My First Sporadic E catch of the season!

[nd2023]

Tropo forecast looks pretty good for the northeast, you can check here:
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

I've seen these charts before, but I've yet to have a good understanding of them. I'd like to through this out there, to help me understand how to read the forecast. Spunker, I'm across the lake from you, east of Kingston Ontario. The forecast for Sunday May 29th, puts us just on the edge of the ducting, while Monday through Wednesday, we're well in it. Does Wednesday's forecast (for example) mean that there's a good chance to snag some Sporadic E, from as far away as Texas?

If anyone would like to chip in, with how the forecasting thing works, that would be great!

~BG

I always say (re that site), the redder, the better!

There is a chart on that page which rates the strength of possible Tr--1 or less (black) is the worst you can do, then going up up up to orange, golden-brown, red, then even pink, and you will even see grey, which is beyond superb!

Click on the Middle East maps.....generally they are pink & grey almost every day this year....

cd

I wonder what I could hear if I were on the west coast of India.

 

[radioman148]

Tropo forecast looks pretty good for the northeast, you can check here:
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

I've seen these charts before, but I've yet to have a good understanding of them. I'd like to through this out there, to help me understand how to read the forecast. Spunker, I'm across the lake from you, east of Kingston Ontario. The forecast for Sunday May 29th, puts us just on the edge of the ducting, while Monday through Wednesday, we're well in it. Does Wednesday's forecast (for example) mean that there's a good chance to snag some Sporadic E, from as far away as Texas?

If anyone would like to chip in, with how the forecasting thing works, that would be great!

~BG

I always say (re that site), the redder, the better!

There is a chart on that page which rates the strength of possible Tr--1 or less (black) is the worst you can do, then going up up up to orange, golden-brown, red, then even pink, and you will even see grey, which is beyond superb!

Click on the Middle East maps.....generally they are pink & grey almost every day this year....

cd

I wonder what I could hear if I were on the west coast of India.

Lots of stuff that you couldn't understand.

 

[Tincap]

I wonder what I could hear if I were on the west coast of India.

Lots of stuff that you couldn't understand.

Still cool, none the less!

When I was in Hong Kong, doing a little MW DXing on my cheap little Grundig, I was able to ID various stations, by recognizing the language...though not understanding them. I have to admit, a lot of languages I could not decipher, although Tagalog was fairly easy to pick out, because of the amount of English and Spanish words thrown in. The one Indian station coming in nightly was easy to ID.

Trying to ID Sporadic E in that region...now that would be a challenge indeed!

~BG

 

[radioman148]

I wonder what I could hear if I were on the west coast of India.

Lots of stuff that you couldn't understand.

Still cool, none the less!

When I was in Hong Kong, doing a little MW DXing on my cheap little Grundig, I was able to ID various stations, by recognizing the language...though not understanding them. I have to admit, a lot of languages I could not decipher, although Tagalog was fairly easy to pick out, because of the amount of English and Spanish words thrown in. The one Indian station coming in nightly was easy to ID.

Trying to ID Sporadic E in that region...now that would be a challenge indeed!

~BG

Do I dare ask if you picked up any US DX--maybe Hawaii or Alaska?

 

[Tincap]

Do I dare ask if you picked up any US DX--maybe Hawaii or Alaska?

No, that would've been a miracle, as I didn't have any decent equipment (my DX-440) with me.
The only English I heard on MW (besides local RTHK 3), was religious broadcasting and the VOA.

~BG

 

[radioman148]

Do I dare ask if you picked up any US DX--maybe Hawaii or Alaska?

No, that would've been a miracle, as I didn't have any decent equipment (my DX-440) with me.
The only English I heard on MW (besides local RTHK 3), was religious broadcasting and the VOA.

~BG

When were you there?

 

[Tincap]

Do I dare ask if you picked up any US DX--maybe Hawaii or Alaska?

No, that would've been a miracle, as I didn't have any decent equipment (my DX-440) with me.
The only English I heard on MW (besides local RTHK 3), was religious broadcasting and the VOA.

~BG

When were you there?

Spring 2005.

Getting back OT, there's been nothing special (yet) going on across my FM band, here in my 'black hole'. But as last season proved, that can change at any moment, it's just knowing when to catch 'em. The ducting map should help!

