Fm News Is Huge! See It All Inside!
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The Official Publication of the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association JUNE 2006 The Magazine for TV and FM DXers KGAN (2) IA AS SEEN IN CT ON MAY 26th SKIP GETS OFF TO A SURPRISINGLY GOOD START! HE DOES IT AGAIN! On May 30, 2003 he logged the first low band DTV station via E skip, and now… AT 2:55PM EDT ON MAY 26, 2006, GIRARD WESTERBERG BECAME THE FIRST FM DXER TO SUCCESSFULLY RECEIVE IBOC DIGITAL FROM KBCO (97.3) IN BOULDER, CO VIA Es AT THIS HOME IN KENTUCKY! FM NEWS IS HUGE! SEE IT ALL INSIDE! TV and FM DXing was never so much fun! 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, GREG CONIGLIO, BRUCE HALL, KEITH McGINNIS AND MIKE BUGAJ. Editor and publisher: Mike Bugaj Treasurer: Keith McGinnis Webmaster: Tim McVey wtfda.info Site Administrator: Chris Cervantez Editorial Staff: Dave Williams, George W. Jensen, Jeff Kruszka Keith McGinnis, Fred Nordquist, Matt Sittel, Doug Smith, Chris Kadlec, Peter Baskind and John Zondlo, Our website: www.anarc.org/wtfda Our forums: www.wtfda.info JUNE 2006 _______________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS Page Two 2 Mailbox 3 Finally! For those of you online with an email TV News…Doug Smith 5 address, we now offer a quick, convenient and FM News…Chris Kadlec 14 secure way to join or renew your membership Photo News…Jeff Kruszka 33 in the WTFDA from our page at: Northern FM DX…Keith McGinnis 37 http://fmdx.usclargo.com/join.html Southern FM DX…John Zondlo 39 Western TVDX…Dave Williams 42 Dues are $25 if paid to our Paypal account. But 6 Meters…Peter Baskind 44 of course you can always renew by check or Editors and Submissions 47 money order for the usual price of just $24. Some columns may not be available this month due to Either way, it’s still a bargain! time constraints and lack of submissions. VUDS ON A CD! And now… eVUDS ON CD! All eVUDs from 09/01 Every VUD from Jan through 12/05 are on this 1980 to December 1989 disc (except 8/02 which is on this disk. You’ll was not published). need Adobe Reader to Follow the changes from read them. Why have a day one to the present box of old VUDs taking up space when you can form. You can have it have this. It’s yours for just $8.00 per disk. for just $6.00 ($5.00 Send your check or money order for $8.00 to plus a dollar shipping). Use the same address WTFDA, P.O. 501, Somersville, CT 06072. as for VUDs on CD shown on the opposite Make it payable to WTFDA. column. Have a great month! WTFDA CONVENTION 2006 AUGUST 11,12,13 Join us for WTFDA Convention 2006! This years convention hotel is the Ledgewood Days Inn Lake Hopatcong 1691 Rt - 46 West, Ledgewood, NJ 07852, US. The hotel is conveniently located just off I-80 on New Jersey Route 46 West. We've reserved 8 rooms The room rate is $99/night. AAA members should check for a AAA discount. We will have a hospitality/meeting room with food and soft drinks available for those who attend. Directions will be available to the IMPORTANT! home of Rick Shaftan, our host, for those who want to spend If you plan on attending, please time at Rick's DX setup in Sparta, NJ. Sparta is about 10-15 email Keith McGinnis at miles north of Ledgewood. [email protected] so we can Visit the website: http://fmdx.usclargo.com/wtfda2006/ get a head count and reserve more For info, email Rick at [email protected] rooms if necessary. 