June 26 Es Brings US FM Stations Skipping Into Northern Ireland!
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VHF-UHF DIGEST The Official Publication of the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association JULY 2009 The Magazine for TV and FM DXers Skip!! Chris Dunne Chris Dunne Chris Dunne Chris Dunne Bill Hepburn The photo on the right is that of WIPM 3 San Juan and taken by Jeff Rostron. Jeff Rostron June 26 Es brings US FM Stations Visit Us At www.wtfda.org Skipping into Northern Ireland! 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 wtfda.org Webmaster: Tim McVey wtfda.info Site Administrator: Chris Cervantez Editorial Staff: Jeff Kruszka, Keith McGinnis, Fred Nordquist, Nick Langan, Doug Smith, Peter Baskind, Bill Hale and John Zondlo, Our website: www.wtfda.org; Our forums: www.wtfda.info JULY 2009 _______________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS Page Two 2 Mailbox 3 Finally! For those of you online with an email TV News…Doug Smith 4 address, we now offer a quick, convenient and FM News…Bill Hale 17 secure way to join or renew your membership Photo News…Jeff Kruszka 28 in the WTFDA from our page at: Northern FM DX…Keith McGinnis 30 http://www.wtfda.org/join.html Southern FM DX…John Zondlo 33 You can now renew either paper VUD Eastern TV DX…Nick Langan 34 membership or your online eVUD membership Western TV DX…Nick Langan 36 at one convenient stop. Use the link above to Northern Ireland FM DX Report 42 either join the WTFDA or renew your 6 meters…Peter Baskind 43 membership in North America’s only TV and July 2009 MS Chart…Jim Thomas 47 DX organization. Lots of good things this month! FIND US FAST! WTFDA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mike Bugaj, use the WTFDA Mailing address listed below [email protected] Doug Smith, 1385 Old Clarksville Pike, Pleasant View, TN 37146-8098 [email protected] Greg Coniglio, 11825 Genesee St., Alden, NY 14004 [email protected] D.Bruce Hall, 5 Stirton Ave., Brantford, ON N3T1E2 Canada [email protected] Keith McGinnis, 18 Newbridge St., Hingham, MA 02043 [email protected] ******************************************************************************************************* THE MAILBOX and all general club correspondence: Mike Bugaj at WTFDA, PO Box 501, Somersville, CT 06072 [email protected] TV NEWS Doug Smith, 1389 Old Clarksville Pike, Pleasant View, TN 37146-8098 [email protected] FM NEWS Bill Hale, 6124 Roaring Springs Drive, N. Richland Hills, TX 76180 [email protected] PHOTO NEWS Jeff Kruszka, 1909 Lost Lake Pl., Pearland, TX 77581 [email protected] EASTERN AND WESTERN TV DX Nick Langan, 1040 Riverview Dr., Florence, NJ 08516 [email protected] SOUTHERN FM John Zondlo, 4009 Driftwood Cir., Yukon, OK 73099 [email protected] NORTHERN FM Keith McGinnis, 18 Newbridge St., Hingham, MA 02043 [email protected] TV and FM STATISTICS Fred Nordquist, 147 Travis Hill Road, Moncks Corner, SC [email protected] 6 METER/2 METER Peter Baskind, 3225 Forest Hill-Irene Rd, Germantown, TN 38138 [email protected] WEBSITE Tim McVey Webmaster http://www.wtfda.org [email protected] June 2009.…the END of analog TV broadcasting. 2 P.O. Box 501, Somersville, CT USA 06072 MIKE BUGAJ [email protected] WHAT’S OUT THERE? PLENTY! Griffiths (ON), Andy Bolin (IL), Milton C. Bay (KY), Robert Ross (ON), Dave Williams Well, okay, I didn’t think TV DXing would (OR), Owen Wood (NY), David Sinclair (BC), be this interesting once the analog channels Sheryl Paszkiewicz (WI), Rick Lucas (NY), bit the dust but I was wrong. My whole Tim McVey (VA), Joseph Esser (NJ), Rod premise of nothing being on the low VHF O’Connor (ME), Dan Oetting (MD), John channels after transition was dead wrong. The Marx (WI), John Ebeling (MN), Stan people who said that the transition would Weisbeck (WA), Al Tobia (CA), Alfred Laun begin a new era in TV DXing were right. (MD), David Austin (SC), William Lindsay As I type this on June 22nd the first of two (WA), Paul Swearingen (KS), Stephen groups of night light stations still has four more Ponder (TX) and Andrew Mackenzie (NY). days to go before it leaves the air but the DX Thank you all for supporting WTFDA! has been flying and some really amazing catches have been made. Charles Gauthier in THOUGHTS TO PONDER Montreal has a record 2,000 mile reception of WIPM’s night light in Puerto Rico on 6/21. A The following was posted on