In Dublin, Ireland 5.-10.12.2007

I visited Ireland with my wife. Among sightseeing we visited two legal stations: Midlands 103 in Tullamore (103.5 MHz; main office, www). Nice tour given by PC William Faulkner on Thursday!!

Click the photo >>>
They really have content and talk on Irish local radio. William played only one music title in his show 9.30 - 12.00! I have heard this station many times at my home on FM and William wrote me verification of my receptions on 103.5 and 102.1 (Athlone-local).

Also a short visit to Galway Bay FM, Galway, in westcoast of Ireland (95.8 MHz, www) on Friday. Everybody was buzy at the station because of outside auction-broadcast from city centre.

On Saturday evening I was also lucky to visit AM-pirate Energy Power AM, Dublin!
These guys really have transmitters and knowledge! Many FM-transmitters was all around.
Click the photo >>>
Big surprise was ex-Century Radio 1143 kHz 1 kW-transmitter (Waiting to have good home!). In the outside cottage there were real classic tx: WKLR's 20 years old 400 W transmitter!! WKLR (West Cork Local Radio, www) used this mid 80's on 1503 kHz (200m). This crystal was still on it's place!
Energy Power was on the air on MW on Saturday just because my visit. Nice surprise! They use unique homemade transistor-AM-transmitter with 330 W. Nice signal even 20 km away!

Weekend Log 8-9.12.2007 - North Dublin, Ireland
94.15 MHz - Rythm FM, Dublin. Weak. 24h weekend with dance.
94.65 MHz - Dance FM, Dublin. Strong with RDS. On air every day 24h.
99.5 MHz - Chance FM, Dublin. Weak. Oldies format from 60's to 80's. Weekend.
101.3 MHz - Club FM, Dublin. Fairly strong. Weekend dance station.

Three of Dublin's four FM-pirate were dance-stations. Dance FM had silent carrier since Saturday evening and went totally off air on Sunday evening!
These signals were picked up in a hotel (2nd floor) near Dublin airport 10 km away from city centre with Sangean ATS-909 and normal whip.

I will put some photos of my visits later!!

Pirate memories 1988 from Ireland

80's was the golden decade of pirate broadcasting in Ireland. I was also lucky to receive many Irish big and small pirates on Medium Wave and FM. I have a reply from 20-30 Irish pirates.
Summer 1988 was good on FM-DXing. I heard many Irish FM-pirates here in Finland via Sporadic E-skip!
Many years back I made an audio-mix of the ID's and jingles of these stations - and now I made a little movie, too.

There is a slide-show with jingles and ID's.
These are the stations in order of appearance: Treble TR, Capitol Radio, Super Q, CAU FM, KISS FM (Monaghan), BIG M, Liberty 104, ErneSide Radio, Radio West, Radio Vera, Radio Nova (Unfortunately I did not get good ID or jingle from Sunshine 101 and many others).
You can see and hear this Irish-Mix-1988 as WMV (2,5 Mb) here.

E-mails from France and UK

Last week I got two e-mail-QSLs from European FM-stations:
The first e-mail was from Radio Bonheur, Pleneuf val Andre, North France.
Mr. Dominique Le Boudec wrote me:
"Je vous confirme qu'il s'agit bien de Radio Bonheur que vous avez capté!"
Radio Bonheur plays 100% French music. This station is located in North France beside the sea and they have 3 transmitters. I heard this station on 90.1 MHz where they have only 50 W transmitter (www)! My mp3-clip.

The other e-mail came from South England. Original 106, Southampton (www) confirmed my mp3-clip!
News editor Rachel Tregenza wrote me: "Yes, this is our station, and it’s me reading the news! How very interesting that you managed to pick up the signal in Finland! Thank you for you interest,"
Later I had also mail from Karen Woods with compliments of my reception in Finland.

Reply from London pirate, Kool FM 94.6

On 29th of August I had e-mail from London pirate station, Kool FM 94.6!! What a nice surprise!

