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.Â
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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