I miss analog TV!

[kmorgan]

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.

[William Hassig]

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.

[AbnersFarm]

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

[AbnersFarm]

Great post from William Hassig

[William Hassig]

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.   

[Dag]

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

[ThaDood]

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.

[Rizla]

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! 

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.

[TheRelayStation]

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! 

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.

[JimIO]

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.

[Rizla]

"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...

[ThaDood]

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.

[TheRelayStation]

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.

[Pigmeat]

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.

[Tim Bucknall]

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?