Happy Winter Solstice -If Tomorrow Never Comes?

The bad predictions seems to be partly true when visiting the King´s Village QTH last night:

First of all the MW-band was almost totally down with all signals down (even the local St Peterburg powerhorses) by about -60....-80 dB! Maybe the geomagnetic field is going to reverse and the ionosphere will be gone forever ? Furthermore there was an accumulation of white stuff from the Heaven - now covering everything (40 cm deep). OK - the last item was snow and actually because of the snow my LWOG-BOG was cut right from the beginning of the wire - only about 1 meter left. This was fixed soon after some walk in deep snow...

But the Sun is gone for several days now (photos could be taken using the flash anyway) - How do we know it will rise tomorrow at all ?

As was written in some of the apocalyptic literature the "Land will be Frozen". It seems to be true anyway with the current temperatures down to about -20 centigrades...

Update will come tomorrow, if ...

I wish all readers a Happy Winter Solstice (21 Dec. 11.12 UTC)!

73, TK


UPDATE 22 Dec:
Soon after Noon I could see the light! The clouds went almost away and the sun was "almost" there, not very high as the day was the shortest of the year - but it is there anyway.

King's Village DX-Station November: DZMM Manila 630

DZMM 630

In Southern Finland this year has been rather poor to Asia after some better conditions in September & October. However one day in the beginning of November was a bit better to the Philippines and I was a able to "listen live" a new catch for me: 630 DZMM Manila with its typical news and information programs. At the same time a couple of others were noted as well like 1160.9, 1314, 1350 and 1530. It seems by the way that the Manila station on 1242 is now on a higher offset: 1242.12.
DZMM 630 was audible only a while as the European QRM became too heavy on this channel. Anyway it was nice to get a new one from the Philippines after a while. It seems we have about a dozen to twenty stations "easily" audible during good propagation conditions even in the Southern part of Finland.

A hidden antenna - ready to go

Finally I was able to erect my Far East wire just prior to some new snow (accumulating now to about 10 cm). So it is nice to check if there are going to be any better conditions later on. The first snow with very heavy wind was noted at the QTH on November 30 (with no more than 4-5 electricity power downs of 1-4 hours each). The wire (about 300 metres @ 50 degrees) is now safely (?) under the snow, hopefully the small animals will not find it soon either. It seems this wire has better S/N compared to my delta-Flag/KAZ (with FLG100 amp.). That was noted when checked it by listening to a few Papua-NG stations on 90 mb: 3260, 3315, 3365 & 3385 were all audible at their s/on around 20.00 utc (Dec 3rd).

73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station October: Radio Z-1 Guayaquil Ecuador 1400

October this year was one of the worst dx-wise as the conditions were quite poor most of the month and improved only in the end of the month. There was, however an opening with some stations from Latin America on October 5th in the beginning of the month.
One of the stations on 1400 from South America is Radio Z-1 Guayaquil Ecuador. The dominant from the L.A. is usually from Peru - Super Radio Callao on 1400 (1399.996) but thanks to the offset of Radio Z-1 (it has been on 1399.94 several years) Z1 is audible also, sometimes with rather good strength. That was the case also on Oct. 5th this year.
A typical situation on 1400 can be seen on this picture showing the carriers of Z1, Radio Callao, Emissora Mariana Bogota  and CBC among others (SDR-radio IQ-analysis 11 Nov.2012).

Saludos a Radio Z1 !

73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station September: Radio Comas 1300

I have tried Radio Comas since a few years but only some tentative observations have been made during the local sunrise when BBC 1296 has always been transmitting on DRM and blocking the channel very effectively. Now in September as the channel is "free" again it was possible to hear Radio Comas Lima during a pretty good opening to Peru (on Sept. 28th). At the same time about a dozen common peruvians were heard as well, some of them with quite good signal as this one although it seemed there was another Andian station on the channel as well. Unfortunately no other new stations were identified although an intensive investigations were made also by Henrik Klemetz - Thank You HK! One of the UNIDs were on 1330 (a few Herz below) with an "ID" and s/off at around 04.10 utc (Sept. 28th).
Radio Comas was very easy on short waves back in 1990´s - the picture shows the building of Radio Comas (received with a written QSL in 1997).
73,TK

Testing in two QTHs

At the end of October I finally tested how the new electricity network works at my "Northern QTH" at Haapavesi near the geografical center of Finland. The local electric distributer has finally took away all the open wires (like a big 20 kV wire around the antenna area) and it really means that the power line noise is gone at the QTH! Only one insulator was found on the ground! I hoped they would have left the piles but of course that was not the case - these piles would have been nice masts for long beverage antennas (directed to the NNE @17 degrees). I made some listening tests using a temporary LWOG (250 meters @ 80 degr.) and noted some SEA / FE stations like the big Japanese and a few from the Philippines (on October 19th) like DWXI 1314 (& 1350, 1530).

