St' Louis FM Station Hear In Connecticut Via Sporadic E Opening

Bruce, DRS2

Sorry to hear that your type-writer skips the E.

Yes, 91.5 FM is on a so-called super tower over along the Old Route 66 (Watson Road) and also holds the antennas for most of the FM stations.

91.5 FM is one of 25 Christian radio stations in the market repeating the same few messages for all eternity. Despite all their prayers, the world is still collapsing.

The dial here is so loaded that I may never get e-skip from far away, but I could at least try.

WWUH, on 91.3 in licensed to West Hartford
(I think) here, but the transmitter is on
top of Avon Mountain in Avon, CT. The WWUH
transmitting antenna is part way up the
channel "3" tower.

So WWUH is pretty strong. On 91.7 MHz on
the dial here, we get WHUS, the University
Of Connecticut station. It has a bodacious
signal here, even though it is about 25 miles
away. It's about 3000 watts, and the WHUS
antenna is up in a high area. The station
has been heard in 3 states, regularly -
Connecticut, Mass., and Rhode Island.

So here comes this E cloud about 40 or 50
miles up, zipping along on a north east path
at about 150 miles per hour, and another cloud
is following it and another, etc. (At least
this is what scientists think.)

This St. Louis 91.5 was BOMBING IN. First of
all, it had to squeeze into the space between
91.3 and 91.7 - one local, and the other semi-local.
It was stronger than the 91.7.

Near the MUF, Maximum Usable Frequency (of the
refraction of an E-skip cloud) the cloud
behaves like a mirror. Also, it is a "free
space path." So while the 91.3 and 91.7 have
to go through miles and miles of trees and houses and
moving cars and hills, etc., to hit the
radios in their coverage areas, this 91.5 signal
just has to go up to the E cloud and down
again. It's a free space path, hence the
very strong signal.

I used to DX the FM band a lot. I love
E-skip. Now I don't have time to DX
much, but I am still very very interested
in the formation of E-skip clouds.
Scientists do not understand how or why
they form.

E-skip DX can completely obliterate semi-local
FM stations.

Back in the 1970s, our TV channel 3 received
heavy heavy interference from another channel
3 via E-sip. This interference was in the
Hartford area, in channel 3s local contour.

It made channel 3 unwatchable for a few minutes.
This other channel 3 was a thousand miles away.

So, yes, Carl, you could FM DX E-skip in your
area. In the case of last Tuesday, you might
have heard an FM station in Connecticut.

But, DXing FM takes a LOT of time, and most
people don't have the time.

It still is very neat, though.

Bruce, DRS2

Finding signals is only the beginning of the process.

IDENTIFYING those signals is not so easy.

Radio stations are not inclined to mention their legal ID except on the hour, and many times they do it fast or mumble it, and the DXer is left empty-handed.

Most stations have slogans that are non-descript and cannot be cross-referenced.

That's probably part of what you mean when you say, "It takes a lot of time to DX."

Sometimes I give it a try, but if I don't stay awake until the hour, or if the station fades out right at the hour, the heck with it.

Until next time.

The other day, when my brother
heard the Little Rock, AR station
on 94.9 via E-skip here in CT,
all it identified with was:
BOB-FM, 94.9. But he also heard
mention of a highway called I-40.

The internet solved the mystery
of the ID for him. He put the clues
together, and figured it out.

Years ago, there was no internet,
and even good frequency lists that
were up to date were hard to find.
So you might get something good,
but you might not know what it
is for a long time.

When I'm really into it, I use old
cassette recorders. I have them
hooked up to multi-event timers that
run on the hour - plus or minus a
few minutes. All of that is hooked
up to whatever DX radio is in use.

This is an easy way to bag DX on AM
or FM. But, most really really good
receivers are not like scanners, so
you just chose one frequency, and
hope for the best.

I have my favorite AM and FM DX frequencies,
and I've been lucky and gotten a lot
of neat things. That set-up is apart
now, but it's fun.

So for instance, say you hear that there
WAS a big E-skip opening on the FM band,
and you have a set-up like this, and
it's running every day. If you are hooked
up with a bunch of radio people, the next
day, the whole gang may be saying,
"Hey! Did you catch that big E-skip opening
last night?"

So after the fact, you can just play back the
tape and see if you caught anything.

I've done this, and it works. Maybe not all
the time, but it's all just fun. A lot of
DXers have systems that are much much more
sophisticated, but for me, simple is good.

And, again, the internet helps.

Scientists still don't understand how
E-skip works. So, I am facinated by it.

Bruce, DRS2

I would please like the names and addresses of the scientists who don't know how E-skip works.

The recorder approach is very scientific, and could be built upon.

Imagine adding a listening post for every frequency? Holy bat flight, that would be one big home wrecker.

All this talk about long distance DXing makes me want to eventually save up for a high quality FM DXing setup. I can only imagine what I could pick up with a directional FM antenna on a tower with a rotor and a very strong FM tuner. I could probably pick up stations from Canada if the conditions are right.

Even during non-skip times, Dayton and Lexington reception would be amazing! I could maybe even pick up a couple Portsmouth and Columbus stations. Speaking of Columbus stations, I often pick up 97.9 WNCI even when there isn't major skip.

I love DXing almost as much as I love broadcasting. Most nights I can be found wearing a pair of studio headphones digging through the radio dial, trying to find some catches.

I have also done some amazing AM DXing within the past week. I picked up WDND-AM, 1620 KHz, 1000 watts nighttime from South Bend on a cheap portable radio. It drifted in and out due to the propagation, but it was there. I am kind of suspicious about their nighttime power. I doubt 1,000 watts from South Bend would reach the east side of Cincinnati, even if it is nighttime. Their daytime power is 10kW, which I think could reach Cincinnati at night. I suspect they're using daytime power at night, but I'm not sure.