from Brazil. Later in the morning some stronger Brazilians appeared around 07 utc. But hey were only three in number, being 1520 R Regional, Ipu, 1540 Aparecida and 1580 R Encantado, and that´s it! These were best heard with the aerial pointing to the Iberian Peninsula. Some northern NA on the lower frequencies at the same hour but very weak. Change of the antenna did not produce much difference in the signal quality.
Some meat balls ( not home made ) were left and I eat them + some potatoes and perhaps, maybe a little bit more than would be healthy, of The Famous Grouse in the evening. I also have some red wine named "RADIO Boca" but I do not usually drink red wine in solitude so it is reserved to be taken with visitors. Four guests have visited so far, and you surely know three of them, at least by name, but who would be the fourth person?
Sunday 24JAN2016
Still worse conditions allthough the solar K Index is coming down.
The night gave only weak signals from southern South America and nothing from NA. In the morning some weak East Coast NA and some Colombians for one hour, like WBPG FM Boston on 1330 and Amor Estereo Bogotá on 1340, and then there was a silence.
The temperature outside is now tolerable being around -15 Celsius after having been around -35 C at least for five days in a row.
Pizza, yes, and drinks as before.
Saturday 23JAN2016
This night provided the usual stuff from southern South-America, nothing much interesting. A couple of stations from Chile was also observed. As has beem every night there has been seen a lot of split frequencies, mostly too weak however. One was from Argentina on 1540.02. And NA stations were unaudible (680 KBRW being an exception). Around 07 utc on the morningside Saturday the 23rd I managed to hear 1080 R Novo Tempo from Belém PA and a little bit later some signals from northern South America appeared, of course I had changed the aerial before that. I got an identification on 1080 as "La Voz de Montería" which apparently is quite an unusual catch. I have not had time to listen any more to the recordings.
The solar indices were higher than earlier and this surely was the reason to poor radio conditions.
Don't say much about the lunch and dinner of Saturday but they were identical to those of Friday. On sunday I will have some pizza.
Friday 22JAN2016
The solar indices were slightly up on Thursday evening and this was clearly noted in the type of conditions: no NA signals and no SA signals around 22 utc. So the right solution seemed to be to have some sleep.
Woke up around 1 utc and noted that the conditions were returning, both SA and NA were audible, but with a faint strength only at that moment. After some listening I understood that the SA signals were steadily becoming stronger. So I set the recordings on and went back to sleep. I was up again around 04 and checked what I had recorded. It was a catastrophe to find out that I by mistake had connected in an aerial with a wrong direction. My intention had been to connect the antenna numbered "1" but connected "2" instead. This is an understandable mistake since the "first" antenna is numbered "0" and points to the Iberian peninsula. The second, number"1" points to southern SA while that with label "2" has a direction towards more northern parts of SA. Then we go through north and the last aerial is "10" pointing to south-east. Now I had made a mistake by putting "2" in and not remembering that it actually is nr. 3 starting from south-west. So the recordings did not provide any signals from the La Plata region or from Brazil. Luckily the conditions still continued and I put the proper aerial, "1", in and continued with my recording efforts. The conditions seemed to be better than average and I expect to have some interesting stuff on my files. Also some signals from NA were observed and another SDR started to collect these.
Later today I checked some recordings and found for example R Caicará Porto Alegre on 780 and R Mundial SP on 660; these have apparently not been logged earlier in Finland. Also R Aparecida was observed on 1500. Only one Aparecida is listed here, from Ilicínea MG but it is still possible that it was some other station only relaying Aparecida. As we know more and more brazilian AM stations are changing their program types to some sort of religious programming. Obviously these religious organizations have money and money matters! It is a certain decline of AM both in SA and NA, likewise in Europe. Maybe after 10 years we only have religious or sport programming on AM, if any?
Something was found also from the NA recordings, 1240 KJCR from Billings MT with EWTN px, religious px of course!
I had a lunch including home made lasagnette assisted with some vegetables, and "piimä". As a dinner I had sausages and a couple of drinks from a bottle called "The Famous Grouse".
Wednesday-Thursday 20-21JAN2016
The conditions of the night between tuesday and wednesday were very like the conditions of the previous night. Nothing of interest to tell about. Soon it was observed the rise of the K index value by NOAA. However, some NA was heard all the day, now and then, but all of them from the central parts of Canada and USA below and above (AK). But only the dominants.
Then the solar indices rised more and one could except conditions towards SA. And this was the case: already at 20 utc wednesday evening Jan 20th Brazilians began to appear on the band and at 21 several of these were identified like 1460 R Agreste, 1290 R Caicó, 1320 R Regional Cicero Dantas (R Regional of Sobral was heard also), 1560 R Dif Vale do Curú etc. All stations were from north-eastern Brazil. About an hour later also stations from southern states of Brazil became audible but I went to bed leaving my rig recording with an aerial for Brazil and southern South America.
After 2230 utc. I do not know much about the conditions of the later night and morning. Had a break in my sleep (you know the reason) around 03 utc and quickly checked the band finding a lot of emisoras hispanohablantes but also NA stations. Identified one station live on 1580 AM and this was R Grande Vale from Paraibuna SP mixed with other portuguese and spanish speaking stations on that particular frequency. So there surely will be more interesting stations "on the tapes" - I hope.
Tuesday 19JAN2016
The NA stations came quite early in on Jan 18th evening but only the usual dominants were heard and the gallery of stations was thus different from the that of the previous days, the Great Lakes Area mixed with more western stations. Even OR, WA and AK were there and hence it is very difficult if not impossible to find anything interesting. Stations like 1340 KWOR, 1290 KOWB, KHAR 590, WHBY 1150 and so on were there. The reason for the changing conditions were found after a look at the solar indices pages of NOAA in the net. K index had risen to 4 in the late evening of Jan 18th. Luckily it soon started to come down to 3 and then to 1 during the 19th and when writing this at 20.30 utc NA already is audible, yet only the north-east Canadians but let's hope for more.
Sunday-Monday 17-18JAN2016
Hello again. It's only about 3 months since I last time visited the Lemmenjoki Listening Headquartes.
Now I'm here again. The pedition LEM365 by PÄ started saturday 16th of January morning at around 9 am from Kaarina in Southern Finland.
Originally my plan was to start already on Friday and stay overnight in Oulu/Muhos but it did not happen that way. So after driving some 1300 kms in about 16 hours I finally was in Lemmenjoki QTH, and it was 0.40 am Finnish local time. I got my rigs working in about two hours, left my Perseus recording overnight with an antenna pointing to South America. I also noticed that some NA stations already provided weak signals with proper aerials. I went to bed but it was quite impossible to fall into sleep. After some sort of 4 hours sleep I returned to my radios and found still signals from southern South America but the signals from NA were already dominating. My second radio, a newly bought SDR-play, started to record these into a computer. It appeared that this receiver with a price of only about 150 euros managed quite well. Not as good as the Perseus but quite close to it.
