3000km opening on Band 2 (88-108 MHz) from Ireland to Western Sahara - 10th Nov 2024

Paul Logan in the north-west of Ireland is one of the most active FM DXers in Europe and on the 10th of Nov 2024, he caught an interesting opening on the 88-108 MHz band.

From about 11:00 to 12:00 UTC, he heard a large number of FM radio stations from Spain and Portugal due to a Sporadic-E opening. While this is quite normal during the summer Sporadic-E season, it is unusual during the month of November and especially at these frequencies.

However, the really interesting signals were those that were much further to the south. This is an extract from Paul's log...

Mode UTC  QRG ITU Station, location Distance km kW ERP Pol
Es 1209 87.90 AZR RTP Antena 2, Pico Alto de Santa Maria 2346 1 v
Es 1151 93.00 CNR COPE, Puerto del Rosario/Temejereque 2906  4
Es 1154 88.60 CNR Happy FM, Puerto del Rosario/Temejereque 2906 0.25
Es 1152 91.20 CNR Onda Fuerteventura, Puerto del Rosario/Temejereque 2906 0.5 m
Es 1149 87.70 CNR RNE Radio Clásica, Puerto del Rosario/Temejereque 2906 7 m
Es 1146 90.20 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Tarfaya 2960  4 v
Es 1146 93.90 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al-Watania, Laâyoune=El Aaiún 3050 3.16 v
Es 1146 91.00 MRC SNRT Radio Régionale de Laâyoune, Laâyoune=El Aaiún 3050 10 h
Es 1146 87.90 MRC SNRT Al Idaâ Al Amazighia, Laâyoune=El Aaiún 3050 10 h

AZR - Azores, CNR - Canary Islands, MRC - Morocco / Western Sahara

Note that the signals are in the lower portion of the 88-108 MHz band and the highest frequency listed is 93.9 MHz.

For this opening, Paul was using a SDR Play RSP1A receiver with a 9-element Yagi for Band 2.

The normal maximum range of single hop Sporadic-E signals is about 2300 kms so an explanation is required as to how the signals above were heard.

The image above shows the tropo forecast by Pascal, F5LEN showing enhanced conditions to the north of the Azores and Canary Islands.

It seems likely that while there was a Sporadic-E opening from Ireland to Spain and Portugal, this very likely extended to the west as well to the sea to the west of Portugal. This then coupled into a maritime surface tropo duct as far as the Azores, Canary Island and the Western Sahara / Morocco. 

Of course, no-one can say for certain that this is exactly what happened. There is always the possibility of two Sporadic-E hops but the chances of that are a lot lower then the combined Sp-E / Tropo scenario.

Paul Logan as a very active FM DXer has heard stations in this area before but it's usually during the summer Sporadic-E season. It's just very unusual to hear 3000 kms signals in mid-November.

Indeed, Paul reports that this is the first time he has heard the Canary Islands by Sporadic-E outside of the usual summer season.

Links...

1) For latest logs on FM DX, see https://www.fmlist.org/

2) For more examples of long distance reception reports, see my 88-108 MHz page.

FM radio station on 91 MHz in Greenland is heard in Ireland - 19th May 2024

On the 19th of May 2024, FMDXer Paul Logan in the north-west of Ireland reported reception of a radio station in Greenland on 91.0 MHz.

Logbook 2024-05-19 
UTC QRG ITU Station, location Details Distance km kW ERP Pol
2044 91.00 GRL Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa, Niaqernaartik/KTYC (Kap Tycho Brahe) 2095 0.1 v

The radio is located on the east coast of Greenland, has an effective radiated power of just 100-watts and runs vertical polarisation. Paul logged it at 20:44 UTC.

A 52-second audio file from the reception can be heard HERE

The distance to Paul's location in Lisnaskea, Co Fermanagh is 2095kms and the propagation mode was Sporadic-E (Sp-E). While the distance is well within the maximum for a single hop of Sporadic-E, it's always interesting when a FM station in Greenland is heard in Europe.

