My FM DX Records via Tropospheric Propagation


As of 2021, my FM-DX-log contains over 1900 stations received via tropo, from 20 countries.
Here are my most distant picks (received in Góra Kalwaria, 30km south of Warsaw, Poland)


1743 km: Kolari, Yllas Mountain (Northern Finland, within the Arctic Circle!)
- 100.7 MHz, Yle Puhe, 60kW [27.09.2017, signal strength o=2]

1706 km: Keelylang Hill, Orkney Islands (off north coasts of Scotland, UK)
- 93.7 MHz, BBC R.Scotland, 41kW  [17-18.12.2007, o=4]

1558 km: Kalix, the northernmost coast of Baltic Sea - Bothnia Gulf (Sweden)
- 91.3 MHz, SR P1, 30kW [27.09.2017, o=3]

1550 km: Pontop Pike, North East England (UK)
- 92.9 MHz, BBC R4, 135kW [2.10.2015, o=2]

1442 km: Wrotham, SE of London, UK
- 91,3 MHz BBC R3, 93,5 BBC R4, 250kW [27.06.2019, o=4-]

1425 km: Skelleftea, Western Bothnia Gulf (Sweden)
- 93,8 SR P1, 96.3 P2, 100.0 P3, 103.9 P4; 60kW [28.09.2017, o=4]

1413 km: Vuokatti, Central Finland
- 101.2 MHz, YLE Puhe, 60kW [28.09.2017, o=2]

1400 km: Lycksele, Northern Sweden
- 92.9 SR P1, 103.3 SR P3, 60kW [12.11.2011 and 27.09.2017, o=3]

+ 73 more signals ranging 1000-1400km (from Sweden, Finland and Norway) - see full log


My Best Tropo FM DX 
European tropo FM DX record 2007-2016
1706 km: Keelylang Hill, Orkney (Scotland, UK)
93.7 MHz - BBC Radio Scotland FM
Received during BIG TROPO on 17-18 December 2007
 Since 2017 not my furthest tropo catch, but it still is my best because of the signal strength and endurance - it was there for over 2 days in a row!




My most distant FM DX
1743 km: Kolari, Yllas Mountain (Northern Finland)
100.7 MHz - YLE Puhe
Received during MEGA TROPO on 27th September 2017
My ODX appears at the end of this video (also including 1558 km Kalix, Northern Sweden):



(Yllas was mixing with a closer transmitter of the same station, but the "echo" of 2 txs is obvious)
27.09.17 tropo report (in Polish).
The same transmitter picked a little further, by my colleague Łukasz in Tomaszów Mazowiecki was a new European tropo FM DX record for 2017-2018 (with 1798km!)



The most extreme FM DX tropo propagation
906 km: Ućka, the coast of Adriatic Sea in Central Poland!
99.3 MHz - Hrvatski Radio 1
28th August 2016
Not the most distant tropo, but what a style! The path of the ducting crossed double mountain ranges! And the signal was quite strong too:




The most extreme tropo TV DX
1466 km: London-Croydon & 1427km Bluebell Hill (UK!)
(UHF band, analogue)
The absolutely amazing tropo of december 2004 (report in Polish) brought a flood of UHF TV signals from Western Europe! It was of course back in the days of the analogue TV. I received dozens of German terrestrial channels, and in the afternoon Dutch started showing up. Here are their recordings:


Briefly at around 5pm I picked two analogue UHF channels from the UK! Initially I had no clue, because there were no logos on the screen. But at some point I noticed "five" and "BBC" on some captions during the programming. I couldn't receive the audio, because UK operated analogue PAL system with a different audio standard (not compliant with my tv set then) - instead both channels were showing with German audio. My biggest regret: back then, I had no camera to take a pic!
I eventually identified them as: Channel5 from London/Croydon on channel 37 UHF (1000kW); and BBC2 from Bluebell Hill on channel 46 UHF (only 30kW!) - both in color! They faded to be replaced by GER & NL tv stations again. The ducting continued into late evening, gradually losing strength.


Also:

Easternmost tropo reception: MOSCOW @1170km!
Such far distances in eastern directions have never been available via tropo from Central Europe for at least 15 years - as long as I have been FM DXing.  Moscow via troposphere has never been reported tropospherically from Poland!
Tropo ducting on October 10th, 2018 - I managed to pick 4 stations from Moscow then:
90.3 Avtoradio, 93.2 Studio21, 102.5 Comedy Radio, 107.8 Militseyskaya Volna



Westernmost tropo reception: LONDON @1440km!
Was too late for the most of the show, featuring solid tropospheric signals from UK, NL, BEL & GER.
I was able to get very last glimpses of that extreme tropo with Wrotham on 91.3, and 93,5.




Norway with RDS! 95.0 NRK P3 - Lyngdal
My most distant RDS-quality reception.
Tropo ducting October 3rd,  2015


Norway has switched off  the analogue FM since then :(


...the same night with Norway:
1550 km - Pontop Pike, East Anglia (92.9 MHz - BBC Radio 4)
I was close to giving up on this short clip with an (initially) uncomprehensible talk, but with some help of my DX friends, we found the matching moment of the broadcast!



More tropo FM DX records from Poland:
Do also check the fantastic achievements of my Polish DX colleagues: Konrad in Plock and Lukasz in Tomaszów Mazowiecki.
Konrad's logs contains over 3300 tropo stations, including Scotland and Italy with RDS - Yes, we are talking tropo! And most recently, Western Europe - UK & The Netherlands.
Lukasz has fixed European tropo FM DX record at almost 1800 kms! (Kolari, Yllas Mountain, N.Finland). His log approaches 3000 entries too!


For my records via Sporadic E (actually double-hop SpE!) click here: