Utö FM-DX

Utö9 is over - Monday 20.6.2011

2011-06-21T20:43:00.025+03:00

FM-DX-pedition Utö9 is over on Monday 20.6.2011.

Sporadic E results weak:
Fri 10.6.2011: Unluckily we had the best Es-opening on the ferry while moving to Utö on Fri 10.6! Incredible! That would have been fantastic condition to almost all arond Europe from afternoon till late evening!

Sat 11.6.2011: 50 min opening to Piemonte area, Italy.

Sat 18.6.2011: 60 minutes lasting condition mainly to Bretagne, also Sicilia, Italy and Bilbao, Spain. Not good or long lasting signals.

Sun 19.6.2011: 40 minutes opening to North England gave two nice low-power (10-20 W) RSL-stations on 87.7 MHz + also some locals around 96 MHz. Nothing above 100 MHz.

Tropo and troposcatter were slightly good to Sweden and Baltia. Again no tropo channeling (but time for that is autumn). A few new stations were heard, mainly recently started. Two new stations from Kaliningrad!

Summer 2012: Next Utö-FM-DX-pedition will be from Wednesday 7.6. till Sunday 17.06.2012.

10-20 Watt RSL-stations from NW-England!

2011-06-20T00:20:00.006+03:00

Last day in Utö bought very special stations: Two RSL-stations (=Restricted Service Licence) from 87.7 MHz from England! RSL-stations operate principally on 87.7 and transmitter power is only 10-20 Watts.

I got help from UK-FM-DXers (on Skywaves) to identify Ultra Radio (www) from Morpeth (near Newcastle, NW England). This stations was audible even 10 minutes coming up just before news at 11.00 utc. "Ultra"-id is now clear when you know it on the recording. This station is on the air for one month, 7.6.2011 - 4.7.2011.

Before Ultra we heard indian or pakistan sounding RSL-station on this same frequency for 5-6 minutes. This might be Meraj FM from Huddersfield. It is temporary station on the air 30.5- 30.6.2011.

UK FM-Dxer John Faulkner gave big hand and phoned to this station playing them the received clip. Of course they did not believe this at the station. Playing the clip well via phone is very difficult so John sent the clip to them.Let's hope they listen the clip and give comments of it.

Sun 19.6.2011 - Extra day - UK-opening

2011-06-19T18:08:00.003+03:00

Four DX-ser left the island under pressure for other activities on Sunday morning and the rest four had one day extra. Sherlock-map showed there could be a chance for opening after one week silence.

It was a surprise to have signals from North East and North West England (from Newcastle to Manx island). There were seldom BBC-frequencies up. We identified BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Cumbria and commercial radio The Bay on 96.9 MHz. No signals above 100 MHz.

The most interesting frequency was 87.7 MHz because it is dedicated to RSL-station (short-termed stations, mostly on air for +/- one week with very low power (10 Watts or so). We heard two stations on 87.7 MHz.

Indian or Pakistan Unknown RSL on 87.7 MHz was audible for 5-6 minutes. We hope it will be solved.
One chance for that is Meraj FM from Huddersfield (Muslim Festival Radio). On The other RSL gave id and should be solved later. Aubible for 10 minutes on 87.7 MHz but fading out in favorable moments.
These can be listened from Box.net

Utö9 once again in local media, HåboPortalen!

2011-06-19T01:02:00.005+03:00

This is now the 3rd time during this pedition when we are in local press/media!!!

HåboPortalen in Håbo, Sweden published article of Håbo närradio's reception in Finland in Utö-pedition. Read it from here.

Journalist Tommy Hildorsson wrote about our pedition to local net-portal and later to local press. We heard his voice here in Utö on Håbo närradio. They have small transmitter with 20 Watts power on 87.7 MHz. Jussi Suokas and Otso Ylönen sent a message to the station during the week and got a nice reply (Click the article for better view).

Sat 18.6.2011 - Surprising evening opening!

2011-06-19T00:27:00.007+03:00

Saturday evening gave surprising opening mostly to Bretagne, France (weak) and to South Italy, even to Sardinia and Bilbao, Spain. Unfortunately skips were short timed.
Identified French stations for example: Radio Bonheur, Guinkamp 90.1, Champagne FM 87.7 MHz, Fréquence Bleu Nord 87.7 MHz, Radio Courtoise 87.8 MHz and many network-tx's from Bretagne.
Also two STL-links from England were audible, both London pirates: Passion FM (52.3 MHz) and Point Blank FM (56.6 MHz). Before them Radio Radar, Bologna, Italy on 52.6 MHz.

The best catch was Radio Rama from Tortoli, Sardinia, Italy on 88.0 MHz (heard before 3 times but - but Sardinia is very rare). Also Radio Onda Blu from Arezzo on 89.2 MHz, Radio Citta Aperto (Roma) on 88.9 MHz etc.
From Spain we heard Radio Nervion 88.0 and Radio Euskadi 1 on 88.9.
Not big condition...

This was our last evening here in Utö, but half of the crew have a chance to be here for one extra day. So, the pedition will continue till Monday morning 20.6.2011.
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Sat 18.6.2011 - Worst moments ever...

2011-06-18T06:40:00.013+03:00

Rainy day here in Friday evening. Turkey-Greece opening was very close on Friday afternoon but finally gave nothing. Not MUF enough.
That means it is now pretty close that we will not have good Sporadic E during this year's camp. 24h time left.
In the card-game JJS won Eastern Turunmaa championship.

With troposcatter one highlight on Friday evening:
105.600 - 17.00- LTU: Hot R, Vilnius. New name for Ventus. 250 W.

Local YLE Suomi 94.3 MHz gave us nice ES-rds on the screen. That is missing... >>>

A FEW MORE PHOTOS:
From the start till today (CLICK)

Fri 17.6.2011 - slight Sweden-tropo

2011-06-17T13:38:00.005+03:00

Team-photo. Under Körner beaming sea-horizon.
Click for better view:
Baltia was strong for closer stations at night but conditions moved to Sweden in the morning. Closer stations audible also from Sweden.

87.700 -0443- S: Håbo närradio, Håbo. 20 Watts!
88.200 -0600- S: Sigtuna NR. Coming up nicely to mid-hour id over local 882 Salo. (250 W).
96.500 -05.32- S: Rock Klassiker, Kalmar. Västervik-tx. 400 W.
98.900 -0455- S: Uppsala NR/Hope FM Uppsala. Also 95.3-Stockholm aired Hope FM-programme at the same time - and finally id: "98,9 Hope FM Uppsala". 500 W.

Utö9 now in Latvian local newspaper, VentasBalss

2011-06-16T16:44:00.012+03:00

Utö9 FM-DX-pedition is now in Latvian local newspaper, VentasBalss, published in Ventspils in NW Latvia!!
This is great! Yesterday we were visited by Finnish local newspaper, Salon Seudun Sanomat (from Salo city).

Otso Ylönen (OSY) and Jussi Suokas (JUS) heard Radio Ventspils (R. Hity Rossii) from Ventspils (93.7 MHz) earlier this week and sent them e-mail. This station has close connection to local newspaper. They made kind article of our FM-listening in Utö, with photos. You can find this alticle also from their webpage, www.ventasbalss.lv.

Utö9-crew send kind greetings to Ventspils, to Ventasbalss-paper and Ilze Meiere from Radio Ventspils. Thank you for your attention!

CLICK for better view>

Wed-Thu 15-16.6.2011 - Local newspaper visit from Salo

2011-06-16T10:51:00.015+03:00

Wednesday evening and Thursday morning were silent. Almost nothing in any propagation mode! Frustating. (In fact we had 10 sec long opening to Italy on 87,5 MHz in Thu morning...)

No-conds lead us to play cards. HKU won also 2nd championship (Western Utö-champion) in "Auction"-card-game (=Oh Hell!-game).

We have also played firsbee-game several times (8 players, 2 x 4 teams) in the local football-field. That is fun. You can not run with frisbee, only assist it, to go closer to the goal (pole). And then to sauna.

In Wednesday evening local newspaper from Salo, Salon Seudun Sanomat, visited our camp. There will be a story in SSS of "crazy radio-station-hunters in Utö" later this summer.

The other group of hobbyists which can be seen here in Utö are ornitholgists. They count birds, like we count FM-stations.
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Wed 15.6.2011 - 3 min meteor

2011-06-15T10:54:00.013+03:00

Looking bad with sporadic E... but we got something special for this morning.
We observed exceptionally long meteor hitting ionosphere on Wednesday morning at 06.47 utc.
That big meteor turned into 3 minutes long ion-layer bringing this:

87.9 MHz -06.48- D: MDR Figaro, Inselsberg-tx
102.2 MHz -06.47- D: Antenne Thüringen, Inselsberg-tx, Eastern Germany

Markku Sollo (MSO) in Tohmajärvi (near Joensuu, East Finland) logged this same meteor and heard 89.0 RTL from Germany. Also Marko Weck (MWE) in Kangasala noticed this (comment belo
88.400 MHz -10.40- HOL: Slam! FM gave ID later at 10.30 utc via meteor.w).

Yesterday 14.6.2011 HR4 Rhein-Main-regional (Frankfurt) was heard at the same time on 102.5 MHz and 104.3 MHz by two listeners!!! This is the first observation of this regional station in Finland.
Ionosphere is giving longer bursts for us every now and then. Forexample at 11.44 utc to Italy lasting 2,5 minutes.
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Tue 14.6.2011 - Troposcatter-day!

