FM News

Editor: Jan Alvestad, Vigdelsvn. 637 B, NO-4054 Tjelta, Norway.
Fax: (+47) 51 63 22 06
GSM: (+47) 909 35 478
E-mail: janalv@robin.no
<URL: http://www.dxlc.com/fmn/>

Thanks to HM for his QSL and log information. I hope everyone is ready for the Es-season which should start in a few days' time. It’s of course impossible to know at this time whether we’ll finally experience an FM summer like back in the eighties or if we’re in for yet another big disappointment. On one hand solar activity is well below the expected level and may not contribute as much to an increase in the number of sporadic E days as we could have hoped. On the other hand excellent FM seasons in the past were not always connected to high solar activity. Or has the E layer of the ionosphere somehow changed, perhaps its chemical composition today is less likely to be favorable to sporadic E?

Signatures

HM – Hasse Mattisson, Växjö

QSL

• BBC Thames Valley, Oxford 104,1 (rpt från den berömda UK-öppningen 10 juli 97) b sti kort på den aktuelle announcern vs Sheldon U Barwick, Regional Supervisory Engineer - 1 år 5 mån fu brev och tel! – dyra QSL!!
• The Voice, Köbenhavn 104,9 stickers med ver text vs Jan Andersen (?) (ingen kommentar till min rpt år 1984 om samma stn)
• Höganäs NR 104,9 sänder numera med 200w. Hade fått rpt från Öland, KJT förmodas! Vs Rolf Hansson, ordf – kort, korrekt svar
• R Trolden, Næstved 107,9 b vs Thomas Nielsen (troligen samma sändare som R City år 1992)
• R Köge, Köge 106,2 106,8 b 3v vs Henrik Poulsen musikchef (ej heller klart svar på min fråga om samma som stn som Nær Radio Köge 1984)
• Vibe FM, Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk 107,7 (från Leonids-öppningen 17 nov 98 dvs endast ca 30 sekunder!!) b nyckelring freezbee 15 sti 7-sidig profilmapp vs Barry Jones Programme Manager
• Hit Radio 95,3, Malmö, tx Svedala 95,3 b bumper sti 16x68 cm vs MC Joachim Camp, som nu besvarade rpt från i somras samt ny januarirpt
• R Match, Linköping, 96,4 tx Motala kortfattat b vs Magnus Wennerholm – 6 m, 2 fu!!

LOG

MISCELLANEOUS

Sprites – any connection to E-layer propagation?

Sprites are electrical phenomena that accompany roughly one in every 200 lightning strikes. Could this be the explanation for the apparent increase in sporadic Es during thunder storms? See this story: http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/1999/04/040599/sprites_2489.asp. Please note that the article will eventually be archived. If the link fails try searching the ENN site. (Jan Alvestad)

INFO

Austria

New: BURGENLAND 1 - DAS MUSIKRADIO, a joint venture of R. Burgenland and Ant. Burgenland. (H. Höller & Kurier 6/99 via Reflexion 152)

• 98.60 R. EXPRESS Ehrwald (ex 105.40).
• 102.20 R. OSTTIROL Kötschach-Mauthen, 0.05 kW.
• 102.60 R. U1 Kufstein-Stadt, 0.074 kW, new
• 103.20 R. OSTTIROL Silian, 0.2(Kurier 5/99 via Reflexion 152)

106.30 ANTENNE 4 Mattersburg-Heuberg, 1 kW, new. PS=-*_A4_*-. (H. Höller)

Belarus

Email address: radio@roks.com. Homepage: http://www.roks.com/koi/index_e.html (Bernd Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

Bosnia-Hercegovina

Currently the most comprehensive directory of BiH radio stations is available at web address: http://www.internews.ba/Tv&Radio/RTV-INFO.htm

Once you get there choose the link "Address book". The information source for this directory is IMC. The Independent Media Commission (IMC) is now responsible for licencing the radio stations both in the Federation and the Republic Srpska. Previously the stations were licenced by the authorities of one of these two entities. This and over 180 other links about the broadcasting in the Balkans can be found at my new dx page: http://www.vip.fi/~markweck/dx (Marko Weck via FMTVDX WEBList)

