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LEM83 DXpedition Report
January 14-21, 1995
This
time I was off to Lapland with Juha
Vehmas, whom I had known since the early 80's,
when we both lived in Tampere and took part in the
activities of the local DX association. We had high
hopes for the season's last DXpedition, even though
we arrived in Lemmenjoki pretty tired after driving
the entire way in a snowstorm.
I was equipped with a JRC NRD-535D
and an NRD-525, while Juha used another NRD-525
and a Yaesu FRG-7700. After Juha got used to the
NRD, he hardly touched his Yeasu anymore... The
antennae were more limited than usually in Lemmenjoki.
As the season was ending, some antennae had already
been taken out of service, and we took down several
more - so in the end we had roughly half the normal
amount of antennae in use.
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During the first couple of days
we heard quite a few Latin American stations, and
the conditions kept improving steadily. On Monday,
January 16th, North American stations came booming,
and we had nice catches from Iowa. The grand surprise
came on Monday evening at 2253 UTC, when I heard
WCNB Connersville IN on 1580 kHz. The signal was
audible for less than a minute, but I managed to
hear their identification (simulcasting with WIFE-FM)
and a local commercial spot. Chief Engineer Mike
Peacock later confirmed their power as 4.6 watts
- not an easy record to break. More on this in the
article What 4.6
watts can do. You can also listen to Mike's
recorded letter to me.
The next morning we heard a bunch
of new stations from Mexico City, and of course,
dozens of U.S. stations. On January 18th a minor
magnetic storm changed the scene, and after this
the spotlight turned to Asia. On January 19th conditions
to Japan were exceptionally good, and by the end
of our DXpedition, conditions to North America were
once again excellent.
This was an era when people were still very excited
to get international contacts. Many stations were
thrilled that their signal reached all the way to
Finland. Here are some of the friendly verification
letters received after DXpedition LEM83. You can
click the QSL images to see them in full
size.
I heard KTRB from Modesto, California, on 860 kHz
on January 17, 1995. This QSL letter arrived in
December 1996.
I heard WVNA from Tuscumbia,
Alabama, on 1590 kHz on January 21, 1995. This verification
letter arrived in December 1995.
And below is a QSL from KPOF in Denver, Colorado,
on 910 kHz. Click the image to open the entire three-page
letter as a PDF file.
For a detailed list of what we heard, see the LEM83
DXpedition log. For some logging guidelines,
check out notes on the log.
You can also view the Lemmenjoki
QTH.
  
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