August 2016: extreme VHF tropo (F, HRV, BIH, I) – part II

This is the continuation of the article: August 2016: extreme VHF tropo (F, HRV, BIH, I) – part I.

mapAugust 26, 2016 was definitely a remarkable day for the European long-range tropospheric propagation. Zagreb was logged in Finland by several DX-ers, up to 1691 km, however in Poland the best conditions occurred one day later, on August 27th.

But first, let’s go back in time to the year 2014 when I wrote an article titled Autumn Tropo 2014 (D, HRV, SVN…), especially to the last paragraph:

Italy was very close this time, as the tropo ducting would have to cross only the Adriatic Sea. Unfortunately, all interesting frequencies were overtaken by closer stations here in Płock. The closest Italian locations are blocked by the Alps, but maybe someday we could receive it in Poland across Croatia and Adriatic Sea instead…?

The described path, across Adriatic Sea, was just a wishful thinking and actually I have never expected it to occur. Well, guess what happened…

August 26, early morning – BIH!

Although that was not forecasted, an amazing path to Bosnia and Herzegovina was already in development. In the morning, for the first time ever via tropospheric ducting I heard this country on 89.3 Federalni Radio. And you should know that in Poland, due to bumpy path, BIH was mainly received via aircraft scatter.

The signal was weak, below 1µV, but intelligible and stable. Some Croatian and Slovenian stations were audible too. 

UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
0538 89.3 Federalni Radio Vlašić 100 935 vocal ID
0609 98.5 HRT-HR 2 Zagreb – Sljeme 120 794  
0615 88.5 Slovenija 1 Maribor – Pohorje (RTVSLO) 30 740 //web
0629 97.5 HRT-HR 2 Otočac – Stipanov Grič 15 923 //98.5
0637 87.7 HRT-HR 1 Lička Plješivica 50 916 //web

   

August 26, late morning – CZE/D/AUT ducting

I woke up again before 10 UTC and I noticed some unusual signals from Czech Republic and Austria. České Budějovice reached up to 52dBf @ 566km. Tropo over hilly terrain was quite unstable, I’ve seen high signal fluctuations, even 10dB+ within a minute or half. I also logged some Bavarian stations and very strong Salzburg.

It was also an excellent chance for the 100.9 from Brotjacklriegel – another step to complete my German frequencies, so far missing only two – 90.9 and 100.9 from the whole 87.6-107.9 span. This frequency is very crowded at my QTH. First of all there is a semi-local 100.9 Radio Maryja from Włocławek (46km 1kW circular pol.), which is not nullable in this direction. Secondly there is a mentioned Radio Merkury from Poznań/Śrem (120kW @ 196km) in horizontal polarization and finally Radio Impuls from Jesenik which takes this frequency over when my antenna is heading southern Germany. A planned maintenance of Poznań/Śrem transmitter in Poland with its 100,9 down for several hours increased my chance for success.

At some point I heard German full-hour news with antenna pointed between Włocławek and Jesenik. Finally, BR Klassik! The reception was possible very briefly, mixing with other stations for just a minute. But indeed it was possible… so there is only one frequency left in my TODO list now – 90.9. :)

UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
0943 91.8 Rock Radio Kašperské Hory – Javorník 0.5 576 jingle ID 24dBf
0944 98.4 Radio Impuls Kašperské Hory – Javorník 5 576 2203 _IMPULS_
0944 107.2 CRo Vltava Kašperské Hory – Javorník 1 576 232D [1st]
0950 103.4 Radio Relax Kralupy nad Vltavou 0.2 459 jingle ID [1st]
1003 104.6 FM 4 Salzburg – Gaisberg (ORS) 100 712 A213 __FM4___ 44dBf
1010 107.7 Antenne Bayern Hochries 50 759 D318 ANTENNE_ 38dBf
1011 104.0 FM 4 Linz – Lichtenberg 100 609 A213 __FM4___ 38dBf
1012 102.9 Radio Impuls České Budějovice – Klet 61.7 566 2203 _IMPULS_ 52dBf
1014 90.9 Ö1 Salzburg – Gaisberg (ORS) 100 712 A201 __OE_1__ 43dBf
1014 91.1 CRo 1 České Budějovice – Klet 77.6 566 232F R-ZURNAL 50dBf
1014 106.4 CRo CB České Budějovice – Klet 77.6 566 250D R-CB____ 51dBf
1019 97.5 Ö1 Linz – Lichtenberg 100 609 A201 __OE_1__ 37dBf
1019 95.2 OOE Linz – Lichtenberg 100 609 A707 41dBf, again over local R.Eska
1024 96.5 Bayern 2 Brotjacklriegel 100 623 D312 Bayern_2 29dBf
1029 99.0 Hitradio Ö3 Salzburg – Gaisberg (ORS) 100 712 A203 __OE_3__ 45dBf
1048 101.6 Bayern 1 Gelbelsee 25 712 D411 B1_Obb__ 27dBf
1050 106.1 B5 aktuell Gelbelsee 10 712 D315 25dBf mono
1110 92.3 Bayern 2 Dillberg 25 690 D312 Bayern_2 32dBf, Poznan down
1115 87.6 BR Klassik Dillberg 25 690 D314 30dBf
1120 99.9 FM 4 Kufstein – Kitzbüheler Horn 4.5 771 23dBf //104.6 [1st]
1126 97.5 Ö1 Kufstein – Kitzbüheler Horn 4.5 771 2tx on fading! [1st]
1134 103.1 CRo Sever Chomutov – Jedlová 10 491 2709 R-SEVER_ 33dBf
1135 96.3 CRo Vltava Chomutov – Jedlová 10 491 232D R-VLTAVA 32dBf
1205 100.9 BR Klassik Brotjacklriegel 100 623 31dBf //web, Poznan down [1st]

