I remember receiving stations on E-Skip where an announcer said "some viewers may be receiving skywave interference or had some kind of "bug"on the screen
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Unwanted DX? Any instances where DX is more of a nuisance?
- Thread starter Xale57
- Start date
KUSD-2 Vermillion (SDPB) as well, and starting in 1988, we had KACV-2 in Amarillo, also PBS. Many saw KLNE-3 Lexington NE (NETV) in the olden days.
WESH and WPBT were pet peeves for east coast DXers prior to 2009. Seemed like they popped in several times a month, either or. Sometimes KPRC was a pet peeve.
WESH and WPBT were pet peeves for east coast DXers prior to 2009. Seemed like they popped in several times a month, either or. Sometimes KPRC was a pet peeve.
As most of you guys know, the Pensacola area is our regular vacation spot. In fact, we'll be there the week after next. Anyway, When WEAR was on analog channel 3. it was a mess more often than not. Despite the place where we stay being about 27 miles south of what amounts to an antenna farm near Loxley, Alabama. Meanwhile, reception from the OTA VHF channels, WKRG-5 and WALA-1along with the FMs from the Loxley sticks was almost always perfectly fine.,
WGBH Boston was on the air all day and evening most of the year. However, they, like most "educational stations" (before the advent of PBS), programmed in-school programming weekdays until 1 to 2 PM. During summer vacation (10 weeks or so), they did not sign on until 1 or 2 PM. There was nothing whatever on Ch 2 within about 200 miles. Almost every day there was some signals present when using a moderate roof antenna - tropo bringing in WCBS at 200 miles, E-skip bringing in WESH Orlando, WBRZ Baton Rouge, etc. at 1500 miles.
However one common problem was for cable operators, who picked up most stations over-the-air, often from a considerable distance. Boston Cablevision often received WOR Ch 9 and WPIX Ch 11 overriding the nearby NH channels WMUR and WENH.
Here is an interesting page of massive CATV receive antennas often used in those days - one of these was used to receive VHF signals in Merced, CA from San Francisco at 110 miles and was 360 feet long. Consider how often skip was a nuisance to them.
1214
Neat link channel99! Thanks for sharing.
Our cable company here in Columbus had one of those setups in the 80s and 90s. Never had an idea how many other companies did this, but our provider's "network restoration" usually involved pulling in WHIO and WKEF from Dayton for CBS and NBC pre-emptions and WAKC from Akron when it came to ABC. The reception showed those signals were clearly coming off antennas, but still very watchable from about 75 and 110 miles, respectively.
WUAB from Cleveland was a regular in our lineup and it, too, came off an antenna. That was very noticeable during bad weather.
The Warner Cable tower between St. Marys and Wapakoneta, Ohio was a couple hundred feet tall anyway. It no longer stands, but when it did it easily pulled in signals from Lima, Dayton, Fort Wayne and Columbus. At one time, their cable carried WXIX from Cincinnati in its independent days. I have no doubt it could have caught signals from Toledo and at least some from Detroit. Not sure about Chicago at that distance, about 200 miles.
Our cable company here in Columbus had one of those setups in the 80s and 90s. Never had an idea how many other companies did this, but our provider's "network restoration" usually involved pulling in WHIO and WKEF from Dayton for CBS and NBC pre-emptions and WAKC from Akron when it came to ABC. The reception showed those signals were clearly coming off antennas, but still very watchable from about 75 and 110 miles, respectively.
WUAB from Cleveland was a regular in our lineup and it, too, came off an antenna. That was very noticeable during bad weather.
The Warner Cable tower between St. Marys and Wapakoneta, Ohio was a couple hundred feet tall anyway. It no longer stands, but when it did it easily pulled in signals from Lima, Dayton, Fort Wayne and Columbus. At one time, their cable carried WXIX from Cincinnati in its independent days. I have no doubt it could have caught signals from Toledo and at least some from Detroit. Not sure about Chicago at that distance, about 200 miles.
Correction: I skipped words, the station being taken out by Wheeling was WMEE on 97.3.
I worked at the radio station across the road from that tower, and did some FM DX off of it. WXIX and WTTV were fed by microwave relay to most systems that were distant from Cincinnati or Columbus. Closer in Central Indiana they took the air signal from WTTV on Channel 4 which sometimes got E-Skip interference. That was solved by the firing up of WTTK-29 in Kokomo for northern cable systems to get a clearer picture, rather than the VHF from Trafalgar.
I lived for a short time in the Quincy-Hannibal market and the St. Louis TV and FM stations came to the cable system via microwave (except in duplicate programming for CBS and NBC, the cable had to switch to local KHQA and WGEM.
A county over from St. Marys, Ohio, there were times strong tropo would take out WHIO or cause massive interference from channel 7 in Detroit.
But did you ever pick up KLNE-TV 3 Lexington NE? Another common PBS for west (and east coast) DXers in the pre-DTV days. That big 'N' logo was easily IDable. I have the 88.7 in my logbook. Then there was KSWK in Lakin KS from the late '80s forward, as Smoky Hills Public TV.
Upon seeing a few member mentions of 'Channel 2, Miami' , there are two vivid recalls.
I only used rabbit ears for my TV, because I hardly watched it. In order to get -- maybe -- the three Scranton stations better, I bought some budget style Radio Shack Job aerial and put it outside, pointing at Wilkes-Barre. It barely cleared the KITCHEN roof, some 20 feet below the desired roof. Then I clicked the dial. About 1 in the afternoon. On Channel 2 there was some crystal clear opera. Channel 3 was a faint KYW Philly. Channel 4 was a fuzzy nothing .......
Wait a minute! Therre's no channel 2 around these parts!
They IDed as WFTL Channel 2 Fort Lauderdale. I hadn't assigned any significance to the faint 'whistle' I heard during it all. So I was late with the camera in getting the thing on film.
At a later date, on the barefoot GE SR 2, I tuned in 99.1 for jazz. That's from back when WRTI Philly was all-Jazz, and when they had a gal DJ doing middays. They had a translator in close-by Pottsville on 99.1. So I had one of my casual music tastes coming in nicely. There was a gal DJ on, too.
Then she mentioned 'Jazz 99'.
Huh?
You're not allowed to say that! WRTI is on 90.1!
The gal then gave out the request-line numbers. For Dade County and Broward County.
Duh, Green.
I only used rabbit ears for my TV, because I hardly watched it. In order to get -- maybe -- the three Scranton stations better, I bought some budget style Radio Shack Job aerial and put it outside, pointing at Wilkes-Barre. It barely cleared the KITCHEN roof, some 20 feet below the desired roof. Then I clicked the dial. About 1 in the afternoon. On Channel 2 there was some crystal clear opera. Channel 3 was a faint KYW Philly. Channel 4 was a fuzzy nothing .......
Wait a minute! Therre's no channel 2 around these parts!
They IDed as WFTL Channel 2 Fort Lauderdale. I hadn't assigned any significance to the faint 'whistle' I heard during it all. So I was late with the camera in getting the thing on film.
At a later date, on the barefoot GE SR 2, I tuned in 99.1 for jazz. That's from back when WRTI Philly was all-Jazz, and when they had a gal DJ doing middays. They had a translator in close-by Pottsville on 99.1. So I had one of my casual music tastes coming in nicely. There was a gal DJ on, too.
Then she mentioned 'Jazz 99'.
Huh?
You're not allowed to say that! WRTI is on 90.1!
The gal then gave out the request-line numbers. For Dade County and Broward County.
Duh, Green.
Correct, WXIX-19, Cincinnati and WTTV-4 were widely viewed independents throughout the midwest, in the pre-Fox days.
"Network restoration" reminds me of the WMAQ-TV Chicago backup to the NBC feed in the pre-satellite AT&T microwave days. Just in case, WMAQ, from its transmitter room high on the 99th floor of the Hancock buliding, had an antenna pointed at South Bend and WNDU 16. Once, the AT&T switching center in Chicago went down in prime time and WMAQ switched to the WNDU antenna. It worked perfectly, including the WNDU ID at the end of the NBC show. (Meanwhile, the CBS and ABC stations in Chicago, having never thought of that, had to fill or start their 10 p.m. news early.)
WPBN 7 Traverse City and WTOM 4 Cheboygan used a facsinating system to pull NBC off the air on a regular basis. They pulled NBC off both WOOD-TV 8 Grand Rapids, from a 4 bay stacked 10 element Yagi on a 200 foot tower East of Stanwood, MI and WNEM-TV 5 Bay City (then NBC, became CBS due to the 1990s Network Shuffling) from a 4 bay stacked 5 element Yagi on a hillside next to M-66, 5 miles South of Barryton, MI. WNEM-TV had a backup for NBC from WWJ-TV/WDIV 4 on I-75 South of Holly, Michigan, a 5 element Channel 4 Yagi. The rest were normally microwave links between WPBN 7 and WTOM 4, and WWTV 9 and WWUP 10, with fascinating obscure towns along the way, mentioned on the sign offs, such as Emerald, Leetsville, and Fingerboard Corners, named for a road sign pointing to various towns.
