My most recent FM DX catches

[QCA USA 1]

Last Thursday (June 24), I was working security in Clinton, Iowa. While on a break from my rounds, I sat in the air-conditioned car (this was during mid-afternoon between 3 PM and 4 PM CDT and with temperatures in the mid-90s or so with plenty of humidity) and was listening to the FM dial. While playing around with the radio, I landed on 104.7 MHz and pulled in what appeared to be a rather impressive E-skip catch. The station I received was WXLM from Montauk, New York. WXLM is a News and Talk radio station (somewhat out of the ordinary for the FM Band but not unheard of) and as such, I was able to hear the station's call letters mentioned quite a few times; I also heard a news report and a traffic update mentioning 95 (Interstate 95) and I even heard mentions of New London (probably referring to "New London, Connecticut" as WXLM serves that area of CT as well as parts of Long Island, NY). The really amazing thing about this dx catch was that it was coming from a Class A FM station with only 6000 watts (6 kW) ERP and a HAAT of 96 meters (315 feet). Awesome E-Skip Catch!!

Distance from my work site in Clinton, Iowa to the WXLM-FM site: 944.3 miles (And what a distance from which to pull in the signal of a Class A FM Station!!)



The evening before, Wednesday (June 23), somewhere between 7 PM and 8 PM Central Daylight Time, I was able to receive KWAY-FM ("Y99.3") from Waverly, Iowa, on 99.3 MHz. Normally, WAJK from LaSalle, Illinois dominates the 99.3 frequency in the Clinton area with KDST Dyersville, Iowa also fading in every now and then but with the rolling hills to the west and northwest, which somewhat obliterate signals from the northwest from being able to get into Clinton, WAJK is normally the dominant station on 99.3 in Clinton. Anyway, there was a very temporary tropo opening which lasted just long enough for me to hear KWAY-FM's weather jingle/sounder, which simply goes, "Y99.3 Weather." I know this from when I used to live in Waverly, which is just north of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls metro area in Northeast Central Iowa.

Distance from my work site in Clinton, Iowa to the KWAY-FM tower on the southern edge of Waverly: 130.1 miles

(Note: There are actually two towers at KWAY radio in Waverly; both of them make up the DA pattern for KWAY AM 1470 (1 kW day; 61 watts night; Class D AM Station), while one of the two towers (the southwest one) holds the FM antenna for KWAY-FM 99.3 (4600 watts (4.6 kW) ERP; 55 meters (180 feet) HAAT; Class A FM Station).

BTW, Both of the DX catches listed above were received from the exact same location in Clinton, Iowa.

 

[Rick_E]

In Philly and New York we were hearing stations from Iowa & Nebraska on the same day and time period. See the posts from the 24th to see some of the stations we caught. It was an impressive e-skip, I even got a station from Sioux Falls South Dakota. (I am about 40 miles northwest of Philly)

 

[AustinTX]

That is a great DX catch due to the low 6kw power and 900 miles away. Congrats...

Steve
http://www.hillcountrynetradio.com/dx.html

 

[crainbebo]

To QCA

Nice catch QCA!

-crainbebo

 

[nd2023]

I was on the air on 100 watt WVPH during a nighttime e-skip opening, and someone DXed me from Louisiana! 100 watts at 250 feet! 1000+ miles! Wow! Well, I did post on DXworld.com to have everyone tune to 90.3 to try to DX my station, and I IDed the station and gave out the phone number every 2 minutes (repeating the station ID and phone number 3 times in case the signal faded out). I figured since the local listeners would not be able to hear us without e-skip interference that night, might as well ID the station as many times as possible.