the tvfmdx list few of us have also seen WIPM plus some of by Jeff Kadet and I’m printing it here because us have seen the Dominican Republic on if Jeff feels like this, I know there are others channels 2 and 4. Cuban channels have made who feel the same. Here it is: the rounds plus Roy Barstow caught TVES Is DTV DXing really DXing? Answer: Yes from Venezuela on channel 3. of course it is but it is not weak signal DXing Aside from the treat of actually seeing which DXing has always been associated with. unusual stations via E skip, another interesting phenomenon is watching the manner in which DTV Dxing is the same as putting your the skip travels. For example, on June 21st the Icom R7100’s squelch on S9 and then skip from the Caribbean was extremely blurry searching for signals. Everything from S1 to and smeary as it traveled along multiple S8 is out of play clouds on its way north. Most of us have never The lack of CCI cues and a signal having seen this type of propagation before and as to be S9 to decode puts a real damper on DTV time goes on we may become accustomed to DXing for me. It was fun to grab new DTVs as it, but now, at the beginning of the post-analog they came on the air in years past but now I period of TV Dxing, it’s mind-boggling. just don’t know any more. And then there’s DTV skip. It’s been more Thankfully I have a few more years of plentiful than many thought. And there’s the Mexicans and Canadian analogs to watch. Canadian channels providing E skip from the A big part of my life is coming to an end. Maritimes westward. *** LPTVs are still on low VHF and a few have Note: this was written before analog shut been received by E skip. down. Jeff’s feelings may (or may not) have What a start to post-analog TV DXing, and changed since then. See ya next month! it’s only the beginning! MEMBERS AND MORE This month we officially welcome in two new WTFDA members. The first is Lee Molineux II (PA)and the next is Matt Lanza (CA). Matt has been hanging around the tvfmdx list for a while now and Lee has posted in the WTFDA Forums. Both recently decided to take the plunge to join the WTFDA. Welcome guys! Here are this month’s renewals, and there are a few of thelm. Renewals were received during the period of 5/14 to 6/19 from Mike Glass (IN), Eugene Hinton (CA), Kevin Short (WV), Dan Oglethorpe (LA), Roger Gravelle (ON), Eric Fader (NY), John 3 Douglas E. Smith TV 1389 Old Clarksville Pike Pleasant View, TN News 37146-8098 [email protected] http://www.w9wi.com July 2009 Abbreviations: AF Applied For (a new station) NW New station on the air Aux Auxiliary (backup) transmitter PA Proposed Amendment CC Callsign change PC Power (and/or tower height) change on the air CL City-of-license change PG Power change granted DC Converted to DTV PR Power change requested DCC Digital Companion Channel RA Returns to the air NS DCC Granted flash-cut to DTV QC Channel (frequency) change on the air DE License/permit deleted QG Channel change granted DR Requests flash-cut to DTV QR Channel change requested FC Programming (format) change RE Reinstated (previously-dismissed app.) FTP Failure to Prosecute ROA Request of Applicant GA Granted amendment (to table of channel SI Off the air (silent) allotments) LC License to Cover STA Special Temporary Authority MX Mutually Exclusive XC Transmitter site changed NDA Non-directional antenna XG Transmitter site change granted NS Permit granted for new station XR Transmitter site change requested News: (full-power analog stations in bold face; LPTV and translators in U.S. Virgin Islands: regular type; full-power analog stations in bold italics; low-power Christiansted 20 WSVI-DT PG<1.1kw/ analog stations in regular italics) 290m; NW * indicates this DTV facility replaces an analog facility on the same channel. USA: Alabama Andalusia 40 WAAO-LD DR 15kw; CC from W40BE Birmingham 13 WVTM-DT *NW 20kw/ PUERTO RICO: 403m Dothan 36 WTVY-DT PR 1000kw/ Aguada 50 WQHA-DT *QC from 62, 564m 50kw/343m Gulf Shores 25 WBPG-DT NW 70kw/ Arecibo 46 WCCV-DT QC from 53, 50kw 291m Caguas 48 WUJA-DT QC from 57, Huntsville 19 WHNT-DT *QC from 59, 50kw/312m, 18-16-48/ 53kw/531m 66-06-33 Selma 42 WAKA-DT QC from 55, Fajardo 33 WRUA-DT NW 50kw/ 1000kw/496m 848m Talladega 38 W38EI QG from W63CK Isabel Segunda 50 WVQS-LD XR 18-18-33/ Tuscaloosa 6 WUOA-DT NW 26kw/ 65-47-46 dismissed 395m, 33-29-02/ Mayaguez 21 W34CI-D DR from ch.