Daytime Skywave on 650

[Schroedingers Cat]

The fact that you did not hear WSM on a second day would indicate it was skywave. Groundwave is constant, so if it were ground wave is would always be there (unless knocked out by someone else's skywave.) Nothing uncommon about occasional midday skywave in winter, but the lack of higher frequencies is interesting. You were tuned to the right place at the right time.

Are you the same DXer who said on another message board that they had a problem with interference from WDFN to WBBR on 1130 during Critical Hours in Poughkeepsie?

 

[dtvdxer]

Regarding WBBR/WDFN... Yes. I haven't listened lately, but I'm sure nothing has changed. It's not just "interference".... but occasional severe interference... Sometimes in the car you can't even tell WBBR is on the air.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I don't know if you remember my response. Critical Hours restrictions didn't go into effect until around 1960. That was after stations started to be allowed in between Class I-A and I-B stations. WDFN was approved before the CH restrictions, and has an IDF equivalent to about 50000 watts toward Poughkeepsie. They are at about the same Latitude.

 

[cyberdad]

The fact that you did not hear WSM on a second day would indicate it was skywave. Groundwave is constant, so if it were ground wave is would always be there (unless knocked out by someone else's skywave.) Nothing uncommon about occasional midday skywave in winter, but the lack of higher frequencies is interesting. You were tuned to the right place at the right time.

Thanks for jumping in.

Daytime skywave was my initial suspicion, and yes, when WSM was absent (or perhaps present but inaudible) the next day), that pretty much confirmed it in my mind. But what made me unsure initially is that it was the first time I experienced it at a point as far south as the Gulf coast. Also, I thought 650 might be too low on the dial, regardless of latitude. Shows how much I know


But that said, it's not the first time I've experienced daytime skywave on the lower end of the dial. I once heard (then) WMAQ 670 in northern Minnesota (in late spring), and then a few years later, (then) CHWO 740 here at my home location in suburban Chicago. Although that one was in January.

 

[gar hi]

Way back when I lived in New Jersey and listened to WABC and WNBC from 80 miles away, sometimes I heard that multi-path scrambling of the audio that's common at night between 50 and 100 miles away when there's the mixing of groundwave and skywave as early as 2 in the afternoon during the winter.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Via-a-vis higher AM frequencies ....

In recent times here, NE PA, I'd gotten some wonderful daytime reception on 1530 and 1480 (Cape Cod and Cincinnati respectively). And back in the JFK Airport days I'd heard 1220, 1300 and 1470 doing the same thing.

Now I've never been one of those 'pilot' station DXers who formulated their investigation of the dial on things like Auroral activity or SSS Trans-Atlantic monitoring or even daytime skip. Whatever came in came in. I used to just listen mostly for music and to tape jingles and IDs. All I can state is that
a) all of those events were during the winter,
b) all of them followed that Appalachian arc as though it were some kind of viaduct, and
c) those are pretty high frequencies.

 

[Ai4i]

One question I have often wondered about but never been awake and with a radio at the right time is this:
What happens to the ionosphere and to radio propagation during long, full solar eclipses?
Do they not last long enough, or do they cover too small of areas to be effective?
Does anybody here have sufficient experience to address this?

 

[cyberdad]

One question I have often wondered about but never been awake and with a radio at the right time is this:
What happens to the ionosphere and to radio propagation during long, full solar eclipses?
Do they not last long enough, or do they cover too small of areas to be effective?
Does anybody here have sufficient experience to address this?

I've never experienced it myself, but I do remember reading an article in the late '60s or '70s, where a South Texas DXer reported Dallas Stations (most notably KRLD) booming in like locals during a total or near-total solar eclipse. IIRC the phenomenon lasted about 20-30 minutes, coinciding with the blockage of the sun being at its maximum.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

You're sort in luck there, ai4i.

If you're in area code 305, the totality phase of this occurence -- only 200 or so more shopping days -- will come close to you.

