More QSL-replies from France!

I've just started to check my old Sporadic E-tapes from the recent past years, and now I have 30 replies from French FM-stations within 5-6 weeks!!
Here I list the stations replied during October 2009.

I got 4 replies from France Bleu regional stations; FB Perigord (Bergerac, 99.0 MHz), FB Sud Lorraine (Nancy, 100.5 MHz), FB Lorraine Nord (Metz, 98,5 MHz) and FB Haute Normandie (Rouen, 96.5 MHz).

This last one on this list is the most interesting case because I found one very old recording from 1985 from my C-casettes!! There were id "Radio Haute Normandie". I mailed this to the station and director, Pierre Desaint, replied quickly and was surprised of the old recording. The most surprising thing is that the presenter (DJ) on my recording, Manuel Quesnel, is still working for the station!!!Radio Cactus is a regional station in departement 38, near Grenoble and Swiss border. I heard this on 92.2 MHz (1 kW, Charolles).
And more private stations:
- Jet FM, Nantes, 91.2 MHz (Dep. 44)
- Radio Active, Langres, 91.7 MHz (Dep. 52)
- Frequence Plus, Dijon, 95.4 MHz (Dep. 21). Seems to be big station!! Their web-page look fantastic and this station sounds great!! Nice to meet succesful local stations!!

- Virgin Radio Roanne, 89.4 MHz (Dep. 42). This Virgin local station has even own web-page!

- R.B.A. Auvergne-Limousin, Bort les Orgues, 104.4 MHz (Dep. 19). Stéphane Antignac wrote:
"Bonjour, Quelle surprise !! En effet l'extrait sonore correspond bien à notre radio. Nous sommes situés au centre de la France. Nous sommes une radio associative avec deux fréquences : 104.4 et 98.2. Notre site internet : www.rbafm.fr Nous allons vous faire parvenir un autocollant de notre radio.Nous sommes ravi et vous souhaitons bonne continuation. Très cordialement - Stéphane, Radio RBA FM Auvergne-Limousin"


- R.C.F. Saint-Aignan, Orleans, 90.3 MHz (Dep. 45)
- R.C.F. Aube, Troyes, 88.2 MHz, (Dep. 10)
These both RCF-stations gave nice and informative reply. RCF stations seems to reply very well but you must always be sure that the programme is local, not RCF national feed.

- Radio Kerne, Ploneis, 90.2 MHz (Dep. 29) was very speacial station to have contact. This station is broadcastinf in Breton language, which is spoken only in Bretagne, France (even 300 000 in all).
- Radio Sainte-Baume, Saint-Maximin, 88.9 MHz. This station from very South France, only 40 km NE from Marseille, from very little town (only 13 000 people) in Saint-Baume mountains. The city is known of the beautiful basilica (year 1295) dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
- Radio Morvan is a community station from Chateau Chinon (Dep. 58) from very Middle France - broadcasting on 95.8 MHz
- Le Mouv' is part TDF (Radio France). This station is not easy to hear because hey do not have as many frequencies as other national programmes. Le Mouv' is easy to track from the band beause it is rock-based formatted.
- Radio Brume, 90.8 MHz, is a student university-radio station in Lyon (Dep. 69). Nicholas Croisette kindly confirmed my mp3-clip. Nicholas is publishing very useful and informative web-site of French radio stations (Annuaire des radios francaises)

- Plus FM, Blois, 89.4 MHz (Dep. 41). Regional station between Tours an Orleans. They wanted to make an interview. Unfortunately I have forgotten to go further...

Newspaper article of me in PresseOcéan, Nantes

Today I had very nice and special surprise from France! Nantes newspaper, PresseOcéan, made an article of me and my DXing of French FM-stations!
The story is based on my reception of SUN 91.2, Nantes. I sent a mp3-clip of the my reception to this station about one month ago. The station manager Pierre Boucard told about this to newspaper journalist Guillaume Lecaplain, who made nice article of this.

You can read the story in internet > PRESSE OCEAN Harri Kujala

- or CLICK THE PHOTO BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE -

Nice QSL-replies from France!

At first I must give big honour and respect to French radio stations!! They are clearly market leaders in Europe to make radios sound excellent!! The jingles and programme productions are magnificent, ingredible, creative and unique. All other countries are far, far behind French radio production. I wonder why?? Because of language - or competition?