2011-06-14T17:58:00.010+03:00

Tropo weakened and frequencies are open for troposcatter from Baltia!
Signals come up from nothing for short strong peaks. Mostly we have hunted stations from Lithuania and Kaliningrad but also something new from Latvia.
87.700 -1023- + LVA: Hity Rossii, Liepaja. Local-id for Liepaja.
92.300 -0834- I: Radio Stella, Modena (MO). Meteor!
92.300 -0811- LVA: City Radio, Liepaja.
94.900 -0922- LVA: Capital FM, Riga. New frequency in Riga! Capital FM on Riga-101.0 MHz closed down but they started again later on new frequency in Riga, 94.9 MHz.
96.100 -1000- LVA: European Hit Radio, Liepaja. Finally local id from this!
97.600 -0803- LTU: M1 Plius, Vilnius. Kaunas tx.
97.800 -0705- LTU: Radio stotis RS2, Siauliai. Nice mid-hour id.
102.500 -1254- + KAL: Radio Mayak, Kaliningrad. Local Mayak-id for Kaliningrad!!
102.900 -1440- + KAL: Love Radio, Kaliningrad. Now with local id!
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Tue morning 14.6.2011 tropo weakening

2011-06-14T10:21:00.006+03:00

The band is very silent on Tuesday morning (but giving some peaks). Also no hope for Es on the Sherlock-map. Not looking good now. Only the closest Latvian and Estonian stations are audible and some frequencies are now monitored for possible local breaks.

OSY and JUS has sent a few e-mails to the stations. OSY got reply for Saules Radijas from Siauliai, Lithuania. JUS got e-reply from Rock Klassiker Kalmar (96.5 MHz, 500 W) and Radio Linköping 95.5 MHz.

Monday evening was time for the first card-game ("Auction" is the name of the game). HKU won the Utö Log-championship following JTK.

Mon 13.6.2011 - Italian links around 50 MHz !!

2011-06-13T18:03:00.007+03:00

No Es on FM on Monday. The Sherlock-map looked promising towards Italy in the afternoon, but not enough MUF.
However, it was quite close. We heard a few Italian STL-links above 50 MHz. First time here in Utö.
Receivers: Icom R8500, Realistic Pro 2006 and Tecsun. Antenna 5-el Yagi 50-74 MHz.

Frq. aprox .......... LOG-MONDAY 13.6.2011
52.5 -14.04- I: Radio Planet FM, Milano.
52.9 - 14.30- I: Radio California- Radio Jukebox, Pescara (PE)
53.2 -14.00- I: tent. Radio R9, San Bendetto del Tronto. Ads to A.Piceno.
59.27 -13.58- I: UNID, possibly Radio Mater.
66.51 - 1400- I: Radio Galileo, Terni (TR). Heard with Tecsun!

......

Sun evening 12.6.2011 - Baltia tropo

2011-06-13T17:41:00.003+03:00

Tropo continues during Sunday evening till late night over Baltia - but not reaching Vilnius. Little surprise is that we have not logged any Polish stations.

Still some reports. No surprises.

91.800 -1745- LTU: Marijos Radijas, Vilnius. Siauliai tx.
92.200 -2015- LTU: Radiocentras. Siauliain. Changed frq with Relax?
92.800 -1430- LTU: M1, Vilnius. Kedainiai - Krakes tx.
93.700 -0902- LVA: Hity Rossii, Ventspils local.
97.300 -0810- LVA: Just FM, Riga.
97.500 -1357- LVA: Radio Skonto, Liepaja. Local id's also on Sunday.
97.800 - 2000- LTU:Radio Stotis RS2, Siauliai. After long monitoring. Best catch on Sun evening.
98.300 -1859- LTU: M1 Plius, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx.
100.400 -2130- LTU: Tentaitively: Mazeikiu aidas, Mazeikiai
101.000 -1551- LVA: Radio 101, Riga.
101.700 -1900- LTU: Relax FM. Siauliai - Bubiai tx, Changed with 92.2?

Sun 12.6.2011 - Slight Baltia tropo

2011-06-12T18:04:00.007+03:00

Nothing special on Sunday. Tropo is giving stations with rapid fade in's mainly from Baltia.
Riga has been strong whole day - also Estonia. Only 1 minute Es today - to Romania.

Some new catches - 12.6.2011
87.900 - 1225 - ROU: Prima R, Székelyudvarhely (HR). Only RDS, like Radio Brasov 87.8. Short Es today - 1 minute.
93.700 - 0902 - LVA: Hity Rossii, Ventspils local break. New observation of this station's local inserts
107.100 - 0710 - RUS: Radio Sedmoye Nebo, Pskov. Nice surprise from Russian side!

. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . NEW PHOTOS - CLICK UP

Sat 11.6 - Evening-night tropo

2011-06-12T10:19:00.002+03:00

Slight tropo signals from Latvia and Sweden. (We still wait big tropo-opening to KALININGRAD, which we got here only once 3 years ago).

TROPO LOGGINGS 11.6. (only new stations listed)
89.900 - 1234- + S: Mix Megapol Roslagen.(250 W)
90.400 -1406- + S: Rockklassiker Örebro. (1 kW)
92.000 - 1234- + S: Mix Megapol Roslagen.(200 W)
95.500 -1409- S: Linköping närradio, Linköping. (300 W)
96.500 -1306- + S: Rockklassiker Kalmar. (400 W)
98.400 -1436- + S: Rockklassiker 106.9 Mälardalen. Köping-tx (250 W)
102.500 -1646- LTU: Saules R, Siauliai (1000 W)

Sat 11.6.2011 - Italy, Balkan (Click the photo)

2011-06-11T14:01:00.008+03:00

The crew woke up at 7am local time to build antennas. 2 x H-Triax-antennas we up at 08.30 - and 2 x V Körners were useable after midday and lunch.
The first conditions started at 09.37 with station mainly from Italy + some Swiss and Balkans.

Some loggings - Sat 11.6.2011 (Mainly Piemonte-area, also Switzerland)

88.0 MHz - 07.55- SUI: Radio Sunshine. Also on 90.0 - And sun is shining in Utö! Beautiful weather!
89.2 MHz - 08.03- F: RFM, Marseille-tx.
88.4 MHz - 07.10- I: Radio Piemonte Sound - Amica Radio
88.5 MHz - 07.12- I: Latt&Miele, Torino-local
88.9 MHz - 07.10- I: Primaradio, Asti. Also on 89.0
89.0 MHz - 07.30- I Radio Lodi
89.1 MHz - 06.42- I: Radio Fantasy, Udine.
89.3 MHz - 07.08- I: Ravegnana R
89.6 MHz -06.37- HRV: Radio Centar, Porec.
90.1 MHz - ---- - HRV: Radio Karlovac
91.9 MHz -07.53- SUI: Radio Zürisee
92.3 MHz - 08.03- F: Radio Star, Marseille
93.3 MHz - 07.45- I: Gruradio, Torino. First time in Finland
95.3 MHz - 07.50- I: Radio Torino
97.9 MHz - 07.51- I: Radio Torino Biblica

Missed Fri 10.6.2011 - FM-band open on the ferry!

2011-06-11T13:55:00.010+03:00

The worst case scenario hit us on Friday!! The FM-band was fully open from afternoon till late night. We took sms-messages the whole evening on the ferry!!

There would have been very good continuous opening to all over Europe, especially to UK up to 108 MHz - but we were on the sea !! Part of the crew was listening on the ferry with Tecsun-rx's. Not so fun. Stations from Italy, Uk, Ireland etc with a whip...

WHIP-LISTENING ON THE FERRY:

Utö9 starts this Friday 10.6.2011

2011-06-06T22:33:00.004+03:00

Traditional Utö-FM-pedition take place for the 5th summer (previous summers have been 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010).
This pedition will be named as Utö9. The camp is on from 10.6 - 19.6.2011. We arrive late Friday evening by m/s Eivor.

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

FM-DX-Pedition - Utö 9 will be 10.6 - 19.6.2011

2011-03-26T14:04:00.020+02:00

Traditional FM-DX-pedition in Utö-island will be between Friday 10.6. till Sunday 19.6.2011. It will be Utö 9-pedition.
Last time the results were fantastic. We enjoyed openings to almost all around Europe.
There will be similar group as last year, 7 listeners in two houses, 4 antennas: 2x V and 2x H 8-elements yagis.
Utö 8
Juha Ylönen (JY) from Central Finland is in Utö between 22-27th May 2011. He will report the results on Kuuhankavesi-DX-blog with call Utö 8.

Utö 6 is over! Excellent pedition!

2010-06-20T09:56:00.005+03:00

Utö6 FM-pedition is over. Nine full days of FM-DXing finally gave good results. We had good conditions to many directions and several interesting peaks.

Hundreds of new stations were identified, many first time in Finland - and even one new country: Libya!
Loggings will follow later in Finnish DXers site, OnLineLog.

NEW PEDITION NEXT YEAR FOR SURE!

Here is one beautiful photo of Otso's (In Utö mostly pronounced like Spanish number 8, Ocho) collection. Please click the photo.

LIBYA and excellent Greek opening! Italy at night!!

2010-06-19T22:57:00.005+03:00

Part of the crew left the island but the rest four had excellent opening to Greece, Albania and Balkans, starting around 14.00 till 19.30 utc !!
The band was full open to 108 MHz for long periods.

