Vee Zee Antenna

Channel 14, it amazes me that I have never seen a channel 14 in my life.

Closest channel I ever seen to 14 was WBOC channel 16 from Salisbury Maryland here in Norwich Connecticut on a U-100 UHF radio shack out door corner reflector antenna 60 feet in the air. Came in mostly at night time along with WPHL 17 from Philly.

Even with digital television, the lowest channel is now channel 17 on a locally owned ION station in Rhode Island. I used to love television skip back in the days of analog TV.

Furthest station I ever received back then in my area was on Channel 3 from Clairwater Florida, it was an educational station, I forgot the call letters now, but it came in like a local and covered up our local channel 3 for several hours.

Bruce.

WEDU

wdcx Said:

WEDU

MrBruce Said:

I'm old and that was long ago, late 70's perhaps, but I do recall those letters now that I reflect upon it now, I see I spelled Clearwater wrong, oh well old age creeping up on me I guess.

When the USA went digital and channels 2 through 6 went dark, I, for the first time was able to get several analog stations from Canada, one I recall was on channel 6, it was in English, advertising was for Canadian businesses.

Now that they are digital, I mostly get digital stations from Maine when tropo is high, such as Portland's WGME 38/13 is a common catch here.

Bruce.

I used to LOVE TV DXing.

First:

Carl, I read the history on your channel 14. 

What a story!  I actually read several articles

on that early UHF TV station.

When I started TV DXing in the 1960s, There

was a channel 14 UHF  station just fifty miles

from me.  It was only on for a few hours a day -

whatever the FCC minimum was.  I MISSED IT.

I saw the above mentioned WEDU channel 3 (FL)

up here in Hartford when our local analog 3 was off.

I also saw WEDU 3 over at a relatives house in Rhode Island.

Above - I think it was Bruce that mentioned a UHF 16 in Maryland

- - I received that same channel 16 in the Hartford, CT area.

The tropo duct - or whatever it was - was so good - that I got

that station on a small indoor antenna.

I have tried to DX the new HDTV channels - no luck yet - but

I will always keep trying.

Please excuse and typos, etc.

Very best wishes

Brooce, WLP, Dogradio, and all the Micro

stations 

I had mentioned this to Carl - - 

I had seen channel 2 KTVI from St. Louis

in Hartford CT in the early 1980s.  The signal

was very strong on a black and white portable

with an indoor antenna.  Some time after that,

I saw channel 5 from St. Louis in Hartford via

E skip.  Same thing - very very strong for the

brief time it was there.  

"E skip" is magic.  I had it on channels, 2, 3 and

5 and 6 analog TV over many years.  I envy those

who had seen E skip in the "Hi Band" - that is  channels

7 through 13.  Few people experienced it - but what a

thrill it must have been for them!  7 - 13 skip was said

to be much more dramatic than the lower channels,  

- very brief - very strong local strength - violent fading

and multipath and much less common.  I think it was

something like one percent of the occurances of the

lower  2 though 6 channels.  Again, some people did

see it.  I never did.  

(Currently - TV DXers with big outside antennas are receiving

HDTV channel 2 through 6 STILL.  But the receving set-ups

have to be exceptional 99 percent of the time.)  Because of

the way the skip behaves, many of those TV DXers see the

same channels 2 through 6 HDTVs over and over, summer

after summer.  There are not very many HDTV 2 through 6

stations.   

In a related subject -  a rare E skip event occured recently

here.  We had a winter Eskip event on the FM BCB band.

Many of you will know that this is a special thing.  Very very

strong South Carolina FM stations heard in CT a few days

after Christmas.  But not for long, of course.  

I missed that one too.  Oh well, those openings are still

possible.  Again, E skip is magic.  And scientists still don't

completely understand how it works.

Please excuse any typos.

