starryrz

Long story short I look for signals on the FM radio dial and the UHF and VHF TV dials that are not local to my area and therefore are not typically present. The process of doing that is called "DXing".

A few of us have a crazy setup such as a custom made antenna on a tall tower.

For FM DXing I typically use 1 of my $50.00 Insignia Radios or my comparable Sparc HD Radio.

For TV I have a Clearstream Micron R (about $50.00) and a GE Pro Yagi Antenna (about $40.00).

Basically for $150.00 you can do what I do. It helps to live on a hill, or a 2 story house but neither of those are required to do this.

Great question! I use the website http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html but other than that I have to rely on patterns.

On the nights have I had shorter distance DX openings this website has typically predicted them.

For example, the night I received 88.1 WUWF and 104.1 WDLT in Florence, AL that website reflected enhanced conditions over the Birmingham, AL and Montgomery, AL area, about half way between Mobile, AL / Pensacola, FL and Florence, AL. Typically that website will either end up showing you the half way point between where the opening will take place or it will show the stations received are coming from.

For longer range DX openings that website isn't as good. The day of my first Mexico opening that website showed no enhanced conditions. The day of my Honduras opening I believe it got it right but it predicted it 3 hours off of the actual time I received Honduras, and if I had just gone by it I would have missed the opening.

I also go on patterns (and reports from other DXers). There is 1 DXer who lives in the Nashville, TN area and another who lives in the Mobile, AL / Pensacola, FL area and if I get a report from 1 of them of good conditions, I half of the time will also experience good conditions. I also go on patterns of the past. For example I know my best chance to receive another country (Honduras, Mexico, etc.) is between 3:00 PM and 5:30 PM local time between May and August, so I check around 3:15, 3:45, 4:15, 4:45, and 5:15 to give myself the best chance.

My best catch to date is 90.7 HRXH-15 from Honduras, at roughly 1,400 miles.

I've received Mexico 3 times but 05/24/2017 as of now is my only time to receive Honduras.

I only do this on the FM and TV bands. Other people do this on AM and Amateur Radio bands. These bands are all public bands, if you tried to do this on a non public band, all I can say is it would almost certainly be a bad idea.

Air traffic control at airports, military operations, dispatching for local fire stations and police departments.

I am not looking to risk grounding any airplanes or hindering a fire truck from getting to building on fire.