E-skip in East Tennessee and two UNIDs on 87.7

[RMarino]

Looks like the E-skip is in East Tennessee today too which is rare. I noticed it in my car driving home in the Knoxville area today. To start off with I was very surprised when I heard a TV station on 87.7! The signal had frequent fade outs, but sometimes would be solid for 30 seconds at a time. This was just after 6pm Eastern Time and I was happy to find out that this was a newscast, which I hoped would make it easy to identify. As I started to wonder why an LPTV would have a 6pm newscast, they started mentioning Ontario and I realized that I am hearing Canada in Tennessee!

Now which Canadian station is this? In their commercial breaks, they ran many promos mentioning CBC. Doing a search of CBC stations on Channel 6, I found CBMT Montreal. On their website, they have streaming video of their 6pm newscast. On a particular story I remember hearing was about the swine flu virus. And sure enough there is a story about the swine flu virus on the streaming version of the newscast. The only thing that I have doubts about is that I heard the story about 6:05pm, while the streaming version has the swine flu story at about 35 minutes during their hour-long broadcast.

When I finally got near home (I have a 45 minute drive) the CBC station faded more often and I started hearing Alex Trebek and Jeopardy! Does Jeopardy! air in Canada? If not, which US LPTV station on Channel 6 airs it at 6:30pm?

The rest of the FM band had some activity too, but I was more focused 87.7 honestly. I did notice a French station on 93.7 which was mixing with a Spanish station on the same frequency.

 

[Davros2006]

Yep. Jeopardy! airs in Canada, usually right after Coronation Street. The typical local CBC schedule goes like this...

6:00 PM: CBC News at Six
7:00 PM: Coronation Street
7:30 PM: Jeopardy!

And unlike most networks that have a program that runs at "8/7 Central", the CBC has quite the time-shifting system, where if were in the easternmost areas of Canada and you had a satellite dish that had multiple feeds, and you missed a program, you could always wait an hour to see it again. CBC is also unique when running promos on both radio and TV whereby the local start time is listed, followed by "a half-hour later in Newfoundland" as the island part of the province has its own time zone.

 

[crainbebo]

Haven't been picking up a lot of e-skip today. DX highlights include a JC Penney ad on 101,1, probably KUFO, and soft rock music on 102.1, which is KSWW Aberdeen.

My location is where the arrows are pointing.
<<<<<<----------

-crainbebo

 

[w9wi]

Now which Canadian station is this? In their commercial breaks, they ran many promos mentioning CBC. Doing a search of CBC stations on Channel 6, I found CBMT Montreal. On their website, they have streaming video of their 6pm newscast. On a particular story I remember hearing was about the swine flu virus. And sure enough there is a story about the swine flu virus on the streaming version of the newscast. The only thing that I have doubts about is that I heard the story about 6:05pm, while the streaming version has the swine flu story at about 35 minutes during their hour-long broadcast.

The swine flu story in Canada today was out of Saskatchewan (or was it Alberta? one of the Prairie Provinces) so it was probably a national story. There are other CBC stations on channel 6. Still, you can rest assured you had a Canadian station which is a nice catch!

 

[nd2023]

It could be Newfoundland if it had a 30 minute offset...I got a channel 6 from Newfoundland 2 weeks ago and its audio completely wiped out my local WNYZ for over an hour.
If you do hear a channel 6 LPTV audio, it most likely won't be TV modulated, but will sound loud like an FM station.

 

[RMarino]

It could be Newfoundland if it had a 30 minute offset...I got a channel 6 from Newfoundland 2 weeks ago and its audio completely wiped out my local WNYZ for over an hour.
If you do hear a channel 6 LPTV audio, it most likely won't be TV modulated, but will sound loud like an FM station.

Thanks everybody for the help. I had a hunch it might be Newfoundland when the half-hour difference was mentioned. The only problem is that the Channel 6 in Newfoundland is not listed as a CBC affiliate.

And thanks for the tip about LPTV having a higher audio modulation. I didn't know that.

 

[w9wi]

It could be Newfoundland if it had a 30 minute offset...I got a channel 6 from Newfoundland 2 weeks ago and its audio completely wiped out my local WNYZ for over an hour.
If you do hear a channel 6 LPTV audio, it most likely won't be TV modulated, but will sound loud like an FM station.

Thanks everybody for the help. I had a hunch it might be Newfoundland when the half-hour difference was mentioned. The only problem is that the Channel 6 in Newfoundland is not listed as a CBC affiliate.

