DX'n Forum

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by tigerbangs

I just ran those numbers: WOW...I wanna live THERE...LOL

I showed my wife the results and she promptly told me "we are not moving up there!"....she really knows me.....honestly when we were looking for a house I wouldn't even look at it if it was down in a valley or had a hill blocking a view of any direction....so I live here...on hill with no hill taller than my tower for miles around....

[alphanguy]

I admit, I have great intrest in this hobby... I have dabbled in it myself since I was a child. It all started when my sister yelled out at the family one morning in 1974, and told us all to come into her room. She had her little clock radio on AM, and was receiveing clear as NEXT DOOR, a station in Johanesburg, South Africa. That really piqued my intrest. smdp.. do you routinely get good solid reception from the 75-100 mile range? I have TONS of stations at a distance from me of 85 miles that I'm dying to get reliably. What is your setup? (Is it identical to tigerbang's prescription?) And my longst VHF contact was for a whole evening, not perfect reception, but I would say very good... from KFSV channel 12 in Cape Girardeau, Mo. at a distance from me of about 240 miles. I live 40 miles southeast of Kansas City, and have also picked up Omaha, NE.. and Kirksville, MO. Both channel 3. As far as UHF... KMIZ 17 in Columbia... I reliably get this most every night, at 85 miles. I still play around with AM many nights a week, I just have a small clock radio next to my bed (Some things never change) with a "select-atenna) tuner right against it. Many nights I fall asleep listening to WSM in Nashville, especially on Saturday nights, when I like to listen to the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree.

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by alphanguy

I admit, I have great intrest in this hobby... I have dabbled in it myself since I was a child. It all started when my sister yelled out at the family one morning in 1974, and told us all to come into her room. She had her little clock radio on AM, and was receiveing clear as NEXT DOOR, a station in Johanesburg, South Africa. That really piqued my intrest. smdp.. do you routinely get good solid reception from the 75-100 mile range? I have TONS of stations at a distance from me of 85 miles that I'm dying to get reliably. What is your setup?

Yes I do...I was watching 4.1 in Nashville with about 80% signal just a few minutes ago; its about 90 miles out and only putting out 42 kw so its not that strong....I watch 17.1 out of B'ham everyday and its 102.5 miles out and also not at full power....usually about 60% signal (my tuner locks solid at 30% and that will vary from tuner to tuner...the one in the back room read 90% on the same station my main tv reads 60%)
My location is appx 34.95648 N 87.53120 W if you want to use tv fool to compare signal levels in your area verses mine to see if you might be able to use the same setup....I am going to copy/paste in my info that I had typed into another thread.....hope this helps you.
my setup came from tigerbangs and is as follows:
My antenna setup:
A Wade-Delhi VIP-307 VHF antenna

An AntennasDirect XG-91 UHF antenna (tilted 10 degrees up off the Horizon and separated by 7' from the vip307)

A Channel Master Titan 7777 preamp

A Hy-Gain AR-40 rotator

75' RG-11

A 50" tower

My Tuner:
Well...I actually don't know much about the tuner itself as it is built in to my zenith (LG) HDtv.
See my avatar for a picture of my setup.

With this I have been able to get vhf analog clear from distances of well over 200 miles....most of the stations withing 120 miles digital and analog come in 24/7 clearly...

[alphanguy]

Now your'e makin my mouth water, here! Does anyone know the technical scoop on why the VIP-307 does so well? And also, where the heck did you purchase yours?

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by alphanguy

(Is it identical to tigerbang's prescription?) And my longst VHF contact was for a whole evening, not perfect reception, but I would say very good... from KFSV channel 12 in Cape Girardeau, Mo. at a distance from me of about 240 miles. I live 40 miles southeast of Kansas City, and have also picked up Omaha, NE.. and Kirksville, MO. Both channel 3. As far as UHF... KMIZ 17 in Columbia... I reliably get this most every night, at 85 miles. I still play around with AM many nights a week, I just have a small clock radio next to my bed (Some things never change) with a "select-atenna) tuner right against it. Many nights I fall asleep listening to WSM in Nashville, especially on Saturday nights, when I like to listen to the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree.

I must have replied to your first post while you were editing, but thats some good dx to get anything over 200 miles....I have gotten some dx from over 300 miles, but not very good...I only count it if its clear for at least an hour...but thats just me......what are you using for an antenna now?

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by alphanguy

Now your'e makin my mouth water, here! Does anyone know the technical scoop on why the VIP-307 does so well? And also, where the heck did you purchase yours?

