Kongsfjord - 70°43'N 29°21'E
KONG11 - October 21 to 27, 2004
Participants:
Arnstein Bue,
Bjarne Mjelde, Odd-Jørgen Sagdahl, Rolf Torvik
(also known as the KONG crew)
Complete station log here.
Some of the nice QSLs received from KONG11:
Weblog
20-AUG-2004
It looks like KONG11 will be an all time high when it comes to receiver
representation. Bjarne is introducing his new Icoms (R75 and 746Pro), both
modified to give maximum MW performance. In addition he has a new Collins R-390A
and Racal RA6790/GM.
Arnstein has a new Kiwa-modified Icom R75 as well. Rolf brings his Racals (RA1792 and RA6790/GM), a WJ HF-1000A and possibly his AEG/DASA E-1800/3. OJS plans on the usual WJ HF-1000A, the good old AOR AR7030+ - but now with a Sherwood SE-3, the R&S EK895 and possibly the TenTec RX-340.
We have monitored the solar activity as well as the forecasts, and it seems like the last half of October will be a quiet period. Currently the listening conditions are quite good in the southern part of Norway - better than other summers some of us believe. Let's hope it's and indication of the 2004/2005 season! More to follow ...
31-AUG-2004
Two days ago Bjarne reported the first Australian for the season - 4QD
Emerald 1548!
Plane tickets are now reserved and the work with preparing equipment for
shipping as well as lists and documentation has started. What are the
essentials? Esa Hänninen's KOJE and KOMEX lists are obvious, and so is Bruce
Portzers Pacific Asian Log.
To make things easier in case of excellent conditions we have worked on a
separate list of Pacific AM stations,
excluding Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. Not a long list - but very
challenging!
Another encouragement: one of the KONG8 participants, Tore B. Vik got last week
a QSL from 2AP Samoa.
19-OCT-2004
KONG10 is now history and the KONG11 team is a bit nervous on whether the good
conditions will continue. The last geomagnetic disturbance seems to have little
effect, but there is a new one coming up - possibly already on Saturday.
However, Thursday and Friday still look good, so we will see ...
21-OCT-2004
Update
14:00 UTC
KONG11 is now on. The conditions looked fairly bad based on the geomagnetic
activity, but fear not - Kongsfjord is an excellent listening site: Guam 567 and 801 were coming in fine, as well as lots
of Alaska and Japan, not
to forget US west coast. Details will follow.
22-OCT-2004
Update
23:00 UTC
Quite a bit of NA this morning, for example KZZR 1230, WMCS 1290, WSPD 1370,
KJOX 1390, KRRZ 1390, KLIN 1400. In the afternoon KTWG 801 again and a single Philippine
station DYVS 1233.
Now at 23:00 there are quite a number of med-west stations already.
Rolf in deep concentration ...
23-OCT-2004
Update
10:30 UTC
The night was not very good, but there were a few stations coming through. In
the morning Pacific signals started to make their way through already at 08:00
with Tahiti 738 leading the pack. Still no local ID was obtained from Tahiti.
Then on 1098 came a station very nicely through with island music and dominated
the frequency for almost two hours with a very strong and clear signal - and
with clear "V-7-A-B" ids. From the US-speaking station on 1224 we had
no local ID, but we have strong suspicions. Finally SIBC was heard on 1035, but
not as strong as 5019,9. Also, on 1017 we had Tonga, but with no official ID,
hence not in the log. Tomorrow ...
Update
16:30 UTC
The day and afternoon brought more NA, Pacific (Guam and Australia) and
Asia.
24-OCT-2004
Update
16:00 UTC
Poooh - 24 hours since last update, and which 24 hours! Incredible signals with
incredible variety. From Newfoundland to Alaska - at the same time, from 21:00
UTC yesterday to 14:00 UTC today ... Inbetween we had unbeliveable signals
from some of the "common" Pacific stations like Marshall Islands 1098,
Tonga 1017 and Guam 801. Fiji was heard on three frequencies, but we did not
record a full legal identification yet. The same for the AFN station on 1224. We
also had Samoa again on 540, but not strong enough for a 100% positive
identification. Tomorrow ...
