Jim K9YC posted a message at 1337 LT on 5 November about "very deep QSB"
on the TX3A signal, and I remembered the attached message that showed up
just about 2 days ago on the IRCA reflector (a Mediumwave BC DX list,
I think that Tree recently joined IRCA, but maybe just the print version)
Anyway there seems to be a lot of similarity between what Karl describes
on MW and what is being heard on 160, except this is on local signals.
I wanted to share this here.
And as well I am hearing, sometimes, this kind of fading as high as on 40
meters, which I haven't noticed before now.
Hope this is not too far off-topic. Any thoughts here? Anyone hear this
effect on 160m local signals?
73 Bob
>OK. This may be completely psychological, but it is unnerving.
>At the risk of sounding like a Coast-to-Coast AM caller, something weird is
>going on.
>I live 31 miles from High Island where WCBS and WFAN transmit from (NYC area.)
>The New Jersey swamp stations are slightly farther away.
>As the crow flies, these stations are really close by.
>Only in the last two weeks or so, I have been experiencing deep fading and
>especially phasing of the NYC clear channels to the point of almost complete
>obliteration.
>This is not just at my home QTH, but driving to and from work within a
>reasonable radius of my house.
>It is reminiscent of what you would expect at SSS/SRS on a regional or local
>channel.
>I've been an active DXer since about 1958 or so and I've never heard the big
>boys (NYC's 50 kWs) bend in the breeze like this.
>Unintelligible speech and sometimes nulling so you can actually hear weak
>stations behind them? Really weird.
>These stations are usually so rock solid that all the nulling in the world
>can't
>squelch them.
>My regular out of town biggies don't bend anymore than usual.
>In fact, even distant 50 KWs like WHO, KMOX, and WWL are unstoppable and live
>long past sunrise.
>Am I the only one who is experiencing this effect with backyard locals?
>BTW, the across-the-pond hets have just been enormous.
>When I can hear Arabian chanting and loud 1 kHz howling over WWKB Buffalo day
>after day on a car radio, you know conditions are good.
>
>Thanks for listening (pun not intended) Karl Zuk N2KZ
(Footnote, those stations are on 660 and 880 kHz, and SSS/SRS is a
reference to sunset skip/sunrise skip, mostly a lack of D-layer
absorption, generally noted most strongly above, roughly, 1200 kHz.
And, the "Arabian chanting" (qura'an recitations) is from Saudi Arabia
on 1521 kHz.) sent at 2315 EST
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160 meters is a serious band, it should be treated with respect. - TF4M
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