Monday 21st June 2021: This was an exceptional day for Sporadic-E propagation with FM radio stations on the 88-108 MHz band in Greenland and Canada being heard across the North Atlantic in Ireland.
In this post, we'll look at the reception of the Greenlandic station.
Paul Logan near Enniskillen in the north of Ireland is an avid DX-er and has logged hundreds of radio stations on the 88-108 MHz FM band over a period of 20+ years.
On the 21st of June, he managed to hear the KNR radio station from Greenland on 88.5 MHz for the best part of an hour from 13:00 to 14:00 UTC. An audio recording is shown below...
Paul also listened to the online feed and it matched what he was hearing.
For the reception, Paul was using a ELAD FDM S2 SDR receiver with a Band 2 9-element Yagi 8m above ground level.
At the moment, Paul is trying to ascertain where the exact location of the transmitter in Greenland.
Analysis: It's very likely that this reception was via one hop Sporadic-E as the map at the top of the post suggests. The maximum distance for a single Sporadic-E hop is in the region of 2300kms and the southern part of Greenland seems to be just about within range of Paul Logan's location.
What is highly unusual about this reception report is getting Sporadic-E at 88.5 MHz from so far north in the North Atlantic.
It raises the question: If an 88 MHz signal can get from Greenland to Ireland then could a 144 MHz on a more southerly path head from say the south of Ireland the UK / NW France across towards Newfoundland and Nova Scotia??
Could one Sporadic-E hop with a tropo extension reach across the North Atlantic on 144 MHz???
7 comments:
My own feeling is that the transmitter site is likely to be on the southern tip of Greenland in the 2300 km range. At the same time nothing from Iceland was noted here either on Band 2 or 50 mhz - a direction which may have favoured a closer TX site in Greenland.
I have never seen any reports of Greenland being heard anywhere else on FM either in Europe or North America, due in part I'm sure to their low powered transmnitters, most around 50 watts.
Another likely reason they've not been logged in Europe is the unusual direction, very few people will bother beaming that way and the same can be said for East coast US DXers. 2300KM isn't a particularly challenging distance for 1 hop SpE at that latitude.
If Greenland at 2300kms wasn't 'particularly challenging' at that latitude over the North Atlantic then it would have been heard a long time ago.
That is really an excellent DX catch 🙂
However, I don't think it is KNR. They don't have any transmitters on 88.5 MHz. It is probably the religious station Inuunerup Nipaa which operates several transmitters all over Greenland on 88.5 MHz. All transmitters are 50 Watts only. Cf. World Radio TV Handbook 2021 p. 222
Yes it is the christian netwoork Inuunerup Nipaa. Based on the greenlandic spoken it is from western part of Greenland. There are transmitters in several towns on the west coast.
"Another likely reason they've not been logged in Europe is the unusual direction, very few people will bother beaming that way and the same can be said for East coast US DXers. 2300KM isn't a particularly challenging distance for 1 hop SpE at that latitude"
Writes someone who has never heard Greenland on FM.
I've been "beaming that way" *** especially*** since 2003, and during and after Icelandic openings searching specifically FOR Greenland.
You really have to marvel at the begrudgery.
Hi Stig - the audio received originated 100% from KNR, a concert for Greenland Day in Nuuk - the full concert is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc67VEPLo8Y and matches what was received. Like yourself I am also working on the assumption that it was rebroadcast by Inuunerup Nipaa.
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