July 8th we had very short one cloud condition to Russia. Fellow DXer JY identified Radio Rekord Saratov 88.7. It might fit to the same cloud.
Before my short holiday I got one of the most complete Russian QSL answers ever from Retro FM Armavir (heard 13052014). If you are interested, you can check my personal QSL’s of this season here. Now it has been again silent, so it’s time to send some more reception reports.
After a two and half week long silent period we have had little openings here in Central Finland. West coast guys were enjoying even MUF 108 conditions which lasted for 9 hours nonstop! I have passed a week as a holiday on both sides of English Channel – and also visited two radio stations (VBRO in Brugge and Radio Cristal in Évreux). I’m going to write more about it later. During my trip there was mostly nothing heard so the timing seems to be perfect.
Graphically the umbrella of last days looks like this, complete personal log can be found in the end of this post.
On July 3rd a small opening to France, later some stations from London and Southern England and then Piemonte. On July 4th short but good opening to Tatarstan and Bashkiria. Markku Sollo caught China on three frequencies in Tohmajärvi! That’s a real DX (clips available here) – last year he captured Big FM 92.7 from Srinagar, India! On July 5th I was not at home, but there was reported only small OIRT opening to Ukraine. July 6th started with little skip to Romania while I was having lunch and then good opening to the border of Ukraine and Russia. Today July 7th we had two little opening in Inner Finland, first for Bavaria (shorter skip to Prague and longer to Trento) and second better to CZE and AUT offering also HRT stations and a new-for-me Hungarian on 88.4, but unfortunately no ID. I am still wondering to report it, since there are clearly local commercials and the frequency won’t be no longer free..
As we are requested for audio clips, I’m gonna enclose an interesting UNID – most probably a pirate station from London or nearby. However I found a forum conversation which claims that 92.8 should be nowadays free in London. I’m not sure if there is an ID also on this clip – can’t get it. Maybe a new pirate?!
Eilen ES aktivoitui taas vajaaksi puoleksi tunniksi, tällä kertaa skipaten Turkkiin, mutta myös matkan varrelta tuli asemia. Yhtäkään IDiä en tällä kertaa onnistunut kopittamaan, mutta lätkin FMListiin kielen ja ohjelmatyylin perusteella veikkaukset asemista ja miten ollakaan, kartallahan ne menivät aika siististi kahteen jonoon, kuten usein tuppaa olemaankin kun heijastuspinta on pieni. Sekä asemat että kuuntelijat sijaitsevat silloin peräkanaa ja sivusta on vaikea päästä mukaan. Keli oli aika heikkoa, joten kaikki asemat ovat isompitehoisia myllyjä, eikä niidenkään kuuluvuus päätä huimannut.
Vaikka tältä pikkuavaukselta ei mitään käteen jäänytkään, aiemmista on tältä kesältä uusia kyllä mukavasti tarttunut. Aina yksi tai kaksi itselleni uutta asemaa per töhäys. Raportteja on tällä kaudella syntynyt 39, joista melkein kaikki ovat jo maailmalla. Ainoastaan Ukrainan uutukaiselle, Radio Formatille, ei tunnu löytyvän osoitteita. Vastauksia on tähän mennessä tullut tusinan verran. Sen lisäksi sain vielä kepitettyä vuosia sitten suljetulta Ezerjó Rádiolta kuitin. Taajuusjingle aukeni vasta parin vuoden unkarin opintojen jälkeen ja sekin piti varmistaa natiivilla unkarilaisella. Aseman sivujen jäännökset löytyivät vielä Internet Archivesta. Sieltä sai kätevästi henkilökunnan nimiä vaikka osoitteet eivät tietysti enää toimineetkaan. Osa ex-juontajista ilmoitti kuuliaisesti sosiaalisessa mediassa sekä nykyisen että tämän taannoisen työpaikan ja näin varmistui, ettei kyse ole nimikaimasta. Koska Facebookin kaverikutsuihin ei kuitenkaan tullut vastausta, jouduin raportin lähettämään erään juontajan nykyiselle työpaikalle, joka oli äänialan pikkufirma. Yllättäen aseman toinen ex-juontaja vastasi pian ja pitkällä viestillä, että tämä ainoastaan taajuuden sisältävä jingle todellakin kuului heille. Nykyään taajuutta hallitsee Magyar Katolikus Rádio -ketju. Privaattina asemaa on logattu Suomessa vain kolmasti. Joskus QSL:ien saamiseksi tarvitsee aika lailla salapoliisintyötä, etenkin näin vuosia jälkikäteen…
English summary:
Yesterday we got a short opening to Turkey, also something from ROU and BUL. Mostly high power stations but no ID’s. Please note that all the logged stations are only presumed; based on language, format or programme style. However the map shows that they were coming from same two clouds (or one cloud that moved a bit towards West). This season 39 reception reports and a dozen replies. It could be worse!