WTOM 4 also had backups for the microwave, from my recollection, both a 4 Bay 10 Element Channel 7 Yagi for WPBN, and long ago, a 4 Bay 10 Element Channel 5 Yagi for WNEM-TV 5 on the WTOM 4 tower East of Cheboygan. A phone call to the remote control number at the WPBN transmitter site switched the source back and forth on each ring between the WNEM 5 and WOOD-TV 8 head ends. This often happened during severe weather tropo fronts, with lots of back and forth switching to avoid the cochannel lines and 10 kHz whines, and you could tell by the Weather Bug which source was being used.
David may remember more details from his vacations and DX adventures in Leelanau County, not far from the original WPBN 7 tower on a big hill West of Traverse City, where nearly all AM and FM transmitters were nearby. The sandy hills were terrible for AM conductivity as David well knows. WCCW has recently returned to the original tower on STA near there, after selling the 4 tower 15 kW Day 7.5 Night U4 site. The conductivity is so bad around NW MIchgain that several area stations went to 50 kW or had unbuilt CPs for 50 kW. One has already reduced to 10 kW to feed its 250 watt translator. I have to wonder how long the rest will stay at high power, though one is WTCM 580 50/1.1 U4, but it doesn't have a translator. There may be FM STATIONS that they might simulcast, but their owners have so far been reportedly refusing serious negotiations to sell them.
WTOM 4 also had backups for the microwave, from my recollection, both a 4 Bay 10 Element Channel 7 Yagi for WPBN, and long ago, a 4 Bay 10 Element Channel 5 Yagi for WNEM-TV 5 on the WTOM 4 tower East of Cheboygan. A phone call to the remote control number at the WPBN transmitter site switched the source back and forth on each ring between the WNEM 5 and WOOD-TV 8 head ends. This often happened during severe weather tropo fronts, with lots of back and forth switching to avoid the cochannel lines and 10 kHz whines, and you could tell by the Weather Bug which source was being used.
David may remember more details from his vacations and DX adventures in Leelanau County, not far from the original WPBN 7 tower on a big hill West of Traverse City, where nearly all AM and FM transmitters were nearby. The sandy hills were terrible for AM conductivity as David well knows. WCCW has recently returned to the original tower on STA near there, after selling the 4 tower 15 kW Day 7.5 Night U4 site. The conductivity is so bad around NW MIchgain that several area stations went to 50 kW or had unbuilt CPs for 50 kW. One has already reduced to 10 kW to feed its 250 watt translator. I have to wonder how long the rest will stay at high power, though one is WTCM 580 50/1.1 U4, but it doesn't have a translator. There may be FM STATIONS that they might simulcast, but their owners have so far been reportedly refusing serious negotiations to sell them.
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Everyone knows about WGN and how it was widely viewed around the Midwest and eventually morphed into a superstation. Your comment also made me think of WTCN, Channel 11 from Minneapolis. Common on cable systems throughout Minnesota, the Dakotas and parts of Iowa and Wisconsin. Even Winnipeg. WTCN later became KARE-TV, an NBC afilliate to this day.
Made me think of KVFD-TV, Ch 21 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. They took their entire NBC network feed directly from WHO-TV, Ch 13, from Des Moines over the air. This arrangement even included network programming delayed by WHO-TV, I happened to date a girl for a time from a town near Fort Dodge, and once got to witness the setup first hand when I spent a weekend at her family's home. For the most part, things were pretty seamless, but sure enough, I did catch a couple of quick glimpses of WHO ID cards before they were quickly covered up vy KVFD"s.
At WLFI, Lafayette if there was a network outage (usually not rolling tape for network tape delay) we would take WISH, Indianapolis.
Now that I think about it, in the unwanted DX category, I was working there one afternoon and we had a super tropo opening, with signals seemingly being slammed back to earth. Milwaukee's channel 18 was so strong we couldn't monitor our own air signal. That day, Chicago stations were in like locals on a walkman.
Different days: Our 2-way frequency was hijacked by tropo. Some stations play the audio of the TV stations when the 2-way isn't otherwise in use, so we're monitoring CBS soaps from Louisville
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Milwaukee's "Good Lookin' 18" not so good lookin' when it trashes a co-channel station! 🤣
Engineers at WAAM 1600 Ann Arbor reported that when they signed off, they would regularly hear "The Big RL", WWRL 1600 New York, on the off air monitor.
In the late 70s I was staying at a hotel in Reno, Nevada. Apparently the superstations had just started. I wasn't at all aware of them so imagine my surprise when I turned on the TV in my hotel room and received WGN-TV and WTBS from thousands of miles away. The pictures were perfectly clear so I knew it wasn't e-skip. So I called the front desk and asked the hotel manager why I was getting Atlanta and Chicago TV stations from so far away. His reply to me was I guess your TV just has excellent reception. True story!
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