I have sent some messages to French FM-stations, which I have heard here at my home via Sporadic E-skips during past summers. Here some logos from the stations I have QSLed:

Very special stations replied this week:
MY 2nd QSL from Corsica!! Fréquence Jazz (now "Jazz Radio 2"). I heard this station on 88.7 MHz with local announcement: "Fréquence Jazz á Bastia sur 88.7". They have two transmitters on this frequency and both are in Corsica.

Vivre FM is a station for handicap people in Paris on 93.9 MHz !! Must be unique in the world!!!

Radio Fidélité is community and christian radio station in Nantes area (Dep. 44). I heard this station 3 years ago on 89.5 MHz. This frequency in now changed and not in use anymore. Station runs mainly by donations (70% of incomes are donations)!
RCF Anjou is a local station in Angers (Dep. 49). Part of the largest French Christian FM-radio network RCF (Radios Chrétiennes Francophones). I have heard their local programme two times on 88.1 MHz.

Radio Tempo (Dep. 29 / 101.2 MHz) is one of the most East FM-station in France. It is located in NW of Bretagne with two transmitters around Brest and Morlaix. They have very exotic looking office!

There are at least three Jazz-formatted FM-networks in France. I have heard two of them. TSF Jazz has confirmed my reception from last summer. I heard their Laval-relay (Dep. 53) on 97.7 MHz, between Le Mans and Rennes.


VFM from Vire (Dep. 14 / 90.1 MHz), is a provincial station in North Bretagne, under English Channel.
It is nice to see that there are lively local stations alive in France! I got a quick e-mail from the station for my mp3!


Sweet FM, private commercial radio around Le Mans and Alencon, (Dep. 72,61 / 95.8 MHz) gave nice replies from many people from the station. This seems to be a big station with many activities.


Radio Accords from Poitiers (86 / 89.3 MHz) is a religious station in midwest France. Programme director Mr. Lachen confirmed my mp3-clip to be from their programme. They have even 6 tx's around Poitiers and Niort - and even over 100 people making programmes.

Frequence Horizon from Houdain
(62 / near Belgium border, 100.8 MHz) gave a quick e-mail back:
"That is right, it is our program ! That is incredible ! The distance between you and our transmitter is huge ! In july 2007, our apparent power was 1KW. Thank you very much for this document ! Have a nice day, Guillaume, Fréquence Horizon".

Radio Caroline from Rennes in Bretagne (Dep. 35 / 90.8 MHz). Technician Patrick confirmed my reception:

"Votre message nous a fait plaisir. Je vous confirme qu'il s'agit bien de RADIO CAROLINE en Bretagne".

I got nice promotional photo enclosed >>


Another nice reply from Bretagne: SUN (Le Son Unique à Nantes) (Dep. 44 / Nantes, 93.0 MHz). This station is located in Nantes.

Pierre, Directeur de SUN, gave very quick reply to my report, 10 minutes(!!):

"Bonsoir, Je vous confirme que c'était bien SUN* (Le Son Unique à Nantes) que vous avez capté. Il s'agit bien de nos jingles de l'époque ;-)". "SUN - Unique Sound In Nantes" in the name of this station today.

The most exotic reply from France was Radio Salam from Lyon.
This is Arabic language station in Lyon (Dep. 69 / 91.1 MHz) !!
Mr Ali Abed, Président de Radio Salam e-mailed me short confirmation to my report: "Bravo et j'espère que vous allez rester fidèles auditeurs de notre radio."

Very kind replies from France.

FM-phaser: Fading out local FM-stations

I have had FM-phaser for several years, but this summer I had a chance to finetune it because I have now 5-6 antennas (=Triax-preamps with two outputs). With this device it is possible to fade out some local/semi-local FM-stations by phasing out the chosen signal.

This phaser is at it's best when you have certain and constant signal-level of the QRM-station, which you want to fade out. It should not be too close and strong (= if tuneable with 1 meter-wire forexample) or too far and weak (=fading in/out a lot).

HOW IT WORKS:
I do not give here any technical data, only a description how it goes.
I have two yagi-antennas for this job: Yagi-1 (vertical) is directed to the station I want to hear. Yagi-2 (horizontal) is directed to that station I want to fade-out (QRM-stn). First I adjust the signal of QRM-station from both antennas to equal levels in my receiver. Then I phase the QRM-stations's FM-signal opposite, 180 degrees, and combine them to my receiver. This means that the local station fades out and DX-station has free or almost free frequency to come up.

