FM Broadcast DX

[motomeso]

I was sitting in my company van in Brantford, Ontario today waiting for a customer and picked up these 4 stations for a short period of time.

- Country 94.9 WKOR in Columbus, Mississippi
- 95 KSJ in Mobile, Al
- KMJJ 99.7 in Shreveport, LA
- KHMY 93.1 in Pratt, Kansas

I heard these stations Identify and then searched their call on Google using my Blackberry.

Anybody know what causes these type of conditions? Kind of long to be an inversion and they faded away like somebody flicking a switch.

 

[kb2vxa]

Not tropo, sporadic E. "...they faded away like somebody flicking a switch." That's what makes it sporadic.

 

[daleduke17]

What kind of antenna/radio did you have? Just some generic radio?

That is pretty good distance, gotta say that.

 

[motomeso]

It was just the factory antenna / Delco radio in the van. Pretty damm cool if you ask me.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi again,

Yup, once upon a time my car radio was so swamped all I could hear over the bottom third of the dial was The Prairie Home Companion, NPR is like that. On the other hand nothing beats a good digital FM receiver with crystal IF filters in mono (avoids stereo multipath distortion) and a ten element FM Yagi and rotor.

Have you tried TV? During that same period I picked up channel 4 in Honduras like I was IN Honduras. By strange coincidence I was watching the Chief Engineer giving some school children a tour of the transmitting facility. FYI, tape rolling sure helps snag that QSL since it leaves no doubt you received the signal and how well it was received, the best reception report you can possibly give them.

 

[scankid2591]

I'll pick up 97.3 ALICE KLLC San Francisco and 106.5 The Mix KEZR San Jose crystal clear in the late evening... This isn't very far but it's about 100 miles from Salinas. (Compared to some other people's stories, like picking up my local CHP office's dispatch in Maine)

 

[Jammin_Jay]

I am also in Ontario, near Kingston, and i have also picked up Stations in Kansas city, 5 of them on the same day u have. one of them was interfering with my local station.

This phenomenum has occured plenty of times with me over the last decade

Especially this type of skip on FM radio and tv band. I have notice that usually peak hours when it occurs is between 4pm and 6:30 pm. Over the last few years, and i has occured most of the time to me, in late may and june. I have actually recorded the audio, once from a station in florida, i picked up here in Canada on 93.3 mhz. fm. You can here the station fading in and out, then staying clear for about 15 mins, then slowly fading. All in about 2 hours time.
What is interesting to me is those people who have no idea about whats going on, and they listen to there local station, and all of a sudden they hear different music in their car, or at home, and they go WTF, whats going on. Without having even the slightest clue or knowledge or radio waves, and their properties and effects. I remember one caller on a radi o station even calling his local station, and named the other station that took over his radio for about a half an hour. That was funny. That day, the skip was really strong.
Anyways, have fun listening, should be some interesting stuff on the bands.

 

[Dispatrick]

TRY 800 AM & 900 AM CANADIAN, STATIONS I PICK UP REGURALLY also about a week ago i pick up a Baltimore am staion and 2day in the car greenwich CT WNPR

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi PG and all,

AM broadcast DX is just a BIT off topic but I'll bite for a moment. I don't remember off hand which Canadian is heard in NJ on 900 but 800 is CKLW Windsor ONT. I was a regular listener in the 60s and there were plenty more hot rock stations but when PJB in Bonaire Netherlands Antilles came on with 500KW non directional CK went out the window. After a bit of international haggling PJ lowered the power and went directional and CK went directional too to protect each other after dark. Now neither one is very strong in NJ so you're lucky to hear anything but a jumble, especially now when the band is awash in summer static. Now if that Baltimorian was WBAL you can hear them better during the day without the nighttime skip, that's pure ground wave.

Now that they've caught your interest put up a BMF TV antenna on a 50' mast and watch WBAL-TV. From Maywood you can get everything from Boston to Washington like we did here at the shore before cable came to town. Put a 10 element FM Yagi above it and you'll get the FM too and when those bands open you'll be lucky to pick one station out of the jumble but with patience you may catch an ID or two. Yup, sometimes too much is just too much, when it rains it pours, Morton salt.

 

[gcgrotz]

Hi Warren again, and all:

You brought back memories for me of listening to CKLW in the 60s, it seemed so exotic and they played great music. My other favorite was WBZ in Boston, with Dick Summers broadcasting nightly from some beach or something. I recently found a web site with audio of DX and it had a recording of WBZ in the 60s made from a ship at harbour on Midway Island on a Navy (most likely R390) receiver, and the DJ was the same Dick Summers. Email me if you'd like to have the MP3 file.

I also remember going to Cape Hatteras as a youngster and the locals said their TV reception from Norfolk was totally dependent on which way the winds were blowing. I also learned later that the Coast Guard had lots of trouble with their microwave hop from Oregon Inlet to Hatteras because the frequent "ducting" along the coast would capture the signal and refract it up and over the line of sight path.

I could go on and on but I'd better get to work.....
Most of my work these days is at 1.9GHz and we don't see much "skip" there...

73

 

[kb0rpj]

it's fun..

it's run to chase E-skip.. i've logged nearly 200 stations.. check out my list http://www.katieandglen.com/dxlist.pdf

 

[10-95]

Here in N.C. about two weekends ago we were getting Ontario FM's like gang busters . Solid copy for about 10 minutes at a time then they faded out for a few minutes and then come right back up! Best short skip opening I've heard in about 15 years on FM.

 

[itsme]

Florida FM Station Clear as a Bell

Today in Mississauga Ontario I picked up the gator 98.7 FM out of West Palm Beach Fl.
According to MapQuest it's about 1409 Miles away from where I was.
Kinda cool they were playing alot of cool tunes and coming in crystal clear from 11:30 am til about 4:00 pm on the stock radio of a dodge dakota.