excerpt from RB Cooper column Mar 1958 Radio-Electronics, p. 95 F2 from Europe Our European television dx-pert, Gordon Simkin, formerly of Havre de Grace, Md., now reports European television reception from Loma Linda, Calif. Gordon notes that BBC television on 41.5 me was first logged on Oct. 9, at 0729 hours PST. BBC video on 45 me was seen on Oct. 27, from 0810 to 0830 hours PST with better average signals than the best seen in Maryland. This appears to be a result of less ghosting or, in other words, fewer transmission paths. Gordon is working on some BBC identification-call slide photographs, taken in Loma Linda, for a future TV dx column. Other reception of poorer quality has also been noted from Ireland, Germany and France. I still have no reports of possible transcontinental F2 reception (Maine to California) although I feel certain that such reception was possible on a few peak days in November and early December. This is especially true for a radio path such as Nova Scotia to Oregon and northern California. Transequatorial scatter Dxers in Florida, southern Texas, Cuba and Mexico should be alert for nighttime reception from Venezuela, Brazil, etc., as a result of a form of wave propagation known as TE (trans-equatorial) scatter. On the southern end of the path, dxers in Argentina report frequent reception from Venezuela, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Guatamala and Puerto Rico in the evening hours, beginning around 1700 local time. Distances vary from 900-5,000 miles, with signals displaying violent fading and much ghosting. The period of March 15-April 21 should be the best for such reception. (This reception appears to be quite dependent on the current high on the sunspot cycle.) Channels 2 -6 are affected. Dxers farther north should also be wary of an evening E-skip session occurring to the south during this period, as the E session is likely to extend the TE into more northern areas. ============================================================================================ excerpt from RB Cooper column Radio-Electronics June 1958, p. 88 IT took a little while, but it finally happened. F2 skip made the big jump across the United States, bringing what is probably the first reception of this type ever recorded on a transcontinental basis. The period of Jan. 1-9, 1958, saw transcontinental skip between such places as Nova Scotia, Maine, New York, Montreal, Pennsylvania and the western United States-Washington, Oregon and northern California. Although most reception consisted of video only, channel 2, some northern California dxers did manage to sneak in a few minutes of audio at reception peaks. Eddie Albright of Medford, Ore., reports his first F2 on Jan. 9, between 1100 and 1430 PST of what appeared to be CKCW, Nova Scotia. The audio portion of Eddie's channel 2 was completely obliterated by amateur 6-meter stations in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and New England. Some of the longest 6-meter TVI we have heard of! James Scalvini of Ferndale, Calif., fared somewhat better, noting channel 2 reception like clockwork every day Jan. 1-9, excepting Jan. 2, between 0900 and 1100 PST. Reception would last 15 minutes to over an hour. Video reception was very distorted with multiple ghosting, continually changing phase relationships, all of which made viewing bad. Going from West Coast observers to Nova Scotia, Canada, dxer Ronald Boyd of Truro, Nova Scotia, has had some very good luck in logging a Russian channel 2 station, BBC channel 3 (on our channel 2) and many tentatively identified stations from Germany, France, Italy and elsewhere. Dx was peaking nicely during the first three days of this year, but dropped off considerably around the middle of January. Such reception is gone for US and Canadian observers until next fall. From the looks of current sunspot count information, the best F2 TV dxing for the current 11-year sunspot cycle should have occurred during November, 1957, and January, 1958. The peak average spot count appears to have been reached and a gradual descent is expected for the next few years. European reception should be very good again this fall, however. Skip is reported to have reached as high as 70 me between Europe and parts of the Atlantic coast on two occasions this past fall, the highest values ever recorded (see chart). Looking from the other end, we have on hand a report from Murilo Rodrigo Marques Lopes, employed at Radio Free Europe, in Portugal. During the first weeks of November, 1957, Murilo reports strong but badly ghosted reception from what appears to have been WCBS-TV, New York; WGR-TV, Buffalo, and WGBH-TV, Boston, Mass. Dxer Lopes uses a dx setup worthy of the name, with complete switchable gear for all known world standards. ============================================================================================ excerpts from RB Cooper column Radio-Electronics April 1959 p. 133 (have issue) F2 surpasses 1957-8 season Readers of the June, 1958, TV Dx Column will remember reports carried of the first F2 television dx reception between the East and West coasts of the US. Several dxers in Oregon, Washington and extreme northern California logged Maine, New York and New Brunswick channel 2 video signals during Jan. 1-9, 1958. In the third week of October, 1958, F2 conditions were improving at such a rapid rate that Amateur Radio 6-meter (50-54 mc) enthusiasts were making two-way contacts of a transcontinental nature on an almost daily basis. As the maximum usable frequency (muf) continued to rise, lines and other signs of video information began to be noticed on channel 2 by alert California dxers for a few minutes each day during peak periods, and have been reported by dxers on Nov. 7, 11, 12 and 22. On the morning of the 23rd, Rick Stauduhar, Carmichael, Calif., found channel 2 jumping with fast fading, highly distorted video signals from 0850-1005 hours PST. But the morning of the 24th proved to be the cincher. Your column conductor was caught away from his dxing setup in Fresno, Calif., but managed to make a hastily erected dipole of 300-ohm twin lead deliver a very watchable signal from WCBS-TV, channel 2, New York, from 0910-0947 hours PST, in San Jose, Calif. It was interesting to note that an outside antenna (double-stacked all-channel Yagi) produced such severe video distortion that watching the picture was not possible. The multiple-path images present caused such severe distortion that the picture resembled 50 secondary images superimposed upon the primary image, and all 51 of them were fading at separate intervals! The dipole antenna provided a much lower overall signal level, but at the same time it reduced the signal level of the multiple-path secondary images so they no longer caused bad ghosting on the primary "direct-path" image. Net result was a very watchable picture (in itself unusual for F2 reception) with a minimum of distortion and fading. International F2 dxing Reception along the eastern coast of the US and Canada of European TV transmissions between 40 and 54 mc has been with us since the fall of 1956 when the present high sunspot peak first made itself felt in the world of vhf. On days of particularily calm conditions in the earth's magnetic field, European TV signals have been picked up on the western coast of the United States by the half dozen or so enthusiasts equipped to receive the various sets of European standards. Gordon Simkin of Loma Linda, Calif., has been a leader in the field of European TV reception, having furnished information on receiver modifications to all interested parties. Gordon's dxing locale is especially unruly in that he receives grade-A signals from all seven of the Los Angeles stations and fights the hundreds of commercial FM two-way stations in the 40-50-mc region for his European dx reception. On Nov. 7, Gordon got video signals in Loma Linda from one station in France, one in Belgium and six in Great Britain! Other than the great quantity of stations present on this date, it is particularily interesting to note that signals extended as high as 53.75 mc; certainly a record high F2 muf for a television path nearly 6,000 miles long. Similar reception was noted on Nov. 16, plus a second French station operating with a video carrier on 52.4 mc. Although F2 TV conditions will end by March 1, the potential may exist again next fall provided that the sunspot count holds up one more year. (The F2 dx season in the Northern hemisphere runs from Nov. 1-Feb. 1 with reception along east-west radio paths). Want to see BBC, direct from London, in your own home? Reception next fall is likely to be the last for at least 8 years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dec 1959 F2 Skip: The reason for watching BBC and other European television is now upon us, and it promises to be about the last such year for another six. Those dxers with converters for the European channels know the best hours are the mornings from 7 am LST to 12 noon. F2 dx will die down in intensity after the first week of December, but promises to pop back in for a 3-week run after the first of the year. =============================================================================================