Japan came on about 09:00 UTC and we had strong signals from many 100-watt transmitters, and enjoyed in particular several Okinawa stations with excellent quality. This occasion was celebrated with specially imported Sapporo Draft beer in the afternoon (ref. photo below).
Update
22:30 UTC
Despite the geomagnetic disturbance this afternoon the evening started very
well. Lots of NA already at 21:30 UTC and we are very busy ...
Additional
update
4-JAN-2005
Fiji recordings have now been examined and a fine "Radio Fiji" ID
was found at the hour on 684.
Also, AFN Marshall Islands 1224 is now positive.
25-OCT-2004
Update
07:30 UTC
Very nice conditions during the night with a lot of stations on most
frequencies. The stations stayed up to 03:00 UTC when the last geomagnetic
disturbance took effect. Conditions are slowly recovering, and there a number of
stations with decent signals now. We doubt we will hear much Pacific today
though ... From the log: WDAY 970, WXXI 1370, WMWR 1670, XECF 1410, XERCN 1470.
Update
13:30 UTC
Conditions were slowly recovering until everything exploded 11:00 UTC. Since
then we have been very busy since Mexico, west coast, AK and HI came up
everywhere. Many stations, except Mexico, are still strong. At the same time the
Japanese and other Far East stations are equally strong on the split
frequencies. On the Asia antenna there is only one NRK station to be heard ...
1485 kHz!
Update
16:00 UTC
The last Hawaii stations left with the local sunrise over the islands. Alaska is
still on, but now with less stations and weaker signals.
26-OCT-2004
Update
05:30 UTC
Very quiet and nice in the band during the night but not much exciting. However
from 04:30 UTC and on there has been a lot of stations coming up - focusing on
west coast Canada and USA plus Mexico. Sample Mexican is XEPE Tecate 1700.
Photo 10:58
UTC:
Arnstein & OJ very concentrated 2 minutes on
the hour:
Update
17:00 UTC
Another good day - quite a bit of NA, AK and HI and quite a bit of Pacific as
well. We had Fiji again with fairly good signal on 1152, but no luck with ID
this time either. Alaska and Hawaii are still on.
Additional
update
4-JAN-2005
Fiji recordings have now been examined for the 26th and another a fine
"Radio Fiji" ID was found on the hour at 1152.
27-OCT-2004
Update
07:30 UTC
Probably the best night and morning. Started before 21:00 UTC last night and
conditions were good all through the night and morning. We even had Tahiti 738
local before 07:00 UTC but then it switched to France Inter without warning. Too
bad ... And too bad we will be leaving in few hours!
Update
17:30 UTC
The KONG crew is now home ... with mixed feelings. Tahiti's superb signal in the
morning indeed was a messenger of what was to come. Tonga and Marshall Islands
were heard with better signals than ever before, and in the moment we started
packing, Kiribati 846 came up with equally super signal. Fiji was lurking in the
background but did not come through. We warned HAT in Lemmenjoki and an hour
later an SMS message came in saying that he had Fiji en masse ... as well as
Samoa. Fortunately Bjarne had recordings running on most Fiji frequencies, so
hopefully he got something.
The KONG11 log is now complete.
FOOD?
For those of you that have been
following our logs from the earlier years may miss information about what we ate
and drank - or whether we did eat or drink at all? We did - but not to the same
extent as the years before. We were just too busy! But we did have some
excellent dinners with dripping fresh Kamchatka crab, reindeer sirloin, fresh
halibut and more. This year's wines were carefully selected with the different
courses in mind. One of the last nights we had dinner at Kongsfjord Gjestehus -
a local restaurant that normally is closed during winter, but opened specially
for us. This was a very pleasant experience. We will be back!