The conditions continued to afternoon but I was too tired to find any live IDs. Surely there will be something on the discs - I hope. Sunday late evening again provided signals from both NA and SA so I left my radios recording and went to bed. The NA conditions lasted to Monday the 18th until about 14 pm and after this still stations from Alaska were heard. It became clear that the conditions of the day were concentrating on North-East USA and Canada since practically all stations from Ontario had strong signals. Also US stations from this part of the continent had good signals. For example 1340 WIRY was strong and dominating for many hours.
The local time is Monday 7.50 pm when writing this text. Some stations from Alaska are still audible. Let's hope the conditions will continue.
Jopi Nyman (JJN) and Jussi Suokas (JUS), Joensuu (Uhtua)
Friday 15JAN2016
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Friday morning was our payday, because for the first time the graveyards had several stations bubbling and many frequencies didn't have their usual dominants on the top. The conditions seemed to favour the areas around the Great Lakes, and at least WCCR Cleveland OH 1260, WYTS Columbus OH 1230 and WDUZ Green Bay WI 1400 were identified live. The final meal in our pop-up restaurant was Penne Chorizo Picante with The Wanted Zin zinfandel. This is LEM 364 howling off. 73s JJN and JUS 
|  Antenna Inspector Wolf |
Thursday 14JAN2016
Excitement is detrimental to radio conditions. Just after we had noted stations like KPQ Wenatchee 560 and KGHL Billings 790 at 0830 utc and howled excitedly, somebody decided we went over the limit and all stations disappeared by the flick of the switch.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's stations - we swiftly understood. Next we tried to enter the antenna forest, but it was another short joy, as coldness was still prohibitive at the time. The temperatures have, however, risen since, and currently in the evening we have no more than 8 degrees centigrade below here.
Today's meal: beef, goat cheese potatoes and Famiglia Bianchi malbec, and Lappish cheese bread - or bread cheese - with yummy Jimjam as dessert.
Wednesday 13JAN2016
-37C, 598 km/s, K6, 2 UMW, 46 proof
Today's meal: a selection of tapas to celebrate the discovery of Hit FM Barcelona 828 amongst yesterday's stations and, to battle the hostile coldness of the Arctic North, a spicy Mexican Fish stew with a refreshing Adobe Gewürztraminer from Chile.
Tuesday 12JAN2016
The good news today is that the Spaniards were unnormally strong in the morning. The 33 degree Oceania wire backlobe dropped the Brits off and, for example, 1341 was dominated by SER León, COPE León pushed through Santander and Absolute Radio on 1215, COPE Gijón and Valladolid conquered 882, etc.
The bad news is that trans-Atlantic and Asian signals have been almost non-existent since yesterday noon. We had, however, a short opening at 7 utc this morning, when, for instance, KELO 1320 and KYNT 1450 were identified. The solar wind speed peaked to about 700 km/s around 8 utc, and has remained high since, which is unfortunately something that we have been accustomed to experiencing here too often. For a long time in the afternoon there was a "no nothing" situation, but just before 13 utc NA and Asia started to return, and stations like KVI 570 and tentative KXOR 660 stayed on the band till 15.15 utc, so there is renewed optimism in the air.
The outside temperature has gone down here, with 35.8 C below being the lowest that we have recorded, and thus the only outside activity has been transporting more firewood inside.
Today's meal: juicy Yankee burgers with homemade coleslaw and Brooklyn and Anchor lager beers.
Monday 11JAN2016
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The sun rose here in Inari for the first time this year at 11.59 local time, and the huge amount of sunlight scared the promising signals away, but before noon we managed to hit home stations like AFN SHAPE 1143, KXSP Omaha 590 and KIIX Ft.Collins 1410. Our meal today was classic Uhtua fish stew savoured with Pfaff Pinot Gris. This time we also want to answer a couple of readers' questions. Our regular reader from Espoo - who is also fond of fine dining - has requested recommendations for particularly tasty after dinner drinks. While we have several possibilities in mind, our choice is definitely the one on the right side. Another reader from the same village also wrote us to inquire about the fate of the outhouse that can no longer be seen in a recent photo on this website. The locals tell us that it was blown into smithereens after innovative cheese diet experimentations by the Lurx brothers earlier this season. |  |
Sunday 10JAN2016
After a lousy night and early morning the conditions got better after 07 utc, the best catch noted live being WSKW 1160 with its classic country. The conditions remained good enough to stimulate our hunting instincts till close to 10 utc, then died for a couple of hours before some Hawaiians surfaced.
The files that we have already checked unfortunately give no sign of WBOB 600 and its DX test today. The outside temperature dropped from yesterday's 9 below to minus 29 this morning, so the local reindeer had a peaceful day in the antenna forest.
To tempt Australia and other parts, today's meal of choice was Gnu'n Roo, antelope and kangaroo steaks in peppered cream sauce enjoyed with Obsession red wine from Murphys, CA.
Saturday 09JAN2016
This is LEM 364 howling on.
A breakthrough find in the atmospheric science is that a crucially important factor for good conditions to prevail is the wolf number (see Wikipedia for a full explanation,) and it is now optimally configured into 2 for the coming seven days here in Lemmenjoki, and therefore a complete improvement in trans-Atlantic conditions is to be expected. The first sign of this was that right after we had pawed Jari and Jim goodbye from these DX premises, we noticed the nice signal of KEWE Kahului on 1240, and started to uplift our spirits with its music (and an ice cold beer) while giving finishing touches to the dx set-up. NA was audible well after 14 utc, with at least a couple of such highlights as 550 KOAC and 1150 KWKY ided on the go.
The first meal this year in the foodlovers' heaven was Chicken Balti and Singapore Tiger beer.
Jari Ruohomäki (JPR) and Jim Solatie (JMS, 29DEC15-09JAN16)
Saturday 09JAN2016
Again some brasilians in the night. Common NA stations have been audible since 01 utc. Right now at 07 utc there are at least one eastern station, mostly from the Lakes area, on each of the upper AM band frequency. No stations on graveyard frequencies yet. Let´s see what will happen before the Wolves´ howling-in at 1005 utc.
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And to all of you folks: The fireplace has to be use as before althought the air source heat pump has been installed to the LEM-headquarters. According to some sources the first smoke has been observed only during LEM363. LEM363, the HoFi-team, thank you for your attention. We are now HoFi (Honda-Fischer) instead of Honda-team. 73s JMS and JPR |
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Friday 08JAN2016
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Another boring day. Some brasilians in the night and common stations from the prairies and the mountains in the morning and afternoon. It seems that KCKN Roswell MN belongs to those common stations nowadays. Asia was again strong in the evening. Jim succeeded in identifying RRI Singaraja 1080 alive when it was signing on at 21 utc. When DXing gets boring, skiing is one of the other things man can do in Lemmenjoki to take a break. |
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Thursday 07JAN2016
Another day without any remarkable results from the west. Some interesting brasilians were weakly audible before 22 utc and in the night as well. Very common NA-stations from the west appeared to the band after 07 utc. These recordings can be deleted, it is clear. The most common Hawaiian stations had stabil signals in the evening before 17 utc.
