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Mississippi e-skip heard in Buffalo, NY!

T

ThePickleReport

I was trying to get my satellite radio adjusted this morning in Buffalo, NY and was picking up a frequency that I usually don't receive much on. The RDS in my car even lit up as "MPB" on 90.9. Turns out it was WMAO in Greenwood, Mississippi!!!!

Greetings!
 
I installed that RDS encoder. Nice detective work (and an argument for putting something at least marginally identifiable on your RDS display).

If the skip had stretched a little more down Ole Man River, you might have picked up your native son Rod Ryan http://www.thebuzz.com/pages/rrs-home.html off of 2000' tower KYRK 104.1 between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Anyway, y'all are welcome down heah.

:)
 
WOW! Thats a long way. But it's not that small a station. 100,000 watts at 880 feet. It's a good solid C1. Still, New York!!! WOW
 
The last few days this has been happening. FM signals have been bouncing all over the place in the eastern part of the US.

It's nearly Summer, of course, and this is not unexpected. Sporadic-E (shorthanded as "Es") is highly seasonal, and happens on FM with some regularity this time of year. This week, though, has been crazy. FM Es every day. On the way to my kid's year-end program at school yesterday, my radio was full of Canadians. One which I was able to ID was just 1 kW in Quebec. And, it was strong, too, all by itself on 96.5.

TV does this, too. In fact, when I paid attention to TV Es in the past, Buffalo was very, very common and channels 4 and 2.

Keep checking around. This will happen again, perhaps even today.

DE
 
Doctor_Technical said:
I installed that RDS encoder. Nice detective work (and an argument for putting something at least marginally identifiable on your RDS display).
Click to expand...

I had to Google "MPB 90.9" to figure it out. The promo for "Car Talk" said "MPB" as well.
Maybe "Miss. P.B." would be better?
 
DeadElvis said:
The last few days this has been happening. FM signals have been bouncing all over the place in the eastern part of the US.
Click to expand...

I don't remember it happeing this early. We had a weird couple of days here though; it was 82 Thursday and kinda humid and then it cooled down about ten degrees and we had fog overnight which created a weird haze on Friday morning.
 
> don't remember it happeing this early.

You're right; it is a little early. But, that's not unheard of by any stretch of the imagination.

I am a ham, and watch this stuff pretty closely, as my interests in the hobby are mainly VHF. I didn't see any real appreciable Es above 50 MHz last year until May 11th (save for a little burp on 4/26). Interesting, it was the same date the year before.

This year, there was a very nice opening into Mexico on 4/21, and has been very active otherwise since May 4th. Further, lower-band Es on 28 MHz (the 10m ham band) really hasn't stopped except for very late nights since that time. That's unusual.

Now, is this meaningful for the coming Season? I can't answer that. Last year started late and weak, but, it had some spectacular moments, including a 50 MHz opening from the Midwest into Japan. Yikes. So, who knows?

As I type, there is some Es going on, but it hasn't peaked much above 50 MHz (the band opens from below, and works up). I would imagine something will happen before the day is out, though.

I love Es!

DE
 
I'm assuming the Es is a two way street? It been well over a year since my last taste of FM DX, when Monterrey Mexico stations pounded on the Birmingham dial for over 45 minutes on my way to work!

RDS is a great addition to the FM DX hobby. Back when I had a good Kenwood car stereo, it was easy to get RDS snags. At one point I'd filled all six presets with RDS catches in one session. My current RDS radios (a RS DX-398 and my cellphone) aren't good enough to use for RDS DX.

Hey Dr. Technical, I was beginning to think you disappeared. Next time you're up at the Oxford MPB site, check the balance - it sounds left-biased. :p

The KYRK @ 104.1 was my "go-to station" when I lived in Birmingham. If they were booming in, Texas and Mexico weren't far behind.
 
> I'm assuming the Es is a two way street?

If I understand your question, the answer is, yes. The door does swing both ways (NOT that there's anything wrong with that). If you're getting Monterrey in Birmingham, then Monterrey should be getting Birmingham.

> RDS is a great addition to the FM DX hobby.

I just got a swanky new car which has RDS in the sound system. I am looking forward to trying it.

