Whats the farthest you've ever heard?

[Waldo325mvfd]

Whats the farthest you've ever heard, and why is reception detter at night than during the day? 8)

 

[ScanManQSL]

The farthest I ever heard was when I was scanning the 10 meters and picked up W5DFW (dallas Ft. Worth) from Wash DC. I thought that way neat to listen to!

 

[SAR923]

Are you asking about shortwave radio stations, hams, aircraft, utilities or what? Each are going to have a different answer. For example, the best aircraft reception I've gotten was a US Air Force C-5 in flight over Guam on 10047 mHz. I regularly listen to shortwave stations from Nepal and India, which, is about as far as you can get from California.

Reception is generally better at night because the sunspot cycle is low now. Without getting in a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo, 10 mHz and below generally works better at night and above 10 mHz works better during the day. Without sunspots to aid propagation, the higher frequencies won't work as well during the day.

 

[jks19714]

I have done radio checks with embassy stations in China and Australia on the US Department of State's HF network using Automatic Link Establishment running 125 watts! Not often, though...

john

 

[nd5y]

and why is reception detter at night than during the day? 8)

The short incomplete answer is because the D region of the ionosphere,
which disappears at night, attenuates or completely absorbs lower
frequency signals (below ~ 7 - 15 MHz).

Check these out:
http://ecjones.org/propag.html
http://hfradio.org/propagation_page2.html#general
http://www.ae4rv.com/tn/propflash.htm


Tom ND5Y

 

[Thunderbolt]

I have picked up Radio Australia and some type of utility operation one morning from Perth on USB. Likewise, Radio New Zealand has come in loud and clear several times during the winter months.

73's

Ron

 

[jhooten]

In a previous life (or so it seems it was so long ago) we were sitting around in the station bored to death so we decided to try some things. Remembering that we had two beam antennas for the 20 megahertz range we pointed one west and the other east. The transmitter was put on the west ant. and the reciever on the east ant the sytem was set up for full break in operation a morse K was sent. A few seconds later a K came out of the the station speaker. Several different code characters were sent to confirm we were recieving our own signal. Just to be sure the Chief operator swithced to USB and said TEST into the mic. Sure enough after the signal went all the way around the world his voice came booming out of the station speaker.

 

[N_Jay]

In a previous life (or so it seems it was so long ago) we were sitting around in the station bored to death so we decided to try some things. Remembering that we had two beam antennas for the 20 megahertz range we pointed one west and the other east. The transmitter was put on the west ant. and the reciever on the east ant the sytem was set up for full break in operation a morse K was sent. A few seconds later a K came out of the the station speaker. Several different code characters were sent to confirm we were recieving our own signal. Just to be sure the Chief operator swithced to USB and said TEST into the mic. Sure enough after the signal went all the way around the world his voice came booming out of the station speaker.

Hmmmm???

Don't you mean about 0.14 secods later?

 

[Waldo325mvfd]

Hay ScanManQSL was that frequ 28.64?

 

[ScanManQSL]

Waldo325mvfd: It was the 29.66FM

 

[SCPD]

When I was in the U.S. Army I was stationed in Hawaii from 1987 to 1992. Sometime around 1990 I was able to monitor the California Highway Patrol on their Low band VHF system using my handheld scanner with rubber duck antenna. The signals were loud and very strong. The distance(s) of the signals were, in my best guesstimation, about 3,000 miles away based on the locations being given by the CHP.

 

[ka3jjz]

Yeah, I was able to do the same as Frootydawg's post on an old Regency HX1500 scanner and a 6 meter mag mount- worked like gangbusters when the lo skip was in...
But getting back to HF - technically, the antipode to this area (the point exactly opposite to us on the planet) is near New Zealand, and yes I've verified RNZI. But a little more exotic- and more historical - would have to be when I verified Sri Lanka just as the country's name was changing from Ceylon and the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Service was just getting on its feet. Very neat hearing those transmissions almost 25 years ago.....

73s Mike

 

[mr_hankey]

not record-breakers, but here is what i've accomplished:

1) received NY state on VHF ham calling frequency from San Antonio one morning, incidental repeater propagation...

2) got the Yukon regularly last year on CB channel 38 at greyline time

3) picked up Jamaica in the early morning hours on CB (11m) odd mornings 2 years ago

i think we are in a lousy period of the current solar cycle, as evidenced by my abysmal dxing in the American Southwest on a recent trip to California...hopefully, it will pick up soon.

 

[INDY72]

Good propogation is gone for at least ten years, except the Fall/Winter skip stuff, and the tropo ducting. We just left out of the sunspot/solar storm cycle. The farthes I have listened to was a SW station in S. Korea, and I was in Asheville, NC on top of a mountian.

 

[jhooten]

In a previous life (or so it seems it was so long ago) we were sitting around in the station bored to death so we decided to try some things. Remembering that we had two beam antennas for the 20 megahertz range we pointed one west and the other east. The transmitter was put on the west ant. and the reciever on the east ant the sytem was set up for full break in operation a morse K was sent. A few seconds later a K came out of the the station speaker. Several different code characters were sent to confirm we were recieving our own signal. Just to be sure the Chief operator swithced to USB and said TEST into the mic. Sure enough after the signal went all the way around the world his voice came booming out of the station speaker.

Hmmmm???

Don't you mean about 0.14 secods later?

Anticipation was thick in the room, it seemed like it took hours. And it was nearly thiry years ago.

:shock:

 

[Waldo325mvfd]

Don't forget about ducting. 8)

 

[ka3jjz]

Don't forget about ducting. 8)

By and large, ducting has little to do with HF propagation. VHF, yes, HF no.
The consensus seems to be that the solar minimum is here early; so the lower freqs are going to do better (and thus, night time reception) than the higher ones - in general. There will be spurts of activity, though, and you do need to watch the solar conditions for flares (a few of which hit us this past summer), holes and other phenomena that will improve things on ths short term.

It's not an exact science by any means - but that's what fascinates so many.

73s Mike

 

[SAR923]

Reading the other posts, I forgot about my best VHF catch. We were on an offshore isand in Belize in 2002 and and I was able to hear Cincinnati fire dispatch on 33.90 with just the stock rubber duck on my Pro-92. It's not as far as hearing the CHP in Hawaii but it was pretty amazing at the time since they were coming in like I was standing in Cincinnati.

 

[kikito]

I've heard as far as the North Pole!

Oh wait, I live there, nevermind.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist )

But seriously, I'm pretty sure it was California HP on the lowband that I received from Alaska (somewhere around 40MHz). I asked around at the time (years ago) and according to the tone I was receiving with it, someone at Strong Signals said it was CHP.

 

[DaveNF2G]

On UHF - received Chicago, IL from Rochester, NY after the Mount St Helens eruption. The ash cloud acted like a traveling RF mirror for a couple of days. (This was from home using a Scantenna above the roof of a 2-story house.)

On VHF - FDNY Manhattan from Rochester, NY. (This was at work at Monroe County OEC with their 150-foot tower and receiving equipment.)

On HF - NNN0ICE Navy MARS Antarctica from Rochester, NY. (From home, using a Realistic DX-302 and a wire running around the ceiling.)