HFU HF Underground
Loggings => TV DX Loggings => Topic started by: Tom S on October 12, 2012, 2111 UTC
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Just gotta say I miss analog TV and picking up TV channel 2 on my Icom R75 on 59.750 MHZ a few years back. Best TV DX I had was hearing a station located in Eastern Virginia. Funny how the Sporadic-E was that day, I could hear two different stations by switching between a vertical and horizontal antenna, and only one station was audible on either antenna.
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I used to live in NW Missouri, and I did a lot of TV DX there. I had a handheld B&W Sony TV with just a whip antenna, but on a good evening I could pick up stations from all over the Midwest, as far away as OK and TX. The nice thing about having a handheld TV was that I could walk all over the house and outside, searching for the best signal, something that's kind of hard to do with a full-sized TV.
I know that there are portable digital TVs now; maybe I'll get one and see what I can manage to DX these days...
quote author=Tom S link=topic=8442.msg23162#msg23162 date=1350076304]
Just gotta say I miss analog TV and picking up TV channel 2 on my Icom R75 on 59.750 MHZ a few years back. Best TV DX I had was hearing a station located in Eastern Virginia. Funny how the Sporadic-E was that day, I could hear two different stations by switching between a vertical and horizontal antenna, and only one station was audible on either antenna.
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Funny, I was thinking earlier tonight that I've nearly forgotten what analog TV actually looked like when we used to watch it. I'm already used to the look of over the air digital TV. All those blurry figures, how did we live through it?
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Yeah, and not to mention snow on the screen when the station was weak.
I've never tried digital TV DXing but I'm guessing it will be pretty hard because most digital receivers will blank out when a signal is too weak. With the old analog signals you could at least see *something* through the snow.
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Last month I was doing a scan and caught KUDF-LP on channel 14, an analog Azteca America out of Tucson AZ, 109 mi from my location in Phoenix. KUDF is analog Maximum ERP: 9.990 kW. I thought I was catching Mexico :-[ at first. I am using a Clearstream 4 UHF antenna about 30' above ground. The signal was poor at best. Yes, I too miss analog TV a lot! It is (was...) a lot of fun TV dxing. I currently receive some Tucson stations well with my antenna and sometimes catch some 2edge digital stations about 105 miles away. I am in a condo and on 2nd floor and have great envy for my top floor neighbors who must get great reception considering they are about 70 feet above average terrain.
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I used to get three LA TV stations in the 1980s, but that was only 200+ miles away. I miss Tom Hatten running Popeye cartoons on Saturday mornings and some Hollywood flick at 1pm on KTLA, much as I miss the sleazy charm of Bill Balence's AM radio call in show.
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I miss Captain Chesapeake here in Baltimore. And Count Gore de Vol hosting Creature Feature. Interesting television is long gone, I'm afraid.
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I miss Captain Chesapeake here in Baltimore. And Count Gore de Vol hosting Creature Feature. Interesting television is long gone, I'm afraid.
TV Pow!
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Used to love to do TV DX back over the past 20 years or so. Now its hard enough to get decent signals from the local TV stations whose towers are only about 25 to 30 miles away without losing some of the signal. I recently moved to the semi country from an old inner ring suburb of my local 1 million population city. At that place, I would get about 30 channels but now its down to about 15. I remember getting DX TV from nearly 1000 miles away down in Dallas TX during the late 80s on occasion. It was often that I would pick up the relatively nearby stations of 100 to 150 miles just about every morning and sometimes even. Or even picking up FM stations from Florida in the Midwest. Now they've pretty much messed up the spectrum with Digital TV in addition I know people in this area who live in hilly areas that can pretty much forget about getting the local channels unless they subscribe to one of the cable networks or one of the satellite providers. Frankly it stinks.
At least we're closer to getting rid of that monstrosity called IBOC as many stations have abandoned it. Its about like the HD Radio craze that hit about oh what was it 2004 to 2007. Now you hardly hear about it. At least I can still do some AM DX and listen to the 50kw flamethrowers on AM. Really cool when you can pick up overseas AM from here in the Midwest. Anyway, new to the group here but been listening to AM, SW, HF for about 25 years or so.
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Used to love to do TV DX back over the past 20 years or so. Now its hard enough to get decent signals from the local TV stations whose towers are only about 25 to 30 miles away without losing some of the signal. I recently moved to the semi country from an old inner ring suburb of my local 1 million population city. At that place, I would get about 30 channels but now its down to about 15. I remember getting DX TV from nearly 1000 miles away down in Dallas TX during the late 80s on occasion....
I second your idea; while I like some of the digital subchannels, there was something extremely cool in picking up a station in another town. I didn't mind that the TV would sometimes turn into a radio (or you would see a picture but hear no sound.) I was too much of a dumbass as a kid to ask my father to buy a signal booster (antenna amp); we could've gotten stuff from Las Vegas or Mexico City if the spectrum were willing.
Digital TV sucks because it can't take any bottoming-out of the signal. I have to use a signal booster to get in the locals now.
