On Friday night we had some severe thunderstorms in the area and the transmitter for one of the FM stations where I'm chief engineer suffered a power outage. Since this operation has no back up power, etc we were off the air for nearly 3 hours. The unusual thing is while we were off the air we could clearly listen to WBYA in Islesboro, Maine, well over 1200 miles away on our frequency! Obviously this was a fluke caused by all the weird weather conditions. And it just wasn't me who could hear it. I called a few other employees living in about a 40 mile area around and all could very clearly hear the distant station! Crazy! I'm used to this happening when the AM goes down, espcially at night and the distant skip somes rolling in. But this is the first time in decades I've noticed it on FM with a signal this clear. You could literally listen to the station as if it were a local for at least an hour, then it faded away.
This is on 105.5 FM. I was first tipped off when our office manager called me and she told me that something was wrong, that we were playing country music. We're a classic rock station. I had already known we were off the air. She had just arrived home and turned on the radio and heard the wrong station!
Had 105.5 been open locally and you were operating a Part 15 FM on that spot, you would certainly have been wiped out by this rare occurance. Probably ducting. Happens on our two meter repeater every now and then.
TIB
Although not as impressive as your feat, I do remember being able to access the 2M FM repeaters in London, about 115 miles from where I grew up, with 1 watt to a dipole, when propagation was "up". It was always quite magical to hear the more distant stations coming in on my little 2 meter rig. I haven't done any serious listening to the FM broadcast band, other than to listen to local stations, so haven't experienced the same thing with broadcast stations. As you mention Part 15 FM, I wonder how many folk here have noticed distant stations interfering with their fleapower signals on the FM band from time to time? 1200 miles. That's quite something!
On CB Radio with a stock radio and Imax antenna on SSB I talked to somone in Australia for a good 5 to 7 min I am in Houston TX. I remember one time in Waco TX in 2004 I was listening 97.9 Dallas it came in like a local and 97.9 from Houston kill the Dallas station for a good 5min that was amazing.
Here is the video on my contact to Australia
...either that or really intense sporadic E skip.
I've been studying Sporadic E since
the late 1970s.
Facinating and very weird - - scientists
are still trying to figure it out.
Most of the single hop skip distances are
around 1000 miles. BUT if some of the path
is over water??? Could tropo be possible?
Without doing some research, I still tilt toward
E skip.
I've got a lot going on this week - but hopefully
soon I can get on here and post a few comments
soon.
Brooce, Part 15 Hartford
Back in the '70s i was visiting a college buddy in Bethpage, Long Island.....and i was able to work into the Concord, NH 2 meter repeater, using just ONE WATT from an HT!!!
Note: This was prior to (most) repeaters incorporating CTCSS....so the .34/.94 frequency pair was "always open".......!