Greenland is technically part of North America and hints hopefully at maybe some very rare trans-Atlantic signals on the FM band in the weeks ahead.

Link...

1) More examples of long distance paths on my 88-108 MHz page.

FM radio stations in Maine heard across the Atlantic in the north of Ireland - 22nd July 2021

Thursday 22nd July 2021: Openings on the FM band (88-108 MHz) between North America and Europe are very rare and it's always interesting to hear about these very high frequencies crossing the North Atlantic.

On the 22nd, Paul Logan in Lisnaskea in Co.Fermanagh in the north of Ireland managed to catch a short 5-minute opening to the state of Maine in the NE of the USA. 

* * *

UTC QRG ITU Station, location Details, remarks Distance km Received by/in kW ERP Pol

14:06 UTC 89.70 MHz USA WMED, Calais (ME) Weak. End of wx report. Start of "On point" show. Fits with online edition. Brief. 4294kms 30kW m

14:06 UTC 92.90 MHz USA WEZQ, Bangor (ME) Sports talk, same time as 88.5 4390kms 20kW m

14:05 UTC 88.50 MHz USA WHCF, Bangor (ME) Religious show, Scottish preacher // web 4353kms  35kW m

* * *

As the log from the FMLIST website shows above, Paul managed to log three separate stations at the bottom of Band 2 with frequencies in the range of 88 to 93 MHz.

To put this opening in perspective, this was only the 9th trans-Atlantic Band 2 opening for Paul Logan in a period of about 20 years.

For the reception, Paul was using a ELAD FDM S2 SDR receiver with a Band 2 9-element Yagi 8m above ground level.

Propagation Mode: As can be seen from the log, the distances were in the region of 4300kms. It's likely that the mode of propagation was double hop Sporadic-E i.e. 2 x 2150km hops.

For more examples of long distance reception reports on Band 2, visit my 88-108 MHz page.

105.9 MHz signal crosses the North Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland - 1st July 2021

1st July 2021: This was one of those remarkable days for VHF signals going across the North Atlantic. In an earlier post, I reported how someone in Cape Cod, MA in the USA managed to hear a FM radio station from the Azores Islands on 87.7 MHz. Later in the day, there was a remarkable opening on Band 2 from Newfoundland to Ireland.

Paul Logan in Lisnaskea in Co.Fermanagh in the north of Ireland managed to catch an extensive opening to St.John's, Newfoundland and logged no fewer than eight FM radio stations going from 88.5 MHz to 105.9 MHz. The distance was just over 3200kms.

The most significant of these loggings was that of CBAF-FM on 105.9 MHz as this is now the highest trans-Atlantic signal that has ever been recorded.

Here are the stations that Paul Logan heard...

* * *
88.50 MHz / 20:45 UTC / CBN-1-FM / PI logged: B202 PS logged: CBC_____ RADIO_1_ / 3.6 kW
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbbj6-0T-pI
* * *
94.70 MHz / 20:45 UTC / CHOZ-FM PI logged: C557 PS logged: __OZFM__ 3203km / 100 kW
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OS2ybV3T6cg
* * *
96.70 MHz / 20:45 UTC / VOAR-FM / local interference / 100 kW
* * *
97.50 MHz / 20:43 UTC / VOCM-FM / PI logged: 79E0 / 100 kW
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJX3AtONQ0k
* * *
99.10 MHz / 20:43 UTC / CKIX-FM / 100 kW
* * *
101.10 MHz / 20:45 UTC / CKSJ-FM / difficult against local / 20 kW
* * *
101.90 MHz / 20:44 UTC / CBAX-FM-2 / PI logged: B205 PS logged: ICI_____ Musique_ / 90 kW
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7hvMWLKY50
* * *
105.90 MHz / 20:44 CAN / CBAF-FM-17 / 46 kW
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgz263usLQU

For the reception, Paul was using a ELAD FDM S2 SDR receiver with a Band 2 9-element Yagi 8m above ground level.

