The Official Publication of the Worldwide TV-FM DX Association NOVEMBER 2005 The Magazine for TV and FM DXers The Big #20 Is Ready! WTFDA CONVENTION DATES August 11,12,13, 2006 Make Your Plans Now for Sparta, NJ 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 Webmaster: Tim McVey Editorial Staff: Dave Williams, George W. Jensen, Jeff Kruszka Keith McGinnis, Fred Nordquist, Matt Sittel, Doug Smith, Peter Baskind and John Zondlo, Our website: www.anarc.org/wtfda Our forums: www.wtfda.info NOVEMBER 2005 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 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 11 secure way to join or renew your membership Photo News…Jeff Kruszka 16 in the WTFDA from our page at: Western TVDX…Dave Williams 19 http://fmdx.usclargo.com/join.html Eastern TVDX…Matt Sittel 27 Southern FMDX…John Zondlo 28 Dues are $25 if paid to our Paypal account. But Northern FMDX…Keith McGinnis 30 of course you can always renew by check or 6 meters…Peter Baskind 41 money order for the usual price of just $24. Satellite News…George Jensen 44 Either way, it’s still a bargain! Get All Channels! 45 Editors/Submissions 46 VUDS ON A CD! I think just about everybody loves a good antenna article and this month Gary Hickerson Every VUD from Jan supplied one. This article originally appeared in 1980 to December 1989 the May 1965 Popular Mechanics and cost you is on this disk. You’ll all of 35¢. need Adobe Reader to We’ve been looking for a new FM News read them. Why have a editor and I think we’ve found one. He’s an FM box of old VUDs taking up space when you can Dxer and has a nice looking website. One point have this. It’s yours for just $8.00 per disk. this proves is that you don’t have to be an old- Send your check or money order for $8.00 to timer to get an editorship here. WTFDA, P.O. 501, Somersville, CT 06072. To all of our US members, have a great Make it payable to WTFDA. Thanksgiving and we’ll see you in December! THE WTFDA FORUMS AT http://www.wtfda.info This is the newest addition to WTFDA on the internet. The forums consist of a series of public forums for all TV and FM Dxers plus two forums just for WTFDA members; the eVUD forum and the Members-Only Forum. Register yourself and go take a look. It costs you nothing more! THE WTFDA EMAIL LIST AT WTFDA.INFO Due to popular demand, we’ve moved the list from Topica to the forums. The emails fly faster and you get subscribed faster! Just send an email to [email protected] to be added to the list quickly. If you’ve had problems with Topica before, try us now and come onboard. Read on the web or by emails. Your choice! 2 P.O. Box 501, Somersville, CT USA 06072 MIKE BUGAJ [email protected] TROPO! transmission but I would like to know which Welcome back! I hope you were one of station it was?” the lucky ones to snag a little bit of October So, you folks down in Florida, check tropo! Looking over the month of October, the your logs and see if you got RCTV-3 on July northeast experienced tropo to NB and NS on 31st. the first of the month. Mike Hawk and Matt Sittel got some great dx to North Dakota and MIDWEST GET-TOGETHER Manitoba on October 2nd. Then the tropo broke loose in the east from the 3rd to the 7th. John Tudenham tells us of the 2005 October 8th to the 10th featured a few days of Midwest Get-Together scheduled for “Dixie Tropo” for the guys down in the November 11,12,13 in Lebanon, MO. southern states. On October 11th, Girard Lebanon is 50 miles NE of Springfield and Westerberg saw channel 10 in Oklahoma via about 160 miles SW of St. Louis tropo. It’s been a great month for many of you The location is the Historic Route 66 Inn, and let’s hope the last half of the month is as formerly the Best Way Inn, located near exit good as the first half. 127 on I-44. This is 1710 W. Elm which is on the old highway 66, on the north side of I-44. MEMBERS AND MORE John says he can get you a special low rate of $33/night at