DJ Bluesy from Kool confirmed that the station which I heard on 94.6 was them:
"Hello, yes I can confirm that was us in the audio clip, I was very amazed by whats happened. Very impressed!!! We are currently running just on a 150 watt transmitter. We are going back to 300 very soon. Thanks again!".

Kool FM (www) is one of the oldest pirates in London. It started 1991 and celebrated 15th birthday on 1.12.2006! Incredible ! Kool FM's (like many other's in London) music format is unique in FM-radio broadcasting worldwide: "Hardcore Jungle Drum and Bass" (DnB). For non-experts it sounds like fast talk-singing over drums and bass in the background. Here a sample of Kool from YouTube!!

And here Kool FM on TV documentary.

FM-opening to Balkan and Italy

On Wednesday 22nd August we had FM-signals from Balkan countries (Serbia, Croatia) and also Hungary and Italy. Only little spots up with a few stations coming up at one time. Signals were mostly strong and clear. Nothing interesting heard although this kind of conditions can give some nice surprises.

LOG Wed 22.7.2007 (Times UTC)

• 88.2 MHz - UNID Hungarian, two possiblities. Balaton mentioned?- 16.00- mp3
• 88.8 MHz - Circuito 29, Mantova (MN), Italy. Nice ID (www)- 18.07- mp3
• 91.1 MHz - Radio Gamma Regione Romagna, Savignano (FO), Italy. "Gamma, bella come l'estate" - 16.37 mp3
• 91.1 MHz - Mig Radija, Vladimirci, Serbia - 16.20- mp3
• 91.2 MHz - UNID, perhaps Serbian. ID in noises - 16.25- mp3
• 91.6 MHz - VFM, Vinkovci, Croatia. "Super station"-jingles in English. This is now a dance-station! (www)- 18.23 mp3
• 92.9 MHz - Radio S, Beograd, Serbia. This network-transmitter is located in Vojvodina (www)- 16.16- mp3
• 92.9 MHz - Modena R City, Modena (MO), Italy. Clean liner between music titles (www)- 18.08- mp3
• There were chances for better, but no....

Signals from Corsica, S-France and Italy

On Saturday evening there were weak signals coming from North Italy and Southern France. The most interesting catch was Corsica!!! It is very rare here!

LOG Sat 18.8.2007 (Times UTC)

• 88.1 MHz - Radio SuperHit, Milano, Italy (www) - 16.21- mp3
• 88.7 MHz - Fréquence Jazz, Bastia-transmitter, Corsica (20)! There is clear station identification here: "Fréquence Jazz, Bastia, 88.7". However this can be network programme (www) - 17.00- mp3
• 88.8 MHz - Radio Maria, Italy from it's Milano-transmitter. Fades out quickly. This is a religious station (www) - 16.40- mp3
• 88.9 MHz - Radio Sainte Baume, Saint-Maximin (83), France. This is old local station located 40 km NE from Marseille (www). (There is hard interference coming from Radio Majakka (were I work) from 89.0 MHz) - 16.18- mp3

A few other networks were also audible. I will take e-mail contact to these French stations to have confirmation of my listening. On Friday 17.8.2007 there were good opening to Italy on FM but I was at work.

Contact from Croatia

On 16th of August I had unique contact from Croatia.
Mr. Damir Totman from RadioComm Co (www) asked me if I have received the transmitters which they have installed.
His company gives full installation and maintenance service for FM-radio stations.
The transmitters he mentioned were Radio Trsat on 87.6 (20 kW), Narodni Radio on 101.9 MHz (20 kW) and Otvoreni Radio on 103.6 MHz (30 kW).
I have not made any loggings of these transmitters although it is possible I have heard them. Narodni and Otvoreni I have heard on different frequencies first time almost 10 years ago.
However, all these mentioned transmitters have been heard in Finland with good signals during last two years, in Helsinki and Tampere.

UK and Bretagne (France) on FM

On Thursday 9th August I was in Helsinki visiting authorities of Finnish Communication Ministry (regulator) and Ficora (controller). Discussions about Finnish local radio.
During the day I was reported by other DX-ers of E-opening to France (Bretagne) and Southern England (shortly). France-opening was told to have been fairly good.

