Radio Noord-Holland 93.9 MHz via auroras

I found one old interesting recording from my archives.
This is from previous solar-maximum period over 10 years ago, from 30.12.1997.

I heard Radio Noord-Holland (RNH) from Wieringermeer-tx on 93.9 MHz (11.2 kW) via auroras in the Northern sky!
Aurora-reflection gives usually very distorted audio and it is difficult to copy the words.
However, this time audio is clear enough to understand station-id.

Listen my clip:
RNH 93.9 MHz 30.12.1997

Ron Versteeg, senior-reporter RTVNH confirmed my old clip:

It's a promotional jingle about the upcomming program on newyears-eve. Voice is probably of Ron Bakker, a technical engineer who lso is 'the voice' of Radio (and now also, television) Noord- Holland.

Next solar-maximum is coming within next 3-4 years.
Via auroras I have heard usually Scandinavian, Polish and German high-power transmitters.
Sometimes also BBC and Russian. Mostly signals are too distorted, because auroras are moving all the time, but sometimes surprisingly clear, mostly with the highest tx-powers.

My record with aurora-reflection are two Norwegian low-power stations from Oslo, Topp Radio 106.8 MHz and Radio Nova 107.7 MHz, from 1989-1990 period. Tx-powers on both is only 100 Watt (both also QSL'ed).

This propagation is not interesting anymore because completly free frequency is needed and mostly the same stations are up. RNH and Norwegians were nice exceptions.
(This year, 2010, I have collected 262 FM-QSL's, so far)

ERT Zakynthos 93.2 MHz QSL (nr 242)

Greek national radio ERT's regional station, ERT Zakynthos, replied today with photos and QSL ! Technical director is radioamateur, so he knows what is DXing and Sporadic E :
Αγαπητέ Φίλε
Η αναφορά σας επιβεβαιώνεται (=Your report is confirmed)
Ο Σταθμός μας Αγαπητέ Φίλε
εκπέμπει στους :
· 927 Khz με ισχύ 50 Kw
· 93.2 MHz FM με ισχύ 10 Kw
· 95.2 Μhz FM με ισχύ 2 Kw
O 93.2 εκπέμπει από την Κορυφή του Αίνου στην Κεφαλονιά

73s Technical director Rs Zakynthoy

He writes that this transmitter on 93.2 MHz, which I heard, is on the top of the Enos-mountain in the middle of the Kefalonia Island. Power 10 kW. I heard their local station-id last summer.

Reply from Radio Annaba, Algeria

Today I got surprise from Algeria.
The director of Radio Annaba replied with kind e-mail and verification of my listening.
Radio Annaba is a regional station of Radio Algérienne broadcasting on 88. /99.3 and 107.6. I received this station on 88.8 MHz (10 kW).
My reception / Mp3
This is Multihop Es, distance 2810 km. Annaba is a city in the northern coast of Algeria, 235 000 inhabitants. / Algeria is my 49th country verified on FM.

232 FM-QSLs this year!

This year I have collected 232 FM-QSLs so far - from all around Europe !! This is a new Finnish record (was 216) !! The goal is 250, which should be reached as there is two months left.

The best country this year has been France with 28 replies. The most difficult country so far seems to be Bulgaria and Turkey (dozens of stations but only a few replies).
I have had a lot of nice contacts and some of them goes even to the stations web-page, like with Radio Złote Przeboje (Warsaw, Poland): Story of my reception. Tnx Jakub!

