Long distance tropo

[KW4RZ]

The last 30 hours or so have shown some decent signals in from up to 450 miles or so and has become almost boring as it's just the same stations all the time.
Then suddenly while monitoring 106.9, one of my best DXing frequencies, and listening to signals bouncing back and forth from WGZR-SC, WBPT-AL, and WMIT-NC this station came up over all the others.
WAFX "The Fox" Suffolk, VA 100kw at 717 miles! Amazingly it was in a for good part of 3 hours tonight.
The second furthest this evening was 104.3 WFXK Tarboro, NC at 628 miles plus several other NC, SC in the 400-600 mile range.

Another notable catch was 101.5 WRAL Raleigh, NC at 591 miles which overpowered my local 100kw WTKX 55 miles west of me!

The tropo forecast maps suggests more to come this weekend.

[Michael-NJ]

Wow! Amazing catches there Randy! I can hear both Foxy (104.3) and the Fox (106.9) pretty much consistently daily. WRAL will make it too, but that requires some trop. Nothing was noted on this side... too bad it coudn't come up the coast a bit!

[KW4RZ]

I was watching the APRS map. There was some enhancement around the northeast. Jeff in Massachusetts said he didn't have anything significant either. The best of the tropo seemed to be from central Florida to central Virginia with EL87 - FM17 on two meters. I heard K4QI in FM06 North Carolina in 144.200 but he did not hear enough of me so no joy. Would have been a new state on two meters from this QTH. The maps show good tropo on the same path tonight but the best so far is about 325 miles towards the southeast. Hopefully it's not over with yet and another duct will form, perhaps stretching all the way to NJ or beyond :D

[KW4RZ]

Here's a few audios from Thanksgiving Day tropo across the Gulf

93.9 KMXR Corpus Christi, TX 100kw 689 miles. This station is a beacon for these openings.

106.9 KLUB Bloomington/Victoria, TX 25kw 624 miles. If your station had these call leters wouldn't you want to be "The Club"?

101.7 KXGJ Bay City, TX 100kw 579 miles. The usual Spanish signal

101.7 XHVIR Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, Mexico 100kw 897 miles

106.9 XHTVR Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico. Power is only 1500 watts!!!!!!!! 936 miles!!!! I left the recorder on for 2 hours 10:30am-12:30pm and this was in and out the whole time. First time heard on tropo, logged over summer on Es.

[KW4RZ]

107.1 XHTVH Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico 50kw 732 miles. This is the closest Mexico to me but the first time ever heard. 107.1 usually dominated by Mississippi and Louisiana stations.

107.9 XHVIC Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas 15kw 896 miles. First time ever heard. Usually dominated by 100kw WPFM Panama City, FL 70 miles e-se or MS,LA stations

107.9 KVLY Edinburg, TX 100kw 744 miles. The furthest south in Texas I've ever heard, barely making it over the mess with an ad for Gonzales Furniture in Brownsville, McCallen.

[KW4RZ]

Supertropo has returned to the Gulf coast Dec 27, 30 spanning the longest section of the Gulf of Mexico from my location.
Dec 30 two new stations were logged via this mode that were previously logged on Es in the summer.
My best frequency overall in any direction is 101.7 and in Mexico there are 3 stations with the slogan "Los Cuarenta Principales" and the same format. They are all owned by the same company, two of which are not far apart on the Gulf of Mexico and both were in today. Previously the only way I could identify them was by local ads. Today I heard enough of both to distinguish between their unique jingles/liners which changed a logging via Es in May.

101.7 XHTR Veracruz, VER 81kw 977 miles
101.7 XHTD Coatzacoalcos, VER 62kw 979 miles
107.5 XHOM Coatzacoalcos, VER 52kw 979 miles
106.9 XHTVR Tuxpan, VER 1,500 watts !! 936 miles

[KW4RZ]

And not to forget
93.9 XHTXA Tuxpan, VER 14.5kw 936 miles
101.7 XHVIR Ciudad Victoria 100kw 897 miles mixing with XHTD on the mornings Ms DXing audio files looking north!

Look at the color on William Hepburn's tropo forecast for Dec 30. What a fantastic resource. Thank you Mr. Hepburn!

[Jim Thomas]

I relistened to the XHTVR clip - I had heard it before when Randy sent it to me. I also sent the clip to Fred Cantu in San Antonio (the guy that maintains the Mexico TV FM website) and he also confirmed the ID in the clip.

The announcer clearly says, "Eh-kees Ah-cheh Teh Veh Eh-reh, transmitir con quince cien vatios....." - "XHTVR, transmitting with 1500 watts".

I think thats pretty incredible tropo, even if it is over water.

