FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 17

On the 8th of July 2015, just after 10:30 UTC, the Moldovian and Romanian stations replaced the Ukrainian ones. Also some Turkish signals were detected. Mainly from Istanbul, as usual. One new Istanbul station for me was Radio Slow Time on 91.2. But this time I was quite slow in reporting Turkish stations, so no report was sent.

On 91.6 a Moldovian station National FM was received with quite steady signal, broadcasting political debate. I sent a reception report, not actually expecting reply, but to my surprise the station DID send a confirmation via eMail. Well, with a sad note, because the station’s funding had been ended, and it was closed for an indefinite period. Sure, we have heard about the poor financial state of Moldova …

Around 12:00 UTC the conditions again shifted westwards, and the Balkan stations along with Italians made their come-back. More of that in the next post.

FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 16

The conditions on the 8th of July re-appeared at about 10:10 UTC. A bunch of Ukrainian stations from Odessa invaded at first the lower part of FM -band, but the MUF rapidly climbed above 100 Mhz. On 102.7 was a station with unusual format; it was playing classical music. After some minutes, at 10:30 there was a nice ID: “Studio Radiostantsiya Garmonia Mira, 13:30″. I had heard this “Harmony of the World” -station tentatively once before, but this time the ID was clear and thus a reception report was sent. It was a pleasant surprise to receive a confirmative eMail the next day: “This is really a fragment of our broadcast. Our radio station is located in Odessa, Ukraine. Consistent signal reception up to 150 kilometers. You are lucky”  (translated from Ukrainian).

On 105.5 I heard a station promoting it’s ‘Jolki-Palki’ – humor program, which means something like “Oh, My Gosh!”. It turned out to be Perets FM (‘Pepper FM’), also known as Stilnoe Radio Perets FM. It has grown to a big network, that uses slogan ‘Humor and hits’, targeting active young people. I sent my report via Facebook and also received an enthusiastic reply from one of the stations DJ’s: “Yes! it is! I’m impress! How it could be possible? crazy)“.

On 107.4 I heard an Ukrainian version of “Every Breath You Take”. After couple of minutes the station identified: “Radio 24 – bez kompromisiv” (without compromise). It was the Odessa station of news radio network Radio 24. Mykhailo Bezpalko, Head of Music for Radio 24 Network confirmed simply: “Yes, it was signal of our station“.

Shortly after 10:30 UTC the conditions again shifted westwards; to Moldovia, Romania, and in the south,  all the way to Turkey. More of this in the following post.

 

FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 15

On the best FM-DX day of the summer 2015, 8th of July, the conditions moved still more westwards after about 08:30 UTC. The French and Benelux -stations with some stations in the most western part of  Germany popped up on various frequencies. One newbie for me was Sublime FM from Utrecht, Netherlands, on 88.9. The station had ‘Sublime News’ at 08:30 UTC and thus easily identified. This time I used a feedback form at their website for reporting and Angela from the station quickly replied via eMail: “Great to hear you are able to pick up our FM signal in Finland. I can confirm it’s indeed our station.”

It is always pleasure to catch regional German stations with local programming. This time I was lucky to receive NDR 1 Niedersachsen’s ‘Studio Oldenburg’  -program on 91.1. Ms. Anne Brauns from the Studio Oldenburg was kind enough to send an eMail (staff photo attached) and confirm my reception. She commented: “It is nice to learn that our programme is heard in Finland, too. About ten years ago, we already had a letter from a Finn who heard NDR 1 Niedersachsen. Probably, it was the same phenomena.”

The conditions seemed to fade away some minutes after 08:30, but … Well, it was not over yet. After a pause of nearly 2 hours, the MUF started to raise again, and new round started, this time from Odessa, Ukraine. More of that in the following posts …

 

FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 14

During the posting of these entries I have also done follow-up reporting, this time via Facebook.. One of the Italian stations received on the 8th of July 2015 replied quickly to my Facebook message. Radioblu is a big network in north-eastern Italy, and therefore frequently logged here. So far I hadn’t got it QSL’d. Now the confirmation was prompt and nice: “Yes we are !!! Thank you so much of your testimony, a hug to you and all the beautiful people in Finland!”. The frequency was 92.0 (Chiaravalle-tx).

Around 08:00 UTC on the 8th of July the FM Band was already full of Italian stations, but as mentioned in a previous post, some Austrian stations also managed to get through. On 92.4 I heard Radio Oberösterreich, which for some reason had evaded my antenna earlier. The Station Engineer Rudolf Mair sent confirmation via eMail and also a proper QSL-Card some days later. The Austrian national radio company ÖRF is one of the few stations still using QSL -cards. I really appreciate that!

Back to Italy. On 95.7 I logged Radio Studio Piu. It’s a dance station network covering northern Italy and Adriatic coast, and it has a transmitter also in Croatia (!). I reported the station via Facebook, and exceptionally I got the reply just after 2 months: “Yes, i can confirm that what you received in July, it was our radio station. The frequency 95.7 MHz is transmitted in region Marche in Italy. Thank you for your message and sorry for the late.”

After 08:30 UTC the 8th of July -conditions moved to France and Benelux. More of that in the next post …

FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 13

On the 8th of July 2015 I logged dozens of East European stations, that I hadn’t logged before. On of them was Hungarian Radio Som on 99.5. It’s a local station broadcasting from the studios in the city of Fehergyarmat. I sent the report via Facebook in October and received promptly a reply from the Editorial Staff. They were sorry that they couldn’t confirm my report 100 %, becouse they couldn’t check the names of the songs from the station log after so many months. Well that’s one of the mishaps of ‘mass reporting’, your reports tend to be quite late in writing. But I was satisfied with that “nearly 100%” verification.

