[27/02/2023] FM Bandscan in Cheltenham, UK with TEF6686 portable radio

Quick bandscan in Cheltenham using a TEF6686 portable radio just with its telescopic antenna, running the customised firmware (v1.21) by Noobish. Conditions were fairly flat, although some low level signals from Ireland were received.

[@djscooby1064]

just reciverd my tef 6686 very good for fm dxing;

[@goggo-bp9oj]

The Asian 93.5FM is a community station in Birmingham, Unity FM. 75w per plane erp.

[@barrygeary1890]

Love classic fm i listen in Ireland on the internet and when im in Belfast its 101.9 fm 😊

[@TransistorFR]

Thanks for sharing this great scan, Adam. The edit is nice by the way, with the TXs data and stations logos. :)

[@Adam0792]

Thanks Lucas!

[@kurtisgump1104]

This is a very good radio I have one too

[@ItsRael108]

I like the signal metre anongst other wee things

[@asterickjones]

What a neat radio displaying all that, does it let you alter the filtering to make it easier to DX?

[@Adam0792]

The filter width is automatic, starting at 56kHz. It automatically widens (up to 236kHz) if there is less adjacent channel interference, but you can also manually set the width if you want, with various steps between 56k and ~300k.

[@asterickjones]

@@Adam0792 A damn good radio then as most don't let you do that, and is essential in narrow channel selection.

[@RJohnLloyd]

It’s great you can receive BBC Radio stations from Llangollen, not thirty miles from where I live and am from. That’s the local relay for North-East Wales, particularly inland areas, and their signals show their face ─ as it were ─ over the border in Chester, Ellesmere Port and Merseyside. Fantastic video, thank you!

[@Adam0792]

Thanks, yes Llangollen is a fairly decent signal here even with the local relay only being 0.1MHz away from its frequencies. It's fairly common to get RDS on 104.3 even.

[@RJohnLloyd]

@@Adam0792 Excellent. Being a Welsh speaker, I’m no stranger to 104.3. Anhygoel!

[@barrygeary1890]

For a second 89.1 thats rte radio 1 ireland reaches wales coast i think you received it there was a irish voice coming threw very poor 😊

[@fmradiodx9359]

​​@@Adam0792cześć czy radio fm umiera w UK czy dab+ go nie przejmuję? pozdrawiam

[@Adam0792]

@@fmradiodx9359 DAB is very popular, but there are no plans to switch off FM yet. There was a plan to decide when to switch off FM once DAB listening reached a certain percentage but I think that has now been cancelled.

[@ItsRael108]

What freq does yhe fm broadcast band start ? Some times it tunes down below 87.50mhz

[@christopherhulse8385]

I can receive R.Bristol on 94.9 here in the West Midlands, as well as Kiss 101.
Interestingly, R.Gloucestershire uses Severn Sound's old FM frequency of 95.0 Mhz.

[@RajanSinghUK]

1:47 How wasn’t Raaj FM from Birmingham received on the radio?

[@Adam0792]

There's a hill to the north of Cheltenham that causes a bit of a null towards West Bromwich, and Llandrindod Wells is a stronger transmitter - high up in mid Wales.

[@xe1zlgg]

Impressive performance... what antenna are you using ?

[@Adam0792]

This was just using the 75cm telescopic antenna that came with the radio. It does also work very well attached to my loft antenna (3 element yagi)

[@dxer22000]

so how come 89.5 is so weak if its 50kW at only 63km? Shouldn't be like a local signal at that RF power? overall, your reception seems weak

[@Adam0792]

All down to terrain, stuff towards the south and east is blocked from here because of high ground (that transmitter is due east). There's not much in the way to the north and west so that stuff does better.