this motel. It’s in a good Renewals are in this month from Paul location, has cable TV and has plenty of Sojka, Jr (NJ), Bill Smith (MA), Jim places to eat within walking distance. He also Renfrew (NY), Cliff Rames (FL), Charles mentions possible tours of KBNN-AM 750 and Tumosa (MD), Scott Fybush (NY), Gary KJEL-FM 103.7. Olson (FL), and Roger Sabella (IL). This list In the area you’ll also find a Route 66 covers the period from 9/18 to 10/17. Thank museum plus Bennett Springs State Park. you all for sticking with us for another year. Reservations are probably not needed but you can call the motel at 417-532-3128 for more info or call John at 417-624-8058 or email him at [email protected]. CAPE COD GET-TOGETHER Chris Black is holding a Cape Cod DX get-together Saturday, November 19th. This is an all-band event, so if you are into FM or AM DXing, it should be interesting. Chris says there are some motels within a five minutes drive of his place and the rates are low! There will be drinks, snacks and a buffet type dinner “to maximize our time in the DX window.” Try to RSVP by early to mid November so he can Here’s another logo from Jesùs Perez in get a rough headcount. The address is Chris Havana. He writes “Here is another logo from Black, 12 Cypress Point Way, S. Yarmouth, a local channel on the east part of the MA 02664 and the phone is 508-394-0528 or country. It is the new logo for Television email chris at [email protected]. Camaguey. I would like to know if there was anyone OK, you turkeys, else having RCTV on channel 3 on July 31st that closes the mailbox of this year. I did it and there was also for this month. Have a another ch3 getting in at the same time that great Thanksgiving and day. This one with a baseball game in we’ll see you in Dec. Spanish, but with no commercials. They mentioned Venezuela at times on the 3 Douglas E. Smith TV News 1389 Old Clarksville Pike Pleasant View, TN 37146-8098 [email protected] http://www.w9wi.com November 2005 Abbreviations: AF Applied For (a new station) PC Power (and/or tower height) change on the air Aux Auxiliary (backup) transmitter PG Power change granted CC Callsign change PR Power change requested CL City-of-license change QC Channel (?frequency??) change on the air DE License/permit deleted QG Channel change granted FC Programming (?format??) change QR Channel change requested FTP Failure to Prosecute RE Reinstated (previously-dismissed app.) GA Granted amendment (to table of channel ROA Request of Applicant allotments) LC License to Cover SI Off the air (?silent??) MX Mutually Exclusive STA Special Temporary Authority NDA Non-directional antenna XC Transmitter site changed NS Permit granted for new station XG Transmitter site change granted NW New station on the air XR Transmitter site change requested PA Proposed Amendment News: Demopolis 41 WIIQ PC<324m, (full-power analog stations in bold face; LPTV and 32-21-45/ translators in regular type; full-power digital stations 87-52-04 in bold italics) Enterprise 52 NEW-LP AF dismissed Huntsville 41 WZDX-DT NW 400kw/518, 34-44-12/ 86-31-59 Canada: Mobile 30 W52BF QC from ch. 52, British Columbia: 63kw Vancouver 20 CHNM- AF 1.35kw/615 Ozark 33 WDFX-DT NW 15kw/151m DT Russellville 45 W59CF QR from ch. 59, Ontario: 45kw Ottawa 24 CICO-TV- PG<427.6kw (supercedes app 24 for ch. 44) Quebec: Selma 55 WAKA- NW 1000kw/481 Montreal 59 CFTM-DT AF 10kw/42m DT (roof of TVA Alaska: studio) Anchorage 8 KAKM- NW 50kw/240m DT Anchorage 10 KTUU-DT NW 21kw/240m Juneau 24, K24HB, NS 6.7kw, Guam: 26 K26IB 58-19-47/ Agana 12 KGTF PC>90m 134-28-17 Agana 32 K32GB NW 150w, Seward 44 NEW-LP AF dismissed 13-29-14/ Arizona: 144-46-50 Bisbee 41 NEW-LP AF dismissed Casa Grande 28 K27HF QC from ch. 27, U.S. Virgin Islands: 9.99kw Christiansted 10 WEYA-LP QR from ch. 52, Green Valley 29 KPCE-LP FC; sold to 3kw, 17-45-22/ Daystar 64-47-57 Holbrook 6 KNJO-LP NW 470w, 34-50-18/ 110-11-10 Holbrook 11 KDTP QG from ch.