California E's

[dxho]

I'm in central Virginia, ~80 miles to the coast. I have a rotor-mounted 150" 7 element yagi on the roof.

In 6 years, I've seen 1000 mile fm dx once. Best normal distance is about 100 miles. Extended coverage, maybe half the days of the summer, is another 50 to 125 miles. Every couple of years, it'll hit 300 miles (New York city area). Part of that path is over water.

That might partly be a function of a crowded market. Very few 'empty' channels... none, really. There's something on every frequency, except those blanketed by HD.

[MarioMania]

For 17 mins there was something over NoCal...around 9pm

I had my TV on look for a skip nothing, it was like in the 50

It avoided my area

[crainbebo]

If the skip is pointing away from Mexico and Canada, don't look at the TV. Keep the FM tuned on a low 88-92 frequency for skip, then go higher as it gets stronger and you get IDs.

-crainbebo

[MarioMania]

What do you mean pointing away??

I'm on http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=MUF&ML=M&Map=NA&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=N site..

If I see a 50, I turn on FM on 88-92??

[K6JHU]

If you have a scanner and outdoor antenna let it scan 50.0 -50.8 MHz. That is 6m amatuer band. There are beacons all over the US, Mexico, and Canada. Map and ID is at  http://www.k9mu.com/map/

Unless there is one in your immedaite neighborhood, you will hear nothing so set the squelch so it is barely quiet. When skip of any kind starts you will hear the beacons start to come in. When that happens the skip may get as high as FM so it may be time to start listening at the low end of the FM band.

If you can read the ID (in morse - CW) you might even be able to get the direction of the opening.

[gar fla]

What do you mean pointing away??

I'm on http://www.vhfdx.info/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=MUF&ML=M&Map=NA&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=N site..

If I see a 50, I turn on FM on 88-92??

The way it works is that you don't look for these spots to pop up directly over you but roughly 500 miles away from where you are located.

That's the half way point where the signal skips off the invisible Es cloud to you from it's point of origin the same distance on the other side of the spot.

If you want to get any possible FM catches, you need one of those numbered spots to be 88 or higher.

Let's say you have a spot with a number '95' at the right distance away from you. That means you can possibly hear a distant station on the FM band from the bottom of the dial (88 Mhz) up to 95 Mhz on the dial.

If the Es spot goes up to 108 or higher, that means the entire FM band could have skip.

But one thing to note is that just because these Es spots show up at 500 or so miles away doesn't always mean you will hear any E Skip because the height of the Es cloud may not be quite right for the path of slip to go directly to your location.

[MarioMania]

If I see "60" around Mexico, I would look out for a skip on Channel 2

[gar fla]

If you want to get E Skip from Mexico on ch 2, you have to look for that '60' to be half way between where you are and Mexico.

[crainbebo]

Mario, the best thing to do [if skip is pointed toward i.e. NE or KS, and not Mexico] is to get a scanner and scan the 6m band, like another poster said. Then try FM, because TV won't work when skip is toward the East due to the DTV transition. There is no such thing as KWGN 2 anymore on analog, but the Mexicans and some Canadians are still around.

-crainbebo

[rbrucecarter5]

The dry line that forms up in West Texas and Eastern NM often brings SoCal FM booming in.  I've stopped under a dry line and had stable reception for hours, and can even drive under it when it moves, keeping the skip alive.  I quite likely have listened to KIIS more hours in West Texas than I have when occasionally visiting Los Angeles.  As with all skip, it is reciprocal - the problem is a lot of the areas of Eastern NM and West Texas are remote without a lot of stations.  I would imagine things from Roswell, Clovis, Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo would come out there, but with the crowding of the band in SoCal - you might never notice.  A dry line starting back in Albuquerque is rare, sometimes they make it Dallas, but most of the time they have stabilized into full blown storm fronts by then, and the reflective nature of the dry / moist transition largely lost.