Hurricanes and DX Questions

[Steve Green NEPA]

Cyberdad's 500 miles post jibes with just before. I was talking with my kid sister, and the topic got around to Hurricane Earl (she still has her Dad's Brooklyn accent in Florida and pronounced it 'UH-yil', hi).
Nance asked me what happens when you DX in a hurricane, and I said I never did. She was talking about my AM DX, which I followed exclusively. But then she asked if it would affect reception .... then narrowed THAT to 'between you, the hurricane, and the stations past it?'
I had to give her another 'dunno'. I DID try to guess that it would affect FM and TV DX more because of the varying layers of its system. I told her some water-path factor might be in play.
Then I told her I'd ask HERE, lol.
Any of you folks ever DX in the eye or nearby one? Anyone notice unusual aberrations from a safer vantage?

 

[CTListener]

I'd imagine the static would be overpowering. As for propagation, no effect at all.

 

[davideduardo]

I'd imagine the static would be overpowering. As for propagation, no effect at all.

I have monitored on a DX-quality receiver through quite a few hurricanes during my decades in Puerto Rico.

Not a lot of static... hurricanes I have been in did not have lots of lightening... just rain and winds.

Only been truly in the eye twice, and only once was it at night. And there was nothing unusual on the AM band. With many locals off the air, I was looking for DX opportunities and got lots of Colombia and Venezuela.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Not a lot of static... hurricanes I have been in did not have lots of lightening... just rain and winds.

My experience is that “lightning” seen during a hurricane at night is actually high voltage power line cables banging together, creating brilliant arcs which look like green lightning illuminating the furious clouds and rain. Instead of thunder, you hear a loud rat-a-tat sound, as if an aluminum garbage can was being shot up by a machine gun.

 

[gr8oldies]

I have monitored on a DX-quality receiver through quite a few hurricanes during my decades in Puerto Rico.

Not a lot of static... hurricanes I have been in did not have lots of lightening... just rain and winds.

Only been truly in the eye twice, and only once was it at night. And there was nothing unusual on the AM band. With many locals off the air, I was looking for DX opportunities and got lots of Colombia and Venezuela.

During Hugo in the 90s, the entire market was off the air for a time, with WPDQ (ex-WAPE)-690 staying on high power to provide coverage.

 

[davideduardo]

My experience is that “lightning” seen during a hurricane at night is actually high voltage power line cables banging together, creating brilliant arcs which look like green lightning illuminating the furious clouds and rain. Instead of thunder, you hear a loud rat-a-tat sound, as if an aluminum garbage can was being shot up by a machine gun.

Of course, in a major hurricane power would be either intentionally turned off or cut off by damage long before the center of the storm was near.

Radio and hurricane story: an engineering friend had to repair a station hit by a major hurricane in the 60s along the gulf coast. The tower was down, and the insurance adjusters said it had been hit by a cow... at the 70 foot above ground level, causing the tower to bend and then collapse.

 

[WCJ]

Living along the Gulf Coast, Orange County, Texas, we've gone through several hurricanes in the past 20 or so years, Rita, Ike, Harvey, Imelda to name some of the worst. As far as DXing during the daytime, as there was no electricity there was no noise, and using a Sangean 909X barefoot as my long wire had flown to parts unknown what I could receive was good. Quite a few from the Metroplex, San Antonio/Austin, Shreveport area and one or two from the Valley and Corpus Christi. Some from the east, Mobile and of course WWL and other New Orleans and Baton Rouge area stations that hadn't been affected or were on generator power. Nights was the usual multi-station mess with some of the above-mentioned areas being a little clearer.

 

[gr8oldies]

I don't have direct experience with a hurricane, but in Dayton, Cincinnati and much of the rest of Ohio, we had the remnants of Hurricane Ike, causing 70 mph winds and pretty much making the power grid have to be rebuilt. We had a few local and regional stations go down due to loss of power and damage. While the winds were blowing, no DX was to be had on the FM dial. Next morning, all was calm but WEEC, Springfield OH remained off the air and brought the rare opportunity to hear WMMS, Cleveland.,

 

[nd2023]

When a hurricane is close but not directly hitting, I noticed some spectacular tropo. There’s just something about a hurricane creating tropo ducts higher than usual

 

[ZantennaG1]

As others have said, AM is only really affected by noise in this instance, and you don't always get the lightning in a hurricane. AM coverage does seem to vary with temperature (colder is better), but that does not apply to hurricanes. FM on the other hand, can be impacted by the moisture content of hurricanes, and we already know that ATSC 1.0 isn't good with wind.

 

[cyberdad]

My lone experience with a hurricane was sevesral years ago, when hurricane Michael dealt Pensacola a glancing blow while wreaking havoc to Panama City and points east. Conditions on AM seemed pretty normal Static from lightning and thunder not an issue. All I noticed was that a couple of Panama City signals that are usualy present at our beach location were off the air. AM and FM. I don't know if that meant anything however, because my location was on the outer fringe of where those signals reach under good conditions. Otherwise, the must listen go-to during gulf coast hurricanes is WWL, which is the gold standard for coverage. Epecially when other stations are knocked off the air.

 

[gar hi]

My experience from tropical systems while living in Florida was that FM reception isn't any better than normal and the only possible advantage in AM reception would be if the power goes out and there's not the usual annoying background interference it creates.

 

[schmave]

I don't have direct experience with a hurricane, but in Dayton, Cincinnati and much of the rest of Ohio, we had the remnants of Hurricane Ike, causing 70 mph winds and pretty much making the power grid have to be rebuilt. We had a few local and regional stations go down due to loss of power and damage. While the winds were blowing, no DX was to be had on the FM dial. Next morning, all was calm but WEEC, Springfield OH remained off the air and brought the rare opportunity to hear WMMS, Cleveland.,

14 years ago Wednesday. My parents in Thornville were without power up here longer than I was 25 miles from where Ike made landfall in southeast Texas.