DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH)

Owner of DX Central - A site devoted to AM/FM DX. Extra Class amateur. NWS trained weather spotter. Politics-free zone. Member: IRCA/NRC/CPC/WTFDA/ARRL

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

[ CLASSIFIED ] DX Central High Command | Operation: Summer of DX 2026 | Official Teaser
https://t.co/sftldu55Bq

[ 🔴 INCOMING TRANSMISSION: CLEARANCE LEVEL PUBLIC ]

Attention Field Agents. The Global Intelligence Command has been completely overhauled.

Operation: SUMMER OF DX 2026 is imminent.

Your mission is to monitor, intercept, and catalog distant radio transmissions across the MW, FM, and NWR spectrums.

Track Maidenhead Grids, hunt US Counties, unlock Century Club commendations, and decode bi-weekly encrypted "Bounty Hunts" over the airwaves.

The terminal is built. The databanks are primed. The spectrum is yours.
- Terminal Uplink Opens: 1 May 2026 @ 2300 UTC
- Intercept Window Begins: 2 May 2026 @ 0100 UTC
- Secure Mainframe: https://t.co/1CBnkPxkr7

Visual telemetry of the impending operation has just been declassified. Review the official briefing below.

— DX Central High Command

End of transmission

#SummerOfDX #DXing #HamRadio #Shortwave #SDR #Radio #DXCentral #FMDX #AMDX #noaa #nws #weather #weatherradio

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

SIGNIFICANT "Heat Dome" Tropo Event Forecasted

DXers in the Eastern half of the US, be sure to keep an eye on Bill Hepburn's Tropo Forecast at https://t.co/kZWJjPJYQL over the next 7-10 days.

You are going to be hearing about a significant "heat dome" of high pressure building over the Eastern half of the US this week that will be exceptionally strong, putting triple digit air temperatures into places like Raleigh, Charlotte, and into the mid-Atlantic.

These "heat dome" setups can produce very significant inland tropo events for FM DX. What makes this significant is the location of the tropo - much further inland than we typically see at this depth and intensity.

For reference, the August 2023 heat dome event brought significant tropo of 800+ miles for many DXers.

Now, it is still too early to say if this event will produce anything to that magnitude - it may produce no Tropo on FM at all!. However, the forecast is looking rather favorable for some moderate to strong tropo over a large area around the sides of the heat dome.

You can actually hear more about that Fall 2023 historic "Tropocalypse" opening, what conditions were present to create it and the results that were observed on Nick Langan and Bryce Foster's VHF DX Podcast from October 2023: https://t.co/h4jiZN0uxd

Either way, should be fun to at least keep an eye on the Tropo, all while still in the middle of Sporadic Es season!

Best of DX to you all and 73!
@DXTVFM @AllanWeather @w2njl

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@FatherPhi When AI rises up, they will be knocking on your door first, lol :)

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@AllanWeather Would love to see more media outlets talking about DX! We talk about keeping radio alive this is a great way to do it! @WWLTV @WWLAMFM @wdsu @WGNOtv @FOX8NOLA I’m looking at yall!

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@AllanWeather @DXTVFM Appreciate all you to bring the DX word to the masses!

Just the early review of the data from last week that I have done so far has been remarkable

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@AllanWeather with a fantastic news story about Sporadic Es in honor of our recent bevy of ionospheric enhancement.

https://t.co/qqHnjJzKBl

#fmdx #dx #SporadicEs @DXTVFM

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

Another atmospheric event that can be related to Sporadic Es development. Could be worthy to keep an eye out tomorrow for cloud development in the Midwest!

They can be a visual representation that the drivers that bring Sporadic Es are working.

“Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) and Sporadic E (Es) are fundamentally linked by their shared dependence on meteors and mesospheric dynamics. While one is an ice-crystal phenomenon at 80 km altitude, and the other is a layer of ionized metal in the ionosphere, they frequently overlap in their formation drivers and seasonal presence.”

#fmdx #SporadicEs

[Landon Moeller @landon_wx]

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS HAPPENING NOW NORTHERN ILLINOIS!!! VERY RARE

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

NEW PODCAST DROP: The DX Central "From the Static" Podcast, Episode 31: a look back at the Sporadic Es data for North American FM DX for the month of May. https://t.co/N1IkGgPB4Q

This was recorded on June 5 before the ionosphere decided to go haywire. In addition to my May analysis here, be sure to catch the July 2026 edition of The Spectrum Monitor magazine for my article at the halfway point of the Es season.
https://t.co/iqq2pOzX8D

#fmdx @DXTVFM @w2njl

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

Interesting. There is a theory that red sprites like these can aid in Sporadic Es ionization since these occur at much higher elevations close to or within the mesosphere. #fmdx @DXTVFM @w2njl

[EricTheCat 🇺🇸 @EricTheSpaceCat]

Red sprites from last night.
Last night was crazy. I captured over 60 individual sprite events.
Captured from southern Minnesota looking toward the storm over Missouri / Illinois.

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@0x1shaun I love my D808. It was my go to portable until I found the Quodosen DX-286.

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

Band has come alive again, nice opening here to IL/IN/WI/MI #fmdx @DXTVFM @w2njl

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@6_stringtheory Will have to take you up on that. I do very lightweight data analysis for my day job as an account manager for clients, but I don’t have the heavy duty chops to really do it fully without AI assistance

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@6_stringtheory @FMDXIreland We are finally catching up! you lot still give us something to aspire to though

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@ubstudios @MagnaColloquium Me too. I am working 5/19, 5/21 and then 6/2 and a few others before the last two days. I didn’t get anything on 6/8.

[Andrew 📻📶🇺🇸 @StaticVoyager]

New state logged by e-skip, 88.7 WRVT Rutland, VT at 470 miles! Also logged was 103.1 WZKC Royalton, VT at 506 miles with RDS. Today was a crazy DX day. I’ll have a lot of recordings to review.

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

I have tried this out on my local band and it is a really great piece of software!

[rtl-sdr.com @rtlsdrblog]

NRSC5 Studio: A New Feature-Rich Windows GUI for the nrsc5 HD Radio Decoder https://t.co/9bgrl4RK3r

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@EliBrayWX @NWSGreenBay The ionosphere was certainly active today. Historic ionospheric enhancement!

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

LIFETIME FIRST!!! 162.450 MHz - WWG88 in Crandon, WI - 1053 miles via Sporadic Es. @NWSGreenBay WFO heard in Mandeville, LA.

The ionosphere is certainly "on one" today. Never experienced 162 MHz Sporadic Es and I have been doing FM/VHF DX since 1995. #NOAAWeatherRadio @NOAA @DXTVFM @w2njl

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

The data analysis of today’s sporadic Es event(s) is going to be a real treat. I am already starting preliminary review and the numbers are staggering.

The first 10 days of June have been fantastic but the last three in particular have been historic.

@DXTVFM @w2njl #fmdx #SporadicEs #VHF #DX #fmradio

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

Band has exploded here again. Put the kettle on, FM DX crew, it’s gonna be a long evening. #fmdx @DXTVFM @w2njl

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

@sralcorn @DXTVFM @w2njl I was getting a ton from DC/MD/VA too, surprised you weren’t getting down here!

[DX Central (Loyd Van Horn-W4LVH) @DXCentral]

I have no idea what will happen the rest of this Es season, but FM DXers will be talking about the first 10 days of June 2026 for years and years to come. #fmdx @DXTVFM @w2njl