KNL-17 - 30/1/2026 - 3/2/2026 - Knollehof DX-pedition, Veurne – Static, Sunspots and Small Victories

Despite unfavourable solar conditions and a string of technical setbacks, the Knollehof DX team welcomed a special guest from Tunisia and still managed a handful of memorable catches during a challenging winter DX-pedition in Veurne.

When solar conditions look poor in the weeks leading up to a DX-pedition, expectations are inevitably tempered. Unfortunately, this trip proved no exception. That was particularly disappointing because this time we were joined by a special guest: Achraf “Ash” Chaabane from Tunisia, who travelled all the way to Veurne to take part in our stay at Knollehof.

Ash’s journey was not without complications. A railway strike was ongoing that week, adding another layer of uncertainty to his travel plans. Fortunately, everything went smoothly in the end. Ash arrived on schedule and was collected by Dave from the hotel where he had stayed overnight.

Once on site, field work progressed efficiently. Thanks to Ash’s enthusiastic help, all six Beverage antenna directions were installed before nightfall. In addition, the utility team erected several antennas for shortwave monitoring, ensuring that the setup was fully operational by the time darkness set in.

Medium-wave conditions were generally disappointing, yet the first night offered a welcome highlight. No fewer than eleven new stations were logged on the Argentine Beverage alone. This was largely the result of the recent closure of Radio Nacional de España’s medium-wave transmitters at the end of last year, which opened up several frequencies towards South America. Among the more notable catches was Radio La Red, Villa Udaondo (Argentina) on 910 kHz at 0205 UTC on 31 January, received right next to the powerful BBC Radio 5 Live on 909 kHz, located only about 200 km from our DX site.

 

Guido Schotmans · R La Red, Villa Udaondo (ARG) 910U 2026-01-31 02'05'22 KNL

Another pleasing signal came from Radio Monte Carlo, Montevideo (URG) on 930 kHz on 31 January at 0149 UTC, and several other Latin American stations were noted during the session.

 

Guido Schotmans · R Monte Carlo, Montevideo 930U 2026-01-31 01'49'06 KNL

Sadly, the following nights were mostly unproductive. This underlines one of the inherent limitations of short DX trips: with only a few listening nights available, success depends heavily on timing and propagation. DXers in less densely populated areas of Europe are often in a better position, as they can leave Beverage antennas in place all-year-round and operate their listening posts remotely, waiting patiently for the right conditions.

To make matters worse, we encountered some very earthly problems as well. Local wildlife had taken an interest in our antennas: rabbits had been nibbling at the wires. As a result, the North American Beverage snapped shortly after midnight, only a few metres from the balun, rendering that direction virtually useless for the remainder of the night.

On the final night, when other DXers were reporting promising conditions towards southern Africa, our Africa BOG was hit by severe QRM, effectively blocking reception along that path.

Dave and Ash exchanging DX expieriences       -       Ash at his listening post

Technical misfortune also made an appearance. Frank Hughes’ home-built NAVTEX receiver, which had been performing flawlessly throughout the year at his home QTH, refused to cooperate at the DX site. Despite extensive troubleshooting, we were unable to restore its operation during the expedition.

Frank and Jan trying to figure out what’s wrong with the NAVTEX receiver.

Not everything revolved around antennas and receivers, though. Together with Ash, we also took a short break to visit the picturesque town of Veurne, just before picking up our Chinese takeaway dinner — a small but welcome moment of sightseeing and relaxation amid the technical challenges of the expedition.

Dave and Ash in Veurne city centre

All in all, this DX-pedition was a classic reminder that even the best preparation cannot overcome unfavourable propagation and unexpected setbacks. Still, the camaraderie, the shared effort in the field, and the few memorable catches made the trip worthwhile — and, as always, left us looking forward to the next opportunity when conditions may be more favourable.                                                                                                                         n

Participants Guido, Dave, Ash, Jan and Frank.

KNL-16 DXpedition Report (1-5 December 2025).

On the 1st of December, we arrived on site around mid-day.

Field conditions were favourable this year, with no mud or heavy ploughing as encountered on previous expeditions. This allowed for a smooth installation of the first set of receiving antennas. Deployed were the 300° North American Beverage, the reversible ARG/JAP Beverage, and the African BOG (Beverage On Ground).

