KNL-10 Frank Thijs own experience about the last DX-pedition

My ninth DXpedition in Knollehof, Veurne, would be completely different. We would now leave during the daytime for our DX location. During the previous DX weekends, I left at 5am and drove most of the time in the dark. The visible environment was usually limited to the road you were driving on. Here and there you could see something of the area when traffic and lighting allowed you to take a look around.

The drive to Knollehof was pleasant, less traffic on the road, no peeping in the dark and it was as if the 'heavier' traffic had less of a morning mood or stress.

Stress, yes… it's something I experience every time a DXpedition announces itself. The 5 coax cables must be checked and repaired if necessary. An audio switcher had to be replaced, some cables had to be ordered and that did not go smoothly. Is everything okay with the external HDs and the laptop and PC? Is there a neighbour who can take care of my cat, Floshke, for a few days. Anyway, these are just a few concerns that can be solved almost immediately. In addition, there are also the questions of how the conditions will be and that was very bad for the many weeks before the DXpedition. Will it rain and storms, are there any deviations that will require me to drive through small villages? How are the fields? Will the antenna setup be a Sunday walk or will it be toiling, sweating, cursing and gruelling for mind and body? Well, this year it was especially gruelling and that especially during the tearing down of the antennas. The more I think about it, the more I feel the pain in my back and legs.

All those questions that made me restless and I'm not even talking about the health that was playing tricks on me a few weeks before the start of the listening pedition. Stress is not unknown to me, but it didn't stop me from starting the 200 km ride with a great desire and living the days in joy among skilled DXers.

Frank at his listening post

The closer I get to our DX location, the calmer I feel. The countryside of the Westhoek gives me a kind of spiritual peace. The silence, the desolation, the somewhat gloomy impression and above all the history of the region in which we spend a few days. A history that is perhaps not or not enough known by the younger people. A history where thousands upon thousands of men and women from all over the world from just about every continent fought and died. A history that is commemorated every year on November 11 in many countries, the history of Flanders Field. There, in Flanders Field, we have been meeting twice a year since 2017 to DX, but also to meet and live together.

The conditions were not good but for some, if not all, participants it is also a relief. The disruptions in our home locations are increasing and an improvement is hardly feasible. The lucky ones among us who have room for FLAGs, KAZ antennas or a beverage also enjoy their antennas less and less due to all kinds of interference that suppress the DX stations. Then a location such as Knollehof does offer the opportunity and the joy of fun stations, even if the conditions are not optimal.

Frank's favourite, Kastaar the local mascotte.

Hopefully I'll find some nice surprises on my recordings, but I'm already happy with some medium wave logs like Sudan and North Korea that I never heard before. Also Nigeria with a nice ID, as you can hear on a recording that Guido made, but Kuwait is also a station for me that I could not often put in the logbook. Hopefully they will answer my reception report.

My listening post consisted of a PC and laptop connected with a Perseus + Jaguar software and an external 4 TB hard disk. The beverages to North America, Argentina, Japan, Australia, Columbia and Africa plucked the radio signals from the air.

All in all, and despite my grumbling before and during the DXW weekend, I enjoyed the midweek. These are days of DXing, discovering, interacting and sometimes clashing, enjoying, looking ahead and looking back and making plans for the next session in Knollehof in Flanders Field.

Frank Thijs.

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