This was one of the craziest days of E-skip I've ever seen. I had a brief opening at midday while out working on a clean in Donnelly, which is dealing with smoke from a wildfire that went off last night just south of Tamarack Resort called the Rock Fire. It has grown to 2,000 acres in just 24 hours. Then in relatively-clean air Cascade, the band went wild just after 8PM MT, and it didn't quit for well over an hour. It went from an MUF of 6 meters to WAY over 2 meters in no time, and based on one of these record-breaking FM logs, possibly channel 8 or 9. RDS all over the band, so tons of new logs made from that.
I'll start with the smaller afternoon opening...no recorder on these.
1:13PM MT - 92.9 KTZA Artesia, NM; Carlsbad commercials. Relog, 100KW at 1028 miles.
1:14PM - 105.5 KQRI Bosque Farms, NM; with Air1 and worship music, had the ID pop up on the car radio. NEW #431, 97.58KW at 830 miles.
1:15PM - 98.5 KABG Los Alamos, NM; ad for Quality GMC on Lomas in Albuquerque. NEW #432, 100KW at 784 miles.
1:18PM - 95.1 KABQ-FM Corrales, NM; ad for Fit Shop NM. NEW #433, 100KW at 816 miles. This was a super-common Es log in Washington.
Then the evening...I have no words for what this ended up being...tons of quick, rapid tuning to ID stations as I often do in E-skip.
8:15PM - First signs of skip. 90.5 KTLF Colorado Springs, CO; with instrumental religious music and RDS "TheLight". NEW #434, 20KW at 700 miles.
8:15PM - 89.7 KEPC Colorado Springs, CO; immediate RDS hit. NEW #435, 10KW at 703 miles.
8:15PM - 95.3 KDDD Dumas, TX; classic country and RDS. Relog, 6.6KW at 953 miles.
8:16PM - 95.7 KPUR Claude, TX; ad for the Green Gorilla Smoke and Vape Shop. Relog, 100KW at exactly 1000 miles.
8:16PM - 99.7 KBZD Amarillo, TX; preaching program, RDS. Relog, 22KW at 993 miles.
8:16PM - 100.9 KXGL Amarillo, TX; local translator off, ad for Street Toyota in Amarillo, RDS. NEW #436, 100KW at 982 miles.
8:17PM - 104.9 KRNX-FM Rye, CO; with Radio Nueva Vida SS religious music, RDS PI 3E4D matches. NEW #437, 25KW at 730 miles.
8:18PM - 99.5 KCAZ Rough Rock, AZ; RDS Capital Country. NEW #438, 3.9KW at 651 miles.
8:20PM - 102.9 KVWE Amarillo, TX; baseball play-by-play, RDS. NEW #439, 100KW at 984 miles.
8:21PM - 102.3 KSPK-FM Walsenburg, CO; while trying to ID an unknown satellite-fed soft rock station (probably needed Gunnison CO), this one popped up with immediate RDS ID. NEW #440, 100KW at 753 miles.
8:22PM - 106.5 KXXF Springer, NM; with "Sea of Love" by The Honeydrippers, and very easy RDS ID with their OLD callsign of KNMF!! IDed later as Free FM. NEW #441, 100KW at 814 miles.
8:22PM - 101.3 K267CH Glenwood Springs, CO (KGLN-980), sat on this one for a while, PSAs and an 800 number ad for a book protecting your wealth against inflation, and finally a KGLN 980 ID. RDS did pop up "In Defense" - no doubt their slogan, In Defense of Liberty. THIS WAS THE FIRST OF SEVERAL TRANSLATORS CAUGHT TONIGHT, PROVING HOW AWESOME THIS 4-ELEMENT ANTENNA CAN BE! NEW #442, 99 watts at 568 miles!
8:25PM - 95.3 KYDN Monte Vista, CO; strong fadeup, country and RDS "KYDN", then swapped back to KDDD-TX. NEW #443, 6KW at 702 miles.
8:25PM - 101.5 KRMQ Clovis, NM; with RDS PI match. Relog, 100KW at 982 miles.
