GoKawiilSDR recording and E-skip allows U.S. FM stations to be heard in Spain
Nick’s Signal Spot is a new feature in which Nick Langan explores RF signals, propagation, new equipment and related endeavors.
FM broadcast signals can travel long distances under the right conditions.
We’ve touched on E-skip several times in this space, particularly how double-hop sporadic-E makes transatlantic receptions possible. Receptions like these have been documented by long-distant radio enthusiasts such as Ireland’s Paul Logan catching North American signals, and the reverse accomplished by Bryce Foster on Cape Cod and Larry Horlick in Newfoundland.
Now, another operator, this time in Spain, has joined those ranks. Mauricio Molano, a retired 47-year radio veteran and DXer since age 15, recently shared his loggings with us.
“This year, sporadic-E made a dream of mine come true, something that seemed impossible until the arrival of software-defined radios,” Molano wrote of a transatlantic FM reception. “SDRs allow us not only to listen to the radio, but to visually monitor the signals populating the spectrum.”
Molano logged the stations using a four-element Yagi pointed toward Newfoundland and a three-element Yagi aimed toward the Canary Islands and the West African coast.
His E-skip season began in late May with an African opening that brought in signals from Togo for the first time. But on July 19, atmospheric conditions aligned for transatlantic FM propagation into Spain, bringing in stations from the Carolinas, more than 3,700 miles away.
Operating remotely from Aldea del Cano in the Cáceres province, he observed an E-skip opening to the Azores.
That’s normal from his location, what we’d deem as single-hop E-skip. But Molano also observed unusual effects to those signals that could be observed visually with the SDR. Some DXers call this a “barber-polling” effect that can be observed on the waveform.
... continue reading