At night around 01 -03 local times band was full open 108 MHz to south Italy!!! Unique!!!

After midday Finnish local time Libya was received in Finland first time!! The station is called Ashababiya and it seems to be a private station!! It luckily pushed up at 10.00 utc announcement on 88.8 MHz during weak Italy-conds.

THIS IS THE BEST CATCH IN FINLAND SO FAR THIS SEASON!!

Greeks and Arabic-flash on Friday midday

2010-06-18T12:01:00.009+03:00

Weak Athens and Thessaloniki were up after midday our local time. A few stations pushed up several times:

88.0 MHz - Oasis, Athens. RDS
90.8 MHz - Zoo FM, Thessaloniki
89.4 MHz - DeeJay, Thessaloniki
92.3 MHz - Lampsi FM, Athens

Also three weak arabic signals were noted on 88.0 / 89.3 / 89.5 MHz around Friday midday local time.
Possibly Iran.
Last night Stockholm närradios were audible and some Latvian stations in the morning. No more expectations on tropo. Tropo has been on very low level almost all the time.

Two days left of Utö6. Part of the crew is leaving already on Saturday morning and the rest on Sunday afternoon.

Beside here is a photo of some old empty military tower in the southern part of Utö-island. No activity in and around. That could be ideal place for DXing?

Look Bambuser-video of Utö6 !!!

2010-06-17T12:46:00.014+03:00

Here is a video-clip of our listening environment, short view of the listenener's eqipment and faces (I forgot to include myself). It is Bambuser-live video-clip, made with mobile-phone and not so good quality.

LINK TO MOBILE-PHONE VIDEO

On Wednesday we had nothing special, as expected. Now we are waiting to get several short-time E-skips to south. If there will be more, it is all extra+. The crew is monitoring tropo-band all the time for Kaliningrad-scattering etc.
Two new Latviesuradio-stations are picked up (tropo) with local programme: Saldus 89.2 and Cesvaine/Madona 90.9 MHz.

A lot of METEOR-reflections
Meteor-activity has been very high during this pedition. We wonder how strong it could be during higher meteor-showers, like with Perseids in August!

We have identified around 20 stations via meteors:
Euroherz 88.0 MHz (Germany) // Radio Sport 93.2 Mhz (Moscow) // NRK P1 (Norway) 90.9 MHz // B92 (Serbia) 104.8 MHz // Polskie R P1 88,3 MHz // Radio MV (Germany 90.5 Mhz // Frevence 1 (Czech) on 104.5 and 102.5 MHz // VRT Klara (Belgium) 89.5 MHz // Kiss FM (Romania) 88.0 MHz //Radio Zet (Poland) 89.4 MHz // Doroznoye Radio, St P:burg (very short skip!!!) // RPR (Germany) 100.6 MHz // PSR, Leipzig (Germany) 102. 4 MHz // + BBC, Bayern 1, Ö3 etc. + UNID: "MIX/X RADIO"-RDS on 89.4 MHz.

A lot of snakes around here. You really have to be careful - and frogs can bee seen at nights.
Naturally many species of birds, but the small owl has not been seen this year so far.

Silence on Wednesday - after Scotland...

2010-06-16T09:40:00.009+03:00

Once again we are facing the fact that after Scotland(UK)-opening next days are empty (or perhaps sometimes weak Russia) ! This has happened dozens of times during the decades:

Conditions starts from east and then moving to west within 1-4 days -and after having UK/Scotland-conds the FM-band goes dead for 1,5 - 7 days!! This now seems to be proved again to be true, even in this exceptional good summer.

Now the team has time to check the recordings... hours and hours of discs and tapes.
READ ALSO MORE OF THIS PEDITION: http://www.fmdx.tk/

Here is a map-view of some receptions made by OSY on 15.6.2010 (made by MyFM/FMLIST). Click the photo for better view:

REAL CONDITIONS TODAY!

2010-06-15T18:00:00.010+03:00

Finally we had real conditions today! There is nothing to complain of the conds in the past days - but today we had even better signals. Band was open to Balkan and Scotland-Ireland!! (We are very surprised that Italy has been almost silent so far).

* 08.00 utc >> Conds started from Greece and Hungary and placed over Balkan 1,5 hour!! // faded out 10.00 utc
A little break nicely at lunchtime.
* 11.35 utc >> Scotland - Northern Ireland - Ireland // f out 14.00 utc

Greece
88.0 MHz - Oasis, Athens
90.6 MHz - Asteras FM, Veria
91.4 MHz - Palace 91.4, Larissa
93.2 MHz - ERA Zakynthos regional px

Hungary
Many Hungarian stations received, like Radio Dabis, 93.4 MHz etc.

Balkan
Dozens of stations from Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia

Romania
Stations mainly from Sibiu

Scotland - Northern Ireland - Ireland
A lot of stations from Northern parts of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
MUF was up to 108 MHz but there are not so much stations over 107 MHz in this area.
Dublin was audible and even the farest SW parts of Scotland (Cuillin FM 102.7 MHz).

Very good openings! Perhaps even over 100 stations identified today by this crew.

Monday evening Greece, Spain and France

2010-06-15T09:32:00.008+03:00

Peaking conditions are continuing!! Quite intense fading up and down during the whole Monday evening. We had very interesting skip to north Greece and later over Aigeian Sea, Greece. At least three stations from three different island: Radio Moudros from Limnos island, Rythmos 91.6 (tent., Mitilini) from Lesbos island and Galaxias (tent., Mykonos) from Cyclades island very far south!!
Then we had Spain shortly for 10 min and later in the evening Bretagne (etc.) , France again.
Very interesting - but we are still waiting for the big openings!!

Loggings:

Spain (10 min in te evening)
87.7 MHz - Kiss FM. Tx Jerez de la Frontera
90.3 MHz - RNE5 Madrid. Madrid tx
91.0 MHz - Europa FM. Madrid-tx

France (Over 30 min late evening)
88.3 MHz - Radio M, Montelimar (26)
88.4 MHz - La Radio de la Mer. Granville-tx (50)
88.8 MHz - Phare FM, Concarneau-tx.€ (29)
89.5 MHz - Radio Dio, St. Etienne (42)
89.9 MHz - Flash FM, Limoges (87)
90.1 MHz - R Bonheur, Guinkamp (22)
90.4 MHz - Contact FM, Paris. Boulogne-sur-Mer tx (62)
90.5 MHz - Tendence Ouvest. Dep 50-tx
90.6 Mhz - R Flam, Flamanville (50)
90.8 Mhz - R Caroline, Rennes (35)
92.0 MHz - R 6, Calais (62)

Greece (Up twice in the evening)
87.8 MHz - Radio Mahitis, Kilkis
88.3 MHz - tent. Heat FM, Aleksandroupolis
90.1 MHz - R Moudros, Moudros (41)
91.6 MHz - tent. Rythmos 91.6, Mitilini (44)
92.2 MHz - Velika R, Larissa (10)
93.0 MHz - tent. Galaxias FM, Mykonos (44)

Monday afternoon 14.6: Greece, UK

2010-06-14T19:07:00.005+03:00

We are lucky to have Es-signals everyday!!!
Greece was open for 15 minutes with several stations around northern Greece, even one from Athens!

Loggings Greece, 15 min, starting 14.30 utc >>:
87.8 MHz- tent. Radio Mahitis, Kilkis
88.0 MHZ - ERA on many frequencies
88.3 MHz - tent. Energy 883, Veria
92.2 MHz - Radio Velika, Larissa
92.9 MHz - Kiss FM, Athens with local id.

Loggings UK, 10 minutes, starting 14.55 utc >>:
87.5 MHz - Platinum FM, London. Pirate!!
88.8 MHz - BBC R Jersey with local px
96.1 MHz - BC Radio Solent
96.4 MHz - The Eagle, Guildford, SW from London

Sunday eve 13.6 - Monday morning 14.6

2010-06-14T13:28:00.012+03:00

MONDAY MORNING 14.6, fading 1 h. starting 06.11 utc >>
Nice opening to Bretagne-area France in the morning. Mostly weak signals and rapid fading.

88.0 MHz - R Classique, also 90.4 MHz
89.4 MHz - RFM Normandie (14)
90.2 MHz - RCF Vannes, Radio Sainte-Anne (56)
90. 8 MHz - Radio Caroline, Rennes (35)
90.5 MHz - R L K, Montfort sur Meu (35)
91.2 MHz - Jet FM, Nantes (44)
91.6 MHz - Alouette (85) on many frq's

SUNDAY EVENING 13.6, 30 min, starting 17.24 utc >>

We were surprised by 30 minutes Spanish opening on Sunday evening starting 17.24 utc. The band was full of high-power Spanish stations up to 100 MHz. Signals were mostly up with rapid fading.
Unfortunately most of the stations had football. No smaller locals ided.
Most of the stations were from Euskadi - Bilbao / Rioja area, something also to Andalucia.

88.8 MHz - RNE R4 Cataluna-tx
91.1 MHz - COPE, Rioja-tx
91.5 MHz - tent. Radio Maria
92.1 MHz - RNE
92.3 MHz - tent. Radio Maria
92.9 MHz - Europa FM
93.6 MHz - tent. Arrate Irratia, Eibar
95.9 MHz - Onda Cero

Utö-crew

2010-06-13T19:58:00.006+03:00

Crew-photo after first satisfying opening (Photos by OSY).
CLICK PHOTOS FOR BETTER VIEW:

Fun with Sporadic E !!!!

