Scanner DXing
When favourable atmospheric conditions are present, radio signals can sometimes be received at hundreds or even thousands of miles outside their intended coverage area. This phenomenon can last for a few minutes or for several hours as long as the conditions creating it last. A settled high-pressure system gives the classic conditions for enhanced tropospheric propagation. Such weather conditions can occur at any time but generally the summer and autumn months are the best periods. The characteristics of such high pressure systems are usually clear, cloudless days with little or no wind. Fog also produces good tropospheric results, again due to inversion effects and usually arises towards night fall, continues overnight and clears with the sunrise. Large bodies of water can bend signals, making long-haul DX possible. While mountains have the opposite effect and tend to block out or reduce normal reception and do make some kinds of DX more difficult.
A great asset in providing early indications of potential tropospheric DX openings is William Hepburn's Worldwide Tropospheric Ducting Forecasts. The first section on this page is my Southern Ontario DX skip log from when I was living in the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada suburb of Ancaster. The second section on this page is my current Texas DX skip log and will include any future loggings that I recieve from outside the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area. As you can see from that logs I have recieved skip in the low VHF band as far as 500 miles away, in the high VHF band and in UHF band as far as 250 miles away. In closing as you can see from these logs, DXing can be fun and exciting. You just never know what far away station you just might hear due to the conditions outside.
| Log Date | Log Time | Farthest Frequency Logged | Entries | Provinces/States Logged | Ancaster, Ontario |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 23rd, 2006 | 21:17-00:14 EST | Toledo, Ohio (220m/354km) | 103 |         |
| November 24th, 2006 | 19:41-23:49 EST | Lansing, Michigan (241m/389km) | 79 |   |
| Plano, Texas | ||||
| July 24th, 2007 | 22:29-09:03 CDT | Ardmore, Oklahoma (95m/153km) | 71 |     |
| July 29th, 2007 | 11:12-13:02 CDT | St Louis, Missouri (535m/862km) | 9 |     |
| August 1st, 2007 | 21:26-00:59 CDT | Waco, Texas (103m/167km) | 68 | |
| August 9th, 2007 | 02:56-08:31 CDT | Kerrville, Texas (249m/401km) | 93 |   |
| October 9th, 2007 | 05:08-06:15 CDT | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (173m/279km) | 26 | |
| October 10th, 2007 | 01:17-04:41 CDT | Corsicana, Texas (73m/117km) | 50 | |
| October 16th, 2007 | 07:44-09:46 CDT | Altus, Oklahoma (182m/294km) | 47 | |
| October 18th, 2007 | 02:59-07:46 CDT | Comal County, Texas (241m/388km) | 119 |   |
| January 26th, 2008 | 23:25-02:15 CST | Rusk County, Texas (131m/211km) | 61 | |
| March 14th, 2008 | 23:17-00:59 CDT | Corsicana, Texas (68m/110km) | 41 | |
| April 20th, 2008 | 03:27-05:54 CDT | Kountze, Texas (239m/385km) | 62 | |
| September 7th, 2008 | 00:09-03:57 CDT | Mena, Arkansas (184m/297km) | 93 | |
| January 2nd, 2009 | 22:04-01:41 CST | Llano, Texas (193m/312km) | 41 | |
| March 17th, 2009 | 09:34-10:26 CDT | Woodward, Oklahoma (277m/447km) | 27 | |
| March 18th, 2009 | 09:10-10:29 CDT | Austin, Texas (208m/335km) | 60 | |
| June 29th, 2009 | 23:29-02:48 CDT | Minden, Louisiana (205m/331km) | 92 | |