AND4 (January 8-18, 2009)

AND4 (January 8-18, 2009): Participants: GF, JA, OF and TBV

January 8-9: Good conditions to MN (for instance 970 KQAQ), WI from the evening until early morning. Excellent all band WC conditions from the morning until early afternoon, in particular California stations had impressive signals. One of the best days in AND history. 1510 KGA surprised us by showing up as early as 22:25 UTC.

January 9-10: The evening was promising with stations like 1400 WSLB and 1410 WNER noted early on. Unfortunately the night and morning was disappointing. Propagation improved slowly until by 15h UTC conditions were about as good as one day earlier. WC stations faded out after 15:30 UTC with BC signals still present after 16h UTC.

January 10-11: CJVB stayed with us until well after 17h UTC. 3 hours later we were listening to EC stations. Quite a few signals from the US northeastern states. Some DT signals as darkness moved westwards with a strong signal from 1210 KTBK Ke Buena just before they changed to their nighttime pattern. Spot conditons to ID and WA a couple of hours during the night. Widespread signals during the morning, some DT signals from MN, ND during early afternoon.

January 11-12: Some MN in the late evening (920 KDHL, 1030 WCTS). Propagation improved all night and signals were unusually strong by morning with no particular area preferred. Excellent to the WC in the early afternoon with good GY signals. One example 1400 KJDY.

January 12-13: Fabulous conditions! Strong signals early in the evening from NL. WI and MN stations noted very early. Excellent all-band signals throughout the night, morning and into the early afternoon. We are beginning to wonder if we have sufficient disk space for another 5 days ...

January 13-14: Strong and early signals from ME, 1490 WBAE was like a local at 22h UTC. Good conditions to mainly the EC during the night and the morning. Poor during the day as the disturbance caused most signals to disappear.

January 14-15: Varied conditions over the last 24 hours as a weak disturbance continues. Excellent opening to the northeastern states in the evening, ME before 20h UTC, lots of NY DT signals 30 minutes later. Then the best propagation slowly moved westwards to MI. NA stations were replaced by South American signals after 22h and were absent until the morning when we got another excellent EC opening. Poor during the day, however, WA stations very good at 14 and 15h UTC.

January 15-16: Some ME and NY after 21:30 UTC, then good EC conditions all night mixing with a few Latin American stations. Excellent and very interesting morning and day to eastern, central and even southern parts of the US. Only a few dominant stations around. Some Mexico as well like 1320 XECPN La Mexicana. We are very pleased with the conditions.

January 16-17: Again nice signals from NL, ME and NY early on with peak propagation slowly moving towards the west. Strong signals during the night and morning with WC signals much better than the previous day.

January 17-18: ME stations from 19:30 UTC, then the usual pattern with some EC, and propagation focus moving slowly to the Great Lakes. Fair signals at night. Excellent in the morning with widespread signals. AND4 is over and this may well have been an even better DX-pedition than AND3 in terms of more stations heard and stronger signals.