2010-06-13T15:31:00.013+03:00

Today we finally had interesting opening here in Utö!! First some weaker signals from Spain, Greece and Bulgaria and then very nice conditions to Central-France around Limoges (87, 24, 16 etc.).

Some examples (bolded first time in Finland):

Spain
88.0 MHz - RNE
+ some interesting flashes from Spain

Bulgaria
87.6 MHz - Radio Romantika
88.4 MHz - Radio Ultra
88.4 MHz - Alpha Radio
89.7 MHz - Darik Radio
89.5 MHz - NRJ, Sofia
89.9 MHz - Radio Fokus
90.2 MHz - Radio Bella
90.6 MHz - Radio ZU

Greece
89.2 / 91.2 - ERA Kavala
89.3 MHz - Radio DeeJay, Thessaloniki
90.8 MHz - Zoo, Thessaloniki
92.8 MHz - Radio Aris, Thessaloniki

France
87.6 MHz - R Star, Avignon-local spots (84)
88.0 MHz - Radio Esperance, Limoges-tx (87)
88.0 MHz - Chérie FM. Network-px. Avignon (84)
88.4 MHz - Kaolin FM, Saint Yrieux la Perche (87)
88.8 MHz - Magic FM, La Souterraine (23)
89.2 MHz - Radio Peltre Loisirs,
90.1 MHz - RMJ - La Radio de Meilleurs Jours , Magnac Laval (87)
90.5 MHz - Radyonne, Auxerre (89)
90.9 MHz - Radio Nohain, Cosne-sur-Loire (58)
91.0 MHz - Radio Orient, Limoges-tx (87)
91.6 MHz - RCF en Berry
93.4 MHz - RDC, Angouleme (19)
95.6 MHz - Brèniges FM, Brive-la-Gaillarde (19)
99.0 MHz - France Bleu, Perigord
100.0 MHz - RMB, Montlucon (03)
100.1 MHz - Sud Nivernais Radio, Nevers (58)
104.1 MHz - RCF Accords, Cognac (16)

Utö FM-DX 6 started Sat 12.6!

2010-06-12T18:57:00.021+03:00

Utö FM-DX 6 started with 7 listeners. Antennas are bilt up on Saturday morning 12.6. under VERY heavy wind (peaking 20 m/s).
We are using 4 FM-yagis devided with 4 Triax-preamps.

Yesterday the group missed fairly good opening to UK/Ireland while traveling to Utö.... and today
we have no sign of Sporadic E.

On Saturday no special conditions but a lot of troposcatter in the air all the way from Bornholm, Gothenburg, Kaliningrad (DFM 100.6, E+ 104.5, RR 96.3), Klaipeda and of course Gdansk. 101.7 R Plus Gdansk reaches RDS levels from time to time.

One interesting UNID was heard from Latvia on 99.5 MHz and will be solved later for sure.

Photos taken by OSY and JTK.

Next Utö FM-pedition will be 11-20.6.2010

2010-05-22T11:45:00.008+03:00

Next FM-listening pedition to Utö will be from Friday 11.6.2010 till Sunday 20.6.2010. Almost 10 days intense FM-DXing with the largest group of listeners (7) ever in the same QTH.

The participants are HKU (Harri Kujala, Naantali), JUS (Jussi Suokas, Joensuu), JJS (Jukka Soini, Kurikka), JTK (Jukka Kotovirta, Helsinki), MB (Marko Brask, Espoo), OSY (Otso Ylönen, Salo) and JJK (Jari Korhonen, Kitee).
All listeners use 2 x Sony XDR-F1HD. We will have 4 antennas (2 x 8-el. hor and 2 x 8-el vert.), two for each house.

Let's hope to have great openings with Es. 14 receivers scanning the skip-crowded band should give huge logs! Not so much expected with tropo.

Perhaps we build up forum (FB?,Mese?) for realtime-comments and Bambuser-camera for some periodical streams of the living conditions there. Let's see.

Utö 5: Report 2

2009-08-02T14:18:00.007+03:00

Short opening on Saturday afternoon 1.8.2009 to Turkey giving UNID-station:

89.5 UNID Turkey. Spot to Ankara. - 1650-1653.
http://www.box.net/shared/mbqlrsxim9

89.2 TRT 1 Radyo Bir - 1716

** **
UNID Balkan station from 28.7 on 99.0 MHz.
Sounds to be some national network station:
http://www.box.net/shared/jfy2ramtan

ANY HELP from someone with these?? Please write to comment-box!

No luck for mega-tropo or Es in Utö. Normal conditions in the line of this summer.

Utö 5: Report 1

2009-07-29T20:21:00.010+03:00

Here is a log from Juha Ylönen (JY) (living in Middle Finland). He is in Utö this week.
On Tuesday evening there were Es-opening. Here are Juha loggings:

Sporadic E-log Tuesday 28.7.2009 (Times UTC)

87.9 - I:Radio Linea Network, RDS LINEA-n1 - 1841
88.4 - G:BBC R2 - 1537
88.4 - BUL: Darik R, Sevlievo - 1537
88.4 - I: R 105 FM - 1850
88.8 - CZE:Cro Sever - 1603
88.8 - I:R Deejay - 1837
90.1 - HRV:HRK - Hrvatski Radio Karlovac, Martinsćak - 1851 RDS KARLOVAC
90.1 - HRV:Radio Zona Buzet, Buzet - 1815 Poppia & RDS ZONA-FM
91.7 - I:R Deejay - 1415
96.3 - I:R Capital - 1421
96.6 - ROU:R Zu, Sibiu - 1539
97.0 - I: R Norba - 1428
97.4 - I: R Lattemiele - 1453
97.4 - I: RPZ - Radio Punto Zero, Salerno ID:" United Punto R" - 1456
98.6 - I: Kiss Kiss Italia - 1436 RDS KKItalia
98.9 - I:Radio Planet FM - 1439 RDS PLANET
99.0 - I: RTL 102.5 - 1443 RDS "RTL 102.5"
99.0 - I:R Punto Nuovo - 1454
99.2 - I: RAI3, Spinazzola-Monte Caccia (RAI) (ba) - 1437 RDS "RAI / RADIO3
99.5 - I: R Deejay ,Ercolano-Vesuvio-Area Osservatorio (na) - 1523
99.5 - I: R Capital - 1457
100.6 - I: R Kiss Kiss - 1504
100.8 - I: R Kiss Kiss - 1506
101.0 - I: R 101 - 1509
101.0 - HRV: R Split - 1513 RDS R-SPLIT combo-id "Radio Uregi radio Unaiboninborma radio Split" with spelling mistakes.
101.2 - I: RAI2 - 1516

Nothing speacial is expected in tropo scene but perhaps something. Everything is possible in Utö!

Here some tropo-loggings from Juha (mostly tuned 27.7. and 28.7.2009):

LVA:
89.3 SWH - 18.32
90.7, 91.1 95.9 LR1
91.5 LR2, Riga
92.3 City R, Liepaja 10.45
93.9 Baltkom R, Riga -18.46
95.2 __ R Unid/Check (Liepaja?) -10.18
97.5 R Skonto Liepaja - 10.22
98.5 LKR - 19.22
99.5 Fit FM - 1531
103.8 Star FM, Kuldiga - 20.23
104.3 European Hit R - 20.49
105.7 SWH Plus - 2054
105.8 Rietamu R, Liepaja - 9.59
106.4 Kurzemes R, Kuldiga - 2100
107.2 R Skonto, Riga - 20.50
107.6 R Liepaja - 10.12

S:
100.2 SR Gotland, Visby - 8.42

LTU:
100.9 LR1 RDS "lrt.lt" - 1742
102.8 LR1 RDS "LIET6 OS"

POL:
98.4 POL: RFM FM, Gdansk - 1141
101.7 R Plus, Gdansk - 1147
107.9 R Marya - 10.06

EST:
90.1 R Kuku
90.2 Dinamit FM, Tallinn - 9.29
91.2 R Elmar
96.9 Sky Plus

Utö-pedition nr. 5 / 27.7. - 3.8.2009!

2009-07-17T23:53:00.005+03:00

Juha Ylönen (JY) from Middle Finland will go to Utö for FM-DXing for one week for the end of July - from Monday 27.7. till Monday 3.8.2009.

There is a good chance for better tropo - and also still time for Sporadic E !!
Juha blog is here.

Making something out of nothing!

2009-07-05T08:35:00.015+03:00

Utö DX-Camp 2009 is over - Summary:
Utö is a place to make results out of nothing!! We have had quite poor tropo-forecats for the past week but we identified a lot of stations. Tropo forecasts gave no promises for us but we heard stations from all around Baltic Sea! We really wonder what could be heard here when real tropo is going on, or even with megatropo!! Sporadic E also gives identified stations easier especially when tropo is low.

* FM-band is changing almost day by day. Sometimes the band is full of Finnish stations on almost every frequency, but next day it is nicely clean and incredibly empty!! It is very difficult to make bandscan here because the band is living all the time. Some stations come strongly up from noise, for example SWH Dundaga 89.3 (Latvia), Wisby FM Visby 89.2 (Sweden), Radio Kadi 90.1/90.5 (Estonia), some days närradios + many national frequencies.