Later in the evening I logged Gemini FM, Torbay (SW England) on 96.4 MHz (16.57utc). This lasted only 5 minutes. Also Italians briefly around 19.00 utc...

FM-openings to Italy

During the whole day on Wednesday 8th of August was Italian FM-stations coming up and down. I was not able to listen because of being at work for preparing new morning show to our radio station, starting next week. I was reported that FM-stations from Rome were up for some time.
Later in the evening Italian stations were audible, first two minutes up, then 10 minutes silence.... frustrating...

LOG Wed 8.8.2007 (Times UTC)

• 88.8 MHz - Virgin Radio. This is new network in Italy, ex-Play Radio - 18.42-
• 89.3 MHz - "Radio Nord Italia presenta, Fantastica News". Strange ID, but I think this is R. Fantastica, Torino with regional news - 1732- mp3
• 89.6 MHz - Gamma Radio Pavia (PV), Italy. "Le 100 canzioni piu belle di tutti i tempi" and jingle: "Gamma Radio Top 100". Very interesting pronounce: "David Bowie, Heroes" for the end - 17.58- mp3

Little E-opening to Perm, Russia

On Tuesday 7th August we had short, 10 minutes long opening to Perm, Russia. Only one station were audible on CCIR-band:

88.0 MHz Bolid FM (www), Perm, Russia - 15.34- mp3

World Record on QSL-throwing!!

During the weekend 4-5th August 2007 I participated Finnish Annual DX-summer Meeting in Ylöjärvi near Tampere. There were around 100 visitors and nice programmes, presentations and DX-friends.
The highlight for me was to win funny 3-level competition. One part of it was QSL-throwing (card)! Luckily I have now World Record on QSL-throwing with 12 meters 46 cm throw!!

FM-OPENING TO SERBIA
On Friday evening 3rd of August we had E-condition to Serbia around 14.00-15.00 on the lower FM-band. I was listening only last 10 minutes of it and got two ID's:

89.6 MHz - Radio Vladimirci, Vladimrici, Serbia. Addr. Svetog Save 57, 15225 Vladimirci - 14.52-
90.1 MHz - Kiss FM, unknown location, Serbia - 14.53-

Telephone calling to Serbia, Radio Puls (Despotovac)

On Saturday 23rd June 2007 I heard Serbian FM-station on 91.1 MHz. I heard commercial spot of "Cafe-Pizzeria Fontana" in Despotovac-city and another spot to Kragujevac (mp3 of my reception).
Radio Puls (www) operates on this frequency in Despotovac, Serbia.

A few days after listening I found Radio Puls' webpage and I phoned to this station and tried to get audio-QSL-verification via phone. There were nobody talking English, but I think the lady understands what is going on and gives me confirmation. She says "Yes" to my clear question!

I recorded this telephone calling (length 1 min 30sec, size 1,3Mb). Listen

I have phoned to a few Balkan FM-stations and gave them a surprise like this (smaller exotic stations)! Only a few of those people there talks English! Perhaps it is not fun for them, but for me it is. (Naturally I use Skype which gives only a few cents/minute costs).

E-mail from Radio Ten, Begijnendijk, Belgium

On the 15th of July 2007 I heard Radio Ten (www) from Begijnendijk, Belgium. It is a local FM-station which operates on 107.6 MHz with 100 W!
I e-mailed an MP3-clip to this station asking confirmation of this distant signal-skip to Finland!!

On 26th of July I had a nice reply from this station and I got mp3-clip back!
That was a studio recording from that very moment which I heard. Very nice surprise!!

Here is a clip of what I heard from this station: MP3-clip (skip)
And here is that same moment with studio-quality got from the station: MP3-clip (studio)

Sporadic E to Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and France

This was a little surprise to have sporadic E once again this week. Now we had strong signals from Turkey (Istanbul), Romania and Bulgaria. For the end shortly French FM-stations.

