Good radio reception

[Michael Knight]

Last night (Wednesday the 18th.), I overheard the North End DS talking to trains on both Ch. 1 & 2. The reception, though somewhat weak, was  discernable here in Knoxville. I heard the DS talking to several trains regarding meets, and the locations of: Rice, Reid, and Fayette were mentioned. This is the first time I recall hearing a transmission from so far. Did anyone else experience a strong reception last night?

[JCagle]

I was out a little bit last night and I started to get better reception as the fog started rising. Being far from a radio expert I do understand sometimes meteological occurances can boost or hinder transmission capabilities. I've noticed when there is a slight cloud coverage I get better reception, and I know about this time of year there is sometimes a peak in electromagnetic activity from the sun. The only reason I remember this is because several years ago (about 2003 i beleive) the aurora was visable as far south as the mountains of Northern Georgia, and I remember going to the Blue Ridge Parkway to a very high spot with a buddy of mine to talk on the ham radio with people he normally wouldn't be able to reach.

[Warren]

Sometimes in the 2 meter band 144 mhz to 148 mhz or higher up the band including 161 mhz you can have a thing called "ducting" where the radio waves can bounce off a layer of clouds and back down to your recieving antenna instead of just going over your antenna and into space. Also normally these frequencies do not bounce off the ionosphere as short wave can do.

[JCagle]

I beleive that was the case last night. There were lots of high ice crystal cloud types that would lend perfectly to ducting.

[Stagmie]

To keep up on the possibility of good reception, here is a site I've been using for a few years. http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html
It basiclly shows you, in weather radar map type format, the future and current reception. I look at this site most every day.