KNL04 - Knollehof DXped 16-19 November 2018

This time, I was not able to take part in the Autumn edition of the Knollehof DX-pedition because of family reasons. Marc Vissers was so kind to write this report.

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.

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


Marc's full log in Excel format can be downloaded here.