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New station?
- Thread starter Mrtejano
- Start date
Just so you know, KMAT is way down on the coast, near Port O'Connor. That's quite aways from Richmond, and it's been on the air nearly 25 years.
Surprised you received a signal from it. KYKS would seem more likely to show up on your dial in north Houston.
The very hot and humid weather results in tropo kicking up, so expect some distant stations coming in.
The tropo has been insane the last several days... San Antonio coming in strong into Houston (96.1, 97.3 and 106.7) and even 103.3/Baton Rouge coming in loud for several hours.
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Here in Central Texas it has been intense as well. Houston and San Antonio blowing in wiping out the weak, including many of the translators.
Same here in ETX. I had KYKR "Kicker 95.1", KTJM "La Raza" and KQQK "El Norte" from B/PA blasting in like they were just down the road early this morning. Yet, not a whiff of Lufkin. The latter completely wiped out any trace of semi local KTLH "La Invasora", which transmits from just SW of Lake O' The Pines.
Tropos has been really insane during the nights and early morning. This past week I’ve been finding certain spots that I get HD locks over the local HDs here. For example over KLOL I got KONO from San Antonio, and WNOE in New Orleans. Over KILT I got KRRV from Alexandria and KTEX from the RGV all in HD! Last night I actually heard 103.5 and 103.9 from Tampico Mexico about 570 miles away!
But yeah KMAT was super strong all night and I barely got the blowtorch that is KYKS. Also KMAT uses the RDS PI code for KALD for some reason.
But yeah KMAT was super strong all night and I barely got the blowtorch that is KYKS. Also KMAT uses the RDS PI code for KALD for some reason.
Funny you mentioned KRRV. Interestingly enough, there are times when we receive KRRV, here in Tyler, but not on 100.3. Instead, we get it on 97.9. How, you might ask. Well, K250AJ is the Tyler translator for KZQX, also on 100.3, and when the conditions are right, since K250AJ picks KZQX up OTA, the KRRV signal will override KZQX, and the translator picks up Alexandria instead! It is one of those quirky things that happen to translators. It's become more prevalent and common as the number of translators being fed over the air has increased.
A lot less exciting but there's an Air1 translator in Conroe that picks up 103.7 KHJK and it sometimes picks up KXAI in Corpus. You can only tell when you hear the slight echo or you see the PI code for KXAI.
Had a similar experience in the Lafayette area a few weeks ago where I was getting a KMJQ HD lock over a crystal clear, analog only KYBG Basile/Lafayette.
This is the second time in a span of a few months that I've heard KONO-FM over KLOL-FM in the Heights. I also briefly caught XHAVO-FM (I heard a few mentions of McAllen and Harlingen).
I get KGSR HD from Austin all the time over KQBU. Same with KSMG San Antonio over KTWL and the translator. I did recently get a HD lock from WQUE New Orleans and I never heard their analog.
That would be E skip, a different phenomenon from tropospheric ducting, but still within the hobby of DXing.
Last summer produced some incredible E skips, I caught several stations from South Dakota and Iowa in Houston, while there were reports on the east coast of trans-atlantic catches.
E-skip, tropospheric ducting and other VHF propagation phenomena – Engineering Radio
www.engineeringradio.us
Our local 96.1 KKTX-FM Kilgore has been off the air for 2 days now. Hearing they took some damage at the tower site during the last round of storms that blew through here last week. In its absence, I've had "Kicks 96" coming in rather strong from Sulphur both days. No sign of "Aggie 96" at all.
KYZS "K-DOK" 1490/95.7 took a direct lighting strike during the same storm complex and caused a fair amount of damage, as well. It continued to broadcast, but the AM was doing so at reduced power, and with a prominent electrical hum in the audio on both the AM and the translator. A check of both today revealed that repairs have been made. You've got to respect Chuck Conrad. Arguably, the hardest working licensee in east Texas. The man has given more care to 1490 in the last year he's owned it, than it likely had in the last 20 years before he purchased the station. You can really tell the difference.
KYZS "K-DOK" 1490/95.7 took a direct lighting strike during the same storm complex and caused a fair amount of damage, as well. It continued to broadcast, but the AM was doing so at reduced power, and with a prominent electrical hum in the audio on both the AM and the translator. A check of both today revealed that repairs have been made. You've got to respect Chuck Conrad. Arguably, the hardest working licensee in east Texas. The man has given more care to 1490 in the last year he's owned it, than it likely had in the last 20 years before he purchased the station. You can really tell the difference.
Now that you mention it, Bryan/CS stations aren't that far from Houston, yet they're rarely heard inside the loop. Aggieland stations were an extremely rare occurrence even before the translator/LP invasion began to fill the dial. Even Victoria stations are easier to catch than Bryan stations.
It's an odd phenomenon. KNDE, KTTX, KKYS, and KAGG should, in theory, be heard around Houston way more often. I guess the Brazos "Valley" prevents them from reaching coastal areas?
