voxiso
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Why is this? When it is storming I can pick up counties sometimes 100 miles away.. When it is sunny outside I do good to pick up the county next to me. Why is that?
During storms I can pick up counties up to 90 miles away?
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teufler
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as was said, tropo ducting. Really radio waves after they transmit go to the atmospher and just continue into space except when low clouds or moisture in the air, sort of creates a tunnel where radiuo waves just bounce and bounce and bounce. They create a W pattern as they emit from their source. This happens more on the low bands but it has happened on vhf and probably uhf. Tropo ducting can occur in any direction
Makes for some awesome 2 meter long distant contacts. LOL
One storm in the area I lived in I picked up Va and W Va (Fire Dept) I live in FL and times it will be louder than the county FD vhf system I remember the county FD had to switch to Ch2 for that reason cause it was so clear sound like your there.
This link seems to cover the topic pretty well: Tropospheric Ducting | Weather FAQs
I blame it on 'atmospheric gremlins' myself. Unfortunately, the move to our main building has put an end to those gremlins and now, instead of picking up stuff further away, I'm barely picking up close by.
Our County is having to move the local police zone to another channel every night because a department in Va is always hitting the input to the repeater and squashing the local communications. It's a pretty good distance for them to hit on such a regular basis but I forget where it was in Va it was coming from.
Unfortunately here in my little dead spot I don't have as much luck. Now & then I get lucky but since I can't run outside antennas I don't get nearly as much as I used to previously.
Unfortunately here in my little dead spot I don't have as much luck. Now & then I get lucky but since I can't run outside antennas I don't get nearly as much as I used to previously.
Nothing that a ladder,a drill and a moonless night wont cure!..Question is,How stealthy you feeling...;{)
This reminds me of what used to happen to Bryan PD's Secondary channel when they were still on VHF. They would essentially have to abandon it every few hours when the skip from the repeater input frequency used by Burnet County Sheriff got too bad. Just FYI, Burnet County is about 150+ miles west of here! Not surprisingly, when Brazos County built its first ASTRO system back in 2005, Bryan PD Secondary was in use first.
As for the effects from storms, I notice the same thing. Just for kicks, I loaded in Houston Fire Department's channels back when they were still on UHF. Sure enough, every once in a while I would pick them up perfectly clear, even with a small indoor antenna. I recall another time when I was picking up the Brownsville NOAA Weather Radio channel, along with activity on almost every other NOAA channel.
Then there was probably the most significant skip event I have ever had. Back in late 2003, I was playing around with my PRO-94 my mom had got me for my birthday a few months before. This was shortly after a major severe thunderstorm had passed through the area. Suddenly, I picked up a frequency (155.940 if I remember correctly), coming in almost perfectly clear. If I recall, it was a police channel, and I could have sworn I heard an officer say that he was "enroute to the Las Vegas jail". I don't know if that signal was coming all the way from Nevada or not, but, if it was, that would be amazing.
I personally don't notice this in rainy conditions much, but do at night during areas of high pressure. Next time on a clear night when you see a very light stream of clouds in part of the sky, check your scanner and FM radio. You'll find tropo will probably be very good.
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