FM DXing

After spending nine months focused on DXing the AM radio band, I decided it was time to turn my attention to the other local broadcasting band, FM. I've never been an avid FM DXer, but I have dabbled in it off and on over the years and find it interesting. I've only logged 270 FM stations in total, mostly ones logged locally or while traveling. But there have been some good DX catches in that time.

I decided to start a new FM logbook beginning June 1, 2009, that will include only stations logged from within the city of Toronto. I began by logging all the local and semi-local stations to produce a map of the band. This effort yielded some interesting results:

• There are about 50 stations here that are strong locals or semi-dominant regional ones. These frequencies are pretty much blocked for DXing.
• There are about another 10 frequencies with weak but semi-regular stations. DXing may be possible on these frequencies under the right conditions.
• There are 100 channels on the FM band, and between the ones that are blocked, the slop from these on adjacent channels, and the weak semi-regulars, there's not a lot of DX-able frequencies left.

So DXing FM from Toronto has its challenges. But I'll see what I can accomplish here.