HIGH BAND TV E SKIP

July 6, 2004

7:00pm during a Major E-skip Opening to my Southwest

Let me tell you how this happened. Like other DXers, I was sitting at my FM tuner working a very strong E skip opening that had become so strong that it was almost impossible to ID any stations. Skip stations were on top of skip stations that were on top of my local FM stations. I decided to take a break for a while from FM to check TV. I flipped around the VHF channels looking for anything unusual. Well, I found it. I found something on channel 7 and the pictures below confirm that what I was watching was KATV, Channel 7 in Little Rock AR, well over 1100 miles from my location. This was my first and only High Band Es reception, and with analog television gone, I’ll never see this type of propagation again. It was fun.

The two bottom photos and the larger one to the right above the bottom row are, in my mind, almost certainly KETG 9 in Arkadelphia, AR, a PBS station.

I would love to see someone receive some highband digital skip but I don’t think it can be done. Highband Es was rare in the analog days and it’s probably impossible now. Somebody should prove me wrong!