Kongsfjord - 70°43'N 29°21'E
KONG5 - report
12 to 17 October 2000
The
KONG expeditions have become an annual gettogether with importance not only
related to DX-ing, but also for having a few days off everything else, enjoying
good food and crappy jokes. Mark Connelly recently described the Newfoundland
DX-peditions as as much of a social happening as a DX Camp – we couldn’t
agree more.
Arnstein
and Rolf arrived with the 13:00 plane on Thursday 12, unfortunately Odd-Jørgen
Sagdahl who had been with us on KONG4 had to attend business resulting in a late
cancellation for his part. Bjarne had been in Kongsfjord since the 10th,
so two of the beverages and the K9AY were already up. The K9AY was reduced to
50% since one of the head units malfuntioned leaving only two loops working. We
were not quite content with our wires – it seems that there is a problem
making a good enough ground with the rather short ground rods we have been
using. With the ground being mainly stony beneath a thin layer of soil, there
really isn’t much effect in the rods. I have been talking to the local power
company, and they say they can supply me with 1.5m rods that can be prolonged
into whatever length I want. They even have a machine for hammering them down in
the ground. 3-4 meters down would be enough to reach the high tide level of the
ocean nearby. Hopefully, the KONG6 report next autumn will tell that this was a
huge success J
Some
people enjoyed reading about our culinaric experiences during KONG4. We did
enjoy some great meals although le chef Odd-Jørgen was absent. The Sami people
make a delicious reindeer meat soup with various vegetables, it is extremely
nutritious. Our version included chili and garlic, not part of the traditional
Sami
recipy since they do not seem to grow very well at our latitudes. Very hot, in
both senses of the word. Another
great experience was fillets of haddock cooked in olive oil, sour cream and
cheese, of course with chili and garlic. We chose fish since we felt it right to
balance our menu with less fattening ingredients! Then of course the traditional
Norwegian lamb stew, a very simple course made up of lamb meat and cabbage.
Again, we felt tempted to add a little spice to it. As for beverages (!) we had
the traditional Sapporo Draft beer + a few cans with Newcastle Brown Ale in
addition to the usual Norwegian lager. Nothing of the stronger kind – except
at one dinner we enjoyed a most delicious Danish Aquavit named Bróndum
Kummenaquavit. Unfortunately the King Crab season had only just begun and not
yet available in the shops so we missed that.
As
has so often been the case in recent years, this autumn has been extremely mild.
Temperatures were in the 5-10° C range, but at times with gail force winds.
Mainly dry. On departure day Oct 17 winds increased to 75 km/h with gusts at 100
km/h. Thanks to a favourable wind direction, the Dash-8 was able to land and
take off. I returned to Kongsfjord
later that day and was almost blown off the road.
This log seems to confirm the saying that no matter how awful the conditions, with long beverages one is always able to hear something, though it is time-consuming and most of the time not very rewarding. And yes, conditions were indeed unfavourable. The first half of the period saw A-indices in the 10-25 range, and K-indices between 3 and 5. Then on Oct 15 we experienced excellent conditions despite the solar activity ... The morning saw exceptional DX from a small part of the US West Coast, and later on Alaskan ”graveyard” stations followed. Oct 16 saw a decline in A and K indices, with the rather unexpected result that DX disappeared completely!
Participants:
Arnstein
Bue/NRD525
Rolf
Torvik/NRD535/AR7030+
Bjarne Mjelde/AR7030+/KWZ-30
Antennas:
380m
directed at 330°
570m
directed at 40°
600m
directed at 70°
470m
directed at 5°
2-loop
Wellbrook K9AY