Noticing first good VHF low band E's tonight of the year so far here. RF2 is back and forth currently with two un ID Canadian stations. One is showing Jeopardy and the other has Big Bang Theory on. Maybe KOTA-dt 2 or KNOP-dt 2 will eventually show up too.

*Edit: Faded away shortly after 7p.

Phil, you inspired me to put back up my VIP 302SR back up on account of it's great DXing abilities for low band VHF.

I am reporting fantastic American reception here in London since yesterday afternoon.

I have taken down my Channel Master 7778 on account it really it actually hurts VHF reception. It is great for UHF but it easily overloads on VHF from channel 10 CFPL. This is even with a CR7 trap for that channel.

With the Kitz Tech amp back in place, I am receiving VHF much better.

For example, during tropo last night, channel 2-1 WJBK RF7 out of Detroit was hitting peak signal on my television tuners.
This morning channel 12 WICU RF12 is doing the same.

With the VIP back up I am getting very clear reception of channel 6 Global out of Paris.

I was really concerned yesterday when I was getting reception of channels below channel 30 but above I was getting nothing. I recalled a bit back that Jase out of Kitchener had experienced the same issues, and he had water in his balun. Would you not know, I had the same issue, and luckly had a spare XG91 laying around to steal the balun from. Who keeps a spare XG91 laying around you ask? This hard corer does.
The balun is drying but is it finished? We will have to see. Perhaps AD Tech can help in this issue.

The rotor is holding fine, but easily gets out of sync, considering all the markets I swing too though out the night.

Anyways if you get a chance here in London get those antenna's up and check it out in glorious HD.

VHF was excellent last night period. WNGS-DT (ch 7) from Springville, NY, was booming in. I also caught hints of WICU Erie (channel 12). Also channel 8 (FOX) from Cleveland.

Very active E skip afternoon.
So far all channels (except 6) are active.

NTSC:
RF2: Frequent reception in colour of this station on the TX/Mexico border.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHRIO-TV
Many others blending in from Cuba,Mexico also.

RF3: "Cubavision" quite clear at times.
RF4: Basketball on with inverse "C" logo in right corner.
RF5: Same thing as RF4 except worse picture due to WLMB-DT digital snow added.


*9-10pm Frequent good decodes of KNOP-DT 2-1. I see they have a new sub channel since the last time I picked them up. (K11T-SD)

William Hepburn has predicted some strong tropo for the area in the next few days. Keeping fingers crossed on pulling in a new station.

Good conditions starting already?

Just got a few mins decode of WVAH 11-1 RF19. (Charleston-Huntington, WV)

Also the local Global repeater on CH22 is still of the air since last nights strong t-storm. Might get something distant on it tonight.

New additions:
WSAZ 3-1 RF23 NBC Charleston-Huntington, WV
WSWP 9-1 RF10 PBS Bluefield/Grandview, WV
WSBT 22-1 RF22 CBS South Bend, IN

Returning visitors:
WSFJ 51-1 RF24 TBN Newark, OH
WSYX 6-1 RF48 ABC Columbus
WRGT 45-1 RF30 FOX Dayton
WDTN 2-1 RF50 NBC Dayton
WNEM 5-1 RF22 Bay City, MI
WINM 12-1 RF12 TCT Angola, IN

Crap. I'm recording for the next hour and can't rotate....

I hope the conditions hold on!

London reporting:

3-1 WSAZ RF23 NBC affiliate from Huntington, West Virginia
47-1 WSBN RF32 Blue Ridge PBS from Norton, West Virginia
6-1 WSYX-DT RF48 ABC Columbus,Oh
30-1 WQCW-DT RF17 CW Huntington, West Virginia

Jase, get off the recording already......

45-1 WRGT RF30 FOX Dayton, Oh
64-1 WSTR RF33 MYN Cincinnati, Oh
28-1 WTTE-DT RF36 FOX Columbus, Oh
34-1 WOSU RF38 PBS Columbus, Oh
2-1 WDTN-HD RF50 NBC Dayton, Oh

So far I'm getting WOSU Columbus, OH. Still searching...

Wasn't trying last night but did see WQCW pop up.

Couple of new ones on me this morning. (at least I don't see them in my notes)

10.1 WTAJ-HD RF32 Altoona PA.
3.1, 2, 3 WPSU RF15 Clearfield, PA.
28.1 WBRE-DT RF11 Wilkes-Barre PA.

Was just quick, didn't rotate from Erie.

Cheers

Photo results from Mon night and Tue morning's new tropo here:

WSAZ 3-1 RF23 NBC (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSAZ-DT_NBC_RF23_Huntington_WV_24862mi-40011km.jpg)Huntington, WV - 248.62mi 400.11km
"......" (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSAZ-DT-2_NBC_RF23_Huntington_WV_24862mi-40011km.jpg)
WSAZ 3-2 MyZTV (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSAZ-D2_My_RF23_Huntington_WV_24862mi-40011km.jpg) (MyTV/ThisTV)
----
WSWP 9-1 RF10 PBS (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSWP-D1_PBS_RF10_Bluefield_WV_30321mi-48796km.jpg) Bluefield/Grandview, WV - 303.21mi 487.96km
WSWP 9-2 D2 (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSWP-D2_PBS_RF10_Bluefield_WV_30321mi-48796km.jpg)
WSWP 9-3 HD (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSWP-D3_PBS_RF10_Bluefield_WV_30321mi-48796km.jpg)
----
WSBT 22-1 RF22 CBS (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSBT-DT_CBS_RF22_SouthBend_IN_18820mi-30299km.jpg) South Bend, IN - 188.20mi 302.99km
WSBT 22-2 Ind (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSBT-D2_Ind_RF22_SouthBend_IN_18820mi-30299km.jpg)
WSBT 22-3 WX (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/WSBT-D3_WX_RF22_SouthBend_IN_18820mi-30299km.jpg)

Another smoking hot tropo late tonight in these parts.
Another new station around 12am not seen here before.