   

August 26, afternoon – SVN/HRV/ROU/BIH/FIN/… ITALY!

The morning tropo from BIHHRV and SVN reactivated in the afternoon. I saw CZE/SVK/AUT logs in LVA/FIN, but the ducting layer was isolated in northern direction for me. Bihor from Romania appeared out of nowhere. HRV signals intensified a lot before 14 UTC.

I heard a weak station on 88.1 in vertical polarization, mixing with one of Polish stations’ empty carrier. I think this might be HRT Radio Sljeme, however the signal quality was very poor. Maybe native Croatian speaker will be able to distinguish any single word from the noise…? High power stations from Zagreb were coming at RDS level during this reception (eg. 98.5 HRT HR-2 ~34dBf at 13:45 UTC, 2 minutes before 88.1).

Almost one hour later I heard second station from Bosnia and Herzegovina97.0 BH Radio 1 from the same location as 89.3 – Vlašić @ 935km.

At 15 UTC I finally found first (and actually last) sign of the tropo from Finland89.8 YLE Radio Yksi from Turku @ 881km, but only up to 10dBf.

                    

Next hour featured a completely unexpected scenario. I was looking for other Croatian signals in vertical polarization and I got stuck on widely modulated 102.5 music… and then Italian voices! Shortly I also heard the station name – RTL cento due cinque. There are many RTL 102.5 transmitters on this station’s native frequency. At first I thought this should be one of the closest locations to Poland behind the Alps, but I was very skeptical because of that. A bit later I logged another Italian station on 93.3 identified as radio cento cinque. Based on this I easily found the location, Pretoro – Maiella @ 1233 km and therefore I solved the RTL 102.5 reception, also from Maiella @ 1235km.

What a great surprise!

        

It seems that’s the first documented reception of Italy via tropospheric ducting in Poland in the 87.5-108 MHz band. I logged signals up to 22dBf, but quite noisy and distorted due to co-channel and adjacent interferences. RTL 102.5 reception lasted for around one hour on August 26.

UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
1218 102.8 Radio SI Maribor – Pohorje 50 740 19dBf V
1220 96.9 Val 202 Maribor – Pohorje 20 740 20dBf H
1221 88.5 Slovenija 1 Maribor – Pohorje 30 740 19dBf V
1222 102.7 HRT Radio Rijeka Mirkovica 30 881 11dBf V [1st]
1227 94.6 Radio Sraka Trdinov Vrh 1 824 //web
1232 92.4 Val 202 Plešivec – Uršlja Gora 10 762  
1239 91.0 RR Actualitati Bihor 60 715 EE00 RRACTUAL 33dBf
1240 89.3 Federalni Radio Vlašić 100 935  
1428 92.1 HRT-HR 1 Zagreb – Sljeme 120 794 C201 22dBf
1431 98.5 HRT-HR 2 Zagreb – Sljeme 120 794 C202 HRT-HR_2 H 31dBf, V 23dBf
1433 99.7 HRT-HR 2 Psunj 80 821 13dBf V //98,5
1438 97.0 BH Radio 1 Vlašić 100 935 //web 13dBf [1st]
1502 89.8 YLE Radio Yksi Turku – Åbo 60 881 classics, 10dBf, weak
1516 95.8 Radio Niederösterreich Semmering 9 617 A602 RADIO-N_
1522 103.0 Radio Aktual Trdinov Vrh 5 824 18dBf
1522 106.6 Radio Krka Trdinov Vrh 15 824 //web [1st]
1527 97.6 Val 202 Trdinov Vrh 10 824 9202 21dBf
1535 102.5 RTL 102.5 Rapino-Maiella 5 1235 [1st]
1555 93.3 Radio 105 Pretoro-Maiella 5 1233 [1st]
1602 89.7 Antena Zagreb Zagreb – Sljeme 4.68 794 21dBf