After 07:30 UTC the conditions shifted more and more westwards. Italian stations started to pop up along with some Slovenian and Austrian stations in the mix. Czechian stations replaced the Slovakian ones. In the Balkans, Croatia became now the dominant.

In my experience, the Slovenian stations have generally been quite dxer-friendly. One example of that was Radio Antena on 94.4, which I received during these 8th of July conditions.   In his reply Program Director Andrej Vodušek wrote: “We can confirm that this is Radio Antena, from our transmitter site Sv. Peter over Begunje, where the world famous Elan skies are produced“.

Radio Centrale from Cesena Italy is quite common station during Italian conditions. Also this morning it came through without difficulties on 94.4. Now I was also able to get a confirmation from the station: “We confirm your reception. Even in Finland one will be able to say how nice it is to listen to the Radio Centrale !!. Well, you see, the slogan of the station is “E’ bella ascoltare Radio Centrale!”.

The amazing day of 8th July 2015 still continues …

FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 12

After 06:45 UTC on the 8th of July 2015 the FM conditions moved gradually westwards. Among Romanian/Bulgarian stations there appeared more and more stations from Hungary, Slovakia, Czechia and Balkan countries, and some odd ones from Poland and even Ukraine. One of the first one logged from this area was Radio Pont 1 from Nyiregyhaza, Hungary on 91.1 (playing a hit song by Lost Frequencies ;-)). Music Editor  Henry Kugler replied via Facebook and stated: “We are very happy that we managed to get to Finland. More good frequencies to hunt and all the best!” .

Radio Melodiya 91.5 from Ukraine has been quite regularly received here, but so far I have not been lucky with QSLing it. But now Program Director of the station, Tatyana Voloshina, verified my Russian language report after listening to my recording.

Among the first ones this morning from Balkan was Radio Tri 95.8. It was playing western hits from today and all the way from 80’s. The station (no v/s specified) responded in friendly way: ” We confirm that you have heard Radio TRI from Belgrade. … We support your hobby.”

The story of 8th of July 2015 will be continued …

FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 11

For me, the best FM-DX -day of the year 2015 was the Wednesday 8th of July. The first dx -signals started popping up early in the morning at about 06:15 UTC. The micro conditions on the previous evening already had given hint of what to expect in the morning: lots of stations from Romania  and other East-European countries. The first station logged was Radio Brasov on 87.8, playing appropriately “Breakfast At Tiffanys’. This soon was replaced by a Ludacris’ hit and a station call from another Romanian, Radio Son. The station promptly replied to my eMail -report noting that: “Da,este vb de radio son,tnks,bafta,ciao.“.

One Romanian station that comes through regularly during these kind of conditions, is Radio Ring Medias on 90.2.  Also this time it was loud and clear, albeit interfered with Realitatea FM on the same frequency. I have reported the station a couple of times but haven’t got confirmation until now. General Director Rodica Orschekovski replied with short eMail.

Romania is nowadays full of network stations. It’s more and more difficult to find any local/regional independent stations. This summer I succeeded catching some. On this particular day: Radio Unu Alexandria 90.5, Radio Sibiu 91.1, For You FM 94.4 and Radio Transilvania 94.5. None of these has replied, though … Let’s see what follow-ups can do.

After about an half an hour (~06:45 UTC), the conditions moved westwards, to Balkans and HNG/CZE/SVK. The story continues in part 12 …

 

 

FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 10

On Tuesday the 7th of July there was a short opening towards north-east of France starting at about 14:40 UTC.  The conditions were very short-lived and I didn’t catch any new stations, but I managed to did some new reports to previously non-replied stations. Well, didn’t have better luck this time either …

In the late evening at 19:00 UTC there was a surprise opening of some minutes to eastern Europe. Nothing special observed, except perhaps Z Rock Radio from Montana Bulgaria on 91.6. The ID was not clear enough for non-dxer ears, so no report this time.

 

FM-DX 2015 in Ruovesi part 9

On the 5th of July the conditions started at 0910 UTC, again with Italian stations The conditions lasted a bit longer than on the 4th, but still only for an half an hour.

One interesting catch was on 93.4 the RAI GR Parliamento -station, which instead of talking was playing oldies music! Perhaps there was a request hour for politicians. Mr. Berlusconi appeared to have been requested for ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’ ;-). Another nice catch was also Radio Bresciasette from Brescia on 94.8, but I didn’t get it QSL’d.

However, I had better luck with a more common station, Radio Company, which was heard on 93.5 with it’s “Pinkie Magazine” -program. The station duly confirmed. The v/s was Stefano Pettenuzzo. Thank you Stefano!

Due to extremely populated FM Band, some Italian stations try to avoid interference by transmitting between channels. An example of these is K-Rock, which in Parma uses the frequency 94.85. It’s quite easy to identify because of the frequency and of the ‘Classic Rock’ -format. On the 5th of July I received the station and I got an eMail -confirmation quite quickly.

FMDX 2015 in Ruovesi, part 8

On the 4th of July the conditions started at 0740 UTC with Italian stations, but unfortunately didn’t last long. The last station were received at about 0800 UTC.
The conditions seemed to favor the the northern part of Italy.

One of the more pleasant catches – and a new one for me – was a German speaking ‘italiano’, Radio 2000, on 90.1, from Bruneck in Italian province South Tyrol. It was just promoting ‘Waldfest’ summer party in the region. The station, however, never replied to my report.

The one that replied was Ciao Radio on 91.2. Ciao Radio is one of the most commonly received italian stations here, but this was the first time I succeeded in getting eMail -confirmation from them. The station was easily identified by their slogan: “Questo e Ciao Radio, un successo dopo l’altro. The Best Radio“.