Just one month left of analog NTSC (again)

[wilkes85]

I'm in Canada, but maybe the stations here are powering down their transmitters. 2 channels have shitty recepton, and the other one has a little snow, as well as the french channel.

[wb2mep]

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

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

[wajobu]

We used to get CBS (WFSB 3) and ABC (WTNH 8) affiliates here in southern rural CT...in analog...not perfect, but it was watchable. My indoor homebrew DTV antenna doesn't pick them up (over 30 miles away); so TV is gone I suspect that we'll get signals again once the leaves are off the trees. I get below a signal level of 30 on a few stations, but not enough to get a steady picture. During this past winter (with the leaves off the trees) we got a couple of info-mercial type stations, and sometimes CPTV (Public TV).

Goodbye to TV

I think that the FCC seriously mis-calculated those of us that don't have or want rooftop antennas or cable/satellite TV. Something just doesn't seem right about having a signal (reliable) one day, and then it's gone the next. Also, digital signals are very sensitive to bad weather--not good for weather alerts.