By the way, Jim has noticed amazingly strong signals from Japan, China, the Philippines etc. in the afternoon and in the evening on the 5th, 6th and 7th. However, Jim is not very hopeful to have enough time to analyze these files.
Wednesday 06JAN2016
Really bad conditions to the west. The best chance to catch something interesting was after 07 utc when Cololombian and Venezuelan stations had pretty nice signals for an hour. However, it is obvious that the propagation was not good enough to get real pearls.
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Good space weather makes you happy ! (Even if the weather outside might be far from nice ... /ed.) |
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Tuesday 05JAN2016
| This one has been overwhemingly the most many-sided day so far. Moderate conditions towards Brasil in the night and in the morning. We also noticed pretty clear signals towards the northern part of South-America in the night. However, we do not have the faintest idea about the real quality of these conditions. We have paid our most attention to interesting NA-conditions. Eastcoasters were strong from 06 till 09 utc. Noon was much weaker, but fortunately stations from the central parts became stronger and stronger after 12 utc. We were pleased to notice that westcoasters were amazingly quiet. |  A toast for a good DX-day |
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Some stations logged after a quick check: KDAK Carrington ND 1600, KULY Ulysseus KS 1420, KKAQ Thief River Falls MN 1460, KMRS Morris MN 1230, KFBC Cheyenne WY 1240, WIBQ Terre Haute IN 1230, WCAP Lowell MA 980, WHLY South Bend IN 1580, WBIW Bedford IN 1340, WASR Wolfeboro NH 1420, WPKZ Rochester NH 930, WNER Watertown NY 1410, KJJD Windsor CO 1170, Springfield Armony National Historical Park Service, Springfield MA 1710 These ones have been found from the files of the previous days: R Planetário, Espumoso RS 1290, R Cultura, Tapera RS 1280, R Frequencia, Garopaba SC 1380, R Sintonia, Itaporanga SC 1310, R Caicó, Caicó RN 1290 |  |
Monday 04JAN2016
Not much to tell about this day. Really depressing conditions towards any TA-direction. The only highlight was RNE1 Aragon on 639 at 0625utc.
Sunday 03JAN2016
The same pattern continued except that the conditions were clearly worse. However, even some very rare stations were audible with nice signal. R Luz e Alegria, Frederico Westphalen RS 1160 a sufficient example. All the TA-signals disappeared before 0730 utc. Right now at 08.30 utc the only station on the AM band is NRK 1485. Protons should reach normal level around midnight. Let´s see what will happen next.
Saturday 02JAN2016
Proton level raised on the 1st at 22.00 utc. This event didn't kill all the conditions. We had a continuous ZY accumulation from 22.30 till 08.00 utc. The conditions were not very spectacular, but really worth checking. It was quite suprising that La Plata stations were pretty silent before 07 utc.
Some identified statons: R Cultura, Leme SP 1540, R Vaza-Barris, Jeremoabo BA 1400, R Cultura, Novos Campos SC 1420, R Municipalista, Botucatú SP 1240.
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Friday 01JAN2016
K-index has raised even to 6 which you can be noticed on the band. Not LA-signals at all. Some common NA all night and day. However, we noticed some peaks in the night towards the Great Lakes (KDLM 1340, WDMJ 1320) and a pretty interesting TOH at 08 utc (KGHS 1230, KCTO 1160, XECO 1380). K-index has decreased back to acceptable level (2). Maybe we have a chance to have better propagation tomorrow. Anyway, we have 8 days to go.
 Salmon ready to be eaten |
 New-Year's Eve party was as pleasant as always. Aslak and her lady Minna joined us. |
Some highlights from previous days: R Liberdade, Itapecerica MG 1580, R Cadena Uno BA 1240, R Primavera, Porto Ferreira SP 1470, R Riomar, Manaus 1290, R Espirito Santo, Vitoria ES 1160.
Happy New Year 2016 to all of you from the Honda-team and the Jomppanen's!
Thursday 31DEC2015
Quite tough again to hear something new. Moderate conditions to any LA-direction is not enough for us to find something new without tremendous efforts. Mainly Brasil in the night and morning. Best quality at 23-00 and 07-08 utc. ZY was followed by Orinoco stations till 09 utc. Suprisingly strong signals from dominants. We haven't had time to check if there are some pearls along.
Wednesday 30DEC2015
Protons have still huge infulence on the conditions. La Plata and Brasil in the night, but clearly worse conditions compared to the 29th. Mixed conditions in the morning: common NA eastcoasters, CA and Orinoco. La Plata and Brasil were suprisingly weak. Not much hope for stations worth mentioning.
I haven't found a single new station for me so far (Jari). Fortunately Jim arrived yesterday evening and I don't have to suffer alone from the worthless conditions. The traditional New Year's Eve party will be the highlight of the week and the shaman of Lemmenjoki, Aslak, is going to join the party.
Tuesday 29DEC2015
Protons did not kill all the TA-signals. Moderate conditions towards Brasil and La Plata in the night. Some identified stations: R Concepto, BA 730, R Nacional de Argentina, Comodoro Rivadavia/Chos Malal 670, R Chiru, Palmitinho RS 1380, R Frequencia, Garopaba SC 1380, R Povo, Jequié BA 1460, R Cidade, Irece BA 1420, R Encantado RS 1580, R Antena, Lobos 1560, AM 1550, Buenos Aires 1550. Signals became weaker and weaker after 05 utc. No NA-signals at all.
Monday 28DEC2015
Promising conditions towards Brasil after 22 utc. There is a chance to find something new.
Much better towards NA in the morning. Not good, but not so bad either. Even signals on GY-frrquencies. Antenna 321 gives a lot of interferences, but fortunately signals on antenna 300 are much more cleaner. Right now at 8.56 utc stations are fading out.
Temperatures have been around -30 degrees all day long.
Sunday 27DEC2015
Almost useless conditions towards western directions. Some common NA-stations from the westcoast like CIOR 1400, KAST 1370 and KBAR 1230 in the morning. Also some common brasilians in the morning. However, I was suprised to notice R Muriaé MG on 1140.
Jarmo Patala (JP) and Vesa-Jussi Rinkinen (VJR)
Sunday 13DEC2015 - Wednesday 16DEC2015
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We measured also the loop resistances of coaxial feeds and their values seem to match well with those reported by PÄ in the beginning of the season. 33° 7,1 ohm 60° 38,6 ohm 78° 28,7 ohm 249° 9,9 ohm 254° 9,2 ohm 280° 10,3 ohm 292° 23,0 ohm 300° 8,0 ohm 321° 6,6 ohm 335° 7,0 ohm 358° 6,7 ohm Some observations from Asia using the 078 antenna at 1400 UTC: 585 R Pakistan, Faqirabad 621 VOA Deewa R, Khost 648 AFN Okinawa 1062 HLKQ KBS-1, Cheongju 1089 Liaoning RGD 1134 JOQR Bunka Hoso, Tokyo 1305 Jinan Wenyi Guangpo, Jinan 1548 Shandong RGD 1566 Yanbian RGD 1656 8MM Darwin |
And finally dinner: rosemary beef steak in red wine sauce, hot vegetables, organic basmati rice, lettuce in eggplant paste. At this time we could not either resist a nice glass of Italian red, from Veneto area!
