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Gulf of Mexico DX

J

jserigny

What makes the Gulf of Mexico such a prime spot for DXing. Last Night Chorpus, Beaumont, Lafayette, and even Houston was booming into Houma, LA last night. I even picked up WAFB's Digital Channel with a roof top antenna in Cut Off. I could even catch Baton Rouge's WLFT channel 30 over the channel 30 in Houma in Cut Off. 93.9 was coming in so clear that it was interfering with my satellite radio FM transmitter. 93.9 is usually the clearest channel in the area.

This year it seems that the interference is stronger and longer than normal. Is this year a low spot in the solar cycle or is particulate matter in the atmosphere from the Chile Volcano that erupted earlier in this causing these problems?
 
It has NOTHING to do with solar cycles (this is tropospheric, after all) or volcanoes. The Gulf tropo phenomenon is well-known, and somewhat predictable.

Two things are really at play here:

1. An abundance of warm, moist air (the engine that drives tropo ducting); and

2. Land at the other end of the path. Theoretically, one might see such conditions well out to sea in the Atlantic, but with no one there, you never know. In the Gulf, you can have 900 miles over water, and a town on the other end. Cool. Interestingly, similar conditions lay in on the Pacific Coast from time-to-time. West Coasters have heard FM broadcast from Hawaii via tropo. That's over 2000 miles!

Sometimes I wish I had stayed down on the Gulf Coast. But, after I saw what Katrina did to my mother's house, I don't find myself wishing too hard.

DE
 
I lived in Lake Charles for a few years. When I moved down there I thought FM section of my car radio had malfunctioned. :D

Once I got to know a few folks,we'd go night fishing in the Gulf. You'd hear AM stations from all over the Gulf and the Caribbean booming in like they were a mile away.
 
Three years ago I was on vacation in Jamaica and scanning the radio to hear the local stations and I was surprised to hear 560 AM KLVI from Beaumont, Texas!. That station usually comes in quite well in Houston and I wasn't expecting to hear in in Jamaica. Jamaica didn't seem to have much activity at all on AM.
 
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