Kesän alkuun on mahtunut paljon pieniä avauksia. Joinakin päivinä alabandi on tuntunut olevan auki ns. kaiken aikaa, mutta keli ei vaan lähde kunnolla käyntiin. Etelä-Suomessa MUF on muutamaan otteeseen käynyt 108:ssa, näillä leveyksillä vain kolmannen päivän iltana venättä tuli koko bandin leveydeltä. Alabandin nostoistakin sitkeällä yrittämisellä on uusia asemia käynyt idaamassa, vähintäänkin sokkotallenteelle jos kuuntelija on ollut puunajossa. Parin välipäivän (ja sadepäivän) ansiosta nauhat on nyt läpikäyty ja pääsee raportoinnin kimppuun. Erikoistarkkailussa on Äänekoskelle Radio Kompassille kaavailtu 88.4, josta on löytynyt tähän mennessä vajaa parikymmentä asemaa. Juonnetut lähetykset alkoivat jo 3.6. ja hetken aikaa toiveikkaina ajateltiin ettei tuo turha täytelähetin aloittaisikaan. Keljon 88.0 antaa kuitenkin AF:nä myös 88.4 ja nyt oli lähetyksessäkin kuulemma todettu että toinen taajuus aloittaa muutaman viikon sisällä. Jatketaan harjoituksia siinä. Ohesta löytyy kuva tämän kauden kaikista napsuista Uuraisten horisonttiin ja ulukomaaneläville tarkoitetun riipustuksen jälkeen täydellinen ja karsimaton logi.
English summary: The season has begun already in May 13 (see previous post). In the end of May and beginning of June we have had almost daily little openings but MUF has been still pretty low. The full log can be seen below.
I travelled for a week in Sardinia and as usual – there was practically no conditions in Central Finland during that time! Weird ”luck”. There was also time for a very quick visit in Berlin, where I met ex freelance producer of Multicult FM (88.4 in Berlin). Tired of walking in the heat we decided to lunch in the very next restaurant which was – of course – Italian, so I survived by speaking Italian also in Berlin!
May 13 Season opening RUS 108. For more please check previous blogging.
May 15 Greece in South Western Finland (Mynämäki) for 20 minutes
May 17 Radio Burgas noted in Mynämäki by JJJ
May 18 LTU and POL in Oulu by JVA – DNK & S in Northern Carelia – both skipped over Central Finland!
May 21 New Finnish record of Meteor Scatter: JJH heard Chérie FM on 100.1 – tx in Marseille! 2474 km! Congrats!
May 22 Vesti FM 100.6 and Narodnoe Radio 73.25 both from Krasnodar logged in Jyväskylä
May 23 Strong opening mostly to Greece and Turkey in Southern Finland. Definitely too far – nothing heard in Uurainen.
May 25 Another opening only for Southern Finland – stations from Southern Italy were heard – Napoli especially
May 26 Weak opening for Balkan – this time also something heard in Central Finland. Waiting for more in next days!!
May 27 ~6 UTC weak Balkan, 07-0730 SVN & ITA, 0852-0923 POL & SVK in Tornio, some CZE/SVK in Uurainen for 8 min.
May 28 Ten minutes opening to Spain and France reported by remote receiver in Utö by KIV.
