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Worst places to DX
- Thread starter crainbebo
- Start date
What other places in the US (or canada) are some of the worst places to DX?New York City is a DX black hole. There can be strong tropo, but it disappears within 5 miles of the Empire State Building. Newark, NJ is also bad because every unoccupied frequency has a pirate station, many of them on all day.
The boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ is surprisingly a bad DX spot due to overloading from several 50000 watt stations less than a mile away. Surprisingly, those stations can be heard like a local over 100 miles away, even inland, during tropo because the transmitters are on the coastline. It would be a great DX spot if there were no local stations.
The inside of most stores and office buildings is a bad place for DX, or even local reception.
The boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ is surprisingly a bad DX spot due to overloading from several 50000 watt stations less than a mile away. Surprisingly, those stations can be heard like a local over 100 miles away, even inland, during tropo because the transmitters are on the coastline. It would be a great DX spot if there were no local stations.
The inside of most stores and office buildings is a bad place for DX, or even local reception.
Zach said:
you're right...the reception in The Snowball Dining Room sucks...
M
MotoMuzak
Guest
MW: My apartment. From what I have read elsewhere, apartments in general tend to be terrible places to DX mediumwave anyways, because of noise eminating from your (and your neighbours'/surrounding tenants') computer devices, flourescent lights, TV sets eminating sync noise, appliances etc. Around here, I can really only pick up the strongest locals (KEX, KXL, KPAM, KKAD) and often Navtex on 518, but that's pretty much it.
SW: Same situation as MW. Really not too much different except our local PUD has a broadband over power lines situation which (as I understand it anyways) they use to remotely monitor local power metres. Unfortunately it knocks out the range from about 5000-~8500 kHz with loud, broadband buzzing noise. (The ARRL has complained publicly to no small degree about this as well!!)
FM/VHF (broadcast band): The Dalles, OR. It's about 100 miles east of here along I-84 in the far eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge. Aside from a couple local country stations, a translator of KBVM and a translator of the NPR station from Yakima, WA it's just a black hole there, it seems. I'm guessing the local geology and low elevation must have at least *something* to do with it......;o)
SATELLITE (C-band): Don't know; I don't have a C-band LNB yet!
SATELLITE (Kurz band; KA & KU): My folks' house, which is surrounded on all sides by trees. Big, huge pine and deciduous trees. Trying to pick up pretty much anything there on my Pansat has consistently proven a challenge because everything drops out constantly. (And that's specifically why I live in a third-floor apartment with a clear line of sight of the south!)
VHF TV (NTSC)-Again, my apartment because of the noise.
VHF TV (ATSC)- The only ATSC channel here on VHF right now (and this won't be the case after next February as I understand it) is KPXG on channel 4. I haven't really had *too* much trouble with this one, surprisingly..........
UHF TV (either mode): I don't know.....I haven't really tried DXing UHF TV too extensively............
One thing I have noticed with ATSC, at the present time around here, is DXing often entails just trying to get the local channels to come in without breaking up!
SW: Same situation as MW. Really not too much different except our local PUD has a broadband over power lines situation which (as I understand it anyways) they use to remotely monitor local power metres. Unfortunately it knocks out the range from about 5000-~8500 kHz with loud, broadband buzzing noise. (The ARRL has complained publicly to no small degree about this as well!!)
FM/VHF (broadcast band): The Dalles, OR. It's about 100 miles east of here along I-84 in the far eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge. Aside from a couple local country stations, a translator of KBVM and a translator of the NPR station from Yakima, WA it's just a black hole there, it seems. I'm guessing the local geology and low elevation must have at least *something* to do with it......;o)
SATELLITE (C-band): Don't know; I don't have a C-band LNB yet!
SATELLITE (Kurz band; KA & KU): My folks' house, which is surrounded on all sides by trees. Big, huge pine and deciduous trees. Trying to pick up pretty much anything there on my Pansat has consistently proven a challenge because everything drops out constantly. (And that's specifically why I live in a third-floor apartment with a clear line of sight of the south!)
VHF TV (NTSC)-Again, my apartment because of the noise.
VHF TV (ATSC)- The only ATSC channel here on VHF right now (and this won't be the case after next February as I understand it) is KPXG on channel 4. I haven't really had *too* much trouble with this one, surprisingly..........
UHF TV (either mode): I don't know.....I haven't really tried DXing UHF TV too extensively............
One thing I have noticed with ATSC, at the present time around here, is DXing often entails just trying to get the local channels to come in without breaking up!
Nick said:
I was surprised to hear WBT on my Walkman while inside the observation area at the Empire State Building! I'm such a radio geek!
R
rbrucecarter5
Guest
vibe said:
KCRS Midland and some of the stronger San Antonio AM stations. Not too bad. At night, a plethora of Spanish language stuff.
