KPIN radio in California; Manila, Philippines radio in Pinedale
Radio waves 'skipping' their way to far off places
by Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!
July 11, 2008
On Thursday evening, July 10, we received an interesting e-mail from Ron in Escondido, California, with a message for Pinedale’s KPIN radio station:
"Hey there KPIN: Just thought I'd drop a line to let you know I have been listening to your station this afternoon all the way down in Escodido, California. We are a city located about 40 miles north of San Diego. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the call letters. I could tell it wasn't any station close to home so I parked my car in the driveway and continued listening for a few minutes. It brought back fond memories of when I used to work up there around the Riverton/Red Desert area doing uranium exploration. There must be a heck of an atmospheric cover to provide a "skip" for your station to get down here. 101.1 (KRTH K-Earth) is a station I listen to in Los Angeles and you came in over them with great clarity. Nice to hear you. Take care, Ron M."
We passed the message on to KPIN owner Bob Rule, who said he’d never had a reception report from southern California before. KPIN, 101.1 FM, operates at 4000 Watts ERP.
"…all it would take is some intense sunspot activity to juice up the ionosphere, and indeed, "skip" does happen from time to time in the FM band," Rule said.
Then he wondered, "If KPIN is coming into Los Angeles, what is coming into Pinedale?" So he went out to his car and tuned the FM dial from end to end and found "The Blend" from Manila, in the Philippines on his car radio!
He wasn’t sure what the conditions were going on in the atmosphere to make this happen. He was investigating sun spots and seeing if he could find any reports of what might have been going on that evening to create the unusual "skip" conditions.
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