have you ever received a tv station from a really long way away?

[Syrinx]

I'm in Alabama. And I remember once when the weather was kind of freaky, I watched an episode of "I Love Lucy" from a station in Arizona.

Anyone have a similar experience?

[KitchenWitch]

1. Not with television

I have gotten AM radio stations from thousands of miles away though.

[Random_Australian]

2. With short wave radio, in the scouts we heard New Zealand.

[Syrinx]

4. ha!

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. I once talked to an Australian station

on my CB. That was the farthest I ever QSL'd. Second-farthest was Barbados, or maybe Nassau, Grand Bahamas.

[Syrinx]

3. I can get better reception on AM from Chicago than local stations at night

I think most AM stations have to lower their power at night, but some superstations can blast away and just about blanket the country. I don't know, I guess they pay more for their license or something.

:hi:

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. You get WLS?

I picked that up one night. Also WWL in New Orleans. Same night.

Conditions were good. :thumbsup:

[Syrinx]

9. oh yeah

I used to listen to Art Bell on WLS. Nutty stuff, but entertaining. And better reception than his local affiliate here.

[Oeditpus Rex]

5. Not me, but my dad told this story

During some freakish weather sometime in the '50s, he said he got a picture from one place and sound from another. One was from Texas — Amarillo, I think (he was in California). I want to say the other was from Washington, but I don't remember clearly.

Certain atmospheric conditions can do strange things to radio waves. It's called "skip" because signals reflect off the ionosphere and bounce around like ping-pong balls. You can never really tell where they'll land.

[Syrinx]

13. that reminds me of something

I'd google for it, but I'm getting really sleepy.

There was an old story about someone in Britain receiving a signal from the past. It was very interesting, and it sounded kind of plausible, in its own way. Too bad it turned out to be a hoax.

I think it's on snopes.com (warning, it is my observation that snopes has a rightward bias.)

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. It's theoretically possible

It takes about 1.3 seconds for a signal to get from the moon to the Earth and about 3 1/2 minutes from Mars. If a signal were strong enough to be received from many light-years away, as in "Contact," it would carry old data.

[enigmatic]

8. I'm a AM DX freak

I collect radios and love to DX while camping and on winter nights; it's a classic tension release for me.

The only TV DX I remember was getting a TV station out of Houston while living in Columbus, OH many years ago; that was pretty cool..

[Syrinx]

10. I started to use "DX" in my post

But figured nobody would understand. ;)

I was a ham as a teenager, but I let my license lapse. I think I'd like to get back into it and combine it with computers. That would be cool.

[enigmatic]

12. Oh, it opens up a whole new world

There are many viryual ham radios on the net that you can listen to; let me see if I can find some..

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. I was KB6WKO in the late '80s

Then I upgraded to Tech and became N6SMG.

Then I lost interest because most hams just want to talk about their equipment. :boring:

[Oeditpus Rex]

14. TV uses FM

and FM doesn't "skip." I'd guess, though, that TV signals were once AM-propagated, since there are these old stories of TV skip.

What kinds of radios do you have? I'm not a collector, but it'd be seriously cool to have an old Atwater-Kent or something.

I listen to Giants games on a little Sanyo that's about 30 years old and still hummin' along.

[enigmatic]

18. Oh boy

I've got about 40 or so; I mostly collect prtable SW radios from 1960-75, but I've got a couple of Heathkits and my baby is a Zeinith Transoceanic from 1952 that is fantastic.

My best catch was a couple of years ago while camping near the Alberta-Northwest Teritorries border; the skip was unbelieveable, and I got WOAI out of San Antonio for a good part of the night. It's a 50,000 watt blowtorch, but still, that's a helluva catch..

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. Yeah, the boomers are fun

especially if they're clear-channel. Some stations shut down at midnight or whenever and many others are "sundowners" that have to cut power or change antenna phase at sundown. That's when the boomers get to flex their muscle.

I used to get the Dodgers after sundown on KDWN, a boomer in Las Vegas that had Art Bell after the games. But they don't have a contract with them anymore, and I gotta listen on the internets.

Wolfman Jack made his name at XERF in Del Rio, Texas. The transmitter was across the Rio Grande in Mexico (thus the 'X' call) and, not subject to FCC regs, supposedly blasted 250,000 watts. Legend has it that he could be heard all over North America.

[enigmatic]

20. oh yeah!

I was too young to DX XERF (and XERB), but I hjave a few checks of Wolfman Jack blasting away; I love listening to it..

I like to troll the low-power frequencies (1490/1320/1290 etc..) for some stations as well; it's much more hit and miss but alot of fun when you get a 500 watt one-lung station 1000 miles away on a skip...

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. I used to listen to Wolfman Jack on XERB

in the early '70s. 'Course, I wasn't that far — about 400 miles or so as the radio wave travels. But according to their promos, it was "only" 50,000 watts.

Matter o' fact, I can still hear him saying, "We got 50,000 watts clear-channel, baby. We cover da world!"

Speaking of air checks, you familiar with the Reel Radio Repository? It's a freakin' gold mine, man.

http://www.reelradio.com

[enigmatic]

22. reelradio.com is GOD

I love that site; I grew up in Cleveland in the early 70's when WIXY 1260 ruled the AM; listening to King Kirby especially brings me back. We used to get CKLW from Windsor booming over Lake Erie; I'll never forget their "20/20 News" segments as well as the jocks.

Those were great times to listen to the radio....

[Oeditpus Rex]

23. I just noticed it's become a subscription site

Which is certainly fair. I think I can come up with a few bob for 'em.

God, I've wallowed in so much nostalgia there, from the "boss jocks" to the old commercials and jingles to the unedited tape from KLIF, Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

[enigmatic]

24. Om my overnight show

I play a 5 minute snippet from a bulletin from CHED In Edmonton, Alberta (where I live now) from 11/22/63; it's gripping radio...

[RebelOne]

11. When I lived in Miami, occasionally

I would receive TV stations from Cuba. But, of course, that was not that far away.

[Syrinx]

15. all these Spanish stations I hear...

I've wondered if they are from Mexico or Cuba. Someone familiar with the dialects could probably tell instantly.

[formerrepuke]

25. From Cleveland, I once got reception from Montreal (500 miles away)

..with nothing more than a set of rabbit ears on top of the set. Seems to happen more often during very cold, still winter nights.