August 26, evening – D/BLR/UKR/RUS/ROU

As the Itailan stations have faded away I noticed strong but not distant Oschatz, Germany – 38dBf and Sankt Pölten, Austria – 41dBf and I took a short break. About an hour later, the ducting path from Finland, as I guess, moved to Belarus and… mainland Russia. I logged 83.75 1TV audio from Novosokolniki, the same as from Kaliningrad on 91.75. The Belarussian analogue TV has been shut down this year, including 83.75 in Hrodna, so this frequency is now completely clear in this direction.

While I was looking for any Russian OIRT stations I noticed very weak 71.9 signal, which turned out to be just Khust, Ukraine… I rotated my Körner 19.3 antenna at UKR/ROU direction and UR2 reached O=5- level, the strongest ever! I began to be curious about other signals there… and within the same azimuth (±2°) I logged all stations from Munţii Bucegi in central Romania.

     

Furthermore, they reached a massive signal, up to 46 dBf. And now, this is my new ODX from Romania @ 898 km. The following video contains all six stations.

UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
1715 101.8 MDR 1 Sachsen Oschatz – Collmberg 5 484 D6C1 MDR_SACH 38dBf
1718 104.7 Hitradio RTL Sachsen Oschatz – Collmberg 5 484 D3C9 Hitr.RTL 35dBf
1718 98.0 Radio PSR Oschatz – Collmberg 5 484 33dBf 
1811 70.67 BR Pershy Kanal Vitsebsk – RTPS 8 741  
1820 70.31 BR Kanal Kultura Myadzel – RTPS 4 530 stereo
1831 102.7 Radius FM Ushachy 17 653  
1833 83.75 1TV Novosokolniki – RTPS   782 // 91.75 Kaliningrad
1838 71.9 UR 2 Promin Rokosovo – ZFKRRT 1 545  
1845 99.6 Digi FM Munţii Bucegi 60 898 E059 Digi_FM_ 40dBf [1st]
1850 95.3 Radio Trinitas Munţii Bucegi 100 898 E24D TRINITAS 38dBf [1st]
1850 102.2 RR Actualitati Munţii Bucegi 100 898 EE00 R_ACTUAL 46dBf [1st]
1851 107.5 Europa FM Munţii Bucegi 100 898 37dBf [1st]
1852 97.6 RR Muzical Munţii Bucegi 100 898 EE02 MUZICAL_ 46dBf [1st]
1852 104.1 RR Cultural Munţii Bucegi 100 898 EE01 CULTURAL 45dBf [1st]
1855 95.9 Rádio Kiss Snina – Ščobík 10 440 5352 _K_I_S_S 29dBf
1908 98.5 Radio ZU Baia Mare 60 619 pol. V
1909 91.7 RFI Romania Cluj-Napoca 30 710 [1st]
1912 102.5 RR Actualitati Baia Mare 60 619 EE00 RRACTUAL 33dBf

  

August 26, night – massive SVN/HRV/BIH ducting

In the late evening signals from SVN, HRV and BIH greatly increased their strength. Mirkovica quickly produced RDS level, as well as… Vlašić! Higher signal level of 89.3 Federalni Radio revealed an asymmetrical stereo broadcast (actually right channel only, with some variable crosstalk due to interferences from other stations).

Just before 20 UTC tropo expanded even further, bringing one of the most southern Croatian locations – Biokovo @ 1047 km. As if that was not enough, I received all stations from there with full RDS decoding. The following video presents all stations from Biokovo and Vlašić received once in a row.

The path from my QTH to Biokovo trespassed whole BIH territory, so I was looking for more nearby stations – I logged Sarajevo and… Livno, which I have heard many times via MS and once via ES on 88.1. Meanwhile Vlašić peaked to a fantastic signal level ~41 dBf @ 935 km!!

Slovenian Trdinov Vrh @ 824 km also reached RDS on some frequencies, incl. 97.6 VAL 202 as follows:

I recorded a nice full hour ID of 89.7 HRT- HR 1 from Biokovo @ 1047 km:

Later at night Livno @ 1006 km produced RDS level on both frequencies, peaking at above 30 dBf. Because of strong Hitradio Orion on 88.1 and Radiozurnal on 92.5 I had to rotate my antenna more at south-west direction.

