End of June has been pretty much silent, except 4 hours on June 27 (I was not in QTH). I missed also another good day (16062017). Nevertheless the total number of logs is 402 at the moment (still some recordings to check). It looks like this is going to be the best season of 2010’s, based on number of logs by one receiver. The goal for the season is to have 100 new FM QSLs.
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.
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
An interesting tour today starting at 1125 UTC from Ireland (only RTÉ high power transmitters).
Soon lower band was filled with weak Italians (South Finland MUF 108),
travelling from Piacenza and Torino
little by little to West and surprisingly hitting to Switzerland!
Then skip was getting shorter, offering again only high power transmitters (BR, SWR, MDR).
After a silent hour new start to Serbia.
Some guys logged also rare Kosovo and Albania. An arabic double hop with ROU/BUL, more in South coast, which where ided as Egypt. Unfortunately there was like a wall around 97 MHz, only once I noticed Balkan over 100 MHz. Few new-for-me stations from Piemonte, SUI and SRB. Full log here.
Small afterwork RUS opening started at 1545 UTC, highest noted frequency here 90.6 MHz (:D). I lost few valuable minutes scanning CCIR frequencies, as the regional window was all the time going on OIRT, by GTRK stations. 70.4 MHz gave weather for Ulyanovsk, more interesting was 70.1a, which went to network without proper ID. It could have been GTRK Ivteleradio or GTRK Vologda, because the skip was very short (~1100 km). After 16 UTC Europa Plus Penza had local program on 68.09, later skipping to Moscow (exact 1012 km). Also some Belarus mixing from other cloud. Short skip is much more common on OIRT, and there are many interesting GTRK and private station in Moscow and nearby.. worth of trying!
New birds:
18) Muscicapa striata winters in tropical Africa. It builds nest almost everywhere.
Photo by JMN, June 2012.
19) Turdus pilaris
By Arnstein Rønning – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14936065
20) Dendrocopos major
By Hangsna – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46082936