Allmost all replies are naturally e-mails but there are still several letters coming (to my e-mails):
- German stations are very kind to reply, especially the big provincial network. You get real QSL-cards from Grmany (Bayersicher Rundfunk Ostbayern / SR3 Saarland, B5 Aktuell)!!
- Also I have letters with pens, stickers, badges, keychains, CDs etc. from
- Latte&Miele, Bologna, Italy / Radio Maria Espana / Radio Express, Prag, Czech (QSL!) /Radio Bresse, Branges, France / Radio Fribourg, Switzerland / Spin FM, Dublin, Ireland /

This Friday 29.10.2010 I got kind e-mail from Radio City from Maribor, Slovenia.
Programme director Bor Greiner (first at right of this morning crew-photo) wrote funny e-mail and verification.
This crew on this photo must be very funny!! Radio City is the highest market-learder I have ever known. They have about 50 % share of listening in their broadcasting area (1/3 of Slovenia), the other 16-17 station are all under 9 %..... amazing...

My FM-antennas

Here a few photos of my antennas in Naantali. There are two little towers, nothing special.

Tower 1 (rotator)
- 8-element Triax yagi, vertical
- Körner 15.11, horizontal
- 2 x Triax preamps and rotator

Tower 2 (manual direction)
- 8-element Triax yagi with Triax-preamp
- 72 mhz dipole for OIRT

Tower 1 is about 4-5 meter high. The highest 2 meters of it is plastic. That's because the vertical antenna is connected directly to the mast. In this way the distance between V and H can be minimal (or could be installed even to the same boom).
Everything in tower 1 is painted black, so it is more invisible for neighbors.

A few years ago I tried stacking two vertical Triax 8-el. yagis with Triax-combiner but never succeeded. All got weaken for some reason (similar antennas, similar coax-feeds). I am not clever enough to build combiner myself.

Click the photos for better views (different angels):

204 FM-QSL-replies this year !

I have now 204 QSL-replies this year! I broke 200-limit last week:

On Friday I got e-mail from Radio Diffusion Charentaise (RDC), 93.4 MHz from Angoulme (Midwest France). I mailed them C-casette with recording + Finnish music etc.
On Friday also nice reply from Aire Latino, 88.5 MHz from Valencia, Spain. Station director Alberto Valencia, basicly from Colombia, told he reformatted the station lately. Seems to be quite big station because station's internet-site looks very dynamic.

European pirate stations received on FM !

Last summer there were excellent conditions on FM to Europe. I identified hundreds of stations from all around. My distance-record last summer was Radio Darom from Beerseba, Israel on 95.8 MHz, 5 kW, 3380 km (I have QSL).

However, I heard also a few pirate stations on FM via ionosphere - from London, Holland and Serbia.

Here are some audio-clips of these pirate stations which I identified last summer on FM (Many of these stations are indentified or tracked from the given telephone-numbers or city-names on commercials):

FM-Pirates from London, UK
87.5 MHz - Platinum FM, London - 14.6.2010 at 15.05 utc // mp3
90.4 MHz - Whoa FM, London - 1.6.2010 at 20.38 utc // mp3
92.2 MHz - MetroLove, London - 1.6.2010 at 20.30 utc // mp3
94.6 MHz - Kool FM, London - 1.6.2010 at 19.43 utc // mp3
See Kool FM studio live-video from their web

FM-Pirates from Belgrade, Serbia
87.5 MHz - Narodni Radio, Beograd - 18.7.2010 at 12.51 utc / mp3
92.2 MHz - Radio Raka Esinger, Lazarevac-city - 15.6.2010 at 09.10 utc // mp3
99.5 MHz - Radio Balkan, Beograd - 18.7.2010 at 12.02 utc // mp3
104.2 MHz - Radio Krajina, Beograd - 7.6.2010 at 15.37 utc // mp3

FM-Pirate from Holland
87.5 MHz - Zender Starsky, Vroompshoop - 1.8.2010 at 12.30 utc // mp3

I tuned this Dutch pirate only about 1,5 minutes time on 87.5 with nonstop music, but I was in contact with this pirate and they confirmed my clip (you can hear vinyl-record slow-starting sound in my clip). They sent a few photos of their equipment, too. Power 2 kW + antenna gain to 4-element yagi.

