We had been looking forward to it for months and finally
on November 16, 2018 our fourth DX-Weekend on our new site, 't Knollehof in
Veurne, Belgium took off.
Participants in the 62nd (!) DX-Weekend were:
Frank Thys, Ron
Liekens, Frank Huyghe, Marc Van Leemputten, Leen van Oeveren, Jan Feenstra and
me. Unfortunately, this time for a change we had to manage things without
Guido, who couldn't be present due to circumstances. Luckily, he had been a
good teacher to us in the past editions, so everyone did their job well and it
all came to a good end.
Looking back, it was Hugo Matten (thanks!) Who could
present us this beautiful location in 2017 which turned out to be a hit.
A short presentation: 't Knollehof is located near the
quiet village of Eggewaartskapelle, part of the town of Veurne, with it’s
beautiful historic buildings. The completely renovated farm by Pieter and Hilde
is equipped with 2 spacious holiday homes that are modern and functional in a
part of the large barn without compromising the authenticity and charms of the
farm. There is a beautifully landscaped courtyard and a large garden
overlooking the fields. These beautiful holiday homes also have a private
terrace and are situated in the middle of the Flemish polders, only a 15-minute
drive from the Belgian coast.
The cottage 'Texel' is the most ideal in terms of
space and can accommodate up to 10 people, but because it only has 7 beds
(double/single/stack), we only allow a maximum of 7 DXers there so that
everyone has their own bed. That way it remains comfortable for everyone.
You can read more about this holiday location here.
You can read more about this holiday location here.
When there are not enough participants to fill up two
DX-Weekends after each other, the second house 'Bleu du maine' is also used.
That was e.g. the case in November. A maximum of 4 people can be seated there,
but with three being preferable, given the limited space on the ground floor. Both houses have a wood-burning stove that keeps us
warm during the cold autumn and winter nights. The large house also has central
heating, the small house electric radiators. So, no one is going to be cold, on
the contrary.
The cottages are also equipped with a modern kitchen
with all the extras to even a dishwasher, always handy for suddenly rising DX
conditions and for participants with a severe allergy to washing dishes ...
As always Pieter and Hilde ensured that the stoves are
already burning when the first DXers arrived on Friday morning 9am. Afterwards,
the space is rearranged by us so that everyone has at least one place for his
technical toys, which these days consist of one or more laptops, SDR receivers
and related accessories. What a difference with our first DX-Weekends when
computers were still a rarity and were initially cursed more than once because
of the undesirable interference they caused. Fortunately, this phenomenon has
become a rare thing, and computers and laptops are increasingly becoming more part
of the standard equipment of today's DXer.
Our DX-Weekend locations should not only be
comfortable and spacious enough inside, there is also a necessity for enough
space outside to set up antennas. For the so-called beverage antennas, we still
need at least several hundred meters in different directions. That is why it is
not so obvious to find a good DX-location in the Benelux.
't Knollehof, on the other hand, is adjacent to two
spacious agricultural parcels that we can use during the winter half year with
the permission of the owners. Fortunately, there are still DX-friendly people
in the world, because clearly not everyone is a fan of antennas and 'unhealthy
radio waves' ...
And we were lucky with the weather: Friday a misty
start, Saturday and Sunday sunny and dry to finish Monday morning with a lot of
wind and later rain on departure, but no real extremes. What a difference with
earlier editions from plodding muddy fields in rain and wind, braving heavy
snowfall to difficult walks on frozen surfaces in an icy cold wind. We have
experienced quite different circumstances in the past, but that only hardened
us as DX'ers.
As quickly as possible, a start was made with setting
up the various beverage antennas for the low frequencies (LG / MG), which easy
takes about 3 hours, given the distances covered. Three beverages were set up:
- 040° / 400m: Japan/Korea
- 310° / 330m: United States/Canada
- 260° / 400m: Venezuela/Colombia
Everything worked immediately as it should, which has
not always been the case at former DX-Weekends: bad or oxidized connections,
broken wire, bad coax connectors or even forgotten things like unconnected
coaxes, baluns or terminal resistors. Those things happen but because of years
of experience, are usually quickly traced and repaired.
In addition to the beverages, also other antennas were
set up (individually) of which several were suitable for shortwave. A small
selection:
- Longwire
- Verticals
- T2FD
- Roelof Bakker loop antenna
- Kaz
- Miniwhip
I think you can imagine that the whole collection
looked quite impressive, especially at sunrise and sunset when many beautiful
pictures could be shot.
The necessary coax cables were led in via the existing
sliding doors and connected to passive or active splitters, equipped with enough
outputs. DXers are then free to use the outputs for connecting their equipment
to, but with the explicit request not to do this during DXing conditions and
certainly not on top of the hour. More than once in the past, an identification
had been missed/disturbed by crackling noises from coax cables that were
connected or disconnected. Therefore, a multiple input antenna switch is an
absolute must on DX-Weekends like these.
 |
| The beverage antenna splitting centre. |
Frank Huyghe, Marc Van Leemputten, Leen van Oeveren and
Jan Feenstra had settled in the big house. In the small house were Frank Thys,
Ron Liekens and me. Pretty cosy, I must confess honestly.Once seated, the radios were quickly warmed up and listening started. It's striking how little noise there is on the airwaves compared to our personal QTHs. Initially there was some consternation in the small house, when we were plagued by an interfering digital signal that came and went causing severe QRM. Fortunately, it disappeared after a while and we were able to enjoy the first DX signals on our radios. The ionosphere had just come quiet after a strong solar storm earlier in the week and the A-index remained low throughout the weekend. Sometimes you need to be lucky.