Best Wishes,

Brooce, WLP, Dogradio, and the Microstations  

MICRO1700 Your Channel 3 in Hartford Connecticut was our local channel 3 here in Norwich Connecticut. WFSB-TV

Here, back in the day during the 11 year sunspot cycle, it was difficult to get channel 3 from Hartford in Norwich, which is a mere 50 miles south-east of the transmitter location. Often it was covered up by stations from the south-eastern states.

VHF high 7-13, was common for the following stations, WABC-TV channel 7 New York City, WWOR-TV channel 9 Secaucus N.J.  WCAU channel 10 Philadelphia PA, WPIX Channel 11 New York City, WBAL channel 11 Baltimore Maryland, WNET channel 13 New York City.

Once I had a station from Washington D.C. come in on channel 20 while the then WTXX now WCCT from Waterbury CT was off the air, the station was WDCA channel 20 Washington D.C.

The station had a sky cam with a 90 degree back and forth panoramic view of Washington D.C. before sign on, with an over-lay of the letters WDCA WASHINGTON D.C. at the bottom of the screen, I guess it was their version of a test pattern, then WTXX from Waterbury Connecticut kicked their transmitter on the air for the day with their test pattern and covered that station up just as it was signing on with the National Anthem.

I wish I had a VCR back then to record those stations when they signed on or off, but I did use an audio cassette tape recorder and recorded the audio portion of the station IDs to prove to people I had received these stations. VCRs were just becoming available to consumers and were very expensive in the early 1980's, like well over $1,000 for a good quality VHS 3 speed machine, some were even $3,000 back then!!!

I do that now with a cell phone pointed at my HDTV screen, showing the station IDS.

Bruce.

When I was young I remember going to our cottage - about 100 miles north of Toronto - and sometimes getting TV stations from Texas and Florida on Channels 2-4 (the local CBC station was on one of those channels but I can't remember which one).  Considering that back then watching the CBC was like watching paint dry, those catches provided some much needed excitement to our television viewing.

I remember wondering how that could happen, and it really sparked my interest in DX'ing - first TV and that then led to radio, including shortwave and amateur radio.

Back in the day, I used to keep a log of what stations that I actually was able to receive.

Most of the time for my area, the distant tropo stations were coming in from New York City (which is beyond our normal signal range in this part of Connecticut) New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and I'm am trying to remember if there was any others besides that one station from Washington D.C.

Strangely, nothing ever came in from upper state New York and the closest was WCDC channel 19 from Adams Massachusetts, a translator for WTEN channel 10 in Albany New York. I can not get this station any more since it went digital and moved to digital channel 36.

I used to get an educational station from Biddford Maine on channel 26, besides a rare WMUR channel 9 from Manchester New Hampshire, never, ever, really, ever got anything from Vermont here.

I can say this much about digital television compared to analog reception. The analog signals were often splattered with what we called snow, even the locals had some signs of snow from time to time. But, digital is entirely different! Digital either comes in, or it doesn't and if it does and it gets past the pixelization stage, the picture is flawless, a crystal clear picture that analog signals never achieved.

I just wish that that could be acieved with a signal less than 50% signal strength, once the signal hits 50% or lower, you lose the lock and the picture freeze-frames.

This I do know, when the FCC finishes with the re-pack, you are going to often find that your local and distant stations are sharing the same channels, the chances of getting an out of market station will be zero! The FCC, if it can help it, is trying to put over the air television in the same class as cable television or other signal delivery systems, to block out of market duplicate programming.

Over the air television channels can't be blocked out like they are on cable or satellite subscription systems, but one way to stop out of market over the air signals, is to place them on the same channels as your local stations.

If there is a well watched station at your home from another market area, it will be impossible to watch that station if your local station is moved to that same channel. The only possibilty is if your local shuts down their programming at night and signs off. But that only leaves you with 4 to 5 hours of out of market programming per every 24 hours.

Sadly, this is what the re-pack is going to do, bring an end to the watching of out of market programming, even for 'over the air' television viewers. Enjoy it while you still can.

Bruce.

Hi Mr. Bruce:

Bcause you live in Norwich CT and

I live in the Hartford CT area, we have

DXed a lot of the same TV stations.

