Once again two FM-DX-peditions in South Finland

 Annual FM-DX-peditions are arranged in South Finland by two teams in the beginning of June 2021

Traditional Utö-FM-DX

Five listener are once again in far distant Utö-island from 9.6. - 20.6.2021. The listeners are JJS, JTK, MB, OSY and JY

Virolahti FM-DX

Three listeners are tuning in Virolahti by the sea in Hurppu camp on 5.6. - 18.6.2021. This QTH is located only under 1 km away from Russian border. The participants are HKU, VJR and TAK (14.6.-20.6.2021).

Two FM-DX-Peditions in summer 2020 in Finland

Two FM-DX-pedtions were organized once again in Finland on two QTHs/groups.

FM-DX-Utö 2020. Utö-island, SW Finland
Traditional FM-DX-Utö was live with changing group from 3.6.2020 till 17.6.2020.

The participants were JTK, JJS, MB, OSY, JY.

THE RESULTS in Utö 2020
The results on the first 10 days was a disaster, even worse than past two years. Only some weak French and Spanish shortly during the first 9-10 days. On Sat evening 13.6.2020 there were 20 minutes good Serbian opening MUF108 and later in the evening 15 minutes South Italy.
On Sunday 14.6.2020 some SCO and IRL for 10-15 minutes, but the highlight on Sunday was quick skip to Lebanon on 88.7 MHz!
Last full day Tue 16.6.2020 morning gave a nice opening to South France and to Girona-, Bilbao- towers in North Spain. The band was open till late night to BUL, ROU for some moments every now and then.

OTHER PARTS OF FINLAND at this same period
The Utö-group was not lucky with Es-clouds, which were hanging almost over Utö-island, especially Sunday 13.6.2020, when the rest of Finland was enjoying of unique short-skip-openings mainly to SWE, DNK, NOR, HOL, BEL, FRO, ISL and SCOTLAND. The best openings took place to Northern Finland, even to Lappland! In the southwest-coast of Finland almost nothing was heard on this great day, which is very rare.
The Es-clouds have been positioned to very North this summer, more North than usual.



FM-DX-PORON-4, Virolahti, SE Finland
This is the 4th time for Poronniemi FM-DX-camp. Start 5.6.2020 till 17.8.2020.

The participants were the samE as past years: HKU, VJR, TAK

The FM-conditions in Virolahti were very good, after two weak past years.

THE RESULTS in Virolahti 2020
Fri 5.6.2020 Turkey MUF 108
Fri 5.6.2020 Russia - MY (-oblast)

Sat 6.6.2020 OIRT Yeakterinburg
Sat 6.6.2020 Russia 2h - OB, UL, SA - long MUF 108
Sat 6.6..2020 Germany, Benelux, Denmark. MUF over 100. Dutch pirates heard.
Sat 6.6.2020 Turkey Istanbul MUF 108

7.-.11.6.2020 No conds

Fri 12.6.2020 Turkey and Russia
Fri 12.6.2020 Great opening IRAN (Gorgan etc.), Georgia, Azerbaidzan and Armenia. MUF 108.

Sat 13.6.2020 Russia OB - MUF 108
Sat 13.6.2020 Dagestan on OIRT
Sat 13.6.2020 Kosovo. Lower band 4 minutes
Sat 13.6.2020 Italy 10 minutes
Sat 13.6.2020 Southern Italy and Balkan for 50 minutes. MUF 108

Sun 14.6.2020 OIRT opening in the early moning
Sun 14.6.2020 Great opening to Scotland, Shetland island, Faroe Island, The speciality was short-skip-Sweden with only 797 km distance. Also Denmark and Norway with short skips with nice RDS-signals.
Shetland and Faroe islands were both opened for even 20-30 minutes.

Tueday 16.6.2020 RUS (Tarastan, Kazan) and Kazachstan MUF 108. OIRT open for many hours

FM-DX-peditions in summer 2019 are over. Very poor results!

Poron3-Virolahti and Utö2019 FM-DX-peditions are once again over in Finland. The DX-results of these camps were very poor, close to total disaster.

Poron3-Virolahti - 3.6-15.6.2019
The results were catastrophic, even worse than 2018. Sporadic E- propagation was observed only for about 2 hours during 12,5 days!
Tropo:
Several new stations were catched from Russia with tropospheric propagation.

Sporadic E
The most interesting opening in Poron3 was 20 minutes to Yugorsk-city area in Khanty–Mansi in distant Russia almost 2300 km away. MUF was over 108 MHz and stations were audible from 2-3 cities.
On the last day (extra 15.6) there were 1,5 h opening to Italy (Emilia Romagna, Perugia etc). MUF 105 MHz.

Meteor-scatter. A lot of meteor-skips were observed, like every June.The longest meteor-skip lasted over 4 minutes!

Utö2019  - 5.6.-16.6.2019
This pedition was very close to total disaster. Before the last full day (Saturday 15.6 and Sun morning 16.6)  there were only a few minutes of Sporadic E for 10 days!
Tropo
Several new Swedish stations were logged, thanks to new frequency allocation in the end of 2018 in Sweden (new stations and frequencies opened).

Sporadic E
The first 10 days were almost totally silent on Sporadic E in Utö!! Only a few short peaks were obeserved, several minutes in total.
The last full day, Saturday 15.6, gave 1,5 h opening with usual Italian stations from Emilia-Romagna-Perugia areas. The highlight of the day and the pedition was strong Ankara-opening up to 108 MHz giving also stations from Istanbul and around. Lasted about 50 minutes fading up and down.
Sunday morning 16.6, just before leaving the island, there were strong opening to TUR, GRC, BUL, ROU,I etc. giving some releaf for the last moments.

Meteor-scatter. A lot of meteor-skips were observed, like every June. Dozens of stations were id'ed from Europe, mostly high-powers.

The results of the these two peditions were close to disaster -  and worse ever in the history of FM-DX held in June period.

Two traditional FM-DX-peditions in Finland 3.6 - 16.6.2019

Two groups of Finnish FM-DX-listeners gathered once again to intense DX-camps. Traditionally these camps are held in the beginning of June for 10-12 days/nights.

DX-camp Poronniemi, Virolahti, SE Finland 3.6 - 15.6.2019
Located by the sea in Virolahti,close to Russian border. Arranged for the 3rd time. Participants were HKU, VJR, TAK. The group used 6 antennas with 12 computers and SDR-receivers with 110 Tb harddisk-space! No traditional receivers were used anymore.

DX-camp Utö2019, Utö-island, SW Finland 5.6 - 16.6.2019
Utö DX -camp is arranged in far distant Utö-island since 2007. The participants were this year JJS, JTK, MB, OSY, JY and JJK for shorter time (lower photo).

 

Summer 2018: DX-peditions are over

Both DX-camps are over 17.6.2018 - in Utö and in Virolahti. The DX-results were catastrophic.

Results in Utö: A few openings for about 6-8 h time fading in and out in the lower band  - and MUF only briefly over 100 MHz.  The opening areas were mostly to South France and South Italy. Only year 2011 has been worse.

The annual card-game winner was JJS, beating JTK with 2 points.

Results in Virolahti: Very poor Es-conditions. Opening time only for 3 hours (Turkey, Russia, C-Europe).

Both camps will return next year in the beginning of June.

 

Utö2018 FMDX-camp in Utö-island, SW Finland

Poron2 FMDX-camp 2018 in Virolahti, SE Finland

Saturday 16.6.2018 -report

Last full day in Utö2018-pedition was silent. Last 10 days have been been very poor for FM-DXing in Finland.

Utö2018 will be closed tomorrow morning.

Trying to conjure and motivate Es-conds up with gifts for Essi!

The Sporadic E-condtions have been catastrophicly poor and weak in the beginning of June in Finland. During two traditional FM DX-camps there have been openings only a few hours time. Nothing to DX on the FM-band!

