Another propagation indicator to tell you if the band is
open still exists but it is hard to tell for how much longer. If
your receiver can tune above 54 MHZ, listen
for Mexican TV signals.

	For those who are new or who have never listened to analog
TV on anything other than a TV audio receiver or television set,
there are a couple of things to know. Analog TV sound is FM and
is basically like picking up an FM radio broadcast signal. The
video carrier is AM and is always 4.5 MHZ below the audio
carrier.

	If you have a SSB or CW receiver, you may hear a carrier
at 55.24, 55.25 or 55.26 MHZ. Many cable systems still carry an
analog TV signal on Channel 2 so you may hear a carrier in your
area that leaks out of the cable. This signal will be steady and
hopefully very weak. Skip signals from Mexican TV will fade in
and out like any skip signals. If you listen in AM mode, the
video carrier will have a roughly 60-HZ buzz that varies from
second to second as the picture changes. Other than knowing that
something is there, it's not very exciting listening.

	If you want to hear the sound, you need an FM receiver
that can decode broadcast-width audio. If Mexican TV is coming
in, the audio will be in Spanish and you might hear multiple
stations at once. They will usually fade in and out and one will
override all the others.

	Trying to tell where the transmissions are coming from is
hard even if you speak really good Spanish. I don't but I can
usually understand station ID's. The problem is that most are
networks out of Mexico City that are simply being retransmitted
for local populations but I have heard enough to tell that a lot
of what you hear comes from just South of the United States.
Sometimes there will be a local station break, etc, and one can
figure out an educated guess.

	The main thing this tells you is that if Mexico is
coming in on Channel 2, 6 meters should be open and I have heard
a few XE stations. I have also heard full-quieting TV audio and
not so much as a beacon on 6.

	Anyway, Mexico is also in the process of going digital
for TV, just not as fast as we did so even these signals will,
one day, go dark.

	Channel 2 TV is allocated all over Latin America,
however, so it will probably be many years until there is
nothing there.

73 Martin WB5AGZ