Winter DXpedition

Reports of the 2000 Millennium Winter DXpedition

MDXC DXpedition Coordinator

The annual MDXC Winter DXpedition was held February 18-20 at Camp Omega. Those in attendance were John Lyon, Richard Larson, Ernie Wesolowski, Mike Plumb, Mel Larson, and Randall Trapp. The Drake receivers outnumbered all others this year. Ernie and Mike both had their Drake SW-8’s, while Richard and Randall listened to their Drake R8B’s. John won the prize for the heavy weight receiver. Not to be confused with the tube type "boat anchor" receivers of years past, "John brought his full featured amateur radio HF transceiver, minus the microphone and key, a Kenwood TS940, complete with built in power supply , to this years event. John also listened to his LOWE 225 receiver. Mel listened to Randall’s R8B.

The antennas used this year were wires strung out on the ground (John and Richard), MW loop antennas , (Ernie, Mike, and Randall), beverage antenna (Ernie and Mike) and grounded Delta loop antenna (complete with two ground rods in lake bed Randall).

Propagation was particularly good on the higher SW bands during the first evening. Station were heard above 15 MHz well into the evening. Static levels on the lower bands, (MW and LW) were quite low.

No formal logs were collected for this article, although everyone expressed various comments that they enjoyed the DXpedition, both listening to their radios and conversing with one and another at other times. As always, the MDXC appreciates the attendance of this years visitors, Ernie Wesolowski and Mike Plumb from Omaha Nebraska and Mel Larson from Rochester.

The DXpedition at Camp Omega this year was on the third weekend of February. I got there in the early evening on Friday, and it seemed that the camp was nearly deserted. Ernie and Mike from Omaha, who have been to a number of previous events, were stringing their reel of wire and getting settled in the MW room. I took the HF room, and strung out a couple hundred feet of antenna wire down the hill. Randall was setup in his usual room with his radios and TV. Richard came in on Saturday to take the other side of the HF table.

Drake, Drake, Whose Got The Drake? This was the Drake DXpedition. Everyone was using a Drake receiver but me. Hmmmm ... maybe somebody is trying to tell me something. But my obsolete Lowe HF-225 did the job. Both Ernie and Mike in the MW room used Drake SW-8's, and both Randall and Richard used their Drake R-8B's.

For me, scanning Friday evening was the best time by far. There was an excellent opening to Asia on HF. In the space of not even a couple of hours, I heard Radio Japan and Deutsche Welle relays, and Sri Lanka BC itself, all well over S9. Three Indian regionals were also well over S9, especially Bangalore on 11620 kHz. with wonderful sub-continent music A number of Chinese and Japanese regionals that I had not heard before were in and out. Also, strangely enough, Greece and Kol Israel were also booming in. They usually do not propagate well here, so they were welcome. But practically nothing on the tropical bands from Africa. Finally Iraq, on 9022 kHz. Was good and strong,  giving us the latest news from Iraq's unique viewpoint.

The MW guys were comparing signals from the two Drakes, and logged 35 states over the course of the weekend.

Richard had only had his Drake since September. He said the purchase was helped along with his 'Jessie' refund/rebate money. He was giving his Drake a workout with an attached tape recorder. He had some wire out the window to a tree, and was logging left and right. In direct comparisons between Richard's Drake, and my Lowe, the Drake had more intelligibility on most signals. But it also cost more than twice what mine did.

Randall's friend, Mel from Rochester, dropped in on Saturday afternoon. In the evening, they were looking for 'LowFers,' very low powered experimental stations with limited height antennas, on frequencies below 200 kHz. They heard one in Shell Lake, WI. Not bad, considering the peanut power. Another unusual catch was a broadcast relay for an American commercial station. It was logged in another publication as WJFP in Ft. Pierce, FL, on 26740 kHz. The unusual part was it was in narrow band FM

When we got up for breakfast on Saturday morning, we found the camp filled. At breakfast we were entertained by what seemed like a hundred children, up to about the third grade. If you haven't heard a hundred kids together all at the same time recently, you haven't really heard QRN! Even with three grandchildren, I was unprepared for the S9+40db signals.

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This page was last updated on 11/26/01.

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