Hi! New here + 1950s DX Photos...

[kbmuri]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

"DX" is ham radio lingo for "Long Distance" reception.

Literally, I think it's "Distant Xmission", xmit being short for transmit. I think it pre-dates ham radio. Maybe telegraph era. FWIW.

[Tube TV]

Neat to see those old test patterns .
Now all the stations all use those ugly color bars . and they dont have any station identification .
The best DXing I did , was summer 06 I was recieving KCRA Sacramento CA.
I am in BC canada , so that is not bad considering I have a hard time recieving Vancouver . KCRA was recieved under ideal weather conditions , and soon disappeared . It was a lot of fun while it lasted .
The best part was that all this took place on the screen of a
1954 Crosley 17" table TV with matching stand .
I have made many attempts to recieve UHF but still have had no luck .
Im going to raise the antenna up higher and try again .

[Boobtubeman]

Hehehe KCRA 3 is one of my local channels here..

I remember talkin to folks in BC Canada when i was runnin CB radios

Ah the magic of "skip"

Steve

[Tubejunke]

Thanks so much to those who explained what this whole "DX" thing is. At least to a certain degree. By and large I still don't understand anything more than somehow there is a way to pick up distant stations that you should not be able to receive.

Is there a piece of equipment like a signal booster or what? I sure wish word of this was out back before the early 1980's when people started getting cablevision around here. We generally only got 3 VHF channels clearly, and 3 others that you had to do the rabbit dance for. Seems like we eventually got around 3 clear UHF channels, one being Public Broadcasting System which really stinks when your a kid. NOW I would enjoy it, especially Dick Cavett. Looking back we got along kust fine, even getting up to change the channel was OK, no bother. Now I pay $50 a month to have access to a couple hundred channels. I actually only frequent about 5 of these channels. How ironic? The math doesent work at all. I'm now PAYING to view LESS than I did back when I had it for FREE.

I think I'll cancel my service........to pay for gasoline....................

Its weird hearing about DXing after all the years (25) that I have enjoyed vintage electronics. Never heard the term or idea in my life. It would seem that someone who knew how to pull in extra channels back before cablevision would have become a millionaire selling this idea or possible service to the masses.

[Findm-Keepm]

Four must haves for TV DX'ing:

TV (obviously, but preferably with an analog tuner)

TV Antenna - a big 'ole Fringe Yagi mounted as high as possible

Antenna Rotator, with the antenna matched to the compass

LOTS of coffee, for late night DX'ing

When I was a younger, Dad used to DX with his 27 element VHF/UHF Channel Master "wind trap" antenna hooked up to a Channel Master rotator. I remember my thrill was watching the antenna turn. He used a TS-915 Quasar we had, and would regularly pick up stations along the East Coast - farthest probably being WDCA in Washington (200 miles) or the Wilmington NC station (>300 miles!). We couldn't see too far to the west, probably because of the Appalachian Mountains, but would pick up Richmond and Petersburg, both about 90 miles away. If the nearby (<3 mi) Naval Air Station had any air traffic, all bets were off - the radar/ILS would interfere.

Thanks for posting the links - some of those stations are now Mega-stations on cable or with PBS (WGBH..) I'd love to see a screen shot of WYAH-27, if somebody out there has one....

Cheers,

[Tube TV]

Originally Posted by Boobtubeman

Hehehe KCRA 3 is one of my local channels here..

I remember talkin to folks in BC Canada when i was runnin CB radios

Ah the magic of "skip"

Steve

what's your handle , i was on CB for a while .
actually we still have ours operating .

[bgadow]

You don't always need the best antenna or tv but it sure helps. TV DX is come and go. One minute you are watching a station from hundreds of miles away and the next minute it's gone. When I was kid I did it with our main TV, a GE KE chassis console. This was in the late 70s/early 80s. I just kept flipping the dial. While waiting for something to show up it was fun to watch stations sign-on or sign-off. Some did a better job than others. WJLA-7 in Washington had a great montage of DC historical sites with Ray Charles singing "America". Local WMDT-47 had a great helicopter shot of a worker near the top of its tower. I remember WBOC-16 running about 10 minutes straight of public service spots before signing off. If I stayed up long enough there might only be a couple stations left on the air-I remember WMAR-2 in Baltimore would stay on; they ran the old show "Private Secretary" at about 3:30am. There are still some stations that sign-off, but I myself sign-off too early nowadays! In the early 80s we got a new GE set with digital tuning and it never did as good. I mostly did AM broadcast band dx'ing. That's easy enough to do-you can just jot down a list from 540-1700 and one by one see which slots you can fill in.

[Boobtubeman]

what's your handle , i was on CB for a while .
actually we still have ours operating .

Just like my e mail add "Stallion" to the locals and "5 1 2 northern california" to the DXers... I took my 5/8 groundplane down about 96 for roof work. Still have it in the back yard and my PRESIDENT in the closet.
Steve

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Boobtubeman

what's your handle , i was on CB for a while .
actually we still have ours operating .

Just like my e mail add "Stallion" to the locals
Steve

I was "KAAR5167" on CB, then I got a ham license "WA2ISE" back in 1976. I suppose I'm a legacy of that old song "Convoy" by CW McCall. "This is the Duck.."

Back in the mid 70's I graduated Syracuse University. Syracuse, a town so small they only had 3 TV channels, and the NBC outlet was so lame that they didn't carry "Saturday Night Live". Guess they thought it was too riskay or something... So on Saturday night we all went Back then legal age was 18.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Nice DX pictures, Hawkwind.

Regarding CB, I was "The Blue Knight" mostly on channel 21 or 29 on the north side of Chicago in the late 70's through 1984, call sign KBIH7773.

[Tube TV]

Originally Posted by Boobtubeman

what's your handle , i was on CB for a while .
actually we still have ours operating .

Just like my e mail add "Stallion" to the locals and "5 1 2 northern california" to the DXers... I took my 5/8 groundplane down about 96 for roof work. Still have it in the back yard and my PRESIDENT in the closet.
Steve

my handle is BUCKSHOT . I got into it around the same time you got out . Around 95 - 96 . more or less use it locally now . not many of us on anymore , at least in our area .

[Reece]

Best TV DX I got was around 1960 or so, bright sunny morning, from southeast TX I picked up Fargo ND. Had an outdoor antenna but probably only 20-30 ft high.
Reece

[Celt]

In the late 60's we set up a large Winegard VHF/UHF/FM antenna on a 40' tower with pre-amplification at the antenna, fed by coax to the house. The tube preamp/distributor was a Winegard and the rotor was a Channel Master.
Anyway, late in the evening when the local stations and some of the Memphis stations would sign off, I'd turn the rotor towards the south and watch WJTV out of Jackson, Mississippi or turn towards the north-west and watch KFVS out of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Back then we had a late 50's color Admiral that had outstanding sensitivity and selectivity. It wasn't much to look at from a beauty standpoint (big black metal box on gold legs), but it had a great picture and audio and made DX'ing a fairly easy task. It was eventually replaced with a hybrid RCA 25" set that was a dog performance-wise, thus ending my TV DXing days. But, there was still MW & SW DXing!

[Boobtubeman]

Yeah i think the older tvs really sucked up the signals whereas newer smaller tuners werent that sensitive.

Steve

[HadYourPhil]

Your "Unknown channel 6b" is WBRC-TV, Birmingham, AL.
Used to do this, too. Need to se where my pictures are...