I’ve spent also the rest of the week with radio and forest activities. Surprisingly pretty good conditions to Asia on MW, usually it happens in autumn. Solomon Islands are logged last days in Finland during local sunrise. Pirate conditions (Europe/SW) have been normal, but the signals are very noisy and fastly fading. Parish radios (27-28 MHz) from Ireland and Northern Ireland have been heard in Finland for long time now. I try now to hear these stations too, but it’s very hard to identify. About the conditions other DXers have noticed that it has nothing to do with Sporadic E. Citizen band can be closed even CCIR is open to British Isles. Also the local differences are notable, the logic of skip seems to be similar with ES conditions: in Southern Finland you hear different stations compared with Inner Finland – now we have tested it with very short distance. Janne was tuning in Jyväskylä, while I was tuning here in Uurainen (30 kilometres to North) and we had totally different stations audible. There was no any clue of a station, what Janne reported to be strong, and opposite. The situation is similar during Sporadic E. What is the difference, 27 MHz skip is audible for longer time, but it fades out very quickly and totally. Not like ES. Together we managed to identify one of these stations, which was heard by Janne. In the end of mass luckily was audible a list of ”Rest in Peace” persons, the names fit perfectly to those of Blarney Parish. After that we easily recognized ”Blarney Church” mentioned in the announcements. I’m still looking for my first identified! But congrats to Janne!
QSL from a Dutch pirate Witte Tornado
More loggings:
1242 8.3. 1625 IRN: Radio Iran, Zanjan
1377 8.3. 1533 CHN: CNR Chungyang.
1386 6.3. 1526- IND: AIR Gwalior. Akashvani -ID and talks of Mumbai (Gwalior relays Western Service from Mumbai)
1413 6.3. 1529- MDA: Vesti FM, Grigoriopol. Activated probably because of the crise of Crimea. Also 1089 & 1215.
1431 6.3. 1536- IRN: Radio Iran, 2 tx’s.
1503 6.3. 1524- IRN: Radio Iran, Bushehr.
1616 8.3. 2210 HOL: Radio Barones, Ruurlo.
1629 8.3. 2200 HOL: Radio Calypso, Finsterwolde. Strongest on X band.
1640 8.3. 2305- HOL: Radio Aktief, Nijverdal (Ov.)
3995 5.3. 2120- D: Andenstimme, Weenermoor. Football results (relay from Radio ZP30, Paraguay!)
5910 7.3. -0700 AUT: TWR Moosbrunn. S/OFF.
6010 7.3. 0623 CLM: LV de tu Conciencia, Pto Lleras. No ID, time announcement.
6240 8.3. 2249 HOL: Radio Flying Dutchman, Doetinchem.
6268 3.3. 1904- HOL: Zender Ascona.
9545 7.3. 1924- SLM: SIBC Honiara. Good reception today, worse yesterday and a day before.
11975 9.3. 0700 D: AWR Nauen. Splashing to 11980.
11980 9.3. -0855 UKR: Dniprovskaya Khvylia, Zaporizhia. UR 1 relay//549 kHz. Seems impossible to get own ID.
11980 9.3. 0855- CHN: CRI Kunming. Sometimes UKR continues after 9 UTC..
QSL from HCJB Weenermoor. They send the first QSL for free also by air mail, and ask for the return postage for further QSL’s.
Greetings from Jyväskylä. As of Jan-Mikael wrote couple of words, I also write short blogging about my ”radioactivities” here in Ylä-Mäyrämäki, Jyväskylä. Well yeah! Spring is coming! Nice and warm (+4° C) weather here. Hmmm could I say warm? Maybe something like tolerable than when we have hard frost or as usual temperatures this time of year. Spring is coming quite early. Now that the FM has been quiet for distant signals, I’ve had time to concentrate on ”traditional waves”, mainly on short waves. My main receivers for traditional DXing are: Good old Yaesu FRG-7700 with FRT-7700, Sangean ATS-909x and Tecsun BCL-3000. Antennas: BOG and home made magnetic loop. My QTH is near power line so it gives challenges to catch signals especially from medium waves. Well even QTH is quite poor for traditional DXing, proper antenna grounding gives at least some results. Mainly I just collect stations which for one reason or another left without listening to over the years.
Some of my loggings (updated: 9.3.2014):
900 8.3 1915- I: RAI Lombardia
1197 8.3 1925- G: AbsoluteRadio
5780 23.2 1942- UNID: Horizon FM. Nice signal this time. But is this from Canary Island? I doubt!
6005 8.3 1106 D: R 700, Kell-Krekei
6070 9.3 1504 D: Radio Channel 292, Rohrbach Waal
6180 4.3 1630- TWN: R. Taiwan Int
6200 9.3 0958- HOL: Technical Man, Pirate
6265 9.3 0921- HOL: R Nora, Pirate
6287 9.3 0842- HOL: R Altrex, Pirate
7265 8.3 0837 D: Hamburger LokalRadio, Göhren bei Schwerin
7295 3.3 1543- MLA: TraxxFM
9515 5.3 1605- KOR: KBS World. Heard this many many time since 1992. Send many reports and only received one QSL from KBS (1992) and funny thing is that time it was relay via Sackville Canada 😀
12070 2.3 1900- RRW: DW Kigali
15120 8.3 0900 NIG: Vo Nigeria
27828 9.3 1050- IRL: The Church Of The Immaculate Conception, Blarney Parish, Blarney, Cloyne Diocese, Co Cork.