8:26PM - *SHORT SKIP ALL-TIME RECORD!!!* 105.5 KLCY VERNAL, UTAH! With an ad for the Uinta County Fair, and Eagle Country ID. Trust me, I was in disbelief. You probably wouldn't believe this log to be true either, being so close on a higher FM frequency, but the audio will prove it. NEW #444, 3.3KW at 424 MILES!!! Calculating the MUF from this log shows an MUF of 188 mHz. There was a possibility that DT channels 7, 8 and even 9 were active with pilots from this reception.
8:27PM - 104.9 KRYD Norwood, CO; brief Jack FM ID, back into the soup. NEW #445, 23.62KW at 590 miles. More short skip!
8:28PM - 106.7 KQTY Borger, TX; brief country fadeup resulted in a full RDS match. NEW #446, 6KW at 983 miles.
8:29PM - 97.5 K248DE Amarillo, TX; translator #2 tonight, mixing with at least 2-3 others, one mentioning Oklahoma (probably KZLF Alva), brief KGNC ID and out. NEW #447, 250W at 988 miles.
8:30PM - 98.7 KPRF-FM Amarillo, TX; Cutting Crew way over KARO, RDS "KPRF-FM". NEW #448, 100KW at 984 miles.
8:30PM - 98.9 KKMG Pueblo, TX; Magic FM ID. NEW #449, 57KW at 700 miles.
8:32PM - 92.5 KCRT-FM Trinidad, CO; RDS, relog, 38.5KW at 797 miles.
8:33PM - 92.5 KRWN Farmington, NM; quickly replaced KCRT with classic rock and RDS. NEW #450, 62KW at 678 miles.
8:35PM - 99.7 KKDG Durango, CO; with RDS "KKDG", yet the 12A6 PI matches to KBAC in Las Vegas NM? Strange. NEW #451, 9.2KW at 655 miles.
8:35PM - 101.5 KTNN-FM Tohatchi, NM; with Navajo powwow music and full RDS including Radiotext "KTNN FM The Voice of the Navajo Nation." NEW #452, 2.25KW at 707 miles.
8:37PM - 95.3 KRPX Wellington, Utah; INSANELY SHORT SKIP AGAIN!! Pop music, RDS "KRPX". Massive signal peak at times. NEW #453, 6KW at only 432 MILES!!! This signal, even with a lower FM frequency, still put the MUF at channel 7 or higher.
8:38PM - 102.5 K273BT Price, UT; did you think you could do extreme short Es ON A TRANSLATOR?! K-LOVE, Micah Tyler's "Praise the Lord" and RDS, PI D4BA. On FMLIST this is a slam dunk match to K273BT. It is a satellite K-LOVE translator, relaying "KLOV Winchester". Not many of those around! NEW #454, 250W at 462 miles!!
8:38PM - 103.7 KYVA Church Rock, NM; ID "Classic Hits KYVA". NEW #455, 100KW at 727 miles.
8:41PM - 107.9 KBQI Albuquerque, NM; with Shaboozey and RDS ID, way over Lite FM semi-local. NEW #456, 22.5KW at 818 miles.
8:42PM - 102.5 KIOT Los Lunas, NM; classic rock and RDS "Coyote 102.5.' NEW #457, 20KW at 818 miles.
8:42PM - 101.7 KQTM Rio Rancho, NM; LA Dodgers baseball, RDS, "The Team." NEW #458, 3KW at 818 miles.
8:42PM - 101.3 KYLZ Albuquerque, NM; with rap music, partial Hustle ID in the RDS and PI "1000" which matches the station. NEW #459, 3.8KW at 816 miles.
8:43PM - 100.7 KXXQ Milan, NM; Relevant Radio promos WAY OVER KPDA Mountain Home, RDS. NEW #460, 100KW at 748 miles.
8:44PM - 100.1 K261FB Farmington, NM; ad for the San Juan County Fair in Farmington. Translator for KNDN-960 AM. NEW #461, 250 watts at 678 miles.
8:44PM - 100.1 KWSA Price, UT; immediately replaced K261FB with Michael Jackson and RDS "KWSA-FM"...THE SHORT SKIP TRAIN kept a-rollin'! NEW #462, 3KW at only 435 miles!!
