Grade the 2007 Skip Season So Far

[Mike-CT]

Give us your grade for the first half of the 2007 E skip season. We'll do another poll when it's over to see if your opinion has changed.

[fredn-mcsc]

Mainly because I did catch some nice openings south of the border.
We're almost to the peak - which I think is around 6/25.
Fred Nordquist-Moncks Corner SC

[KW4RZ]

Nothing really spectacular so far here. Nice to see others snag a few 2X receptions, new countries and other exotic DX.
Early May had more Es on FM than usual including the big event to NY,PA etc. on May 9 when 2 FM translators were logged. One only 20 watts.
97.1 W246AL WELLSBORO, PA.
I've been getting many new logs on Es which is a plus, a few short skip ID's a couple long ones including 106.9 Bavaro, Dominican Republic at 1397 miles and 93.9 Flagstaff, AZ relog at 1474 miles. Got cheated out of Utah for my last state in 1X range. One new Mexican State of Hidalgo and log #3 in Arizona with 95.7 KWKM at 1361 miles when my local was off the air. Working 40+ hours makes it tough to DX. Have not caught any multi hour top of the band events yet this year. Just lots of spotty openings up to 2 or 3 hour events. I'm rating a B- or C so far. 6/21/07

[Russ-PA]

I'll give it a C- so far. Most of the openings there've been have been on weekdays, resulting in my missing most of it. I have fewer than 20 new Es logs so far. Most of the openings have been messy with skip from multiple directions or rapidly moving, making it harder to ID things.

[jrost626]

So far it has been weak.Gave it a C+ Due to my loggings of 2 HD Fm 94.5 WLRW HD1 Champaign Ill @ 831Mi and 95.5 WNUA HD1 Chicago Ill @ 775Mi. With VHF Santa Clara Cuba CH 5 "N" and Newfoundland off back of antenna with Channels 4 and 6 "NTV".Did get one DTV Hit of WTWC DT 2 "WTWC40" Tallahassie Fl @ 1019Mi.Shortest Fm was 94.1 WVIC Jackson Mi @ 621Mi RDS WVIC. Furthest FM 94.1 KQXY Beaumont TX @ 1452 Mi Q94. But most E's openings seem to make it to Channel 2 and WESH or WPBT are always the target.

[GotNEDX]

It's a D now... I would have given it a C two weeks ago. I've spent a lot of time digging for signals with little reward. Yes, I missed the first half of May, but the drought as of late the score just gets worse. June 2 was the only bright spot in the season... otherwise it's been an exercise in tracking how often I can see various channel 2s in one season.

[Guy in WNY]

That's because I have really only had one exciting opening here - I saw Cuba!

So the REAL problem is how do I get the free time to DX and the money to replace the old computer in the shack that died :eek: almost 2 years ago now, thereby taking my WinTV-D card out of service along with the ATI All-In-Wonder card and internet, all in the shack, so now I have to share time on my Dear Wife's laptop.:banghead:
I really need to replace it all soon, before the stations all go dark!:p
Guy in WNY
KC2PMM

[Saul]

One addendum to my post on the list. I did snag Fredericksburg TX at 1500 miles or so the other day, possible doublehop given that AR was in, also on 2.

My post to the list:

I missed May 14 to June 6, as was outside the country without a radio or
TV. Es started off early, netting me two good openings before I left. That
was cool! Since my return, here has been only minor FM activity. I missed the June 18 pening as I chose that date to go to Toronto to shop for furniture. Apparently I didn't miss anything totally huge while was away n Europe. I give my fortune-telling abilities a D, largely for missing a chance to get NL on TV for the first time ever. And, give the Es season thus far a C- for quantity and a C- for quality. I've had nothing from the plains states or
from western Canada. Most of my FM has been FL - the far bulk of it, in
fact. The grade is saved by the very opening I missed June 18 - it sounds
like it was a winner. I did catch the tail end in Toronto -- to FL and AL!

Saul

[Doug Speheger]

On the plus side, I logged a new Canadian province (Alberta). But I have only had a couple of prolonged FM events and less than 30 new stations logged.

[Dave-OR]

Two days ago, I would have given it a D-. It's amazing what 6 hours of TV and FM Es will do.

My highlight this year has been logging more low-powered Canadian stations including the as-yet-unknown power, unrecognized by the CRTC, NCN Native station on 98.1 in Nelson House, MB. Also 50-watter 91.7 CITT Saskatoon (a TIS-type station) and a "cleanup" type opening to northern BC where I pretty much logged everything possible for me in the "Gateway to the Alaska Highway" towns of Ft St John and Dawson Creek including re-log CFKU "Moose FM", a 50-watter on 100.1.

Looking forward to a better late June and early July.

Dave Williams
Redmond, OR

[Michael-NJ]

Repost from the WTFDA list:

This is a tough question... The season started off great in May, then it
died for several weeks. It did however pick right back up with a vengance in
the last week or so...

