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Tropo

C

cceng1

Tibbs....I hate to bring this up because Rob will get wood......the FM band has been wide open along the Gulf Coast. We have been experiencing some pretty major interference from New Orleans stations for the past few days.

cceng
 
Yes sir, super opening the last couple of days. All of your Panama City cluster well represented here in the Tampa Bay area.
...... good stuff!

Greg Myers
Holiday, FL
 
last night in Pensacola WYNK in Baton Rouge was over powering TK101.. was even able to get their digital signal for a while.
 
cceng said:
Tibbs....I hate to bring this up because Rob will get wood......the FM band has been wide open along the Gulf Coast. We have been experiencing some pretty major interference from New Orleans stations for the past few days.

cceng
Click to expand...


You're going the other direction, too. Just read a post on the Mississippi board from Wayne in Biloxi. He said his station (WXGO) is getting clobbered right in town by Island 106!
 
Good old springtime tropo.. FM stations from as far as Ft Myers, FL, south Texas and several from Mexico have been very audible here in the Florida panhandle.
Mexican station 107.1 "La Mas Buena" from around the mouth of the Rio Grande has been in every day for 4 days now, I can often even hear them in the car, over 750 miles away.
 
What Ft Myers stations are you receiving up in the panhandle? It would be interesting to know which ones are getting out that far.

We have several 100,000 watt stations down this way so I suspect they are they ones getting out the best.
 
You guys think this is bad, just wait 'til all those signals get to bouncing off all the oil rigs that are on the way. 8)
 
I heard south caroliana, tampa, panama cty, and tall. as well as kansas.

My neighbour has even more detailed logs. but he lives in FWB and he's got a very good tuner. as we have 100KW 98.1 and he hears 97.9

-Rob
 
I have heard many Ft Myers stations but the stations most often heard are on clear frequencies here - Gator Country 101.9, Bob FM 102.9, & B-103.9. 102.5 The Bone from the Tampa Bay area is like a beacon. I hear them more than any other that way. 107.9 WSRZ clobbers nearby 100kw WPFM Panama City frequently.
 
I am not surprised at all that you are hearing Gator Country 101.9 at all as that is a 100,000 watt operation. Bob FM is 50,000 watts so it could travel well also.
 
AHHHH! One of the two or three things that make the Panhandle so special in the spring.

Hilarious start to this post CW! How was NAB-BED, Las Vegas Chapter? I had to try to catch a fly ball at a new park openin' day in Yankeeville, April 16th.

I am sure you picked up more engineering awards, than we saw hits on our side of the scoreboard. But, I digress.
 
If you're looking for an ultra-sensitive FM tuner, try to find one of the pre-1982 "weighs-a-ton" Pioneers. People give these away for cheap at garage sales, pawn shops, etc.

When I was in high school (1981), I bought a Pioneer SX-3900. That receiver was amazing, even with the supplied wire dipole antenna. When connected to a Winegard 10-element FM yagi and rotor, it could basically hear everything within 150-200 miles. Adjacent channel rejection was wonderful also. I was just south of Minneapolis, about 20 miles from the IDS and Shoreview (where most of the metro FMs transmitted from.) I could easily hear stations over 100 miles out on first adjacents from the local Class C's.

PS: I still have that receiver...and the original box...and the owner's manual...and the schematic...and the original sales receipt from Schaak Electronics. No, it's not for sale!



robfwb said:
I heard south caroliana, tampa, panama cty, and tall. as well as kansas.

My neighbour has even more detailed logs. but he lives in FWB and he's got a very good tuner. as we have 100KW 98.1 and he hears 97.9

-Rob
Click to expand...
 
Tibbs....there is a small group of CC/Premiere Network engineers that attend the NAB each year that are hams and we have a tradition on Wed night of the NAB, the night of the ham radio operator's reception (over 1000 broadcasters that are hams attend), our little group goes to a fine restaurant (this year it was Lawry's....not Mays....the people who make the seasoned salt....GREAT prime rib).....well this year, one of the guys had been out of the country and had found some Cuban cigars that somehow had made it into his suitcase without his knowledge....after dinner, we went to the Flamingo and proceeded to smoke all the Cubans and drink whiskey until 4am.....I had to catch an airport shuttle at 5am....needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night...I just went to the Hilton and picked up my bags and caught the shuttle....slept on the plane coming back to ATL. Hope you enjoyed the Yankee games.
 
Sounds like a normal nite on PCB for you cceng. I am glad you stayed away from the seedy side of Vegass.
Yep, Cubans are fine pieces of art.
 
> When I was in high school (1981), I bought a Pioneer SX-3900.

I had a similar receiver when I was in High School on the Mississippi Coast in the 80s. I could point my 6-element yagi at Tampa almost anytime and get WRBQ. Amazing. Roughly 400 miles, right across the water.

DE
 
yep....that was before docket 80-90 opened up more frequencies in more markets which brought more interference....you could do that today if the band wasn't so cluttered.....18 LOCAL signals in Panama City....more than in NYC.
 
I understand your point, of course. But, 80-90 would have made little difference. There was NOTHING but water between me and WRBQ.

DE
 
DeadElvis said:
I understand your point, of course. But, 80-90 would have made little difference. There was NOTHING but water between me and WRBQ.

DE
Click to expand...


Was Crestview on 104.7 back then?


Ocala was another fun place for FM DX when I first moved there in 1991. There were a few new 80-90's, but nothing like the way the band is junked up now.

The mobile home I rented had a fringe TV antenna and rotor. I never watched TV, so I climbed up there one night with a hacksaw and cut the VHF-LO elements down to FM resonance length (!!!!) Worked great. I could hear all of Jacksonville, Tampa, and Orlando during normal band conditions. A tropo opening would bring in Fort Myers, Brevard Co., Tallahassee, or Panama City (98.5 was covered by local WKTK, but 92.3 and 94.5 were both easy catches.)
 
> Was Crestview on 104.7 back then?

Good question. No, it wasn't. But, it wouldn't have made a lot of difference (at least regularly), I would think, in this narrow situation.

First, Crestview would have been nearly broadside to my antenna. Second, this troposcatter stuff that brought in Tampa on a fairly regular basis is really a function of being over water. While tropo across the coast can be a big deal, most of the time, the direct water path is what to look for.

And, boy... I would get TV from Tampa, Sarasota & Naples for often days at a time, especially in the Spring. Snow-free. Very, very rarely, Cuban TV might sneak in. I miss all that.

Good luck, y'all, in the coming onslaught -- if the maps are correct.

DE
 
I believe back in the 80's WAAZ was on 104.9. Not sure, though, considering that I wasn't even alive back then.

Travis
 
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