Spring 2026 'conditions'

[MWmetalhead]

Stations I have positively ID'd so far:

96.7 KISS FM (KHFI - Austin TX)
97.9 The Beat (Dallas - KBFB)
101.1 KLOL Mega 101 (Spanish) - Houston
107.9 (one-o-seven-nine the Mix) - Augusta, Maine (might be my first ever catch from Maine)

97.9.The Box in Houston plays hip-hop, too. You sure you weren't hearing them instead of KBFB?

I'm listening to 91.3 KNCT from Killeen, TX right now, a college owned Easy Listening station of all things!

[MegaHertz]

E-skip is wild right now!

Hearing KLBJ-FM Austin and 93.7 The Beat from Houston on 93.7.

94.5 The Buzz from Houston is trying to punch through WCSX's IBOC sideband.

90.1 KPFT Houston coming through clearly.

97.5 WACO is sneaking past CBC Radio One here & there.

Then I'm willing to bet I was pulling Texas, too. That's wild.

[bmw]

97.9.The Box in Houston plays hip-hop, too. You sure you weren't hearing them instead of KBFB?

The station specifically identified at "The Beat" so I'm near certain on this one.

Leaving the dial on any empty frequency pretty much had 3 or 4 stations constantly rotating. I had particularly bad luck making many ID's as it seemed like whenever a song was about to end or a weather forecast about to start, suddenly a different station would overpower.

[MWmetalhead]

You definitely were hearing Dallas, in that case.

[bmw]

I miss browsing through the VHF dial on an analog TV in these conditions. Farthest ever TV catch way back when was a station out of central Florida. Now run a digital channel search and just find nothing.

[Marcus]

Listening to 98.9 KTUX right now. I heard another station mention Oklahoma this morning on my way to work. I have heard skip from the southwest many times over the years.

[MWmetalhead]

I miss browsing through the VHF dial on an analog TV in these conditions. Farthest ever TV catch way back when was a station out of central Florida. Now run a digital channel search and just find nothing.

I believe channel 42 in Sarnia broadcasted in analog up to its very last day on the air in 2020.

I'm a good 60 miles from Sarnia and actually remember picking up a very snowy but readable signal a few times at my house in 2018 or 2019. Tropospheric ducting was needed to pick up a signal here.

[ChrisWL1980]

I think I missed the peak of it, but managed to ID 94.1 KQXY (Q94) Beaumont/Port Arthur as it triggered RDS. I could tell it was a Cumulus station as it was the same advertising/PSA displays Cumulus puts on all their RDS.

[hb2]

I was looking at the FM bandscanner maps over at rabbitears.info and the maps definitely depict a large E-skip event that was all across the US,(us here in Michigan got a big wave of catches from TX/LA/AR/OK, among less from other spots), in some parts of the US it even persisted into this morning 7/25. I think the biggest catch within the last 24 hours as of me writing this was a SDR reciever near Yarmouth, Massachusetts, recieved KBRW-FM 91.9 Barrow, Alaska. That is just over 3454 bird miles. Insane transcontinental catch for them.

Link to that reciever on rabbitears.info:
https://rabbitears.info/tvdx/fm_one_tuner_map/298

Edit: grammar tweaks

[hb2]

Kind of a letdown tropo event tonight. Map is lit up deep red all over most of MI/MN/IL/IA/WI indicating likely strong tropo but not much in terms of catches.

Really looking into improving my DX apparatus as my tuner is getting really bad in terms of frequency drift. I may be overamping the antenna but this virtually unchanged setup 11 days ago brought in so many new catches (yes I used the drifty radio and caught all 18 or so stations on it). Looking at an SDR to DX with and/or a decent FM antenna (I have one that self cancels the lower half of the band out).

On antenna with notoriously drifty stereo, drifts getting worse by the day, antenna 30dB gain aimed ESE
88.1 CBEE weak
90.7 WNFR (briefly, weak)
93.5 2 unidentifiable stations clashing(?)- certainly NOT WHMI or CBCL also same on 93.7
96.7 ???? Causing static on CHYR on antenna(clear indoor reception)

*gave up since the drifts were so bad on many stations. I could be overamping but regardless this tuner is freaking out.

On AM/FM hearing protectors, entirely indoor reception
90.5 WKAR moderate
91.3 CFCO weak
91.5 WVMV almost clear
93.7 WBCT? very weak

[hb2]

Outdoors with the hearing protectors, had another E-skip, a very elusive one at that. 89.9 CBE-FM had Family Life Radio cutting in very selective spots but I could not keep the distant signal long enough to get the TOH ID. The 2 full power possibilities are WJTF Panama City Florida or KJTA Flagstaff Arizona. Recieved in Rochester Hills/Troy border area near Crooks

[statmanmi]

I miss browsing through the VHF dial on an analog TV in these conditions....

...Tropospheric ducting was needed to pick up a signal here.

Hi bmw, MW, and All,
I've mentioned in an older thread that I have a setup that provides TV reception data to the RabbitEars.info website.

The last couple of days has been quite the treat!

Current map view showing last 24 hours of stations decoded: https://rabbitears.info/tvdx/one_tuner_ ... 502/tuner1
Underlying data, set to show last 3 days: https://m.rabbitears.info/index.php?req ... e=ET&unit=

The current map (Tues. 7/28 at almost Noon) doesn't include the prior day's decoding of 3 stations off the Sears Tower (Chicago natives have chided me in other forums for still saying Willis Tower, as the naming rights deal has concluded), and another from central Illinois.

Noticeable in the chart is that I've had decoding on almost every RF channel allotment in use during the last 3 days. Missing are the Low-VHF RF2 through RF6 (although I'm surprised I haven't had RF5 WGVK from Kalamazoo) and RF15, which is the ATSC 3.0 signal for WXSP from a tower in Walker just of I-96 near Fruit Ridge. My reception device doesn't decode ATSC 3.0, hence its omission.

Fun stuff! ~~ Statmanmi

[hb2]

A bit late to post, but Fri 7/31 had WKCQ 98.1 coming in loud and mostly clear from Clarkston all the way to Rochester Hills area on I75/M59. Once I was in Rochester, on the higher elevation areas the HD sidebands of WJLB started eroding WKCQ but 98.1 would come in better at lower elevations.

I was coming back from a very quick mission oriented Frankenmuth trip and the signal followed me back. Also had weak tropo that was boosting CHYR 96.7 up into that region (not quite like last time) and WUPS 98.5 was fairly strong in north Flint compared to typical strength.

I could have tried 89.9 or 90.3 up there for DXing as last Friday WUCX's HD was turned off but didn't think to check. Nor did I stop and do a full bandscan either.

[hb2]

Weak tropo 8/9/26 about 9:30 PM
*using Sangean HDR-14 indoors, no outdoor antenna or drifty tuners. Location Rochester Hills

No new catches tonight or anything really notably far. Mainly a Canadian amplification event aside from WKAR.

89.3 CKGW stronger than usual
90.5 WKAR briefly, weak
91.3 CFCO weak (they should invest in a RDS encoder so that RDS enabled recievers can show text, if they don't have one already)
93.5 CBCL very very weak
94.3 CKSY intermittently but clear, clashing with W232CA
95.1 CKUE max signal

[ChrisWL1980]

The fog this morning (08/13) brought some enhancement into SE MI. Mix 95-7, 96.9 WLAV and most surprisingly 102.9 WYHA from GR were all pounding in to eastern Genesee/western Lapeer county along I-69 as late as 11:30. Also had 88.7 WIAA and 103.5 WTCM in well.