DX-crew in Utö tried to conjure and motivate Sporadic E out with a well prepared ritual for Essi (the Goddess of Sporadic E). This action with gifts was made in Wednesday - but unfortunately it did not work!

 Here is a video of the ritual with gifts for Essi made by JTK and JUS:

                               This well prepared show did not work...

Friday 15.6.2018 -report - Poron2-pedition is over in Virolahti

Utö observations 15.6: Shortly weak Italy-opening (AL,GE) for 10 minutes and also ALG Radio Soummam 88.7 briefly.

Poron2-DX-camp unloaded and closed today around midday. The results of this camp were very poor. Totally there were three hours Sporadic E-conds: 15 min Turkey, 2 h Russia and 40 min (C-Europe).
Utö2018 continues till Sunday midday.

Ismo's 14 m mast is down in 20 minutes and Poron2-pedition 2018 is over

Thursday 14.6.2018 -report

Utö observations 14.6: Some good signals in the morning from Russia on OIRT and it peaks shortly on 87.5 MHz to Russia. But after that DX-silence continues.

Virolahti observations 14.6: Some signals on OIRT in the morning - and thats it...

Wednesday 13.6.2018 -report

On Wednesday total DX-silence in Utö and Virolahti continues... looks bad...One full day left in Virolahti-camp.

Tuesday 12.6.2018 -report

On Tuesday total DX-silence in Utö and Virolahti...

 VJR fishing (Poron2 FM DX-camp 2018). Yagis are visible in the  background

Monday 11.6.2018 -report

Total DX-silence on FM-band in Utö and Virolahti. 2nd day in a row.

We made some tests by comparing Körner yagis at 6 meters (Körner 15.11) vs. at 12 meters (Körner 19.3) high above the ground (=sea level).

There were no big difference between these 2x and 4x wavelength heights. 12 m gave slightly better signals when tuning semi-tropo-stations from South-direction, but with not so big boost. At the same time 12 m height also gave stronger signals from local stations of the back and slightly blocked some useable frequencies.
We expected to have bigger differencies from front (DX) and back (local interference).

There might be bigger differencies when comparing these antennas during Sporadic E-opening. Everything is ready to make quick 6m/12m -comparison during Es with SDR Play PSR2 (Two antenna inputs).  Let's hope to have that chance!

Sunday 10.6.2018 -report

Total silence in Utö and in Virolahti on Sunday.

The photo at Sunday night (after sauna) in Virolahti FMDX. Silent and blank sea - and unfortunately the same on FM-band - blank and silent.

       OIRT 6-element H - - - Körner 15.11 H   - - - Körner 3H-FM9 V

Technical overview to Poron2- FMDX-pedition

         Kitchen is the heart of the DX-camp with dozens od PC's and rx's.

Here some numbers of the equipments in use in Virolahti Poron 2-pedition:

Antennas 5 x:
Körner 15.11 Horizontal with amplifier and rotator, 6 m high
Körner 3H-FM9 Vertical with amplifier, 6 m high
Körner 19.3 HorIzonal with amp and rotator. Mast can be rised 14 m by handturning.
OIRT-yagi 6-element homemade
OIRT-yagi 2-element

Receivers: 
Total 12 x different SDR Play-receivers
Total 2 x Perseus FM+ SDR-receivers
Total 5 x Sony XDR (One XDR remote controlled)
One Elad (not in use)

Computers:
Total 19 x computers

External HardDisk TB:
About 26 TB - 25 TB - 32 TB - 18 TB = Total 103 TeraBites

Saturday 9.6.2018 -report

Utö observations 9.6: The late afternoon gave some Balkan-stations, maily Serbia  and Bosnia and also Hungary. MUF slightly over 100 MHz. In the late evening there were opening to South Italy, like Brindisi, fading in and out.

Virolahti observations 9.6: I the late afternoon an opening mainly to Austria,Slovenia and Italy lasting about 40 minutes. MUF shortly up to 108 MHz.