I thought so as I have been to Dover before and 101.8 defo came up as Classic FM. There's a bandscan somewhere on my YouTube channel.

95.4. BBC Newcastle. Thats a first for me.

At least London freeview is back now.

I've got Egem coming through very strongly, and simultaneously a lift to the west with BBC Cymru from Wenvoe and Jack FM on 106.5 from Brissle.

I have a curious inverse lift (a drop?). Everything below about 100 MHz is very noisy. Above that seems to be fine. I've checked it with several radios, and it effects transmissions from Wales as well as the South West. Strange.

Just as a taster of the spectacular lift conditions we had here a few days ago, here is a recording of B5 Aktuell on 87.8 from Untersberg (in Austria!) at 1105 km distance running just 100 watts via tropo:

https://app.box.com/s/ctywl0efyvpytjev4z2d

It's the only tx listed for B5 Aktuell on this frequency and I nearly fell out of the chair when I saw where it was and what power it runs. This beats my 2Es reception in 2010 I think for the ability of propagation to amaze and astound.

I'm not sure if anything like this will happen again for a long long time.

It seems we don't often respond to posts here, but in this case - that is impressive!

Thanks logjam. I never dreamed such things were possible until it happened. The Untersberg mountain is nearly 2000m in altitude so I'm sure that helps! Could be a good place for a spot of DX methinks...

Well, here are the rest of the highlights of this incredible spell of tropo that is up there in my estimation with the November 1987 event for intensity and quality. A superb opening that covered most of southern Germany as well as parts of Switzerland and Austria. Some rare sites such as Hochries were in with a good signal for much of the Monday evening (23rd). I have also included a later recording of Untersberg on 87.8.

This is definitely the best Bavarian opening I have experienced here. I have put the clips in a folder called 'September 2013 Tropo' rather than posting them individually. It can be accessed here:

https://app.box.com/s/bf690oqzcdo2jz5ssogn

What an amazing event, the likes of which we might not see again for a long time.

And I missed it all because of work

It was a fantastic opening indeed. Never had so many German stations so strong. Would love a rotator for the aerial, but considering a house move is in the offing in the next 18 months or so (to an area Nick_G may be familiar with) I can't justify the expense- it'll have to wait for a new property.

What Germans did you hear adc? Did you get the Bavarians?

And where are you moving to? I'm intrigued.

I'll have to cast my mind back for the Germans.... definitely SWR3 on 98.4, HR3 on 87.6,,,,, plus Luxembourg in like a local on 100.7.

We're looking to move either to Overton, or Whitchurch. No immediate move planned though- stuck in a fixed rate mortgage with a huge penalty clause until the start of 2015

Aha, so not far at all. Whitchurch and Overton are a bit up & down so I could imagine reception would vary depending if you were at the bottom of the Test Valley or in the higher parts. Lynch Hill Park in Whitchurch would be very good for DXing to the south but it is one of the more expensive areas. I logged a plethora of Spaniards via tropo there in July on the car radio!

Did you get Antenne Bayern on 107.7? This was one of the more consistent signals from Bavaria, even though it is 1053 km distant!

No Antenne Bayern- Radio Jackie on 107.8 is too strong to allow that.

This morning I am getting Free Radio on 103.1 and also getting a very weak RSL on 87.7.

I think it might be this one.

M&R Leisure
87.7 - Tyne and Wear
Drive in movie broadcast
On Air From: 31-10-2013
to : 02-11-2013
General Enquiries: 07977244361
General Enquiries (email): maxwellsheeran@hotmail.co.uk
Licence Number: SRSL100068BA/1

Free Radio 103.1MHz used to be known as Beacon Shropshire. It transmits from The Wrekin (between Telford and Shrewsbury).

Chris.

I emailed Bayerischer Rundfunk's 'Technik' department a couple of days ago regarding my Untersberg reception on 87.8. Apparently a QSL card is due next week. The guy who replied seemed skeptical that the mode of reception was via tropo as he suggested "maybe a sporadic E opening". I replied back and pointed him to the rest of my clips from the opening.

It'll be interesting to see what the QSL card says.

Wow, nice one Nick, didn't think stations still sent out qsl cards!

Hi, I just checked this website, http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html and does this mean that next Thursday looks promising?

Oh yes!

I have another tuner on the way too so this should be an interesting test for it!

I have bought a SONY ST-SE520. I think it was only £12 off E-bay. Quite a bargain. Managed to get French voices recently just on a vertical dipole in the loft. But the band is so crowded. Nearer the coast and you can point a yagi out to sea. Have one here near Chester and you have a wall off stations right across England.

A couple of hours ago I heard a few Belgian/Dutch stations in noisy stereo on the car radio.

Congrats on that Austrian log, Nick! Bet they're impressed!

I have 2 of the 520's allthough only using 1 at the moment but replacing the filters with 110's will make a world of difference to the selectivity which what I did to mine as when I got them.

I took some pictures of the 520's tuner which contains the filters as they are not on the main board like other Sony's.

http://s593.photobucket.com/user/rad...?sort=3&page=1

Andy

Thanks Catherine.

Update:

I received the following QSL card from Bayerischer Rundfunk regarding my Untersberg reception on September 23rd.

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5493/1...ba474e_b_d.jpg


I also received a very interesting reply and confirmation of reception from an engineer at BR:

"Dear Mr. Gilly,

many thanks for that very interesting reception report. I've heard your recordings and really, it was our news program "B5 aktuell" (RDS program name "B5 akt") and I even compared it with our own recordings at that very time.
So you really received our transmitter "Untersberg" which is situated just a few meters across the border in Austria. Although it is co-ordinated with 1 kW ERP we only use 100 W ERP in your direction.
When I calculate the free space loss (without any obstacle between) you would receive a field-strength of 76,9 dBµV/m + 20 dBW - 20*lg(1256 km) = 35 dBµV/m. Perhaps in reality it was a little bit less field strength but for the signal in that case the earth was nearly not there, simply free space.

It is also astonishing that the signal of Untersberg just hopped over the 10 kW ERP transmitter "Bad Mergentheim" (20 dB more power than Untersberg).

I send you a map with all the (co-ordinated) transmitters on 87,8 MHz. The lines around the transmitter sites show their antenna diagram but not the ERP.
"Bad Toelz" has only 10 W ERP in your direction.
"Giengen an der Brenz" has only 20 W ERP in your direction.
"Steyr" (in Austria) has also only 10 W ERP.

So I'd like to congratulate for that real DX reception.

Greetings

Stefan Teuscher

Bayerischer Rundfunk
Frequency management"

I think they were a bit surprised

Wow Nick, that's really nice, surprised they went all out with the field strength readings and such, any other station wouldn't have done that!

Nice to see they also have the MW frequencies on the QSL card too.

Congrats Nick