2 P.O. Box 501, Somersville, CT USA 06072 MIKE BUGAJ [email protected] THE SKIP SEASON IS ON TV STATION DISAPPEARS! Welcome to the June Mailbox. Last time Here’s a really great letter that I want to we told you skip was just around the corner share with you. It’s from Bob Garchak. Bob and now it’s here. It began to trickle in around joined a year ago and just renewed his the 12th of May and really took off around the membership. It goes like this: “Well, here it is, 19th. Up here in the northeast we had at least renewal time for me and believe me the info I two openings go into FM and other parts of got out of the VHF-UHF Digest was out of this North America did much better than we did. world (yes, our sources do come from another All in all we’re off to a good start and we hope solar system -Mike). I really look forward to it keeps rolling in. the first part of the new month for my copy of Fred Nordquist has some Cuban and the Digest. Jamaican FM skip loggings. As a matter of I am able to receive WEMW-LP ch56 in fact, Cuba on TV has been fairly common so Greensburg, PA on a daily 24 hr basis 7 days far this season. Tropo to Cuba has also a week on an old portable black and white set happened a few times in May. Roy Barstow with bowtie rabbit ears. I believe they are caught WKAQ-2 in Puerto Rico on ch2 on the some 25-30 miles away. I also for years when evening of the 24th, and two of us in New they came on the air was able to get WLLS- England may have seen it at the same time CA ch49 Indiana, PA, which has to be in the Roy did. 45-60 mile distance, then all of a sudden one Let’s hope the rest of the skip season is as day…nothing. Don’t know if they made some interesting as the beginning was. kind of adjustment to their transmitter tower or something in my area blocked their signal. I MEMBERS AND MORE even called WLLS-TV and I truly think they thought I was some kind of nut.” We have one new member this time So Bob’s problem got me to wondering. around and that person is John Lochey from TV stations don’t just disappear. I got out my Grass Lake, MI. John signed up for the trusty road atlas to find out where Bob’s home eVUD. Glad to have you with us, John! of Jefferson Hills, PA is located. Then I found During the period 4/15 through 5/18 we Greensburg, then Indiana. received renewals from Nick Langan (NJ), Next I went to http://w9wi.com and began Eric Fader (NY), John Hanna (IL), Ken nosing around over there, looking for clues, Onyschuk (IL), Fred Nordquist (SC), Milton and I found the answer to Bob’s dilemma C. Bay (KY), Randy Zerr (FL), Fritze staring right at me. Bob is close to Pittsburgh, Prentice (AR), Todd Sprinkman (WI), Jerry and so is Jeannette, PA. And Jeanette is the Bond (NY), James Montgomery (IN), Mike home of WNPA-DT, a UPN digital station with Lapinski (NY), Bob Garchak (PA), Sheryl 437kw. When WNPA signed on, ch 49 went Paszkiewicz (WI), Robert Ross (ON), Dan to snow. So the moral of the story is this: you Oglethorpe (LA) and John Ebeling (MN). just can’t think analog anymore. DTV is here We’ve had some members switching over to and in a couple of years analog won’t be. the eVUD from paper (which is great if you CONVENTION NEWS find the print in the VUD a bit small). One Here’s more convention news from your or two put in a few host, Rick Shaftan. extra dollars for our “We're looking at a bunch of station tours, Buddy System, and we perhaps a trip to the Meadowlands AM thank them! We’ve transmitter sites if I can get with Paul Mount also had a couple of to set that up, plus the Sussex County Fair all orders for Bob weekend so there's lots to do including High Cooper’s book and Emisoras de FM. Since Point 45 minutes up on the other end of the we get to keep a few pennies on the sale of county. these items, buying one is a good way to help out the club. 3 I have to charge some kind of registration on HD2, then it reverted to the main channel fee. Usually that goes to pay for some pizza audio. I think the equipment was ready dinner. It doesn't work that way here. The before the programming - or maybe the STL grill will be hopping all weekend with all kinds second channel. At the moment it's just dead of goodies: steaks, burgers, chops, sausages, air on HD2. dogs, chicken. We're getting a load of For what it's worth, the JVC KD-HDR1 is a crawfish shipped in and be frying fish. Of good receiver on both FM and AM. And, if you course there will be lots of beer and soda. My search around, you can get it for as low as wife will try to figure out what this will cost and $229. -Craig Healy some fee that makes sure I don't lose too much money on this.