192 FM-QSLs this year! / Nice tropo 9.10.2010 !

I have not had time to update this blog since mid-summer. There were so big FM-openings and it took all time to check the recordings! And now I am in the mood of reporting and QSL-hunting!
So far I have collected 192 QSL-replies this year!!
From now on I will inform here what do I got during the end of this year.

This weekend we had nice tropo opening towards Poland and South Sweden. A few new stations were heard by my on Saturday 9.October 2010.

Here the best receptions: (times UTC) - Underlined first time in Finland

87.8 MHz - SWEDEN: R Treby, Vara. 200 W vertical. "Det här är R Treby, 87.8" -05.40-
87.8 MHz - SWEDEN: Mix Megapol Östergötland 106.9. Åtvidaberg-tx. Listed to be only 20 Watts on very high tower !! Fighting with Treby. -05.30-
90.8 MHz - SWEDEN: R Falköping. 300 W vertical. Jingel ID after 30 min nonstop. Later px. - 05.40-
100.9 MHz - SWEDEN: East FM, Norrköping. - 11.07-
102.9 MHz - POLAND: RMF FM Maxx, Lebork-tx. 1 kW vertical. - 13.25- 710 km
103.1 MHz - SWEDEN: GNF 103,1/ K103, Göteborg. "K103 is the station you are listening right now". 700 W vertical. - 10.50- 650 km
105.7 MHz - DENMARK: R ABC, Randers. Langå-tx, 1 kW vertical. This was the best catch today. The first small private station from Denmark with tropo in Finland on FM!! - 08.58- 840 km

Also a lot of Polish Polskie Radio, Radio Zet and RMF FM trasnmitters from North Poland from Gdynia to Kozalin and Slupsk. Strong signals with RDS! Naturally Danmarks Radio was audible on 96.5 etc. and many MixMegapol and RIX FM regional relays from Southern Sweden (Halmstad, Norrköping, Göteborg etc).

Here is a Hepburn tropomap-forecast for Saturday 9.10.2010. That fits perfectly what we did got (Click for better view):

Utö FM-FX 11-20.6.2010

I will be in Utö-island for 10 days. There is a group of 7 DXers monitoring the FM-band.

You can read daily our logs from www.uto-fmdx.blogspot.com.

Incredible start for this FM-season!!

Here is SW Finland, and in whole Finland, Sporadic E-season has been exceptionally good!! We have had Band II opened almost everyday since 25th May till Sunday 6th June 2010 - and still continuing. Unfortunately I've no chance to tune all the best moments.

Saturday 29.5.2010
Weak Italy and Russia
Tuesday 1.6.2010
Turkey, Greece, France (Paris), Benelux, UK (many pirates logged), Hungary up to 108 MHz for the whole evening till late night!
Wednesday 2.6.2010
Russia, Austria, Slovenia, Czech, Slovak, Croatia, Italy. MUF up to 108 MHz totally 7 hours!
Friday 4.6.2010
France, Germany, Italy around midday 45 min. Weakly in the evening.
Saturday 5.6.2010
Greece, Romania, Turkey, UK, France (Paris open 108 MHz long time). Many hours.
Sunday 6.6.2010
Weak Ukraina, Romania and Bulgaria for many hours.

In East Finland DXers reached Middle East on FM. First time Iraq was heard - even one or two private commercial stations!! Also Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Turkey was open to Istanbul for 1,5h to 108 MHz around Helsinki!
For some reason Middle East is very rare here in West Finland.

Very curious to see what is coming because the best time of the FM-season is ahead!!

Thursday 27.5.2010 (Mostly France, UK)

I missed the first 1-2 hours of this condition. We were whole day in Helsinki visiting press editors of Sanoma WSOY's Helsingin Sanomat and Ilta Sanomat and also Etelä Suomen Sanomat in Lahti.
Our company, Turun Sanomat, is moving to multimedia-publishing during next 12 months including press, tv, net and radios.

