DXER ham radio news

We are approaching the end of another DX-pedition! Things have worked out well, both with regards to the logistics, equipment, weather (at least until today), and most certainly meals & drinks! We have had some spells with very interesting conditions as well. Again, we see that very quiet solar conditions tend to make propagation boring for those who have heard a lot.

So, a sudden jump in polar K-indices is not a bad thing. Below is an overview over solar weather from October 14 to 26.  Jagged JIX lines (red) indicate fluctuations in signal levels due to changes in the geomagnetic field. Those changes may produce very interesting propagation, and interesting stations!

Yesterday’s JIX was indeed jagged. At first a bit disappointing to see signal levels rise rather late, around 23:00Z, too late for eastern daytime stations. But propagation was inland, so we found a few less common daytime or day power stations, like KSDP-CO 750, KTIC-NE 840, WKAR-MI 870, KOEL-IA 950 and WRRD-WI 1510. Then signal levels declined sharply…so, was this it? Not at all! Because western stations came  up at around 01:00 for another daytimer chase, including KFYO-WA 1050, KFZS-WA 1280, KYOZ-WA 1330 and KPXQ-AZ 1360.

Enough radio talk. Dinner talk! For starters, left-overs from Wednesday’s Västerbotten pie.  We had lots of veal shanks too left from Wednesday, so we added some water and vegetables and made a stew out of it. Very tasty, and with a Côtes du Rhône to match. For dessert we had assorted cheese – leftovers! The port wine was no leftover though, a delicious Dow’s 2006 Quinta do Bomfim.

Today’s tough challenge will be at Mount Loran later today. Taking in 1000 meters of wire, and carrying that and all the other stuff 850 meters to the car in 10-13 m/s (22-30 mph) wind and snow showers is no fun job. But we had lots of fun loggings there!

Below is from this morning, an hour or so before sunrise.

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