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Best FM DX Catches

SomeRadioGuy

SomeRadioGuy

When in NW PA with a 5 element yagi, a modified sony XDF1HD and a really tall hill I had some good FM reception during "Summer skip season"

MY BEST overall FM DX Catch was 250 watt translator K242BK 96.3 Rapid City, SD at 1260 miles distant It's an in town translator for KZZI 95.9 Belle Fouche, SD There was no mistaking what I had and for what it was, the reception was surprisingly good. Here's the audio: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nTns1pgrKkvsPjWmzchCblVSsxfc5fKW

My FARTHEST FM dx catch was 100KW KPQX 92.5 Havre, MT at about 1550 miles. Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15EUfBouUN9lENPoVOusupgRP_OGYRpKU/view?usp=sharing
 
Hya there in Western PA, guy!

I'm nowhere NEAR the FM DXer a lot of you folks are. I was far more into AM DX back 'in the day'. But on occasion, I'd find myself listening to FM in the car, and hear some unlikely station coming in. And for the duration, I'm hooked.

The intrigue is much like seeing a display of the Northern Lights. You are in some dark field with others, beer in fist, watching the show. Someone says, 'Well, it's getting late. I think I'll call it quits.'
And God sends down a lightning bolt, or some new blaze.
'Well, okay. I think I'll stay a little while longer.' You are good and hooked.

Trope can be more addicting (to me, trope goes longer) than ESkip. But both are marvelous. You never know what's next.

Some buddies had their CP for an LPFM going one afternoon, on 107.9 up this way. I drove around the Ashland mountain in the little Topaz to try and gauge their coverage. Even with that mountain in the way, the LPFM could not have been more than a mile north of my tour. Some station was playing 'It's Too Late To Turn Back Now' -- that wasn't the LPFM's format at all -- and there were ads for businesses on 'Highway 41'.
There is no Highway 41 in Pennsylvania I know.
Well, they ID'ed as 'Oldies 108', WSRZ Sarasota FL. I didn't even go back to the LPFM crew. The DXer in me instinctively drove home to try and tape this thing from 1000 miles away.
When I got home, WSRZ wasn't present. There was this indistinct Spanish language station there. All sources I checked listed nothing sensible other than Havana. But I never ID'ed it.

Some DXer from Poughkeepsie NY also heard WSRZ. (The NY town is said 'puh-KIPP-see') So he/she had the distance record that afternoon. Darn.
 
Steve Green NEPA said:
Hya there in Western PA, guy!

I'm nowhere NEAR the FM DXer a lot of you folks are. I was far more into AM DX back 'in the day'. But on occasion, I'd find myself listening to FM in the car, and hear some unlikely station coming in. And for the duration, I'm hooked.

The intrigue is much like seeing a display of the Northern Lights. You are in some dark field with others, beer in fist, watching the show. Someone says, 'Well, it's getting late. I think I'll call it quits.'
And God sends down a lightning bolt, or some new blaze.
'Well, okay. I think I'll stay a little while longer.' You are good and hooked.

Trope can be more addicting (to me, trope goes longer) than ESkip. But both are marvelous. You never know what's next.

Some buddies had their CP for an LPFM going one afternoon, on 107.9 up this way. I drove around the Ashland mountain in the little Topaz to try and gauge their coverage. Even with that mountain in the way, the LPFM could not have been more than a mile north of my tour. Some station was playing 'It's Too Late To Turn Back Now' -- that wasn't the LPFM's format at all -- and there were ads for businesses on 'Highway 41'.
There is no Highway 41 in Pennsylvania I know.
Well, they ID'ed as 'Oldies 108', WSRZ Sarasota FL. I didn't even go back to the LPFM crew. The DXer in me instinctively drove home to try and tape this thing from 1000 miles away.
When I got home, WSRZ wasn't present. There was this indistinct Spanish language station there. All sources I checked listed nothing sensible other than Havana. But I never ID'ed it.

Some DXer from Poughkeepsie NY also heard WSRZ. (The NY town is said 'puh-KIPP-see') So he/she had the distance record that afternoon. Darn.
Click to expand...

And trust me, I'm nowhere near the FM DX'er most are.. I just lucked out for being on a giant hill with a very very empty local dial..... I had like 6 local stations within 30 miles and 1 or 2 would get easily wiped out during tropo/skip.
 
KPQX might have been a double! Did you have anything in the 800-1000mi range at the same time as you heard QX92? If not, it was a VERY VERY long single hop at 1550mi.
With over 650 FMs logged here, I can easily get my best FM DX catches out.

Farthest FM heard - KWTX-97.5 Waco TX (1623 mi, 2Es) on 6/30/2017. Have two recordings of it - with 975online.com reference, ID '97.5 FM' and University Kia ad. This was a double because KLMX Clayton NM (1000+) was mixing with it, and a country station which was likely Shiprock NM but not IDed. Best Es opening ever heard here, with an MUF at or above the NOAA band (162mhz), think I even tried for a subdecode on channel 7 DT but didn't see anything. The MUF was very close.
Closest FM heard via Es - KJAX-93.5/KZJH-95.3, both Jackson Hole WY on 7/2/15, only 526 miles. Brief but amazing Wyoming opening on a day where double-hop DX was all over the 6 meter map. I have both on recording, 93.5 was strongest.
Lowest-powered FM by Es - KWMV-LP 95.9 Westcliffe CO (94 watts), 967 miles on 7/5/15. Have an ID for this one too - phenomenal signal for the power! It was later logged in Louisiana, I think that August. Talk about GETTING OUT!
Tropo doesn't really happen here, but my farthest are from Eugene and Vancouver BC. I'd love to have a 600-mile FM duct like what happens on the Gulf, but with mountain ranges everywhere, it doesn't happen.
 
crainbebo said:
KPQX might have been a double! Did you have anything in the 800-1000mi range at the same time as you heard QX92? If not, it was a VERY VERY long single hop at 1550mi.
With over 650 FMs logged here, I can easily get my best FM DX catches out.

Farthest FM heard - KWTX-97.5 Waco TX (1623 mi, 2Es) on 6/30/2017. Have two recordings of it - with 975online.com reference, ID '97.5 FM' and University Kia ad. This was a double because KLMX Clayton NM (1000+) was mixing with it, and a country station which was likely Shiprock NM but not IDed. Best Es opening ever heard here, with an MUF at or above the NOAA band (162mhz), think I even tried for a subdecode on channel 7 DT but didn't see anything. The MUF was very close.
Closest FM heard via Es - KJAX-93.5/KZJH-95.3, both Jackson Hole WY on 7/2/15, only 526 miles. Brief but amazing Wyoming opening on a day where double-hop DX was all over the 6 meter map. I have both on recording, 93.5 was strongest.
Lowest-powered FM by Es - KWMV-LP 95.9 Westcliffe CO (94 watts), 967 miles on 7/5/15. Have an ID for this one too - phenomenal signal for the power! It was later logged in Louisiana, I think that August. Talk about GETTING OUT!
Tropo doesn't really happen here, but my farthest are from Eugene and Vancouver BC. I'd love to have a 600-mile FM duct like what happens on the Gulf, but with mountain ranges everywhere, it doesn't happen.
Click to expand...


KYYZ 96.1 Williston, ND alogn with KTPT 97.9 Rapid City, SD KAML 97.3 Gillette, WY KGCX 93.1 sidney, MT and KPAW 92.9 Warren AFB WY were heard that day around the same time as KPQX
 
From Houston: I haven't seriously FM DXed in a long time. I don't have a good radio/antenna at home and the car radios seem to be set to "local", so very rarely do I hear anything interesting. The local band is now filled with LP stations and translators. The only ES I noticed last summer was a quick opening to the Jacksonville FL area. Tropo is pretty common here with stations from San Antonio, Austin, and Killeen the most common. Sometimes tropo brings stations from the Valley (McAllen/Brownsville and border Mexico, 250-300 miles from here), DFW (250 miles), and New Orleans area (300 miles). WZRH 92.3 from the New Orleans area is a tropo regular despite the nearer KETX Livingston, TX.

Retro: Growing up in Tulsa OK I heard a fair bit of ES using the parents' big console radio/turntable. The best catch I remember was in the summer of 1971 hearing WRVO 89.9 from Oswego NY. My old FM Atlas listed them at 930 watts at about 1,160 miles.
 
I don't have my logbooks from back in the day and my memory is spotty. I remember many receptions of Florida, the Gulf Coast and Texas from Ohio and Indiana, but it took quite awhile to hear states like Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. From East Tennessee, I've heard several Canadians including parts of the Prince Edward Island dial, CFCY 95.1 being one. I had a good share of the Montreal dial including CHOM on 97.7. Also got Hot 104.1 from the Caymans, with a 15 second appearance by Radio Reloj, Cuba on 98.1; I've caught the Bahamian Beautiful Music station on 98.1 and Cuba on 94.7. CJYC, St. John NB on 98.9; also "Channel X", WCXU, Caribou, ME last summer.
 
There's something about 'common' and 'uncommon' states on Es. I'm so much more likely to have 108 mhz MUF to AZ, NM or CO, than to SD/NE/IA, where I really need a lot of top-of-dial stations! And, in the last couple or three years, the few stations from SD, NE or MN that come in, are often remnants of a big east coast opening that make it out west with a variable low MUF. Exceptions, of course, like July 15th, 2014, a massive opening to MB/ND/MN/WI to 108.
And I've seen you on the WTFDA forums BTW. Aren't you the one that used to live in Galena AK? KIYU-910 isn't in my logs, yet! They were logged by someone on one of those Grayland WA DXpeditions many years ago, but I doubt I'll ever have the chance here.
OK, back to FM DX...
 
Best tropo: 102.3 KRNY Kearney, NE (684 miles; I also have 105.9 KQKS on the same stick, but KRNY runs less power and I've received KRNY in two separate openings)
Farthest Es: 99.5 KKPS Brownsville, TX (1,408 miles)
Shortest Es: 104.1 WTQR Winston-Salem, NE (627 miles)
 
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