Czech Republic

• 92.90 Radio Delta, Mlada Boleslav, QTH Dobrovice (Chlum), 1 kW
• 95.00 Blanik 95, Votice (Mezivrata), 95 kW, planned from 10/99 onwards
• 97.10 R. Euro K, QTH Liberec-Kunratice, 1 kW
• 97.90 R. Proglas Liberec, 1 kW, planned instead of Triangl
• 98.20 R. Agara Chomutov (ex 98.10)
• 98.30 R. Cas (ex Sprint), Trinec (Javorovy vrch), 1 kW, with RDS/PS: "-CAS_FM-"
• 98.60 R. Karyon, QTH Trebic-Kostelicek, 0.5 kW
• 99.30 R. Evropa / R. Duha, Spindlerov Mlyn, 0.05 kW, new
• 104.70 CRo 2 Praha, Hradec Kralove-Hodesovice, 10 kW (ex 1)
• 105.70 R. Jizera, Mlada Boleslav, QTH Dobrovice (Chlum), 1 kW, RDS/PS="_JIZERA_" (DX Revue 2/3-99 & Jochim Firchau via Reflexion 152)

A new Czech nationwide station is on the air, the only transmitter with RDS is on 96.6 MHz at Prague. PS: "_IMPULS_", TP no, PTY 10 (pop), CT no, AF yes, many. RT "Radio Impuls - To nejlepsi z ceske hudby a more informaci" (Radio Impuls - The best of Czech music and the sea of information"

Other frequencies (without RDS): 102.0 Usti nad Labem, 91.4 Plzen, 102.9 Ceske Budejovice, 100.3 Jihlava, 106.0 Pardubice, 92.1 Trutnov, 100.9 Jesenik, 89.0 Ostrava, 87.6 Brno. (Jan Hornyak via FMTVDX WEBList)

France

Reported changes in Limoges:

• 89.50 F. Info (ex F Culture)
• 93.00 F Musique (ex 97.50)
• 97.50 FUN R. (ex 92.20)
• 99.10 R. Classique (ex 95.90)
• 99.60 RF Limoges (ex 103.50)
• 103.50 RFM (ex RF Limoges)
• 105.50 F INTER (ex 93.00)
• 106.80 F. Culture (ex 89.50)(Radioactu 12/99 via Kurier 7/99 via Reflexion 152)

Germany

• 94.30 RS 2 Berlin-Alexanderplatz, 25 kW (ex 50)
• 96.70 RS 2 Babben (bei Crinitz), 1, new
• 107.30 RS 2 Casekow, 20 (ex 12.6)(I. Ortmann via Reflexion 152)

87.90 STAR FM now identifies as 87.9 DER ROCKSENDER. (J. Müller & Radio News 2/99 via Reflex.151)

ORB FRITZ Berlin, now from Alexanderplatz TX with 20 kW (ex Schäferberg, 80 kW) (I. Ortmann / KURIER 1/99 via Reflexion 151)

• 89.80 STUDIO B, Bremen, planned
• 107.10 R. 107,1 closed down on 29.01.99
• 103.40 DLF, Bremerhaven, 3 kW, new
• 104.30 STUDIO B, Bremerhaven, 10 kW, planned (Weser Report & Weser Kurier via A. Reinemann & H. Runge via Reflexion 151)

Hungary

95.3 Radio CLUB. A new station (power: 250 W) in Budapest started on April 22. The programming is a lot of rock and pop music and traffic information. The station belongs to the 100 years old Hungarian Autoclub. (Silvius via FMTVDX WEBList)

Info on Hungarian FM stations and even stations in neighboring countries like Slovakia, Romania and Austria can be found at http://www.btk.ppke.hu/~silvius/index.html. (Silvius via FMTVDX WEBList)

Iceland

The Reykjavík based broadcasting company Fínn Miðill has reshuffled the format and names of several of their outlets:

• 90.9 Reykjavík: now Gull 909 (ex Aðalstöðin)
• 94.3 Reykjavík: now Skratz 943 FM (ex Sígilt FM)
• 97.7 Reykjavík: now X-ið 977 (ex just "X-ið")

Fínn Miðill also operates the Reykjavík stations FM957 (95.7 MHz) and Klassík (100.7 MHz). (Bernd Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

Ireland

Test transmissions have started from the new Irish FM network LYRIC FM. RTE Lyric FM "on air" announcements mention that Lyric FM is the new RTE Music & Arts Channel, due to start 01/05/99 with an extra frequency of 102.2 in Dungarvan, Co Waterford. They say that their Web site will be updated shortly with the frequencies for the new network. http://www.rte.ie

Frequencies are:

• 87.8 Clermont Carn
• 96.7 Three Rock Mountain
• 98.4 Maghera
• 98.7 Kippure
• 99.2 Mt.Leinster
• 99.6 Mullaghanish(John Faulkner/Jeff Kitching via FMTVDX WEBList)

Kaliningrad

Information on FM stations in Kaliningrad, Lithuania and Poland can be found at http://www.baltnet.ru/wbas/radio.htm. (email to Jan Alvestad)

Latvia

LVRTC, the owner of the transmitting networks in Latvia provides some info (in English) about radio&TV transmitters in Latvia. No power data is included, but there are fine coverage maps in jpg-format: http://www.lvrtc.lv. See also: http://www.lvrtc.lv/english/rtikli2.htm and http://www.lvrtc.lv/english/tvtiklis2.htm.

There have been various changes on FM in Latvia recently, an up-to-date list (in English) of private broadcasters with technical details can be seen at: http://www.iclub.lv/alnis/alrad.htm. Some more recent changes not yet reflected are the renaming of the R.Rigai network to Easy FM.

Although no official decision was made, all broadcasters have decided to leave the OIRT FM-band except for three transmitters which will also be moved in the next months:

• 69.92 Daugavpils (Latvijas Radio 1)
• 71.84 Ventspils (Latvijas Radio 1)
• 72.97 Riga (Easy FM)

A recent list of all CCIR frequencies of Latvijas State Radio (in English) can be found at: http://www.radio.org.lv/infocon/frekva.htm. (Bernd Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

Lithuania

There are two independent directories of radio & TV stations in Lithuania:

One is maintained by the consulting agency Ratekona/Sigitas Zilionis: http://www.is.lt/ratekona/rtv/ltu/radio-fq.htm and http://www.is.lt/ratekona/rtv/ltu/tv-e.htm.

The other one is maintained by the Frequency Administration Board (VRDT): http://www.radio.lt/radijas.htm and http://www.radio.lt/televizi.htm.

There are no concrete plans for closing down of the OIRT FM-band. Lithuania is a rural country, and the main argument is that there are still many old FM-receivers especially in the countryside which only have the OIRT FM-band. However, the National Frequency Board has been more reluctant recently to issue new licenses for private broadcasters using the OIRT FM-band.

The relay of Russkoye Radio in Vilnius on 100.9 MHz is again back on the air for the time being, also this time without the proper license. The Licensing Board and Lithuanian Telecom have been argueing with the company behind the relay, Kulanos radijas, for several months about the permissions to conduct the broadcasts. The transmitter was meanwhile removed from the TV-tower and is now situated on private property in a suburb of Vilnius. (Bernd Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

Moldova

FM News subscriber Eugene Alekseyev has opened his own web site with info on FM stations in Moldova, http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Code/2523/mdfmlist.html

Netherlands

Radio Noordzee Nationaal on January 4 changed its music format and name. New name NOORDZEE FM. URL: http://www.noordzeefm.nl/ (Ruud Brand via FMTVDX WEBList)

87.60 SUN FM Rotterdam, 0.5 kW, new. (FM Cocktail 3/99 via Reflexion 152)

New REBECCA R. outlets:

• 90.10 Zwolle, 0.8 kW
• 91.20 Leeuwarden, 1.5
• 95.50 Heerenveen, 0.5
• 95.70 Meppel, 1.0
• 97.90 Sneek, 0.8
• 98.70 Emmeloord, 0.8
• 99.70 Drachten, 1.0
• 103.80 Emmen, 0.63 (OLON via Kurier 5/99 via Reflexion 152)

Norway

NRK will start yet another program service from January 1, 2000. Only listeners in the main cities will be able to receive P5, which will be aimed at listeners aged 25-45. The new service will be digital and supplement NRKs other digital services "Alltid Klassisk" and "Alltid Nyheter". The program will be distributed both digitally and over the usual analog transmitters during its first year. Analog transmissions will cease when DAB receivers are in use by a sufficient (NRK did not state what they regarded as sufficient) number of people. (Jan Alvestad)

Poland

• A new catholic station started on December 27, 1998 in Bialystok: R.Milosierdzie on 104.7 MHz (ex R.Maryja). Address: ul.Dabrowskiego 1-a, 15-812 Bialystok. Email: radiomil@bialystok.opoka.org.pl.

