Holy Tropo ! (8-3-04)

[Todd Wiedemann]

Check this out, it's the most intense tropo forecast I've seen for this area:

[Tom Snyder]

Holy crap! And it looks like it may even get more intense than that... Should be interesting...

[The Law]

PMI, but....what is this?  How does this affect signals?  I'm just a cable boy....

Thanks.

[Joseph S]

Is this good or bad? I haven't been able to get the east coast AM stations all week for the first time in a while. Would like an improvement.

[Tom Snyder]

These are conditions that cause distant signals to be able to be picked up where they wouldn't normally be.

If that's your goal, it's lots of fun.

If you suddenly can't pick up a local signal because suddenly a Madison, Gary, Muskegon, Des Moines or St. Louis signal comes in over it, it's no fun at all

[The Law]

Interesting.  Just did a quick read on this.  The earth's cooling, weather patterns, etc. can affect this.  If I've got this right, signals of a certain frequency bounce of the ionosphere and reflect down, in effect, relaying the signal to where it normally wouldn't.  Higher frequencies will escape through the ionosphere.

Now, if I've got this right, the UHF and VHF signals can be received in the same manner if the troposphore conditions are ideal using the same principle.

Am I on the right track, here?

[Talos4]

Time to warm up the pre amps and rotor.

[Tom Snyder]

There are other condotions that also affect signal recption and distance... there's a pretty complete (albeit British) dissertation on it  HERE

Also, in addition to the actual MAPS there are some other some resources HERE

[The Law]

absolutely amazing stuff.  Thanks.

Planning a transmitting for broadcast is an amazing task.  I never would've thought weather patterns, humidity, etc. played into this.  Plus, reading some other posts how the transmitters don't just blast out into perfect circles in all directions has been a mind opener - i.e. the "shape" of the signal.

This is damn interesting.

[Todd Wiedemann]

I'll leave the link in the first post, but just noticed it's changed.

Please visit Hepburn's site for the most up-to-date-info.