Utö 5: Report 1

Here is a log from Juha Ylönen (JY) (living in Middle Finland). He is in Utö this week.
On Tuesday evening there were Es-opening. Here are Juha loggings:

Sporadic E-log Tuesday 28.7.2009 (Times UTC)

87.9 - I:Radio Linea Network, RDS LINEA-n1 - 1841
88.4 - G:BBC R2 - 1537
88.4 - BUL: Darik R, Sevlievo - 1537
88.4 - I: R 105 FM - 1850
88.8 - CZE:Cro Sever - 1603
88.8 - I:R Deejay - 1837
90.1 - HRV:HRK - Hrvatski Radio Karlovac, Martinsćak - 1851 RDS KARLOVAC
90.1 - HRV:Radio Zona Buzet, Buzet - 1815 Poppia & RDS ZONA-FM
91.7 - I:R Deejay - 1415
96.3 - I:R Capital - 1421
96.6 - ROU:R Zu, Sibiu - 1539
97.0 - I: R Norba - 1428
97.4 - I: R Lattemiele - 1453
97.4 - I: RPZ - Radio Punto Zero, Salerno ID:" United Punto R" - 1456
98.6 - I: Kiss Kiss Italia - 1436 RDS KKItalia
98.9 - I:Radio Planet FM - 1439 RDS PLANET
99.0 - I: RTL 102.5 - 1443 RDS "RTL 102.5"
99.0 - I:R Punto Nuovo - 1454
99.2 - I: RAI3, Spinazzola-Monte Caccia (RAI) (ba) - 1437 RDS "RAI / RADIO3
99.5 - I: R Deejay ,Ercolano-Vesuvio-Area Osservatorio (na) - 1523
99.5 - I: R Capital - 1457
100.6 - I: R Kiss Kiss - 1504
100.8 - I: R Kiss Kiss - 1506
101.0 - I: R 101 - 1509
101.0 - HRV: R Split - 1513 RDS R-SPLIT combo-id "Radio Uregi radio Unaiboninborma radio Split" with spelling mistakes.
101.2 - I: RAI2 - 1516

Nothing speacial is expected in tropo scene but perhaps something. Everything is possible in Utö!

Here some tropo-loggings from Juha (mostly tuned 27.7. and 28.7.2009):

LVA:
89.3 SWH - 18.32
90.7, 91.1 95.9 LR1
91.5 LR2, Riga
92.3 City R, Liepaja 10.45
93.9 Baltkom R, Riga -18.46
95.2 __ R Unid/Check (Liepaja?) -10.18
97.5 R Skonto Liepaja - 10.22
98.5 LKR - 19.22
99.5 Fit FM - 1531
103.8 Star FM, Kuldiga - 20.23
104.3 European Hit R - 20.49
105.7 SWH Plus - 2054
105.8 Rietamu R, Liepaja - 9.59
106.4 Kurzemes R, Kuldiga - 2100
107.2 R Skonto, Riga - 20.50
107.6 R Liepaja - 10.12

S:
100.2 SR Gotland, Visby - 8.42

LTU:
100.9 LR1 RDS "lrt.lt" - 1742
102.8 LR1 RDS "LIET6 OS"

POL:
98.4 POL: RFM FM, Gdansk - 1141
101.7 R Plus, Gdansk - 1147
107.9 R Marya - 10.06

EST:
90.1 R Kuku
90.2 Dinamit FM, Tallinn - 9.29
91.2 R Elmar
96.9 Sky Plus

Utö-pedition nr. 5 / 27.7. - 3.8.2009!

Juha Ylönen (JY) from Middle Finland will go to Utö for FM-DXing for one week for the end of July - from Monday 27.7. till Monday 3.8.2009.

There is a good chance for better tropo - and also still time for Sporadic E !!
Juha blog is here.

Making something out of nothing!

Utö DX-Camp 2009 is over - Summary:
Utö is a place to make results out of nothing!! We have had quite poor tropo-forecats for the past week but we identified a lot of stations. Tropo forecasts gave no promises for us but we heard stations from all around Baltic Sea! We really wonder what could be heard here when real tropo is going on, or even with megatropo!! Sporadic E also gives identified stations easier especially when tropo is low.

* FM-band is changing almost day by day. Sometimes the band is full of Finnish stations on almost every frequency, but next day it is nicely clean and incredibly empty!! It is very difficult to make bandscan here because the band is living all the time. Some stations come strongly up from noise, for example SWH Dundaga 89.3 (Latvia), Wisby FM Visby 89.2 (Sweden), Radio Kadi 90.1/90.5 (Estonia), some days närradios + many national frequencies.