All this resulted in a series of nice logs, on which
the low number of sunspots certainly contributed to:
As: 891 THA Sor. Wor. Thor.
918 CHN Shandong RGD
972 KOR HLCA KBS 1
1098 CHN CNR 1
1098 TWN Radio Taiwan Int.
1143 KOR Radio Free Korea
1143 TWN Taiwan Area Fishery BS
1170 KOR HLSR KBS 2
1188 CHN China Radio International
1206 CHN Yanbian RGD
1269 CHN China Radio International
1278 J JOFR RKB Mainichi Hoso
1350 PHL UNTV Radyo La Verdad
1377 CHN CNR 1
1413 J JOIF KBC Kyushu Asahi Hoso
1422 CHN China Radio International
1440 J JOWF STV Sapporo TV Hoso
1476 THA Sor. Wor. Thor. Chiang Mai
1512 CHN Jinan RGD
1512 TWN Ching-Cha Kuangpo Tientai
1521 CHN China Radio International
1539 CHN CNR 1
1557 TWN Radio Taiwan Int.
1566 KOR HLAZ FEBC
1575 THA Voice of America
1593 CHN CNR 1
NAm: 590 USA WEZE, Boston MA
670 USA WSCR, Chicago IL
700 USA WLW, Cincinnati OH
710 CAN CKVO, Clarenville NL
710 USA WOR, New York NY
740 CAN CFZM, Toronto ON
750 USA WSB, Atlanta GA
760 USA WJR, Detroit MI
820 USA WBAP, Fort Worth TX
820 USA WNYC, New York NY
830 USA WCRN, Worcester MA
840 USA WHAS, Louisville KY
870 USA WWL, New Orleans LA
890 USA WLS, Chicago IL
920 USA WDMC, Melbourne FL
980 CAN CHRF, Montreal QC
1020 USA KDKA, Pittsburgh PA
1040 USA WHO, Des Moines IA
1060 MEX XEEP-AM Radio Educación
1120 USA KMOX, Saint Louis MO
1190 USA WOWO, Fort Wayne IN
1200 USA WXKS, Newton MA
1290 CAN CFRW, Winnipeg MB
1300 USA WOOD, Grand Rapids MI
1300 USA WXRL, Lancaster NY
1320 CAN CHMB, Vancouver BC ?
1420 USA WOC, Davenport IA
1470 MEX XEAI-AM Radio Fórmula 3
1480 PTR WMDD, Fajardo
1480 USA WGVU, Kentwood MI
1510 USA WLAC, Nashville TN
1510 USA WWBC, Cocoa FL
1540 USA KXEL, Waterloo IA
1570 MEX XERF-AM La Poderosa
SAm: 700 ARG LV3 Radio Córdoba, Córdoba
800 BES PJB Shine 800 AM, Kralendijk
930 CLM HJCS La Voz de Bogota, Bogotá
1070 CLM Radio Santa Fe, Bogotá
1190 CLM HJCV Radio Cordillera, Bogotá
1250 CLM HJCA Capital Radio, Mosquera
1270 ARG LS11 Radio Provincia, La Plata
1350 ARG LS6 Radio Buenos Aires
1400 GRD Harbour Light of the Windw.
1500 VEN YVRZ Radio 2000 AM, Cumaná
1580 CLM HJQT Verdad Radio, Bogotá
The previous dx-peditions we had the amazing luck of hearing
Australia for the first time on medium wave, with a real Aussie (Dave) amongst
us. He could hardly believe it himself. This time, however, there were weak
signals from the west coast of North America, more specifically Vancouver. In
Scandinavia, such receptions are normal, but here it is a rarity. So, we can
only hope that we will hear a little bit more West coasters on the next
weekends. On the South America beverage Argentina could be heard on different
frequencies, quite impressive when you see the distance to these stations =
+11,000 km!
On shortwave, on the other hand, it was a bit disappointing. Not only more and more radio stations go off air, but the sunspot minimum also begins to manifest clearly with ever lower MUFs. As a result, a lot less was heard on the higher bands.
In addition to DXing itself, there was of course also a
lot of experimenting with antennas, baluns, comparing equipment and exchanging
experiences.
Of course, it is also necessary to satisfy our hunger
but also that is taken care off. Our chairman John ensures as always that
everything is there to get us through the long weekend unscathed. There are no
cooking princesses amongst us unfortunately, so we had to put up with Chinese
meals, bread and sandwich spreads. And at diner, a delicious bottle
of wine or a nice Belgian beer is never far away to make things easier. Between
meals there are snacks, soups, fruit and so on. And we can always rely on the
freshly baked waffles from Hugo's female. If you were not fast enough, you
probably only just had smelled them. So, no, you don't really get starved on a
DX-Weekend 😊.
In conclusion we can look back on a very successful
DX-Weekend. In the meantime, there is the count down to the next edition in
January 2019. More about that
later.
73, Marc
