On the 176th Aihkiniemi DXpedition we scored three extremely rare Travelers' Information Stations (TIS). They are the ultimate DX targets from North America due to their very low transmitter power. Normally, such stations are heard just a few kilometers away, but we caught three of them from the Pacific Northwest, about 7,000 kilometers from Lapland. Additionally, conditions strongly favored California, resulting in a dozen personally new AM catches from there.

Switched to winter tires, check. Replaced a broken headlight, check. Topped off windshield washer fluid, undiluted, check. A bit of rudimentary cleaning of the interior, check. My Auris was ready for the Arctic.

To a lesser degree, so was I. There never seems to be enough time to update target lists and otherwise prepare for a DXpedition in Lapland, but what the heck, it's always exciting to set out on a journey north and explore the radio waves!

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. This applies to the logistics of my annual October DXpedition, which followed the routine of the previous years. On a Friday afternoon, I packed my gear in the back seat and headed to the Pasila train station in Helsinki. That's where Jim Solatie was waiting for his stuff – lots of it – to be crammed into the trunk of my car before I drove it on the train. We still had almost two hours to spend before the departure of the train, so we walked over to the Mall of Tripla in Pasila for a sushi buffet dinner at Luckiefun's Restaurant. Then some shopping for snacks until IC 265 train left on schedule. It felt really relaxing to be heading north!

We slept pretty well and arrived in Rovaniemi on Saturday morning just ten minutes behind schedule. Unloading cars from the train was exceptionally swift, so when the time signal on Yle Radio Suomi hit 8 a.m. local time on the car radio, we were already out of town, driving north, just about to cross the Arctic Circle on Highway 4. The temperature hovered around -10°C, with some snow already on the ground, but the road was dry and in perfect driving condition.


The Rovaniemi railway station at dawn. CLICK the photos in this report to see them in full size in a new browser window.

There was a strong sense of déjà vu. Incidentally, I had been in Lapland just two weeks before because of a reporting assignment in Kirkenes, northern Norway. This marked my first foreign assignment so close to home—and even closer to Aihkiniemi. I had flown to Ivalo and rented a car there. Since I drove right by Aihkiniemi, I stopped to say hello to Lauri Niemi and Jyrki Hytönen, the lucky DXers enjoying good reception conditions in early October. In Norway, I covered the situation at the Norwegian-Russian border when Norway tightened entry rules for Russians. My first story was published on Yle's website just as we started driving.

Back to AIH176. Along the way, we saw lots of reindeer, shopped for groceries in Inari, and filled ourselves, as well as the car, at a Neste service station in Inari. That's where we also briefly met Ismo Kauppi and Timo Metso, who had just spent a week in Aihkiniemi scoring many never-before-heard stations from the southern part of the US.


Mika Mäkeläinen (left), Ismo Kauppi, Timo Metso and Jim Solatie met in Inari.

Eventually, after driving 400 kilometers, we arrived in Aihkiniemi at 14:40 local time (1140 UTC). If you're already a DXer and would like to learn more about Aihkiniemi, check out this video on my YouTube channel. However, if you're wondering what DXing is all about, here's a perfect introduction to the hobby filmed and published by the BBC.

Setting up our gear was quick and painless, allowing us to acclimatize to the DX paradise by listening to numerous Japanese stations. Surprisingly, Japanese NHK2 stations signed off at 1455 UTC, a first for me. While I didn't personally catch any new stations from Japan, I discovered a couple of Italian AM stations that had appeared on the AM dial since my previous DXpedition: Radio Calcio FVG on 1503 AM and Radio Centrale Milano on 1575 AM, both of which turned out to be common stations heard daily.

As before, both Jim and I were equipped with three Perseus SDR receivers. We had a choice of the same familiar 14 antennas, each approximately 1 kilometer (3,300 ft) long, pointing in various directions:

Fellow DXers Hannu Asikainen and Hannu Niilekselä were DXing 100 km away in Lemmenjoki at the same time, but they have not published a DXpedition report or a log. The AM band was being recorded in at least three other locations in northern Finland as well. In Norway, DXpedition KONG47 began at the same time as ours, and their results can be seen in Bjarne Mjelde's blog. Halfway into our DXpedition, we visited the Kongsfjord guys. More about this highlight later. AM DXers were also active in Parkalompolo in Sweden, making this the peak of the season for Nordic AM DXers in the Arctic.