*Tropo-scatter is nice phenomenon here. 600 km-stations (about) are coming strongly up and down from Sweden, Poland and Kaliningrad. Tropo-scatter seems to need 2 kW tx-power or more acc. to our observations. However, Arvid Husdal from Eigebrekk, Norway tells us that he has heard German 200/500 W stations with tropo-scatter. For some reason no vertical stations are observed with scattering. (Click the photo)

*We did not have good Sporadic E when FM-band was very silent of local tropo. That is still a dream to have Es over empty band here. However, here it is easier to pick up stations during low Es beause of low local levels. Many times we IDed all observered Es-signals!
Meteor-scattering has been very active all the time, but unfortunately those were too short (0-3 sec, rarely longer). Antenne Bayern, Ö3 Austria, BBC with meteor-id. Here is it possible to hear Italy with meteors very often, and sometimes even Spain!

This was very nice week of FM-DXing. We identified stations from 29 countries (7 with tropo, 3 with meteor, 19 with Es)!!

We still have challengies here:
1) There are more than 10 stations to hear from Kaliningrad. That is a big challenge. Better conds needed for that.
2) It would be a nice experience to enjoy good stable Es during very low local tropo, especially to Turkey, Greece, UK, Spain or Middle East.
3) Good tropo, or megatropo to inner Baltia,Sweden or Poland. During the days the tropo-forecasts have been always very low for us. Maps promised nothing special for us.


Utö-report Sun 5.7.2009: Ukraina up to 108 MHz 45 minutes!

Just when we were about to leave and take the camp down, sudden opening to Ukraina started at 09.00 utc!! That was not expected because Sherlock-maps showed no Es-clouds. A day before we planned to remove antennas just at the time when this opening started. However, we had some time to listen because the ferry was leaving at 11.30. At 09.30utc we even considered to take sea-taxi with no idea how much it would cost...

We tuned good Ukraina-signals for 45 minutes and then started to take camp down with a panic and rush!!!
Luckily we had no problems and we arrived to the ferry 20 min before it was taking off. We did not miss much
because the opening was about to fall.

We identified from Ukraina many Hit FM-frequencies, ERA FM 2x, Luyks FM 2x + one Greek. Nothing speacial but the tapes are not checked yet.

Utö-report Sat 4.7.2009

Last full day gives nothing special of conditions. The band is nicely empty of near local stations, really empty!!! That would have been great to have Es to this silent band!!
However, one new troposcatter-station was found today and we had three times 1-2 min Es...

Tropo-scattering:
100.6 MHz - DFM, Kaliningrad pushed up many times during the afternoon with IDs but unfortunately not with local programme/inserts. - 13.00 >

Sporadic-E
87.7 MHz - Radio Venere, Lecce (LE) tentatively. One spot to Specchia. No id. - 15.15-
88.8 MHz - Burc FM, Turkey. - 18.00-
89.2 MHz - Radio Kula (Voj), Serbia. - 15.22-

Utö-report Fri 3.7.2009: Strong Latvia - Weak Italy!

Tropo to Latvia (and Lithuania) bumbed even better on Friday morning!!
*Two Never-Heard-Before-stations were identified from Latvia!! Nice surprise!
*We identified all local programming stations from Liepaja: 92.3/ 95.2/ 96.1/ 97.5/ 105.1/ 107.6!!

At t he same time weak Italian stations up and down for 10-15 minutes around 06.00utc. Corsica-tx was also noticed!

88.4 MHz - Radio Company, Benevento (BN), Italy. Tent. no ID but spots to BN. -05.57-
88.7 MHz - Jazz Radio, Lyon (69), France. Corsica-transmitter (20)! Rare! - 0605-
91.1 MHz - Max Radio, Ellera (PG), Italy. - 0605-
96.6 MHz - Radio l'Olgiata, Roma (RM). RDS. Just before this advert to Palermo. - 06.03-
96.9 MHz - Radio Luce, San Sisto (PG), Italy. - 0605-
97.3 MHz - Radio QBS, Jaunmarupe (Riga). This station needs really good conds to peak in Utö!! I noticed in Riga in March in 2009 that this station is weak in Riga-centrum. It is located 5-10 km SW of centrum in Jaunmarupe. Tx-power unknown. - 05.15-
99.0 MHz - Radio Jurmala, Jurmala, Latvia (near Riga). Pushed weakly up Thu evening but gave clean signal in the morning. - 06.20-
100.5 MHz - M-1 Plius, Bubiai-tx (Siualiai). This confirms that Radio Ventspils is not on the air on this frequency. Ventspils is so close to us. - 05.40-

Utö-report Thu 2.7.2009: Latvia, Lithuania tropo

Thursday gave us completly new FM-band! We had strong tropo to Latvia and also Lithuania.
One new station was heard and also some new relays from Baltia. Kaliningrad Evropa Plus on 104.5 came up with troposcatter 4-10 times per hour during the day.
One strange Es-station was heard shortly on 88.1 MHz alone with odd music, no talk. Turkey?? Also Italy for one minute (Radio Fantastica 89.5 and Radio DeeJay 89.3) in the late afternoon.