 

Other participants deployed the following antennas: Vertical 9 metre with balun, LA-1 van Dijken loop, 1090Mhz antenna, Active L-Band 1525-1660 antenna, Vertical 7,- m, T2FD or13 MHz and a Sony AN1.

 

On the following day, the Far East / Colombia reversible Beverage antenna was installed. With this final deployment completed, the receiving site was fully operational.

Initial monitoring was severely affected by wideband QRM. Extensive troubleshooting followed: all feedlines and terminations were checked, laptops and other potential noise sources were powered down, and a systematic RFI hunt was carried out using a portable receiver both indoors and in the field. Persistent QRM was present throughout — until the small house was investigated. After switching off the halogen lighting, the noise floor dropped very dramatically, resulting in a largely clean MW band.

 

It was later noted that the Deepelec DP-666 is not suitable for MW-QRM hunting, as its display generates noise, potentially leading to false conclusions during RFI investigations.

 

Consequently, the first night produced little of interest beyond the usual power stations.

 

Geomagnetic conditions were poor, and propagation forecasts suggested a preference for southern paths. African trans-equatorial paths, however, underperformed — possibly also due to limited monitoring time spend and the shrinking number of active MW broadcasters in that region. In contrast, the Argentine Beverage delivered consistently more results.

 

Unfortunately, for several years now, antenna deployment during the hunting season has been prohibited on the surrounding fields which results that the chances to end up in the "Winter Anomaly" is a real bugger, and this expedition clearly reflected that limitation. Signals frequently hovered just above the noise floor, with only brief enhancements lasting a minute or so. So you had to be lucky to be able to grab an ID in these cases. Nevertheless, it remains remarkable that even weak signals can still exhibit acceptable intelligibility under favourable noise conditions. Several stations, provided just sufficient audio for tentative or positive identification.

 

For the first time, a temporary FMDX.org remote server was brought online at the site. It utilised an oddly shaped antenna that had originally been intended as a ground-plane but proved usable as a receive antenna.

 

Medium-wave propagation showed gradual improvement, particularly on the Argentine Beverage, where signal levels increased in small but noticeable steps over the days.

 

The final day offered improved South American propagation. Signals from Argentina and Brazil were present across the band, generally weak but with occasional short-duration peaks — unfortunately often outside ID windows. As a result, many more stations were detected than ultimately logged, due to the absence of positive identification.

 

Notable catches with ID included R Atual, São Paulo, Brazil, on 1230 kHz. The station had changed its name from Boa Vontade to R Atual only one month earlier, and it had not previously been logged from this location under either identity.

Further First-logged stations were: Radio San Genaro, San Genaro Norte, Argentina, on 1550 kHz, Radio Durazno, Uruguay, on 1430 kHz

 

On 4 December, a strong candidate signal was detected that could only correspond to Universo 970, Paraguay. The measured carrier offset matched perfectly; however, no spoken ID was heard. This station has been logged 26 times in MWList worldwide during the current year, yet only three of those logs include a positive ID, underlining the difficulty of confirmation.

 

Dave, Jan, Aart, Leen, Cornel, 

Guido, Stef and Frank. 

We were pleased to welcome Stef as part of the team. He provided assistance in a wide range of practical tasks in the field, the kitchen, the stove,etc, and shared valuable knowledge. As a newcomer to the Jaguar SDR user group, he also benefited from extensive exchanges with experienced Jaguar users.

 

It was equally rewarding to observe Frank’s home-designed and home-built NAVTEX receiver in operation, demonstrating excellent performance in real-world conditions.

 

Leen caught some nice Fax pictures shown below.

Boston – 12750 kHz

Wiluna – 15615 kHz

On Friday, KNL-16 officially came to an end. The dismantling process — including the recovery and rolling in of several dozen reels of wire and coaxial cable — proceeded efficiently. All participants returned home safely. Several members left with storage media full of SDR recordings awaiting detailed post-expedition analysis.

 

While propagation conditions were occasionally uninspiring, the expedition nevertheless yielded a number of valuable catches. Moreover, it remains likely that additional weak or unidentified signals are still hidden within the recordings.

 

Many thanks to all participants whose efforts contributed to the success of this MW-DXpedition.

"Waves and Winds” - KNL-14 - The 14th Knollehof DXpedition Adventure" - 2-6 December 2024.

Last week, we were once again at our DX spot at Knollehof in Veurne for a five-day DXpedition.

