• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Off Air Reception-What DID we do before ever getting cable?

Some of the more interesting TV DX'ing I was involved in was with a friend of mine in one of the suburbs northeast of the downtown Cincinnati area in the late 1950's. There were Saturday nights that our parents were out together and it gave us a chance to see what could be picked up.

On a large TV downstairs that had a nice rabbit ears, getting WTTV, Channel 4, out of the Indianapolis area was almost always available. There was also WFBM, Channel 6, from Indianapolis, too. One night, Channel 6 was doing its sign-off and we both recognized the voice of Ken Linn doing the announcing. It appears obvious my friend's house was in a good location for signals from Indianapolis. In addition, several times, he also picked up WKZO, Channel 3, from Kalamazoo, Michigan. That's one station I never received at my house - even years later with an outside deep fringe antenna.

There was also a small RCA portable TV at my friend's house that was several years old. For it, you had to connect a rabbit ears. On one of those late nights, we took it to a second-floor bedroom to see what might be received. As noted, this TV was older and through use, the channel numbers had worn off the selector dial, so when the local stations had signed off, you had no point of reference in terms of knowing what channel number you had. In doing that, we once picked up the sound-only of studio wrestling. We had no idea where that was coming from. To this day, I still don't know - maybe Chicago?

A part of TV DX'ing was waiting until some stations signed off as it would enable more distant signals to come in on those channels. Unfortunately, that is something else that has changed about TV - so many stations do not sign off anymore.
 
Great thread! Here's a boomer of a tale:
In 1988 I lived outside Buffalo near some powerlines. I was watching Letterman on WGRZ CH 2 on a portable RCA TV. After the station signed off, sometime later I saw Letterman again on 2 but very fuzzy. I waited for a commercial break and was amazed I was getting some station (had it written down but lost it) from Northeast Kansas!
 
On my earlier post on Page 4 Ididn't mention where I'm at ,that is Fresno CA.the list is for a room behind my car port not connected to cable. I didn't give a complete list what I recieve ditigally on my Zenith radio shach converter box with a outdoor radio shack VU 190 antenna.Heres a revised list of my Digital signals.

7.1 KAIL MY-7
7.2 RTN retro tv
18.1 PBS- HD KVPT
18.2 PBS-SD this is a different feed of PBS
18.3 PBS you
21.1 KFTV UNI
24.1 KSEE NBC
24.2 KSEE weather scan
24.3 Latino TV
26.1 KMPH FOX
30.1 KFSN ABC
30.2 KFSN alterative (delayed news cast and other programing)
30.3 KFSN Weather
34.3 KGPE CBS
34.4 VTV Classic tv
43.1 KMGC IND
43.2 Azteca LP 39
43.3 KSDI LP 33
43.4 KJEO LP 32
43.5 AMG music videos
47.1 KGPE CBS the same as 34.3
47.2 VTV Classic tv same as 34.4
49.1 KNXT Diocese
51.1 KNSO Telemundo
59.1 KFRE CW
61.1 Telefutura
 
During the spring, we get some real good tropo here in central Florida and it seems to last longer than it did up north. Some of the local VHF channels are almost impossible to watch with just the rabbit ears when this happens. For some reason though, the stations mostly come from the north and northwest (Jacksonville, Savannah, the panhandle, and New Orleans). It's unusual to get anything from Miami, for some reason, and it's just as far from us as Jacksonville.
 
I remember picking up stations from Dayton, Cincinnati and Toledo from my home in Columbus after some big-time thunderstorms back in the summer of '93 or '94. It was my first experience with TV DXing and naive me thought if I just pointed my antenna a certain way, I could get these stations all time. Alas, it was not to be. But like the previous poster, stations north and west of me were the ones to arrive.
 
When it happens here in the spring, it seems to be when there's been a high pressure system sitting on top of the region for an extended period of time and there's no rain either.
 
jandersonn said:
Great thread! Here's a boomer of a tale:
In 1988 I lived outside Buffalo near some powerlines. I was watching Letterman on WGRZ CH 2 on a portable RCA TV. After the station signed off, sometime later I saw Letterman again on 2 but very fuzzy. I waited for a commercial break and was amazed I was getting some station (had it written down but lost it) from Northeast Kansas!
Click to expand...
That was e-skip. Pretty common to get stations over 1000 miles away on channel 2.
 
I haven't seen this mentioned, yet although it no doubt has happened to others. One Saturday in late May some years ago, I was at an area high school for a late afternoon event. I turned on a TV in a lounge to watch a boxing match. In tuning the set along the VHF channels to the right station, I saw an image on one of the channels that seemed to be a TV station from Cuba - Havana? There was an ID slide on the screen and a Spanish-like voice quickly speaking. This took place at New Richmond High School. The town of New Richmond is along the Ohio River, east of Cincinnati although the high school is located on a hill above the town. The TV was a basic portable with just the built-in rabbit ears connected. The lounge was a room a good distance inside the school building with no windows.
 
