THIS IS YOUR NEW PAGE – 9/1/23

This is your new online VUD. This is the place where you will find John and Eric’s DX columns, FM changes and TV Info (when available) plus other material found nowhere else. It started small but it’s filling up.We hope you like it.

NEW MEMBERS IN AUGUST. A big welcome goes out to Michael Hayden in Nevada, James Farmer in San Antonio (jim-satx), Jay Smith in Texas and Niel Wolfish in Toronto. We’re glad to have all of you aboard!

WRTH. From what I can tell, the World Radio-TV Handbook ceased publishing in 2021. Now, in 2023, the WRTH has been resurrected by an entity based in the UK called the Radio Data Center, but somewhere I have seen an address based in Germany, so it could be either. The link to the WRTH is on the right side of the page. The printed book is $40USD. There’s also some kind of online version for about $24USD. Is it as good as previous WRTHs? It’s up to you to determine.

New Vision FM. Saul Chernos told us about this a few days ago. It’s a religious network in Central Ohio that has 5 stations. The FM database already has the updated information. I show it here FYI. There’s a link on the right to it.

Ham Radio Outlet. They are having their Labor Day Sale and one of the items for sale is the RSPDuo from SDRPlay. It’s selling for $239.95, which is $50 off their regular price of $289.95. This is the only SDR using Diversity Mode, which, using two antennas, will null out your semi-locals and HD sidebands. It’s worth checking out. The link to HRO and the RSP Duo is on the right side of this page.

FREE ANTENNAS!

Al Kopec has free stuff

As I approach my 84^th birthday, I have reached the conclusion rather reluctantly to continue my DX-ing activities on a passive rather than active basis. As a consequence, there will be no further major antenna projects on my agenda, and I’ll be utilizing only those rather modest ones currently in place to serve in the hobby. This leaves me with two Channel Master Stereo Probe 9 FM antennas and a Channel Master seven-foot parabolic dish for UHF TV sadly collecting dust. I’d like to make these available to any member or members of our group who might be interested for free, if they have the means to transport them and live in reasonable driving distance of the Finger Lakes region of central New York. I am located approximately fifty miles southeast of Rochester, fifty miles southwest of Syracuse and forty miles north of the Pennsylvania state line. I can be reached at alkb2ng@frontiernet.net or as K2AJK via QRZ.com for further information. (August 26, 2023)

Massive Midwest Tropo

Once in a Lifetime?

Arguably the best tropo of the past 20 or 25 years occurred from August 18th through the 21st of August, 2023, with the peak on the 19th and 20th.  In some cases distances surpassed 900 miles and appoached 1,000. Below is a listing of receptions of 600 miles or greater. These were taken from the logs made on the WTFDA’s WLogger and do not, in any way, reflect on the total number of loggings made during that event by all DXers involved. There may be other loggings over 600 miles that we missed. Logs without distances were not included. Distances shown were calculated by the DXers who received them  and may or may not be 100% accurate. We congratulate all DXers who worked this opening which, for many, may turn out to be a once in a lifetime event.

A complete pdf of the event from the 19th through the 23rd is here.

The top 60 (or so) most distant stations logged during this opening. The amount of stations logged over 600 miles is staggering.

That’s it for now. We leave you with this…one of the quirkiest  TVs I’ve ever seen.