WWPR Bradenton FL 1490 - verification

This station was captured during PAX63 on October 10, 2006 in Parkalompolo. This was a very good day for many east coast stations on PAX63 since stations like WIRY-1340, WFOY-1240, WOON-1240, WJOY-1230, WHUC-1230 and WMOG-1490 ect. were all audible in this same morning. WWPR verified with e-mail in 6 hours.
The v/s told: "I listened to your MP3, and you are correct -- you were indeed listening to 1490 WWPR - Bradenton,Sarasota, Tampa Bay! You heard our typical stationbreak as announced by "Big Ed" Edwards."
RS, thank you very much for helping me identifying this one!

QSL - JPR

KAPL Phoenix OR 1300 tnx TUA
CKDO Oshawa ON 1580
WCCW Traverse City MI 1310 FFF
WMKT Charlevoix MI 1270 tnx TUA
WMBN Petoskey MI 1340
WWOK Evansville IN 1280
KLER Orofino ID 1300 tnx TUA
KVOX Moorehead MN 1280 tnx TUA
WKAT Miami FL 1360
Colorin ColorRadio, Bogotá 1310
R Coronel Dorrego 1470
R Trenque Lauquen 1280 SFF tnx JMS
R Nacional de Venezuela, Cd. Bolivar 560 FFF
R Clube de Salvador 1290 tnx JMS
R Reloj, Bogotá 1010 tnx JMS
R Superior, San Fernando de Apure 1070 FFF
1480AM-Red92, Dolores 1480
WISO Ponce PR 1260 FFF?

KOVE Lander WY 1330 - verification

KOVE's owner sent me a long and informative e-mail along the verification in 6 hours. KOVE was heard during the LEM234 on November 7, 2006 between 5.44-6.01 UTC. The station signed off at 11.00 pm MST and I heard the sign off -announcement followed by the US National Anthem. KOVE identified as "KOVE - Country 13-30".
The v/s wrote: "I started hanging around at this radio station when I was in high school and they finally gave me a job, and here we are many years later and my wife and I own KOVE along with our sister FM station KDLY, which signed on in 1975."

KZXR Prosser WA 1310 - verification

KZXR is often heard but it has been very difficult to get QSL from the station. Thanks to the current v/s info from JOB in Sweden I finally received a polite and nice e-mail verification from the station. Last time I captured KZXR was during LEM234 in November this year with loud and clear reception several times. I picked up KZXR for the first time in October 2004 during LEM 196 with RS.
Tnx JOB!

King's Village - Waiting for Santa!

Indeed we got 2 cm snow in Southern Finland, so there is possibility for Santa to come here from the Finnish Lapland – which undoubtedly is the home of Santa Claus.
DXing is not the number one item during this time of the year and the conditions have been also worst for some time after the latest spots and coronal holes. Conditions should improve in next week, I think there are some good openings in 25-29 Dec and during the New Year before the next CH-based disturbance in the beginning of 2007.

With this picture (at around the December solstice of the Sun – actually the solstice is at 0022ut Dec 22nd) of the 1 cm snow and Our Friend Sun at Kymi River, East of the King s Village dx-qth I wish all the best for everyone for the Christmas Season & good DXing in 2007!

73’s TK

WBIX Natick MA 1060 - verification

WBIX was audible during LEM234 November 8, 2006 for about an hour. The signal was very clear and loud every now and then. The station identified as "AM 10-60 WBIX - The Business Station" and it carried USA Radio Network news. Many local ads were heard and promos for "Silver Talks Money" and "PM Show" programs as well. Never heard this one before. E-mail QSL in a couple of hours.

CISL Richmond BC 650 -verification

The station identified "6-50 C-Isle" and played oldies like Kenny Rogers song "You are So Beautiful". This was actually the first time ever I identify CISL in spite of many tries during the past 30 years! Nice e-mail QSL came in three hours.

KDIO Ortonville MN 1350 - verification

I heard KDIO during LEM234 twice. It played fine Country music and had ABC news on the hour. The reception was clear and quite loud as well and the v/s verified my report: "I will confirm that your audio did have the "KDIO" legal ID in it."
Thanks BH for v/s info.

KPRZ San Marcos CA 1210 - verification

KPRZ sent the first real "old fashioned QSL letter" for a long time. The letter contained nice colourful diploma, coverage map, stickers and lot of information. I picked up KPRZ on November 9, 2006 and the station identified as "San Diego's Christian Talk 12-10 KPRZ".

WCCM Haverhill MA 1490 - verification

I picked up WCCM during PAX63 in October this year. The station faded in and out with WBAE Portland, ME and run ESPN Sport. Nice e-mail in 3 weeks. The v/s wished Happy Holidays and was wondering how is it possible to get 1000 verifications from the distant radio stations...

KORT Grangeville ID 1230 - verification

KORT sent a short e-mail with confirmation and Christmas Greetings in 2 hours. KORT was audible on November 9, 2006 like many other ID -stations at that time. The station played fine Country songs and identified as "KORT FM and AM".

WMYR Fort Myers FL 1410 - verification

November 6, 2006 was a fine FL-morning during LEM234. WDJA-1420, WMYR-1410 and WMMB-1240 all faded strongly in this morning around 6.00 UTC. WMYR carried Relevant Radio programming and it had a strong signal above every other station on 1410 kHz at this time. A long e-mail with good verification from WMYR came in 2 hours.

KTAN Sierra Vista AZ 1420 - verification

KTAN is my fifth verified station from Arizona. KTAN's signal was a big surprise during LEM234 on Novemebr 6, 2006! V/s wrote: "I listened to the recording you sent and it is indeed our legal ID you captured. Intrestingly you are the second person to contact us from Finland with the similar claim. About ten years ago someone else from Finland mailed to us to say that they had picked up our signal in their country".

KSUE Susanville CA 1240 - verification

KSUE identified as "Newstalk 12-40 KSUE" and carried Coast to Coast Talk Show with Art Bell (instead of George Noory!). Reception was loud and clear on Novemebr 9 (again). Short verification via e-mail came in 2 hours.