  • 88.1 BH Radio 1

  • 92.5 Federalni Radio

89.3 from Vlašić peaked at 43 dBf at 00:53 UTC. Before sleep I left my XDR with the frequency scheduler set to 89.3, 89.7, 104.7 and 88.1, however all signals decreased throughout the night.

        

UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
1919 93.3 HRT-HR 2 Mirkovica 30 881 //98.5 [1st]
1921 91.3 HRT-HR 1 Mirkovica 30 881 C201 HRT-HR_1 26dBf
1935 103.1 SRo 3 Devín Modrý Kameň 10 486 23dBf, narrow filter
1949 89.7 HRT-HR 1 Biokovo – Sveti Jure 80 1047 C201 HRT-HR_1 22dBf [1st]
1953 97.0 BH Radio 1 Vlašić 100 935 F201 BHRADIO1 29dBf
2009 88.7 RTRS RR Srpske Sarajevo – Trebević 10 980 //web 14dBf [1st]
2012 107.9 HKR Biokovo – Sveti Jure 80 1047 C204 -_HKR_-_ 30dBf [1st]
2015 102.0 HRT Radio Split Biokovo – Sveti Jure 80 1047 C31A R-SPLIT_ 36dBf [1st]
2022 98.9 HRT-HR 2 Biokovo – Sveti Jure 80 1047 C202 HRT-HR_2 38dBf [1st]
2029 103.9 HKR Psunj 80 821 26dBf
2030 89.3 Federalni Radio Vlašić 100 935 F209 RADIO-F. 41dBf
2032 99.3 HRT-HR 1 Učka 80 908 //89.7 [1st]
2039 98.7 Radio M Sarajevo – Trebević 1 979 //web [1st]
2043 106.6 Radio Krka Trdinov Vrh 15 824 9423 __KRKA__ [1st]
2044 97.2 SRo 3 Devín Žilina – Krížava 18 394 61dBf
2044 94.5 SRo 4 Rádio_FM Žilina – Krížava 20 394 59dBf
2049 97.6 Val 202 Trdinov Vrh 10 824 9202 VAL_202_ 29dBf
2051 103.0 Radio Aktual Trdinov Vrh 5 824 944E AKTUAL_D 33dBf
2057 106.1 Narodni Radio Mirkovica 30 881 C206 NARODNI_ 25dBf [1st]
2059 102.7 HRT R. Rijeka Mirkovica 30 881 C319 R-RIJEKA 28dBf
2102 90.9 Slovenija 1 Trdinov Vrh 7.5 824 29dBf
2115 102.9 KRONEHIT Semmering 9 617 A3FF KRONEHIT 35dBf
2123 98.5 HRT-HR 2 Zagreb – Sljeme 120 794 C202 HRT-HR_2 44dBf
2126 89.6 Radiocentras Vilnius – TV Tower 3 429 CA45 _-_RC_-_
2127 92.5 Radio Stolitsa Geranyony – RTPS 1 422 [1st]
2202 98.3 Class FM Miskolc – Avas 5.6 505 very weak
2210 93.2 Radio Steiermark Bruck (Mur) 20 667  
2227 92.8 Bayern 1 Hohenpeißenberg 25 818 //93.7 and web [1st]
2237 87.7 HRT-HR 1 Lička Plješivica 50 916 //89.7
2238 106.4 CRo CB České Budějovice 77.6 564 250D R-CB____ 57dBf
2238 104.6 FM4 Salzburg – Gaisberg 100 712 A213 __FM4___ 45dBf
2301 88.1 BH Radio 1 Livno – Tušnica 30 1006 F201 BHRADIO1 30dBf [1st]
2304 89.3 Hey Radio Benešov – Kozmice 5 463 24F8 29dBf
2315 104.0 Fun Rádio Banská Bystrica 100 495 5340 FUNRADIO 57dBf
2319 91.6 MR 1 Kossuth Vasvár – Hegyhátsál 6.8 666 22dBf
2325 72.11 Radius FM Minsk 17 555 O=5
2329 88.8 Hitradio Ö3 Linz – Lichtenberg 100 609 44dBf
2339 97.0 Ö1 Sankt Pölten 100 568 A201 __OE_1__ 54dBf
2347 89.5 Music FM Budapest 77.6 569  
2350 95.9 MR 1 Kossuth Pécs – Minina-tető 24 731  
2350 96.8 MR 1 Kossuth Sopron – Dalos-hegy 10 593  
0009 104.7 Bobar Radio Vlašić 30 935 F262 *BOBAR?? 26dBf [1st]
0016 92.5 Federalni Radio Livno – Tušnica 30 100 F209 RADIO-F. [1st]
0051 105.7 B5 Aktuell Wendelstein 100 774 D315 B5_akt__
0053 89.3 Federalni Radio Vlašić 30 935 F209 RADIO-F. 43dBf

 

August 27, morning – AUT/SVN/HRV/BIH again!

