Solar Flares????Picking up FM Radio Stations that are out of range????

very interesting.

we should be hit by a CME sometime now, but I guess that's only the "visible" part of what's really going on.

you should bump this thread few times.

Shameless Bump... just looking for anyone who can explain??!!!!!!

Anyone have a scientific explaination, please???!!!!

Dude! I just posted about this a few minutes ago. All of my stations were fuzzy and I picked up 3 Spanish-language stations on the FM dial---in Southeastern Kentucky. Not normal for this area.

Not so sure about FM but AM always depended on weather

Your answer would appear to be either

Auroral backscatter
or
Sporadic-E propagation

also see the table titled
Radio frequencies and their primary mode of propagation

on this page

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

VHF, for instance, says "Infrequent E ionospheric refraction. Extremely rare F1, F2 layer ionospheric refraction during high sunspot activity up to 80 MHz. Generally direct wave. Sometimes tropospheric ducting."

by the way

FM is part of VHF frequencies (87.5 to 108.0 MHz)

What do you mean? Never experienced this before.

Bump!!!! Anything answers to mine and the other poster?

This happened to me today, first time it ever happened. I started picking up npr on my sirius fm channel. It was off and on for several miles, at times it was very clear.

Same here...glad we are not completely looney... where are you?

Last Edited by The Wicked One on 06/10/2011 09:58 PM

Did you see this on MSM? Of course, we have to apply our own knowledge, as they will twist and distort anything they do release. We aren't too far from Kansas in TX...

[link to news.yahoo.com]

If the weather is nice and clear skies then FM signals can travel further. Depends on weather.

I'm the other poster. :) Watching this with interest! I'm not a woowoo; this really happened to me and was surreal. I listen to radio about everyday of my life, and this is a first. It reminded me of how the radio goes in and out if you are near some kind of interference source, but it was ongoing and not just in one location (I commute).

This happened to me too. stations that are usually clear were fuzzy or two stations were trying to come in one channel. i had to search around to find a clear channel.

I'm in Virginia, interesting thread. I dial in my tuner to 88.7 for sat reception because it is always dead, not anymore.

This is not strange at all. It always baffled me when the uneducated assume they never heard of something, it must be magical.

AM frequencies (amplitude modulated) are in the Medium Frequency range MF) just below the HF spectrum at around 500 KHz to 1500 KHz (the HF spectrum is 3 MHz to 30 MHz or 3000 KHz to 30000 KHz), which has reliable ionospheric propagation of more than 2000 miles sometimes. FM radio is a bit harder/rarer, but, well, I'll just quote what wikipedia has:

Two unusual propagation conditions can allow much farther range than normal. The first, tropospheric ducting, can occur in front of and parallel to an advancing cold weather front, especially if there is a marked difference in humidities between the cold and warm air masses. A duct can form approximately 250 km (155 mi) in advance of the cold front, much like a ventilation duct in a building, and VHF radio frequencies can travel along inside the duct, bending or refracting, for hundreds of kilometers. For example, a 50 watt Amateur FM transmitter at 146 MHz can talk from Chicago, to Joplin, Missouri, directly, and to Austin, Texas, through a repeater. In a July 2006 incident, a NOAA Weather Radio transmitter in north central Wisconsin was blocking out local transmitters in west central Michigan, quite far out of its normal range. In midsummer 2006, central Iowa stations were heard in Columbus, Nebraska and blocked out Omaha radio and TV stations for several days, while WBNX-TV in Akron, Ohio, a television station on Channel 55 in the analog age, was noted for bleeding over other Channel 55 stations in Wausau and Kenosha, Wisconsin as far west as the Wisconsin River valley for hours at a time. Similar propagation effects can affect land-mobile stations in this band, rarely causing interference well beyond the usual coverage area. The second type, much more rare, is called Sporadic E, referring to the E-layer of the ionosphere. Phenomena still not completely understood (as of 2010) may allow the formation of ionized "patches" in the ionosphere, dense enough to reflect back VHF frequencies the same way HF frequencies are usually reflected (skywave). For example, KMID (TV Channel 2; 54–60 MHz) from Midland, Texas was seen around Chicago, pushing out Chicago's WBBM-TV.[citation needed] These patches may last for seconds, or extend into hours. FM stations from Miami, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Houston, Texas and even Mexico were heard for hours in central Illinois during one such event.

I'm out in West Texas, Abilene to be exact... and during this time of year it is ALWAYS blue skies, as today was. NO interference...it is NOT the norm as we only get Abilene stations heading East towards Dallas until you reach Ranger Hill, and then it is only Dallas/Ft.Worth radio. We were nowhere near Ranger Hill, we were about 70 miles fom there. Then when we came back into Abilene, it was the same, spotty local stations and still picking up far away stations.

It WAS NOT AM RADIO!!! And... you are quoating Wikipedia...a less than scholarly source. My professors wil not let any Wikipedia sources into a paper.

I drive from northern delaware to southern maryland every day and usually have to change stations about halfway there. didn't have to do that today. You may be onto something!

Can you pick up HFS from late eighties to late nineties???!!! I want some of that!!!
Otherwise... blah...

Well you are being foolish. Wikis are great for learning the correct answers... and THEN once you have the answer to your question or problem, you can go to "scholarly sources" and look up that answer and cite THEM instead in your paper. Be smart, use your head. :)

I already gave you the answer in a post above, but if you wish to ignore wikipedia that is your perogative. Good luck.

Yes, I read something on here about the weather changing that drastically, I did not read the post before I thought BS !!!! But know, I am thinking it may be related.

Listen, Wikipedia i where any fucknut can go into and edit, they count on mis-information. I don't know if you have been in college recently, but none of my professors will allow ANY Wikipedia sources in their serious scholarly papers. 20 page political science papers and if you cite Wiki, you fail.

The wiki source is interesting and does go on to talk about FM. Hey, an explanation is good. When I heard the random stations in Kentucky, I didn't think it was aliens or anything, but it WAS unique.

Remove the tin foil hat...

Wiki is interesting, but it doesn't measure the FACTS and find the sources for those Facts. I don't think it is aliens or anything, my mind works in logical terms. I thought, while at dinner with my husband what it was about. I have had MANY science courses at college recently, environmental science, as well as biology courses, and earth science(all lower and upper courses), and have been wracking my brain as to what it was. The only conclusion that I can come to is SOLAR FLARES. I was asking if anyone had any other hypothesis to what caused the RARE phenomenon we experienced, and WIKI is not even a jumping off point to find out.

CBers and Ham Radio guys call it "skip." Its not an unusual occurrence. From the amateur radio point of view we are coming up on the "up" cycle of the skip. Solar flares have something to do with it, but I don't know what the technical terms are.

Its plays off the same effects of HAARP, it works by "bouncing" signals off of the ionosphere to cause DOOM(I had to throw the word DOOM in there).

Think about this, if a amateur radio operator can talk across the country on 300-400 watts on 27mhz under ideal "conditions", I wonder what HAARP can do at full power with those same type of "conditions".

Bump

I was picking up stuff all night.

Now the weird thing is, I didn't have the radio on. I didn't have the television on, nothing at all.

And I live up in the mountains 35 miles from town. The nearest neighbor is 1 mile from me.

Sooo... where was the music or whatever is was, coming from?

A couple of years ago, I was driving on Interstate 40 between Jackson and Nashville TN. searching for FM stations. Up and down the dial, all of the stations were speaking French, I assume from Canada.