Tuesday, October 17, 2017

KONG35 - Day Four

This was departure day for TJ Bråtveit, who left for Trondheim in the morning hours.

We're still very much under the influence of the effects of the Coronal Hole, but we're slowly moving towards better times. Overnight the propagation shifted rapidly, and there were some spots where very interesting stations could be heard. Some not yet disclosed, a few of the others were WIBW-KS 590, WBAA-IN 920, KBUF-KS 1030, WBGW-IN 1330, KGMY-MO-1400, WASK-IN 1450, WDLR-OH 1550. Missouri and Kansas stations have been very audible the past few days, so I recorded a full-hour ID of the excellent signal from KCMO Kansas City MO 710 for a Facebook posting. I got an immediate response from a gentleman who said he was in that studio at that time! Small world. The red line to the left on the overnight spectrum shows how the signal levels fluctuated. The minutes around the 01:00 spot were particularly interesting.



Unlike previous days, when signals disappeared at sunset, they actually returned with fair levels with mostly western North America past midday. Some Hawaiian stations also audible. In the afternoon, there were a few Australians audible, though to be honest we haven't monitored too closely. In the evening, the back lobe of the Asia/Pacific beverage had strong signals from Spain and the UK, like Sunrise-972 and Free Radio 80's on 1017.

And then suddenly: Dinner time! Our menu said salmon sashimi as a starter, we had a little inventory error as only the salmon was there, so we had to improvise a bit. However, with soy sauce, a bit of reasonably fresh rosemary and a blowtorch it ended up quite nicely.

Lamb steak as main course, with a paste of potatoes, carrots and celeriac, sauce and nothing more. It turned out as exceptionally tender meat, so we were quite lucky on that one. With the food we had Tyler, a 2014 Pinot Noir from California. Actually a left-over from last year's KONG33 DX-pedition - the extra year spent in the Arctic didn't do it any harm. We were supposed to have dessert, but we ended up with another Kansas City, Missouri catch, the Boulevard Tank 7 - arguably the best beer ever enjoyed here.

Weather is still quite nice for October, 4-5 Celsius and relatively calm. Light rain in the afternoon.




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