DX-pedition to Lista, January 10-14, 2024

View from the nearby harbour with wind mills in the background

In January Torgeir and myself were again back at Lista for a 4 day long DX-pedition. And what a difference conditions make: 2 months earlier it was, with a few exceptions, all about South America (in particular Colombia) due to disturbed conditions. This time conditions were quiet during the entire period and South Americans were more or less absent and replaced by US and Canadian stations on nearly all transatlantic frequencies..

Our antennas were the usual 700 metre antennas towards the East Coast and a 600 metre long antenna towards the West Coast, both elevated with bamboo canes. Elevating the antennas was an issue this time due to a long period with temperatures well below 0 degrees. The first 12 days of January all had temperatures below 0 at nearby Lista lighthouse going down to -9,1 degrees on January 9, an unusually cold period at such a coastal location as Lista were winters are usually mild and rainy.

Frosty conditions at Lista

The frosty conditions made it difficult to pin the bamboo canes to the ground in a durable manner. Although the wind was not that strong, it was strong enough to blow the canes down on several occasions resulting in less signal level on the antennas. Otherwise nice and cold weather all days with beautiful sunsets and sunrises in the afternoons and in the mornings.

Sunset at 15.45 UTC. Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t do justice to the beauty of the sunset

Propagation towards North America was fair to good all days, the first DX-pedition with nice conditions to North America for us since February 2021. Conditions particularly favoured the Great Lakes area, but stations were heard all the way from Texas to Newfoundland. The paths towards the Rocky Mountain area and the West Coast were unfortunately closed with a few exceptions for 1070 KNX and 1140 CHRB.

Reviewing the recordings has just started and will no doubt keep us busy for many months to come. Our log will as usuak be continuously updated in a Google Docs document. Interesting stations noted at this stage include 1070 WFRF Tallahassee FL, 1080 WWNL Pittsburgh PA, 1100 WTWN Wells River VT, 1220 WSLM Salem IN, 1310 WICH Norwich CT, 1340 WNCO Ashland OH, 1350 WIOU Kokomo IN, 1350 WHNM Laconia NH, 1350 WWWL New Orleans LA, 1350 WRNY Rome NY and 1560 WRIN Rensselaer IN with more hopefully to be added to the log later.

DX-pedition to Lista, October 28-31, 2023

It was all about Colombia at Lista in late October. The first night, October 28-29, was particularly fruitful with so far 67 different Colombian stations identified and recorded in our log just on this particular night. Stations noted include rarely heard stations 950 Armonias Boyacenses, 1280 Radio Suroeste, 1300 La Jefa and 1530 Antena de los Andes. Conditions were also good to Ecuador and Northern Peru at the same time with a.o. 750 Radio Caravana (Ecuador), 1240 Radio Metropolitana (Ecuador) and 1360 Radio Capulí (Peru) making it across to our radio. North American stations were totally absent on this night and the signals of many dominant stations from the Caribbean, such as Puerto Rico on 1280, were also suppressed.

The last 2 nights were not particularly interesting with mostly only the most dominant stations on most frequencies. One exception was 1140 WVVO Orlando FL which was heard on the last morning of the DX-pedition. As usual, the log will be continously updated in a Google Docs spreadsheet.

Fellow Norwegian DX-ers Torgeir Nyen and Harald Andersen were my DX buddies on this pedition. Harald introduced us to a new subsection of the hobby: Navtex. An impressive number of Navtex stations were decoded, all on 518 kHz, see last part of the log.

Our usual 750 metre beverage antenna directed towards the East Coast of North America was, also as usual, the antenna giving the best results. We also installed a 400 metre long antenna directed towards the US Midwest on the first night. This antenna gave was totally useless, except for picking up German low power station Radio Eule on 1500 kHz, and was rolled out in another direction for picking up Spain and other European stations for the last 2 nights.

All in all, a very successfull DX-pedition thanks to all the South Americans heard, many of them a first for us. And as always, great company and great to get away from daily routine life, even if it was for just 4 days.

DX-pedition to Lista, March 3-7, 2023

No snow – and (almost) no radio signals either!

Aurora borealis, geomagnetic storms, coronal mass ejections. These are some of the risks when planning for a DX-pedition as we are approaching solar maximum. We experienced all these at our DX-pedition some weeks ago. True, we didn’t see the aurora borealis ourselves, but the northern lights were seen a couple of days before our arrival even at such a southernly location as 58° N.

As usual we had 2 beverage antennas installed, the first 720 metres long at 285 degrees directed towards the east coast of North America and a second antenna 400 metres long at 215 degrees directed towards Spain and West Africa. Prior to our departure we also thought about installing an antenna towards the west coast of North America, but this was pointless with such a poor propagation outlook.

As expected, transatlantic reception was very poor, especially for North America, throughout the DX-pedition. We managed to hear a few new (for us) stations on 1200, 1210 and 1220 kHz thanks to Absolute Radio having shut down in January. Otherwise we concentrated on DXing Europe where the southern antenna gave nice reception from Spain and Portugal. We were especially pleased about hearing Posto Emissor do Funchal in Madeira on 1530 kHz, a new catch for us.

Apart from Madeira, we were also pleased about catching WPPC Penuelas in Puerto Rico on 1570 kHz. A review of our recordings will hopefully result in a few more interesting stations. Based on a first review my expectations are not too high though. As usual, our log is continuously updated in a Google Docs document.

Although this was certainly not one of our most memorable trips to Lista DX-wise, it is always nice to get away from our regular lives just to listen to and talk about radio. And also nice to get away from the snow! Lista was completely free from snow – a welcome change from snowy Telemark.

DX-pedition to Lista, February 1-6, 2022

This season’s annual DX-pedition took place during the first week of February. Just like last year, my DX partners were again fellow Norwegian DXers Torgeir Nyen and Geir Fredheim.

Our DX headquarter

We always strive to find a period with quiet atmosphaeric conditions when planning a DX-pedition. When planning for this DX-pedition, the first week of February looked promising. Unfortunately the sun can be rather unpredictable, especially now when the sunspots are increasing. An increase in sunspots also increases the chances of sudden disturbances. The predicted quiet conditions instead turned into disturbed conditions this time with coronal mass ejections and geomagnetic storms having a significant impact on the once promising propagation forecast.

Disturbed conditions resulted in only a few interesting North American stations in the log. It has been many years since we last experienced so poor conditions towards North America. Conditions towards Central and South Americans weren’t great either, but still acceptable. All in all conditions were not unlike those experienced at the Knollehof DX-pedition in Belgium taking place at the same time.

An impressive number of Europeans made it into our logs though, especially from Spain and the United Kingdom. The most interesting stations heard were 900 COPE Granada and 972 RNE Córdoba from Spain and the low power stations 1350 Radio Cavell and 1386 Radio City from the UK. From the Americas we were pleased about picking up the signals of 1440 Radio Maranatha in Nicaragua, 1470 Radio Maria in Uruguay and 1510 La Voz de La Unión from Colombia. As always, our logs are available in a continously updated Google spreadsheet.

Our experimental KAZ antenna

In addition to our two 600-700 long beverage antennas directed towards the US East Coast and South America, we tried a completely new antenna this time. A Kaz antenna was raised pointing towards East Africa with the hope of hearing Malawi or Mozambique. We didn’t succeed in hearing neither, but still the Kaz performed surprisingly well and almost as well as the beverage antenna. Quite impressive bearing in mind the small size of the antenna (pictured above)!

DX-pedition to Lista, February 6-14, 2021

Bird’s eye view from the Lista Lighthouse

A combination of the sunspot minimum and a Covid 19 lockdown took me to Lista for the second time this season. My DX companions Torgeir Nyen and Geir Fredheim, both living under strict corona restrictions in Oslo, arrived already on Saturday February 6. I wasn’t able to escape from work and family commitments untill Wednesday February 10, meaning I could only enjoy 4 nights of DX-ing before taking down out antennas on Sunday February 1

Unlike last October, when heavy rain, grazing cows and noise from wires in the lawn made DXing difficult, our main challenges this time were cold weather and grass fires. Lista enjoys a mild climate, but this time the temperature dropped down to under -10 degrees several nights. This made antenna work particularly laboriously, especially raising the bamboo sticks used for elevating our antenna wires.

