[BC] Skywave dying

[Scott Fybush]

Dan Kelley wrote:
>> DX....you gotta be nuts.
>>
> 
> Is digital DX a possibility?  Or will there be too much hash on
> the band to make that possible?
> 
> I haven't really spent much time with AM DX since I was a kid;
> FM DX has always been interesting a few times a year...

The jury's still out. A few DXers have tried to do some skywave HD DXing 
during the winter months, when the HD carriers can stay on until 1800 
local time and sunset's a few hours earlier. The program data that rides 
under the analog signal seems to be much more robust than the digital 
audio on the adjacent channels. It seems to be pretty common to get call 
letters of distant stations to display - I've seen the "WBZ" calls 
display here in Rochester, and Doug Smith down in Tennessee has seen 
both WBZ and WOWO. I believe there's been at least one report of digital 
audio being decoded via skywave, but I wasn't the lucky DXer who did it.

The FM DXers report that FM HD does seem to survive most of the usual DX 
propagation modes, including tropospheric ducting and E-skip.

So far, the Sangean HDT-1 seems to be the "DX rig" of choice for such feats.

As for conventional AM DX, I may well be nuts, but I do regularly listen 
to WBZ's talk shows, the Red Sox on WTIC and news on WCBS, WBBM and KYW 
at night. Judging by the phone calls the BZ nighttime talk hosts get, 
I'm far from alone.

s