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I miss Captain Chesapeake here in Baltimore. And Count Gore de Vol hosting Creature Feature. Interesting television is long gone, I'm afraid.
I miss Captain Kangaroo! Mom and Dad could always plop us kids in front of the tube, with the Captain on, assured of the fact that we were watching wholesome, educational, interesting programming such as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et6Jt2YX44o
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Just gotta say I miss analog TV and picking up TV channel 2 on my Icom R75 on 59.750 MHZ a few years back. Best TV DX I had was hearing a station located in Eastern Virginia. Funny how the Sporadic-E was that day, I could hear two different stations by switching between a vertical and horizontal antenna, and only one station was audible on either antenna.
You an me both... I remember back in the late 1950's when I was living in Gilford, Maine my brother and I would tune around the lower TV channels and receive stuff from all over the US. Mostly from the east coast but one day we got a very solid signal from Texas... The latter lasted about 10 minutes then a station from Rhode Island came booming in...
"Those were the days my friend... we thought they'd never end... "
73 vince ka1iic
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When I was living in Michigan for a few years in 2005-2007, because it's so flat, I was picking up on my Sony Bravia 32" LCD set, 13 digital TV channels, plus another 25-28 analog channels from Michigan, Canada & Ohio... Using only a pair of rabbit ears bungee-corded horizontally to a vent in the wall near the ceiling! Now I live in NJ, analog TV is gone, I'm midway between Atlantic City & Philly, and too far from either to pick either up, so now I get nothing... Absolutely nothing on my TV!! And I refuse to pay for cable because its a waste, so I listen to shortwave, or watch YouTube or DVD/Blu-Ray. And I really don't miss it, but I do miss analog TV... Picking up 40 channels on your TV without cable?? Yeah, I can live with that...
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I've done some research and have read that the LPTV movement is coming along and there are people trying to keep good ol' analog tv alive as best they can. Becuase as Mentholptus said Digital t.v sucks! I'm right next to philly and have problems picking up the signal even though im using a pro antenna
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"using a pro antenna"
a ???
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I used to get three LA TV stations in the 1980s, but that was only 200+ miles away. I miss Tom Hatten running Popeye cartoons on Saturday mornings and some Hollywood flick at 1pm on KTLA, much as I miss the sleazy charm of Bill Balence's AM radio call in show.
Bump - Wow does this bring back memories!! I'll never forget Tom Hatten and his drawings. He is still alive, thank goodness.
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Big ten four good buddy. I remember picking up CHSJ from St John New Brunswick Canada back in the early 1960's when I was in high school. I forget what channel it was on. My location then as now was in Mt Prospect, IL 20 miles (32km) NW of downtown Chicago (but different house). Another time in the early 60's CBS2 in Chicago was unwatchable so I got out the ladder, got up on the roof and turned the antenna west. 2 channel 2's from Montana and another state took turns coming in with different programming. 3, 4, 5, and 6 were also full of stations. 7 - 13 not so much. 25 or 30 years ago I turned on the set on a Sunday morn and the dial was full of skip from 2 to 69. It was a real eye opener about what religious programming the rest of the USA watches. The hellfire and brimstone hucksters were nauseating. By contrast Sunday morning religious programming in Chicago was quite tame, mostly Catholic and some Jewish (yes this was Sunday). BTW, One time 2 years ago I did a rescan on my 40 inch 1080i TV and suddenly I was getting 16 and 22 from South Bend IN which is in the same direction as Chicago. Oh, one more, some years back I got a channel 4 from Quebec in French with a news program.
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Adjusting the rabbit ear antenna on top of the TV set at the age of 8 and I never looked back. I only kept shooting dx
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Great post from William Hassig
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Yesterday 22 Nov 2017 was the 30th anniversary of the infamous "Max Headroom" hack of both WGN-TV channel 9 and WTTW channel 11. On the 10 o'clock news on WGN-TV they ran a story of the event. They showed off-air tapes from both stations. Back then CH9 was able to quickly change microwave frequencies between their north side studios to their downtown Chicago transmitter and the sports guy who was on at time said he didn't know what that was then kept going. 2 hours later during Dr Who, CH11 got hacked for 2 minutes and this time there was sound. CH11 was not able to switch microwave freqs in 1987 and had to endure a full 2 minutes of Max Headroom, including Max getting spanked by a female on his bare butt with a fly swatter. I recorded last nights story on DVD.
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I was watching TV while at home sick one day during my teenage in the mid-1970s Our central Florida local tv channel 2 (WESH-tv) went off the air suddenly while I was eating lunch.
At that moment, a slightly grainy but very readable image appeared on my TV : CBFT, Montreal Canada. The image persisted, so I had plenty of time to see it (and impression made on me!) and figure out that 6 meter propagation was hot. There was perhaps part of a commercial airing from CBFT up next before WESH-TV returned to the air.
That was my first and only TV DX.
