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OTA: West Coast DXing Tropo, Atypical Reception

16K views 41 replies 10 participants last post by  s40 
#1 ·
Anyone having luck with E-skip this year? I seemed to have better luck with the strong analogue stations before the American transition in 2009. I did pick up KEYT-3 in Santa Barbara, California- on two successive Summers- over 1000 miles away and it was mostly very clear for about an hour. I also had a couple stations competing for a lock on channel four (analogue). - One was in Spanish. I was hoping now that I might get something from Mexico, as they still have analogue; but so far no luck.
 
#28 ·
Is Conan available in Mexico (there was no mention of Mexico on the wiki page)? I also don't think it's available OTA in the US, but is available OTA in Canada on CTV.
 
#29 ·
Picking up VHF Channel 4

I've heard about signal leakage from cable companies, sometimes causing issues with OTA reception. Whatever it was, it was not a channel that I normally get because I looked through my regular channels and that was something else.
I don't know if Conan is broadcast in Mexico, or if there is an ABC affiliate there that could carry it. My TV has a feature- when the channel doesn't come in well- it mutes the sound, so I couldn't hear if it was English.
 
#30 ·
The NTSC analogue system has separate modulations/carriers for video and audio on the same TV channel. With long distance signals it was quite common to get the crackly sound while the picture was almost all snow, and sometimes it would work the other way around with a resolvable but snowy picture but no sound. Also there are no U.S. network affiliates in Mexico such as ABC. You'd have to have a satellite dish to watch Conan in Mexico unless you were very close to a U.S. border city with OTA stations. I'm still thinking it might be signal leakage from somebody's home gear.
 
#33 ·
OTA: Ocean Tidal Effects Upon Reception

I have about 5% available time reception of KCPQ-DT (13) from near Dunbar using a 10 element yagi and a Research Communications 9267 preamp. The TV Fool profile here is 2 Edge. Watching this over a period of time on a spectrum analyzer one I see why. The signal has variable fading as the tide rises and falls - not surprising since about 150 km of this shot is over sea water. There is also fading variation related to layered air masses at different temperatures. This is usually destructive [except for those rare tropo ducting events (temperature inversions), the good times, when this station hits 10 bars]. During the over-the-earth fade there is a reduction of "clean" signal and all that remains is the troposcatter signal - always present at a fairly consistent low level. I have not yet been able to achieve HD reception from any troposcatter signal - so it acts like a noisy floor that you have to be 15 dB above with a clean signal to get HD reception. That is, for me, 5% of the time when the over-the-earth paths are in phase and the 2 Edge path is dominant. Good for Sea Hawks and Mariners games; excellent news and weather; but many of the syndicate programs (like Modern Family) can be found on other stations.
 
#35 ·
As this is the summer there are tropo ducting openings from time to time. Sometimes the high signal strengths, and distances traveled, truly amaze. But all too soon the party is over. My interpretation of the TV fool term "tropo" is tropospheric scatter which is a mode once relied upon in the "good" old analog TV days for that deep fringe snowy picture that old timers fondly remember. I have not (yet) successfully received an ATSC of HD picture over troposcatter. However, those not too distant TV fool tropo listings do become good candidates for tropo ducting when a temperature inversion takes place.
 
#37 ·
Today was a great day for dxing in Coquitlam. I am in a high rise building on top of a hill in Coquitlam, and usually I can get about 18 stations (a couple not working properly right now such as 12.3). If I put my amplified Terk antenna (Silver Sensor Clone)on the balcony facing south, I can usually get 7.1,.2,.3 and less often but quite regularly 13.1,.2,.3. and much more rarely I can get Komo 4.1,.2. While I was setting up to watch the Super Bowl on Kiro 7.1 I did a scan and got 34 channels. A number of them were religious such as TBN 20.1,.2,.3,.4,.5, and this number is with very few of the locals as I was pointed straight south (locals being Seymour channels and Bellingham channels). I got Kong hd and sd, Kwok 42.1, Kuns 51.1,.2 (both in Spanish) and even KING which is very rare came in with 5.1,.2. There were several other channels which I was going to examine later, but they weren't there when the Super bowl was over. 34 is definitely my highest number of channels.
 
#40 ·
Today was another day for good reception in Coquitlam. With my amplified Terk HDTVa antenna high up in my building (on my balcony) I got 35 US stations today. 4.1 KOMO,.2 Comet, .3 Charge; 5.1 KING, .2 Lockdown; 7.1 KIRO, .2 Get TV, .3 LAFF; 9.1 KCTS, .2 Kids, .3 Create; 11.1 KSTW, .2 Through the Decades; 12.1 KVOS, .2 Movies, .3 Heroes and Icons; 13.1 KCPQ, .2 This TV, .3 Escape; 24.1 SBN, .2 Jewelry; 28.1 KBTC, .2 NHK, .3 W, .4 TVW; 46.1 KUSE, .2 ONTV4u, .3 SBN, .4 Shop TV, .5 Shop LC, .6 QVC, .7 Beauty; 51.1 KUNS, .2 TBD; 56.1 KWDK. I didn't find where all these stations are from, some are regular but some I have not received before and some I usually get weren't there (like five religious ones I normally get during this kind of reception but won't watch). I also receive 9 Canadian channels when I turn my antenna around, but I didn't include the regular Canadian ones. Most of these were from either Seattle area or from the Bellingham area, but I am not sure of the rest.
 
#41 ·
Tonight , Saturday June 24 has been the best for me ever. I got 60 channels over the air, some of them appeared strange until I realized that I had two 28.1's for example (this was a direct from Seattle and from Bellingham rebroadcasters). Eight channels were repeaters this way, that still led to 52 different channels I hadn't had before. Add to my last reply, 16.1 KONG; 22.1 KZJO (Joe tv), .2 Fox (Q13 repeat), .3 ANT; 33.1 ION, .2Qubo, .3 Ion Life, .4 shop, .5 QVC, .6HSN, .7 TLMD; 44.1 Evine, .2 AZTECA, .3 AAT tv, .4 KBS, .5 COZI tv, .6 Metv; 66.1 CHNU
 
#42 ·
Today I put my Terk amplified Silver Sensor clone on my balcony and pointed it south, I got 51 channels, many of them .1,.2,.3,.4,etc. but that is my highest count so far. The sad to me thing is that many are either religious or shopping of some sort. There were also quite a few that were things like Comet, Charge, Ant.tv, Justice, Quest, Decades, Movies, Me Tv, H&I, Grit, This tv, Escape, and a few that I am not sure of what they program like AAT TV, ONTV4U, and 3 channels had colour bars but identified themselves as some of the channels already covered. Channel numbers I got were 4.1,.2,.3-5.1,.2,.3-6.1-11.1,.2,.3-12.1,.2,.3,.4,.5-13.1,.2,.3,.4-16.1-20.1,.2,.3,.4,.5-22.1,.2,.3,.4-24.1,.2,.3,.4-28.1,.2,.3,.4-44.1,.2,.3,.4-46.1,.2,.3,.4,.5,.6,.7-51.1,.2,.3-56.1. These don't include the local channels that I would get if I rotated my antenna around by 130 or so degrees and pointed more towards Mt. Seymour. I did this today the 19th of October at around 4.00pm.
 
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