It all began on Sunday morning when the sky dawned and I noticed the weather was clear. EMHI had been forecasting a high pressure area to set in and colder weather to arrive. As I remember many good DXes from the winter high pressure areas, I decided to attempt to pick up neighboring digital transmitters. Koeru from 93 km away, yes! Eventually got Tallinn too. But as the day progressed, I lost their signal again, but not to the bad propagation. Rather I lost it to the good propagation as Finnish signals on the same frequencies(E57 for Koeru, E45 for Tallinn) kicked in. In the noon hours, I was able to lock to Lahti's E51 as well. Then, E46 and E32 came in from Espoo. I was able to save those channels as well to my set top box and managed to get a stuttering picture of YLE's channels and some private channels. Eventually they faded out. However, as the afternoon progressed, I kept scanning the channels and seeing most of the UHF band being overcrowded by digital signals. Then, I saw Lahti. By this time, local television signals from E47 in Valgjärve were dark - only way to get them was to put antenna to another place. By quarter to two PM, I saw E51 from Lahti with signal strength 88% and quality of 90%... Would you believe that I received this with an indoor antenna? Espoo was also coming in. By 2 PM, E51 had weakened and I was scanning channels again. Now I ended up on E53 from Espoo. Signal strength 62%, quality 15%. Sound stuttered. It was about 15 minutes before 3 PM, when I got signal from Tammela. This was E50, and channels list pointed to "kanavanippu C", which is transmitted from Tammela in this frequency. At 3 PM, I noticed strong signal coming on E33. I initially thought it was Multiplex 1 from Kohtla-Nõmme. Think again... If I ran channel search, I initially thought that the receiver had locked to E32. But it was E33. I was receiving Kanavanippu A from Lahti despite Estonian digital transmitter on the same frequency. Still with an indoor antenna, signal strength was 86%, quality 84%.
E33 at 3:10 PM.
By 4 PM, all Finnish multiplexes went dark while still indicating a presence of digital signal. Occasionally some signals from various places jumped in for short time. The hotspot for the evening was Tammela...
On the next morning
Hmm... it appears that it is over... or is it? I scan the band... and I find a strong signal originating on E38. Channels list on that frequency and other freqs with similar strength and their channel lists indicate Mikkeli. Wow. That is the furthest digital signal from Finland I have ever received. My previous record was from E51 in Lahti. By using a directional logarythmic antenna(which could block co-channel interference a bit), I was able to pick up E43 from Mikkeli too... and saw even the "lost sheep" MTV3 and Nelonen. Occasionally the Mikkeli signal, especially the multiplex was very strong... Finnish DX came to an end after 9 AM in the morning.
However, before it happened, I was able to save this signal strength report to the posterity:
The opening continued to gradually weaken throughout the day, with only Koeru's transmitter remaining above normal signal level. In fact, it is above normal even now as I type. Signal strength 64%, quality 58%. Usually all I'd get would be 50%/0-5% with even no teletext!
On analog
I was also able to DX some analog signals. I was able to pick up one station in St. Petersburg, Russia. I do not know its exact name right now, but the logo in their ident read 5 PETERBURG.
Wow! This is definitely one memorable DX experience that will not be forgotten for a long time.
How far(approximate values)?
Laguja-Koeru - 95 km
Laguja-Tallinn - 170 km
Laguja-Espoo - 250 km
Laguja-Lahti - 320 km
Laguja-Mikkeli - 385 km
Laguja-Tammela - 340 km
I apologise for any typographical errors in this posting. I do not have the time right now to do a full spell check.
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