October 24th, a magic night. Hannu Niilekselä and Hannu Asikainen in Finland experienced a phenomenal evening of medium wave reception focused on New Zealand. The superb DX occurred during the LEM281 DXpedition. They say it best in their own words:

We thought we had experience good cx before. Yes, we had, but none before of this caliber to the direction of New Zealand…this was supposed to happen only at KONG…

Now, about 10 days after having returned home from LEM281, the Perseus-recordings of the “hottest” moments of the magic 24 October have been thoroughly examined. And the results are somewhere between devastating and astonishing. Even between ourselves we have it hard to believe that this is true.

In all 45 NZ-stations were logged, of which 36 have never been heard in Finland before. Many signals were strong and lasted over several fade-in periods, but some were truly weak – some merely a “sigh”. But with the Perseus, its capability of continuously repeating a chosen few seconds and comparing an identified signal with another frequency stations can be 100 % “identified” even if the signal visits the frequency just a few seconds.

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The Finnish DXers commented it was remarkable how reception was concentrated on the Northern Island and the north part of the South Island.

The Kiwi Logbook. Below are the Kiwi stations heard on LEM281 during the night of October 24th:

540 24.10. NZ + New Zealand´s Rhema, New Plymouth/Tauranga
567 24.10. NZ RNZ National, Wellington
657 24.10. NZ + Southern Star, Wellington/Tauranga
702 24.10. NZ + R Live, Auckland
774 24.10. NZ + R Sport, New Plymouth
783 24.10. NZ Wellington Access Radio, Wellington
801 24.10. NZ + New Zealand´s Rhema, Nelson
819 24.10. NZ + R Trackside, Palmerston North
837 24.10. NZ + RNZ National, Kaitaia
882 24.10. NZ + Southern Star, Auckland
900 24.10. NZ + Coast, Whangarei
918 24.10. NZ + RNZ National, New Plymouth/Timaru
927 24.10. NZ + NewstalkZB, Palmerston North
972 24.10. NZ + New Zealand´s Rhema, Wellington
981 24.10. NZ + RNZ National, Kaikohe
1008 24.10. NZ NewstalkZB, Tauranga
1026 24.10. NZ + NewstalkZB, Kaitaia/Whangarei
1035 24.10. NZ NewstalkZB, Wellington
1053 24.10. NZ + NewstalkZB, New Plymouth
1080 24.10. NZ NewstalkZB, Auckland
1107 24.10. NZ + R Live, Tauranga
1116 24.10. NZ + RNZ National, Nelson
1143 24.10. NZ + RNZ National, Hamilton
1161 24.10. NZ + Te Reo Irirangi o te Upoko o te Ika, Wellington
1215 24.10. NZ + NewstalkZB, Kaikohe
1224 24.10. NZ + Bsport, Invercargill
1233 24.10. NZ + R Live, Wellington
1251 24.10. NZ + New Zealand´s Rhema, Auckland
1278 24.10. NZ + NewstalkZB, Eltham/Napier-Hastings
1296 24.10. NZ NewstalkZB, Hamilton
1332 24.10. NZ R Sport, Auckland
1341 24.10. NZ + NewstalkZB, Nelson
1350 24.10.NZ + R Sport, Rotorua
1359 24.10. NZ + Coast, New Plymouth
1377 24.10. NZ + R Sport, Levin
1386 24.10. NZ R Tarana, Auckland
1413 24.10. NZ + NewstalkZB, Tokoroa
1458 24.10. NZ + RNZ National, Westport
1476 24.10. NZ R Trackside, Auckland
1494 24.10. NZ + Southern Star, Hamilton
1503 24.10. NZ + R Sport, Wellington/Christchurch
1530 24.10. NZ + Coast, Napier-Hastings
1557 24.10. NZ + Coast, Hawera
1593 24.10. NZ + R Samoa, Wellington

Mauno Ritola, who was DXing and recording 700 km to the south, found conditions to be quite different. You can find his new Perseus WAV file in the sidebar on the right under the Europe section. The 152 Mb recording covers 35 seconds from 1300 UTC onwards, for a frequency range of 150-1750 kHz. Although the New Zealand stations are lacking, there's interesting European and Asian signals lurking there.

Mauno shared this with Hannu and Hannu: Congratulations. Prompted by an SMS from O-J Sågdahl from Kongsfjord, I was also listening on that very day here 700 km south in Eastern Finland with a 400 m wire to 45° and recording 900-1700 kHz with Perseus between 1200-1400 UT. There are no times given in the log, but I suppose the peak was around 1300 UTC as in Kongsfjord? I have now gone through the files with a fairly tight comb and I couldn't notice a slightest hint of any NZL station. During weekends my noise level is down and I could hear reasonably weak signals, some Filipinos etc, but mostly China and Korea and Korea. That's what 700 kms can do! But I can say I tried my best and was on the right frequencies at the right time ;.) Better now try at other times or at a different QTH ...

Thanks to Mauno for alerting me to the news of the amazing, focused reception on October 24 at LEM281, and for the comparison WAV from his location.

Tarmo Kontro chases DX from the Kings Village DXpedition site in Finland, and he shares another Perseus WAV file (see the October 19th entry under the Europe section of the files listing on the right).

Kings Village ("Kungsböle", too small to show on Google Maps) is 25 km. NE of Loviisa as shown on this map:

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Tarmo set out a 250m BOG antenna on the plowed field, oriented toward the Far East and Australia (approx. 45 degrees bearing). A challenge was keeping the antenna in one piece--rabbits (hares) have an appetite for antenna wire and chopped his antenna on more than one occasion! These "BOGbiters" as Tarmo calls them must be cousins to the North American variety; I remember that many years ago my DXing pal John Bryant had BOG antennas chewed in pieces and pulled down rabbit holes at American Camp on San Juan Island, Washington.

Tarmo's recording is from 909 to 1701 kHz, beginning at 1500 UTC (it's a 30 second file, 172 Mb). He says There are of course a lot of Europeans, some Chinese etc but a few Aussies on X-band - 1620 the strongest - and on 1548 ? - but something sounds like English on 1233 as well?

Thanks for sharing your new Perseus WAV recording, Tarmo! Be sure to check out Tarmo's blog about his DXing experiences at the Kings Village DXpedition site.

Those who know me well are aware I love a good bargain. When I realized this summer that I could stay four nights at a "tenting only" camp site in Grayland Beach State Park for about half of the cost of ONE night at the nearby Grayland Motel, I knew I should give it a try for testing of the QDFA antennas I was building. CLICK HERE for the original review of Dallas Lankford's QDFA antenna.

Two of the four tent-only sites in the park are next to a huge field of dune grass (and some serious obstacles as I discovered on this trip), beckoning the medium wave DXer to erect serious antennas. I was also intrigued by the low-noise location, hundreds of feet away from the park's underground AC mains and other sources of powerline noise. The goal on this trip was to test both phaser/amp boxes I built on each of the three QDFA variations (narrow diamond 200 x 80 ft. vertical element array, narrow diamond 200 x 80 ft. delta loop array, and the original in-line QDFA array).

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