*Tropo-scatter is nice phenomenon here. 600 km-stations (about) are coming strongly up and down from Sweden, Poland and Kaliningrad. Tropo-scatter seems to need 2 kW tx-power or more acc. to our observations. However, Arvid Husdal from Eigebrekk, Norway tells us that he has heard German 200/500 W stations with tropo-scatter. For some reason no vertical stations are observed with scattering. (Click the photo)

*We did not have good Sporadic E when FM-band was very silent of local tropo. That is still a dream to have Es over empty band here. However, here it is easier to pick up stations during low Es beause of low local levels. Many times we IDed all observered Es-signals!
Meteor-scattering has been very active all the time, but unfortunately those were too short (0-3 sec, rarely longer). Antenne Bayern, Ö3 Austria, BBC with meteor-id. Here is it possible to hear Italy with meteors very often, and sometimes even Spain!

This was very nice week of FM-DXing. We identified stations from 29 countries (7 with tropo, 3 with meteor, 19 with Es)!!

We still have challengies here:
1) There are more than 10 stations to hear from Kaliningrad. That is a big challenge. Better conds needed for that.
2) It would be a nice experience to enjoy good stable Es during very low local tropo, especially to Turkey, Greece, UK, Spain or Middle East.
3) Good tropo, or megatropo to inner Baltia,Sweden or Poland. During the days the tropo-forecasts have been always very low for us. Maps promised nothing special for us.

Utö-report Sun 5.7.2009: Ukraina up to 108 MHz 45 minutes!

Just when we were about to leave and take the camp down, sudden opening to Ukraina started at 09.00 utc!! That was not expected because Sherlock-maps showed no Es-clouds. A day before we planned to remove antennas just at the time when this opening started. However, we had some time to listen because the ferry was leaving at 11.30. At 09.30utc we even considered to take sea-taxi with no idea how much it would cost...

We tuned good Ukraina-signals for 45 minutes and then started to take camp down with a panic and rush!!!
Luckily we had no problems and we arrived to the ferry 20 min before it was taking off. We did not miss much
because the opening was about to fall.

We identified from Ukraina many Hit FM-frequencies, ERA FM 2x, Luyks FM 2x + one Greek. Nothing speacial but the tapes are not checked yet.

Utö-report Sat 4.7.2009

2009-07-04T18:33:00.006+03:00

Last full day gives nothing special of conditions. The band is nicely empty of near local stations, really empty!!! That would have been great to have Es to this silent band!!
However, one new troposcatter-station was found today and we had three times 1-2 min Es...

Tropo-scattering:
100.6 MHz - DFM, Kaliningrad pushed up many times during the afternoon with IDs but unfortunately not with local programme/inserts. - 13.00 >

Sporadic-E
87.7 MHz - Radio Venere, Lecce (LE) tentatively. One spot to Specchia. No id. - 15.15-
88.8 MHz - Burc FM, Turkey. - 18.00-
89.2 MHz - Radio Kula (Voj), Serbia. - 15.22-

Utö-report Fri 3.7.2009: Strong Latvia - Weak Italy!

2009-07-03T10:27:00.007+03:00

Tropo to Latvia (and Lithuania) bumbed even better on Friday morning!!
*Two Never-Heard-Before-stations were identified from Latvia!! Nice surprise!
*We identified all local programming stations from Liepaja: 92.3/ 95.2/ 96.1/ 97.5/ 105.1/ 107.6!!

At t he same time weak Italian stations up and down for 10-15 minutes around 06.00utc. Corsica-tx was also noticed!

88.4 MHz - Radio Company, Benevento (BN), Italy. Tent. no ID but spots to BN. -05.57-
88.7 MHz - Jazz Radio, Lyon (69), France. Corsica-transmitter (20)! Rare! - 0605-
91.1 MHz - Max Radio, Ellera (PG), Italy. - 0605-
96.6 MHz - Radio l'Olgiata, Roma (RM). RDS. Just before this advert to Palermo. - 06.03-
96.9 MHz - Radio Luce, San Sisto (PG), Italy. - 0605-
97.3 MHz - Radio QBS, Jaunmarupe (Riga). This station needs really good conds to peak in Utö!! I noticed in Riga in March in 2009 that this station is weak in Riga-centrum. It is located 5-10 km SW of centrum in Jaunmarupe. Tx-power unknown. - 05.15-
99.0 MHz - Radio Jurmala, Jurmala, Latvia (near Riga). Pushed weakly up Thu evening but gave clean signal in the morning. - 06.20-
100.5 MHz - M-1 Plius, Bubiai-tx (Siualiai). This confirms that Radio Ventspils is not on the air on this frequency. Ventspils is so close to us. - 05.40-

Utö-report Thu 2.7.2009: Latvia, Lithuania tropo

2009-07-02T23:12:00.008+03:00

Thursday gave us completly new FM-band! We had strong tropo to Latvia and also Lithuania.
One new station was heard and also some new relays from Baltia. Kaliningrad Evropa Plus on 104.5 came up with troposcatter 4-10 times per hour during the day.
One strange Es-station was heard shortly on 88.1 MHz alone with odd music, no talk. Turkey?? Also Italy for one minute (Radio Fantastica 89.5 and Radio DeeJay 89.3) in the late afternoon.

88.4 MHz - Kurzemes R, Liepaja-tx, Latvia. - 17.10-
92.3 MHz - City Radio, Liepaja, Latvia. New station in Liepaja! - 14.19-
94.9 MHz - La Luna, Klaipeda, Lithuania. - 14.50-
95.2MHz - Latviesu Radio, Liepaja, Latvia. New relay in Liepaja. Gives local frq-announcements! New relay. 14.45-
96.1 MHz - EHR, Liepaja-local. - 16.00-
96.2 MHz - Hiti Rossii, Riga, Latvia. - 16.13-
96.8 MHz - Latviesu Radio, Riga, Latvia. 96.8-ID. 14.50-
98.3 MHz - M-1 Plius, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania
99.8 MHz - Kelyje. Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania. - 16.00-
100.3 MHz - SR P4 R Skaraborg, Skövde, Sweden. Pushed over local Åland. - 14.15-
100.5 MHz - Hiti Rossii, unid tx. Main transmitter is on 96.2 MHz in Riga (ex-Naba). - 15.42-
100.8 MHz - European Hit R, Talsi, local ID. - 16.00-
102.2 MHz - Ziniu Radijas, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania. - 15.07-
103.7 MHz - Lietus, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx, Litnuania. - 16.16-
104.5 MHz - Evropa Plus, Kaliningrad. Local programme! Troposcatter. - 09.26-
106.5 MHz - M-1, Vilnius. Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania. - 15.15-
107.4 MHz - European Hit R, Kuldiga local ID. - 09.00-

Utö-report Wed 1.7.2009: Italy, Bulgaria, Greece !

2009-07-01T22:53:00.015+03:00

Interesting openings today:
- Strong Estonia-tropo in the morning/midday (Ring FM etc.)
- First wide Italy from Rome to Reggio Emilia 13.20 > 14.25utc
-Then Bulgaria from 15.15 > 15.32uc
- and for the end Greece - 15.20 > 15.45 and 16.30utc
We tried to play cards but stations peaked up all the time nicely and interrupted that fun 3 times!! (Underlined stations first time in Finland)

87.5 MHz - Radio Subabsio (PG), Italy identified on 12 FREQUENCIES: 87.5/ 89.1/ 91.0/ 94.1/ 94.5/ 97.0/ 96.6/ 97.7/ 98.0/ 101.7/ 103.7/106.2 during one hour!!
87.8 MHz - Hristo Botev, Bulgaria. Local RDS with tel. 0700-18508 and city "Dupnitsa". - 15.10-
88.3 MHz - Energy, Veria, Greece. Great jingle! - 15.25-
88.4 MHz - Radio Elassona, Elassona Greece. Nice id. - 16.44-
89.1 MHz - Radio FM Plus, Plovdiv-tx. - 15.22-
89.5 MHz - Radio Antola, Popovo, Bulgaria. Tentatively, tracked from tel.no. 15.12-
89.5 MHz - R Energy, Sofia, Bulgaria. - 15.30-
89.5 MHz - NRG Power Radio, Kozani, Greece. Tentatively. Spots to Kozani.- 16.30-
89.6 MHz - Onda Libera, Perugia (PG), Italy - 13.20-
89.6 MHz - Radio Eklissia tis Ellados, UNID-relay, Greece. - 16.30-
90.0 MHz - Radio Icaro, Rimini, Italy. - 14.04-
90.3 MHz - Radio Focus, Sofia, Bulgaria. - 15.17-
90.6 MHz - NRJ Plovdid-local tentatively, Bulgaria.- 15.17-
90.8 MHz - Radio Zoo, Thessaloniki. - 15.15-
90.8 MHz - Dimotiko Radiofono Poligiros, Poligiros, Greece. Nice id. - 15.28-
91.4 MHz - Ola FM, Thessaloniki, Greece. - 15.36-
91.6 MHz - Radio Rock, Roma, Italy. - 13.41-
93.3 MHz - Radio Vaticana, Citta de Vaticana. -13.24-
93.4 MHz - Radio Melody, Sofia. Ex-Hit 7. 15.29-
93.4 MHz - Radio Margherita, Italy. - 13.40-
93.7 MHz - Radio Record, Sant'Arcangelo di Romagna (RN). Also 97.9 MHz. - 13.30-
94.1 MHz - Radio Dolcissima, San Canzian d'Isonzo (GO).Rn-tx.
95.2 MHz - Radio Italia Anni 60 (PU), Italy. Local spots to Pesaro + ad-agency id + ID.
98.1 MHz - Radio Valmiera, Latvia. - 05.40-
99.2 MHz - Radio Linea, Italy.- 13.57-
101.1 MHz - Radio Gamma, Savignano, Italy. Also 99.0. - 13.44-
104.8 MHz - Voce della Speranza, Roma tentatively. - 13.46-

Utö-report Tue 30.6.2009: Greece 2-3 minutes

2009-06-30T19:43:00.009+03:00

On Tuesday we had 2-3 minutes opening to Athens!! It gave 3 stations and
also one from Spain just before Greece.

