From my location (Hillsboro) the summer season brings about a change in the FM propagation. I observe, in general, weaker signals from closer stations (Salem, Eugene, Longview, etc) while some more distant stations (Seattle, Medford, Redmond/Bend, Wenatchee) can be heard much of the time.

I thought it might be a good time to start a thread to compare our FM DX catches.

My latest catch was "praise 106.5" Lynden Wa.

Right now, I am listening to "Classical KING" 98.1 in Seattle, and it has been overridden several times by a short bursts of a strong classic rock station...meteor skip?

that must be why I can't get a clear signal in Kiezer for 94/7.

I don't think that's skip in the traditional sense. When I had a giant FM antenna with rotor atop my house, I would regularly pull in whatever wasn't blocked from Seattle, Bellingham and Vancouver BC. My location was near Eastport Plaza, using a console stereo.

Portland FM's were "booming" into Eugene on Saturday morning.

> that must be why I can't get a clear signal in Kiezer for 94/7.

Are you hearing another 94.7 station interfering with KNRK? If the answer is yes, then you are hearing skip.

Semoochie:
From your location, did the Seattle, Vancouver BC stations appear to be stronger in the summer ? CBU (105.7 Vancouver BC) is a fairly rare (mostly summertime) catch for me.

The bursts of music that I heard overriding KING (Seattle) I think are correctly called "meteor bursts" or "meteor scatter" and not "meteor skip" as I stated:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_burst_communications

Never did ID the rock station that was "bursting" in over KING

Without getting too far off topic, there are some amateur astronomers and radio hobbyists who monitor meteor activity by listening for meteor scatter. A typical setup consists of a yagi pointed up at an angle and a communications receiver, with CW capability, that covers low-band VHF.

The receiver is tuned to the video carrier frequency of a low-VHF station that is beyond the horizon. Without meteors, nothing will be heard (other than receiver front-end noise, of course). When there are meteors, whistles with warbling or changing pitch will be heard. The theory behind this is that as the meteors pierce through the ionosphere, about 50 miles above the earth's surface, they create ionization trails, which diffract radio signals back to the earth. Because the meteors and the ionization are in motion, Doppler shifts occur, which cause a CW receiver to produce a tone that changes in pitch, rather than a steady tone.

Alfredo I am not the tech you are maybe you can explain why its so hard to recieve 94.7 on a small alarm clock radio in Kiezer. It came in so well until about mid May.

Can you describe what you hear when you tune to 94.7?

Hey shyguy,
I've noticed that you put "The killers" on the thread that talks about bands that You hate. Im surprised you like Nrk, considering that NRK plays more Killers than any other station in portland.

Alfredo_t said:

"there are some amateur astronomers and radio hobbyists who monitor meteor activity by listening for meteor scatter"

Yes! During some of the winter showers, such as the Leonids and Geminides, sometimes the ONLY way that I can "observe" the shower in cloudy Oregon is by listening for "meteor pings" usually on ch 3 or 3- video carriers (3+ can't be used because of a strong signal from the transmitter in Bend).

One of my best FM DX catches was a clear ID of KBIG (104.3) in La, during a Leonid shower.

A really good one that I had was of KMYI 94.1FM from San Diego, CA on I-5 near Salem.

Another was KNEB 94.1FM from Scottsbluff, NE, which was in Albany all through the city. On both of these I was even able to pick up the RDS feed.

I guess its more of a thing were maybe that part of the dial is so crowded with signals that its nearly impossible to get 94.7 to come in halfway crisp. I am thinking seriously of either geting a digital tuner alarm clock or just moving the stereo from the living room where it gets rarely used to the bedroom.

I am an all night radio listener as its on all night long and I am currently really enjoying ie loyally listening to Loveline everynight. So right no GASP I am listening to KNRQ instead of KNRK because it comes in very clear in Keizer. Yeah I know what a SIN to be listening to a Eugene station rather than a Portland one. BTW someone needs to shoot that chick on the KNRQ morning show. YEAH its pdxradio.com I KNOW!

Clock radios often use the power cord as an antenna for FM. You may be able to improve the reception by moving the cord a little bit. You might also be getting interference, as you suspected, be getting interference from other stations nearby on the dial, such as 95.1. There are no guarantees that a clock radio with a digital frequency readout will give better reception.

My catch of the evening on 102.9... "so much music, so few watts, KPIK". From the FCC site this would appear to be a station in Stayton with 2 watts!

http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=133093

Yes, 102.9 KPIK-LP is heard fairly well in Salem and Albany, and has an automated Oldies format.

I don't remember. It was about 35 years ago but it seems like the Canadian stations only came in during early morning hours. This was a console stereo with terrible selectivity and there weren't as many stations on the air at that time but many local stations went off after midnight or so.

Is this a forum where it's allowed for someone to call for an air personality to be shot? Shyguy, is that how you really think?

Ok yes that wasn't the right choice of words I apolgize. That worthless living laughtrack chick needs to be let go or put to better use. Is that better Shipwreck?

del

Exquisite, Shyguy. You seem like a nicer person now.

On the AM front, this from All Access:

--------------------------KDIA-A Gets A Boost---------------------------
BAYBRIDGE COMMUNICATIONS is enjoying a power surge at Christian Talk KDIA/SAN FRANCISCO. Increasing from 1kw to 10kw at night on 1640 KHz. KDIA-A will now be able to cover the entire market.

