4 ms·

While OP is (was) in Australia, for those reading in the US that are interested in something similar, you're better off bringing an FM radio with you that can r

While OP is (was) in Australia, for those reading in the US that are interested in something similar, you're better off bringing an FM radio with you that can receive to the NOAA weather radio frequencies, and simply tune to the frequency / channel for your region. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA_Weather_Radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOAA_Weather_Radio

askvictor 4y ago
How does this handle situations where you haven't got 'line of sight' (or rather, an unobstructed path) to the transmitter (e.g. when you're nestled in between some mountains)?
- jeramey 4y ago
  VHF (FM radio in the US is in the VHF band) propagation can definitely change at different times of day. One of my favorite activities in the summer is to go get lost in the Cascades, and when the sun goes down, settle in to a hammock with a little multi-band radio to see what I can pick up. As the evening wears on, I can typically start to receive FM radio stations in Canada several hundred kilometers away. Once the sun has risen again, I can no longer tune those stations no matter how much I fiddle with antenna orientation. NOAA weather bands also become easier to tune clearly at night. As to why VHF frequencies seem to propagate better at night, I could only speculate, but they do seem to—at least on occasion.
  - askvictor 4y ago
    From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave : > Because the lower-altitude layers (the E-layer in particular) of the ionosphere largely disappear at night, the refractive layer of the ionosphere is much higher above the surface of the Earth at night. This leads to an increase in the "skip" or "hop" distance of the skywave at night. Also came across this interesting page: https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/am-stations-at-night https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/am-stations-at-night
    - jeramey 4y ago
      Oh cool, I hadn't heard of E-skip as a phenomenon before! Thanks for that info, it's really interesting.

askvictor 4y ago

How does this handle situations where you haven't got 'line of sight' (or rather, an unobstructed path) to the transmitter (e.g. when you're nestled in between some mountains)?

jeramey 4y ago
VHF (FM radio in the US is in the VHF band) propagation can definitely change at different times of day. One of my favorite activities in the summer is to go get lost in the Cascades, and when the sun goes down, settle in to a hammock with a little multi-band radio to see what I can pick up. As the evening wears on, I can typically start to receive FM radio stations in Canada several hundred kilometers away. Once the sun has risen again, I can no longer tune those stations no matter how much I fiddle with antenna orientation. NOAA weather bands also become easier to tune clearly at night. As to why VHF frequencies seem to propagate better at night, I could only speculate, but they do seem to—at least on occasion.
- askvictor 4y ago
  From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skywave : > Because the lower-altitude layers (the E-layer in particular) of the ionosphere largely disappear at night, the refractive layer of the ionosphere is much higher above the surface of the Earth at night. This leads to an increase in the "skip" or "hop" distance of the skywave at night. Also came across this interesting page: https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/am-stations-at-night https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/am-stations-at-night
  - jeramey 4y ago
    Oh cool, I hadn't heard of E-skip as a phenomenon before! Thanks for that info, it's really interesting.