Gone with the Wind

No, you didn't know that Clark Gable had an identical twin brother, Coax Gable. And no, this time the solar wind didn't take away all the stations from the dial. On the contrary.

Late last night JPR called us and informed that solar wind is raising. At the same time we had noticed that the floodgate was opened somewhere and the wild DX ride started.

Stay tuned. We'll be back.

Getting colder

Day 6. Yesterday we already had -15C (5F). This begins to be a good temperature because all the fake Santa Clauses from Lapland start to move South (people there just have to remember the rule of thumb: White Beard = Santa Claus, Black Beard = Osama Bin Laden). We are still waiting for a little bit colder weather, because a real Lurk doesn't leave the cabin for antenna check-up until it is -20C (-4F) or colder.

Conditions ? Yesterday afternoon gave us some hope with stations like KUIK but later we didn't even get our happy hour after 21 UTC. And things haven't improved much after that even though the K-index seems to have frozen to zero --- as well as the interesting stations logged. We had some directionality in our afternoon session (WY & AZ) but this week has been far from what we expected.

Anyway we have "interesting Prospects on disks" from previous days. We feel that listening to iPod will finally save the first week of LEM286. In addition, things may change any minute --- and there's still another week left. We shall never surrender.

// loggings

Thanks MNA for raising up this question (your comment at "We Have to Remember ..."). We had here an open and thorough discussion on this subject. Now we have less furniture available and three separate divisions in LURX. One is pro, one is against (whatever we were discussing about) and one is against having separate divisions.

After repairing the chairs again we will create a committee trying to figure out the causes that lead to this and solutions how to normalize the situation.

Thank you again MNA for raising up this important question.

Pain in the Arse (x 3)

Parviaisen Tuska is getting worse (not a single new African station heard yet), but Turviaisen Paska does not bother anymore (canned chili tunafish is still the number one fluid). The third (and most serious) pain is caused by the situation on the dial: the band is often crowded with NA stations but dominants mostly block all the interesting stuff behind them. And because each of us has already 5-40 stations QSLed on most frequencies the level of frustration and tension is rising. The mismatch between indexes and real conditions is astonishing. The scary part of last night was the long and weird howling (it seemed to come from the west).

Time between 21 and 23 UTC was the only "happy hour" for us yesterday(with stations like WFIF, WWSM and WNWT), otherwise: BOOO-OOOORING. Waiting for the better (what else we can do ?).

Stop blog: JHU just heard JOGB Kumamoto/Hitoyoshi relay on AM 1602 at 13'20 UTC. It seems that we still have hope. No losses of equipment or furniture today.

Great Bend !

Day 4: Our ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off our foreheads and we can no longer focus anything. Did we get anything ? (... "Hi guys, did we get anything... ? ..."). Everyone is shaking their heads. Well, at least we tried.

Start with CBG at 1930 followed by many NL-stations, signal levels rising and everything was very promising. Later 1520 and 1510 gave some nice signals (incl. CKOT). After that nothing special. Morning was the worst so far and the day was a catastrophe. KYES was one of the few new stations to us. One of the few surprises was the strong signal of RN RASD signing on at 07 UTC on 1550. The Massey-Ferguson index level was the highest observed so far (6 on scale 1-5). M-F index is calculated from the observed level of distorted signals and overall noise and their effect to overall v...tus.

This day was Great Bend ("Suuri Pyllistys") to us. But nou hätä, we have lots of "interesting prospects on disks".

PS. KVGB was heard loud and clear.

We Have to Remember to Eat Daily ...

... but Team Lurx will never take part in the modern hype of presenting gorgeous DX-pedition menus with quality wines etc. We regard that as gay stuff. Team Lurx has always had and will always have traditional Hell's Kitchen. The highlight of the week is when we'll sweep the floor and make "pyttipannu" ("pytt i panna" in Swedish or "Scandinavian Hash"). So no crab for lunch. Crap rules.

P in the Soup

Day 3: Night started with ON, but nothing spectacular appeared so we all went to sleep. More mourning in the morning, praying for the better pray during the day but all our hopes faded away. The overall noise level was high (between headphones and between participants) and signals on the dial sounded like they were driven over by Massey-Ferguson.

Losses of the day: one receiver & one chair. WXXI, KKAQ, WGIV, WVNA, KWBG & interesting projects on disks. One flashback from yesterday: "Sports Radio 6-10, The Sports Animal" was a welcomed addition to The LURX Zoo.