I have been dealing with meteor scatter myself and my best catch was KFRZ 92.1 Green River WY through that. Nice work in the case of the FM catches from Nebraska, KLNE 88.7 Lexington NE would have been worth a try during that opening and they run RDS as well if there is any doubt. TV channel 3 is wide open for me so all offsets are good for meteor scatter or E-skip but ch 2 zero offset is a problem because of KATU obviously which still has a good signal in my area. There is something I have noticed about KRCW 32 though despite that it is off topic. Their signal seems a bit weaker here than it was before during the KWBP days. At that time I was able to get a good signal using a small amplified antenna connected to a pocket sized TV set and later on a chocolate bar antenna. But recently it has been hard to get decent reception using even a large multi element VHF/UHF roof top antenna. Did KRCW move to a different transmitter site or something in the past few years?

Recnet.com mapping still shows KRCW at High Camp.

RDS can be a real help in identification for sure, your report and S12dxers show some real promise for RDS ID! I have not been so lucky... using a Denon TU 1500, I have only seen a few scrambled characters during meteor showers

The RDS on the Sony XDR-F1HD *seems* to be more sensitive then the Denon... right now, I am reading most of the song titles from "Q country 102.9". (Centralia). Usually when a station with HD is strong enough to provide RDS indication, I will start to observe indication of the HD, but I have never seen even a blink of the HD indicator on KNBQ.

What is a "chocolate bar antenna" ?

That is what I call a bar shaped antenna which mounts on a wall or a mast. I tried one made by Terk which was a little surprising but not as good as a full sized roof mounted antenna. Even where I am KNBQ can be a bit of a problem to get HD from but this is mainly with indoor antennas as most outdoor ones work without a problem. From where I am some Portland HD stations are problematic to receive and even with a long range antenna I have never seen HD indications on KWJJ 99.5 or KGON 92.3 at any time.

Many of the HD transmissions from the Stonehenge site are from aux antennas mounted lower on one of the 3 legs of the tower. KWJJ HD for example is quite good to the south and southwest, not as good to the north. Do you get KNRK HD ?

I am in one of the nulls of KNRK's directional pattern so I cannot even get the analog well so the HD is impossible to receive. The Portland HD stations I can get are KMHD 89.1 KBPS 89.9 KOPB 91.5 KKRZ 100.3 KKCW 103.3 and sometimes KRSK 105.1 but some are impossible to hear.

How about 105.9?

My DX's from Cali and back in Nebraska were actually in my vehicle which has RDS built into the stock receiver.

I also have the Sony XDR-F1HD, and am just using the stock antenna, which actually works the best out of all the antennas I have tried with it (as far as for receiving HD). For RDS, this receiver is very good, and any station for which I can get more than 1/3 bars for will pick up RDS (if available).

Where I am, for Portland stations I can consistently get an HD lock on KOPB 91.5, KKRZ 100.3, KKCW 103.3, and KRSK 105.1. Half of the time I can get KMHD 89.1, KBOO 90.7, KGON 92.3, KWJJ 99.5, and KQOL 105.9. Sometimes I am able to get KBPS 89.9, KNRK 94.7, and KYCH 97.1, but it’s very rare.

I can get KQOL 105.9 in HD but it is kind of difficult most of the time but then again I am far away from Portland and the city is blocked by hills for a large part.

My catch of the day... I was listening to classical KING (98.1 Seattle) and it was overridden by a few minutes of jazz from KIFM San Diego

The tropo map shows some very good conditions in that area:

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_wam.html

It is still fading in and out, covering KING once in a while.

The FM E-skip opening today is absolutely amazing and this got me my first IBOC catch, KMXP from Phoenix AZ. FM is still in at this moment and the MUF is nearly at the top of the band to the midwest. Mainly Nebraska at this point but other states are a possibility and this is by far the most intense FM E-skip opening I have ever seen.

Can't get KMXP (96.9) because of 97.1 IBOC, But I am now hearing KBBN 95.3 Broken Bow Nebraska (RDS ID)

I thought the sunspot cycle was at a low...why are we getting E-skip?

Update 8:02 add KOZY 101.3 Bridgeport Nebraska.

Update 8:14 add KNLV 103.9 Ord Nebraska "The Sandhills Giant"

Kd7yuf:

Did you happen to get an ID on the Religious station on 102.1?

Also got a "Bob FM" in South Dakota on 95.3, perhaps KXLS in Pierre.

Later, another station (I did not get an ID) was sometimes covering 98.5 in Grand Coulee "The best station by a dam site", which was comming in stronger than I have ever heard it!

What an evening

I got KPLO Reliance, South Dakota this evening at 7:30pm. It was coming in as good as the local channels here in Bend. It even had enough signal strength to light up the info KPLO Country on my radio. Very cool.

We've had some thunderstorms move in down here from the north late this afternoon and this evening, some severe... And it was 109 this afternoon. Forecast is for more of the same through midweek.

Can you say "tropo?" Very impressive! Enjoy while it lasts...

I did not get a religious station on 102.1 my paths were mainly to Nebraska, Arizona, and Colorado with a few from Wyoming and California. The highest MUF during this opening for me was 107.9 MHz.