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Tropo on FM

If it's a steady non fading in and out signal from 100 to 500 miles, it's tropo.

If it's a a rapidly fading in and out signal from 500 to 1,000 and even more miles, it's E Skip.

But that's in general.

Tropo can be heard from 1,000 miles away. (I once heard tropo from 936 miles)

And E Skip can sometimes have a steady signal with little fading but it's uncommon on FM. I've seen it quite steady sometimes on channel 2 for short periods of time.

Tropo FM signals, while steady, can slowly fade in and out a matter of minutes instead of seconds as is the case with E Skip.

Since you are approaching the dry season in California where there's often a thermal low pressure system over the state, I wouldn't expect much tropo during the summer months.

Here in Florida, we are now in our big tropo season and so far it's a dud just like the past couple of years. I hope something happens this year at least.
 
In Sacramento you should be able to get tropo from Redding down to Bakersfield. Anything above maybe 120 miles is usually tropo in the west. Pianoplayer always gets KVYB 103.3 Santa Barbara at over 200 miles and that is an almost 24-7 tropo duct. Seattle to Portland was common as well at 150 miles (mainly 101.9 KINK and 101.1 KXL).

-crainbebo
 
Yes!
I hear people talking about it all the time, from places like the Gulf Coast, especially Texas. The local FM, usually from a very tall tower, gets trapped in the duct, and can't get out. Sometimes, another station on that frequency will arrive via a different duct, and override it.
As for TV, I saw Channel 4 in Washington, DC overridden by Channel 4 from Miami, on July 4, 1976....I was about 40 miles SE of Washington, with the antenna pointed NW.
 
@gar fla: Sporadic-E is not as common on FM than it is on channel 2, but it is not very rare, either (Es on 2m ham band or TV ch 7 is RARE).

@MarioMania: Matters how "local". It certainly can to a considerable degree. I remember being on Detroit's East Side about 12 miles from WABX on 99.5, it was not unusual for country from Cleveland's WGAR to get into the frequency. It would not be uncommon for a 60 dBμ signal to get overridden, and one can get a strong tropo signal though an 80 dBμ local signal if one has a directional FM antenna, or, even better, a phasing setup. a 100 dBμ local signal might be insurmountable.

@kenglish: Seeing (then) WTVJ over local WRC on July 4 could have been tropo, but Sporadic-E skip seems more likely for that day of the year (I'm gonna guess that WTVJ was quite strong, fading in and out, and probably ghosty).
 
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kenglish said:
Yes!
I hear people talking about it all the time, from places like the Gulf Coast, especially Texas. The local FM, usually from a very tall tower, gets trapped in the duct, and can't get out. Sometimes, another station on that frequency will arrive via a different duct, and override it.
As for TV, I saw Channel 4 in Washington, DC overridden by Channel 4 from Miami, on July 4, 1976....I was about 40 miles SE of Washington, with the antenna pointed NW.
Click to expand...

That sounds like E Skip, the Miami overtaking Washington.

There was one summer in New Jersey where channel 3 from Tampa dominated channel 3 from Philadelphia when I moved the rabbit ears in the right position to best null out the local channel 3's signal.

Even on our main color TV in the den which was connected to the antenna in the attic pointed at Philly, the picture of channel 3 was really struggling to stay stable with the rolling bars and the out of sync image of the distant channel 3 very visible with the sound starting to get scrambled too.

Ah ... The old analog TV days. Makes me sad now that I think of how that will never be again.
 
MarioMania said:
I be in West Sac Next Saturday, I have no choice moving

So I DX FM and TV there for the Summer
Click to expand...

On AM , you might want to try for KFI in the middle of the day.

The signal passes over land with much better ground conductivity to Sacramento than where you are now.

I bet with a good receiver and little interference (someplace outside away from a lot of power lines, etc) you could hear at least a trace of them midday.
 
But, I have deal with KSTE 650 splatting all over 640 in the daytime

The stations Im going to miss listening on my Walkman

98.1 Kiss FM
99.7 997 Now
 
Sorry, I forgot to consider there may be close adjacent stations that have splatter.

The AM band is loaded up with so many more stations than it used to be.
 
1L6E6VHF said:
@gar fla: Sporadic-E is not as common on FM than it is on channel 2, but it is not very rare, either (Es on 2m ham band or TV ch 7 is RARE).

@MarioMania: Matters how "local". It certainly can to a considerable degree. I remember being on Detroit's East Side about 12 miles from WABX on 99.5, it was not unusual for country from Cleveland's WGAR to get into the frequency. It would not be uncommon for a 60 dBμ signal to get overridden, and one can get a strong tropo signal though an 80 dBμ local signal if one has a directional FM antenna, or, even better, a phasing setup. a 100 dBμ local signal might be insurmountable.

@kenglish: Seeing (then) WTVJ over local WRC on July 4 could have been tropo, but Sporadic-E skip seems more likely for that day of the year (I'm gonna guess that WTVJ was quite strong, fading in and out, and probably ghosty).
Click to expand...

Tropo overriding a local can happen in Michigan. I remember once when I picked up 101.5 WJNR from Iron Mountain in Manistee, MI, less than three miles from (then) WMTE's tower. 94.9 WKZC is sometimes overridden by WUPZ from the Marquette area. 106.3 WKLA used to be overridden by WMXG from Escanaba before it went off the air a few years ago.
 
It's hard picking up 98.1 Kiss-FM

On my Grundig YB400PE I have to put it to 98.15 to hear it,so I won't get from splatter from 97.9

Even so, Hard to pick up..

Forget 997 now
 
So recently I heard KNX, KTNQ (I think) and some of the other strong signals from LA in the early morning about 40 or 50 miles north of Sacramento (though not KFI, because of interference from the 650 in Sacramento). Is that at all unusual? I guessed it was just a regular thing during critical hours.
 
Oops -- I forgot to mention it was between 7 and 8 AM -- there was definitely daylight. All the LA stations faded out a short time later. I was heading north on Interstate 5.
 
KIOT? That's 102.5 in Los Lunas, New Mexico. Perhaps meteor scatter?
 
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