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I don't believe this was E-Skip, but what was it?

A

adam502002

So tonight I pick up stations in my car that I don't usually get. I assumed I was receiving E-skip, but after coming home and researching the locations of the stations online, I don't believe this was far enough away to deem e-skip.

I'm in the Prestonsburg, Kentucky area, and tonight I heard:

Cool 101.7 from Newark, Ohio.
and WCLT -- also from Newark, Ohio...I found that strange.

Also, WHBC Mix 94.1 from Canton, Ohio (northeastern Ohio)

and All Hit 95 XIL from Parkersburg, WVA (along the Ohio River)

Newark is 165 miles from here. Parkersburg is 131 miles away, and Canton is 237 miles away - all in the north/northeastern direction. I can never hear any of these stations, except I did tonight.

Stations in Charleston and Huntington seemed to have an enhanced signal tonight, too, but I can usually hear them a little anyway. Tonight they came in clear with RDS.

My question is what could cause stations all from a certain general direction to be so enhanced? Would a catch from northeastern Ohio in Kentucky be considered E-skip? Very strange night on my FM radio dial...
 
Likely this was tropo (tropospheric reception)....the signals stayed in longer than a normal E-skip reception, didn't they? :)

Tropo is normally better late at night, but there are rare instances of daytime Tropo.

Locations along shorelines can bring long haul tropo, as signals can travel better over salt water. If you are in a high elevation, that will bring good tropo as well.

cd
 
Sounds like a classic case of tropospheric ducting, not e-skip propagation. Sometimes, when weather fronts are in the area, and they sure have been here in Kentucky and Ohio recently, you will get "pipelines" or ducts that carry VHF and UHF signals over the horizon for up to a few hundred miles. E-skip usually involves greater distances than this. That's about the easiest way to explain what you experienced.
 
Thanks! It makes since.

Have have def. had some serious weather today, and it is forecasted to have a rough week.

Would events like this be predictable (whereas e-skip isn't)?
 
Yes....unlike E-skip, Tr can be somewhat predicted....High pressure accounts for a great deal.

Bookmark this site:

www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_car.html

Learn the color scheme! (That's the region I use....in KY maybe there is an alternate map there for you---the drag & drop feature will tell you.)

cd
 
Although I haven't snagged any E-skip this season, I know pretty much when tropo kicks in and it certainly can be more 'reliable'. I can expect semi-regular visits, from as far west as CHTZ St. Catherines ON (200 miles), fighting out on 97.7 with CHOM Montreal QC (110 miles to my east), or Syracuse's Hot107.9 (120 miles) duking it out with Burlington VT's Vermont Public Radio (125 miles).

Alas, what once was, is slowly disappearing. Windsor ON's 89X (400 miles) used to be a semi-regular, but no more...the 88.7 frequency, along with so many others, are being filled in as more FM frequencies are be filled in, often by 'repeaters' or some other voice tracked AC local. :(

~BG
 
Sounds kinda like a few years ago when I lived in Ashland, Ohio and for like 4 days straight, I picked up all of the Detroit-area (250 miles away) stations, crystal clear for about 4 days.
 
On the same night, June 20th, I was picking up Columbus, OH FM's from Vermilion, OH which is rare due to the elevation ridge between Vermilion and Columbus which usually prevents such reception. That evening however, I was even picking up WHOK 95.5 over top of semi-local WFHM 95.5
 
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