Tuesday 21 June 2011

Utö9 is over - Monday 20.6.2011

FM-DX-pedition Utö9 is over on Monday 20.6.2011.

Sporadic E results weak:
Fri 10.6.2011:
Unluckily we had the best Es-opening on the ferry while moving to Utö on Fri 10.6! Incredible! That would have been fantastic condition to almost all arond Europe from afternoon till late evening!

Sat 11.6.2011: 50 min opening to Piemonte area, Italy.

Sat 18.6.2011: 60 minutes lasting condition mainly to Bretagne, also Sicilia, Italy and Bilbao, Spain. Not good or long lasting signals.

Sun 19.6.2011: 40 minutes opening to North England gave two nice low-power (10-20 W) RSL-stations on 87.7 MHz + also some locals around 96 MHz. Nothing above 100 MHz.

Tropo and troposcatter were slightly good to Sweden and Baltia. Again no tropo channeling (but time for that is autumn). A few new stations were heard, mainly recently started. Two new stations from Kaliningrad!

Summer 2012: Next Utö-FM-DX-pedition will be from Wednesday 7.6. till Sunday 17.06.2012.

Monday 20 June 2011

10-20 Watt RSL-stations from NW-England!

Last day in Utö bought very special stations: Two RSL-stations (=Restricted Service Licence) from 87.7 MHz from England! RSL-stations operate principally on 87.7 and transmitter power is only 10-20 Watts.

I got help from UK-FM-DXers (on Skywaves) to identify Ultra Radio (www) from Morpeth (near Newcastle, NW England). This stations was audible even 10 minutes coming up just before news at 11.00 utc. "Ultra"-id is now clear when you know it on the recording. This station is on the air for one month, 7.6.2011 - 4.7.2011.

Before Ultra we heard indian or pakistan sounding RSL-station on this same frequency for 5-6 minutes. This might be Meraj FM from Huddersfield. It is temporary station on the air 30.5- 30.6.2011.

UK FM-Dxer John Faulkner gave big hand and phoned to this station playing them the received clip. Of course they did not believe this at the station. Playing the clip well via phone is very difficult so John sent the clip to them.Let's hope they listen the clip and give comments of it.

Sunday 19 June 2011

Sun 19.6.2011 - Extra day - UK-opening

Four DX-ser left the island under pressure for other activities on Sunday morning and the rest four had one day extra. Sherlock-map showed there could be a chance for opening after one week silence.

It was a surprise to have signals from North East and North West England (from Newcastle to Manx island). There were seldom BBC-frequencies up. We identified BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Cumbria and commercial radio The Bay on 96.9 MHz. No signals above 100 MHz.

The most interesting frequency was 87.7 MHz because it is dedicated to RSL-station (short-termed stations, mostly on air for +/- one week with very low power (10 Watts or so). We heard two stations on 87.7 MHz.

Indian or Pakistan Unknown RSL on 87.7 MHz was audible for 5-6 minutes. We hope it will be solved.
One chance for that is Meraj FM from Huddersfield (Muslim Festival Radio). On The other RSL gave id and should be solved later. Aubible for 10 minutes on 87.7 MHz but fading out in favorable moments.
These can be listened from Box.net

Utö9 once again in local media, HåboPortalen!

This is now the 3rd time during this pedition when we are in local press/media!!!

HåboPortalen in Håbo, Sweden published article of Håbo närradio's reception in Finland in Utö-pedition. Read it from here.

Journalist Tommy Hildorsson wrote about our pedition to local net-portal and later to local press. We heard his voice here in Utö on Håbo närradio. They have small transmitter with 20 Watts power on 87.7 MHz. Jussi Suokas and Otso Ylönen sent a message to the station during the week and got a nice reply (Click the article for better view).

Sat 18.6.2011 - Surprising evening opening!

Saturday evening gave surprising opening mostly to Bretagne, France (weak) and to South Italy, even to Sardinia and Bilbao, Spain. Unfortunately skips were short timed.
Identified French stations for example: Radio Bonheur, Guinkamp 90.1, Champagne FM 87.7 MHz, Fréquence Bleu Nord 87.7 MHz, Radio Courtoise 87.8 MHz and many network-tx's from Bretagne.
Also two STL-links from England were audible, both London pirates: Passion FM (52.3 MHz) and Point Blank FM (56.6 MHz). Before them Radio Radar, Bologna, Italy on 52.6 MHz.

