Over the last couple of weeks, FM radio has been hopping with distant signals getting to central Illinois...
About a week ago, dozens of Florida stations were heard.
Cuba's Radio Reloj made it here a couple of days ago on 96.9 FM, and just today, some Colorado and Wyoming stations were heard. And just on the car radio...
Anyone else getting some enhanced summer conditions?
As of 2/28/05: 101 pounds since December 7, 2004 OFFICIAL THREE-MONTH COUNT: 112 pounds on March 9, 2005 OFFICIAL SIX-MONTH COUNT: 142 pounds on June 8, 2005 OFFICIAL ONE YEAR COUNT: 187 pounds on December 7, 2005 As of 2/27/06: 202 pounds "I've lost a heavyweight" As of 7/31/06: 224 pounds As of 12/7/08 (four years out): Still 210 pounds down! Now announcing for NBWA Championship Wrestling! *2008 NBWA Personality of the Year*
I know in CB terms they used to always refer to it as "skip rolling in", and you could contact with people cross country, but I haven't heard anything lately on the radio. I do however, remember one summer in Texas, getting a station out of Jacksonville, FL.
It is the result of an inversion layer. It happens on the west coast all of the time. Because of the marine layer in Santa Barbara, the mountain on which our transmitter resides is routinely warmer than sea level. We routinely receieve San Diego radio stations, which are about 200 miles away. The station at which I work, on rare occasions, has received calls from Phoenix, AZ.
From WikiPedia:
Similarly, very-high frequency (VHF - 30 to 300 MHz) radio waves (being part of the electromagnetic spectrum, like light) can be refracted by such inversions. This is why it is possible to sometimes hear FM radio (or watch VHF-LO band TV) broadcasts from otherwise impossible distances as far as a few hundred miles distant on foggy nights. The signal, still powerful enough to be received even at hundreds or rarely, thousands, of miles, would normally be refracted up and away from the ground-based antenna, is instead refracted down towards the earth by the temperature-inversion boundary layer. This phenomenon is called tropospheric ducting. It is also referred to as skip by small radio operators and Ham operators. Along coast lines during Autumn and Spring many FM radio stations are plagued by severe signal degradation causing them to sound like "scrambled eggs".
We all have ways of coping. I use sex and awesomeness.
Today specifically was terrible for interference while listening to FM on the way to work. Normally, the two major stations I listen to come in clear as a bell, but today *both* of them were fuzzy as anything and virtually unlistenable.
"As you may have read in Robert Parker's Wine Newsletter, 'Donaghy Estates tastes like the urine of Satan, after a hefty portion of asparagus.'" Jack Donaghy, 30 Rock
Originally posted by LeroyIt is the result of an inversion layer. It happens on the west coast all of the time. Because of the marine layer in Santa Barbara, the mountain on which our transmitter resides is routinely warmer than sea level. We routinely receieve San Diego radio stations, which are about 200 miles away. The station at which I work, on rare occasions, has received calls from Phoenix, AZ.
Us hobbyists call this longer reception "E-skip" since it bounces off the E-layer in the atmosphere.
As of 2/28/05: 101 pounds since December 7, 2004 OFFICIAL THREE-MONTH COUNT: 112 pounds on March 9, 2005 OFFICIAL SIX-MONTH COUNT: 142 pounds on June 8, 2005 OFFICIAL ONE YEAR COUNT: 187 pounds on December 7, 2005 As of 2/27/06: 202 pounds "I've lost a heavyweight" As of 7/31/06: 224 pounds As of 12/7/08 (four years out): Still 210 pounds down! Now announcing for NBWA Championship Wrestling! *2008 NBWA Personality of the Year*
Originally posted by LiseNow if I can just figure out why NPR comes in fuzzy on clear sunny days, but just fine the rest of the time...
On fuzzy days, listen to KBOO. :)
I would, but there's no repeater for it. The mountains block us from Portland signals. There's only coastal broadcasting stations, and anything that has a repeater up.