Opening at 88 MHz between Spain and Sub-Saharan Africa - 27th May 2026

Mauricio Molano is a very active FMDXer from Spain and he has managed to receive many long  distance FM radio stations on the 88 to 108 MHz band.

In a post from 2021, I outlined how Mauricio was able to receive FM radio signals on 88 MHz from Ghana, a distance of about 3700 kms.

On the 27th of May 2026, Mauricio managed to catch another exceptional opening on the VHF FM band to sub-Saharan Africa. He heard one radio station from Burkina Faso, two from Ghana, one from Nigeria, and one from Togo.

Mauricio believes that this was the first time that a FM radio station from Togo has been received in Europe. 

These are the stations that were heard on the 27th of May 2026...

Time (UTC) - Freq (MHz) - Country - Station - Distance in kms

17:07 - 89.90 - Ghana - Somuaa Radio, Gushegu - 3322

17:07 - 90.60 - Burkina Faso - Radio Dauphin FM, Koupéla (kot) - 3071 

17:19 - 88.30 - Ghana - Word FM, Bolgatanga/Zuarungu (uea) - 3215

17:26 - 88.50 - Togo - Radio Maria Togo, Dapaong (sav) - 3226  

17:30 - 89.90 - Burkina Faso - RTB Radio Nationale, Pô (nao) - 3170

17:34 - 89.70 - Nigeria - Buzz FM 89.7 (tentative log), Aba - 4040

Report from Mauricio... "One of the first "sporadic" propagation events this year involved a double-hop, bringing in several African stations from Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Togo. 

The station that came through the strongest proved to be the most difficult to identify—a challenge where "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" played a decisive role. 

After reading forum discussions about how AI had successfully identified an obscure language—even transcribing and translating its content—my friend Juan Antonio Arranz decided to test it further. He used a recording of this station, which I had shared with him weeks earlier, to see how it would handle an even more unusual language. The results were truly impressive! 

The AI ​​generated a four-page report that identified the language, pinpointed its geographic origin, transcribed and translated the recording's content, and provided enough clues to narrow down the potential stations. Within minutes, it became clear that its top suggestion was correct—though it only provided the name of the licensee company rather than the station's commercial brand name. 

Shortly after reading the AI's report, I found the Facebook page for SOMUAA RADIO and heard the very same announcer from my DX recording—"Mr. Lukman (De Controller)"—hosting his show, "Gushegu Drive." Curiously, neither the AI ​​nor I had noticed that the recording actually contained a jingle that repeated the name of the program! A huge thank you to Juan Antonio and to "Ms. AI"—and also to someone at the station who confirmed my reception, first via Facebook and later by email.

Here is a long recording of this station: https://app.box.com/s/5e3qfah5xqtrpm5phtkwlpeey6dx5dh3

Another station I'm noting as a "tentative log" is the Nigerian BuzzFM. It's pretty clear it's them: they're the only ones who came in with RDS (just 15 seconds). Their IP address (F380) corresponds to Nigeria, their PS was dynamic, and after many attempts, I managed to get several parts of it: "A_______ / DULL____ / MOMENT__ 

/ --.7---- / __----_z". BuzzFM's slogan is: "Buzz FM. Never A DULL MOMENT station"... so, I think their identity is pretty clear. 

Identifying Radio Burkina on 89.9 FM wasn't easy either. The signal only came in for three or four minutes, during a call-in program. I had to listen to recordings on the Facebook and YouTube pages of several potential stations. There were similar programs on more than one station. But the key came from a listener who said goodbye thanking the presenter, Monsieur "Samporé" or something like that. On Radio Burkina's Facebook page, I discovered that Sibiri Charles SIMPORÉ some days hosts the program "Commentons l'actualité" which is what was being broadcast when I caught them.

So far, no station has responded to my messages... receiving an email from a radio station has become more difficult than receiving their FM signals from over 3000 km away! "

Receiving Equipment... The above signals were heard on an RX888 Mk2 SDR.

This uses a 16-bit ADC (Analogue to Digital Converter) which typically results in a receiver which has better sensitivity and a higher dynamic range than other SDR models.

Mauricio has two directional aerials for the FM broadcast band and he was using the Antiference

3-Element Yagi (88-108 MHz) to receive the African stations.

Propagation... The distances reported by Mauricio are in the region of 3100 to 4000 kms which is well beyond the distance of one single Sporadic-E hop. It's very likely the path involved two Sporadic-E hops which is unusual at a high frequency like 88 MHz.

The traditional view of double hop Sporadic-E is that the radio signals are refracted from the Sporadic-E 'cloud' and are then reflected off the ground at the midway point. In the example below, this reflection point might be say 1500 to 2000 kms from the transmitter and receiver.

Considering how strong some of these multi-hop signals are, there is a growing consensus that these exceptional long distance Sporadic-E openings are due to chordal hop with the signal going from one Sporadic-E region to the next and bypassing the lossy earth reflection.

In conclusion... Thanks to Mauricio for all of the information. Considering how busy the FM broadcast band is in Europe, it's a real challenge to hear weak radio signals from sub-Sahara Africa.

Two things stood out for me in the reception report. One of course was the fact that it was the first time a FM station in Togo was heard in Europe! The other is that AI is now being used to help identify unknown radio stations.

It would be really interesting to see more reports from FMDXers in Europe hearing sub-Saharan radio stations. Whatever about radio amateurs, there is no shortage of broadcast stations down there on the 88 to 108 MHz FM band.

Links...

1) See my 88-108 MHz page for more examples of long distance reports.

2) Mauricio has his own blog... https://moladx.blogspot.com/