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What was the first TV station you got over tropo or Eskip that got you into DX?
- Thread starter crainbebo
- Start date
when I was about 12 (1962) muy parents bought a small black and white TV and would watch it outdoors on summer nites. I noticed we could get stations, on occasion, that we normally did not get with the outdoors antennas which as specifically cut for ch's 3 and 8- Hartford and New Haven respectively.
After watching ch 7, 9, 11 from NYC (about 100 mi) and ch 6, 10, and 12 from Prov (75 mi) with just the rabbit ear that came with the set (and with clear pictures to boot) I was hooked.
There were nites when the Providence ABC came in much clearer than the New Haven ABC.
After watching ch 7, 9, 11 from NYC (about 100 mi) and ch 6, 10, and 12 from Prov (75 mi) with just the rabbit ear that came with the set (and with clear pictures to boot) I was hooked.
There were nites when the Providence ABC came in much clearer than the New Haven ABC.
vibe said:
I had a similar experience around the same time. Then I had to figure out why this didn't occur often when the weather got colder.
When I was about 9 or l0, in the mid-late 50's, I was living in Adrian, MI. We normally only got Detroit's Ch 2, 4, 7, 9 (Windsor) plus Toledo's 13 (and 11 when it signed on about 1958). One day, I was flipping throught the channels and there was a channel 10, just as bold as can be. It turned out to be WBNS in Columbus about 150 miles away. Certainly no big deal, but it got me started in serious TV DXing. A few years later, when in High School, I even wrote an article for the long defunct CB magazine, S-9 about TV DXing!
After a serious thunderstorm west of Providence back in 1979, I was able to pick up WPIX, Channel 11, from New York. Later that night, I was able to log a few more NYC stations, including WCBS (after WGBH went off the air), WOR, WABC, WNEW, WNET and WNBC. My father had a Winegard rotor-antenna mounted on a tower that was approximately 60 ft HAAT. Already sitting at an elevation of 680 feet (in Glocester, RI) didn't hurt either.
Later that summer, I was able to catch stations from Philadelphia and Washington, DC.
Also: does anyone remember the Channel 2 "wave" from late spring-1981? I logged over 40 IDs that day as far west as Reno, NV.
Later that summer, I was able to catch stations from Philadelphia and Washington, DC.
Also: does anyone remember the Channel 2 "wave" from late spring-1981? I logged over 40 IDs that day as far west as Reno, NV.
On a summer morning in 1974 when I picked up KNOP ch 2 from North Platte, NE on my crappy little 13" B/W TV with the single rabbit ear antenna in Virginia. I did not understand how it happened, but I watched them for about 2 hours with the occasional fadeouts into static that took the form of horizontal bars. It was like seeing something from space. Especially when the Today show ended locally, yet continued on (live back then) on KNOP. It was all fascinating to me.
Later that summer, I also picked up a channel 2 from Louisiana (now WBRZ Baton Rouge) that had a very strange spinning logo. It was more fleeting, but at least I got the ID.
Between those two catches, I knew that the propagation of radio waves (and TV) was more complex than just getting distant AM stations at night.
Later that summer, I also picked up a channel 2 from Louisiana (now WBRZ Baton Rouge) that had a very strange spinning logo. It was more fleeting, but at least I got the ID.
Between those two catches, I knew that the propagation of radio waves (and TV) was more complex than just getting distant AM stations at night.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
when I was a kid in Pittsburgh, got WTVG 13 out of Toledo early one morning before WQED signed on. Not a huge skip by DX standards, but really cool to your average eleven year old.
summer of 1964 in Louisville: clear reception (briefly) of WPBT channel 2 from Miami
(calls may have been WLRN at the time).
this on an Admiral portable with a whip antenna.
I was 11 and hooked...would get up early on Saturday to see WTVW 7 Evansville
WCPO 9 Cincinnati and WISH 8 Indianapolis on a regular basis.
best UHF catch on that set was the old MPATI on ch 72 and 76 during mid-morning
(calls may have been WLRN at the time).
this on an Admiral portable with a whip antenna.
