Nice Tropo last night here in Minneapolis

[Mr Tony]

So I recently upgraded my antenna from a HBU33 to a HBU44. So I've been trying to get Wisconsin Public TV which is out of my area but I figured when its humid out maybe it will come in

Hooked up the Zenith converter box and tried to get 27 (the main station in Menomonie...near Eau Claire) or 47 (translator in River Falls)...nothing

Then I started manually scanning and all of a sudden an 8 showed up with signal. Huh? Logged channels as WDSE....
Holy crap I was getting Duluth which is 180 miles from my house. Very weak signal so I unhooked the 2 way splitter that is on the antenna and a straight shot. Came in stable. This is with no booster/amp at all.

Did a full scan and got 3/5 of the Duluth stations
8 WDSE PBS
6 KBJR NBC (which is on RF19)
21 KQDS Fox (which is RF17)
10 ABC had a real weak signal but didnt show up (they are on 10)
3 CBS wont ever show up. They are on RF33 and we have a low powered religious station on RF33 in Minneapolis.

By the time I hooked the converter box up to the hard drive/dvd recorder to record the streams Fox went off the air (they sign off each night) and 8 started jumping in and out but for some reason 6 was stable (on UHF19) for a good 2 hours

Some pics...its still suppose to be humid tonight so maybe try again??

 

[Mr Tony]

well tropo was out again last night. Did a scan on the HDTV and it took like 20 minutes to scan (normally takes like 7 or 8). Scanned in a bunch of tropo stations
got WQOW in Eau Claire and KSMQ from Austin/Albert Lea. Also got KYIN Mason City Iowa (but their tower is on the IA/MN border for the Austin/Albert Lea/Rochester stations)

But the big one was on the VHF antenna aimed 180 degrees from Minneapolis. Used my 32" HDTV which has a more sensitive tuner and scanned using that antenna. It logged 10 channels between 7 & 13....hmmmmm....should only be 6 (KARE 11 and Fox 9 from Minneapolis on the backside of it and KEYC Mankato which is what the antenna was "designed" for...2 channels each).
went through the chanenls and saw it had picked up KLKN 8 and KOLN 10 from LINCOLN NEBRASKA! 400 miles away. Clear as a bell for a good 20 minutes. KOLN cut out but ABC 8 was fine for a good hour. Too bad the programming was infomercials.

Got KSMQ clear for about 10 minutes...enough to take pics
Also got KBJR 6 from Duluth again after 1AM

I soooooo need a rotor

 

[Mr Tony]

last night I actually climbed up on the roof and moved the antennas manually

normal way I got WDSE 8 and KBJR 6 (RF19) no problem
Even got WDIO 10 ABC from Duluth too but didnt get a picture (from the camera)
Moved the HBU44 SE and grabbed KTTC 10 NBC from Rochester, MN

The YA1713 I moved NW and grabbed KCCO 7 CBS from Alexandria (120 miles away) but its a satellite station of WCCO here in Minneapolis so that was more of a "yeah I can pick it up". That one I logged on the converter box but was on the roof and forgot to snap a picture. Its still logged in the converter box as 7-1 but doesnt show the call sign now

 

[Mr Tony]

last night was another good night at DX'ing

with antenna aimed normally I grabbed NBC WEAU 13 from Eau Claire. It was funny to see a 13-0 (Univision Mpls) and then 13-1 & 13-2.
went up on the roof and aimed the antenna straight east. 13 came in real strong and then picked up ABC WQOW 18-1,18-2,18-3..real good signal. Also grabbed CBS 8-1 & 8-2 from LaCrosse
moved it more SE then the fun began. Kept 8,13 and 18 and added WXOW 19, 2 WPT affiliates (28 from Eau Claire and 31 from LaCrosse). Also grabbed FOX WLAX 25 but because I already had a 25-1 in the list (from the TBN mux in Mpls) it left it on 17-3 & 17-4

moved antenna back to how it should be (NE towards Mpls) and got Fox WEUX 48-1 & 48-2 from Eau Claire. Ironically no Duluth stations showed up last night.

So at one point I ended up being able to see
Mpls stations (2,4,5,9,11,13,16,23,25,29,33,43,45)
LaCrosse (8,19,25,31)
Eau Claire (13,18,28,48)

not too shabby...too bad Sunday nights most were paid programming