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E*Skip is up again (south east)

R

Rob

I'm hearing a top 40 station with the call sign of WZYL or something to that effect (104.3) I'm in the Pensacola area and this was fading in and out dramatically. Heard the call letters but forgot what they were (this was close)

or WYZL.

Just a heads up to anyone down here.
Looks to be an active day.

-Rob
 
robfwb said:
I'm hearing a top 40 station with the call sign of WZYL or something to that effect (104.3) I'm in the Pensacola area and this was fading in and out dramatically. Heard the call letters but forgot what they were (this was close)

or WYZL.

Just a heads up to anyone down here.
Looks to be an active day.
Click to expand...

WZYP? (Huntsville, Alabama via tropo) Usually call themselves simply "ZYP".

I had localized enhancement on FM and some long haul stuff as far as Fort Wayne on TV.
 
it was bouncing up and down like it was e skip. guess air isn't warm enough today..

-Rob
 
yea e-skip chasing can be fun.

not shure where w9wi is but in about 80miles south of ft wayne in anderson and when the E rolls in i can pick up ft wayne radio and tv great, also have caught dayton,cinci,columbus,toledo Ohio, louisville ky, chicago il, southbend in,

its pretty fun chasing the E-skip

my longest checkout was when i lived in englewood,fla caught KTLA-TV for about 30mins one night.
 
dave388 said:
yea e-skip chasing can be fun.

not shure where w9wi is but in about 80miles south of ft wayne in anderson and when the E rolls in i can pick up ft wayne radio and tv great, also have caught dayton,cinci,columbus,toledo Ohio, louisville ky, chicago il, southbend in,
Click to expand...

I'm about 30 miles northwest of Nashville. Fort Wayne is very roughly 330 miles away.

Kinda hate to be the curmudgeon :) but...

The reception you cite is not E-skip. It's a different phemononon called "tropo".

The differences:
Distance:
E-skip: has a MINIMUM distance on the order of 500 miles.
Normal distance is on the order of 800-1,000 miles.
Tropo: no minimum distance.
800-1,000 mile reception is possible but very rare. 100-200 miles is a lot more common.

Frequencies:
E-skip: ALWAYS starts at lower frequencies and moves up. Almost NEVER works above the FM radio band. FM radio will not be open for E-skip unless TV channels 2-6 are already open.
Tropo: Can start on any frequency, including UHF.

Timing:
E-skip: Most common from late spring through mid-summer, with a second weaker season for about a month around Christmas. Most common from mid-morning through noon and from late afternoon through early evening.
Tropo: Most common at night, usually at its best right around sunrise. Usually (but not always) "burns off" as the morning goes on.

Reception of Louisville in Fort Wayne is tropo. (as was my reception of Fort Wayne down here)

my longest checkout was when i lived in englewood,fla caught KTLA-TV for about 30mins one night.
Click to expand...

I won't say this is impossible, but it's highly unlikely. (given that KTLA is a "superstation" I'm guessing you saw a cable leak, a leak out of someone's satellite receiver, or some other station relaying KTLA by mistake due to a satellite mixup) The "Double-hop" E-skip that would be necessary to bring a California signal into Florida is EXTREMELY rare, with many serious DXers having never seen it. I've logged some 1,400 FM stations up here since 1994 and have heard ONE double-hop signal.
 
Yes the only way to get 2500 mi (give or take) TV reception would have to include a double hop but IF the first hop have ""landed just beyond the Texas Coast (say Beaumont) and skipped/hydroplaned across the Gulf. 2500 mi TV reception is rare but has been documented. The nearest Ch 5's from Englewood are 120 mi or so E in Palm Beach and about 200 mi N in Gainesville. Would the picture on ch 2,3, and 4 been too fuzzy/crappy to ID and Ch 5 the first station with a clear enough picture to ID? I read somewhere of folks who have managed to ID upper band VHF stations across the Gulf from FLA to TX which is well beyond a "normal " range,
I've been in Englewood in the summer where there was just about a station on every frequency when I was walking around with my Forrest Gump handheld 2" TV at nite. But I didn't have a pen/paper with me at the time.
 
ohh this sucks.. and I thought I captured 102.9 out of MPLS one day when it was fading in and out (playing deliaha or however you spell it) unless theres another 102.9 closer. (heard a car ad with the words "bloomington" (bloom, mn?)

this was when our local mix 103.1 was off last summer.

-rob
 
vibe said:
Yes the only way to get 2500 mi (give or take) TV reception would have to include a double hop but IF the first hop have ""landed just beyond the Texas Coast (say Beaumont) and skipped/hydroplaned across the Gulf. 2500 mi TV reception is rare but has been documented. The nearest Ch 5's from Englewood are 120 mi or so E in Palm Beach and about 200 mi N in Gainesville. Would the picture on ch 2,3, and 4 been too fuzzy/crappy to ID and Ch 5 the first station with a clear enough picture to ID? I read somewhere of folks who have managed to ID upper band VHF stations across the Gulf from FLA to TX which is well beyond a "normal " range,
I've been in Englewood in the summer where there was just about a station on every frequency when I was walking around with my Forrest Gump handheld 2" TV at nite. But I didn't have a pen/paper with me at the time.
Click to expand...

Definitely, I'm not saying 2,500-mile reception is impossible, but it's highly unlikely.

There would have been skip in channels 2, 3, and 4 if double-hop to KTLA had existed. But it might have been masked by interference from skip stations at the midpoint. (somewhere in Texas, I suppose) I suppose if the midpoint happened to hit an area where there was no channel 5 station, the LA signal could have gotten through.

Upper band VHF across the Gulf is virtually always tropo. (it has happened via skip but tropo is far, far more common) Large bodies of warm water tend to be good places for exceptional tropo. A former boss who served in the Persian Gulf with the Navy told of some pretty stunning tropo openings. I've heard a rumor that the most powerful TV station in the world is in Kuwait -- where they felt they needed the power to avoid interference from tropospherically-propagated DX from other stations in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

_________________________________________________

"robfwb": Minneapolis<=>Florida is just about perfect for E-skip. (and while I don't know as a fact that WLTE carries Delilah, she'd certainly be a fit for their format) You probably did indeed hear the Twin Cities.

FWB<=>Minneapolis: >500 miles, it probably is E-skip.
FWB<=>Birmingham:<500 miles, it probably isn't E-skip but tropo instead.
 
Robfwb, you and I are in the same area. I'd agree with W9WI on the WZYP which is Huntsville, AL. I occasionally hear them too. 302 miles north from my location in FWB. The 102.9 with Bloomington, MN mention and Delilah would be WLTE Minneapolis. I've heard them a few times myself as 102.9 is a good frequency here. 104.3 is actually a difficult frequency to get good DX on due to the fact that 104.1 from the Pensacola area is in HD and the hiss you hear on 104.3 and 103.9 is not actually "dead air" but digital hiss of their IBOC sidebands.
 
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