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Author Topic: Whats the farthest station you have gotton on Skip?  (Read 17899 times)

Dude111

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Whats the farthest station you have gotton on Skip?
« on: May 17, 2026, 0453 UTC »
Back in 1989 I was in a school in Devon PA and they had reg TVs w/o cable and every night channel 40 from Baltimore would come in just about full quieting...

During the day it was gone but at night it was there... This was over the air TV!

And in the 90s when I still lived in upstate NY it was rainy one night the channel 17 had gone off the air and my cable system just picked them up OFF AIR and channel 17 from PHILI came skipping in.. (WPHL) It barely broke the cable companies video squelch but they made it!!


That was interesting!!

Another time channel 10 from Albany signed off for the night and channel 10 from rochester came skipping in for quite awhile!! (I watched the cosby show) -- WHEC -- It was full quieting for about 1/2hr or more!!

That cable company stopped carrying analogue stuff I hear when Spectrum bought them... I have heard not good stuff about Spectrum!!
« Last Edit: June 06, 2026, 1856 UTC by Dude111 »

ThaDood

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Re: Whats he farthest station you have gotton on Skip?
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2026, 1837 UTC »
I grew up deep within the bowels of WNY, and since I was told as a teen by my Dad, "You want CATV in your room, you are paying for it!" So, I built-up my own TV & FM beam setup and was able to normally watch Buffalo, NY VHF TV stations, near CATV quality at 60 miles away, and PBS from the then WPSX-TV CH3, in Clearfield, PA. Rochester and Syracuse were blocked from a close 2,400ft hill close-by my North. FM radio, Buffalo, some Rochester, couple Syracuse, Erie, PA, Elmira / Corning / Ithaca, Binghamton, Toronto, St. Catherines, Hamilton, London, Paris, Welland, Niagara Falls, ON, Canada, and even Johnstown, Tyrone, and a couple Pittsburgh, PA, stations routinely. However, when Tropo happened,  I was able to view several Toronto, Hamilton, St, Catherines, London, Syracuse, Cleveland, Erie, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, and Binghamton, TV stations. (BTW, this was early to mid-80's, a.k.a. analog FM & TV days.) When Sporadic "E" Season came, Buffalo's TV2 was blown-over by TV2 Miami, easily. I took my Citizens 3" LCD portable clamshell TV to Olean, NY a few times, to see the new LPTV station W20AB-TV20, there. However, even in the back seat of a 1982 Pontiac Phoenix, I'd clearly seen CH3 News from Omaha, NE, at 7PM EST, but 6PM CST. This, was on the portable TV's whip inside the car! That, lasted for several minutes! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh... The memories, as I wouldn't be able to ever see that today with 8VSB's DTV.
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n2avh

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Re: Whats he farthest station you have gotton on Skip?
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2026, 0018 UTC »
It was F2 rather than E-skip but in 1979 (which was a huge sunspot peak) I picked up Camaguey, Cuba on channel 2 in New York, clearly visible ID card under WCBS.
Big into SWDX late 70s through early 90s, then forgot about it and when I returned via SDRs it wasn't at all what I remembered, but I'll deal with it. Grumble, grumble. All SDRs acknowledged, nothing is from my own radio.

Dude111

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Whats the farthest station you have gotton on Skip?
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2026, 1856 UTC »
Its sad,I mi$$ the days in the summer of channels 2-6 coming in!!