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Avainsana: FM

5 June 2017: from BEL to BUL

Published by JMN

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


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4 June 2017: IRL, Piemonte, SUI, F, D, SRB, ROU

Published by JMN

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.

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2 June 2017: OIRT RUS and BLR

Published by JMN

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

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24 May 2017: OIRT Russia and Benelux, F and D

24 May 2017: OIRT Russia and Benelux, F and D

Published by JMN

First WhatsApp alert came already around 9.00 local time from TV Voice on 65.75 MHz, but conditions didn’t start yet. After full 7 hours work day next alert came during my way home, and made me push gas pedal a bit deeper. It took some time to open the rx, because a (wanted) guest arrived to dacha just a bit after me, bringing a bike I bought.

 

Finally to the balcony, a fading OIRT opening offered many GTRK stations during the regional window 1510-1559 UTC, with shorter skip to Belarus. After 16 UTC another opening started suddenly bringing stations from Benelux and nearby, unfortunately it was very short.. Today’s personal log can be found here. 48 logs so far are an average start for this season!

Today’s highlights:

Radio Latina 101.2 MHz (LUX) broadcasting in Portuguese(!)
A new-for-me GTRK station ”Chuvash Radio”

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First good opening 22 May 2017

Published by JMN

Untill today, May has offered only small OIRT openings in Central Finland. Recently TUR and F have been logged in other parts of Finland. All these small openings made us to wait for something better.. Finally today we had a good opening from Orenburg/Kazakstan (till 108 MHz) to Donetsk/Ukraine (low band), then skipping to Romania/Czechia/Germany (MUF appr. 96), including Switzerland, ending to small low band F/BEL. The conditions started during the test of new antenna feed to my balcony QTH, timing was almost perfect – against the Murphy’s DX law when conditions begin during the antenna is under maintenance work 😛 My personal log will be updated here little by little.

Today’s highlights:
Italian language show(!) from Radio Aksay in Kazakstan (clip)
SUI for the first time with proper ID (Radio Pilatus 95.7 MHz)

Meanwhile ES has been far away, birds have been my favourite objects to catch througout air. Here are some more species seen this month:

Prunella modularis (Dunnock) has been a common guest in garden. They return here from Central or Southern Europe from March to May.


By Alpo Roikola – Oma teos, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48112621

Corvus corone cornix (the hooded crow) and carrion crow (Corvus corone corone) are two closely related species. Roughly saying the fully black version carrion crow does live in England, France, DACH countries and Iberian Peninsula, meanwhile the grey version is found across Northern, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East.


By Ken Billington – Praca własna, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12342566

Pica pica (magpie) is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals. At least it looks always elegant!


By Pierre-Selim – Flickr: Pica pica, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19400996

Turdus iliacus (redwing) comes back from Western and Southern Europe during April.


By Andreas Trepte – Praca własna, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1907996

Anas platyrhyncho (mallard) is also known as wild duck.


By Diliff – Oma teos, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=490649

Bucephala clangula (goldeneye) is easy to recognize because of it’s white dot.


By https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbern/ – https://www.flickr.com/photos/sbern/13471929904/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36391956

Motacilla alba (white wagtail) winters in Africa and returns in April to Central Finland. Traditionally it is said it takes just short time to summer from the first sight of white wagtail.


By Andreas Trepte – Oma teos, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3800685

Phoenicurus phoenicurus (redstart) winters in Northern Africa. It is familiar in whole Europe.


By Thomas Kraft (ThKraft) – Eget arbejde, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2160906

Ficedula hypoleuca (European pied flycatcher) winters in Southern part of West Africa. It is known to attack and disturb other birds in different ways and a male may have two females. So kind of bastardo!


By Estormiz – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19848601

Cuculus canorus (cuckoo) is the only voice-identified of these birds. It is difficult to see, but easy to hear. The male’s song, goo-ko, is usually given from an open perch. During the breeding season the male typically gives this vocalisation with intervals of 1–1.5 seconds, in groups of 10–20 (sometimes I have counted even more than 100!) with a rest of a few seconds between groups. The song starts as a descending minor third early in the year in April, and the interval gets wider, through a major third to a fourth as the season progresses, and in June, around the midsummer, the cuckoo ”forgets its tune”.


By Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg: Vogelartinfoderivative work: Bogbumper (talk) – Cuculus_canorus_vogelartinfo_chris_romeiks_CHR0791.jpg, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16077960

Actitis hypoleucos (sandpiper) is common in whole Europe.


By Christoph Müller – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58660296

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DXpedition to backyard – Lapland Tropo 11102016

Published by JMN

Tropo forecasts promised good condx for Lapland, not much activity there, so results not known. Today’s ducting was favorable for Central Finland. In the morning just some typical SR stations for this QTH with fair signals (no RDS). However one personal new catch: Radio Rossii Karelia 72.17 just over the noise level with Tecsun, but clear ID. TNX JJH!

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In the work (driving van) I was lucky to follow signals from 350-450 km improving all the day with the car radio. The morning was foggy, lot’s of accidents because of zero visibility and icy roads. The fog was accompanying us all day long, even temperature reached plus degrees in the afternoon. Still nothing special on lunch hour at home. Unfortunately Triax 4el can see only AZI 100-280 from the balcony…

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As Janne (JJH) said: ”Kalix tulee niin lujaa, että sen pitäisi kuulua mummon hetekallakin” (culture-bound, impossible to translate). Thanks to my good old lad, I moved the Yagi from balcony to backyard and placed RX’s on a less-elegant garden chair. Between the pines, the Northern sky can be seen.

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Word, Kalix was so strong, that it could have come even with a whip!

14657724_10211066009632282_1908063529_n

Usually here is YLE Lahti 50 kW / 166 km

14642983_10211066010392301_127754767_n

..and here Järviradio Jyväskylä 3 kW / 34 km

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Such a fresh autumn afternoon today, but with the hot coffee it was fun for two hours. Then it was already getting dark and conditions seemed to be stuck on this direction. New H stations ided and recorded, and nothing special was heard using V polarization.

SR-transmitters from Örnsköldsvik, Sollefteå, Vännäs, Lycksele, Arvidsjaur, Älvsbyn, Kalix, Överkalix and Gällivare were noted. Possibly also Storuman and Vuollerim (150 W!). For some loggings, please have a look: http://www.fmdx.tk/october-logs/

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Total 400 logs for FMDX season 2016

Published by JMN

The end of August brought some ES stations and the number of logs reach 400 total. More than 100 of those stations are new-for-me, so the season can be considered a good one (using only one receiver, no SDR). Magical Tropo Day 26 August will be written in Finnish FMDX History – guys on Southern Coast heard numerous new countries! Czech Republic is not common catch but it all started with nice regional stations caught by many listeners in South and South-Western Finland. Soon they got Austria (many transmitters), Slovenia 88.5 by MB and in the end Croatia (Zagreb and Ivanscica transmitters!). The new Finnish tropo record is 1691 km by JJJ Mynämäki. Congratulations to everyone! Also Slovakia was heard for the first time by ducting. Other logged countries were Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia and Sweden. HNG, KAL, NOR and UKR have been heard earlier in Finland by tropo, but those countries were not logged that day. Now total is 23 heard countries by Tropo. Unfortunately these conditions didn’t reach inner Finland, so the longest was Suwalki 105.5 from here.

On Sunday 28 Aug ES season was completed with nice OIRT opening, mostly to Kirov and Perm. Surprisingly Radio Rossii stations have regional window till 0800 UTC on sunday mornings. Regional programs were on air already at 0730, possibly they started at 0710 UTC.

total 400 logs

Based on total number of my personal QSLs, some statistics on ”most important countries and languages for FMDXer”

1. Russia (110 QSLs)
2. Germany 67
3. Italy 65
4. France 39
5. Czech Republic 37
6. UK 35+3
7. Ukraine 29
8. Romania 27
9. Serbia 22
10. Sweden 22

If we look at the map, the result can be explained geographically. Bigger the country is, more conditions will be favorable to this area. Only CZE and SRB are smaller countries among the list, probably stating that those countries have a relatively good number of local stations to listen to..