Bamboo sticks in frozen ground

The antennas used this time were exactly the same as in October with a 700 metre long beverage antenna at 285 degrees directed towards the US East Coast and a 650 metre long beverage antenna at 320 degrees directed at the prairies and the West Coast of North America. In addition, we also had a shorter 300 metre long antenna aiming primarily at Spain and the UK.

We were prepared for the cold weather, but not for the grass fires. Setting fire to old grass is apparently an annual event at Lista and this time the fires came uncomfortably close to our antennas. Not only did the fires come uncomfortably close, one of them burned our grounding rod on the northern antenna. No damages to our antenna wires luckily, just a scorched grounding rod!

Unfriendly locals II: Burned grounding rod

As usual, we are preparing a DX log as a Google Docs spreadsheet. This log might very well be our most comprehensive log of all time, both thanks to an unusual long DX-pedition (one week) and an unusual spread of loggings from Argentina to the US West Coast. Many stations from Spain and the UK were also noted, so the European part of the log is also unusually large.

We had disturbed conditions during the first days of the DX-pedition. Disturbed conditions doesn’t necessarily mean poor conditions though. These days brought several unusual stations from Peru, Argentina etc., a part of South America where we seldom receive any stations at all as well as a large number of Colombians. Stations heard include 1380 Radio Andina and 1570 Radio Carráviz in Peru, 1290 Radio Murialdo and 1420 Somos Radio in Argentina and 1080 Radio Monumental in Paraguay.

The disturbance eventually disappeared, meaning that North American stations gradually took over the dials. I had hoped for an opening towards the West Coast of North America or the Prairies, but conditions definitely favoured the East Coast all the way from Newfoundland to Florida. Stations from around the Great Lakes and the Midwest were much poorer than they usually are. Very different from the conditions experienced 2 years ago, to mention one other DX-pedition. When examining our recordings, we found several highly unusual East Coast stations, including 800 WLAD Danbury CT, 980 WDDO Perry GA, 1040 WHBO Pinellas Park FL, 1040 WCHR Flemington NJ, 1480 WABF Mobile AL, 1570 WTWB Auburndale FL, 1570 WNCA Siler City NC and 1580 WHPY Clayton NC. A nice bouquet of stations indeed!

We also had a nice chat with Andy Glanning, Chief Engineer at Salem New York, who did an interview with me about DX-ing and my reception of WMCA last year for a feature he wanted to do celebrating World Radio Day on one of his other radio stations, WRHU. WRHU is a student radio station at Hofstra University in New York, but only broadcasting on FM. Andy also gave us a live tour of the station during the interview – looked a very professional radio station indeed.

Despite the many nice loggings, we left with a feeling that conditions could have been even better now at the end of the solar minimum. No Alaskans noted, not even 680 KBRW, for example. Will the solar minimum continue long enough to give interesting stations even next season? Only time will tell…

DX-pedition to Lista, October 17-21, 2020

Not even Covid-19 can stop eager DX-ers doing their yearly DX-peditions. Last month, me and my DX partners Torgeir Nyen and Harald Andersen left for our usual destination Lista on the southern coast of Norway.

As usual, we rolled out a 700 metre long beverage antenna at 285 degrees directed towards the US East Coast. We also set up a second antenna with about the same length directed at the prairies and the West Coast of North America.

This time we experienced some unexpected challenges. Lista is farm territory and there are almost always sheep or cattle grazing around our antennas. We have had a peaceful and usually troublefree coexistence with the animals. Not this time as the cows simply chewed off our antenna wire on the northern antenna. Not just at one point, the wire was cut on several places. We tried connecting the wires again, but to no avail: The next day the antenna wire was in even poorer shape. Eventually, we had to reduce the length of the northern antenna to a mere 300 metre, meaning of course that the directivity of the antenna was reduced.

Unfriendly locals

We also expericenced far more noise than on previous DX-peditions. Very annoying, especially during the day when the signal levels are lower. It wasn’t untill the last day when Harald found the culprit: A robotic lawn mover! Or to be precise, not the robot itself but rather the boundary wire surrounding the lawn. After talking to our hosts, we heard that this wire was indeed broken. After unplugging the charging station, the noise magically disappeared! Funnily, there are several videos out there showing you how to find where the wire is broken using an AM radio(!), such as this one. The concept is that a wire makes noise on the AM band, except on the point where the wire is broken.

Rain is a common occurence at Lista and this year was no exception. The antenna directed at the East Coast of North America was flooded on the first night and a new lake emerged on the fields the following morning (see below)

Inspecting the antenna wires going through East Coast Lake

Despite cows, noise and floodings, both antennas produced good signals. Unfortunately, conditions were not good enough for the really unusual stations to come through. We had good signals from the prairies at times on the northern antenna. Some of these stations are new to us, such as 700 CJLI Calgary AB, 910 CKDQ Drumheller AB, 940 CJGX Yorkton SK and 1190 CFSL Weyburn SK. Some West Coast stations also came through, a.o. 920 KXLY Spokane WA, 1470 KBSN Moses Lake WA and 1530 KFBK Sacramento CA. All these common catches in Northern Scandinavia, but not at Lista.

Other stations worth mentioning are 1020 KCKN Roswell NM – our very first logging of a station from New Mexico – and newcomer 1350 CIRF Brampton ON. My personal favourite logging though was not a Transatlantic station at all, but rather 1269 Taraba State Broadcasting Service from Nigeria which appeared one evening with quite good signal.

A Google Docs document with all loggings is available.

DX-pedition to Lista, January 8-12, 2020

The flat landscape at Lista with a glimpse of our antenna wire in the bottom right. Not a trace of snow whatsoever!

Expectations were quite high in advance before leaving for this years DX-pedition to Lista. We are at the bottom of the solar cycle now so mediumwave conditions should be good. In addition, a DX-pedition taking place in Denmark 1-2 weeks earlier, a site that should be quite similar to Lista, reported receiving an impressive number of West Coast and prairie stations. Not to mention an even more impressive number of stations from Alaska, many of them certainly a “first” in Denmark.

With this in mind we decided to go for a dedicated West Coast/Alaska antenna in addition to our usual antenna towards the U.S. East Coast, both around 700 metres long. On the second day we also laid out another antenna of around 400 metres, primarily meant for DX-ing British and Spanish stations.

As it turned out, conditions were not at all as good as they were a week or two earlier. Although our Alaska/West Coast antenna produced some new catches and even 2 Alaskan stations (680 KBRW and 970 KFBX), conditions towards this part were just not good enough. It was the tried and tested East Coast antenna which produced the most interesting results. The UK antenna also did well and even resulted in a few new stations from Brazil making it into our logs.

A summary of conditions: Jan. 8-9: Fair to good with several new daytimers making it into our logs such as 760 WVNA Leicester MA, 780 WAVA Arlington VA, 1010 WCNL Newport NH and 1040 WPBS Conyers GA, the latter a very big surprise. Also some West Coast stations. Jan. 9-10: Poor but good signal from 780 ZBVI British Virgin Islands and some Colombians in the morning, Jan. 10-11: Very poor with no interesting stations noted, Jan 11-12 Poor but some Brazilians came through in the evening. All in all: A bit disappointing, but the first night saved the DX-pedition from being a disaster. As usual, our loggings are available as a Google spreadsheet. Reviewing the recordings will, despite mixed conditions, no doubt keep us busy in the coming months.

 

 

 

 

DX-pedition to Lista, January 19-24, 2019

Coastal landscape at Lista

My annual DX-trip to Lista on the southwest coast of Norway took part last week, on January 19-24. Just like last year, I was joined by seasoned DX-ers Torgeir Nyen and Tore Johnny Bråtveit. Tore Johnny could only stay untill January 23, while Torgeir and myself stayed one more day. This time we had no less than 3 antennas: Our usual antenna towards the East Coast of North America (which also does reasonably towards the Caribbean, Colombia and Venezuela), an antenna directed towards the West Coast of North America and an antenna towards Spain and South England. All antennas were 500-800 metres long each.

Our expectations were quite high in advance as we are near the solar minimum now. Long distance reception of mediumwave signals should thus be good, provided atmosphaeric disturbances could be avoided.

One of the fun things about DX-ing is that you never know what you will hear before you are actually listening. As it turned out, conditions were quite a bit different than expected. The paths towards the West Coast were closed with not even a trace of signals from e.g. 1000 KOMO. Stations from Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan were also absent. Conditions were best towards The Great Lakes and many stations from a.o. Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and the Upper part of New York State were heard with good to very good signals. East Coast was also good, but not as good as last year.