Power lines near my QTH (about 100 meters away from my house)
Here we go again..
After the long Christmas holiday I have been off in the city. No snow this year in South Western Finland, but when I drove here in Central Finland last Friday, I saw some just when crossing the border of my commun Uurainen. It’s a little bit like arriving in a mountain village, the road is going up and you see more and more snow all the time. So now here..
My main activity here is the forest.. We need to heat with wood and to prepare for winter 2014-2015, maybe also for 2016. This winter has been not cold at all, but the weather is full of surprises.. All you need is a saw and an axe. But there is also lot of time for DX, and an optimal QTH far away from electric noises.
Some of my loggings:
1647 2.3. 2200- HOL: Witte Tornado met de Lady.
3931 2.3. 2130- HOL: Sluwe Vos Radio. QSO Over 60 Degrees Radio (LSB mode).
5980 1.3. 0800- FIN: SWR, Liedenpohja. Good reception.
6285 2.3. 2010- G: Focus International. For the first time, usually difficult frequency.
6285 3.3. 1855- UNID: Radio MIR. Promoting peace in Crimea.
6424 2.3. 1925-1945 HOL: Radio Universe. Strong with 70 watts.
7700 5.3. -0907 HOL: Misti Radio.
11680 5.3. 1000 KRE: Pyongyang Pangsong. ID during test listening.
Horizon FM, which claims to transmit from Canary Islands, has been heard on several frequencies. I have not yet managed with it, maybe it was inactive last weekend. But there is a new peace project station Radio MIR which belongs to the ”Pirates for peace” organization. I luckily heard them with a good signal. I did not receive yet a QSL or any other information where they are broadcasting from, but they sent me a nice package of jingles and asked to share them with people. So here they are.
Especially Finnish DXers has shown growing interest towards Irish church radios (broadcasting on CB). Today I tried them for first time with the aim to identify and report few of them. I was tuning CB for an half an hour (27.605, 27.791 and 27.820), when my old Icom got silent. The frequencies till 21.998 MHz are audible, in a normal way I think, but everything between 21.999-29.999 is dead – not even a normal noise. Any hint what happened or how the problem could be solved?
EDIT: Traditional ”own made electricity off -break” helped – I think this happened once before too, long time ago..
P.S. Hard to get QSLs these days..
Jokseenkin harvinaista talviessiä on ollut ilmassa jouluviikolla ja joulujen välissä, varmasti myös meteoreilla ovat monet tehneet tänä aikana mukavia nappauksia. Lahden Lars Pohjois-Ruotsista on useana iltana logannut Sherlockin DX-mapsiin venäläisiä ja ukrainalaisia OIRT:lla ja länsibandilla Romaniankin. Myös Suomessa on kuultu asemaa. Koska FM-kelien esiintyminen talvella useampana päivänä peräkkäin on varsin poikkeuksellista, FMDX.tk julkaisee nämä OLL:sta poimitut logaukset, vaikka bloggarit itse eivät ole (tietenkään) mitään kuulleetkaan!
