More QSL-replies from France!

I've just started to check my old Sporadic E-tapes from the recent past years, and now I have 30 replies from French FM-stations within 5-6 weeks!!
Here I list the stations replied during October 2009.

I got 4 replies from France Bleu regional stations; FB Perigord (Bergerac, 99.0 MHz), FB Sud Lorraine (Nancy, 100.5 MHz), FB Lorraine Nord (Metz, 98,5 MHz) and FB Haute Normandie (Rouen, 96.5 MHz).

This last one on this list is the most interesting case because I found one very old recording from 1985 from my C-casettes!! There were id "Radio Haute Normandie". I mailed this to the station and director, Pierre Desaint, replied quickly and was surprised of the old recording. The most surprising thing is that the presenter (DJ) on my recording, Manuel Quesnel, is still working for the station!!!Radio Cactus is a regional station in departement 38, near Grenoble and Swiss border. I heard this on 92.2 MHz (1 kW, Charolles).
And more private stations:
- Jet FM, Nantes, 91.2 MHz (Dep. 44)
- Radio Active, Langres, 91.7 MHz (Dep. 52)
- Frequence Plus, Dijon, 95.4 MHz (Dep. 21). Seems to be big station!! Their web-page look fantastic and this station sounds great!! Nice to meet succesful local stations!!

- Virgin Radio Roanne, 89.4 MHz (Dep. 42). This Virgin local station has even own web-page!

- R.B.A. Auvergne-Limousin, Bort les Orgues, 104.4 MHz (Dep. 19). Stéphane Antignac wrote:
"Bonjour, Quelle surprise !! En effet l'extrait sonore correspond bien à notre radio. Nous sommes situés au centre de la France. Nous sommes une radio associative avec deux fréquences : 104.4 et 98.2. Notre site internet : www.rbafm.fr Nous allons vous faire parvenir un autocollant de notre radio.Nous sommes ravi et vous souhaitons bonne continuation. Très cordialement - Stéphane, Radio RBA FM Auvergne-Limousin"


- R.C.F. Saint-Aignan, Orleans, 90.3 MHz (Dep. 45)
- R.C.F. Aube, Troyes, 88.2 MHz, (Dep. 10)
These both RCF-stations gave nice and informative reply. RCF stations seems to reply very well but you must always be sure that the programme is local, not RCF national feed.

- Radio Kerne, Ploneis, 90.2 MHz (Dep. 29) was very speacial station to have contact. This station is broadcastinf in Breton language, which is spoken only in Bretagne, France (even 300 000 in all).
- Radio Sainte-Baume, Saint-Maximin, 88.9 MHz. This station from very South France, only 40 km NE from Marseille, from very little town (only 13 000 people) in Saint-Baume mountains. The city is known of the beautiful basilica (year 1295) dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
- Radio Morvan is a community station from Chateau Chinon (Dep. 58) from very Middle France - broadcasting on 95.8 MHz
- Le Mouv' is part TDF (Radio France). This station is not easy to hear because hey do not have as many frequencies as other national programmes. Le Mouv' is easy to track from the band beause it is rock-based formatted.
- Radio Brume, 90.8 MHz, is a student university-radio station in Lyon (Dep. 69). Nicholas Croisette kindly confirmed my mp3-clip. Nicholas is publishing very useful and informative web-site of French radio stations (Annuaire des radios francaises)

- Plus FM, Blois, 89.4 MHz (Dep. 41). Regional station between Tours an Orleans. They wanted to make an interview. Unfortunately I have forgotten to go further...

Newspaper article of me in PresseOcéan, Nantes

Today I had very nice and special surprise from France! Nantes newspaper, PresseOcéan, made an article of me and my DXing of French FM-stations!
The story is based on my reception of SUN 91.2, Nantes. I sent a mp3-clip of the my reception to this station about one month ago. The station manager Pierre Boucard told about this to newspaper journalist Guillaume Lecaplain, who made nice article of this.

You can read the story in internet > PRESSE OCEAN Harri Kujala

- or CLICK THE PHOTO BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE -

Nice QSL-replies from France!

