Every fall I pick a day and head out into the country for a few hours to do some DXing on the short wave bands. I call it my Mini DXpedition. I take along a radio or two and some wire for erecting an antenna I go to the same location every year. It's a conservation area, about 35 miles from the city, about ten miles inland from Lake Huron. The area is perfect. There are no power lines or any other source of man made noise around. There are trees around so I can get an antenna up off the ground.

It's becoming a little more of a challenge every year, because, one by one, the big international broadcasters are shutting down. On the plus side, we're nearing Solar Max in the current cycle.

I always pick a day in early November, after we have reverted to standard time. This allows me to take advantage of the earlier darkness. I arrive there around 4:00 PM. This gives me enough time to get set up before it gets dark. I stay there for 4 or 5 hours

The day I've picked for this year is Today, Nov 7. The weather can be unreliable in November, but in all the years years I've been doing it, I've never had bad weather. Indeed, on one or two occasions, it's been balmy, Indian summer weather.

However, as I'm packing up for it now, the weather is cold, grey and drizzly.

I'll post the results of anything worthwhile.

Last edited by turkeytop (November 7, 2023 3:07 pm)