Kenwick Top DX Trip: 08-08-15

Chris, aka "Sniffingmoose", visited Skegness on the 8th and we took an afternoon trip to Kenwick Top, just up the road from here. Although the 'summit' of this hill is not particularly high at 93 metres above sea level, it provides excellent continental scatter in favourable conditions. Some have described it as 'mindblowing'. On an average day, the Berlin transmitter of BB Radio can be heard clearly on 107.5 MHz. A distance of around 820 km.

Ian Kelly and I visited a couple of weeks earlier during poor conditions, but managed to hear the Forfar transmitter of BBC Radio Scotland on 92.7 at 420 km. Thankfully, our trip on the 8th coincided with high pressure and so some ducting was taking place.

Equipment in use was a Sony XDR-F1HD with the Konrad modification, a laptop running the XDR-GTK software and a Triax FM5 on a 10m telescopic mast - extended to about half its maximum height due to missing sections.

The flat plains of the Fenlands, looking east from Kenwick Top

Pick of the bunch has to be good reception of Sveriges P3 from Norrköping at 1150 km. We found this by accident as we had been looking for NRK P3 from Bjerkreim on 91.8, which produced only a very weak signal, fluttering in and out rapidly, so we checked for NRK P2 from the same transmitter on 98.7, but the frequency was virtually empty. In a matter of one second, a signal suddenly blasted through producing full RDS "E203 SR_P3___". We had assumed this to be meteor scatter, but the signal stayed there for the duration of our visit, which was probably just under three hours.

Chris brought along his excellent Roberts Sport portable DAB receiver and was amazed to receive no less than four Norwegian DAB multiplexes. Quoting from his post to Skywaves:

"Yes considering conditions were supposed to be flat, I thought from my point of view Kenwick to was Excellent, with Norway and Sweden and Denmark coming through. 98.7 was the best frequency. Also swinging the beam north brought in East coast Scottish signals such as BBC Nationals from Forfar and a good catch was the Edinburgh Local Forth 1 on 97.3. 

In addition I was surprised to hear Norway on DAB as well. After, I did a scan on my Roberts Sports DAB radio with only the headphone lead as the antenna brought in 4 Norway DAB MuX's 2 of them were the new DAB+ which my radio cannot decode the others were Norway's National DAB service and their regional service from Agder Rogaland. on block 13F.I did not take a formal log but I thought what a superb location for the North and East and a great afternoon DX"

Close-up of above photo: You can just make out a ship on the North Sea, from Kenwick Top

Well, conditions were definitely enhanced, but not overly so. Little continental DX was available at my home QTH immediately before and after the trip, but some very weak Norwegian, Danish and German tropo did materialise an hour or so after I returned home.

Another big surprise at Kenwick Top was Forth 1 from Craigkelly (Edinburgh local) on 97.3, fluttering in and out very rapidly. We caught a reference to their website, forth1.com. In addition to this, a wealth of Scottish transmitters were received, such as Forfar, Ashkirk, Black Hill, Meldrum and Durris, some with full RDS.

Denmark also produced a reliable, if choppy signal on 97.2 and 99.9 from its Rangstrup transmitter.

Although Germany was almost non-existent when we first arrived at Kenwick Top, it appeared in force a couple of hours later.

Driving away from Kenwick Top towards Theddlethorpe, we continued to receive 13F from Norway, well down the hill and almost to the levels.

DXing from Kenwick Top using a Triax FM5

Very obviously 'photoshopped' to show the approximate height of the mast when fully extended