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When are the DX seasons?

T

Tomgsinger

As in when are you most likely to receive an E-skip opening, tropo scatter or any other type of FM DX as far as months go?
 
Usually May-August for me.
I occasionally had FM DX as early as April, and as late as September here.
Around 200+, 300+ or higher mile tropo openings; E-Skip as much as 1300+ miles here.
 
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Tropo is dependent on weather conditions. It can happen any time of year, although some periods have a higher probability than others.

Best thing for tropo is to look up one of the online tropo forecasting websites. Or just turn on the radio and listen around.... :)
 
Broadly speaking.... Warm weather months for FM. Cold weather months for AM. But on either band, good DX conditions can set up at just about any time.
 
cyberdad said:
Broadly speaking.... Warm weather months for FM. Cold weather months for AM. But on either band, good DX conditions can set up at just about any time.
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And with the sunspot cycle on the downside for the next 6 or 7 years, the medium wave (That's "Ancient Modulation" for those of you in Rio Linda. :D ) and lower shortwave bands below about 16 MHz will be the best for DX. Above that, there will still be E-skip, but F2 will be less common.
 
E skip generally May to August, but extended a bit in the Southern USA where Central America / Caribbean is DXable via E-skip before and after this window. Tropo really depends where you are. Up here in the Northeast, mid-August through mid-October tends to be best with most frequent good tropo. However, I've had 250+ mile tropo on DTV in every month except February. Last year at the end of November and beginning of December I experienced two real nice tropo openings to my West, with DTV distances as far as Dayton, Ohio (WPTD channel 16 at 560 miles). The closer you are to the coast the more often tropo develops. We just had a great opening Friday night - Saturday morning where I had good DTV signals from Virginia to Maine. FM tropo scatter occurs a lot throughout the year.
 
I've found William Hepburn's tropo forecast page useful.

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

Not much E-skip here in the Western reaches of the PNW (especially at my location) but I have heard a few FMers here and there with tropo conditions. Not being an FM DXer, I'm sure there's been more out there than I've heard.
 
E skip is very much in the late spring and summer. Season usually starts mid-late May, ends around early-mid August. However, anything can happen. I've had Es in late April before. Others have had skip in December/January, which is the prime season down in the southern hemisphere. Australian DXers usually get good FM DX in Nov-Feb.
Tropo usually happens spring-fall. August and September are the best times in historic opinion. However it can happen in the winter.
 
crainbebo said:
E skip is very much in the late spring and summer. Season usually starts mid-late May, ends around early-mid August. However, anything can happen. I've had Es in late April before. Others have had skip in December/January, which is the prime season down in the southern hemisphere. Australian DXers usually get good FM DX in Nov-Feb.
Tropo usually happens spring-fall. August and September are the best times in historic opinion. However it can happen in the winter.
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The best e-skip I ever got was in January 1977 when I heard Miami, Fl in Chicago and it was on my car radio. It lasted for several hours and I was still hearing it when I got home.
 
We just had a brief E-skip openings along the East Coast.... Thanksgiving and the day before, with 2 new Florida FMers logged (WPOZ-88.3, WPSF-91.5) along with a couple of Florida FM call-letter changes. Cuban analog TV-skip was reported from the East Coast through the Great Lakes. This makes every month except February and March that I have received FM E-skip here in Poughkeepsie, NY (in the past 14 years) --- however mid-May to Mid-August is by far the most common period for skip.
 
Tomgsinger said:
As in when are you most likely to receive an E-skip opening, tropo scatter or any other type of FM DX as far as months go?
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In Western Washington, (north of Seattle), DX is virtually non-existent due to the consistent weather. A little summer (June-Sep) tropo, but when I say that, it means stations that can only be caught with a good antenna and tuner can instead be caught with average equipment.

My home in Northern VA is far more interesting for that stuff. Normal DX "season" is early April-early October. The heavy e-skip season is usually late May-late August. On average, you'll pick up either tropo or e-skip at least twice/week. However, I was back there last week and low and behold, on a 39 degree night at 0300, I was getting some decent tropo, picking up most of the Norfolk stations like locals from about 120 air miles away. This was on a dumpy iRiver mp3 player's FM radio, I might add!

Radio-X
 
Funny, Thanksgiving Day, I was able to get clear as a bell reception from an 80 mile away station in Southborough, MA (near Worcester/Framingham). The station was WCOD-- won't be hearing that station much longer, soon it'll be WRCA!
 
Yes, it was WMJX on 96.3. It no longer exists and I believe that frequency is no longer used in Miami proper. The entire incident of me hearing this station would've never happened if WBBM-FM in Chicago had not been off the air for a few hours with technical difficulties. I was driving home on a cold January afternoon in Chicago and heard this station on 96.3 going in and out and giving temperatures in the 70s. It was very bizarre for me because I had never experienced anything but tropo on FM. By the time I got home the station was still coming in and I ran tape. Somewhere I still have the tape.
 
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Nice. I received one station by BOTH tropo and E skip.
From Gainesville, I received KNUS and KRLY (Dallas and Houston but not necessarily in that order) by tropo and I later got one of them by E skip or maybe I got both by skip and one by tropo. It was 43 years ago and I am not a very serious DXer.
 
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ai4i said:
Nice. I received one station by BOTH tropo and E skip.
From Gainesville, I received KNUS and KRLY (Dallas and Houston but not necessarily in that order) by tropo and I later got one of them by E skip or maybe I got both by skip and one by tropo. It was 43 years ago.
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Amazing. I don't remember that ever happening to me.
 
ai4i said:
Nice. I received one station by BOTH tropo and E skip.
From Gainesville, I received KNUS and KRLY (Dallas and Houston but not necessarily in that order) by tropo and I later got one of them by E skip or maybe I got both by skip and one by tropo. It was 43 years ago and I am not a very serious DXer.
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It's always special to get a station by both tropo and skip. I have heard 3 FM's by both modes from here in Poughkeepsie, NY... one from the West, one from the East, and one from the South. There's WKKI-100.5 Kokomo, IN 639 miles by skip in 2010, and tropo in 2012. And CHNS-89.9 Halifax, NS, 551 miles, skip in 2008, and tropo later more than once. And finally, WSSL Gary Court, SC 668 miles skip in 2013 and tropo in 2016. No DTV has been logged by both modes here.
 
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