Utö observations 8.6: Fair opening to South France (dep 30, 13, 11, 82 etc.) and also some northern France 01, 42 and several rapid Spanish- and Italy-bursts. Fading up and down for over two hours.
Virolahti observations 8.6: Silent day. (or some very weak OIRT)
Friday, 8 June 2018
Thursday, 7 June 2018
Thursday 7.6.2018 summary
Not a silent day.
Utö observations 7.6: In the morning several Greek stations and also Romania, Bulgaria. Later also North Italy for some time.
Virolahti observations 7.6: Very strong signals mainly from Russian Volgograd and Rostov-oblasts for almost one hour time. Later weak Ukraine and several arabs for 5 minutes.
Utö observations 7.6: In the morning several Greek stations and also Romania, Bulgaria. Later also North Italy for some time.
Virolahti observations 7.6: Very strong signals mainly from Russian Volgograd and Rostov-oblasts for almost one hour time. Later weak Ukraine and several arabs for 5 minutes.
Antennas in Virolahti DX-camp (=Poron2)
Here is a photo of the antennas in Virolahti Poron2-camp.
1) Left: OIRT 6-element Hor
2) Körner 15.11 Hor + amp
3) Körner 15.11 Ver + amp
4) Antenna tower 12 m height with Körner 15.11 + amp. This mast can be rised by hand turning manually!! (This tower is owned by Ismo Kauppi). A little tilt-adjustment still needed. (Click the photo for better view).
1) Left: OIRT 6-element Hor
2) Körner 15.11 Hor + amp
3) Körner 15.11 Ver + amp
4) Antenna tower 12 m height with Körner 15.11 + amp. This mast can be rised by hand turning manually!! (This tower is owned by Ismo Kauppi). A little tilt-adjustment still needed. (Click the photo for better view).
2018 DX-camps are on: Virolahti (SE Finland) and Utö-island (SW Finland)
Two annual FM DX-camps have started in Finland. Both camps are situated by the sea. Yagi antennas widely open to horizont:
In Virolahti (SE Finland, 4 participants HKU, VJR, TAK, IKA) 5.6. - 15.6.2018.
In Utö-island (SW Finland, 7 participants, JUS, JJS, JTK, MB, JJK, OSY, JY) 6.6 - 17.6.2018
There are a lot of photos from these camps form past years, but in Virolahti there is some new installations). I will add some photos later.
Wed 6.6.2018 in Virolahti, South east Finland
Two Turkey-openings to Ankara, Turkey lasting 10 and 1 minutes.
Wed 6.6.2018 in Utö, South west Finland
No Sporadic E observations
In Virolahti (SE Finland, 4 participants HKU, VJR, TAK, IKA) 5.6. - 15.6.2018.
In Utö-island (SW Finland, 7 participants, JUS, JJS, JTK, MB, JJK, OSY, JY) 6.6 - 17.6.2018
There are a lot of photos from these camps form past years, but in Virolahti there is some new installations). I will add some photos later.
Wed 6.6.2018 in Virolahti, South east Finland
Two Turkey-openings to Ankara, Turkey lasting 10 and 1 minutes.
Wed 6.6.2018 in Utö, South west Finland
No Sporadic E observations
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 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.
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).
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)
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.
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
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
Thursday, 9 June 2016
Utö17 started Wed 8.6.2016 till Sun 19.6.2016.
Hi all,
Traditional Finnish FM-DX-pedition started yesterday. There are 6 FM-listeners in far distant Utö island in SW Finland (about 70 km from the continent). The pedition lasts for 10 days from Wed 8.6 till Sun 19.6.2016.
Daily report can be read this summer on http://www.fmdx.tk
The reason for this is that I can not participate the pedition this summer.
Naantali
SW Finland
Traditional Finnish FM-DX-pedition started yesterday. There are 6 FM-listeners in far distant Utö island in SW Finland (about 70 km from the continent). The pedition lasts for 10 days from Wed 8.6 till Sun 19.6.2016.
Daily report can be read this summer on http://www.fmdx.tk
The reason for this is that I can not participate the pedition this summer.
This is the 8th time in a row for Utö-FM-DX-pedition.
73s
Harri KujalaNaantali
SW Finland
Saturday, 13 June 2015
Sun 14.6.2015: Mid-France 1h - Utö16 is over - Summary
Utö16-pedition is over! Sunday morning gave us nice surprise with very strong France up to 108 MHz for 1h starting around 06.10 utc! This was the best and strongest opening giving a lot of local stations with RDS-levels. The opening-area was below Paris and also close to Germany border for some moment.
H-antenna dismounted quickly around midday and the crew left Utö.
Summary
It is difficult to estimate and judge this Utö16-pedition, but the crew gave 3,8 points with 1-5-scale. Last morning rised this number. Last year it was under 2.
Positive: Openings with one skip were to rare areas; Corsica and Sardinia: and douple-hops gave nicely many North African countries: Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and tentatively Egypt. The real highlight and surprise was Malta!
Sports: MB did run 5,2 km every morning at 9 (others rarely). New record is now over 60 km running during pedition!!
Negative: Only one big bang-opening, on last morning! We had fairly good condition-time totally only for 2-3 hours - and MUF reached 100 MHz perhaps only for 70-80 minutes, aömost all of that last morning. Most of the openings were very short peaks in the lower FM-band.
