New FM-DX-remote receiver in Virolahti, S.E. Finland

I have new remote-controlled FM-DX-receiver (4th) located by the sea in Virolahti, close to Russian border in SouthEast Finland. Russian side is visible over the sea. It is installed after 10 days DX-camp in Poronniemi, Virolahti in June.

Receiver: SDRplay RSP2 (which includs antenna switcher)
Computer start remotedly: PG-11 GSM-relay connected to Nokia 3310 phone
HD: 5 TB harddisk

Antennas 2 x horizontal, no rotator: 
-Fixed stable 8-element H-yagi directed to South East, 140 degrees (Middle East countries)
-Fixed stable 3-element H-yagi directed to , South West 240 degrees  (Spain, BeNeLux)
                       CLICK THE PHOTOS FOR BETTER VIEW

I have now 4 remote-controlled FM-DX-receivers

Newest remote-controlled FM-DX-receiver is in Virolahti (nr 4)

New remote FM-DX-installation to Utö-island

I installed again, in May 2015, remoted controlled FM-DX-equipment to distant Utö-island, SW Finland.
There is now 3 computers and 3 receivers tuneable. Some photos and videos here in Utö-blog:

http://remote-fmdx-uto.blogspot.fi/

Also I have  another remote-FM-DXin Mid-West-Finland. See below, previous text,

Two new remote FM-DX-sites

I have built two new remote-controlled FM-DX-sites. There is a bigger installation in distant Utö-island in SW Finland. Presentation with photos is here: Remote FM-DX-Utö.

The other site is located in Isokyrö, close to Vaasa and Seinäjoki in midWest Finland. It is at my parents home
Photo below (click for bigger view).

The equipment:
- Sony XDR-receiver (black box) controlled by computer with GTK-software
- Climax Digital DTV300 SDR-stick (on the PC-screen on 88.5 MHz) (White stick in the photo)
- Both receivers are connected to 5-element vertical yagi with Triax FM-amplfier (right)
- PC is connected to WLAN (1/1 Mb) with Teamviewer (incl. audio)
- Sony XDR audio is recorded to compter by Audacity

Remote FM-DX-site to Utö-island

Almost one year since the last writing here!
During the last autumn I hunted Irish church stations on 27 MHz-band via F2. That took a lot of time from FM-DXing.

Since the autumn I started to plan remoted FM-DX-site to Utö-island, SW Finland. That means I have FM-receiver in far distant island and I tune it at home with PC. It works well altough we have many things to improve.

Read more of this unique setup from here: Remoted FM-DX-Utö 
.

Moving two radio stations

I work for Radio Auran Aallot, Radio Melodia and Zoom FM (local commercial stations in Turku). I moved the stations from Turku city centrum to new Turun sanomat multimedia centrum in Artukainen (new city cetrum) on 28-29.7.2011. So, no time to monitor FM-band.
R.A.A. and Melodia moved, Zoom FM 93.4 (50 Watts) was closed down for 2-5 months to restart later with full 1 kW power on 99.0 MHz.

There were Italy opening on Wed (28.7) evening and some Turkey/Balkan on Friday (29.7) afternoon.

Tue-Wed 26-27.7.2011 - Italy and UK links

On Tuesday 26.7.2011 Southern Italy opening was up - mostly to Rome, later to Emilia Romagna-area again.
Several new Rome-stations were audible even above 100 MHz. Radio San Marino also gave id on 102.7, long time since last time to hear that station, also Vatican Live on 105.2 MHz.

On Wednesday 27.7.2011 not much time to listen, but this was not a good day anyway. In the evening several Greeks (ERA-freq's) and Italian stations were up (Radio Alfa from MN on 88.8 MHz).

British 6 mb-STL-links id'ed first time
I got a new antenna for 6 meters amateur radio band (5 elements yagi to 45-55 MHz). It is made by OH1ZAA (Zaba), wellknown radioamateur from Pori, Finland.
The antenna works very well !!! I heard my first low power STL-links (=Studio-transmitter-links) from UK. My receiver is Realistic Pro 2006 (It is OK, and cheap as 2nd hand, but a nightmare to use).
Some 6 mb-loggings from 27.7.2011
48.425 - 1821- G: UNID from England. No id heard.
52.750 - 2021 - G: Bridge FM, Dundee, Scotland. Hosbital station in Dundee. Quite big signal! Still 5 Watts only?
52.925 - 1823 - G: Trust AM, Nottinghamshire.

