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Insanely early Es in WA state - at least 2 new - 4/15/2020

C

crainbebo

I've never had Eskip this early in the 'season' (outside of a January 2017 event). Previously 'earliest' Es was 4/28/15. Today over a half-hour of DX to eastern NM and the TX panhandle resulted in 2 new logs. I have a Pioneer Supertuner IIID out in my Hyundai but couldn't get a single RDS reading out of anything even when some signals were 2 bars (and often I'll get RDS when fringe signals are flickering at 1-2 bars).
Audio to be posted later once I am able to monitor and clip in Audacity. It won't be as crackling and tinny as previous years tnx to the speakers in the Hyundai. Times in Pacific.

1:07PM - 89.7 UNID with Religious music and commentary, phone calls in ENGLISH. KLTB TX is Spanish. Who could this be? Audio recording to come later and will be posted to WTFDA's UNID boards. They did mention some type of call-in offer.
1:10PM - 92.7 unid with talk program, likely Slaton TX but no ID.
1:13PM - 98.1 KKCL Lorenzo, TX; with 'Ordinary World' by Duran Duran // playlist. Relog, 36KW at 1,349 miles.
1:15PM - 96.3 KLLL Lubbock, TX; with Miranda Lambert song 'The House that Built Me,' and mention of K-Triple-L. Relog, 100KW at 1,349 miles.
1:19PM - 95.5 KAIQ Wolfforth, TX; with Regional Mexican music (only possible match in area). Relog, 100KW at 1,349 miles.
1:20PM - 92.7 UNID 'Real Country' mixing with religion. Presume KBQL Las Vegas NM.
1:22PM - 99.5 KQBR Lubbock, TX; country music and ID 'Lonestar 99.5', overpowering KQBG Rock Island/Wenatchee. Strong signal but no RDS of course. NEW #571 from Ellensburg, 100KW at 1,349 miles.
1:24PM - 102.9 KIXN Hobbs, NM; local ads and COVID-19 resources, KIX 103 mention. NEW #572, 100KW at 1,340 miles.
MUF was 105.9 a couple min later, country (likely KSEL, no ID as it faded) and later briefly a Spanish station (KRZY-FM Santa Fe?) There was religious music on 104.3 (likely Brownfield TX, but faded before any ID), Regional Mexican on 103.7 (likely KPZA Jal, a relog), and classic hits on 101.5 (likely KRMQ Clovis, another relog).
1:43PM - 88.7 KXNM Encino, NM; with Duran Duran's "Save a Prayer," and support mention of The Water Store in Edgewood on George Ct. Relog, 18KW at 1,158 miles.
Skip mostly faded out after that.
A nice April surprise. Hopefully this is a sign that a great summer is coming - as long as we continue to follow the stay-at-home orders and wear masks in the grocery store. :)
 
@crainbebo: I can't remember e-skip this early in the season, although my FM DXing is only a small fraction of what yours is. I guess if we can't have baseball or hockey and basketball playoffs, early e-skip is a nice plan B for DXers. :)
 
Wow, that is early.

I remember it on analog TV channel 2 long ago in April but never on FM.

Just looked at the live map on 'DXMAPS' and it's happening up to 64 Mhz right now in the south.
 
I had the following on Tuesday in Manistee, MI via Es:
93.1 WFEZ Miami, FL (ID "Easy 93.1")
93.1 WKRO Port Orange, FL (playlist/stream match)
96.5 WPOW Miami, FL (playlist/stream match)
107.9 WEAT West Palm Beach, FL (ID "Sunny 107.9" into local ads mentioning 561 area code)

Also had 88.9 with NPR-style talk (likely WQCS Fort Pierce, FL) and a Carly Pearce and Lee Brice song on 96.5 (very likely WJCL Savannah, GA as it's the only country 96.5 anywhere in that part of the country)

WJCL and WEAT would be new here.
 
crainbebo said:
I've never had Eskip this early in the 'season' (outside of a January 2017 event).
Click to expand...

