Double hop e skip

[Schroedingers Cat]

There's a very detailed early treatment of Sporadic E in one or more of the NAB Engineering Handbooks.  There's also a discussion of F layer low VHF DX, which is most common during the sunspot maximum.  Obviously, chances fall off rapidly with frequency (Channel 2 most common), but it's all about probability and paths.  Obviously, double hops are more common when the midpoint is over salt water, and less common over fresh water.  With the low number of US VHF-Low assignments, these might be possible from Canada and Mexico.

[Lawppy]

Once.

I had HIGM 88.1 Santiago, DR with 'Primera FM' one early afternoon in Summer 2009. Interestingly enough, I heard them again in the early evening hours. Double-hop in itself is pretty rare, but getting the same station twice in two separate openings in one day seems even more elusive.

Would love to get double-hop within the United States or Canada though.

[cd637299]

Now....how about multi-hop?

Was viewing Sherlock tonight, and saw multi-hop outta my location to Chile & nearby.  Nothing on ch 2 at all, but I believe the Lord told me to check my scanner, because I did get Chile on 47.9 (recorded music only).....Lo and behold, 47.9 AND 48.3 arrived early this evening, and also what sounds like an STL on 38.8 in Spanish (sounds a bit like SSB), but I have no clue who it is.

Anyway I direct you here for more....click further....

http://forums.wtfda.org/search.php?searchid=3140

cd

[DeadElvis]

The path to Chile is not sporadic-E; it's trans-equatorial scatter, a flavor of F2 layer propagation.  Occasionally, E-skip can link to TEP, which is usually what brings it as far north as Memphis, where I live.

It's fun, though.

DE

[DeadElvis]

Just to illustrate how common double-hop is at 50 MHz, check this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uopluLi4qsw

That's 5W and a wire on the balcony of a hotel room.  Easy.  1900 miles.

I think the point here is that double-hop actually happens quite a bit.  See discussion of Venezuelan TV above.  But it's often covered up by single-hop signals that are likely at least 20 dB stronger.

DE

[Bud50]

A friend of my blog sent in the picture of KHTV in Little Rock, AR when he was a youngster in Chicago.

http://mighty1090kaay.blogspot.com/search?q=KHTV

I used to live on a ridge in Semmes, AL; when I got home at night, I'd regularly watch the even channels to the west in LA and Ch. 7 WDAM up in Laurel/Hattiesburg, MS around midnight and after.  Couldn't get them in the early evening or toward's daylight.  This is small potatoes next to you guys, BUT....

...I was in Mexia, AL years ago (near Monroeville, AL in Monroe County).  I was on the outskirts of town, after hours in the company camp-house, after supper.  I had (still have) a little Panasonic 5" B&W TV, with AM/FM radio.  On the 4' telescoping rod, I was picking up stations from channel 14 all the way up to channel 83, from across the border into Mexico- UHF!!!  I'd never done this before, only on VHF.  I called a buddy of mine over in Evergreen, who I worked with, and he set up his VHS movie camera in front of the TV (everything was so old, there were no direct hook-ups) and taped each channel he flipped to!  He shared the tape with me, but I don't know what happened to it.

That was about twenty years ago and I'll never forget it...my longest UHF skip ever....

Bud