Best/Strangest DX catches - Page 2 - Videokarma.org TV - Video

matt99 · #1 06-28-2016, 05:15 PM

KMOX from St Louis. The Rockies were playing the Cardinals, and I wanted to see if I could listen to the cardinals radio broadcast. Sure enough I was able to pull it in.

KNX from Los Angeles. I remember they did a traffic update which I thought was pretty funny: "The 405 is a mess, and stay off 101 at all costs." That was it. Being an LA traffic reporter must be one of the most depressing jobs in America.

Receiving these stations is probably not that surprising since their both clear channel stations. But both stations were heard with a crappy 2002 "Lennox Sound" am/fm/cd/cassette boom box with just whatever internal antenna it has.

Now here's one hopefully someone can explain... As a kid, I had a pair of cheap 22-channel walkietalkies my grandparents gave me for my birthday. One day when I was around 7 years old, I got the grand idea of turning on my radio (same one as mentioned above) and leaving one walkietalkie next to it with the talk button held down using a rubber band so I would hearing the radio through my other walkietalkie. I took the second walkietalkie outside and accidentally dropped it on the lawn. When I picked it up, it was on the wrong channel. Must have hit the button when it fell. So I went back to the correct channel and much to my surprise, i heard the opening theme to one of the cartoons I watched back then. I went inside and turned on the tv, and sure enough, that show was on and the walkietalkie was in sync with it. It was on a pbs station I think. So I went upstairs and the radio and other walkietalkie were working just fine. I've never been able to figure out why that walkietalkie played audio from a tv channel for a few seconds, and it never happened again. Analog tv was definitely on the air at this time, walkietalkie must have glitched and picked up the broadcast for a few seconds.

jr_tech · #2 06-29-2016, 12:42 PM

matt99... do you happen to remember what channel the tv station was? There may be some easily calculated relations. For example the audio carrier of channel 5 TV was 81.75 mHz, almost exactly the third harmonic of CB ch 23.

benman94...Nice! I bet you can catch some pretty good dx when the tropo is hot.

jr

wa2ise · #3 06-29-2016, 02:46 PM

Back around 1971 heard a Jesuscaster near 1520KHz from Iowa. I was in New Jersey just outside of NYC. About the only K callsign I ever heard from NJ (aside from the one in Philly).

electronjohn · #4 07-03-2016, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wa2ise

Back around 1971 heard a Jesuscaster near 1520KHz from Iowa. I was in New Jersey just outside of NYC. About the only K callsign I ever heard from NJ (aside from the one in Philly).

I'm betting that was KXEL, Waterloo.

Best catch I ever had was back in the 60s. I had an aircraft receiver that covered approx. 150-400kHz and in the dead of winter with about 800' of wire strung tree to tree picked up Radio Luxembourg on 233kHz.

Of course, they were running about a megawatt or so. That might've helped

uxwbill · #5 07-06-2016, 02:44 AM

I've had the occasional good fortune to catch over the air digital TV broadcasts that were being propagated over a long distance, usually from northern Missouri.

Probably the "best" DXing experience I've ever had, though, was in late 2014. I was cruising down the road, scrolling through the FM dial when suddenly KLOU came in loud and clear! I'm only about 300 miles away in Illinois, so this was quite a surprise and definitely like nothing I'd seen before.

Reception was clear as a bell, and even the RDS data was coming in perfectly.

Luckily I met up with my father and asked to borrow his phone to get some video. The reception window stayed open for hours. I later tried some stereo receivers and (very good) standalone tuners hooked up to an outdoor antenna, but none of them managed the outstanding performance of the radio in my truck.

matt99 · #6 07-02-2016, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jr_tech

matt99... do you happen to remember what channel the tv station was? There may be some easily calculated relations. For example the audio carrier of channel 5 TV was 81.75 mHz, almost exactly the third harmonic of CB ch 23.
jr

I don't remember for sure, but I really wanna say it was PBS, KRMA on channel 6. I know that's the channel that can also be heard on FM 87.7. What do you think?

radio63 · #7 10-20-2016, 06:04 PM

Many years ago, perhaps 25 or so, late one winter night, I picked up station XEW from Mexico City on a Philco model 90 Cathedral radio! I was at my house in San Diego. The antenna was simply a piece of wire connected to an aluminum window frame. Even more amazing was that we have a local station at 910, and XEW is located at 900. The fact they are a 250,000 watt station probably helped too.

