Honus wrote:
I'm new to the hobby, so please bear with me.

I picked up a Gene Scott broadcast last night on MW at 1615 KHz. Here's the
...
I'm listening in Seattle, and I really don't think that I've DX'd the guy
all the way from the Caribbean.

I wouldn't rule it out. Especially as particularly good east-west
conditions were reported that night.

The signal isn't constant; it faded out just like SW reception does.

Long-distance MW fades pretty much the same way.

So my question is, just how did I hear this
broadcast? Scott uses satellites, but I imagine they're geo-synchronous and
so (I assume) the signal wouldn't fade. Is that true? Is retransmitting of
MW or FM band signals ever even done in the first place?

The satellite transmissions would be on microwave frequencies; MW
transmissions from space wouldn't penetrate the atmosphere to be
received on earth.

And why did I
receive the signal at 1615 instead of 1610? Did I pick up a repeater of some
sort? I have more questions, but I think that from the ones I've just posed
that everyone can imagine what they are. Thanks in advance for your replies.

My bet is that you were getting a spurious response to a powerful
shortwave broadcast. Your receiver will pick up signals on frequencies
other than the one to which it's tuned, if they're strong enough. I'd
bet you'd find Scott was broadcasting over a shortwave station somewhere
in the U.S. at that time.

--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com