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Major Skip in the South

R

Rob

I know there's a DX board but this kinda fits here in the south, been picking up stations from Texas, Mexico and GA, according to the map, we are under heavy tropo:

http://aprs.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/

I wish I knew where in MX these stations were coming from, heard 97.3, 107.1 and 104.9 FM playing spanish music and I only know English.

-Rob
 
Rob-42 said:
I know there's a DX board but this kinda fits here in the south, been picking up stations from Texas, Mexico and GA, according to the map, we are under heavy tropo:

http://aprs.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/

I wish I knew where in MX these stations were coming from, heard 97.3, 107.1 and 104.9 FM playing spanish music and I only know English.

-Rob
Click to expand...

You cannot right-away assume that if it's Spanish, it's Mexico; it could well be Texas. Be sure to check Radio-Locator.com & do the advanced search for frequency AND format. Some out of Texas might match; but then again, it *could* well be Mexico. Formats on the site could be listed as "Spanish", "Regional Mexican," or "Tejano"....I cannot think of the other phrases.

Could you tell me of *South* Florida is affected? I sure hope so. E-skip is fine, but I'm on Tropo withdrawal. :)

cd
 
Rob-42 said:
I know there's a DX board but this kinda fits here in the south, been picking up stations from Texas, Mexico and GA, according to the map, we are under heavy tropo:

http://aprs.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/

I wish I knew where in MX these stations were coming from, heard 97.3, 107.1 and 104.9 FM playing spanish music and I only know English.

-Rob
Click to expand...

Don't give up on the Spanish-language stations if you don't speak the language. The ones in Mexico* tend to run REALLY LONG IDs with lots of information, and long commercial strings which if you're lucky will contain local advertisers & mentions of their city.

* as Chris says, Spanish-language stations are not necessarily in Mexico. There are plenty of such stations in Texas, a non-negligible number in other U.S. states, and in Cuba. (unfortunately the Cubans don't run any local announcements, on the other hand the music is distinctive and there aren't any ads, a very obvious distinction from Mexican stations!) I've also heard Spanish-language specialty programming on Canadian stations, and while it's not really relevant to FM skip, the strong Spanish-language station in most nights on AM 1610 turns out to also be Canadian.

Depending on where in the South you are, there's also Central America and the Dominican Republic.
 
I did wait for TOH and didn't hear an ID in english, does FCC requirements require stations to ID in english? Can you guys please help me ID the stations?
 
Rob-42 said:
I did wait for TOH and didn't hear an ID in english, does FCC requirements require stations to ID in english? Can you guys please help me ID the stations?
Click to expand...

No, the FCC regulation on station identification doesn't specify which language must be used. A pretty high proportion of U.S.-based stations do ID in English, but not all of them.

Of course, stations outside the U.S. are subject to their own countries' regulations, not FCC requirements. I would not expect to hear an English ID on a Mexican station. (I have been surprised just how much English I do hear on some stations in larger Mexican cities, but even there the vast majority of programming is in Spanish)

If you have a way of posting audio clips on a webserver somewhere, I'm sure some of us can take a listen.
 
I could plug the receiver to my line's input.. which might be a good idea. What can I use to send audio without the music police knocking on my arse?
 
Rob-42 said:
I could plug the receiver to my line's input.. which might be a good idea. What can I use to send audio without the music police knocking on my arse?
Click to expand...

Agreed with Chris, regarding Total Recorder.

Music really isn't useful in identifying DX anyway -- pretty much any station could be responsible for that Lady Gaga/Antebellum/whoever song -- so you can edit it out of your recordings & the RIAA won't get on your case. (they aren't going to get bent out of shape if you leave 2-3 seconds of music in either side of the announcements)

Audacity is a good program for editing your recordings.
 
Thank you, w9wi.

To add to what he said about Mexico, many stations not only give call letters in their official ID along with the slogan....but also they tell you how many watts they run, their studio location, & all sortsa goodies.

Last year I caught on e-skip a station on 89.9 in Chiapas that proudly stated that they run 250 watts!

And...don't forget the great website that one of our members here has, and he does his best to keep tabs on any changes in Mexico Radio & TV...

www.mexicoradiotv.com

And here is another help....Let's say you heard on 97.3 a "Radio Tamale Caliente"....you go to Google and type like so, in the search:

"radio tamale caliente" 97.3 (note: quotation marks keep the words in order)

Bingo, you'll get the info you need. Be sure you catch at least a slogan!

And BTW...if you are getting TV outta Mexico, THAT will be a tough job to get an ID. 2 days ago on E-skip I caught a Canal Cinco ("Channel 5", a Mexican TV network) affiliate on channel 4...the thing had to have been in and out for TWO HOURS....no ID whatsoever, and no local commercials to help!* A DX buddy of mine has www.tvdxtips.com , and it's the best help you can get if your espanol is limited, like yours truly.

w9wi's site www.w9wi.com is helpful too as far as Mexican FM & TV technical info.

