DX from The Villages, FL

[John Holcomb II]

Usually WXTB 97.9 comes in, but the other day Saturday I think it was, i was getting what sounded like a CHR/HotAC. I was just doing  some pokeing around radio-locator, and I thought I rememberd hearing WR?? best mix of the 80's 90's and today. WRMF have to be it I'm thinkin. i was able to pick this up on a boombox, and mixing in with WXTB on a car radio also. Heard Holler Back Girl,  and a Katy Perry song, also remember hearing moves Like Jagger. What amazes me is that on the boombox, i could null it out and get stereo reception with some static heard above the music, but a listenable signal. The Car was totaly clear when you were just in that sweet spot. So here's my question: would this be considered my first skip or  would this be unbelieveable tropo? I was thinkin skip due to the fact radio-locator shows other stations in the Palm Beach area as not being super far from Miami. I've  heard that Miami is pretty far from here.
On another note, I heard a 107.3 The Reach-FM comeing from  someplace also here in The Villages. Anyone have any idea what that might be? I would try to find it myself, but with so many translators for networks like that that could be dificult.
Thanks
John

[John Holcomb II]

Something else i heard. 93.1 Country. this was only heard on a  car radio. Deep male voice. Wensday or Thursday of last week. time 4 o'clock hour. Talking about electric cars and his opinion of them, went into a camersial break. appeared to be local. Had a hard time hearing it above whatever was mixing in. Possibly WKRO in Edgewater, FL? again would this be  trop or skip?

[rbrucecarter5]

Something else i heard. 93.1 Country. this was only heard on a  car radio. Deep male voice. Wensday or Thursday of last week. time 4 o'clock hour. Talking about electric cars and his opinion of them, went into a camersial break. appeared to be local. Had a hard time hearing it above whatever was mixing in. Possibly WKRO in Edgewater, FL? again would this be  trop or skip?

Florida is a unique DX situation due to weather fronts moving in from both sides.  If there has been a significant rainfall day - listen late at night - 10PM to 2AM while the atmosphere stabilizes.  The whole state opens up and some amazing DX is possible.

[cd637299]

Been thru the Villages.  WRMF has been heard in my car from Belleview, not far away.  Just good Tropo.

93.1 Country is indeed likely WKRO.

Was up there about a month ago, and in the car on 93.9 came in talk of Georgia football---the only candidate had to have been WMTM Moultrie GA.

John---if you have some money to spend, maybe you could drive about 40 miles south, to a place on US 27 called Lake Louisa State Park.  Very high elevation---you might bag some AM's & FM's you'd never hear otherwise.  I drove there, but we needed the money we had.... (They charge admission)

BTW from south FL this morning, surprise surprise, came seemingly out of nowhere WTVM 9 (RF ch 11) Columbus GA....keep TV & FM handy the next few days!

BTW the 107.3 Reach FM is in Deltona----not even listed on Radio-Locator; see www.reachfm.org

cd

[spunker88]

The distances are too short for ES, that is just tropo. I get WRMF frequently via ES, they use their calls between songs so they are an easy one to ID. Florida is a good area for tropo because of the way its positioned out over the gulf.

[John Holcomb II]

Belleview is probably one of the bestest places to live in FL for DX. just a little further away from Orlando, and not much further away from Tampa. I think that would be a great place to DX from. I wouldn't get WXRA though which i can get here, but I think that anything else from Tampa, Jacksonville, DayTona beach, Crystal River, Gainsville, Orlando, and perhaps lakeland  would likely come in, especially if the township let you put an antenna on your rooph. Then a lot of those would be daytime comeing in like locals (even though they are not), with a sullective sensative tuner that could null out stations.  An antenna with roter would be great.
lol on the driving  to the park to DX from. You know i would drive and pay admition to a park with a radio just so I could DX too. 40 miles in any direction from this  location would yield totaly different  stations. Airchecking is fun.  I can't be the only one that would do that.
Streaming OTA radio is nice, but there is just something about pulling in that station on a regular radio.

[Steve Green NEPA]

The times I DXed from the Villages (my Folks used to live there)  it was all AM DX.     The FM dial was of no interest to me,    sounding like the Hall & Oates of Your Life dial one time,    a digital urban rodeo another,  and a Music To Sniff Glue and Break Dance to on another.

You know -- just like the FM dial has sounded in every other market.

Did manage to get taped audio (not necessarily IDs) on every frequency up to about 1640,  which is the limit of my GE SR II.     Lol -- I was even able to get a null on WVLG 640 one night.     From my Folks place (Bolivar and DelMar) their studio is a five minute walk.     The tower is several miles west,   though.    I give the chuckle because the show I nulled to hear,  probably,  a bit of Cuba,  was when my buddy was on the air -- Ed Newlands.     

Did manage to flag a nice post-sunset listen from KYW 1060 one evening.     My wife The Pooch,   who's from Philly,   was hollering,  'We came down here to get AWAY from there.    Why are you listening to that?     And how are you even GETTING that?!?'         

[cd637299]

Belleview is OK for DX but not exactly the hottest place for it...!

Note:  Back in 1989 I wanna say, when my (now deceased) parents had a home there, I had a 1982 Honda Civic Wagon with Clarion AM/FM radio (analog/slide rule dial).  Seriously, it had to have been an "even" frequency, 95.0, where I heard the word "quelque chose" (French for "something").  I was told by a member of WTFDA (right before I joined) that what I likely heard was Martinique! 

Great car radio that was, too. 

cd

[gar fla]

Something interesting to note speaking of The Villages.

I'm 68 miles away in Tampa and I can't get 640 WVLG at all during the day and only extremely rarely at night.

Only once in a great while has their signal drifted in at night and I've heard KFI from 2,152 miles away come in about as many times.

While I can't hear WVLG at all here during the day behind the Cuban station, it has a pretty good signal over at the beach in Dunedin which is even more distant from The Villages at 73 miles.   

[cd637299]

AFAIK, WVLG is non-directional day & night, but under 1 k; so it's interesting to read here their propagation under ND conditions.

Now to get WVLG to knock off the modern stuff.....but I am sounding like a broken record.

cd