@ PFStorms :
Two cherished E-skip catches here in landlocked NE PA were gotten just by casual tuning around.
We put up a nice TV aerial and aimed it northeast to get the 3 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre stations better.
The first (and clearest) thing we saw was WFTL Channel 2 from Fort Lauderdale. And we had the antenna pointed the opposite way from them!
One casual afternoon, I got out the portable radio for some lunchtime jazz. There is a translator on 99.1 near here which, well, translates WRTI in Philly. The parent signal is on 90.1.
At the time, WRTI's midday host was a gal ; I forget her name.
So, there's jazz, and there's this gal doing the show, and she says 'Jazz 99 ....'.
Wait a second! You can't say that!
Oh yes, she could. I realized that was permissable, as soon as she gave request-line numbers out for 'Dade County and Brevard County'.
Seems we were getting our jazz allright, and the female midday show, but off some station on 99.1 from Miami FL.
There wasn't a peep from the WRTI translator in Pottsville.
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Question : If E-skip is from bounce off the ionosphere, why is it not called I-Skip?
I flunked physics in high school, and had to take it over. But from dim memory: Isn't there something called the Exosphere? Or do I have that mixed up with some amusement park ?