Saul wrote:

CBC running storm alerts. Heard warnings for tornadoes in Manitoba this evening. Funny that while I was DXing MB and SK here in ON at the time, the alerts were on 90.7 Orillia and 94.1 Toronto, as I worked my way through the dial. The warnings sounded somewhat like AI, at least not a normal sounding human voice. My apologies if it was a real human. And it in both official languages.

 

Did you catch anything interesting? In the brief 5 minute drive home after work last night, something was punching through Legend 102.9 and I heard Coumtry mixing with WGRF on 96.9. Strange that there was no sign of Humber which usually mixes with 97ROCK in my neighbourhood [401/Avenue Rd.]

mace wrote:

Saul wrote:

CBC running storm alerts. Heard warnings for tornadoes in Manitoba this evening. Funny that while I was DXing MB and SK here in ON at the time, the alerts were on 90.7 Orillia and 94.1 Toronto, as I worked my way through the dial. The warnings sounded somewhat like AI, at least not a normal sounding human voice. My apologies if it was a real human. And it in both official languages.

 

Did you catch anything interesting? In the brief 5 minute drive home after work last night, something was punching through Legend 102.9 and I heard Coumtry mixing with WGRF on 96.9. Strange that there was no sign of Humber which usually mixes with 97ROCK in my neighbourhood [401/Avenue Rd.]

It'll be July til I can get to the audio clips to know fully what's been logged here the last few days. I'm way backlogged and have two very busy weeks coming up. But last night was something I'll remember for a long time. I was on a prescheduled Zoom call with a couple other DXers when I looked over at my radio. The sound was off, obviously, but the RDS displayed a set of calls that seemed intriguing. There was some RDS code but also a slogan in the scrolling text, and I was able to ID the station, on 97.3, as from Idaho, which is ostensibly double-hop from here at close to 1700 miles. A few minutes after the call ended, I heard two ads for Utah businesses on 94.9. I saved the RDS capture for the 97.3 and the audio clip for the Utah. I did not capture the Utah RDS because the reception was brief enough that it was displaying another station by the time I got the phone camera focused on the screen. These two states are first-evers for my FM log. I heard east to Newfoundland and the Gaspe peninusla, south to Florida and texas, and west to the aforementioned states plus Saskatchewan. And that's just one radio live. I have a ton of other radio recordings that were unattended and I have no time in the next couple weeks to deal with them. I had stations pulverizing the mainliners from nearby Orillia, Barrie, Midland, Lindsay and Haliburton. I've never had three consecutive days like this ever in nearly 50 years doing this. No question there was no such thing as a B contour for a good few hours yesterday for stations across much of the continent.
 

markow202 wrote:

Always facinating reading about your DX pick ups Saul, but where was your location?

Thanks! North Kawarthas.

mace wrote:

Saul wrote:

markow202 wrote:

Always facinating reading about your DX pick ups Saul, but where was your location?

Thanks! North Kawarthas.

It probably helps that your FM dial isn't nearly as cluttered as ours is in the GTA.

To get the volume of stuff, yes. But with this opening I was able to beat back full-power stations less than 50 miles away. But I can tell you that, despite WDCX and Kitchener, another DXer heard Helena Montana on 99.5 from North York near the 401 at about 1600 miles. This clearly indicates double hop, given that there was a lot of Iowa and Minnesota coming in (as well as SD and ND). But there was also a clear gap, with nothing noted DXing live between 1400 and 1600 miles. Single hop Es usually ranges from 500 to 1500 miles, and there were some definite double-hop clouds being reported. All this said, I'll have a better idea of how things unfolded after I review a whack of unattended radios I was recording. It was a complicated, intense opening -- multiple clouds were bringing stuff in from other directions (the presence of multiple ionized skip clouds definitely enhances double-hop capacities). All three days were solid much of the day. But I'd be willing to bet I would have had at least a few channels working from my downtown apartment where I can SEE the CN Tower.
 

Last edited by Saul (June 12, 2026 6:24 am)