68.510 22.12.2013 1036- UKR: UR 1. Kyiv, (KY). Hetken Es -pläjäys, Pohjois-Ruotsista DX/amatööri ehti poimia useamman aseman. JJJ
87.600 28.12.2013 1001- I: RAI1. Rocca di Papa (RM) vahva ehdokas lähettimeksi. Hätäinen Es-nosto. Jo monena päivänä peräkkäin on Lars SM2GHI lokaillut OIRT-asemia. Kunnollista talviessiä oli viimeksi tammikuussa 2010, olisikohan nyt jo aika? JTK
89.500 31.12.2013 0944- MDA: Muz FM, Chisinau. Kuului pari minuuttia ja ehti myös idata. PEH
92.300 31.12.2013 0943- BUL: Alpha Radio, Silistra. Meteoreja oli tarkoitus, mutta viereisellä 92,2 tuli romaniaa radion avatessani täysin puhtaasti ja pitkään, joten tsekkasin äkkiä muita taajuuksia ja tämä tuli RDS:llä, jossa lähetyspaikka, lisäksi musiikin päälle ”Alpha Radio” jinglejä. Muita ES-asemia havaitsin 89,5 ja 91,3. PEH
Koska ESsin syntyilmiö ja syyt sen takana ovat kaiken kaikkiaan hieman hämärän peitossa, aloin miettiä, onko talvi- ja kesäpäivänseisauksilla mahdollisesti jotain tekemistä asian kanssa. Kesällähän, kuten tiedetään hyvin, ES esiintyy varmimmin noin 5 viikkoa kesäpäivänseisauksen molemmin puolin, karkeasti toukokuun puolesta välistä heinäkuun loppuun. Toukokuun alku ja elokuu on vähän epävarmempaa aikaa ja hyviä kelipäiviä tuntuu osuvan niille keskikesää vähemmän. Periaatteessa myös talviESsillä voisi olla tämänkaltainen huippu tässä talvipäivänseisauksen ympärillä. Ilmiönä talviES on vain niin paljon heikompi, että sitä on vaikeampi hahmottaa. Kelejä on kuitenkin koettu samaan tapaan marras-, joulu- ja tammikuussa. Käsittääkseni, vaikka humanistina tietämykseni luonnontieteistä onkin äärimmäisen heikko, olen ymmärtänyt, että jonkinlaisia luonnontieteellisiä vastailmiöitä on kuitenkin olemassa. Faktana voidaan pitää, että pohjoisella pallonpuoliskolla ES esiintyy kuitenkin kesäisin. Miten sitten eteläisellä pallonpuoliskolla on asian laita? Onko kelikausi sielläkin paikallinen kesä, eli meikäläisten talvi. Ja onko tämä talvi-ES ns. vastailmiö eteläisen pallonpuoliskon keleille?
Tätä teoriaa vesittää aika pahoin jo se, että esimerkiksi viime syksynä kelejä oli vielä syyskuussakin ja lokakuun 20. päivä 2012 oli melko hyvä Perm-keli. Ehkä varsinaisen kauden ulkopuolella olevilla avauksilla ei välttämättä olekaan mitään yhtä yksittäistä ”huippua”. Kommentteja?
English summary:
During last two weeks we have had extraordinary wintertime ES conditions in Northern Europe. Finnish loggings are above, in Sweden Lars Lahti has heard Russia, Ukraine and Romania too, based on loggings in Sherlock DX map. I have been creating a hypothese if there could be two ES seasons in one year. Stronger one from May 15 till the end of July and other, weaker from November 15 till end of January. What about in other side of the Earth? There is summer now, but what about the ES season over there? If it is going on now, could this wintertime ES be some kind of reaction to these stronger conditions? Any comments are very welcome!
During August there were still some nice ES openings, and in the beginning of September also good tropos. Unfortunately I’ve lost them since I’ve been most of the time outside Finland – in Hungary and Portugal, and also visiting quickly in Germany and Slovakia. Now it’s time to get back into daily life, studies have begun and so has begun QSL hunting and manic reporting in the evening time. In the beginning of this summer season I decided to get 100 FM QSL’s. Now they are 128, so I’m looking for 200 till the end of year. That’s a good motivator to check old recordings and to report even RAI’s and BBC’s! Another aim for the rest of the year is to verify the BC country # 130. The QSL of Radio Hargeisa, which I heard on 1st of Sept. bring just country # 129.
During the Summer University in Hungary we had also enough free time for other purposes. I visited Class FM, since it’s the only Hungarian FM station, which does not react to my reports. After looking for a while I found a building without any sign. Friendly people outside told me that Radio Class FM is operating just in that building. When I tried to explain my aim to safeguards, the Sunday DJ passed by in a right moment and asked me to enter to the studio, when he heard that I come from Finland. Even the station is huge and national, it operates from a little studio with an office room next to it and that’s all. Sometimes ”big stations” are not huge. The DJ was working alone and it was a real pleasure that he found 5 minutes to show places. Unfortunately he had no time to write a QSL.. maybe next time!
In Portugal EDXC visitors have seen the headquarters of RTP and Radio Renascenca channels (RR, RFM, Radio Sim, Megahits), both located in Lisbon. Besides of that, we visited a little local station Radio Foz do Mondego. The director remembered one FM report from the Netherlands.