At first I must give big honour and respect to French radio stations!! They are clearly market leaders in Europe to make radios sound excellent!! The jingles and programme productions are magnificent, ingredible, creative and unique. All other countries are far, far behind French radio production. I wonder why?? Because of language - or competition?

I have sent some messages to French FM-stations, which I have heard here at my home via Sporadic E-skips during past summers. Here some logos from the stations I have QSLed:

Very special stations replied this week:
MY 2nd QSL from Corsica!! Fréquence Jazz (now "Jazz Radio 2"). I heard this station on 88.7 MHz with local announcement: "Fréquence Jazz á Bastia sur 88.7". They have two transmitters on this frequency and both are in Corsica.

Vivre FM is a station for handicap people in Paris on 93.9 MHz !! Must be unique in the world!!!

Radio Fidélité is community and christian radio station in Nantes area (Dep. 44). I heard this station 3 years ago on 89.5 MHz. This frequency in now changed and not in use anymore. Station runs mainly by donations (70% of incomes are donations)!
RCF Anjou is a local station in Angers (Dep. 49). Part of the largest French Christian FM-radio network RCF (Radios Chrétiennes Francophones). I have heard their local programme two times on 88.1 MHz.

Radio Tempo (Dep. 29 / 101.2 MHz) is one of the most East FM-station in France. It is located in NW of Bretagne with two transmitters around Brest and Morlaix. They have very exotic looking office!

There are at least three Jazz-formatted FM-networks in France. I have heard two of them. TSF Jazz has confirmed my reception from last summer. I heard their Laval-relay (Dep. 53) on 97.7 MHz, between Le Mans and Rennes.


VFM from Vire (Dep. 14 / 90.1 MHz), is a provincial station in North Bretagne, under English Channel.
It is nice to see that there are lively local stations alive in France! I got a quick e-mail from the station for my mp3!


Sweet FM, private commercial radio around Le Mans and Alencon, (Dep. 72,61 / 95.8 MHz) gave nice replies from many people from the station. This seems to be a big station with many activities.


Radio Accords from Poitiers (86 / 89.3 MHz) is a religious station in midwest France. Programme director Mr. Lachen confirmed my mp3-clip to be from their programme. They have even 6 tx's around Poitiers and Niort - and even over 100 people making programmes.

Frequence Horizon from Houdain
(62 / near Belgium border, 100.8 MHz) gave a quick e-mail back:
"That is right, it is our program ! That is incredible ! The distance between you and our transmitter is huge ! In july 2007, our apparent power was 1KW. Thank you very much for this document ! Have a nice day, Guillaume, Fréquence Horizon".

Radio Caroline from Rennes in Bretagne (Dep. 35 / 90.8 MHz). Technician Patrick confirmed my reception:

"Votre message nous a fait plaisir. Je vous confirme qu'il s'agit bien de RADIO CAROLINE en Bretagne".

I got nice promotional photo enclosed >>


Another nice reply from Bretagne: SUN (Le Son Unique à Nantes) (Dep. 44 / Nantes, 93.0 MHz). This station is located in Nantes.

Pierre, Directeur de SUN, gave very quick reply to my report, 10 minutes(!!):

"Bonsoir, Je vous confirme que c'était bien SUN* (Le Son Unique à Nantes) que vous avez capté. Il s'agit bien de nos jingles de l'époque ;-)". "SUN - Unique Sound In Nantes" in the name of this station today.

The most exotic reply from France was Radio Salam from Lyon.
This is Arabic language station in Lyon (Dep. 69 / 91.1 MHz) !!
Mr Ali Abed, Président de Radio Salam e-mailed me short confirmation to my report: "Bravo et j'espère que vous allez rester fidèles auditeurs de notre radio."

Very kind replies from France.

FM-phaser: Fading out local FM-stations

I have had FM-phaser for several years, but this summer I had a chance to finetune it because I have now 5-6 antennas (=Triax-preamps with two outputs). With this device it is possible to fade out some local/semi-local FM-stations by phasing out the chosen signal.

This phaser is at it's best when you have certain and constant signal-level of the QRM-station, which you want to fade out. It should not be too close and strong (= if tuneable with 1 meter-wire forexample) or too far and weak (=fading in/out a lot).