I got mine at Wiltronics Supply Tyler, TX (903) 597-6315 They shipped it to me....but you could also try Lafayette Electronic Supply Lafayette, IN (765) 447-9660...and here is a link as to the technical specs on the vip 307http://www.wade-antenna.com/Wade/VIP...20Antennas.pdf
Tiger usually recommends the vip 306, but I wanted the biggest most powerful that I could get so he recommended the vip307 and I also have a problem here with co-channel interference so I couldn't use the cm4228 that he usually uses and thats why I needed the xg 91, its highly directional design makes it easy to separate out the channels and its extreme gain pulls in signals from great distances

[alphanguy]

Originally Posted by smdp1

I must have replied to your first post while you were editing, but thats some good dx to get anything over 200 miles....I have gotten some dx from over 300 miles, but not very good...I only count it if its clear for at least an hour...but thats just me......what are you using for an antenna now?

Right now, it's just radio shack LP-210 with radio shack high gain amplifier. I supposedly upgraded by getting a 36 foot mast, and attatching a channelmaster quantam1160 to the top of that with rotor. I was still using the radio shack hi gain pre amp. And here's what troubles me. Afte all that effort, I lost the Columbia stations that I used to get (KMIZ 17 at night, and KOMU 8 in the mornings) All installers in my area told me that Radio shack antennas were crap, and the KC stations DID come in clearer... but the long distance signals were gone for me. But we had a massive ice storm 6 weeks after I installed it (wer'e talking biblical proportions here...some were out of power for 3 weeks)), and it all had to go in the junk heap. Luckily, my Radio shack was still lying flat on teh ground, and didn't get damaged, so back up it went, and I've been with that ever since. (January 2002)

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by alphanguy

Right now, it's just radio shack LP-210 with radio shack high gain amplifier. I supposedly upgraded by getting a 36 foot mast, and attatching a channelmaster quantam1160 to the top of that with rotor. I was still using the radio shack hi gain pre amp. And here's what troubles me. Afte all that effort, I lost the Columbia stations that I used to get (KMIZ 17 at night, and KOMU 8 in the mornings) All installers in my area told me that Radio shack antennas were crap, and the KC stations DID come in clearer... but the long distance signals were gone for me. But we had a massive ice storm 6 weeks after I installed it (wer'e talking biblical proportions here...some were out of power for 3 weeks)), and it all had to go in the junk heap. Luckily, my Radio shack was still lying flat on teh ground, and didn't get damaged, so back up it went, and I've been with that ever since. (January 2002)

I can personally attest to a great improvement over my Radio Shack vu190xr....I used it before dec 07 when I finally upgraded to my xg91 and vip307 and my reception is much better.....I used to have problems with dropouts on my digital channels over 80 miles, but now its solid on most up to 120 miles. I won't say radio shack stuff is crap, but its not the best...there high gain preamp has a noise level of 4db on the best one....the cheaper titan 7777 is 2db...much better....and there antennas are very over-rated the vu 190 is rated for 190 miles vhf...but I couldn't get 2,4,5,or 8 during the day at 80-100 miles, but the vip 307 gets them clear.

[smdp1]

update....as of today I set a new official uhf analog distance record for myself....I am watching my42 KWBF from Little Rock Ar at a distance of appx 281 miles from my house....very stable and only a little snow....attempted digital on 44, but wouldn't come in...although even if it did it wouldn't be a digital record as I set that with 15.1 from Mobile some time back. Also set new vhf analog record....KAQY ch11 from Monroe, LA.(the actual transmitter site is south of there) at a distance of 342 miles....not the best picture though had some cci in it

[tigerbangs]

my antenna is bigger than yours...lol couldn't resist


Hey, Tony, you aren't having any fun with that rig, are you? LMAO!
it's so gratifying to see someone enjoy their toys as much as you do!

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by tigerbangs

my antenna is bigger than yours...lol couldn't resist


Hey, Tony, you aren't having any fun with that rig, are you? LMAO!
it's so gratifying to see someone enjoy their toys as much as you do!

gotta love it...its just so much fun to see what you can get....I sat here and watched news from Arkansas for what ever reason.....oh well it was interesting to see what was going on.....although dxing can have its disadvantages....I left the rig pointed in a odd direction with the vhf pointed east southeast and for what ever reason the tv I turned on came on to channel 5 and well it was about 5:00 am and I had to be at work at 6:00am....now I am only 3mins away from work so I thought I had plenty of time....untill I looked at the clock on the bottom of the screen.....not even noticing the fox 5 logo...and not the expected channel 5 logo from Nashville...all I saw was the little clock reading 6:05.....I nearly hurt myself before I realized that I was seeing a channel from a different timezone...lol

[alphanguy]