LEM362 continues now on automated mode and we have returned to the south because of VJR's business trip. So we have left our gear, two Perseus and two laptop computers recording with NA antennas. We are sure the recordings will keep us busy next spring, and we try to update Online Log as frequently as possible.
73 JP, VJR
Saturday 12DEC2015
LEM362 has started.
We arrived late friday night. Saturday morning started with NA antenna checkings in crispy weather. We enjoyed a walking trip in wonderful winter landscape, checking the North America antennas of 300, 321 and 338 degrees. The weather was ideal, about 30-40 cm of snow and temperature -7 degrees celsius. The NA wires were all in good condition and high enough, although some frost we had to remove here and there.
We noticed the 300 degree antenna was re-built using the Kevlar wire, which seems to be popular due to light weight and strength. It's length was found to be 980 meters and we updated its new end point to the antenna map.
Then listening to some stations mostly from Colorado and Alberta. Also Japan like MBC Radio 1107.
Overnight and early morning signals from Brazil and Argentina.
Antti Aaltonen (ANA)
Friday 11DEC2015 and Saturday 12DEC2015
Propagation conditions were very poor on Friday and on Saturday morning. The only highlight was the excellent reception of many common Filipinos on Friday afternoon. Maybe some nice ones would have been available, too, but I was not even close to catching any ...
JP and VJR arrived on Friday evening for their short stay at LEM. It was great to meet the guys and to welcome them with a glass of champagne. And to get in the right mood, we also listened to a very familiar song performed by Mr. Juha Vainio. Dear Reader, I am sure you know which song it was.
That’s it for LEM361. Thank you for following my pathetic endeavors.
73’s,
ANA
Wednesday 09DEC2015 and Thursday 10DEC2015
Wednesday turned out to be the best day so far - and it is likely to remain so until the end of this DX expedition. Instead of the Northwest (of which I already had an overdose) the cx favored the Midwest. The signals were strong and clear for several hours. The GYs were wide open and for the very first time during this DX expedition even the regional channels were exciting and worth checking. The day gave around ten new NA stations for me personally. Keeping in mind that I am not using SDRs, I can only congratulate myself for a job well done!
Thursday was a total anticlimax: the worst day DX-wise so far. NA in the morning, but mostly boring stations and a lot of fading. Around 09 UTC the "fun" was over. The new disturbance had done its job.
Here are some examples of stations identified on Wednesday and Thursday: KDIO 1350, KRWB 1410, KZZJ 1450, KYWN 890, XESP 1070, RNE1 Catalunya, Lleida 612, RAI Piemonte 999, VoV1 Qui Nhon 648 (split around 648,06. Programming // 675).
As my distinguished co-chef TRE is not here, I have refrained from disclosing any details on cooking. However, this evening I decided to make an exception: the main course will be reindeer tenderloin - the true LEM classic! And a small bottle of red wine to wash it down.
And BTW, when I'm writing this, I'm listening to "Kokomo" by The Beach Boys on WCBS-FM. Some contrast to life here at LEM!
There will be one more report to come, but probably not before Sunday.
Monday 07DEC2015 and Tuesday 08DEC2015
As expected, the conditions leave much to be desired. However, despite effects from CH704, some NA has been audible every morning and early afternoon for hours in a row. Tuesday morning was the worst so far, but around noon there was a clear improvement in the signals. I hope this is a sign of better cx to come.
The solar activity can be seen in the direction of the cx: mostly just WA-ID-OR-MT-WY are audible. In other words, not very interesting. In addition, the signals have not been very stable. I have devoted most of my time and attention to the GY frequencies as the regional channels tend to be completely blocked by dominants during this kind of cx. With hard work (and some luck) I have been able to pick up a couple of new ones (for me, that is). I don’t have to return home completely empty-handed!
SA & CA have been totally useless. Asia seems to be strong in the afternoons, but my lack of skill and knowledge ruin things for me. I haved also kept my eyes (and ears) open for RNE regionals and locals during their morning breaks. Nothing spectacular from that direction either, but nevertheless a couple of new stations for me.
Here are some examples of stations identified so far during this expedition: KCLX 1450, KGRZ 1450, KTIL 1590, KXOR 660, CIVH 1340, KBBS 1450, KVCK 1450, RNE5 Catalunya, Lleida 1152, RRI Palembang 1287 (huge signal!).
Saturday 05DEC2015 and Sunday 06DEC2015
The spectacular vintage receiving equipment set used by LEM361
This will be a different trip to Lemmenjoki - and one to remember for sure. My LEM buddy TRE could not make it this time. Despite the devastatingly catastrophic propagation forecasts I grabbed the bull by the horns. I decided not to cancel the trip, even though my expectations DX-wise are zero, zip, zilch, nada. I am not kidding you: every single new station (new for more personally) will be a huge bonus and an early Christmas present.
Also everything else will be downgraded this time:
- company: could be worse, but I have had better.
-food: ordinary ”husmanskost”, but way better than on most LEM-expeditions (previous expeditions made by TRE & ANA not taken into account in the comparison).
-wine: only a very small quantity of mediocre bulk wines, but all in glass bottles (is there any other way?).
When I arrived on Saturday afternoon, the K-index was already on the rise. It was the first symptom of the effects from the humongous CH704. The most common stations from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest were audible with satisfactory signals. Mostly weak Brazil during the night. In the morning and the early afternoon still lousy cx, but the GY’s were open with stations mostly from WA and ID. Nothing new caught ”live”, but if I have been a good boy, Santa may reward me with something when I check the recordings later on. I also tried to find something interesting from Asia later in the afternoon. The band seemed to be packed with incomprehensible languages.
Here is an exhausting list of all interesting stations heard so far: ----
As it is Independence Day (not the kind described in Martina McBride’s wonderful song, though), the traditional parade of the Finnish reserve forces took place outside the LEM-HQ. As there was a shortage of soldiers, Ltn. Aaltonen both received the parade and marched – all at the same time.
Independence Day Parade Grounds
And now, Dear Reader (or could there be two of you?), until next time.
Hannu Niilekselä (HN) and Hannu Asikainen (HAS, 21NOV-28NOV)
Saturday 28NOV2015
Final day - no hard feelings about packing, since the conditions on our last day flopped totally ... and there was only a slight increase in geomagnetic activity to levels, which usually mean "normal cx" for North America.
