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Originally Posted by N9ZQA
Just sitting here before leaving for work and decided to rescan the bedroom TV to see what's happening in the Chicago market. Noticed co-channel interference on channel 2 analog, which usually means tropo from Milwaukee.
Switching to channel 4 doesn't get me Milwaukee, but WWL in New Orleans! It's been coming and going about every 15-20 seconds but is in color and moderately clear when it does come in. Google Maps gives me a distance of around 900 miles - and this is off of the backside of my attic-mounted antenna.
I remember seeing a lot of analog DX back in the late 80's/early 90's and thought it was impressive to get a signal from a couple hundred miles away, but this has them beat.
Won't get to see most of the transitions today; I'll be at work. Thought about bringing the laptop with a tuner stick, but have too much to do. One I don't want to miss, though, is WCIU (26) here in Chicago. They're running a special at (I think) 11:45PM for their signoff. They are the first analog UHF to sign on in Chicago (1964), and will be the last to sign off (although WFLD-32 is supposed to be doing nightlight duty).
-Jim
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Well, today (6/12)was the best day for Sporadic-E skip in the last 10+ years! I work nights, and had been working some long hours on top of that, so I missed our first analog sign-offs, Chans. 2 and 18 at 9:00 AM. As soon as I got in the door, I flipped on the 12" Samsung B&W in the kitchen, and WESH Chan. 2 had their static message about needing a converter box to continue watching their station, but I noticed some co-channel interference lines. I flipped around, and found a message on Chan. 5: "THERE IS NO MORE ANALOG TELEVISION", but couldn't make out the call sign in fine print below.
I went to the bedroom and turned on the knob-tuned GE PC-chassis set connected to the outside antenna, turned the antenna North, and found out it was WNEM, from Bay City, Michigan. I also picked up WTAE Chan. 4, from Pittsburgh PA. When our local CBS Chan. 6 WKMG went off the air at 12:30 PM, I got a snowy FOX 6 from Milwaukee WI.
Over about the next hour, I picked up KSTP Ch. 5 from St. Paul Minnesota, Canadian stations on Chan. 5 & 6 (Global TV), WTMJ Ch. 4 from Milwaukee. They had already signed off and had a static screen with a big TMJ 4 logo. Came in good for almost a whole hour. Also got WKYC Ch. 3 from Cleveland. they were giving directions on places to go to get DTV help.
By 2:00 PM it all died out. Our local Chan. 6 came back on in the afternoon, running the "how to hook up a converter box" video. They'll be running it until July 12.
It would be great if we got a few more days of Sporadic-E. With most of the stations gone, and most of the remaining ones showing just a text screen, it'll be easy to ID the stations.
Mike