[Hallicrafters] VHF DX

[Ian]

In Santa Barbara it was very common to have ducting on 2 meters.  Without
ducting it would be very difficult to get a 2 meter AM signal the 180 or 200
miles to San Diego and into the coastal areas of Mexico and only the
stations with HIGH POWER (100 watts) and a beam better than the usual 4 or 8
elements at 30 feet.  When the San Diego area TV stations (Channels 6, 8 and
10 if my memory is correct) were being received (beautiful snow free
pictures) all you needed to get a strong signal to and from San Diego was a
coat hanger (I used a brass welding rod) stuck in the coax connector in the
top of a Communicator and length wasn't even important.  The 5 or 6 watts
worked fine.  Interestingly even without any special help, many stations,
even with only 5 or 6 watts, would from time-to-time be able to contact a
station in Santa Maria who was running 100 watts with beams on both ends.
Santa Maria is over 3,000 foot mountains and maybe 60 miles away and he'd
have a high noise level since he operated from his TV shop on the main
street, at the time also highway 101. 

It was also not uncommon to receive low band TV from as far away as 1000 -
1500 miles.  Santa Barbara was fringe for Los Angeles (100 miles away) and
fixed antennas were pointed south east towards Mount Wilson.  Most antennas
were by the 1950s yagi type antennas, 2 to 4 bays at 35 to 40 feet or more
above a house roof with no rotor.

You could be watching snowy, in many locations, Channel 2 or 4 or even 5 and
there would be a ringing sound and the picture would start to flop back and
forth between two pictures and then for varying periods of time you would
suddenly be watching a program not in the TV schedule until an hour or two
later.  Most often the stations would be from Texas or Oklahoma since we had
3,000 foot mountains to the west blocking signals further north.  If you
caught it just right you'd catch a station break or a commercial which
identified a local, to them, business.

When I moved to the San Jose, CA area in the late 1960s, I brought my deep
fringe antenna with me and put a rotor on it.  I remember one Christmas
watching for 2 hours a TV station in Denver (Channel 3 or 4?) with quite a
good quality color picture.  I think there was TV DX on all channels the
lower channels with even some traces on Channel 6.  I caught similar
propagation perhaps 3 times a year and it was a good indication to get on 2
meters (or 6 if didn't mind generating TVI) but I really didn't have a
station that produced results until the days of 2 meter SSB and by then we
had cable TV so no propagation indicator was handy.

I think it's as I found in the mid 1950s on 10 meters.  I could tune a dead
band after school and by pointing the 3 element beam 20 feet up (armstrong
rotation) towards the south pacific call CQ with my DX-35 and 9 times out of
ten would be answered by a VK or ZL who would say he was tuning a dead band
and we'd QSO for half an hour or so and often be joined by others on both
ends who thought the band was dead.  

If everybody is LISTENING AND NOBODY IS TRANSMITTING, the band would seem
DEAD!

Ian, K6SDE
silly-con valley


> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: hallicrafters-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:hallicrafters-
> >>bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of TC Dailey
> >>Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 8:41 AM
> >>To: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
> >>Subject: [Hallicrafters] VHF DX
> >>
> >>Ducting, Sporadic E, and auroral stuff was all pretty common in Kansas.
I
> >>learned early on, that one aims at about a 45 degree angle to an
incoming
> >>cold-front, and results always come.  2m DX was pretty common back there
in
> >>the 70's, most likely still is - It was not uncommon to hear the Chicago
> >>stations around KC, and even from further on.  There's even a famous
story
> >>about a NJ ham, during WW-II, who was receiving some of Rommell's Afrika
> >>Corps tanks; I think they were on around 45 mHz or so.
> >>
> >>My trick for gleaning the 6 meter DX when nobody else got it, was in KC.
We
> >>had no TV Channel-2 (still don't), so I took an old beater TV, ran a
line
> >>from the AGC, amplified via darlington-pair, which activated a relay
when
> >>the voltage got high enough.  I'd hook the tri-ex 4-element beam up to
it,
> >>and leave it running on Ch-2 (which happened to be due-North of Kansas
City,
> >>very conviently).  Whenever Chan-2 began coming in, the voltage would
rise,
> >>activate the relay, and ring a bell in the kitchen - then I'd run
upstairs,
> >>change the antenna over to my Clegg Venus, and joila' - I hardly ever
missed
> >>an opening.
> >>
> >>Tom - WØEAJ
> >>Denver