TV is actually beyond the FM range, in the VHF (Very High Frequency) and UHF (Ultra High Frequency) range. This is a considerably shorter wavelengh than radio waves, but nowhere near as short as visible light. As I recall, lo these many years since school, radio waves have wavelenths in the range of feet to meters, TV in the range of millimeters to centimeters. The longer radio waves are a lot more likely to bounce off the ionosphere. (By comparison, the wavelengths of visible light are from around 400 to 700 nanometers, where a nanometer is a millionth of a millimeter.)
Or I could be remembering all or part of this completely wrong and just making a complete fool of myself. One or the other.
Skip occurs on high frequencies when the sunspot cycle is high. I don’t know what part of the cycle we are in now. The distance involved depends on the frequency. You may be at the “perfect” distance for this station. I have talked with people in south america on less than 100 watts of power on a frequency of just above 28 megahertz. When I lived in Rhode Island I used to talk with people in New York on a frequency not far from the channel 58 frequency. There are also other strange phenomena such as tunneling or ducting where a wave will travel between two atmosperic layers to distances far greater than usually possible. Of course we are talking about Utah here strange things are not unusual. My grandchildren in school there report strange things all the time.
Yep, that was my station in southwestern Colorado, too. One of the reasons you could only pick it up at night is because at night certain AM radio stations are allowed to increase their output power as other stations
go off the air.
In the early 80’s I was in the Air Force stationed in Altus Oklahoma and I had a warskil AFSC as a cop so I had to pull cop duty 3 days a month. I always volunteered for the night shift 'cause it was cooler. So one night I’m on gate duty with one of the regular SPs and I said, hey, we should be able to pickup KOMA now! He gave me a funny look but tuned to 1520 (funny how some things stick in your mind) anyway. It was a trucker / country / talk station. I was severly disappointed!
This stuff also has to do with such banal factors as the power of the transmitter and presence or absence of natural obstacles. Driving around in country Australia, I can often get clear AM signals from 1,000 miles away or further but might not be able to get anything from a nearby station. Driving through mountains, I have to keep changing stations to get the same program. As I round a mountain, the station that I was receiving cuts out and another cuts in. Wollongong is a long thin city built between a mountain range and the sea. There are two TV transmitters in the city. Some people can get both, some one and some neither. Some people can also get Sydney channels. I heard it said in New Zealand that, on a clear night, it is possible to get Sydney television on the west coast. I’ve never confirmed this for myself.
In the US in the 50s, there were very powerful transmitters just over the border in Mexico that could be picked up clearly in Chicago. I suppose these stations were getting around some law but I’m not sure of the details.
When I lived in England, in one house I could pick up both a local taxi company and, if I remember correctly, the police on my stereo.
You have a granddaughter! And a granddaughter old enough to study physics, no less! I always think of you as the young man in your picture, even though I know it’s not you.
A few weeks ago, my computer speakers picked up a man talking (on a CB I guess). And no, it wasn’t just a popup ad on the computer. And when I turned the volume all the way down on my speakers, he was still coming in loud and clear! It was creepy, so I just turned the speakers OFF.
Now baby monitors, THAT’S the way to pick up all kinds of weird things!
One of our local Spokane TV stations comes in on FM at the very first FM station you can tune to. They even advertise that. Gives me an appreciation for how frustrating it must be for my blind friend when without the picture there’s no way you know what’s going on just from the sound.
And sometimes at night, especially if I go west of town and up out of the valley we are in, I can pick up a Vancouver BC radio station - but not Seattle, which is closer.
True enough, the Sunspot cycle can play havoc with radio frequencies. I will tell you from years of experience, that no matter when, AM frequencies typically carry much farther at night than during the day, because of the ionospheric bounce. The sunspot cycle can make that bounce go ever farther, or it can do other strange stuff.
Yep. To get the full impact, see the somewhat larger version at [u]http://www.coastalfog.net/personal/noself.html[/u], along with others, most of which tend more to geeky (the truth) than dashing (an optical illusion).
Okay, that was neat! And it straightend out my confusion to. I admit, Darwin’s new avatar had me confused at first as to what it was exactly… I was looking at it too hard I guess or need glasses or a slap upside the head or something. For I looked at it and couldn’t figure out what it was. Then I saw the bigger version… it clicked right away and was so obvious I felt silly for not realizing what the avatar was right off the bat. Cool picture by the way.
Incidently, channel 58 (UPN Northwest Florida) still comes in clear enough to watch. Day or night. Thanks for the explainations and great stories… it’s nice to know some of the reasoning behind the why and that weird channel occurances aren’t all that uncommon. In fact, it’s rather fun. Going to have to pay more attention from now on to see if there are any other oddities of broadcasting around here.
Was that really you, that dashing young man in the black and white picture?
I admit, Darwin’s new avatar had me confused at first as to what it was exactly… I was looking at it too hard I guess or need glasses or a slap upside the head or something. For I looked at it and couldn’t figure out what it was. Then I saw the bigger version… it clicked right away and was so obvious I felt silly for not realizing what the avatar was right off the bat. Cool picture by the way.