And the story goes on: http://lem343.blogspot.fi/ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Team Lurx goooooooooooes now!!!

The last day of Operation D´Xcellence started again with nice African rhythms. The work we did erecting the new coax-cable to the woods to get us a 1.000 meter antenna to the south really paid off, because this southbound antenna has been a real lifesaver (or better yet a cx-saver) for us the last couple of days. There is a huge difference between listening to African stations with Alaska -antenna or real Africa -antenna.

Stations though came this evening a little later and signals weren´t that strong. After yesterday´s strong cx today´s TOH´s at 20, 21 and 22 UTC were a little disappointing, but nevertheless stations were identified, mostly the same ones that we got yesterday with better signals. However, nice addition to yesterday´s cx was that this time we also got couple of Nigerians with nice signals. 917-Gotel was heard louder than ever.

Not a single NA-station on band the whole evening. Little before 00 UTC three most common Brazilians were noted and fourth one came along after the TOH. By 01 UTC they were gone.

The whole morning was spent in the woods in antenna works, so at this point we don´t have a clue what happened on the band. AT 07 UTC there was a band full of faint NA-signals.

To sum up, it has been a wonderful two weeks here. We had so many different types of cx, so many surprises and thus so much interesting files to go through that we can´t say anything else than that this has topped our expectations by far.

This is the end of this blog, but not the end of the LEM327 story. We have used 7 x Perseus as hardware and 7 x Jaguar as software and the next step is to let PC to analyze each MW channel and detect interesting offsets and hotspots. So far we have just scratched the top of the ice berg and the fun part is about to begin.

The report that ends all reports, ends - how else but - with a nice poem;

"Dah dah, tic tic yo, dynamite.

Hot-demma, we're super-jamma,

when we rock  the rig right,

it's like dynamite"

(William Shakesheare)

Maybe there’ll be another D’Xplosive LURX radio adventure some day in the future.  If so, you’re welcome to join us again.

73 & Cheers de

Captain Morgan

Major Storm

General Electric

HoArrible cx

Disturbed cx continued. Africans came pretty early with 10 HoA-stations on the band at 17 UTC. After that stations fading up and down giving at the best really nice signals. In total 13 HoA-stations were noted but not all identified. At 21 UTC Ethiopian sign off was a good one. Also some not so usual Egyptian stations were noted. At 22 UTC MOZ-sign off with five stations. After that nothing worth mentioning from Africa. No cx at night.

First U.S. stations were noted again after 23 UTC, but only one or two and very much disturbed. No cx at night. In the morning at 08 UTC again some kind of cx peak that lasted about 15 minutes. Nothing spectacular, just dominants from EC. No NA cx after that the whole day.

No Chinese stations today nor anything else from Asia. So, in all, besides the improvement in African cx, the downhill of cx is still continuing. Good thing is that it can´t get much worse anymore.

One day left of Operation D´Xcellence.

Ohoi, rock bottom ahead!

Cx are still getting worse to all directions. Cx to Africa worse than yesterday - still some HoA -signals, but again weaker. 1224-MOZ again, but weaker.

No NA-signals before 23 UTC. After that only half dozen dominants heavily disturbed. Some disturbed signals from Cuba and EC (1590-WARV) in the morning at 08 UTC, but after that total radio silence to U.S. and LA.

Some Chinese stations after 12 UTC and Iran etc. normally strong after 14 UTC. Not much more to say.

Bad - worse - today

Can it be worse than worst? Yes it can. Africa was again starring this evening, but yet again quite mediocre performance. Signals were maybe little bit stronger, but there were basically the same stations on the band and still not strong enough signals. Not good. We want more!

NA-cx downhill continued as this was again worst evening so far. Some decent signals after 23 UTC but nothing even worth checking. In the morning at 08 and 09 UTC some nice signals, but no new ones for us today. Best ones noted were 600-KCOL, 630-KFXD, 750-KERR, 750-KHWG, 930-WTAD, 960-WSBT, 1490-WKLQ and 1590-KGFK. Mostly the same stuff that has been around the couple of last days. No worth-mentioning cx after 10 UTC. No LA-stations were noted.

The recent discussion in DX community about joint-reports is surprisingly not a new one. It has been a hot topic also in the past. This was discovered by our Lurx-research-team when going through the old Lur-X-files. A unique video clip from the 1940´s was found and kept secret until now. It has been uploaded to YouTube for your entertainment - you can check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8SYXyhMF3k

For our foreign readers; we are sorry that the subtitles are available only in Finnish!

Dias como hoy

Again some northern lights on the northern horizon and thus hopes were high for nice African cx. And we did get some HoA signals at 17.30 UTC but bit too weak for our taste. Strongest was 837-VoBME with booming signal. After that some promises of nice cx on the band but signals just didn´t get strong enough. At 22 UTC 1224-EP de Cabo Delgado came with strong signal, but no other MOZ-stations noted.

NA-stations came late this evening as well. Decent signals at 22.30 UTC, but this was clearly the worst evening opening for us so far. Nothing interesting was noted. Night cx was also poor.

In the morning the bad cx continued. TOH-id´s at 08 UTC was the highlight of the day giving us a bunch of semi-nice stations like 580-KUBC, 600-KCOL, 1300-KOLY, 1340-KFGW, 1490-KORN, but the only new one for us today was 1420-KULY. Cx ended at 09 UTC, but the stations rose back up again after 11 UTC for a short while with some WC-stations. Signals rose up once again at about 13.30 UTC and after that some short cx-peaks until 15 UTC.

Today we had very much disturbances on the band and with the exception of 08 UTC TOH in all very faint signals. Typical disturbed cx. Hopes of finding anything new from today´s NA recordings are next to nil.

After ten days of very poor to poor cx to Iberia we finally got something today. Before this the whole time it has been one or two stations per fq and cx towards Galicia, País Vasco and Castilla y León region with delightful exceptions of Cantabria and Asturias. This morning we had really strange and interesting cx when basically only stations from Comunidad Valenciana, Aragón and Navarra were audible.

With the cx on a break, we had some time to outdoor activities. Today we had a brisk winter weather with -30 degrees. So we let the artistic side of ourselves loose and did some snow works. And as you can see from the picture below we did pretty good. From the picture you can also see the current snow level at the forest - yes, there is a forest behind that pile of snow. Next expeditionists might want to take some mining equipment with them ... 

Damn, it´s Kolt out here ...

With a slight delay the disturbances of magnetic field caused by M-flares hit the cx. Solar wind speed rose well over 500 km/s and the band emptied up. At 21 UTC heavily disturbed WEGP-1390 was the only barely audible U.S. station on the band - no sign of f.ex. CBG-1400. We thought that finally we could get a nice full night's sleep, but once again we were totally wrong. This is becoming a habit for us. About an half hour later cx started to rise and after 22 UTC the band was again full of U.S. stations fading up and down. EC was very weak, stations were heard mainly from westwards of MI. Strong cx continued until 02 UTC. No Orinoco or La Plata, just U.S. stations. Highlights were 1320-KOLT, 1450-WLEC, 1450-WMIQ, 1460-WBRN and 1590-WIXK.

Also finally some light at the end of the tunnel for cx to Africa. This was the first time we could say we almost had cx to Africa. The hope is not lost.

In the morning finally some LA-stations along with some U.S. stations. Cx were at the best mediocre and despite our efforts we weren't able to identify anything interesting. Cx dried up at 13 UTC.