Ben Zonia wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:13 pm
I notice that phenomenon with WRVM 102.7 Suring, WI showing up all over the place in Michigan, from a somewhat inland transmitter location, and from WIXX 101.1 Green Bay, WI, which is closer to Lake Michigan.
I know the Chicago Skyline Fata Morgana in Berrien County has come up here before, and I know you said that you could not correlate the two, and the different bending angles for 10^8 Hz vs. 10^14 Hz. But has anyone ever seen a tower beacon light showing up in such circumstances, which is not usually seen, close the the horizon? I saw a tower beacon light which I never remember seeing, across a larger inland lake which was very still, a couple nights ago, close to the same angular direction of two other tower lights which are normally seen. The three all had independent blinking times, the visiting beacon slightly lower in elevation angle, looking like AM BC three tower array beacon lights going downhill. The two towers normally seen had clear reflections in the water, the third visitor did not have a refection in the water. I found that odd.
WRVM is a bit of a special case as it is actually still quite close to the water. While it doesn't look like it on the map, a lot of that signal goes right over the water (Green Bay, i.e. the body of water, is part of those lake breeze circulations of Lake Michigan; the effect of the water pushes inland enough and the higher-powered signals that are inland still easily reach the water with enough power to take part in propagating). It's also a big signal without much else to interfere with it almost anywhere. WMOM doesn't really count as it's dinky in comparison, but WMOM easily wallops WRVM in Wisconsin too, as I've posted here before, and plenty of posts about the opposite effect. I've heard WRVM easily in White Cloud, Big Rapids, and up to Cadillac and eastward with very little enhancement present. I mean, what is standing in its way? When WMOM was off for a year, WRVM could be heard almost everywhere down here in Fremont and southward. When 102.9 Grand Rapids was off before changing to BBN, Indian River was in with RDS almost daily. Apparently without the local on the air, the station would be a regular. Who'd have thought? Before the band was so damn crowded, stations could easily be heard 200 or more miles out pretty regularly. Listening on the north shore of Lake Superior, 200 and 300 mile stations are regular and often in solid because there is nothing else on those frequencies. Northern Michigan ones are common way up there too. 96.3 especially, though with 100kw Houghton signing onto that frequency, those days are done.
As for the mirages, they're quite common everywhere along the coast. It just so happens there are bigger name photographers in the Benton Harbor area that are well-aware of the opportunities to photograph the Chicago skyline. They do a great job! I have dozens of photographs in Muskegon, Manistee, Ludington, etc. but they are usually mirages of water - so you just see a bluish color layer atop the horizon, or you see mirages of the dunes and bluffs up and down the coast, which is more common. You can also see mirages of just air as a clear layer. Most people don't even know it's there, but if you know what you're looking for, you can see mirages rather commonly and they are very much illuminated at sunset as a dark gray layer over the water. In Muskegon, I have seen the Port Washington lighthouse beacon a number of times and Milwaukee from Grand Haven (used to work on the beach in Grand Haven, so you see more things regularly). It's just tough to know what you're seeing sometimes. Could you see radio tower lights? I mean, probably. But you wouldn't easily know it unless they were right beside the water and there are so many red lights around.
And you're right, I annoyingly have not connected mirages to any better or worse reception over the past twenty years. They tend to be rather low-level mirages whereas most signal propagation is best with 2000+ foot inversions over the water. The higher the inversion, the better the signals within it travel inland. If it's smaller, the signals are only heard along the beaches. But plenty of mirages on the water have resulted in dead conditions for me, actually more often than not!! The season for marine inversions usually starts reliably in late May as the mirage season is wrapping up. There is a temperature aspect to both; the mirages are better with much colder water and warmer air above them, while the inversions that produce signal propagation are far better with warmer water (50s to 70s) with warmer air aloft, with exceptions of course.
I always have plenty to say about these topics and will finish posting pages upon pages more of details of this later on this summer on my website, but don't want to bore those who may be seeing this post and only interested in 92.5, so I can discuss any more on the topic when I post on it later on