But as we woke up to check the band in front of 06 UTC, there was nothing - neither South or North America. Also the 07 and 08 UTC marks passed without a sihgn of any cx. Then, finally, some signals started to rise up from amongst the bruise and we were able to identify about two dozen more or less standard guests on the dial. Soon after that they all were gone.
After ages of NA DX we still are more than a bit puzzled about what kind of space weather you need to have real NA-cx ...
Thank you all - it has been our pleasure to keep you company from LEM360 !
73 de HN & HAS
Friday 27NOV2015
Not much change compared to previous days - or two weeks.
A little improvement in that around 00 UTC the GY frequencies quite rapidly opened up and stations from the northeaster to Great Lakes area were fading in and out. However, this did not last more than about half an hour and checking some files from the remaining parts of the night evidenced that - once again - nothing noteworthy.
In the morning NA started to come in a bit earlier than on most days, already around 0530 UTC. It could be soon noted that the cx were again oriented to the Great Lakes-prairies direction, which meant that hopes for new stations would be very limited.
Still, it was nice to listen to clear signals, some of which came with force. Good going still by 09 UTC, but again by 10 UTC everything was gone. We started to hope for some change in the space weather for our last day of LEM360 ...
Thursday 26NOV2015
CBC-1140 made its first appearance with nice audio at 1840 UTC, so expectations were high: maybe tonight ...
But not. Nothing else for hours and then the same pattern as before, first some NL stations with nice signals, but no real NA in the earlier night time hours. Station gradually creeping in from around 02 UTC, only to get weaker after 05 UTC. Improvement around 0630 UTC and fairly nice on the 7 and 8 top-of-the-hour.
But, but. No real east coast today either and the east coast antenna started to get bruises already after 08 UTC and in fact "died out" before 09 UTC. The 320 degree antenna had better signals all morning and kept them past 09 UTC, but by 10 UTC everything was more or less gone.
It was not that bad with the 320 degree antenna, as around 07 to 08 UTC we enjoyed some very good quality signals, peaking around IA-SD. Some less frequently heard stations were identified, but very difficult to get anything new from that direction in the morning hours our local time.
But the good question is: what does disturb the signals, as the solar wind lingers around 260 ?? We would not be surprised if the all the dominants from all over the continent would be there all day long. But what are the causes that make them die out ? As my good Norwegian DX-er friend OJ Sagdahl wrote to me today: "Is it only me or is this the baddest best conditions we have had in a long time?".
Wednesday 25NOV2015
No problem with the solar wind anymore, if values under 300 km/s is considered to be what we want ...
Still nothing noteworthy in the late evening-early night hours. Some NL appear fairly early, but first "real" NA only after it is too late for any interesting signals. However, today we had some more interesting night time NA from 01 UTC on.
For some reason the signals tend to get weaker for a couple of hours in the morning. While 06 UTC would be already good last week, this week the signals have not come back by that time yet. The shift has been clear so that only by 07 UTC can you expect improvement.
The improvement this morning was interesting, since there was a good peak towards northern Latin America and Central America at 07 UTC. It only lasted for 15 to 20 minutes, but the signals were clear. For example Panama on 1560 was excellent. The rest of the morning offered NA from coast to coast, but again nothing from the deeper south.
Somehow the signals again started to die out after 10 UTC, without a good reason. One would think that with these quiet solar values the stations should come up until late afternoon, but this was - again - not the case. Lots of Chinese stations in the afternoon, with the strongest Japanese, but nothing of specific interest from that direction either.
Lots of recordings – but mostly useless stuff.
Tuesday 24NOV2015
First signs of the band opening a bit also in the evening. Newfoundland stations with excellent signals at around 22 UTC, which howeve is a bit too late for U.S. daytimers. In addition, the cx did not develop into anything and by 23 UTC there was practically nothing ...
The morning started with best signals to around Alberta. The new "canon” on 700 AM was coming in like a local station. At the same time between 07 and 08 UTC the east coast antenna offered lots of northern Latin America, but hardly any U.S. east coast, except the usual powerhouses.
The solar wind is down, but in spite of this, the signals today did not develop further than this. Instead, after 08 UTC all kinds of bruises started to fall on the AM band and the signals never really made it through the noise level. There was clearly some kind of block and only occasionally stations like CBG-1400 and WBAE-1490 were audible with a good signal for some 10 minutes. And then they were gone ...
In all, today turned out to be one of the worst during this whole trip. This is truly strange and we just have to see what will be ...
Local tempertature rose from yesterday's -22 C to -0,8 today !
Monday 23NOV2015
The sun seems to be settling down and the solar wind has gradually decreased. This can be noted on the AM band with more stable signals coming in for more hours than last week. Still, the cx keep on lingering all the way from Newfoundland to Washington mostly along the U.S. - Canadian border with no change.
We also are missing the early starts in the evening, any meaningful signals at night (with lots of EU-QRM), as well as any later afternoon openings. The signals just start die out without a reason around 11-12 UTC.
But it is still nice to have something coming in. This autumn season with NA in all has been worse than anyone can remember. It makes you wonder what we would have achieved with today´s equipment in some of the golden years ...
Sunday 22NOV2015
Signs of improvement are there, but only little has improved. The same story as yesterday could be copied: a little better, also some VEN-COL early morning, but no real east coast USA.
The powerhouses from the Canadian prairies and U.S. states close to the Canadian border keep on dominating. The same stations on the GY frequencies, typically from ND-SD-MN-NE. We'll see if we get any change to this ...
After the cold day yesterday, Kuivajärvi got an ice cover all over and now it is safe to go to the areas that had frozen earlier on and have some snow. Beautiful skiing in -6 degrees and with around 3-5 cm of snow. Enjoyed 22 km of it while HAS had his exercise in the woods checking antennas ...
PS. The "old hq" is still there...
Saturday 22NOV2015
Today I picked Hannu Asikainen (HAS) from the Kittilä airport at around noon. Nice to get some company after a week all alone! As we also bought some groceries on our way, in all it took almost 5 hours. So just the TOH id's have been checked. No surprises there.
The indexes keep on improving. The main effect of this has been that NA stations have appeared earlier and disappeared later than in the previous days. However, still nothing early in the evenings and during the night just the most common powerhouses.
Even if daytime today offered stronger signals, the cx have lingered in the upper prairies. Huge signals from there, but many frequencies without such stations have turned out to be totally empty. Only a handful "odd exceptions" from outside that area.
It was all of a sudden -20 degrees outside, so no skiing today ...
Friday 20NOV2015
Not much change from yesterday, rather worse than better ...
Stations fro NA did start to come in in the night, but nothing worth mentioning. By 04 UTC and 5 UTC it looked promising, since the signals were clear,ut with a lot of European QRM.
Then something happened before 6 UTC, as the AM spectrum started to get bruises, with which the development turned into worse. Stations were still there, but during the whole week 06 UTC had not been this bad.
07 UTC was about the same, buit around 8 UTC the band opened fairly well to the upper west coast. They were fairly strong, but the atmospheric noise could be heard best on frequencies that were empty - and there were lots of them without any signals.
