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E-Skips patterns, etc.
- Thread starter Retro
- Start date
same here (all year round) in Revere, Massachusetts area. I also pick up "96.3 The Rose" from Cape Cod.
Also when I was driving up route 128/95 North from Waltham to Peabody I picked up 96.3 The Rose, a few times around Concord, Massachusetts it came in and out, after that, I got it perfect. This was about right after midnight. I actually started picking up the station while driving in Southborough, Massachusetts on the Mass Pike as well as the others you all mentioned (in all those areas)
Also when I was driving up route 128/95 North from Waltham to Peabody I picked up 96.3 The Rose, a few times around Concord, Massachusetts it came in and out, after that, I got it perfect. This was about right after midnight. I actually started picking up the station while driving in Southborough, Massachusetts on the Mass Pike as well as the others you all mentioned (in all those areas)
Retro said:
As a general rule...
E-skip covers a *minimum* distance of about 700 miles. If you hear a distant station that's *less* than 700 miles away, it's "tropo", not "E-skip".
E-skip *always* starts at lower frequencies and moves up. If FM is open but TV channel 2 has no DX, it's not E-skip.[0] E-skip almost never reaches TV channel 7 and has NEVER been observed at UHF. If you have DX on an antenna TV on channel 7, it's almost certainly tropo, and if you have it on channel 15 it *is* tropo.
E-skip is FAR more common in late morning and late afternoon. DX at 6am or midnight could be E-skip, but it probably isn't. E-skip is also seasonal. We're just beginning to enter the spring season, which will run through mid-July. There's a shorter season around Christmas. Mid-fall DX (like September or so) is more likely to be tropo, though skip can happen at any time of year.
E-skip usually doesn't last very long - between a few minutes and maybe two hours at the most. All-day E-skip openings have happened but they're VERY rare.
DX is fun regardless of whether it's skip or tropo!
[0] of course, it can be hard to tell if TV channel 2 is open if all your TVs are on cable or satellite!
I get Providence stations regularly where I live. I live in Metro West.
As for FM and TV DX, I was getting a lot of that a few nights ago as well. I even noticed it on WZMY-TV on Comcast cable. I was getting a shadow from another station, which was probably WNJN in New Jersey, which I was able to receive on my antenna TV. I also noticed that the cable reception of WUNI and WYDN was not the same as it usually is. I wonder why this didn't happen with WENH. So, here's my question: Does Comcast receive those stations OTA, or do the stations feed them the signals directly?
As for FM and TV DX, I was getting a lot of that a few nights ago as well. I even noticed it on WZMY-TV on Comcast cable. I was getting a shadow from another station, which was probably WNJN in New Jersey, which I was able to receive on my antenna TV. I also noticed that the cable reception of WUNI and WYDN was not the same as it usually is. I wonder why this didn't happen with WENH. So, here's my question: Does Comcast receive those stations OTA, or do the stations feed them the signals directly?
Good question! Probably microwaved to the cable headends? As for FM signals in Metro West, I had my Walkman on 100.1 FM of Southbridge/Worcester, while I stopped there and on my way out to head towards Boston on I-90 via MA Route 146. By roughly the Upton/Westborough town line, I started getting interference from WHEB-FM 100.3 of Portsmouth, NH. It died down near Exit 11A (I-495) in Hopkinton and picked up slightly in the Westborough/Southborough stretch. I changed the station at the Framingham city line and didn't do back to 100.1 at all.
Monday night it was real strong. See my post on the Dx Board. http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,98039.0.html
R
rapking
Guest
I am picking Up 96.3 The Rose ( Cape Cod )All over the South Shore , and I am Loving it ( The Rose and Fun 107 , The Best Music stations in MA ).
When I lived in Hyannis in the early '80s, I used to stay up most summer nights DXing. With just a crossed dipole outdoor antenna 20 feet up, and a fair Technics digital tuner the FM skip would roll in every night after about 11 PM. Most nights, there was a station on every dial position from 88.1 to 107.9 (except some of the adjacents of the local Cape stations due to splatter). I would imagine that with a rotor and a yagi, I would have picked up several stations on many frequencies (though stations would fade out and others would come in sometimes).
A few nights, WHOM from Mt. Washington came in so strong it obliterated the 94.9 (now 95.1) in Yarmouth-running 50 kw only four miles away!
I was the one who recommended they move to 95.1-WHOM was killing them every summer night. It was common for them to be gone at the Bourne bridge most summer nights (all WHOM). It also opened up 94.3 on the Cape.
The Cape is a GREAT place to DX due to its being an island.
A few nights, WHOM from Mt. Washington came in so strong it obliterated the 94.9 (now 95.1) in Yarmouth-running 50 kw only four miles away!
I was the one who recommended they move to 95.1-WHOM was killing them every summer night. It was common for them to be gone at the Bourne bridge most summer nights (all WHOM). It also opened up 94.3 on the Cape.
The Cape is a GREAT place to DX due to its being an island.
LA_Guy said:
I can vouch on that. While staying in Dennis (on the Cape) back in the summer 1977, I had a chance to do a bandscan to sample some of the DX offerings on the Cape, on both FM and TV. Maine was well represented that year. Co-channel interference was present on all of the semi-local signals from Boston and Providence. The outside antenna was in a fixed position toward Boston and Providence (it figures....). I received several MPBN (Maine Public Broadcasting Network) stations in perfect local quality color from Orono (12), Biddeford (26) and WCBB (10) from Augusta. The typical Maine commercial stations were in very strong, namely WCSH (6), WMTW (8) and WGAN (13, now WGME). Could see CCI from WVII (7, Bangor), WABI (5, Bangor) and WLBZ (2, Bangor). I could tell who they were due to the offset bars. I was also treated to some e-skip on Channels 2-6, during my stay. WCIA/3 from Champaign, IL was in like a local, in perfect color, for nearly an hour. Got a nice QSL letter from the CE of WCIA-TV (Mr. Dale Flemming) after sending him a list of the spots and shows I watched. Since this is the last analog TV-DX season for e-skip and tropo, you can bet, the antennas are going up very quickly at this engineer's house. 73!
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
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