KFOX Torrance CA 1650 - verification

I picked up KFOX two years ago back in October 2004 when I was in Lemmenjoki together with RS. At the time I never got any response to my reports but now, thanks to the current v/s info from HS , I finally received a long e-mail and the complete verification to my report. E-mail came in 8 hours.

WMMB Melbourne FL 1240 - verification

This one verified very fast. The e-mail came in just before 6 am EST. The v/s was very excited since he had recognized his own voice in the mp3 that was attached with my report. Very clear reception on November 6, 2006 almost exactly at the same time as WMYR was audible on 1410 kHz.

KPAM Troutdale OR 860 - verification

Nice e-mail verification in 10 hours. KPAM faded in at the top of the hour when CHAK disappeared for some moments. KPAM was one of those few new stations for me on Novemebr 8, 2006 during LEM234.

From the King s Village Test Bench

First of all, it seems we are under the worse geomagnetic situation for more than a year due to the solar storm ... so no "High Latitude" DX now ...

Some DX lately in the beginning of December include an opening towards Colombia on Dec 5 and some SW-stations (Papua, Indonesia 5 Dec afternoon and Brazil 6 Dec. morning)...

A BRIEF TEST OF A LAPTOP "ACER WLMI 8210"

I was happy to have this model for a brief test using my sdr-receivers for a few days.
The model is somewhat pricy 2000 $ model w a HD of 120 GB, 1 G memory,
DVD writer of double layer DVDs (optional Blue Ray of 50 G!)... and all the bells and whistles.

The good news:

It was no problem to hook up both SDR-14 and WinR sdr-rx´s at the same time, but that is possible also with the older models. The battery of this brand new machine was still ok and it has a "power management" system to do some adjustments of cpu etc do extend the battery time. With normal settings it was possible to run 3-4 hours of sdr-listening without any problems. So it was nice to check that there was no interference from the power supply to my other receiver (ICOM9000) which was on the same antenna via an antenna splitter & 10dB amplifier. Even the very lowest siganl levels were heard (down to -120...-130 dBm). As the QTH is rather quiet above 1 MHz (on low MF band there seems to be an ADSL qrn from the telephone lines near by!) it was possible at least with low noise BOG-antennas. The lcd screen is a wide one with high resolution (1680x1200) so you have a lot of space to put all the windows on it. Of course you need to have good eyes to look at the tiny windows! The model has also a sound system with equalizers etc not standardly seen on Windows systems.

The bad news:
All changed when I plugged the power supply to AC! Suddenly you have a noise overall on the medium wave band with increased noise level of 15-20 dB! So using the AC connected all the weak signals were gone! That was the end of the test and it was easy to say this is not the machine for low level signals on MW using SDR-receivers & powered from the AC - using the own battery is ok, of course. I had a reference PC, a table-top older Fujitsu-Siemens model (P4, 1.6Gb/1G + 250 GB internal HD). It does emit some noise at least from the LCD-screen (which you can switch off using the SDR-14´s IF-recording), but not so much - at least with a little bit stronger signals than the usual background noise of -120...-100 dbm depending on antennas, frequencies & weather conditions.

What about DRM-decoding:
Maybe this is not the best place to speak about the "cancer of the airwaves", but of course I made a short test trying to use WinRadio 313e´s own DRM-decoder. The signal was ok (of BBC 1296 for example) with some typical drop-outs however. But the worse situation happened again like with other laptops I have tested: after about an half an hour, the system freezed and I had to reboot the computer. As this seems not to be related to the CPU-power (this model is even more powerfull than the old table-top one - which decodes DRM without any problems for hours) the problem should be somehow related to the laptop-computers. Maybe due to the sound chip? Research of this problem should be continued ...
73 TK

KCKX Stayton OR 1460 - verification

"14-60 KCKX, Cowboy Country" as the station identifed on November 9, 2006 during LEM234 verified my report by e-mail message tonight. KCKX is one of those "special" stations I have wanted to hear ever since I began Dxing in the late 1970's. During the conditions towards The Pacific North West the most usual station on 1460 kHz tends to be KUTI Yakima WA but this time I was finally lucky enough to capture Cowboy Country. The station plays the traditional country music and it verified in six hours.

KRPL Moscow ID 1400 - verification

KRPL Moscow ID 1400 sent me a nice QSL letter as a Word -file.
KRPL is a part of a group of 6 stations covering different formats from Oldies, Rock, Top-40, News/Talk, Country and Traditional Country. Other AM -stations in this group are KMAX-840 and KCLX-1450. The complete QSL came in 3 hours.

KVOX Moorhead MN 1280 - verification

KVOX run ESPN -sport and then 2 minutes after the hour they had an ID: "You're listening to AM 12-80, KVOX" followed by ESPN again. I picked up this on on November 6, 2006. The v/s writes:
"Station is actually located in Fargo, ND. Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead Minnesota are the same town just separated by the river which happens to be the state border of North Dakota and Minnesota. "
E-mail QSL came in 12 hours.

KGY Olympia WA 1240 - verification

KGY's v/s sent me two very polite e-mails with a complete confirmation. The station was audible November 9, 2006 (again!) at 9:39 UTC. KGY played AC -music and used "AM 12-40 KGY" IDs. The v/s kindly invited me to visit KGY some day...

1000 VERIFIED RADIO STATIONS BELOW THE ARCTIC CIRCLE

I started this great DXing hobby in September 1979 with a portable radio. It took 27 years 2 months and 27 days before I got my 1000th verified radio station. All these stations are heard below the Arctic Circle, mostly in Kainuu and Northern Ostrobothnia. The 1000th station point came from WKAQ San Juan, Puerto Rico 580 kHz. Admininstrador de ingenieria Sr. Nestor Pérez Pérez sent me a nice email letter after one month waiting. I heard this station in a pedition in JPR's great QTH in Muhos close to Oulu in November 2006. Thank you Jari, Simo, Seppo, Alpo and all the other colleagues who have encouraged me during these years.

