Bandscan and pirate radio in London

The first FM radiostation that I tuned into automatically with a portable radio in Walthamstow, NE London was... a pirate station! Another one... too!
It took a third or even fourth scan, when I finally tuned a licenced FM radio. How metaphoric for London!

During this trip, I almost totally neglected the legally broadcasting FM stations and dedicated almost my whole bandscanning sessions to the pirates - a broadcasting phenomenon, which is even more significant and representative of London. My impression is, it is pirate radio that provides quantitative, musical and cultural wealth of London's FM band...

FM DX with Aurora

Northern lights as visible from Poland on 15-12-20
(by Konrad)

On Sunday, Dec 20th 2015 for the first time I observed auroral propagation on FM radio.
Although i've been familiar with its theory for years now, and - thanks to other Polish FM-DXers' achievements, I learned how it can look and sound like, in my over 15 years of DX history it was the first time to observe Au personally. 

In this post i'm sharing my impressions about this type of reception and while describing it, try to reflect best the properties of this quite exotic mode of propagation.
It is also available in Polish.

Swedish Radio at night

In the XXI century not all radio stations broadcast 24h a day. Some cease their programming after midnight and turn into a mysterious utility radiostations!

-And who'd have known it is also true for such civilised countries like Sweden! I first found out about this a couple of years ago during one night of excellent distant reception from Sweden in the FM radio band. Many Swedish stations were running their typical nighttime programing then (for example SR P3 joint with P4), but the First Channel after 1 AM started sounding strange. Sveriges Radio P1 is a speech channel, which means they usually broadcast news, current affairs and general talk shows. What I heard then sounded like a speech too, but somewhat processed...

Sygnały interwałowe - melodie fal krótkich

Interval signals (IS) / sygnały interwałowe to niedługie, powtarzalne utwóry muzyczne przygotowane przez międzynarodowe stacje radiofoniczne nadające na falach krótkich. Spełniają tam bardzo ważne zadanie, a przy okazji są wizytówką danej rozgłośni czy jej kraju.
Kryją przy okazji mnóstwo ciekawostek, a ponieważ są formą muzyczną, można je przedstawić w formie "listy przebojów". Oto "top-10" moich ulubionych melodii fal krótkich z lat moich nasłuchów (90s/00s):

ATLANTIC 252 - Longwave Radio

Atlantic 252, the longwave giant, was serving UK & Ireland with the best contemporary pop and dance music for over a decade.
I think I was the only faithful listener of the station in Poland and this is my tribute to its "non-stop rhythm & dance"-era (2000-2001).