LEM 260 Hannu Niilekselä (HN) and Jari Sinisalo (JSN)

LEM 260 started on Saturday, February 16, 2008 around noon with expectations of improving conditions after an unsettled to active period in the past week. Saturday offered an unbeatable chance of getting the listening gear tuned into “full readiness”, as the afternoon and evening conditions remained substantially poor. Just a few of some most common NA west coast stations were noted with weak signals.

17.2.2008: Totally quiet around midnight, some LA and CA with weak signals around 1-2 AM UTC, with four or five NL stations surfacing for 10 minutes – not good, but giving a promise of the expected improvement. In the morning all of the sudden a nice and noiseless one hour opening to the areas between the prairies and US west coast , whereafter the atmospheric bruise level returned to where it was on Sunday. Practically nothing from NA during the whole day. Some 15 minutes of fairly nice conditions to Asia in general, with 4QD 1548, along with the 3-4 most common upper band HI stations, surfacing loud and clear for 5 minutes. Japan gave a bit of promise with good signals levels for some minutes, as well, but died out completely 5 minutes prior to the NHK-2 break at 13.20 UTC. A tricky day, but the short morning “break” moments with SDR:s still paid off nicely with a bunch of A-class stations. Peppered fillet of pork accompanied with Torres Mas La Plana 1999 and goat cheese together with arctic cloudberries and sweet caramel sauce topped the evening. KNRS-570, KID-590, KSUB-590, KGVW-640, KXOR-660, KFMB-760, XESPN-800, KUTR-820, KANN-1120, KWIK-1240, KNND-1400.

18.2.2008: Still waiting for the conditions to open up. No evening conditions, some promising Orinoco in the night, but another dead morning. Only a minor 1 hour opening to NA with extremely unstable signals, then complete silence again in the afternoon. Nice sunshiny days with –5 C temperatures outside. The pleasure again today was the chef´s menu with stuffed mushrooms with garlic cream potatoes, accompanied by Puilly Fumé, La Forge, 2006. José Cuervo tequila has been our friend in modest quantities – naturally only to please the God´s of the Mexican skip. Results have, though, not materialized yet. CHTM-610, KFXD-630, KERI-1180, XESA-1260 and KWKW-1330.

19.2.2008: Another disappointing day. Evening and night completely blank to across the Atlantic. The morning equally disappointing. Not a trace of any NA conditions and when trying for morning Iberians, the result: Russians on 2 frequencies and DLF on 1269, nothing else ! . A 5 minute burst in the morning towards NA with 3 “ actual stations (in addition to such stations as KOMO and KBRW which were heard occasionally). But one of these 3 stations gave a super short ID: “La X” on 660 with a decent signal ! Unbelievable to hear such a station without anything worthwhile. The two others identified at 0930 UTC were CKYL-610 and KXL-750. Some Thai in the early evening. It makes one wonder, where have the conditions taken their way in these times of the solar minimum year…Top class spaghetti Bolognese with the remaining 2 glasses of Mas La Plana while nothing that IB is coming in fairly well.

20.2.2008: Still waiting for something positive to happen. Again nothing in the evening, but for the first time Brazil and La Plata fifth fairly good signals in the night. After a bit of sleep, when waking up in the morning before 8 local time, the band was full with NA stations from the prairies, however accompanied by a strong atmospheric “hum”. In 15 minutes the stations started gradually fading outand in an hour the band was empty again. Late in the afternoon some AK and HI with nice signals, but no super-cx. Asia mainly Thai and other uninteresting (?). Wienerschnizel with South African red. R Murial-1290 and R Belgrano-1510 (with supersignals), KLAM-1450.

21.2.2008: The evening started more promising than any of the previous ones. Tiny signals from the most common NL-NS stations started gradually coming in to a more silent MW-band around midnight. Soon VEN-Caribbean stations took over and were well audible all night. Just some isolated NA at night but as the morning came, we had moved to “more normal” conditions. Nothing spectacular, but a handful of nice stations and gratifying was to note that also the GY-frequencies held stations on an uninterrupted manner all morning, from all over the NA, but mostly from the rockies direction. The stations gradually faded out before mid-day and never came back. The afternoon was again totally blank to practically all worthwhile directions, so something is still “wrong”. ZIZ-555, tent. St. Vincent-700 (IQ-recordings haven't been checked out yet), KTNN-660, KGHF-1350, KBLJ-1400, KPTO-1440, KVSI-1450, KMRI-1550.

23.3.2008: Our last chance. We took it seriously and had tortillas with José Cuervo tequila for dinner. The mornings conditions were compared with Tuomo Ahonen, who had sniffed the morning´s conditions and arrived in Enontekiö for a couple of nights for DX´ing. The distance to Lemmenjoki is only some 100+ kilometres but substantial differences in the rhythm of fading and audible stations were noted, in spite of practically the same length and direction of the east coast antennas.