Thursday 27.5.2010 (Mostly France and some UK, 18.00 > 22.22). At night short skips all around France, but not many stations at one time. Big networks not logged, only locals.

88.0 MHz - Radio TRM, Milano (MI). 3 minutes before Radio Milano!! - 21.42-
88.4 MHz - Lalegül FM, Istanbul, Turkey with RDS for 2 minutes. 18.03-
88.8 MHz - Magic FM, La Souterraine (23). Rare late night skip! - 21.41-
89.4 MHz - ODS, Seynod (74). - 18.49-
91.2 MHz - Radio Margeride, Termes (48). Possibly also on 98.5 later. - 19.20-
91.4 MHz - Radio Orient tentatively from dep. 45. - 19.47-
93.8 MHz - Radio Bresse, Le Bourg (71). - 19.22-
95.2 MHz - BBC R Cornwall. - 18.25-
96.3 MHz - Hot Radio Chambéry, Lancey (38). - 18.53-
96.4 MHz - The Wave, Swansea. 18.30-
96.4 MHz - Radio Isa, La Tour du Pin (38). - 18.52-
103.2 MHz - Red Dargon Radio. - 18.38-
105.4 MHz - Real Radio. Now for the 2nd time this season. 18.37-$$

Wednesday 26.5.2010 (mostly France)

Luckily conditions are taking place in the evenings. During working hours it would have been hell...

Wednesday 26.5.2010 (Interesting South France, around Marseille + Piemonte area!! 16.15 - 17.25 utc)

87.6 MHz - Radio Mater. - 17.18-
87.9 MHz - France Bleu Drome. - 16.15-
87.9 MHz - Radio Maritima, Marseille. Local ad's to Istres?? Have to check later. - 16.36-
88.0 MHz - Radio Radicale for the 2nd time this tx-site. 16.30-
88.2 MHz - Métropole Radio, Brignoles (83). Tracked up from the lists!! - 16.47-
88.5 MHz - Latte & Miele, Torino local break. - 16.51-
88-8 MHz - Radio FG, Paris. 17.25-
89.2 MHz - RFM, Marseille-tx. Not local px. - 19.18-
89.4 MHz - Radio Orient with RDS. Toulon-tx (83) near Marseille. Arabic. - 16.38-
89.5 MHz - Radio Milano first time on this frq. 15 min before on 88.0 MHz. - 17.13-
90.2 MHz - Radio Star 90.2, Toulon. I hope I have local ad-break taped. - 16.41-
91.0 MHz - Verdon FM, Castellane (04). - 16.40-

Tuesday 25.2.2010

Quite good signals to Northern Italy giving basic local stations. Most of them I have heard many times during the years. I log here only local stations, no networks like 105, RDS, 101 etc. which are all around the band.
Later at night our local time there were opening to Wales, South Ireland and Bretagne, France!

Tuesday 25.5.2010 (Italy, mostly Piemonte, 16.00 - 16.45utc)

87.8 MHz - Radio Radicale. - 16.31-
88.0 MHz - Radio Milano. This stn has been very common this summer!! - 16.00-
89.3 MHz - Fantastica, Torino. This is from Colle della Maddalena-tx-site. Ihave heard almost all 48 stations from this site (which are on free frq.). Only one is left to hunt (R.Blackout).
90.3 MHz - m2o, Torino-tx. - 16.03-
90.7 MHz - Italia Uno Party, Torino, - 16.01-
91.2 MHz - Radio Musica from Milano. Only RDS. This would have been new for me. - 16.08-
91.2 MHz - Modena Radio City. - 16.13-
92.3 MHz - Radio Stella. - 16.40-
93.7 MHz - Radio Record. - 16.24-
93.8 MHz - Radio Bruno. - 16.17-
95.2 MHz - Studio Piú. "Studio +" on RDS. - 16.21-
95.7 MHz - Radio Voghera. 16.14-
96.2 MHz - Radio Canzione e Sorrisi, MO. Only RDS with music. First time for me. - 16.44-
97.0 MHz - Radio Canelli e Monferrato, ex-Monferrato. 16.06-