In addition to radio equipment, I was looking forward to testing my new camera. Just a couple of weeks prior, I had sold all of my Nikon gear and bought a mirrorless Sony a7R Mark V with Sigma's 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art lens, which should be a killer combo for shooting the night sky! As we approach the solar maximum, capturing aurora images would become an even more important secondary activity to DXing.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't favor stargazing. Almost all the time, it was too cloudy. Temperatures ranged from freezing point to -20°C, but even on the few relatively clear nights, there was way too much moisture in the air obscuring visibility. The persistent haze was probably due to strong evaporation from the nearby waterway, which hadn't yet frozen over.


Moisture in the air made my light beam very visible, but neither the stars nor the northern lights were very impressive. A full moon didn't help either.

Overall, our first week exceeded expectations, especially considering where we are in the solar cycle, approaching peak solar activity. However, the second week was a clear disappointment with disturbed conditions. The vast majority of our new catches will be from the first week.

Here's a day-to-day look at what we heard and what else happened during this memorable DXpedition.

Sunday, October 22, 2023

Overnight, US stations emerged late and were relatively weak, but stations from Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay were notably strong around 0000–0100 UTC, indicating a potential opening that could eventually yield some new catches. At least one was identified instantly: Rádio Jornal Leopoldina on 1560 AM even verified right away.

Identified North American stations included KSUE 1240, WTAX 1240, KWVR 1340, WFMB 1450, KEJB 1480, and KVTK 1570 AM. On shortwave, I picked up Radio Casanova, a low-power Dutch station, on 6060 kHz.

During the day, our activities included checking the first antennas. Walking in the forest was a breeze, because the swampy ground was frozen, though there were only isolated small patches of snow.

In the afternoon, Japanese stations were again quite strong, and later in the evening, we found some signals from Australia.

This time, aurora borealis was quite modest, but I can always enhance the colors in post-production... ;)

Monday, October 23, 2023

Overnight presented a mixed bag, encompassing signals from the southern part of South America to the Canadian Prairie. Unfortunately, most of my nighttime recordings were compromised due to excessive gain, resulting in distorted audio. In the morning, there wasn't a clear focus until Californian stations boomed around 0600 UTC—a neat, productive, and personally remarkable target area. Decades ago, I had lived in the Bay Area on two occasions (see my Silicon Valley bandscan from 2004 here). During this opening, I managed to log a plethora of personally new stations from California, and I anticipate discovering more gems as soon as recordings are thoroughly checked.

We even detected some low-power transmitters belonging to the class of Travelers' Information Stations (TIS) and Highway Advisory Radios (HAR). Sometimes, the term Emergency Advisory Radio Stations (EAR) is also used. Collectively and colloquially, these low-power stations are known as "tissi" (tits) in Finnish, leading to interesting reactions from outsiders. For instance, when I called my wife to share the news that we had caught spectacular tits... One of these stations was recognized and identified by DXer Bruce Portzer in Seattle, so a big thank you to Bruce!

Stations from the West Coast and around the Rocky Mountains remained strong until the afternoon. This is where some new interesting frequencies can now be found, as a bunch of Canadian superpower stations have left the air, making room for stations from California and the Southwest. One of these was KFOY Sparks NV on 1060 AM, now without interference from a strong station in Alberta. Elsewhere, stations like KHAT 1210, KMHI 1240, KNEU 1250, KLBS 1330, WNCO 1340, KACH 1340, KSRO 1350, KUBE 1350, KMYC 1410, KMHS 1420, KEED 1450, KBKR 1490, KBZY 1490, and WRSJ PR 1520 AM were logged. Here are some audio samples from this fabulous day:

• KMIA Auburn-Federal Way WA 1210 AM
• KIT Yakima WA 1280 AM
• KNPT Newport OR 1310 AM
• KLBS Los Banos CA 1330 AM
• KBKW Aberdeen WA 1450 AM
  
• KEJB Eureka CA 1480 AM

Around midday, during sunny weather, we performed some antenna maintenance but returned before the 1000 UTC NHK1 local ID slot. Fortunately, this time stations from Japan had emerged from the static before this crucial time slot. NHK1 local station IDs are always nice to catch, although we didn't snag any new ones. The day continued much like the good old days, with plenty of strong signals from all over, including some of the most common Pacific islands like Tonga, the Marshall Islands, and New Zealand. However, no real rarities were heard.

Our DX paradise in the Arctic on a freezing night.

Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Overnight signals from North America were more stable than before, but it was still less interesting than daybreak and daytime DXing because that's when annoying interference by European stations faded away. North American stations remained quite strong throughout the day until late afternoon, which is not very common this early in the season.

