LBI-8 / 2009
Attendees
Antennas:
North
BOG: 700’ terminated @ 33 degrees
South
BOG: 850’ terminated @ 213 degrees
Phase
wire: 250’ // North BOG
8’
pre-amplified Broadband Loop
6’
pre-amplified Broadband Loop
3’
Copper pipe loop, unamplified
8
x 16’ Superloop, pre-amplified
Wellbrook
ALA-1530
Brett speaks:
Every fall, my
friends ask me "so, when are you going to the
beach for your radio weekend?" Getting ready
for the annual LBI DXpedition has become as much a part of my fall
ritual as carving the Halloween pumpkins and
raking leaves. LBI-8 marked my 7th consecutive year, and from the new DX
catches to the camaraderie of the group, LBI keeps getting better every time.
As is our usual
practice, we tracked the space weather cycles for several months before
settling on the 6th-8th of November as the dates to provide most likely optimum
conditions. Reception leading up to the weekend was yielding "near-LBI
quality" trans-Atlantic reception at our
home QTHs so we decided that, if conditions were
excellent, we would consider extending the DXpedition to a third night (which
we ended up doing).
Setting
up the beverage antennas went without a hitch, and conditions on the
first evening started out great around 4:30pm local time with the usual
appearance by Sweden on 1179, followed by UK outlets, Spain, France and
Germany. As the evening progressed some of the medium wave frequencies
cooled down but longwave provided some excellent signals. On subsequent days,
we were able to pick up significant TA signals on both long and medium wave as
early as 3:30pm local time.
A subset of the
attendees decided to stay over Sunday night; conditions
changed early that evening as the A-index shot up to 7 and
the band went somewhat auroral. While things returned to normal after a few
hours, there was a period of dominance by Latin American stations that evening.
We had hopes
that this year might finally yield some solid trans-Pacific reception. However,
despite early morning listening and some tantalizingly strong carriers, we were
not able to extract anything more than some wispy audio from the strongest of
stations on 747 and 945. Other DXers further north had definite audio on
these channels at the same time, but we will have to console ourselves with the
fact that New Jersey just isn't an ideal location for TP DXing.
Every LBI tends
to yield a different mix of stations and this year was no different. Running my
Perseus SDR as a "DX vacuum cleaner" for ~18 hours a day, I recorded
more than 1 terebyte of wide-band files which have already yielded a number of
interesting catches in post-DXpedition analysis. Although we were not able to
snag long-sought Greenland (which I had heard from
Pennsylvania a few weeks earlier), we were able to positively ID the Faroe
Islands on 531 and other new countries Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovenia
and Russia. I also had digital decoding software running
on my TenTex RX-320 and was able to hear Bermuda on 518 NAVTEX as well as a
number of other NAVTEX and DGPS beacon stations.
This year marked
the return of Bobby Galerstein after several years' absence and (finally) the
debut of Chuck Rippel who has been trying to attend for the previous two years. Absent was regular attendee Bruce
Collier whom we missed, but he was able to send his antenna wire and pre-amps
so at least a little bit of him was there. We also had visits from local radio
enthusiasts Michael Temme-Soifer, Nick Langan and Steve Wozniak who were able to
stop by for an evening of listening.
Another
year’s LBI is over, but the logs will keep coming thanks to nearly 60 hours of
SDR recordings yet to be reviewed. I am
already looking forward to next year.
Bob speaks:
Everytime I arrive at Long Beach
Island and take my Drake R8B out of the box, I feel as if I'm taking a
thoroughbred out of the barn and releasing it at Churchill Downs. While I use a
Kiwa loop with the Drake at home, this fine radio is maximized with the antenna
farm that was assembled for this year's LBI DX'Pedition.
I missed the two previous LBI trips
due to work commitments, and had to miss the excellent conditions on Friday,
also because work bekoned. But Saturday almost did not miss a beat. I arrived
early Saturday afternoon, and after greeting everyone and setting up my
equipment, someone in the group noticed the first TA's coming in at about 3:30.