87.7 MHz - Cadena Dial, Santander-tx, Spain - 18.27-
88.9 MHz - Freedom, Athens. Was strong for 2 minutes with RDS. Unfortunately no talk. - 18.30-
89.5 MHz - Radio Ekklisia tis Ellados, Athens. - 18.32-
90.4 MHz - Kanali Ena, Piraeus (Athens) with nice ID "Eneninta koma tessera, Piraeus" - 18.30-

Tropo is qiving all the time stations from all around Baltic Sea. Almost all Stockholm community radios are received, only stations MRS 90.5, Sigtuna 88.2 and Viking 101.4 were out today.
From Gävle Radio City 102.7 had RDS-level and on 89.9 MHz Radio Sandviken was clear.

Also Latvian private radios from Riga and some others were identified easily.
Tropo-scattering is giving Polish stations up and down - also Kaliningrad 96.3. (Click the photo below)

Utö-report Mon 29.6.2009 PART 2: Whole Europe!

2009-06-30T08:51:00.022+03:00

Two guys left the camp (MB,OSY) and one (JUS) joined us on Monday after midday.
We were lucky to have another Es-opening on Monday evening. Condition was not good but interesting giving short skips to all over Europe from Serbia to Spain. (Underlined stations are received first time in Finland. Times UTC):

87.5 - R Piter Pan, Conversano (LE, Italy). - 15.30-
87.8 - Radio Dalmacija, Croatia tentatively acc. to spots. - 16.57-
87.9 - Radio S, Serbia (Jastrebac-tx) with RDS and spots. - 16.23-
88.1 - Ride FM, Budapest, Hungary. Ex-Pont FM. - 16.45-
88.4 - Radio Company, Benevento-tx up alone (BN, Italy). - 17.46-
88.7 - Puls Radio, Grocka, Serbia. -16.40-
88.9 - R Index, Beograd, Serbia. Only RDS flash. - 16.40-
88.9 - Dash Extra Radio, Bijeljina, Bosnia&H. - 16.50-
89.2 - RFM, Paris. Marseilles (13)-tx. - 17.08-
89.3 - R Soleil FM, Montélimar (26), France. - 17.18-
89.4 - COPE Girona, Rocacorba-tx, Spain. - 17.16-
89.5 - Mix la radio étudiante, Orange (84), France. Location a bit north from Marseille. Only RDS-flash "Mix". - 17.22-
89.6 - UNID Hungary giving tel. Possibly Radio 35. - 16.53-
90.2 - Radio Puglia, Bari (BA), Italy. - 16.28-
90.2 - Radio Pozarevac, Serbia "RADIO PO"-rds. - 16.37-
90.2 - France Bleu Gard Lozère, Nimes. -17.00-
90.4 - Onda Cero Cataluna, Rocacorba-tx Spain. Regional px. - 17.12-
90.4 - R Farfalla, Mottola (TA). - 16.30-
90.6 - Szent Istvan Radio, Eger, Hungary. - 16.34-

90.8 - R Ketchup, Pescara (PE), Italy. - 15.35-
91.7 - Radio Kosice, Slovakia. Quite short skip for this day. -16.33-
92.2 - R Frequence Nimes, France. RDS and sport-news. Nice surprise! - 17.02-
94.7 - Max Radio, Vrsac (Vojvodina). - 16.35-

Utö-report Mon 29.6.2009: France-opening!!!

2009-06-29T17:35:00.014+03:00

First better Es-condition today for 30 minutes!! FM-band was open to Bretagne, NW France - from Benelux to France northern coast. Fairly good signals and some time even over 100 MHz.
A lot of networks were up. Here some better stations we identified (underlined stations are received first time in Finland):

87.7 MHz - R Nostalgie Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand (63). Local ID. - 17.40-
87.8 MHz - RCB, Radio Cité Bretagne, Dinan (22). - 08.26-
88.4 MHz - Rire & Chanson, Nantes-transmitter (44). - 07.56-
88.8 MHz - Alouette FM, Les Herbiers (85). Thouars-tx (79) - 08.00-
88.8 MHz - Fidélité, Laval (53). Religious station. RDS id. - 08.06-
89.2 MHz - Cocktail FM, Deauville (14) acc. to spots. - 08.13-
89.5 MHz - RF Bleu, Haute Normandie, France - 08.03-
90.0 MHz - 100%NL, Holland - 07.58-
90.1 MHz - VFM, Vire (14). Nice jingle.- 08.20-
90.1 MHz - Virgin Radio. Ex-Europe 2-network. - 08.13-
90.6 MHz - Joe FM. ex-4FM, Holland. /95.5. 08.02-
90.8 MHz - Radio Caroline, Rennes (35). Jingle. - 08.23-
90.9 MHz - UNID in Portuguese. Possibly R Comercial, Portugal, 44 kW. Most obvious solution is Radio Antenne Portugaise, Touers (37), France! Thanks Ole Forr!! - 08.10-
91.6 MHz - Alouette FM tentatively (acc. spots). - 08.18-
91.9 MHz - Zenith FM,Vitre (35). Child choir-jingle. - 08.17-
92.2 MHz - Coctail FM, Lisieux (14). Possibly split-commercials to Lisieux!! - 08.14-
92.3 MHz - RTBF Vivacite, Belgium. - 07.59-
92.8 MHz - Musicbox, Guerville (78) near Paris. Only RDS. - 08.04-
93.9 MHz - Vivre FM, Paris (75). - 08.05-
94.5 MHz - Océane FM, Questembert (44). - 08.22-
95.3 MHz - Radio Soleil 35, Rennes (35) tentatively - 08.01-
96.4 MHz - BFM, Paris (75). Paris-transmitter - 08.03-
97.7 MHz - TSF Jazz. Laval-transmitter (53). - 08.14-

Utö-report Sun 28.6.2009

2009-06-28T23:08:00.006+03:00

Fairly good tropo to Stockholm giving community radios around and after midday: V97 Vallentuna, Sydväst 88.9, Tyresö 91.4, Taby 98.3 etc.
This condition is completly different to last summer!! We barely heard Swedish stations. No Denmark. Kaliningrad Russkoje Radio 96.3 noticed during the day a few times with hard monitoring!
All the time Gdansk-stations are fading up and down + basic stations from Latvia, like Star FM 105.0 Pure-tx, Radio Skonto Liepaja-local 97.5, EHR Talsi-local 100.8 MHz, Capital 101.0 etc. Lithuania gave only national radio frequencies 102.8 / 105.3 (Klaipeda) .

Late Sunday evening we had enormous tropo to North, which was a disappoinment because the band is blocked of Finnish stations from 250 km radius. No chance to DX stations from South direction...

Utö-report Sat 27.6.2009

2009-06-27T23:36:00.006+03:00

Weak conditions in Utö during Saturday. However, we can hear all the time interesting peaks mainly from Sweden, Estonia, Poland and Finland mainly within 300 km range, not so much from more Southern Baltia (although Kurzemers 106.4 is audible almost all the time and Lithuania 105.3 etc.).
Sometimes stations come up with surprisingly strong peaks for even several minutes like Rix Norrköping 92.8 MHz (Ringarum, 130 W).

We had very short Es-skip at 17.34utc lasting about 2 minutes. A few Turkish stations were audible in the lower band and also Radio K4 from Kosovo with RDS for one minute!!

Antennas up! Saturday morning 27.6.2009

2009-06-27T14:47:00.014+03:00

Nine FM-yagis are up and five listeners are waiting for Sporadic E.
We have nice tropo-scattering (Poland, Denmark etc.) and a lot of meteors hitting all the time during the afternoon. Also BBC R2 was up for a short moment on 97.9 MHz.

Europa Plus Kaliningrad 104.5 MHz is already identified with tropo-scattering. Radio Wix, Valdemarsvik gave nice ID on 97.9 MHz etc.
Very lively band although we have no conditions! (Click photos)

Visual Log from Wednesday 24.6

2009-06-26T08:41:00.003+03:00

Here is a visual log (made automatically by RDSDX PC-software) of the stations received on Wednesday (made by OSY): tropo to Stockholm area and Sporadic E to Spain and Italy (Note the spots in Sardinia and Mallorca, rare to hear).

Utö-report Thu 25.6.2009

2009-06-25T22:46:00.003+03:00

Nothing special reported from Utö on Thursday.
Radio Volvo Ocean Race replied today. Martin Loogna sent e-mail. He is also behind Skärgårdsradio 90.2 and is wellknown radio-personality in Sweden. Martin reported that their transmitter-power on 91.9 MHz is 50 Watts! Signal is good in Utö with some tropo.
Station closes on Saturday when race-ships leave Stockholm heading St.Petersburg, Russia. That is the end of this race.
On late Friday evening three listeners will join the camp!