I was 11 and hooked...would get up early on Saturday to see WTVW 7 Evansville
WCPO 9 Cincinnati and WISH 8 Indianapolis on a regular basis.
best UHF catch on that set was the old MPATI on ch 72 and 76 during mid-morning
FreddyE1977 said:
My first TV e-skip experience actually happened in New Hampshire (East Wakefield) in the summer of 1970. I was only 10 years old at the time. We were at our summer cottage and I wanted to see what was on the "tele". Normally we would get a fairly decent (but rather ghosty) picture from WCSH/6, WMTW/8 and WGAN/13. Once in a while, the old WHDH/5 (Boston) would come in after sunset due to some temperature inversions from time to time (as did WGBH/2 and WBZ/4).
BUT, one day while moving down the dial, I saw a practically clear local quality signal on Channel 2. BUT it wasn't "Sesame Street" or "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" , but rather a local weather forecast with a meteorologist pointing to a map of the State of Georgia, with emphasis toward Atlanta. This went on for several minutes with the picture fading in and out, sometimes clear.... other times in the mud. Then I saw the end of the newscast with a few ads. And then the ID....... It was WSB-TV in Atlanta!!! My late Dad said "What have you done to the TV. Leave it alone". But I told him "But Dad, it's from down south in Atlanta, Georgia on Channel 2!". He then told me to "Turn the TV off if you're not going to watch a "NORMAL" station. Get ready for supper". (DAMN!!). But, that was my true first understanding about TV DX'ing and how TV stations from over a 1,000 miles away can be seen from time to time. Good old WSB-TV in Atlanta, a station I would see many times over the next 39 years!!! They were a great verifier!! I've got a nice QSL letter sent to me back in 1981!!
Now, e-skip TV DX'ing is pretty much a part of history. How I'll miss it (...sigh....).
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
romer979fm said:
Well in fact, it was WTHS-TV who shared Channel 2 in Miami with WPBT-TV. WTHS-TV was owned by the local school board and operated the station during the daytime hours when school was in session. WPBT would use the remaining hours using the same transmitter. I actually saw the "hand off" occur from WTHS to WPBT during skip in the summer of 1977. Eventually, what was WTHS was moved to Channel 17 as WLRN in around 1980. WPBT took over the operations of Channel 2 full-time from then on.
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:
C'mon over to the WTFDA mailing list, if you're not already there - the last few weeks have been the most exciting in my DX lifetime. I've made more new loggings since June 12 than in the last couple of years combined, with US analog nightlight stations being seen on channels that used to be occupied by analog semi-locals or pests that are now gone, and now with Canadian, Cuban, Dominican and even tentatively Puerto Rican stations being seen as the nightlights go away. Then there are LPTVs - someone near you recently logged a channel 4 LP analog from south Florida - and even DTV e-skip, which actually works surprisingly well.
History? Not hardly!
Peter Q. George (K1XRB) said:My first TV e-skip experience actually happened in New Hampshire (East Wakefield) in the summer of 1970. I was only 10 years old at the time. We were at our summer cottage and I wanted to see what was on the "tele". Normally we would get a fairly decent (but rather ghosty) picture from WCSH/6, WMTW/8 and WGAN/13. Once in a while, the old WHDH/5 (Boston) would come in after sunset due to some temperature inversions from time to time (as did WGBH/2 and WBZ/4).
BUT, one day while moving down the dial, I saw a practically clear local quality signal on Channel 2. BUT it wasn't "Sesame Street" or "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" , but rather a local weather forecast with a meteorologist pointing to a map of the State of Georgia, with emphasis toward Atlanta. This went on for several minutes with the picture fading in and out, sometimes clear.... other times in the mud. Then I saw the end of the newscast with a few ads. And then the ID....... It was WSB-TV in Atlanta!!! My late Dad said "What have you done to the TV. Leave it alone". But I told him "But Dad, it's from down south in Atlanta, Georgia on Channel 2!". He then told me to "Turn the TV off if you're not going to watch a "NORMAL" station. Get ready for supper". (DAMN!!). But, that was my true first understanding about TV DX'ing and how TV stations from over a 1,000 miles away can be seen from time to time. Good old WSB-TV in Atlanta, a station I would see many times over the next 39 years!!! They were a great verifier!! I've got a nice QSL letter sent to me back in 1981!!
Now, e-skip TV DX'ing is pretty much a part of history. How I'll miss it (...sigh....).
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
Looks like your dad never learned about e-skip or DXing at all!
