LBI‐16  /  2017 Attendees :

·         Russ Edmunds (WB2BJH) – Blue Bell, PA – 2 Modified Sony ICF 2010’s  

·         Brett Saylor (W3SWL) – State College, PA – Perseus SDR, ELAD FDM‐S2 SDR  

·         Kris Field – Horsham, PA – NRD‐545; ELAD FDM –S2 SDR

·         Michael Hunter (W2MHZ) – Neshanic Station, NJ – Perseus SDR

·         Ralph Brandi – Middletown, NJ – Perseus SDR

·         Bill Whitacre – Alexandria, VA – Perseus SDR

·         Chuck Rippel (K8HU) – Chesapeake, VA – Perseus SDR, WinRadio SDR

 

ALL:

·         Two 16’x36’ Wellbrook‐amplified broadband loops (northeast @60 degrees and south @ 180 degrees)

·         Wellbrook ALA‐1530

 

The 16th annual Long Beach Island DXpedition took place at a new location across the bay from the previous site on Long Beach Island NJ from October 25‐28, 2017.  This year’s event was relocated to a private home in the Beach Haven West neighborhood due to a change in management at the Drifting Sands motel as well as its sale and closure for renovations. We explored alternate beachside motels on the island but nothing could be found with the required physical configuration for erecting antennas on the beach and near to the rooms. The move to the house meant that our space for antennas was compressed, but the house itself provided a much more comfortable location for DXing and socializing. Since the house rented for the entire week people began arriving on Wednesday evening.

 

Wednesday nights’ attendees were Kris, Chuck, Ralph and Brett. A G1 level storm began the previous day but conditions favored both Trans-Atlantic and Latin America, and numerous stations began arriving by 4:45pm local time. Highlights were new countries at LBI Israel, Romania and Madeira (on a digital GPS long wave beacon). On Thursday night Russ and Bill arrived; the K index remained high but there were still some European and Middle Eastern stations received. The new LBI country of Guadeloupe was heard on a long wave beacon. Friday night added Mike, and conditions fell off with most of the logs being domestic stations. Conditions improved on Saturday so the event ended on a high note. Check the logs section for a complete list of all the stations and countries heard – this year’s totals were 187 stations from 40 different radio countries.

 

As a result of greater use of SDR’s, we had a larger number of loggings than we have had in any prior year, but that comes with the side effect of taking longer to compile a group log.  As always, regardless of the conditions, the act of getting together to DX and talk about DX remains the highlight of the weekend.