For example I have YLE Eurajoki 87.7 MHz (30 kW) 80 km away. I can fade it out for Es-stations (unfortunately no Es-conditions this year for results).

Here is a video-clip of how I fade-out YLE Fiskars on 97.0 MHz (3 kW) 100 km away. It is constant here and blocks the frequency. I could have chosen better example (closer/more power) because this signal is beatable by strong tropo.
However, there is a new Latvian local station to hunt on 97.0 MHz, Radio Vidzeme in Valmiera.This is the reason why I choose 97.0 MHz (vertical).

In this clip I show the signal-level of YLE 97.0 MHz (3 red leds shining) - then I fade it out by tuning the phaser (one led shining) - and after that I take horizontal QRM-antenna away from combiner, which shows that QRM-signal comes back with V-antenna (3 leds again), because there is no combined signal anymore.
I try later to make examples of closer stations.
This FM-phaser is built by Pertti Äyräs, living close to me. His QTH is almost impossible for FM-DX (Kaarina, 6 x 50 kWs only 3 km away).
I do not have any technical data available of this for instant delivery, but I suppose I could get it from Pertti later.
Let's see if I manage to hear this Radio Vidzeme during autumn tropos (no idea of their power)!!

Perseids meteors 2009: No results

Again this year Perseids meteor-shower gave nothing special!! However, it seems that the best peak was at night between 12-13 August. I monitored in the morning and late evening on 12.8 some times, but mostly very short pings came up. 5-20 sec long pings is needed.
Perseids seems to have been weakening all the time comparing to 10-20 years ago!
In Finnish Perse = ass - and id = identification! That describes Perseids very well nowdays!

Wed 5.8.2009: Weak South France

Today very weak opening to France. However, one new station popped up even with RDS, Radio M from Montélimar (26) on 88.3 MHz.

And once again Radio Nimes and France Bleu Gard Lozere. Almost every summer I have some stations which coming up several times, which are never heard before by me. Strange why E-clouds like to take same places within one summer!

LOG Wed 5.8.2009: Weak South France

88.3 MHz - Radio M, Montélimar(26), France. RDS + DJ. - 18.15-
88.4 MHz - UNID Spanish. Unfortunately only nonsense talk. - 18.15-
92.2 MHz - Radio Nimes, Nimes, France. RDS with music. - 18.07-

Mon 3.8.2009: Sardinia, Toscana !

Very interesting opening to Italy. Sardinia is very rare here and also Toscana. Both areas were audible during 20 minutes opening, Sardinia 7 minutes. This was nice moment because the band was not full of stations from all around Italy.

LOG Mon 3.8.2009 (Mainly Sardinia-Toscana, Italy - First time in Finland underlined)

87.5 MHz - Radio Zeta, Caravaggio (BG). Spot to Torino (011-). Zeta seems to have local spots to 6 areas but this tx should be in Toscana??? - 17.29-
88.0 MHz - Radio Rama, Tortoli (NU), Sardinia, Italy. No ID but spot to Bari Sardo near Tortoli. Faded out just during jingle. - 16.48-
88.8 MHz - Radio Maria, Italy announced that they will start R.Vatican News. - 17.30-
89.5 MHz - Radio Mater,Italy. RDS and talking. - 17.11-
90.8 MHz - RDF - Radio Diffusione Firenze, Firenze (FI). New relay? - 17.00-
92.2 MHz - Radio Siena, Siena (SI). - 17.13-
93.3 MHz - Radio 19, Genova tentatively. Spot to Genova. 16.57-
94.7 MHz - Radio Fiesole 100, Firenze(FI). - 17.09-
95.2 MHz - Radio Italia Uno, Padova. Not listed here. - 16.51-
95.2 MHz - Radio Studio Piú,Desenzano del Garda (BS). - 16.59-
95.7 MHz - Radio Sintony, Cagliari (CA), Sardinia, Italy. - 16.55-
95.8 MHz - Radio Macomer Centrale, Siniscola (NU), Sardinia, Italy. No ID only pizzeria spot to Siniscola with tel 0874-. - 16.51-

Tue 28.7.2009: South Italy opening

This summer has been one of the worst ever in my 33 years FM-DX-history!! There is not much time to have things better for this season. Very often August is worse than June or July...

