My whole life working with radio I have mainly been interested in shortwave propagation and mediumwave. Never had a huge interest in how summer can really screw with VHF and UHF (albeit via tropo).
The last few days I have been able to pick up some digital TV signals from as far away as 100 miles from the back side of my directional 4 bay bowtie antenna. Never noticed any of these stations before.
Tonight I turned on the FM receiver to reprogram my stations in since it lost power and memory. Noticed a lot of stations coming in from the south that I never have heard before. This coincides with the TV picking up stuff far south of me from the back of the antenna which is mostly reflected!
So after using the FM tuner I got the brilliant idea to turn on the TV and see if it is once again picking up these distant stations. You already know the answer.. it was!
Probably a dumb ah-hah moment, but I found this quite neat. Now I know when watching TV and new stations pop up to turn on my FM radio and see what all I can pull in and visa-verse.
Almost all the DT stations here are on UHF, so it kind of surprised me that VHF FM broadcast experiences the same effects at the same time of day as that of UHF top band TV stations. Also found it interesting that this only seems to be happening to the south of me and not any other directions.
Either way, summer sure can be fun for DXing FM/TV. The conditions here sure have been sporadic the last month or so.
Yup it is a regular occurrence in the summer months. Here in Norwich, Connecticut I received WGME from Portland Maine on virtual UHF Channel 38 (formerly VHF ch. 13)
The problem with my area is I am east-south-east of Farmington CT, to which most of Connecticut's broadcast antennas are located and Boston Ma. is to my north-east.
Because the FCC was so stupid to put co-channel stations with-in 100 Miles of each other, I often have problems with WTIC and WFXT on UHF 31 and WCCT and WCVB on UHF 20.
When the skip runs, I lose my local stations WTIC and WCCT even though my antenna is pointed toward Farmington CT.
Member of another forum was playing around with analog TV. Figured he'd see what DX would come from analog nations. He hit on a station and took a video. The printing was Tagalog! Philipines uses NTSC and is the best candidate as his antenna was facing SW from... get this... Winnipeg MB!
Be cause of the cold front finally hitting the North-Eastern US I was able to get CBS WGME in at 60% my meter. All the Boston stations were at 80% to 93%. My local stations only peak at 93 and that is VHF 9 WEDN Norwich and UHF 26 WHPX New London Connecticut.
Crazy isn't it? Back in the analog days I used to get a channel 2 from Clearwater Florida. It literately killed WCBS TV New York and WGBH from Boston.
With digital I doubt I will ever see that again, since around here channel 2 is no longer used. Since Canada went digital I no longer get their stations on the now dead U.S. lower channels. I was getting a station back a year ago from Nova Scotia N.B. Canada on channel 5.
Post by HighMountainRadio on Jan 12, 2018 21:27:55 GMT -6
Greetings Kage !
Yes, indeed ! The joys of 'E-Skip' and 'tropo ducting', Florida is a regular up here in the New England area during E season ! 40 over S9 is common from Florida and Bermuda on occasion. Another good indicator is checking the indicated 'MUF' (Maximum Usable Frequency) for the day or time period you are listening and it has made it well up over 108 MHZ on many occasions allowing very distant reception like it was next door as far away as Montana for 5 hours non-stop several years ago, it's a blast when it pops open ! I currently have 89 countries confirmed on 50 MHZ (6 Meter Band) including all 50 USA states.. It's my favorite part of the radio spectrum, been at it over 43 years now.. What I am trying to re-locate is a YouTube video of a listener (ham radio operator) I believe he was in Scotland or Ireland who heard either WMMR FM or WYSP FM, 93.3 and 94.1 MHZ for hours on end one E season ! I wanted to share that video with someone and I'll be damned if I can find it again after numerous attempts.. If you may know of it and have a good link to it I'd really appreciate if you would RSVP me !
Thanks for allowing my use of this great forum, it is a real privilege to be part of the community here, glad I found it !
73... Spooky... "Broadcasting From Somewhere High In The Remote Appalachian Mountains"
"Knowledge Is Always Made More Valuable By Sharing It With Others !" Always Remember To Be Kind ! True Greatness Often Has Very Humble Beginnings ! Help A Kid Out Today ! *** High Mountain Radio *** "Broadcasting From Somewhere High In The Remote Appalachian Mountains"