LEM54 DXpedition Report
November 2-16, 1991

This was my first DXpedition to Lemmenjoki, where I spent a full two weeks, the first week with Ari Kilponen from Oulu and the second week with Hans Lunkka from Helsinki.

Altogether the three of us had two pieces of NRD-525, one Icom IC-R71E, one Yaesu FRG-7700, a Lowe HF-225 and an Eska RX33, probably one of the widest variety of receivers ever used on one single Lemmenjoki DXpedition. The antennae were the same as usual, a total of 16 longwire and beverage antennae, mostly directed to the Western hemisphere.

We had one unforgettable night of DXing from November 8th to 9th, when several U.S. stations became audible already before sunset at their transmitter sites. This was a rare chance to hear daytimers. My best catch was KLGA Algona IA on 1600 kHz with a bunch of local spots and promotional announcements.

The following day a major storm destroyed everything and the A-index rose to 104, meaning U.S. stations were mostly inaudible for a couple of days. On November 13th-14th U.S. stations were back, but not very strong and only for a few hours per day around midnight UTC and sunrise Finnish local time. For the entire two-week period reception conditions to Asia and Latin America were below average, so all in all the results were relatively poor.

For a detailed list of what I heard, see the LEM54 DXpedition log. For some logging guidelines, check out notes on the log. You can also take a closer look at the Lemmenjoki QTH.