FM season seems to be closing, it is time to concentrate on AM – especially TA signals. Lattemiele played a song (23082016) that suits pretty well for this time of year.

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July-August 2016

Published by JMN

Although June was not a perfect FMDX month, then July was a total flop. Fortunately August has been a bit more active so far..

FMDX 07 and 08-2016

The evenings are getting darker and the interest turns to AM. Some nice TA-catches on 49 mb in the mornings, no reason to forget Iberian peninsula and it’s numerous MW stations and of course (listening) free radio will be fun, in case there is no tropospheric ducting.

The holiday season will finish in Central Europe, so it is time to send some FM-reports again. The goal is to have 100 FM QSL’s for this season  – 25 to go!

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ES July 31 and August 1-5

Published by JMN

After a flop July ES seems to be activating little by little. On July 31, morning conditions offered some UKR and MDA on OIRT. Highest log was Radio Shanson with rolling RDS on 88.8 MHz. Next day continued with OIRT conditions to Komi. Conditions were good, also Radio Rossii transmitters listed as 100 W and 400 W were audible, but unfortunately there is nothing much to hear from Komi under 100 MHz. All signals disappeared around 0900 UTC, so I couldn’t confirm, if GTRK Komi-Gor has a regional bulletin from 0910 to 1000 UTC.. maybe next time!

On August 2, surprisingly good evening opening to Benelux and France up to 108 MHz for one hour, with some double hop to Spain! (NB: Could have been prelonged Tropo over Bay of Biskaya too!). Spain will be difficult to identify, but guys on South-Western coast had better condx towards Iberian peninsula! Only some of the Spanish signals reached inner Finland. From France mostly networks as France Inter, Fun Radio, MFM, Nostalgie and NRJ. From Belgium Radio Contact and a new-for-me network Joe FM.

20160723_145740

During inactive July many of us have found new hobbies: sailing, fishing, stamp collecting or picking up berries and mushrooms (it’s the best season now for them!). In this picture you can see some of 20-30 porcinos (penny buns) under my old abandoned Alfa Romeo, which seems to be optimal athmosphere for such a mushroom (enough humid and probably soon rusty!)

July 4th brought no conditions at all, but MUF was 108 literally next day, just after midnight on the South Coast. Unfortunately the best skip didn’t reach inner Finland, but some low band stations were audible for short time (i.e tentatively RAI 87.8).

July 5th, the summer meeting day started with 30 minutes OIRT conditions in the morning to UKR/BLR. A new-for-me station Svitle Radio Emmanuel 67.82 ided. Last time night conditions trigged super day June 8, this time we were expecting a little bit more than this, but even MUF 74 is good compared to MUF24.

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Uurainen: weak Ireland over 100 MHz 30062016

Published by JMN

During work day got some ES alerts by WhatsApp (BBC/TDF). Similar evening opening began around 8 o’clock with BBC and TDF stations, suddenly turning to Ireland. Mostly RTÉ up to 102.7 MHz, but also private stations were logged: LMFM 95.8 MHz, Classic Hits 4 FM 94.9 MHz and Today FM 101.8 MHz. Ireland has been rare here as it seems to be, that over 100 MHz opening is easier with average distances and the most of the island is close to maximal skip 2400 km. Surprisingly for example Dublin is only 2100 km from here – so it should be pretty common on band!

June 2016 compilation

june 2016 in uurainen

June 2016 was pretty dry month, compared for example to last year.

june 2015

Counting also May demonstrates that Season 2016 has been pretty good so far. The following ”statistics” are based on logs mostly made by Sony XDR F1HD and 4 element Yagi, so the receiving equipment should not affect.

Year/Total logs

2016/304 (till 30 Jun)
2015/324 (out of the band 14 Jul-22 Jul and 26 Jul-20 Aug)
2014/566
2013/364 (out of the band in August)
2012/121 (best day 14 Jul spent in work)
2011/65 (+ 16 logs from Turku)

Summer 2016 could easily beat the personal best ever season, the mythical Summer 2014!

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