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First Es of the season - short skip to northern California 5/31/23

C

crainbebo

A great way to start off the summer Es season here in Washington - with short skip into California! WLogger (WTFDA) showed Randy Zerr in Goldfield NV receiving KTDD-104.9 Eatonville and CIOC-98.5 Victoria. Then I went out for a nice evening drive and made some new loggings.

7:59PM - 90.5 KGDP Santa Maria, CA; with Christian Contemporary music and full TOH ID mentioning the Central Coast, and callsign. Relog, 17.5KW at 818 miles. An 88.7 with Spanish was also noted at this time.
Several UNID Spanish stations, including a 93.3 religious station that I rolled tape of. It was mixing with classic rock (KZOZ SLO?) Then:
8:10PM - 93.9 KRLT South Lake Tahoe, CA; with 'Lonely No More' Rob Thomas and ID '93-9 The Lake'. NEW #723, 3KW at only 531 miles!! I also had a 94.3 over the splatter of nearby KATS - "Come Go with Me" by Expose. Assuming the late Art Laboe's station, KOKO-FM in Kerman. Also a very strong Spanish Religion on 94.1 (KBKY?) Es noted to 96.5 and 97.5 at this time. New overall!
8:13PM - 93.1 KFBK-FM Pollock Pines, CA; very strong with news/talk programming and RDS "KFBK". Great to hear this one again, as 1530 AM is a nightly visitor after dark. NEW #724, 20.5KW at 549 miles - more short skip! Relog in Ellensburg, 7/14/21, during the California extravaganza that also resulted in 468-mile Es from KPJP 89.3 Greenville CA.
8:18PM - 93.1 KXSM Chualar, CA; Radio Lazer sweepers, strong, mixed, then over KFBK. NEW #725, 2.5KW at 700 miles. Relog in Ellensburg 7/14/21
8:20PM - 95.1 KBBY Ventura, CA; commercial for the NewWest Symphony Summer-Fest at Moorpark College, with musical guest Jason Scheff (lead vocalist of Chicago after Peter Cetera went solo). Relog, 12.5KW at 865 miles.
8:26PM - 89.3 KLFF Arroyo Grande, CA; 'For God is With Us' For King and Country, Family Life Radio jingle/sweeper. NEW #726, 4.4KW at 775 miles. New overall!
8:28PM - 92.3 KSJO San Jose, CA; very strong, Bollywood music, 'Bolly 92.3 Bay Area's Home for Bollywood Music' RDS. NEW #727, 32KW at 650 miles. Tentatives on KRZZ-93.3, KALW-91.7, KKDV-92.1 and KPFA-94.1 at this time as well. Also a K-LOVE on 95.3, likely what used to be country music on KRTY San Jose. Relog in Ellensburg 7/14/21.

Recordings later. A fun outing! If only it got up into the 100s, but I'll take any skip I can get. Eric in Aptos CA (pclover) logged KTAC-93.9 Ephrata, just 70 miles away from me.
 
crainbebo said:
A great way to start off the summer Es season here in Washington - with short skip into California! WLogger (WTFDA) showed Randy Zerr in Goldfield NV receiving KTDD-104.9 Eatonville and CIOC-98.5 Victoria. Then I went out for a nice evening drive and made some new loggings.

7:59PM - 90.5 KGDP Santa Maria, CA; with Christian Contemporary music and full TOH ID mentioning the Central Coast, and callsign. Relog, 17.5KW at 818 miles. An 88.7 with Spanish was also noted at this time.
Several UNID Spanish stations, including a 93.3 religious station that I rolled tape of. It was mixing with classic rock (KZOZ SLO?) Then:
8:10PM - 93.9 KRLT South Lake Tahoe, CA; with 'Lonely No More' Rob Thomas and ID '93-9 The Lake'. NEW #723, 3KW at only 531 miles!! I also had a 94.3 over the splatter of nearby KATS - "Come Go with Me" by Expose. Assuming the late Art Laboe's station, KOKO-FM in Kerman. Also a very strong Spanish Religion on 94.1 (KBKY?) Es noted to 96.5 and 97.5 at this time. New overall!
8:13PM - 93.1 KFBK-FM Pollock Pines, CA; very strong with news/talk programming and RDS "KFBK". Great to hear this one again, as 1530 AM is a nightly visitor after dark. NEW #724, 20.5KW at 549 miles - more short skip! Relog in Ellensburg, 7/14/21, during the California extravaganza that also resulted in 468-mile Es from KPJP 89.3 Greenville CA.
8:18PM - 93.1 KXSM Chualar, CA; Radio Lazer sweepers, strong, mixed, then over KFBK. NEW #725, 2.5KW at 700 miles. Relog in Ellensburg 7/14/21
8:20PM - 95.1 KBBY Ventura, CA; commercial for the NewWest Symphony Summer-Fest at Moorpark College, with musical guest Jason Scheff (lead vocalist of Chicago after Peter Cetera went solo). Relog, 12.5KW at 865 miles.
8:26PM - 89.3 KLFF Arroyo Grande, CA; 'For God is With Us' For King and Country, Family Life Radio jingle/sweeper. NEW #726, 4.4KW at 775 miles. New overall!
8:28PM - 92.3 KSJO San Jose, CA; very strong, Bollywood music, 'Bolly 92.3 Bay Area's Home for Bollywood Music' RDS. NEW #727, 32KW at 650 miles. Tentatives on KRZZ-93.3, KALW-91.7, KKDV-92.1 and KPFA-94.1 at this time as well. Also a K-LOVE on 95.3, likely what used to be country music on KRTY San Jose. Relog in Ellensburg 7/14/21.

