a ABDX list meber from texas (i am aslo a fm guy) just posted he was getting es from mexico On 50 MHZ let's hope it's opens up for the rest of us scanner nuts..... i guewss i picked the woirng time to have my batteies go down on my pro 95
E skip alert
- Thread starter slatescan
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Hi all,
We Amateur Radio ops know that June is the hottest month for Sporadic E propagation so full band scan VHF Lo and sooner or later you'll hear stations coming in from places you never knew existed. It's not at all unusual to hear Canada and Mexico, just the other day all of North America was coming in area by area as the E layer clouds drifted by. Last year I worked France on 6M, it was a very bad year for DX since in years past I worked all over Europe, South America (my best was the southern tip of Argentina) and missed my friend in Havana by THAT much. I was just a bit annoyed that I heard Arnie's CQ loud and clear but he wasn't hearing me answer. The year before that was even more intense, I couldn't bust the pileup on Algeria but found myself on the receiving end of a few pileups myself so I know what the DX guy feels like trying to sort them all out.
On the other hand summer brings temperature inversions which bring tropospheric ducting with them. Since I scan the USCG VHF marine frequencies channel 16 gives me a good indication when we get our famous coastal ducting. When Hatteras and Woods Hole sound like they're in Ocean County NJ it's time to switch on the 2M SSB rig and call CQ. Pay attention to the weather reports, when a warm front approaches it can slide up and over cooler air near the ground and produce an inversion. On the other hand an approaching cool front (usually accompanied by storms) can slide under and the same thing happens. Once the front is on top of you it's all over so catch them early.
Sometimes it acts funny, it gets frequency selective. When 2M is hopping other bands may be dead, 70cM opens and 2M is dead, then 222mHz might have the action and the others don't, it's a strange RF world out there.
Don't forget TV, those bands do the very same things and once upon a time channel 4 from Honduras was banging in like gang busters, got that one on tape. The odd bit was the chief engineer was giving some school kids a tour of the transmitting facility so I got to see just where that signal was coming from as I was recording it. Another time UHF was going full bore and fouling up the local cable system, couldn't watch a single off-air channel. The TV got switched to the antenna real quick. (;->)
Did I mention DX on the standard FM band? Yeah, just did and a few years ago I heard a 2.2KW college station in Minnesota here in NJ. The bottom line here is don't limit yourself when there's a whole RF spectrum to play with.
We Amateur Radio ops know that June is the hottest month for Sporadic E propagation so full band scan VHF Lo and sooner or later you'll hear stations coming in from places you never knew existed. It's not at all unusual to hear Canada and Mexico, just the other day all of North America was coming in area by area as the E layer clouds drifted by. Last year I worked France on 6M, it was a very bad year for DX since in years past I worked all over Europe, South America (my best was the southern tip of Argentina) and missed my friend in Havana by THAT much. I was just a bit annoyed that I heard Arnie's CQ loud and clear but he wasn't hearing me answer. The year before that was even more intense, I couldn't bust the pileup on Algeria but found myself on the receiving end of a few pileups myself so I know what the DX guy feels like trying to sort them all out.
On the other hand summer brings temperature inversions which bring tropospheric ducting with them. Since I scan the USCG VHF marine frequencies channel 16 gives me a good indication when we get our famous coastal ducting. When Hatteras and Woods Hole sound like they're in Ocean County NJ it's time to switch on the 2M SSB rig and call CQ. Pay attention to the weather reports, when a warm front approaches it can slide up and over cooler air near the ground and produce an inversion. On the other hand an approaching cool front (usually accompanied by storms) can slide under and the same thing happens. Once the front is on top of you it's all over so catch them early.
Sometimes it acts funny, it gets frequency selective. When 2M is hopping other bands may be dead, 70cM opens and 2M is dead, then 222mHz might have the action and the others don't, it's a strange RF world out there.
Don't forget TV, those bands do the very same things and once upon a time channel 4 from Honduras was banging in like gang busters, got that one on tape. The odd bit was the chief engineer was giving some school kids a tour of the transmitting facility so I got to see just where that signal was coming from as I was recording it. Another time UHF was going full bore and fouling up the local cable system, couldn't watch a single off-air channel. The TV got switched to the antenna real quick. (;->)
Did I mention DX on the standard FM band? Yeah, just did and a few years ago I heard a 2.2KW college station in Minnesota here in NJ. The bottom line here is don't limit yourself when there's a whole RF spectrum to play with.
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