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2017-august-21

Maybe you can fly your Lear Jet up to Charleston South Carolina, hi.
(I usually don't like to name-drop, but tell Carly I said hello, okay?).

From what this relatively casual and lifelong slothful DXer here has heard, along the eclipses' path of totality there is a decided effect on the ionosphere and some weird nighttime stuff comes in. Planets such as Mercury and Venus, often in the full daytime glare, can be spotted if they're to the side of the sun. But the effects lasts only as long as the event.

I gather that someone who can drive through and along the entire projected path of totality fast enough can hear some good stuff. But one site I saw said that the streak moves like 1500 mph.

Bon chance. And don't forget to wear an apricot scarf and perfect how to gavotte.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

I've never experienced it myself, but I do remember reading an article in the late '60s or '70s, where a South Texas DXer reported Dallas Stations (most notably KRLD) booming in like locals during a total or near-total solar eclipse. IIRC the phenomenon lasted about 20-30 minutes, coinciding with the blockage of the sun being at its maximum.

I tried it during a near total eclipse in Houston in the 80's - there was only a slight effect from skywave. I think maybe the atmosphere needs more time to react, or needs a larger shading event to set up properly.

 

[Ai4i]

(I usually don't like to name-drop, but tell Carly I said hello, okay?).
I gather that someone who can drive through and along the entire projected path of totality fast enough can hear some good stuff.
But one site I saw said that the streak moves like 1500 mph.

Sorry, but I have no idea who Carly is. BTW, I have spent some time near Scranton, NEPA, in WARM-land.
Traveling along the equator, "one" would have to go from east to west at just over 1,000 MPH or just under 1700 KPH
to remain under the sun, but that speed would have to be slightly reduced to keep the moon
(prograde rotation from west to east) and for lattitudes greater that 0º, between the sun and "one".

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Fate-would-have-it, ai4i, re Scranton, the former Scranton-market giant WARM 590 sends almost no signal toward us day or night, in deference to WHP 580 in Harrisburg. We live pretty much co-linear with WARM and WHP.

Didn't know until reading up a bit that solar eclipses move from west to east! I'd imagine that the tides would be affected as well during such an event.

(Btw : Carly is a former flame of mine. And (blush) I have to admit that she did write that song about me)

 

[Ai4i]

...the former Scranton-market giant WARM 590 sends almost no signal toward us day or night...

They were the nineteen sixties, the city was Carbondale, and the two stations I remember listening to were the aforementioned and WABeatleC.
I remember hearing some co-channel interferrence on WARM at night due to their restrictive pattern and selective phase distortion on 77.

 

[charlestondxman]

You're sort in luck there, ai4i.

If you're in area code 305, the totality phase of this occurence -- only 200 or so more shopping days -- will come close to you.

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2017-august-21

Maybe you can fly your Lear Jet up to Charleston South Carolina, hi.
(I usually don't like to name-drop, but tell Carly I said hello, okay?).

From what this relatively casual and lifelong slothful DXer here has heard, along the eclipses' path of totality there is a decided effect on the ionosphere and some weird nighttime stuff comes in. Planets such as Mercury and Venus, often in the full daytime glare, can be spotted if they're to the side of the sun. But the effects lasts only as long as the event.

I gather that someone who can drive through and along the entire projected path of totality fast enough can hear some good stuff. But one site I saw said that the streak moves like 1500 mph.

Bon chance. And don't forget to wear an apricot scarf and perfect how to gavotte.

I live in Charleston and oh, I am going to try that on that afternoon this August.

 

[dtvdxer]

One question I have often wondered about but never been awake and with a radio at the right time is this:
What happens to the ionosphere and to radio propagation during long, full solar eclipses?
Do they not last long enough, or do they cover too small of areas to be effective?
Does anybody here have sufficient experience to address this?

I seem to recall an eclipse I believe around 1970 in upstate New York, and I recall that the AM band became like it typically does approaching sunset. Of course, no one went off the air, so locals blocked any real DX, and stations skipping in had to be near the path of the eclipse (darkness). Such conditions didn't last long as the skies got brighter.