tv – FM Radio DX

2016-post-tr The amazing abundance of tropo enhancement in the summer/fall of 2019 has completely made up for the severe lack of Sporadic E earlier in the year. For the second time this month, a tropo duct formed bringing in FM and TV signals up to 278 miles away. It started at about 8:00 PM when Norfolk, VA signals, at 120-140 miles away to the southeast, were coming in over semi-local and regional signals in my car. By 11:00 PM, the Norfolk signals were in with full HD Radio decodes and RDS on stations that don’t run HD. Norfolk’s 40 WTKR and 50 WGNT were in with local grade signals. This is a common occurrence in the warmer months at my location.

At 11:30 PM, the Norfolk signals faded away and were replaced with the common Philadelphia, PA FM & TV signals that I often get (at roughly 144 miles away) from the northeast instead. With that came a few new FM stations. The duct soon expanded into New York City and Long Island with WLNY-TV, a new digital log that I haven’t seen in 18 years since I first logged them as an analog signal. Although this duct wasn’t as strong as the one experienced on 9/11/19 where most New York City FM stations came in over my local Washington, DC signals, this opening made up with several random and unexpected FM & TV logs, with two signals (99.1 WAWZ and 107.9 WPPZ-FM) decoding in HD right over my local stations.

For brevity, I only have listed stations below which have new RDS/HD Radio screenshots, TV screenshots, or audio files. The content below has been added to my DX Logs pages.

= new station first received in this opening

88.9 WBYO Sellersville, PA, 157 miles, “Word FM” – ccm
89.9 WXTR Tappahannock, VA, 62 miles, “Life Talk Radio” – religious (first-time RDS decode from previously-logged station)
91.5 WNYE New York, NY, 227 miles, jazz program match to website
94.3 WJLK Asbury Park, NJ, 201 miles “94-3 The Point” – CHR
99.1 WAWZ Zarephath, NJ, 197 miles, “Star 99.1” – ccm, over local WDCH
99.9 WODE-FM Easton, PA, 179 miles, “99.9 The Hawk” – classic hits
105.7 WCHR-FM Manahawkin, NJ, 174 miles, “105-7 The Hawk” – classic rock (first-time RDS decode from previously-logged station)
106.3 WJSE North Cape May, NJ, 144 miles, “106.3 The Shore” – classic hits (first-time RDS decode from previously-logged station)
106.5 WTHJ Bass River Township, NJ, 170 miles, “Thunder 106” – country
107.9 WPPZ-FM Pennsauken, NJ, 144 miles, “Classix 107.9” – classic urban AC, over local WLZL
22 WTVE Reading, PA, 145 miles, “Sonlife” – religious (subdecode from Insignia DTT-901 menu with PSIP callsign visible)

Virtual Channel 51.1
26 WQAV-CD Glassboro, NJ, 150 miles, “Jewelry TV, Ind. (subdecode from Insignia DTT-901 menu with PSIP callsign visible)

Virtual Channel 34.1
29 WLNY-TV Riverhead, NY, 278 miles, “WLNY 10/55” – Ind.

Virtual Channel 55.1

Digital TV in the United States is currently undergoing a repack to “realign” the broadcast band dial, in the process removing TV channels 39-50 from the broadcast band and causing many stations to change their OTA broadcast channel. According to the FCC, the reallocation of TV spectrum is being done in phases, with the first set of stations making the switch last year. The entire repack is expected to be done by summer 2020. Mid-Atlantic region TV signals, including my local Washington, DC, and semi-local Baltimore, MD stations, were mandated to switch as part of Phase 4 of the repack by August 2.

While this simply means a TV re-scan for casual viewers to receive their local TV stations at their new dial positions, the repack provides an interesting situation for DXers. DXers may receive new logs that they would have otherwise never received on a channel previously occupied by a local station. This is especially true if a DXer lives near markets operating on different phases of the repack, given the distant signals would be moving their channels at different times.

I have been monitoring the TV band the past few weeks as some of my local signals moved to their new channels. I’ve found some interesting receptions: some stations, like 31 WETA-TV as seen below, were testing on their new channel before the Aug. 2 deadline while their pre-repack TV 27 channel was still on-air (their TV 27 has since shut down). Richmond’s 42 WCVE-TV was still on its pre-repack channel as of August 4, which allowed me to log it for the first time after local 42 WMPT moved to TV 21. I also noticed several Norfolk, VA area stations (16 WHRO, 20 WUND, 29 WVBT, 40 WTKR, and 50 WGNT) were broadcasting on their pre-repack channels past the Aug. 2 deadline. 24 WDCO-CD is an all-new log. Although WDCO-CD’s city of license is over 70 miles southwest of my home, its transmitter is in downtown Washington, DC.

For logging purposes, I consider a previously-logged station broadcasting on a new OTA channel as a new TV log. A list of my new logs related to the repack are below. The screenshots seen below have been added to my TV DX Logs.