Worst DX'ing is in any city where there are IBOC stations.
This is a 10 yr old observation, but about 70 miles north of Las Vegas, there was nothing audible on AM or FM--and I manually poked through each channel to be sure...even KDWN's 50KW AM on the low end of the dial came up missing. I honestly think I would have gotten better reception on the moon than at this foresaken place!
Much of Southeastern Kentucky offers little reception unless it's atop a mountain. The "hollers" have little AM, FM or TV reception inside those basins.
M
MotoMuzak
Guest
w9wi--
The way The Dalles is situated makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to do any sort of reliable VHF FM Broadcast band DXing there. For one thing, it is situated (for the most part) down in a valley so you are typically right below the line of sight of stations from most surrounding areas. Also it is located around a southern-running "dip" in the Columbia River, so the Gorge itself would get in the way.
On the other hand, reflective "ducting" down the Gorge (sorry if my term is confusing or misleading, that's the only thing I can really think of to call it) is sometimes possible given the right conditions (clear summertime weather) but not always. But I have copied KKCW (PDX) and KPBX (Spokane) there a couple of times, albeit very weakly.
It usually gets better, I have noticed, once you get up on the plateau east of Arlington, OR where the terrain is pretty much all flat. That's usually when Spokane and Portland come blowing in. (Portland doesn't usually blow in as much as Spokane however, mainly due to the fact that the Cascades and Mt. Hood are right in the way.) But I often listen to the Evergreen Radio Reading Service via KPBX when I am en route to (and most of the time, in) Pendleton OR, once I get onto the plateau.
(For the record, Spokane is about 200 miles north of Pendleton and their feed of ERRS is on KPBX's SCA channel.....which, according to FCC regulations, is broadcast at one tenth the power of the main monophonic channel. It can be a bit scratchy at times down around there, but still usually quite listenable.)
That's just my own experience; your DXing may vary!! ;o)
The way The Dalles is situated makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to do any sort of reliable VHF FM Broadcast band DXing there. For one thing, it is situated (for the most part) down in a valley so you are typically right below the line of sight of stations from most surrounding areas. Also it is located around a southern-running "dip" in the Columbia River, so the Gorge itself would get in the way.
On the other hand, reflective "ducting" down the Gorge (sorry if my term is confusing or misleading, that's the only thing I can really think of to call it) is sometimes possible given the right conditions (clear summertime weather) but not always. But I have copied KKCW (PDX) and KPBX (Spokane) there a couple of times, albeit very weakly.
It usually gets better, I have noticed, once you get up on the plateau east of Arlington, OR where the terrain is pretty much all flat. That's usually when Spokane and Portland come blowing in. (Portland doesn't usually blow in as much as Spokane however, mainly due to the fact that the Cascades and Mt. Hood are right in the way.) But I often listen to the Evergreen Radio Reading Service via KPBX when I am en route to (and most of the time, in) Pendleton OR, once I get onto the plateau.
(For the record, Spokane is about 200 miles north of Pendleton and their feed of ERRS is on KPBX's SCA channel.....which, according to FCC regulations, is broadcast at one tenth the power of the main monophonic channel. It can be a bit scratchy at times down around there, but still usually quite listenable.)
That's just my own experience; your DXing may vary!! ;o)
Houston's not exactly a picnic for DXing. Most of the stations the rest of the country can take for granted don't make it down here, at least to the south of Houston. North of Houston, I'm sure, is completely different because all our AMs are dramatically directional toward the Gulf after nightfall.
Those you can count on every night here are WBAP, KRLD, WWL, WOAI, 1050/Monterrey and 1570/Ciudad Acuna. WLW is loud some nights, others it can't be heard. WSB is blotted out by KTRH bleed where I live (Friendswood-League City border). Sometimes XEROK comes in very well, other nights it is tough as nails to find.
Apologies to any longtimers around here who may hear other stations a lot, but this is my experience.
Those you can count on every night here are WBAP, KRLD, WWL, WOAI, 1050/Monterrey and 1570/Ciudad Acuna. WLW is loud some nights, others it can't be heard. WSB is blotted out by KTRH bleed where I live (Friendswood-League City border). Sometimes XEROK comes in very well, other nights it is tough as nails to find.
Apologies to any longtimers around here who may hear other stations a lot, but this is my experience.
MotoMuzak said:
That'll put a hole in "tropo" DX but I don't think it'll hurt long-haul E-skip much, and shouldn't be a problem for meteor-scatter work.
SCA channels are broadcast at 100% of main power. But because of the relatively high subcarrier frequency there tends to be a lot more noise admitted with the signal - in other words, you have to have a much stronger main signal for the noise to be weak enough for the SCA to be useful.
(so while it isn't literally transmitted at 10% power, I suppose the effect is much as if it was transmitted at 10% power)
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