I had January Eskip in 1977. It was the only winter Eskip I ever heard. In Chicago I heard Miami, Fl for several hours. From what I've heard Eskip in mid winter isn't that unusual. However, it was the only time for me.
 
 
crainbebo said:
I've got audio!
UNID 89.7 - https://www.mediafire.com/file/2kzf..._WA_4_15_20_-_possible_Brownfield_TX.wma/file
KLLL - https://www.mediafire.com/file/neguljrrqjzi9my/KLLL_96.3_Lubbock_TX_4_15_20_from_Yakima_WA.wma/file
UNID 92.7 - https://www.mediafire.com/file/p6j8...rg_WA_4_15_20_Real_Country_NM_likely.wma/file
KQBR - https://www.mediafire.com/file/nxed...15_20_from_Ellensburg_WA_(over_KQBG).wma/file
KIXN #1 - https://www.mediafire.com/file/qep6...NM_4_15_20_from_Ellensburg_WA_clip_1.wma/file
KIXN #2 - https://www.mediafire.com/file/ac3w...NM_4_15_20_from_Ellensburg_WA_clip_2.wma/file
KPZA - https://www.mediafire.com/file/0cr5...ensburg_WA_-_English_and_Spanish_ads.wma/file
KXNM - https://www.mediafire.com/file/g3bx...Encino_NM_4_15_20_from_Ellensburg_WA.wma/file
Click to expand...

Nice!
 
I would have sworn winter ESkip was an urban legend until a couple of years ago when I logged a few Kansans from East Tennessee.




radioman148 said:
I had January Eskip in 1977. It was the only winter Eskip I ever heard. In Chicago I heard Miami, Fl for several hours. From what I've heard Eskip in mid winter isn't that unusual. However, it was the only time for me.
Click to expand...
 
gr8oldies said:
I would have sworn winter ESkip was an urban legend until a couple of years ago when I logged a few Kansans from East Tennessee.
Click to expand...

Agreed regarding winter e-skip.

Regarding summer e-skip, many many years ago when I first heard it one June in the 1960s, I didn't realize what it was or why it happened. I was hearing all these stations and I didn't know why. Before that I had noticed I received distant TV channels usually in early summer humid weather. I had no idea why this happened then. The only correlation I had was warm humid weather in the early summer. So when I heard it in January I was shocked. Then I found out it isn't that unusual.
 
When I was very young, WJBK-TV 2 and WWJ-TV 4 were half of the stations we could get quite well (Solid Grade B signals, the vacuum cleaner did a number on them though). I noticed very early, probably before Kindergarten, I would watch "I Love Lucy" on WJBK-TV 2 and "Romper Room" on WWJ-TV 4. In the Summer, those signals were quite frequently messed up. These shows were on before the stations in the Great Plains and close to the Rocky Mountains signed on in those days. I saw a disturbing looking Indian Head floating behind Lucy and the Romper Room host. And of course the characteristic offset audio 10 kHz whine from cochannel stations. Then there was that weird circular thing with the numbers around it. The ones that floated instead of making lines and whines were stations with the same offset. Our TV was a Zenith. The tuner had an interesting feature. As you turned the channel knob, it went 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 3, 6, 8, 10, 12 instead of sequential. So I missed what may have been happening on Channel 3. Years later, I figured it out that the channels were grouped for markets like NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, and LA, and to a lesser degree, Detroit (and Windsor and Toledo), Cleveland, Milwaukee, and other smaller markets. This was often convenient and put less wear and tear on the knob and tuner. And also years later, I learned that it was Sporadic E that was responsible for the lines and whines and Indian Heads. When WJRT-TV 12 signed on after a long competitive applicant battle in 1958, they used a test pattern for hours when they first signed on, so I quickly learned that this was called a Test Pattern.
 
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