[*I suspect Tampico, but I just cannot go on a hunch. Amazing video in spots, considering I was away on my job & the antenna was pointed at the Dominican Republic!]

cd
 
Haven't I read recently that the FCC is only requiring hourly IDs now. No longer does it have to be as close to the top of the hour as possible without interrupting a song?

Also, don't Mexican stations have to ID in Spanish, even if US station just have to ID?
Do all Mexican stations (maybe Cubans too) play the national anthem at the same time every day? Or is that just something I made up?
 
poledo said:
Haven't I read recently that the FCC is only requiring hourly IDs now. No longer does it have to be as close to the top of the hour as possible without interrupting a song?
Click to expand...

The rule hasn't changed, but they've gotten pretty lax about enforcing it.

Also, don't Mexican stations have to ID in Spanish, even if US station just have to ID?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that's true, but all I have to go on is that on the rare occasions I've been to San Diego (it's been 30 years..), the English-language stations broadcasting out of Mexico were IDing in Spanish pretty frequently. (more than once an hour)

Do all Mexican stations (maybe Cubans too) play the national anthem at the same time every day? Or is that just something I made up?
Click to expand...

Again, I've heard that too but don't have solid information. Both of those are David Eduardo questions.
 
This caught me sort of off-guard; I heard 106.9 "The Eagle" clearly this morning near noon and got a quick Houston ID from it, and lo it's still coming through pretty clearly now, almost 12 hours later. Since there's no thread in the DX section, I'll share my catches from "almost Florida" in Baldwin County, AL. :)

This has been a bit more like I was expecting from tropo… mostly east-west, but it has still thrown Miss 103 from Jackson, MS and a few stations from Albany and Valdosta, GA. Most notably:

WMTM 93.9 (Classic Hits)
WDEC 94.7 (AC)
WJIZ 96.3 (Rap)
WGEX 97.3 "Hit Music Now"
WJAD 103.5 (Rock)
WKAK 104.5 "K-Country"

Three of those are 1st adjacent to local powerhouses, and two of those overrode local HD sidebands.

A few from Tallahassee, as well:

WTUF 106.3 (Country)
WHTF 104.9 "Hot 104.9"

Of course Panama City made itself strongly known again, but a great co-channel catch came with WOCY 106.5, playing pop music.

A few New Orleans semi-regulars were in like WQUE and WYLD 98.5, but KSMB 94.5 (Lafayette) and WCDV 103.3 (Adult Hits) made themselves known as well. KYBG "Big 102.1" is a new catch for me from the area between Lafayette and Lake Charles.

Finally, in Houston, I got the following:

97.1 KTHT (Classic Country) - Cleveland, TX
100.3 KILT (Country)
103.3 KJOJ (Spanish)
106.9 WHPT "Eagle 106.9"

Last but not least, Z-105.7 out of the Troy-Montgomery, AL area completely blew away my local Sunny 105.7 in Orange Beach. That's the first time I've heard it here since Sunny signed on years ago!

Rob, what all did you catch?
 
Since this is not the DX board, I'll post something there.

Thanx to our OP for alerting me....you may not believe this....

cd
 
97.3, 107.1 and 104.9 FM was all I got

(note no stereo carrier on 97.3)

-Rob
 
Now 101.7 female ID'ing their numbers in spanish something like radio emega 101.7 playing some weird mexican crap..
RDS saves the day KNTE houston..
 
Rob-42,

You WERE likely hearing Mexico. I was in on the opening and had about a half-dozen, mostly from Veracruz and Tamualipas States. If you hear a slogan and/or XE or XH prefixes in Spanish TOH it's Mexico. And the commercials will be quoting prices in pesos. If you hear dollars you can bet it's likely Texas. And I've had Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador etc. in past years, which can be a bit more challenging to separate from Mexico without close listening.
 
Now that you mention it Zach, 105.7 from Troy was stopping the scan on my entire drive from Pensacola to Tallahassee last Friday and Monday. That used to be very common, it's rather rare now.
 
Mexican TV is in the process of going digital. All of the analogs are still operating. Last I read the drop-dead date for analog was in 2022 but I *really* doubt they'll wait that long.
 
XHRIO ch 2 in Matamoros, a Fox affiliate, gets to still use its analog because it's in Mexico. However, they do run as a digital 26 IIRC. it was caught in Louisiana last year.

It's interesting when they run a program meant for HD....via E-skip, I saw an MLB baseball game last year, and I believe that they cropped the picture for analog----because of Fox's graphics, only the home-team score showed in the upper-left!

Maybe that's Fox's way of getting folk to say, "hey I better buy an HD TV"....I'm sticking with my Insignia converter box!!

cd
 
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