No evening stations from a cross the Atlantic were audible, once again. However, around midnight local time, first NA were noted and soon lots of Puerto Ricans and Venezolanos accompanied them. Gradually, some time after 0100 UTC NA stations started taking over and around 0200 the MW band was already in a promising speed. In the next hour the conditions kept on improving and thereafter the skies opened: signals were huge from all over the NA, with perhaps exception of the extreme West Coast. In addition, we had obviously succeeded in flattering the MEX-gods, since together with the NA signals. NA and Mexican stations were heard both in quantity and quality unexperienced by either of us ever before in our combined history of 68 years of DX´ing.

Then, the conditions behaved as had been the rule this week: in half and hour, the MW band died out completely around 0700 UTC. It is gratifying to end this blog by saying that this last night made the week for us and there will be a lot of work to thoroughly examine all the sound files to get a full understanding of what this rewarding morning gave us. We will do our best to provide the first insights to the list of stations logged.

LEM259: 9-15.2.2008 (HJK, JJK)

9.2.2008 Saavuimme Lemmenjoelle puolenpäivän jälkeen ja kävimme tervehtimässä Kristiinaa. Jenkkiputki oli jonkin aikaa auki hyvästikin, mutta totutteluksi tämä iltapäivä meni ennen kuin säädöt saatiin kohdalleen. KJRB-790 oli ensimmäinen idattu asema. KTIX-1240, KRLC-1350, KSPZ-980. Myöhemmin aasialaisia Tien Sheng 1314, Han Sheng 684 ja sokerina pohjalla RRI Singaraja 1080.

10.2.2008 Yöllä Radio Perú, Juliaca 1320 ja Nationwide Radio 700 tentatiivisena. Aamunousulla melko tavallisia jenkkejä WKSH-1640.15 ja WCHB-1200, iltapäivällä CIOR-1400 ja KMAS-1030. Kelit romahtivat.

11.2.2008 Yöllä laplatalaisia LRA2 Radio Nacional Viedma-1150. Yksi jenkkikin rupukuuluvuudella: KTOE-1420. Romania-osasto otettiin avuksi (Radio Constanta 1530), lisäksi kuulimme mm. Radio Zvezda 1440 ja Groot Nieuws Radio 1008 huippukuuluvuuksilla. Iltapäiväkiinalaiset pelastivat tilanteen: Shanghai Dongfang BS 1422, Shaanxi Traffic 1323, Anhui Life Channel 1395, Jiangxi PBS Satellite 1350.

12.2.2008 ei paljon parempaa NA-suunnalta – yöllä KBGG-1700 ja aamunousulla KZTS-1280, KLIN-1400, KTOP-1490, WONX-1590. Magyar Muravideki Radio 558, Radio Plovdiv 648 ja Radio Oltenia 1314 kertovat paremmin kelien suunnasta. Iltapäivällä kiinalaiset jälleen pelastuksena Zhenjiang EBS 1224, Chutian News Station 1179. Illalla ERTU Luxor 1386 South Upper Egyptin paikallisella ohjelmalla.

13.2.2008 Yöllä NA vaisuna: WILS-1320. KBC Marsabit 1233 ja Radio Vida AM 1620 muista maanosista. Aamunousulla KBAR-1230 ja KZZR-1230. Iltapäivällä horjutettiin kiinalaisten valta-asemaa: Mor Kor 1314 ja Voice of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City 610.

14.2.2008 Pientä lupausta paremmasta, torstai siis toivoa täynnä: KTIK-1350 0030 UTC, KDOW-1680 0056 UTC ja muita tavallisia washingtonilaisia samoihin aikoihin. Rádio Globo Londrina palloili1400:lla. Pari kolumbialaista aamulla pastoreineen eikä ideistä tietoakaan. KVVK-1470 muitten tavallisempien teksasilaisten kera. Mutta aamunousu lopahti ennen kuin oli tullutkaan. Kävelylenkiltä tultua bandi oli kirkas ja KWIP-880 ja KWBY-940 porskuttelivat vähän aikaa. Mutta sitten taas suhinaa. Aasia avautui noin puoleksi tunniksi klo 1210 UTC, siitä tosin 10 min meni sähkökatkon takia ja 15 min sähkömiehen juttuja kuunnellessa. DYSI-1323 oli ainut jonka sai analogisilla vehkeillä koukkuun. Parin tunnin hiljaisuuden jälkeen Aasia lähti uuteen nousuun, BRT 1098 olemassaolo tuli todistettua samalla kun idästä tuli parempaa kamaa JORR-738, AFN Okinawa 648 1600-1700 UTC välillä ja vielä loppuillasta Taiwan BC, Sungling 630 ad 1840 UTC. Tänä iltana oli jo pientä vipinää X-bandin 9:llä jaollisilla taajuuksillakin