The best catch was Radio Rama from Tortoli, Sardinia, Italy on 88.0 MHz (heard before 3 times but - but Sardinia is very rare). Also Radio Onda Blu from Arezzo on 89.2 MHz, Radio Citta Aperto (Roma) on 88.9 MHz etc.
From Spain we heard Radio Nervion 88.0 and Radio Euskadi 1 on 88.9.
Not big condition...

This was our last evening here in Utö, but half of the crew have a chance to be here for one extra day. So, the pedition will continue till Monday morning 20.6.2011.
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Saturday 18 June 2011

Sat 18.6.2011 - Worst moments ever...

Rainy day here in Friday evening. Turkey-Greece opening was very close on Friday afternoon but finally gave nothing. Not MUF enough.
That means it is now pretty close that we will not have good Sporadic E during this year's camp. 24h time left.
In the card-game JJS won Eastern Turunmaa championship.

With troposcatter one highlight on Friday evening:
105.600 - 17.00- LTU: Hot R, Vilnius. New name for Ventus. 250 W.

Local YLE Suomi 94.3 MHz gave us nice ES-rds on the screen. That is missing... >>>

A FEW MORE PHOTOS:
From the start till today (CLICK)

Friday 17 June 2011

Fri 17.6.2011 - slight Sweden-tropo

Team-photo. Under Körner beaming sea-horizon.
Click for better view:

Baltia was strong for closer stations at night but conditions moved to Sweden in the morning. Closer stations audible also from Sweden.

87.700 -0443- S: Håbo närradio, Håbo. 20 Watts!
88.200 -0600- S: Sigtuna NR. Coming up nicely to mid-hour id over local 882 Salo. (250 W).
96.500 -05.32- S: Rock Klassiker, Kalmar. Västervik-tx. 400 W.
98.900 -0455- S: Uppsala NR/Hope FM Uppsala. Also 95.3-Stockholm aired Hope FM-programme at the same time - and finally id: "98,9 Hope FM Uppsala". 500 W.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Utö9 now in Latvian local newspaper, VentasBalss

Utö9 FM-DX-pedition is now in Latvian local newspaper, VentasBalss, published in Ventspils in NW Latvia!!
This is great! Yesterday we were visited by Finnish local newspaper, Salon Seudun Sanomat (from Salo city).

Otso Ylönen (OSY) and Jussi Suokas (JUS) heard Radio Ventspils (R. Hity Rossii) from Ventspils (93.7 MHz) earlier this week and sent them e-mail. This station has close connection to local newspaper. They made kind article of our FM-listening in Utö, with photos. You can find this alticle also from their webpage, www.ventasbalss.lv.

Utö9-crew send kind greetings to Ventspils, to Ventasbalss-paper and Ilze Meiere from Radio Ventspils. Thank you for your attention!

CLICK for better view>

Wed-Thu 15-16.6.2011 - Local newspaper visit from Salo

Wednesday evening and Thursday morning were silent. Almost nothing in any propagation mode! Frustating. (In fact we had 10 sec long opening to Italy on 87,5 MHz in Thu morning...)

No-conds lead us to play cards. HKU won also 2nd championship (Western Utö-champion) in "Auction"-card-game (=Oh Hell!-game).

We have also played firsbee-game several times (8 players, 2 x 4 teams) in the local football-field. That is fun. You can not run with frisbee, only assist it, to go closer to the goal (pole). And then to sauna.

In Wednesday evening local newspaper from Salo, Salon Seudun Sanomat, visited our camp. There will be a story in SSS of "crazy radio-station-hunters in Utö" later this summer.

The other group of hobbyists which can be seen here in Utö are ornitholgists. They count birds, like we count FM-stations.
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Wednesday 15 June 2011

Wed 15.6.2011 - 3 min meteor

Looking bad with sporadic E... but we got something special for this morning.
We observed exceptionally long meteor hitting ionosphere on Wednesday morning at 06.47 utc.
That big meteor turned into 3 minutes long ion-layer bringing this:

87.9 MHz -06.48- D: MDR Figaro, Inselsberg-tx
102.2 MHz -06.47- D: Antenne Thüringen, Inselsberg-tx, Eastern Germany

Markku Sollo (MSO) in Tohmajärvi (near Joensuu, East Finland) logged this same meteor and heard 89.0 RTL from Germany. Also Marko Weck (MWE) in Kangasala noticed this (comment belo
88.400 MHz
-10.40- HOL: Slam! FM gave ID later at 10.30 utc via meteor.w).