The most powerful channel 6 in Newfoundland isn't a CBC affiiate, but there are five other channel 6 transmitters on the island that are CBC affiliates. Three are very low power (10 watts); there's a 1kw station at St. Andrew's, and a 12.75kw station at St. Anthony which has "skipped out" a fair amount.

That said, it's a LONG way from Tennessee to Newfoundland (take it from someone who's tried to drive it...) and I think other parts of Canada are more likely.

And thanks for the tip about LPTV having a higher audio modulation. I didn't know that.

In general, LPTV *doesn't* have higher audio modulation. However, a number (probably two handsful) of channel 6 LPTVs are being operated as radio stations. Analog channel 6 sound can be heard at 87.7 FM. The regulations limiting full-power analog TV stations* to 25KHz peak audio modulation don't apply to LPTVs; those being operated as radio stations are generally operating at 75KHz modulation - which would be 300% modulation as far as a TV set is concerned, but 100% on a FM radio.

* for the next four days that there still are full-power analog TV stations...

 

[nd2023]

It could be Newfoundland if it had a 30 minute offset...I got a channel 6 from Newfoundland 2 weeks ago and its audio completely wiped out my local WNYZ for over an hour.
If you do hear a channel 6 LPTV audio, it most likely won't be TV modulated, but will sound loud like an FM station.

Thanks everybody for the help. I had a hunch it might be Newfoundland when the half-hour difference was mentioned. The only problem is that the Channel 6 in Newfoundland is not listed as a CBC affiliate.

The most powerful channel 6 in Newfoundland isn't a CBC affiiate, but there are five other channel 6 transmitters on the island that are CBC affiliates. Three are very low power (10 watts); there's a 1kw station at St. Andrew's, and a 12.75kw station at St. Anthony which has "skipped out" a fair amount.

That said, it's a LONG way from Tennessee to Newfoundland (take it from someone who's tried to drive it...) and I think other parts of Canada are more likely.

And thanks for the tip about LPTV having a higher audio modulation. I didn't know that.

In general, LPTV *doesn't* have higher audio modulation. However, a number (probably two handsful) of channel 6 LPTVs are being operated as radio stations. Analog channel 6 sound can be heard at 87.7 FM. The regulations limiting full-power analog TV stations* to 25KHz peak audio modulation don't apply to LPTVs; those being operated as radio stations are generally operating at 75KHz modulation - which would be 300% modulation as far as a TV set is concerned, but 100% on a FM radio.

* for the next four days that there still are full-power analog TV stations...

There are no more full power analog TV stations in the US

 

[crainbebo]

Yes there are. They still broadcast the nightlight loop until Sunday.

Picked up KPRI San Diego, CA on 102.1 FM today at a distance of 1073 miles.

-crainbebo

 

[KnoxvilleTVFan]

I did pick up some of the following stations on Tuesday, July 7th and they are:

* WNYC 93.9 New York, NY
* WXTK 95.1 West Yarmouth, MA
* WBPW 96.9 Presque Isle, ME
* WQHR 96.1 Presque Isle, ME

I did get some other stations but I have to get my paper to post what stations I received.

I also got some Canadian stations like CFTX-FM 96.5 ("Tag Radio X") in Gatineau, QC and CKKL-FM 93.9 (93.9 Bob FM) in Ottawa, ON.

 

[mimo]

I did pick up some of the following stations on Tuesday, July 7th and they are:

* WNYC 93.9 New York, NY
* WXTK 95.1 West Yarmouth, MA
* WBPW 96.9 Presque Isle, ME
* WQHR 96.1 Presque Isle, ME

I did get some other stations but I have to get my paper to post what stations I received.

I also got some Canadian stations like CFTX-FM 96.5 ("Tag Radio X") in Gatineau, QC and CKKL-FM 93.9 (93.9 Bob FM) in Ottawa, ON.

Nice catch on Tag Radio. They're a 1600 watt station. That's it. In downtonw Ottawa it's very difficult to hear them due to bleedover from 95.7 and 97.9. Tag is quickly becoming my favourite station here in Ottawa. Bob has an ERP of 100,000 watts, better signal but still sketchy downtown. Bob is probably the only mainstream pop station I'll check out from time to time. They have an English accented announcer who's very entertaining and seems to know his stuff about music. Even people I know who don't like the station say he's worth listening to for his energy and presentation.