Peter R. ) wrote:

After mentioning the call to the controller, he responded that there had
been some complaints of what he called "frequency bleed" the last few days.

Thanks for the explanation, everyone. Now that I read it here, I do
vaguely remember this ducting/skipping phenomenon back in the CB craze,
although I was only a pre-teen during the height of that fad.

The alternate explanation about actually being line of sight with the other
aircraft also makes sense, too. I was about 50 miles southeast of
Binghamton, placing us around 300nm from Akron-Canton.

Now, what happens if I hear a call that is from ten years ago?
(A "Frequency" movie joke).

--
Peter