• R.Maryja now broadcasts in Bialystok on 103.3 MHz.(Bernd Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

Another change of name: the "Inforadio" network changed the name to "Tok FM" (Inforadio is still the name of the company). Address: ul. ul. Wspólna 41, 00-519 Warszawa. Tok FM is broadcasting on the following frequencies: 95.2 Gdynia, 95.8 Wroclaw, 97.4 Lódz, 97.4 Katowice, 97.7 Warszawa, 97.7 Poznan, 97.8 Gdansk, 99.3 Szczecin and 102.9 Kraków. The TRP is 100-200W (exact power not available at the moment). (Inforadio info via Bernd Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

The radiostation of the Polish Scouts' Organisation (Rozglosnia Harcerska) has started cooperation with the Norwegian P4 station, and has changed the name to "Radiostacja". Address (as before): ul. Marii Konopnickiej 6, 00-491 Warszawa. Email: radiostacja@radiop4.pl. Currently, Radiostacija is broadcasting in 6 towns (all txs have 100W TRP): 92.0 Gdansk, 96.4 Rzeszów, 101.1 Gdynia, 101.5 Warszawa, 101.6 Poznan, 106.9 Wroclaw. (Bernd Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

Radio Flash, Katowice is one of the ambitious music stations in the south of Poland. Address: ul. Zbozowa 42b, 40-657 Katowice. Email: radio@flash.com.pl; URL: http://www.flash.com.pl. R.Flash currently uses the following CCIR txs (power=TRP):

• 105.0, V, 1kW, Wisla (G. Skrzyczne) [SL]
• 105.5, V, 0.3kW, Bedzin [SL]
• 106.2, V, 1kW, Opole [OP]
• 106.4, V, 1kW, Zabrze [SL](Bernd Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

Romania

A list of Romanian FM stations can be seen at http://www.ziareromanesti.com. (Clas Fridolf via FMTVDX WEBList)

Spain

103.5 Ona Catalana from 15th March with RDS and mono. PS: "ONA BCN", "FM 103.5", "O N A", "CATALANA". PTY: News. AF: 103.50, 98.10, 96.30, 95.10, 90.60.No RT, No CT. Stations of the network Ona Catalana :

• Ona Barcelona
• R Olot
• R Costa Brava
• Ona Girona
• R Ripoll
• R Pirineus (Miquel Nicolau Amer via FMTVDX WEBList)

United Kingdom

The last vestige of Melody FM has disappeared. It's now changed its RDS name to __magic_

MHz: 105.4, PI code: C788, RadioText: You are listening to London's magic 105.4, PTY code : Pop Music. The format has become more pop-ish with easy listening chart hits. (Mark Hattam via FMTVDX WEBList)

• 107.4 Tower FM, Bury/Bolton is now on air. RDS PI-C499, PS-"TOWER_FM", TP & PTY-Varied.
• BBC Wales Network now with new RDS PI-C418, PS-"BBCWales", TP & PTY-Varied. 93.9, 94.8, 95.1, 95.9, 103.9 + 95.4? in AF list but what is this site!
• 107.4 Telford FM is now testing. Add: P.O.Box 1, Ketley, Telford TF1 4HU. RDS: PS- "Telford_", Pty-Varied, no TP, Text- "At last a REAL radio station for Telford...107.4 Telford FM" due to start 3/5/99. (Jeff Kitching via FMTVDX WEBList)

I've compiled an up-to-date list of RSL stations here in the UK again, based mainly on details from the Radio Authority. It can be found at: http://www.cazian.freeserve.co.uk/rsl.htm. (Ian Kelly via FMTVDX WEBList)

Yugoslavia

Details about the NATO FM broadcasts to Yugoslavia:

The plane from which the broadcasts are being carried out is equipped with two 30kW FM transmitters and a 10kW HARRIS MW transmitters. The aircraft is flying at a height of 6.000 meters in continuous circles.

NATO is currently setting up a network of 6 FM transmitters on high locations around Yugoslavia which will later replace the airborne transmissions. The transmitters will be located in Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and "other unnamed countries" and will have directional antennas beaming towards Yugoslav territory, first test transmissions are reported to have taken place already. They will be open also for a relay of Serbian language programs from international broadcasters. (MediaVisie newsletter via DXA mailinglist [Belgium] via Bernt Trutenau via FMTVDX WEBList)

The link http://afneurope.army.mil/balkans has frequency and other information for AFN. (Niels A. Holst via FMTVDX WEBList)

CNN carried a story about Radio Free Kosovo, see http://www.cnn.com/US/9904/08/radio.free.kosovo and the links in that article. (Jan Alvestad)