 At the King´s Village QTH I had to take my LWOG away (waiting the plowing at the area) and installed a delta FLAG using FLG100 units. I works OK, however I prefer LWOG/BOGs as the seems to be more sensitive to low-angle signals. The FLAG works best on SW and could be used on MW as well but it is not as effective for Far East. I have to compare it to the LWOG when I can but the wire again. The fields seems to be very wet now after big amounts of rain.


73,TK

Peru gone - Birds are back!

After some power downs during the last weekend - no IQ-recordings to check (although some Latin cx had been observed in Scandinavia) - the birds are back in the area while K´s have been up to 6-7 and geomagnetic field is reverberating. Could the geomagnetic storms affects to their navigation system of geese? Maybe so.

Anyway after the first impact, an interesting opening to Japan (Oninawa and Southern Japan) was noted on October 8th when two NHK2:s were noted: JOLB 1017 (which is rather easy catch) and NHK2 1125 from Okinawa (& sev.other low power stations). And almost nothing else from the Far East ; later on a few of the powerhouse JO´s were coming through as well as very powerfull HL`s on 1134 and 972. Let´s hope something can be heard later this & next week although there seems to be three CH´s coming to face to the Earth and some potential sunspots as well.
73,TK

Birds gone - Peru is back!

At least the majority of those 300.000 geese left my DX-QTH last week, hopefully they did not touch my lwog-bog antenna, hi.
And it seems finally about a week ago (28th Sept.) conditions to Latin America improved a bit with a nice opening to Peru (& some Colombians etc as well). I have heard there has been some dx-openings also after that but can check my IQ-recordings only next week. An example of the most powerfull Peruvians can be found above (a short video, photos thanks to J.Tulla).
73s TK

The Latest Research of Propagation

The latest propagation research has revealed a new theory of the last months bad conditions especially in South Eastern Finland: there has been a lot of birds in the air lately - mostly around my QTH King´s Village no more than at least 300.000 - 400.000 geese has been calculated landing and trying to navigate to the winter areas. So you can image the situation in this area, alone in one part of (very near my QTH) Lovisa - 150.000 geese has been seen. Also at my DX-cottage , several mornings the big noise of the gaggles has been heard prior the best Trans-Atlantic dx time! Let´s hope the wind will turn and let them go towards to the NW-Europe again!
73,tk

King´s Village DX-Station August: Radio Andina 1390

Bienvenidos Bolivia (photo TNX J.Tulla)!

As we ended last seasons presentation with Bolivia so it is nice to start with a new Bolivian Radio Andina Pongo K´sa, Dept. Cochabamba Bolivia on 1390 kHz.
In fact quite a few Bolivians were noted in Finland (and Sweden) during April through the summer to August. And it seems really we have forgotten to check Latin American Andian stations during the summer. Of course one reason at least to me is the lightning season which can damage our antennas and receivers. Especially unattended SDR-recording systems are in Danger.
Thanks to MKA who activated his home-QTH with good antennas the number of logged Bolivians has grown significantly recently. As far as I know at least 1300, 1390, 1520.05, 1540, 1550, 1580.5 are a few of the most commmon channels which have been open during the summertime. And in fact Southern Finland (not to speak about Southern Sweden) is one of the best place to hear these signals during the summer time.
Thanks to Henrik Klemetz many, like this one has been checked and identified. And HK also organized "old-fashined real" QSL-cards from the station via Rogildo Fontenelle Aragão who has been working in Cochabamba for some time. And thanks to the station's Sr. Victor Pacheco who has signed the cards.

Saludos a Radio Andina y Muchas gracias a Sr. Victor Pacheco y Sr. Rogildo Fontenelle Aragão!

Starting the New Season - Looking to the East

The season has started with sporadic Dxing with two SDR-Iqs recording every now and then. Because of thundering weather it has been more or less sporadic until these days of September. When looking to the East (photo) the planning of the LWOG-BOG is now going on. However Dxing Asia (with the LWOG at about 45 degrees) has to start first with a temporary wire as the plowing in the field is expected some time in Sept or October.

