What is the most distant FM station you can hear regularly?

[charlestondxman]

After the AM topic went well, I figured we could also do this for FM stations.

Near Charleston, SC, I can get 105.7 from Augusta very regularly (country music). That is about 120 miles. It probably comes in 90% of the time or more. That is just with a good car radio and a regulation antenna.

98.7 and 106.9 from Beaufort are very good signals through most of the Charleston area on a good radio, even though they serve Savannah.

Before we had a 102.9 LPFM sign on last year, Jacksonville was steady probably 70% of the time there from about 200 miles. WCOS 97.5 was always there every day from about 115 miles out until we had an LPFM sign on there just recently.

In the summer, the amount of distants grow exponentially. Most of the Savannah stations are in nearly full-time at 90-100 miles, along with MB. 104.1 is there nearly year-round, but during the summer you can probably add another 4-5 signals from there that come in well. During the summer, Orlando (especially 105.9, 107.7, 101.9) are there probably 3 times a week.

What are the farthest FM signals you can get?

 

[cyberdad]

I didn't trust my own "off the top of my head" thoughts to answer this, so I checked with R-L....which confirmed my thinking. The Milwaukee TV stations' "antenna farm" on the northeast side of the city has several FMs also using those TV towers. It's about 63 miles northeast of me, and most of the FM signals originating from there are relaible if not listenable. Most notably WKTI 94.5 and WHQG 102.9. WMYX 99.1 is the best overall Milwaukee signal here, but it has a stick on the southwest side of town, which according to R-L, puts it at only 51 miles from me.

It's not unusual to come across signals farther away from here than Milwaukee, but if we're talking about reliable signals, Milwaukee is it.

 

[radioman148]

WMYX is also the most listenable (distant) Milwaukee station at my location in the near north Chicago burbs. I used to hear it regularly in my car heading into Chicago on the Kennedy expressway. I don't know if that's possible now with all the translators around.

 

[schmave]

Here in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, it's WHIO-FM from Pleasant Hill, Ohio, 30 or so miles north of Dayton and about 82 miles west-northwest of me. I can't get it on an indoor radio but always can hear it in the car even with local 95.5 transmitting from about 20 miles southeast in Lancaster. Certainly susceptible to interference near downtown but otherwise it's audible to listenable around the area.

 

[joebtsflk1]

FM is no fun in terrain challenged Cañon City CO. In some parts of town thanks to a saddleback gap in the mountains one can find KSBV-FM 93.7 some 50 miles west on Methodist Mountain, 1 kW C2 at 2723 ft HAAT.

Back home on high ground in southern IA KRES 104.7 a 100 kW C at 1000 ft Moberly MO was about 120 miles south and was relatively reliable on a Technics receiver and FM rabbit ears...

 

[KML0224]

From New Britain, CT it's hard to say. I always get a little of WEBE-FM 107.9 of Westport, CT. Their transmitter is side mounted on a smoke stack in Bridgeport, adjacent to Webster Bank Arena. I get a little of WSHU-FM 91.1 of Fairfield sometimes. On occasion, I'll get WEEI-FM 103.7 of Westerly/Providence, RI. Of course, their transmitter isn't all that far from the Connecticut border. Lastly, other than a blip or two from Long Island, I would occasionally pick up WSRS-FM 96.1 from Worcester, MA. That's no longer possible, thanks to a new translator station transmitting from West Peak in Meriden, CT on 96.1 FM (it rebroadcasts WNTY-AM 990 of Southington, CT).

 

[gr8oldies]

WHIO-FM still transmits from where it always did in southern Shelby County, even with the COL change (it was only done so they could close the Piqua studio).

Here in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, it's WHIO-FM from Pleasant Hill, Ohio, 30 or so miles north of Dayton and about 82 miles west-northwest of me. I can't get it on an indoor radio but always can hear it in the car even with local 95.5 transmitting from about 20 miles southeast in Lancaster. Certainly susceptible to interference near downtown but otherwise it's audible to listenable around the area.

 

[gr8oldies]

Most distant from Knoxville TN that could be regularly listened to (at least in the car) would be WMIT, 106.9, Black Mountain NC on top of Mt. Mitchell (even though they now have a sister local station on 106.7). Second most reliable (but not really listenable) is WBUL, 98.1, Lexington (often it's WHZT, Williamson SC instead). Supertalk 99.7 out of Nashville used to be regular before the WJBE translator signed on.

 

[CTListener]

I'm about a dozen miles south of KML-224, in Meriden. Here, WSHU, WEBE and WPKN 89.5 Bridgeport both put in dependable signals, as do WALK Patchogue NY 97.5, WPPB Southampton NY 88.3, and WLNG Sag Harbor NY 92.1. Those Long Island signals disappear very quickly as one drives north and are unusable by the time you reach Berlin or Middletown.

The most distant signal I hear most often without benefit of ducting is WGBH-FM 89.7 Boston. It's usually in there weak but readable on the car radio.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

For me I think it's 103.3 KVYB from Santa Barbara. Here's a recording of it from a few years ago on my PL-606 within a mile of my house.

Isn't there someone on these boards who gets 300-mile FM reception more reliably than I get that 211-mile reception?

 

[cyberdad]

Back home on high ground in southern IA KRES 104.7 a 100 kW C at 1000 ft Moberly MO was about 120 miles south and was relatively reliable on a Technics receiver and FM rabbit ears...

My memory, as always, could be faulty, but I seem to recall hearing that one on a fairly routine basis where I was at college in southeast Iowa during the late '60s. The band was only half full at best in that part of the world, and it wasn't unusual for big class C signals to be audible for distances well-beyond their intended coverage area.

 

[jim-satx]

For FM I just use my car radio or portables with no outside aerial. It's 90.7 KRZU "Radio Bilingue" in Batesville, TX, at 80 miles.

 

[crainbebo]

Throughout the day I get a few Vancouver, BC stations from Yakima...albeit weak and fade quickly. 101.1 CFMI is usually strongest, with 96.1 CHKG and 97.7 CBUF also common. All are about 220 miles. Seattle (100mi) fades in and out all day, mostly the Tiger Mountain sticks (KMPS, KIRO, KJAQ are common). KNLR 97.5 Bend comes in a few times an hour over KOLW w/ their religious format...that's 160 miles. 95.5 KBFF and 101.1 KXL Portland are also very common, as is KISC 98.1 Spokane.
Again, they are not stable signals and fade in and out quickly.

 

[joebtsflk1]

My memory, as always, could be faulty, but I seem to recall hearing that one on a fairly routine basis where I was at college in southeast Iowa during the late '60s. The band was only half full at best in that part of the world, and it wasn't unusual for big class C signals to be audible for distances well-beyond their intended coverage area.

Moberly's KRES was always a small market monster. Jerrell Shepherd had money to burn on FM, and it helped that AM radio serving mid Missouri was feeble. The AM sister to KRES, KWIX was a graveyarder on 1230. Mexico MO had a class IV on 1340, Kirksville a class IV on 1450. And that was the extent of fulltime AM in northern MO.

KILJ 105.5 Mount Pleasant started around 1970, I think. Back then I didn't know they were a lowly 3 kW A, but they'd show up on any radio with FM in Hedrick, some 45 miles away. With the band full and surrounded by adjacents, I doubt KILJ would do well in Hedrick even with their current 25 kW.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

On a portable - WACO 99.9 at about 140 miles. The reverse direction works as well, I remember hearing KRBE 104.1 in Temple, TX on a GE SR-3 - before all this HD nonsense.

FM reception is related to the moire pattern of nodes and nulls created by multiple bays. It is possible for somebody who happens to be in a node to get a station their next door neighbor can't. The best example of nodal reception I have found is 97.1 from Gainesville, GA at a Texaco in Lake City, FL. About 300 miles, and absolutely reliable. If that Texaco (now closed and demolished) had even a cheap radio, and tuned it to 97.1, they would get the station. I have found nodes for KLTY Dallas all over Houston - at an auto parts store on Hempstead road, a CVS on Spring Cypress, etc. Drive 50 feet away - GONE. Most reliable car reception of a 200 mile, plus station was 98.3 from South Carolina along highway 92 between Daytona Beach and Deland. It takes a car radio with a narrow ceramic filter. Because I liked the station, I listened to it along that road for years on a daily commute.

With a yagi, I reliably received Dallas stations from both Midland and Lubbock, TX. This was no fluke - it was reliable day and night. So reliable, in fact, that others in Midland began to set up antennas to do the same thing - from kids wanting rock music to adults wanting classical. The local cable company got in on the act and started carrying Dallas FM stations with an antenna setup of their own. At present, the most distant reliable is KLUV Dallas from Houston, although it has been covered up by a stupid translator. No need to DX when there is no open frequency to DX.

Honorable mention - or perhaps another node - is KLTY from Dallas in a house in NW Houston using a dipole. Absolutely reliable.

 

[Ai4i]

FM reception is related to the moire pattern of nodes and nulls created by multiple bays. It is possible for somebody who happens to be in a node to get a station their next door neighbor can't.

I could never figure out why forty some-odd years ago when I lived at two locations a few blocks apart, I could hear one station greatly from the first place but not from the second, and another station from the second which I had never heard at the first. Many years afterward, a CATV engineer told me that all of their single-channel terrestrial TV antennæ were on their main tower except for one, which had to be located on the opposite corner of the building, maybe for the same reason.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I could never figure out why forty some-odd years ago when I lived at two locations a few blocks apart, I could hear one station greatly from the first place but not from the second, and another station from the second which I had never heard at the first. Many years afterward, a CATV engineer told me that all of their single-channel terrestrial TV antennæ were on their main tower except for one, which had to be located on the opposite corner of the building, maybe for the same reason.

The nodes are so close together when you are local that reception is seamless. In the fringes, you can get the familiar picket fencing effect because of them. The nodes become fewer and farther between, until you lose them altogether.

I have heard both extremes. The owner of WAPN had severe diabetes with associated mood swings. One day, he decided to use a 6 kW transmitter and a single bay. Reception in the fringes didn't picket fence, it was just like going over a hill - one minute there, the next minute GONE. No picket fencing. The opposite extreme are the stations in Roswell, NM. Every little ridge west of town has a tower, and some of them have a dozen bays on them. Picket fencing on Roswell FM is horrific.

WAPN's owner soon relented when he saw the electric bill for that 6kW transmitter! He was back to his 900W transmitter and 4 bays the next month. Both approaches were at his licensed power of 2200W, but the efficiency was radically different!

 

[Ai4i]

Perhaps your WAPN guy should have consulted his antenna manufacturer about null-fill and maybe some beam tilting, after he was feeling better. Of course he would have consumed a lot more power his way and thrown a lot more signal up and down.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

Perhaps your WAPN guy should have consulted his antenna manufacturer about null-fill and maybe some beam tilting, after he was feeling better. Of course he would have consumed a lot more power his way and thrown a lot more signal up and down.

One of his best DX reports came from Keystone Heights, FL - when he was using 900W and 4 bays. Although now that I think about it - at our peak of popularity - we did have listeners in the South part of Jacksonville. He was upset because the ERP was only 1800W, he was licensed for 2200W. He was obsessed with making his praise and worship and brokered preaching format a success. He was annoyed that our Christian rock show rated top in Daytona Beach in our timeslot, even beating the top-40 station. How dare we do that with evil Christian rock?!!!

 

[HGR1290]

"Back in the day". I listened to <what was>WCKS 101.1 from Cocoa Beach. I was in Homestead. At least a few hundred miles at least. It was there day/night, it would light the stereo light. Way back before the band became "AM-ized".