Sunday 17.8.2008: Opening to Middle-Italy

August 2008 has been better than expected. This Sunday we had first some Serbia/Kosovo-signals and then opening to Rome, Perugia and around! Quite strong and stabile signals for some time.
I have underlined the stations which are heard first time in Finland. Among these logged stations I observed a lot of network-stations (Kiss Kiss, 105, Cuore, Cuore 2, RDS etc.)

Log Sunday 17.8.2008 (Times UTC)
87.5 MHz - Radio Zeta,Caravaggio (BG), Italy. 13.45-
88.4 MHz - Radio Prizren, Prizren, Kosovo. Once again! 10.40-
88.4 MHz - Radio Company, Benevento, Italy - tentatively. Quite often here. 14.37-
88.8 MHz - Radio 19, Genova (GE), Italy. Nice surprise!!! 13.21-
90.1 MHz - Radio Onda Blu, Arezzo (AR), Italy. 11.21-
90.2 MHz - Radio K4, Kosovo "24 h a day. This is K4 (KFOR)". 10.54-
90.7 MHz - Tele R Stereo 2, Roma, Italy.
91.7 MHz - Radio Venere, Corsano (LE). Parabita (LE)-tx, Italy. 14.47-
92.2 MHz - RVT - Radio Val Tiberina, Sansepolcro (AR) , Italy. With RDS "Errevuti". 10.55-
92.2 MHz - Umbria Radio, Perugia (PG) , Italy. Pushed over RVT for ID!! 11.03-
92.2 MHz - Radio Siena, Siena, Italy. 12.12-
92.4 MHz - Radio Max Energy, Perugia (PG), Italy. 11.11-
93.4 MHz - Boom 934, Pozarevac, Serbia with hit-list programme. I visited this station in May. Professional station! 10.41-
93.6 MHz - Radio Gong, Jagodina, Serbia. "Gong marketing".10.44-
95.5 MHz - Radio Gruza, Gruza, Serbia. I arrived to silent carrier - then suddenly ID after 5 sec silence. 11.05-
96.6 MHz - Radio l'Olgiata, Roma (RM), Italy 11.00-

14.8.2008: Istanbul FM-stations audible in Finland!

Istanbul FM-stations were audible in South Finland with strong RDS-stereo-signals for 2-3 hours. The band was full of Turkish-stations up to 108 MHz after midday UTC!
However, here in SW Finland the opening was not as good as around Helsinki. Signals were mostly weak over 101 MHz here.
There are even 103 legal FM-stations in Istanbul (listed here) !!!

One "funny" thing was that I identified all 3 Istanbul "Powers" around 100 MHz: Power Türk 99.8, Power FM 100.0 MHz and Power XL on 100.2 MHz !!!
Also Italians and some other counties were shortly up before Turkey.
I drove from work to listen for some time, but nothing exceptionally interesting was not heard by me (I mean stations "never-heard-before in Finland").

Very interesting and surprising condition in August, not expected!

12 and 13.8 Italian FM-stations

On Tuesday evening 12.8 and Wednesday 13.8 afternoon Southern Italy was open to South Finland. I missed the 13.8 at work. A lot of networks were id'ed here.

Log Tuesday 12.8.2008 (Rome and Napoli; mostly weak signals)

87.6 MHz - RAI Radio Uno, Roma. Also usual Rome-stations were up on lower band , like Nuova Spazio 88.1 and Radio Classica 89.5 etc. but I have heard them many times. 17.38-
91.4 MHz - UNID with spots to Salerno. Perhaps Radio MPA, Salerno?? 18.22-
97.3 MHz - Radio Ibiza, Napoli (NA). 17.53-
99.8 MHz - Radio Cuore, Rome-transmitter. 17.56-

I missed the Italian stations at work on 13.8.2008. It was better opening, but not good one.

10.8.2008: FM-opening to France

Finally after almost 6 weeks of silence we got fair 50 minutes opening to middle-east France. The conditions area was from Lyon to NE and SW. I identified a few new stations, some never heard in Finland before (underlined):

88.2 MHz - R.C.F. Aube, Troyes (10) with provincial programme "Le Téléphone du dimanche". A lot of live callings. 09.35-
88.4 MHz - R.C.F. Lyon (69) with same programme as Aube but clearly for Lyon area. 10.04-
89.4 MHz - Virgin Radio, Roanne (42). Local programme. Virgin is ex-Europe 2. 09.29-
90.7 MHz - Fun Radio Bourgogne, Dijon (21).
92.2 MHz - R Cactus, Semur en Brionnais (71). Also with RDS. 09.28-
95.4 MHz - Fréquence Plus, Dijon (21). I tried other Dijon-stations from upper band but no luck. 09.48-
96.9 MHz - Radio Espace, Lyon (69). Clear "Ess-passs"-jingle understood after many rewindings. 10.11-
99.0 MHz - France Bleu Périgord (24). Luckily with local programme at Sunday midday. 10.09-
102.6 MHz - France Bleu sud Lorraine, Nancy (54).
104.4 MHz - RBA Auvergne-Limousin (19). Nice to hear clear local commercial stations from France. 09.58-

Also I identified many NRJ, Cherie,Skyrock etc. but I hunt only local stations.

