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Con te partiro

Last full day at the cabins and what a day that was! In the morning a totally new country was heard, i.e. Libya that became our FM country #68 in the inofficial Finnish count. In the evening we had a stunning long opening to Greece; also the Balkans, Turkey and Italy were present. Now at 2:50am (!) local time Italian and Balkan stations are still jumping in up to 108 MHz at times.

Let’s see how hectic tomorrow will be as we have to dismantle the antennas and pack our stuff by 2pm.

Utö Blog is thus over and out! See you again next year 🙂

Your ed and JJS laughing all the way to the Greek bank
Radio Melodia, Ptolemaida, was one of the Greek highlights of the evening
Goodbye to the barren rocky island
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Sealed with a KISS?

Today we woke up at 5.50am to check Mr. Hepburn’s forecast of some Baltic tropo. And right he was again – some Lithuanian stations came through quite nicely, eg 104.2 Opus 3 (Taurage-tx) and 106.6 M-1 (Kaunas-tx). This year’s big thing in Latvia has been the local announcements of Latviesuradio on every one of their frequencies and many managed to complete their collection during the morning hours.

Es woke up, but she seemed very much worn out from this week’s earlier activities: first very little Romania (KISS FM), then an UNID Arab praying on two frequencies (89.3//89.5), and finally an hour-long weak opening to Greece – mostly Athens and Thessaloniki low-band high power stations.

We had arranged lunch at 2pm, this time not at the hotel, but at the residence of the parents of Hanna the landlady. Everyone became kind of edgy when the Greek opening was still sort of ongoing when we had to leave. Luckily we didn’t miss that much, it seems.

Hanna and her mother had prepared us a local specialty, seal stew. Something not many of us have ever tried or even considered. However, it was excellent, and the meat tasted like something between very tender beef and liver.

This is the last evening for three members of the Utö team and now at 6.45pm the band and Sherlock both seem very dull… We want more! 🙂

Utö crew and our hostesses chitchatting after lunch
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No Milk Today

No Sporadic E today. But we had a strange powerful meteor bang on the hour at 0900 UTC, with the following stations identified: 87.5 Dorozhnoye R, St Peterburg, local ID; 92.4 Sport FM, Moscow; 92.8 M-Vienas, Lithuania. Very short skips!

A couple of pictures from our morning jog (5.91 km at 38 min 53 s, says the computer), all courtesy by OSY.

A ferocious black adder going for the kill
Would they sell this place? It's desolate and growing weed...
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Islandman

A sunny morning and the Es have all gone away. Time to delve into yesterday’s loot. Loads of good stuff from Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Northern England.

There seems to be a pattern, that an eruption in the sun first lifts Sporadic E in higher latitudes giving us stations from the British Isles. But when it hits the Earth all we get is Aurora and the Es are all gone. As the sun has been really inactive in recent years we haven’t really had any decent openings to that direction since 2006. Now is the time to hope for something better…

During our morning jog, OSY was nearly bitten by a ferocious viper that literally attacked us from behind a stone. Luckily he managed to jump up high above the stinging snake, a real touch and go situation.

Oh and your ed won the the third round of cards, aka Utö Championships – more trophies to win will follow 🙂

”Scotland is my dreaming head; Ireland is my heart” -Mike Scott/The Waterboys

Phantom made its first appearance in Finland on Tuesday
R Cuillin from Isle of Skye was also a new one
HKU, JUS, JJS and JTK upping the ante
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15.6.2010 – Es Log – Jyväskylä, Finland

Here’s log so far.

88.400 0849- HNG: Nyugat R.
93.100 1304- G: BBC R Cymru.
94.700 1000- G: BBC R Sheffield. Chesterfield-tx.
95.900 1001- G: BBC R Humberside. High Hunsley.
96.400 0931- G: CFM. Carlisle-tx.
96.800 1142- G: R Borders Selkirk-tx.
96.900 1023- G: Viking FM High Hunsley.
97.100 1120- G: Metro R. Burnhope.
97.500 1121- G: Smooth R North-East.
100.100 0957- G: Classic FM. RDS id.
101.800 1131- G: 100-102 Real Radio. Burnhope-tx.
102.000 1024- G: Dearne FM. Ardsley-tx.
106.000 1136- IRL: Newstalk

Click to enlarge

JMN: Kenwood KT-6050 ja 4-el. yagi (ja kakkosradiona Yamaha TX-330 ja dipoli mitoitettu n. 82 MHz) / QTH: Uurainen
Sekavanoloinen 3h roiskekeli Kreikasta ja Turkista Balkanin kautta Slovakiaan ja Unkariin, Italiaa välissä ja lopuksi brittejä pitkään.