On Tuesday we had a bit better opening to South Italy, to Puglia area mainly.
LOG Tue 28.7.2009 (South Italy, times UTC)
88.4 MHz - Radio Company, Benevento (BN). - 18.52-
88.7 MHz - Radio ItsyBitsy, Romania. This might be Europe's ONLY station for children!! There was one in France many years ago. - 15.40-
89.3 MHz - Radio Cuore. Funny rolling RDS-PS. One letter of word "CUOrE"is changing from big to small in sequence. 18.00-
89.4 MHz - KissKiss Italia. - 14.45-
90.2 MHz - Radio Puglia, Bari (BA). 14.36-
91.7 MHz - Radio Sound, Bari (BA) - 14.26-

91.7 MHz - Radio Venere, Corsano (LE). Full stereo-RDS. Unfortunately I make mono-rcordings. Otherwise it would have been nice to put a hifi-recording here. - 14.40-
92.1 MHz - RAI. Perhaps local px to Basilicata? Traffic instructions to Salerno etc. - 14.57-
92.2 MHz - Radio Jukebox, Lamezia Terme (CZ) (BA-tx). Listeners can make sms-order for the title they want to be played. This automated station gives title-code/name between the records by female voice.
97.9 MHz - Radio Alfa, Prato Perillo di Teggiano (SA). Rare-station to hear. - 14.33-
99.6 MHz - Radio TRC, Cerignola (LE). 3o years old station!- 14.35-

Sat 18.7.2009: France 2-3 minutes

Yesterday's big Es-clouds gave a little promise for today, but no. There were clouds over right places (Denmark etc.) but not enough MUF. Only one 2-3 minute opening to Bretagne. Perhaps there has been more short skips because I have not been monitoring all the time.

LOG Sat 18.7.2009
88.4 MHz - Europe 1. Tx in dep. 29, Bretagne, France. - 10.29-
90.1 MHz - Radio Bonheur, Pléneuf-Val-André (22). Guingamp-tx, Bretagne, France. This station was audible for about 2-3 minutes with nice IDs. - 10.30-
93.0 MHz - France Bleu Breiz Izel, Brest (29), France. MUF around 96 shortly. - 10.30-

Fri 17.7.2009: France opening for 30 minutes

Unexpected attack with French signals for about 30 minutes on late Friday afternoon! I heard stations from very large area from France - central, northeast and south. Not so many IDs but luckily one station never-heard-before (in Finland)!!

LOG Fri 17.2.2009 (France-opening)
91.0 MHz - RCF en Berry, Bourges (18). Spot to "Musique en Berry"-festival. - 14.43-
91.1 MHz - NRJ. Tx from departement 52 (NE France). - 14.45-
91.7 MHz - Active R, Joinville (52). - 14.49-
92.2 MHz - Radio Cactus, Semur en Brionnais (71). - 14.44-
92.9 MHz - Totem, La Primaude (12). Tx dep. 48. Big network now!!! Over 20 tx with 7 local officies. - 14.52-
92.9 MHz - RTL pushed over Totem. Tx dep. 03. - 14.54-
98.5 MHz - France Bleu Lorraine Nord (dep. 57) with RDS and music. - 14.57-

QSL Radio City, Katerini, Greece

After 6 months waiting I got a e-QSL from Katerini-city, Greece! Better late than never!
This station is Radio City, 102.8 MHz (www).
In the reply I was told that the transmitter is located in Mount Olympus - so no wonder it reached Finland.

1-2 minute openings...

During the past days Sporadic E has shown us only several 1-2 minute openings on many days in a row!! Typical for this summer, MUF does not rise enough and do not last long enough... Frustrating... Some stations anyway on Sunday from Italy, Bosnia, Croatia and Greece.

