Recent tropospheric activity

[Channel Hopper]

Again this afternoon - lots of FM stations coming in all over the band from Eastern Spain (Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearics).

Ona Mar FM on 88.0 from Badalona just popped up stable enough for RDS name and radio text!

What is your FM antenna ?

 

[Adam792]

What is your FM antenna ?

Just the telescopic antenna of the portable radio I’m using (a Pure One Mini DAB+/FM thing that I’ve had for a long while).

The Sporadic E signals have been quite strong over the past few days. I think with a decent FM antenna I’d have picked up a fair bit more.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Thanks, just checking since the orientation of the antenna here makes a large difference (an 8 element Triax, on the usual horizontal setup).

 

[rodscha]

this morning in my city of Carcassonne ,around 10:30 CET,drove to local supermarket listening to my usual "radio transparence" on 93.7...and I got Makedonsko radio...and a whole bunch of Greek staions with local music and info.. and half an hour later,still the Greeks plus a bunch of ...Scottish stations,relevant accents and details about weather in Hebrides Orkney etc... real funny to get both ends of European Union isn t it! Except Macedonia that is!Scotland we shall see!

 

[Adam792]

this morning in my city of Carcassonne ,around 10:30 CET,drove to local supermarket listening to my usual "radio transparence" on 93.7...and I got Makedonsko radio...and a whole bunch of Greek staions with local music and info.. and half an hour later,still the Greeks plus a bunch of ...Scottish stations,relevant accents and details about weather in Hebrides Orkney etc... real funny to get both ends of European Union isn t it! Except Macedonia that is!Scotland we shall see!

Around the same time I was picking up lots of radio stations from Catalonia and southern France here in Gloucestershire, including France Info 105.1 and Sud Radio 103.2 from the Perpignan Pic de Neulos transmitter just to the south of you!

 

[rodscha]

Very interesting... European radio for all Europeans!

 

[popovp]

Receptions in Varna / Bulgaria yesterday - mostly Arab stations, at 98.80 Mhz penetration of German, at 99.30 - French. I apologize for the poor quality of the video (strong sunlight in the room).

 

[popovp]

From Russia/Sochi DVB-T2 mux 50ch/1kW PIP/PAP with analog channel 40/Kunan 24 - in Varna 08.06.2021:

 

[rodscha]

over-the-sea propagation
reminds me of watching Welsh tv(S4C) in analogue days from Boulogne /mer,East side of the Channel.
we got it on quiet sunny days with haze at sea on quite a regular basis...
on the same rake aerial (or UHF television antenna?) as the usual channels from Dover/folkestone which we used daily.
btw what is a rake antenna called in British English?Fishbone?
Oh I remember ,the bbc messages "do not adjust your set"!
does this still happen nowadays? No such thing in inland France.

 

[ozumo]

btw what is a rake antenna called in British English?Fishbone?

Yagi?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagi–Uda_antenna

 

[rodscha]

yes ,so a yagi it must be,still getting me the french freeview & its 26-odd channels

 

[Channel Hopper]

Oh I remember ,the bbc messages "do not adjust your set"!

 

[popovp]

E-ckip yesterday in Varna - 107.4, 107.6, 88.7, 89.7MHz

And tropo from Russia/Sewastopol - analog channel 21 / HTC

 

[steeviebops]

I picked up an unidentified station on 96.1 this evening. It was in German but that was as much as I could work out. It kept fading in and out.

 

[Adam792]

As well as loads of Spanish and Italian stations yesterday, I picked up a couple of OIRT band stations from Ukraine!

66.53 UR 3 Radio Kul'tura
68.24 Radio Mariya v Ukraini

From the Antopil' transmitter near Rivne apparently.

 

[rodscha]

what kind of frequency is 66.53 or 68.24?

 

[Adam792]

what kind of frequency is 66.53 or 68.24?

They're the OIRT band - it was used instead of the regular FM (87.5-108) frequencies in the former Eastern Block countries. Most of them have now moved over to using the same frequencies as in the rest of Europe, but some stations remain on OIRT in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and I think Moldova.

 

[rodscha]

so you need a russian or ukrainian radio set to pick up these?

 

[Adam792]

so you need a russian or ukrainian radio set to pick up these?

Yes or an SDR (Software defined radio). I have one of these called an Airspy Mini, it's a USB device and you can tune the stations in a program on the computer. It tunes frequencies from 30MHz upwards (including OIRT, FM, VHF Band III and UHF).

 

[rodscha]

and which kind of aerial/antenna are you using?