What a funny thing that we should both

end up on the Part 15 Us board!

I have tons of TV DX stories.  And there

were hours and hours of just looking at

a blank channel full of snow.  I used the

antenna rotor so much that I broke it.  

I broke the "fine tuning" knob on the VHF

selector of my parents color TV.  About 1969,

I guess.  

I later got my ham license and wanted so badly

to do 2 way ham TV on the 420 MHz ham band. 

Some guys I knew set up a ATV repeater in the 

Hartford area for a short time.  I was never able

to pick up the signals, but a friend not too far 

from me was able to watch the ATV repeater on

a modified TV.  It was just the wrong time for me

in my life.  I was unable to get involved with that.

I received WCDC - the channel 19 you mentioned.

I also received the WTEN channel 10 from Albany NY

in Hartford CT.

There are so many TV DX stories.  I had so much fun.

So you might remember, I have severe eye damage and

have had it all my life.  That didn't stop from TV DXing.

I did it anyway.  I saw meteor scatter pings on channel

3 in the morning before the local channel 3 in Hartford

signed on.  I THINK (HA HA)

The UHF repack makes me sad.  But I am just enjoying

the over the air (OTA) channels as they are now.  

I think a lot of people depend on OTA TV.  What do you

think?  I have read that it's about 17 percent of the

population - - but I think it's really more.(?)

I was wondering if the above belongs in this thread - -

I decided that it is OK.  (Just my opinion.)  Starting with

Carl's channel 14 - - I think this thread is about the

history of broadcast television.

Anyway - I will probably have some more comments.

I guess you grew up with WICH 1310 kHz in your town.

No problem getting that here today.  I have a friend who

was on WICH when we was in highschool.  

Best Wishes and please excuse and typos or messed up

words

Brooce, WLP and other Part 15 experiments 

MICRO1700

Yes WICH AM 1310 is our local AM radio station, at least now-a-days WICH is 98% oldies music, boardering on old time rock 'n' roll from the 1970's to 1990's to artists from the late 1950's to 1960's era, they do have local statewide sports, UCONN, NFA High School sports etc.

For AM when I do tune them in, I do find myself stuck listening to them, at night between 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM there appears to be NO commercials and there is a live DJ, who pipes in between songs and says "Personality Radio WICH 1310" A lot of their music is still played off of vinyl records and of course off of a computer system hard drive, but the station is manned on air full time, also their studios house the on air studios for WCTY, WKNL and WNLC which are FM stations.

I have not mentioned in any of my posts television stations broadcasting from Long Island New York, Rhode Island or Massachusetts.

The city to which I have grown up in and currently still live in, which for clarity is Norwich, Connecticut, is located in a very hilly terrain. Norwich is full of hills and valleys, move 100 feet and you've changed a few degrees up or down in distance from the Earth's centeral core.

This makes line of site to a transmission tower possible or not possible at all in a radius of 1 square mile.

When I grew up as a kid, we had a large channel master color tv antenna on the roof, but we were blocked by a locally large hill from the Western to North-Western parts of Connecticut. That direction would include Hartford CT and Springfield MA.

To the North and North-East, our television antenna was equal to the ground level 1/8 of a mile away, we were able to get VHF television reception from Hartford (WFSB Channel 3 ONLY) and Providence RI and Boston VHF stations only. Channel 8 WTNH New Haven, CT came in here as well. But most television antennas in Eastern Connecticut were pointed towards Providence Rhode Island and Boston, since all the networks were coming from that direction.

Very few in this area watched the Connecticut stations, because CH 3 was to the West- North - West, Channel 8 was to the South-West and those were only the CBS and ABC stations, NBC was on a low powered channel 30 WHNB, now WVIT TV.

Channels 6 WTEV (now WLNE) was either ABC or CBS

Channel 10 WJAR was always NBC

and WPRI channel 12 was either CBS or ABC.

Then we had the Boston stations comeing from the same direction.