Sun 24.7.2011 - Middle East ! East Europe - Turkey

On Sunday afternoon, after 11 days silence, FM-band opened to Middle East !! Very interesting opening to Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Iran !!
Several id's were clear but most of the stations remained unidentified. Arabic stations have much talk and music with rare station-id's.
After arabic some Turkey popped up, mainly from Istanbul and Zonguldak (close to Istanbul). Between Turkish stations some Ukrainan, Romanian and Bulgarian stations appeared with strong signals, and Moldova, too. MUF was over 100 MHz only several short moments.
I rewind my recordins later but here some live-observations:

Some loggings from Sun 24.7.2011

89.600 - 1236 - SYRIA: Ninar FM, Nice id's in English!!
90.800 - 1235 - LBN: Sevan FM, Beirut. RDS + audio-id.
91.400 - 1241 - UKR: Radio Alla with local id to Odessa.
91.600 - 1328 - ROU: Radio Mamaia, Mamaia
91.700 - 1218 - Possibly Iran with talk long time. Several arab's on 89.4, 92.1, 92.2, 88.6, 91.9 and 100.7
91.800 - 1241 - UKR: Radio Shanson with local Odessa-id. Also Radio Gala on 91.0, Sharmanka on 89.5 and FM Odin on 87.5 MHz. A lot of Ukrainan signals above 100 MHz but I concentrated on Arabic on lower band.
92.300 - 1337 - TUR: Lig FM, Istanbul.
94.500 - 1339 - TUR: Rock FM, Istanbul.
94.500 - 1314 - TUR: Radio Saranya, Saranya. 2nd time this summer!
94.700 - 1304- MDA: Prime FM, Kishnev. RDS. Ex-Antena C.
94.700 - 1332 - ROU: Doina FM with music and RDS but again no id.
95.300 - 1345- TUR: Slow Türk, Istanbul.
95.800 - 1340- TUR: Bayram FM, Istanbul. Highest Istanbul station was on 96.0 MHz.
97.300 - 1352 - BUL: R Veronika, Varna-tx.

Surprise from Belluno, Italy - Radio Piú

Today and yesterday I got nice reply from Radio Piú from Belluno, North Italy.
Belluno is very rare to receive here in Finland. I think the reason for that is the high mountains to Finland direction (North). However, luckily some transmitters find their ways to ionosphere beside mountains.
On the 13th of July I heard commercials to Belluno on 104.4 MHz. I found that this station could be Radio Piú. I wrote e-mail to the station, and they kindly confirmed my recording.

Some journalists at Radio Piú are also working for local newspaper, Il Gazzettino Belluno, so jornalist Mirko made an article of my distant reception.

Here is that article was published on the 20.7.2011. CLICK

Wed 13.7.2011 - Sicily and Balkan

Wednesday 13.7.2011 bought rare signals from Sicily (Italy), not long lasting but anything is wellcome from southern Italy. Only two stations were heard from Sicily, but also some other new italians for me from the continent.
Before south Italy the band was full of Emilia Romagna-stations (Bologna, Modena, Ferrara, Parma etc). This are is the most common area to receive here since all time (from whole Europe). I think I have heard 95 % of possible stations from that area - and the rest are on very difficult frequencies.

Also some Balkan stations were up, but strangely only on a few sporadic frequencies. Radio Kosova (95.7 MHz) was also audible with RDS, quite rare lately.
Some loggings Wed 13.7.2011 (Red=First time in Finland)
87.800 - 1612 - I: Ravegnana Radio, Ravenna (RA)
89.300 - 1646 - + I: Tentative: Radio Italia Anni 60 Trapani, Marsala (TP). Two adverts to Marsala before blocked by another Italian.
92.200 - 1637 - I: Radio Tua Punto Due, Ancona (AN).
92.900 - 1700 - SRB: Radio S, Beograd. I visited this station several years ago.
93.000 - 1632 - HRV: HR Otocac. Heard on 107.6 before.
94.700 - 1615 - I: Radio Gamma, Savignano sul Rubicone (FC). There are several independent Gamma's in Italy and this is the most common.
94.700 - 1626 - I: Radio Fiesole 100, Firenze (FI).
95.700 - 1715 - KOS: Radio Kosova, Pristina. RDS.
95.900 - 1617 - I: Radio Milano TV. Ex-Rete 96 ja ex-Milano Marttima. Some kind of art-station.
97.000 - 15.44 - I: Radio Nettuno, Bologna (BO).
97.400 - 1708 - + I: Circuito Radio7 Basilicata, Muro Lucano (PZ) . Local news: "GR regione Basilicata". Myös RDS: "RADIO 7" "RETE" "SUDAUDIO". Some kind of network with independent stations.
97.500 - 1529 - I: Radio Sound, Codigoro (FE).
97.800 - 1637 - + I: Radio Azzurra Marsala, Marsala (TP). Nice new suprise from Sicily with multi-skip.
97.800 - 1703 - + SRB: Radio Beocin, Beocin (Voj). European Top 44-px!
97.900 - 1610 - I: Radio Record, Sant'arcangelo di Romagna (RN). RDS-id.
98.500 - 1717 - I: Radiosa, Matera (MT). RDS and simple audio-id.
99.000 - 1524 - I: Teleradio Veneta, Legnano (VR). "T.R.V" + telephone-number.
99.900 - 15.55 - I: Radio Venere, Monzuno (BO). A little bit more processed jingle than italian usually have.
102.000 - 1527 - I: Modena 90, Modena (MO). Heard on 107.4 on previous opening.
103.100 - 1544 - I: Radio Monte Kanate, Salsomaggiore Terme (PR).
103.500 - 1546 - I: Radio Venezia, Mestre (VE). Nice surprise this one, too. Not so many stations in Venezia today.
104.200 - 15.48- I: Veronica My Radio, Pesaro (PS).