One can say much the same thing about Digital TV (DTV) and TV DX. If you get the station to lock, there is no waiting for an ID. It just pops right up. That saves a lot of swearing waiting for a top of hour ID or local break as the station starts to fade!

DE
 
DeadElvis said:
The door does swing both ways (NOT that there's anything wrong with that).
Click to expand...

;)

That's what I thought (re: E openings). At first, I couldn't remember if there were reports from that area, but just now I recall seeing Birmingham stations getting reported around Brownsville.

DeadElvis said:
One can say much the same thing about Digital TV (DTV) and TV DX. If you get the station to lock, there is no waiting for an ID. It just pops right up. That saves a lot of swearing waiting for a top of hour ID or local break as the station starts to fade!
Click to expand...

Have you had any luck with DTV DX? On a few mornings back in November I was able to get several Memphis channels in the early morning, for a paltry 100 mile catch, with an indoor cheapie antenna.

Would you count an ID only as a catch? Or do you try to get a picture with audio?
 
> Have you had any luck with DTV DX?

Well, I am not very serious about TV DX at all; I am a ham and spend time with that. I just have a small directional antenna in the attic for TV. That being said, I have been able to snag a few interesting stations.

I have seen digital stations from as far away as Cincinnati and Pensacola here in Memphis, both in freeze-free high-def. I know other people, though, who have done much better than that. To stay with the Mississippi theme, I get WAPT-DT quite a bit.

> Would you count an ID only as a catch? Or do you try to get a picture with audio?

I don't really "count" anything anymore. But, when TV DX was something I paid more attention to, I would count anything, picture, audio, etc., that I could ID. I even had one station I couldn't positively ID until I got the picture back from the drug store. I knew I had a "floater" on there, but couldn't read it fast enough.

The hobby will be changing drastically in under 2 years, of course. No more analogs.

DE
 
Brings back a memory about TV skip, back in January 1973 I was working transmitter shift at then WTWV ch-9 Tupelo-Columbus and Super Bowl 7 was on the air. Ch-9 had just recently located the transmitter to their current location on the ridge west of Woodland, Mississippi. During the game, the studio operator called on the two-way and related that NBC had called and said that WNBC ch-4 in New York City was being wiped out in much of Manhattan, Connecticut and New Jersey by WCBI-TV ch-4 in Columbus who at the time was running a locally produced fishing show. I knew the fellow who worked over there and he later said he just had to stop even trying to answer the phone, did not believe that one man could be cussed out by so many people on a Sunday afternoon.

Watt
 
I have HDTV with an outside antenna and have picked up Shreveport, Tyler TX and some other stuff from lousianna and Texas in full HD, but the problem with HDTV is that there is no manual tuning on the tuner. The only way to tune in HD is to run the auto programming and hope that it locks onto something, which will mute it out unless its a powerfull signal. It will even skip local stations unless the antenna is pointed exactly right. It either all or nothing with HDTV. I've picked up Dallas, Houston and San Antonio a few times but only in analog. Several years ago while working night shift the UHF band opened up and there was something on nearly every channel, sometimes 2 could be seen by moving the antenna. So much stuff you couldn't possibly ID all of it. it was like having free cable. Fun night. Also, We used to occasionally pick up a spanish language station on channel 2 back in the 70's here in the Jackson area. I never could get a location on it because it always faded out, and couldn't understand the spanish anyway. This was back when there were very few Spanish stations around so I'm guessing it may have been coming from somewhere in Mexico or Cuba. I don't think it was american but I'm not sure. A few years ago I once again picked up a spanish dubbed cartoon on channel 2, but it may have been American. Does anyone have any idea what this mystery station could have been? It used to pop up once or twice a year.
 
> Does anyone have any idea what this mystery station could have been?

Specifically, no. That would require a bit more information.

But, generically, I can make some guesses. Mexico on channel 2 would not be that uncommon. Channel 2, of course, is the lowest frequency on the TV band, and gets more Es than any other channel. In the Summer, I'll see Mexican TV quite often, and Monterrey seems to be the most common. It is not impossible to ID Mexicans; they have local commercials like US stations, and often display call signs.

Your station could have been Cuban, too. There are a couple of channel 2s there, too, including, but not limited to, a full-power in Havana.

DE
 
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