Sporadic Es FM- Band II

Sporadic E propagation was life almost all afternoon in FM-Band II
with a long last opening mostly into north-west and eastern Spain.
The first half hour of the opening every frequency was occupied with more
than one station making it hard for the RDS signal to come through.

Below the loggings, time of reception 12.30-14.30 UTC, local time is UTC + 2 hours.

88.40 1415- ESP: Catalunya Ràdio,Mont Caro (CAT). PI E231 - (1474 km)
88.90 1246- ESP: iCat fm,Rocacorba (CAT). PI E233 - (1290 km)
90.40 1245- ESP: Onda Cero,Yecla (MUR). PI E2EE -(1746 km)
90.50 1230- ESP: SER,Orihuela (VAL). PI E0FE - (1800 km)
91.20 1243- ESP: RNE R.Nacional,Valencina (AND).PI E211-(2026 km)
91.30 1233- ESP: R. Marina Alta,Denia (VAL). PI F015 - (1699 km)
93.20 1302- ESP: M 80,San Fernando (AND). PI E230 - (2127 km)
96.70 1405- ESP: R. Intereconomia,Valladolid (CAL).PI E256 - (1555 km)
97.20 1404- ESP: Top Radio,Madrid (MAD). PI E2E7- (1640 km)
99.40 1300- ESP: R. Andalucia.,Córdoba.PI E333-(1929 km)
102.60 1353- ESP: Canal Extremadura,Montanchez.PI E30A-(1852 km)
103.00 1351- ESP: Unk FM - Villaviciosa de Odón PI code E42C
104.30 1350- ESP: Maxima FM,Madrid (MAD).Voice ID.(1640 km)
105.90 1429- ESP: Flaix FM,Collsuspina (CAT). PI E199 - (1326 km)
106.30 1432- ESP: Punto Radio,Madrid(MAD). PI E1E2 - (1635 km)
106.60 1339- ESP: Hit FM, Alcobendas (MAD)- PI E2F1
106.90 1344- ESP: Onda Vasca,Sollube (EUS). PI A000 - (1315 km)
107.30 1247- FRA: RTL,Perpignan (66). PI F211 -(1217 km)
107.50 1323- ESP: Unid - PI E5FF.
107.70 1336- ESP: RK 20, Villalbilla (MAD) - PI E400.

Part 2:
At 14.45 utc the Es cloud left Spain and moved to Italy (Sardinia) and Tunesia.

Below the loggings, time of reception 15.00-16.30 UTC, local time is UTC + 2 hours.

87.70 1605- ITA: R. It. Solo Musica,Mt. Cammarata. PI 5220. (1822 km).
87.90 1550- ITA: R101,Sant’Antioco(CI). PI 5215. (1590 km).
89.40 1549- TUN: Jawhara FM,Kairouan (KAI). PI 7210. (1976 km).

95.00 1603- ITA: Radio Kiss Kiss,Alcamo (TP). PI 5225. (1772 km).
99.80 1517- FRA: Virgin Radio,Coti-Chiavari (20A). VOICE ID. (1291 km).
101.40 1515- ITA: Radio Margherita,Cagliari(CA). PI 5242. (1576 km).
103.25 1627- ITA: R. Dimensione S.,Valverde(CT). PI 5264 (1863 km).
104.70 1513- TUN: RTT Radio Monastir,Zaghouan . PI 7203. (1902 km).
105.80 1511- ITA: R. Dimensione S.,Tempio Pausania.PI 5264 (1396 km).
106.30 1508- TUN: Zitouna,Kasserine/Djebel Chambi. PI 7211
106.60 1509- TUN: RTT Radio Sfax,Sfax (SFA). PI 7204 (2084 km).
106.90 1525- TUN: Radio Zitouna FM,Sidi Bou Said. (1850 km).
107.00 1506- ITA: Radio Radicale,Sinnai (CA). PI 5210. (1563 km).
107.80 1616- ITA: Radio Radicale,Vico Equense(NA). PI 5210. (1522 km).


