TV DX-ing: Watching TV near you

[Charlie]

Wow! The atmosphere was really pulling in TV last night... so much that it was killing all of our local channels! Currently, I am up at my cabin in the woods... roughly 45 miles north of where i live. On average, I only get the Beaumont NBC-4 and CBS-6. ABC-12 never comes in unless I go out and turn the antenna... and even then it's not that great. Got a pretty decent size antenna at least 20 feet in the air. Because of having so many tall pines around here, I need at least that or more. The set is a 10 year old Maggie 25".

Well, last night, every channel had something on it. Channels 2, 11, 8, 13, 20, 26, 39, and 55 from Houston were coming in like they were next door. Channel 6 KRIS from Corpus Christi (300 miles away) was bleeding into our 6 making it unwatchable. Channel 3 KIII from Corpus coming in a little snowy, but not bad. On Channel 10, I was getting video from KLFY Lafayette, LA and audio from KZTV Corpus Christi. That was weird. There were other channels I was never able to identify. Pulled in a channel 5 pretty good... only 5 I know of offhand comes from Dallas/Ft Worth.

Not sure what was going on in the cosmos last night, but, it doesn't seem to be happening tonight. Back to our 4 and 6, but pullin in Houston 2 a little.

Had a really good night like this a couple years back watchin on my '59 Motorola and '63 CM. In fact, if I remember right, that lasted for several nights back then.

Anyone else get any dx-ing last night? Or am i the only one using an antenna?

[Sandy G]

Damn !! I don't have any way to test it-we got cable here 1964-65, and all the TV antennas are long since gone. -Sandy G.

[fredh]

Been that way a couple of nights. Warm days, quick cool down at night, instant coastal ducting. FM stations from Houston and So La. coming in down here as well. Happens here on the coast in the spring and fall. TV stations from Mexico come in strong down here. But still no 6 meter openings. KBMT has a null in their pattern toward the north to protect Ch 12 in Shreveport. They are short-spaced. Tower is located near Vidor.

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by fredh

Warm days, quick cool down at night, instant coastal ducting.

Yeah, the weather has been somewhat squirrelly and out of season lately... got up to 81 here in the woods the other day, then cool down nicely in the evening. Beaumont nearly broke a recored high from 1911 that same day. Today, it seems the temps are getting back to normal for February.

I had figured those couple of warm days might have been the reason for the skip.

Originally Posted by fredh

TV stations from Mexico come in strong down here.

I recall picking up Mexico on channel 7 the last time this happened. I knew it wasn't KPLC in Lake Charles because the news people weren't talking with a coon-ass (cajun) accent. Instead, it was more like Telemundo! Then, there was a station identification that started with something like an X instead of a K or W, so, I figured it was Mexico. I think that's the farthest I've ever picked up.

[drh4683]

call that "tropospheric ducting" and like you said, basically and temperature inversion from cool to warm. Just after a servere thunderstorm or after/durring a tornado warning (when the sky is green) I can DX stations from michican like they are out of chicago. I remember pulling in benton harbor, MI crystal clear last year. Must have been 10PM and milwaukee channel 4 was near perfect too. I also had a local station that broadcast near university of Illinois channel 12 or 8 really clear too. Quad cities came in pretty nice. I can pick up the quad cities very snowy on channel 6 under normal conditions at night. Its fun expecially with a rotor.

Heres a link to a troposheric ducting forcast:

http://home.cogeco.ca/~dxinfo/tropo.html

H.A.A.R.P.

Anthony

[Dynacoman]

OK, That's it . No more Art Bell for yoouse guys.

Jim

Next you're going to tell us that the Atomic Mole people from the Planet Stinky Pinky don't exist? Flash Bazbo, save us!

Anthony

[kc8adu]

i remember 2 here in dayton oh being wiped out by 2 in miami fl.
it windshield wipered about 5 min and took over about 2 min.
takes a helluva signal to stomp a station that close.
this was in the 70's so i hadnt gotten my ticket yet.
just think what 6m woulda been capable of that morning.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Damn !! I don't have any way to test it-we got cable here 1964-65, and all the TV antennas are long since gone. -Sandy G.

Well, when I TV DX, what little time I have to do it with, I use a circa 1966 Sony B&W portable TV, I did get a channel 24 in Indiana once, I have a friend who grew up in Muncie and told me it was the local station he used to watch as a kid. I also have a 1998 Zenith 19" color hooked up to a set of 1959 "Rembrandt" rabbit ears my parents got when they were married that year. I usually get the Cleveland TV station on the VHF bands and can get Akron on UHF along with Morgantown, WV if things are going my way. The Sony has similar performance too.

