There was a strong tropo duct ahead of a cold front on the night of the 16th, triggering 800+ mile tropo for those involved with paths from Arkansas to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. I got in on this rather late and reception appeared rather selective to those in lucky spots. I got little to nothing from this, but did take in a new tropo record of 670 miles, just miles from the Oklahoma border.
After a two-day break, tropo flared up once again on the morning of the 19th. While ducts were very widespread, I had only the St. Louis market through the morning and afternoon, as seems to be the norm, which persisted for at least ten hours with nothing else to be heard. As the evening hours arrived, St. Louis faded and Indianapolis and Columbus arrived, followed by a single Nashville catch for nearly an hour and one from Memphis. Catches were scattered in the hours following, but Appalachia began wandering in after midnight. I had my first ever Virginia catch, though on a technicality, the tower is one mile into Kentucky. This was later remedied for the fact WHAJ Bluefield, WV, heard nearly two days later, has a tower on the Virginia side of a street straddling the state line. Louisville, Indianapolis, and plenty of Ohio and Indiana stations were heard that night, and WSGS Hazard, KY appeared, staying in on and off like a semi-local for the following 48 hours.
Thinking this event had ended as tropo forecasts hardly showed a thing the whole week - at least not in such a widespread manner as was heard - I went to the beach for the afternoon on Sunday (no radio included) only to return home to all of the Twin Cities as well as some nearby stations in Eau Claire. As the evening continued, rural south, central, and west Minnesota stations would come in, many of them previously heard during the H*** opening of July 2018. Far western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota would be in before sunset, including a surprise strong reception of 96.5 The Walleye in Bismarck, the new standing record of 755 miles. The majority of this faded after midnight with a few popping up in the upcoming hours, but the eastern end of the duct into Ontario started bringing some stations in. Those in Niagara were hearing my locals and those just to my north into this duct at that time, but none into Niagara or the GTA here.
Monday morning brought intense Indiana and Ohio reception, strongest into Columbus, which had plenty of airtime during this event. Closer to sunset, Appalachia would return with strong signals from the Huntington, Beckley, and Charleston markets with strong conditions into the area just south of Chicagoland at the same time, an area that is rarely heard.
Tuesday morning was more strong Indiana and Ohio signals with the focus once again being on Columbus. I packed the car up for a two-day lake tropo trip to mobile radio sites (which was rained out in spectacular fashion) that morning, so listening at home was very limited. The same strong storm system moved this tropo event out of Michigan as it hung on to the west and south of this area.
As most have mentioning, this was perhaps the biggest tropo event of at least the past few decades with some chiming in that it was the biggest in 50 years in the hobby. I'm quite thrilled with the number and quality of stations received here given the lack of time I would usually have. Knowing it was rather historic, I stretched myself to the limit to find time to listen. My radio's dipole antenna is broken and four separate connections to my audio recorder had broken wires or faulty connections, so I have been listening and recording with very battered equipment (hopefully now somewhat repaired), but still with great results. It's hard to ask for much better than that. The total absence of stations in the direction of Kansas is quite notable. These regions are very common at my mobile sites closer to the water and it appears Lake Michigan played a villainous role in this with those out of the lake's shadow to my south easily hearing that part of the opening.
Stations received are listed in order of distance and include only those exceeding the 250-mile usual range of reception, though plenty very rare stations just shy of that threshold were also heard:
