OT: Wierd radio signals

No, you're not the only one. I've got XM in my Tundra, but still intentionally try DX'ing once in a while.

Traditionally, winter months are good for lower frequencies, while summer favors higher bands. CB radio signals would always "skip" better in the summer.

------------------------------------------------ The DNC - Building a bridge to the 20th Century.

But 'skip' seemed to be extra strong Friday night. I get tired of listening to the usual FM drivel. In the South they have both kinds of music, Country and Western. Up here they have both kinds of music: Hip and Hop along with (C)rap music.

Charles of Kankakee

Where there any strange lights in the sky at the time?

mike hunt

Charles Fregeau wrote:

Which goes along with lower freq's during winter.

During summer months, there's a condition which allows FM DX'ing called "tropospheric bending". Not skip in the usual sense of the word, but FM and television can be picked up at unheard of distances. About thirty-five years ago, I caught a Texas television station in California. Freakish but interesting.

I've always said that it's no small coincidence that "rap" and "crap" have a 75 percent overlap.

------------------------------------------------ The DNC - Building a bridge to the 20th Century.

I've seen tropo ducting on 2 meters (144-148 MHz) also.

But tonight coming back along the same route I heard very few long distance signals, mostly Chicago-Wisconsin-Indiana stations. Although I heard a couple stations I could have mistaken for XER, I know those are local, too. I often wonder whatever became of Dr. Brinkley and his goat gland cures?

Charles of Kankakee

Not personally, but a friend of mine experienced that.

That last one was lost on me, Charles. Maybe a farm version of Dr. Demento?

------------------------------------------------ The DNC - Building a bridge to the 20th Century.

No, Dr. Brinkley was banished from the US airwaves for selling his goat gland cures on a Kansas radio station in the '30's. He moved to Mexico and XER at the time had 150,000 watts of power and could be heard by most of his old audience. XER's primary language, though, was, of course, Spanish.

Charles of Kankakee

OK then the reference I saw was wrong, it said XER, not XERA.

But it's been nearly 30 years since I read the story. There were a lot of weirdoes in the radio business in the 20's & 30's. And there was no effective regulation until 1927, by which time there were over 700 standard broadcasting stations. (i.e AM, there was also beginning to be short-wave stations in this time period, though FM would not be out of the laboratory until 1935, and get quashed by RCA trying to make TV the next big thing.)

Charles of Kankakee

Not that I could tell. Too many city lights to see.

Charles of Kankakee

It was a real station. I got a QSL card and letter from them today. 740 is a 50,000 watt station in Toronto. I also heard 860 Toronto on the same trip.

Yes, I know about powering down at sunset. My dad was a DJ at several AM stations that had to power off completely at sunset, and PSA's (Pre Sunrise Authorizations, where a station could come on before sunrise with limited power, usually at 6 AM in the winter) were still pretty new in those days.

Charles of Kankakee

I hope broadband over powerline (BPL) won't affect your listening pleasure. If this technology comes to your area you will have a significant degradation of received signals, mostly on the SW bands. Contact the sitting FCC commissioners to voice your dissatisfaction with their ruling regarding part 15 of the FCC regulations. Their ruling is a blatant act of disregard for licensed services in the HF bands.

The Bush administration should fire the the whole FCC commission for this.

QSL card? There's something I haven't heard of or seen in a while! Now, you're saying a COMMERCIAL staion hands out QSL cards?

Yeah, I forgot you mentioned that in another thread...

It mostly seems to have been championed by Michael Powell. He's gone now, let's see what changes.

Charles of Kankakee

hachiroku wrote: snip

Sure...I've had thousands of them from all over the world...probably dozens from Quito Ecuador alone...I used to be their Canadian SWL reporting station while I was in Toronto.

I've been a licensed ham radio operator too for 43 years. (VE1EO)

AM signals skip, or bounce off the ionosphere, so you can sometimes hear far away AM stations at night. Lower frequency AM signals generally carry further than higher frequencies, at the same wattage. There are also dirrectional array signals for many AM stations, so the coverage pattern is not always symetrical. FM signals are generally line of sight only. There are many anomolies, and strange signal receptions reported. It appears to me that the AM radios (or AM modes) are not as good as they used to be. Most of the effort seems to be on the FM side

- but technologies are changing. Bob

Did I miss the original post with a question? Your comment seems to be coming out of left field, but I admit I haven't been paying much attention these days

Natalie

You can get 'skipping' of a sort on FM, but it's very rare and it's not bouncing off the ionosphere. It's bending in the troposphere. Sometimes the low end of the TV band will 'bend'. TV starts at 54 MHz and the VHF band ends at 216. FM runs from 88-108. AM now runs from 525 to 1705 kHz which is the hundreds of meters wavelength so it bounces off the ionosphere. Different layers bounce different frequencies, and some of the layers are also capable of absorbing a different range of frequencies. That's why AM doesn't skip so well during the day, it's actually being absorbed. . . .

Charles of Kankakee