Once again, Californian stations were prominent, but Midwestern stations lingered around longer than on Monday. For example, KSFT 790, KQCV 800, KNCO 830, XEITE 830, KFLD 870, CFBV 870, KNEB 960, KLAD 970, KWSW 980, KSTC 1230, KROX 1260, KGHM 1340, KPOK 1340, KMAJ 1440, and KAGE 1580 AM were identified. And the TIS galore continued.

A drone shot of the Aihkiniemi cabins in daylight.

By 0900 UTC, some common stations from the Pacific were booming, along with the first Japanese stations. Now, even three receivers per person weren't enough to cover all interesting directions. For example, Tonga (1017 AM) and the Marshall Islands (1098 AM) had really kick-ass signals for hours. Newstalk ZB from New Zealand was heard on many frequencies, including 1413 AM, which is quite rare. I even heard one personally new Kiwi myself, Moana Radio on 1440 AM, although overall, this doesn't rise up to the top New Zealand openings of my life.

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Reception of nighttime stations from the Western Hemisphere improved very slowly, and only after midnight UTC were there more than isolated stations. Conditions improved steadily, and by around sunrise (0600 UTC), U.S. stations were heard from coast to coast on almost every frequency. Signals didn't wane even after daybreak but persisted at really strong levels until the afternoon, which was unusual.

Unlike during the first couple of days, there was no emphasis on the Pacific Northwest, but everything from sea to shining sea was available at the same time, so the usual suspects tended to dominate the frequencies. For experienced DXers, it is difficult to find anything new.

Identified stations included WGR 550, KIXZ 940, XERDO 1060, KDMR 1190, KBAR 1230, KLIK 1240, WPYR 1380, KGRN 1410, WNGL 1410, XEBS 1410, and WGLL 1570 AM.

This is probably where precipitation rises from, and obscures the stars.

Outside temperatures dropped to around -15°C, but with only tiny patches of snow and the sun shining, checking antennas turned into a really enjoyable outing. The constant crackle of newly formed ice in the surrounding ponds and streams was very prominent both day and night, forming a quite unique soundscape.

Signals from East and Southeast Asia emerged earlier than normal, peaking around 1300 UTC. When we have time to examine our files, there might be something interesting, for instance, from Taiwan. I caught up on sleep in the evening, so I have no idea if any Aussies were present later on.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Overnight was choppier than before, with signals rising and vanishing several times. The dips were the result of a minor geomagnetic storm, which lowered signal levels, reduced whatever openings would be available, and overall caused unpredictable changes in propagation. Sunrise didn't elevate transatlantic signals, as it normally tends to do. During the day, the western front recovered somewhat so that 0900 UTC still offered a decent selection of Midwestern stations, but at least so far, no new ones for us. Identified stations included KFJB 1230, KGLB 1310, KGFW 1340, KTMM 1340, KPRK 1340, KORN 1490, KLGR 1490, KMCD 1570, and KWBG 1590 AM.


Mika checking antennas. Behind you can see a bridge rebuilt by Martti Karimies earlier in the fall.

Some Far Eastern stations came pretty strong at around 0940–1040 UTC, but then there was a lull of several hours before anything much was heard from the east. Initially even a couple of New Zealand stations were heard, but soon focus shifted down to Thailand and India.

Friday, October 27, 2023

Nighttime reception from across the Atlantic was under par, and stations faded out almost completely just after sunrise. In the morning, identified stations included KSJK 900, KNEB 960, KFBC 1230, KODI 1400, and KKTS 1580 AM.

Jim had received a trophy from the Aihkiniemi team for reaching a total of over 10,000 verified broadcasting stations (SW, AM, and FM) and countries. This accomplishment is likely a globally unparalleled achievement, the result of over four decades of intensive DXing.

Luckily, we had better plans than just DXing. At 11:00 (0800 UTC), we started driving towards Norway. First, we had a snack at Kaamasen Kievari restaurant, located some 50 km away, and then headed north. Nature experiences were abundant; aside from common reindeer encounters, we saw a fox and a large male western capercaillie (wood grouse), both standing in the middle of the road before and after Kaamanen. Especially the grouse was quite persistent. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to catch a photo as I was driving.

Mantojärvi just south of Utsjoki in a very black and white weather.

Icicles on the side of the road from Utsjoki to Nuorgam.

In partly sunny weather, we chose to follow the Teno (Tana in Norwegian) River on the southeastern bank to get to Nuorgam, the northernmost point in Finland. First on the road near the center of Utsjoki stands Utsjoki Arctic Resort, a brand-new luxury hotel with glass-domed villas for viewing northern lights and views of the river valley. It was eerily quiet and turned out to be closed. Apparently, the lack of Chinese and other Asian tourists has hit them really hard.

