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Your clearest very far analog/digital TV DX
- Thread starter Thisi
- Start date
On Long Island, the apartments where I lived had one antenna on the roof. One afternoon at ~ 2:00, in was coning some thing from one of the Dakotas on channel 2. From Sioux-someplace iIrc.
Here in NE PA, I bought a $45 Radio Shack-job aerial that, impatiently installed barely cleared the kitchen roof, let alone the house's roof. First station I got, about 1 PM, and clearer than all the Philly & Scranton/W-B stations, was that pest WFTL channel 2 from Fort Lauderdale.
Subsequently, a larger, taller antenna was good, but just for tropo catches from DC, Baltimore and York PA. See, we don;t watch much TV. Too many one-'sublimnal-strobe'-per second commercials. Gives me a headache.
Here in NE PA, I bought a $45 Radio Shack-job aerial that, impatiently installed barely cleared the kitchen roof, let alone the house's roof. First station I got, about 1 PM, and clearer than all the Philly & Scranton/W-B stations, was that pest WFTL channel 2 from Fort Lauderdale.
Subsequently, a larger, taller antenna was good, but just for tropo catches from DC, Baltimore and York PA. See, we don;t watch much TV. Too many one-'sublimnal-strobe'-per second commercials. Gives me a headache.
Nothing to report from my current location as I've never had an antenna. I wish I had my teenage-hood logbook, from my town in West Central Ohio, with an antenna pointed to Fort Wayne on the UHF side, I had a station in Wausau, WI via tropo. VHF, the antenna pointed southeast toward Dayton, my furthest E-Skip catches were Cuba.
I was only a kid, but I still remember the day WESH in Orlando came rolling in on Channel 2 in suburban Boston one morning before WGBH signed on. That was on the rabbit ears, as we never had an outdoor antenna. Best DX with the UHF loop antenna was a few years later, WPHL Philadelphia on Channel 17 with a Phillies game, and a number of other UHF signals from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
When I lived with my parents near Fyersburg, TN and we had a tall antenna in the 80's I can remember getting WTVA 9 in Tupelo and ABC 33/40 from Birmingham.
That should have been Dyersburg, Sorry.
KSBW Monterey would have been the furthest signal I have gotten in Fairfield, CA in the 1990's on rabbit ears when DXing. But then again this is a rare case where I was able to get a TV signal that was not from Sacramento or San Francisco.
WGBH carried in-school programs in the morning, except in the summer - which was perfect when I was home on school vacation. While not tall, we had a roof antenna on a rotor (mainly to get Manchester and Providence).
I also received WESH, WBRZ (Baton Rouge), and others. However the one that got away (a few times) was a very basic Spanish one-camera (I think) black and white newscast, which I always assumed was Cuba, but they never showed any ID.
One of the better e-skip openings brought in KID-TV 3 Idaho Falls, a 1,238-mile jaunt. Nice clear ID on a weekend afternoon. Miami, Fla., from which I picked up 2, 4 and 6 in analog (2 on the day of the shutdown airing the nightlight announcement) over the years, is 1,179 miles in comparison.
That channel 2 was likely KDIX-TV (Now KXMA-TV), Dickinson, ND.
I remember seeing color bars at midday on 3 or 4 on several occasions and assumed it was Cuba, but could never prove it.
When I lived in New Jersey, channel 2 from Miami was quite common on many summer days and often the picture quality was perfect.
I don't know it it had anything to do with receiving it on my big antenna in the attic and then on the roof that was aimed at New York.
When I lived in Florida before digital TV, channel 2 from San Juan showed up a few times but the picture quality wasn't that great.
That was on my rabbit ears.
I don't know it it had anything to do with receiving it on my big antenna in the attic and then on the roof that was aimed at New York.
When I lived in Florida before digital TV, channel 2 from San Juan showed up a few times but the picture quality wasn't that great.
That was on my rabbit ears.
For me in the Chicago area, it was WEDU-TV on channel 3 from Tampa-St. Pete one morning back in the early 60s. About ten years later, I caught WDBO-TV from Orlando on channel 6. Also early morning.
In reverse: In 1976, I was working in the newsroom at WHBF-TV Channel 4 in the Quad Citirs (Illinois-Iowa) when I took a call from a Sheriff's dispatcher in Rural Utah who was watching our CBS morning programming.
In reverse: In 1976, I was working in the newsroom at WHBF-TV Channel 4 in the Quad Citirs (Illinois-Iowa) when I took a call from a Sheriff's dispatcher in Rural Utah who was watching our CBS morning programming.
3 and 6 was where I got Cuba, and I remember the test pattern with a palm tree and HABANA CUBA, and sign on being midday. I actually remember a cartoon, very political, and it involved a kid helping with a revolution. As the heroic revolutionaries were about to overthrow el gobierno de whoever the imperialist was, and the kid is in a plane barking out commands into a mic. Next thing you know, crowds are in the street as the imperialist guy is deposed and Communism takes over.
It was December 1971, on a Saturday afternoon, still daytime. Maybe 5 of us, all radio guys and gals from three different stations, had a house in Middle Island, out exactly in the middle of Long Island, N-S and E-W, in the woods. There was a B&W TV connected to a pitiful aerial that SAT on the front lawn. No kidding ; it looked like a wrecked paperboy's first bicycle.
Usually, we'd get only one TV station clear -- 'local' WTNH ch 8 New Haven, across the Sound.
Naturally, we were getting good TV stuff that afternoon.
I don't recall what was on channel 2. On channel 4 some weather guy was pointing to a map of a state later IDed by one of us as 'Louisiana'. Channel 5 was airing a Mississippi football game. It might've been against Georgia Tech.