So far the best Trans-Atlantic DX was noted on 24 August with a couple of Bolivians (1390, 1520.05 and 1540) and a few from Peru like Arequipa on 1440 (and presumably on 1540). A big thanks to Henrik Klemetz for help with these! Later on some Argentinians have been noted as well like those on 1630 (San José now on 1629.83 and Diagonal 1629.98) and Guaraní AM 1650 (now moving up being at around 1650.12 in the beginning of Sept.). Finally got the ID of Radio Santa Mauro Brasil on 1540.415 (thanks to MKA who alerted me about the full ID at 0301 on Sept. 2nd. This is a very usual station on the offset but hard to get an ID as it usually plays non stop music before the c/d.
When trying my LWOG just recently I found a few Japanese with decent signal already with 2 meters wire and booming later on when I got about 250 m wire on the ground. I forgot to check the attn of Perseus so the recording started to clip soon around 18 utc. Let´s see if something more from the East can be found – I have to take the wire off soon before the plowing starts.
I wish you all a happy autumnal equinox on Sept 22nd!

By the way it seems there is a big correlation between Apples and DX-conditions: when you get a lot of apples the cx are worse (like this year)!

73 TK

PS: Added some new clips to the Box-section.

PUDXK Summer Meeting 2012

Once again a part of the PUDXK-team spent some time during a brief summer meeting - this time only one night on July 26th-27th at the Kungsboele QTH. This time MKA, JSN, MR, LN and TK were discussing about the current trends in DXing (including "how to identify a rare station"). In fact some rare catches of the last season were identified - at least some nice catches of LN including Honduras on 1320 and an Aussie on 1305. Some live DXing were also tried at least by JSN and MR at night but with not very good results "live". Using remote RXs (the Perseus-network) there were some signs of new stations including a Peruvian (presumed) on 4810. Looking at the photo reveals the team looking to the West and concentrating to listen to a remote RX at MKAs QTH at Hämeenlinna where some Bolivians were noted - this night at least 1580 was heard, but probably some other stations as well.

The meeting celebrated also 27th of July - this is a date of "seven sleepyheads" in Finland. This date suits well to the PUDXK-team as the original team constists of seven members (JPR, JVA, TUA, MR, JSN, MKA & TK). As the team will be about 10 years old next year we have to start the planning of the big celebration soon!

Good food was also in an important part of the meeting. This time we had a nice soup to start with by LN (starting the preparation in teh photo) and the main dish included a traditional smoked salmon. This time we had a "King´s Road Salmon" (the fish was smoked beforehand and carried carefully about 130 kilometres along the historical Kings´s Road - this time from a Village "Bemböle" to "Kungsböle"). Maybe more of this recipe later on. Unfortunately there is no more an "official King´s Road" page; however something about this ancient route can be found at this page
73,TK

Happy Summer Solstice!

King´s Village DX wishes You a Happy Summer Solstice 2012 with some "Midsummer Roses & Flowers of Wild Strawberries at King´s Village QTH - 21 June 2012". So from this date - gradually - we will get more and more darkness which means for us MW-DXers that the new DX-Season is coming sooner or later! 73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station May: Radio El Fuego del Espiritu Santo

Late spring favours usually stations from the La Plata area, Bolivia and Southern Peru. Also this year it is nice to make a Bolivian station as a station of the month. This year it was really interesting to get signals from a few (for me) new stations like this one "Radio El Fuego del Espiritu Santo" on 1580.5 kHz (1580.483). Thanks to this offset station has been audible quite often before sign off usually around 02 UTC. And like many times before Henrik Klemetz made a big job to take a contact to the station and soon the station also verified to Nordic listerners by email. Thank you HK for you great enthusiasm! Thank You also for the station logo - it seems the station has not a web-page of their own, although the organization behind the station has one. At least in Finland MTM was probably first to log the station already in 2008 at a LEM-dxpedition - but it was a surprise that it has been so widely heard this spring in Norway, Sweden and Finland. HK found out that Pastor Lima is in charge of the station and the station is part of CESI at El Alto, Centro para el Entrenamiento de Sembradores de Iglesias (cesi.pastoral.cl). The staff is doing their job without pay. They are offering their time and skills to make the gospel accessible to the local audience. The station covers La Paz and neightbouring Oruro department. The email from the station pointed out: "but whoever listens to me will live in safetyand be at ease, without fear of harm" (Proverbs 1:33). Muchas Gracias y Saludos a Radio El Fuego del Espiritu Santo! 73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station April: Radio 41, San José, Uruguay

