First time I've seen tropo as a negative thing.

great tropo this morning.did a scan,results were:WTSM WSYR WXXI WYST(Syracuse and Rochester),plus WTVH(im assuming Vermont,havnt checked yet),plus the big 3 from Rochester,Buffalo.all in total was 35 dtv stations,which is a record for me.as far as the Buffalo networks dropping off tonight,fog over the lake will cause this.lake is still very cold compared to the warm humid air we've received today.

did a scan this morning,picked up WTSM,WSTQ,WCNY,WSYR,WSYT(Syracuse),as well as all Rochester and Buffalo stations.the one that caught my eye was WTVH.im thinking its Vermont,i havnt checked yet.all in all,35 DTVstations this morning between 10-11 am.tonight,different story,picked up only 3,fog over the lake is killing the signals tonight.

WTVH is from Syracuse (CBS)

That’s was the worst tropo I have seen for many years. Taking away signals rather than adding them. better today.

sorry for the double post.didnt think the first one went through,so i repeated.thanks for clarifying that station as well.

I don't think any of the unusual reception conditions described over the last few days in this forum are anything to do with tropo. In all cases, the transmission path is across Lake Ontario. There are no mentions of reception from similar distances along other paths that do not cross the Lake. Further, many posters report loss of signal from transmitters on the other side of the Lake. I check reception myself almost on a daily basis and have observed similar signal loss conditions although I have not been trying to DX stations. In my opinion, reception conditions are a result of ducting due to development of temperature layers across the Lake caused by warm moist air coming into contact with cold lake water. This is the right time of year for ducting and the reception conditions, particularly loss of stations, matches with the ducting phenomenom.

IMO the recent issues were tropo related. From my experience ducting occurs in early spring and late fall. I do not disagree with your explanation of ducting though.

Whatever it is, as long as it's not stations reducing Tx power or something stupid jamming our signal North of the pond...all is good.

This is way too long of a bad stretch of poor reception, especially WGRZ. I certainly hope it's only related to elements and nothing else.

I agree with George and totally disagree with Mark (except for yesterday which I can make a case of tropo):):)

The last two or three days have been pretty great for me --- back-to-nomal.

Not sure if this makes sense, but I have found that adding a second antenna to make a stack, helps combat bad tropo, ducting, etc. It is extremely rare for me to lose a regular BUF.

Much of the Hamilton Mountain path to the Buffalo stations is across land not over Lake Ontario. You shouldn't have as much of a problem as those living north of the Lake.

IMO the recent issues were tropo related. From my experience ducting occurs in early spring and late fall. I do not disagree with your explanation of ducting though.
I don't see the evidence that supports tropo, but both can be happening at the same time. You show your location as London which is much farther from Lake Erie than most locations reporting unusual propagation around Lake Ontario. In my experience, mid-April to mid-June is the prime time for ducting across Lake Ontario. The air temperature is key so a cool spring will shift the ducting season later which is consistent with weather conditions this year.

i don't see anything favoring the lakes in the hepburn forecast over the next few days. fair to medium at best. The current VHF Prop being reported to the southwest of us (APRS) looks to be in the 500 km range, nowhere near any large bodies of water.

Nevertheless I'm seeing some Ohio stations. Don't really care how it gets here, just that it gets here:)
That alone is enough to be reported in the DXng / Tropo / Odd Reception Thread.

This is certainly the forum to report distant channel reception regardless of the mechanism that gets it here. My emphasis on ducting relates to the fact that many new OTA users in Canada don't understand what happened to their previously reliable signals. They need to understand that ducting is a regular seasonal phenomenon that will mess with Buffalo reception in the spring and fall every year. They can try to minimize the problem but they can't prevent it.

This is certainly the forum to report distant channel reception regardless of the mechanism that gets it here. My emphasis on ducting relates to the fact that many new OTA users in Canada don't understand what happened to their previously reliable signals. They need to understand that ducting is a regular seasonal phenomenon that will mess with Buffalo reception in the spring and fall every year. They can try to minimize the problem but they can't prevent it.
I sure hope you'e right.

I'm a bona-fide hobbyist now. Yesterday my friend and I installed a backyard OTA tower attached to my house. It's about 35 feet up + about two more feet with mast.

Toronto: East York: Greenwood & Mortimer.

Let's just say it was a good first night. Decided to sleep on couch and re-scan every time I rolled over. This is what I got and am still getting:

Winegard hd7697p
aimed roughly at WNGS
NO ROTOR yet.
Channel Master 7778
split to one TV and a dual tuner HDHomeRun (white one)

3-1 wpsuhd
3-2 wpsud1
3.3 wpsud2
12.1 wicu-hd
12.2 wbep
12.3 wsee-sd
15-9
15-10
21.1 wxxi-hd
21.2 wxxi-w
21.3 wxxi-c
22.3 wfxp-dt
31.1 wuhf-dt
31.2 cooltv
35-1 wsee-dt
35-2 wbef-dt
45-1 wneo-d1
45.2 wneo-d2
45.3 wneo-d3
45.4 wneo-d4
54.1 wqln-hd
54.2 wqln-s1
54.3 wqln-s2
67.1 wngs-dt
67.2 wngs-dt
67.3 wngs-dt

All of the above channels are the new additions from overnight. These are all in addition to my regular everyday reception of about 29 digital channels.

What a nice reward for a hard day's work!

Nice reception this morning. WNYO 49 was unwatchable last night, which was odd. FOX 29 isn't coming in well, and that's usually full strength as well.

ION booming in at *full* strength this morning, as is WNGS

Picking up WSKA 30 should I feel like watching Curious George right now ;)
Some signal on RF 8, 16 and 42 but not enough to get a lock on anything.

Decided to sleep on couch and re-scan every time I rolled over.

Did the wife kick you out of bed because you put up a new tower.

Just kidding - really nice catches - WNEO I have never scanned that before.

Kicked me out of bed...I wouldn't have been surprised. That's funny. But seriously, I have the best wife with respect to the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF). She is awesome. She spreads the word about OTA TV all the time. I am not exaggerating when I say, it's approaching 10% or more in our East York neighbourhood homes having outdoor 4 or 8 bay antennas.

WNEO-WEAO rf45 Youngstown/Akron Ohio was my favourite catch. It's got four channels. One of them is "MHz" network. It's a variety of news channels from around the world. Another channel was "Fusion." Another was "V-me" a Spanish kids channel. And an HD PBS channel.