Thursday, November 16, 2023

4,200km opening at 88 MHz between Africa and Brazil - Nov 2023


George, PU7MAN  on his FM DX Brasil Twitter account reports a 4,200km opening recently on the FM Band 2 between Africa and Brazil.

The station in question was the 8-Kilowatt transmitter of Radio Cote D'Ivoire near the capital Abidijan on 88.0 MHz. According to the FM DX Brasil account, the signal was heard at a remote receiving station at Nova Russas in the state of Ceará in the NE of Brazil.

The equipment used for the reception was an Airspy Mini SDR receiver with a 3-element Yagi for the FM band.

The signal was heard at 23:30 UTC. The Twitter post was on the 15th of November 2023 so it was perhaps at the same time as the reception?

Propagation Mode???... Nova Russas is located about 200kms or so from the Atlantic Ocean and isn't on the coast. I suspect it wasn't a form of tropo ducting as this is an area of low pressure systems at the equator and the distance was over 4000kms.

The propagation mode wasn't TEP (Trans-Equatorial Propagation) as the path ran almost parallel to the Geomagnetic Equator (E-W) and not across it (N-S).

There are some remarkable reception reports across South America on the FM band and some people attribute these to Spread-F. Was it that?

There is an audio clip embedded in this Twitter post...

At his home location in Sorbal, PU7MAN recorded this audio clip on the 14th of November 2023 after 23:00 UTC using a Kenwood BT3012u radio withe a Triax FM8s antenna...

Link...

1) For more examples of long range reception reports on the FM band, see my 88-108 MHz page.

2 comments:

cocotcocot said...

Over on Discord TEF 6686 group they have a post of Transequatorial Propagation between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Portugal in the extended FM band.

(REPOST)

Brazilian EFM band Transequatorial Propagation, Radio Classic Pan Sao Paulo received in Portugal. Signal quality is similar to aurora reception. IMS and EQ are best switched on.
Audio has been filtered a little to remove some hiss etc, even though signal is quite strong it's very unstable, no RDS or stereo indications.

https://youtu.be/UFlPIJMHFYQ?si=hd2lq1hyuwVaQOmt



Another rarity is Auroral reception in Poland recently:

(REPOST)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBMwJLuP7JI

HC02 said...

Here in S. Portugal IM67 it's quite common to receive the FM Studio Transmitter Link on 53.0MHz of Radio Sol Mansi, Guinea Bissau in the mid-late evening,along with South American analogue TV signals in Band 1. Guinea Bissau is almost on the Geomagnetic Equator but reception here is hardly TEP, I call it "Northern TEP".!
Hugh