April dx-conditions turns often southwards - this time quite a few good openings to South America were noted to Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia and Southern Peru. However I missed also quite a few of them due to the electric power cuts at the cottage. On April 21st however, a number of stations from Uruguay and Argentina were noted. Uruguay was noted at least on 1360, 1370 (should be the Montevideo station), 1410 (ID), 1470 (presumed to be former very common Cristal), 1510 (CW57 ID), 1540.01 (could be Patria), 1560 (should be Maldonado) and two stations on 1580 (unfortunately no ID - although HK checked the recording, but only mentions of "Republica oriental del Uruguay" was noted). This station, CW41 Radio 41 is not the hardest to get, being fairly common and thus a good indicator of propagation. The station suffers often QRM from a Brazilian (nowadays Cultura Ipú seems to be a dominant here). CW41 is slighly below the nominal frequency at around 1359.99. Also CW41 can be listened (like more and more Latins nowadays) via the web page:http://www.radio41.com.uy/ There is also a lot of information on their web-pages. Amnong other news there was a news about the "Milk Expo" at Nueva Helvecia (Uruguay has a number of interesting names of towns!). So let´s have a glass of fresh milk! Saludos a Radio 41 CW41! 73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station March: Radio Iracema Ipu Brazil 1360

Sometimes a station starts to dominate a channel previously dominated by another stations. This seems to have happened with a few Brazilians from CE and Ipú. On 1360 the most common station from L.A. has been the Lima station La Nueva Q FM and from Brazil usually either Bandeirantes or R Cultura, Paulo Afonso, BA. But this spring suddenly it seems the Ipú station Rádio Iracema has been heard quite easily, slightly below the nominal frequency (around 1359.988). Another station from Ipú has been noted also quite often on 1520 kHz. So it is a pleasure to announce Radio Iracema as a DX-Station of March 2012! The station has a webpage with online audio as well - very nice to listen to! 73 TK

King´s Village DX-Station February: JOHS Rumoi Hokkaido 1557

The frequency 1557 has one of the most powerfull signals from the East: Family Radio who blocks the channel almost totally. Sometimes a Chinese station can be heard but on February 12 I managed to note a short but interesting opening to Northern Japan with some strong signals especially from Hokkaido. So this station "Hokkaido Hoso" (relaying JOHR 1287) could be heard under the dominant station. Back in the 1970´s I collected several QSLs from Hokkaido Hoso already when they were not on European channels which made it easier to hear. However this was the first time to pick up JOHS 1557. The old QSLs were rather nice, I do not know if they send these nowadays.

73,TK

Another Opening to the East

Once again a nice opening to the East, particularly this time to the Philippines was noted on March 5th around sunset. Often before the Spring Equinox time you can have nice reception to the East (SE Asia) around local sunset or just before that time.
On March 5th around 15 utc (near the local sunset) I made a TOH recording and soon discovered a few Philippine signals on several channels. At this time many of most interesting stations have already signed off, but some channels were audible, like 666, 882 (DWIZ, which has been rather rare nowadays), 990, 1269 (Bombo Radyo seems not to s/off around 14utc - at least now it was still going on), 1314 (with typical religious programs) and 1349.97 "la Verdad".
Earlier - many times - good propagation to the Philippines means there is a geomagnetic storm starting soon - and as we know now - the impact of the recent CMEs was due to come soon - now we know, the first one with bright Auroras occured on March 7th - maybe more to come?
An example on 990 kHz is here - DZIQ Radyo Inquirer was really dominating the channel around 15: Radyo Inquirer


73,TK

An Opening to the Far East

Still sometimes after the "real winter months" paths to the Far East and Japan opens up nicely even in Southern Finland. Although the best conditions were during 2009-2010 sometimes you can get some nice signals even from Northern Japan. And at the same time usually dominanting Chinese are not that strong. Now in March the days are coming rapidly longer and the band to the East is open only around 15-16 utc whereas in February you can get signals between 14-15 utc.
A such good opening was noted on February 12th - however signals were not so good around 14 utc when the Europeans were still rather silent, but best signals were noted around 15.00 utc! I had only a relatively short IQ-recording session with Perseus but quite a few stations were noted. Actually only one new - but nice - a 100 W Hokkaido Hoso /HBC relay on 1557 under a very strong Family Radio. This logging was Japan n:o 81 at my QTH during 2009-2012. A sign of good Hokkaido conditions was STV Radio Sapporo 1440 being a dominant for a while - this channel is usually dominated by a "local" Russian Zvezda St Petersburg (normally S9+30dB). You can hear an example on the right in my "Clips" Box-archive. Another example in the Box is JOFR 1278 - a very common one, but as it was Sunday the station was starting the Silent Period with a full ID with call letters.