Logged in TV Band I Rai Uno on channel IA with their new logo:

Sporadic Es Band 1 and 2

First real signs of sporadic es here today.
It started right after noontime in TV Band 1
with Rai Uno on IA and IB/E4 both channels with good video.
On E2 I saw the video carriers of
Iran ( 2x ) 48.239.622 Mhz / 48.259.242 Mhz
and Syria on 48.250.161 Mhz
but the signals were to weak for video/audio.
Also good video on E4 from MTB-1 - Pelister (Macedonia).

Around 1400z Band 2 was open to TUR and GRC - below some logs:

FM loggings 2010 05 23 Delfzijl JO33KH [53°19'N 06°53'E]

88.80 TUR: Burc FM,Denizli (EGE-DZL). PI 322C. (2423 km).
88.80 GRC: ERA2 Dheftero,Evia. PI 1202, PS "ERT-ERA2". (2016 km).
89.30 TUR: Alem FM,Izmir. PI 3219, PS " IZMIR". (2258 km).
90.90 GRC: ERA3 Trito,Athina. PI 1203. (2144 km).
91.20 GRC: ERA2 Dheftero,Kavala. PI 1202, PS "ERT-ERA2". (1890 km).
92.00 TUR: TRT FM,Mugla-Yatagan/Göktepe. PI 3201. (2423 km).
94.10 TUR: Radyo Samanyolu Haber,Izmir. PI 9999, PS " 94.1". (2266 km).
95.10 GRC: ERA2 Dheftero,Thasos. PI 1202, PS " ERA 2". (1930 km).

KAZ antenna

My FlyVideo3000 PCI-TV card is sent abroad for further modification
and is not yet returned so I can not watch the Sporadic Es TV-Band1 pics.
Therefore I took the time last week to make some space in the garden to install a KAZ antenna for mediumwave TA-DX.
Due to other garden works I had temporary dismantle my EWE and Flag antenna.
But both will be re-installed in due course.
A comparison between the above antennas and the KAZ is therefore not possible at the moment.



Height = 23 feet
Base length = 72 feet
Balun = 48/11 SS
No resistor in use at the moment.
Feedpoint to 310 degrees.

KAZ article

FM-RDSDX demo

Finally I got the RDSDX software with Arno Vaino's remote control unit working.
I connected this unit between a Kenwood KT-6040 tuner
and a Conrad RDS Manager.
As you can see on this demo the displayed frequency top left is
coming from my KT 6040 when tuning and it shows a very quick RDS.
Arno Vainio designed this remote controller for the Sony ST-SE520, ST-SE700, ST-SA3ES, ST-SA5ES and Kenwood KT-6040 -type of receivers.
It might work in other type of Sony receivers as well, but this was not tested. Currently only remote controlling from receiver side to PC is supported.

RDSDX demo

If you want to know more about this remote control unit etc... , do have a look at :
Herman Wijnants RDS pages

AutoHotkeys for the PMSDR receiver

The well known Scottish MW-DX'ers David Hamilton and Ken Baird have altered a Perseus hotkey script for use for the pmsdr and Winrad ver 1.6.1.
So I can now have automated recordings for anytime of the day/night of my choice.

A simple walk through guide for setting up the auto hotkeys recording for winrad ver 1.6.1 and the pmsdr receiver and all the files needed you will find on David's blog.

David Hamilton's blog



Ken Bairds website

Last night I tested the autohotkeys with the pmsdr rx and it works great !!

TA-DX in Holland with the PMSDR receiver

Not much to report DX-wise today.
So I went through some of my pmsdr recordings and I found this one.
It is a recording from 21-02-2010 at 0642 utc.
You hear an ID from WFAN-New York on 660 khz.
The qrm is from the TV set downstairs

Link:WFAN-New York

PMSDR & WinradHD test

I have not been adding much on here for the last months mainly due to not
having anything worthy to report.
I had hoped for a number of TA-DX recordings with the PMSDR
to put on this blog, but just when I had purchased this very good receiver MW conditions dropped down rapidly
I recently made a PMSDR recording of the mediumwave around 900 Khz.
It is not DX, but only have meant to give an impression of PMSDR and
WinradHD.

You can watch this video on:

Link:PMSDR

Hopefully already next month I can do more recordings see me monitoring
TV Band1 E2/R1 during Sporadic Es with the PMSDR.

tvdxrools from Scotland has recently started a Yahoo PMSDR group.
You can visit the group on the web.

Link:Yahoo-PMSDR