These are the Panorama photos I used to make the Virtual Tour.
Today the postman brought me the QSL of DU1/JJ5MJ.
This confirms the first ever and only contact made between the Philippines and Iceland on 160 Meters.
Long live the Arctic King !
PJ4C – Bonaire 2012 by F6KOP´s Team was extremely weak on 160 Meters due to Auroral conditions when I first heard them, and when I managed to get his attention he got my call wrong as TF3M and I was unable to correct him because signals were so weak. It turns out that both TF3M and TF4M were logged as can be seen from their online log.
I continued calling and on the next QSB peak we had a solid QSO.
The first recording runs about 15 minutes and demonstrates the extremely deep QSB and has our QSO at the end – even with 30 dB of amplificaton from the Beverage antenna, PJ4C almost disappeared completely due to the deep fading – the station was mostly inaudible on my transmit antenna – the Arctic King which fires straight into a mountain in this direction :
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The second recording is edited to have only the QSO between PJ4C and TF4M.
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Even when PJ4C was the strongest, this is really only a RST 519 signal – but due to my quiet location, I can cascade two 15dB amplifiers when needed to bring signals up to readable strength.
Bonaire was a part of the Netherlands Antilles until their dissolution on 10-10-10.
The political change resulted in four new DXCC entities (Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire and Saba/Sint Eustatius)
This is entity #177 worked on Top Band.
The operator at PJ4C was Kenneth, OZIKY – I worked him the following day on SSB on17m and he mentioned the contact.
The Arctic King continues to amaze.
I have made a few additional contacts with as shown in their online logs which are updated very quickly – apparently in real-time.
PJ4C continue to churn out the contacts and I have now worked them on all bands more or less…
This is a recording of our 80m QSO:
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This is a recording of our 40m QSO:
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Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
The PostMan brought me some new QSL cards for my 160m DXCC.
OD5NJ´s QSL card brings my country totals to 176 Worked, 170 Confirmed on Top Band.
This is a photo taken during the construction of the Arctic King. I think it gives a good idea of the size of the antenna.
TF4M is the climber – those were the days, now gone.

TF4M working on the Arctic King
DK1CE is on a DXpedition to Namibia 26 December – 16 January.
This is a recording of our QSO on 160 Meters.
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Note: I have discovered that the recording audio leads from my transceiver were in the wrong sockets. Since I have not touched these for months, since installation at least, it appears that the mischievous Elves of Otradalur may be to blame. From now on both channels should be present in the recordings.
The Arctic King once again showed his tremendous power.
According to this they are even using Rhombics for their operations!
This is my country #176 Worked on Top Band.
I recorded a small pile up on 160 meters. The recording is in stereo, reception is full diversity with various receive antennas switched into circuit as needed.
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Note: I have discovered a mistake in audio connections…the recording is only the left channel, the diversity effect is therefore lost in the recording.
Booming signals from Europe, Russia and the Middle East and even one QSO with Japan.
The Arctic King showed his power yet again.

The first DX QSO of the year on Top Band was with KL7KY near Anchorage, Alaska.
I had been listening to Kevin for a long time and was able to make the QSO with him on a QSB peak.
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I heard Ron, VK3IO with workable signals this morning of the first day of the year.
I have worked VK several times on Top Band, but I believe Ron still needs TF so I made an effort but was not able to raise him.
I listened mainly on my transmit antenna – The Arctic King since it was very quiet outside…
The recording is for 25 minutes and contains some QSOs around 1100z.
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It is likely that this will be the last time Australia is heard in Iceland on 160 Meters, at least in my life time.
It is tempting to connect the Sound Card of my computer and use some fancy digimode to make contacts on 160 meters as many are advocating these days.
That way, DX contacts could be made with stations that can not be heard, and possibly with stations that do not exist !
There should really be no need for an operator, the computer could make all the contacts automatically.
How wonderful…
HNY !