ONE MORE MONTH! and GULF TROPO HITS BIG TIME! Visit Us At
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VHF-UHF DIGEST The Official Publication of the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association MAY 2009 The Magazine for TV and FM DXers PHOTO BY TIM ALDERMAN ONE MORE MONTH! AND GULF TROPO HITS BIG TIME! Visit Us At www.wtfda.org 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 MAY 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 11 secure way to join or renew your membership Photo News…Jeff Kruszka 20 in the WTFDA from our page at: Northern FM DX…Keith McGinnis 22 http://www.wtfda.org/join.html Western TV DX…Nick Langan 36 You can now renew either paper VUD 6 meters…Peter Baskind 38 membership or your online eVUD membership Analog Days 39 at one convenient stop. Use the link above to OBG From DX Horizons 41 either join the WTFDA or renew your Young Bruce Elving 42 membership in North America’s only TV and May 2009 Meteor Scatter Chart 43 DX organization. There were no reports this month for Southern FM DX or Eastern TV DX. 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] 2 P.O. Box 501, Somersville, CT USA 06072 MIKE BUGAJ [email protected] IT’S SKIP SEASON ALREADY? So, one moves in and one moves out. Tim is “in” and soon to be “out” is Bryce Foster, If you’re Randy Zerr, it probably seems like who currently lives in Whittier (LaHabra is right it. As April makes its way into May, the days next door, if my memory is correct) and will be get longer and Randy sees more Es. Danny moving to Tennessee in a few months. and Fritze both have also noticed it down My problem with living in Southern CA was south. Up north, we haven’t noticed it at all. that living there made me forget about things And the Gulf of Mexico keeps bubbling with like Es. Tropo was very predictable after a Florida to Texas tropo, something we up in the while and ch3 was the only lowband channel north haven’t noticed either, although we have open in Orange County, and to be honest, noticed that FM out to 250 miles isn’t that hard going to the beach was more fun than waiting to hear, now that the weather has turned a bit to see something on ch3! So I did. warmer. May sometimes offers us Es well into the As of 4/1/2009 FM band during the month of May. One or two openings into FM are possible, so keep your ears open and watch ch2 for skip while there is still something to watch on ch2. We keep moving towards June 12th. A few analog stations shut down in Mid April and more are scheduled to shut down in mid May. But there’s lots of house cleaning to do and that will happen on June 12th. Check the wtfda website at wtfda.org for the FCC listing of those stations leaving the air on 6/12. MEMBERS AND MORE We have one new WTFDA member this month. He’s Dan Novotny from Phillips, WI. Dan Dxes TV, FM and the PS band and has a variety of Do I see a trend? Nah, can’t be. receivers, scanners and antennas. Welcome Dan! Pat Dyer’s most vivid recollections of During the period of 3/16 to 4/13 we’ve had analog television skip include seeing the JFK renewals from Fred Newlin (NY), William motorcade in Mexico City live courtesy of XEW Higgs (CA), Bob Garchak (PA), Tim Katlic ch2 and some E Skip in June 1962, and then in (CA), David Cox (AL), Pat Dyer (TX), Frank May 1968 seeing live coverage of the Indy 500 Merrill (IL), Aaron Mitterling (IN), Don (back when it was broadcast tape delayed in Voegele (WA), Saul Chernos (ON), Larry the US), again via E skip and XEW ch2. What’s Weisberg (NH), Bill Grant (MA), Bill Draeb yours? (WI) and Jason Hustedt (NJ). Thank you all And speaking again of California, Don for your support of the WTFDA! Without you, Voegele is back in the great state of there is no WTFDA. Washington after spending the winter in CA. Tim Katlic wrote: “Farewell East Coast! A Don writes that two analog stations are now off couple of months ago I moved from Rochester, in Bellingham, and that he visited the Best Buy NY to Southern California – Beverly Hills to be store in Bellingham to find 14 Insignia STBs exact. I graduated from college (in Maine) last and over 20 Apex STBs in stock. Don says year and have recently started working for an contact Best Buy if you are interested. So it internet company located just south of LA appears that the boat from China has finally International airport. Who knew I’d go from one landed and unloaded its cargo of STBs. coast to the other in such a short period of And that’s about it for time.” May. Why don’t we just Well, Tim, all I can say is that life is skip May and go right into unpredictable. The same thing happened to me June. June is going to be when I was 23. I drove (in January) from CT to an exciting month Anaheim, CA in a ’69 Ford Torino with a 428cu (hopefully). CU in 30. engine under the hood. But in my case, 6 months later, I ended up married. So…beware! 3 Douglas E. Smith TV 1389 Old Clarksville Pike Pleasant View, TN 37146-8098 News [email protected] http://www.w9wi.com May 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 failed early. (DTV is regular type; full-power analog stations in bold italics; low-power operating on ch. 22) analog stations in regular italics) Parker 49 KJPO-LP NW 9.9kw, 33-54-37/ 113-59-31; * indicates this DTV facility replaces an analog facility on the XR 33-55-51/ same channel. 114-00-14 Phoenix 8 KAET-DT PR>40kw Phoenix 16 KPHE-LD NW 15kw (DCC for analog ch 44 Prescott 45 K45JX-D PG<350w, 34-11-32/ 112-45-13 CANADA: Wellton-Mohawk 29, K65BB, QR from chs. 65, 67, New Brunswick: 31 K67BI 1.12/1.132kw Bon Accord 6 CBAT-TV-1 PG<32.3kw/ dismissed 320m Arkansas: El Dorado 10 KETZ-DT req. DA, 33-04-01/ 92-13-30; granted El Dorado 18 K18AB-D DG 2.54kw Fort Smith 27 KFTA-DT PC>600kw Puerto Rico: Fulton 45 KZTE-LD DR 5kw, 33-27-07/ Isabel Segunda 50 WVQS-LD XR 18-18-33/ 94-04-38; CC from 65-47-46 K64GT San Juan 10 W10CZ-D DG 150w, 18-17-42/ Harrison 31 KWBM FC to Daystar 66-09-56 Little Rock 42 KARZ-TV CC from KWBF California: Bakersfield 34 KCBT-LP For lease..