A disturbance occured on the last nights, allowing some of the strongest South American stations to be heard. In addition, a number of unsual stations from the UK and Spain were also heard.

Our log will as always be updated continously as a Google Sheets document. Some gems found so far: 950 WROL Boston MA, 1140 WCJW Warsaw NY, 1190 KQQZ De Soto MO, 1290 KGVO Missoula MT (our very first station from Montana), 1420 WRSA St. Albans VT and 1660 KBRE Merced CA. The log will no doubt grow a lot during the coming months as recordings are reviewed.

 

 

DX-pedition to Lista, March 3-11, 2018

This years more or less annual DX-pedition to Lista took place quite late in the season, from March 3 to March 11. My DX compadres were, just like last year, Torgeir Nyen and Tore Johnny Bråtveit. Due to work commitments, I could only participate in the first 3 days of the DX-pedition, but these days turned out (luckily for me) to be the most interesting ones.

Our antennas this time were our usual antenna directed towards the East Coast of North America/Florida/Cuba and an antenna directed towards the West Coast of North America. Both antennas roughly 600 metres long and both performing well.

Although I have been to Lista at least 15 times now, it is still possible to hear new stations there. Conditions were fair to good towards North America most of the time, especially towards the East Coast of North America. My aim of catching 10 new stations should thus be reached quite easily.

We made many recordings and it will certainly take time to go through them all. Highlights found on our recordings so far include: 960 WTGM Salisbury MD, 970 WNYM Hackensack NJ, 1100 WHLI Hempstead NY, 1290 WWTX Wilmington DE, 1440 WLWI Montgomery AL, 1470 WWBG Greensboro NC, 1510 WFAI Salem NJ and 1600 WCPK Chesapeake VA. The latter, WCPK, possibly not noted in Scandinavia previously.

Our log is available as a Google Docs document, updated continously. New stations are marked with a red colour and the last additions to the log with a blue colour.

DX-pedition to Lista, February 4-8, 2017

The traditional (and for my part annual) DX-pedition to Lista took part during the first week of February. My DX partners in crime this time was Torgeir Nyen and Tore Johnny Bråtveit.

Conditions were very different from my last 5-6 trips to Lista thanks to much more disturbed conditions this time. This naturally lead to less North American stations being heard. Stations from Central and South America were present on many frequencies though. It has been many years since we heard so many stations from Latin America – a welcome change from what we usually hear at Lista!

Besides the usual 800 metre long antenna directed towards the East Coast of North America / Florida / Cuba, we also set up an antenna aimed at UK and Spain. This antenna proved very successful with UK and Spanish stations popping up on nearly all frequencies. Many of the Spanish stations were new to us. The UK/Spain antenna also provided a number of stations from Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, a DX area which for us is mostly uncharted territory.

Highlights worth special mentioning was hearing RdP Açores on 828 Khz and Mauretania on 783 kHz. Personally, I especially enjoyed hearing the UK low power stations L&D Radio on 1134 kHz and Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio on 1575 and the new Dutch low power stations Groeistad Radio and Radio Babylona, both on 747 kHz. Most interesting Transatlantic catches noted so far: 960 YVSS Radio San Sebastián, 970 CX22 Radio Universal, 1200 WJUA Pine Island Center FL and 1490 WCEC Haverhill MA.

Our log is now available as a Google Docs spreadsheet. As usual the log is a work in progress with new stations added as our recordings are examined.

DX-pedition to Lista, January 13-19, 2016

In January I was again back at Lista on the south western coast of Norway with my good friend Torgeir Nyen for a weekend of DX-ing and a much needed break from the usual work and family life. A 800 metre long antenna towards the East Coast of North America / Florida / Cuba and a 500 metre long antenna towards the Midwest/West Coast of North America was again rolled out, with the hope of catching many new US and Canadian stations.

Sadly conditions were pretty poor and well below average this time making it one of the less memorable trips to Lista. Just like last year, propagation indices were pretty good, but the actual propagation was poor with average signal levels. Add to that significantly more splash from nearby European stations than usual. The frequencies 1360 and 1370 kHz were e.g. unusable due to splash from nearby UK stations most of the time.

Just like the last several years, signals from Central and South America were more or less absent during the entire DX-pedition. The Transatlantic signals making it through to our radios were mainly from the US and Canada. Despite average to poor conditions, some interesting stations were noted such as 950 WTLN Orlando FL, 1280 WPKZ Fitchburg MA, 1380 WPHM Port Huron MI, 1390 WMER Meridian MS, 1420 WBSM New Bedford MA, 1420 WCED DuBois PA, 1590 WIJK Ocean City MD and 1610 CHRN Montréal QC.

Our log is available in a Google Docs spreadsheet. As usual the log is a work in progress with new stations added continuously as the files from our Perseus and SDR-IQ trawlers are examined.

 

DX-pedition to Lista, January 16-21, 2015

Travelling to Lista on the south western coast of Norway for a weekend of serious DX-ing has become almost an annual rite for me. 2015 was no exception and in January I was again back at Lista for a weekend, this time accompanied by fellow DXers Torgeir Nyen and Geir Fredheim.

Despite good indices, conditions turned out to be as good as expected (or hoped for). Canadian DX-er Walt Salmaniw described the period as “mediocre” at his QTH. “Mediocre” sums up our impressions of the conditions at Lista pretty well too. Not too good, but not very poor either. Compared to our loggings at Lista one year ago, the loggings this time were still disappoiting. We expected a better DX-pedition, especially as the geomagnetic indices were quite good during our entire stay at Lista. But that’s the rules of the game: Although everything seems set for good propagation, there is never any promise ! 🙂

Propagation to North America was particularly poor in our local evenings, no chances whatsoever of logging any daytimers. The mornings were, luckily, much better with decent reception from North America. After reviewing our SDR recordings we also discovered some “new” stations (implicating not logged by us at Lista previously) such as 590 WROW Albany NY, 960 KMA Shenandoah IA, 1320 WJAS Pittsburgh PA and 1480 WSDS Salem Township MI. Propagation towards the Caribbean and South America was again more or less absent, just as has been the case for the past couple of years.

Our log is available as a Google Docs spreadsheet. The log is a work in progress where new stations are added continuously. The log includes an unusually high number of European stations. DX-ing (often small) European stations is also fun now that more and more high power transmitters in Europe close down on AM.

For me, the funniest and most unexpected catches of this DX-pedition was hearing a few stations from Africa for the very first time. I was especially pleased about catching the exotic signals from Nigerian stations 1026 JBC Radio Jigawa and tentatively 972 Katsina State Broadcasting Corporation.

As usual, we used a 800 metre long antenna towards the East Coast of North America / Florida / Cuba. This time we also rolled out some some 600 metre of antenna wire towards the Midwest. We had high hopes for the latter antenna which was rolled out all the way into the North Sea, but sadly the conditions were not good enough this time.

DX-pedition to Lista, January 13-19, 2014

In January I made the trip down to Lista on the south western coast of Norway for another weekend of serious DX-ing with the long beverage antennas we can erect there. I was accompanied by Torgeir Nyen even on this DX-pedition. Torgeir drove down to Lista already on January 13 while I arrived 2 days later.

As usual, we used a 800 metre long antenna towards the East Coast of North America / Florida / Cuba. This time we also rolled out some some 400 metre of antenna wire towards the West Coast of America. The latter antenna had to cross a road and this wire was cut 4 times by a snowplough during our stay there 🙂  Snow is not very common at Lista, even in midwinter it usually rains there, but this time the temperatures were so low it snowed quite a lot. Fortunately, no problems installing the antennas despite some snow.

Heading out on a DX-pedition at solar maximum implies quite a lot of uncertainty as there is always some risk of an uncooperating sun producing solar flares, coronal holes etc. I expected and even hoped for some disturbances favouring stations in the Caribbean (we are still hunting for Guadeloupe, British Virgin Islands etc…). The unpredictable sun was, however, surprisingly quiet during the entire DX-peditions. The paths towards the south were complete closed and even many regular stations from the Caribbean were weak. Cubans and Florida stations were significantly weaker than they usually are at Lista.

