Skegness Log: 05-03-14 (FM)

Band 2 Meteor Scatter: 05-03-14:
102.0 0417 CZE CRo Dvojka, Brno/Kojál (JM) Distinctive music, as web  1219km **
102.0 0449 CZE Radio Impuls, Ústí nad Labem/Buková hora (US) Czech song, as web  991km **
102.0 0455 HRV HRT Radio Split, Biokovo/Sveti Jure (st) Local song, as web  1643km **
102.0 0505 SVN Slovenija 3, Krvavec (lj) Particularly squeaky violin piece, as web  1271km **
102.0 0512 HNG Class FM, Sopron-Dalos hegy (GMS) Roaring Katy, as web  1299km **
102.0 0658 HRV HRT Radio Osijek, Psunj (sb) Maocolm McLaren Buffalo Gals, as web  1500km **

** Personal Skegness 'First' via this mode

Very interesting meteor reception overnight on 102.0. I heard a lot of bursts from French and German language stations which I can only assume were very low powered transmitters - I could not find the web streams for these. The loggings above are of high powered transmitters. The stations in the Czech Republic were the most frequent.

Looks like my internet is now continuous, i.e. without any overnight dropping of service. So the computer made up for this by reporting that my hard drive was full - as it occasionally does, then it cancels the recording. I have oodles of GB left on my drives. I am sure these things are sent to try me and me only! ;O)

Not only is the internet continuous, so is my new southerly noise. There is a continuous buzz or white noise, peaking up to 20dB to the south - not as severe as at my last address, plus it dips down to 10dB or so regularly. I am mystified as to what it is. The south-east to the south-west is no good for weak DX. Although Lille and a few others are getting through, I haven't been able to hear many other regulars from other parts of northern France since moving here. These include Caen, Brest, Rennes, etc. So far, I have lost Troyes and Bourges to the noise. Thank goodness other directions are noise free.

There was a German talker on 105.3 via scatter late afternoon when I raised the FM5 to about 6 metres. I think it was Schwerin as there was classical music also in on 89.2. That would be 739km from here, same distance as Inselberg which I haven't had here so far, so this would be my furthest scatter at the new address. Hopefully I can confirm this in due course.

Good DX!

John Faulkner, Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <3m ASL.
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk

Receivers:
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c modification & XDR-GTK software.

Aerial:
Triax FM5, five meters AGL.