In the morning VlašićLivno and Biokovo were still present, but with weaker signals. On 97.0 I heard a full identification of BH Radio 1 will all station’s frequencies. Strong Ö1 from Sankt Pölten produced some noise in the background, although I rotated antenna more to the east like a day before.

The band was full of Croatian stations. 99.7 HRT-HR 2 from Psunj @ 821 km surprisingly peaked over PR3 Katowice in the same direction and polarization with full RDS. Around 8:30 UTC I noticed fair signals from Učka @ 908 km. For the first time I also heard Plešivec from Slovenia via ducting.

Austrian signals strengthened between 9 and 10 UTC. The station Der Musiksender on 104.9 from Weitra got tropo-hijacked. Around 9:12 I heard Czech station CR1 on this frequency instead of Der Musiksender, but very barely. Looks like they use 88.6 from Wien as the FM rebroadcast which was covered with a massive signal of CR1 88.5 from Trutnov – Černá hora. Few minutes later Czech station was quite intelligible, but the feed suddenly switched to another audio source as presented on the video below. At 10:23 I heard CR1 again there.

A bit later Livno produced RDS signal again. I also logged new station from BIH – 99.0 Nezavisni Radio Studio 99 from Fojnica – Bandera @ 963 km. Around 10:30 UTC I found an unidentified station mixing with my semi-local 106.6 PR1 Jedynka @ 130km. It was definitely not Radio Krka (checked via webstream). Songs IDed by YouTube: Daleko – Detour, Lolo – Emina Jahovic.

UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
0802 97.0 BH Radio 1 Vlašić 100 935 F201 BHRADIO1 29dBf
0819 89.7 HRT-HR 1 Biokovo – Sveti Jure 80 1047 C201 HRT-HR_1
0823 107.9 HKR Biokovo – Sveti Jure 80 1047 C204 -_HKR_-_ 32dBf
0826 99.7 HRT-HR 2 Psunj 80 821 C202 HRT-HR_2 30dBf over PR3 Katowice!
0831 106.7 HKR Učka 80 908 C204 ____R_-_ 26dBf [1st]
0832 101.3 HRT Radio Pula Učka 80 908 vocal ID 26dBf [1st]
0834 104.7 HRT Radio Rijeka Učka 80 908 //web 25dBf [1st]
0836 96.9 Radio Istra Učka 80 908 //web 18dBf [1st]
0852 101.7 FM4 Graz – Schöckl 80 674 A213 32dBf
0856 90.0 Slovenija 1 Plešivec (Uršlja Gora) 10 762 9201 26dBf [1st]
0857 101.4 FM4 Weitra – Wachberg 2 560 A213 __FM4___ 36dBf
0923 104.9 88.6 Der Musiksender Weitra – Nebelstein 3 560 A3EE 88.6_NOE 39dBf
0930 90.2 KRONEHIT Weitra – Wachberg 3 560 A3FF KRONEHIT 33dBf
0931 104.6 FM 4 Salzburg – Gaisberg 100 712 A213 __FM4___ 49dBf
0932 106.2 Welle 1 Salzburg Salzburg – Gaisberg 2 712 A851 WELLE_1_ 35dBf
0935 101.8 Antenne Salzburg Salzburg – Gaisberg 10 712 A840 SALZBURG 38dBf
0936 104.1 KRONEHIT Rechnitz 6 631 33dBf
0944 95.2 OOE Linz – Lichtenberg 100 609 A707 41dBf over local R. Eska
0958 92.5 Federalni Radio Livno – Tušnica 30 1006 //89.3 27dBf
0959 88.1 BH Radio 1 Livno – Tušnica 30 1006 F201 BHRADIO1 29dBf
1003 88.7 RTRS RR Srpske Sarajevo – Trebević 10 980  
1020 99.0 Nezavisni R. Studio 99 Fojnica – Bandera   963 [1st]
1023 104.9 88.6 Der Musiksender Weitra – Nebelstein 3 560 CR1 88.5 relay
1032 106.6 unid       pol. H, not Radio Krka
1036 105.5 Class FM Pécs – Minina-tető 50 731 11dBf
1041 103.9 HKR Psunj 80 821 //107.9 24dBf

 

August 27, afternoon – EXTREME ITALY! DUCTING

If the Italian tropo received previous day was, as I described, a completely unexpected scenario, then how should I call the following developments…!?

