July 14, 2021 Montana Double-Hop & Long-Hop

[landtw]

July 14, 2021 was a great day for FM Es. I managed to nab a double-hop and a long hop on this one.

96.7 KZIN near Shelby, Montana is about 1696 miles from here and 105.9 KWMY Joliet-Billings, Montana is about 1486 miles.

The ID's are clearly heard in both clips.

KZIN 96.7 July 14.mp3

july 14 105.9 kwmy billings.mp3

[Guest]

I am curious. How can you tell if Es is double hop?

[Russ-PA]

The most 'conclusive' way is if the path is over about 1600 miles. Skip between 1400 and 1600 miles might possibly be either. Under 1400 would almost always be single hop.

How many hops is dependent of some variables such as the height of the E layer causing the skip and that's almost unknowable. Frequency plays a part, as does the MUF ( Maximum Usable Frequency ) of the E layer. I have several stations in the 1400-1450 range in my logs which show up at least once every season. That tells me that those are likely 1-hop.