Here’s my list of links that anyone who DXes FM should know about. You’d be surprised how many new DXers don’t know about these sites.

PROPAGATION

BILLS TROPO MAPS. This is Bill Hepburn’s site. Bill is most famous for his seven-days-in-advance tropo forecasts for the FM band. If you need to know where tropo will be and when, this is the site to check out.

DX MAPS. This is a real-time map of conditions on 6 meters. It’s not a perfect indicator for the FM band, but it helps. Definitely worth checking.

DX VIEW TROPO MAPS. An interactive map that shows real time, worldwide VHF activity highlighting enhanced propagation typical to tropospheric ducting. You can occasionally find fake plots on the map but mostly it’s a good indicator.

ANTENNAS

If you decide that you can’t afford any of these, make a dipole.

STELLAR LABS-NEWARK. Home of the popular, low priced Stellar Labs 4 element yagi antenna in use by DXers around the country.

RW ANTENNA STORE. A place where you can find the once again, newly manufactored Stereo Probe 9 element outdoor fringe yagi antenna. Also available at Ness Electronics. 

INNOVANTENNAS. This company, based in Europe, designs and builds a series of rugged, high gain FM DX yagi antennas. They will ship to the U.S.

LOGGERS

There are two prop loggers available for North American FM/TV DXers. One, the WLogger, is for North American users and requires membership in the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association. The other is FM List, a site based in Europe whose focus is mainly Europe. Registration is required. Both have maps where DXers loggings can be plotted during Es or tropo openings. WLogger also incorporates a chat area where users can talk about DX related topics.

W LOGGER. Based in the U.S.

FMLIST VISUAL LOGGER Based in Germany

RDS DECODING

Determining Callsigns from PI codes.

Determining PI codes from callsigns.

RADIO STATION DATABASES/LOOKUPS/INFO

When doing research on stations you may have heard, consider the following resources:

WTFDA FM STATION DATABASE. Station lookup/RDS info, etc for the U.S., Canada, Mexico and much of the Caribbean. Fully sortable/searchable on most fields. This is the best choice for FM DXers while working tropo and Es events.

REC NETWORKS. Station lookups by callsign or facility ID. No sorting, etc.

RADIO-LOCATOR.  Station lookups. Searchable by city/state, callsign and format.

FCC-INFO. This is the database from Cavell-Mertz and Associates. Another good source.

FCC FM QUERY. This is the granddaddy of all databases, directly from the FCC.  You can query the database on several fields.

HD RADIO DIRECTORY. This is the database created by Kyle W. and is the only good directory of HD stations available in North America. Please support his efforts.

SDR SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD LINKS

These are links to the AIRSPY and SDRPLAY software download pages. Every SDR needs software so the radio is able to be used. The Airspy software is SDR# (sharp) and the newest SDRPlay software is SDRCONNECT.

There is third party software available for Airspy models. These are SDR++, GQRX and SDR CONSOLE. Windows users can use any of the three. Linux users can use SDR++ and GQRX.