Instead conditions strictly favoured North America. Stations from Ontario and New York State had a particular strong signal. The evenings were particularly productive with several very rare stations being logged with day time power such as 1040 WYSL Avon NY, 1140 WCJW Warsaw NY, 1190 WCRW Leesburg VA, 1470 WPDM Potsdam NY and 1530 WDJZ Bridgeport CT, all new to us. The mornings were also quite good and even some West Coast stations like 1130 CKWX Vancouver BC, 1380 KRKO Everett WA and 1520 KKXA Snohomish WA made it to our radios. These are all very common stations in Northern Scandinavia, but quite rare at such a southernly location as Lista.

Our log is now available as a Google Docs spreadsheet. New stations (to us, that is) are marked in red, latest additions in blue. The log is far from complete yet. When using SDR radios, in our case SDR-IQ and Perseus radios, completing a log takes a lot of time! With more than 150 North Americans stations in the log and more than 20 new stations noted even at this stage, this was definitely one of our most successfull DX-peditions – and quite possibly the best DX-pedition- to Lista of all time.

DX-pedition to Lista, March 9-12, 2013

Last time I did some serious DX was more than 2 years (January 2011), It was thus about time for a new excursion to our favourite DX spot at Lista on the Southwestern tip of Norway. Work and family commitments made it hard to find a suitable weekend, but we finally settled on the second weekend in March. My DX buddies this time was freshman Harald K. Andersen who went to Lista for the first time and Torgeir Nyen who has accompanied many times before.

Choosing a weekend as late as March made us hope for good conditions towards the Caribbean and may be also towards exciting countries like Peru and Ecuador. That didn’t turn out to be the case at all. The paths towards the south were closed with very few stations from South America making it to our radios. Stations from the northern part of the Caribbean were present, but with generally weaker signals than is often the case. Mexican stations were also missing. Instead we were treated with a mix of stations all along the East Coast from Newfoundland to Florida. Only the usual suspects were heard most of the time and conditions were generally much poorer this time than during our last 2 DX-peditions at Lista (November 2009 and January 2011).

Still, a few interesting stations were heard. The star logging of the DX-pedition was definitely 1330 WESR Onley-Onancock VA, a station not heard in Scandinavia previously according to the authorative KOJE list. A few other interesting stations were also noted such as 980 WHSR Pompano Beach FL, 1310 WICH Norwich CT, 1410 CKSL London ON and 1700 KKLF Richardson TX. 

The antenna used was the usual 800 metre beverage antenna pointing towards the East Coast of North America / Florida / Cuba. We also installed an 300 metre long antenna pointing towards the UK and Spain. The latter antenna worked very well leaving a.o. 1008 to Radio Las Palmas instead of the dominant Dutch station. This antenna also made it possible to receive some of the RSL stations in the UK using a power of 1 watt only during daylight such as 1134 Gurkha Radio, 1350 Kingstown Radio and 1575 Radio Tyneside. I personally find DX-ing such low power stations just as fun (or may be even more fun) as DX-ing Transatlantic stations.

Despite pretty average conditions with very few new stations making it into the log, it is always fun to be on a DX-pedition accompanied by other DX-ers. Having the opportunity to concentrate on radio and DX-ing exclusively for 4 days is just pure luxury!

Update November 2013: A log is now available as a Google Docs spreadsheet.

DX-pedition to Lista, January 6-9, 2011

I should have written this blog posting a long time ago: It is now more than a year since this DX-pedition took place. On January 6-9, 2011, I was back at my usual DX-pedition site at Lista on the Southwestern tip of Norway. Leaving family behind concentrating on DX only for 4 days is always intriguing and highly recommended for all DX-ers! 🙂  This time I was accompanied with Torgeir Nyen and Tore Johnny Bråtveit for the entire 4 days and for Jan Alvestad (of Solar Terrestrial Activity Report fame) for the last 3 days.

The antennas were the usual 800 metre beverage antenna pointing towards the East Coast of North America / Florida / Cuba and a 500 metre long beverage antenna towards the West Coast. We used the East Coast antenna 95% of the time as conditions were very poor and almost useless towards the West Coast. I was equipped with software defined radios only: 2 SDR-IQ receivers and 1 Perseus receiver.

We had fairly good conditions during most of the DX-pedition. Conditions were most interesting on the first and on the last morning (Jan. 6 and Jan. 9 respectively) of the DX-pedition when we had good conditions towards the U.S. East Coast.  The other 2 mornings were more of a mixed bag with poorer signals and more stations from the Caribbean.  All 4 evenings were a big disappointment with hardly any interesting signals at all. Strangely, the paths towards South America were more or less closed during the entire DX-pedition with only the most common Colombians and Venezuelans making it to our radios.

To our surprise, we also logged quite a number of Mexicans. We were also quite pleased about logging our first Alaskan station ever, 680 KBRW, we had tried to hear Alaska many times previously without success.

After reviewing most of my recordings, I have now published my log from this DX-pedition as a Google Docs spreadsheet. This log in a “work-in-progress” as there are still recordings left to check. Even though I have been to Lista many times before, it is still possible to catch new stations here. I am actually quite surprised (and pleased) to find that more than 40 new stations made it into my log during this DX-pedition.

Best loggings (in my opinion, that is): 570 CKGL Kitchener ON, 590 XEPH Sabrosita 590, 920 WURA Quantico VA, 960 XEROO La Guadalupana, 1020 WURN Kendall FL, 1230 WEEX Easton PA, 1330 WSPQ Springville NY, 1370 KDTH Dubuque IA, 1600 KGYM Cedar Rapids IA, 1660 KRZI Waco TX and 1680 KRJO Monroe LA. 

DX-pedition to Lista, November 26-30, 2009

Before setting out for this season’s only DX-pedition to Lista at the end of November, I had really high hope for the best DX-pedition to Lista ever! Reception of Transatlantic stations on mediumwave had been very good earlier in the autumn, judging from many reports on the web.

As is often the case, it’s when expectations are high that you are likely to become really disappointed! This was also the case this time. Even though the sun was very quiet and all the indices were really favourable, signals just did not propagate! Others DX-ers listening at the same time, such as David Hamilton over in Scotland, had similar experiences and reported that the conditions were in general “very poor”.

The band was more or less completely dead in the mornings, which is the time of the day when rare stations can rise from the noise. The evenings, especially during 22.00-23.00 UTC, were for a change much more interesting than the mornings. Almost all interesting stations were heard between 950 and 1300 kHz, the rest of the band was more or less “dead” or just nor interesting. In the late mornings some West Coast stations surfaced, such as 1000 KOMO Seattle WA and 1010 CBR Calgary AB. Of the West Coast stations, 1140 CHRB High River AB had the best and most consistent signal.

After reviewing most of the recordings, however, we nevertheless discovered a number of rare to semirare stations. Conditions turned out to be much more interesting than we thought when we were DX-ing “live”. We were especially pleased about finding a number of rare stations in New York. Best loggings so far: 930 WPAT Paterson NJ, 1030 Radio Centro (Mexico City), 1060 WLNO New Orleans LA, 1070 WFLI Lookout Mountain TN (huge signal!), 1070 WAPI Birmingham AL, 1410 WENU South Glen Falls NY, 1420 WNRS Herkimer NY, 1570 WVTL Amsterdam NY, 1580 WEAM Columbus GA and 1580 WHFS Morningside MD.

Update January 19, 2011: The log (still not final) has now been posted!

DX-pedition to Lista, February 19-22, 2009

The 2nd DX-pedition of the 2008-2009 season to Lista took place between February 19-22, again accompanied by Torgeir Nyen. We were hoping for a repeat of the  previous DX-pedition a couple of months earlier which was extremely successfull. Unfortunately, some disturbances on the sun prevented us from hearing many unusual stations this time.

Common stations from the usual geographical window of the Canadian and U.S. East Coast, the Caribbean and Venezuela were heard well, but hardly any rare stations surfaced. A striking difference from the DX-pedition earlier in the season was that no stations from the Midwest or from the West Coast could be heard.

Best loggings so far: 1370 WGIV Gastonia NC, 1420 WBEC Pittsfield MA + the 2 Dominicans 970 Radio Olímpica and 1440 Radio Impactante.

A preliminary log will be posted when time permits! 🙂

DX-pedition to Lista, October 23-26, 2008

The first – and probably the only – DX-pedition of this season for my part took place on October 23-26. The QTH was again Lista on the south western coast of Norway. Lista is located between Kristiansand and Stavanger on the coast, some 6 hours drive from the Norwegian capital Oslo as can be seen on this Google Map.

My DX buddies this time were Torgeir Nyen and Tore Johnny Bråtveit – Torgeir travelling from Oslo while Tore Johnny travelled all the way from Melhus south of Trondheim. Being able to spend some days just on the radio hobby with other DX-ers is always enjoyable even if we don’t hear anything interesting. This time we were even blessed with good DX conditions making this my best DX-pedition to Lista since February 2006 (and possibly even beating the February 2006 DX-pedition).

As usual, we used a 800 metre long antenna towards the East Coast of North America / Florida / Cuba and another antenna towards the West Coast. The signals were generally better on the East Coast antenna (not a surprise), and I only used the West Coast antenna to grab some of the big stations in Alberta and Manitoba.

Conditions definitely favoured the East Coast of North America and were especially good towards Florida. We hardly heard any South American stations, it felt like there was a big wall somewhere in the Caribbean which simply kept stations from Venezuela and Colombia out. Well, we didn’t complain! 🙂

Some of the highlights: 540 WFLF Pine Hills FL, 560 WQAM Miami FL, 580 WDBO Orlando FL, 920 WGHQ Kingston NY, 960 WSVU North Palm Beach FL, 980 WCAP Lowell MA, 980 WAAV Leland NC, 1060 WIXC Titusville FL, 1070 WFLI Lookout Mountain TN, 1310 WYND DeLand FL, 1320 WARL Attleboro MA, 1350 WEZS Laconia NH, 1440 WPRD Winter Park FL, 1440 WLWI Montgomery AL, 1470 WLMC Georgetown SC and 900 Radio Satélite in La Ceiba, Honduras.

A number of U.S. daytimers were also noted: 760 WCHP Champlain NY, 1470 WBTX Broadway VA, 1500 WFIF Milford CT (huge signal at times), 1510 WWBC Cocoa FL, 1520 WIZZ Greenfield MA and WNSH Beverly MA.

Neither 580 WDBO, 960 WSVU, 1060 WIXC, 1440 WLWI nor 1510 WWBC have been heard in Scandinavia before according to the KOJE master list of North American AM stations.

Update October 25, 2009: Our log is now available as a PDF file (in Norwegian only). The total number of North American stations heard is now 249 and there are still recordings to be checked… 🙂

DX-pedition to Lista January 31 – February 3, 2008

The 2nd DX-pedition of the 2008 season to Lista took place between January 31 and February 3, again accompanied by Torgeir Nyen. Unfortunately, we were not so lucky with the conditions this time as we were in November 2007. Conditions were quite good towards the East Coast of North America on the first night. The last 2 nights were poor and only brought stations from Latin America and hardly any stations at all from North America. Almost no stations from the Americas could be heard above 1000 kHz during the last 2 nights either.

Despite average to poor conditions, there were still a few highlights: 620 Antigua BS, 700 Jamaica, 700 Radio Sucre (stations from Ecuador are rare!), 1570 RCN Tegucigalpa, 1570 WECU Winterville NC and 1590 WAUB Auburn NY.

Update October 25, 2009: An updated log has now been published.

DX-pedition to Lista November 11-14, 2007

On November 11-14, I was back at our regular DX-pedition QTH at Lista, this time accompanied by Torgeir Nyen. Conditions were quite good and we were able to hear a lot of stations from the USA and Canada which we hadn’t heard previously. Stations from Ontario and Québec were heard especially well while we hardly heard any stations from South America at all.

We both had 2 SDR-IQ radios in addition to a couple of conventional radios so we have a lot of recordings to check! The log already includes more than 120 different North American stations, but will hopefully grow further. Our incomplete log can be found – so far in Norwegian only – as a text document at Google Docs. We will update the log as we check our recordings. Updates done during the last week will be marked with red letters.

DX-pedition to Lista January 12-16, 2007

On January 12-16, I was back at our DX-pedition QTH at Lista on the southern coast of Norway for the last trip of the season, at least the last for my part. I was accompanied by 2 other frequent visitors, Geir Fredheim and Jan Alvestad. Jan only stayed for the first 2 nights, while me and Geir spent 2 more nights at the Norwegian favourite DX-site in Southern Norway (in Northern Norway the favourite DX-site in undoubtably Kongsfjord).

This time we tried installing antennas in 2 new directions: A new one directed towards the northwest (California) and another one directed towards Buenos Aires. Our usual antenna directed towards the west was also installed. Both of the new antennas produced several new stations (and were thus deemed successfull!) while the antenna towards the west didn’t produce much interesting.

Conditions were varied and better than during the last trip in November. The first and the last night were the most interesting nights with the antennas towards northwest and towards southwest giving the most interesting results. On the first night, several stations from Mexico, Utah and Colorado were heard with the best signals coming from XEPE Cash 1700. The best loggings were 1430 KEZW in Colorado, 1430 KLO in Utah and 1470 XEAI Radio Fórmula in Mexico City. These are all commonly heard stations in the north. For us, however, it was a new experience to hear stations from this part of the USA and from Mexico as I have never been able to hear any other stations from West of the Rockies at all!

Conditions were disturbed on the last night giving several stations from Brazil and Argentina the chance to be heard on our newly installed antenna towards the southwest. Among the stations heard were 920 Radio Nacional del Paraguay, 1270 Radio Provincia de Buenos Aires, 1350 Radio Buenos Aires, 1430 Rádio Clube Paranaense and 1610 Radio Guaviyú 1610.

Update on Nov. 16, 2007: The entire log can now be viewed here, on Google Docs (a Google account is not necessary to view the log, by the way).

DX-pedition to Lista November 2-5, 2006

On November 2-5, 2006 , we were back at our usual DX-pedition site at Lista on the south west coast of Norway (GC: 58°07′30″N / 6°36′45″ E). The expectations were high for this DX-pedition as we are now at the solar mimimum.

Unfortunately, we were quite disappointed as the conditions were mostly poor during all 3 nights. Only the most common stations on each frequency were heard with stations from Colombia, Venezuela and the Caribbean often overtaking the North American stations. Compared to previous DX-peditions to Lista, the Trans-Atlantic signals were poor, sometimes surprisingly poor when such stations as the New York stations 880 WCBS, 1050 WEPN, 1130 WBBR and 1560 WQEW were barely audible. These stations often have a powerhouse signal at Lista, just as many other East Coast stations. The February trip was definitely much more successful, see https://dxblog.wordpress.com/2006/07/17/3/ for all the logs from this DX-pedition.

Best loggings this time: 950 WROL Boston MA, 1130 CDN Radio in the Dominican Republic, 1190 Radio Mira and 1310 Colorín Color Radio both in Colombia, 1410 Radio Mensabé in Panamá, 1410 WMYR Fort Myers FL, 1420 Radio Sintonia in Venezuela and 1420 WDJA Delray Beach FL.

The main antenna used was a 1100 metre long beverage antenna at 285 degrees pointing towards the U.S. East Coast. We also had a longwire up to listen to the special transmission from Radio St. Helena (which we managed to hear, barely) and an experimental Ewe antenna. The Ewe antenna was blown away by gale winds on the second night and was never used for real DX. Too bad.

This is my complete log:

EUROPE:
1287 3.11 1102 Victoria Radio Network, Kirkcaldy, jingled as «Classic VRN»
1287 3.11 1809 SER Radio Lugo heard briefly with a local commercial before disappearing again
1287 4.11 1757 SER Radio Lleida with a local ID and local commercials for 1 minute in a break from the sports programme «Carrusel deportivo». QRM from a few other SER stations on the same channel
1314 3.11 2343 Loisirs AM, Paris, came up to beat the otherwise dominant Romanian station
1485 4.11 1757 SER Radio Santander with a good signal but DRM-interference from Germany on the same frequency made reception difficult
1503 4.11 1300 Sound Radio, London, all alone on the frequency now. Clear ID before starting a programme in Chinese
1503 4.11 1404 BBC Radio Stoke again the dominating station on the channel with Sound Radio in the background

