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OTA: Great Lakes Area DXing, Tropo, Atypical Reception 2012-2015

280K views 2K replies 144 participants last post by  steelzone 
#1 ·
New channel for me last night. I was flipping through the manual tuning feature and noticed a signal coming in on channel 15 where Sun TV used to be. Moved the antenna a bit and it remapped to channel 19. Apparently it is Flint Michigan. It is another PBS channel. First time this has ever showed up for me. This morning I am getting some of the stations in from Rochester.
 
#5 ·
tropo today

Was scanning channels this morning and was able to latch onto a signal on 48 analogue. Does anyone know where this channel originates? Odd tropo today must be due to incomming warm front, most unusual though.




Antennacraft U4000, CM9510 Rotor, Antennacraft10G201 Pre-amp, Sony Bravia TV.
 
#6 ·
goforit, is it really that difficult to receive ION?! I catch this one on a regular basis all year around here in KW.
 
#7 ·
Aburgdxer said:
...was able to latch onto a signal on 48 analogue. Does anyone know where this channel originates?
Likely the very directional low powered Wpxd Ion repeater station from Detroit "W48AV" or could have been CBLFT from Chatham, both of which would not be far enough away to be really classified as true "tropo".
 
#11 ·
Jase88, the only time ION comes in for me, is when there appears to be some tropo going on- other channels see a bounce in signal strength, like last night, which tells me something is going on in the atmosphere; it's interesting it's happening in sub-freezing weather.

Maybe the signal is receivable with a better set-up like yours, but for others with more modest set-ups, we need the help of the right atmosphere conditions to snag it, which occurs regularly during the warmer months of the year, and surprisingly in -10 C weather too; maybe it's something unique to digital signals over analog or something else... It seems to be occurring tonight a little, with BUF readings higher than normal, but not enough to lock in ION.
 
#12 ·
My setup might not be the key here. I believe my area is significantly higher above sea level than most of Hamilton. What's your height ASL? I'm about 350m.
 
#14 ·
Jase88, I'm 639 feet and then 35 for the tower, so about 670 feet, so about 220m..., so not as high as you.

Additionally, the Highland area of Hamilton is east of me (prime OTA land!) plus the CHCH tower is about 2 miles from my house- which makes getting ION more difficult even though I'm closer than you.

Interestingly, ION was coming in this evening, how is it at your location?
 
#16 ·
Wilspin, I thought 2011 was an average year. Maybe a little more consistency caused by slightly less tropo or hotter average temps, but I still had some good catches last year.
 
#18 ·
Last post January 4th, and last post in the Ontario Tropo Thread is January 6th.

Depths of Winter, probably good a time as any to discuss the theory on what makes Tropo and other forms of enhanced reception occur.
A pretty good article here.

http://www.dxfm.com/Content/propagation.htm

Anything you may or may not have already known in that article?
Any other articles you know of to share?
 
#20 ·
yeah, the weather is pretty stable in them parts I guess.

I found it interesting that noone really knows what causes sporadic E.
 
#21 ·
WVIZ PBS Cleveland on RF38

Can someone explain why I am receiving Cleveland PBS station WVIZ channel 25-1 and sub channels on RF38 here in London tonight via tropo. They have always been on RF26. I have investigated everything online and the only thing I think it could be is one of the translators from Astubula county have gone digital.
There is a mention that the analog went down Dec 31, 2011 and there is no mention of digital RF.
 
#24 ·
A sign of things to come....

Getting my first hint of tropo for the season today. Am picking up:

24.1 WJET Erie
31.1 CITY Woodstock
35.1 WSEE Erie
35.2 WBEP Erie
51.1 ION
51.2 qubo
51.3 IONLIFE
54.1 WQLN-HDErie
51.2 WQLN-S1 Erie
51.3 WQLN-S2 Erie
66.1 WFXP Erie

Signals aren't as strong as they will be later on, but this is a definite sign of spring in the air.:D
 
#25 ·
Nice catches Goldielover! Haven't seen any Erie in my neck of the woods this year so far!

Going to bed now after staying up all night watching Rochester, Syracuse & Utica! No new catches, but was great to see some "old friends" return with this great weather!

From Rochester, NY I got WXXI (RF16), WUHF (RF28) and WROC (RF45). (No sign at all of the new WBGT-CA signal on RF46...not even a blink! Does anyone know how much power they're running right now? I still see a stronger "blink" from W42CO which is lower powered than WGBT-CA is supposed to be.)

Syracuse, NY's WSTM (RF24) came in for about an hour around 3am!

Utica, NY's WKTV (RF29) squeaked in for a few minutes around 5:15am-ish, but faded quickly after that!

Good to see the season starting up! :)
 
#26 ·
Garth, I face west, so usually find it a bit more common to pick up Erie or Cleveland than I do Syracuse, Utica or even Rochester. WQLN Erie and CITY Woodstock in particular I consider to be "summer regulars".

I have my Clearstream 2V now, by the way. Inside, it seems roughly equivalent to my trusty Terk, although I don't have it properly mounted yet and haven't played with it a whole lot. Where I think it will come into its own is when I put it out on the balcony. That was always very hard to do with the Terk, as it has a very short cable permanently attached, and I didn't have an extension cable for it.
 
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