Here are the latest 10 QSLs:
WKAQ San Juan PR 580 email-letter 1 month v/s Administradora de ingenieria
WTIC Hartford CT 1080 email with photo follow-up 1 day v/s Chief Engineer
WNIO Youngstown OH 1390 card letter for an email report v/s Chief Engineer, this was a nice surprise as I sent my report only by email but the QSL came by snailmail.
WDRC Hartford CT 1360 card (rp mint stamps were sent) 3 weeks v/s Chief EngineerVSB2 Bible Broadcasting Network, Hamilton 1280 email 2 weeks, Bermuda was country number 190 in my collection
JOFR Fukuoka 1278 card letter schedule 2 weeks
KCJJ Iowa City IA 1630 card 2 weeks (rp mint stamps were sent) v/s General Manager
CHUC Cobourg ON 1450 email 1 week v/s President, Originally CHUC was to shut down on November 11, 2006 but there was interference on their new 107,9 MHz, at the moment CHUC 1450 is relaying 107.9 the Breeze. CHUC will leave AM band as soon as the interference on FM is solved.
CKGM Montréal PQ 990 email 2 days follow-up v/s Chief Engineer, this station was heard during my DX pedition KIVES5 in Kivesvaara, Paltamo in January 2006
CFDR Dartmouth NS 780 email 1 hour v/s General Manager, also known an Kixx Country, the v/s had a Finnish schoolmate called Hannu in Toronto.

More information about my QSLs can be found at: http://www.romppainen.net/TuoreetQSLvastaukset.htm

HAR

KFTA Rupert ID 970 -verification

This one was a very nice surprise during "the Super DX day" on November 9, 2006. KFTA faded in just on the top of the hour mixed with KFBX and KBUL and at least an unidentified station on 970 kHz. Very kind e-mail QSL in 3 hours.

WJAS Pittsburgh PA 1320 - verification

WJAS was audible in Lemmenjoki during LEM234 on November 6, 2006. The station played Oldies songs and identified as "Original Hits, 13-20 WJAS." A short e-mail QSL came in 12 hours. I have never heard this one before but now when NRK is off it's nice to scan 1310 and 1320 with good cx...

KMPC Los Angeles CA 1540 - verification

15-40 The Ticket verified in two hours with an e-mail letter. The v/s seems to be very interested in DXers and the reception reports and he also wanted to know more about our long beverage antennas. He mentioned that my report was the second one in the last few days from our part of the world. KMPC had a fine signal on November 9 during LEM234 and it was all alone on 1540 kHz this time at 13:00 UTC.

KSEN Shelby MT 1150 - verification

This station has been on my "the most wanted" list since the beginning of my DXing back in 1970's. I have heard it a couple of times but always with very poor signal and noisy IDs. This time, November 9, 2006, the signal was loud and clear and the station played fine country songs.
The station identified as "Keep it right here on AM 11-50 KSEN". They sent me a kind e-mail in 12 hours:

"Yes, sir, that was KSEN radio you heard, and the signal was much stronger than the recordings we usually receive!
KSEN's signal is 5,000watts at night, with a four-antenna system that beams it most strongly to the north. I receive several letters each winter from DXers in Norway and Sweden, but you are one of the few from Finland.
KSEN is located in Shelby, Montana, which is 35 miles south of the US/Canada border, and about 50 miles east of Glacier National Park, a place you must visit someday.

Thank you for tuning in!

WJOY Burlington VT 1230 - verification

WJOY is my second verified station from Vermont. The first one was WCAT-1390 back in 1980's. WJOY played "Timeless" love songs and had the complete ID on the top of the hour: "This is AM 12-30 WJOY, Burlington". E-mail QSL after a follow up report.

KDIX Dickinson ND 1230-verification

I captured KDIX on November 9, 2006. This was a great day for DXing during LEM234! KDIX sent two e-mails and the v/s told that he had been working also for KLTC-1460 back in 1980's. He also mentioned that he has signed many QSLs for the Nordic DXers when working for KLTC.

KLER Orofino ID 1300 - verification

Nice e-mail -QSL in 24 hours. KLER is a country music station and it was audible during LEM234 on November 9, 2006. KKOL was dominating the frequency but fortunately KLER faded in and out under KKOL with good and quite a loud signal at times.

LEM234 - log update

We have now checked most of 9th of November -recordings. The conditions was good just before CH interferences. In the morning was fair conditions to ND (KXMR-710, KHRT-1320), MN (KOZY-1320, KDIO-1350), SD (KSOO-1140, KTOQ-1340), NE (KOLT-1320), TX (KVOZ-890, WTAW-1620) and CO (KNUS-710). Later in the day stations from ID (KUPI-980, KIGO-1420), WA (KBRC-1430), BC (CHQB-1280), OR (KDUN-1030, KBBR-1340) and CA (KPRZ-1210, KPAY-1290, KSRO-1350).

Updated LEM234 log

Please, note that there are now DX-forecast (updated now and then during the season), Indices Data, Solar Data and also Nordic TA QSL-rank (summary) links available in the link -list.

KOLT Scottsbluff NE 1320 - verification

Got just a verification from KOLT 1320 via e-mail. Short but complete QSL came in 20 hours.
KOLT was audible during LEM234 November 9, 2006. 1320 offered many fine stations during the pedition; WJAS, KOLT, KHRT, KCTC and KOZY+ usual UT, NS and BC. KELO should have been audible with these cx as well...

KTOQ Rapid City SD 1340 - verification

I picked up KTOQ on November 9, 2006 at 4:00 UTC during LEM234. The station identified: "K-TALK, Rapid City's Talk Radio" and had Fox -news on the hour. The QSL came via e-mail in 5 minutes and the v/s wrote: "I haven't heard from any DX'ers for quite a while, and was wondering if anyone even does it anymore. Now I know."

KDOW Seattle WA 1680 - verification

Thank you JOB for the v/s information for this one!
KDOW came loud and clear "like a local station" during PAX63 with Mexican music and "La Jefa" slogan. E-mail verification in 24 hours.

KBBR North Bend OR 1340 - verification

KBBR on 1340 kHz is one of those stations that belong to Bicoastal Media Group. Others are KBDN-FM, KACW-FM, KJMX-FM, KSHR-FM, KOOS-FM, KWRO-AM and KHSN-AM. KBBR faded in on the top of the hour at 10:00 UTC on 9.11.2006 during LEM234. CFYK was a dominant station on the frequency at the time but KBBR's legal ID came clear as well. E-mail verification took 5 hours.

