Finally broke into the e skip club.

[Guest]

Well... This is my first real e skip season... As I missed last year due to unfortunate events. I had been missing every good opening for one reason or another. Then... Sunday night happened.
After a DX session where I logged a few short DX catches, I was parked on 105.7 while I was tidying up some odd and ends around the house. Then... The format changed. It went from playing an R&B song ( just where I was parked when I decided to hang it up) to playing a country song. Next, a battle ensued. Both stations fought for dominance until it settled in on commercials. I picked out an ad for Texas Tech and something about west Texas. I had all the recording shut down so I don't have any audio... But this gives me my first E skip grabs ever!!!

Needless to say... I sat back down for another solid hour and a half. Came up with a few more.

I proudly introduce to you... My first "k" logs.

90.1 KAMY Lubbock. 25kw/970 mi. Station ID confirms.
90.9 KKLU Lubbock. 63kw/970 mi. Station ID
94.5 KZMJ Gainesville, TX. 100kw/702 mi. Still tentative... But only r&b on that frequency near the Lubbock grabs. Awaiting confirmation.
105.7 KJDL Levelland, TX. 23.5kw/1000 mi!!! The ads confirmed it.

[landtw]

Congrats! Hope this turns into a blockbuster season. I haven't had a "good" opening since May 31 here, just snippets here and there since then.

[Guest]

I was part of the massive opening on 6/11... Got a few new gems. Even broke the 1500 mile club.

93.5 KIPI Eagle Butte SD. 100kw/1289 miles. Legal ID
93.5 KVCA Evansdale IA. 11kw/ 879 miles. Ad for Met Transit.( Confirmed by station manager )
95.9 KCHA Charles City, IA. 6kw/ 924 miles. Legal ID
96.1 KMXG Clinton, IA. 100kw/ 806 miles. "Quad Cities Mix 96"
annnnd the icing on the cake...
96.1 KYYZ Williston, ND. 100kw/ 1521 miles!!! Confirmed by ad for Finley Motors.

Still more I'm trying to sort out.

[Guest]

Finally got my first international grab.

6/29/23 1:15 UTC
88.5 CILV Ottawa, ON. 90kw/ 1130 miles. Confirmed by station ID "Live 88.5"

Had a K Love pop in before that, but no RDS decode so not sure where. I suspect Halifax PA as it is a shorter distance on the same path and came in shortly before CILV.

Also had something on 89.3, only could hear something about a proud to be radio network... Couldn't find anything on Google.

[Guest]

Did anyone else get some e skip last night?! I got a strange one. I was working some good Tropo from the west (Mobile, Biloxi, that area) and got something over an extended local 104.9.
I caught the end of a country song then heard a bumper for Kickin' Country. At that point I moved on thinking I had everything I needed. Well upon searching later I discovered I have no Kickin country in tropo range. My search took me to 4 possibilities. After listening online to all of them I concluded WWKC out of Caldwell, OH sounds like the bumper I heard.

But... Can E skip get all the way to 104.9 without showing signs on lower frequencies?!

It's truly a weird one to me.

Also... I had a mystery 97.9 show up. They were doing an iHeartRadio podcast spotlight. The only tropo possibilities near me are Macon and Jacksonville... And farther away... Tampa. But... The stuff I was grabbing didn't seem to come from those directions.

[Guest]

Wow... Got behind on posting. Latest catches.

7/9 opening:

92.9 WSCD Duluth MN. 70kw/1148 miles. Only classical format on the frequency.
93.3 KBLB Nisswa MN.100kw/1173 miles. MN ads going into a country song.
93.7 KXXR Minneapolis MN. 100kw/1055 miles. This was an interesting one. Heard call letters as part of a promo on a gas saver ad.

7/30 opening:

93.5 KKOT Columbus NE. 100kw/978 miles. Station ID; 93.5 The Hawk.
93.9 KKMK Rapid City SD. 100kw/1322 miles. Ads for Sheels and a 56th anniversary sale for a furniture store. Caught part of ID with "Mix"
93.5 KZTL Paxton NE. 100kw/1127 miles. This one was a crazy confirmation. I caught the end of one song and the beginning of another. No RDS, no now playing reference, just took the 2 songs and reached out to the only country station in the relative area of the above confirmed stations with the time played. They messaged me back it was indeed them. See pic.

[KY-Near-Cincinnati]

There was two separate openings on July 30

The first one was at 12:21 PM Eastern with an MUF of 139 Mhz



The second one on July 30 was at 5:40 PM with an MUF of 145 Mhz

[Guest]

I caught the later one.