It is very hard to predict, IMO, the long range 'fringe' propagation range of any radio device, and risky to assume that what works one day will work the next.
As a kid in the 70s, I had an old dual-standard TV set that I'd modified to operate on 625 lines at VHF, the opposite of UK, but as used then by most European countries. At the right times, using just a normal set-top antenna, I could get a good and stable picture from as far afield as Russia and Spain. The trick to wait for a transient phenomenon called 'sporadic E', which is efficient reflection from the ionosphere. Five minutes later of course, the signal had usually evaporated into noise - but I still have a few trophy photos I took of foreign test cards.