So I have to consider the following things... this season has been pretty
good. I've had E-Skip to every region that I can expect from here. There has
been a few openings to the islands, the Dominican Republic on FM (new
country), Cuba, probable Haiti's, the Bahamas, and as of yesterday Jamaica
have all been heard (another new country ~1500 mi!). The only islands really
missing is Puerto Rico, (which did make a showing last year) Bermuda, St.
Pierre & Miquelon, the Caymans or maybe the Turks & Caicos islands. Anything
else can't really be expected except via 2x . Going across the southeast it
has been exceptional as well... I've had a few FL openings that have gone
from the Keys to GA (WSOR seems like its my new local), HDs and translators
have both been logged. Going west, New Orleans, E-TX, Houston, OK, KS, MO
have all been heard. Farther north the only ones missing are the Dakotas and
Manitoba... but for it only being late June that's pretty good. Moving east
some near west stuff has already been heard including Michigan and even some
Ontarios up by Lake Huron. Finally, E-Skip has even been active to the
East... Newfoundland, the Maritimes, and Quebec have already been heard
which is again some pretty short hop stuff and does not happen every year.
Duration wise that has even been good... several openings have lasted a few
hours, then there was the exceptional 6hr to 108 opening yesterday which was
incredible. It could of course be better, but compared to how it could be,
thats almost being greedy. Regardless it's tough to grade... It isn't A+, as
thats some high expectations, but at the same time I don't see it even being
a B+... new countries, long hops, short hops, possible 2x, all those have
already happened. I'd have to say A-.... Now if I don't hear anything else
this year then that would drop significantly, but I doubt that happening...

How can it get a few more points, besides more of the same?
-More short hop, we're talking 400-500 mile stuff into Ohio and IN or maybe
Maine and NC/SC/TN/KY/VA
-2x or more, either west or east. I understand the Azores have been heard in
NJ in the past, I would like to log them. Maybe even mainland Europe, I have
been checking when the 6m maps show the paths. (Though in the case of
yesterday, I had 108 to the islands while the 6m map wasn't even showing
paths.)
-A few more 6 or more hour openings.

I know it's a tall order, but hey you asked ;)
----------------------------------------------------

Since then I've discovered that there's even more E-Skip today! It's become nearly a daily occurrence. No IDs, except a presumed WMGE Miami, and a few others (92.9 Oldies, and an AC etc). Nothing huge, but it's there. I told Nick about it who then heard it too, though he got an ID: 92.9 The Lake in LA.

[cg41386]

I give it a B+ so far, which might be slightly generous on my part, but there were some really nice Es openings in May. Most of June was rather quiet, but that finally changed over the last week or so.

[dlp85x]

I voted a 'C' for the first half of the season. I mainly voted because of the lack of big openings (compared to last year.) I'd have voted the season a B so far if I was voting on quantity, since I have received more new stations via Es this year (115 this year as of today, compared to 76 new on 6/23/06.) The major reason I got more this year was that I didn't really DX the non-comm band (below 92.1) until this Es season. I'd probably have 200 logged last year by 6/23 if I DXed below 92.1, which would make this season even worse based on quantity.

But, I'm voting on quality instead, since most of the openings this season have been very weak and predictable (same FM/TV stations coming in with few new logs.) Some of the openings made it up to TV 3 only, and most of the ones that made it to the FM band had a MUF around 92.1. I only have had a few openings above 101 MHz (the first one being very weak, the 2nd one not that much stronger. The third one was strong, but I wasn't able to DX most of it due to school of course!) The others were the openings that mostly stayed below 92.1, but had one signal over that freq, like 98.1, coming in.

I'll probably vote the season a C- or D+ by the end of it if there aren't any more major openings. If I get 1 or 2 major openings, I'll probably retain my grade of C or even change it to C+ or B-. All I want is simply one more of those major openings where the whole FM band is full of Es signals. As another poster said, that can make the world of difference with grading the season.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that a lot of the openings into FM that others have had great Es from (like those seen on the TV/FM Skip Log (http://dxworld.com/tvfmlog.html) ) have had little, or no, Es reception reported here. For example, there were many Es paths this past month between OR -> AZ, FL -> Mexico, NE -> TX and other areas, while here I didn't even have light CCI on TV 2&3. I guess its just my location! There even were some openings where Michael-NJ had great Es into the Carribean / DR and I had nothing here. So, some of my grading of the season is based also on comparison of what I get vs. others when any Es opening is active. It seems the clouds prefer other people more than me! haha

[Danny]

A for May. Logged several new stations, two new countries, and my third DTV via Es.

D for June. Most openings have been weak and short-lived.

Danny

[NickNJ]

The quality of logs has been very good here. In the past week I have logged two new countries in D.R. and Mexico (Yucatan), both over 1400 miles (Yucatan being 1579). I thought I had a 3rd in Jamaica but it's looking like it was probably More 94 from the Bahamas running a talk program instead. I also added a new state in IN on 5/11.

As others also have seemed to note, the signal strength of openings was very good in May. May 11th's opening is still by far the highlight opening of the season here. May 22 was very good as well. But the ones in June, conversely, have generally had weak/fadey signals, which doesn't play well with IBOC. The June 16 opening to D.R./Cuba/FL and June 18 to the Maritimes were solid openings, the select others in June have been spotty.

Overall 160 new FM logs via Es (surprisingly 131 of those in May), a bit off the pace of last year's 250 (in which I missed a few openings). I'd tentatively grade this season here a B+, but I would definitely like to see a few more long-lasting, good signal strength openings in the next few weeks.