All Time FM DX Logbook

I don't tend to tune into FM radio much at home, but often listen when out on the road, driving around. And if there is a Sporadic-E opening, it soon becomes apparent as the local station is wiped-out by stations from much further afield. On these occasions, I like to tune around the FM band and see what DX stations I can hear. Of course tuning in a radio and logging station names and frequencies when on the move isn't easy so I often don't log very many. Sometimes if I'm early at my destination I might park for a while and jot a few down.

So that being said, here's a list of the DX stations I've heard over the years. The 'Location' column shows where I was at the time, often on a motorway or at a service station or similar! It just goes to show that in the right conditions you don't need fancy equipment or antennas in order to enjoy the age old art of radio DXing! The 'RDS' column only shows the station's RDS name where it was successfully decoded - in other cases identifying the station was done using a different method (see below).

Frequency	Station Name▼	TX Site (& Country)▼	Power▼	RDS▼	Date▼	Location▼	Comments
87.5	Radio Italia	Catanzaro		R_ITALIA	30-Jul-01	M3
87.6	Luna	Latina		__LUNA__	09-Jun-00	M3
87.6	RAI MF1	Monte Cavo (Rome)		RAI_MF1_	30-Jul-01	M3
87.6	Radio Speranza	Pescara		rotating	13-Jul-06	M4
87.7	Antena 1	Mendro	14kW	ANTENA_1	13-Jul-06	M4
87.7	HRT HR-1	Pljesvica	50kW	HRT_HR-1	13-Jul-06	M4
87.8	Radio Courtoisie	Cherbourg-Digosville	500W		26-Jun-01	Sutton Scotney	Tropo
87.8	RTA Chaîne 1	Mecheria	10kW		09-Jul-07	Bracknell	Approx 1970km path
87.8	RNE 3	Baza	5kW		13-Jul-06	M4
87.9	Clásica	Alfabia, Balearics	100kW	RNE-CLAS	09-Jun-00	M3
87.9	RNE 4	Alpicat, Lerida	80kW	RNE_4___	09-Jun-00	M3
87.9	Sveriges Radio Program 1	?Orebro/Ostersund?	60kW	-SR_P1-_	09-Jun-00	M3
87.9	Contact FM	Montreuil (Le Touquet)	1kW	CONTACT_	04-Oct-00	Winchester
87.9	FUN Radio	Yvetot (Rouen)	1kW		22-Jun-01	Southampton
87.9	France Culture	Parthenay/Amailloux	13kW		22-Jun-01	Fareham
87.9	Canal Extremadura	Merida	1kW	Canal_EX	09-Jul-07	Bracknell
88.0	France Culture				22-Jun-01	Fareham
88.3	France Culture				22-Jun-01	Fareham
88.6	RNE Clásica	Aitana (Valencia)		RNE-CLAS	09-Jul-07	Bracknell
88.7	France Musiques	Lille	400kW	MUSIQUES	13-Oct-00	Winchester
88.9	FUN Radio	Boulogne			11-Sep-00	Camber Sands	Sea Path
89.0	France Culture	Le Mans			22-Jun-01	Fareham
89.4	France Musiques	Brest	50kW	MUSIQUES	28-Apr-01	Southend
89.5	France Culture	?Limoges/Auxerre?			22-Jun-01	Fareham
89.8	New Radio Network	Napoli		*N.R.N*_	09-Jun-00	M3
89.9	France Musiques	Rennes	100kW		22-Jun-01	Fareham
90.2	RMC	Porto Vecchio, Sardinia			19-Jun-07	Stansted Airport
90.6	Copa Onda Naranja	Valencia			09-Jul-07	Bracknell
91.0	France Musiques				22-Jun-01	Fareham
91.5	France Culture	Caen	50kW	_CULTURE	22-Jun-01	Fareham
92.0	France Musiques	Rouen	100kW	MUSIQUES	22-Jun-01	Fareham
93.4	Radio Manche	Cherbourg-Digosville	500W		26-Jun-01	Sutton Scotney	Tropo
94.0	France Culture	Rouen	100kW	_CULTURE	22-Jun-01	Fareham
94.1	France Inter	Cherbourg-Digosville	1kW	_INTER__	26-Jun-01	Sutton Scotney	Tropo
94.3	Radio Tunis National	Zaghouan	79.4kW	NATIONAL	19-Jun-07	Stansted Airport	Approx 1890km path
94.5	RNE 3			RNE_3___	27-May-01	Richmond Park
94.7	France Bleu Nord	Lille	400kW	BL.NORD.	23-Jun-01	Richmond Park
95.1	Onda Cero	Portman Golf	500W	ONDACERO	11-May-04	Teddington
95.6	France Musiques	Caen	50kW	MUSIQUES	22-Jun-01	Fareham
95.7	VRT 1	Egem	50kW		30-Jun-09	Stansted
96.0	RNE 3			RNE_3___	27-May-01	Richmond Park
96.5	Radio Jeunes	Zaghouan	20kW	_JEUNES_	19-Jun-07	Stansted Airport	Approx 1890km path
97.1	Cadena Dial	Zaragoza	40kW	CAD-DIAL	11-May-04	Teddington
97.8	France Culture	Brest	50kW	_CULTURE	04-Oct-00	Winchester
98.0	France Culture	Lille	400kW	_CULTURE	28-Apr-01	Southend
98.5	France Musiques	Le Havre	1kW		22-Jun-01	Fareham
99.4	France Inter	Niort			22-Jun-01	Fareham
99.6	France Inter	Caen	50kW	_INTER__	22-Jun-01	Fareham
100.6	Radio Courtoisie	Caen	100W		22-Jun-01	Fareham
100.7	France Inter				22-Jun-01	Fareham
100.7	France Bleu Cotentin	Cherbourg-Digosville	1kW	BLEU.COT	26-Jun-01	Sutton Scotney	Tropo
101.8	Radio France Loire Ocean	Nantes	158kW	R.F.L.O.	10-Aug-00	Hogs Back
102.1	Studio Brussel	Egem	50kW	STU_BRU_	30-Jun-09	Stansted
102.6	France Bleu basse Normandie	Caen	100kW	BLEU.B.N	22-Jun-01	Fareham
103.3	France Inter	Boulogne	1kW	_INTER__	28-Apr-01	Southend	Tropo
103.7	France Inter	Lille	400kW	_INTER__	23-Jun-01	Richmond Park
104.1	Joe FM	Egem	50kW		30-Jun-09	Stansted
104.4	Radio 1	Goes	50kW		30-Jun-09	Stansted
104.7	France Inter	Calais	1kW	_INTER__	28-Apr-01	Southend
105.2	France Info	Lille	400kW	__INFO__	Frequent	Surrey
105.5	France Info			__INFO__	22-Jun-01	Fareham
105.6	France Info	Cherbourg-Digosville	1kW	__INFO__	26-Jun-01	Sutton Scotney	Tropo
105.6	Disco Radio	Rome		*DISCO*_	30-Jul-01	M3
105.7	France Info	Rouen	100kW	__INFO__	04-Oct-00	Winchester
105.9	Europe 1	Caen	2kW		04-Oct-00	Winchester
106.0	RTBF-1	Tournai	5kW	PREMIERE	06-Mar-01	Winchester
106.1	RTL 2	Cherbourg-Digosville	500W		26-Jun-01	Sutton Scotney	Tropo
106.4	Nostalgie	Caen	2kW		04-Oct-00	Winchester
106.5	France Info	Boulogne	1kW	__INFO__	28-Apr-01	Southend	Tropo
106.7	Europe 1	Cherbourg-Digosville	500W		26-Jun-01	Sutton Scotney	Tropo
106.9	B5 Aktuell	Grünten	50kW		03-Jan-01	Winchester
107.5	Tour Radio	Napoli		__TOUR__	09-Jun-00	M3
107.5	RTL	Cherbourg-Digosville	1kW		04-Sep-00	Cardiff Gate Services	Probably Tropo

