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.

August 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 BIH, HRV 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 Herzegovina – 97.0 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 Finland: 89.8 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 Vlašić, Livno 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 km – 98.4 Radio Otvorena Mreža which also reached RDS decoding quality, however PI code only @ 14-15 dBf.

Italy continued. Next logs: 108.0 Radio Studio Più, 99.5 Radio Ketchup, 93.3 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 40dBf. Vlašić 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:

• Italy (15 logs!)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (13 logs!)
• Croatia
• All countries

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