WROD Daytona Beach FL 1340 - verification

A Kenny Roger's song "You Decorated My Life" was one of those nice tunes that WROD played when it bounced to Lemmenjoki during LEM234. A very kind e-mail verification came in 3 hours. Another nice FL WDJA on 1420 was audible in the same morning but the station has not replied so far...

WEUP Huntsville AL 1700 - verification

WEUP faded in during PAX63 on October 10, 2006 at 7:56 UTC. The station played R&B and gospel as well. "You're on WEUP, the People's station. My #2 AL. E-mail -QSL in 10 minutes.

BOG appears under the snow, some dx

After a few weeks of heavy rain almost all of the snow (which reached to a max. 40 cm!) in SE Finland is gone and the BUS is again a BOG, as you can see. But what is a mysterioius ball in the picture? Maybe something telling about the current geomagnetic situation with minor storm?

Anyway a few good days of some dx-stations lately like: DYVS 1233 Philippines, HRVC Honduras 1390, R Recuerdos (presumed) 1420 (slightly above - +16Hz var. - of the usual Marabina, R Adventista/ LV Esperanza Panama 1560 - together w Santa Maria de la Paz Medellin - the usual dominant. The last one was strong enaugh of good copy at my urban QTH Espoo with WinR313e + ALA-100 loop of 3x7m on Nov 21st!


Last night my KAZ-mast at the Kungsböle QTH collapsed after about 2 months of use. There was no problem with the snow and ice but the heavy rain made the telescopic system to collapse as there is not yet tapes in the joints. Now the mast is about half of it´s total length of 10 meters (5 meters) and thus the KAZ is a bit flat one. Have to test how it affects the signals!

KVKK Verndale MN 1070 - my 1000th verification from NA

KVKK Verndale MN 1070 kHz became my 1000th NA QSL!
My first NA station was KJNP North Pole, AK 1170 kHz that I captured in my home QTH in Joloskylä with my old Trio 9R-59DS in 1976 - to be exact November 22, 1976. KJNP verified my report on December 10th in the same year. So it took almost exactly 30 years to gather all those 1000 QSLs from The US, Canada, Bermuda, Greenland and St. Pierre & Miquelon. It has been a long way with many nice memories...
KVKK sent a long, nice e-mail verification with lot of information of the stations they run and the state of Minnesota as well.

Recent verifications

WSUI Iowa City IA 910 verified today with card and folder after an e-mail f/up.

KTOE Mankato MN 1420 e-mail which gave me the 1000th station point in the FDXA's rank! f/up

WSPD Toledo OH 1370 verified also by snail mail as they promised in their earlier e-mail reply. Letter, 2 stickers.

73's -jsn-

KXMG Portland OR 1150 -verification

KXMG faded strongly in 10:30 UTC on November 9 during LEM234. Nice music and SS ann: "Magia 11-50 - Solo Éxitos". KXMG was mixed up with CKFR with Oldies music and KTLK with Progressive Talk. E-mail QSL in 12 hours.

KDUN Reedsport OR 1030 - verification

I captured KDUN on November 9, 2006 at 10:59 UTC during the LEM234. The reception wasn't actually first rate but however, KDUN was clearly audible a few seconds before 11:00 UTC when KTWO finished the legal ID. A short e-mail verification came in a couple of hours.

KCCS Salem OR 1220 - verification

I got yesterday two nice e-mails from KCCS-1220. At the station they were delighted to get my report and recording and they were surprised at the good signal quality as well. They also told me how the end of their hour programming is:

4 minutes of news
30 seconds of weather, which includes "and for full weather details visit
our website at mykccs.com"
20 seconds of instrumental music
10 seconds of our legal id: "You are listening to My Christian Talk KCCS
1220 AM Salem" or a variation of that.

KBRF Fergus Falls MN 1250 - verification

October 10, 2006 was great day for DXing during PAX63. Especially many new east coast stations for me were booming in during this day. Stations from the Great Lakes and Minnesota were audible as well. One of those new MN -stations I heard was KBRF Fergus Falls on 1250 kHz. They announced: "Good Neighbour Radio 12-50 KBRF AM Fergus Falls", played country music and carried CNN news on the top of the hour. Nice e-mail verification came in 24 hrs.

WHUC Hudson NY 1230 - verification

WHUC was a new one for me during PAX63. It faded in and out around 7 UTC on Oct. 10, 2006 with fine NOS music and ID: "'Every day more Sinatra more Streisand and more of the rest of your all time favourits. Music of Your Life on AM 12-30, WHUC.' Short e-mail in 5 hours.

KCOW Alliance NE 1400 - verification

KCOW Alliance, Nebraska was audible exactly the same time with KQDJ Jamestown, ND on 1400 kHz during LEM234. KQDJ carried ESPN and gave a fine ID on the top of the hour. KCOW had also a clear identification and jingle identification as well before the ABC news. The KCOW's v/s wrote: "Yours was not the first notice we've received, we've had others from Finland too. I don't understand the physics, but I guess it has to do with the curve of the earth and atmospheric conditions."

KPRK Livingston MT 1340 - verification

Last night gave a nice and long e-mail from KPRK-1340. This station has Classic Hits format and played artists like Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder when I picked them up on November 9, 2006 during LEM234. I have plenty of files unchecked on graveyards during this day - hope to find more interesting stations from the Wild West...

Pedition Muhos 6th – 9th November 2006

Simo S. Soininen and Hannu Romppainen took part in a DX pedition in Muhos on 6th – 9th November 2006. Although SF was 86, A-index 0 and K-index 0 the conditions were not so nice we expected. Mostly dominant stations were heard.

On Monday 6th November we started listening with some British stations, also Irish Radio North 846 was identified with C&W music after 1810 UTC. Lots of Spanish and even Portuguese station were heard during the evening also. The first North American station we picked up was KIXX Country on 780 just before 2100 UTC. The normal dominants like VOWR 800, CJCB 1270 and CKEC 1310 became loud and clear. After 2250 UTC we were able to hear Bible Broadcasting Network from Bermuda on 1280. This was a new country for me. Later in the night WDEA 1370 and WENE 1430 came from the eastcoast USA. Simo S. Soininen took his good old Philips (model 1953) to Muhos. He got some nice signal from stations like KGA “Big Talker” on 1510.