Yesterday 14.6.2011 HR4 Rhein-Main-regional (Frankfurt) was heard at the same time on 102.5 MHz and 104.3 MHz by two listeners!!! This is the first observation of this regional station in Finland.
Ionosphere is giving longer bursts for us every now and then. Forexample at 11.44 utc to Italy lasting 2,5 minutes.
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Tuesday 14 June 2011

Tue 14.6.2011 - Troposcatter-day!

Tropo weakened and frequencies are open for troposcatter from Baltia!
Signals come up from nothing for short strong peaks. Mostly we have hunted stations from Lithuania and Kaliningrad but also something new from Latvia.
87.700 -1023- + LVA: Hity Rossii, Liepaja. Local-id for Liepaja.
92.300 -0834- I: Radio Stella, Modena (MO). Meteor!
92.300 -0811- LVA: City Radio, Liepaja.
94.900 -0922- LVA: Capital FM, Riga. New frequency in Riga! Capital FM on Riga-101.0 MHz closed down but they started again later on new frequency in Riga, 94.9 MHz.
96.100 -1000- LVA: European Hit Radio, Liepaja. Finally local id from this!
97.600 -0803- LTU: M1 Plius, Vilnius. Kaunas tx.
97.800 -0705- LTU: Radio stotis RS2, Siauliai. Nice mid-hour id.
102.500 -1254- + KAL: Radio Mayak, Kaliningrad. Local Mayak-id for Kaliningrad!!
102.900 -1440- + KAL: Love Radio, Kaliningrad. Now with local id!
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Tue morning 14.6.2011 tropo weakening

The band is very silent on Tuesday morning (but giving some peaks). Also no hope for Es on the Sherlock-map. Not looking good now. Only the closest Latvian and Estonian stations are audible and some frequencies are now monitored for possible local breaks.

OSY and JUS has sent a few e-mails to the stations. OSY got reply for Saules Radijas from Siauliai, Lithuania. JUS got e-reply from Rock Klassiker Kalmar (96.5 MHz, 500 W) and Radio Linköping 95.5 MHz.

Monday evening was time for the first card-game ("Auction" is the name of the game). HKU won the Utö Log-championship following JTK.

Monday 13 June 2011

Mon 13.6.2011 - Italian links around 50 MHz !!

No Es on FM on Monday. The Sherlock-map looked promising towards Italy in the afternoon, but not enough MUF.
However, it was quite close. We heard a few Italian STL-links above 50 MHz. First time here in Utö.
Receivers:
Icom R8500, Realistic Pro 2006 and Tecsun. Antenna 5-el Yagi 50-74 MHz.

Frq. aprox .......... LOG-MONDAY 13.6.2011
52.5
-14.04- I: Radio Planet FM, Milano.
52.9
- 14.30- I: Radio California- Radio Jukebox, Pescara (PE)
53.2 -14.00- I: tent. Radio R9, San Bendetto del Tronto. Ads to A.Piceno.
59.27 -13.58- I: UNID, possibly Radio Mater.
66.51 - 1400- I: Radio Galileo, Terni (TR). Heard with Tecsun!

......

Sun evening 12.6.2011 - Baltia tropo

Tropo continues during Sunday evening till late night over Baltia - but not reaching Vilnius. Little surprise is that we have not logged any Polish stations.

Still some reports. No surprises.

91.800 -1745- LTU: Marijos Radijas, Vilnius. Siauliai tx.
92.200 -2015- LTU: Radiocentras. Siauliain. Changed frq with Relax?
92.800 -1430- LTU: M1, Vilnius. Kedainiai - Krakes tx.
93.700 -0902- LVA: Hity Rossii, Ventspils local.
97.300 -0810- LVA: Just FM, Riga.
97.500 -1357- LVA: Radio Skonto, Liepaja. Local id's also on Sunday.
97.800 - 2000- LTU:Radio Stotis RS2, Siauliai. After long monitoring. Best catch on Sun evening.
98.300 -1859- LTU: M1 Plius, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx.
100.400 -2130- LTU: Tentaitively: Mazeikiu aidas, Mazeikiai
101.000 -1551- LVA: Radio 101, Riga.
101.700 -1900- LTU: Relax FM. Siauliai - Bubiai tx, Changed with 92.2?

