Walsoorden Dxpedition in January 2013 was probably one of the most extreme trips as far as weather is concerned. I had been to The Coorong in Australia in the high 40's and even at Woodside Beach in 42 degree heat, but never had I had to listen in temps -4c and the outside area very difficult to manouvre in because of thick snow.
Putting the Asian BOG out has always been a relative easy task but when the field is ploughed and covered in snow, it was a sprained ankle or broken leg just waiting to happen. Putting the 450m BOG out was a relative easy task but bringing it in, was one of the worst dx experiences I have ever faced. The wind was really howling and across a paddock of snow it really packed a numbing punch.
But saying that, inside was cosy and as always the atmosphere was good. The dx conditions were interesting to say the least. The past few weeks had seen a return to some glory days reception with guys hearing a lot of good dx for the first time in at least two years. However just prior to arriving in walsoorden there had been forecasts of a solar spot facing the earth again and reception was to be again degraded. We had already witnessed two solar wipe outs in our previous dxpeditions in October and November here at Walsoorden and again at Kasterlee in Belgium.
Its still far too early to gauge the success of a dx trip. These days we are lazier (and older) preferring to record a lot and get our sleep. Leaving the searching of stations until we get home in our cosy chairs with our slippers on. However looking at the early logs I have loooked at, the USA was very poor, however the Canadians although not brilliant, were quite okay. But time will tell what we sniff out. I saw some real activity especially on the lower frequencies. The Expanded band was very quiet except for the Dutch pirate activity. One or two stations made the journey.
It looks as if if a line was drawn starting in Canada and making its way down the east coast of USA. Boston and New York were there as you would expect but nothing further inland. The further south it went the better the signals. The Cubans were great especially close to dawn. We also haerd Venezuela, Colombia, etc. So there was enough to keep us honest.
Asia on the other hand was a disaster. What has happened to all these stations? Apart from AIR Nagpur and HLKZ Korea on 1566 and 1071 AIR Rajkot, very little was heard at all from the east. We must be too high in the solar cycle.
From this pont on this is an ongoing update. I will put recordings of stations with a few notes.
1) Sunday evening January 20 2013, I stumbled across Radio Nacional de Colombia on 570 khz at 0107. Here are three recordings I made. The interesting thing is that for most of the trip Radio Reloj in Cuba was here.
1) Radio Nacional de Colombia 0105 UTC
2) Radio Nacional de Colombia 0109 UTC
3) Radio Nacional de Colombia 0129 UTC
Putting the Asian BOG out has always been a relative easy task but when the field is ploughed and covered in snow, it was a sprained ankle or broken leg just waiting to happen. Putting the 450m BOG out was a relative easy task but bringing it in, was one of the worst dx experiences I have ever faced. The wind was really howling and across a paddock of snow it really packed a numbing punch.
But saying that, inside was cosy and as always the atmosphere was good. The dx conditions were interesting to say the least. The past few weeks had seen a return to some glory days reception with guys hearing a lot of good dx for the first time in at least two years. However just prior to arriving in walsoorden there had been forecasts of a solar spot facing the earth again and reception was to be again degraded. We had already witnessed two solar wipe outs in our previous dxpeditions in October and November here at Walsoorden and again at Kasterlee in Belgium.
Its still far too early to gauge the success of a dx trip. These days we are lazier (and older) preferring to record a lot and get our sleep. Leaving the searching of stations until we get home in our cosy chairs with our slippers on. However looking at the early logs I have loooked at, the USA was very poor, however the Canadians although not brilliant, were quite okay. But time will tell what we sniff out. I saw some real activity especially on the lower frequencies. The Expanded band was very quiet except for the Dutch pirate activity. One or two stations made the journey.
It looks as if if a line was drawn starting in Canada and making its way down the east coast of USA. Boston and New York were there as you would expect but nothing further inland. The further south it went the better the signals. The Cubans were great especially close to dawn. We also haerd Venezuela, Colombia, etc. So there was enough to keep us honest.
Asia on the other hand was a disaster. What has happened to all these stations? Apart from AIR Nagpur and HLKZ Korea on 1566 and 1071 AIR Rajkot, very little was heard at all from the east. We must be too high in the solar cycle.
From this pont on this is an ongoing update. I will put recordings of stations with a few notes.
1) Sunday evening January 20 2013, I stumbled across Radio Nacional de Colombia on 570 khz at 0107. Here are three recordings I made. The interesting thing is that for most of the trip Radio Reloj in Cuba was here.
1) Radio Nacional de Colombia 0105 UTC
2) Radio Nacional de Colombia 0109 UTC
3) Radio Nacional de Colombia 0129 UTC