Utö-report Wed 24.6.2009

2009-06-24T22:23:00.010+03:00

Better day in Utö today:
Temporary station from Stockholm was heard today on 91.9 MHz, Radio Volvo Ocean Race (www). This station closes on Saturday 25.6.2009 (on air from 14.6.) so it was quite close to miss this one. Power unknown.
Signal was quite good beating YLE Espoo on this same frequency! Nice!

Community Radios from Stockholm were almost all audible which was surprise because tropo-forecast gives zero-propagation!! Skärgårdsradion on 90.2 MHz was up with 100% full RDS!

Spain was up for some time around 15utc, but only on a few frequencies, mostly RNE. Nice surprise anyway!! The best catch on this opening was Onda Cero, Santander on 91.9 MHz with local programme. Distance 2485 km.

Later in the evening some Italy and France was up. It is possible that the stations were from Sardinia and Corsica but this is not checked and confirmed yet. Nice to have some Es.

Utö-report Tue 23.6.2009

2009-06-24T16:41:00.002+03:00

On Tuesday morning TRT from Turkey on three frequencies for some time.
The band is empty from tropo and Es...
No real DXing on Tuesday!! Internet-connection is also working sporadic....

Utö-report Mon 22.6.2009

2009-06-23T10:51:00.007+03:00

Hello from Utö!
We arrived here on the island Monday afternoon in a magnificent weather. The following hours we spent by setting up two six metre masts in in the front of our nice cottage. Both were equipped with two 8 element Triax FM8 antennas: the upper one in vertical and the lower one in horizontal orientation.

Stations we heard during our first bandscan were typical for a low-level Baltic Sea tropo, from Sweden (90.2 Skärgårdsradion with a nice signal), Poland (95.7 & 98.4), Lithuania (Russkoye R and tent. Ziniu R) and others.

The band feels generally "empty" in comparison to what it is today in Southern Finland. On an Es opening this would certainly be interesting.
A slight source of interference was loacated to be the WLAN base station in the cottage. We will see if something can be done to it on Tuesday. Sending this report was delayed until Tuesday morning because of connectivity problems with the very base station.
OSY - Otso Ylönen
MB - Marko Brask

Mon 22.6.2009

2009-06-22T20:02:00.000+03:00

On Monday morning after 07utc some weak Arabic, Turkish and Ukrainan stations noted in South Finland, but Utö was not ready yet.
Nothing special expected in the coming days in tropospheric scene in S-Finland according to forecasts! However, something might be audible in Utö without exceptional conditions.

Utö FM-DX-starts

2009-06-19T17:48:00.008+03:00

This Monday 22.6 Utö FM-DX-2009 starts with two listeners.
Marko Brask (MB) and Otso Ylönen (OSY) are tuning from 22.6 -29.6.2009.
You can read the results with a few lines daily from this blog.
Next group will arrive 26.6. (till 5.7.2009).
We listen in these two red cottages on the photo below (click):

Next Utö FM-peditions will be 22.6. - 5.7.2009

2009-03-16T10:02:00.006+02:00

FM-DX-peditions to Utö this summer will be from Saturday 20th June till Sunday 5th July 2009. Totally 15 days for station-hunting with 2 different groups!

First time there will be four listeners at the same time - and for two days even six! This is not a problem as we will have 6 antennas anyway (3 x V + 3 x H) and there is enough space in the houses. All listeners have new
Sony XDR-F1HD-receivers so there will be also less interferencies (no IF-carrier from Sony).

The first group is Marko Brask (MB, Espoo) and Otso Ylönen (OSY, Salo) from 20 - 28.6.2009.
The participants of the 2nd group are Harri Kujala (HKU, Naantali), Jukka Soini (JJS, Kurikka), Jussi Suokas (JUS, Joensuu) and as new one: Jukka Kotovirta (JTK, Helsinki). All very experienced FM-DXers. They will be in Utö between 26.6 - 5.7.2009.
Totally two weeks monitoring time. Somebody will hear something...

QSL-replies from Utö-pedition

2008-12-24T19:09:00.006+02:00

Our FM-DX-pedition to Utö last June brought us many replies from stations. For example Jussi Suokas got around 20 QSLs.
Jukka Soini received a message from Radio Sei (www), Rome, Italy (91.4 MHz). Among the verification there were long mp3-clip of their programme. In this clip the DJs talk and wonder about the distant reception in Finland on FM!!
Listen the mp3-clip.(2.4 Mb-file)
Radio Sei seems to have moved from 91.4 MHz to 98.1 MHz later. It is part radiogroup Gruppo Roma Radio which owns two sport-stations: Rete Sport and Radio Sei, and oldies station Radio Italia Anni 60.

Mp3-examples from Utö

2008-06-19T12:20:00.007+03:00

Here a few examples of stations-id's and reception qualities from Utö:

Tilsitskaya Volna, Kaliningrad 106.9 MHz - mp3
Evropa Plus, Kaliningrad 104.5 MHz - mp3
Russkoje Radio, Kaliningrad 96.3 MHz - mp3
Radio Kelyje, Klaipeda, Lithuania 99.8 MHz - mp3
Radio Lietus, Klaipeda, Lithuania103.7 MHz - m p3
Extra FM, Klaipeda, Lithuania 100.2 MHz - mp3
Eska Rock, Gdynia-tx, Poland 105.6 MHz - mp3

We were very lucky with the conditions in Utö! Since we left the island there has been total silence with E and tropo - for over one week!! A big surprise!

Utö DX-QTH is available for anybody!

2008-06-13T18:38:00.010+03:00

Any FM-DXer is wellcome to listen in Utö DX-QTH.
You can ask more details from Harri Kujala / Erik Sjöberg (owner).
This cottage costs 100 € / night and even 4 DXer can listen at the same time (with 4 antennas devided 2/2). There is very high-speed WLAN which is very big + !!

We leave here three 6-7 meters towers, so 3 antennas can be built up quite easily. Ask more from Harri.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You absolutely need amplifiers (forexample Triax-amplifiers) to pick up also the weakest signals!!!

There is a little shop, sauna, inside swimming pool (15m), restaurant, coffees etc. servicies available. It takes 4h with ferry from Nauvo (Pärnes) to Utö (costs 9€).
More Utö-information from www.uto.fi.

UTÖ FM-BANSCAN VIDEO (low tropo / direction south / FM amplifier)

Utö FM-DX-pedition is over

2008-06-13T18:13:00.010+03:00

Friday evening at 21.00 local time we ripped out the antennas to leave the island at 06.15 on Saturday morning. It takes 4h to land to Nauvo and again 1,5h more to Turku by car >.

Sporadic E was disappointment: Only one 2 h condition to southern Italy plus two very brief openings to Balkan area, no more.
Tropo gave us nice results mainly to Kaliningrad, Poland and Lithuania although there were no mega-tropos according to maps.
Tropo scattering was observed now first time clearly by us. Some Polish high-power stations (over 10 kW) and forexample Evropa Plus Kaliningrad 104.5 MHz (5 kW H) popped up from nothing to clean audio many times during daylight hours. It is kind of reflection on empty band giving stations from 500 - 650 km distance! Very strange sounding propagation but it might to be daily here.

Top 5-station-highlights from this pedition:

1. Tilsitskaya Volna, Kaliningrad 106.9 MHz
2. Evropa Plus, Kaliningrad 104.5 MHz
3. Russkoje Radio, Kaliningrad 96.3 MHz
4. Extra FM, Klaipeda 100.2 MHz
5. Idea Radio Alternativa, Latiano (BR), Italy 100.5 MHz
.... Radio Lefkada, Lefkada, Greece (tentatively) 88.4 MHz
+ a few new tropo-stations and a couple of never-heard-before Italians

Last day - Friday 13.6.2008

2008-06-13T07:45:00.009+03:00

Last chance to get Es!! If there will be a good Es-opening today, there is a chance to stay one extra day. During daylight hours we had much tropo-scattering observations specially to Poland (over 600 km), Gdansk, Olsztyn, Bialystok. Same thing with southern Sweden (Göteborg 101.9 MHz etc.).

QSLs
This morning brought two e-QSLs more, Radio Eska Rock (www). They confirmed my report and told in a brief message that they play quite a lot Finnish rock music. Eska Rock is 2 years old and they have now 18 tx's around the country.

The other replied station was Radio Celje (www) from Slovenia. It was heard here in Utö via Es on 7.8.2008. I got nice reply to my e-mail within 15 minutes. Technician Aljosa Boncina confirmed kindly my clip!

Waiting for Es - Thursday 12.6.208

2008-06-13T07:28:00.004+03:00

Two days left of this pedition and we are begging for some Es-conditions to fill the silent band!!
We are leaving on early Sat morning (HKU and JUS have a chance to leave Sunday midday).

Todays's highlight was Evropa Plus Kaliningard 104.5 MHz with tropo-scatter during whole day! Now with local spots!
NO Sporadic-E on Thursday!!! E-skip-map was not much better than this whole day >

QSLs
Yesterday HKU wrote an e-report to new Rigan dance-station Top Radio 91.9 MHz (www). They replied in two hours confirming the mp3-clip!!
This station has very strange history. They have started broadcasting 15 years ago without license. They made the station as a hobby with no commercials. However, authorities took their transmitter once per year!! "But we survived", wrote Mihails from Top Radio.
Now they have legal 2 kW V on 91.9 MHz (rent frequency) and surprisingly this station was weakly audible in Utö almost all the time fading up and down!!