~BG

 

[rtc]

It has been a very good day for Sporadic E around here,

esp. on FM:

http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=MUF&ML=M&Map=NA&DXC=N&HF=N

 

[gar hi]

Where are you?
.

 

[cd637299]

I got Es in south FL but nothing above ch 4.....

2 Global ON Canada
3 TVN Panama
4 CBC, likely Ottawa

cd

 

[Tincap]

I got Es in south FL but nothing above ch 4.....

2 Global ON Canada
3 TVN Panama
4 CBC, likely Ottawa

cd

Your Global catch was probably Bancroft ON (Calgary AB also carries Global on Channel 2), while CBC Channel 4 is a local for me. Good catches!

~BG

 

[cd637299]

I got Es in south FL but nothing above ch 4.....

2 Global ON Canada
3 TVN Panama
4 CBC, likely Ottawa

cd

Your Global catch was probably Bancroft ON (Calgary AB also carries Global on Channel 2), while CBC Channel 4 is a local for me. Good catches!

~BG

Def. Bancroft, had to be. Actually since WPBT 2 went digital in 09, this is a pest now! Never thought I'd consider a Canadian catch as a pest, but.... XHRIO-2 Matamoros is a bigger pest now. But before 2009, I'd be only glad to have 'em!

Also got a DT bar on 2 this afternoon, but grrrrrrrrrrrrrr nothing.

cd

 

[gar hi]

I've always wondered.

How are some people sometimes getting e skip on digital channels when they are supposed to now be above the old channel 7 analog frequencies and mostly in the UHF frequencies?

 

[spunker88]

I've always wondered.

How are some people sometimes getting e skip on digital channels when they are supposed to now be above the old channel 7 analog frequencies and mostly in the UHF frequencies?

There are a few digital stations that decided to stick with VHF-L frequencies but they are at pretty low power due to the newer power limits. Couple that with the digital cliff effect and ES with digital is a lot harder.

cd, that Global signal on channel 2 from Bancroft was designed to cover a large area, mostly rural. Its exempt from being switched to digital this year. I imagine they are going to have a hard time covering the same area with a digital signal. I think Kingston and Belleville get Global from this signal. I can pick it up on my cheap 5" B/W TV when there is any bit of tropo and I'm even further past Watertown.

 

[cd637299]

^^^^
Yes there are still a few ch 2-6 stations using digital....but I don't know if *any* of them are pleased to be there! I suppose a nice DX report would give them a smile...for 1 minute.....

I am now up to eight DTV catches via Es, and five of them use RF 5....the allocations are quite disproportionate! (RF 6 is the last channel to where I have not caught a DTV signal yet, and my local analog 6/87.7 will give any DT6 the fits.)

cd

 

[spunker88]

CIII-6 in Ottawa is planning on converting to digital channel 6 this August. Of course they won't be putting out the same 50kw ERP that they are in analog. According to recnet is going to be somewhere around only 3kw, but this may not be the correct value. I wonder if they will have any issues with a VHF-L digital signal in the greater Ottawa area, Global seems to be moving the rest of its signals to VHF-H or most to UHF. But if you have a local on 87.7 its going to be near impossible to log a digital signal on channel 6.

 

[austingrace]

last week was pretty good for eskip. last sunday night i had a lot of north carolina heer in altamonte. this was at night btw. it seemed like every day last week i had 100.7 the river from nc. normally tampa comes on that freq.

 

[cd637299]

last week was pretty good for eskip. last sunday night i had a lot of north carolina heer in altamonte. this was at night btw. it seemed like every day last week i had 100.7 the river from nc. normally tampa comes on that freq.

Ya know that coulda been Tropo! I got a couple of NC stations on Tr from south FL last week, WSFL 106.5 & WMGU 106.9. Orlando area might be too close to NC for E-skip, especially if you were getting the same station almost every day. 100.7 is useless here (Y-100)!

cd

 

[danikayser84]

I mostly got the usual tropo suspects the past couple of days: WQHT New York, WZRT Rutland, WCCC Hartford, WSYR-FM Syracuse, WRKS New York, WRKI Danbury, WSPK Poughkeepsie