In spring, there was some uncertainty about whether we would still be able to use the fields for setting up the long Beverage antennas, as the farmer was a bit uncooperative. Allegedly, we had not adhered to agreements, but it was all a misunderstanding. 

Together with Hugo (our local DX-collegue), I launched a charm offensive to convince him. With considerable effort, we managed to restore trust. However, the farmer did set a clear condition: we could only use the fields after the end of the hunting season in December. This led to a change in the schedule: the DXpedition was moved to a midweek, from Monday, December 2, to Friday, December 6.

Fortunately, there were no floods in neighbouring municipalities or farmer protests blocking highways like last year.

Most of us arrived around noon. After setting up the shacks, we got to work outdoors, erecting the Beverage antennas. The morning rain had cleared, and our new participant, Cornel, already had experience setting up Beverage antennas elsewhere. We set up a North America beverage (300°, 300 m), a RevBev Japan/Argentina (45/225°, 400 m), and Africa BoG (150°, 300 m) antenna. 

Preparing for the field work.

When looking carefully you can see the Alvear Tower
in Buenos Aires at the end of the antenna. 

The Africa antenna quickly delivered a hit with a clear signal from Radio Nacional de São Tomé e Príncipe. 

 

Guido Schotmans · R.Nacional De Sao Tome E Principe, Pinhe 945U 2024 - 12 - 02 20'18'58 KNL

However, the conditions were not in our favour for the rest of the trip. It seemed that all antennas were mostly only picking up European signals. A creative attempt to improve the conditions with a so-called "one-million dollar antenna" yielded little result. The team began to suspect that the radio gods were not smiling on us.

The one million Dollar conditions booster

On the second day, we set up the Far East/Colombia Beverage antenna (80/260°, 400 m). Jan had brought a whole arsenal of antennas: a vertical antenna (7 meters) with a balun, an AL1 loop antenna from Van Dijken Elektronica, and an LZ1AQ antenna. Additionally, a T2FD and a Sony AN1 were also spotted.

Cornel, also an avid Jaguar user on medium wave, also conducted other experiments with an RTL-SDR patch antenna for the L-band (1525–1600 MHz). The setup was improvised, using a garden chair, but the results were excellent. Even 10500 Bd data and 8400 Bd voice channels came through clearly. Software such as Jaero (aviation) and Scytale-C (maritime) was used.

Leen explored the fax frequencies, including the Pacific, Honolulu (11090 kHz), Wiluna (15615 kHz); Asia, JFX Kagoshima (16907.50 kHz), Tokyo JMH (7795 kHz), and Shanghai (16539 kHz). Even though the conditions were not special, it’s always better than being at home.

Shanghai 16539 kHz

Frank Huyghe focused his attention on Navtex and Fax projects that he built himself. If I heard correctly, I caught him exclaiming, "Murmansk Fax !"

Aart, Frank Thijs, and Guido doggedly persisted with MW-DX, but their determination yielded little. The anticipated conditions on medium wave completely failed to materialise. Moreover, we discovered a few days later that the North America antenna was performing very poorly. After inspecting various connections, we eventually found that the termination resistor was defective. The 1 kOhm potentiometer had a maximum value of only 170 ohms. In the future, we will replace it with a more robust fixed resistor.

The DX-gang : Frank H, Jan, Aart, Frank T, Leen, Guido and Cornel.

In between, we also went hunting for TII codes from the DAB+ transmitter in Oostduinkerke. Since DAB transmitters use a Single Frequency Network, you can only reliably determine the transmitted TII code near the transmitter itself.

The conditions remained lacklustre. Evidence of this was reflected in our condition barometer.

Conditions barometer in bad shape.

The DXpedition ended as it began: with typical winter weather. It was dry, but the strong winds made dismantling the antennas a challenge. Everyone worked together to wrap up safely. By around 12:00 local time, everything was packed up.

The 14th edition of the Knollehof DXpedition came with its own challenges and surprises but, as always, featured the indispensable radio experience.

Although the 14th Knollehof DXpedition did not experience the best conditions, the team once again brought out the best in themselves. The setbacks strengthened the collaboration and enthusiasm to keep experimenting. With a new participant like Cornel and the lessons learned, we are already looking forward to the 15th edition in February. Who knows, it might bring better radio conditions and more success.