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I don't like this time of year
- Thread starter gar hi
- Start date
Which makes it a great time to spend at the beach--without the radio.gar fla said:As far as DXing goes. It's kind of depressing.
E Skip season is done.
FM tropo season is long past.
The good AM DXing season is still a long way off.
C
cd637299
Guest
Thanx to one website, I was alerted that MS (meteor scatter) season was peaking. I got my 1st MS catch on FM in over 13 years (maybe 15) yesterday afternoon: WVJC 89.1 Mt Carmel IL with a full ID during an MS burst (Murphy's Law in reverse)!
However, yeah, I know the feeling. I have to have this house cleaned anyhow!
cd
However, yeah, I know the feeling. I have to have this house cleaned anyhow!
cd
Is Pine Isalnd where you park & take the boat to Cabbage Key,FL?audioguy said:
An example of one. I was in Madeira Beach and I picked up KKNO, the 250 watter from New Orleans, noisily but it could be heard. That was a good reception for me.
Wow!
Thanks for mentioning that. Like I said, I never paid attention to the low power stations and now I have another adventure to look forward too when I go back to the Gulf again.
Instead of Dunedin, I was thinking of maybe making it an overnight stay in Clearwater, St. Pete Beach, or even the beach at Sarasota sometime in the fall.
I have to make a list of low power stations to look for.
Again, a 250 w from New Orleans 500 miles away is awesome. Unlike WWL, I bet it vanishes as soon as you get into the mainland.
Thanks for mentioning that. Like I said, I never paid attention to the low power stations and now I have another adventure to look forward too when I go back to the Gulf again.
Instead of Dunedin, I was thinking of maybe making it an overnight stay in Clearwater, St. Pete Beach, or even the beach at Sarasota sometime in the fall.
I have to make a list of low power stations to look for.
Again, a 250 w from New Orleans 500 miles away is awesome. Unlike WWL, I bet it vanishes as soon as you get into the mainland.
Yeah... there IS still salt-water-aided DX.
For example, I'm kind-of south of El Cajon and east of La Mesa, CA, about 18 miles from the coast or so. It's interesting to note that of the two big L.A. non-directional 50kW stations, 640 KFI and 1070 KNX, KNX actually comes in a little stronger here (in one place in the house, 51dBuV on my Tecsun PL-380, compared to KFI's 45dBuV), even though it's 12 miles farther away and on a higher dial position. Even using only my Tecsun PL-380's built-in antenna, it's quite strong here. I was wondering... can anyone on here hear a 50kW station above 1000 kHz over 100 miles in the daytime at least as well, using only a radio with a small antenna (less than 4" in its largest dimension), as well as I hear KNX with the Select-A-Tenna?
Also, I'm about 195 miles 500-watt 1290 KZSB (incorrectly labeled KZER in the link), 650-watt 1340 KCLU, and 1000-watt 1490 KSPE in Santa Barbara, CA, yet those stations can be heard here, although they are very faint without the Select-A-Tenna, as can be heard in the 2nd half of the recordings of KZSB and KCLU (I didn't remove the SAT from the radio when I recorded KSPE... for some reason I was getting powerline noise even though I was a good 100+ feet from the lines.) I remember in another thread I posted a recording of what KNBR and KGO San Francisco sound like in the daytime from here with the Select-A-Tenna, and someone commented that their reception of 650 WSM, a 50kW station in Nashville, TN, was about that bad, even though they were within 100 miles of the transmitter. I find it quite interesting that I'm able to hear a station that's about double the frequency, 1/100th the power, and twice the distance, about as well, if not slightly stronger.
Last, but not least, I may be about 212 miles away from a Santa Barbara FM station, but I can almost always hear 103.3 KVYB from here. What would be enabling my consistent reception of that station? It's well beyond line-of-sight, not to mention the fact that I am actually on the WRONG side of TWO hills (one peak to the north and one to the southwest, although even heading directly toward the station as the crow flies you still go uphill at least a few hundred feet elevation), but it seems to be too consistent for it to be e-skip, tropo, or meteor scatter. What is it? (Occasionally it can even be strong enough to trip the stereo decoder, although it wasn't at the time I recorded it.)
Am I the only one who regularly hears at least one FM station over 200 miles away, even though I'm on the wrong side of a hill?
