TV DXing?!

[elmo]

To be brief, I picked up a TV station with relatively good signal that's 170 miles from me, w/o really trying!

Ok, so a little background. I had just setup a 2nd antenna at my new home; a DB-2 in the attic. I use it to tune one nearby station that's basically 180 degrees from the other two clusters that I pick up with my HD7694P that's mounted outside. http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...2df92160df459a
The DB-2, even temporarily propped against a stud easily works w/o really aiming it well. I chose the attic for it because it gave me the best location without mounting at the peak of the house. I was curious if my CM7777 would help to pick up some distant stations to the west of me. I connected it and was able to get some reception, but nothing really great. So I put the antenna back in place and went downstairs for the night, leaving the 7777 connected. This morning, while scanning channels on it with an HD Homerun, I locked an unknown station with decent and steady reception. I had to Google it, and when I mapped the transmitter location, it was 170 miles from me. Not only that, it was a heading towards sea level too. (see the attached screen shot that I got from http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-ad...calculator.htm) The station is WWAY, transmitting at 1000 kw. The HDHR was showing about 70% signal strength and signal quality was about 60% at most, easily watchable w/few break ups.

I thought that was pretty cool. It was certainly unexpected. Of course, conditions have a lot to do with it too. There's a thick layer of clouds here this morning that I assume is helping it bounce. (Now the rain has started and that signal strength is now 40% at best, and nothing that can be seen.)

So what's the best you've done on TV DXing? (I don't know if that's the right term to use) If I could hit 170 miles by accident I'm sure there's some serious setups out there that can easily beat that.

[phone man]

Hi Elmo, I don't seriously pursue TV DXing but I do enjoy the rare times when the atmosphere permits reception of normally unwatchable TV stations for my area. Here's a website that forecasts such atmospheric events...

http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

To answer your question, the best DXing experience I've had involved a station that was 319 miles away. It only happened once and I've not seen it since. Other stations much closer at 90 miles and in the general direction my antenna is aimed come in more often. I leave them programmed on my tuner so a rescan isn't necessary to check for them. The ones that puzzle me are the stations that are 90 degrees to my antenna's aim. It's a blessing that I don't have (or need) an antenna rotator. I'd probably burn it up playing with it and scanning for new channels.
Here's a thread i started about a year ago when I first got into OTA TV reception and started logging the occasional DX TV stations.

LINK

[elmo]

Good info, phone man! I like that forecast map. I'll have to play around again sometime when those conditions will be best.

I finally got the DB-2 properly mounted in the attic, just under the ridge vents, so I gained another 16 feet or so vs sitting on the attic floor. I'm amazed at how well it's picking up stations that are almost opposite of where it's pointed, especially with the reflector installed. I just didn't expect an attic install to do that well. Makes me wonder what it'd do sitting on the ridge itself, but I have neither the ladder nor the nerve to head up to that altitude!

I didn't realize that TV DXing was part of the DXing hobby. But I guess if there's a signal to be picked up, someone is going to try to tune it! Interesting googling some of the serious TV DXing that's going on.

[kyle_in_rure]

I used to enjoy DXing before the digital transition; unfortunately I didn't have a proper and antenna to even try at the time. In my opinion, watching an analog signal fade in and out from far away beats watching a digital signal pixelate and drop out.

That being said, I picked up a digital station nearly 80 miles away with some rabbit ears about a year ago, it would come in about an hour each night.

[Nascarken]

TV DXing, antennas Direct 91XG,with a channel master 7777amp, antenna height 90Ft A G L 45, New York city, block island,80To,90 Miles, and then 69,1 ,80,miles out of providence Roadisland c T day or night no dropouts , in heavy rain or snow signal strength of,70/50DB i



It's been a few years since I've been here
But I have changed my hole antenna set-up and location
I am using a 150ft tower with stacked Winegrud 8200U with a
Johansson amp kits receive of 1500miles away IT'S a Nice set up.