-crainbebo
Re: What was the first TV station you got over tropo or Eskip that got you into
There were really two occasions, separated by several years.
When I was a young sprout, we had a TV antenna in the attic. I knew that periodically odd things happened, as sometimes I could get New Orleans, and other times, I couldn’t. Further, I saw things occasionally that I couldn’t identify. Finally, one day in the Summer, I saw a channel 2 from Canada. Cool, I thought.
Years later, I had my own TV. I acquired a bow-tie UHF antenna with its reflector in my room, hoping to get channel 26 from New Orleans, the only independent TV station for a couple of hundred miles. Some days, it was clear. Others, it was totally absent.
One day, I found a snow-free signal on channel 26. But, it wasn’t the usual programming I saw from New Orleans. It was an ABC affiliate. Finally, an ID – It was Naples, FL, about 500 miles away. Flipping around, I found other stations from Southwest Florida – Tampa, Sarasota, etc. All were near-local quality.
That got me hooked. I don’t DX TV as I used to. I’m a ham now, and VHF DX is my main focus. But, it’s still cool to look around on TV and find something new.
DE
There were really two occasions, separated by several years.
When I was a young sprout, we had a TV antenna in the attic. I knew that periodically odd things happened, as sometimes I could get New Orleans, and other times, I couldn’t. Further, I saw things occasionally that I couldn’t identify. Finally, one day in the Summer, I saw a channel 2 from Canada. Cool, I thought.
Years later, I had my own TV. I acquired a bow-tie UHF antenna with its reflector in my room, hoping to get channel 26 from New Orleans, the only independent TV station for a couple of hundred miles. Some days, it was clear. Others, it was totally absent.
One day, I found a snow-free signal on channel 26. But, it wasn’t the usual programming I saw from New Orleans. It was an ABC affiliate. Finally, an ID – It was Naples, FL, about 500 miles away. Flipping around, I found other stations from Southwest Florida – Tampa, Sarasota, etc. All were near-local quality.
That got me hooked. I don’t DX TV as I used to. I’m a ham now, and VHF DX is my main focus. But, it’s still cool to look around on TV and find something new.
DE
The first skip I ever received in the Chicago area in the 60s was tropo from Grand Rapids, Mi. Not that far, but then shortly after I was able to catch Minneapolis/St Paul.
Born and raised in rural Mississippi, but in about 1954 I remember my father traded two truckloads of hay for a RCA television, antenna and rotor. The only station that was anywhere close was on UHF and we couldn’t see it until sometime in 1955 when they moved to a VHF channel. My mother said that I would sit in front of the TV for hours on end searching and watching for something through the snow (couldn’t have been; my attention span was not that long). Then one day I ran into the kitchen and excitedly exclaimed “I think I saw something!” Turned out to be WFAA out of Dallas Texas. Soon thereafter when there was more familiarity with the television and rotor we could see WDSU-6 from New Orleans, then WMCT-5 Memphis from time to time then the Birmingham Alabama V’s were usually there after a point, WSB-2 was occasional. Later I correlated this to their relocation of their transmitters to taller towers and increased power. That was the only time I ever saw WFAA but I did see KSWS-8 from Roswell later on about 57 or 58 I think and that was the longest.
As a footnote, it was somewhat of a ‘kick’ when I visited the site of KSWS-TV successor KOBR some thirty-years later as a consultant. They still had the transmitter at Cap Rock that was operational in the 50’s and it had been meticulously maintained and was still serviceable as a standby at that time.Watt Hairston said:
When there was tropo, there would be co-channel interference on the broadcast stations, even on cable. I remember WHDH 7 completely taking over WABC 7 on cable. All the local broadcast channels would be unwatchable on cable because of the interference. And during e-skip, channel 2 and 3 and sometimes 4 would be unwatchable on cable. That all stopped when the cable company got a direct feed from the networks.
Probably summer of 1960, 11 years old, picking up WBAY in Green Bay Wisconsin on Channel 2 from my home in Port Arthur, Texas...seems like there was a lot of e-skip that summer -- but for some reason I remember WBAY...even remember the day of the week and the show that was on -- it was a late Saturday afternoon and WBAY was carrying the CBS show "Perry Mason" -- I was hooked on dx.
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