Hi everybody:
Some of us on the board are
AM and FM DXers.
For those of us who are familiar
with E-skip - and try to observe it
on FM and TV channels... This has
been an E-Skip season where very
little has been going on.
But as of 7:31 PM Eastern time - there
may be something happening.
An FM DXer in Philadelphia, PA received
a Tampa, FL FM station within the past
hour.
I just thought I would mention it.
Very Best Wishes,
Bruce, The DOGRADIO Group
My comment is not so much off subject as it is off band.
The other day I DXed the AM band and found local 1490 with a dead carrier. They have always been very reliable. I kept checking, and all of a sudden they were back in play, as if nothing were ever wrong.
Oh but, on my own FM channel, 101.9, I did for the first time hear a station from far off which normally does not come in here.
I have a notation somewhere but I just got dizzy looking through my notes and cannot find it.
I never check TV channels, maybe I should.
That's cool that you have a reliable local
on 1490. So many of those "little" stations
are just running satellite feeds.
When the U.S. turned off analog TV
in 2009, a lot of people thought TV
DXing was over. It turned out that
there are stil signals out there. Not too
far from me, a TV DXer saw analog NTSC
channels 2 and 4 from Cuba, via E-Skip.
(I'm in Connecticut.) It is a little easier
to get that kind of DX - now that
our local NTSC channel 3 has been turned off.
(And all of the nearby NTSC channels 2 and 4, as well.)
People in Florida are getting Mexico NTSC -
because channels 2 - 6 are clear - that's one
example. People are also DXing HDTV. You
need a good set-up - but E-skip has been
seen and tropo, as well. And we still have
two low power analog channels running here.
Oddly enough - they are right next to each
other - i.e. - a channel 47 and a channel 48.
TV DXing was the first "communications thing"
I ever did - at age 7. I miss the old days.
If you or anybody gets E-skip of any kind,
you might want to note it here.
Bruce, The DOGRADIO Group
There was some E-skip activity last
night, July 3, local time, from the
east coast to the midwest.
I am interested in the scientific aspects
of this, as are many people.
One person reported hearng E-skip on a weather radio.
162 MHz is very very high for that kind of thing
to occur. Was he correct?
In terms of geography though - the
opening was small, I think.
If a gigantic opening occurs -
(and it will) I'll mention it here.
I'll report Something notable -
and not the little ones.
.
Very Best Wishes,
Bruce, DOGRADIO
Since the opening topic on this thread is about E-skip on FM frequencies, I was unable to hear anything unusual the one time (recently) when I dialed the FM band. BUT, something worth mentioning on the AM band.
On the nights when my AM transmitter is turned off, I often tune around and one night, the week of July 4th, I heard a lot of hetrodyne whistles on mid-band, about 900 to over 1,000kHz.
The following night I checked again and didn't hear those whistles.
My guess is that European stations which are spaced at 9kHz intervals were coming in behind North American stations, causing the whistles.
Think I might be right?
Hello there:
One night many years ago, while tuning
around the AM band, I heard a huge whistle
around 1590 kHz. It turned out to be West Germany
on 1593. In all of the years that I have DXed
transatlantic AM BCB stations - that signal and
the het were the loudest I've ever heard. I'm
in Connecticut, so getting Europe is "easy"
compared to where you are, Carl. But as we
know, it really isn't that easy. Also, I'm not an expert.
But it is really fun.
I knew a DXer in Florida who made a mile long
(or was it 2 miles) Beverage antenna for a specific
catch: KORL, 650 kHz in Hawaii. After many many days
of trying - he did hear and ID KORL at his Florida location!
He had calculated the gray line at sunrise - and when it
would cross both Hawaii, and Florida. This made possible
the loud reception of this 650 kHz station - in Florida -
a few minutes after his local sunrise. The signal was good
for about 15 minutes and then it was gone. The mile long
Beverage antenna made it possible. Without it, it wouldn't
have worked.
Wow.
Bruce, DOGRADIO
Last Sunday evening at about 8:10 PM local
time, I might have heard a station from
Wisconsin public radio here in Connecticut,
via E-skip. There was a mention of Wisconsin
Public radio on 88.3 MHz with a talk interview program that
lasted a few minutes. Then the signal disappeared.
There is a Wisconsin Public Radio station on
that channel, and the skip falls in
the typical distance for E-skip - usually in
the 1000 to 1200 mile range. I'm
in Connecticut - the Wisconsin station is
969 miles from me.
Everything adds up right, including the
choppy unpredictable fading of the signal.
But I never got an ID, so it only goes in
the logbook as a "possible catch." The
receiver used is a Tecsun PL-380, just
indoors, next to a window.
The WPR program guide
seems to indicate that a talk show would
have been on at that time.
Interesting stuff.
Bruce, DOGRADIO
Preparing to power-up my Wholehouse 2.0 the radio was tuned to 101.5 MHz, but what's this? I was hearing a station at almost full scale and it's been coming in now for half-an-hour.
Whoa, it's KPLA, 41 kW, Columbia, Missouri, 150 miles away.
It's come in before, but never this strong, and never for this long.
What's going on with the atmosphere that would cause this?
I'll be back with some ideas.
Very very interesting.
Bruce