NORTH AMERICA:
560 3.11 0052 CHVO Spaniard’s Bay NL carried «VOCM 20/20 Weather»
590 4.11 2239 VOCM St. John’s NL good signal now and nice ID: «Newfoundland’s information super station playing your country favourites: VOCM – depend on it»
610 3.11 0049 WIOD Miami FL fair signal with traffic reports
640 4.11 2205 CBN St. John’s NL with a local weather forecast. Lots of splash from Spain on 639
710 2.11 2037 CHVO Clarenville NL heard very early and with local programming at this time. ID as «7-10 VOCM Country Clarenville». Also heard with local programming and commercials one hour later on
740 4.11 2115 CHCM Marystown NL with standard VOCM programming
750 2.11 2013 CBGY Bonavista Bay NL heard this early with CBC Radio One. Fair to good signal too
790 3.11 0840 CFNW Port au Choix NL with standard VOCM programming and country music
790 3.11 0843 WAXY South Miami FL dominant station at this time with Fox Sports Radio and «The Third Shift»
880 3.11 0000 WCBS New York NY barely audible with WCBS News on the hour. Lots of splash from 882 made reception almost impossible on this station which normally has a powerhouse signal at Lista
890 3.11 0100 WAMG Dedham MA with a weak ID on the hour among ESPN Radio programming
930 3.11 0019 CFBC St. John NB with an ID before playing Steppenwolfs «Born to be wild». Weak signal and mixing with a sports station, presumably CJYQ
940 3.11 0302 CINW Montreal QC with a very weak signal
950 3.11 0219 WROL Boston MA with a confusing ID as “Newstalk 1150 WTTT”. A search on the Internet revealed that WROL relays WTTT from time to time. Heard for more than half an hour before the usual dominant CHER regained control of the frequency
950 3.11 0239 CHER Sydney NS faded up with a commercial for an electronic store in Sydney and an ID as «Max 9-50»
970 3.11 0851 WZAN Portland ME only station on the frequency now carrying «The Third Shift» from Fox Sports
1010 3.11 0603 WINS New York NY with traffic news and commercials
1010 5.11 0446 CFRB Toronto ON fair signal with the talk programme «Passion». Also several IDs as «News Talk 10-10 CFRB»
1050 2.11 2319 WEPN New York NY with «ESPN Radio». Surprisingly weak signal
1130 5.11 0916 WBBR New York NY only station on frequency this late after having been completely gone a few hours earlier
1140 5.11 0100 CBI Sydney NS fairly good on the hour with CBC News
1310 3.11 0826 WLOB Portland ME with a promotion mixing with dominant Radio Nacional de Venezuela
1320 4.11 2145 CKEC New Glasgow NS good signal early at night with a programme which was simply called «The Saturday Show»
1370 3.11 0919 WDEA Ellsworth ME fairly good at this time
1400 4.11 2032 CBG Gander NL fair signal early in the evening
1410 5.11 0707 WMYR Fort Myers FL only station on the frequency now with «Relevant Radio». Weak signal and a lot of euro-QRM, unfortunately
1420 5.11 0900 WDJA Delray Beach FL with a nice ID on the hour: «Moneywatch Radio AM 14-20 WDJA Delray Beach and AM 1000 WJPW Jupiter» before continuing with news from CNN
1430 3.11 0726 WENE Endicott NY noted with an ID as «Sports Radio 14-30 The Team» in a local break from Fox Sports Radio
1480 5.11 0258 WSAR Fall River MA fading above a much more interesting but strange religious Spanish speaking station which had about the same kind of intense programming which can be heard on a.o. Radio Victoria in Peru
1500 2.11 2221 WTWP Washington DC talked about the upcoming midterm elections and Ided as «Washington Post Radio»
1520 3.11 0105 WWKB Buffalo NY with an ID as «Buffalo’s Left Channel»
1560 3.11 0637 WQEW New York NY with a good signal and the usual Radio Disney programming. ID just as «AM 15-60 New York» at this time
1610 3.11 0625 CJWI Montreal QC barely above the noise level with a phone-in-programme and a French ID as «CPAM». Lots of QRM from both Caribbean Beacon and from Vatican Radio on nearby 1611
1680 3.11 0602 WLAA Winter Garden FL with English call letters on the hour. Otherwise Spsnish programming exclusively with many «Qué Buena» IDs and a lot of Mexican music
1690 2.11 2147 WPTX Lexington Park MD talking with a weak signal

CENTRAL AMERICA:
555 5.11 0515 ZIZ Radio, St Kitts, good signal but not with an own programme at this time, just a relay of BBC World Service
600 5.11 0517 CMKV Radio Rebelde, Urbano Noris, very strong at this time
710 5.11 0517 CMW Radio Rebelde, La Julia, also very strong and //600
790 3.11 0847 CMAQ Radio Reloj, Pinar del Rio, also noted here mixing with WAXY
820 2.11 2226 TBN via Radio Paradise, St. Kitts, is always the dominant station on this channel
950 3.11 0215 CM.. Radio Reloj heard on this frequency too with their familiar time pips
970 5.11 0550 WSTX St. Croix best station here for half an hour playing both soca music and evergreens from a.o. Abba and Lionel Richie
1130 5.11 0808 HIRL CDN AM, Santiago, with an ID and bachata music. A big thanks to Henrik Klemetz in Sweden for solving this one. This is a new name for the station listed as “La Mezcla” in the latest WRTH and was the big surprise of the DX pedition!
1190 2.11 2200 WBMJ The Rock, San Juan, with an ID on the hour as “1190 WBMJ and 1060 WCGB”. WCGB must be a new station in this network. The last edition of the WRTH lists WCGB as an independent station, but a look at the station’s home page confirms that The Rock is now on both 1190, 1060 and 1370.
1280 5.11 0600 WCMN Radio Centro, Arecibo, with an ID for the NotiUno chain on the hour. No local programming, unfortunately
1310 4.11 0117 RFO Martinique came up to beat the dominant Venezuelan station. No ID but who else could it be talking in French on this channel?
1320 5.11 0508 WSKN Radio Isla, San Juan, fairly good signal announcing several programmes to be heard on the station
1430 3.11 0815 WNEL Radio Tiempo with a talk programme from the Noti Uno chain. ID just as «Noti Uno 6-30»
1480 3.11 0728 WMDD Tropical 1480 is an easy catch. Now mixing with WSAR
1540 4.11 2332 ZNS Bahamas quite good playing soca music, but not as strong as during previous DX-peditions to Lista as the conditions were poorer this time
1570 5.11 0334 HIAJ Radio Amanecer, Santo Domingo, with a jingle as «Radio Amanecer – La Voz de la Esperanza». Fair signal
1610 3.11 0640 Caribbean Beacon, Anguilla, only station on frequency now, but weak signal
1640 4.11 0150 Radio Juventus Don Bosco with a jingle as just «Radio Juventus»
1680 3.11 0402 HI.. Radio Senda closed down their transmission with the national anthem. Except from a station identification at close down, the programme consisted of nonstop music and nonstop religious talk for more than 2 hours without any announcements or IDs

SOUTH AMERICA:
740 4.11 2130 ZYH446 Radio Sociedade da Bahia heard at this time mixing with the Newfoundland station
780 3.11 0550 YVMN Radio Coro, Coro, good signal with a programme called «Ruta musical 780»
920 3.11 0528 YVQX Radio Nueva Esparta with a brief station identification and time announcement
1130 5.11 0732 YVRL Radio Ideal, Maiquetía, dominated the frequency with another Latin American station (probably the Bogotá station) in the background
1190 5.11 0454 HJKG Radio Mira, Tumaco, surprised me with an ID as “Radio Mira de Caracol” which perfectly matches their webstream at http://www.tumaco.net/html/index.php
1190 5.11 0510 HJCV Radio Cordillera, Bogotá, was the strongest station on the frequency at this time playing «música de recuerdos»
1230 5.11 0342 HJKL Radio Calidad, Cali, read the winning numbers of several «loterias»
1250 5.11 0403 HJCA Capital Radio, Bogotá, with a nice ID as «Capital Radio – la emisora al servicio de nuestra gente». An unidentified Spanish speaking religious station was heard in the background
1300 5.11 0245 YVKH Radio Recuerdos, Caracas, with an ID and phone number in between several records
1310 3.11 0651 YVSM Radio Nacional de Venezuela, Barcelona, clearly the No. 1 station on this frequency nearly all the times on this DX-pedition
1310 3.11 2358 HJJZ Colorín Color Radio, Bogotá, at equal strength with Venezuela for about 15 minutes. A surprise to find this one when going through the recordings!
1320 3.11 0515 YVWP Radio Apolo, Tumen, faded above CKEC with an ID and time announcement: «Radio Apolo – la hora: 1 16 minutos»
1380 5.11 0704 YVNG Ondas del Mar, Puerto Cabello, is very regular here with frequent IDs as «Ondas del Mar 13-80»
1410 5.11 0400 YVSP Radio Simpatía, Valera, closed their transmission today playing the national anthem of Venezuela
1420 4.11 0230 YVNZ Radio Marabina, Maracaibo, not as strong tonight as they usually are
1420 4.11 0231 YV.. Radio Sintonía, Caracas, stronger than Radio Marabina for a minute
1430 5.11 0418 YVTP Radio Bahía, Puerto La Cruz, dominant with music and time announcements: «En Bahía, son las 12 y 19 minutos»
1450 4.11 0356 YVKJ Sonera 1450, Catia La Mar, was with 99% probability the station heard with programmes from Radio Maria on this frequency
1460 4.11 0401 HJJW Emisora Nuevo Continente, Bogotá, with an ID after a religious programme announcing an address in the USA. Lots of splash from 1458
1520 4.11 0424 HJLI Vida AM Música, Bogotá, with a nice ID mentioning all their FM and AM outlets. Presumed Radio Voz in Puerto Rico in the background

SHORTWAVE:
11092,5 4.11 1902 Radio St. Helena is the only shortwave log of the DX-pedition! Heard at this time with a very weak and noisy signal with a broadcast targeted to New Zealand. The announcements were mostly unintelligable, but the music played (a.o. Beatles’ «Let it be») was easily recognized

Complete log from the DX-pedition to Lista – February 9-12, 2006 (long posting!)

On February 9-12, 2006 , I participated in a DX-pedition to Lista on the south west coast of Norway (GC: 58°07′30″N / 6°36’45” E) along with Norwegian DX-ers Geir Fredheim, Arnstein Bue, Tore B. Vik and Jan Alvestad. The conditions were good especially towards the east coast of the USA and many new stations were heard. The antenna used was a 800 metre long beverage antenna.

Here is my complete log from the pedition:

EUROPE:
1260 10.2 0810 BBC Radio York came up with an ID, but WMKI soon regained control over the frequency with Radio Disney
1287 9.2 2212 BFBS Radio dominating the frequency at times. ID just as “BFBS Radio”, so there was probably not any local programme this late. Most probably this signal came from some of the transmitters located in Northern Ireland. 10 different transmitters in Northern Ireland with 1 watt each is listed on 1287
1287 9.2 2259 Victoria Radio Network, Kirkcaldy, with an ID just before the news
1296 11.2 0221 Radio XL dominant over Spain. Luckily there are no DRM broadcasts from the BBC here at nighttime (not yet at least…)
1296 11.2 0400 Radio Christo Botev competing with Radio XL. Strange Bulgarian songs
1530 9.2 1958 Thunder 1530, Iceland, heard with a weak signal behind Vatican Radio on the same frequency. Thunder 1530 now belongs to history, as the station closed down 4 months later on. The US Army will close down their Keflavík base on Iceland in October. A pity!

ASIA:
1287 9.2 2200 Galei Zahal noted over a cuple of the low power UK stations while the Spanish SER stations were completely gone

NORTH AMERICA:
560 11.2 2315 CHVO Carbonear NL noted with a CHVO ID, not // to 590 VOCM
750 9.2 2021 CBGY Bonavista Bay NL noted very early with a country music programme
790 10.2 0333 WAXY South Miami FL with several IDs as “7-90 The Ticket”. QRM Cuba
830 12.2 0701 WRCN Worcester MA with oldies and nice signal. ID as “True Oldies”
850 10.2 0453 WEEI Boston MA clear dominant with “Sportsradio WEEI”. At least 2 other stations were heard at the same time without an ID
850 11.2 0150 WFTL West Palm Beach FL over WEEI with a commercial for a.o. “The West Palm Beach Home and Garden Show”
920 11.2 0014 CJCH Halifax NS with a jingle in between 2 oldies songs
940 10.2 0900 CINW Montreal QC called themselves “The New 9-40 Montreal”. A station playing music was also heard, but without an ID
960 10.2 0621 CHNS Halifax NS IDed as “Oldies 96 CHNS”, but their signal was quite weak
970 12.2 0902 WZAN Portland ME with an ID and a weather forecast where they expected “blizzard conditions” on the East Coast. Very strong signal
980 11.2 0602 WHSR Pompano Beach FL heard with Haitian French, but lots of splash from Radio Star Country on 981 made reception difficult
1020 10.2 0919 KDKA Pittsburgh PA dominant with time announcement, ID and a weather forecast
1020 10.2 0920 WRHB Kendall FL fighting it out with KDKA, but loosing after a few minutes. The programme was a phone-in-programme in Haitian French
1050 10.2 0337 WEPN New York NY very strong and completely dominating the frequency with basket
1060 12.2 0200 WBIX Natick MA with a nice ID on top of the hour: “…we’re THE business station, AM 10-60 WBIX Natick Boston”
1070 11.2 2205 CBA Moncton NB with a 30 second long local weather forecast after the news
1080 10.2 0534 WTIC Hartford CT very strong with the programme “Dream Doctor”
1080 10.2 0601 WTPS Coral Gables FL heard below WTIC with gospel music. This station changed both their call (xWVCG) and format just prior to the pedition. The ID heard here was simply “WTPS – The People’s Station”
1090 11.2 0530 WBAL Baltimore MD with “Fox Sports Radio”. Good signal strength, but fierce interference from 1089 Talksport
1100 11.2 0530 WTAM Cleveland OH with a news bulletin on the half hour. An interesting (but not identified) station playing Spanish music was also heard
1110 10.2 0100 WBT Charlotte NC with good signal and legal ID on the hour
1130 10.2 0815 WBBR New York NY as usual very strong, but had company of an UNID ESPN station – most probably KFAN
1140 10.2 0026 CBI Sydney NS very strong with CBC Radio One
1140 10.2 1006 WRVA Richmond VA very good and much better than CBI with commercials before the breakfast programme “Richmond’s Morning News” started up. Nice surprise as this was heard more than 2 hours after our local sunrise!
1180 11.2 1001 WHAM Rochester NY with an ID on the hour after carrying “Coast to Coast AM”
1190 9.2 2233 WLIB New York NY with a clear ID before continuing their “Air America” relay
1200 10.2 0928 CFGO Ottawa ON clearly the strongest station now carrying “Fox Sports Radio”
1200 10.2 0929 WKOX Framingham MA came up to beat CFGO announcing “1200 and 1430 AM”
1200 10.2 1001 WOAI San Antonio TX weak signal and ID.
1210 10.2 0830 WPHT Philadelhia PA dominant, but lots of QRM from Virgin Radio on 1215 which is one of the strongest AM transmitters at Lista
1230 11.2 0359 WSBB New Smyrna Beach FL with a nice ID on the hour: “Memories 12-30, WSBB, New Smyrna Beach – Daytona Beach”. WSBB was the most common station on this very interesting frequency along with WESX
1230 11.2 0427 WCMC Wildwood NJ with a call letter ID. Very weak
1230 11.2 2329 WESX Salem MA with an ID in a jazz programme
1230 12.2 0459 WHUC Hudson NY with a nice ID on the hour
1230 12.2 0645 WSOK Savannah GA finally with an ID after being heard all three nights with gospel music
1240 11.2 0732 WMMB Melbourne FL a nice surprise with ID and Fox News
1240 12.2 0034 CKIM Baie Verte NL relayed VOCM with live ice hockey. ID as “The VOCM Sports Network”
1250 12.2 0357 WEAE Pittsburgh PA with commercials and ID on top of hour. Weak signal
1260 10.2 0116 WMKI Boston MA often very strong with “Radio Disney”
1260 10.2 0205 WSUA Miami FL was clearly and surprisingly the dominant station tonight (usually WMKI is by far the most common station on 1260). Many IDs as “Radio Caracol 12-60” and claimed to have “cobertura total en el sur de La Florida”. Oddly, their model station, meaning Caracol in Colombia, was heard below WSUA
1270 10.2 0758 CJCB Sydney NS with a simply ID among all the country
1270 10.2 0819 WRLZ Eatonville FL with several commercials in Spanish, but disappeared disappointly soon again…
1270 11.2 0830 WTSN Dover NH with a weak ID before the half hour news
1280 9.2 2202 CFMB Montreal QC with local news from Montreal in Italian
1280 9.2 2247 WFAU Gardiner ME promoted their basketball game coverage. Very strong signal
1290 9.2 2319 WRNI Providence RI came up to beat Puerto Cabello a couple of minutes
1290 10.2 0910 WJNO West Palm Beach FL heard several times during this pedition
1330 12.2 0118 WRCA Watertown MA with a weak call letter ID. A nostalgia station was heard at the same time, but was never identified
1360 9.2 2351 WDRC Hartford CT strong signal with promotions and commercials
1370 11.2 2351 WDEA Ellsworth ME – local weather forecast
1380 11.2 0640 CKLC Kingston ON up with an ID. A very interesting gospel station was heard 5 minutes earlier, unfortunately without an ID
1390 9.2 2216 WEGP Presque Isle ME heard with a commercial for a company selling computers in Presque Isle
1390 9.2 2300 WPLM Plymouth MA great ID before the news: “You are listening to WBNW AM 11-20 Concord and WPLM AM 13-90 Plymouth – your source for financial news”. Also heard several times ID’ing as “Easy 99.1” WPLM was often the dominant station on 1390
1390 11.2 0633 WXTC Charleston SC IDing as “Heaven 13-90” after a nice gospel song
1390 12.2 0406 WFBL Syracuse NY whispered a call letter ID. Disappeared very soon into the noise
1400 9.2 2221 CBG Gander NL as usual very strong, now carrying financial news
1400 9.2 2346 WOND Pleasantville NJ with a phone-in-programme. Lots of QRM from CBG at this time, better signal in the morning
1400 10.2 0507 WGTN Georgetown SC was a big surprise fading above CBG and WOND with an ID as “WGTN – The Oldies Station” before playing a record by Neil Diamond
1420 9.2 2205 CKDY Digby NS with weather forecast and news. Huge signal almost all the time here with country music and ID just as “AVR”
1430 9.2 2305 WENE Endicott NY dominant station with frequent IDs as “Sportsradio 14-30 The Team”
1430 9.2 2335 WNSW Newark NJ now carrying a religious programme in Spanish and IDing as “Radio Cántico Nuevo”. This station was also hear with English progrmming later on
1430 11.2 0523 CHKT Toronto ON played Indian music in fierce competition with WENE
1430 11.2 2127 WXKS Everett MA heard early in the evening with “Air America”
1440 11.2 0920 WJAE Westbrook ME with a really impressing signal which made it possible to ID this station without any problems despite Radio Luxembourg using their DRM transmitter with full power on the same frequency! WJAE would have had one of the strongest signals of all if it had not been for the dreadful DRM QRM
1450 10.2 0040 WKXW Atlantic City NJ with a nice ID: “From Atlantic City, this is ESPN 14-50 – WKXW 14-50”. An unidentified nostalgia station was also heard
1460 10.2 0741 WDDY Albany NY was the strongest station on the frequency carrying “Radio Disney”. Several other stations were also heard, none of them could be identified unfortunately…
1480 10.2 0130 WSAR Fall River MA with local weather bulletin in Laura Ingraham Show. QRM Puerto Rico
1480 11.2 0628 WHBC Canton OH fading in above Puerto Rico and WSAR with a promo
1490 10.2 0723 WUSS Pleasantville NJ with a promotion for the FM station “Kool 98.3”. WUSS was the most common station on 1490 this weekend
1490 11.2 0200 WMOG Brunswick GA fading in and IDing simply as “Hometown Radio”
1490 11.2 0903 WBAE Portland ME was the second most common station on the frequency this weekend. Playing nostalgia music and identifying as: “1400 AM – 1490 AM – The Bay”
1490 12.2 0859 WCCM Haverhill MA another nice surprise with call letters in English on the hour. Apart from the ID, they only relayed “ESPN en español” with Spanish soccer commentaries
1490 12.2 0900 WMBM Miami FL IDing with a jingle on the hour
1500 9.2 2158 WFIF Milford CT nice signal with promotion and several IDs for “Life Changing Radio WFIF”. WFIF was the only day timer station heard
1540 10.2 0147 WDCD Albany NY played Christian pop music
1560 12.2 0917 WQEW New York NY huge signal as always. Radio Disney programming
1590 11.2 0937 WAKR Akron OH had the strongest signal now in the morning. Otherwise WARV was very dominant here at all times checked
1590 12.2 0056 WARV Warwick RI is by far the most common station here with their Christian “Life Changing Radio” format
1600 10.2 0211 WUNR Brookline MA dominating with Puerto Rico. Heard at this time with traditional Irish music and commercial for “your Irish travel agency”, presumably for the many Irish-Americans living in the Boston Area
1600 10.2 0302 WKWF Key West FL with an ID as “Sportsradio 1600”. Lots of QRM
1620 11.2 0602 WNRP Gulf Breeze FL heard well below WDHP with their country music format
1630 12.2 0138 WRDW Augusta GA as usually the strongest station here
1650 10.2 0833 KCNZ Cedar Falls IA with an ID, but Radio Disney (WHKT) was much stronger
1660 11.2 2102 WRRU Jersey City NJ also noted very early with Korean talk. Not as strong as Puerto Rico this early
1680 10.2 0658 WLAA Winter Garden FL with and ID as “Radio Qué Buena”
1700 12.2 0313 WJCC Miami Springs FL dominant with phone-in programme in Haitian French on what we later found out must have been one of their last days on the air. Reactivated in June though so this station will surely be logged again in Scandinavia
1700 12.2 0324 WEUV Huntsville AL fighting against WJCC with gospel music
1700 12.2 0330 KVNS Brownsville TX were also in the jumble with a talk programme

