STRANGE reception opening to the west this morning

[rockthisworld]

I got to work this morning about 6:45 and turned off my XM receiver, which transmits to 107.1, and instantly I got full stereo and RDS from WFXC in Durham, which I thought was odd... so I did some scanning. Pretty much everything west of Greenville was coming in... G105 and Sunny were a given, I also had the Greensboro stations with full RDS and stereo. 99.9 Kiss Country from Asheville was coming in the same strength! 95.5 from High Point slamming Power 95.5 from Pinetops, 101.1 WZTK from Burlington was covering 101.1 from Belhaven, and 95.1 WRNS was having issues coming in as well, I guess due to Kiss 95.1 in Charlotte.

I've had some strange reception happen in the morning, but this one is the best I've had in awhile.<P ID="signature">______________

Eastern NC & Raleigh/Greensboro Board Moderator</P>

 

[rockthisworld]

3 hours later - still happening

It's still going full strength... still getting the stations I was earlier, and I just pulled in WVTF from Roanoke, VA on my car radio way over here in Greenville. That's some distance right there!<P ID="signature">______________

Eastern NC & Raleigh/Greensboro Board Moderator</P>

 

[RadioDaze]

Re: 3 hours later - still happening

> It's still going full strength... still getting the stations
> I was earlier, and I just pulled in WVTF from Roanoke, VA on
> my car radio way over here in Greenville. That's some
> distance right there!
>


I noticed lots of Eastern NC stations coming in well in Durham this AM. WMGV "V 103.3" was all over WAKG/Danville. I scanned around and there were many of the "usual suspects" (WERO, WRNS, WSFL) appearing,but many unexpected ones like WWHA, Farmville were coming in clear as well. I heard some of the Outer Banks stations (Dixie 105.7 and 102.5 The Shark) plus WNVZ, Norfolk. On a side note, I've actually received WVTF at Emerald Isle in the past. They have a mountain transmitter site and a considerably open channel (89.1). The station they share an antenna with, WSLQ 99.1, actually operates with a grandfathered 200,000 watts.

 

[wncmacs]

Re: 3 hours later - still happening

We had a so-called "atmospheric duct" today across much of North Carolina. This often happens in the spring when an unusually warm air mass sets up over the state and creates an area in the ionosphere that reflects radio waves above the so-called MUF (Maximum Usable Frequency) which is usually about 5 Mhz. This allows FM & TV signals to be recieved from distant locales as if they were local. The condition can persist for hours or days...us ham radio operators live for this, as it gives us a chance to talk on our VHF rigs over long distances with very little power.

Let's hope it keeps going for a bit!

wncmacs

 

[Keith_Lake]

Re: 3 hours later - still happening

I remember one time when we had the mother of all tropo skip openings in NC. It was New Year's Day of 1972 and I noticed there was a strong signal on TV channel 4, which was normally blank. They were running NBC programming and I thought, cool, we have a new TV station in the market. I nearly fell over backwards when it identified as KTIV-TV in Sioux City, Iowa.

Keep in mind this was nothing fancy, just a small B&W portable set with a rabbit-ear antenna. KTIV-TV was coming in like a local. Then within the space of three minutes, it began to fade and was gone.

I still have the verification letter from their chief engineer. Apparently they were getting reports from all over the USA that day.

KL

<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Keith Lake on 03/12/06 03:49 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[EncSpy]

Re: 3 hours later - still happening

> I remember one time when we had the mother of all tropo skip
> openings in NC. It was New Year's Day of 1972 and I noticed
> there was a strong signal on TV channel 4, which was
> normally blank. They were running NBC programming and I
> thought, cool, we have a new TV station in the market. I
> nearly fell over backwards when it identified as KTIV-TV in
> Sioux City, Iowa.
>
> Keep in mind this was nothing fancy, just a small B&W
> portable set with a rabbit-ear antenna. KTIV-TV was coming
> in like a local. Then within the space of three minutes, it
> began to fade and was gone.
>
> I still have the verification letter from their chief
> engineer. Apparently they were getting reports from all
> over the USA that day.
>
> KL
>
> The Last Radio Station
>


thats not tropo but sporatic E-skip, its wierd that you recieved them during the winter!!!, but from the months of june-august, its almost a daily occurence here in NC, off the top of my head via e-skip
Canada
Nova Scotia
Cuba
Puerto Rico
Texas
Oklahoma
Louisiana
Alabama
New York
Illinois
Indiana
Florida

heres two airchecks via e-skip
WKEY 93.5 Key West Florida 1,100 Mile skip (summer 2002)

CFOB 93.1 Fort Frances (Ontario) Canada, 1,600 mile skip (summer 2003)

 

[pbf1]

Skip

> thats not tropo but sporatic E-skip, its wierd that you
> recieved them during the winter!!!, but from the months of
> june-august, its almost a daily occurence here in NC

In May '87, I moved from Minnesota to the Outer Banks area of NC. That night, I picked up KQ92 and Cities 97 from Minneapolis.

Freaky!!

 

[wncmacs]

New Opportunities...

With the cold front that is pushing through our region at the first of the week, the stage is being set again for another round of tropospheric ducting. When the warm air returns, start watching FM and lower-channel VHF TV (2-6) for tropo openings. We may see some other interesting skips in the next couple of weeks.

wncmacs

 

[berlin201]

I've got my own story to add to this: One day I was driving in eastern Durham and picked up a station on frequency 97.9 that turned out to be KRBB "B98" in Wichita, KS. Normally, the closest station on 97.9 is WPEG out toward Charlotte. Weird...