The Technical Stuff

[ScottBurns]

The posts below about reciprocal DX'ing were both fascinating and enlightening. I have a few more questions/comments regarding FM skips/tropo/DX'ing in general:
1. Is it more common to be able to pick up stations to one's west? Save once last summer, when I picked up a Cincy FM station in Pierre, SD, I do not think I have ever long-distance DX'ed a station to my east.
2. And if it is more common to be able to DX from west to east, is this due to the direction of the jet stream, and/or the fact that storm systems move from west to east in the United States?
3. Why is it that there are some areas of the country from which I have never been able to DX, yet there are others that are relative gold mines. Take the state of Florida. I have never DX'ed anything farther than the Space Coast from my home in Palm Beach County. On the other hand, from Tampa, I have DX'ed stations in Texas, the Gulf Coast, and even northern Mexico.

Thanks in advance.

 

[gr8oldies]

I've DXed a couple of Boston stations while driving through Wisconsin, and I logged Long Island from Central Indiana. I've never heard east coast stations from Ohio, assuming the skip distance isn't right.

 

[nd2023]

There are more people on the east coast, and there are no radio stations in the middle of the ocean, so we get more reports of east to west e-skip. But I have gotten stations from northeastern Canada before.
E-skip clouds usually move northwest. In many openings, I notice stations from the Gulf coast or Florida first, then it moves to the middle of the country, and ends at the Canada border. But the clouds can move any direction.
E-skip is usually 700-1200 miles, tropo is usually less than 300 miles. That leaves a large skip zone. Ohio to the east coast is in the skip zone.