The Magazine for TV and FM DXers June 2018 DIY Channel 2 Yagi Picture Courtesy: Rich McVicar THE WTFDA SURVEY RESULTS ARE IN NUMEROUS CHANNEL CHANGES FOR DTV TRANSLATORS The Official Publication of the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association INSIDE THIS VUD CLICK TO NAVIGATE 02 Mailbox 23 FM News 36 In The Eye of The 04 TV News 33 Coast to Coast TV DX Storm: Radiocuba & 20 FM Facilities 34 KOZK Tower Hurricane Irma Collapses DX REPORTS FROM: Chris Dunne (FL) THE WORLDWIDE TV-FM DX ASSOCIATION Serving the UHF-VHF Enthusiast THE VHF-UHF DIGEST IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE WORLDWIDE TV-FM DX ASSOCIATION DEDICATED TO THE OBSERVATION AND STUDY OF THE PROPAGATION OF LONG DISTANCE TELEVISION AND FM BROADCASTING SIGNALS AT VHF AND UHF. WTFDA IS GOVERNED BY A BOARD OF DIRECTORS: DOUG SMITH, KEITH McGINNIS AND MIKE BUGAJ. Editor and publisher: Ryan Grabow Treasurer: Keith McGinnis wtfda.org/info Webmaster: Tim McVey Forum Site Administrator: Chris Cervantez Editorial Staff: Jeff Kruszka, Keith McGinnis, Fred Nordquist, Nick Langan, Doug Smith, John Zondlo and Mike Bugaj JUNE 2018 DUES RECEIVED This month we welcome two new members to the WTFDA. Lee Costic DXes FM down in Virginia. DATE NAME S/P ENDS James Bagge resides in Springfield, MA. Welcome 4/16/2018 Jon Klingerman PA 5/19 to both of you. Hope you find WTFDA interesting 4/28/2018 Jason Hustedt DE 3/19 and informative, and most of all, fun! 4/28/2018 Doug Allen SC 5/19 5/1/2018 Fred Nordquist SC 5/19 THE SURVEY 5/1/2018 Richard Lucas NY 6/19 5/3/2018 David Pierce VA 4/19 Let’s talk about the survey for a little while. We 5/7/2018 Lee Costic VA 5/19 received only 8 responses out of about 200 5/7/2018 James Bagge MA 5/19 members, which means it is hardly representative 5/7/2018 Rod O'Connor ME 5/20 of the club as a whole, but at least it’s something. 5/7/2018 Ed Phelps KY 5/19 Everyone who responded agreed that the club is 5/7/2018 Dan Oglethorpe LA 5/19 meeting their expectations, but there could be 5/12/2018 Nick Langan NJ 4/19 improvements. Someone mentioned conventions. 5/12/2018 Michael Temme-Soifer NJ 4/19 One thing that has been missing for some years 5/12/2018 William Thompson MD 4/19 now is a WTFDA convention in the summer. The 5/12/2018 Chris Cervantez TX 3/19 conventions in the east were well attended. We 5/12/2018 Christian Ferland QC 4/19 have the funds to pay for all convention costs. We 5/12/2018 Mike Glass IN 5/19 just need people to host the conventions. That’s the 5/12/2018 Chad Bryan OH 4/19 tough part. So if someone wants to host a 5/12/2018 Frank Aden ID 4/19 convention, let somebody know. It won’t cost you 5/12/2018 Dan Dankert CA 5/19 any money, just some time. 5/16/2018 Charles Burnham NY 4/20 One person thought that the VUD would look 5/17/2018 Paul Snider ON 5/19 better if it were all in single columns. And thank you all for supporting the WTFDA! Another person laments the lack of DX reports in the VUD and that’s a concern with me also. The JUNE 2018 ··· 2 ··· THE MAILBOX maddening thing about this hobby is the fact that it’s so fragmented. A few people post here and another few people post there and they are all in their own little groups all to themselves. You see that everywhere now. Back in the day, the VUD was full of DX reports which were then archived for posterity. You could go back to the July 1976 VUD and read what the conditions were back then and what stations were heard or seen. You’d have a record of skip and tropo openings. The VUDs were a valuable resource tool but that era seems to be over. (Go to http://www.wtfda.org to read the July 1976 issue). Do we have to resort to taking posts from Facebook and posting them in the VUD, like we did a month or two ago, just so we have some DX reports? Honestly, I thought someone would mention this, but nobody has. Should the VUD mainly consist of TV News, FM News and Facilities? At least two people thought we should have more DXer interaction in the VUD. And yes, I know there are at least a dozen other reasons for the lack of reports, many related to the fact that this is 2018 and, for many people, DXing is done differently now (SDRs) and also the fact that there are probably fewer people, for whatever reasons, actually doing the DXing, especially TV DXing