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One of my favorite hobbies is "DXing". It's also one of the most difficult to explain. Essentially, DXing is like fishing or hunting distant radio and (over-the-air) TV stations. You wait for the (weather or ionospheric) conditions to be right, what in common parlance is known as "skip", and then you go to the dials and see what you can find. Hopefully you'll get a new station, which you can add to your logbook. The tools are quite simple: most often a good outdoor antenna, an antenna rotator, a decent TV set or radio tuner (or digital TV computer card), and a computer to keep a log and record audio.
Personally, most of my DXing is on the TV and FM bands, which are similar. In Minnesota, the best time for "E-skip", which brings in low band TV (channels 2 - 6) and FM signals from 750 to 1,500 miles distant bouncing off the E layer of the ionosphere, some 50 miles or so above earth, is from May to July, and "tropo ducting" which works through "ducts" in the lower atmosphere, which brings in signals on all TV bands (especially UHF) and is an entirely different animal altogether and FM radio from 300 - 800+ miles is June through September. There are other, rare types of DX as well.
I also like to DX AM radio, which is completely different. Perhaps you've heard a high-powered AM station 500 or 1,000 miles away driving at night, which is perfectly normal.
Anybody else know what I'm talking about? Ever done it?
I heard a cab driver talking on his radio to his base from a large set of hi-fi stereo speakers. The stereo was turned on but there was no record playing at the time.
I've never picked up Rush Limbaugh from my fillings yet though !!!
I just picked an RCA Super Radio III and noticed I can pick up stations in Delaware and Chicago, but I cant get an AM station 12miles away from me at night.
I just picked an RCA Super Radio III and noticed I can pick up stations in Delaware and Chicago, but I cant get an AM station 12miles away from me at night.
The AM station you wish to pick up might be running a directional pattern unfavorable to you at night - in other words, they are concentrating their signal in a certain direction in order to protect another station on the same frequency from interference. If you give me the station's call letters, I can see if this your problem.
I don't know about Delaware, but Chicago has several "clear channel" stations: WLS 890, WGN 720, WSCR 670, WBBM 780, and perhaps others. These stations are non-directional, meaning (in theory) their signals are radiated without prejudice to any direction, and with 50,000 watts they reliably cover most of the eastern half of the U.S. Today, however, you might have trouble hearing at least WSCR due to WFAN's "HD Radio" signal, which extends well beyond 670 kHz to cover up both 660 and 680 kHz with a layer of noise.
I bought a Channel 7 specific antenna to get Spokane PBS to watch Dr. Who. Yagi type antenna so I had to aim it pretty carefully. Spokane is about 250 miles from our house. When the atmospheric conditions were good, it came in pretty well, with a full color picture and decent audio. But some nights it was so snowy that you could hardly follow what the Doctor was up to.
Have not used it for that purpose in a while, lost interest. Am still using the same antenna to pick up the new digital signals.
BTW not to thread-jack but it does seem to me that the analog TV signal works much better when we have wind - the digital will pixilate (is that a word - the picture goes to a pattern of colored squares that only remotely represents the real image - )and/or just lose the picture.
How high up is your channel 7 antenna? That's high VHF (174-180 MHz) and 250 miles would be quit a challenge. Is the transmitter on one of those mountains in Wa.? Do you have a pre-amp located AT THE ANTENNA? How long is your feed line and of what quality? A good low loss solid shield coax is in order.
Wind has nothing to do with VHF propagation directly. Approaching frontal systems can cause something called tropospheric ducting. Ham radio VHF/UHF enthusiast will get on the air during the fall months when the cold fronts are pushing down from Canada and work stations thousands of miles away. It's not unusual for a guy in Texas to work another guy in Florida during these times.
Korel
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I heard a cab driver talking on his radio to his base from a large set of hi-fi stereo speakers. The stereo was turned on but there was no record playing at the time.