LOG Sat 21.7.2007 (Times UTC)

• 88.7 MHz - Chérie FM. Local id to 88.7 Gray-relay, France - 08.20
• 90.1 MHz - Radio Z, Zimnicea, Romania - 07.35-
• 90.2 MHz - Radio Kerne, Kerne, France - 08.23-
• 90.6 MHz - Radio 2000, Istanbul, Turkey ("Radyo iki bin") - 07.43-
• 92.2 MHz - Radio Trinitas. Romanian religious network. - 08.10-
• 95.8 MHz - Radio Vitamin, Istanbul., Turkey - 07.48-
• 100.0 MHz - R Focus. New network in Bulgaria - 07.36-
• + some network ID's like Fresh FM (Bul), Darik (Bul), Kiss FM (Rom) etc.

London FM- pirate stations in Finland, Fri 20.7.2007

On Friday 20th July 2007 there were nice Es-condition to UK (London and SW England) and NW France (Bretagne). I heard many local stations from England up to 108 MHz. The most interesting part of this opening were several London pirate stations! This is rare!

LOG Fri 20.7.2007 (Times UTC)

• 87.5 MHz - UK's Finest (pir.), Buckinghamshire (London) - 11.51- mp3
• 87.5 MHz - Lynx FM (pirate), London. Audible for almost 1h, hard fading - 12.10- mp3
• 90.8 MHz - Charge FM (pirate), Essex - 12.35-. See Charge FM dj's on the air on YouTube !!! Increbly fast talking. I suppose they take sms-messages all the time ?? mp3
• 94.6 MHz - Kool FM, London (pirate, tent. with club-spots) - 12.24- mp3
• 95.4 MHz - Roots FM (pirate), London - 12.04- mp3
• 102.0 MHz - Touch FM, Stratford, UK - 12.09-
• 102.0 MHz - Town 102, Ipswich - 12.43-
• 105.6 MHz - Ivel FM, Chard, UK - 12.12-
• 106.6 MHz - tentatively Original FM, Southampton - 12.02-
• 107.0 MHz - Atlantic FM, Redruth - 12.06-
• 107,5 MHz - Fen Radio, Wisbech, UK - 12.10-
• 107.7 MHz - Star 107.7, Weston-super-Mare, UK - 12.06-
• 107.8 MHz - Radio Jackie, London - 12.02- mp3
• + many other UK-locals around 95-97 MHz and around102-103 MHz.

FM-conditions to Russia and Ukraina, Mon 17.7.2007

On Monday evening 17.7.2007 there were good opening to Russia and Ukraina on FM! I heard strong signals from FM-stations from Moscow, Kiev and some other cities.

LOG Mon 17.7.2007 (Times UTC)

• 87.5 MHz - Business FM, Moscow, Russia - 16.41-
• 91.0 MHz - Pomestnoye Radio, Moscow. New station! - 16.33-
• 91.6 MHz - Radio Kultura, Moscow - 16.38-
• 95.6 MHz - Jam FM, Kiev, Ukraina - 16.46-
• 96.4 MHz - Hit FM, Kiev, Ukraina - 16.46-
• 100.0 MHz - Avtoradio, Poltava-local - 16.49-
• 102.1 MHz - Kiss FM, Mykolaiv-transmitter, Russia - 17.01-
• 88.8 MHz - Radio Shanson, Tiraspol, Moldova 17.14-
• also many other stations like Hit FM, Nashe R etc.

Listening Greek pirates on MW, Sun 16.7.2007

I tuned Greek pirates on MW (1600 - 1700 kHz) till late Sunday night. A lot of stations were on the air but difficult to identify.

LOG Sun 16.7.2007 (Times UTC)

• 1385 kHz Greek pirate announcing mobile-number. Readable signal. I think this station will be identified with my Greek agent. 21.20-
  
• 1626 kHz Radio Anatolia from Kilkis, North Greece. This station seems to be on the air almost every evening giving his mobile-number (same number for years). Quite good signal even at 19.30utc! 19.30-

• Many stations were on the air with reports to each other with good signals!