Another QSL came on Thursday 12.6.2008: Religious station, Marijos Radiojas (www) confirmed my mp3-clip. They had one other report from Finland before (must be Marko Brask) and they wondered why this 91.8 MHz (Siauliai-tx) can reach Finland so well!

Empty band - Wednesday 11.6.2008

2008-06-13T07:18:00.016+03:00

The FM-band here in Utö is quite weak on Wed morning. Tropo is now on low level. This means that only a few high-powers are audible from Finnish YLE, Sveriges R., Eesti and Latvia/Lithuania R. transmitters. Many stations have deep and fast fading up and down! This must be tropo scattering (See more / Tnx JTK)!
THE BAND LOOKS FANTASTICLY WEAK AND OPEN FOR Es-CONDITIONS!

VIDEO TAKEN BEHIND ONE HOR-ANTENNA ON THE ROOF!

A DESCRIPTION OF SITUATION IN LOW TROPO in Utö when antenna direction is south:

Finland
- Naturally YLE's Åland (88.6, 91.3 etc), YLE Turku (89.8, 92.6, 94.3 etc.) are blocking frequencies. Also YLE Fiskars, YLE Eurajoki and Espoo are fading up/down but they can be blocked by Es-signals very well.
Some Finnish-vertical privates stations are coming up and down weak.
Sweden
Sveriges Radio Stockolm tx's 92.4 / 96.2 etc. are very weak. Gotland is also weak but peaks up often (with antenna-direction to South!). No other SR-transmitters. Great!!
Estonia
Only a few H-high-powers from Estonia are audible: 105.9 / 107.8 etc.
Latvia
- Latvia's national radio transmitters are weak: 90.7 / 91.5 / 95.9 / 101.3 / 107.7 etc.
-Latvia's Kurzemes Radio 106.4 MHz is the strongest. Audible all the time!!
- Kristigais Radio 98.5 MHz and SWH 105.2 are coming up and down.
Lithuania
National network Lithuania are very weak up/down - 102.8 / 105.3 MHz (Klaipeda)

Kaliningrad - Lithuania - Tuesday 10.6.2008 Utö FM-DX

2008-06-13T07:12:00.006+03:00

Willam Hepburn's Tropo-forecast (www) predicted Tuesday morning's tropo perfectly for us !! (Click the map)
NO ES ON TUESDAY!

We had strong signals to Klaipeda and deeper Lithuania starting 03.00 utc. Later we finally had Kaliningrad coming up with local ID of Russkoje Radio Kaliningrad on 96.3 MHz. Totally new station from KAL was Tilsitskaya Volna (Sovetsk) on 106.9 MHz!! This is the best catch of this pedition so far!! First timer was also Extra FM from Klaipeda on 100.2 MHz (500 W) !!
Kaliningrad stations are extremely difficult to hear in Finland!!! We have heard strong signals very near around Kaliningard, from Poland and Lithuania, but during the past years only weak KAL on about 5 frequencies (now 3 KAL-station observed in Utö)! There are a lot stations to try from Kaliningrad!

The weather outside did not look like giving tropo - all the time more clouds and even light rain and wind! The best conds were over around 06.00utc.
According to Hepburn's page we will not have tropo-signals anymore this week. Once again we had perfect match of the tropo-forecast on Hepburn's page!

Loggings Tuesday 10.6.2008 (Red=First time in Finland)

91.8 MHz - Marijos Radijas, Siauliai-tx. 04.50-
91.9 MHz - Top Radio, Riga, Latvia. 03.00-
91.9 MHz - Opus 3, Klaipeda-tx, Lithuania (nat. network). 03.11-
92.5 MHz - ZIP FM, Klaipeda-tx. 03.30-
94.9 MHz - Laluna, Klaipeda. 07.20-
96.3 MHz - Russkoje Radio KALININGRAD local programme. 04.56-
99.8 MHz - Radio Kelyje, Kaunas. Klaipeda-tx. 03.00-
100.2 MHz - Extra FM, Klaipeda (500 W). 04.30-
103.7 MHz - Radio Lietus, Klaipeda. RDS-level. 04.40-
106.9 MHz - Tilsitskaya Volna, Sovetsk, KALININGRAD. 05.00-
+ dozens of other network-transmitters around W- and SW-Lithuania.

Monday 9.6.2008 Utö FM-DX

2008-06-13T07:09:00.001+03:00

Tropo conditions falled completly down in the early Monday morning after Lithuania (Klaipeda).

At the same time we got quite heavy NE wind (at least 14 m/s) and we had to take one antenna down temporarily. We have learned that towers for antennas should be at least 3.8 cm thick.

According to forecasts there might be chance for one tropo-condition next night. Hope so.
NO E-SKIPS ON MONDAY - unfortunately!!!

Sunday 8.6.2008 Utö FM-DX

2008-06-13T07:05:00.006+03:00

Summary of Sunday tropo-conditions:

We are wondering what can be heard here in Utö during really strong tropo!!!
According to the Hepburn's preview-map the conditions should have been only fair on Sunday (CLICK THE MAP) but there were stations coming from all around Baltic Sea with strong signals!!

Conditions were going on the whole Sunday starting from SE Sweden (new stn Radio Wix was highlight, first catch) in the morning.
Danmarks Radio Bornholm was strong for long time on 99.3 MHz etc. In the morning conds moved soon to Gdansk, 625 km distance (best were Hit FM, 94.6 MHz, 1.5 kW H and Radio Kaszëbë, 92.3 MHz, 2 kW H). Dozens of Polish frequencies were audible, even with RDS! Gdansk was up for hours. Kaliningrad was on 96.3 MHz but only with network-px Russkoje Radio.

On Sunday afternoon tropo moved more to Latvia and Estonia. Highlights were new Top Radio, Riga on 91.9 MHz (First time in Finland) and local Radio Paldiski, Estonia.
At late night tropo moved to Lithuania. Klaipeda gave us almost all stations from the city, forexample LaLuna and Kelyje. Kaliningrad came up again at night on 96.3 MHz and 104.5 MHz (Evropa Plus network).

LOGGINGS SUNDAY 8.6.2008 (utc)
Red= First time in Finland

87.7 MHz - Radio Paldiski, Paldiski, Estonia. 2nd time in Finland! 16.30-
91.900 MHz - Top Radio, Riga. Brand new station in Riga!!! 12.50-
92.3 MHz - Radio Kaszëbë, Gdansk tentatively, spots/talk but no id in 25 min!! Distance between Utö and Gdansk is 625 km! 09.06-
94.6 MHz - Hit FM, Gdansk. 08.20-
94.9 MHz - LaLuna, Klaipeda, Lithuania. 23.00-
96.3 MHz - Russkoje Radio KALININGRAD tentatively for hours, not local unfortunately. 09.50-
99.5 MHz - Fit FM, Riga. New station on this old frequency! 10.00-
99.8 MHz - Radio Kelyje, Klaipeda. Almost all Klaipeda-stations were audible. 23.30-
102.9 MHz - RMF Maxxx, Lebork-tx. Local Pomorze!!. This new RMF-network seem to have locals!!! 08.53-
103.0 MHz - Radio Zlote Przeb, Gdansk. 08.50-
104.1 MHz - Laisvoije Banga, Klaipeda. Is listed as European Hit R. 23.58-
104.5 MHz - Evropa Plus KALINNGRAD. Not local unfortunately. 22.28-
105.6 MHz - Radio Eska Rock, Gdynia-tx. 08.40-
106.7 MHz - Radio Eska Nord, Gdynia-tx. 08.45-

The early morning brief Sporadic E:
88.4 MHz - Radio Lefkada, Lefkada, Greece (tentative, spots). 05.46-
88.9 MHz - ERT-NET, Greece (RDS-id) 05.43-
89.1 MHz - Radio Svilajnac, Svilajnac, Serbia. 05.45-

Morning tropo
97.9 MHz - Valdemarsvik närradio, Valdemarsvik. New station! FIRST TIME IN FINLAND !! 04.40-

Utö FM-DX 7.-14.2008

2008-06-13T07:02:00.010+03:00

We are listening FM in Utö-island (map) for one week. Listeners are Harri Kujala (HKU, from Naantali), Jukka Soini (JJS, from Kurikka) and Jussi Suokas (JUS, from Joensuu).
We have four H- and V-antennas (4 x 8 el. yagi) with amplifiers.
QTH is nice cottage (own kitchen, WC, bedrooms) close the sea with open view to S and SW.
The cost of this is 100 € / night. Seems to be good place for FM-DXing.
We leave antenna towers here, so it is easier to come again - or anybody else. CLICK THE PHOTO >>>

LOG Sat 7.6.2008 (Times utc)
Short opening to Italy, about 15 minutes going up and down

88.4 MHz - Radio Cuore with local ad to Pisa-area but this is supposed to be MO-tx. 08.58-
90.15 MHz - Radio Zeta, Caravaggio, Italy. Never heard befpor on this frg / 87.5 MHz. 09.00-

NICE OPENING TO SOUTH ITALY from 16.40 to 19.00 UTC.
A few highlights ! Red= First time in Finland:

89.3 MHz - Radio Day, Frosinone, Italy. Possibly Rome-tx. 1642-
90.6 MHz - Radio Celje, Celje, Slovenia. 1648-
91.4 MHz - Radio Omega Sound, Rome. 18.02-
100.0 MHz - Radio Play Capital, Chieti province. New network owned by Delta Uno. 16.59-
100.5 MHz - Idea Radio Alternativa, Latiano (BR). 17.30-