There were also opening on Friday 8.7.2011.
It was weak in the afternoon to Italy (40 min) and later in the evening to England and Ireland (20 minutes). Only several local stations were id'ed but nothing new for me.

Wed 6.7.2011 - Whole Europe opening ->> white noise

Wednesday evening 6.7. bought the strongest opening so far this summer. Unfortunately the condition area was too large. At the same time whole Europe was coming up, only Turkey and UK were out! FM-stations from 25 countries at the same time! Lasted 4 hours (last 2 h were mostly Romania).

On most of the frequencies were 10-20 stations pushing up at the same time from almost every European country. This kind of situation gives white noise, dozens of stations are fighting on one frequency and the result is only noise (receiver's signal meters are peaking on highest level all the time but you hear only noise).

This opening was not the worst I have expereinced. There were still some high-power transmitters up and audible, but stations were changing all the time on one frequency and were very difficult to id. Less than 1 kW stations are mostly not audible because highpower transmitter from some other country blocks the channel.
Also RDS-signal-ID is useless during this. Usually during white noise-opening we do not get RDS-signals out because stations interferere each other so much. Strong signal from the same or adjacent channel blocks RDS-datas.

Some loggings Wed 6.7 2011 (red= first time in Finland)
92.400 - 1759 - SVN: Val 202, Ljubljana on 3 diff frq !!
94.700 - 1914 - ROU: Radio Doina, Constanta. Long time with rds.
95.300 - 1545 -+ CZE: Radio Valassko, Vsetin
95.800 - 19.38 - ROU: Radio Delta, Tulcea. + a lot of romanian networks all around with a lot of dance music, mostly Pro FM.
96.500 - 1621 - SRB: Radio Beograd 2/3.
96.800 - 1741 - SRB: Skala Radio, Ugljevik
97.900 -1609 - AUT: Radio Niederösterreich
97.900 - 1823 - BIH: Radio Valentino, Bijela.
99.100 - 1605 - AUT: Antenne Steiermark
99.900 - 1710 - MDA: Radio Noroc, Chisinau
101.600 - 1603 - I: Radio Parsifal, Pescara
104.700 - 1619 - HRV: Radio Rijeka
104.900 - 1755 - POL: Radio Eska, possibly Wroclaw.
104.900 - 1613 - AUT: Antenne Kärnten, Klagenfurt.
105.00 - 1816 - BIH: Radio Brcko, Brcko
106.700 -1828 - RUS: Retro Radio, possibly local ads.
107.400 - 1700 - I: Modena 90, Modena
106.600 - 1621 - + HNG: Lánchid Rádió, Budapest. New relay on 106.6.
106.600 - 1704 - POR: UNID Portuguese !!
107.000 - 19.00 - MDA: Radio Micul Samaritean, Chisinau
107.600 - 16.13 - SVK: Radio Express, Bratislava
107.600 - 16.35 - HRV: HR Radio Otocac
107.800 - 1617 - BIH: Kalmanradio, Sarajevo
107.900 - 1632 - HRV: Hrvatski Katoliscki Radio, Zagreb
108.000 - 1611 - I: Radio Studio Piú
+ also stations from more Western Europe must they were mostly national networks

Fri 1.7.2011- Weak South Italy

Very weak South Italy appeared around 14utc. Not much to log:

87.800 - 1359- I: Radio Potenza Centrale, Potenza (PZ)
87.800 - 1400- HRV: R. Dalmacija. Almost at the same moment 2 days ago
88.100 -1413- I: Radio Linea, Civitanova Marche (MC) "Radio Linea numero uno"

Wed 29.6.2011 - Weak Crete, Romania etc

Wednesday morning gave weak signals from south: Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Crete (Iraklion). Very weak and short-skips.