The fun ended after 09 UTC after which there has been nothing. Just wonder where all this atmospheric noise comes from since the geomagnetic indexes have been relatively good all day.
Writing this at 22 UTC on Saturday, absolutely nothing from NA…but I´m ready. Will pick Hannu Asikainen (HAS) from the Kittilä airport tomorrow. He promised to bring back the cx that he took with him as I took him to the Ivalo airport a year ago after a week together !
Thursday 19NOV2015
Today was the first morning when upon waking up just in front of 06 UTC there were no NA audible ... not too promising ...
But during the next half hour signals came in little by little and - to my surprise - also a bit on the east coast 292 degree antenna. Not much, but the most common NJ stations (1230, 1340, 1400 and 1450). The bad news was that exactly 1 minute in front of 07 UTC an atmospheric bruise landed and covered the east coast signal so that I was unable to get ID's of any stations on the GY frequencies. Just the usual powerhouses through the bruise ... and the cx did not return.
With the 320 degree antenna, by 0630 UTC the Canadian prairies (Alberta and Manitoba) were booming in like in the "good old days". Fantastic signals for about half an hour but also these weakening substantially after 07 UTC. Enjoyable signals, but nothing new, of course.
The rest of the day could be dedicated to listening to the few files created so far, and not yet destroyed, and to keep physical condition good enough for the upcoming better reception conditions. So I grabbed my skis and on our local Lemmenjoki highway took a back-and-forth cross country (traditional style) venture all the way to the Inari-Kittilä main highway ...
Wednesday 18NOV2015
Almost the same pattern continues…nothing in the evening, nothing in the night, little cx around sunrise, then practically nothing except for a couple powerhouses fading in and out, as is the norm.
The only difference today was that for a short period a couple (really not many !) NA stations from both the east coast and the west coast heard at the same time. But agai, the cx did not develop to anything worthwhile.
But it will be better ...
Tuesday 17NOV2015
The cx clearly took some steps back today. Nothing in the evening and in the night. In the morning some prairies NA, mostly from Nebraska which -for some odd reason- is a sign of "shit cx". NA died out already after 06UTC. During the day just the powerful Northwest and most common Alaska.
Interestingly, at around 0630 Iberia was fairly good with clear signals, but just 15 minutes later they all had died out. In the afternoon, nothing of interest. Clear signs of the effects of CH700.
But the best news is that the only disturbance over here now comes from the atmosphere, so I'm ready for some cx ...
Monday 16NOV2015
The good news here is that after an intensive search I was able to locate the disturbance, which has been here all autumn. It turned out to be a tiny 12V malfunctioning transformer to a tv digibox in the Lemmenjoki Village, about 4 km from here. It is truly strange how such a device can feed a disturbance on to the electrical network and how the power lines act as a transmitter antenna to that noise! Since it is dark already and there are more signals in the AM dial, tomorrow at daytime will tell, if any noises are still there.
Interestingly, a handful of the most common east coast NA stations (1600, WHGT-1590, 1580, 1540, 1560, 1510,1500, 1400, 1210, 1060, 1030) made their first appearance at 21UTC, but they were soon gone and the night was empty. The cx towards NA in the morning were again slightly better with a handful of “higher quality” stations from the prairies an rockies, although no new ones for me. The AM band is still very disturbed and the signals were drowning under the atmospheric bruise around 08 UTC.
Nothing from the easterly directions in the afternoon either. So there was good time to go through most of the recorded files and run around outside looking for the disturbances.
Sunday 15NOV2015
The good news is that NA was a bit better than yesterday. Some fairly nice signals to the prairies in the morning, but unfortunately the signals died out already in front of 07 UTC and only the northwest US powerhouses (KOMO-1000 etc), along with the most common Alaskans were left to be "enjoyed". The second bad news is that afternoon was a lot worse than yesterday – no Japan, no Australia.
And to top off the bad news: after I had got rid of the disturbance I detected yesterday, the other disturbance (heard strongest with the 250 degree antenna between 800 and 1200 kHz) is there. And since it is humid outside with just 0 to 1 Celcius, this disturbance has been strong and heard more vaguely also on other antennas. I went to check the potential sources nearby, but was not able to locate it. The hunt will continue ...
The sun seems to be going to sleep, so there is a basis for optimism ...
Saturday 14NOV2015
LEM360 is on ! The good news is that the AM-band seems to start recovering after fireworks for several weeks. The bad news is that in the 93 % humidity and snowing the pedition started of with a terrible local interference. Hopefully the same as noted here earlier on, though previously not so bad. Today it made listening to what little NA there was in the morning quite impossible.
So at around noon I took a decent hike to the direction where it seemed to be strongest and was able to locate a house which was the source. Luckily the source could be eliminated. I just hope that this was not a different , new source of interference.
So DX'ing was again possible from around 13 UTC onwards. The easterly direction had already opened when I returned and found an interference free AM band in my receivers. In addition to some common Japanese, even a couple Australians (ABC 630 & 1548 and 4KZ on 1620) surfaced, although the signals were far from enjoyable. But this is a lot more than in weeks from that direction.
Ilpo Parviainen (IPA) and Jarmo Havukunnas (JHU)
Start searching for the blog from: LEM359 - TEAM LURX PEDITION If you really want, you'll find blog in Finnish. LEM pages will publish only brief daily summaries in English.
Friday 13NOV2015
After promising B-opening absolutely nothing. All TA-cx off the whole night, morning and onwards. Lowsy Asian cx started again from PAK, but did not advance from there. No Africa today. This proved to be the worst dxing day of LEM359. As conclusion of the cx on this second week we could say (as Paavo M. Petäjä once so brilliantly said) "Tis is horipul".
73s de IPA and JHU
Thursday 12NOV2015
Tiny improvement in NA-cx. Some WC dominants (f.ex. KOMO-1000, KCLK-1430) for about half an hour after sunrise. Asia-cx to PAK-IND at 14 utc, but later cx spread to KOR-J-PHL-HKG-THA until 20 utc. Also 5AN-891 was noted loud. Nice B-cx between 21-22 utc (f.ex. R Farol-1390). The path to south is no more open hence no African.cx.
Wednesday 11NOV2015
ESPN noted on 1430 for three minutes at 05 utc. No other TA-signals detected. Some Asian dominants after 15 utc. Later some India, but mostly band full of ARS. Some most common ETH in the morning and evening. Worst day cx-wise so far.
Tuesday 10NOV2015
No sign of any TA-signals at night, sunrise or whenever. First day when even KBRW-680 is not audible. Faroe Islands-531 still audible, but BBC Scotland-810 just barely noticeably. In the morning Kassala-666 only noticeable African stn. In the evening not much else from Africa than ETH.