We had a 36 inch Zenith B&W VHF only television, no UHF tuner, until the late 1970's.

I had received a 12 inch B&W Hitachi portable television set for Christmas in 1972, that had a UHF tuner bult in. My Dad put up a low range outdoor VHF/UHF televsion antenna along with a rotor to turn the antenna.  The UHF portion of this antenna only had 4 UHF elements, I do not know what the specs were on this antenna, but it was half the size of our VHF antenna and reception was not as good as the larger antenna.

On the UHF band of this television was of course channel 53 WEDN from Norwich and sometimes WSMW now WUNI channel 27 from Worcester MA came in, but the Boston UHF stations only came in during extreme tropo.

Many years later, I got married and moved a few times and ended up on one of Norwich's higher elevations, I had bought a Radio Shack U-100 UHF corner reflector antenna, an outdoor television antenna amp with indoor power supply and on a 3 story home, erected a fully extended Radio Shack 36 foot telescopic mast with the UHF antenna on top and a rotor to turn the antenna in any direction.

This arrangement brought in The Boston UHFs WXNE 25, WSBK 38, WGBX 44, WLVI 56 and WQTV 68. Springfield MA stations WWLP 22, WGGB 40 and WGBY 57 and also WCDC channel 19 Adams MA.

A new Rhode Island station WSTG channel 64 first came on air in 1980, I caught it's few days of program run testing, they were broadcasting Yogi Bear cartoons about an hour or two per day, then finally they started an afternoon sign on and signed off at 11 PM.

My antenna gave me a good 20 mile or so line of sight in that direction of Rehoboth MA, but the signal from WSTG was very weak and unstable, often not watchable at all.

Today, that very same station is called WNAC and is a FOX affiliate on VHF Channel 12, I get it here with a home made UHF 4 bay antenna quite well, I have to mention, the whiskers on my antennas are longer than standard UHF bowtie antennas, thus it has a lean more towards lower UHF and upper VHF reception. I live in a different area of Norwich now.

WSBE TV channel 36 Rhode Island Public TV station, has always been a signal in my area.

Back in the days of having that large antenna, stations from Long Island New York were often watchable, now only WFTY TV formerly WSNL channel 67 is the only Long Island station I currently get from there on full time basis on UHF digital channel 23.

I know a lot of people that get that station in Connecticut on over the air, it is a spanish station, but on RF 23.3 and 23.4 there are English language stations.

Since the USA went digital and television stations were moved to UHF or to a different channel, or reduced power, there are stations in our market area that we can no longer get on over the air reception.

WTNH-TV New Haven, CT was on channel 8, they moved to channel 10 and reduced power, now we can no longer get them in most parts of eastern Connecticut, even with a VHF antenna.

WFSB TV channel 3, moved to UHF channel 33, they are very difficult to get here now, I can not get their signal here 98% of the time.

WCTX TV formerly channel 59 (Moniker MY TV 9) is also a NO SHOW here, never got a signal from them, I do get WSBK from Boston a lot during the summer months on that same digital channel though.

Lastly, WUVN formerly channel 18 Hartford, CT. is also a rare signal here.

WCCT 20, WTIC 61 and WEDH 24 all come in here.

ION station WPQX channel 69 from Hope Valley Rhode Island on RF 17 is a killer station here, just as strong as ION station WHPX channel 26 New London, CT which is 7 miles South-South-East from me.

WEDN formerly channel 53 Norwich, Connecticut Public TV is now on VHF channel 9 with an increased power output, this local translator now reaches almost into the Boston MA market area.

This past summer on the date of August 3 2015, I received the following stations in the late nigh hours.

WCSH TV 6 from Portland, ME

WMTW TV 8 from Portland, ME

WENH TV 11 from Durham, NH

WPXG TV 21 from Concord, NH

WBIN TV 50 from Derry N.H 

That was some decent rare tropo that night.

Bruce.

If I get this just right you should be able to link a pdf file that descibes the Vee Zee Antenna on about Page 22.

The Vee Zee Antenna