Channels 3, 5, 6 all have Mexican what appear to be DX stations coming in. I dont know if its the weird weather or they have cranked up their power or have their antennas transmitting this way but this is kinda new.

Has anyone else in the area noticed this?

I hooked up the outdoor aerial and nothing this way - although I see we have only one LP station (18) left on UHF.

The only thing I can pick up anymore is RF bleedover from my cable box on certain stations..

Decent Tropo in the LA area and along the west coast this week:
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_wam.html
It is very unlikely that these stations have cranked up the power... With high power US analog stations off the air, people have been logging all kinds of DX from Canada, Mexico, South America...Fun Times!:yes:
jr

But the clock is ticking in Canada, with a deadline of August 31, 2011...

But the clock is ticking in Canada, with a deadline of August 31, 2011...

It is really too bad that the present sunspot cycle is going to peak late and low. Likely much analog TV broadcasting will be gone by the time we get much "E Skip" .:sigh: Anybody Know a "deadline" for Mexico and South America?

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml

Of course digital channels will skip as well, but they are more difficult to catch, and there are only a few on the low-band VHF channels, which are more conducive to E Skip than high-band VHF or UHF channels.

jr

I have good news for you - Analog TV from Canada and Latin America will NOT be gone before you get "much E-skip" (to be specific, Sporadic-E propagation, as opposed to conventional E-skip that affects AM and lower shortwave bands).

It is a very common misconception that sporadic-E (the type of ionospheric skip that accounts for most ionospheric DX above 30 MHz and nearly all ionospheric DX above 54 MHz) needs high sunspot numbers - as F-layer propagation (the bread-and-butter of DX from the AM broadcast band at night, through the shortwave bands all hours and all times of year, to the 10m and even 6m amateur bands at sunspot maxima) IS greatly affected by sunspots.

Sporadic-E skip and F-layer skip are completely different phenomena, like comparing apples to oranges. For all intents and purposes, Sporadic-E is completely independent of the solar cycle, with multihop and even Band III (highband VHF to 216 MHz) skip known to occur at sunspot minimum.

Like the name "sporadic" implies, Es is usually completely absent, even at solar maximum. It is affected by annual and diurnal cycles, that is, it is far more common around the solstices - May, June, July, December and January, than the rest of the year, and is somewhat more common around sunset than it is at other times of day (and relatively rare between 11 pm and 8 am).

So, don't let low sunspots discourage you from chasing low band (channels 2 through 6) TV DX or 6-meter DX. Check these channels on an analog TV with an antenna during the upcoming "secondary peak" in the Northern hemisphere from mid-November to late January (it will still be quite rare, but could happen anytime day or night), and you just might see something.

If you were to check the channels a few times every evening from about 5 pm to 9 pm, during the primary peak (mid-May to early August), You WILL see DX - more than once, perhaps a dozen or more days.

Interesting! I have indeed observed very distant low and high band TV DX at unusual times, such as a very memorable Christmas day many years ago, when I was a kid! :yes: Several references that I examined tonight still expound the old "sunspot theory" for TV DX, but some state that it is not fully understood, or that the southern hemisphere may react differently to a high sunspot counts than the northern. :scratch2:
I usually listen for video carriers (mostly on ch 2,3,and 4) with an Icom 8500 VHF receiver with the BFO turned on, and wait until I get about an S-4 signal (or so) before even bothering to turn on a TV. Fair number of meteor "pings" tonight, but no solid skip. I will keep checking!

jr

Curious as to just what you saw on the "memorable Christmas opening".

Actually, sunspots can affect a form of TV DX. When the sunspot count got really high, such as the around the peaks of sunspot cycles 19 1nd 21 (about 1959 and 1980, give or take), the maximum usable frequency (MUF) for F2 skip actually got into the TV channels.

Sadly, most of the targets for DX back then - TV stations below 50 MHz, have shut down, as many European TV networks went to UHF, then to digital, channels.

Many stations in Latin America will be on channel A2 (55.25 video/59.75 aural) for years to come. Sadly, I don't think Cycle 24 will bring enough sunspot activity to open up any 55 MHz F2 paths.

An example of what F2 skip could do in the "good old days"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZS_qydnFGg

Curious as to just what you saw on the "memorable Christmas opening".


IIRC (and it was a long time ago) it was KFEL-2 and KOA-4 from Denver.... both these stations had been fairly frequent "visitors" to the west coast during the summer of '55 but reception in mid winter was really a surprise. :yes:
jr

It is really too bad that the present sunspot cycle is going to peak late and low. Likely much analog TV broadcasting will be gone by the time we get much "E Skip" .:sigh: Anybody Know a "deadline" for Mexico and South America?

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml

Of course digital channels will skip as well, but they are more difficult to catch, and there are only a few on the low-band VHF channels, which are more conducive to E Skip than high-band VHF or UHF channels.

jr

For Mexico, the "deadline" is 2021. However, the President has pushed to make it as early as 2015. There would be a four-year transition period beginning in 2011. Unfortunately, one of their few English stations that primarily serves San Diego has already made the switch to digital.

South America's "deadline" falls between 2012 and 2020 depending on the country.