I once went to Wooster, Ohio to see a friend, on the way back, I had me scanner and picked up my local cops on 460.050 Mc as far away as Canton/Akron and I joked, "I hope we don't hear the cops called to an emergency next door," five minutes later, it happened. I have to watch my mouth at times, sometimes I say thing, then they happen.

[NowhereMan 1966]

One more thing, my buddy and I took those same rabbit ears on my 19" Zenith and hooked them up to our 1982 Zenith, the main TV we have. At the time, WTAE, the ABC affiliate here in Pittsburgh on channel 4 closed down every night at 1 or 1:30 AM so we did managed to get the ABC affiliate on channel 4 out of Washington, DC.

[andy]

I just read an article in a 1958 Radio-Electronics about someone on the East coast of the US receiving TV broadcasts from London, England. He talks about having to modify the set for the 10 kHz horizontal frequency that was used at the time, building a converter for the channel that was at 45MHz and using an old FM radio to receive the audio. The screen shots are pretty amazing for a signal that's traveled 4000 miles. It's too bad they switched to UHF. Apparently 45MHz is about as high as you can go for this kind of DXing.

[JCFitz]

Well I'm relatively new here and I've been reading old threads.I haven't tv DXed for years since I lived with my grandmother and her old 40 foot tower antenna got hit by lightning for the 3rd time and also had the antenna broken a couple of times by wind and the insurance company refused to cover it anymore.I think I wore out a few antenna rotors back then.My grandmother used to say you're gonna twist the knobs off my tv.She had one of the Sylvania GTMatics from the 70's.Anyway I accidentally did some DXing tonight on my little 1982 GE 10AB chassis tv I have near my computer.I live way on the eastern shore of Maryland and all I normally get with the rabbit ears on the set is 3 UHF channels(WBOC channel 16,WMDT47 and the local PBS channel on 28,don't remember the call letters)Anyway channel 16 got really snowy for some reason and I started to play with the rabbit ears and turn the selector back and forth.There was another PBS affiliate coming in pretty strong on channel 15 then I decided to see what I could get.Got another PBS affiliate on 22.A UPN station on 27,a Home shopping channel on 30,An WB station on 33 from Hampton Roads,VA,A Fox station from Richmond ,VA on 35,I think a PBS station on 36,Fox 43 from Virginia again(very clear)Pax on 50 (again very clear),channel 54 from Baltimore(on the weak side but pulling in)On to VHF with another pair of rabbit ears 2-6 nothing but the on 7 I was picking up an NBC affiliate,IO could turn the rabbit ears and also pick up another 7 an ABC station.I think that one comes from Washington ,DC.,Fox 9 from Philadelphia,WAVY 10(NBC)from Virginia,WBAL channel 11 from Baltimore and WJZ 13 plus another NBC affiliate 13 coming in with different orientation of the rabbit ears.After some playing around I was able to very faintly see a sight for sore eyes WMAR 2 from Baltimore.It used to be on cable around here but I guess WMDT47 won the fight to be the only ABC station on the cable around here.On the local cable(I can't get it,too far out) they even block out Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy on Fox 5 and 9 so you have to watch them on WMDT (channel 7 on the cable)even though they come on at different times.And very faintly pulled in Fox 5 from Washington DC.I pulled on all those stations with just ordinary run of the mill rabbit ears.It's been hotter than normal and humid(thanks to Ophelia) and getting foggy at night.This morning it was very foggy.Most of the stations I picked up were over 100 miles away.

[OvenMaster]

Whenever I see horizontal interference bars on my local Channel 3 I know it's DX'ing time for channels 2 thru 6 and sometimes FM. I live in New England, and have an outdoor antenna, and Channel 4 WJAX in Jacksonville FL and KARK in Little Rock AR are rather repeats for me every spring, especially when warm fronts moved around south of us. FM is a blast, occasionally getting as far as St. Louis, over 1,000 miles.
Tom

[bgadow]

I had been wondering how the dx was farther east from here. Will a good outdoor antenna pull in Baltimore/Washington down your way, JC? I would love to have a nice setup with a rotor but other priorities right now. I had lots of fun as a kid, getting up early on Saturday morning & seeing what I could pull in as the stations came on the air. Well, I couldn't get myself up that early anymore anyhow!