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Welcome to Band II FM DX in the UK

This website is dedicated to providing information to people who are just beginning to participate in the hobby of radio DXing. The information provided here relates specifically to DXing the FM stereo broadcast band.

Often people become interested in DXing without even realising it. For example have you ever tuned up and down the FM broadcast band to try and find a more interesting radio station to listen to, or tuned a TV set only to discover new stations and wondered what they were ? Well, this is what the DXing hobby is all about.

DX is a term often used by radio amateurs to mean "long distance", therefore FM DXing is the hobby of searching for and listening to distant radio transmissions in the frequency range 87.5MHz - 108MHz. This block of frequencies is usually referred to as the FM broadcast band.

I have been interested in almost anything to do with the technical side of radio and television for as long as I can remember and have been a Short Wave listener for many years. I gained my Class B Radio Amateur License in 1991 and although I was never all that keen on working DX in the amateur bands I did run a TCP/IP+AX25 Packet Mailbox for a few years.

Around seven years ago I moved house and unfortunately found my new location to be very poor for 2m or 70cm band operating so I have given up trying to use those bands and turned to HF instead. My first HF radio was a Yaesu FT-77S capable of providing 10 Watts of RF into my dipole antenna on 20M. With this radio I have had contacts with people in many countries in Europe with my best distance being Cyprus. I now own a Yaesu FT-840 capable of around 100 Watts. With this radio I have had contacts as far as the United States of America.

Even though my location appears to be poor for everyday VHF/UHF communications on the amateur bands I considered the possibility of giving Band II FM DX a try back in March 2004, but there was a problem, I didn't posess any decent equipment for that band; I only had small table-top type radios with just basic built in telescopic antennas. This type of radio is OK for the stronger sporadic E openings but I wanted more out of the hobby than that right from the beginning, therefore I bought the necessary additional equipment. Details of this equipment can be found on my equipment pages.

I am proud to be a member of the UK British FM and TV Circle DX group which at the time of writing has over 300 members located in many different countries, all of whom are interested in some aspect of radio or television DXing. I find the BFMTVC to be an extremely useful and very friendly resource for swapping notes about reception reports, alerting each other that DX is being heard and generally being in contact with people who have the same interest as myself. The BFMTVC web page contains lots of useful information including members reception logs dating back to when the club first began. The BFMTVC page can be found at http://www.skywaves.info/. The club also has a chat room that is open 24 hours a day so do pop in and meet us. The chat room can be accessed by visiting the website then select the CHAT option from the main menu.

Even though I have listened to Shortwave Radio many times I can safely say that only with FM DXing gives the possibility of hearing stations from considerable distances in perfect stereo. However having said that on many occasions the DX will be accompanied by lots of fading, interference, or will simply be weak, but at its best FM DX can make distant stations sound just as good as the locals.

Most FM DX Signals are delivered by propagation modes known as Tropospheric Enhancement and Sporadic E (Es), whereas the local FM stereo reception you enjoy everyday as you drive to and from work arrives via Groundwave and doesn't normally qualify as DX because it is delivered to your radio from tall transmitter masts located in the immediate vaccinity.

Having given you a very brief introduction to what the hobby of FM DXing is all about please feel free to take a look at the rest of the material on this web site and let me know what you think via the EMail feedback form.

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