As I understand it, skipping is something that can happen late at night, when there isn't a lot of RF interference from engines, electronic devices, etc., and the atmospheric conditions are just right to allow CB radio (and other AM frequency signals) to bounce off the ionosphere, possibly carrying the signal for fantastic distances.

Am I in the right ballpark with that working understanding, radio gurus?

I've been experiencing a phenomenon that just doesn't make sense to me. Somewhere between the 40-something on I-81 in TN and the 30-something on I-81 in VA, I keep hearing random snippets of things that make absolutely no contextual sense. "The truck wash is open here at the TA at exit 97" comes to mind. That's not anywhere in the territory I usually run. I can't think where there's a TA at an exit 97, but if there even is one, it's in PA or NY somewhere maybe.

I hear ads for CB shops, truck washes, truck repairs, etc. The usual high power base station stuff. Some of the signals I picked up today sounded like they might have been talking about I-78 up in PA. Someone yesterday was talking about a place that could only have been NY. Sometimes these are very faint, but sometimes they're crystal clear. I remember the TA at exit 97 because I was only a little ways past the new TA (former Davey Crockett) at exit 36, and that confused me for a minute.

I've talked to other drivers about this on several different days, and I'm not the only one hearing this stuff. Most people think it can't be skipping, and it must be some joker with a base station playing random recordings. I don't really buy that theory.

I'd love someone to explain it to me. I've never experienced anything like this before, but it keeps happening consistently in this little patch of the world. It's really bizarre.

 

Down in Laredo, TX there are several people who will for a fee run you into Mexico for a day trip. They advertise their services on the CB.

If the conditions were right I have heard these jokers as far away as Chicago. Sometimes it was faint, but other times it would sound like I was less than a mile away.

 

I was in Wisconsin, Somewhere between Wis Dells and Menominee. Caught a skip from the "Body Shop" I 80 exit 42 in Emlenton Pa. If you are familiar with them, you would know their uniquely scripted advertisment. This was received during daylight, very nice clear day.
Any body familiar with "Blade Runner" I 84 exit 5 (mm29) in Maybrook NY. He also has a uniquely scripted advertisment and a very unique voice. Ive heard him at 100-200 miles radius from his transmitter. Sometimes I doubt if it is really him, as I have heard alot of good impersonaters of him.

 

Warning: Amateur Radio jargon ahead...

Sporadic E-layer propagation in the ionosphere. High solar winds, corona holes, and geomagnetic instability is causing for some short hops that come in and out and allowing contacts in the 27 MHz range otherwise not possible. It's been happening A LOT lately this summer, and it can cause for a huge pileup during the daytime with incoming signal strengths as high as S9.

 

up here in western Canada, in July through Sept we get mexico truckers, a lot some times it is so bad, you can hardly squelch it out. Once I talked to a guy in florida for about a hour, one night before a big storm I was talking one guy, in BC one in ab, but could not here the guy twenty miles from me, talking to the same guys.

 

Everybody break out your atlas.

I was parked in Mountain Home, ID on a summer night. I had the AM/FM radio tuned onto the AM side. I was just pressing seek until something was solid enough to lock.

Stations I could hear:

San Francisco
Los Angeles
Salt Lake City
Tulsa
Chicago
Dallas

I knew about skip already, but this was a new achievement. Dallas coming in clear all the way up in Idaho? :shock:

 

who is skip? and why are we gonna shoot him?

 

I've picked up a few Dallas Cowboys football games on the radio at night, clear up here in Iowa. Picked up a San Fransisco Giants baseball game last year. And yes, these were all broadcasts local to that area.

 

:shock: :shock: :? :?

Yea......what he said.....!!!

 

I was up in fresno, ca. and caught a skip from the; Truck wash, channel 22 for the truck wash, and you know where that is. (west memphis, ar).