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by kip kip kipper on January 13th, 2009

kip kip kipper

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Why is it that I could hear radio stations from KY, OH and IL, while I was driving to work almost 5 to 8 hundred miles away I was located in eastern NY. It was 630am,cold dry air,no clouds,full moon,no wind,snow on the ground. snow on the way.

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  • by yeroco on January 13th, 2009

    yeroco

    You didn't mention if it was AM or FM. The two bands used for radio stations (550KHz-1700KHz for AM and 88MHz-108MHz for FM) have very different propagation mechanisms for long distance transmission.

    FM occasionally has what's called "Tropospheric ducting" where two layers of atmosphere form a pathway for radio waves in this range (and a bit higher) to travel long distances. But it is a fairly rare event.

    For AM, it's quite normal to pick up radio stations at night or early morning from a long distance away, because these wavelengths naturally follow the contours of the Earth well (through diffraction), and at night the atmospheric electrical noise drops and it's easier to receive them.

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