Some serious FM ducting today in LA

[karldotcom]

Hearing a lot of San Diego stations with powerful signals!

(Like Rush Limbaugh on 95.7 - KOGO's FM feed)

 

[Big 121]

Likewise, LA signals booming into East San Diego county last 2 days.

 

[LKellerIII]

Likewise, LA signals booming into East San Diego county last 2 days.

I recall being able to pick up KRTH without much static in parts of San Diego. As a kid growing up in Tujunga (foothills east of the San Fernando Valley), I recall that before cable TV came into town (about 1967), we got superior over the air TV reception from the San Diego channels -6, 8 , and 10 - than we did from the LA network stations.

 

[michael hagerty]

Likewise, LA signals booming into East San Diego county last 2 days.

I recall being able to pick up KRTH without much static in parts of San Diego. As a kid growing up in Tujunga (foothills east of the San Fernando Valley), I recall that before cable TV came into town (about 1967), we got superior over the air TV reception from the San Diego channels -6, 8 , and 10 - than we did from the LA network stations.

Llew: Looking at Google Maps, that makes sense. San Diego is just far enough east that there's a straight line where the signal could snake between Verdugo and the big mountain. But you'd be in sort of a shadow of Wilson.

 

[Lopaka]

I grew up in San Diego in the northern shadow of Mt. Soledad--no San Diego TV made it in, the LA stations and KEYT from Santa Barbara were what we watched. Favorite personality, Sheriff John. As a kid I thought LA was just a little way up the road. It didn't help that a crystal set I built as a kid happened to bring in Long Beach KFOX 1280 as the loudest station.

 

[LKellerIII]

Likewise, LA signals booming into East San Diego county last 2 days.

I recall being able to pick up KRTH without much static in parts of San Diego. As a kid growing up in Tujunga (foothills east of the San Fernando Valley), I recall that before cable TV came into town (about 1967), we got superior over the air TV reception from the San Diego channels -6, 8 , and 10 - than we did from the LA network stations.

Llew: Looking at Google Maps, that makes sense. San Diego is just far enough east that there's a straight line where the signal could snake between Verdugo and the big mountain. But you'd be in sort of a shadow of Wilson.

It depended heavily upon the neighborhood you lived in. While we got superior signals from San Diego, some neighborhoods got better signals from the Mt. Wilson stations in LA.

In the mid 60s, developers built a couple hundred tract homes in a neighborhood that got no over the air TV reception at all - not exactly a selling point. So the developers actually started the local cable company to provide for their own residents, and it was later rolled out to the entire town.


The same is true where I live now in San Francisco. I'm on a south facing hill out of the line of sight of the Twin Peaks tower which houses most of the TV station transmitters, which I canot get without cable. But San Jose and Monterey-Salinas stations come in quite clearly OTA. Same with radio - the San Jose stations come in clearly, but many SF stations are staticky. What I can't figure is 50K watt KGO, which doesn't come in clearly in my house, despite the fact that their transmitter is just off the Dumbarton Bridge, about 20 miles south of me. ???

 

[michael hagerty]

Likewise, LA signals booming into East San Diego county last 2 days.

I recall being able to pick up KRTH without much static in parts of San Diego. As a kid growing up in Tujunga (foothills east of the San Fernando Valley), I recall that before cable TV came into town (about 1967), we got superior over the air TV reception from the San Diego channels -6, 8 , and 10 - than we did from the LA network stations.

Llew: Looking at Google Maps, that makes sense. San Diego is just far enough east that there's a straight line where the signal could snake between Verdugo and the big mountain. But you'd be in sort of a shadow of Wilson.

It depended heavily upon the neighborhood you lived in. While we got superior signals from San Diego, some neighborhoods got better signals from the Mt. Wilson stations in LA.

In the mid 60s, developers built a couple hundred tract homes in a neighborhood that got no over the air TV reception at all - not exactly a selling point. So the developers actually started the local cable company to provide for their own residents, and it was later rolled out to the entire town.


The same is true where I live now in San Francisco. I'm on a south facing hill out of the line of sight of the Twin Peaks tower which houses most of the TV station transmitters, which I canot get without cable. But San Jose and Monterey-Salinas stations come in quite clearly OTA. Same with radio - the San Jose stations come in clearly, but many SF stations are staticky. What I can't figure is 50K watt KGO, which doesn't come in clearly in my house, despite the fact that their transmitter is just off the Dumbarton Bridge, about 20 miles south of me. ???

Everything about that makes sense except for KGO. You should be able to get that on your fillings.

 

[Dave Andrews]

On some parts of PCH in Malibu, the San diego FM stations were practically the ONLY ones I could pick up. Of course, the mountains are there completely blocking Wilson.

I picked up KRTH very faintly in Blythe.

 

[ScottBurns]

The San Diego stations also come in very nicely in Santa Barbara. This is especially true while trying to DX at the beach. As a matter of fact, many of the San Diego stations come in better than the LA-area stations.

 

[justpassingthough]

In the west and south facing areas of South Orange County (Laguna Beach, Aliso Viejo, and Dana Point) the San Diego radio and TV stations are much more clear than the LA stations as well.

I grew up in Mission Viejo behind a foothill and we had a hard time getting a decent OTA signal from the LA TV stations. My parents didn't understand this since we had just moved from the flat Midwest where all signals were crystal clear. It forced them to get cable, though, so it worked in my favor.

 

[michael hagerty]

The San Diego stations also come in very nicely in Santa Barbara. This is especially true while trying to DX at the beach. As a matter of fact, many of the San Diego stations come in better than the LA-area stations.

Look at the map. It's a straight shot across water from SD to SB. LA sticks on Mt. Wilson have some serious terrain to conquer to get a good signal into Santa Barbara.

 

[Jay Walker]

In the Dallas Ft.Worth area we get a lot of Tropo from the gulf during tropo season.
Usually beginning in May and pretty much a daily event through July.

One interesting site I've found useful is this real time Tropo map which utilizes APRS packets to plot the extent of a particular event.

From the "about" on the page..
"This map shows actual radio propagation from stations operated near 144 MHz. It uses data gathered by Automatic Packet Reporting System-Internet Service (APRS-IS) from packet stations in the amateur radio service.

The map shows activity that has happened in the past hour. Paths are combined to create color-coded footprint indicating the distance VHF signals are likely to be traveling. Packet stations typically run low power into small vertical antennas. Better equipped stations should exceed the the distances these stations report. The map is updated automatically, typically several times per minute.

The map is created using positions (latitude and longitude) reported by nodes in the packet radio system and the hops from node to node that the data travels. By correlating the hops with the position of each end of the hop, the distance can be inferred. "

A useful site to calm down programming when your 100KW full C is getting hammered by stations several hundred miles away.

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