The Official Publication of the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association JANUARY 2008 The Magazine for TV and FM DXers Boldly going where no North American TV DXers have ever gone before… 13 MONTHS REMAINING UNTIL ANALOG TV SHUTOFF HAPPY NEW YEAR! 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 wtfda.org Webmaster: Tim McVey wtfda.info Site Administrator: Chris Cervantez Editorial Staff: Dave Williams, 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 JANUARY 2008 _______________________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS Page Two 2 Mailbox 3 TV News…Doug Smith 6 Finally! For those of you online with an email FM News…Bill Hale 11 address, we now offer a quick, convenient and Photo News…Jeff Kruszka 24 secure way to join or renew your membership Western TV DX…Dave Williams 26 in the WTFDA from our page at: Northern FM DX…Keith McGinnis 31 http://fmdx.usclargo.com/join.html Eastern TV DX…Nick Langan 51 6 Meter DX…Peter Baskind 54 Dues are $25 if paid to our Paypal account. But Sign up/Renewal Form 55 of course you can always renew by check or money order for the usual price of just $24. It may be January but there’s still DX out there Either way, it’s still a bargain! waiting to be reported. This is probably a eVUD members please send $10 for record for the fattest January VUD ever! membership or renewal to [email protected]. 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] Bruce Hall, 5 Stirton Ave., Brantford, ON N3T 1E2 [email protected] Keith McGinnis, 6 Ritter Road, 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 TV DX Nick Langan, 1040 Riverview Dr., Florence, NJ 08516 [email protected] WESTERN TV DX Dave Williams, 3525 SW Timber Ave., Redmond, OR 97756 [email protected] SOUTHERN FM John Zondlo, 4009 Driftwood Cir., Yukon, OK 73099 [email protected] NORTHERN FM Keith McGinnis, 6 Ritter Rd., 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] HAPPY NEW YEAR! frightened the manufacturers away. They haven't exactly been a money maker, and Welcome to a very special year. This is have had a very high return rate, either for the year we’ve either all looked forward to, quality issues, or from dolts who can't figure or just plain dreaded. It’s our final year of it out. Ebay is still saturated with returned analog television. sets on offer from closeout houses. It might The cover this month is a special cover be worth while for George to have someone and seems perfect for the January VUD. Our cover this month was created by WTFDA pick up a set for him there if he's het up on member Paul Mitschler of Albuquerque, NM. getting one.” Paul has sent us some nice material over George also wanted to know how the the months but this takes the prize. One Conrad RDS Managers work. I have no clue could almost see Captain Kirk piloting the how they do what they do. But you can hook USS DXable as it travels through the up an RDS Manager directly to a tuner in a cosmos searching for those weak, elusive couple of ways. One is through the TV and FM DX signals. And we indeed will Multiplex-Out jack of the tuner (if it has one), be “boldly going where no man has ever or by finding and tapping into the correct gone”, at least on this planet, as we point in the audio chain inside the tuner (and transition from analog to digital television. finding this point could be fairly easy, a pain or impossible, depending on the tuner.) MEMBERS AND MORE This unit does not need to be fed into a During the period from 11/20 to 12/14 we computer. The RDS Manager has an LCD received renewals from Randall Trapp screen that allows you to read the (MN), Les Pruss (VA), George Hamer information there. But when used with a (NY), Matt Sittel (NE), John Reiger (WI), computer and downloaded software, it’s Steve Solomon (MA), Robert Delaney (IL), much more sensitive than it would be when Gary Olson (FL), Alan Radella (PA), Ed used without a computer. Norris (IN), Adam Rivers (MA), Paul Occasionally one of these shows up on Mitschler (NM), Tom Bryant (TN), David eBay. The German eBay tends to have Wurl (WI) and James Roggentine (CA). more of them up for auction. The Conrad We thank all of you for continuing on with unit has been discontinued for a long time the WTFDA! now. With many FM DXers now using George Hamer (NY) wants to know Sangean HDT-1 tuners for DXing, you never more about the Insignia TV we wrote about know when someone will decide to sell a couple of issues ago. I asked Curtis theirs RDS Manager. Sadowski to reply because he knows more about it than I do, and here is his reply: COAT HANGER ANTENNAS “Well, it will pick up some of the stronger local stations with the three-foot long whip Here’s a question from Al Radella that antenna it has. It might actually work for DX somehow makes me think of Bob Cooper. on a better antenna, but I haven't tried that Alan writes “Back in the sixties, while yet, using it to watch the local stations I can stationed at Oxnard Air Force Base above get in down at Champaign. As for the Los Angeles, there was an NFL playoff comparison, I've got a 2" Casio which can game in San Diego below Los Angeles that run rings around this on analog. Insignia is was blacked out in our area and the citizenry the house brand for Best Buy. If he gets was outraged. The Los Angeles Times or one from there it'll probably be full price, the other LA newspaper published an article which is too much all things considered. and picture of an antenna made from wire Radio Shack allegedly has a portable DTV clothes hangers and we made it and were which I haven't seen. These days it's hard able to watch the game. Come to think enough to find a radio at one of those much about it, it probably was an AFL game. Can't less a TV. He might want to put off his remember when the merger was. Anyway, purchase for a few months, I'm thinking all I've always been one to try to do more with the handy-dandy small sets should be less having traveled a bit and had to showing up from China about then. That is, improvise in motel rooms, apartments in so if the Insignia portable DTVs haven't many situations. It always intrigues me to 3 see what I can get. Maybe one of the "Freeview terrestrial receivers (i.e. STBs) members can remember this. In any case, will be specified to decide SD and HD thanks for all the club has provided over the (including both 720p and 1080i). Each last year. “ broadcaster will decide which resolution to use (there is no chosen standard and there SPECTRALLY INEFFICIENT is no need to do so)." So contrary to early 'suggestions' Eric Bueneman takes issue with Doug pinpointing 720p as 'a standard' Browning is Smith’s idea of placing HD stations on the setting the record straight by assuring us 82-88mhz band. Eric writes: “I have read each broadcaster will be able to set their Doug Smith's comments on what to do with own HD format, perhaps on a programme by the 82-88 MHz band in the December 2007 programme basis. And, the terrestrial set-top VUD, and using that band for IBOC-DAB is boxes sold for approved Freeview use will not viable. The major issue is with its include SD (576 lines interlaced), HD (720 spectral efficiency; no matter what frequency lines progressively painted) and 1080i (1080 the radio station is operating on, IBOC-DAB lines interlaced). What has not changed still wastes 600 kHz of valuable spectrum from the earlier announcement is only space; there won't be any room to terrestrial reception sites will have access to accommodate all the stations.
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