LEM132 DXpedition Equipment
November 15th - 22nd 1999

by Mika Mäkeläinen

Below you can see Mika's JRC NRD-545 DSP. In addition, Mika had an NRD-535D and Jim two pieces of NRD-535D. Two receivers come in handy especially when hunting stations which have local identifications relatively rarely. RAI (Italy), all Spanish networks and NHK-2 (Japan) stations are good examples of this.

NRD-545 DSP

Additional equipment included amplifiers and antenna tuners. Both had a switchboard (picture below) designed by Roland Sandberg to select the antennae, and if necessary, to split a particular antenna between the two receivers. A new active splitter was used to divide some essential antennae between the listeners.

This year the Lemmenjoki QTH was equipped with 14 beverage or longwire antennae. Both users can exclusively have five antennae and the remaining four are divided with a splitter, so that in effect both listeners can choose between nine wires. Each antenna is 0.8 - 1 kilometer (0.5 - 0.6 miles) in length.

Antenna splitter and preselector

Because of the reindeer, antennae need to be 3-4 meters above the ground. Whereever trees are not available, poles have been erected. Antennae are directed at the following areas:
- Southern part of South America (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile), Spain and the United Kingdom
- Northern part of South America (Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador) and the Caribbean
- Eastern Coast of North America and Central America
- Midwest
- Rocky Mountains
- West Coast of North America
- North (Alaska, Hawaii)
- Far East (Japan, Koreas) at direction 55 degrees
- East Asia (China, Taiwan, the Philippines etc) at 70 degrees

The recording equipment also merits a note. Mika used only minidiscs (Sony MDS-JE520 deck and a portable Sony MZ-R35), which was a revolutionary improvement to the cassette era. Jim still relied on the cassette decks, because they operate well also at his summer cottage, which has no electricity.