Sunday 12 June 2011

Sun 12.6.2011 - Slight Baltia tropo

Nothing special on Sunday. Tropo is giving stations with rapid fade in's mainly from Baltia.
Riga has been strong whole day - also Estonia. Only 1 minute Es today - to Romania.

Some new catches - 12.6.2011
87.900 - 1225 - ROU: Prima R, Székelyudvarhely (HR). Only RDS, like Radio Brasov 87.8. Short Es today - 1 minute.
93.700 - 0902 - LVA: Hity Rossii, Ventspils local break. New observation of this station's local inserts
107.100 - 0710 - RUS: Radio Sedmoye Nebo, Pskov. Nice surprise from Russian side!

. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . NEW PHOTOS - CLICK UP

Sat 11.6 - Evening-night tropo

Slight tropo signals from Latvia and Sweden. (We still wait big tropo-opening to KALININGRAD, which we got here only once 3 years ago).

TROPO LOGGINGS 11.6. (only new stations listed)
89.900 - 1234- + S: Mix Megapol Roslagen.(250 W)
90.400 -1406- + S: Rockklassiker Örebro. (1 kW)
92.000 - 1234- + S: Mix Megapol Roslagen.(200 W)
95.500 -1409- S: Linköping närradio, Linköping. (300 W)
96.500 -1306- + S: Rockklassiker Kalmar. (400 W)
98.400 -1436- + S: Rockklassiker 106.9 Mälardalen. Köping-tx (250 W)
102.500 -1646- LTU: Saules R, Siauliai (1000 W)

Saturday 11 June 2011

Sat 11.6.2011 - Italy, Balkan (Click the photo)

The crew woke up at 7am local time to build antennas. 2 x H-Triax-antennas we up at 08.30 - and 2 x V Körners were useable after midday and lunch.
The first conditions started at 09.37 with station mainly from Italy + some Swiss and Balkans.

Some loggings - Sat 11.6.2011 (Mainly Piemonte-area, also Switzerland)

88.0 MHz - 07.55- SUI: Radio Sunshine. Also on 90.0 - And sun is shining in Utö! Beautiful weather!
89.2 MHz - 08.03- F: RFM, Marseille-tx.
88.4 MHz - 07.10- I: Radio Piemonte Sound - Amica Radio
88.5 MHz - 07.12- I: Latt&Miele, Torino-local
88.9 MHz - 07.10- I: Primaradio, Asti. Also on 89.0
89.0 MHz - 07.30- I Radio Lodi
89.1 MHz - 06.42- I: Radio Fantasy, Udine.
89.3 MHz - 07.08- I: Ravegnana R
89.6 MHz -06.37- HRV: Radio Centar, Porec.
90.1 MHz - ---- - HRV: Radio Karlovac
91.9 MHz -07.53- SUI: Radio Zürisee
92.3 MHz - 08.03- F: Radio Star, Marseille
93.3 MHz - 07.45- I: Gruradio, Torino. First time in Finland
95.3 MHz - 07.50- I: Radio Torino
97.9 MHz - 07.51- I: Radio Torino Biblica

Missed Fri 10.6.2011 - FM-band open on the ferry!

The worst case scenario hit us on Friday!! The FM-band was fully open from afternoon till late night. We took sms-messages the whole evening on the ferry!!

There would have been very good continuous opening to all over Europe, especially to UK up to 108 MHz - but we were on the sea !! Part of the crew was listening on the ferry with Tecsun-rx's. Not so fun. Stations from Italy, Uk, Ireland etc with a whip...

WHIP-LISTENING ON THE FERRY:

Monday 6 June 2011

Utö9 starts this Friday 10.6.2011

Traditional Utö-FM-pedition take place for the 5th summer (previous summers have been 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010).
This pedition will be named as Utö9. The camp is on from 10.6 - 19.6.2011. We arrive late Friday evening by m/s Eivor.

There will be 8 listeners this year; last year crew + Juha Ylönen from Central Finland.
This year we have extra challenge with antennas. Now Finnish army forbids us to connect our masts to their barrier close to the houses. We had to arrange holes to our antenna-masts. New antenna-masts will be drilled on the rocks: