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EI7GL....A diary of amateur radio activity

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FM radio stations from Spain & Portugal heard in Canada again - 7th July
2021

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 11:44 PM PDT https://ei7gl.blogspot.com/2021/07/fm-radio-stations-from-spain-portugal.html


Back on the 21st of June 2021, there was a remarkable opening across the
North Atlantic when a FM radio station in Spain was heard by Larry Horlick, VO1FOG in Canada for the first time. Post HERE

On the 7th of July 2021, there was another trans-Atlantic opening when
Larry Horlick heard five FM radio stations in Spain & Portugal on
frequencies ranging from 88 to 93 MHz.UTC MHz Station, location (Distance
km) kW ERP

13:18 87.90 RTP Antena 1, Serra da Lousã/Trevim, Portugal, (3,657 kms) 34 kW

13:52 89.90 Los 40 Classic, Segovia, Spain, (3,916 kms) 2 kW

13:53 90.00 Cadena 100, Salamanca, Spain, (3,799 kms) 6 kW

14:08 93.10 RNE Radio Clásica, Valladolid/Cerro de San Cristóbal, Spain, (3,838 kms) 30 kW

14:15 88.20 Los 40, León/Las Lomas (CAL-LE), Spain, (3,728 kms) 4 kW


Larry reports that the opening started at 12:54 UTC and lasted until about 14:27 UTC (~90 mins). Some of the Spanish stations were really strong and nothing was heard above 93.1 MHz.
During the opening, Larry tried three different antenna types on
receive.... a half-wave dipole (retuned from lo Band TV to FM BC), a new
10 el K6STI Yagi, and a discone.
The Yagi was superior all the time even though it had to be pointed to a
beam heading of 45 degrees to prevent overload and intermod from the local
FM radio stations in St.Johns. (Spain is 084 deg)
Even being outside the 3 dB beam width, Larry reports that signals were
MUCH stronger on the Yagi than on the dipole. The discone antenna was
useless.
Propagation Mode: It looks likely that it's a case of double hop Sporadic-E again with perhaps two 1900km hops.

The weather map for the day shows an interesting kink in the Jet Stream in
the middle of the North Atlantic and these features have been associated
with Sproadic-E regions overhead.
Questions...
Considering that this is the second time a Spanish FM radio station has
been heard in Newfoundland in 3 weeks, it raises some questions...
I really wonder if this opening is exceptional or does this trans-Atlantic
path on the 88-108 MHz band open a lot of the time? Do FM radio stations in Spain & Portugal cross the Atlantic on a regular basis?
And if FM radio stations from Spain are reaching Newfoundland then FM radio stations in Canada must be reaching Spain. Is anyone listening? Who will be
the first person on the Iberian Peninsula to hear a FM radio station from
North America?
Links...
1) Larry's log on FM list for the 7th of July 2021

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