A Beginners look at Starting Band 2 DX'ing
The beginners part of the title refers to myself! This is how I started DX'ing on the FM Band.
Part Two - PI Codes
Next more information on my discovery of PI Codes. I obviously knew about RDS but did not realise that every station transmitting RDS had a hidden PI Code. It was this PI code that helped to positivley ID the Station. Here are a few examples, (remember the underscore "_" is a space on the receiver's display:
| PS | PI | STATION |
| __RADIO_ | E1E2 | Onda Rambla Eempordą Punto Radio from Spain |
| __RADIO_ | 3222 | Polskie Radio 2 from Poland. |
| _RADIO__ | C004 | Radio Istra from Italy. |
| __RADIO_ | 5211 | Rete 105 Network from Italy |
By looking at the table above I think you will now realise why PI codes are so important to a DX'er. In a Sporadic E opening if you saw "RADIO" on your RDS display where is it from? It could be any Country in Europe almost! No use what so ever to a DX'er. Enter the PI Codes.
European PI Codes based on my Logs from the year 2000
|
00 to 4F |
|
| First Two Digits of PI Code | Countries |
| 00 | Portugal |
| 10 | Greece, Morocco |
| 11 | Italy, Morocco |
| 12 | Greece |
| 20 | Italy, Czech Rep |
| 22 | Eire, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Rep |
| 23 | Latvia, Slovakia, Czech Rep, Slovenia |
| 24, 25, 26 and 28 | Czech Rep |
| 30, 32, 34, 37 3B and 3F | Poland |
| 40 | Montenegro |
| 41 | Vatican |
| 43 and 44 | Switzerland |
|
50 to 5F |
|
| First Two Digits of PI Code | Countries |
| 50 | Italy, Slovakia |
| 51 | Italy, Spain, Finland |
| 52 | Italy, Slovakia, Greece |
| 53 | Italy, Slovakia |
| 54, 55, 56 and 58 | Italy |
| 59 | Italy, Slovakia |
| 5A, 5D, 5E and 5F | Italy |
|
60 to 7F |
|
| First Two Digits of PI Code | Countries |
| 60 | Finland, Croatia, Belgium |
| 61 and 62 | Finland, Slovenia |
| 63 | Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia |
| 64 | Croatia |
| 67 | Slovenia |
| 68 | Finland |
| 6B | Belgium |
| 6C | Slovenia |
| 6E | Finland |
| 71 | Italy |
| 72 | Tunisia, Latvia, Lithuania |
| 77 | Russia |
|
80 to 9F |
|
| First Two Digits of PI Code | Countries |
| 80 | Portugal, Croatia |
| 82 | Portugal, Holland, Spain |
| 83 and 84 | Portugal, Holland |
| 88 | Serbia |
| 90 | Turkey, Greece, Spain, Slovenia |
| 92 | Denmark, Slovenia |
| 94 | Slovenia, Croatia |
| 95 | Slovenia |
| 97 | Denmark |
| 98 | Slovenia |
| 99 | Denmark, Czech Rep |
| 9C | Denmark |
| 9F | Denmark, Italy |
|
A0 to DF |
|
| First Two Digits of PI Code | Countries |
| A0 | Italy, Spain |
| A2 | Iceland, Austria |
| A3, A8, A9 and AC | Austria |
| B0 | Spain, Canaries |
| B2 | Hungary, Spain |
| C0 | Croatia, Italy |
| C1, C2, C4 | Croatia |
| C3 | Croatia, Lithuania |
| CC | Portugal |
| D0, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D8, D9, DC and DD | Germany |
|
E0 to EF |
|
| First Two Digits of PI Code | Countries |
| E0 | Spain, Sweden, Romania |
| E2, E4 | Spain, Sweden |
| E3 | Spain |
| E4, E5, E6, E7, E8, EA, EB, EC, ED and EF | Spain |
|
F0 to FF |
|
| First Two Digits of PI Code | Countries |
| F0 | France, Spain, Bosnia |
| F2 | France, Norway, Spain |
| F4 | Norway, Francce |
| F6, F8, F9 and FA | France |
| F7, FC | Norway, France |
| FE | Norway |
| FF | Romania, Spain, Bosnia, Croatia, Belarus, Italy |
From the above lists you can see how the PI codes help quickly ID a Station. Remember there are two other numbers to a PI Code, so after a few weeks of openings to say Italy you soon learn that 545F is Radio Capri or A000 is Radio Speranza. You will also soon learn that if an opening is to Scandinavia and you log a PI code of E201 with no PS then you can be very confident you have logged Sweden and not Spain. The same applies if you log a PI of F201, it will be Norway and not France. So now armed with the PI information you can soon build up a database of PI codes to frequencies and PS names you log.
It is possible to have two different stations using the same PI Code. A good example of this is a PI Code of 8201, this can be Antena 1 from Portugal or Radio 1 from Holland. This is not a problem as the PS will sort it out for you, if no PS is recorded then the experience you gain will tell you whether the opening was to Holland or Portugal. If you are in the U.K. for example it would not be possible to receive Holland via Sporadic E so the station would be Portugal. Likewise if there was a big tropo event taking place the station would be Holland which is a common catch during such conditions.
Below is the official Allocation of Country Codes for the European Broadcasting Area
| Country | PI | Country | PI | ||
| Albania | 9 | Luxembourg | 7 | ||
| Algeria | 2 | Macedonia | 4 | ||
| Andorra | 3 | Madeira | 8 | ||
| Austria | A | Malta | C | ||
| Belgium | 6 | Morocco | 1 | ||
| Belarus | F | Moldova | 1 | ||
| Bosna-Herzegovina | F | Monaco | B | ||
| Bulgaria | 8 | Netherlands | 8 | ||
| Canaries [Spain] | E | Norway | F | ||
| Croatia | C | Poland | 3 | ||
| Czech Republic | 2 | Portugal | 8 | ||
| Denmark | 9 | Romania | E | ||
| Estonia | 2 | Russia | 7 | ||
| Finland | 6 | San Marino | 3 | ||
| France | F | Slovakia | 5 | ||
| Germany | D or 1 | Slovenia | 9 | ||
| Gibraltar | A | Spain | E | ||
| Greece | 1 | Sweden | E | ||
| Hungary | B | Switzerland | 4 | ||
| Iceland | A | Tunisia | 7 | ||
| Ireland | 2 | Turkey | 3 | ||
| Italy | 5 | Ukraine | 6 | ||
| Latvia | 9 | U.K. | C | ||
| Liechtenstein | 9 | Vatican | 4 | ||
| Lithuania | C | Yugoslavia | 6 |
I hope this will throw some light from a DX'ers point of view of PI Codes. If you want the technical side of PI Codes then visit the RDS Forum on the Internet or simply Google RDS for many technical pages on the subject. At the end of the day the DX'er is mainly interested in what Country we are receiving the codes from.
| A Beginners look at Band 2 DX'ing Contents | |
| Part One | Introduction and Clubs |
| Part Three | PS Names |
| Part Four | Receivers and Computers |
| Part Five | Aerials and Propagation |
| My Band 2 Home Pages | |