LOG Sun 12.7.2009
87.8 MHz - Latte & Miele, Italy. - 07.10-
88.0 MHz - Radio Republika Srpska, Kotor Varos (local px) tentatively, Bosnia. Spots to this city at 06.58- and 07.18-
88.0 MHz - ERA Net 105.8, Thessaloniki-tx, Greece. - 08.30-
88.2 MHz - Radio Dubrovnik, Croatia. RDS. - 07.12
89.1 MHz - Radio Slavonija tentatively, Slavonski Brod, Croatia. -07.06-
89.3 MHz - Radio F, Radio Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine. RDS. - 06.56-

Tue 6.7.2009: Turkey (Bulgaria, Greece)

On Tuesday evening we had the best opening so far. It was Turkey up to 108 MHz, Istanbul and around (Very rarely I can hear other parts than Istanbul, distance 2200 km)).
Unfortunately it was not so strong over 100 MHz here. Signals were also fading rapidly.
However, some new stations were up. (Some recordings are not checked yet):

LOG Tue 6.7.2009 (Times UTC)
87.9 MHz - Bizim FM, Sile. 50 km NE of Istanbul, Turkey. - 16.21-
88.0 MHz - Radyo 34, Istanbul. - 15.53-
89.0 MHz - Antena C, Kishinev tentatively "Aici Kishinev", Moldova. - 17.00-
89.3 MHz - Armoni FM, unknown location. Perhaps new relay to Armoni FM from Terikdag (European side of Turkey). - 15.47-
90.0 MHz - Radyo Viva, Istanbul, Turkey. - 16.10-
90.3 MHz - Alem FM, Tekirdag-transmitter, Turkey. - 15.58-
90.4 MHz - Haber Türk, Istanbul, Turkey. - 16.27-
91.2 MHz - Radio NRJ, Varna-tx, Bulgaria 16.01-
91.4 MHz - Ola FM 91.4, Thessaloniki, Greece. - 16.56-
91.8 MHz - Infopro FM , Romania
92.9 MHz - Kanal Türk, Istanbul, Turkey. Also with RDS. -16.48-
93.3 MHz - Radyo K, Istanbul, Turkey. - 16.51-
98.0 MHz - Kral Türk, Istanbul, Turkey. - 16.49-
98.5 MHz - Kiss FM, Romania. Very hard compression on audio. -16.50-
100.8 MHz - Radyo Ilac, Istanbul, Turkey. Very nice and lively ID. - 16.42-

Utö FM-DX-camp 2009 is over

I was in Utö-island for 9 days listening FM-band. It was DX-camp of 6 listeners. It was full of FM-monitoring, swimming, playing cards and drinking beer!

We had fair results on tropo and Sporadic E. It is always a dream to have good and stable Es-opening in Utö but it did not happen. Also no megatropo (not expected).
We identified stations from 29 countries (7 with tropo, 3 with meteor, 19 with Es)

You can read the results and daily log from http://www.uto-fmdx.blogspot.com/

Utö FM-DX-started Monday 22.6 >

Utö FM-DX-started! Two listeners are now in distant Finnish Utö-island for FM-DX and later four listeners will join them this Friday, including me! This pedititon is up from 22.6 till 5.7.2009.
You can read Utö-pedition highlights from http://www.uto-fmdx.blogspot.com/.
We listen in these two little red cottages visible in this photo below (direction South is ahead from the door; left). Click the photo for bigger view:

Mon 22.6.2009

On Monday morning after 07utc some weak Arabic, Turkish and Ukrainan stations noted in South Finland, but nothing here.

Sun 21.6.2009: Spain, Africa, France

Sunday morning brought us nice conditions to Spain, France and even North Africa! Unfortunately I had to be at work for the best opening time because of one quick illness! I had to run out local church service for our local station in Salo (Radio Melodia, Salo, 88.2).
In South Finland Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia was up among many Spanish stations. These are quite rare in Finland although Algeria I have heard many times. This needs douple-hop for sure (3000 km).
Spanish stations were from Andalucia, South Spain, having about 3300 km skip.
Nothing special heard by me but I losed the best moments.

LOG Sun 21.6.2009 (07.45utc >)
88.0 - Radio 5 Todo Noticias, Andalucia, South Spain. This was up for almost 10 minutes with douple-hop (3300 km) - 08.30-
88.3 - RCF, France. I this this was St.Etienne (42) transmitter-site. Heard many times. - 10.38-
88.4 - Radio Tele Algérienne, Chaine 2 in Tamazight-langauge. Transmitter location Nador (see 94.7 below). NICE SIGNAL: mp3 - 10.10-
89.3 - UNID in Arabic. Libya is heard on this frequency in Benelux! (Libya is never identified in Finland!!). Only female talk, no hints. - 10.14-
90.8 - Onda Cero, Andalucia-tx (Sierra de Mijas/Monte Viego - same tower as 88.0 above) mp3 - 08.44-
91.0 - Radio Bruno, Carpi (MO), Italy. - 08.50-
91.1 - Radio Tonic, Chagny (71), France. Only RDS visible with accordeon music . 08.20-
94.7 - UNID, possibly Radio Tlemcen, Nador, Algeria because this was the only signal up at the same time with 88.4 MHz (Nador-tx-site).