8:45PM - 99.5 KMGA Albuquerque, NM; John Tesh show, Magic RDS. NEW #463, 19.5KW at 818 miles.
8:46PM - 95.7 KPCL Farmington, NM; Passion Radio Community Calendar. NEW #464, 100KW at 678 miles.
8:47PM - 91.1 KEZF Grants, NM; with Radio Nueva Vida and RDS. NEW #465, 7KW at 848 miles.
8:50PM - 97.1 KCYN Moab, UT; courtesy of the SHORT SKIP TRAIN...country music and partial KCYN RDS ID, 17C5 PI. NEW #466, 29KW at 540 miles.
8:52PM - 94.1 KZRR Albuquerque, NM; "Crazy Train" by the late Ozzy Osborne, 94 Rock in Radiotext. NEW #467, 19.5KW at 818 miles.
8:52PM - 92.9 KPTE Bayfield, CO; Durango ads, RDS. NEW #468, 9.2KW at 655 miles.
8:54PM - 105.3 KXRC Durango, CO; X-ROCK RDS. NEW #469, 16.5KW at 656 miles.
8:55PM - 104.1 K281AJ Moab, UT; CONFIRMED with RDS PI D2B9, "Dreams" by The Cranberries which was on the Jack FM satellite playlist at that time. Most sources show K281AJ as a KMOZ-92.3 Grand Junction translator. It turns out this is no longer the case, and it's a translator of JACK FM (via KWSA Price). NEW #470, 250W translator, and thanks to the short skip train, it's only 530 miles away!
8:56PM - 104.1 KTEG Santa Fe, NM; the Real Slim Shady showed up, followed by a 104.1 the Edge ID. NEW #471, 100KW at 784 miles.
*NOTE: I was also trying to sit on 103.7 looking for the KOAZ translator in ABQ. As shown in the New Mexico forum, they have flipped to an Urban AC/Rhythmic Oldies mix as of January 2025 and have dropped smooth jazz. They had promos starting in November saying that The Oasis was going online-only. Turns out I had '90s R&B here. It wouldn't fade up strong enough for an ID or RDS, if any. This would have been my absolute holy grail FM Es log, way more than WIMI-99.7 MI which I logged on the 4th of July. I listened online to The Oasis for YEARS and loved their smooth jazz mix.*
9:00PM - 91.9 KDUR Durango, CO; TOH ID and 9PM MT timecheck. NEW #472, 6KW at 656 miles.
I'll start with the smaller afternoon opening...no recorder on these.
1:13PM MT - 92.9 KTZA Artesia, NM; Carlsbad commercials. Relog, 100KW at 1028 miles.
1:14PM - 105.5 KQRI Bosque Farms, NM; with Air1 and worship music, had the ID pop up on the car radio. NEW #431, 97.58KW at 830 miles.
1:15PM - 98.5 KABG Los Alamos, NM; ad for Quality GMC on Lomas in Albuquerque. NEW #432, 100KW at 784 miles.
1:18PM - 95.1 KABQ-FM Corrales, NM; ad for Fit Shop NM. NEW #433, 100KW at 816 miles. This was a super-common Es log in Washington.
Then the evening...I have no words for what this ended up being...tons of quick, rapid tuning to ID stations as I often do in E-skip.
8:15PM - First signs of skip. 90.5 KTLF Colorado Springs, CO; with instrumental religious music and RDS "TheLight". NEW #434, 20KW at 700 miles.
8:15PM - 89.7 KEPC Colorado Springs, CO; immediate RDS hit. NEW #435, 10KW at 703 miles.
8:15PM - 95.3 KDDD Dumas, TX; classic country and RDS. Relog, 6.6KW at 953 miles.
8:16PM - 95.7 KPUR Claude, TX; ad for the Green Gorilla Smoke and Vape Shop. Relog, 100KW at exactly 1000 miles.
8:16PM - 99.7 KBZD Amarillo, TX; preaching program, RDS. Relog, 22KW at 993 miles.
8:16PM - 100.9 KXGL Amarillo, TX; local translator off, ad for Street Toyota in Amarillo, RDS. NEW #436, 100KW at 982 miles.
8:17PM - 104.9 KRNX-FM Rye, CO; with Radio Nueva Vida SS religious music, RDS PI 3E4D matches. NEW #437, 25KW at 730 miles.
