Sunday, March 09, 2008

LEM262: 1-8.3 (ARK)


Sunday 2.3

Conditions are as poor as expected due to effects from past coronal hole. This morning 04-05.30 short opening towards midwest. 1200 KFNW only catch to mention. KBRW and KOMO occasionally with extremely weak signals and deep fading during morning and afternoon. Nothing from AK, HI or the Pacific.

Monday 3.3

Similar poor conditions as yesterday. However, some most common Japanese stations around 15 UT.

Tuesday 4.3

Another day with pretty weak conditions. They started towards midwest at 02 UT and lasted until 06 UT. Only common dominants. Nothing during midday and early afternoon. 13-14 UT some WA and AK. 15-16.30 UT lots of AK stations (830 KSDP, 930 KNSA) plus some Hawaiians. However, the best AK catches stayed away, blah.

Wednesday 5.3

Once again, conditions pattern continued almost similar. Lots of midwest and west coast stations from 02 UT, weakening at 0630 and fading out totally by 0730 UT. One-hour conditions to west coast at 0930. AK and HI twice during afternoon in half hour portions. 4QD Emerald at 16 UT.Previous night was freezing cold (-29°), first day with bright sunshine during this expedition.Little birds in trees announced the joy of increasing daylight after dark winter! Crows have returned and were "singing" too. When writing this report in the evening, worrying sights of distant northern lights around northern sky...

Thursday 6.3

West coast and midwest stations from 03 UTC plus east coast from 06-08 UT. 08- UT strong conditions to west coast and midwest, even all graveyard channels were well open (1240 KQEN, 1400 KWNA). However, only dominants and nothing from east coast. All faded out by 1130 UT.

Some most common Hawaiians in the afternoon, 1330- UT several Japanese with strong signals. Unidentified 1620-aussie at 16- UT.

Friday 7.3

02 UT once again midwest and west coast stations. 0430 UT also big lakes area. All faded out by 0730 UT. 14- most common Alaskan stations, 15 UT Japanese stations. -32° at night.

Saturday 8.3

Forecasts indicated high speed stream to arrive from the visible coronal hole and I was hoping it would cause special conditions. However, no such one. Its effects could be heard at 08 UT, when almost all stations disappeared accompanied with increased hum. 09 UT signals strengthened with common midwest, west coast and AK stations.

Anyway, during night conditions started at 00 UT with X band stations, even east coast stations for a while. 0330- UT common stations from the Lakes and west coast. As I was the last crew this main season, I had no hurry to pack things and leave. Turned off my radios at 10 UT when there still were several stations on the band. When driving home in the evening, there was impressive northern lights in the sky!

Saturday, March 01, 2008

LEM261: 23.2-1.3 (HS, JMS)

Sunday 24.2

A bit cold start with -35 Celsius at night! However, good TA DX made us feel warm. Some Brazilians and La Plata at night, AM Nuevo Mar del Plata 1620 being the best catch. NA quite well between 05 and 10 UTC. WBIX 1060 with a DX test was heard very well. Then eg. WESX 1230, WBUR 1240, WEZR 1240, WSYY 1240 and WFAU 1280. No Pacific at all, but many Chinese in the evening.

Monday 25.2

Poor conditions both night and day meant no new loggings nor reports. Hawaiian stations surfaced late afternoon with some nice signals. However, only the usual stations were noted.

Tuesday 26.2

Wow! Continuous NA from 23 to 12 UTC. Some excellent peaks during the sunrise. Also Hawaii well in the evening. Clearly the best NA conditions for us this season!

KNRS 570, KXSP 590, WOI 640, KXOR 660, KNBR 680, XEDE 720, KTTO 970, KORL 1180, KTSN 1340, KZNW 1340. From earlier days WTSN 1270, WNZS 1340, WWWL 1350.

Wednesday 27.2

Back to normal. Poor night, mediocre morning (KSJB 600, WJON 1240) and challenging afternoon with interesting Asians. Australia on x-band and 5PA ABC Naaracorte 1161 booming. Also RRI Singaraja from Bali on 1080 like a local station for 40 minutes. Some northern lights promises interesting times ahead.

Thursday 28.2

Conditions have really deteriorated since yesterday. Nothing during the night, some NA in the morning and nothing during the entire day until Asian stations surfaced late afternoon. Tonight the sky is beautiful with fast moving Auroral lights so not much is expected of the next night either.

Friday 29.2

Completely silent - no stations from anywhere. The coronal hole did what a coronal hole needs to do! Now it is time to prepare next weeks work presentations and listen to tapes from Tuesday.

Here are some Asians from 26.2.: 549 Vietnam, 558 DZXL, 576 Yunnan, 603 CRI Hainan, 648 Guangdong, 666 DZRH, 675 Vietnam, 720 ABC Perth, 729 Vietnam, 747 Ningxia Jinji, 783 Hong Kong, 792 Guangxi, 819 ABC Kimberley, 828 Guangzhou and so on. Clearly the direction was a bit different than with usual Asian conditions.

Saturday 1.3

TA and Asia DX totally dead, but last night we enjoyed Emissao Provincial do Niassa from Mozambique with their local Friday evening programme on 1260. LEM261 signing off and wishing good luck to Ari for the last LEM expedition this season.