"Unplugged" DTV DX

[Robert Grant]

I decided to take my portable DTV kludge (RS 2-bay "indoor" bowtie, no amplifier, Zinwell ZTA-970A, four AA NiMH batteries, 5" B/W TV) to the beach yesterday (1725 EDT, 7/28, Lake Michigan, near Manistique, MI) to see what would come in.

Got (among other things), WPWR-51 and WFLD-31 from Chicago (289 miles)

Of note is that WPWR was not "barely" in, it was solid, with 70% signal level on the Zinwell's OSD.

[Jim Thomas]

Robert, what do you think of the Zinwell?

[Robert Grant]

Overall performance, pretty good.
Sensitivity and multipath performance among the other CECBs, picture good whether using A/V or RF cables

The "manual channel scan", which requires a signal be present on the channel to work, further requires that the user click on "search" when a valid signal is present, and defaults to the last channel one was watching after several seconds if this is not done, could be a pain for DXers.

Forget about leaving the box on channel 2 all day to see if something comes it.

[Waterfallguy59]

Congrats Rob - were you able to get Milwaukee & Green Bay DTV ?

BTW - From Bill Hepburn's tropo forecast, this weekend looks great for DTV DX'ing
in the Great Lakes area.

[Robert Grant]

Sorry about the delayed reply - had no internet access up north.

Yes, the Milwaukee stations were virtual semi-locals, despite their 210+ mile distance.

A few Chicago stations were seen on the portable, though the 4-bay w/amplifier really helped.

I bettered the "Unplugged" best, with WYIN-17 in Gary, IN at 324 miles, which boomed in several times, after WCMW-17 Cadillac signed off for the night

more details later!

Rob