CBLFT-D SRC 25-1 (http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/dxandmore/TV_DXing/CBLFT-D_SRC_RF24_Toronto_ON_1956mi-3148km.jpg) RF24 Toronto - 195.6 miles

Plus others from way up north. None are new.
WBKB CBS 11-1 RF11 Alpena - 185.86mi
WPBN 7-1 ABC RF47 Traverse City - 240.42mi
WDCQ PBS 19-1 RF15 Bad Axe - 113.4mi
WCML PBS 6-1 RF24 Alpena - 223.65mi
+ lots of Flint

Various analogs from the north and NE. Some were very clear.
3 /A\,5 CBC,6 GLB,10 /A\,13 CTV,18 TVO,19 TVO,20 OMNI2,28 TVO,31 City,40 CBC,45 CBC,47 OMNI,53 SRC,56 CBC,57 City,61 SRC,68 SRC,69 OMNI1...

Spent an hour, 8 'till 9, this morining with the antenna lobbed due south. Nothing super long distance but Pittsburgh especially was blasting in with the following new catches (for me) from there:

18.1 WPCW RF11 (religious)
16.1 ShopNBC RF38
-16.2 ION
-16.3 qubo
-16.4 IONLife

Also noticed that 53.1 WPGH-DT RF43 has a country music subchannel that wasn't there according to my notes.

Also caught a couple new (for me) Columbus channels:

53.1 WWHO-DT RF46
10.1 WBNS TV RF21
-10.2 WBNSTV2

Now my *new* old beater rotator controller has become moody so I can't move until I check that out.

I woke up at 4 AM and could not go back to sleep. Fantastic DXing.

I was pulling 13-1 WTVG RF13 Toledo. I had nice reception till around 7 this morning. Also from Toledo I pulled in 24-1 WNWO RF48 and 30-1 WGTE RF30.

Then a new one for me was WTLW 44-1 RF44 from Lima, Oh.

For whatever reason just one channel from Indy. It was WRTV 6-1 RF25.

Then WSFJ 51-1 RF24 Columbus, Oh.

It has been crazy this weekend.

Happy Dxing all.

Yet another new channel just before 8am.
WTOV 9-1 Rf9 Wheeling, West Virginia.

Barely decoded, because of local CBET-9

few others around 7-8am:
WNEO Rf45 Alliance, OH -overwrote WDIV which is rare.
KDKA Rf25 Pittsburgh and WFMJ Rf20 Youngstown were really strong. WFMJ is still hanging on here at noon.
WOHL-CD Rf35 Lima
WLIO-DT Rf8 Lima
WSFJ-DT Rf24 Newark OH
WISE-DT Rf18 Ft Wayne
WANE-DT Rf31 Ft Wayne
WGRZ-DT Rf33 Buffalo
WKBW-DT Rf38 Buffalo

..something destroying WXYZ. Probably WKBN-rf41.

indeed Phil, Youngstown was superior this morning.
channel 20 is occupied by OMNI here in London and I almost got WFMJ to decode. There was so much digital interference I thought I was gonna finally get here to decode.
God, I love summer tropo season.

Tis the season

God, I love summer tropo season.

I hate to spoil a good party, but I'm finding these reception conditions a PITA as I've pretty well lost all my regular channels.

Here's what's happening in my locale:

I'm receiving:

KDKA 2-1 Pittsburgh PA
WPSU 3-1 University Park PA
WBCB 21-2 Youngstown OH
WJAC 6-1 Johnstown PA
WPCW 19-1 Pittsburgh PA
WYFX 19-1 Mahoning OH
WTAE 4-1 Pittsburgh PA
WFMJ 21-1 Youngstown OH

Gone from my usual channels are:
12-1, 12-2, 12-3, 35-1, 35-2, 54-1, 54-2, 54-3 & 66.1 from Erie
19-1 London
3-1 Cleveland (most times)

Even the other London locals like the A channel were very snowy on Saturday. Not that it mattered to me, but I did get my hopes up for WOIO 19 out of Cleveland on RF 10-1.

And my usual channels are 9 - 10 bars signal level most times.

What really amazed me was FOX 66 out of Erie was gone all weekend as it is a blow torch in this direction.

Thought it might be an overload condition from either the preamp & or distribution amp, but isolating those did not bring the regular's back.

I guess this weather won't last forever :cool:

I also have 16.1,2,3,4 at 100% but no picture or sound :confused: Being that it's broadcast freq is on ch38rf, I still have wkbw[38rf] and wivb[39rf] but no wgrz[33rf],.. <-- strange?

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Branding Win Pittsburgh Over
Channels Digital: 38 (UHF)
Virtual: 16 {PSIP)
Subchannels 16.1 ShopNBC
16.2 ION
16.3 qubo
16.4 Life
Affiliations ShopNBC
Ion Television
Network ION

I hate to spoil a good party, but I'm finding these reception conditions a PITA as I've pretty well lost all my regular channels.

I guess this weather won't last forever :cool:
I was down to local analogue as only reliable at times, brutal almost a full DTV shutdown. I do not remember the last time a tropo acted in this fashion. It was so devastating to my lineup I felt like the sat and cable guys had deployed TV spectrum jammers in the area to force me back to them.

Dxing god can play havoc on receptions...

Don't try to setup antenna around these time because signals are so unpredictable. For example, pointing the antenna to ground will get signal!