That's real GOOD DX when you pick up a different time zone! I was playing around this morning, and one thing I find strange, is that I point my attenna due east, and I was recieving KRCG Jefferson City, and KOMU Columbia, but ALSO was receving KYTV Springfield and KOLR Springfield, which is due south. Sometimes I can't make sense of this stuff. I'm glad that anntennasdirect and Wade delhi make the reccommended antennas, cause I'm really leery about channelmaster products. It just makes no sense that a quantam 1160 would pull in NOTHING from Springfield or Columbia (100 miles and 85 miles respectively) EVER, not even at night.. and that radio shack lp-210 gets them, albeit snowy,on a daily basis. Maybe I should have tried the crossfire at the time. Anyway... I'm trying to check whether I need a VHF at all when I switch over to digital... I just read that a station such as DT-5 isn't ACTUALLY on VHF, so this is confusing to me, and I need to find out if theyr'e gonna migrate back to VHF as well.

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by alphanguy

That's real GOOD DX when you pick up a different time zone! I was playing around this morning, and one thing I find strange, is that I point my attenna due east, and I was recieving KRCG Jefferson City, and KOMU Columbia, but ALSO was receving KYTV Springfield and KOLR Springfield, which is due south. Sometimes I can't make sense of this stuff. I'm glad that anntennasdirect and Wade delhi make the reccommended antennas, cause I'm really leery about channelmaster products. It just makes no sense that a quantam 1160 would pull in NOTHING from Springfield or Columbia (100 miles and 85 miles respectively) EVER, not even at night.. and that radio shack lp-210 gets them, albeit snowy,on a daily basis. Maybe I should have tried the crossfire at the time. Anyway... I'm trying to check whether I need a VHF at all when I switch over to digital... I just read that a station such as DT-5 isn't ACTUALLY on VHF, so this is confusing to me, and I need to find out if theyr'e gonna migrate back to VHF as well.

I had to do a little research on this myself...and I found out that a lot of my vhf stations are going to abandon their temporary uhf dt assignments and go back to vhf, only one is going back to the same channel it was on and its the only one that I found on vhf low right now........most of my dtv is on uhf now...like 2.1 is on 27 and 5.1 is on 56 or something...don't remember right off...but only two of my digitals actually are on vhf right now and one of them is uhf on analog....

[alphanguy]

I found out that all mine except ONE (ABC) are staying on UHF, and that one is easy as pie to pick up, it's always been the strongest signal I have. I can use my current antenna for that one, it doesn't even have to be in the air, I can lie it flat on my roof and pick it up clear as a bell. My hope is, however, that I can get that XG-90 up high enough to pull in KMIZ in Columbia reliably, and then I'll just use THAT station for ABC, and have my rotor and one antenna. I'm watching KMIZ right NOW, and it's pretty darned good...so I'd think a better setup could pull that sucker in reliably. The height is the hard part with my trees. I'm damn near tempted to climb the oak tree in my front yard (50 feet tall and 18 inch diameter), and strap the mast to the tree trunk! It's a Post Oak, so i'ts very strong tree, VERY straight trunk, and sparse branches (It has no real branch structure, just a telephone pole with horizontal branches coming straight out. ...I could do it, and it would look much more attractive than the mast strapped to my house. That way, I could get that sucker above tree top level... and it should help me a great deal.

[smdp1]

Originally Posted by alphanguy

I found out that all mine except ONE (ABC) are staying on UHF, and that one is easy as pie to pick up, it's always been the strongest signal I have. I can use my current antenna for that one, it doesn't even have to be in the air, I can lie it flat on my roof and pick it up clear as a bell. My hope is, however, that I can get that XG-90 up high enough to pull in KMIZ in Columbia reliably, and then I'll just use THAT station for ABC, and have my rotor and one antenna. I'm watching KMIZ right NOW, and it's pretty darned good...so I'd think a better setup could pull that sucker in reliably. The height is the hard part with my trees. I'm damn near tempted to climb the oak tree in my front yard (50 feet tall and 18 inch diameter), and strap the mast to the tree trunk! It's a Post Oak, so i'ts very stong tree, VERY straight trunk, and sparse branches...I could do it, and it would look much more attractive than the mast strapped to my house. That way, I could get that sucker above tree top level... and it should help me a great deal.

ROFL...I actually did that once....I lived in a bit of a gully and needed at least 80' to get above the rim...well I climbed a 60' tree and cut out the top (smaller branches only) and used the main trunk to mount a 30' mast with a cm4228 on it which worked great except that I had some co-channel issues so when I moved 3 miles down the road to where I live now I decided that I would get a new rig that would be more directional....thats how I happened on a vu190xr.....and well it did ok for what it was, but I am glad that I have finally made it to what I have now because it works soooo much better....its funny, but at my old place I could barely get huntsville(60miles) at all...and now here I could get it on a 4bay.....guess moving to a place with 250' higher elevation helps