In the next morning around 0600 UTC the MW band was full of Venezuelan stations, the strongest was Radio Nacional Venezuela, Barcelona on 1310. Around 0900 UTC there were westcoast yankees on 1530, 1550 and 1600. On Tuesday 7th November at 1200 UTC we enjoyed listening three japanese stations, JOLF 1242, JOFR 1278 and JOIF 1413. However, the Chinese stations were the strongest Asian stations in Muhos. Around 2230-0000 UTC we got for instance WDRC 1360, WRIG 1390 and CHKT 1430.

On Wednesday 8th November we heard several X-band yankees. The strongest was KCJJ on 1630 around 0040 UTC. The morning was a disapointment as we did not hear any US stations from the westcoast. In the afternoon Chinese stations became loud and clear. Shandong Renmin Guangbo Diantai had the best signal on 1548 kHz with occasional QRM from DW. One mystery station was heard on 1602 with English language lesson. This maybe from China or Japan. The reception was too weak to get more details. After 1230 UTC the band was full of Pakistan and Indian stations. Radio Pakistan was heard on frequencies like 1152 and 1332. They even had the news in English at 1300 UTC. AIR Varanasi played nice sitar music on 1242 although there was some QRM from Voice of Vietnam.

The last 24 hours did not give us good catches. The only US station we heard was 1520 at 0300 UTC. In the morning there were several dominant Venezuelan stations as well as few Puerto Ricon stations like 580 and 1280. Around 0700 UTC our pedition was over. The weather was mild during the four days we spent in Muhos near Oulu. We notices some electrical cuts as the trees were fallen down because of the heavy snow weight. Luckily we were able to return back from Muhos. Tens of new stations were heard. Mostly dominant ones.

The road to the cabin was blocked by trees under heavy snow weight. It took a while before the route was clear for DX-listeners.

Simo S. Soininen tested his good old Philips in a pedition in Muhos. The Big Talker 15-10 KGA came loud and clear with his receiver.

KTOE Mankato MN 1420 verification

E-mail from Pete Steiner, PD. He wrote "...In fact, in the northern part of our state - about three hours north of where we are located - there is quite a large population of people who descended from people who emigrated from Finland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries".

LEM234 - November 11th

LEM234 is over and we are on the road and heading first for Kittilä and then Oulu. We must drive carefully since we almost hit renindeers just a minute ago. We will meet the new crew (TAK, YK) within an half an hour on the road between Lemmenjoki and Kittilä.

The last night (0000-0240 UTC) gave some La Plata and Brazil stations to Jari - TuA slept all night long since the band was empty of NAs. The LEM234 log is updated up to yesterday. However, we have lot of recordings to check and we will update the log from now on frequently.

LEM234 is signing off. We wish all the best and 73's to the new LEM -crew!
JVA TuA

KLYQ Hamilton MT 1240 - verification

Quite succesfull LEM234 is about to end. One of those stations I captured during the pedition was a Montana graveyard station KLYQ-1240. They carried "Montana Morning" show and newscast when I picked them up. I sent an e-mail report to the station just an hour ago and after 10 minutes they replied me and verified the reception. KLYQ's slogan was "The more you listen - the more you know".

LEM234 - 10th of November

As expected the solar weather got worse and conditions faded away last night. We heard only a couple of usual NA -stations around 2200 UTC, only a few SA stations in the night and in the morning KFBK-1530 and later KBRW-680.

We spent the whole Friday listening to recordings, updating the log and checking the antennas. We fixed Australia -antenna that was broken and did some other repairing as can be seen on the enclosed photos.

The new crew (LEM235) is coming tomorrow around noon.

Weather today: clear and temperature -20°

.

A new antenna tested

Finally got my new miniwhip antenna. The size is about 4x8 cm(whip) + power feed unit of 5x5cm. The Miniwhip "pa0rdt" arrived and was briefly tested both at my home qth (urban) and at King s Village place (rural). I have not yet any figures of the performance but the conlusions are:
- you have to put it as high as porrible (as you can see, being on the head of the snow man of 1 meter is too low!)
- better to have it at least 10-20 meters from the local-QRN (house) - it performed rather ok at rural qth with low man made noise as far as background noise is concerned
- the signal it delivers is less than other antennas I comprared (ALA100, 150 m longwire, KAZ 10x40 and BOG/BUS 300m)
- signal to noise level is ok with rather low noise level although it is an active antenna
- the signal level drops radically when you transfer the antenna inside of the house; it is not for inside use
73 TK

Kings Village antennas after snow storm

Yes; The KAZ (10x40) survived the latest snow storm in Southern Finland. The BOG (beverage on the ground) is now BUS (beverage under snow, see the black wire going into the snow in the pic) after the accumulated snow of about 20 cm. It seems the performance of the BOG/BOS (300 m, NE) is still ok for Far East on MF (MW), but snow and ice (the wire freezed on the surface of the earth) does make something to the performance on the tropical bands (2-5 MHz). It still works and it is QUIET, but also the strength of the sw signals is (propably) less than before, what is noted when trying to hear Aboriginal music from ARDS 5050.

Conditions has been good to East all the October with a lot of Chinese and Japanese - good levels at times - and some Philipinos (like 1269, 1314, 1476.1) and a few new Thai for me (1278, 1224). Although the geomagnetic indices were very good during the last few days, the conditions towards West has been rather poor with some early openings to Canada (like CBG 1440.01 19.30) - but not so good in the mornings. Just now, as predicted the minor storm by the CH has arrived. Let´s see if something happens with the new sunspot ! 73 TK

CHML Hamilton ON 900 - verification

I got an e-mail verification today to my mailbox from CHML Hamilton. It was really nice to get a QSL straigt to Lemmenjoki during LEM234 pedition!
I picked up CHML during PAX63 with fine signal October 10, 2006.

LEM234 - 9th of November

We woke up not until 2150UTC Wednesday night in spite of the excellent solar weather indicies. At the time stations from Maritime Privices were audible just like the previous evening. We noticed also stations from Wisconsin and Iowa but the stations were again the most common ones. 0530UTC-0815UTC the lower band offered some nice stations from North- and South Dakota and Mexico as well.

