Again a relatively good opening, best moments were for Czechia and Hungary, when some stations beated local transmitters! So far this season has been extremely good, till today total number of my logs is 377. Compared to full seasons 2016 (417) and 2014 (566) it can be that this will be the best ever, at least if July won’t be totally silent. 2013 (364) and 2015 (324) are not totally comparable, because I was off in August. Visual log here.
A small OIRT opening in the morning (I was not at home). In the evening almost perfect timing, just arrived from work when band opened, right after I parked the car in garden (1615 UTC). Once again the conditions surprised totally, MUF map promised almost nothing, when I left work around 1520 UTC. The last log for today was Lattemiele on 95.9 MHz at 2118 UTC, after local midnight! For the first three hours MUF was even too high, so the lower band was unusable because of white noise, which happens easily during ”too good” conditions. Luckily there were plenty of reabadle signals between 100 and 108 MHz. Sometimes late night conditions promise good for next day.. let’s see how it goes!
Even many of our blog readers must know how much I love Italy, unfortunately it is not very interesting FMDX target. Small local stations have become a part of big national or seminational networks, so the number of interesting stations is continuously decreasing. Anyway 5 new-for-me stations made my day: Radio Bresciasette 94.8, Radio Azzurra 107.6, Modena 90 107.4, Radio Center Music 99.1 and Radio Adige 101.3. The most interesting moment was a short peak to Naples (2536 km!) when Kiss Kiss Italia came with RDS KKITALIA on 95.9 MHz. Kiss Kiss Italia belongs to Radio Kiss Kiss family, but it has only regional coverage. Unfortunately it disappeared soon, without ID from Naples. This summer has brought an extraordinary number of double hops and extralong one skip!
My personal log for today can be found here: http://www.fmlist.org/fm_logmap.php?datum=2017-06-18&omid=1183
Not really condx today in inner Finland, but South coast got a good evening opening to Albania/Bulgaria/Italy. Radio Mater was audible enough for an ID, Radio Focus from Bulgaria almost for a minute. Again late night ROU under 91 MHz.
Yesterday 16 June was described as one of the best FM-opening during decades in South Finland. The best part of it was RDS-level signals from Middle East like Saudi Arabia, Jordania, State of Palestine (PSE) and Armenia from about 4500 km distance (3 skips?). (http://uto-fmdx.blogspot.fi/) After listening the blind recording, it must have been pretty good also here. Mostly basic Romanian stations, but an interesting arab double hop around local noon. Unfortunately no IDs.
Big opening to ”everywhere”. For the best 5 hours (MUF 108+) to ROU and BUL I had to stay in work, including arabic double hops around 9 UTC! Nothing much on blind recording. Conditions had siesta 1410-1710 UTC, evening brought stations from Slovenia to Ireland, probably even Iceland. Unfortunately this kind of openings are often dominated by powerhouses, so not much new. The most interesting was Spanish double hop 20-21 UTC (close to local midnight), but all the stations seemed to be totally in love with football… Visual log from Uurainen here. More will come after checking some recordings.
Because of work, not much time to monitor FM band, but blind recording is always going on. As I have no SDR, it is pretty quick to check one frequency recordings. On 14 June Radio Patmos (txing on 89.2, 15 km from my QTH) was off air from the morning till 1050 UTC, allowing blind recording on a frequency which is normally blocked.
2017-06-13 Es 1638 88.70 RUS Radio Rekord, Saratov/ORTPC (SR)
2017-06-14 Es 0415 70.67 RUS Radio Rossii GTRK Penza, Penza/ORTPC (PZ)
2017-06-14 Es 0433 70.40 RUS Radio Rossii GTRK Volga, Veshkayma/RTPS (UL)
2017-06-14 Es 0859 89.20 TUR TRT 3 Radyo Üc, Adana/Misis Dag (Davududag/Yüregir) (akd-ada) 2939 km
2017-06-14 Es 1552 91.20 +ROU Rock FM Vaslui, Vaslui (VS)
2017-06-14 Es 1556 94.90 TUR TRT, UNID QTH
2017-06-14 Es 1605 87.80 ROU Pro FM, Iași (IS) 2 tx,
2017-06-14 Es 1609 92.70 HNG MR 2 Petőfi Rádió, Tokaj / Nagykopasz (BAZ)
2017-06-14 Es 1611 89.00 ROU Radio ZU, București (BU)
2017-06-14 Es 1744 89.00 HRV Super Radio, Čazma/Gornji Draganec-Silos (bj)
2017-06-14 Es 1747 88.90 SRB Radio S2, Beograd/Torlak (Srb)
2017-06-15 Es 0454 67.16 RUS Radio Rossii GTRK Nizhniy Novgorod, Sergach/RTPS (NN)
2017-06-15 Es 0459 66.62 RUS Radio Rossii, Buzuluk/RTPTS (OB) Network ID, tx guess,
2017-06-15 MS 0718 88.70 G BBC Radio 2, Blaenplwyf (WA-CDN)
2017-06-15 Es 1204 88.70 ROU SRR Radio România Actualități, Craiova (DJ)
2017-06-15 Es 1219 88.70 I Radio Deejay, Bologna/Colle Barbiano/Via Santa Liberata (bo) 2 tx,
2017-06-15 Es 1234 88.70 I BluradioVeneto-inBlu, Teolo/Monte Grande (pd)
2017-06-15 Es 1256 88.70 BIH Radio Antena, Tešanj/Trebačko brdo (znc)
2017-06-15 Es 1346 88.70 G BBC Radio 2, Blaenplwyf (WA-CDN). Many tx.
2017-06-15 Es 1859 88.70 BIH Radio Antena, Tešanj/Trebačko brdo (znc) PI logged: F0EE PS logged: *ANTENA* v
2017-06-15 Es 1913 89.70 SRB BB Radio Bački Brestovac, Odžaci/Silos (Voj) No ID, tel. no match 069-2-444-122,
Sporadic E still alive.. Plenty of short lasting signals on blind recording (during BBQing) around 1630-1700 UTC from Italy. Short Balkan opening between 1804-1825 UTC up to 94 MHz and a 5-minute-long UK/Benelux opening up to 97 MHz.
Bird #21: Cygnus cygnus
By Ken Billington – Oma teos, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12349450
From the bed to the band. Morning opening was already going on at 0550 UTC on lower band, bringing Bosnian, Czechia, Poland, Germany and Austria. Mostly basic stations. I had to leave QTH for 40 minutes, between 0640-0720 UTC, and when driving, I enjoyed the selection of songs CRo 1 on 89.7, including ”I wasn’t expecting it now”. Fits perfectly to the feeling 🙂 The band closed a bit after I came back, afterwards it was annoying to notice an arab on blind recording which I roughly changed to the other frequency, because the signal was ”too weak”.. Next time then!
An hour later the strongest BBCs appeared and soon band was open to BeNeLux. Next 30 minutes of DNK MUF 108 were definitely the best half an hour of my DX history! It is pretty rare to have a widely open band for such a short distance (1100-1200 km!)
Guys in Utö pedition described today as ”second best day ever in Utö” which is not hard to believe!
My personal visual log is here: http://www.fmlist.org/fm_logmap.php?datum=2017-06-08&omid=1183
An afterwork opening totally surprised and the first ID ”..19 sat, slusate Radio Postaju Vinkovci” never ended up to the recording. Luckily the news tune after ID, together with written ID, could lead to a reception report 🙂 Soon conditions turned to Italy. Very quick fading and weird conditions also today. Most of the band was empty, but on few frequencies was continuous ”pile up” full of stations fighting of airspace, 10-15 seconds each.. In the same time French and English stations were aubidle. Like yesterday, neither today none of the directions really opened. So far the first week of June has been pretty good with 86 logs.
Late night conditions indicate usually a morning start. DX Sherlock looked fine in the morning, and soon French stations faded in. The highest noted frequency was 94.5 MHz. Not long lasting opening, all gone before I even left to work around 0730 UTC. Blind recording (95.7 MHz) during work day was practically empty, except multiple meteors. In one of them bright id as ”Radio Een” brought new heard MS country BEL! In the evening some Komi on OIRT. Identified stations visually: http://www.fmlist.org/fm_logmap.php?datum=2017-06-06&omid=1183
Today’s highlights (once again)
New meteor country BEL (clip: Radio 1)
A new-for-me French station Sweet FM
For 2 hours short-lasting but strong reflections from West to East Europe, very difficult to follow and MUF was moving 80-100-80-100-80 continuously. Band was silent for 5 minutes, and open for another 5 minutes, then same again.. Still one new-for-me station Ritmo 80 from Bari on 87.8. Bari needs a bit overlong skip (2453 km) which happens every now and then during weak Balkan openings. Maybe Adriatic sea and tropospheric ducting helps a bit!?
Full log here: http://www.fmlist.org/fm_logmap.php?datum=2017-06-05&omid=1183
