Inside the VHF-UHF DIGEST

The Magazine for TV and FM DXers June 2020 The Official Publication of the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association WILL THIS SKIP Wow! SEASON BE A BLOCKBUSTER? Ho Hum OR WILL IT JUST BE A BUSTER? ***** Inside THE VHF-UHF DIGEST 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, JIM THOMAS AND MIKE BUGAJ. 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 Your WTFDA Booard of Directors Doug Smith Mike Bugaj Keith McGinnis Jim Thomas [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Renewals by mail: Send to WTFDA, P.O. Box 501, Somersville, CT 06072. Check or MO for $10 payable to WTFDA. Renewals by Paypal: Send your dues ($10USD) from the Paypal website to [email protected] or go to https://www.paypal.me/WTFDA and type 10.00 or 20.00 for two years in the box. Our WTFDA.org website webmaster is Tim McVey, [email protected]. Our WTFDA Forums webmaster is Chris Cervantez, [email protected]. Fred Nordquist is in charge of club statistics at [email protected] Our email reflector is on Googlegroups. To join, send an email to [email protected] Visit our club website at http://www.wtfda.org . Participate in our forums at http://forums.wtfda.org. Our real-time (prop logger) bulletin board is located at http://wtfdadxbb.vci.net. Only WTFDA members can participate. You can find WTFDA on Facebook. Our group is called TV and FM Dxing. This is a public group. We also have a private group called WTFDA. This group is just for WTFDA Members. The WTFDA FM Database is administered and updated by your fellow WTFDA members. It is completely free to use.You can find it at http://db.wtfda.org. Only the FCC and Radio-Locator top us on Google searches. VHF-UHF Digest 2 June 2020 We May Be Entering a Deep Solar Minimum as the Sun Goes Unusually Quiet By Hannah Osborne On 5/18/20 at 11:17 AM EDT The sun has entered an unusually quiet period, with the number of sunspots appearing on the surface unusually low. Ts hile vel of activity is so low, some scientists have s uggested we may be entering a "deep" solar minimum, and potentially even a Grand Minimum—the last of which took place in the 17th century and coincided with a mini ice age. The sun has an 11-year cycle where activity waxes and wanes. This is caused by the strengthening and weakening of its magnetic field. The point when activity is highest is known as the s olar maximum, which is characterized by more sunspots appearing on the surface. The solar minimum is where activity falls, and far fewer sunspots appear. The last solar maximum peaked in 2014. In April last year, scientists at the N ational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the f orthcoming solar minimum would be sr imilato the last cycle. In a statement, Lisa Upton, Ph.D., solar ph ysicist with Space Systems Research Corp, said the next solar cycle would be much like the last, with a weak maximum and a "long, deep minimum." However, she also said there was "no indication" we are approaching a solar minimum in line with the la st Grand Minimum—known as the Maunder Minimum. So far this year, there have been 104 days where no sunspots have appeared on the sun's surface, according to SpaceWeather.com. Across the whole of 2019, there were 281 sunspot-free days. As the website notes, the lack of activity on the sun suggests the solar minimum is taking place. "So far this year, the sun has been blank 76 percent of the time, a rate surpassed only once before in the Space Age," it said. "Last year, 2019, the sun was blank 77 percent of the time. Two consecutive years of record-setting spotlessness adds up to a very deep Solar Minimum, indeed." Mathew Owens, Professor of S pace Physics at the University of Reading, U.K., told Newsweek that entering a solar minimum is not unusual, but the level of activity currently taking place is out of the ordinary. "The Sun has been 'spotless' for a large fraction of the last year, which is indeed quieter than is typical," he said in an email. "It's still a little early to say where it fits relative to otr he minima we've seen. If it does continue in this fashion, it may well rank up there with the longer minima on record. But at present it is not unprecedented; in fact, the very previous solar minimum [2009-2010] was longer." The Maunder Minimum was the period between 1650 to 1715 when solar activity was extremely low. It is sometimes associated with a period of global cooling, where the global temperature was around one degree Celsius cooler than it was at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Solar minis in themum s nor sun' mal cycle have little to no effect on Earth's temperature, with energy output from the Sun only dropping by around 0.1 percent. Continued on page 24 VHF-UHF Digest 3 June 2020 TV antenna sales surge in wake of economic fallout May 11, 2020 Jim Kimble Richard Schneider, president and founder of Antennas Direct. The company announced in January that it purchased antenna-maker, Mohu. While online sales boom, closed retailers hits antenna maker profits The largest TV antenna-maker in the U.S. is seeing a massive surge in online sales as the economy struggles. “A lot more people are calling our phone lines saying, ‘I can choose between cable or groceries,’” Richard Schneider, president and founder of Antennas Direct said in an interview with The Cord Cutting Report. But the surprise uptick in sales hasn’t been a windfall for the St. Louis-based company. “It’s a mixed bag. A lot of stores we do business with have closed, so the replenishment orders at big retails have basically been shut off,” Schneider explained. “The online orders have been up about 200 percent.” While the dramatic increase in online interest is encouraging, “it doesn’t replace what we’ve lost on big box retailers,” Schneider said. In January, AntennasDirect became the largest TV antenna manufacturer in the U.S. after buying Mohu, its one- time competitor in Raleigh, North Carolina. Much of Schneider’s company has been working from home since the COVID-19 outbreak. The coronavirus impacted Mohu’s production schedule earlier this year. Parts manufactured in China arrived at the Raleigh assembly plant later than planned. And then, the pandemic reached the U.S. prompting many retailers to close, according to Schneider. “We had to cancel some purchase orders in February and March,” he said. “As soon as the parts arrived, all the big box stores canceled their orders.” In response to hearing about customer’s financial troubles, AntennasDirect issued a 20 percent discount on all products for the foreseeable future. “It’s just a response to people who are struggling,” he said. “We are trying to marry up with the increased inquiries. This would enable a lot of people in terms of pushing people off the fence.” The discount is only for AntennasDirect products, not Mohu antennas, Schneider said. A new tipping point for cord cutting? Schneider believes that a pandemic-stricken economy will be a tipping point for cord cutting. VHF-UHF Digest 4 June 2020 “I think 2020 will be looked at as the year we turned into a normal mainstream thing instead of something just for the hardcore techies,” he said. The largest pay TV providers lost about 4.9 million net video subscribers in 2019, according to a study by Leichtman Research Group, Inc. The top seven cable companies lost about 1,560,000 video subscribers in 2019, while satellite TV services lost about 3,700,000 subscribers, according to Leichtman. Cable and satellite TV providers had their largest quarterly subscriber loss in the first three months of 2020. With COVID-19 ravaging the economy, those numbers are expected to get worse. Schneider said economic circumstances may already be accelerating cord cutting strictly out of necessity. “In the last six to eight weeks. it’s brought an entire new demographic into the cord cutting world,” he said, referencing his online sales. “This has been the shove that a lot of people needed. It’s made it more mainstream.” He said that instead of just a predominantly male customer base, “Now, it’s trending more female and people who are worried about bills.” ATSC 3.0 moving ahead Even if TV antennas become mainstream again, the economic crisis raises new questions about whether ATSC 3.0 will be deployed as quickly as first expected. In early April, a group of broadcasters announced that ATSC 3.0 would come to 40 markets by the end of 2020. ATSC 3.0, or NextGen TV, will bring numerous upgrades to free over-the-air TV. Those improvements include 4K picture resolution, High Dynamic Range, Dolby Atmos and possibly video on-demand. Once the pandemic struck the U.S., advertising dollars began drying up for major media companies and local broadcasters.

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