Weirdest DX logging you've ever had?

[schmave]

While skywave and groundwave are two different things, you say skywave is not affected by ground conductivity but what about the ground conductivity where the skywave skips?

The last time I was over on the east coast of Florida was years ago and it was the Miami area. One thing I remembered was that New York stations at night came in much better than they do over here on the west coast. While the reception was skywave, isn't the better reception there because of the skip on nothing but water?

Very interesting questions, and I can't say one way or another whether strong ground conductivity helps skywave. An observation: Here in Texas, we have some of the best ground conductivity in the country but skywave interference is horrible because of all the southern interference.
Where I grew up in Ohio, it's middle-of-the-road conductivity but the DXing was and is a lot better ... far less interference up in that part of the country.

 

[radioman148]

In Springfield, Ohio-There was a guy on CB who called himself the
Bicycle Man. He had a couple thousand watts and screwed up many
stereos and TV sets.

It was the winter of 1979, I was in England and I'll be damned.
The Bicycle Man from Springfield, Ohio came blasting in for many days
in the afternoon.

I could not receive anything else from Ohio 5,000 miles away.
Only the Bicycle Man.

I did here WOWO a couple times through the noise, the only US
station I could hear. But, Bicycle Man was loud and Clear.

A couple thousand watts on CB? He must have destroyed every TV and stereo within miles. The FCC must have nailed him.

The Guy must have had a mammoth linear!

And lots of people knocking on his door unless he lived in the middle of nowhere.

 

[radioman148]

In 1988 I caught KMOX 1120 AM in Metro Atlanta at 1pm. I was shocked i could catch a station that far off in the middle of the day.

Incredible! This has to be in the winter - approximately 450 miles - what were you using for a receiving setup or was this on a car radio?
The ground conductivity of the Atlanta area I have read is very poor, so that could not have helped...

It is the worst in the country. The best areas on land are 30 millimhos per meter (don't know what that truly means) ... Atlanta is 1. Salt water is 5,000.

Would this effect only the ground wave signal? WSB gets out pretty well at night.

Correct. Skywave is not affected by ground conductivity, but on the flip side because the ground signal is weakened by the conductivity you start to get groundwave/skywave cancellation only an hour or so out of Atlanta, whereas in other parts of the country there's no cancellation for 100-150 miles at least.

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[stormy01]

In Springfield, Ohio-There was a guy on CB who called himself the
Bicycle Man. He had a couple thousand watts and screwed up many
stereos and TV sets.

It was the winter of 1979, I was in England and I'll be damned.
The Bicycle Man from Springfield, Ohio came blasting in for many days
in the afternoon.

I could not receive anything else from Ohio 5,000 miles away.
Only the Bicycle Man.

I did here WOWO a couple times through the noise, the only US
station I could hear. But, Bicycle Man was loud and Clear.

A couple thousand watts on CB? He must have destroyed every TV and stereo within miles. The FCC must have nailed him.

CB is near the upper end of the Short Wave spectrum, so it doesn't take much to get out far. In the 1920's the FRC (predescessor to the FCC) stated that frequencies above
1500 kHz are useless, and that's where they put Hams and Experimenters then...

There was a CBer in the eastern US in the 70's that was rumored to have had 18kW ERP (linear and a yagi antenna)... right now you can buy 2kW linears, so with
a directional antenna gain of say, 12dBi, 18kW ERP should be possible. Hope they didn't mind the electric bill coming in the mail with that NAL to follow shortly....

 

[radioman148]

In Springfield, Ohio-There was a guy on CB who called himself the
Bicycle Man. He had a couple thousand watts and screwed up many
stereos and TV sets.

It was the winter of 1979, I was in England and I'll be damned.
The Bicycle Man from Springfield, Ohio came blasting in for many days
in the afternoon.

I could not receive anything else from Ohio 5,000 miles away.
Only the Bicycle Man.

I did here WOWO a couple times through the noise, the only US
station I could hear. But, Bicycle Man was loud and Clear.

A couple thousand watts on CB? He must have destroyed every TV and stereo within miles. The FCC must have nailed him.

CB is near the upper end of the Short Wave spectrum, so it doesn't take much to get out far. In the 1920's the FRC (predescessor to the FCC) stated that frequencies above
1500 kHz are useless, and that's where they put Hams and Experimenters then...

There was a CBer in the eastern US in the 70's that was rumored to have had 18kW ERP (linear and a yagi antenna)... right now you can buy 2kW linears, so with
a directional antenna gain of say, 12dBi, 18kW ERP should be possible. Hope they didn't mind the electric bill coming in the mail with that NAL to follow shortly....

And hopefully they don't live near anybody.

 

[frcradio]

... I made the loop and the amplifier, a single FET mainly to reduce loading of the loop to a minimum, and not degrade its selectivity.

Something like this: http://www.nutstreet.net/k0lr/bal-pre/bal-pre.htm or this http://www.hard-core-dx.com/nordicdx/antenna/loop/hulapreamp_large.gif?

The FET amp was similar to the second one you listed.

.

 

[nd2023]

While skywave and groundwave are two different things, you say skywave is not affected by ground conductivity but what about the ground conductivity where the skywave skips?

The last time I was over on the east coast of Florida was years ago and it was the Miami area. One thing I remembered was that New York stations at night came in much better than they do over here on the west coast. While the reception was skywave, isn't the better reception there because of the skip on nothing but water?

I got WCBS 880 in Miami Beach in the middle of the afternoon touching the water. 50 feet from the water, it disappeared.

