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Unknown signal on 88.9 FM North Phoenix?

L

LamptimerFan

Just today, I observed some unknown activity on 88.9 FM. Around 11am, it was a distant NPR(?) station and a distant classical music station interfering with each other. At 7pm today, I briefly heard what may be someone's personal and/or pirate radio station, complete with profanities and all. Whatever this signal was faded almost completely as soon as I left my work's parking lot.

Normally, 88.9 is empty where I live and is only bleedover from 89.1 FM in other parts of North Phoenix. Does anyone know what might be happening here?
 
LamptimerFan said:
Just today, I observed some unknown activity on 88.9 FM. Around 11am, it was a distant NPR(?) station and a distant classical music station interfering with each other. At 7pm today, I briefly heard what may be someone's personal and/or pirate radio station, complete with profanities and all. Whatever this signal was faded almost completely as soon as I left my work's parking lot.

Normally, 88.9 is empty where I live and is only bleedover from 89.1 FM in other parts of North Phoenix. Does anyone know what might be happening here?
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I’d probably say E-skip or tropospheric propagation. No way to tell for certain which NPR station it is (my guess would be KNPR over the closer KAWC). There are a few spots here in southern Clark County, NV where a faint KJZZ can be picked up on some south facing hills where KUNV can’t be received.
 
kwthom said:
"... complete with profanities and all..."

Well, then, that should exclude most licensed stations ... maybe??

Pirate. Time for some DF fun.
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I work again tonight so I'll let you guys know if I hear the same signal again tonight. I was genuinely thrown off yesterday because this was completely different from what I had heard earlier in the day.
 
KAWC 88.9 originates from the top of Telegraph Pass mountain, several miles East of the studio location on the campus of Arizona Western College.

I was there yesterday, and received them just past Gila Bend some 90 miles to the East of the transmitting site.

DG
 
There used to be a translator at 88.9 for Family Radio when that station was sharing time with the La Campesina station (KNAI). However, since VCY America took over the 88.3 frequency after KNAI sold to them, it appears that translator has been removed. The pirate probably had the profanities (though if the atmosphere was playing tricks on you, it might not have been a local one), and my best guess, given the general location of your residence in another post, is that the NPR station, whatever it is, is coming from skip. I have never experienced tropospheric conditions in Phoenix since I moved here (and that was back in 1972) so I'm pretty sure its e-skip you're receiving in that parking lot, and I have definitely received *that* over the years in the Phoenix area.
 
ted chittenden said:
There used to be a translator at 88.9 for Family Radio when that station was sharing time with the La Campesina station (KNAI). However, since VCY America took over the 88.3 frequency after KNAI sold to them, it appears that translator has been removed. The pirate probably had the profanities (though if the atmosphere was playing tricks on you, it might not have been a local one), and my best guess, given the general location of your residence in another post, is that the NPR station, whatever it is, is coming from skip. I have never experienced tropospheric conditions in Phoenix since I moved here (and that was back in 1972) so I'm pretty sure its e-skip you're receiving in that parking lot, and I have definitely received *that* over the years in the Phoenix area.
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An update for you and the others: I did not hear anything on my way to work. However, I heard what might have been some hip-hop type music when I pulled into my favorite parking spot only.

Given that new housing was built right behind my work recently, I wonder if someone moved in and decided to set up their own Part 15 station. Explains why I only hear it here at my work and absolutely nothing else.
 
ted chittenden said:
I have never experienced tropospheric conditions in Phoenix since I moved here (and that was back in 1972) so I'm pretty sure its e-skip you're receiving in that parking lot, and I have definitely received *that* over the years in the Phoenix area.
Click to expand...

As a relatively recent immigrant to the desert (I spent a good chunk of my childhood/youth on the east coast before moving out west) I didn’t know tropospheric conditions aren’t really a thing out here. Never had any out in Washington, but I chalked that up to the cooler weather. Good to know!

E-skip is definitely a thing (at least in the lower elevations areas of NW AZ). I usually seem to get a good run of stations for an afternoon somewhere around May-June and August-September. Right before and right after the hot couple months of the summer. Since Phoenix has similar climate conditions as Laughlin/Bullhead, the time of year would absolutely match up for E-skip.

Last year I picked up North and South Dakota with RDS just driving to work scanning the dial one afternoon. Didn’t get any this year, but it’s possible I already missed my early opportunity!
 


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