Electronic M · #8 06-28-2016, 07:37 PM

It is possible the one transmitting beat against the TV carrier creating a heterodyned image of the TV station in the reception band of the unit receiving....

Dude111 · #9 07-06-2016, 05:12 PM

1 time a friend was up on MT washington NH and a CA station came skipping in for a few mins. (AM) I forgot whether it was LA or San Diego..

He heard it long enough to get a location.......

Robert Grant · #10 07-06-2016, 10:00 PM

The oddest DX catch for me was in the wee hours of the morning on a December day in 1982 (or was it 1983?), when a very good sporadic-E opening was going.

I had been watching a test signal from a TV station in Saskatchewan on channel 3, which was built to repeat a channel 5 station some distance away.

Suddenly, the resolution bar test signal gave way to an ID slide from Channel 5 Chicago (WMAQ-TV), and later test patterns of Channel 5 Cleveland (WEWS) and Channel 5 Bay City (WNEM). I was DXing the DX!

Dude111 · #11 07-06-2016, 11:25 PM

Excellent!!!!

The highest DX I have ever seen is when I was going to a school in Devon PA . At night channel 40 came skipping in but would fade out during the day.... (Channel 40 in maryland I think) It came in pretty much full quieting on rabbit ears!! (This was 1990)

Every night it was there........

OvenMaster · #12 07-07-2016, 12:43 AM

1. Around 1979 or so, living in Western Mass. I picked up WBAY-TV Green Bay WI on channel 2 clear enough to watch and get the ID. Quasar 14" portable color TV with built-in rabbit ears.

2. In 1982 I was living in New Brunswick, Canada, and one evening got a whole ton of FM stations that were clustered around St. Louis for about 20 minutes. Technics SA-222 receiver with a twin-lead FM dipole.

3. Again in New Brunswick, listening to the space shuttle directly as it flew overhead. Panasonic RF-2200 with an ±80 foot wire antenna.

4. ±1988, living in Niagara Falls ON, two solid hours of Detroit UHF TV clear enough to watch. Toshiba 19" color TV with rabbit ears.

5. Until 2003 or so, living in Western Mass. meant analog springtime DXing from Florida, with WJXT in Jacksonville coming in most often, like clockwork on hot days, well enough to ID through windowblinding. GE 25" CTC-177a with amplified RatShack VU-75 roof antenna (yes, the same TV as in my sig).

Dude111 · #13 07-07-2016, 03:12 PM

I remember in the 80s during the summer,every morning channels 2 thru 5 (And sometimes 6) came skipping in.... They mostly all faded by noon......

I miss the good days!!

I LOVE IT WHEN THERE IS A BAND OPENING ON 3 METERS!!!

The last opening was last summer and man was it good one day!!!!!! -- I got 105.1 from MAINE FULL STRENGTH for about 8 hours!!! -- Other stations were in and out but them having thier antenna on a mountain,THEY DID WELL!!!!!!! (They were so strong they came in on my GE superradio also!!! (With just a little whip antenna))

TUD1 · #14 07-09-2016, 08:34 PM

I remember back when Art Bell first aired his new show Midnight in the Desert about a year ago. I looked up what stations were playing it, and I found one in Tennessee on 5.85 MHz. I tuned my Philco 16B in and I could hear it crystal clear. I used to listen to Coast to Coast with George Noory, but I lost interest. That was on WERC 960.

jr_tech · #15 07-10-2016, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TUD1

I remember back when Art Bell first aired his new show Midnight in the Desert about a year ago. I looked up what stations were playing it, and I found one in Tennessee on 5.85 MHz. I tuned my Philco 16B in and I could hear it crystal clear. I used to listen to Coast to Coast with George Noory, but I lost interest. That was on WERC 960.

WTWW is on 5.085 mHz, but from the west coast, IIRC I heard the program better most evenings on WBCQ 7.490 and/or 9.330 mHz. After the shooting drama in December and his recent illness, I doubt that Art will ever return to the air.

jr