Some Loggings Wed 29.6.2011
87.800 -09.54- HRV: Radio Dalmacija.
87.800 -09.45- ROU: Radio Brasov "RADIO BV"-rds.
87.900 -09.40- GRC: Erotokritos FM, Iraklion. From Crete! Highlight of the day!!
88.300 -09.43- HNG: Clear id with frq-announcement but not found this station!

Tue 28.6.2011 - Jordania, Lebanon etc - New RSL!

Tuesday afternoon and evening was very extraordinary. Middle-East is very rare to receive here in SW Finland (more common in East Finland!) but on this day I heard Jordania Main Programme with RDS on 95.8 MHz !! Also Lebanese stations were strong on several frequencies! Great!
After arabs conds moved over Europe giving occasional signals from Romania, Bulgaria, Czech, Moldova and Austria - not big signals, short-timed and scattered.

Finally the clouds moved to UK-position, not high MUF but for some moments around 97 MHz.
The highlight was RSL-station Pride Radio from Newcastle on 87.9 MHz !! This is 30 days station for Gay Pride Festivals! So, the power of this station is around 10-20 Watts only!
Also many London pirates were audible: Impact FM 87.5 MHz (from South Coast of England) and tentatively 87.9 MHz (Shine), 89.6 MHz (Klick?) and 90.8 MHz (Lightning?). These were audible for the longest time. Tapes not cheked yet.
Also several Benelux-frequencies were open but unfortunately no pirates from Holland!!

Some Loggings Tue 28.6.2011
87.500 - 1038- G: Impact FM 87,5 Mhz, Southern Counties. From Southern England (Surrey, Sussex, South Coast).
87.900 -1051- + G: Pride Radio, Newcastle. Gay Pride Festival Radio. On air 20.6 - 17.7. These kind of RSL's have usually only 10-20 W power!
88.300 -1707- BUL: Radio Stara Zagora, Stara Zagora.
90.200 -1708- BUL: Radio Bella, Petrich.
91.900 -0630- LBN: Radio Al-Nour, Beirut. Later also on 91.7 with stronger signal. Lebanese also on 88.3 and 88.7 MHz.
92.900 -1713- GRC: Kiss FM, Athens.
94.600 -1730- GRC: Akroama FM, Serres.
95.800 -0630- JOR: Jordan Radio Main Programme, Amman. With RDS!
+ dozens of stations not listed now

Mon 27.6.2011 - Rome and Bordeaux !!

Monday afternoon and evening finally gave some distant signals.
The conditions started from Rome, Italy - not high MUF. After that conds moved to Bordeaux, France - for the first time ever (dep 33)!! And then back to South Italy.
After Italy-opening several arab talking-frequencies opened for 20 minutes, but only talk, no luck with id's.
The frequencies were 87.8 / 87.9/ 89.6 / 92.2 MHz. I think they were from Algeria or Tunisia
as they are on the line for multi-hop over South Italy.

Some loggings Mon 27.6.2011
88.000 -1730- F: Radio Esperance. Limoges-tx (87).
88.000 -1906- I: R.V.E. FM Top Radio, Jesi (AN). Ex-Vallesina.
88.100 -1748- + F: Radio Campus, Bordeaux (33). The 2nd Campus for me this summer (Orleans 88.3).
89.300 -1740- + F: Radio Melodi FM, Libourne (33). Same name as the station were I work.
90.600 -1441- I: RDS - Dimensione Suono Roma. Possible loval programme for Rome, which is different than nationel feed.
90.800 -1435- I: Radio Verde, Viterbo (VT).
91.700 -1452- + I: Tele R Orte, Orte (VT). Unlisted frequency.
92.800 - 1852- I: Radio Salentina, Martano (LE).

Sat 25.6.2011 - Short Turkey, Ukraina - 15 W RSL-reply!

This season has been very poor so far. Only one good opening (and I missed it)!! Also not good conditions in Utö-pedition.
Today there were tiny opening to Samsun-city in North Turkey. Unfortunately only lower-band signals. No MUF above 94 MHz. Also some Ukrainan stations shortly.