Thu 18.6.2009: Weak Turkey

I was very lucky to notice very weak signals from Turkey today after 13utc!!
During about 10 minutes I heard only one Turkish commercial station on 88.0 MHz (no other Es-signals)!!
With the help from Marko Weck from Finland it is tracked this to be a station from Biga-city, about 170 km south west from Istanbul.
It seems this is Radio Pegai (www) from Biga!!
Here is a clip from the station's commercial-break: mp3!! Tuned 18.6.2009 on 88.0 MHz at 13.08utc.
These kind of weak distant signals are the most interesting!!
Let's see if I get any reply from the station. How to explain I heard it on FM because tehy have live stream on their page...

Tue 16.6.2009: Opening to North Italy

On Tuesday evening, 16.6. (1745utc >), there were 20+ minutes long condition to North Italy. Signals were quite strong giving RDS but MUF was not higher than 97 MHz.
I heard mostly stations which I have identified many many times before:

LOG Tue 16.6.2009
87.5 - Radio Zeta, Caravaggio >> Rete Malvisi later (also on 87.6) - 18.01-
87.8 - Radio Radicale, Piacenza-tx. Once I tried to visit this station locally in Pescara (summer 1984) but they did not let me in (left-wing radical station)!!! I talked with two sucpicious guys in the street and finally gave up - 17.54-
88.0 - Radio TRM, Milano (MI). Dance music and RDS flashed on the screen just when I arrived... No talk unfortunately - 17.45-
88.0 - Radio Milano (MI). The other stn on this same frq. in Milano! 18.00-
88.4 - Radio Padova - 18.05-
88.8 - Radio DJ. They have very creative programme jingles-efects-production also in Italy (French stations are clear leaders in sound-production in Europe)!!
91.2 - Radio Radar, Porretta Terme (BO). This was new catch for me. 17.59-
91.2 - Modena Radio City, Modena (MO) pushed over Radar. - 18.02-
91.9 - UNID giving spots to Firenze. Must be R. Blu (Prato/Pisa). - 18.03-
92.2 - RCN, Cremona (PC). - 17.50-

Sun 14.6.2009: Benelux and Denmark on FM !

The beginning of summer 2009 has been very very poor. Only two brief 1-2 minutes long openings to south... One of the worst starts ever!
Finally on Sunday evening 14th of June we had something happening. There were stations mainly from Holland but also some from Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg, mainly strong high-power stations. Unfortunately this was not good condition and it lasted 50 minutes.
The highlight of the day was Denmark ! It is very rare here in SW Finland because the skip is so short. I identified Skala FM (www) from Esbjerg, on 87.6 and 88.4 MHz playing Top 40-programme. Here is mp3 from 88.4 MHz, playing "Human" by Killers after ID. The other Danish was Nova FM tentatively on 89.3 MHz.
The length of the skip was only about 950 km which is short for Sporadic E.LOG Sunday 14.6.2009
Here some loggings from this day. Times UTC.
87.6 - DEN: Skala FM, Esbjerg (Viuf-tx, 500 W). - 17.01-
87.9 - HOL: Omproep Zeeland. - 16.50-
88.4 - DEN: Skala FM, Esbjerg (Vojens-tx, 300 W). - 17.09-
89.3 - DEN: Nova FM tentatively (5 kW). - 17.10-
90.1 - HOL: Slam FM. - 17.25-
90.2 - HOL: 100%NL. - 17.03-
92.2 - F: FUN. (Must be from dep. 59 near Belgium). - 17.23-
92.2 - HOL: Omroep Fryslan fighting with FUN. - 17.23-
93.2 - HOL: Waterstad FM, Sneek (20 kW!). - 17.34-
94.7 - F: France Bleu Freq. Nord with network programme. - 17.32-

Poor May conditions

May 2009 was very poor in Es-conditions. Weak openings to France and Italy (18.5 and 25.5). Es-clouds have been mostly lying over Switzerland and that is too far to give FM-signals to Finland!
On 25.5 I identified: BFM 87.9 / RMC 88.8. Both from very South France (dep. 83, 06). Radio Milano on 88.0 was only ided private from Italy... great...
I have now added Triax FM88108-amplifiers to my Triax 8-el. yagis (V and H). Luckily Sony XDR can handle more local power-signals with no overloading!! That was good news.
Now I am listening Skärgårds Radio 90.2 from Stockholm's coast with strong signal. More power than last summer???