73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station January: Radyo La Verdad Metro Manila 1350

Already since about October a station from the Philippines has been widely noted on 1350 (or a bit below the nominal at 1349.97). The station seemed to have exclusively a program feed from the television UNTV channel 37 (with programs like "An Dating Daan")and seemed to operate all night with this broadcast. It seemed to be from the Metro Manila so almost all were thinking it to be DZXQ Manila. Quite a few station in the Philippines broadcast religious programmes especially at night time.
Finally when I made again a routine check what is coming on the channel on January 18th I heard a bit different program style after 13 utc - and soon an announcement mentioning (in Spanish dialect) "trece-cinquenta" was heard. After listening more to the recording an announcement with "full ID" was heard "UNTV Radyo La Verdad 13-50 tapat at totoo". And a search in Internet revelead soon that the station has started regular programs only 2 days before on Jan 16th after a long tests with UNTV ch 37 program feed! According to web, the call is now DWUN and the power is 50 kW. It seems that this one is an easy catch nowadays - thanks to a split channel below the nominal 1350. Usually from Asia the Chinese Jiangxi is very common on 1350.000 (with English slogan "Natural Radio") like also an another Chinese Togliao on 1349.987(often with easy to recognize programs in Mongolian) not to forget JOER Hiroshima (at least when conditions favour more Northernly signals).

73,TK

I See the Full Moon Arising

Well; or:
I see the bad moon arising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquaqe and lightnin'
I see bad times today
(CCR)
It can be true as it was -27 C on an February evening at my QTH with almost a full Moon and the Planet Mars rather close to the Moon - unfortunately Mars was hiding behind the apple tree and the spot on the photo is actually a street lamp!

The conditions seems to be improving at least to the West with some nice openings to Latin America noted with a lot of stations especially from Peru, Colombia and the Caribbean. However no new catches so far. The East has been rather silent - even the Chinese stations have been rather hard to hear. Something from Taiwan (e.g. 1260 & 1314) and the a few from the Philippines noted also lately, but nights are coming shorter and the Spring will be here soon!

73,TK

Walking in a winter wonderland!

It is here: winter
Indeed it is now here at the QTH - everything is covered by the increasing snow - after this picture we have got about 20 cm more and it is still snowing (since about 5 days...). the antenna (LWOG) is now deep in snow - and the lw wirh some snow also making it heavier and heavier. Not to mention some electric problems making the SDR-recordings to stop. Well, the weatherman says however that we will enjoy cold (and bright) weather later on.

And the Space Weather
has been a bit active as well during the last few days with an active sunspot. However the latest impact was more Proton oriented with only moderate Aurora down here in Southern Finland.

The first impact on Jan 22 at 0615utc (as informed by SpaceWeather.com) was noted also: all the TransPolar/Trans Atlantic frequencies were "shaked" + - 3 Hz just during the impact of the CME and the Solar Wind Sock (picture below, an IQ-analysis of 1470 kHz around 06-07utc). Interesting - I have noted often some smearing etc during bad propagation and sunrise - now it seems the ionosphere did collapse a bit just during the impact making real Doppler effects.

When it snows, ain't it thrilling,
Though your nose gets a chilling
We'll frolic and play, the Eskimo way,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
73,TK

King´s Village DX-Station December 2011: BSS Sanin Hoso (JOHF 900) Japan

Japanese stations are rather common in (at least Eastern & Northern) Scandinavia. Although sometimes in Southern Finland the European QRM is very heavy. Aslo, often during the condtions towards Asia China tends to dominate channels.
So it was a surprise to log BSS also on 900 kHz in December with "Sanin Hoso" announcement. This seems to be a 5 kW JOHF. BSS has been audible several times also this winter on 1431 (when the Euro-QRM is not heavy), but this was the first time to get it here. Although the 1431 has other JOs, BSS seems to be the easiest and a lot easier than 900 (where China usually dominates if Europeans are poor). This logging was the my MW JO-station n:o 79 logged in King´s Village QTH (not all with local IDs however).

73 TK

Happy New Year 2012

King´s Village DX wish you a Happy New Year 2012! The end of the year was interesting in Southern Finland: temperatures as high as + 10 degrees C and no snow! And one of the strongest winter gale with heavy wind. Fortunately no damages at the QTH - the electricity was down as many as eight times during the worst day Dec 26. So all the IQ-recordings of unattended DXing stopped of course.
Let´s see how conditions will develop in the beginning of this year. There is an interesting sunspot turning towards Earth - we will see if we get a real fireworks after a rather long period on inactivity.

73 TK