This FM-season 2008 is almost over. With a big luck we might have something...

3.7. - 28.7: Poor Es-conditions continue

This summer has been one of the worst Es-seasons so far, especially for the time around mid-summer, which has normally been the best time for that!
After 8th June there has been Sporadic-E on FM only on three days: 25 and 26.6 and 2.7!!
Last over 3 weeks 2.7 - 26.7.2008 have been silent!! Incredible!

We have still some time, until the end of August (which is usually the worst after June-July) but this does not look good!
One nice thing is that Es does not disturb workdays. I am now building new FM-station to Turku.

A few e-mail-FM-QSLs!

I have not sent so much messages to the stations of their signal in Finland, but I got a some QSLs for my few reports:

- Russkoje Radio Kaliningrad - 96.3 MHz. DJ Daddy confirmed my mp3-clip in Russian langauge e-mail. Kaliningrad is my 47th QSLed FM-country (Tnx JUS for e-mail)! mp3
- Hit FM, Gdansk, Poland - 94.6 MHz. I had nice e-mail from Marta Uzarska. She is a morning presenter at the station. On Sunday morning I heard her clip from the past week. mp3

- Radio Europa Stereo, Lucera (FG), Italy - 99.0 MHz. This is a small station in Foggia-province in south Italy, in Lucera. I got short confirming e-mail wit only two rows.

- Radyo Onbes, Istanbul, Turkey - 101.2 MHz. Short e-mail in Turkish. I also wrote them in Turkish. They knew about this FM-"signal-path" to other countries! Listen the excellent reception (ID in the end): mp3

Italy and Serbia on Wed 2.7.2008

Another interesting opening to southern Italy was on Wednesday 2.7.2008. Also a few Serbians popped up but no luck wit id's. Here I log some of the identified stations.

LOG Wednesday 2.7.2008 (Mainly southern Italy)

87.6 MHz - R Potenza Centrale, Potenza (PZ), Italy. This stn is now quite wide network and more pro than 2-3 years ago. About 25 tx's. 08.04-
88.4 MHz - R Company, Benevento (BN). Every summer 2-3x here in S-Finland. 07.48-
88.6 MHz - I: Publiradio Network, Taranto, Italy. Parabitassa-tx (LE). 08.29-
89.5 MHz - Radyo Günes FM, Kirikkale, Turkey. Location 60 km east from Ankara! Nice surprise. 300 W acc. to FMLIST. No contact-info-found. 06.19-
90.2 MHz - Ciccio Riccio, Brindisi (BR), Italy. LE-tx. 08.46-
91.7 MHz - Radio Venere (LE), Italy. 08.09-
91.8 MHz - R Skyline, Ancona (AN), Italy. 15.12-
99.0 MHz - R Europa Stereo, Lucera (FG), Italy. I had e-QSL from this station next day! 08.41- -Logo below>
99.1 MHz - R Linea, Civitanova Marche (MC), Italy. 08.50-
101.8 MHz - Studio 100 R, Statte (Taranto) (TA), Italy. LE-tx. Big station. 08.40-
105.2 MHz - R Gamma, Barletta (BA), Italy. Faded out immedeately after R. Gamma-word. 08.49-

Balkan area on Thursday 26.6.2008

On Thursday 26.6.2008 was the best FM-opening so far here in SW Finland. The conditions started at 05.50 UTC and fade away at 09.15 UTC. Also some more weak signals later during the day (mainly France).

I identified many new Greeks which are observed first time in Finland. There were also some Turkish, Bulgarian and Serbian stations - even Albania.
Also Radio Prizren from Kosovo on 88.4 MHz was a nice surprise!

