A Long Shot Question

[Richard]

I'm wondering if DXers in (or used to live in) eastern Ontario/northern NY can help me with a long-shot question. First, a little preamble...

After many years, I've recently gotten back into TV DXing. (My TV logbook entries jump from 1983 to 2009.) Now, I'm really having fun exploring the resources available on and via the WTFDA website. One resource I especially enjoy is "Google Earth." I'm having a blast going back through old loggings and measuring the distances from TV stations' towers to the antenna at the house I grew up in in Prescott, Ontario.

Unfortunately, my earliest TV "loggings" --everything before 1974--consisted of making a mark beside a particular station in "White's Radio Log" at the back of Radio TV Experimenter and Communications World. That was it--no date or any other details. When the next issue came out, I would just transfer the mark to the new issue.

It turns out that my three best tropo catches to date still go all the way back to those nothing-but-the-mark-beside-the-station days. Now, I'm wondering if I can at least put a tentative date beside the definite catches.

So here are the particulars....A fantastic tropo opening from eastern Ontario all the way to central and northern Michigan. My catches were channel 8 in Grand Rapids (519 miles), Channel 9 in Travers City and Channel 10 in Sault Ste Marie. These were all positively ID'd. As for the date, all I can say is that it was definitely a Sunday morning with the IDs at 10 and 10:30 AM. The year would have been anywhere between 1970-1972. I remember the Sunday morning part because my parents had to drag me away from the set for church!

Does anyone have particulars on such an opening? I was a very active TV DXer then, and never saw Michigan at any other time.

Thanks for any help!

Rich

[cd637299]

Richard,

I am not totally sure of the question, but, if it's what I think, there is something you can do.....

Many major cities' largest libraries have microfilms/microfiches of the local newspaper, going way back. (Miami's downtown library has the Herald papers back to 1923.) I myself used to like to look at the old TV listings, even radio pre-TV....ahhh the changes.

Since you don't live in Sault or Cadillac/Trav City MI, there's the rub. Maybe you can contact somebody at the libraries there, and they'll look up the schedules for you, to see if anything matched what you saw. Maybe they will charge a fee, but heck, to answer decades-old questions, it may be worth it. Just be sure you get a quote of the price. Tell them the program you are looking for.

Also....I am not sure of the foundation date of WTFDA, but there should be a handful of DXers who lived in NY or ON during that time who could recollect as well, assuming they are still with us.

cd

[Richard]

Hi Chris:

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, I don't have any program details at all :duh:--I just remember that it was a Sunday morning 1970-1972 (probably closer to 1972--I doubt as late as 1973) 10 AM-1030 AM (because I had to leave for church), and seeing the ID's and looking up Travers City in the atlas. At this point, I'm just hoping for some Ontario/NY DXer out there to look back in his logbook and exclaim something like, "Ah, that was the "Great Opening of....." (month, day, year), so I can attach a tentative date to my catches :)

I looked up WWTV-9 in Travers City today and was interested to see that they have the tallest tower in Michigan. They probably have received a lot of DX reports over the years. I only got them the one time, however. That's quite a distance from Prescott, Ontario.

Rich

[w9wi]

So here are the particulars....A fantastic tropo opening from eastern Ontario all the way to central and northern Michigan. My catches were channel 8 in Grand Rapids (519 miles), Channel 9 in Travers City and Channel 10 in Sault Ste Marie. These were all positively ID'd. As for the date, all I can say is that it was definitely a Sunday morning with the IDs at 10 and 10:30 AM. The year would have been anywhere between 1970-1972. I remember the Sunday morning part because my parents had to drag me away from the set for church!


I'm going to be mostly useless, but the channel 9 at Traverse City is actually licensed to Cadillac, Mich. and will show up as Cadillac in listings. (it does however also serve Traverse City)

[swampman]

[QUOTE]One resource I especially enjoy is "Google Earth." I'm having a blast going back through old loggings and measuring the distances from TV stations' towers to the antenna at the house I grew up in in Prescott, Ontario.

Yeah Google Earth is a great resource for DXers. Especially if you have the FCC database addon that overlays what seems like ALL TV stations call signs (analog and digital) in the U.S. As an actuall picture of the earth...zoom in and actually see the transmitter antenna! Click on the station's call sign and station technical info pops up. Very cool! ;) Most people dont even know about it. :)

[Robert Grant]

My earliest VUD is 12/78, so I can't be much help.

My best guess is that if anyone had the VUDs for those years, they might check the logs of William Draeb (Kewaunee, WI) for any openings in those years to E Ontario, Québec, VT, NH or upstate NY.

[Robert Grant]

I got a similar mystery.

I log my "first" Es as 22 May 1979, which was after I read about Es, new what it was, and logged my first stations (WUFT and WEDU).

I know I had seen Es before and not known what it was. Weak interference over locals 2 and 4 (only 16 miles distant), and while visiting relatives in Grand Haven (my aunt: "Channel 3 does that in the summer").

One event does stand out, however, as one I think could be pinned down to a date.
The yearly CBS special presentation of "Frosty The Snowman" on channel 2 was getting hammered by strong "venetian blinds". I had no idea what it was, but I knew it must be something "freaky", nothing like it seen before.
Now consider, back then, "Frosty" only aired once a year. Find the year (1969-75) with an Es opening on the same night "Frosty" aired, and we would have a match!

CBS on channel 2 is NOT A TYPO, WJBK was a CBS affiliate then, there WAS NO FOX.