15.2.2008 yöllä KRRZ-1390 ja XEKT-1390, mutta ei mitään sen kummempaa. Kuvaavaa on, että vasta nyt sai ensimmäisen kerran KDDZ-1690:stä rupisen idin. Varsinainen aamunousu jenkeistä jäi tulematta, vaikka KBSN-1230 kuuluikin. Ennen sitä brassareita, mm. ZYJ491 Rádio Continental 1520 ja ZYJ590 Rádio Globo Santos 1550. Jätetään loppuosa asemista nyt mainitsematta, koska niitä ei ole vielä kuultu ja tuskin enää blogia täältä pohjoisesta tältä reissulta laitellaan. Kaiken kaikkiaan olipa kiinalainen juttu!

LEM258: 26.1-9.2 (JEÖ, PÄ)

Sunnuntai 27.1: Yöllä hyvät kelit brassareihin ja La Plataan. Ei aamu-LA kelejä. NA sen sijaan koko aamu-iltapäivä. WKBN, R Jamaica 700 etc.

Maanantai 28.1: Hienot BRA-La Plata 23-02 jonka jälkeen NA iltaan asti. Kuviot samat, kelit lopulta jämähtää NW-nurkkaan. WGVS 850 etc.

Tiistai-keskiviikko 29-30.1: Sama kelityyppi jatkuu. BRA ja LP yöllä. NA hyvin heikko aamulla. Jotain sentään: 830 R Princesa da Serra SE; 1290 R Brasil Sul.

Torstai 31.1: Keskinkertaiset brassari ja LP läpi yön. Enimmäkseen länsirannikkoa pitkään iltapäivään. Kohtuulliset AK/HI. Marshall 1098, XEUT etc.

Perjantai-sunnuntai 1-3.2: Häiriön johdosta huonohkot kelit. Tänään 3.2 massiiviset BRA-LP kelit 550-1690. Mm. LT43 Mocovi hurjalla signaalilla sekä samalta taajuudelta - eli 800 - brassari R Universidade RS. Tallenteita on niin pirusti kolmen sdr:n ja 8xNDR johdosta. Lyhyt NA-putki 07 kieppeillä. Myös NA-kelit nousenemassa. Ainoa pettymys eka viikon jälkeen on MEX-kelien puuttuminen.

Maanantai-keskiviikko 4-6.2: Erinomaiset kelit pari päivää. Voimakkaat sinkut Brasiliasta ja La Platastä öisin. Aamulla ja päivällä länsirannikkoa ja järvialuetta. Etelävaltioista ja Meksikosta ei juurikaan mitään. Janne arvioi tallenteiden selvittämisen vievän 40 vuotta! (via HS).

AND2: 24.1 - 3.2 (GF, JA, OF, TBV)

Thursday 24.1: AND2 (location Andöya, Norway) is now in progress. A brief check at 17 UTC had most Alaskan stations audible at good levels, even 1020 kHz was strong.

Friday 25.1: Good conditions to Brazil and Argentina 22 to 05 UTC. Intense opening to the Great Lakes at 01 UTC. The morning was uninteresting. Excellent signals from AK and AB/BC after 12 UTC.

Saturday 26.1: Excellent conditions to Brazil and La Plata during the night. Very nice NA opening 07 to 10 UTC to the Rockies and the west coast, particularly in the lower half of the band.

Sunday 27.1: Strong signals from Brazil 22-01 UTC. Widespread NA from 02 UTC with signals becoming very strong in the morning. For instance 880 offered WCBS one minute and KWIP the next.

Monday 28.1: Again good propagation to Brazil and La Plata around midnight. Later on nice signals from mainly western NA. Some Mexican stations too.

Tuesday 29.1: Excellent signals from AK/YT/AB/BC until 16:30 UTC on the 28. Uninteresting night and morning with only the regular LA and NA stations noted.

Wednesday 30.1: Weak signals from Brazil early in the night. After 02 UTC strong signals from AB/SK. Uninteresting morning with only the NA dominants noted.

Thursday 31.1: Nice signals from Brazil early in the night. Morning and day propagation was very good to the Rockies and the west coast. Ex: 1230 KSBN

Friday 1.2: Superb NA opening 02-08 with many stations on most channels. Only a few dominants audible after LSR.

Saturday 2.2: Rapidly changing conditions early in night. Maine one minute, then Brazil, then AB/SK. Overall a poor night.

Sunday 3.2: Uneventful night, then intense opening to AB/MT after 08 UTC. Yesterday was more interesting than we thought, 590 CFAR, 610 KRTA. 1420 WASR