HOW IT WORKS:
I do not give here any technical data, only a description how it goes.
I have two yagi-antennas for this job: Yagi-1 (vertical) is directed to the station I want to hear. Yagi-2 (horizontal) is directed to that station I want to fade-out (QRM-stn). First I adjust the signal of QRM-station from both antennas to equal levels in my receiver. Then I phase the QRM-stations's FM-signal opposite, 180 degrees, and combine them to my receiver. This means that the local station fades out and DX-station has free or almost free frequency to come up.

For example I have YLE Eurajoki 87.7 MHz (30 kW) 80 km away. I can fade it out for Es-stations (unfortunately no Es-conditions this year for results).

Here is a video-clip of how I fade-out YLE Fiskars on 97.0 MHz (3 kW) 100 km away. It is constant here and blocks the frequency. I could have chosen better example (closer/more power) because this signal is beatable by strong tropo.
However, there is a new Latvian local station to hunt on 97.0 MHz, Radio Vidzeme in Valmiera.This is the reason why I choose 97.0 MHz (vertical).

In this clip I show the signal-level of YLE 97.0 MHz (3 red leds shining) - then I fade it out by tuning the phaser (one led shining) - and after that I take horizontal QRM-antenna away from combiner, which shows that QRM-signal comes back with V-antenna (3 leds again), because there is no combined signal anymore.
I try later to make examples of closer stations.
This FM-phaser is built by Pertti Äyräs, living close to me. His QTH is almost impossible for FM-DX (Kaarina, 6 x 50 kWs only 3 km away).
I do not have any technical data available of this for instant delivery, but I suppose I could get it from Pertti later.
Let's see if I manage to hear this Radio Vidzeme during autumn tropos (no idea of their power)!!

Perseids meteors 2009: No results

Again this year Perseids meteor-shower gave nothing special!! However, it seems that the best peak was at night between 12-13 August. I monitored in the morning and late evening on 12.8 some times, but mostly very short pings came up. 5-20 sec long pings is needed.
Perseids seems to have been weakening all the time comparing to 10-20 years ago!
In Finnish Perse = ass - and id = identification! That describes Perseids very well nowdays!

Wed 5.8.2009: Weak South France

Today very weak opening to France. However, one new station popped up even with RDS, Radio M from Montélimar (26) on 88.3 MHz.

And once again Radio Nimes and France Bleu Gard Lozere. Almost every summer I have some stations which coming up several times, which are never heard before by me. Strange why E-clouds like to take same places within one summer!

LOG Wed 5.8.2009: Weak South France

88.3 MHz - Radio M, Montélimar(26), France. RDS + DJ. - 18.15-
88.4 MHz - UNID Spanish. Unfortunately only nonsense talk. - 18.15-
92.2 MHz - Radio Nimes, Nimes, France. RDS with music. - 18.07-

Mon 3.8.2009: Sardinia, Toscana !

Very interesting opening to Italy. Sardinia is very rare here and also Toscana. Both areas were audible during 20 minutes opening, Sardinia 7 minutes. This was nice moment because the band was not full of stations from all around Italy.

LOG Mon 3.8.2009 (Mainly Sardinia-Toscana, Italy - First time in Finland underlined)

87.5 MHz - Radio Zeta, Caravaggio (BG). Spot to Torino (011-). Zeta seems to have local spots to 6 areas but this tx should be in Toscana??? - 17.29-
88.0 MHz - Radio Rama, Tortoli (NU), Sardinia, Italy. No ID but spot to Bari Sardo near Tortoli. Faded out just during jingle. - 16.48-
88.8 MHz - Radio Maria, Italy announced that they will start R.Vatican News. - 17.30-
89.5 MHz - Radio Mater,Italy. RDS and talking. - 17.11-
90.8 MHz - RDF - Radio Diffusione Firenze, Firenze (FI). New relay? - 17.00-
92.2 MHz - Radio Siena, Siena (SI). - 17.13-
93.3 MHz - Radio 19, Genova tentatively. Spot to Genova. 16.57-
94.7 MHz - Radio Fiesole 100, Firenze(FI). - 17.09-
95.2 MHz - Radio Italia Uno, Padova. Not listed here. - 16.51-
95.2 MHz - Radio Studio Piú,Desenzano del Garda (BS). - 16.59-
95.7 MHz - Radio Sintony, Cagliari (CA), Sardinia, Italy. - 16.55-
95.8 MHz - Radio Macomer Centrale, Siniscola (NU), Sardinia, Italy. No ID only pizzeria spot to Siniscola with tel 0874-. - 16.51-

