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[IRCA] Iceland



I went to Iceland for the past week and did a bit of DXing using a Tecsun 880. It was limited as I was travelling with family, hotel noise levels varied greatly, and "night" time hours were limited (3-4 hours).

666 RUV Iceland is on the air most of the time (maybe 90% when I checked) and is probably still running low power as they weren't super strong in Reykjavik.

On the east coast of Iceland with a nice water path and generally 1-4 km from the water, I had regular very weak daytime reception of 810 BBC (North Scotland) and 693 BBC (not sure which transmitter). I also had some hets (probably including BBC Wales). I tested several cliffs and didn't notice any gain. Is it possible that lava rocks lack iron and thus aren't as good? I've read that Iceland is low on metals. This is the best daytime distances I've ever had on MW so I was quite happy!

I did one short session of night time listening on the south coast of Iceland near Vik. I didn't hear Faero 531 - so they are still inactive. I also didn't hear Greenland or any US stations. I got the best reception from the UK, followed by Spain. Algeria (531 and 549) was good. I also tentatively heard Tunisia and Morocco. The furthest signal was from Saudi Arabia (585).

Reykjavik isn't the best for DXing Europe as it on the coast, but has a lot of land between it and Europe.

Iceland is an amazingly beautiful country due to the volcanos, though rather pricy (expect to pay double or more what you do in the US). We drove the highway 1 which wraps around the shoreline much of the time and would provide a lot of opportunities for a more DX oriented visit. Most of the country is open fields and you could also set up long antennas without a problem, assuming the sheep cooperate and that you can figure out who owns it (or frankly they probably won't care or find out). It is nice and temperate in the summer, though it can be also be rather cold (40) and windy (we had 30 mph gusts one day).

Aaron
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