Negative is also that we had no Spain or southwest France (only two sharp peaks) and also no U.K., Serbia or Turkey. Greece was also weak giving usual stuff.
The strongest moments were to mid-France twice (+Marseille) and South Italy (Rome, Puglia).
The weather here was the coldest ever because of continuous wind.
New never-heard-before in Finland-stations (=plus-stations) were counted this summer 38 (last year 27): Now we had Italy: 14 / Greece: 5 / France: 3 / Macedonia: 3 / Tunisia: 3 / Spain: 2 - One new station were obeserved from these countries: Kaliningrad (tropo), Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania (tropo), Malta, Montenegro and Hungary.
Note: These stations were observed in real time. There are something more in the SDR-recordings with 5 / 10 MHz bandwidht for later id.
Next pedition, Utö17, will be on 8.6 - 19.6.2016.
H-antenna dismounted quickly around midday and the crew left Utö.
Summary
It is difficult to estimate and judge this Utö16-pedition, but the crew gave 3,8 points with 1-5-scale. Last morning rised this number. Last year it was under 2.
Positive: Openings with one skip were to rare areas; Corsica and Sardinia: and douple-hops gave nicely many North African countries: Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and tentatively Egypt. The real highlight and surprise was Malta!
Sports: MB did run 5,2 km every morning at 9 (others rarely). New record is now over 60 km running during pedition!!
Negative: Only one big bang-opening, on last morning! We had fairly good condition-time totally only for 2-3 hours - and MUF reached 100 MHz perhaps only for 70-80 minutes, aömost all of that last morning. Most of the openings were very short peaks in the lower FM-band.
Negative is also that we had no Spain or southwest France (only two sharp peaks) and also no U.K., Serbia or Turkey. Greece was also weak giving usual stuff.
The strongest moments were to mid-France twice (+Marseille) and South Italy (Rome, Puglia).
The weather here was the coldest ever because of continuous wind.
New never-heard-before in Finland-stations (=plus-stations) were counted this summer 38 (last year 27): Now we had Italy: 14 / Greece: 5 / France: 3 / Macedonia: 3 / Tunisia: 3 / Spain: 2 - One new station were obeserved from these countries: Kaliningrad (tropo), Bosnia, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania (tropo), Malta, Montenegro and Hungary.
Note: These stations were observed in real time. There are something more in the SDR-recordings with 5 / 10 MHz bandwidht for later id.
Next pedition, Utö17, will be on 8.6 - 19.6.2016.
Sat 13.6.2015: Silence
Whole Saturday was silent, weak OIRT in the evening. This is the last full day here in Utö. The antennas were taken down in the evening, except the best one for Es, horizontal Körner. It will be dismounted aroud the last minutes of this pedition on Sunday midday.
Here in Utö the difference between horizontal and vertical during Sporadic E is significant. Perhaps only 1/10 of the audible station have been observed with vertical in the openings past week. Sometimes with vertical the lively Es-band looks like empty.
According to our crew, there are some conditions when vertical is better, especially with very short E-skips, under 1000 km (not observed here).
Here in Utö the difference between horizontal and vertical during Sporadic E is significant. Perhaps only 1/10 of the audible station have been observed with vertical in the openings past week. Sometimes with vertical the lively Es-band looks like empty.
According to our crew, there are some conditions when vertical is better, especially with very short E-skips, under 1000 km (not observed here).
Meteor-reflection examples
Here in Utö meteor-reflections are always very dense in the beginning of June. There are constant short flashes - even that this time of the year there are no big meteor-showers.
Here you can see AirSpy-waterfall screen-captures as an example of the phenomenon here in Utö. There are a lot of constant quick random flashes on almost every frequency - and in the lower screen an example of one meteor-burst for larger area giving one second long reflection to every frequency.
Example of short random scattered meteor-flashes 92.8 - 95.3 MHz (click)
And here below usual one second long burst for wider area, mostly C-Europe high-powers:
And here below Otso's 4x Sony XDR-set with Jurgen's StationList Auto PI-feature. All visible ids comes from meteor-bursts except the right-one, Italian R.D.S. 94.2 MHz is Sporadic E-skip.
Here you can see AirSpy-waterfall screen-captures as an example of the phenomenon here in Utö. There are a lot of constant quick random flashes on almost every frequency - and in the lower screen an example of one meteor-burst for larger area giving one second long reflection to every frequency.
Example of short random scattered meteor-flashes 92.8 - 95.3 MHz (click)
Friday, 12 June 2015
Fri 12.6.2015: Midday Russia OIRT - In the evening South France for 1-2 minutes
Friday local midday brings Russia on OIRT with several very short peaks to CCIR. Opening areas on OIRT were Tatarstan, Ulyanovsk, Moscow, Penza etc. No fun so far.
In the evening MUF rised quickly and gave South France for only 1-2 minutes. Two local stations were identified, Radio Totem 88.1 (2100 km) and Radio Présence 88.9 (over 2300 km, close to Spain border) with one skip.
In the evening MUF rised quickly and gave South France for only 1-2 minutes. Two local stations were identified, Radio Totem 88.1 (2100 km) and Radio Présence 88.9 (over 2300 km, close to Spain border) with one skip.
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