LOG Thursday 26.6.2008 (Mainly Greece but also Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria etc.) (Underlined are received first time in Finland)
88.4 MHz - Radio Prizren, Kosovo. 09.01-
89.5 MHz - NRJ, Sofia, Bulgaria. 06.58-
91.0 MHz - Radio City, Kozani, Greece. 07.10-
92.1 MHz - Radio Pancevo, Serbia. I visited this station in May -08. 07.56-
92.2 MHz - Space 92.2, Kavala, Greece. 07.22-
92.9 MHz - Hit Radio, Kragujevac, Serbia. 07.44-
93.3 MHz - Alfa Ex Radio, Beograd, Serbia. 08.18-
93.4 MHz - Radio Hit 7, Sofia, Bulgaria. 07.12-
93.4 MHz - Mythos, Thessaloniki, Greece. 07.29-
95.5 MHz - Radio AS, possibly from Novi Pazar, Serbia. 07.58-
95.5 MHz - Antenna 5, Skopje, Macedonia. 08.26-
98.5 MHz - Roadstar, Serbia. National network. 07.40-
98.5 MHz - Radyo Can, Tekirdag, Turkey was nice surprise. 06.01-
99.0 MHz - Srefikos 99.3, Feres, Greece. 06.07-
99.8 MHz - Athina 98.4, unknown tx-location, Turkey. 06.16-
100.5 MHz - Radyo Sev, Balikesir, Turkey. 06.17-
101.7 MHz - Radio Nova, Sofia, Bulgaria. 06.28-

Wed 25.6.2008 Weak and wide European FM-opening

This June has been very poor for Sporadic E, perhaps the worst ever. I was away from home (not a chance to DX) for two weekends etc., but there were no conditions!! The FM-band was empty between 8.6-24.6.2008!!! This has usually been the best time for the Sporadic E-skips, but this year nothing!
On 26.6.2008 I heard several stations widely accross Europe. Weak and short skips!!

LOG Wednesday 25.6.2008 (Weak signals from all over Europe)
87.5 MHz - Lynx FM, London's pirate. Audible again! Also pirate-signals on 90.8 and 92.2 MHz. No iDs unfortunately. Only short skip to UK today (MUF 96.6 MHz Plymouth Sound). 08.26-
88.3 MHz - Radio Classique,Paris, France. 07-59-
88.3 MHz - Radio Virgin, Italy. 08.16-
90.2 MHz - Radi Kiss Delta, Mladá Boleslav-tx, Czech. 05.40-
90.3 MHz - Radio Ena, Sežana-tx, Slovenia. 05.44-
91.0 MHz - Omroep Brabant, Holland. Nice jingle. 08.03-
96.9 MHz - Radio Studio 7, Trento (TN), Italy. First time in Finland! 05.56-

LOG Sun 1.6 and Fri 30.5.2008

30.5.2008 I observed brief opening to southern Italy. Only for about 15 minutes! On Sunday 1.6.2008 FM was opened to France for a few minutes. Very poor conditions this summer!!

LOG Sunday 1.6.2008 (Very short France)
90.7 MHz - Brume FM, Lyon, France. Also Lyon Premiere 90.2 MHz was audible. 17.56-

LOG Friday 30.5.2008 (Shortly to Italy)
92.2 MHz - R.Jukebox, Lamezia Terme (CZ), Italy. Bari-tx. Listeners can order music by SMS by dialing a code for a song. 15.43-
96.3 MHz - Radio Enny Sound, Bari (BA), Italy. Rare station. 15.47-

On 7-14.6.2008 we were listening FM in the southest lived island, Utö, for one week. I had FM-DX-pedition with Jukka Soini (from Kurikka, midwest Finland) and Jussi Suokas (from Joensuu, mideast Finland). Nice pedition in excellent QTH. Read more!

Opening to Romania on 28.5.2008

The first good Sporadic E-opening for me was on the 28.5.2008.
There were strong signals from Romania and Bulgaria here in southwest Finland. Here some of the obeserved stations:

LOG Wednesday 28.5.2008 (Romania, Bulgaria, strong signals, UTC. Underlined are identified first time in Finland!)

88.4 MHz - R Trinitas, Romania. Nationwide religious station. 16.08-
92.8 MHz - Radyo Tempo, Bursa,Turkey. FMLIST gives location Bursa for this. 17.09-
92.9 MHz - C FM, Constanta, Romania. Ids in English!!! 17.40-
95.4 MHz - Radio Favorit, Beius, Romania. 1722-
95.5 MHz - Vocea Sperantei, Romania. Bacau-tx. Another religious. There is even 3rd one! 16.52-
97.3 MHz - Radio Veronika, Sofia, Bulgaria. 16.56-
100.6 MHz - Itsy Bitsy FM, Bucuresti, Romania. Bacau-tx. Channel for children. Very rare!16.48-
101.2 MHz - Radyo Onbes, Istanbul. Many Onbes-tx's on this frq. In July I got e-mail QSL from this station !! 17.55- mp3