As far as I know, I've never actually had e-skip, tropo, or meteor-scatter FM reception. I was just remembering, though, a very interesting reception quirk on my Panasonic RQ-SW20 maybe a few years ago. I forget what frequency it was (I think it was in the middle of the band), but I was hearing the audio from a cable TV show (some kind of food / kitchen type show, I think, maybe). BTW, that radio has a local/DX switch, and if you coax it just right you can actually set it BETWEEN those two settings. The interesting thing is, I only heard that signal when that local/DX switch was on the in-between setting, not in the local OR the DX mode, even though it was far enough in frequency from local stations to not be getting any adjacent-channel interference. Also, it wasn't a very strong signal - if I remember correctly, it didn't light the tuning LED, nor did it activate the stereo decoder.
For example, I'm kind-of south of El Cajon and east of La Mesa, CA, about 18 miles from the coast or so. It's interesting to note that of the two big L.A. non-directional 50kW stations, 640 KFI and 1070 KNX, KNX actually comes in a little stronger here (in one place in the house, 51dBuV on my Tecsun PL-380, compared to KFI's 45dBuV), even though it's 12 miles farther away and on a higher dial position. Even using only my Tecsun PL-380's built-in antenna, it's quite strong here. I was wondering... can anyone on here hear a 50kW station above 1000 kHz over 100 miles in the daytime at least as well, using only a radio with a small antenna (less than 4" in its largest dimension), as well as I hear KNX with the Select-A-Tenna?
Also, I'm about 195 miles 500-watt 1290 KZSB (incorrectly labeled KZER in the link), 650-watt 1340 KCLU, and 1000-watt 1490 KSPE in Santa Barbara, CA, yet those stations can be heard here, although they are very faint without the Select-A-Tenna, as can be heard in the 2nd half of the recordings of KZSB and KCLU (I didn't remove the SAT from the radio when I recorded KSPE... for some reason I was getting powerline noise even though I was a good 100+ feet from the lines.) I remember in another thread I posted a recording of what KNBR and KGO San Francisco sound like in the daytime from here with the Select-A-Tenna, and someone commented that their reception of 650 WSM, a 50kW station in Nashville, TN, was about that bad, even though they were within 100 miles of the transmitter. I find it quite interesting that I'm able to hear a station that's about double the frequency, 1/100th the power, and twice the distance, about as well, if not slightly stronger.
Last, but not least, I may be about 212 miles away from a Santa Barbara FM station, but I can almost always hear 103.3 KVYB from here. What would be enabling my consistent reception of that station? It's well beyond line-of-sight, not to mention the fact that I am actually on the WRONG side of TWO hills (one peak to the north and one to the southwest, although even heading directly toward the station as the crow flies you still go uphill at least a few hundred feet elevation), but it seems to be too consistent for it to be e-skip, tropo, or meteor scatter. What is it? (Occasionally it can even be strong enough to trip the stereo decoder, although it wasn't at the time I recorded it.)
Am I the only one who regularly hears at least one FM station over 200 miles away, even though I'm on the wrong side of a hill?
As far as I know, I've never actually had e-skip, tropo, or meteor-scatter FM reception. I was just remembering, though, a very interesting reception quirk on my Panasonic RQ-SW20 maybe a few years ago. I forget what frequency it was (I think it was in the middle of the band), but I was hearing the audio from a cable TV show (some kind of food / kitchen type show, I think, maybe). BTW, that radio has a local/DX switch, and if you coax it just right you can actually set it BETWEEN those two settings. The interesting thing is, I only heard that signal when that local/DX switch was on the in-between setting, not in the local OR the DX mode, even though it was far enough in frequency from local stations to not be getting any adjacent-channel interference. Also, it wasn't a very strong signal - if I remember correctly, it didn't light the tuning LED, nor did it activate the stereo decoder.
I share the pain, gar.
At my place the summer and early fall is my best tropo season but FM signals are almost always limited to east of the Appalachians.
In the past, I once had an outdoor FM yagi antenna up high, very rare FM non-Eskip DX was heard as far away as Columbus, OH (WNCI-FM) in VA. Right now I can't have such an antenna.