FM-season 2009 starts

FM-season 2009 started to me on 18th of May with very weak opening to Lyon-area, France. The real job starts within next 1-2 week.
New feature for this season is "sensational" FM-receiver Sony XDR-F1HD (more). It is interesting to compare this device to elder receivers. I have two new Sonys side by side (Click the photo).

Later this summer I will go to Utö-island again for FM-DXing for 9 days with 5 other DX-ers.
First time this big group is joining in FM-pedition! Utö-FM-DX-blog will be updated during the pedition.

Visting FM-stations in Riga, Latvia

I visited Latvian capital Riga with my wife between 11-14 March 2009. Among the sightseeings in this very beautiful city I visited many FM-stations, too!!

Basic radio-info:
* Riga has 717 000 people (about 42% both Latvian and Russian). 2.3mill people in Latvia.
* There are 12 commercial FM-stations in Riga (half Russian/ half Latvian).
* 3 national commercial stations: Radio SWH, Star FM and European Hit Radio.
* There are not very tight and clear music-formats on radio (excl. rock). Reason must be small market.
* Most of the FM-transmitters are located in the big TV-tower. It is the 3rd tallest building in Europe (368,5 m). FM-signals have too high level in the Riga centrum. FM-receiver overloads very badly!!!

I did not make any appointments with the stations beforehand, I just walked in (which is not a good way) and therefore I did not try to take much time per visit. These days people are busy at the radio stations everywhere.
However, all stations were friendly and showed me kindly places around and answered the questions!

MixFM, Radio Baltkom, Fit FM, Jumor FM
The first visit was a group of 4 stations which are all located in the same floor: Mix FM (102.7 MHz), Baltkom (93.9), Fit FM (99.5) and Jumor FM (88.6). This group is quite new compination as Fit FM, Jumor FM and Baltkom are founded about 1-2 years ago. The owner is Russian based company.

Mix FM is the main product in Russian language on 102.7 MHz (elder pop-station). Baltkom is news-radio in Russian (with very interesting way of programme production) with stylish music. Fit FM is music channel in Latvian and Jumor has no presenters (music and tv-soundtracks).
Journalist/DJ 'Eleonora Rozevelt' (arist-name) kindly showed me all the stations. She also recorded a jingle from me in Finnish language for Mix FM! I hope it will be played... All these stations sounded very good!
The SWH Group
Radio SWH is the oldest commercial station in Latvia. It is founded in 1993 and is now nationwide with 4 regional studios. I was surprised when I heard this station first time around 1995 because it sounded very professional from the very beginning!! Jingles had very good production! Later the founder Zigmars Liepiņš, confirmed me that he used US based consulting to build up the station.
Zigmars sold SWH-stations to big Irish-based media company Communicorp in 2007, but he is still involved in the board of the company and visits the station every now and then. This was bad news for me because I thought it would have been a pleasure to meet him personally!!
Communicorp is also operating in Finland with stations Suomipop, Metro FM and Groove FM.
Click the photo for bigger view >>

SWH is operating three channels: Radio SWH (Riga 105.2 MHz), SWH Plus (105.7 MHz, Russian language) and SWH Rock (89.2). SWH Rock has only 2h live-DJ daily and the rest is non-stop. I suppose this is the only rock-channel in Baltia. It is mostly tuned by Russian speaking people.
SWH's revenues for 2008 was over 2mill Euros. Really big station with many safety-guards outside! Self-advertisment manager Laura Dukjana-Lice kindly gave station-tour!!

Radio Skonto 107.2 MHz
It was also a great pleasure to see Radio Skonto, good old local radio in Riga.
Today the trend is that FM-stations are grouped under big companies who run many channels at the same time, but Radio Skonto is positive exception. I thought first that this station is a small one and close to death, but it was a big surprise that it is still very well tuned and professional. They even have music-inquires which is very expensive to arrange.
Unfortunately Programme manager was not present at that time, but young sales-lady gave kind and professional information. It was also surprise that advertising agencies sell 75 % of the Skonto's revenues. This has always been a problem in local-radio market in Finland, ad-agencies sell almost nothing...
Elita Marga was on the air, but she was too 'shy' to be photographed - but she had time for my questions between hosting the listerners. The have about 200 000 weekly listeners. Click >>>
All stations had very modern equipment and facilities - looked and sounded out professional. I did not try to solve the price-level of radio-advertising, but it must be high in Latvia because there were more people working at the stations than I expected. I suppose the base for that is the high price-level of television advertising, but I am not sure.

Go to see Riga! It is beautiful and clean culture-city with hard history under Polish, Swedish and Russian control with German influence...

Radio Sanluchino, Bologna and Discoradio, Caravaggio, Italy

I e-mailed old recording to Radio San Luchino (www) Bologna, Italy. I heard that station in Finland in summer 1991 on 104.7 MHz. In the clip there was a woman giving sms-number to the station (mp3).
At that time I got no reply, but today, the same lady who was talking on that 17 years old clip, replied to me:
"...con emozione confermo che la voce è la mia..mi chiamo Bruna Zamboni e lavoro a Radio Sanluchino da 25 anni.... Complimenti per la tua bella famiglia - cordiali saluti da tutto lo staff di Radio Sanluchino"
So, Bruna Zamboni told she listened that old clip with great emotions because she was talking on it (and she has been working for the station now for 25 years!) !!

It is a great pleasure to mail old clips to the stations because they might bring memories to the staff! The oldest one I just sent was Radio Parma (102.0 MHz, www). They confirmed my recording from 1983 and identified that the speaker on the clip was Platinette (www), who is famous drag-queen today!!

Today, also Discoradio from Caravaggio, North Italy mailed verification. The reception was from summer 2001. Station manager M. Lagonegro tuned my clip.

Radio Potenza Centrale and Radio Globo, Rome

Two replies today from Italy!! Radio Potenza Centrale (www) from Potenza, sent quick confirmation to my mp3-clip. RPC is now big station with large tx-network in South Italy, founded 1973 as a mobile pirate radio broadcasting from a car!!
Potenza-province is quite difficult to hear in Finland.

Another reply came from Rome. Radio Globo (www) is great sounding dance-station with very profesional production. I heard this station on 99.6 MHz several years ago. Direttore artistico, Lucio Scarpa, sent me e-mail wondering my reception. This is very big station sounding excellent (my mp3-clip). Here is a team of The Morning Show:

Radio Omega Sound, Roma, Italia

This week I got a reply from the beautiful city of Rome, Italy!
Radio Omega Sound (www) confirmed my reception.
I heard this station in Utö-island last June and signal was absolutely clear on 91.4 MHz (mp3)!

This is now over 32 years old station!

This week I got also kind replies from Reggio Emilia-area. I have short message from Play Studio Dance Network (www) from Bologna and Radio Centrale (www) from Cesena. Radio Centrale is also 32 years old station. The station owner, who founded the station, replied and confirmed my old clips (mp3 from 1989!) !

Reply from Radio Metro, Udine, Italy

Last week I got e-mail from Udine-based Radio Metro (www). It is very big network in N,NE Italy with 20-30 transmitters from Venezia to Padova and Udine. I heard their Padova-relay on 91.1 MHz.

I got this late mail from my mid-December postings. Usually 90 % of stations reply with 1-2 days. After that there is not much expected to have.

Quadrantids 2009 Meteor shower - no results

On Saturday 3.1.2009 at 12.50utc there were peak of Quadrantids meteor shower. It was expected to be good enough for short E-skips of European FM-stations.
It was quite good giving quite tense and long signals! Many DX-ers here in Finland identified stations, mainly high-power transmitters from North- and Central-Germany.
I was listening but I got no interesting results.
I tried to hunt new Irish regional networks anround 102 and 105 MHz. This autumn started i102 and i105 in Ireland with quite big transmitters. However, there were no sign of Irish stations. On lower band (above 88 MHz) I noticed BBC several times but that's all.

So, next 5 months will be total silence on FM-DXing. Now there could be some time to listen recrodings from the past years. I still have hours and hours to check...