I missed the pre-cable days by several years, but I imagine where I grew up (Tuscasloosa, AL) people had lots of big antennas on roofs because there was only one local - WCFT-33, CBS. To the west was WCBI-4 who was also CBS, I think. The rest of the network channels came from Birmingham. I had a second story bedroom and remember seeing most of the Birmingham channels clearly with rabbit ears, though. I distinctly remember seeing the first time sign-on slide for WCAJ-68, an independent at the time. (It's now WABM, a MyNTV affiliate.) I always thought that was an odd thing to do because Birmingham already had an independent channel, WTTO-21.

Our cable wasn't much better than rabbit ears, to be honest. Twelve channels. ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, Local barker, Showtime (where I learned to curse!), WTTO, WDBB-17 and three others that I don't remember. One of the biggest treats for me was going to visit one of my grandmothers in the Birmingham suburbs. Her cable was so bountiful she needed a selector box! It was in her den that I got my first taste of the Weather Channel and Nickelodeon's You Can't Do That On Television. The other grandmother lived in the city and her cable was even better - she had this fanciful channel that was nothing but comedies. There I got an early taste of a show I'd rediscover as an adult, Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Where I live now, I cannot image the troubles one went through to snag TV signals. Back in the 70's Grenada, Mississippi was apparently a part of the Memphis TV market, but at over 100 miles from the Memphis stations, I doubt people actually received much reliably. The lone Greenwood station, WABG-6 (ABC) didn't have a tall tower back then, I don't think. And neither did WTVA-9 (NBC) or whatever its calls were back then.

Now, I get only WTVA clearly in analog. Everything else is snowy but watchable (WCBI, MPB Oxford, WABG, MPB Columbus). Oh and two low power stations, a TBN relay and a Family Net relay with local commercial inserts. Neither is very watchable here even though I'm only a few miles from the TX sites.

In digital, it's WABG (ABC, Fox) - WTVA (NBC, FamilyNet) and MPB (MPB, PBS HD, Create). Still not much. Thank heavens for satellite! Who doesn't offer locals here. :'(
 
I haven't made the switch to digital yet. I have both converter boxes and one 45dB antenna but I haven't tried any of these yet.

In 2002 I threw away a TV which picked up WFMY and WCWG from Greensboro perfectly (I'm just going to use current call letters).

WSOC and WCCB from Charlotte and WGHP and WMYV from Greensboro were pretty good but could be iffy. WUNG and WTVI from Charlotte were okay for the most part.

I definitely had problems on a regular basis from WCNC, WAXN, WBTV, WJZY and WMYT in Charlotte, and sometimes I couldn't get a worthwhile signal from the last two stations. WXII was okay but iffy, and WUNL and WXLV worse. WGPX I couldn't pick up at all.

This is all with rabbit ears. Depending on which TV I am watching and the position of the rabbit ears, I can pick up some of the stations I listed as "pretty good" perfectly sometimes. The two that were perfect vary. WFMY has never been perfect with any of my current TVs and it's non-existent on one.

All this will be history soon, but I think I've done pretty well for 20 years with only rabbit ears.

I remember some Texas and Louisiana stations with a rooftop antenna during weird condtions back in 1979. In fact, I think I've had this experience since I've had rabbit ears.

I'm hoping for all the Greensboro stations with the 45 dB antenna. I probably need an outdoor antenna for the Charlotte stations, and if even that doesn't work, there's always the lowest-tier cable.
 
Mid West Clubber said:
From my location about 30 miles south of Indianapolis in martinsville indiana,,Using Rabbit ears gets us only channel 4 6 8 and 13 all pretty snowy,,, but with a 50 ft rotor antenna all the Indy Channels are clear,, we also get CH 2 WTWO terre haute as well as CH 10 and UHF 38 from terre haute, Sometimes if we are lucky we get CHANNEL 3 WAVE as well as WHAS 11,, both in Louisville,, both snowy and often in Black and white,, ive picked up Fox 41 and BIG 58 from Louisville as well,, but rarely... One time our CH 10 got whiped out during E skip, and with the antenna pointed South East was able to receive CH 10 WIBR from,,,, I think Knoxville Tennesse... I later found out that the tower for that station is one of the highest around at 17oo and some odd feet... BTW,, Knoxville is 372 miles away.
Click to expand...
Might wanna check your map...downtown Knoxville is 259 miles from here...
 
Well if thats true,,, and i do believe you, but I have been driving the wrong way all these years. Remember that im in Martinsville, so slightly farther away, but i always went down to Louisville, jumped on I-64 to Lexington, and then from lexington jumped on I-75 and straight south.. So what way could I go to cut off like 100 miles????
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom