TV Channel of the Week, Channel 12

[kc0ltv]

Last week I did AM and FM Frequency of the Week. This week I'm going to try TV Channel of the Week and see if there are enough TV DX'ers around here for it to be a viable thread.

In the Duluth area, channel 12 was once "dominated" by a weak local signal from KDUL-LP, a UPN affiliate that went on the air in August 2000 and went off about a year later. Today, KCCW - Walker, 102 mi distant, a full-power (316 kW) Northcentral Minnesota relayer of WCCO in Minneapolis is what I see most often, besides images of local ch 10. Less often, I'll see WJFW Rhinelander (166 mi), the NBC affiliate for Central Wisconsin, and on rare occasions, KEYC Mankato (221 miles), that market's only station, and KIIN Iowa City, IA (352 mi), and IPTV affiliate. Other stations I've seen only once during very good tropo events are KUON Lincoln, NE (440 mi, 07/16/06), WJRT Flint, MI (470 mi, two hours after logging KUON!), and WILL Urbana, IL (499 mi, 08/08/06).

 

[MW_FM_DT_DXer]

Channel 12 is an analogue local here (KPNX). I have not watched analogue since I got HDTV, last Spring, but KPNX-DT will be switched from Channel 36 to Channel 12 on 17 February, 2009.

 

[w9wi]

Last week I did AM and FM Frequency of the Week. This week I'm going to try TV Channel of the Week and see if there are enough TV DX'ers around here for it to be a viable thread.

This has also been one of my most productive channels...

I count 13 analog loggings and two DTVs. Best DX is WTLV Jacksonville, Fla. (529mi.) but I've logged four more stations beyond 400 miles, including homestate WISN-12 Milwaukee at 465 miles.

One of my best DTV loggings was also on channel 12: KTHV-DT Little Rock at 323mi..

The channel is usually just hash, with the most often-seen station being KFVS Cape Girardeau (150mi.). WDEF Chattanooga (132) is a fairly close second.

 

[vibe]

we have a strong local CBS affliliate in Prov, RI on ch 12 about 25 mi away. The station isn't even on cable although CH 10 (same strength and distance) is.
I remember staying in a motel w/no cable (yeah, nothing but the best for me) about 1/2 between Philly and NYC with the outside antenna pointed at NYC. But Ch 12 Providence (and 10) came in clear as a bell that nite and the next morning. musta been a tropo event but the stations were strong enuf to override the Philly stations from about 40-50 mi away.
In FLA (west coast) I've never gotten a ch 12 of any kind even when the UHF band is "lit up."

 

[RyanHoward]

Here in the Philadelphia area, Channel 12 is the local PBS station, WHYY-TV. Back in the early 80's when I
liked to TV DX, I have also seen WPRI-TV from Providence, RI on some nights after WHYY signed off.

 

[MarcB]

DX Reception of WPRI CBS from Providence, RI.

 

[gr8oldies]

Just "local 12" WKRC-TV out of Cincy.

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WPRI Providence is snowy but regular here in Boston on rabbit ears. A roof antenna in a good spot can clean it up well.

Occasionally, troppo will bring a Maine station down to mix with it.

 

[PhilJSmith67]

35 miles directly south of Chicago, I get either WISN Milwaukee (ABC) or WILL-TV Urbana/Champaign (PBS/Univ of Ill). On several occasions I used to get WJFW-TV Rhinelander, Wisconsin, but haven't seen that station since it was WAEO. Over the past year, I've also logged WJRT-TV Flint, Michigan; KIIN Iowa City, Iowa; and "The Heartland's KFVS12" KFVS-TV Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

 

[Smittian]

We used to get KSAT(San Antonio) almost every night when I was growing up about 130 mi. S of SA

 

[KML0224]

WPRI Providence is snowy but regular here in Boston on rabbit ears. A roof antenna in a good spot can clean it up well.

Occasionally, troppo will bring a Maine station down to mix with it.

Most likely WMEB-TV (PBS) channel 12 from Orono (Bangor market).

 

[RadioDze]

Interesting happening in Durham, NC while DXing on channel 12 the other night...a color picture from WCTI in New Bern, NC, but audio from Winston-Salem's WXII! The days of interesting phenomena like this are quickly coming to an end next February 17.

 

[kenrayc]

I get KCOY from Santa maria CA a CBS affilliate .

 

[quadraphonic]

Interesting happening in Durham, NC while DXing on channel 12 the other night...a color picture from WCTI in New Bern, NC, but audio from Winston-Salem's WXII! The days of interesting phenomena like this are quickly coming to an end next February 17.

Every once in a while here in Wake County, you can get the FOX8 WGHP audio from High Point, and the FOX8 video from Morehead City. Of course, you can best tell this when they are not running Fox programming, usually early in the morning when Cindy Farmer and Brad Jones are doing the news in High Point.

 

[DeadElvis]

Back when I was a kid...

We lived in beautiful Pascagoula, MS -- just thinking about it brings back memories. That smell? It it the pogey plant, the refinery, the paper mill, rotting bio material in the bayou in the backyard, or just general industrial waste from the shipyard?! Ah, memories...

But, in those heady days, we had cable, which carried WYES from New Orleans. To get WYES, which was a fair ways off, the cable company has a mono-channel yagi over 100 feet up pointed WSW, at New Orleans. The problem? This is the Gulf Coast where tropo happens A LOT. So, when WYES signed off (I bet they don't anymore) one often saw KBMT Beaumont, TX. On rarer occasions, KSAT San Antonio would be piped it (well over 500 miles). There were times KBMT would win the battle even with New Orleans on. Cool.

Here in Memphis, 12 is pretty open. Booneville, MS comes in really aabout all the time. Other regulars include WJTV Jackson, and recently KTHV-DT Little Rock. And, yes. A few weeks ago, I saw WYES. Also, its DT on 11 made the trip.

DE

 

[KML0224]

Back in the pre-digital days, I would get channel 12 of Providence a couple times a month. I even got channel 12 of Wilmington/Philly a few times if it was a warm and muggy summer's night. Oddly enough, I NEVER got anything from the next closest channel 12 broadcaster, WBNG-TV (CBS) of Binghamton, NY.

 

[vchimpanzee]

20 years ago I lived in High Point and I missed the movie "Roe v. Wade" because of interference from some station--even though WXII is as close as Winston-Salem. True, Sauratown Mountain is a little farther, but not that much.

It may have been WCTI. I have memories of seeing that station.

 

[vibe]

Re: kml's 6/4 post about having gotten Philly on 12 to the SW and 12 providence to the E; I too never got 12 from Binghamton NY either from either New Britain CT or Rutland MA with a high quality VHF antenna and rotor in both locations. Maybe off topic but the tropo ducts probably don't "flow" from WNW (Binghamton) to the SSE (New Britski) I got Philly from both locations. I never got Ch 12 in ME from Rutland, MA either but got Canaduh (New Brunswick and Nova Salmon) several times.
Rutland MA is supposedly the geographical ctr. of the Commonwealth of Mass.

 

[KML0224]

Maybe the pattern of distant reception has to do with Philadelphia and Portland generally running along the eastern seaboard like much of Connecticut does? I know salty ocean water heavily influences AM radio...but analogor digital TV?

BTW, Connecticut's center is behind a house on Savage Road in the East Berlin section of Berlin, just off of CT Route 372. I think the center of Massachusetts is the north end of Worcester, hence the original name of the DCU Center...the Worcester Centrum?

 

[vibe]

KML-don't know about CT but in Mass there is a street called Central Tree Rd. and there is a tree with a marker that denotes the supposed center of the Commonwealth. We used to watch the fireworks in Worc when there was an open field (now houses) that gave us a good look at the works from approx 10-12 mi away. The field, at one time was the largest contiguous piece of land east of the Conn River in Mass and that was only about 130 acres. That's why the RI stations (incl ch 12) from about 50-60 mi (even further for Ch 6) were completely city grade; stations in NH (9 and 11) were city grtade (Ch 9) and near city grade (ch 11.