Hi, has anyoen caught any E skip any place else? My nearest stations on TV
channel 3 are about 100 miles away. one is in Grand Rapids, and another
is in Cleveland. When I really heard a lot of activity on low band that
was in 2001 and 2002 when we had such high sunspot activity.
Lately with the heat spell here in Michigan have been hearing a
lot of tropo. TO check to see if there is an opening there I try the NOAA
Wx frequencies. If there are lots of stations in at once it is usually a
good sign for these frequencies and below and sometimes above as far as
800 MHz!
As for relay stations you also could try above 940 MHz. As for
tropo openings if you try the WX band, dependign on what you hear you can
tell where the band will be opened to. For instance last few days have
yeilded stations from Indiana and PA.
On Tue, 18 Jul 2006, Martin McCormick wrote:
> In North Central Oklahoma, there was an opening on Sunday
> July 16 that lasted for hours. I don't have a transmitter for 6,
> but I do have a receiver and was listening to 6 which sounded
> more like 20 because of the opening and the contest. I also like
> to listen to TV Channel 3 and the 30-50 MHZ VHF low band which
> still has activity in it during openings.
>
> I live about 60 miles from Tulsa which has a Channel 2 so
> things really have to be loud to overpower Tulsa's Channel 2 but
> there are no normally-strong signals on Channel 3. The nearest
> Channel 3's are all over 100 miles from Stillwater and you can
> certainly hear them from day to day, but any skip just rolls
> right in and completely takes over.
>
> If you have a receiver that can do this, you should also
> occasionally tune between 72 and 76 MHZ. This little band
> between TV Channels 4 and 5 is used for point-to-point wireless
> distribution systens owned by paging companies which aren't
> terribly exciting, but there are other uses such as remote
> broadcast cuing systems, remote receivers which are part of
> larger radio systems, and augmentation devices used to allow
> listeners in a public auditorium or classroom who have hearing
> difficulties to wear headsets that let them directly hear the
> output of the public address system.
>
> I live near the OSU campus and have heard a few such
> systems in buildings near by as well as a similar system in a
> grade school that relayed the teacher's voice as she patiently
> rode herd over her little charges.
>
> I have also heard somebody's radio reading service
> somewhere when the 72-76 MHZ band was open, once.
>
> It was during the late 80's or early 90's and I could
> tell it was a reading service but it faded out as usual before I
> could get a positive ID. I imagine it was using that band to
> distribute the RRS signal to more than one FM transmitter in the
> area. This is also a European low-power ham band so if it is
> ever really open, you might hear SSB or other emissions from
> Europe. While you can't transmit on that band, a few people have
> tried crossband by listening in the 72-MHZ band and transmitting
> back on ten or six.
>
> Mostly, when we have skip, you will hear digital garbage
> from pagers but you will be able to tell the band is open. Also,
> 75.0 MHZ is an aeronautical beacon frequency and many airports
> use it, but there are no ID's which means you will hear signals
> but can't tell where they are.
>
> Our working group used to have voice pagers which were on
> the 158-MHZ band but the distribution link was 72. something MHZ.
> I remember listening to our local paging transmitter and hearing
> Sporadic E key it up from pagers hundreds of miles away.
>
> There are also radio-controlled model cars, boats and
> planes which will sound like a steady AM buzz that kind of
> changes tone as the operator guides the model around. You are
> apt to hear those on a nice day if there is a model airplane
> event near your house. In all, that band can be exciting to
> listen to if you are patient. It has been many months or even a
> year or so since I have heard anything interesting there from
>
> Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
> Systems Engineer
> OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group
>
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