[OKDXA] Speaking Of Digital DX...

[Nelson Derks]

G Ray wrote:
> Seems to me that a "Porpucpine" scanner antenna ought to serve very well for DTV signals.   Here in B.A. east of Tulsa, I do pretty well with rabbit ears but I think a porcupine antenna in the attic might pull in some additional stations. I do have one that I plan to try out. 73, Gene, AE5FT.
>
>   

Should work fine, and don't be afraid to try it out downstairs before it 
goes up in the attic. Years ago all TV and FM was horizontally polarized 
but the FM side started going circular about 25 years ago since much of 
their audience is listening through a vertical whip on the car. TV 
followed the trend when it was found that circular polarization is 
rabbit-ear friendlier and less prone to multipath. Today, it doesn't 
matter if the receive antenna is vertical or horizontal although 
horizontal is still the default for a rooftop Yagi and that's how I hung 
my wire.

For TV, the low end is KJRH on Channel 8 @ 181 MHz and the highest UHF 
in the market is 51 @ 693 MHz. Quite a spread, but a porcupine should 
cover most of it. The difficult locals for me are 35 in Claremore (603 
MHz), 40 (627 MHz) and 51. The latter two are LP-DTV operations and of 
limited interest to me... 40 is all Jesus all the time (which there is 
no shortage of in T-Town) and 51 is in Spanish.

Also of possible interest as a test are 25 and 29 which are both LP 
analog signals still on the air. LP community TV stations are currently 
exempt from the move to digital and if you can copy either of them from 
BA you're doing well.

My next project will be to pull down the rooftop antenna and redecorate 
the mast with a Ringo AR-10. But, before that's made permanent, I do 
plan a Q & D test of a 10 el UHF Yagi pointed at Oak City for a week or 
three just to see how well it performs against the wire in the attic. 
The Yagi will be at 25' and very much in the clear so it could show some 
Moxie.

There's no real advantage to pulling in OKC stations other than the 
technical challenge and the promise of no Kristen Glover commercials, 
ev-er...

;)