At night new opening:
91.7 MHz - Forum, France. - 21.52-
93.0 MHz - France Bleu Breiz Izel, Brest, Bretagne, France. All frq's of this site were up (89.4, 95.4 and 97.8 MHz).
97.4 MHz -4FM, Cork-tx. First time in Finland!! - 22.09-
102.8 MHz - Pirate FM. - 22.20-
105.7 MHz -Real Radio, Wales. - 22.15-

21-22.5.2010 Weak Italian FM

Saturday 22.5.2010
88.8 MHz - Radio Bari, Bari pushed up twice. Quite new station. Founded 4.7.2007. - 06.25-

Friday 21.5.2010
On Friday evening weak Italian signals on the lower FM-band:

For 2-3 minutes I heard stations only from one tower from Salerno-province. That was Perdifumo-Monte Stella-tx-site about 50 km East from Salerno. Stations:
88.0 MHz - Radio Radicale - 16.01-
89.4 MHz - KissKiss - 15.59-
91.2 MHz - Radio Maria - 16.02-
92.8 MHz - m2o (tent.) - 16.02-

Also Radio Company from Benevento on 88.4 MHz was up before these. Seems to be very often audible here. That must be because high tx-site in the mountains.

UNID. Help with this:
89.3 MHz - Radio Erre, UNID QTH. Clear id between the music. 16.07- IDEAS??

FM-season 2010 started

FM-season started here in South Finland on 8th May 2010 giving basic Italians for 10 minutes:
Radio Capital, Subasio, Suvy and RDS all on 87.5 MHz.


Thursday 20.5.2010
I had one holiday Thursday and tuned some Russians on OIRT:

66.44 - GRTK Saratov with local programme - 09.10-
66.68 - GRTK Saransk with local programme - 09.52-
67.30 - GTRK Samara with local programme - 09.57-
68.51 - Russkaya Sluzhba Novostey, Samara. Local news at 10.00 utc-

Replies from RTV Zenica, Bosnia

On Thursday 18th March I got nice messages from RTV Zenica (Zenica-city), 50 km NW from Sarajevo, Bosnia. I sent them a clip of Radio Zenica's signal which I received here in Finland on summer 2006 on 95.6 MHz. Signal was very strong and clear (mp3 here later).
Station engineer Ibrahim Avdic wrote that this transmitter is in Bugojno-city, 778 Watts ERP. The station has also 3 other FM-tx's in the region. They have also own regional TV-station in operation (Channel 41 UHF).

I got also confirming message from programme manager, Sanja Stevic:
"Postovani, da to jeste iz naseg programa, jer prepoznajem glas naseg voditelja Edina Sinanovica. Vec smo imali takvih informacija o tome da su ljudi mogli u nekim okolnostima na radiju slusati nas program. Drago mi je da je tako i hvala vam sto ste nam se javili. Hvala na javljanju, javite se opet! S postovanjem - Sanja Stevic".

She wrote that it was clearly their station which I heard as she recognized the voice of Edina Sinanovica, one of their presenters.
RTV Zenica has very informative web-page with a lot of beautiful pictures of Zenica. It seems that they have had very cold winter in Bosnia (as you can see even from the header on the front page)!! Zenica is the 4th biggest city in Bosnia ( 127 ooo people) . www.rtvze.ba

Yvelines Radio, 88.4 MHz, Marly Le Roi, France

French Yvelines Radio (88,4 MHz) made big surprise to me yesterday!! They made nice article to their web-page of my reception in Finland: YVELINES RADIO capté en Finlande
They even gave link how this is possible via Sporadic E (link)! Great work!

This station is located in Marly Le Roi (78) very near Versailles (and Paris). They broadcast on 88.4 MHz with about 2 kW power.