I was hoping that the resort would have been the place to taste pink salmon, an invasive species which is despised locally but should be quite tasty when netted at the right time. Eventually, it turned out that pink salmon isn't served anywhere, and most of the catch ends up as dog food. What a waste of a good resource.

Then on to Nuorgam. Attached to the local supermarket is Restaurant Beaivváš, which serves fabulous hamburgers. The name of the restaurant means the sun – sunlight being a rare phenomenon up here in the winter. The polar night begins in a few weeks' time and will last almost two months. Consequently, in the summer, Nuorgam enjoys 74 days of non-stop daylight without the sun setting at all.

Finland's northernmost hamburger at Beaivváš Restaurant is totally worth the drive.

From Nuorgam, we crossed the border to Norway and continued following the Teno River up to the mouth of the river (Tanamunningen). As on a previous visit, we took loads of photos at the end of Høyholmen, a nature reserve and tidal spit jutting out into the river and surrounded by impressive mountains.

During an exceptionally high high tide in Høyholmen much of the grass around can be underwater.

Giemaš Mountain is reflected from the Tana River estuary. On the right is Elkem Tana, one of the largest open pit mines for quartzite extraction in the world.

Before five local time, we had checked into Kongsfjord Arctic Lodge, renamed since our last visit a year ago, and walked over to the Kongsfjord DX base where Bjarne Mjelde, Odd-Jørgen Sagdahl, and Ole Forr had been listening for the past week on DXpedition KONG47.


Kongsfjord DX cabin at sunset.

From the left Mika Mäkeläinen, Bjarne Mjelde, Odd-Jørgen Sagdahl, Ole Forr and Jim Solatie.

We were grateful for the invitation to join them for an exclusive dinner for the third year in a row! The culinary skills of the Norwegian crew surpass ours by such a vast margin that we're happy to spend most of the day driving just to get to taste their king crab. Of course, we also cherish the opportunity to share our DXperiences and enjoy the superb company of like-minded hobbyists.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

We met our Norwegian friends once more for breakfast at Bjarne's DX base, and after feasting on Arctic delicacies (salmon and cloudberry included), we headed for a return trip over the mountains of the Varanger Peninsula.

Keep this sign in mind if someone suggests that Finnish or Sami are easy languages to learn. This place name on Highway 4 translates as "Fat fish Lakes."

Sunset in Inari on our way to Aihkiniemi.

We followed the exact same route back to Aihkiniemi with stops at Tana bro (for Norwegian groceries) and Nuorgam (for Finnish groceries, gas, and another hamburger at Restaurant Beaivváš). The road was mostly dry in Norway but quite icy on the Finnish side. I guess they use much less salt and sand on this side of the border.

It was just becoming dark at 1440 UTC (17:40 local time) when we arrived and started to check our pre-programmed recordings. It appears that the past 30 hours were not very successful, but a closer inspection is still warranted once we have time for it.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

On this night, the European Union switched back to normal time, so I readjusted various daily alarms that remind me of particular DX targets, such as RNE or NHK local identifications.

Overnight reception from all of the Western Hemisphere was worse than on any previous night. Not even Brazilian stations made any significant entrée. The K-index was close to four, reaching minor geomagnetic storm levels, so probably I should have focused on Africa, but I was sleeping during the best potential time in that direction (0300–0400 UTC). Daytime was totally dead, so we inspected our recordings from the first week.

A closup of sparkling frozen grass in the forest. In the upper left corner you can see a tiny part of our 321-degree antenna.

In the afternoon and evening, Asian stations took a very long time to appear at all. When they finally did emerge around 1200–1300 UTC and gained enough strength by 1400–1500 UTC, most stations turned out to be from Western China and South Asia. I found a couple of new Qinghai PBS Tibetan service frequencies (1017 and 1170 AM), which goes to show how poor the options were.

In the evening, we hunted for two German short-term AM stations on 747 and 749.5 AM, but neither one was heard. Close attention to 747 AM anyhow yielded MCB Radio from the Netherlands, so the hours spent parked on one single frequency were not totally wasted.

Monday, October 30, 2023

Nighttime reception was very poor in all directions, and North American stations appeared only briefly with weak signals before sunrise. Early morning brought enhanced signals from Brazil and Argentina, so that, for instance, Rádio Sentinela do Vale was logged on 1460 AM. At sunrise, the AM band became dead quiet.

Frozen in time until the spring.

A sprinkle of snow dropped overnight, and we enjoyed some sunshine during the day in a -10°C winter weather – Jim hiking, and me flying a drone.