Propagation Mode: First off, let's have a look at the tropo forecast...

The prediction certainly suggests that tropo ducting probably didn't play much of a role in this trans-Atlantic opening. Considering the distance was around 3200kms, it looks likely that it was probably double-hop Sporadic-E.

However, there are plenty of reports of Noctilucent Clouds at present and this region at about 80-90 kms above the Earth can reflect radio signals. Is the opening strictly Sporadic-E (1600kms X 2) or is the top of mesosphere region where the Noctilucent Clouds are involved as well?

In Conclusion: To put this opening in perspective, this was only the 8th trans-Atlantic Band 2 opening for Paul Logan in a period of about 20 years and the highest yet in terms of frequency. I can't help wondering how high did the trans-Atlantic maximum usable frequency go? 

Did it extend into the air band around 120 MHz? 

Is there any chance it might have reached 144 MHz?

FM radio station on 90.7 MHz near Quebec is heard across the Atlantic in Ireland - 21st June 2021

21st June 2021: This was a remarkable day for VHF propagation with a very rare trans-Atlantic opening on the 88-108 MHz FM band.

As outlined in a previous post, Paul Logan in the north of Ireland managed to hear a radio station from Greenland on 88.5 MHz from roughly 13:00 to 14:00 UTC on the 21st of June.

Near the end of this opening, Paul also managed to hear a radio station near Quebec in Canada, a distance of approximately 4,270 kms !

The radio station in question was the 100 kilowatt transmitter of CBRX-FM-3 ICI MUSIQUE which is located at Riviére-du-Loup just to the east of Quebec City in Canada.

A short audio clip from Paul is embedded below...

John, EI7GL · 21 - Jun - 2021 13h50m12sZ, 90.7 MHz - Music

This second clip which is very noisy is of weak music and a woman speaking in French.

John, EI7GL · 21 - Jun - 2021 14h00m25sZ, 90.7 MHz, BFM CA

Paul was able to listen later to the podcast version of the show online and it matches what he heard on the radio.

Additional info: 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. For the reception, Paul was using a ELAD FDM S2 SDR receiver with a Band 2 9-element Yagi 8m above ground level.

Analysis: With the opening to Greenland and now the 4270 km opening to Quebec, it looks as if this was a very rare Band 2 double hop Sporadic-E opening across the North Atlantic. 

While it it quite common for signals on say the 50 MHz band to cross the North Atlantic, the maximum usable frequency rarely reaches as high as the 88-108 MHz FM broadcast band.

Paul Logan has logged more of these trans-Atlantic Band 2 VHF openings than anyone else and this was only his 7th opening to North America in 20 plus years of listening.

As of 2021, not one single person in North America has heard a Band 2 radio station from Europe. Why?

FM radio station on 88.5 MHz in Greenland is heard in Ireland - 21st June 2021

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???

Analysis of Paul Logan's Band 2 FMDX log for 2020: Pt 1 - Tropo

In this three part series of posts, I am going to look at the 2020 logs of a very active Band 2 DXer and what they might suggest about propagation on the 88 to 108 MHz FM band. The posts are broken up into three parts... 1) Tropospheric Propagation, 2) Sporadic-E & 3) Meteor Scatter.

First off, a big thank you to Paul Logan who very kindly shared his 2020 Band 2 logbook with me and answered numerous questions that I had. Outside of his usual 'local' FM radio stations which he can hear under flat conditions, he logged and identified roughly 5,500 long distance signals on Band 2 in the year 2020.

Profile of Paul Logan... Paul is a very active listener of Band 2 radio (88-108 MHz) signals and has been logging stations that he has heard for about 30 years. He lives in Lisnaskea in Co.Fermanagh in Ireland and his location is shown in the map below.

Paul's location is far from ideal for listening to distant VHF signals. He has some local hills to the east as well as the hills and mountains in Scotland, England and Wales as a further obstruction.  

Equipment... For the 2020 logs, Paul used an SDRPlay RSP1 & RSP1A.

In recent years, software defined receivers have transformed FMDX listening as signals can now be seen on a computer screen as well as being heard. This allows a user to visually check for any unusual signals and can then go investigate it. One of the most impressive features is the ability to record sections of the spectrum and a user can then go back later to listen for anything unusual.

For an antenna, Paul is using a Korner FM9 from Antennenland in Germany.

This antenna which is mounted 8 metres above ground level is highly regarded by many FMDXers in Europe.

2020 Tropo Log... During the year 2020, Paul heard and identified around 86 signals that were heard via tropospheric propagation. This mode of propagation occurs when signals are bent over the horizon by sharp changes between air layers with different temperatures and moisture content.

I have picked out 5 groups of signals of note which I have marked from A to E. Refer to the map below and then the horizon profile further down.

A - This group of signals from the north-west corner of Spain are in the region of 1200 to 1300 kms. The sea path from the south coast of Ireland to the north coast of Spain is very good for VHF propagation with marine ducting happening several times a year. These sea paths are usually the best for very long paths in excess of 500kms and sometimes the signals can be amazingly strong.

In the video below, Paul shows how he was able to hear a Spanish radio station on a small portable radio when the opening was at its strongest. With his main directional antenna, he was able to hear the Spanish signals for most of the day.

In the horizon plot below, you can see that the path to NW Spain at Paul's location is largely unobstructed with only a 1 degree elevation. This allows very low angle signals to arrive at his location.

B - This path to Brittany and Cornwall is similar in that the sea path helps and the hills on the horizon are quite low at about 1 degree elevation.

C - This interesting batch of signals came from Norfolk in the east of England, a distance of 600kms. These signals had a few obstacles to overcome including Paul's local hills as well as the Pennines running down the centre of England.

With the signals arriving at least 3.5 degrees above the horizon, the means of propagation may have been via an elevated duct in the region of 500m to 2000m above the earth's surface. While higher frequency VHF & UHF signals tend to propagate better inside of ducts, it went as low as 89.7 MHz in this example.

D - This cluster of signals from the Netherlands and Germany were interesting for a number of reasons. First off is the sheer distance... about 1000kms which is unusual for Band 2 tropo. I suspect that the sea path over the North Sea may have helped for a large part of the journey.

If you examine the horizon plot below, you'll notice that there is a gap in the hills due east (90 degrees) where the horizon has an elevation of about 2.5 degrees.

What's really interesting is that the paths from the four transmission sites fit exactly in the gap. The signal from the most northerly German transmitter is exactly at the left hand side of the gap. The signal from the most southerly Dutch transmitter is exactly at the right hand side of the gap. The four signals fit exactly like a glove which suggests that they are coming in just barely above 2.5 degrees above the horizon.

E - These signals from the Newcastle area were at a distance of about 370kms and again are coming in from an obstructed path. This one has the highest angle as it had to clear a local hill that was 4 degrees on the horizon.

Outside of the five examples shown above, most of the other signals were in the region of 150 to 300kms which is pretty typical for tropospheric propagation on Band 2.

What's also interesting are the signals that weren't heard. For example, there was no tropo from Scotland which Paul confirms is a very difficult direction for him. As can be seen from the horizon plot above, the local hill in that direction is 5 degrees and that has the effect of blocking tropo signals.

In conclusion... I hope this short analysis highlights the importance of having a low unobstructed horizon for hearing signals on Band 2 (88-108 MHz). 

Having obstructions under 1 degree is best, under 2 degrees is acceptable but beyond that, the signals and paths get rarer.

Any local hill that is at 5 degrees or above is a show stopper for VHF tropo propagation.

The examples above would also apply to say the VHF aircraft band (118-136 MHz), the 2-metre amateur band (144 MHz) and the VHF marine band (156 MHz). 

Normally the best advice is to have your antenna mounted as high as possible on the VHF bands so that the amount of obstruction on your horizon is reduced to a minimum. 

Band 2 is a bit of an paradox in that the higher you put your antenna, the 'local' signals get stronger which in turn can mask the DX signals. It's really a case of finding out what height works best for your location.

Links...

1) Paul Logan's Tropo log for 2020 on the FM List website.

2) Paul's YouTube Channel

3) Paul's radio website

4) Paul's AM/FM DX Twitter account

How to check your horizon for HF & VHF propagation

If you're interested in the upper HF bands or any of the VHF and UHF bands then your horizon is all important. On bands like 144 MHz and above, the vast majority of signals are coming in from the horizon and just above it.

On bands like 28 MHz, 50 MHz & 70 MHz, the signals may be coming in at a slightly higher angle with Sporadic-E but they are still very close to the horizon. Whether you're operating from home or thinking or going portable then knowing your horizon can help explain what's going on.

First off, the website for checking your horizon is https://www.heywhatsthat.com/

In this post, we'll look at how to use it and some tips on getting them most out of it. To help explain it, I am going to do a profile of Paul Logan's location in Lisnaskea in Co.Fermanagh, Ireland. Paul is an avid listener to the Band 2 FM band from 88 to 108 MHz and logs hundreds of radio stations from all over Europe every year.

Getting started...

After going to the HeyWhatsThat site, click on the 'New panorama', zoom in to find your own location on the map and then click on it. 

I have done this in the example above for Paul's location and them zoomed back out. On the left side of the screen, your latitude and longitude will be automatically filled in after you click on the map. You can also select the height above ground so I selected 8-metres which is the height of Paul's antenna.

Note that the site uses the general topography to calculate your horizon, it doesn't take buildings or trees into account.

Also make sure to select 'Metric' at the bottom of the screen to use proper measurements.

Then click 'Submit request'.

Using the results...

After a short while, a map is generated. I clicked on the 'Visibility cloak' to show the areas that are visible from Paul's location. The Red triangles are distant peaks and I clicked on 'Contours' to highlight the topography.

This is that the horizon looks like for Paul...

I have exaggerated the vertical scale and added some numbers to make it clearer.

There is a large hill with an elevation of about 5 degrees to the north-east of Paul's location (45 deg bearing) and this is clearly shown on the image above. This would have a major impact on all signals at 144 MHz and above. As Paul notes himself, he finds it very difficult to get distant stations on Band 2 in that direction. 

That hill would also impact on all long distance single hop Sporadic-E coming from that direction on all bands from 28 MHz to 144 MHz. Short skip arriving at a higher angles on say 28 MHz or 50 MHz would probably clear the hill.

Due east at 90 degrees, there is an interesting gap which might might allow some distant Band 2 tropo or Sporadic-E through.

From 100 to 140 is another impediment to low angle signals but it gets much better after 150 degrees or so. Paul has a very good take off at about 190 degrees towards the Canary Islands and even those distant line of sight peaks around 270 degrees are so low that there are unlikely to be much of a problem. As a result, his location will be wide open to say the USA on 28 MHz once the sunspot numbers increase.

Example 1: Poor tropo path to Scotland.

In this example, I have shown what the path is like to Scotland and how the hill is in the way. If you are trying this from your location, then just click on any location of interest and the site will show you the path and where it is on your horizon.

Example 2: Good tropo  path to Spain

As can be seen from the horizon profile, Paul has a good path to the south and this can allow him to gain access to the marine duct that sometimes occurs between Ireland and Spain. The distance shown is about 1200kms which is really good for Band 2 tropo.

Example 3: Sporadic-E footprints...

Using the 'Up in the air' button, I was able to simulate what the limit for one hop Sporadic-E from Paul's location might be. One the left above is the approximate range if Paul had a completely flat horizon. The one on the right is the reality.

For Italy, the local hill restricts signals further south than Rome.

For Poland, signals from the east of the country should be easy to hear except the local hill makes things more difficult. Belarus and the west of Ukraine are also more difficult. Notice that that little gap at 90 degrees is reflected in the Sporadic-E footprint.

For the Baltic states and Finland, they should be well within Sporadic-E range but again, the local hill makes things difficult.

It's possible in many cases that some local tropo conditions will extend the footprint further east but overall, the local hills make hearing these areas more challenging.

Example 4: F2 propagation...

As the sunspots increase, there will be weak F2 openings on 28 MHz. Towards the west, Paul should have no problems reaching Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in Canada. With the help of a more southerly second hop, he is well placed to hear signals from well into the USA.

Towards the eastern Mediterranean, the local hill will block some of those signals when the band is just open. Ironically, it may actually be easier to hear signals further away in places like the Arabian peninsula once there is a second hop.

'Up in the air' Values... 

For your own propagation footprint maps, try 360000 for Sporadic-E and 1300000 for F2.

Example 5: Line of sight paths...

The HeyWhatsThat site can also be used to examine line of site paths. The map above shows the path from Paul's location to Clermont Carn in Co.Louth, about 75kms away. This is a major transmitter site for Irish radio stations.

Let's say for example, Paul wanted to get a line of sight path for a contact on the microwave bands. The profile below shows the local hill in the way but there is a location 7kms away that is line of sight to Clermont Carn.

It's not hard to imagine how it might be used for finding suitable paths on the microwave bands or even if someone was just curious if a distant mountain was visible or not.

Other uses... Here's a few...

Portable operation, DX-peditions, Summits on the Air (SOTA) activations, contesting ... are there obstructions in the way? Is your 'perfect' contest location blocked at a low angle on the upper HF bands say to the USA?

In summary... This is a very useful utility to have and the more you use it, you tend to think of other uses.

For the bands like 28 MHz and 50 MHz, short skip can hide the shortcomings you may have in a certain directions. Your horizon profile should make you aware of these and you're looking for no more than 2 degrees.

For the higher bands like 70 MHz, 88 to 108 MHz, 144 MHz and above, tropo becomes a more important propagation mode. This time, you're looking for a very low horizon and the lower the better.

There's a very good reason why people put antennas up as high as possible on the VHF and UHF bands.

Link...
1) HeyWhatsThat website

88 MHz Trans-Atlantic signals heard in Ireland - Sun 8th July 2018

This really is a remarkable catch. Paul Logan in Lisnaskea, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland managed to hear a Canadian radio station across the Atlantic at 88 MHz! While 28 MHz and 50 MHz signals are pretty common across the pond, it is extremely rare that signals of such a high frequency get across.

Using a 5 element beam and a SDR receiver, Paul managed to catch CBC radio 1 on 88.5 MHz from Newfoundland, Canada at 22:35 local time (21:35 UTC) on Sunday the 8th of July 2018.

With a distance of some 3200 kms, it is very likely that it was double hop Sporadic-E which is remarkable. It's not that common for the propagation to reach 88 MHz for one hop but to have it at 88 MHz at two spots at the right distance apart is really rare.

The video of the reception is shown below...



Paul has heard trans-Atlantic Band 2 signals in the past but it really is a rare phenomenon. This is only the fourth time Paul has heard a Canadian radio station on Band 2 (88-108 MHz) since 2003. He is the only person to have heard Band 2 signals from the USA.

The only other person to have heard a Band 2 trans-atlantic signal from North America was David Hamilton in Scotland who heard Newfoundland in 2003. Incredibly, a small number have managed to hear Band 2 stations from the Caribbean which is a more southerly path albeit further away.

Paul's website is http://band2dx.webs.com/