[Scan-DC] E-Skip Tonight?

[b_thom at juno.com]

As a proud member of the cheapskate-American community, I do not have
cable TV. If I can't see TV with the rabbit ears, then it's just not
worth watching.

Tonight about 7:30 p.m., I noticed interference on channel 2, 54-60 MHz;
and channel 3, 60-66 MHz. From my monitoring bunker in northern Virginia,
I receive channel 2 in Baltimore, WMAR all the time, though not too well.
Channel 3 does not ordinarily come in at all. When it does, I think it's
KYW in Philadelphia. I tried some other channels to see if I could get TV
stations in Richmond and Norfolk, which also come in (poorly) when the
atmospherics are weird. I saw nothing.

I believe this is an example of the propagation phenomenon called E-skip.
The Wikipedia entry on TV and FM DX supports my belief.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV/FM_DX

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV/FM_DX#Sporadic_E_propagation_.28E-skip.29

If E-skip is good tonight, it may be a good time to see what's happening
on the 6-meter band, 10-meter band, and Citizens Band.

Possibly, tropospheric ducting may be good tonight too. My acid test for
tropospheric ducting is a frequency used by the New York City Transit
Authority in Queens, 160.965 MHz. You might want to punch that one and
see what happens tonight.