• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

FM DX -- Montana received in Texas June 16

H

HoustonListener

Is there tropospheric ducting going on now? I am not sure I understand exactly how that works?
I posted this on the Houston board but poking around just discovered that there is a DX board here so I am also posting this here...

I was driving up from Houston to the Dallas area yesterday (June 16) and scanning the channels after getting outside of Houston and when I was just about to Centerville, Texas (halfway between Dallas and Houston), 101.3 FM came in loud and clear. I wasn't familiar with any 101.3 in the area (with 101.1 in Houston and Dallas that hogs the space for 101.3 in between) so I kept listening. I heard a weather forecast for highs of 80 and lows in the 50s, so although I was hoping that there was an arriving cold front (we need to cool down, been near 100 degrees here) I figured it was coming from out of state. Then I heard livestock auction numbers for cattle and pork bellies from the "Northern Ag Network." Texas is not exactly a "Northern Ag" kind of state. I heard a PSA from the Montana Department of Transportation reminding people it was against the law to use off road (and non highway taxed) diesel in their on road vehicles. this made me guess the station was coming from Montana but I figured it also could just be a PSA along with the "Northern Ag Network" programming and not necessarily from Montana. The station faded and then boomed in as I drove for about 1/2 hour from about 10:20 to 10:50. I finally caught the station ID -- KIKC in Forsyth Montana. Mapquest says it is about 1500 road miles from Centerville, Texas to Forsyth Montana. Looking this station up, it has 100,000 watts in a town of only 1944 people.

Anyone else hear any long range DX yesterday?
 
It was not tropo ducting but Sporadic E skip that enabled you to hear a Montana FM. Sporadic E, common in the Summer months and for a brief period around Christmas,
bounces signals off a "cloud" of unusually ionized atmospheric gas in the ionosphere's E region. TV and FM signals can typically "bounce" 1,000=1,500 hundred miles during such an opening. There were probably other stations from the same general area (Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming) that could be heard on your radio dial at the same time. In theory at least, people in Montana would be hearing Texas stations. You've got a great "catch" there. Montana is a rare if ever DX catch for most of us in the SW and SE.
 
I live in Lubbock and conditions have been very unusual around here lately.

On the 15th, I too caught stations not only out of Montana, but out of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, West Virginia, and Alabama. Later, as I kept playing around on the radio, I ended up hearing weather being done in celsius and realized I was hearing several stations out of Canada. After I listened to their station slogans and locations, I did a little bit of googling and was able to confirm that I was hearing stuff out of Canada.

Unfortunately, I didn't catch anything on the 16th like you did though.

Happy DXing ;D
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom