Good Night and Good luck and what is this?

August 13, 2007 2:34 PM

TV DX Photos by Channel seen from Macomb, IL Since 1983
posted by pieoverdone (25 comments total)

Oh, and if your metropolitan area has a channel 5, it's logo is mapped here. I'm so happy I stayed home from work today. This is what I got from looking for an old school KPLR logo. Can't remember what I wanted that for, now.
posted by pieoverdone at 2:38 PM on August 13, 2007

A foray into old, gritty television scans from the 1980s is not complete without one purple and green boob as seen on a deformed video signal from Playboy Channel. Ah, to be 14 again.
posted by rolypolyman at 2:45 PM on August 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

More about TV-DX, or long distance television reception.
posted by ALongDecember at 2:50 PM on August 13, 2007

"DX'ing is an intense form of entertainment."
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:52 PM on August 13, 2007

An analog thumbs-up! Very cool post. The video equivalent of tuning and listening between stations on the radio.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:32 PM on August 13, 2007

why is this so creepy? i'm all skeeved... (horror movies? that it's all collected like this? that it's now historical images? ?)
posted by amberglow at 3:42 PM on August 13, 2007

*shivers*

I wonder if this is how aliens see our tv?
posted by amberglow at 3:44 PM on August 13, 2007

I enjoyed this. This brought back days of Scanner Digest and waiting for our local AM/FM radio stations to power down their transmitters so that I could hear distant stations. I was never able to get other TV stations, but every once in a while, Scanner Digest or one of the other magazines at that time had an article about TV DX'ing, and I would try again without success.

Also, remember when TV stations didn't broadcast 24 hours a day?
posted by horsemuth at 3:45 PM on August 13, 2007

Also, remember when TV stations didn't broadcast 24 hours a day?
WTTV in Indianapolis/Bloomington Indiana. Started their day at noon with Lunchtime Theater (old cartoons). Not sure when the signed-off. Sometime around 2am, I think. Totally B/W picture until sometime in the late 60s, too.

It's funny that you mention it. I wonder how many people these days don't get it when, for instance, a scene in a movie shows a TV station signing-off...national anthem, followed by static.

And, yes, stations actually did transmit test patterns,
posted by Thorzdad at 3:58 PM on August 13, 2007

Ah, WTVR-6, the South's first television station.
posted by emelenjr at 3:59 PM on August 13, 2007

Last year I put a 60-mile ChannelMaster antenna on my roof to draw in KALX, the UC Berkeley radio station. The vast number of random broadcasts floating through the ether is astounding. I can see how it could become a hobby.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot at 3:59 PM on August 13, 2007

my brain melted a tiny bit looking at that. So I looked again and it melted more...
posted by jonson at 4:00 PM on August 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

"You'll forgive me if I don't stay around to watch... I just can't cope with freaky stuff"
posted by oh pollo! at 4:39 PM on August 13, 2007

He pulled-in WFSB Hartford, CT from Macomb, IL? Impressive.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:44 PM on August 13, 2007

All of this reminds of Videodrome.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:51 PM on August 13, 2007

I don't want whatever this guy is selling.
posted by davebush at 5:19 PM on August 13, 2007

From the Wikipedia page ALongDecember linked: Moon-bounce - The Arecibo Radio Telescope spherical reflector antenna has been used for detecting terrestrial television signals reflected off the lunar surface.

That's pretty cool...
posted by Jimbob at 5:27 PM on August 13, 2007

Stations where I live have actually RETURNED to signing off at night. Note near the top of the page, under channel 2 is CKCK with an old-timey test pattern.
posted by evilcolonel at 5:57 PM on August 13, 2007

I was trying to figure out the third item on the list:

All Mexicans have location, distance and power listed (if known)

I thought maybe he was collecting them like pokemon.

And then I read the comments, and find out it is about long range tv station receptions. Still cool, but not nearly as surreal.
posted by mrzarquon at 6:40 PM on August 13, 2007

Gah! I'm watching WGVU right now.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:28 PM on August 13, 2007

@Jimbob - Moonbounce (generally known as "EME" for Earth-Moon-Earth) can be done with a lot less than a radiotelescope. There is a whole sub-hobby of people who are into it, within amateur radio. Here's one page that has some information. Apparently a few people make scheduled transmissions that you could listen for the reflections of if you had a VHF scanner and a suitable antenna, even if you can't transmit yourself.

For a more moderate challenge, there are always amateur satellites. You can listen in on them with a handheld Yagi that you can build yourself out of scraps, if you want. (Or maybe just the 'rubber duck' on a scanner.)

Also in the amateur-aerospace vein, I've always found the people who obsessively spot and track satellites (visually!) to be pretty interesting.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:57 PM on August 13, 2007

Uh, when talking about the amateur satellites, I should add that you can listen in on them with a DIY Yagi or possibly a 'rubber duck' ... and a radio. A Radioshack scanner would probably do. (Unless you can demodulate RF with your fillings, of course.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:02 PM on August 13, 2007

the best i ever got was toronto from battle creek mi ... which is actually pretty damned good ... my girlfriend had a 60 ft antenna tower on top of a hill overlooking a lake ... we often watched tv from detroit and sometimes chicago

this guy has SERIOUS equipment
posted by pyramid termite at 8:24 PM on August 13, 2007

Baby, if you've ever wondered
wondered whatever became of me
I'm livin' on the air in Cincinatti
Cincinatti WKRC.
posted by Clay201 at 9:19 PM on August 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Moonbounce (generally known as "EME" for Earth-Moon-Earth) can be done with a lot less than a radiotelescope. There is a whole sub-hobby of people who are into it, within amateur radio.

Pffft. All teh cool kids are doing meteor scatter.
posted by kcds at 10:53 AM on August 14, 2007