VHF-UHF Digest
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The Magazine for TV and FM DXers October 2015 Photo Courtesy: Paul Mitschler 'TIS THE SEASON FOR TROPO! BILL HALE ENDS HIS RUN WITH FM NEWS. ANY VOLUNTEERS TO TAKE IT OVER? The Official Publication of the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association METEOR SHOWERS INSIDE THIS VUD CLICK TO NAVIGATE Orionids 02 The Mailbox 28 Northern FM DX OCT 4 – NOV 14 04 TV News 35 Southern FM DX 08 FM News 39 Owner gives Helena Taurids 19 Photo News station to Montana PBS SEP 7 – DEC 10 22 Coast to Coast TV DX 40 New LPs in Wash DC 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, KEITH McGINNIS AND MIKE BUGAJ. Editor and publisher: Ryan Grabow Treasurer: Keith McGinnis wtfda.org Webmaster: Tim McVey Forum Site Administrator: Chris Cervantez Editorial Staff: Jeff Kruszka, Keith McGinnis, Fred Nordquist, Nick Langan, Doug Smith, Bill Hale, John Zondlo and Mike Bugaj Website: www.wtfda.org; Forums: http://forums.wtfda.org October 2015 Summer is over and the days of E skip openings are gone. The days are growing shorter much too quickly now especially for those of us up north. Luckily the month of September was a good tropo month for many people. Let’s hope it continues into October. We’d like to say hello to our newest WTFDA member, Heidi M. Roach. We hope that Ms. Roach was looking for WTFDA and not WFTDA (Womens’ Flat Track Roller Derby). We’ve had a handful of women join the WTFDA Facebook Group thinking it was a Flat Track page. I think they found out pretty quickly that it wasn’t. Renewals received during the period from August 21st through September 19th arrived from Carter Bays, Dave Braun, Leigh Donaldson, Rich McVicar, Richard Lewelling, Tommy Adair, Jeff Lehmann, Dennis Smith, Wolfgang Schneiter, Glenn Hauser, Doug Speheger, Jim Thomas, Glen Boche, John Tudenham, Andy Bolin, Bill Hale and Vincent Ferme. Thank you all for supporting the WTFDA! Eugene Hinton emailed us that KHDZ-LP 104.6 Porterville, CA came on the air on May 29, 2015 with a Spanish Religion format. It’s listed on the WTFDA FM Database with it’s co-ordinates. The NRC’s Ernie Wesolowski emailed that the 2016 Kansas City MO’s DXers gathering will be held at the Hyatt Place Airport next to I-29 Exit 10 on September 9-11. Arrive on Thursday the 8 th for 3 nights. Rates are $99 plus taxes and fees. There can be 1 to 3 people per room. Registration is $55 which includes a Friday night pizza party and Saturday night banquet, tours, free shuttle and breakfast. The convention ends Sunday noon. Open to all radio DXers. I have some questions about this note from Ernie W. and I hope to have answers for them by next VUD. John Jefferson in Madras, OR, sent along two items. Here’s the first. 1. KCOE is now on simulcasting with KICE 940 Bend, ESPN Radio. Their signal is nearly identical to that of KWXS 107.7 Prineville, understandable since they're both on Powell Buttes with a minor difference in height offset by a minor difference in power. They were first noticed at 1758 on 8/25, horribly over-modulated and distorted, splashing over onto 106.3 and 106.7 and even slightly on 106.1 and 106.9. That on my MR-80 in super-narrow mode with 75 db ADJACENT channel selectivity. By 1830 the engineer had tweaked things so the signal was clean, so I think I must have caught them almost as soon as they threw the switch! But the first ID OCTOBER 2015 ··· 2 ··· THE MAILBOX I heard that included KCOE was today at noon. I'm not a glutton for punishment and everything on ESPN except the play- by-play I consider cruel and unusual, so they may have ID'ed sooner. And now item 2. After several false alarms KWLZ 96.5 is gone. (Hooray!) KWLZ 96.3 has yet to appear, but recent reception of KXXO 96.1 Olympia WA suggested that their transmitter change is in effect. A call to them confirmed that and they also knew that KWLZ 96.3 is only awaiting word from the FCC to commence operations, It's ironic that KXXO moved 35 miles farther from Madras yet improved their reception here even though they're still at somewhat reduced power. Ah, the magic of terrain and transmitter height. KXXO is no longer snuggled right behind some mountains and is now higher above average terrain, both factors that help. Up at The Hill (just off US 26 south of here at mile 2.7) they were listenable the other day for the first time ever. Don't suppose they'll match KOMO 97.7, which hardly ever fades there, or KLSY 93.7 which is usually solid, but it's certainly a big step up from their prior invisibility! There's a nice view of Mt. Baker from The