Time to grab a Sam's Octoberfest and "assume the position" in front
of the radio, with a view out the sliding glass doors onto the beach and the
ocean. Plus, the temperature was in the upper 50's. It doesn't get much better
than this, especially with the signals coming in. While Afghanistan 1296 did
not make it to our radios, I was really pleased to be able to use my phaser and
null WCKY-1530 enough to get a definite log of VOA Sao Tome later in the
evening.
This was my first chance to see the
Perseus radio in use. Most impressive, but I have to admit, I need a real radio
in front of me with an analog meter. Perhaps my dream AM radio of the near
future would be something on the order of the Yaesu FT-2000, which has an
analog meter with an optional display. Still, Brett told me, "You'll get
used to it," referring to a virtual meter. A big thanks once again to
"Saylor Electronics," which supplied a couple cables and connectors
beyond what I brought.
One thing we missed was the
presence of Bruce Collier, who had work commitments and had to miss the
weekend. PArt of the texture of LBI DX'Peditons is "taking a voyage on the
good ship Cutty," as prepared by Bruce, for every new country logged.
Well, not every country, but it is a DX aid, hi.
Bottom line, as usual, for this and
every LBI experience - it's an oasis of radio relaxation with a great bunch of
guys, away from our hectic work schedules.
Dave speaks:
This was our most successful LBI
DXpedition to date. From my perspective, the reception conditions were the best
of the seven LBI’s I’ve attended. I was only able to stay for Friday and
Saturday, so I missed out on the third night. It was great to reconnect
with old friends and to meet Chuck Rippel in person. Now that I live in Albany,
NY, it’s harder to pick up transatlantic DX, so this year’s outing was a real
treat. Once again, thanks to Brett for bringing every connector and cable
known to man and to Russ for compiling all our logs and musings. The only
downside was the absence of Bruce Collier due to illness.
Russ speaks:
Although this was my eighth LBI DXpedition,
this year somehow managed to top all of the others. As always the company is
excellent, and the DX was as well.
Once
again for 2009, we were able to pick a weekend which turned out to feature
excellent trans-Atlantic conditions, with several new countries added to our
totals. It’s always good to get together with the regular groups and also to
get a chance to meet new faces as well, this year’s being Chuck Rippel, whom we
welcomed to the group. We were also
joined Saturday night by two new short-time visitors in Steve Wozniak and Nick
Langan, both via the WTFDA connection.
We
had a new antenna added to our complement this year in the form or a corner-fed
super loop which, due to the limitations on available real estate was also
aligned parallel to the coastline, thus providing us with another option, and
allowing us to re-orient the 6’ broadband loop for other directions. For the
first time this year, some of the participants stayed an extra night, however
conditions deteriorated somewhat due to a geomagnetic disturbance.
This
year also featured four SDR’s, two
Perseus and two SDR-IQ’s, and in the immediate aftermath , it’s become quite
clear that there’s a very high value in having at least one SDR on a DXpedition
as the ability to go back and check out unids heard by other members, to go
back and check for parallel frequencies within the band are invaluable assets.
That said however, our logs from the prior year were still being added to as
late as August, so one DXpedition can indeed become a year-long event.
We
also experienced good weather conditions, although Saturday morning was rather
cold, daytime temperatures Saturday, Sunday and Monday were warm and the sun
dominated all three days.
Our
various experiments to determine whether we might be able to move from reliance
on the two BOG antennas toward the super loop and broadband loops were
inconclusive as Friday night most of us got our best receptions on the BOG
aimed toward Europe, while Saturday the broadband loop was the star. We reeled
in the BOG’s Sunday while we had a full crew, so that night’s DX was on the two
loops, but due to the change in conditions the results were inconclusive. Next
year will likely include at least one BOG and perhaps both, although each will
be reduced in length to avoid problems involved in both initial deployment and
periodic breakage where vehicle entries to the beach must be crossed for the
longer lengths.