with analog gone. Someone thought we should encourage our veteran members to write articles about themselves for the VUD, and possibly include a photo or themselves and/or their shacks. That sounds like a great way to learn about your fellow DXers and I seriously doubt anyone has a boring story to tell. If anyone wants to do this, either write or type something and send it in for VUD publication. Just write it. The WTFDA Bulletin Board was mentioned a few times. Nobody knows about it or what it’s for. The WTFDA Bulletin Board is a real-time prop logger where members post their DX as they receive it. This board is modeled after the tvfmskiplog at DX World, which has a great probability of closing in mid-June. Access requires a password, which you can get from myself or Ed Phelps (nn2e-at- vci.net). If you’re used to posting there, you can continue posting on our site when the other one closes. There’s a good group of people there to welcome you. http://wtfdadxbb.vci.net We had one comment that stated that the WTFDA Forums is underutilized, and I tend to agree with that comment. Sometimes you’ll find that 25 individuals have logged in there on a given day, and then just five or six the next. Recently I went into the admin section and deleted about 50 user accounts who had registered at least three years ago and had never returned. But there is a tremendous amount of information for DXers there and a core group of WTFDA members to answer questions. In addition the VUD is uploaded to the Members area every month, in case you delete your copy. Other requests were to have WTFDA Statistics printed in the VUD once a year, have more original content in the VUD and to publicize the club and the VUD more aggressively on Facebook, which we’ve just tried. We’ve offered a free download of the May VUD on the TV & FM DXing group to help show the ignorant out there who we are. Unfortunately the “I want it free or forget about it” attitude is everywhere these days, even if dues are a ridiculously low 83 cents a month. And that is it for June. Let’s hope the Es season starts soon! If anyone has any comments or suggestions on the above, just email us and tell us. For you FM DXers, remember that there are two high-powered Dominican stations on 87.5 and 87.9 plus a strong pirate in Miami on 87.9! Be on the lookout! I know I will be. See you all next month. -Mike JUNE 2018 ··· 3 ··· THE MAILBOX Douglas E. Smith 1389 Old Clarksville Pike Pleasant View, TN 37146-8098 TV News [email protected] http://www.w9wi.com June 2018 Location RF Ch Callsign Notes Aguascalientes Agusacalientes 15 XHOPAG- From 47 Alabama Andalusia 32 WAAO-LD From 40, 14.2kw Birmingham 18 W20DE From 20, 15kw Dothan 49 WJJN-LD OFF April 22nd, T-Mobile Huntsville 35 WHVD-LD From 34 Montgomery 16 WALE-LD From 17 Montgomery 21 WETU-LD From 39, 15kw Opelika 17 WLGA Amendment to application to convert to Distributed Transmission System; granted - Site 1: 550kw/537m, 32-19-16/84-47-28; existing site near Cusseta - Site 2: 650kw/384m, 32-51-07/84-42-06; WJSP-TV tower near Warm Springs Somerville 32 WMJN-LP From 43, 15kw, 34-44-13/86-31-59 Alaska Anchorage 17 KACN-LP From 38, 100 watts, 61-09-39/149-52-27 Kasilof 25 K48AC From 48 Ninilchik 35 K39AA From 39, 15kw Arizona Gila River Indian Co. 21 KGRQ-LD From 29, 33-00-07/111-40-28 Globe 26 K48NH From 48 Golden Valley 27 K46CG From 46 Lake Havasu City 22, K38IR, From 38/ 43/ 46 26, K43GJ, 28 K46GI Meadview 15, K47HE, From 47/38 21 K38GR Oro Valley 27 K16EO From 16 Peach Springs 36 K42CP From 42 Phoenix 14 K38IZ From 38, 15kw Phoenix 34 KVPA-LD From 42, 15kw, 33-19-57/112-04-00 JUNE 2018 ··· 4 ··· TV NEWS Location RF Ch Callsign Notes Arkansas Fort Smith 5 KXUN-LD From 43, 3kw, 35-478-49/94-10-05; amendment from ch. 26 & to change site Fort Smith 7 KUFS-LP Granted Special Temporary Authority for this channel, 500 watts Fort Smith 19 KUFS-LP Requests conversion from analog ch. 18, 15kw; also requests Special Temporary Authority for these facilities Fulton 29 KZTE-LD From 26, 15kw Baja California (Norte) Mexicali 20 XHILA- From 46 Tecate 21 XHDTV- From 49 Tijuana 27 XHBJ- From 44 California Bakersfield 32 KPMC-LD From 43 Fresno 29 KMSG-LD From 39 Fresno 31 KVHF-LD From 42 Hemet 27 KSCD-LP From 38 Inyokern 22 K49AA From 49 (same site as Ridgecrest chs.