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