Recordings later. A fun outing! If only it got up into the 100s, but I'll take any skip I can get. Eric in Aptos CA (pclover) logged KTAC-93.9 Ephrata, just 70 miles away from me.
Click to expand...
Yes, KRTY was sold and switched to K-Love

I was bit late to the opening but managed to pull one log out of it. Seems like you were on the much better end :)

93.3 was probably KRZZ.

Gofile - Free Unlimited File Sharing and Storage audio clip for KTAC.

EDIT: Looking at I/Q files 92.1 CJAY appeared as well so of Canada this year. Canada and Mexico in the same day I'll take it.
 
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The first Spanish 93.3 was not KRZZ. KRZZ is commercial Regional Mexican. This station was religious, had muddy audio, and no RDS. It sounded more like an LPFM or translator.
 
Past short E-skip into Boise ID:
Tacoma/Seattle/Vancouver BC (Regular on Tropo)
San Francisco/Sacramento
Butte MT
Kamloops and some Spokane. (Regular on Tropo)
Never got any Reno TV/FM in Boise.
 
cc333 said:
Are there sites that offer predictions for where and when these will happen?

c
Click to expand...
6m map on DXMaps

and the "FM DX" map on DX Maps, I rely on this one a lot more because a lot of the 6-meter skip nowadays is weak signal FT8, a digital mode. Just go to the tab marked "FM DX" and use that instead.
Without analog TV in the US anymore, it's not as easy to predict whether the 6m skip will reach FM. There used to be a time where you could go to any blank low-VHF channel, ch 2-6, and if something unusual popped up or you saw floating pictures underneath the local, or rolling bars, E-skip was likely.

Butte MT seems way too short from Boise. Sure it wasn't meteor scatter or tropo scatter? That's only 250 miles. Same with Spokane. One of my DX friends in BC caught Es from KAID-4 Boise back in the early '90s at around 500 miles.
 
boiseengineer said:
How do you confuse meteor skip & E-skip?!?
You don't.
Tropo & E-skip maybe.
Click to expand...
It is possible to get meteor scatter that looks like Es. Often times it's just short pings.

Es and tropo typically have much different behaviors. The big difference is typically rapid fading with Es and tropo is much slower. Long path Es tho can be stable.
 
crainbebo said:
6m map on DXMaps

and the "FM DX" map on DX Maps, I rely on this one a lot more because a lot of the 6-meter skip nowadays is weak signal FT8, a digital mode. Just go to the tab marked "FM DX" and use that instead.
Without analog TV in the US anymore, it's not as easy to predict whether the 6m skip will reach FM. There used to be a time where you could go to any blank low-VHF channel, ch 2-6, and if something unusual popped up or you saw floating pictures underneath the local, or rolling bars, E-skip was likely.

Butte MT seems way too short from Boise. Sure it wasn't meteor scatter or tropo scatter? That's only 250 miles. Same with Spokane. One of my DX friends in BC caught Es from KAID-4 Boise back in the early '90s at around 500 miles.
Click to expand...
I don't think 6M FT8 is useless. It's still useful. The key is looking at signal strength. My favorite still remains short 6m beacons and SSB. Under 700 or so. Use that too.

That recent AZ Es opening i had 6M SSB form southern cal at 332 miles or so. About 5 minutes later FMBC opened.
 
Did you keep logs, photos, or VHS recordings from your sporadic-E catches, boiseengineer? If indeed you had Butte via Es, that's insanely short, 250 miles or so (my guess is you picked up KXLF-4 either through KAID or when KAID was off air). I have a DX friend in southern Oregon that DID get KCRA-3 Sacramento via Es, 268 miles away, in I believe 2005. That opening was rock-solid centered on SFO/SAC and hardly anywhere else. Another friend in central OR had SF FMs up through 107.7 The Bone in that event and he was only 450 miles north of SF.

EDIT - it was 264 miles from Phoenix OR to KCRA-3 Sacramento. https://wtfda.org/wp-content/uploads/vuds/2000s/2005/07-2005VUD.pdf
 
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pclover said:
It is possible to get meteor scatter that looks like Es. Often times it's just short pings.

Es and tropo typically have much different behaviors. The big difference is typically rapid fading with Es and tropo is much slower. Long path Es tho can be stable.
Click to expand...
Started TV FM Dxing in '66.
Know the diff between E's & Tropo MS & Auroral.
It was Es to Montana & Spokane.
How did I know about Spokane? KREM2 was fading up strong with occasional KHQ6 and lower FM fading up & down. If it were tropo KHQ-FM would have been in way before TV. They were a regular. And I don't see them logged for that event.
It was E-skip 100%. Not brief bursts of MW..
We never got tropo from Montana. Period. When it was auroral from Montana the antenna pointed North and has a raspy jumbled signal.
Again it WAS E-skip.
Have nothing more to say on this.
 
Yes, very strong aurora can cause auroral-E skip. Happened in the March 1989 auroral event, east coast DXers were getting unusual Es to ND/MB/SD/WI.
I've only had FM aurora one time, and it was from Ellensburg, KKHB-105.5 Eureka CA a few years ago matching the stream. Very raspy, muffled signal. Very hard to hear without headphones and almost non-existent on a car radio's speakers. I believe it's about 450 miles south. Auroral VHF DX is usually 250-750 miles and can be slightly farther.
Given the occasional log of KHQ-6, this must have been before KIVI signed on in '74, unless it was overpowering the local ch 6.
Did you ever get UHF tropo from Yakima/Tri? I've tried for Boise on FM Tr and it just hasn't popped up - yet! KWRL-102.3 sometimes shows up from La Grande, but the mountains don't help. Tentative KBXL 94.1 and KCIX 105.9 once from the petrified wood forest backcountry, roughly 500 feet or more above Vantage.

Again, if you have some old Es pics, I'd love to see them.
 
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