Monday 09NOV2015
No sign of NA- or SA-cx at night. After sunrise only noted stns on AM were BBC Scotland-810 and Faroe Islands-531 (not even Slobo-828 or Merkurs-1485). Some Alaskan stns at noon. Asia-cx straight to Pakistan and Iran at 15 utc. In the evening first EGY-opening with some SDN.
Sunday 08NOV2015
Some signs of improvement on NA-cx, but not significant. At sunrise EC-dominants and WSDK-1550. Asia again mostly with IND-PAK-BGD. Useless African cx but ETH still going strong.
Saturday 07NOV2015
Couple of NA-dominants-stns audible at night, nothing after sunrise. SA , Asia and Africa poor, but ETH is always strong.
Friday 06NOV2015
Some NA-dominant-stns fading up and down at night, nothing after sunrise. Couple of SA-stns in the morning. Mediocre Asia-cx. Superb African cx continued (ETH-BOT-MOZ-AFS), best so far.
Thursday 05NOV2015
Superb African cx again (KEN-BOT-MOZ), otherwise rather useless DX-day. Couple of NA-dominants before sunrise and some Asia in the afternoon. Nothing worthy of mentioning.
Wednesday 04NOV2015
Rather useless DX-day. Cx not totally off but not far from that.
Tuesday 03NOV2015
Nothing special or new from Africa. Weakening cx. NA cx started at 22 utc but only with common dominants. Cx continued through the night with some SA stns. Morning cx to OH-IA-KS-NE lasted until 10 a.m. Afternoon cx to Asia; interesting THA-IND-mixture –typical disturbed cx with stns fading rapidly up and down.
Monday 02NOV2015
Superb cx to Africa continued. Cristal clear signals from H-o-A and surprises from Nigeria (Nagarta R and many tentatives). NA nonstop between 00-13 utc with very similar selection of stations than on LEM358. Some highlights; KCKN-1020, KSRV-1210, KQJZ-1340 and KOKB-1580. Asia mostly with CHN and some J “early” from 11 utc onwards; JOAP-549 and Hami RGD-1485. Later again PAK-IND-BGD.
Sunday 01NOV2015
Superb cx to Africa including stations from ETH, BOT, AFS and NIG. Many new stations heard including Magic 828. Some most common BRA/LP stations heard during the night. First NA stations emerged at about 02 utc. Only some common dominants from Lakes and Mountain region fading up and down in disturbances until 14 utc, followed by good cx to PAK-IND-BGD-THA-region from 1345 utc onwards, even some PHL and CHN stations noted. In the evening superb cx to ETH. More to follow.
Saturday 31OCT2015
Fellows took up their quarter in Lemmenjoki. Everything seems to be organized as usual even if the times are changing.
Friday 30OCT2015
Look out! Team Lurx is on the road again.
Håkan Sundman (HS) and Hannu Tikkanen (HAT)
Shatterday 31OCT2015
Nothing particular at night, a few very strong YV signals on the band in the morning. One or two NA were heard combined with these Venezuelans, which gave an impression that the conditions might start to improve once again.
This might not be one of those dx-expeditions that our grandchildren tell chronicles about around the campfire, but it's always nice to be here.
Time to unplug, saying goodbye and thanking all our faithful followers! The only thing remaining is the tip of the day, before we hit the road.This channel is now closing down for a year.
Editor's choice
73s HS & HAT
Black Friday 30OCT2015
Useless Thursday evening, if one doesn't count Brazilian "opening" at 2100-2200 utc. Possibly more Brazil/(Argentina?) at night, but that remains to be seen some time next summer, I guess. In the morning a bit more of the same, with some HJ/YV/PR but nothing spectacular, on the contrary...R Povo Pombal 1570 and Emisora Santiago y Copla 1120,125 are the live IDs.
We took a quick final look at the aerials on the hilltop and surroundings. The west coast antenna's first ascent on the slope requires active checking from EVERY expedition, please notice this! It was hanging very low on about 1,5 meter so it was raised up again.
The floors have been washed and the house Electroluxed (we still couldn't find the damn Hoover). There was plenty of time before the expected India & the Middle-East invasion. Thai were noticed on many frequencies, but then the Europe finally took over.
The tip of the (past) day(s) ...
Thursday 29OCT2015
Wednesday evening was partially spent in normal routines ie. listening to the African Horn, Ethiopia that is. North America showed no intention to surface at all, so we let the Nestor do its' trick and went to sleep...In the early morning we woke up to a nasty surprise; a severe proton event had wiped the band from every trace of any NA signal. We did hear some NA at night in our recordings but the selection was different to Aihkiniemi in this respect, as it has been commented by numerous expeditions previously. So nothing to report from there. Some very common YV/HJ signals emerged here and there, for an hour or so, including the most common Peru (1470, 1500, 1540, 1570) and very few Puerto Rico, i.e. 1580 // 1660. It all ended around 0600 UTC and that was it.
To put it blunt, it's a bit boring at the moment, so better to cheer up and hope for the best for the Saturday morning (yes, Saturday, not yet tomorrow - we are optimistic but still realistic at the same time): This is what we expected today and this is what we got.
Wednesday 28OCT2015
Yesterday evening we had a pleasant dinner together with Jim at the restaurant Kultahovi in Inari, and we did our best to curse down and change the current pattern of conditions while having a delicious dinner. Seems that we managed only halfway in our intention, some of the signals vanished but nothing new appeared in exchange! So we've been controlling almost exactly the same station assortment as on the previous days. But our friend KCKN Roswell NM 1020 had now disappeared and wasn't blasting one's ears for hours, as it had been for the last two days. Instead we enjoyed identifying KDBM 1490, KVSI 1450, KART 1400, KWOR & KACH & KXQZ 1340, and KBAR 1230 as main examples of the conds. South America & SEA offered nil though attempts were constant.
Next to the news. KFJB 1230 and KROX 1260 have been awarded with the "Station of the Day" diploma! Reasons: both HS and HAT managed to hear a new station today! /majestic fanfare/
And now, sólo éxitos: The tip of the day.
Tuesday 27OCT2015
The pattern is too similar by now. In the evening there are common Great Lakes and NY powerhouses audible, some usual stuff at night - and even more common western signals throughout the day. Probably there's no need to start collecting GY id's here, there are not so many and they are the most usual Idaho/Washington stations on 1490, 1450, 1400 etc. Practically impossible to find new ones, when these & the Prairies dominate. South America has been a true disappointment, nothing from that direction.
The inhouse firewood storage was almost empty after the summer, so it was filled up today. Even though the users of this QTH have been advised not to use firewood before the hard cold months, the stock level should always be maintained ...
Time to start searching eBay; Trying to find someone willing to sell or to exchange one hour of South America conds to a huge pile of three days nonstop NA recordings! I could go down to 30 minutes, if necessary.
There will be a joint effort this evening to curse down the current radio conds and to get better ones by the combined AIH & LEM crews! Thus the tip of the day is obvious.
