Skegness Log: 15-04-15 (FM)

Band 2 Meteor Scatter:
 93.9 0356 CZE Rádio Blaník, Pardubice/Krásné (PA) 283C  1127km
 93.9 0356 HNG MR 2 Petöfi Rádió, Kab-hegy (Ves) B201  1405km
 97.4 0356 CZE Frekvence 1, Pardubice/Krásné (PA) 2205 ____97,4  1127km
101.8 0543  I  RAI Auditorium, Torino/Eremo (RAI) (to) 5205  1050km **
104.1 0543  I  Radio Subasio, Bagno a Ripoli/Poggio Incontro (fi) 53FD  1323km

Band 2 Scatter:
107.6 1355  D  Antenne Thüringen, Remda (Saalfeld) (thü) Scatter! OM promo, ID and
               correspondent. V weak.  788km
107.3 1358  D  SWR4 Baden-Württemberg, Raichberg (bwü) Jazzy schlager, as web  813km **

** Personal Skegness 'First'

A big thank you to Nick for informing me I had received Raichberg via scatter after he had seen my log on the FM List. This breaks my personal scatter distance record and I knew nothing about it! I must have gone into automatic mode, not noticing the transmitter site when I logged it. I didn't even notice the tell-tale mention of "Baden Wurttemburg" in the web stream link when I checked the web stream. My brain cell was clearly elsewhere as I had assumed this was a more regular Rheinland Pfalz transmitter. Then a phone call from Nick in the evening congratulated me for receiving Raichberg. I just responded with a surprised "Did I?". I would have spotted this later when I compiled my log anyway, but how bizarre to discover this from a phone call. So my scatter record has now shot up from 788 km up to 813 km, breaking that 800 km barrier.

Scatter was unusual today as the nearer Germans were not up to their usual strengths, so I was surprised to begin with hearing Remda doing so well on 107.6. I thought this must have been a UK station at first. Then the signal faded up sufficiently to hear a German OM talking, followed by a jingle ID and then a conversation with a male correspondent.

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.