Quite good conditions all day long on the upper band until 1430 UTC. Fine MT- and ID opening in the end of this Thursday. Obviously we captured a daytimer station in the late afternoon but however, it needs some further investigations. It will surely take many, many hours to go thru all the recordings we have made…

At the moment the solar wind started to rise and K-index 4 is expected according to the NOAA website. We are waiting for interesting evening opening.

Weather today - cloudy with snow showers and -10 degrees. Because of the cloudy weather we are not going to face possible Northern Lights tonight.

LEM234 - 8th of November

CKEC New Glasgow, NS-1320 made the record during LEM234 being audible Tuesday evening as early as 1950 UTC - the record so far was 2130UTC. Common stations from NF, NS and ME were audible late in the evening and some usual east coast stations faded in soon after 22UTC.

Because of the USA Senate Elections results on almost every single US -station and as we both were quite tired we slept three hours in the night. Since some NA was audible at the same time we recorded the files continously. In the morning between 0530-0730UTC we concentrated in the lower MW -band as we noticed quite strong opening between 530-1000 kHz. This was the first time that the lower band offered something more serious to listen to. Almost every frequency gave something - mainly stations from the east coast, QC and ON and a couple of stations from Cuba and Mexico. AK and HI in the afternoon and otherwise more or less diminants all day in the upper band.

We expect still one or two good and interesting nights and days to NA just before the coming CH disturbance will kill the conditions on Friday night. Hopefully we could enjoy conditions concetrating to the certain areas of the US and Canada. So far we have had stations almost from coast to coast the same time.

Weather today - sunny and -25 degrees. Nice moonlight and bright stars in the sky at nightime and no Northern Lights…yet!

LEM234 - 7th of November

Late in the evening at 22:15 UTC we had a short opening to Maine and Newfounland but later in the night only dominant NAs ja SAs could be heard. We got some sleep and waked up just before 0200 UTC when we noticed strong signals from the US east coast. Beginning at 0330 UTC stations from coast to coast and CA were audible but it was very difficult to pick up something new. No peak at the local sunrise like we had yesterday. Otherwise we had NAs all day long until late afternoon but only on the upper band. Updated LEM234 log

No snowing today, temperature -10 ° C.

P.S. Naturally we have old trusted Trio with us in Lemmenjoki. However, we have had too busy to install it so far…

LEM234 - November 6th

NA from 21:30UTC to 08:15. Weak/moderate signals most of the time and so cxs offered nothing very special in the night. However in the morning a couple of nice east coast stations like WROD Daytona Beach, FL-1340, WLLV Louisville, KY-1240 and WDJA Delray Beach, FL-1420 were captured with clear signals. Also KPRK Livingston, MT-1340 and KQDJ Jamestown, ND-1400 were heard.

Some sleeping breaks again in the morning and in the afternoon we checked four antennas of the LEM -antenna array.

Unfortunately sunspots number 921 and 922 are active at the moment and this makes the solar weather quite unstable.

We got more snow today and the the temperature is around -12 degrees Celsius.

LEM234 - November 5th

NA began last night around 22:00 UTC and stations were heard from coast to coast but only most common stations were audible. That's why we slept most of the night. Stations faded out about 07:00 UTC and came back several times during the day (10:00-14:00 UTC). Among other stations we picked up KXMG-1150, KPUG-1170, KIXI-880 and KPOJ-620. Cx seems to improve quite slowly and reason for that is probably sunspots 921 and 922.

Weather otherwise has been cloudy and we had some snow showers today. Temperature -10 degrees Celsius.

LEM234 - 4th November

LEM234 (JVA, TuA) is now on starting Nov. 4 at 10.00 UTC. The common WC- and AK stations were audible between 11.00-15.00 UTC. For instance KLKI Anacortes WA-1340, KCCS Salem OR-1220, KEYG Grand Coulee WA-1490.

We will publish all identified stations in LEM234 log with the exact dates and times and useful information as well. We'll try to update stations at least once a day.

LEM234 will start 4th of Nov

LEM234 will start tomorrow. If Internet connection works JVA and TUA will report about pedition in this blog. We try also publish station lists from Lemmenjoki with exact dates and times to LEM234 log

CKHJ Fredericton NB 1260 verification

"KHJ AM 12-60 " verified my reception in 20 minutes. I have tried to hear this one for about 20 years and finally I got it! They had weatherforecast and a complete ID at the top of the hour. However, the signal was mixed up with a couple of other NAs and faded out soon.

Recent QSLs

KGRE Greeley CO 1450 e-mail and a promo-clip for px "La Pareja Dispareja" (f/up) tnx fr v/s TuA!

WSPD Toledo OH 1370 e-mail (f/up). According to the v/s my report has been forwarded to the Engineering Department to send a QSL.

KVTK Vermillion SD 1570 e-mail (f/up). Tnx fr v/s TuA!

JOYF Mito 1197 letter and card (f/up).

WRDW Augusta GA 1630 e-mail (fup). After e-mailing a "Thank you" message to the station, the v/s e-mailed back 9 photos of the station. In return, I e-mailed him a few photos from Lemmenjoki and his comments were: "Wow! What a beautiful area! Tnx fr v/s TuA!

CHWO Toronto ON 740 e-mail.

CJWI Montréal QC 1610 e-mail (f/up). My first name seems to sound feminine to the Quebec people, because the verification started with "Bonjour Madame", hi!

73's to all of you fellow-DXers! -jsn-

CJBQ Belleville ON 800 verification

CJBQ faded in clearly over CKLW and CHRC on October 10 in the morning with a fine ID :"CJBQ 800 Belleville". The station has C&W -format and played a country song by Willie Nelson just before the ID. I never believed I could pick up another ON -station on 800 kHz when CKLW is strongly present! With the right antenna and good cx almost everything is possible... E-mail QSL in 3 days.

WIRY Plattsburgh NY 1340 verification

WIRY had a weather forecast before the top of the hour and an ID :"Hometown Radio Stereo, 13-40 WIRY, Plattsburgh, New York." The reception was clear but the station was audible only for a few minutes fading out with CNN news. Short e-mail verification took 3 days.