89.0 – 0800 – GRC(?): UNID nousi soittelemaan nonstoppia päivystystaajuudelle kuin tyhjästä ja aloitti kolmen tunnin keliputken. Ei idannut biisien välissä.
89.3 – 0802 – BIH: Radio Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine. Vlasic-tx. Kuulutti näin ja RDS [RADIO-F.]. Musiikkia 87.9 ja 89.5.
89.0 – 0804 – HRV: UNID mainosti tuotetta ”Veneziano” ja väitti sen olevan ”hrvatski quality”.
94.9 – 0805 – HRV: Hrvatski Radio 1. Papuk-tx. Vain RDS [HRT-HR_1].
95.9 – 0805 – HNG: Neo FM. Pécs-tx. ”Road to hell” ja [NEO_FM]. Tämä taajuus on QSL-kansiossa Slager-nimellä yhtenä ekoista ES-asemista vuodelta 2001! Nostalgiaa.
90.4 – 0810 – HRV: Narodni Radio. Slatina-tx. Selkesi puhelinnumeron perusteella.
92.9 – 0811 – HRV: Radio Virovitica, Virovitica. Hämäsi ensin ”Glas Venaceja” -jinglellä, mutta seuraavan biisin jälkeen ”Marketing Radio Virovitica” ja ”Auto Skola Artis”. Nousi taas 0823.
93.0 – 0812 – TUR: UNID veti paikallista poppia, samankaltainen asema nousi taas 0821.
99.7 – 0816 – HRV: Hrvatski Radio 2. Psunj-tx. Phone-in show ja [HRT-HR_2].
102.0 – 0817 – UNID. Ehkä Radio Osijek, Psunj-tx. Hetken päästä musiikit menivät 93.9 Kuopion YLEX:n yli.
89.7 – 0825 – SVK: Rádio Expres. Nitra-tx. 500w. SMS-numeroksi antoi 01056x6x ja soitteli No Doubtin ”Don’t Speakin” kuuluen vain kakkosradiolla!
91.5 – 0826 – HNG: Kék Duna Radio, Györ. Soitteli mm. Madonnaa.
89.5 – 0830 – BIH: Radio Hit, Brcko. Majevica-tx. Ei idannut, mutta jinglasi ”Marketing” ja mainosti fysioterapeuttifirmaa ”Ortophysic Brcko” numerolla 049-214958.
89.5 – 0831 – HNG: Kossuth Rádío. Barcs-tx. ID puheessa ”Kossuth Radiobon” ja listoista JJH tonki tällaisen 50 watin alilähettimen.
90.2 – 0832 – HNG: Neo FM. Nagykanizsa-tx. Nettisaitti puolihuolimattomasti kelvannee idistä.

