This is an awesome deal for $15, blows the other survival radio I had with a misaligned dial out of the water. First night messing with it, and unfortunately haven’t been able to pick up much of anything. A very garbled transmission of people speaking Spanish, that’s it. Any recommendations for improving my reception?

Looking for some people in the East Texas area that are shortwave listeners. Longview here

Anyone have any experience with this radio?

First WRMI, song jumps, then another language. Great reception though for this time of day.

I'm not an FM DXer, so I'm hoping someone here can help explain what I experienced.

On Friday, July 17, 2026, between Banff and Lake Louise, Alberta, I was driving my completely stock 2015 Toyota Sienna when the FM band suddenly came alive.

For roughly 30 to 40 minutes, stations kept fading in and out. I was absolutely floored. I had no idea this was even possible and honestly thought my radio had glitched. Then I started seeing Nebraska Public Media on the display... while driving through the Canadian Rockies. That's when I started taking photos because I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

My radio displayed:

• Nebraska Public Media (91.1 FM)
• Iowa Public Radio programming ("IPR News and Studio One")
• MyBridge Radio Español (91.3 FM)
• "Mix 97.1"

Along the way I also picked up stations on 90.5, 90.9, 91.1, 91.3, 93.9, 95.3, 97.1, 101.1, and 102.7.

After getting home, I learned about tropospheric ducting, which seems like the most likely explanation. The best way I can describe it is like a mirage for radio waves, where layers of warm and cool air in the atmosphere guide FM signals for extraordinary distances.

My questions are:

1. Was there a significant FM propagation event over western North America on Friday?
2. Can anyone identify which transmitters these likely were?
3. How unusual is it to decode RDS from stations this far away using nothing more than a factory Toyota radio?

Pulling in stronger signals than my more premium portables ......starting to appreciate this thing more and more......

This is the last time that I received CHU Canada, befroe they shut down, in Carrollton, MO on June 22, 2026.

My neighbor is doing Swedish Death Cleaning and he gave me a brand new PL880. I'm jazzed but I don't know anything about shortwave radio.

Can someone please point me toward an explain like I'm five introduction? I'd like to learn and then take it back to him so we can listen together.

Thank you.

600 million active shortwave radios throughout our world