WOON Woonsocket RI 1240 verification

It took only an hour to get a very nice e-mail verification from WOON-1240:

"Dear Mr. Ahonen,

It is with great pleasure that I confirm for you your reception of WOON, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, U.S.A.
In fact, the voice of the announcer you heard and captured on the .mp3 audio file was my voice. I have been confirming far distant reception reports for WOON for 22 years, but this is the first time I have ever witnessed the reception in such a way. I thank you for that.

To add detail to your unique copy of our transmission at such a distance, WOON operates at only 1,000 watts on 1240 khz and was intended by our government license to serve our small city of 42,000 people only. These factors, when combined with the interference of the many hundreds of other radio stations in the U.S.A. who are licensed for the same frequency and
power output, makes reliable reception of WOON difficult on most nights at a distance of a mere 15 kilometers. Your reception was better than could be expected at most locations in our own country!

DX radio listening is a hobby I, myself, enjoyed when I was young. Unfortunately, the responsibilities of manhood have made it unwise for me to devote the time required to continue.
I am thinking of USA radio stations you may have also received. You have probably heard WEEI (formerly WHDH) at 850 khz. That one should be easy in Finland because they use 50,000 watts and a directional antenna to beam most of the signal out into the Atlantic ocean from a transmitter location approximately 30 kilometers west of Boston, Massachusetts, some 70 kilometers north of our location. I worked at WHDH 20 years ago and I remember them telling of a number of receptions in Scandanavia, but not specifically Finland.

Well, I am off to work for the day. Again, thanks for taking the time to send the audio file, it was truly and first for both me and WOON.

Best Wishes Always,

President and Chief Engineer, WOON, Woonsocket

WMLB Avondale Estates GA 1690 verification

WMLB "The Voice of The Arts" as the station usually identifys sent a long e-mail in Sunday night. WMLB played classical music and it is a CBS News affiliate just like WTNY.

WTNY Watertown NY 790 verification

WTNY was audible during PAX63 on Oct. 10 in the morning. They gave a complete ID just before CBS -news on the hour: "News and views you can use. Northern New York's News Talk Connection, 790 WTNY, Watertown". E-mail verification in 2 days.

King s Village DX - storm Oct 27

Stormy weather just now at my dx-QTH with winds up to 20 m/s. A good test gor my KAZ-mast!
Cx varying, a lot of Asian mw-stations noted in the afternoons, some LAs and NAs in the morning. Finally yesterday good audio from ARDS 5049.92 with TC on half hour (UTC-9.5), nice Aboriginal music as well.
Best wishes to all DXers I met at EDXC conference at St Petersburg last weekend. Hope to complie a short report of the most interesting stuff there. Nice to meet old & new friends.
At the picture you can see from left: Hasse Mattisson, Mauno Ritola,Bengt Ericsson,TK. 73 tk

WFBL Syracuse NY 1390 verification

I have frequently reported WFBL about their reception in Finland during the past few years. However, for some reason they haven't responded me before. I got an short e-mail message yesterday from the station with the reception verification. Last time I heard WFBL was during their local newscast on October 10, 2006 during PAX63.

WNRP Gulf Breeze FL 1620 verification

'Classic Country - AM 16-20' verified my report with long e-mail. V/s promised to send me more info about the station and Pensacola later on. She also wrote: "I have received calls and emails from Mexico and Germany, but you are the furthest away.

KRSV Afton WY 1210 verification

Big surprise - email from KRSV today. KRSV is actually two stations based in Afton, Star Valley, Wyoming. KRSV AM is at frequency 1210 and KRSV FM is at frequency 98.7. They simulcast on both stations, which means they have the same programming on both. They are an ABC Radio Networks affiliate, play modern country music much of the time and broadcast items of local interest including Star Valley High School sports.
Afton is a small community of approximately 1900 people in a valley known as Star Valley, which has a population of approximately 10,000 people. They live high in the mountains, at approximately 6,200 feet in elevation, thus beautiful summers and cold, snowy winters. They reside about 120 miles south of Yellowstone National Park and 200 miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah.

JVA

CJWI Montréal QC 1610 verification

CJWI had a strong signal when I heard it on Oct. 10, 2006 in the morning. The station was operating 3 Hz off on 1609.997 kHz measured by SDR-14 receiver. Also another Canadian station CHHA Toronto 1610 kHz was even more off (1609.974) an hour later in the same morning when I heard the station's ID.

WRDW Augusta GA 1630 verification

Long e-mail -QSL with lots of interesting information as follows:
"We have received quite a number of reception reports from your part of the world, so it must be a hot spot for us. Currently we are diplexing on the same tower as the 1480 signal (which is still operating, but must sign off permanently in November after the five year grace period expires) and we think that this setup may somehow be giving 1630 a high angle of radiation which is creating frequent reception where you are. The tower is not exactly the right length for 1630 since it was constructed originally for 1480. After 1480 signs off the air we may remove the diplexing equipment and adjust the tower height to optimize it for 1630. The company is also considering moving the entire site to the 580 WGAC site and diplexing on that tower, but the frequency separation is so great that it may not be practical."

WCGO Chicago Heights IL 1600 verification

WCGO was playing music by Barbara Streisand and The Bee Gees when I picked up them. They also had a fine ID on the top of the hour. E-mail QSL in 12 hrs.

WABY Mechanicville NY 1160 verification

WABY played NOS tunes when I heard them. The verie signer wrote me concerning my report: "I will show this to our overnight announcer, Chris, to show that he is being hear worldwide. He'll be thrilled."

CKTB St. Catharines ON 610

Short QSL e-mail with gongratulations on getting CKTB in Finland. CKTB had nice, loud and clear signal on Oct. 10, 2006 during PAX63 in Parkalompolo.