 

[radioman148]

While skywave and groundwave are two different things, you say skywave is not affected by ground conductivity but what about the ground conductivity where the skywave skips?

The last time I was over on the east coast of Florida was years ago and it was the Miami area. One thing I remembered was that New York stations at night came in much better than they do over here on the west coast. While the reception was skywave, isn't the better reception there because of the skip on nothing but water?

I got WCBS 880 in Miami Beach in the middle of the afternoon touching the water. 50 feet from the water, it disappeared.

What time of the year was it & what time of the day?

 

[ddsparxx]

Nick, I take it you were holding the radio in one hand and touching the sea water with your other hand or you were wading in the water and you start hearing WCBS more clearly?

 

[evolve991]

In the 80s,latenight,in Port Deposit MD: Listened to a few hours of 99something in Akron Ohio. An hour of something in Arkansas. I was young and worried more about the music than the calls.

A few years ago I was working in Lancaster,PA and trying to get 88.5 WXPN got me 89X Detroit? Ontario? I heard these places mentioned. They rocked!

On Motorola 2way systems in our TC Simons trucks we kept Spanish Fire/Ambulance alerts. Our dispatcher looked into it and found out it was from Cuba. This was in Baltimore,MD. It overran us so bad we had to wait for them to shut up before trying to talk.

 

[radioman148]

In the 80s,latenight,in Port Deposit MD: Listened to a few hours of 99something in Akron Ohio. An hour of something in Arkansas. I was young and worried more about the music than the calls.

A few years ago I was working in Lancaster,PA and trying to get 88.5 WXPN got me 89X Detroit? Ontario? I heard these places mentioned. They rocked!

On Motorola 2way systems in our TC Simons trucks we kept Spanish Fire/Ambulance alerts. Our dispatcher looked into it and found out it was from Cuba. This was in Baltimore,MD. It overran us so bad we had to wait for them to shut up before trying to talk.

My FM record is WMJX Miami in January of 1977 from Chicago. You wouldn't expect that to happen in January, but it did.

 

[cyberdad]

"Weirdest". I'd have to say KRLD Dallas here in Northern Illinois for a few minutes midday during a partial solar eclipse. Quite a few years back.

 

[radioman148]

"Weirdest". I'd have to say KRLD Dallas here in Northern Illinois for a few minutes midday during a partial solar eclipse. Quite a few years back.

Wow--that's a good one. I've never thought of trying to DX during an eclipse.

 

[nd2023]

While skywave and groundwave are two different things, you say skywave is not affected by ground conductivity but what about the ground conductivity where the skywave skips?

The last time I was over on the east coast of Florida was years ago and it was the Miami area. One thing I remembered was that New York stations at night came in much better than they do over here on the west coast. While the reception was skywave, isn't the better reception there because of the skip on nothing but water?

I got WCBS 880 in Miami Beach in the middle of the afternoon touching the water. 50 feet from the water, it disappeared.

What time of the year was it & what time of the day?

Last winter, around 2-3 in the afternoon.

 

[radioman148]

While skywave and groundwave are two different things, you say skywave is not affected by ground conductivity but what about the ground conductivity where the skywave skips?

The last time I was over on the east coast of Florida was years ago and it was the Miami area. One thing I remembered was that New York stations at night came in much better than they do over here on the west coast. While the reception was skywave, isn't the better reception there because of the skip on nothing but water?

I got WCBS 880 in Miami Beach in the middle of the afternoon touching the water. 50 feet from the water, it disappeared.

What time of the year was it & what time of the day?

Last winter, around 2-3 in the afternoon.

It could've been an early formed skywave.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

"Weirdest". I'd have to say KRLD Dallas here in Northern Illinois for a few minutes midday during a partial solar eclipse. Quite a few years back.

Wow--that's a good one. I've never thought of trying to DX during an eclipse.

I tried it during an almost total eclipse over Houston in 1979 or 1980 - I forgot which. I did find a few AM stations were coming in better, but nothing dramatic like described above. I assumed at the time that during an eclipse, the atmosphere didn't have the time to react like it does with oncoming sunset. It reminded me more of late afternoon DX as the sunset is approaching, but there is still plenty of daylight.

That said - under those circumstances - like 4 or 5 in the afternoon, I have done something similar. An 1160 from San Antonio, normally inaudible in Plano, TX, would start coming in. This was prior to the 1160 coming on the air in Dallas. Since the frequencies are similar, I think it is plausible that 1080 could be an eclipse DX catch.

 

[cyberdad]

'79 or '80 may have been about the time of the eclipse when I snagged KRLD. There's a semi-local 1080 here, but the time in question here probably would've been before that came on.

 

[radioman148]

'79 or '80 may have been about the time of the eclipse when I snagged KRLD. There's a semi-local 1080 here, but the time in question here probably would've been before that came on.

Yeah the station in Oaklawn wasn't on then.

 

[TheDingo]

It's technically not DX, but one morning during an ice storm, Huntsville AL was being covered by Charlotte's 99.7 WRFX on 106.1, When Johnboy and Billy ended that morning, WTAK continues airing the feed for most of the day. I think I recall this happening with WZRR 99.5 Birmingham one day as well, but I can't remember if it was during Johnboy and Billy, or if it continued on after the show was over, But I definitely remember hearing WRFX on 99.5 at some point.

 

[TheDingo]

And it would be after the edit window expires and I edited the post twice, I catch that I put continues instead of continued. Making it look like they do it every day. lol