Skegness Log: 05-05-13

It's unusual to have such a good sporadic E opening this early in the season! I won't allow myself to assume that this will continue non-stop throughout the summer now. Sporadic E has a habit of dropping the odd surprise like this. Here's my log:

Sporadic E:  87.7 1425 BUL Radio 1, Pazardsik/RPTS VETS Aleko (pzk) 8381  2162km
 87.6 1426 BUL Radio Zorana, Sofia/kv. Gorna banya (sfg) 8069  2051km **
 88.9 1427 SRB Radio Index, Beograd/Torlak (Srb) 6288 _INDEX__  1739km
 89.9 1429 BUL Radio Focus, Plovdiv/Belashtitsa (pld) 837F  2190km
 88.4 1430 BUL BNR Horizont, Roman/Strupets (vrt) 8210  2059km **
 94.0 1432 BUL BNR Radio Plovdiv, Plovdiv/RRTS Zdravets (pld) 8234 RADIO___ PLOVDIV_  2194km **
 89.1 1433 BUL Radio FM+, Plovdiv/Belashtitsa (pld) Pops, as web   2190km
 88.2 1435 BUL BNR Hristo Botev, Belogradcik/RRTS Karneva livada (vdn) 8220 HR.BOTEV  1950km
 87.6 1509 BUL BNR Radio Shumen, Shumen/RRTS Venets (shm) 8236 SHUMEN__  2220km
 87.6 1713 TUN RTT Radio Tataouine, Zarzis (med) 7205 TATAOUIN  2342km
 88.0 1713 TUN Radio Zitouna FM, Djebel Zaghouan (zag) 7211 ZITOUNA_  2016km **
 88.4 1715  I  Radio Internazionale, Santu Lussurgiu/Punta Badde Urbara (or) 52D7  --TE----  1576km
 89.4 1716 TUN Jawhara FM, Kairouan=Al-Qayrawan (kai) 7210 JAWHARA_  2089km
 89.9 1717 TUN Radio Zitouna FM, Sfax/El-Ghraba (sfa) 7211  ZITOUNA_  2183km
 90.6 1718 TUN Shems FM, Monastir (mon) Arabic OM, as web stream  2100km
 93.0 1719 TUN RTT Radio Jeunes, Sfax/El-Ghraba (sfa) 7201   2183km
 88.5 1720 TUN RTT Radio Sfax, Kerkennah (sfa) Female Arabic song, as web  2222km
 90.0 1721 TUN Oxygène FM, Bizerte/Djebel Kochbata (biz) 7220 OXYGENE_  1933km
 91.0 1723 TUN Radio MFM Tunisie, Ksour-Essaf (mah) Tentative 0033 PI. Arabic chanting, as web  2142km **
 92.5 1725 TUN RTT Radio Jeunes, Ksour-Essaf (mah) Phone in, as web  2142km
 92.0 1727 TUN RTT R.Tunis Chaîne Int., Djebel Zaghouan (zag) 7202  2016km
 93.7 1730 TUN Shems FM, Sousse (sou) OMs talking, as web  2087km **
 94.6 1732 TUN Radio MFM Tunisie, Sousse (sou) OM ID jingle and sung jingle. Ads in French  2087km **
 95.7 1733 TUN Shems FM, Bizerte/Djebel Kochbata (biz) OMs again, as web  1933km **
100.2 1746 TUN RTT Radio Sfax, Ksour-Essaf (mah) 7204  2142km
101.1 1747  I  Radio Sintony, Cagliari/Castello (ca) Italian pops, as web  1688km **
101.7 1747 TUN Shems FM, Djebel Bou-Kornine (tun) 7213 --EM----  1987km
102.5 1748 TUN Jawhara FM, Zaghouan (zag) 7210 JAWHARA_  2013km
 94.3 1751 TUN RTT Radio Nationale, Djebel Zaghouan (zag) YL and phone caller, as web  2016km
 96.9 1751 TUN Radio Zitouna FM, Ksour-Essaf (mah) 7211  2142km **
100.7 1754 TUN Radio Zitouna FM, Zarzis (med) OM Arabic solo, as web  2342km **
 87.7 1755 TUN RTT Radio Culture, Djebel Trozza (kai) 7212  2086km
 87.5 1800  I  Radio Maria, Sant’Antioco/Monte Cresia (ci) OMs serious talk, as web  1684km
 89.5 1801 TUN RTT Radio Culture, Bizerte/Djebel Kochbata (biz) Flute solo, as web  1933km
 93.8 1805 TUN RTT R.Tunis Chaîne Int., Bizerte/Djebel Kochbata (biz) OM, v weak, as 92.0  1933km
 93.3 1810  I  RAI Radio2, Santu Lussurgiu/Punta Badde Urbara (RAI) (or) Presumed site. Programme as web  1575km
 92.7 1812  I  RAI Radio2, Sinnai/Monte Serpeddi (RAI) (ca) As 93.3  1678km
 90.7 1813  I  RAI Radio1, Sinnai/Monte Serpeddi (RAI) (ca) OM, as web  1678km
 96.2 1814 TUN Shems FM, Sfax/El-Ghraba (sfa) OM on phone, as web  2183km **
 96.5 1815 TUN RTT Radio Jeunes, Djebel Zaghouan (zag) OM, as web  2016km
103.0 1816 TUN RTT Radio Culture, Sfax/El-Ghraba (sfa) Arabic song, as web  2183km
103.6 1818 TUN Express FM, Djebel Bou-Kornine (tun) 7214. Shalamar track  1987km **
105.3 1820  I  Radio Kiss Kiss, Santu Lussurgiu/Punta Badde Urbara (or) Ad break, as web  1576km **
104.0 1823  I  Radio Stella (Selargius), Gairo/Punta Tricoli (og) 50F1  1633km
 88.3 1827 ALG Radio El Tarf, Oum Ali (36) OMs talk, as web  1934km
 89.0 1828 TUN RTT Radio Sfax, Skhira (sfa) Gentle Arabic song, as web  2230km
 93.9 1830 ALG Radio Constantine, Kef El Akhal (25) Arabic prayer, as web  1927km **
 87.8 1840 TUN RTT Radio Gafsa, Kebili=Qibili (keb) 7206 --FS---- Gafsa FM ID in Arabic. Arabic pops  2265km **
 88.2 1841 TUN RTT Radio Kef, Djebel ech Chambi (kas) 7208 KEF_____  2100km
 87.6 1852 ALG Chaîne 3, Kef El Akhal (25) OMs lively discussion, as web  1927km
 90.7 1853 ALG Chaîne 1, Kef El Akhal (25) OM, as web  1927km
 97.2 1858 ALG Chaîne 2, Kef El Akhal (25) OM, as web  1927km
 92.7 1928 TUN RTT Radio Gafsa, Djebel ech Chambi (kas) OM, as 87.8  2100km
 89.6 1937 TUN RTT Radio Jeunes, Djebel ech Chambi (kas) YL phone caller, as web  2100km
 87.9 1959 ALG Radio Tébessa, Doukhane (12) Intl Service. ID in Spanish. Tnx Janpeter  2071km