Hill: the nice signals are likely knife-edge diffraction from there. This issue marks the end of a seven year run for Bill Hale and his FM News. This is his last one. A column like his is one that you just can’t slap together in an hour or two. It takes work and Bill’s work is much appreciated. So now we need an editor. We need someone who wants to do some work and help the club. Is there anyone out there up for the challenge? Bill can supply you with data. You take it and mold it into something and submit it to Ryan every month. I would suggest that if you are interested you e-mail Ryan and let him know. If nobody comes forward, then FM News will become a thing of the past. And that is it for October. We will see you in November. - Mike Paul Mitschler's rendition of Hallicrafter 505 which offered 13 push buttons for channels 1-13 back in the late 40's. OCTOBER 2015 ··· 3 ··· THE MAILBOX Douglas E. Smith TV 1389 Old Clarksville Pike Pleasant View, TN 37146-8098 News [email protected] http://www.w9wi.com October 2015 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 CX Canceled PR Power change requested DC Converted to DTV RA Returns to the air DCC Digital Companion Channel QC Channel (?frequency??) change on the air NS Granted flash-cut to DTV QG Channel change granted DCC DE License/permit deleted QR Channel change requested DR Requests flash-cut to DTV RE Reinstated (previously-dismissed app.) FC Programming (?format??) change ROA Request of Applicant FTP Failure to Prosecute SI Off the air (?silent??) GA Granted amendment (to table of channel STA Special Temporary Authority allotments) LC License to Cover XC Transmitter site changed MX Mutually Exclusive XG Transmitter site change granted NDA Non-directional antenna XR Transmitter site change requested NS Permit granted for new station lpdtv Low Power Digital TV DG Granted conversion to DTV DRT Digital Replacement Translator News: (full-power digital stations in bold face; LPTV and translators in regular type; full-power analog stations in bold italics; low-power analog stations in regular italics) Arkansas Hot Springs 18 KTVV-LD XR 34-47-55/ 92-29-44 USA Paragould 26 K26MF PR>6kw, 35-32-36/ 90- 29-47 Alabama Russellville 20 W45CW DC from 45, 15kw California Bakersfield 43 KPMC-LP DC 15kw Banning 33 KRVD-LP DR 3kw, 33-57-42/ 117-16-47 Big Bear Lake 6 KZNO-LP CC from K06MU Alaska Daggett 18, K18IM, NW 330w, 34-53-07/ Nenana 8 K08OV XR 64-34-39/ 149-04-40 21 K21MH 116-53-45 (San Bernardino Co.) OCTOBER 2015 ··· 4 ··· TV NEWS Lucerne Valley 24, K15CA, AF 1.3kw, 34-36-35/ 26, K17KD, 117-17-13; DCC for 32 K19BT analog 15/ 17/ 19 Modesto 49 K49EO DR Illinois Morongo Valley 32 K32EM DC 435w Chicago 19 WGN-TV NW 175kw/ 437m, 41- Newberry 6, K06IQ, DC 208/ 247w 53-56/ 87-37-23 (aux) Springs 10 K10IX Jacksonville 49 WEEJ-LD XR 38-54-40/ 90-10-37 Palm Desert 11 KDUO-LP AF 1kw; DCC for Mount Vernon 11 WPXS QR from 21, analog 43 160kw/163m, 38-36- San Diego 6 KRPE-LP PR>3kw, 33-18-35/ 39/ 89-45-32; 116-50-54; CL from amendment from 172m Banning Mount Vernon 42 W42EM XR 38-29-23/ 89-47-17 Twentynine 15, K15FC, DC 435w, 34-04-32/ Mount Vernon 48 W48EH XR 38-23-18/ 89-15-19 Palms 17 K17GJ 115-57-18 Springfield 23, W23DX, PR>6kw, 38-54-40/ 90- Victorville 30 K51AN AF 1.43kw, 34-36-35/ 45 W45DK 10-37 117-17-13; DCC for analog 51; see Lucerne Valley Indiana Indianapolis 31 WKOG-LP CX Colorado Salem 17 WRLW-CA QC from 41, 6.5kw, 38- Mesa 13 K13IF NW 6w, 38-44-18/ 108- 21-57/ 85-58-55 53-10 (Mesa Co.) Terre Haute 28 W28DZ XR 39-53-39/ 86-12-21 Florida Iowa Gainesville 25 WFEO-LD PR<6kw, 30-08-12/ 82- Cedar Falls 46 K46MK PR>15kw, 42-17-17/ 02-17; PC<6kw, 29-47- 91-52-54 47/ 82-20-46 Jacksonville 29 WUBF-LP DR from 69, 5kw, 30- 17-54/ 81-58-37; DG; DC Live Oak 20 WKBJ-LD CC from W20EA Kansas Ocala 44 W44DS XC 28-49-15/ 81-41-47 Kansas City 25 KCKS-LD PC>15kw, 39-05-31/ 94-56-42 Topeka 22 KMJC-LD PR<340w, 38-57-14/ 95-16-11 38-58-33/ 95- 48-33; PC Georgia Dublin 21 W21DA XR 32-34-11/ 83-11-23 Gainesville 31 WVND-LD PC>3kw Valdosta 13 WBFL-CA DC 2kw Maine Bangor 5 W05DF PR>2.2kw, 44-50-49/ 68-40-48; PG Idaho Boise 6 KFMY-LD CC for NS Massachusetts Springfield 43 WHTX-LP DC 15kw, 42-05-01/ 72-42-16 OCTOBER 2015 ··· 5 ··· TV NEWS Michigan New Hampshire Ironwood 32 W32CV DR 8.452kw Concord 22 W22EK PR>5kw, 42-57-05/ Marquette 14 W14EM NW 15kw, 46-32-41/ 71-16-06 87-23-31 (WLUC) New Mexico Minnesota Farmington 34 KFNM-LD CC from K34MY Aitkin 39 K39GG DR 6.745kw Las Vegas 33 K33FL PR<345w, 35-36-12/ Duluth 33 KDLH FC to CW 105-15-30 Duluth 19 KBJR-TV FC to add CBS on 6.2 Santa Fe 29 KWBQ PC<1275m,