[KW4RZ]

Thanks for all your efforts Jim :)
I'm glad that audio came out ok as I was recording using Wavepad and doing other functions on the PC at the same time, and my old machine is notorious for getting errors doing that. It sounds like it skipped a couple times.
Since I have heard XHTVR 3 times now from since October I wonder about 91.5 XETL, 92.3 XHTU and 93.1 XHCRA all in the same city. Those freqs are usually quite clear here that direction and I've never heard any of those stations despite listening for them at the time XHTVR was in.

[KW4RZ]

It's been pretty dead lately here for all modes of DX.
This morning before work tropo was in to Texas and I made a couple audios.

103.3 KJOJ "La Raza" Freeport, TX 549 miles
104.5 KZEP San Antonio, TX 712 miles

[KW4RZ]

April 15-19 had non-stop tropo across the Gulf reaching 990 miles into Mexico and 790 miles into Texas from here in Fort Walton Beach, FL. 44 new FM stations were logged. A total of 26 stations from Mexico were heard, most of them were new loggings. Also TV7 XHAB and TV9 XERV were in. At times with full color clear pictures displaying call letter ID's from 732-769 miles away. TV17 was in Spanish too. Equipment includes Denon TU1500RD and Onkyo T-450RDS tuners, Radio Shack PRO2004 scanner 25-1300MHz, and Panasonic TV with fine tunable channels, all fed by the 8 element 60-175MHz log periodic antenna 15 ft up in the attic. Wavepad and Total Recorder audio recording software used.

Here's a few of the more notable FM receptions.

94.3 KRVL Kerrville, TX 33kw 744 miles

104.5 XHMF "Planeta 104.5" Monterrey, NL, Mexico 20kw 896 miles

106.9 XHPJ "Classics 106.9" Monterrey, NL, Mexico 25kw 896 miles (last heard about this time last year on the car radio, same EE classic hits format as the usual 106.9's I hear on tropo - WKZY, WBPT, KHPT)

98.9 XHJD "D-99" Monterrey, NL, Mexico only 2,500 watts 896 miles

94.5 KFRQ "Q-94.5 The Rock Station" Harlingen/Brownsville, TX 100kw 741 miles (I've been looking for this station for a long time, first time it has overpowered WFBX Panama City)

[KW4RZ]

106.9 XHQT "La Poderosa" Veracruz, VER, Mexico only 5kw 977 miles

92.7 KESO "La Ley 92.7" South Padre Is.,TX only 3kw 711 miles over the IBOC from 100kw 92.9 WBLX which is very strong here.

100.5 KBDR "La Ley 100.5" Mirando City/Laredo, TX 42kw 790 miles (furthest tropo logged into Texas, right over 100.7 WJLQ Pensacola's IBOC :) )

98.9 KLMO Dilley/San Antonio, TX 92kw 765 miles
(this station was the only difficult ID, put Jim Thomas and myself into deep research. At one point I was ready to log it as the new 30watt "Radio Cristiana" translator in Brownsville, TX at about 740 miles but on a hunch I made a phone call to 98.9 K-Alamo" which is this Spanish format station and they confirmed they do broadcast the "Radio Cristiana" program in the mornings. Conditions did not seem strong enough to allow a 30 watt reception as only a few other south Texas FM's were weakly there at the time)

[KW4RZ]

After a year of tenative Spanish sporadic E signals during openings to Haiti, Jamaica that went unidentified and many tropo openings to the Florida Keys, last night it finally broke through with two FM stations and also TV2 audio from Havana, Cuba. These two FM's were in most of the time from about 8:45pm till after midnight.

90.3 CMBC "Radio Progreso" La Habana, Cuba 570 miles
99.1 CMBF "Radio Musical Nacional" La Habana, Cuba 570 miles

[KW4RZ]

Another strong tropo opening resulted in 21 new FM's logged May 14

Here's a few:

95.1 KCOR COMFORT / SAN ANTONIO TX 728 miles 100kw "Recuerdo 95.1" their 3rd slogan and format in a year. Not new but often the most distant station to come up on tropo to Texas.

101.1 WAVV MARCO ISLAND FL 426 miles 100kw "Wave 101.1" I've tried for this station over 5 different times in openings to the southeast with no luck due to WYOO Panama City always dominant. I don't use a phaser here. Finally today it came through... for HOURS. Even taking out WYOO on the car radio while driving.

97.7 WAVK MARATHON FL 525 miles 50kw "Wave-FM" furthest station in Florida logged so far. There's no more land past this one. WYYX Bonifay is 100kw 69 miles east of me and has a local quality signal but was briefly overtaken

106.9 CMCA HAVANA, CUBA 570 miles, power unknown = Radio Habana Station ID was not heard clearly and the signal only lasted a few minutes while monitoring before dropping below the usual WKZY in Cross City, Florida 234 miles east-southeast. Also 90.3 and 99.1 Havana, Cuba were in again.