Tuesday, January 12, 2010

ENOX20 and Ylläs

DXING AT YLLÄS AND ENOX20 AROUND YEAREND (by Hannu Niilekselä)

After Christmas I had the chance to DX North America at Ylläs (a bit) and at ENOX20 (more serious), almost a week in each place. I was using Perseus only at Ylläs, but also a few SDR-IQ:s at ENOX20. Lists of stations logged (so far) at both locations can be found elsewehere on this website.

At Ylläs I was spending the Christmas holiday with family, so DX-ing was only the "second fiddle". At Ylläs I only have one 900-metre antenna (305 degrees) and various sources of external interference, which tend to kill any weaker signal and drive you nuts. In addition, since it is a ski-resort, any serious DX-ing is possible in the night and morning until 0700, shortly thereafter the ski lifts are turned on and thats it. So the results must be seen in a diffe Tough luck !rent light than those at ENOX20, where the array of 4 antennas and (at least this time) practically interference free surrounding give totally different possibilities for rare loggiongs.

But lady luck had her fingers tangled in the atmospheric conditions: the day I moved from Ylläs to ENOX20 also the pattern of the cx changed totally. Whereas at Ylläs the AM band opened up early practically every evening with daytimers coming in, those conditions disappeared. Only a few of the more common stations appeared on the AM dial around 22-23 UTC - truly boring. In the morning the conditions started aroun 07-08 UTC, but were quite general in nature and signals were crisp and clear only for a few hours the whole week, mainly oriented to the prairies: these would have been good Canada cx in the old days, but no stations there anymore ! The good midwest openings that LEM reported the previous week were gone too. Just some west coast, which died out shortly after 15 UTC. Life is sometimes tough !

Ylläs loggings
ENOX20 loggings

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