Around here, winter and early spring are usually the worst times for tropo and March and April are pretty boring with AM DX season fading away. But I do point out that AM DX conditions here may be getting slightly better soon...
At my place the summer and early fall is my best tropo season but FM signals are almost always limited to east of the Appalachians.
In the past, I once had an outdoor FM yagi antenna up high, very rare FM non-Eskip DX was heard as far away as Columbus, OH (WNCI-FM) in VA. Right now I can't have such an antenna.
Around here, winter and early spring are usually the worst times for tropo and March and April are pretty boring with AM DX season fading away. But I do point out that AM DX conditions here may be getting slightly better soon...
Thanks for those clips. You've gotten some impressive daytime catches from your location.
Here's one of my clips showing how loaded up a frequency can be near the saltwater in the daytime.
Where I am inland in Tampa about 20 miles away, 790 AM sounds nothing like this during the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEWZwxHfkzo
M
Mid West Clubber
Guest
Im still getting good DX here in Indiana, and usually do till well after back to school time. I cheat though, Ive got a rotar antenna. Bob on the Job cheata way worse than I do though...
gar fla said:
Wow, is that, like, 3 or 4 stations battling it out on the same frequency in the daytime? Hey you're near the Gulf, right?
Yeah... that saltwater can make a big difference. If I'm near the beach, my barefoot reception of those Santa Barbara AM stations, if I remember correctly, is closer to the quality of my reception of KNX at home, than it is to my Select-A-Tenna aided reception of the SB stations at home. Even so, daytime DXing here can be fun.
So far my most distant catch is 700 KALL North Salt Lake City, UT, at about 626 miles, using the Tecsun PL-380 and Select-A-Tenna. The slop is from a local 77kW on 690 that's about 32 miles south/southwest. I suspect that if I had a better antenna (I'm limping along with a Select-A-Tenna) I may be able to hear even more distant stations. I wonder if it might be possible to have an antenna that's sensitive enough so that in the daytime, the clear channels sound like what the local "graveyard" channels sound like at night using only the radio's built-in antenna?
Also, I'd like to know who on here has beat my 626-mile over-land AM daytime reception distance?
And no cheating with the high frequencies in winter I suspect some of them use skywave, as I've heard 1530 KFBK in El Cajon, CA, in the daytime in winter, when otherwise I can't even hear it about 40-50 miles south of Fresno in summer.
C
cd637299
Guest
Dunno the as-crow-flies distance, but DXn in the day from Cape Hatteras NC, I caught WWL 870 over land. 1pm I think in November 1997.
cd
cd
That's around 900 miles or so. Considering it was November, though, I suspect some skywave could have been involved. Think you can duplicate that, using the same equipment at the same time of day, between May and August, preferably at least 2 weeks or later after a hurricane?
Considering it was November, though, I suspect some skywave could have been involved. Think you can duplicate that, using the same equipment at the same time of day, between May and August, preferably at least 2 weeks or later after a hurricane?
C
cd637299
Guest
I doubt it! Wasn't a lotta fading, though....just a horrible signal!
Was in Bermuda in the last week of June 2005 just to do AM DXn, mostly daytime. It was only 1 week after the long June 21 day, so it was the least skywave there could be. Extreme day catches were WBZ 1030 to the north US, 560/670/940 Miami to the south US, and also WKAQ 580* PR to the south Caribbean & possibly ZIZ 555 as well, but there was a strong whistle.
WTAR 850 Norfolk may have been the strongest US station daytime there, but I also (very faintly) got WFTL 850 West Pakm Beach under it as well!
[*DavidEduardo ID'd what was an unID 810 as WKVM in PR as well.]
cd
Was in Bermuda in the last week of June 2005 just to do AM DXn, mostly daytime. It was only 1 week after the long June 21 day, so it was the least skywave there could be. Extreme day catches were WBZ 1030 to the north US, 560/670/940 Miami to the south US, and also WKAQ 580* PR to the south Caribbean & possibly ZIZ 555 as well, but there was a strong whistle.
WTAR 850 Norfolk may have been the strongest US station daytime there, but I also (very faintly) got WFTL 850 West Pakm Beach under it as well!
[*DavidEduardo ID'd what was an unID 810 as WKVM in PR as well.]
cd
cd637299 said:
Did you hear these stations in Bermuda all day--especially mid day?
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