LOG Sat 25.6.2011
88.000 -0819- UKR: R Dacha. Simferopol-tx.
88.400 -0806- TUR: Fistik FM, Samsun. Very long commercial-break!!
88.800 -0805- TUR: Metro FM, Istanbul. Samsun-tx. Rolling RDS: "METRO FM" "SAMSUN".
89.500 -0821- UKR: R Sharmanka. Gave tel for advertisers.
93.900 -0805- TUR: TRT. "Reklamar"-jingle revealed this to be TRT.

New Low-power-record - 15 Watts
In Utö I received British low-power RSL-station (on the air only for one month!) and I got a reply!
Ultra Radio from Morpeth (NE England, near Newcastle) on 87.7 MHz verified my mp3-clip.
They told their brodcasting power is only 15 Watts !! That is my new record! (Previous record was 25 Watts, Ruthland Radio 97.4 MHz).
-
.

In Utö-island - 10-19.6.2010

I am listening in Utö-island with 7 other listeners till 19.6.2011.
The daily results are here www.uto-fmdx.blogspot.com

Wed 8.6.2011 - Nice Turkey-opening

On Wednesday-afternoon we had nice 50 minutes long opening to Istanbul and around. Luckily there were also stations up from Adapazari, Kocaeli and Gebze-cities, which made this more interesting. (Red= First time in Finland)
Conds started from Adapazari and moved slightly to Istanbul.
87.800 -1155- TUR: Radyo 34, Istanbul. Adapazari-tx. Later on 88.0 MHz.
88.200 -1158- TUR: Lalegül FM, Istanbul. Unlisted frequency. RDS. Also heard on 88.4 when area moved to Istanbul.
90.300 -1221- TUR: Kocaeli Radyo Sahin, Kocaeli (Mam). Jingle an ads.
91.600 -1231- TUR: 91.6 Türkiyenin Haber, Istanbul. Station gives id: "91.6 - Haber". Ex-Radyo 24.
91.700 -1237- + TUR: Radyo Gül, Gebze (Koc). RDS-id and adverts. Bulgarian went over just in a dramatic moment to have also audio-id.
94.000 1203- + TUR: R Aktif, Adapazari (Sak). My 3rd different Aktif from Turkey, but this is not a network.
94.500 -1157- + TUR: R Sakarya, Adapazari (Sak). Simple jingle between music.
95.400 -1136- + TUR: Gebze FM, Gebze (Koc). I got e-mail and sms-message from this station for my message of their signal in Finland!

Also IDed Viva, PAL FM, Kral Pop, Kral Türk etc.

Utö9 starts this Friday 10.6.2011

I will join to the traditional Utö-FM-pedition for the 5th time this summer (previous 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010).
This will be named as Utö9. The camp is on from 10.6 - 19.6.2011. We arrive late Friday evening by m/s Eivor.
http://uto-fmdx.blogspot.com

There will be 8 listeners this year; last year crew + Juha Ylönen from Central Finland.
This year we have extra challenge with antennas. Finnish army now forbid us to connect our masts to the barrier close to the houses. We had to arrange holes to our antenna-masts. New antenna-masts will be drilled on the rocks:

Heteka-antennas from the 70's

I started my FM-DXing in the 70's. Till the end of the 70's decade we used Finnish traditional Heteka-beds as antennas.
Here is one historical photo of my old 1-element Heteka-antenna - my grandmother's old bed as antenna!

We had excellent results even with 1-element. In the end I had 3-elements (laminated, 1977). The negative point was that it usually gave extra creaking sound to the recordings (during heavy wind). Click the photo for better view.
............................Late and bad April Fool joke

Fri 3.6.2011 - Italy, weak France

We are waiting fro the BIG BANG-opening - not seen yet this summer!! Moderate cond-days continued on Tuesday. Strong signals to Italy in the morning, very weak to France in the evening.

Log Fri 3.6.2011
88.000 -1744- F: RCF Vendée, La-Roche-sur -Yon (85). "Vous écoutez sur RCF Vendée dans émission Grande de Sambles...". Local-id just during that minute when it was up. Weak signals from Bretagne for 45 minutes. Short peaks.
88.200 - 1723- F: Radio Caroline, Pontivy-tx (56). Chérie FM 90.8 and FUN 94.1 from this same city.
88.300 - 1723- F: MFM. Also on 88.8.
89.300 -0620- HRV: Novi Radio, Zadar. 3rd time this summer!
91.100 -0711- I: R Cinque, UNID-QTH. "Radio Cinque, radio a cinque stelle". What is this station. NEW?91.900 - 0705- I: Radio Parsifal, Pescara (also 99.5 tent.)
95.600 -0655- I: R Marte, Napoli (NA). The only new for today.
97.300 -0652- I: Antenna Adriatica, Termoli (BA). RDS-id and spots.