Monday 26OCT2015
Progreso did take place as we anticipated yesterday. The band was filled with NA from late last evening until very late afternoon, and the signals were very clear and strong. There was not so much to report after all, as the stations were very common ones - but it was indeed nice to spend some 11 hours just listening to NA live today! Mainly midwest and more westerly directions were audible making it hard to find any new ones. The new ones WRCR-1700 and CJLI-700 were of course heard, and lots of common stuff on GYs. KOKB-1580, KEYG-1490, WLEC 1450, CIOR 1400, KART 1400 with CBS Sports now, WNCO 1340, KTIX 1240, KORT 1230, KWIX-1230 ... Mexico here and there but no IDs so far. WHIT-1550 seems to have forgotten that they should be a daytimer; it's been heard now yesterday and today with it's Legends of Country, Hank AM 1550 -slogan, for a couple of hours in the morning.
Nothing to say about any other direction; we did our best to avoid China in the afternoon. And we succeeded!
What else? Ohhh yes, the tip of the day!
Sunday 25OCT2015
Saturday night didn't offer anything to celebrate; after noticing a few African Horn stations we called it a day and left the carrier on 1390 kHz to possibly develop into audio (from Brazil).
Most regular NA surfaced in the morning on numerous frequencies, with some poor Brazil and Argentina. But NA was better than yesterday, there were indeed signals to listen to, so we're looking forward to see some progreso in the conditions. So we spent a few good hours in the forest to stretch out a new Japan-harvester and collected away the old one. Now, only the stations are missing!
About the conditions, the highlights of this early afternoon are here.
Saturday 24OCT2015
LEM358 is on!The conditions are off!
To learn more about the results of this afternoon:Click here.
Friday 23OCT2015
Tip of the day!
Pertti Äyräs (PÄ) and Jan-Erik Österholm (JEÖ) 16OCT-24OCT2015
Friday 23OCT2015 - Saturday 24OCT2015
Hardly any TA-signals during the last two days of the very mediocre LEM357-pedition. An exception was weak La Plata signals on many frequencies between ca 04-06 UTC on Friday morning. Coronal holes one after another, CMEs, and towards the end an increased proton level, were this pedition´s highlights.
73
PÄ and JEÖ
Thursday 22OCT2015
The poor pattern continued with weak B/LP and NA signals during night hours. NA was heard up to around 07 when the band closed. Nothing during daytime. The best TOH was maybe 06 with stations like WIMS 1420, KWOR 1340, KWBE 1450 and WCCW 1310.
Wednesday 21OCT2015
Very bad all night in all directions. AK/HI again around noon and some JP and Chinese stations but nothing from Oceania.
Tuesday 20OCT2015
B/LP emerged just before 00 UTC and faded in and out during the night. Not spectacular cx but at least a couple of new ones for us, namely the ARG stations R Antena on 1560.02v and R Santa Fe, BA on the split 1680.9v. Funny enough no sign of R Rubi on 1670 (inactive?). Around 04 typical stations were, e.g., KPOW 1260 and KIUL 1240. All in all again a lousy night. After 12 UTC Alaska and Hawaii were very strong and most stations were audible including the fairly new HI stations on 740 and 1240.
Monday 19OCT2015
Sunrise over a foggy Kuivajärvi, October 19.
Sunday 18OCT2015
Promising NA during night indicating improving propagation after some weeks of consequtive coronal hole effects and high solar winds. A good LP peak between 0430 and 0500. Even a couple of MEX were noted on 1220 and 1260. KFMO Park Hills MO noted on 1240. Around 12 UTC it happened again: A G1 level geomagnetic storm accompanied by R1 radio blackout happened driving the K-index to 7 thus leaving the band empty during day. The band seemed to recover in the evening with unusually strong Spaniards on most frequencies.
Saturday 17OCT2015
Night gave only weak B//LP and weak NA. Alaska and Hawaii appeared with reasonable signals around 0930 including the HI-stations on 740 and 1240. Asia/Oceania absent during day and again weak B/LP appeared before midnight.
Friday 16OCT2015
Pertti picked up JEÖ at Ivalo airport aroud noon after a lousy night giving only some weak B/LP signals in early night disappearing around 02 UTC. A few weak NA signals such as power house KXEL noted around 04. After returning to Lemmenjoki around 13 UTC weak signals towards JP/CHN noted. Weak B/LP stations appeared around 23. All in all a very lousy 24 hours.
Thursday 15OCT2015
In the morning still better conditions towards the so called La Plata region appeared and many interesting signals were noted, but not yet have had much time to check these. Anyway, a Brazilian station, new to me was observed, Rádio Difusora Vale de Curu from Pentecoste, CE was identified in live on 1560. Also some NA signals, mostly from the estern Canada, on the lower frequencies were observed later in the morning, and in the afternoon signals from Alaska and Hawaii emerged. At least a couple of these new to me were identified, one on 1240 and another on 740. Tomorrow I will pick up Jan-Erik Österholm in the Ivalo airport and he will be joining me the next remaining week. Hopefully we now will have conditions better than previous week ahead of us!
Wednesday 14OCT2015
Nothing to tell about, only some weak UK AM transmitters audible with weak signals. And a station from Leningrad, sorry, St. Petersburg, on 828 AM. So the expectations for the next night conditions were low. But wait and see. Brazil again raised up in the late evening and some kind of conditions towards southern South America were on the whole night through.
Tuesday 13OCT2015
On the morningside around 03 some NA stations appeared with weak signals but they were gone in about an hour. Then silence on the band, except some peculiar intereference on the two most southern aerials in some parts of the MW spectrum. More to follow ...
Late tuesday evening again provided some weak stations from Brasil but they were gone by around 23 utc. Soon it became evident that there will no TA this night. This was found to be true and almost all MW stations disappeared. By the way, I managed to repair the last aerial towards ca. 80 degrees. The coax cable was found broken around 100 m from the balun in the woods. It looked like some big animal had been in work. Maybe a bear thought the black cable to be some kind of liquorice! Jouni-Ilmari told me, however, that there has not been any bears around for a long time. So the cause of the cable accident remains a mystery.
Monday 12OCT2015
KBRW 680 AM found with a decent signal. Then I finally turned my attention to the Eastern Hemisphere aerials and right now only one, the one pointing to 78 degrees, is silent. Probably the long coax cable is broken. Shall try to investigate the problem later today, on tuesday. The conditions on the late evening of Monady were as before, weak Brazilians on some fq´s.
Sunday 11OCT2015
Continued the antenna project and got the aerials for the Western Hemisphere into operation.The conditions during the night were anything but good providing only some La Plata/Brazilian stations (the dominants from there).
Saturday 10OCT2015
The LEM357 DX pedition is on.
Arriving at Lemmenjoki QTH early evening on Saturday the 10th of November my first job was to try to connect some aerials (the baluns in the woods are usually removed for the summer). It was already dark but I managed to connect 4 from the 11 aerials. Unfortunately, two of these did not work. This was no big disappoinment because the radio conditions appeared to be close to zero, in a 0-100 scale. Only some Brazilians were detected.