At least for broadcasting on FM! It's fun that when listening I am able to pick up stations so far away, but when broadcasting it's a real issue when using low power since there are other stations fighting with mine in signal strength when any other time of the year they don't pick up at all!
Ugh just angers me when I turn on the radio before flipping the transmit switch and hear another station there that is 90 some miles away that is coming in like it's right next door
I was trying to think if there are any particular setups that would help increase my coverage during this time of year? I know more power, higher gain antenna. I just can't help but feel there must be some perfect setup that would make my signal rival over the one that is skipping in from so far away.
Oh well. Guess when all else fails, run more power and get that antenna higher in the air
When the channel is clear I can hear my signal with 5 watts into a J-Pole up 30 feet at least 3 miles out. With a car radio I can double that number once we get out of town where no buildings are in the way. When the FM skip rolls in my total coverage drops by half and I have to push my amp to the full 10 watts which it doesn't like so much. If the listener is in the right place the signal is fine, they walk/drive a block away and they are hearing the other station 90 miles away, and so on...
This happens on other bands as well. The one that stands out to me is when skip wipes out the 11 meter band and you can't even contact someone on the other side of town, but your hearing chit chat from hundreds of miles away as if they were right behind you with their antenna touching yours!
Using a C-POL would help a bit, especially in the congested areas of town. But when that E-Skip decides to take a big dump and fill the dial with these distant stations, there really isn't much beyond jacking up the power and antenna height to solve the problem.
Peace!
K-ROCKS RadioOne
ZeroPointRadio
AM Stereo 1670
FM Stereo 92.1
A neat thing to do while DX'ing is to have a spec an running while your scanning and when you come across skippy like this, you can dial it in on the spec an and see just how strong those E-Skip dumps really get!
Now you see/hear it...now you dont! Literally!
Peace!
K-ROCKS RadioOne
ZeroPointRadio
AM Stereo 1670
FM Stereo 92.1