Around 10:45 UTC I heard Italian language on 96.9 MHz. I checked locations that I received on the previous day and quickly matched RDS – Radio Dimensione Suono webstream with my reception! RTL 102.5 was already waiting on its frequency. This time the signal level was much better – stereo, but still distorted due to adjacent channel interferences. Italian FM broadcasts are loud, clearly louder than Polish stations limited up to 3dBr. Few minutes later I discovered another Italian station on 98.5 and… there was a short power outage at my QTH. Oh noes! 

I came back online at 11:00 UTC, 98.5 faded to HRV, but 102.5 produced RDS PI code: 5218 at 20 dBf! Shortly 96.9 also produced a PI code: 5264. The amazing ducting path between Italy and Poland was still increasing its strength. I tried other nearby frequencies and I logged 105.6 Radio Maria, 102.25 RAI GR Parlamento and 101.8 Radio Italia.

       

I was looking for more and more Italian stations, but I accidentally found 93.0 Studio M from Borja, Bosnia and Herzegovina, listed as only 0.2kW ERP (!?) which produced 22 dBf RDS signal @ 904 km! I also noticed very strong Lička Plješivica (HRT-HR 1, 2, 3 – all with RDS).

An impressive tropo peak occurred few minutes past 11:30 UTC. RTL 102.5, as well as RDS 96.9 produced full RDS decoding with signal up to ~26 dBf @ 1235 km. I could not believe what’s going on!

In the first case I fine-tuned the frequency to 102.52 MHz because of a strong semi-local PR1 Jedynka from Warsaw on 102.4. 

96.9 RDS reception quality was much better than 102.5 as there were no adjacent channel interferences and very negligible other co-channel signals.

More? Of course! When I tuned to 105.6, I heard a peak of Radio Maria, producing PI code: 51CC, up to 23dBf. I also logged weaker 103.0 R101 (//web). 

      

Italy was not the only country with interesting signals. Shortly I logged another station from Konjic, BIH @ 990 km98.4 Radio Otvorena Mreža which also reached RDS decoding quality, however PI code only @ 14-15 dBf.

Italy continued. Next logs: 108.0 Radio Studio Più99.5 Radio Ketchup93.3 Radio 105 (RDS PI).

Between 14 and 16 UTC I received another location – Civitella del Tronto: 105.5 Radio Subasio, 104.8 Radio Capital, 94.6 Radio Kiss Kiss, 102.2 Radio Deejay and 98.5 Radio LatteMiele (up to RDS PI with 19 dBf).

Using a narrow filter I pulled out a marginal signal out of the noise on 99.5. Boško Igić heard that the woman says “6.90 KM” at the beginning (convertible marks – the currency used in Bosnia and Herzegovina). Many thanks! This is definitely not Federalni Radio as I checked 89.3 in parallel. Therefore this should be RTV USK from Sanski Most, as there are no other candidates in BIH.

The ducting path left Italian area after 16 UTC. The last station I received was 87.5 Radio Subasio with clear ID (and //105.5). Unfortunately, there are two transmitters on this frequency near each other, both equally possible: Fermo 1136km 1kW or Sigillo 1151km 2kW. The following recording includes a short MS ping boost at 44 second.

After over five hours Italy finally faded away. An amazing show with stations on frequencies between 87.5 and 108 MHz, including these band ends…! Not all recordings are featured in this article, for more jingles and snippets see my tropo log.


UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
1100 102.5 RTL 102.5 Rapino-Maiella 5 1235 5218 20dBf
1112 96.9 RDS Rapino-Maiella 5 1235 5264 [1st]
1113 105.6 Radio Maria Rapino-Maiella 5 1235 mono [1st]
1114 102.25 RAI GR Parlamento Roccamorice-Maiella 5 1234 //web [1st]
1115 101.8 Radio Italia SMI Roccamorice-Maiella 5 1234 //web [1st]
1118 93.0 Radio Studio M Borja – Mala Runjavica 0.2 903 F0E3 STUDIO_M 22dBf [1st]
1120 90.5 HRT-HR 2 Lička Plješivica 50 916 C202 HRT-HR_2
1121 87.7 HRT-HR 1 Lička Plješivica 50 916 C201 HRT-HR_1
1125 100.3 HRT-HR 3 Lička Plješivica 50 916 C203 HRT-HR_3 [1st]
1133 102.5 RTL 102.5 Rapino-Maiella 5 1235 5218 RTL102.5
1134 96.9 RDS Rapino-Maiella 5 1235 5264 *_RDS_*_
1136 103.0 R101 Roccamorice-Maiella 5 1234 //web [1st]
1138 98.4 R. Otvorena Mreža Konjic – Lisin   990 F20C [1st]
1157 108.0 Radio Studio Più Pretoro-Maiella 2 1233 //web [1st]
1159 99.5 Radio Ketchup Rapino-Maiella 0.5 1235 //web [1st]
1202 93.3 Radio 105 Pretoro-Maiella 5 1233 5211
1303 97.5 HRT-HR 2 Otočac – Stipanov Grič 15 923 C202 HRT-HR_2
1306 89.7 HRT-HR 3 Otočac – Stipanov Grič 15 923 classics //web [1st]
1308 102.3 HRT-HR 1 Otočac – Stipanov Grič 15 923 C201 HRT-HR_1
1323 96.9 Val 202 Maribor – Pohorje 20 740 9202
1337 100.6 Radio City Maribor – Pohorje 1 739  
1413 105.5 Radio Subasio Civitella del Tronto 2 1182 19dBf [1st]
1414 104.8 Radio Capital Civitella del Tronto 10 1183 vocal ID, weak [1st]
1422 102.7 HRT Radio Rijeka Mirkovica 30 881 C319 R-RIJEKA 29dBf
1443 93.3 HRT-HR 2 Mirkovica 30 881 C202 HRT-HR_2
1444 91.3 HRT-HR 1 Mirkovica 30 881 C201 HRT-HR_1
1451 94.6 Radio Kiss Kiss Civitella del Tronto 2 1183  [1st]
1502 96.8 Radio Banovina Petrova Gora 5 859 //web [1st]
1505 102.2 Radio Deejay Civitella del Tronto 0.81 1183 jingle ID [1st]
1511 98.5 Radio LatteMiele Civitella del Tronto 2 1183 jingle ID [1st]
1541 93.7 Narodni Radio Otočac – Stipanov Grič 13 923 //web [1st]
1545 107.8 R. Mir Medugorje Lička Plješivica 50 916 F24B R_MIR_M_ [1st] overdeviating
1618 87.5 Radio Subasio unid     Sigillo or Fermo [1st]

August 27, evening & night – HRV/BIH

In the evening HRV & BIH strengthened again. Another unique stations came in – 97.2 Radio Kaj (two possible locations) and 96.8 Radio Banovina from Petrova Gora.

Otočac as well as Lička Plješivica peaked with over 40dBfVlašić and Biokovo were still producing RDS level!! 

92.0 BN Radio from Sarajevo @ 981km produced stereo RDS signal as can be seen on the following video…

Another interesting DX – 103.1 BH Radio 1 from Kozara @ 872 km up to 24dBf with RDS PI.

Later at night I tuned to 87.7 in H-pol and… after a while I realized this is Rádio Jemné, not Fun Rádio as usually. In the past I have recieved it only during my semi-local PR1 Konin maintenance and the signal was audible up to few seconds, because of strong Košice on the same frequency.

UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
1628 103.3 Otvoreni Radio Otočac – Stipanov Grič 12.8 923 //web [1st]
1631 96.8 Radio Banovina Petrova Gora 5 859 C31D Banovina 21dBf
1635 97.2 Radio Kaj unid     Jastrebarsko or Ivanščica [1st]
1643 102.3 HRT-HR 1 Otočac – Stipanov Grič 15 923 C201 HRT-HR_1 36dBf
1657 97.5 HRT-HR 2 Otočac – Stipanov Grič 15 923 C202 HRT-HR_2 40dBf
1723 90.5 HRT-HR 2 Lička Plješivica 50 916 C202 HRT-HR_2 35dBf
1825 99.7 HRT-HR 2 Psunj 80 821 C202 43dBf, over PR3
1826 90.7 MR 3 Bartók Kékes 30 526 B202 _BARTOK_ 29dBf
1829 104.7 Class FM Kékes 27.5 526 B205 34dBf
1833 95.5 MR 1 Kossuth Kékes 20 526 B203 KOSS???? 33dBf
1841 89.3 Federalni Radio Vlašić 100 935 F209 RADIO-F. 29dBf
1900 98.7 Radio M Sarajevo – Trebević 1 980 //web 18dBf
1915 92.0 BN Radio Sarajevo – Trebević 1.4 980 F222 _RTV_BN_ 27dBf [1st]
1933 88.7 RTRS RR Srpske Sarajevo – Trebević 10 980 25dBf
1941 87.7 HRT-HR 1 Lička Plješivica 50 916 C201 HRT-HR_1 44dBf V
2001 103.1 BH Radio 1 Kozara – Lisina 30 872 F201 24dBf [1st]
2017 100.3 HRT-HR 3 Lička Plješivica 50 916 C203 HRT-HR_3 45dBf
2116 89.7 HRT-HR 1 Biokovo – Sveti Jure 80 1047 C201 HRT-HR_1
2121 94.9 HRT-HR 1 Papuk – Kapovac 10 803 //89.7 [1st]
2122 97.7 HRT-HR 3 Papuk – Kapovac 10 803 //100.3
2141 92.5 Federalni Radio Livno – Tušnica 30 1006 F209 RADIO-F. 29dBf
2151 97.0 BH Radio 1 Vlašić 100 935 F201 BHRADIO1 30dBf
2236 93.3 HRT-HR 2 Mirkovica 30 881 C202 HRT-HR_2 33dBf
2241 91.3 HRT-HR 1 Mirkovica 30 881 C201 HRT-HR_1 34dBf
2318 89.3 Federalni Radio Vlašić 100 935 F209 RADIO-F. 37dBf
0023 87.7 Rádio Jemné Banská Bystrica 10 433 5354 _Jemne__ 42dBf

August 28, morning – HRV/BIH still there

I woke up quite late, around 7:30 UTC. Surprisingly, Vlašić was still producing stereo and RDS level. The signal was getting worse with each hour though. At 8:40 UTC I noticed another small peak of Zagreb – 98.5 HRT-HR 2 up to RDS. 

The last time I heard Vlašić was few minutes past 11 UTC, playing the Anthem of European Union on 89.3.

UTC Freq Station Location ERP QRB Remarks
0723 89.3 Federalni Radio Vlašić 100 935 F209 RADIO-F. 29dBf
0841 98.5 HRT-HR 2 Zagreb – Sljeme 120 793 C202 HRT-HR_2
1105 89.3 Federalni Radio Vlašić 100 935 8dBf, bye bye tropo!

Summary

Well… what can I say? I’m pretty sure this was the most spectacular tropospheric ducting opening that I have ever seen. It was even more fascinating than propagation from the UK last year. The achieved distances were of course somewhat shorter this time (1235 vs 1570 km), but it should be noted that the terrain between Poland and UK is flat and much more favorable for tropo. I guess no one ever dreamed about such reception QUALITY of Italy in Poland, up to O=5 via tropo.

Furthermore, the reception from Italy took place not only once, but on two days in a row! The signal levels were solid and remarkably strong at distances over 900-1000-and more kilometers! Together with Italy I heard lots of stations from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In total I logged 15 stations from Italy and 5 of them produced RDS decoding quality, which is simply… amazing!

One may say that Italy can be heard in Poland every year in the summertime. Of course this is true, but only via Sporadic-E reflection that takes place in the ionosphere, approx. at 90-160 km height. This time the Italian language was brought to Poland within the troposphere, precisely through an inversion layer that is typically built only few kilometers over the Earth’s surface.

On first days of tropo all forecasts were significantly exaggerated… and then, when Italy came, way too modest. Once again, the forecasts missed this impressive, definitely very elevated ducting layer. The following map was valid during the reception peak from Italy, when I was receiving lots of stations at RDS level, on the path marked with a red line.

To be fair, this was not the first reception from Italy in Poland on the 87.5 – 108 MHz band within the troposphere, but probably the first via ducting. In the past some stations below 700 km were weakly received in southern Poland via aircraft scatter.

Before this propagation I created a hotkey for audio & video recording. As a result, I collected over… 700 files! It took me way too long to pick the best audio snippets. Now I have ‘only’ around 290 files.

More audio recordings are available in my tropo log. I added or replaced over 150 files there:

I would like to thank Emel from Radiacja Blog for help in improving this article!

2 thoughts on “August 2016: extreme VHF tropo (F, HRV, BIH, I) – part II

  1. There was one more Italian-language station, you forgot. Probably wondering now which one. I know beacause you asked me for help identifying it.
    – “Radio Fiume” – an italian service of regional Croatian station HRT R.Rijeka, in one of your recordings.
    Congrats on this all! I didn’t score much, but am pleased with my acheivements.
    This tropo made history and all cronicles of 2016 should give it some exposure. I am left spepechless and don’t know what and when to expect something this big ever again. And I’m over 15 years in “the business”! Apparently it cannot be forecasted, like the maps hadn’t this time.

    1. Looks like that I accidentally deleted the recording of Radio Fiume, as I can’t find it now… and that’s why I forgot about it when I was writing this article.

      Thanks!

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