CENTRAL AMERICA:
580 10.2 0337 WKAQ Radio Reloj with clear ID in a talk programme
790 10.2 0330 CMAQ Radio Reloj, Pinar del Río, with their easily recognizable morse ID
840 11.2 0157 CMHW Doblevé, Santa Clara, with a decent signal and sports. ID as “La reina radial del centro”
895 11.2 2348 Voice of Nevis quite good at times although not as good as on previous peditions to Lista
970 12.2 0824 WSTX St. Croix heard below WZAN announcing the time and playing light music
1020 10.2 0930 CM.. Radio Reloj also heard here along with KDKA and WRHB
1380 12.2 0859 CMFA Radio Cadena Agramonte with a weak ID
1480 10.2 0122 WMDD Tropical 1480 is always very strong at Lista
1540 10.2 0138 ZNS-1 Bahamas with the programme “Spotlight on disabilities”. Fought against WDCD and eventually lost
1600 10.2 0202 WLUZ Radio Luz up with a nice ID and jingle
1620 10.2 0059 WDHP St. Croix with a nice ID on the hour. Huge signal as usual
1640 9.2 2254 Radio Juventus Don Bosco competing with what must have been WTNI
1660 11.2 2100 WGIT La Gigante faded in very early with Spanish talk

SOUTH AMERICA:
780 10.2 0330 YVMN Radio Coro with an ID while tuning the band
900 12.2 0643 YVMD Mara Ritmo 900 dominant with a lot of promos and clearly better than RAI
in Italy on the same frequency
970 11.2 2350 YV.. Mundial Oriental, Barcelona, announced their phone number in between a salsa and a merengue song.
980 10.2 0602 HJES RCN Cali very good at this time
1020 12.2 0005 YVRS Radio Mundial Margarita with a fast “Mundial Margarita” jingle
1070 10.2 0401 HJCG Radio Santa Fé the strongest station at this time with soccer
1230 11.2 0249 HJKL Radio Calidad with a clear ID and phone-in-programme
1260 10.2 0228 HJ.. Caracol Colombia below WSUA with live soccer coverage from Lima between Sporting Cristal from Peru and Independiente Santa Fé from Colombia. 2 transmitters listed in the WRTH, one of them located on the pretty exotic Caribbean island Isla San Andrés
1290 11.2 0226 YVLF Radio Puerto Cabello is unfortunately very dominant on this frequency. Many hours of recording on 1290 brought up some other interesting stations though
1300 12.2 0235 YVKH Radio Recuerdo usually dominating the frequency although a couple of UNID North American stations were also heard. A station with Haitian French programme was also heard for about 30 seconds. I don’t know if this was really Haiti or some East Coast station from the US carrying Haitian programming
1380 11.2 0817 YVNG Ondas del Mar read the winning numbers for some of the numerous “loterias” in Venezuela
1390 10.2 0016 YVZA Radio Fé y Alegría with a promotion behind WEGP
1420 10.2 0431 YVNZ Radio Marabina fighting with CKDY
1500 10.2 2150 YVRZ Radio Dos Mil faded in early with commercials Venezuelan style