The first stations from Southeast Asia emerged around 1130 UTC. As is common during disturbed conditions, there were no Japanese stations, but instead, stations from Thailand, as well as Western and Southern China were the strongest. If I'm lucky, I could catch a local ID from one of the southernmost stations in India.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Overnight reception of North American stations was negligible at best, but Brazilian stations still made it this far during the early morning hours. In the morning 0500–0600 UTC was the golden hour before local sunrise when conditions tend to shift rapidly. Some rather common stations were logged from all over the Americas, such as WGDJ 1300, Radio del Oeste (Uruguay) 1490, Radio Monumental (Ecuador) 1510, and Radio Bahamas on 1540 AM.

Signals vanished soon after sunrise (about 0625 UTC), but some nice stations from the East Coast resurfaced around 0730 UTC, including WRNJ 1510, WAMA 1550, and WVTL 1570 AM, as well as WKNY Kingston NY on 1490 AM, a personally new graveyard station.

Mika listening. The CFPL t-shirt was sent by Bill Brady, then Senior Vice President of the Blackburn Group, back in 1996.

Daytime was quiet on the dial until the first Asian signals appeared briefly around 1030 UTC, then died down, and recovered before 1200 UTC. The conditions favored South and Central Asia, and without much of a focus, it would be a challenge to find anything new.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

A missed opportunity: Overnight would have been the last good slot to catch daytime-only stations from the US when they sign off a bit after the actual local sunset time for late October, but there were no North American stations on the AM dial during the night. Instead, stations from Brazil to Argentina were heard relatively well during the wee hours.

Part of my gear is visible here, but the Perseus receivers are behind the laptops. The screens display Jaguar software.

Just before dawn, there was a mix of signals from the Western Hemisphere, including the East Coast USA, but they all dissipated by sunrise. Daytime was dead quiet in all directions, and not even our semi-local KBRW Barrow from Alaska on 680 AM was heard.

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Miserable propagation conditions continued. There were some Brazilian and Argentinian stations overnight, and North American signals around 0500–0700 UTC, but signal levels were poor and nothing spectacular was found, at least immediately. Stations such as KICD 1240, KOIL 1290, KGLB 1310, KLIN 1400, and WIZM 1410 AM were logged. The Pacific Northwest made a brief comeback at 1100 UTC when, for instance, KORT 1230, KRSC 1400, and KVTA 1590 AM were identified.

A view from Kaunispää Fell to the east.

Signals from Asia began to improve slowly after 1200 UTC, but again, signals remained rather weak, and atmospheric noise was strong. In the late afternoon 1600–1700 UTC, Indian and Thai stations dominated, but nothing of interest was found. Identified stations included regular catches such as Voice of Vietnam on 549 AM and Bangladesh Betar on 873 AM.

Friday, November 3, 2023

Poor conditions seemed never-ending – or lasting at least until the end of our DXpedition. Overnight stations from Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina were heard for a few hours, but that was it. North American stations appeared before sunrise but weakened soon in daylight. WTWB from Florida on 1570 AM was perhaps the only station worth mentioning of those which were identified on the fly.

An afternoon opening to Asia was equally miserable, with mostly weak signals from South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. For example, Son La from Vietnam was logged on 828 AM, and Qazaq Radiosy seems to have reactivated on 1557 AM. China's national Kazakh-language service (CNR17) was heard on 1269 AM, a personally new frequency for this station.

In the evening, it was time to start cleaning the cabin for our next guests. We did the dishes and emptied the composting toilet.

Otsamo Fell shot from Highway 4 on our way south.

Saturday, November 4, 2023

At -20°C Saturday morning was the coldest of the DXpedition. Overnight conditions continued rather poor, with basically just some Latin American stations audible. In the morning hours around 0500–0600 UTC, some Colombian and Puerto Rican stations were heard for a change, but signal levels were quite modest. Thus it was painless to turn off our receivers, pack our belongings and leave Aihkiniemi just before midday.

The weather was perfect for driving, with mostly dry roads onward from Inari. Low-hanging clouds revealed bald mountain tops above the clouds, so we made several photography stops.

Sushi dinner at Himo Restaurant in Rovaniemi. The dark meat slices are tender reindeer meat.

In Rovaniemi, we chose Sushi Restaurant Himo (translated as "Lust") for our evening meal. The sushi there was exquisite and can certainly be recommended.

Later in the evening, we still had a reindeer pizza at Restaurant Alvari at the Railway station before boarding the train south. And so it ended, a surprisingly rewarding DX tour in the Arctic. However, as always after a fine DXpedition behind us, most of the fun is still ahead: We will need months to digest our recordings and hopefully make even more exciting discoveries.

Text and photos: Mika Mäkeläinen

Published on November 14, 2023