Sporadic E Unids:
 89.2 1429 BUL FM Plus, unlisted site. 8382 FM Plus Vocal ID **

** Personal Skegness 'First'

Meteor Scatter:
 87.7 0346  F  France Culture, Strasbourg/TDF Nordheim (67) F202 _C----RE Unattended  709km
 87.7 0347  D  MDR Figaro, Chemnitz/Geyer (sac) D3C3 Unattended  905km
 87.7 1124  E  RAC 1, Barcelona/Collserola (CAT-B) E251 Unattended  1311km

Several other instances of E251 were stored on 87.7 which I have left out the log. This seems to be my regular on 87.7, maybe because I tend to beam SSW to avoid the noise I now have when beaming NE to S. I don't think SSW is a good direction for MS.

I did a little better with meteor scatter overnight. My laptop seems to "sleep" when it has been inactive for 20 minutes or so and I have been wondering if this could be a reason why I have not done so well with this mode. I would have thought that the hard drive would wake up and store any RDS data registered by RDS Spy, but maybe there are other things which have been powering down because of periods of inactivity.

I looked into this and Windows 7 has an system "service" which runs in the background called "Superfetch". Apparently this overrides the settings in your Control Panel and powers down your hard drives (and other services?) EVEN when they have been set under the Control Panel NEVER to sleep. I made sure the Superfetch had been disabled and three MS loggings resulted. Coincidence? It could have simply been good meteor scatter conditions which were responsible of course. Hopefully this info about "Superfetch" will be of use.

Good DX!

John, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) Approx. 1m ASL
skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk
NOTE: skywaves.info website and associated email addresses have closed.

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD (tropospheric)
Kenwood KT6040 (sporadic E & meteor scatter)
Icom IC7000 (OIRT)
Conrad RDS Manager

Aerials:
Rooftop Körner 9.2, 8m AGL
Yaesu G-5500 azimuthal/elevation rotator

Software:
RDS Spy v0.99