Saturday 17 June 2017

Summer 2017: How to survive 10 days through everyday FM-conditions in far distant island?

It is possible - and it is done! Utö FM-DX-camp 2017 is over with exceptionally good results. 7 FM-DXers had FM-openings for almost every day during 10 days camp - no time for card-playing this year!  Ion-layer gave incredible signal-skips to Utö from almost all over Europe, North Africa and Middle East.
Friday 15th June was 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?).
During the day there were moments that FM-band was so full of signals that it was not possible to id anything - the band was like "white noise".

What iss happening in ionosphere? We have had multi-hops this season on many days skipping to Cyprus, Middle East, North Africa and even China.

 Utö-gäng celebrating pedtion 2017 results: JJK, JTK, JUS, JY, JJS  (glasses), OSY (front) and MB.

Friday 16 June 2017

Exceptionally good FM-skip conditions during the week - China reached on FM!

DX-camp Poroniemi-1 is closed on Friday 16.6.2017 - Utö2017 later on Sunday 18.6.2017.

The conditions during the week have been on a crazy level! The two DX-groups have never before faced this kind of signal-sequencies - from early morning till late evening on many days! Only one silent day.

We had nice openings to all over Europe almost every day - and also douple-skips to North Africa, Middle East, Russia and even China.

Poronniemi's higlights were China on at least 3 frequencies, long Middle East opening (Syria, Jordania, Saudi Arabia etc.) - also South Spain douple hop -opening was up. Norway and Denmark were rare short skips!

Utö2017-group had nice douple hops to Algeria, Tunisia, Cyprus, deep Turkey and very nice opening to UK and Ireland and Balkan etc. New stations in a row on the RDS screens!

Both camps have recorded SDR bandwidhts with many computers (2 - 10 MHz), so there will be new discoveries later from harddisks during the winter.

This summer has been the best FM-season so far during my 40 year long FM-DX-history. (I heard my first E-skips on 24.6.1976 and I have never been on this kind of conditions / by Harri Kujala, HKU).

Saturday 10 June 2017

Bandscan 87.5 - 92.3 MHz Poronniemi (Virolahti)

Here is a screenshot -view of Poronniemi QTH's lower FM-band 87.5 - 92.3 MHz. Körner 15.11 is directed to 190 degrees in this view.
Receiver is SDR Play PSR2 on SDR Uno-software (Click for better view).


By the way, when build the camp we compared Körner 9.2 and Körner 15.11 antennas in a real time (two Sony XDR-receivers). Both antennas were directed to south to Estonia 95.4 MHz. Results:
Körner 9.2 gave 20 dB (Triax-amp).
Körner 15.11 gave 40 dB (Type 1301-amp ResearchComm)

Thursday 8 June 2017

Poronniemi-1 camp-photos


Harri Kujala, HKU, tunes all his SDR-receivers by TeamViewer -remote control over internet in. All listening happens in horizontal position by laptop.
Receivers in Poronniemi are SDR Play 6mhz and SDR Play PSR2 8mhz. Also in Utö 2x SDR rx.

Vesa Rinkinen VJR (left) uses 3 x laptops for 2x Perseus and one Sony XDR (Click)

Tapio Kalmi TAK uses 4 x laptops for 2x Perseus FM+ and 3x Sony XDRs (Click).



Splitted antenna for the camp is Körner 15.11 with Preamp 1301 (Research Comm.). Russian side is visible in the horizont to southeast.




Saturday 3 June 2017

Two FM-DX-peditions at the same time in Finland - in SW (Utö) and SE (Virolahti)

Two groups of FM-DXers are organizing 8-10 days peditions in Finland this summer. Those DX-camps are held between 7.6. - 17.6.2017.
The distance between these QTHs is 360 km. So, the conditions will differ very much.

Utö-island, SW Finland - Utö2017 (Utö18th in a row))
This traditonal FM-pedition is now named Utö18. There are 7 regular participats: JUS, JJS, JTK, MB, OSY, JJK and JY (in order of appeareance).

Virolahti (Poronniemi), SE Finland - Poron1 (First camp there)
This is the first FM-pedition in southeast in Virolahti, close to Russian boarder, named Poron1. The participants are HKU, TAK and VJR. This new QTH is by the sea with a view to Russian islands. The DX-target is east and southeast.
Picture of the cottage   -   View to southeast    -    View to southwest