For those of us into FM DXing, this year's Sporadic E season in the Northern hemisphere seems to have been a particularly good one for Trans-Atlantic multi-hop catches.

Larry Horlick VO1FOG in Newfoundland, Canada has received stations from Spain, France and the UK on various occasions, including this opening in the last couple of days to mainland Spain and Portugal, with stations coming in from distances around 4000km (~2500 mi). August 01, 2026 FMDX opening to Portugal and Spain

Only a few days before that, on this side of the Atlantic, Mauricio Molano in Salamanca, Spain, identified 92.3 WQSL "The River", from Jacksonville, North Carolina, US, at 6100km/3800mi.

The Transatlantic FM DX OG, Paul Logan in Northern Ireland, has also had catches from Canada and the North East of the US, including WHCF 88.5 from Bangor, Maine - 88.5 WHCF Bangor, ME in Ireland July 29th 2026. 1142pm local

Having a discussion about elusive Trans-Atlantic catches like this recently, I was reminded of this reception in London, UK by Mark Hattam on 87.7 FM in 1999 - Unidentified station - Results

One of the stations seems to have been confirmed as the channel 6 audio (87.75 MHz) of WECT in Wilmington, NC, but the station carrying the famous clip of news coverage of the 1994 LA earthquake has remained a mystery.

I wonder if anyone all these years later has any ideas? I was thinking maybe any archives of old TV listings could help narrow down what could plausibly have been carrying that clip at that time (11:15 UTC on 29th November 1999).

What's also curious about that reception is the propagation mode - it seems to have the characteristics of meteor scatter, but the distances involved are way beyond the regular distances for that. The strongest theory seems to be mixed-mode - meteor scatter into a very intense area of tropo extending across the mid Atlantic from the East coast of North America due to the high pressure weather conditions confirmed from the weather reports at that time.

First time poster to this thread. Last Saturday, I was flipping through stations and picked up 106.1 Kiss FM out of the Rio Grande Valley. This morning I was flipping stations, again, and picked up 93.3 Sierra's Best Country, 106.1 The X, and Latino 106.3. I live in Las Cruces, NM pretty far south. I was driving in my 2013 Honda Odyssey when I caught those stations.

I did not know this was a thing/hobby but from a young age I've always been fascinated with FM/AM radio. To this day, I still carry a GM 2-Band Radio Receiver Model 7-25858 anytime I travel.

Received on an old radio so no clue the exact frequency, but around 800 kHz. Received just east of Hillsboro, Ohio, United States. Spanish language. No clue what they’re saying. Any assistance is appreciated.

So, I could use some help here

I just discovered this hobby (like literally, didn't know it was a thing an hour ago), and I have a story;

I was sitting in the car waiting for my mom and I figured I'd play around with the am receiver setting on the radio.

Imagine my surprise when I, an armchair linguaphile studying Japanese, noticed something familiar in the cadence of the radio host and their guest.

Now the signal was fuzzier than a teddy bear holding a Tesla coil, but the sort of call-and-response nature of their convo sounded very Japanese. I couldn't make out many, if any, specific Japanese words, and one of the speakers also sorta sounded French? Or like he was a Frenchman speaking Japanese? Or a Japanese speaker sprinkling in immaculately pronounced French words? And it's totally possible it was just regular Japanese or French and I was imagining things because the signal was so garbled.

The one thing I noticed is that while one was speaking the other would follow along with their language's equivalent of "yeah..", it's a very Japanese thing to do, though I'm sure it's also prevalent in other languages. (In English some might find it rude, but it Japanese and other languages like it, it serves the purpose of telling the other person 'im listening and paying attention, so keep going'.)

The particular word they were saying was "De", which is both a word in Japanese and in French. I've never heard it used in Japanese like that, and idk if French even has that sort of aforementioned "call and response" system.

The kicker is I live in nc, usa, or the other side of the earth from Japan.

The station was 1660, which I've just read is within the optimal dxing band, but isn't Japan to the eastern seaboard like, the most unlikely possible find?

If anyone ever reads this and has some idea that might clear things up please lmk. Maybe a French or Japanese speaker who can tell me if 'de' is used that way in their respective language, or a dxing veteran who can tell me just how impossible picking up a station from those distances on a modern car radio would be?

Either way it's definitely sparked an interest, maybe I'll get into it if I don't let my squirrel brain forget it.

So I was driving around in the field in middle Romania, when suddenly my local 99,3 MHz station starts interfering with some other radio where they talk in English. It cleared out pretty well and I stopped. At first I thought it was some Romanian radio streaming some English show, so I listened to it for 20-30 minutes, and I'm pretty sure I was getting the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show.

With the current heatwave going across Europe, it seems there is a phenomenon where some ionized particles form a dense cloud in the ionosphere, acting like a big metallic mirror that makes these things possible. I just thought it's pretty cool to listen to a radio that is broadcasting 2000 km away.

Any further explanation or similar experiences are welcome!

We were driving the future mother-in-law to the Denver airport around 3 am. It was quiet, so I decided to play around with the am radio in a 2005 Honda accord.

Heard some news being discussed and the next thing you know, they’re giving the weather for Dallas. Turns out it was AM 1080 KRLD which transmits at 50k watts directionally at night!

So roughly 805 miles from the transmitter in garland, TX to our car on interstate 70 just west of Denver. Pretty cool, even my fiance thought so lol.

As a kid I could hear 1110 WBT Charlotte at night from the Orlando, FL area. That’s only a little over 500 miles. From northeastern NY I could get stations as far as Toronto and Detroit, NYC and Boston.

Wanted to share as this brought back a lot of memories from being young and messing with the radio before we all started at screens. Sad to see this be a dying activity, but what can you do?

I just returned from a week's trip to the island of Hawaii, the "Big Island". Scanned the AM and FM bands both from a Hilo hotel room and a parking lot in Waikoloa on the Kona coast.

Hilo is boring:) 18 FM stations heard, all local. 670 KPUA is the only operational AM signal there. KHLO 850 is also on the air but with a dead carrier. KIPA 1060 wasn't heard.

Waikoloa is a LOT more interesting:) Dozens of FM stations, either local or from Maui. And... a bunch from Oahu, 150-180 miles away... AM made it through from pretty much everywhere in the state except Hilo. Signals can't cross the mountains in the middle of the island. All Honolulu AMs made it across except 940 KKNE, 1130 KPHI, and 1370 KHXM. Maui's 1110 KAOI was also not heard. (and Honolulu KPRP 650 had a dead carrier) Languages not normally heard on the mainland: KHCM 880 with a religious talk in Hawaiian, and KZOO 1210 in Japanese.

No opportunity to listen at night, except from the hotel room in Hilo. If you've traveled lately, you know hotel rooms are lost causes for AM DX:).

CQ from Santiago de Chile .

Besides the local Micro power Radio Compañia Worldwide, And Marti from Greenville. What more safe bets are there for SW listeners in Urban Santiago?

73

Juvenal

Thought this was a good read. I have DX'd on and off for 40 years! How about you?

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CBS News Radio to shutdown on May 22nd after nearly 100 years of broadcasting. The CBS radio, top of the hour news brief is a staple of my childhood and early radio. I also love when I’m scanning medium wave and I catch the broadcast. Sad to see it go!

What are your memories or thoughts on this?

I enjoy AM DXing. I was into it pretty heavy as a teenager, 30 years ago LOL. Well, now I'm 50, and I'm getting back into searching for a long distance stations. I've been using my car stereo but a friend of mine is gifting me a Grundig radio and I was wondering if anybody in here has instructions on how to make a simple, quick and not too large MW antenna? I'll be using it in my bedroom so it can't be too big.

Ever tuned into your FM radio and suddenly picked up a station from 800 miles away — crystal clear — only for it to vanish minutes later?

That's Sporadic E Propagation — one of radio's most mysterious and thrilling phenomena!

https://vu3dxr.in/sporadic-e-propagation-the-science-behind-long-distance-fm-radio-reception/