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EI7GL....A diary of amateur radio activity

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Spanish radio station on 88.8 MHz heard across the Atlantic in
Newfoundland, Canada - 21st June 2021

Posted: 24 Jun 2021 10:15 PM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/06/spanish-radio-station-on-888-mhz-heard.html




Back on the 21st of June 2021, Paul Logan in the north of Ireland confirmed that he had heard a FM radio station across the Atlantic near Quebec City
in Canada on 90.7 MHz.
I can now confirm that Larry Horlick, VO1FOG in Newfoundland, Canada
managed to hear RNE-R5 Todo Noticias in the north-west of Spain on 88.8 MHz
on the same day!
This is I believe the very first reception of a European FM station station
on the 88-108 MHz band in North America.
It looks as if the signal came from the 80 kW transmitter near Zamora in
Spain and the distance was in the region of 3780 kms.
I have two recordings which Larry very kindly sent on. The first one is at 11:46 UTC...
John, EI7GL · 2021 - Jun - 21 11 46 12 88point8
In the above recording, the cities of Zamora, Segovia and Burgos are
mentioned. It would seem as if this is from the Castilla y Léon regional
news bulletin which runs from 13:10 to 14:00 Spanish time.
This is the second audio recording at 11:50 UTC...
John, EI7GL · 2021 - Jun - 21 11 50 26 88point8
This one is a bit more noisy but the distinctive little 'jingle' between
the news items can be heard.
Credits: I must thank Paul Logan in Ireland and Jorge Garzon in Spain for confirming that these were indeed recordings of the RNE-R5 Todo Noticias
radio station and that the transmitter site was near Zamora. Both are very experienced FMDXers and it's great to have their expertise to call on to
make sure there was no mistake.
Newfoundland: On the receive side, Larry Horlick was using an ICOM IC-R8500 receiver with a centre-fed vertical dipole at 18m above ground level, cut
for the lower end of the VHF LO TV band (essentially, non-resonant on Band
2).
Larry has only been listening seriously on the 88-108 MHz bands for a few
weeks and he has already managed an incredible reception report. As well as being in a relatively quiet location (FM wise), he does have the advantage
of being at the most eastern pat of Canada.
It also helps that anything that Larry hears on the 88-108 MHz band is
likely to be in English or French so any other language really stands out. Propagation Mode: It seems very likely that this was a case of double hop Sporadic-E at 88.8 MHz.

The above diagram shows the signals 'bouncing' off Sporadic-E clouds at
about 110kms above ground level and being reflected off the ocean at the
mid way point. It's possible that this was also chordal hop with the signal going directly between the two Sporadic-E clouds without hitting off the
Earth.
Note that the angles and height of the Sp-E cloud in the above diagram are greatly exaggerated. In reality, the angles are very shallow and are
probably just a few degrees above the horizon.
This is another diagram showing the suggested path and the two Sporadic-E regions.

Paul Logan in the north of Ireland reports that he was hearing FM radio
station from the Azores Islands for about five hours that day which he says
was highly unusual. The MUF went up as high as 104 MHz.
It's likely that the Sporadic-E region responsible for the Azores to
Ireland path was also responsible for the eastern first hop of the trans-Atlantic path between Spain and Newfoundland.
It's seems as if this eastern Sp-E region was present for several hours and
it just required one Sp-E path at the right spot on the western part of the path to complete the 2 x 1890 km circuit.
In Conclusion: This really is an amazing reception report and is part of
radio history in that it is the first proven reception of a European FM
station on Band 2 in North America.
It also raises some interesting questions...
1) If someone in Newfoundland can hear a FM radio station in Spain then why can't FM radio stations in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Maine be
heard in Spain and Partugal?
2) If a Sporadic-E cloud in the western part of Atlantic can support a
signal at 88.8 MHz then can it reach 144 MHz at times? And if so, could it couple into a tropo duct of say 1500 kms to complete the path to Spain or Portugal?
A double hop Sporadic-E trans-Atlantic path at 144 MHz is highly unlikely
but a mixed Sp-E / Tropo propagation mode is much more likely.
The best thing about this trans-Atlantic reception report is that it
now 'opens the door' on what might be possible. My hope is that it now
raises awareness and more people will now listen for trans-Atlantic signals
on the 88-108 MHz and 144 MHz bands.
Larry, VO1FOG informs me that he is building a 10 el K6STI Yagi for 88-108
MHz so hopefully we will get to hear of some more trans-Atlantic signals. Addendum: This is a photo of the vertical Band 1 dipole that was used for
the reception.

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