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LEM85 DXpedition Report
October 21-28, 1995
Three
DXers from the Helsinki area took part in this two-week
DXpedition, two at a time: Mika
Mäkeläinen from October 21st to 28th,
Hannu Niilekselä
from October 28th to November 4th and Håkan
Sundman for the entire two-week period from October
21st to November 4th 1995.
Everyone had two radio sets,
models JRC NRD-535 and NRD-525. Antenna installations
were the same as usually in Lemmenjoki,
16 longwire antennae each 1000 meters in length,
directed to South America, Central America, North
America, North and the Far East.
LEM85 was another success story
in the legendary QTH. At first magnetic disturbances
prevented serious DXing for a few days, for instance
not a single station from North America was heard
during the first couple of days. Even then the path
was open mainly to La Plata area of South America
and South Asia.
Gradually reception conditions
grew better and by weekend Oct. 27-28th, the conditions
reached a peak with the AM band full of North American
and Mexican stations. A relatively good opening
toward Far East was noted in the afternoon of Oct.
24th, when some previously unheard Philippine stations
were identified. Mexicans came surprisingly well
on Oct. 26-27th, and several stations were logged
for the first time in Europe. Conditions toward
North America remained very good for the second
week with good openings especially toward the West
Coast of North America.
For me personally, one of the
highlights was hearing KNIM Maryville MO on 1580
kHz using a nighttime power of 11 watts. Some of
the Mexicans (740 XEHS, 1270 XERRT and 1410 XECF)
were also neat catches. One of the Philippino stations
identified was DWAR on 891 kHz, and even now five
years later that I'm once again re-editing my site,
the WRTH doesn't have a clue about this station.
Thanks to Dave Kenny in the UK, I learned that the
station does exist - it transmits from Naga City.
For a comprehensive list of what
we heard, see the LEM85 DXpedition
log, which includes loggings from the entire
two-week period. For some logging guidelines, check
out notes on the log.
Here's a description of the Lemmenjoki
QTH.
  
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