8:18PM - 99.5 KCAZ Rough Rock, AZ; RDS Capital Country. NEW #438, 3.9KW at 651 miles.
8:20PM - 102.9 KVWE Amarillo, TX; baseball play-by-play, RDS. NEW #439, 100KW at 984 miles.
8:21PM - 102.3 KSPK-FM Walsenburg, CO; while trying to ID an unknown satellite-fed soft rock station (probably needed Gunnison CO), this one popped up with immediate RDS ID. NEW #440, 100KW at 753 miles.
8:22PM - 106.5 KXXF Springer, NM; with "Sea of Love" by The Honeydrippers, and very easy RDS ID with their OLD callsign of KNMF!! IDed later as Free FM. NEW #441, 100KW at 814 miles.
8:22PM - 101.3 K267CH Glenwood Springs, CO (KGLN-980), sat on this one for a while, PSAs and an 800 number ad for a book protecting your wealth against inflation, and finally a KGLN 980 ID. RDS did pop up "In Defense" - no doubt their slogan, In Defense of Liberty. THIS WAS THE FIRST OF SEVERAL TRANSLATORS CAUGHT TONIGHT, PROVING HOW AWESOME THIS 4-ELEMENT ANTENNA CAN BE! NEW #442, 99 watts at 568 miles!
8:25PM - 95.3 KYDN Monte Vista, CO; strong fadeup, country and RDS "KYDN", then swapped back to KDDD-TX. NEW #443, 6KW at 702 miles.
8:25PM - 101.5 KRMQ Clovis, NM; with RDS PI match. Relog, 100KW at 982 miles.
8:26PM - *SHORT SKIP ALL-TIME RECORD!!!* 105.5 KLCY VERNAL, UTAH! With an ad for the Uinta County Fair, and Eagle Country ID. Trust me, I was in disbelief. You probably wouldn't believe this log to be true either, being so close on a higher FM frequency, but the audio will prove it. NEW #444, 3.3KW at 424 MILES!!! Calculating the MUF from this log shows an MUF of 188 mHz. There was a possibility that DT channels 7, 8 and even 9 were active with pilots from this reception.
8:27PM - 104.9 KRYD Norwood, CO; brief Jack FM ID, back into the soup. NEW #445, 23.62KW at 590 miles. More short skip!
8:28PM - 106.7 KQTY Borger, TX; brief country fadeup resulted in a full RDS match. NEW #446, 6KW at 983 miles.
8:29PM - 97.5 K248DE Amarillo, TX; translator #2 tonight, mixing with at least 2-3 others, one mentioning Oklahoma (probably KZLF Alva), brief KGNC ID and out. NEW #447, 250W at 988 miles.
8:30PM - 98.7 KPRF-FM Amarillo, TX; Cutting Crew way over KARO, RDS "KPRF-FM". NEW #448, 100KW at 984 miles.
8:30PM - 98.9 KKMG Pueblo, TX; Magic FM ID. NEW #449, 57KW at 700 miles.
8:32PM - 92.5 KCRT-FM Trinidad, CO; RDS, relog, 38.5KW at 797 miles.
8:33PM - 92.5 KRWN Farmington, NM; quickly replaced KCRT with classic rock and RDS. NEW #450, 62KW at 678 miles.
8:35PM - 99.7 KKDG Durango, CO; with RDS "KKDG", yet the 12A6 PI matches to KBAC in Las Vegas NM? Strange. NEW #451, 9.2KW at 655 miles.
8:35PM - 101.5 KTNN-FM Tohatchi, NM; with Navajo powwow music and full RDS including Radiotext "KTNN FM The Voice of the Navajo Nation." NEW #452, 2.25KW at 707 miles.
8:37PM - 95.3 KRPX Wellington, Utah; INSANELY SHORT SKIP AGAIN!! Pop music, RDS "KRPX". Massive signal peak at times. NEW #453, 6KW at only 432 MILES!!! This signal, even with a lower FM frequency, still put the MUF at channel 7 or higher.