Dag
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Well, I certainly miss DX'ing TV stations. (And even working at one that has been DX'ed.) Doubt that Sporadic E leftover DTV VHF Low Band stations will be seen by anything, except as signal traces on a spectrum analyzer. However, VHF High Band and all those DTV UHF stations can, and are, being DX'ed via tropo and temperature inversions often. So, TV DX isn't dead, but it is somewhat modified. I understand that analog TV DX'ing can still be had from Mexico. (I believe that Canada has swapped over to all DTV at this point. Is there anyone up there to verify that?) I still watch analog TV. How? I still have a DVD-R burner that has an ATSC 1.0 tuner in it from 2006, and I run that to a UHF CATV transmitter and a custom UHF dipole and watch what I want off-air on leftover analog NTSC TV's, that look perfectly fine still. I still have a B&W 5" portable TV from 1979 that I've shown off to kids. I feel so old now! I still remember when having a color TV was a big deal, since the 1st color TV in our immediate family didn't come in until 1975. So, can I make it a big deal to have a B&W TV today. (Some kids think it's neat, while other ask how can I watch that.) Now, we are going into ATSC 3.0. (So, what happened to 2.0?) https://nocable.org/news/atsc-3-0-the-next-generation-ota-tv-launches-in-late-2018 Now, just what kind of fuster cluck that will cause for broadcasters and the rest of us consumers is anyone's guess.
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I too remember when color TV came in mid-seventies and it was a big deal at my house. Remote control was an exotic luxury! ;D
I used to DX Mexico around here all the time twenty years ago... pick up those Mexican league baseball games, which were just the coolest. Hermosillo station, I believe. If they haven't gone to dig then suppose one could do it today, but I have no TV... I think the b/w TV sounds like a good idea/fashion statement, etc.
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I too remember when color TV came in mid-seventies and it was a big deal at my house. Remote control was an exotic luxury! ;D
I used to DX Mexico around here all the time twenty years ago... pick up those Mexican league baseball games, which were just the coolest. Hermosillo station, I believe. If they haven't gone to dig then suppose one could do it today, but I have no TV... I think the b/w TV sounds like a good idea/fashion statement, etc.
oh, you reminded me of the remote control that used no batteries, jiggling you car keys changed the tv channel, lol.
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Zenith Space Command, not to be confused with Space Force. The buttons activated little hammers that hit steel bars of different lengths producing ultrasonic sound.
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"Zenith Space Command"... doubtless rated number one by an ancient tome called Consumer Reports, the true badge of quality (sic)! The tactile _feel_ of those bars and hammers, ahhhh... :P
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Awh yeah... Back in 1978, my cousins, whom had a 25V Zenith Console TV, grabbed the Space Command remote, took me across the street over 100ft away, and we changed channels through the screen door from across the street. I have one of those that I've liberated from a 19V 1979 set. I was going to see if I could MOD / DEMOD ultrasonic some day. I wanna' try one of these millenniums. I'd bet that US Patent is up for grabs now.
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Awh yeah... Back in 1978, my cousins, whom had a 25V Zenith Console TV, grabbed the Space Command remote, took me across the street over 100ft away, and we changed channels through the screen door from across the street. I have one of those that I've liberated from a 19V 1979 set. I was going to see if I could MOD / DEMOD ultrasonic some day. I wanna' try one of these millenniums. I'd bet that US Patent is up for grabs now.
that reminds me of a prank i played on my friend at night.
it was very dark outside, i walked up to his living room window and observed him watching a movie on the VCR.
i had the same remote and brought it with me.
i kept pressing the "stop" button, he eventually got frustrated, threw the remote and literally kicked the VCR while i laughed.
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A buddy of mine had some "Clapper" like circuits he built between his TV, the lamps, his stereo, and their power outlets. (This would have been about '79) He'd wait until everyone was baked , then snap his fingers while yelling at his cat and it was lights outs. People would be absolutely spooked! I saw guys go running up the stairs when he would do it. Then he'd snap his fingers blame the cat and the lights were on. It was freakin' hilarious.
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2019 .. if it produces anything will likely be my last tv dx season
The Russian analogue switch off will not be complete by this years e season.
Theres also some Ukrainian txs around Odessa and some in Russian occupied Donbass.
There is the Afghanistan tx on 48.25 but i never receive that, a friend in Germany does though
If its a poor season then 2018 will have been my final fling
I recorded lots of Russian TV signals in the 77-93 mhz range
As I/Q files
77.25 may be strong enough to recover a picture on playback with sdr# and the TV plugin.
My friend peter wilson is attempting it see skywaves forum-tv dx subforum- atv thread
Please feel free to experiment with my iq files
Some amazing dx from asia was logged on the Greece remote tuner last year by Australian dxer Todd Emslie. I think thailand has since gone off sadly
Are Philippines still on?
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A buddy of mine had some "Clapper" like circuits he built between his TV, the lamps, his stereo, and their power outlets. (This would have been about '79) He'd wait until everyone was naked , then snap his fingers while yelling at his cat and it was lights outs. People would be absolutely spooked! I saw guys go running up the stairs when he would do it. Then he'd snap his fingers blame the cat and the lights were on. It was freakin' hilarious.
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I see what you did there....lol
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Certainly makes for a funnier story.