price%marlin@Nosc (James N. Price) (05/31/85)
------- Dear group, This is my first transmission to the info-hams bunch, hope it gets thru OK. I took the most recent ARRL prop. bulletin to heart last night, noting it indicated a strong Sporadic E skip condition. Sure enough when I got home after work, channels 2 thru 5 on TV were jumping with a hodgepodge of stations. This was a bit of deja vu for me since I used to be a very active TV DXer during the BIG sunspot peak in the late 50s and early 60s. We lived at that time in an area (San Joaquin Valley of California) where there were no VHF signals at all. I logged 60 stations in 18 states plus 3 Canadian provinces and Mexico, including Mexico City! Anyway, last night between 6 and 8 p.m. PDT, I logged KATC channel 3 from Lafayette, Louisiana; KFDX channel 3 from Wichita Falls, Texas; and KIII channel 3 from Corpus Christi, Texas. I wasn't able to pull out anything over channels 2, 4, and 5 from LA, altho I caught a snippet of something from Nebraska on channel 2. I surmised that 10 meters might have a good sporadic E opening, and sure enough, there were some BIG, close-in signals. Between 9 and 10 p.m. local time, I worked Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas, with my 2 watt QRP rig on phone. I worked the same guy in Texas this morning, too, at 6 a.m. local. His signals were 20 over s9 both times! What I'm leading up to is--are there any other TV DX crazies out there in info-hams land? I'd like to compare notes since it appears we may have some good openings this summer. Any other similar Sporadic E experiences the past few days? Hope this didn't sound too self-congratulatory, but I was really, as we used to say, "stoked!" 73-- Jim Price, K6ZH, San Diego, CA JPRICE@USC-ISI.ARPA or PRICE@NOSC.ARPA ------- -------