8:38PM - 102.5 K273BT Price, UT; did you think you could do extreme short Es ON A TRANSLATOR?! K-LOVE, Micah Tyler's "Praise the Lord" and RDS, PI D4BA. On FMLIST this is a slam dunk match to K273BT. It is a satellite K-LOVE translator, relaying "KLOV Winchester". Not many of those around! NEW #454, 250W at 462 miles!!
8:38PM - 103.7 KYVA Church Rock, NM; ID "Classic Hits KYVA". NEW #455, 100KW at 727 miles.
8:41PM - 107.9 KBQI Albuquerque, NM; with Shaboozey and RDS ID, way over Lite FM semi-local. NEW #456, 22.5KW at 818 miles.
8:42PM - 102.5 KIOT Los Lunas, NM; classic rock and RDS "Coyote 102.5.' NEW #457, 20KW at 818 miles.
8:42PM - 101.7 KQTM Rio Rancho, NM; LA Dodgers baseball, RDS, "The Team." NEW #458, 3KW at 818 miles.
8:42PM - 101.3 KYLZ Albuquerque, NM; with rap music, partial Hustle ID in the RDS and PI "1000" which matches the station. NEW #459, 3.8KW at 816 miles.
8:43PM - 100.7 KXXQ Milan, NM; Relevant Radio promos WAY OVER KPDA Mountain Home, RDS. NEW #460, 100KW at 748 miles.
8:44PM - 100.1 K261FB Farmington, NM; ad for the San Juan County Fair in Farmington. Translator for KNDN-960 AM. NEW #461, 250 watts at 678 miles.
8:44PM - 100.1 KWSA Price, UT; immediately replaced K261FB with Michael Jackson and RDS "KWSA-FM"...THE SHORT SKIP TRAIN kept a-rollin'! NEW #462, 3KW at only 435 miles!!
8:45PM - 99.5 KMGA Albuquerque, NM; John Tesh show, Magic RDS. NEW #463, 19.5KW at 818 miles.
8:46PM - 95.7 KPCL Farmington, NM; Passion Radio Community Calendar. NEW #464, 100KW at 678 miles.
8:47PM - 91.1 KEZF Grants, NM; with Radio Nueva Vida and RDS. NEW #465, 7KW at 848 miles.
8:50PM - 97.1 KCYN Moab, UT; courtesy of the SHORT SKIP TRAIN...country music and partial KCYN RDS ID, 17C5 PI. NEW #466, 29KW at 540 miles.
8:52PM - 94.1 KZRR Albuquerque, NM; "Crazy Train" by the late Ozzy Osborne, 94 Rock in Radiotext. NEW #467, 19.5KW at 818 miles.
8:52PM - 92.9 KPTE Bayfield, CO; Durango ads, RDS. NEW #468, 9.2KW at 655 miles.
8:54PM - 105.3 KXRC Durango, CO; X-ROCK RDS. NEW #469, 16.5KW at 656 miles.
8:55PM - 104.1 K281AJ Moab, UT; CONFIRMED with RDS PI D2B9, "Dreams" by The Cranberries which was on the Jack FM satellite playlist at that time. Most sources show K281AJ as a KMOZ-92.3 Grand Junction translator. It turns out this is no longer the case, and it's a translator of JACK FM (via KWSA Price). NEW #470, 250W translator, and thanks to the short skip train, it's only 530 miles away!
8:56PM - 104.1 KTEG Santa Fe, NM; the Real Slim Shady showed up, followed by a 104.1 the Edge ID. NEW #471, 100KW at 784 miles.
*NOTE: I was also trying to sit on 103.7 looking for the KOAZ translator in ABQ. As shown in the New Mexico forum, they have flipped to an Urban AC/Rhythmic Oldies mix as of January 2025 and have dropped smooth jazz. They had promos starting in November saying that The Oasis was going online-only. Turns out I had '90s R&B here. It wouldn't fade up strong enough for an ID or RDS, if any. This would have been my absolute holy grail FM Es log, way more than WIMI-99.7 MI which I logged on the 4th of July. I listened online to The Oasis for YEARS and loved their smooth jazz mix.*
9:00PM - 91.9 KDUR Durango, CO; TOH ID and 9PM MT timecheck. NEW #472, 6KW at 656 miles.
