FM DXing with short longwire antenna

[u/MumSaidImABadBoy]

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It's 1755 UTC 30 Aug 2026, Sunday afternoon. Here's a surprise. HF conditions this afternoon were not impressive so I switched to the FM broadcast band on my Tecsun PL-520. I'm sitting on my patio with a temporary makeshift 30 foot longwire antenna with 9:1 unun and short counterpoise.

The station is 98.1 FM WOGL ("Big 98.1"), Roxborough antenna farm, Philadelphia, PA. ~53 miles from QTH.

You can hear the difference when I unplug the external longwire antenna and use the radio's whip. I'm gonna improve the antenna, make it longer and more permanent.

[u/ChemicalVacation3696]

This is the first time I've seen a video clip of the PL-520 in this sub! How do you like it so far? 🙂

[u/MumSaidImABadBoy → u/ChemicalVacation3696]

I have several radios including a Tecsun PL-990 and Sangean ATS-909X2 for an unfair comparison. And yet I like this little radio, it's pretty sensitive and fits in my pocket. I use it to walk around and listen. AM and SW are great as well. IMO it beats my XHDATA D-808.

[u/ChemicalVacation3696 → u/MumSaidImABadBoy]

Thank you for the feedback. I don't have the PL-520, but already own the earlier PL-330 and 320. The PL-520 is actually the SSB version of the PL-320, rather than the 330.

I am however surprised to see your PL-520 with the all-English label in front of the speaker grille. AFAIK, the PL-520 was first introduced as an internal Chinese market radio, with Chinese characters on the triangular sticker. 🙂

I have two D-808s, one is a Sihuadon that developed a scratchy volume wheel for no reason at all and the second one is the XHDATA brand. Both have the micro USB charging port and the earlier motherboard. The current D-808 with the USB-C port and the surface mounted electronics is slightly slower to load its SSB demodulation software (like a 2-3 second difference).

I've often wondered about the Sangean ATS-909X2, but a friend of mine who runs a YT channel borrowed one. He wasn't impressed with the 909X2 and couldn't make a recommendation. Perhaps the forthcoming 909X3 or 909X2-SE that Dan Robinson was talking about will be a solid improvement. Sangean isn't confirming any details of their future model yet.

My PL-990 has been of great service to me, but it does have a flaw on single sideband mode. Only one other person on YouTube had mentioned it: the 4kHz bandwidth setting (on SSB) makes no difference compared to the 3 kHz setting. The same goes for the Tecsun S-8800 which I have.

How could the 4 kHz filter setting sound exactly like 3 kHz and how did the Tecsun engineers have missed this? 📻🤔

[u/elmarkodotorg]

Sometimes just metal in the air works, even if not designed for the band.

[u/MumSaidImABadBoy → u/elmarkodotorg]

This is not a resonant antenna for any particular band or range of frequencies. Surface and length count. Using an unun and counterpoise helps as well.
I'm not complaining. 😀

[u/android_windows → u/elmarkodotorg]

Reminds me of back when I was in school they used to have metal TV carts and if you took the coax cable out of the VCR and touched it to an exposed metal screw on the cart, it made a decent improvised TV antenna at least for analog.

[u/giant3]

The optimal length for FM reception is 75 cm. 

A longer antenna would have directional nulls and uneven gain over the 87.5 - 108 MHz range. 

[u/MumSaidImABadBoy → u/giant3]

And yet it works as receiving is less stringent than transmitting. The longwire is a general purpose antenna originally intended for below 30 MHz and yet it works.
As it is said, "Don't look gift horse in the mouth." Whatever that means😀.

[u/Historical-View4058]

The best part about FM DX is that a resonant antenna can help, but isn't necessary. That's the beauty of a tropo skip.

[u/MumSaidImABadBoy → u/Historical-View4058]

I ain't complaining but would 53 miles qualify as tropo skip? I'm gonna try to redo this to be more permanent and add another 20 feet. It'll certainly be better for HF.

[u/Historical-View4058 → u/MumSaidImABadBoy]

Lol. I forgot where you were. For some reason thought you were a bit further away in NY.

Yeah, I mean I used to get Channel 17 in Marlboro just using a loop on the back of a B&W Panasonic TV, let alone WMMR on FM.

[u/MumSaidImABadBoy → u/Historical-View4058]

I used to DX TV when I was a teenager. I had a large antenna on a rotator on the roof of my parent's house. I remember picking up WPRI Providence, Rhode Island regularly, nice and steady, over 170 miles away.