WFAU Gardiner ME 1280

WFAU sent me a short e-mail verification and they attached also a nice station logo along the e-mail.
TUA

WFOY Saint Augustine FL 1240 verification

WFOY Saint Augustine FL 1240 faded in nicely during PAX63 on Oct. 10, 2006 at 0800UTC. They had a clear ID 'Newstalk 12-40 WFOY, Saint Augustine' followed by Fox News Radio. Quick e-mail verification in 7 hrs.
TUA

Muhos loggings 27.8 - 14.10.2006

JPR sent his autumn: 27.8 - 14.10.2006 loggings: Muhos log

High Lat CX just before the disturbance on Oct 13

As predicted the disturbance has started. Actually the solar wind started to rise rapidly on yesterday evening. Just before that (Oct 12) very good CX to Far East (Japan, China) continued from 1130 UTC (more than 4 hrs before local sunset!). Enourmous signals from the common Japanese commercials and also a lot of low band NHKs (e.g. 594,693,774) were present in Southern Finland. While the magnetic field swung into south later on the predicted good conditions to North America seemed to get worse during the morning hours. The predicted disturbance seemed to have been started a bit earlier. That´s Friday and the 13th of the month!

TK

Far East DX continued at King's Village QTH

Yes. On Oct 7th so far the best day this autumn with a lot of stations from Japan, Korea and China beginning at least 2,5 hours before local sunset. Best signals on the big JO-stations like 1242, 1278 and 1350 (now easy as there is no Latvia anymore) - some with S9+20dB. By the way, the big All Nite Nippon stations have quite a few own (short) slots with own IDs on TOH and sometimes at the half hour. And there were some stations with lower power present as well, like Japanese on 1215 ("KBS") and on 1431 (tent. JOVF). Even in Southern Finland the European signals were not disturbing and continuous listening of some of the Japanese was possible for 7-8 hours. This is a sign of a sunspot minumum indeed. Also on 7th Oct there was the begining of a minor disturbance which first enhanced signals from Far East and probably reduced levels of the Europeans. Let´s see how CX develops this week before the next CH-disturbance calculated for the next weekend!

TK

PAX63

PAX63 in Parkalompolo, Northern Sweden has been going on since September 22, 2006 when Sigvard Andersson (A) started the first Parkalompolo pedition in this season. Later on Bo Olofsson (BOS) joined PAX63 and so did Christer Koivuranta (CKL). BOS left PAX63 last Sunday and CKL will drive home this coming Sunday. Lars Hedberg (LHU) and Tuomo Ahonen (TuA) will join PAX63 crew tomorrow, October 7, late Saturday evening.

So far a couple of nice TA -stations have been logged - WBCK Battle Creek, MI-930, KVNU Logan, UT-610, WTMJ Milwaukee, WI-620 ect. All those stations had been picked up last week - there is no information available about TA conditions on PAX63 this week.

I will be updating this Blog-site with the latest news from PAX63 next Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The outlooks are very good, however there is a chance for disturbance from CH 242 -stream on coming Saturday and Sunday.

/TuA

New Antennas at King's Village-QTH

Finally got my KAZ (picture 1) of about 10x40 meters up and working. However, it seems there might be some problems with my balun as it is not as effective as usually. Noise figures are ok with very low background noise.Also put my BOG of 300 meters at about 40 degrees on the field. This is very good compared to my usual longwire of 150 meters. My SDR14 shows background noise at about -140 dB. Checked also with some Far East stations on October 5 with a lot of Japananese (e.g. on 1242, 1278, 1287, 1314, 1332, 1350 and 1413 - most with S9 to S9+20 dB!). One new catch from Korea was audible as well on Oct5: 1305 KBS1 with call id at 17utc. Picture of the noise figures on picture 2. The difference on MW is not as big as in this example of 3935 NZ-station which was readable on BOG not on the lw - which actually was my good all-around antenna for years! - sorry the scaled picture, colors inverted!

By the way= King s Village = Kungböle (Swedish name) = Kuninkaankylä (Finnish name). A Village from the late 1700´s. This part of S-Eastern Finland was split into Russia and Sweden in 1743 and a village Pyhtää was split into two countries, thus some villages on the west bank of the Kymi River was named by the Swedes (like "Ruotsinkylä" = "Swedish Village" / Svenskby) ...

TK

SDR-tests at King s Village - noise

After some tests I found the same problem as JOLOS-qth: QRN from external usb-hard disk LaCie Porsche 250 G. The power supply seems to be the source of bad noise on many frequencies. I am going to fix a new hd inside of the computer later on. Also an UPS-system is needed as there are often small power-out situations at my Village. When using SDR14 doing the recordings you can always (and must often do so!) turn off the LCD-screen - also uplug the power - to avoid noise from the LCD. What is more you have to use good calibration stations. I have found one of the best on upper MW to be the British syncro stations like 1215 kHz, probably also 1449. FR1557 seems to be pretty accurate as well. These can be used to check calibration when you do RF-recordings on upper band. Usually as a general station Pori 963 is widely used, however, it seems it can be 1-2 Hz down from the nominal as far as calibrating with other signals like 1215 & 1557. Of course you can hear TA stations during good conditions when the noise occurs, however you need at least 10 dB better signals. But there is a risk to loose the weakest stations ! Although you can use another RX (like I do usually using my ICOM9000) the noise can come via the splitter system!More results later on. Next thing I hope to put up my KAZ 10x40m (NW-SE) with fiber mast ("DX-wire") and soon a NE BOG will be put on the ground.

TK

More SDR-test at King's Village-QTH

Yes. Started to test SDR14 to do some RF-recordings! You have to use UPS with table top computers & external hard disks - that is for sure! Just lost RF-recording of (mostly) Latin American stations on 19 ! channels on Sep 15 at 04 UT when power was down at my cottage for 1 second! Anyway, did some recordings earlier between 1405 and 1595 kHz. Maybe later on (some day) I can say if there are more than usual morning Latins like Vida AM 1520, Medellin (Santa Maria de la Paz) 1560, a few Venezuelans & Brasilians on several channels between 0330-0400 UTC. It is cool also to analyse and do some frequency measurements later on. Antenna was just a longwire of 150 meters. Other RX. Icom9000. (TK)

King's Village DX

Yes. This is the first message from King´s Village DX-QTH of TK = Tarmo Kontro, Espoo. I hope to add some DX-comments every now and then.
MW DX.-season has started and first "High Latitude" signals have been received also by me. The station of the (last month) was however heard at my home QTH (Espoo) with modest equipments: CIAO H101 SDR-rx & ALA100 (7x4meters) loop: surprise conditions down to Chile: 1490 Radio Malleco Victoria August 31 0332ut.Just waiting to be able to lay my NE-bog towards Far East in the next few weeks...73 tk