96.5 KBYZ ND Bismarck (755 mi.) MP3
106.5 KBVA AR Bella Vista (670 mi.) MP3
105.5 KMOM SD Roscoe (648 mi.) MP3
98.1 WXMX TN Millington (611 mi.) MP3
104.3 KKSD SD Milbank (558 mi.) MP3
97.3 KKRC SD Sioux Falls (557 mi.) over 26-mi. local / MP3
103.3 KZCR MN Fergus Falls (542 mi.) MP3
97.9 WSIX TN Nashville (516 mi.) in null of 50-mi. local / MP3
100.3 WCYQ TN Oak Ridge (511 mi.) MP3
98.7 KISD MN Pipestone (500 mi.) over 33-mi. local / MP3
104.5 WHAJ WV Bluefield (497 mi.) in null of 20-mi. local
93.5 WAXM VA Big Stone Gap (481 mi.)
99.5 WJLS WV Beckley (479 mi.)
102.5 KQIC MN Willmar (467 mi.)
100.7 KGMO MO Cape Girardeau (463 mi.)
93.3 KBLB MN Nisswa (460 mi.)
101.1 WSGS KY Hazard (458 mi.)
103.7 WCIR WV Beckley (452 mi.)
97.1 WDBS WV Sutton (450 mi.)
95.9 KILR IA Estherville (445 mi.)
105.9 KRRW MN Winthrop (429 mi.)
106.5 KFMC MN Fairmont (428 mi.)
101.1 WXOS IL East St. Louis (416 mi.)
96.1 WKWS WV Charleston (415 mi.) over 46-mi. local
93.1 KATO MN New Ulm (414 mi.) over 31-mi. local
94.7 KSHE MO Crestwood (409 mi.)
96.3 WFUN MO St. Louis (409 mi.)
98.1 KYKY MO St. Louis (409 mi.)
102.5 KEZK MO St. Louis (409 mi.)
103.3 KLOU MO St. Louis (409 mi.)
106.5 WARH IL Granite City (409 mi.)
107.7 KSLZ MO St. Louis (409 mi.)
103.5 KYSM MN Mankato (406 mi.)
105.5 KRBI MN St. Peter (406 mi.)
100.5 WKEE WV Huntington (395 mi.) over 34-mi. local
103.3 WTCR WV Huntington (395 mi.)
93.7 WDGG KY Ashland (391 mi.) in null of 320kw 62-mi. local
95.5 KCHK MN New Prague (386 mi.)
101.5 WXBW OH Gallipolis (376 mi.)
91.1 KNOW MN Minneapolis (372 mi.) over 56-mi. local
94.5 KSTP MN St. Paul (372 mi.) in null of 43-mi. local
97.1 KTCZ MN Minneapolis (372 mi.)
98.5 KTIS MN Minneapolis (372 mi.)
99.5 KSJN MN Minneapolis (372 mi.)
100.3 KFXN MN Minneapolis (372 mi.)
101.3 KDWB MN Richfield (372 mi.) in null of 42-mi. local
102.1 KEEY MN St. Paul (372 mi.)
102.9 KMNB MN Minneapolis (372 mi.) in null of 39-mi. local
104.1 KZJK MN St. Louis Park (372 mi.) in null of 61-mi. local
107.1 KTMY MN Coon Rapids (372 mi.)
105.1 WGVX MN Lakeville (367 mi.)
95.9 KQCL MN Faribault (366 mi.)
98.9 WNRW KY Prospect (366 mi.)
100.5 WSDF KY Louisville (366 mi.) over 34-mi. local
100.5 WOMP OH Bellaire (357 mi.) over 34-mi. local
105.9 WEGZ WI Washburn (331 mi.)
97.5 KNXR MN Rochester (322 mi.) in null of 25-mi. local
98.9 WMXY OH Youngstown (318 mi.)
93.1 CHAY ON Barrie (316 mi.) over 31-mi. local
102.5 WWLG OH Baltimore (305 mi.)
92.1 WMEQ WI Menomonie (302 mi.) over 31-mi. local
103.7 WFIU IN Bloomington (301 mi.)
100.7 WBIZ WI Eau Claire (295 mi.)
101.1 WOSA OH Grove City (294 mi.)
93.3 WODC OH Asheville (292 mi.)
100.7 WMGI IN Terre Haute (289 mi.)
97.9 WNCI OH Columbus (286 mi.) over 50-mi. local
105.9 WNKN OH Middletown (286 mi.)
92.3 WCOL OH Columbus (285 mi.)
94.7 WSNY ON Columbus (285 mi.)
96.3 WLVQ OH Columbus (285 mi.)
97.1 WBNS OH Columbus (285 mi.)
99.7 WRKZ OH Columbus (285 mi.)
92.3 WTTS IN Trafalgar (282 mi.)
102.5 CBLA-FM-4 ON Shelburne (282 mi.)
103.7 WWIB WI Hallie (281 mi.)
93.7 WQIO OH Mt. Vernon (278 mi.) in null of 320kw 62-mi. local
93.7 WFCJ OH Miamisburg (277 mi.) in null of 320kw 62-mi. local
93.3 WIZM WI La Crosse (272 mi.)
100.7 WEEC OH Springfield (266 mi.)
92.9 WGTZ OH Eaton (264 mi.)
97.1 WLHK IN Shelbyville (264 mi.)
104.5 WAXX WI Eau Claire (262 mi.) in null of 20-mi. local
106.5 KCQQ IA Davenport (261 mi.)
99.5 WZPL IN Greenfield (257 mi.)
104.3 WVCN MI Baraga (250 mi.)