How do you know what station you're hearing?

Identifying 'DX' radio stations (especially ones in a foreign language and extraspecially whilst driving a car) is not necessarily that easy. However, the wonders of RDS have made life much more straightforward. If the station is strong enough for the RDS to appear (which assumes it is sending an RDS signal in the first place) then noting the frequency and the RDS station name is often sufficient to make a reasonable identification - the only problem that then arises is if there are multiple transmitters of that station on the same frequency (i.e. for a national network) in which case it's much more difficult. The best bet in this instance is to trawl the internet and see what stations other people with more sophisiticated equipment were hearing and see if you can match up your log with theirs.

If there's no RDS, but you hear a station ident or jingle and can catch the name, this is almost as good as the RDS. But in some cases (i.e. if it's in a language that you are completely unfamiliar with like Arabic or Turkish) you might not be able to tell the difference between a jingle and an advert or even make out the station name.

If all else fails, try and note the language and the frequency. Together with the list of other stations you heard, this might just be enough to make an identification. For example, RTA Chaîne 1 on 87.8 in my log above, was identified from listening to the programme and hearing the word 'Al Jaza'ir' (Algeria in Arabic) and a few smatterings of French (remember that the French colonised Algeria for 130 years and thus it's a language that's still spoken there) in amongst the arabic clatter. From this information and the fact that I was hearing stations from mid and western Spain at the same time, there's a fairly safe bet that it was from Algeria. A check on the web shows only one station in Algeria on 87.8 and so the identification is complete. Of course it could have been Morocco, but thankfully there are no stations on 87.8 in Morocco (as far as I can make out) and given the direction of other stations I was hearing at the same time (i.e. the fact I could near no Italian stations), it was very unlikely to be Tunisia. I also heard an arabic station on 88.4 at the same time but there are two transmitters in Algeria on 88.4 and I have no way of knowing which it was I was hearing - so this logging can't be confirmed and doesn't appear in the log above!