Monday, June 21, 2010

Happy Summer Solstice !


So we are again wittnessing the time when the "sun is standing". Although the sun was behind some clouds at 14.28 local time (11.28 UT, the exact time of the solstice) it seems we are starting to move towards the next medium wave season - slowly. As the sun stands so did my little friend on the tree, staring at my ALA100 loop under the old oak tree in my backyard. The antenna is having a summer rest for a month or two...

King´s Village DX wish you a Happy Summer Solstice 2010!

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Secret of the "Kantelemies" revealed!


During a short visit at Haapavesi with some preparations for the next solar minumum (more about that later on)I got the answer of the strange "Kantelemies" / "Kanteleman" standing at the backyard of the DX-Summer Meeting Venue´s Buildings at Haapavesi: the guy is playing with this nice instrument the first version of an old traditional Finnish song which has been an interval signal of YLE "Suomen Yleisradio" - Finnish Broadcasting Company since 1931! Actually the very first tune was played with kantele and the later version with other instruments and finally by the computer. A Kantele is a tradional instrument of the people of North Eastern parts of Europe at least. A kantele (pronounced [ˈkɑntele] in Finnish) or kannel ([ˈkɑnːel] in Estonian) is a traditional plucked string instrument of the zither family native to Finland, Estonia, and Karelia. It is related to the Russian gusli, the Latvian kokle and the Lithuanian kanklės. Together these instruments make up the family known as Baltic psalteries (Wikipedia). Haapavesi is very well known of this instrument and has been called also as a "Kantele Town" of Finland! You can listen to the original YLE-interval signal by clicking the video above.

More details with programs (in Finnish) now about the FDXA Summer meeting blog: http://dx2010.blogspot.com/.

The next picture shows that the preparation for the next solar minimum has been taken place at my Haapavesi QTH: totally 238 birches has been planted in two rows (to the north west, towards North America) - so maybe I have to start more activily to dx North America after 5-6 years when the trees should be of about 5 meters high. I will be back of the results then...