French FM stations heard thanks to some Tropo 18th December 2023

Nice catch Ray. I had a tune around on the car stereo on Saturday night when I was waiting from my daughter to come out of work, just before 11pm. I picked up a couple of stations that faded in and out and overlapped a couple of times on 87.5 for about 10 mins. No idea where they were from, but guessing pirates from one or more of the larger UK towns or cities. I was 80 miles west as the crow flies from the centre of London at the time, nothing normally on that frequency near me. Didn't hear any talking or station identifiers only modern type, but not pop-type music, was playing on both.. sorry can't be more descriptive as not up modern styles of music. I never thought about recording, well done on you for picking up your phone and capturing.

Hi Neal and thank you

I occasionally hear an English station(s) on 87.5 down here in West Kent and have wondered if it is a pirate or some kind of uplink or relay signal.

Will have to try and catch it on film, so watch this space!

Interesting post, Ray.

73s John.

Nice, i do get some French radios ( & not only) down to Greece around June when e-sporadic starts at fm

Caught a bit of 87.5 action on camera today whilst waiting for my daughter to come out of work again. Signals started coming through at 14:00, then, as per the video below, about 15 mins later disappeared pretty quick. No idea what station it was or where it was coming from. All I know is nothing uses it around here. Anyone recognise the content, do let know...



87.5 is becoming quite a good indicator that there's something interesting going on on the bands between 10m and 2m. I am using it more and more often as a monitor at home as it's just a very quiet static hiss until a lift of some sort or other happens.

hi nice catch, the rds is not working? it could be private station 87.5 naoned, next time check this link (i think is the correct) if music match it https://875naoned.wixsite.com/radio

babis3g wrote:

hi nice catch, the rds is not working? it could be private station 87.5 naoned, next time check this link (i think is the correct) if music match it https://875naoned.wixsite.com/radio

Thank you for the link. For my findings, it dawned on me the other day what some of the transmissions I have hear are. They are in-car FM radio transmitters, very low power transmitters taking music etc from phones and broadcasting to the in-car stereos. When a Harry Potter audiobook was heard for about 30 seconds then faded away quick, that got me investigating.

Some of what I have heard is definitely from propagation lifts though. If I am parked in a large supermarket carpark with a main road nearby, then makes sense to hear in-car transmitters as cars pass by. If I am at home sat downstairs listening to a little portable radio in the night, away from big roads and almost no traffic to be heard, then more mysterious.