90.2 – 0834 – HRV: Radio Postaju Vinkovci, Vinkovci. Antoi paikallisen kondiittorin puhelinnumeron 091-2220067. No ID!
88.9 – 0832 – UNID jugi; naisDJ miksasi Winehousen matalaksi ja spiikkasi ”88,9 Megaherza, Frekvencija Urbane, Bieji?”. Kakkosradion sokkodipolikarkkia.
96.1 – 0835 – BIH: Radio Mir Medjugorje. Fojnica-tx. 300w ja [R_MIR_M] ja kaunis ääni-ID biisien välissä ”Slushate Radio Postaja Mir Medjugorje”. 88.8 ja 90.2 jäivät UNIDeiksi.
96.1 – 0843 – HRV: Hrvatski Radio 2. Labinstica-tx. Vain koodi [HRT-HR_2] ja phone-in show jatkui. Nousi vielä 0943 käymään brittien seassa!
94.9 – 0846 – HRV: Radio Velika Goriza, Velika Goriza. Vain RDS [RVG_94.9] ja ”Painted Black” soitossa. Myöhästyin taas jinglen lopusta parilla sekunnilla.. Musiikkiasemia myös 95.9 ja 96.4.
92.1 – 0851 – HRV: Hrvatski Radio 1. Sljeme-tx. Vain RDS [HRT-HR_1]. Tämän jälkeen tukku musiikkiasemia 89-90 MHz.
88.9 – 0927 – I: Radio Capital. Lähi-idän asiat ovat suosittuja italialaisasemilla. Vain RDS [CAPITAL_]. Pätkä italiaa myös 89.3:lla.
88.8 – 0929 – G: tent. BBC Radio 2. Belmont-tx. Ensiesiintyi tässä jo 0858 ja kuului vielä 1030 jälkeen. Taajuudella italiaa 0902.
89.1 – 0930 – I: RTL 102.5. Vain RDS [RTL102.5]. Italiaa tuli tässä jo 0910.
95.4 – 0932 – G: tent. BBC Radio Newcastle. Pontop Pike-tx. Samanoloinen juontaja kehui 96.0:lla vähän myöhemmin brittien futisjoukkuetta sanoilla ”We are still the best army in the world” mutta ID ei tarttunut korviin.
95.7 – 0941 – G: tent. BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. Peterborough-tx. Alabandilla saman kylän ketjulähettimiä.
96.4 – 0944 – UNID soitteli ”Time after time”:ä. Ehkä JJH:n hetkeä aiemmin kuulema CFM Carlisle, joka jäisi Newcastlen ”taakse”.
92.3 – 0949 – G: BBC Radio 3. Peterborough-tx. [BBC_R3] ja audioidikin tuli nakitettua 0951 kakkosradiolla ajankuluksi.
90.1 – 0952 – G: BBC Radio 2. Peterborough-tx. [BBC_R2]. Samaa myös 89.1 italon kera.
94.9 – 1000 – G: BBC Radio Lincolnshire. Belmont-tx. Uutisissa tosin vain Lincolnshire -maininta. MUF kävi tökkäisemässä useaan otteeseen samalla kun Jyväskylässä vedettiin kaupallisia 108 asti ja Uuraisilla oli ikioma pilvi Belmontiin (88.8. 90.9).
89.3 – 1052 – G: BBC Radio 2. Holme Moss-tx. [BBC_R2]
88.9 – 1058 – G: BBC Radio 2. Llangolen-tx voisi käydä, samasta paikasta kävi 93.3 lyhyesti. Vain RDS [BBc_R2].

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Ruby Tuesday

What a day! In the morning my best Serbia-opening ever, and after a quick lunch a two-hour opening to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Dublin. More details later.

Serbian Radio JAT on 90.2
First lunch on the hotel patio - still a bit chilly
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Good Stuff

Monday evening was well spent sitting in front of the radios. Pillows are much in need with this hobby 🙂 It all started at 1430 UTC with Greece, 1500 Normandy and thereabouts again, 1615 Turkey and Greece and the archipelago in between, up until 1705. New round at 1915 with a tougher set of Normandy and Jersey Islands, 1925 Spain with a strong peak at 1935, fadeout at 2005, but short openings came up and down until 0110 local time.

The gems are all listed in Harri’s blog: http://www.uto-fmdx.blogspot.com/

Our card playing championships’ third round was cancelled yesterday evening because of the opening. The game is Reverse Old Heck/Reverse Up and Down, a fine variation of ”Oh, hell” that Wikipedia claims to be Bill Clinton’s favourite game. As usual, the bookkeeper keeps on winning (not me).

Radio Dio, Saint Etienne (42), made its first visit to Finland.
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I Do Like Mondays

Finest of French

 
This morning offered a mixed two-hour session to Normandy. Mostly familiar stuff, but Aunt Esmeralda had some surprises in her bag as well.
 
The afternoon opening from Central Finland to Holland went straight over our heads, so it was time to fix the vertical aerial. Now it’s in a much better place and all kinds of interesting stations flow in, eg 99.8 Kelyje (Klaipeda-tx LTU).
 
A new personal tropospheric scatter distance record was made last night with 102.1 PR3 Bygdoszcz-tx. The distance is a whopping 749 km. Mr. Hepburn says the theoretical maximum for this propagation method is around 700 km. Of course, this distance limit is not valid for ”real tropo” (which we haven’t had at all). The troposcatter signals can be really surprising, lifting up one station at a time up to noise-free levels for a minute or two. The Baltic Sea makes it happen much easier than on the mainland.
 
Midnight at the Utö village

 
Frog crossing

 

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Here Comes the Sun


 
The sun came out and so did we for some BBQ sausages. Somehow we managed to forget to keep our ears on the band and only caught the tail end of a Spanish opening. Highly embarrassing.
 
Check also: http://uto-fmdx.blogspot.com/
 

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