Good Scatter This Afternoon

Around 15:00 this afternoon I noticed an enhancement to East Anglia, the south-east of England and Lille nationals, the latter of which were at RDS levels. I assumed this may have been a pre-frontal inversion ahead of the snow which is expected here in a few hours.

About half an hour later the enhancement had gone and I began to wonder if the reception had just been via your average jet scatter, but if so it was quite stable. Maybe troposcatter is responsible but I would have thought the weather was too cold with a bitterly cold breeze outside.

What was also a surprise was my first reception here of The Wave on 96.4 from Swansea, SW Wales at 334 km. There was no apparent enhancement in that direction as Wenvoe, in the same area, was weak and fluttery. The Wave was heard only very briefly on a short troposcatter type peak and was in parallel with their web stream.

Signals had returned to normal by 16:30 and transmitters like Wrotham receded back into the noise whereas they had been at a full three bars on the Sony XDR-F1HD an hour earlier. Lille also went back into hiding.

So, conditions have been very changeable indeed this afternoon. At least it shows that scatter conditions are not constantly down, even at this time of year.

Best reception was Big FM, Koblenz on 104.0 (590 km) and SWR4, Donnersberg on 105.6 (657 km). Central France is lacking at the moment. Only getting as far down as Neufchatel (381 km) and Caen (469 km) in the north.

As I type, I have a weak WDR5 from Bonn (538 km) on 88.0 mixing with an even weaker SR1 from Gottelborner Hohe (629 km). Radio Salu, Saarbrucken on 101.7 (628 km) is present but very weak. The Dudelange transmitter in Luxembourg is also coming in noisily on 88.9 and 100.7 (574 km). Still, this is very not bad at all for January. With temperatures peaking at -1°C today and with snow on the ground I cannot possibly be disappointed.