Channel 3 had a cacophany of hams or CBers talking and drawling and sho-nuffing and good buddyin and y'all'in and ten-four'in. No video at all.
When E-skip decides to get wound up, no terrestrial TV aerial or audience was safe.
Usually, we'd get only one TV station clear -- 'local' WTNH ch 8 New Haven, across the Sound.
Naturally, we were getting good TV stuff that afternoon.
I don't recall what was on channel 2. On channel 4 some weather guy was pointing to a map of a state later IDed by one of us as 'Louisiana'. Channel 5 was airing a Mississippi football game. It might've been against Georgia Tech.
Channel 3 had a cacophany of hams or CBers talking and drawling and sho-nuffing and good buddyin and y'all'in and ten-four'in. No video at all.
When E-skip decides to get wound up, no terrestrial TV aerial or audience was safe.
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Steve is right. I'll bet that Channel 4 was WWL New Orleans.
There was summer E-skip, and the mid-winter batch as well. CBS is (was on analog) on Channel 2 in Chicago, and it seemed like every other year, the familiar venetian blind effect would roll in during the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day. With 3, 4 and occasionally 6 active on good days, I had plenty to pick from.
My E-skip range was from about 400 miles (very short for Es) to over 1,200 miles, Idaho-Montana-Colorado-New Mexico (plus Saskatchewan, where a low-power CBC relay came in clear as a bell one night) the most distant to the west, all the Gulf Coast states to the south, and Quebec, Ontario and New York (audio of WCBS over WBBM-2 here, managed by holding the rabbit ears just so) to the east. Southeast was relatively empty in comparison.
I've mentioned it before, but one early evening in 1977 or 1978 conditions were so good and I was so fast with the clicker I got the WCBS audio ID, then hit 3 for another station (maybe KYUS Miles City), then 4 for KOA's ID in color with the infamous N logo of NBC. All in about five seconds. So someone on either end might have experienced double-hop.
With only rabbit ears for most of the way, tropo was less productive, but with the right conditions WTMJ-4 was a regular, other Milwaukees semi-regular, and VHF and UHFs from Michigan to Iowa spotted often. It seemed like the three 13s I was between (Rockford, Grand Rapids and Indianapolis) had a near-nightly shootout for supremacy. The same was probably happening on 6 between Davenport, Milwaukee and Indianapolis, but that was harder to tune in with WMAQ-5 adjacent, and I didn't have an FM radio that could tune to 87.75 as far as I knew. Getting WOOD-8 Grand Rapids was the most difficult, since it had to fight through local 7 and 9 from the same direction. UHF distances ranged from Fort Wayne to Dubuque. By the time I put up a tower, I was working too many nights to take full advantage of it.
There was summer E-skip, and the mid-winter batch as well. CBS is (was on analog) on Channel 2 in Chicago, and it seemed like every other year, the familiar venetian blind effect would roll in during the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Day. With 3, 4 and occasionally 6 active on good days, I had plenty to pick from.
My E-skip range was from about 400 miles (very short for Es) to over 1,200 miles, Idaho-Montana-Colorado-New Mexico (plus Saskatchewan, where a low-power CBC relay came in clear as a bell one night) the most distant to the west, all the Gulf Coast states to the south, and Quebec, Ontario and New York (audio of WCBS over WBBM-2 here, managed by holding the rabbit ears just so) to the east. Southeast was relatively empty in comparison.
I've mentioned it before, but one early evening in 1977 or 1978 conditions were so good and I was so fast with the clicker I got the WCBS audio ID, then hit 3 for another station (maybe KYUS Miles City), then 4 for KOA's ID in color with the infamous N logo of NBC. All in about five seconds. So someone on either end might have experienced double-hop.
With only rabbit ears for most of the way, tropo was less productive, but with the right conditions WTMJ-4 was a regular, other Milwaukees semi-regular, and VHF and UHFs from Michigan to Iowa spotted often. It seemed like the three 13s I was between (Rockford, Grand Rapids and Indianapolis) had a near-nightly shootout for supremacy. The same was probably happening on 6 between Davenport, Milwaukee and Indianapolis, but that was harder to tune in with WMAQ-5 adjacent, and I didn't have an FM radio that could tune to 87.75 as far as I knew. Getting WOOD-8 Grand Rapids was the most difficult, since it had to fight through local 7 and 9 from the same direction. UHF distances ranged from Fort Wayne to Dubuque. By the time I put up a tower, I was working too many nights to take full advantage of it.
In the 80's, I never heard about E's or Tropo...I was always interested in long distant TV & Radio
In my room, I had Ch. 13 KOVR Sacramento clear one evening in Pacifica, don't know the year
I never had anything far
In my room, I had Ch. 13 KOVR Sacramento clear one evening in Pacifica, don't know the year
I never had anything far
I can remember getting TV stations by ESkip with an announcer either saying "Some viewers may be receiving skywave interference" or a "bug" indicating the same thing.
I also remember working at a TV station in Lafayette IN during tropo so strong, we couldn't monitor ourselves off the air.
I also remember working at a TV station in Lafayette IN during tropo so strong, we couldn't monitor ourselves off the air.
WBBM made that announcement at least once on a newscast one E-skip-heavy summer.
You worked at WLFI? That was the toughest station near Chicago to DX because of its directional antenna. Only got it a handful of times. WVTV Milwaukee was the usual suspect on 18.
Yes I did, in the 90s. We still signed off overnight then, and either WVTV or WLEX would often make an appearance on the studio monitors (the monitor antenna on the STL tower was great for DXing UHF. We could get WICD-15 Champaign full quieting ).
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