88.4 MHz - Kurzemes R, Liepaja-tx, Latvia. - 17.10-
92.3 MHz - City Radio, Liepaja, Latvia. New station in Liepaja! - 14.19-
94.9 MHz - La Luna, Klaipeda, Lithuania. - 14.50-
95.2MHz - Latviesu Radio, Liepaja, Latvia. New relay in Liepaja. Gives local frq-announcements! New relay. 14.45-
96.1 MHz - EHR, Liepaja-local. - 16.00-
96.2 MHz - Hiti Rossii, Riga, Latvia. - 16.13-
96.8 MHz - Latviesu Radio, Riga, Latvia. 96.8-ID. 14.50-
98.3 MHz - M-1 Plius, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania
99.8 MHz - Kelyje. Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania. - 16.00-
100.3 MHz - SR P4 R Skaraborg, Skövde, Sweden. Pushed over local Åland. - 14.15-
100.5 MHz - Hiti Rossii, unid tx. Main transmitter is on 96.2 MHz in Riga (ex-Naba). - 15.42-
100.8 MHz - European Hit R, Talsi, local ID. - 16.00-
102.2 MHz - Ziniu Radijas, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania. - 15.07-
103.7 MHz - Lietus, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx, Litnuania. - 16.16-
104.5 MHz - Evropa Plus, Kaliningrad. Local programme! Troposcatter. - 09.26-
106.5 MHz - M-1, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania. - 15.15-
107.4 MHz - European Hit R, Kuldiga local ID. - 09.00-

Utö-report Wed 1.7.2009: Italy, Bulgaria, Greece !

Interesting openings today:
- Strong Estonia-tropo in the morning/midday (Ring FM etc.)
- First wide Italy from Rome to Reggio Emilia 13.20 > 14.25utc
-Then Bulgaria from 15.15 > 15.32uc
- and for the end Greece - 15.20 > 15.45 and 16.30utc
We tried to play cards but stations peaked up all the time nicely and interrupted that fun 3 times!! (Underlined stations first time in Finland)

87.5 MHz - Radio Subabsio (PG), Italy identified on 12 FREQUENCIES: 87.5/ 89.1/ 91.0/ 94.1/ 94.5/ 97.0/ 96.6/ 97.7/ 98.0/ 101.7/ 103.7/106.2 during one hour!!
87.8 MHz - Hristo Botev, Bulgaria. Local RDS with tel. 0700-18508 and city "Dupnitsa". - 15.10-
88.3 MHz - Energy, Veria, Greece. Great jingle! - 15.25-
88.4 MHz - Radio Elassona, Elassona Greece. Nice id. - 16.44-
89.1 MHz - Radio FM Plus, Plovdiv-tx. - 15.22-
89.5 MHz - Radio Antola, Popovo, Bulgaria. Tentatively, tracked from tel.no. 15.12-
89.5 MHz - R Energy, Sofia, Bulgaria. - 15.30-
89.5 MHz - NRG Power Radio, Kozani, Greece. Tentatively. Spots to Kozani.- 16.30-
89.6 MHz - Onda Libera, Perugia (PG), Italy - 13.20-
89.6 MHz - Radio Eklissia tis Ellados, UNID-relay, Greece. - 16.30-
90.0 MHz - Radio Icaro, Rimini, Italy. - 14.04-
90.3 MHz - Radio Focus, Sofia, Bulgaria. - 15.17-
90.6 MHz - NRJ Plovdid-local tentatively, Bulgaria.- 15.17-
90.8 MHz - Radio Zoo, Thessaloniki. - 15.15-
90.8 MHz - Dimotiko Radiofono Poligiros, Poligiros, Greece. Nice id. - 15.28-
91.4 MHz - Ola FM, Thessaloniki, Greece. - 15.36-
91.6 MHz - Radio Rock, Roma, Italy. - 13.41-
93.3 MHz - Radio Vaticana, Citta de Vaticana. -13.24-
93.4 MHz - Radio Melody, Sofia. Ex-Hit 7. 15.29-
93.4 MHz - Radio Margherita, Italy. - 13.40-
93.7 MHz - Radio Record, Sant'Arcangelo di Romagna (RN). Also 97.9 MHz. - 13.30-
94.1 MHz - Radio Dolcissima, San Canzian d'Isonzo (GO).Rn-tx.
95.2 MHz - Radio Italia Anni 60 (PU), Italy. Local spots to Pesaro + ad-agency id + ID.
98.1 MHz - Radio Valmiera, Latvia. - 05.40-
99.2 MHz - Radio Linea, Italy.- 13.57-
101.1 MHz - Radio Gamma, Savignano, Italy. Also 99.0. - 13.44-
104.8 MHz - Voce della Speranza, Roma tentatively. - 13.46-