Tue 28.7.2009: South Italy opening

This summer has been one of the worst ever in my 33 years FM-DX-history!! There is not much time to have things better for this season. Very often August is worse than June or July...

On Tuesday we had a bit better opening to South Italy, to Puglia area mainly.
LOG Tue 28.7.2009 (South Italy, times UTC)
88.4 MHz - Radio Company, Benevento (BN). - 18.52-
88.7 MHz - Radio ItsyBitsy, Romania. This might be Europe's ONLY station for children!! There was one in France many years ago. - 15.40-
89.3 MHz - Radio Cuore. Funny rolling RDS-PS. One letter of word "CUOrE"is changing from big to small in sequence. 18.00-
89.4 MHz - KissKiss Italia. - 14.45-
90.2 MHz - Radio Puglia, Bari (BA). 14.36-
91.7 MHz - Radio Sound, Bari (BA) - 14.26-

91.7 MHz - Radio Venere, Corsano (LE). Full stereo-RDS. Unfortunately I make mono-rcordings. Otherwise it would have been nice to put a hifi-recording here. - 14.40-
92.1 MHz - RAI. Perhaps local px to Basilicata? Traffic instructions to Salerno etc. - 14.57-
92.2 MHz - Radio Jukebox, Lamezia Terme (CZ) (BA-tx). Listeners can make sms-order for the title they want to be played. This automated station gives title-code/name between the records by female voice.
97.9 MHz - Radio Alfa, Prato Perillo di Teggiano (SA). Rare-station to hear. - 14.33-
99.6 MHz - Radio TRC, Cerignola (LE). 3o years old station!- 14.35-

Sat 18.7.2009: France 2-3 minutes

Yesterday's big Es-clouds gave a little promise for today, but no. There were clouds over right places (Denmark etc.) but not enough MUF. Only one 2-3 minute opening to Bretagne. Perhaps there has been more short skips because I have not been monitoring all the time.

LOG Sat 18.7.2009
88.4 MHz - Europe 1. Tx in dep. 29, Bretagne, France. - 10.29-
90.1 MHz - Radio Bonheur, Pléneuf-Val-André (22). Guingamp-tx, Bretagne, France. This station was audible for about 2-3 minutes with nice IDs. - 10.30-
93.0 MHz - France Bleu Breiz Izel, Brest (29), France. MUF around 96 shortly. - 10.30-

Fri 17.7.2009: France opening for 30 minutes

Unexpected attack with French signals for about 30 minutes on late Friday afternoon! I heard stations from very large area from France - central, northeast and south. Not so many IDs but luckily one station never-heard-before (in Finland)!!

LOG Fri 17.2.2009 (France-opening)
91.0 MHz - RCF en Berry, Bourges (18). Spot to "Musique en Berry"-festival. - 14.43-
91.1 MHz - NRJ. Tx from departement 52 (NE France). - 14.45-
91.7 MHz - Active R, Joinville (52). - 14.49-
92.2 MHz - Radio Cactus, Semur en Brionnais (71). - 14.44-
92.9 MHz - Totem, La Primaude (12). Tx dep. 48. Big network now!!! Over 20 tx with 7 local officies. - 14.52-
92.9 MHz - RTL pushed over Totem. Tx dep. 03. - 14.54-
98.5 MHz - France Bleu Lorraine Nord (dep. 57) with RDS and music. - 14.57-

QSL Radio City, Katerini, Greece

After 6 months waiting I got a e-QSL from Katerini-city, Greece! Better late than never!
This station is Radio City, 102.8 MHz (www).
In the reply I was told that the transmitter is located in Mount Olympus - so no wonder it reached Finland.