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Your clearest very far analog/digital TV DX
- Thread starter Thisi
- Start date
That is interesting to get Channel 2 Miami from New Jersey when WCBS-TV New York was off the air.
WBBM-TV, Channel 2 had the "venitian blinds" effect at least 50% of the time at my location 40 miles out. I saw that slide calling out interference quite a few times. Usually the culprit was WBAY-TV in Green Bay.
I remember WBAY-TV interfering with WBBM-TV as well. Also 101.1 FM in Green Bay used to overtake 101.1 FM in Chicago which at that time was WMAQ-FM.
When WLW-D (later WDTN) Dayton was co-owned with WLW-T the power was kept low, so we had venetian blinds and "video static" often. The nearest other "2" was Detroit and I don't remember getting it (it's possible). but I remember watching cable (still with off-air pickup) and Detroit's channel 7 interfering with WHIO.
Channel 2 never went off the air.
I was 80 miles away and the E Skip conditions were so good that channel 2 from New York was completely over powered by channel 2 from Miami.
During good tropo conditions, sometimes the Baltimore and Washington VHF channels would knock out the New York channels on the same frequencies even though my antenna was pointed at New York.
With an indoor antenna in Old Orchard Beach, ME...1986...first e-skip station I received was channel 2 from Charleston, SC. Initially thought it was channel 2 from Bangor (NBC) or Boston (PBS). A later common catch by 1987 was WPBT-TV (PBS) channel 2 of Miami.
Here in Connecticut, my most common catches were either channel 2 from Daytona Beach/Orlando and KGAN-TV (CBS) channel 2 from Cedar Rapids, IA. Also got Saint Joseph, MO a lot.
Here in Connecticut, my most common catches were either channel 2 from Daytona Beach/Orlando and KGAN-TV (CBS) channel 2 from Cedar Rapids, IA. Also got Saint Joseph, MO a lot.
Sometimes I hate living in California
DXing better on the East Coast in the Summer
DXing better on the East Coast in the Summer
In the early days of TV, Bob Cooper lived in California and on a good e-skip day could see Channel 2s signing on the East Coast and then the Midwest. It had to be amazing. (Cooper later made home satellite TV popular, which is amazing in itself.)
Is it because we are in an area where we happen to be on the border of two TV markets like Sacramento and San Francisco. The rare non Sacramento or San Francisco related TV station I was able to get was KSBW-TV Monterey from my location.
With Radio on the other hand I was able to get not just Wine Country, San Francisco and Sacramento area signals but also Fresno, Reno, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Salt Lake City.
Channel 2 was the worst channel during the analog era, without a doubt, unless you were into DX. Interesting for us, but generally just frustrating for everyone else.
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Interference from afar is a big reason there's no Channel 1. Even Channel 2 was moved up the dial a bit from its original spot, but still got socked by co-channel from other 2s near (tropo) and far (E-Skip and F2).
Here in the Bay Area, I was able to pick up channel 50 out of Santa Rosa ( I can't remember the call letters ) here in southern San Jose a few times. It wasn't always their, but when it was, I could watch it.
Another station that would come and go was channel 40 out of Sacramento. One day, I came home from School to watch cartoons, and there was channel 40 KTXL ( He-Man or Thunder Cats, I cant remember ), and this was on the dipole antenna of a radio shack 5" B/W TV.
Back in the Day of analog, TV was fun to DX. We had a large outdoor antenna (about 20Ft high), but unfortunately we did not have a rotor. I would get up on the roof and move the antenna every so often (about 3-5 degrees is all I had) to point in certain directions. I remember pulling in KRCA channel 3 out of Sacramento. Our Neighbors had the exact same antenna and hieght and they had a rotor. They told me they could pick up almost all the Sacramento stations.
fun times!!!
Here's a cool website for TV. I wish there one with maps like this, for FM...
Another station that would come and go was channel 40 out of Sacramento. One day, I came home from School to watch cartoons, and there was channel 40 KTXL ( He-Man or Thunder Cats, I cant remember ), and this was on the dipole antenna of a radio shack 5" B/W TV.
Back in the Day of analog, TV was fun to DX. We had a large outdoor antenna (about 20Ft high), but unfortunately we did not have a rotor. I would get up on the roof and move the antenna every so often (about 3-5 degrees is all I had) to point in certain directions. I remember pulling in KRCA channel 3 out of Sacramento. Our Neighbors had the exact same antenna and hieght and they had a rotor. They told me they could pick up almost all the Sacramento stations.
fun times!!!
Here's a cool website for TV. I wish there one with maps like this, for FM...
I think before 86 or so I went to my Mom's friends house in Campbell, She had a Outside Antenna with a Rotor, She got 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 & 13, I was Happy..I think it was Summertime
I lived in Pacifca til 97
Wow, so you got all the VHF stations from Sacramento and Bay Area. What were you able to pick up on UHF? A rotor on a roof mounted antenna must have been a blast, not just for TV, but for FM DX as well.. Didn't forget about our neighbors to the south, they had some OK stations as well. Until KSBW changed there radiation pattern (Thanks KRON- you Jack O' hats manure!!), there signal flooded the south bay. Heck, I can see there transmitter were I sit.
There used to be a KFTY Santa Rosa but that spot is now known as KEMO-TV 50 an Estrella affiliate. KFTY changed owners and affiliation a decade ago.
Here are a few sites used by earlier cable operators to receive distant over the air signals, including a 360 foot long reflector antenna picking up the San Francisco stations more than 100 miles away for GE Cablevision in Merced:
The old catv equipment museum
The old catv equipment museum
Unfortunately TVFool has not been updated recently. You might also like to try:
https://www.rabbitears.info/
Nice link. Thanks.
It's important to remember that "cable" started out as CATV, or Community Antenna TeleVision. In rural valleys in PA or remote towns in Oregon or wherever there were no nearby TV stations, people in communities co-financed antenna installations on tall towers, hilltops or both and distributed the signals to the homes that could not otherwise get any TV station.
Initially, all those systems did was bring nearby larger market signals into unserved areas. I know site visitor Michael H. lived in very rural CA, surrounded by mountains with no local TV and perhaps he can describe more of how CATV systems worked.
It would be several decades later that cable systems started to offer a wider range of channels, bringing in independent channels from more distant markets. And it was not until the end of the 70's that we got WTBS, and then we got MTV (1982) and other superstitions and movie channels appeared in that era. But for the better part of three decades, CATV was simply intended to bring signals into areas with none.
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