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Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

The technical side of broadcasting. Think IBOC is a sham? Talk about it here! How about HDTV? Post DX reports here as well.
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Ben Zonia
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by Ben Zonia »

MWmetalhead wrote: Sat Feb 03, 2024 3:13 pm WBZX from Big Rapids came in crystal clear early this afternoon near Eagle and Portland along I-96. I was nervous 103.9 The Fox had changed formats! LOL

Something was interfering with 97.1 The Ticket near Howell.

WLHT HD briefly came in near Howell.

WKLQ was nearly unlistenable near the Gerald R Ford Airport in Kent County.

WLAV came in clearly near Fowlerville.
As I pointed out, WBZX is from the second time 103.9 was dropped into Big Rapids, the first time was around 1980. WTCM-FM moved to Sherman-Buckley to keep Class C status with a 1000 foot tower, and what first became the WAAQ facility was moved to 102.3. The second time, WTCM-FM was downgraded to Class C0, because it did not build a 450 meter HAAT tower required to be Full Class C.
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KeenerGold
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by KeenerGold »

I’ve had a lock on WWTV for the past three hours in Memphis, MI. It started when I was trying to watch the ASG on CBET and wasn’t getting the usual clear signal. I swung my aerial back around towards Flint and there was WWTV and it’s been there since.

Also had a short grab of WTTK ATSC 3.0 from Kokomo, IN.
fairbankshockeypuck
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by fairbankshockeypuck »

Here in the Hemlock west of Saginaw area, Grand Rapids 101.3 was booming in and 97.1 the Ticket Detroit, 106.7 Detroit, other Detroit and Grand Rapids stations too...99.3 low power Bridgeport which i get good was being wiped out by station or stations I could not identify....Both on my truck radio and Sangean in the house
fairbankshockeypuck
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by fairbankshockeypuck »

also getting a lot of Canadian FM's especially London , Ontario...some of the stations splattering over more than their original frequency
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Ben Zonia
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by Ben Zonia »

Hit and miss due to newer blocked channel interference.

Washington Township, MI

WTGV 97.7
WLHT 95.7
WBCT 93.7
CKLO 98.1 London, ON Full Power station on third adjacent to local channel on 97.5. Anyone know how these are permitted in CA Rules? Mexico now has local STATIONS on second adjacents as well.
WCKY-FM 103.7

No WLEW-FM 102.1, previously a frequent regular. Are the IBOC sidebands from WDET a lot stronger now with the new transmitter?
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originalzzmfmjock
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by originalzzmfmjock »

I was cruising around the north end of Grand Rapids yesterday listening to Q95 94.7 out of Indianapolis. Not being bothered at all by WKLQ on 94.5 or Jethro FM on 94.9, even though I was within a couple of miles of Jethro's transmitter site. Ya, I know they are only a 250 watt translator, but they usually bleed over on 94.7 when you are that close to their tower site.
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Ben Zonia
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by Ben Zonia »

originalzzmfmjock wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2024 7:53 pm I was cruising around the north end of Grand Rapids yesterday listening to Q95 94.7 out of Indianapolis. Not being bothered at all by WKLQ on 94.5 or Jethro FM on 94.9, even though I was within a couple of miles of Jethro's transmitter site. Ya, I know they are only a 250 watt translator, but they usually bleed over on 94.7 when you are that close to their tower site.
MWmetalhead wrote: Sun Feb 04, 2024 1:29 pm Late morning today along I-96 in eastern Kent County, I received:
-94.3 CKSY
-94.5 WKLQ was impossible to receive cleanly for second straight day; interference rendered it unlistenable.
-95.1 WFBE
-98.1 WKCQ
-101.9 WDET
-102.1 WLEW-FM was battling WMUK
-104.3 WOMC (quite strong despite WVGR being next door)
-104.5: WILZ was utterly trashing reception of WSNX
-105.1 WMGC (almost crystal clear reception!)
-105.5 WWCK-FM (right next door to Star 105.7, no less!)
-106.1: something was causing a lot of crackling to Q106's reception in Portland. My guess would be the Hot AC in Tawas.
-106.7 WLLZ (second strongest of the Detroit signals)
-107.5 WGPR (third strongest of the Detroit signals; impressive feat with WTNR right next door)

Also heard WLAV quite well near Fowlerville again. WRKR was booming in over there
Back in 1980, in the middle of the night, in early September, WDZZ 92.7 was booming in in the center of Grand Rapids.

And in Genesee County, sometime in the mid 1970s, WOOD-FM 105.7 was coming in ALL OVER THE DIAL between stations, EXCEPT for 105.5 WWCK-FM.It was apparently a very strong temperature inversion and the 265000 watt grandfathered facility, mixing with local WFBE 95.1 to produce an IF Beat of 10.6 MHz. Apparently, CE Ed Rauch was playing a Classical recording with a very soft section at the time. He didn't use compression because of the large dynamic range of Classical symphonies. So you didn't hear WFBE in the IF Beat product.
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mtburb
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by mtburb »

It's continuing into tonight, quite possibly thanks to this heavy fog that showed up out of nowhere over the Downriver suburbs. I managed to break a personal digital TV VHF DX record around 15 minutes ago when WMFD-TV (VHF 12 from Mansfield, OH) came in clearly for a couple minutes in Wyandotte. Their transmitter is 103 miles from my house, and until tonight I literally never picked up this station with any of my antennas, which makes this impressive.

As of this edit (11:17), after several rescans, even though I managed to lose both Toledo VHFs, WMFD is still coming in, albeit rather glitchy.
Last edited by mtburb on Mon Feb 05, 2024 8:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
My furthest DTV tropo: KDKA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 202 miles for three days in January 2017 and a night in September 2017 with only an Antennas Direct C2V!

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Marcus
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by Marcus »

92.5 WVKS and 93.5 WRQN from Toledo are clear tonight. I have the HD signal from WIOT coming in and WIOT-HD-2 is a Sports station known as "The Gambler". The same broadcast is on 1230 AM in Toledo which is WCWA. I'm also hearing 89.7 WNOC from Bowling Green which is just 5300 watts.

Equipment: Sangean HDT-20 Tuner + 3 element FM antenna
Mega Hertz
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by Mega Hertz »

MWmetalhead wrote: Mon Feb 05, 2024 7:32 am Interestingly enough, I heard another 89.7 from Northern Ohio: 89.7 WKSU from Kent, OH (near Akron). Came in almost crystal clearly.

94.3 CKSY and 95.1 CKUE from Chatham - Kent were coming in at city grade strength here! No sign of the Relevant Radio translator at 94.3; they were completely buried by CKSY.

98.1 WKDD from Akron managed to lock in seek mode, which is rather remarkable given the fact 97.9 WJLB booms into my area (and broadcasts in HD to boot).

There is an absurd number of Hot AC stations in the Akron area. WKDD and WHBC blanket the area, and Cleveland's WQAL can be heard quite well there, too.
Hey, that reminds me. On Friday, I was getting on 96 at Milford road to head west, and it sounded like 94.1 and 94.3 were broadcasting the same thing, even knocking out Duke FM. You have any idea what's up with that? Duke eventually faded back in once I got on 96.
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Ben Zonia
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Re: Tropospheric ducting on Saturday 2/3

Unread post by Ben Zonia »

Relevant Radio 94.1 and 94.3.

94.1 W231CV (Holly)
94.3 W232CA (Detroit)
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