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Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Skegness Log: 17-03-15 (FM)

Band 2 Auroral:
 88.4 1805  D  MDR Figaro, Leipzig Wiederau (sac) Vocal ID heard after news  843km **
 90.4 1809  D  MDR JUMP, Leipzig Wiederau (sac) Pops, as web  843km **
 94.2 1814  F  France Culture, Nantes/Haute-Goulaine (44) YLs and jingle, as web  675km **
 94.6 1817  D  MDR 1 Radio Sachsen-Anhalt, Brocken (san) Pops, as web  712km **
 94.7 1819  G  BBC Radio Scotland, Sandale (EN-CUM) Jingle ID and info, as web, beaming
               north-east  288km **

 91.7 1831 POL PR 3, Czestochowa/Wreczyca (SL) Old country song, as web  1291km **
 93.0 1835  F  France Bleu Breizh Izel, Brest/Roc Trédudon (29) OM and jingle ID,
               as web  604km **

 97.8 1836  F  France Culture, Brest/Roc Trédudon (29) French OM, as web  604km **
 89.4 1837  F  France Musique, Brest/Roc Trédudon (29) Classical, as web  604km **
 87.9 1848  F  France Inter, Toulouse/Pic du Midi (65) YL phone caller, as web  1136km **
 90.6 2317  D  WDR 5, Teutoburger Wald/Bielstein (nrw) German OM, as web  591km **
105.6 2320  D  SWR4 Rheinland-Pfalz, Donnersberg (rlp) Schlager, as web  656km **
 93.9 2326  G  BBC Radio Scotland, Darvel (SC-EAY) Presumed Darvel. Glengorm the only
               other real possibility. 

               Gentle song, as web  403km **
 95.3 2331  D  Deutschlandradio Kultur, Schwerin (mev) Discussion with piano music,
               as web  739km **

 92.1 2334  D  NDR 2, Torfhaus (Harz-West) (nds) Pops, as web  707km **
 92.0 2336  D  WDR 5, Münster/Baumberge (nrw) OM and YL, as web  493km **
 91.4 2337  D  Berliner Rundfunk 91.4, Berlin/Alexanderplatz (brb) Anastacia song,
               as web  880km **

 91.2 2339  D  NDR 1 Niedersachsen, Dannenberg/Zernien (nds) Sniff and The Tears song,
               as web  705km **

 91.1 2341  D  NDR 1 Niedersachsen, Steinkimmen (nds) Sniff and The Tears song, as web  543km **
105.7 2342  D  Antenne Niedersachsen, Steinkimmen (nds) Pops, as web  543km **
105.5 2343  D  WDR Eins Live, Teutoburger Wald/Bielstein (nrw) Beatles, as web  591km **
103.6 2347  D  Radio Hamburg, Hamburg-Moorfleet (ham) Pops, as web  650km **
 87.6 2348  D  NDR 2, Hamburg-Moorfleet (ham) Pops, as web  650km **

Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
 98.6 0334 SVK Rádio Jemné, Košice/Dubník (KE) 5354 JEMNE___  1544km
 97.4 0339 CZE Frekvence 1, Pardubice/Krásné (PA) F1__97__  1127km
 97.0 0411  S  SR P3, Hörby/Sallerup TM (sn) E203 ____3___  913km
 98.7 0414  D  SWR1 Baden-Württemberg, Grünten (Allgäu) [bay] (bwü) D311  942km
 95.4 0417 AUT Ö2 - Radio Steiermark, Graz 1/Schöckl (ste) A902 __DI____  1261km
 99.1 0417 AUT Antenne Steiermark, Graz 1/Schöckl (ste) A943  1261km
 98.5 0432 HRV HRT-HR 2, Zagreb/Sljeme (zg) C202  1381km
 97.3 0448 HRV HRT-HR 1, Psunj (sb) C201  1500km
 97.7 0448 HRV HRT-HR 3, Papuk/Kapovac (vt) C203  1523km
 98.7 0448 AUT Hitradio Ö3, Possibly Bruck German OM, as 99.0 **
 94.8 2052 AUT Ö2 - Radio Salzburg, Salzburg 1/Gaisberg (ORS) (sal) A802 ______S_  1080km

** Personal 'First' via this mode

Meteor Scatter:
I only had time to go through one of my overnight meteor recordings. The auroral event dominated the rest of my radio day. As it happened, there were corrupted files in the first recording so I had to scrub that one.

Aurora:
The auroral activity at the beginning of this evening came from the north-east. Later on in the evening it had moved to the north-north-west. They made a huge impact. When I first tuned to the FM band I was amazed to see signals on all frequencies, but they were mostly a complete mess with lots of distortion, just like you'd hear when narrowing the IF too much. What a mess! There were BBC national transmitters on every frequency, from 88.1 to 94.5. Even Tacolneston was messed up. Belmont was the only transmitter which was left untouched.

Occasionally, a continental station would take over. Each one a high powered transmitter. I knew it must have been a powerful auroral disturbance because I was receiving the Brest and Nantes transmitters, both from the north-east, which was really bizarre to say the least. Beaming south-west, directly towards them, produced only a glimmer of the signals off the back of the beam.

The highlight was when an outlet of France Inter appeared on 87.9. There is uncertainty as to which transmitter I received, but I beleive it was more likely to be Toulouse. Such southerly suroral conditions are quite rare, but even North Africa once saw a visible aurora in their northern skies one year. I forget which. The only real alternative to the Toulouse transmitter, as Nick Gilly pointed out, would be St Brieuc in Brittany, not too far away from Brest and Nantes, but St Brieuc is only 200 watts and that might also be unlikely because of the low power. So which one did I receive? At the same time, DX Maps was showing a French radio ham, half way down the western side of France, working into the auroral conditions. Even a ham in Croatia was able to get in on the action, so I still strongly favour Toulouse, though there is no way of knowing for certain.

Auroral Es:
There were auroral Es just before 2100 but they were very shortlived. Finland appeared on 88.0 but was only audible for two or three minutes.

This Evening's Visible Aurora:
Pah! You can guess the outcome of that one.

Good DX!

John Faulkner
Skegness, Lincolnshire (JO03dd) <3m ASL.
Blog: http://skegnessdx.blogspot.co.uk
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/g1vvp
Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/skegnessdx

Receivers:
Elad FDM-S2 (Meteor Scatter)
Sony XDR-F1HD with Konrad i2c mod. (Tropo/Scatter)

Aerials:
Körner 9.2 @ 5.5 metres agl. QTH is 3 metres asl.
Triax FM3, one metre above the ground as a phasing antenna.
Fringe Electronics 20dB & Labgear 30dB band 2 pre-amps.
HS Publications Antenna Phaser.

Software:
Elad FDM-SW2, SDR Console File Analyser & RDS Spy via VAC.
XDR-GTK v0.3.1 for the Sony XDR-F1HD

Rotator:
Yaesu G-5500 azimuth & elevation rotator, allowing antenna to be vertical, horizontal, etc.

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