2010 October 17, DX Mafia, Walsoorden

A few photos of the 2010 Walsoorden Dx trip. Attending this Dxpedition were Marc Vissers, Guido Schotmans, Marc van Leemputten and Dave Onley. This Dxpedition has been fairly average but we all still managed to come away with something new.

Guido Schotmans, Dave Onley holding sign, Marc van Leemputten and Marc Vissers

Dave Onley and Marc van Leemputten

Marc Vissers, Dave Onley, Marc van Leemputten, Guido Schotmans

2010 October 17. The sun always rises in the morning at Walsoorden – Just like a hot air balloon

DX Hot air balloon rides at dawn over Walsoorden

It has been a very busy 24 hours and out of the ashes of the evening (High winds and noise) we actually heard some reasonable signals. Saturday evening the Asian signals were again very strong however nothing really new was observed. Stations like HLAZ on 1566 (Check it out here) and WYFR on 1557 were like Europeans at times. These stations stayed with us for quite a few hours. Remarkable reception indeed.

981 Voice of Guanghua was observed at nice levels at around 1900 UTC. Other stations from Asia heard were 1098 Voice of Asia mixing with CRI, 1413 JOIF Fukuoka at 2000. IRIB Iran on 1503 // 1512 and 531 khz at 2109. 1296 VOA Kabul at 1729. AIR Nagpur was one of the poorer Asians heard on 1566 at 1710

* You can see the Google Earth file of our antennas at:  www.schotmans.net/walsoorden/Walsoorden_2010-10-15.kmz

North America

Very strange reception of 590 VOCM on all antennas. This has been the first station in on most nights. Other stations heard were 1470 WLAM, 1540 CHIN and the other commonly heard stations such as 1130 WBBR etc.

We jumped out of bed full of energy needing a huge hit of caffeine to discover that the band was rather average. However. conditions picked up around sunrise and some interesting stations were heard. Levels were not great, but you could pick bits and pieces out.

Some of the stations heard were: 590 VOCM, 660 WFAN, 770 WABC, 790 WAXY, 850 WEEI with ESPN sports, 870 WWL, 930 CFBC, 970 Tent: WZAN, 1030 WBZ, 1130 WBBR, 1140 WQBA with SS, 1620 Rebelde, 580 CFRA.

Just after sunrise (about 0540) after observing a hot air balloon rising from a neighboring farm conditions changed towards Latin America.

Some of the interesting signals Guido and I observed were 1070 which we presume was Radio Mundial Venezuela, TWR Bonaire was again heard on 800 at 0610, Rebelde on 710 and 1180. But we have so many recordings to go through with the Perseus on many frequency’s such as 1060, 740, 1450, 1100.

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2010 October 16 Walsoorden, DX – Downtime

We all managed a bit of sleep. A few hours here and a few hours there. DXpeditions are never really a holiday in the sun. It’s like being at work and having to be methodical in what you do. Saturday afternoon we have extreme wind conditions and I presume the static from the antennas is causing so much noise on all the bands. So, it’s a bit of dx downtown. we are hoping that it does not continue. We are still working through our morning recordings. More to come later.

Marc Vissers explaining that you need this much Jack Daniels on the hour to get a good I.D.

Feestdagen – This is how real Belgian dxers go about Dxpeditions

Guido Schotmans is feeling depressed that Symban on 2368 is not propagating

Dxing amongst the corn fields – The 60 degrees beverage heading across the Atlantic

Our 60 degree beverage for our Asian dx

Because of high winds this big baby was down

The DX QTH in Noordstraat in Walsoorden

Farms all around here but its a busy time of the year having to dodge tractors

Entrance to the DX HQ

DX HQ Walsoorden

320 degree antenna

Beautiful sunrise in Walsoorden – Southern Netherlands

Beautiful dx one hour – Stormy dx and weather the next

2010 October 16, Walsoorden, Nocturnal Dxing

It’s into the wee hours here in Holland. Marc Vissers and Dave Onley are going the distance. Its 0022 UTC or 2:22am local time. Signals have really picked up from Nth America. In the past hour I have logged 1700 WJCC, 1650 CINA, 1650 CJRS, 1570 CJLV, 1580 CKDO, 1540 CHIN, 1520 WWKB, 1510 WWZN, 1500 WFED. 1320 a tentative logging of CJMR. So overall its worth sitting here. The beer is getting a nudge with Dave and Marc has his mate Jack D sitting beside him.

Guido doing a John Plimmer impersonation

Dave getting in the mood with some Polish beer

2010 October 16, Walsoorden, Evening conditions – Friday

A very interesting afternoon and evening listening coupled with a visit or two. Mediumwave provided extremely strong signals from 1566 HLAZ in Korea, signals were also reasonable from 1170 VOA Poro, 1557 WYFR Taiwan, Voice of Guangzhou on 981. 1521 CRI was nice at times along with Iran on 1512 // 1503. Navtex provided the highlight of the evening with Oman being heard by Guido at 1807 on 518 kHz. This was followed by the excellent reception of Pyonsang Korea at 1942.We are all trying to gear ourselves up for a late night, but the pillows are calling.

Guido looking intrigued at some Navtex signals

Marc fully focused on NDB’s

2010 October 15, Walsoorden – Morning logs

This morning I had the opportunity to use the K9AY antenna which has been erected here on a permanent basis. It does have some problems that it is designed for 160m and some filters in the switching result in poor performance at the lower end of the MW band. It also is not suitable for NDB or Navtex on longwave. However, it is a nice little performer with dx heard from Radio Puerto Cabello on 1290 khz at 0630. All the usual stations were around such as 1130 WBBR, 1510 WWZN, 850 WEEI, 1030 WBZ etc. Thursday evening, I had nice reception of HLAZ on 1566. In fact, the signals rose to insane levels at 1900. Later at 2000 Air Nagpur started to fade in but never dominated. Korea stayed in for a very long period. 1557 Taiwan was there with WYFR at 1915 UTC, but I have heard it better from here. No sign of VOA Poro on 1170 but by this time the Polish beer had started to kick in.

Guido at the dials 1454 UTC Friday afternoon waiting for Asians

The new K9AY antenna

Walsoorden Dxpedition – October 14 – 17 2010

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Walsoorden Dxpedition pages. The Dxpedition unofficially began on Thursday night when I made my way down to Walsoorden in Zeeland (Holland). The rest of the guys arrived bright and early at 8am on the Friday morning. We are here until Sunday and already conditions look promising. We will keep you updated with the more exotic catches that we hear.

Dave Onley already at it with the Perseus and K9AY