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LOG, SUMMER 1999
Linwood Vroman, western Iowa · back to DX-TV

Every station I identified from the middle of May to this week, copied out of this year's notebook. Times are Central Daylight. I only log what I can identify; the dozens of rolling, snowy pictures I never got a name for stay in the notebook, where they belong. I give the state and how I knew it, not the call letters.
Es = sporadic E skip (Channels 2-6)
TR = tropo (high VHF and UHF)
MS = meteor scatter (blink and it's gone)
Shaded rows = Tuesday, June 15. The story is here.

DATE
TIME		 CH FROM / HOW I KNEW
Sat 5/22
10:15 a.m.		 3 TEXAS [Es]
First skip of the season. Weather map of the Panhandle, with the Oklahoma line across the top.
Thu 5/27
6:40 p.m.		 2 COLORADO [Es]
Weather map with the mountains west of Denver.
Sun 5/30
11:20 a.m.		 4 LOUISIANA [Es]
Commercial for a car dealer in Baton Rouge.
Thu 6/3
9:50 a.m.		 5 OKLAHOMA [Es]
News logo, then a weather map with all the Oklahoma counties on it.
Tue 6/8
7:15 p.m.		 2 MONTANA [Es]
A forecast for snow in the high country. In June.
Sat 6/12
10:05 a.m.		 6 GEORGIA [Es]
Heard it on the FM radio first. Furniture store commercial with the city in it.
Tue 6/15
9:12 a.m.		 3 TEXAS [Es]
Weatherman and a map of the Panhandle. Ninety-eight tomorrow. Clear as day. The best skip in years starts here.
Tue 6/15
9:30 a.m.		 2 TEXAS [Es]
Farm report, cattle prices.
Tue 6/15
9:45 a.m.		 4 OKLAHOMA [Es]
Morning show, station logo shaped like the state.
Tue 6/15
10:02 a.m.		 5 LOUISIANA [Es]
News break. The anchor said "south Louisiana" twice.
Tue 6/15
10:20 a.m.		 2 MISSISSIPPI [Es]
Weather map with the river down the left side.
Tue 6/15
10:31 a.m.		 4 ALABAMA [Es]
Weather map of Alabama, Gulf coast along the bottom.
Tue 6/15
10:52 a.m.		 3 FLORIDA [Es]
Hurricane season program. Map with the Gulf on one side and the Atlantic on the other.
Tue 6/15
11:05 a.m.		 2 GEORGIA [Es]
Weather map. Fought the Florida station on Channel 2 for most of an hour. Faded out about noon in a car dealer commercial.
Tue 6/15
11:12 a.m.		 2 FLORIDA [Es]
News logo, read through the venetian blinds on the tape.
Tue 6/15
11:20 a.m.		 6 FLORIDA [Es]
Audio on the FM radio at the bottom of the dial first, then the picture. Radar of the peninsula.
Sun 6/20
4:30 p.m.		 3 NORTH CAROLINA [Es]
Weather map of the Carolinas with the Outer Banks.
Thu 6/24
8:30 p.m.		 2 ALBERTA [Es]
Temperatures in Celsius. Weather map of Alberta. Barbara was impressed, for once.
Sat 6/26
12:10 p.m.		 4 UTAH [Es]
Weather map with the Great Salt Lake on it.
Tue 6/29
10:45 a.m.		 2 MEXICO [Es]
Spanish-language soap opera, then a weather map of northern Mexico.
Thu 7/1
6:20 p.m.		 3 SASKATCHEWAN [Es]
Canada Day. Weather map of Saskatchewan in Celsius.
Mon 7/5
9:30 a.m.		 6 PENNSYLVANIA [Es]
Holiday traffic story, then a Pennsylvania weather map.
Wed 7/7
11:15 a.m.		 4 FLORIDA [Es]
News logo, then the beach forecast.
Sun 7/11
2:05 p.m.		 5 ARIZONA [Es]
Weather map. A hundred and twelve in the desert.
Wed 7/14
10:30 p.m.		 27 MISSOURI [TR]
Late news, Ozarks on the weather map. Muggy, dead calm.
Sun 7/18
6:05 a.m.		 11 MINNESOTA [TR]
Sunday morning church service, then a station ID with a Minnesota city.
Thu 7/22
9:40 a.m.		 2 NEW MEXICO [Es]
Weather map with the Rio Grande down the middle.
Sat 7/24
7:30 a.m.		 33 KANSAS [TR]
Saturday cartoons, Kansas weather in the corner.
Fri 7/30
11:50 p.m.		 9 WISCONSIN [TR]
Late movie. Waited up for the station ID at midnight.
Mon 8/2
10:10 a.m.		 3 TEXAS [Es]
Short opening, about four minutes. Gulf coast weather.
Fri 8/6
6:15 a.m.		 13 ILLINOIS [TR]
Morning news, Illinois weather map.
Mon 8/9
5:45 a.m.		 8 SOUTH DAKOTA [TR]
Commercial for a rodeo, and the Black Hills on the weather map.
Sat 8/14
7:02 a.m.		 2 UNKNOWN [MS]
Meteor burst, about two seconds. A logo I couldn't read even on the tape. It counts in the notebook, not in the totals.
Tue 8/17
6:20 a.m.		 39 MISSOURI [TR]
Morning farm report, hog prices.
Sat 8/21
6:30 a.m.		 23 MINNESOTA [TR]
A big high sitting right on top of us. Morning news, lake country weather.
Sun 8/22
7:00 a.m.		 12 NEBRASKA [TR]
Western Nebraska. The Sandhills on the weather map.

> SUMMARY, MAY 22 - AUG 22, 1999
> IDENTIFIED ......... 35
> BY SKIP (Es) ....... 26
> BY TROPO (TR) ...... 9
> UNIDENTIFIED (MS) .. 1, NOT COUNTED
> STATES ............. 21
> PROVINCES .......... 2 (ALBERTA, SASKATCHEWAN)
> COUNTRIES .......... USA, CANADA, MEXICO
> FARTHEST ........... FLORIDA, ABOUT 1,200 MILES
> BEST DAY ........... TUE JUNE 15, 10 STATIONS, 7 STATES
> END OF LOG_

The skip slowed down in July and was about done by the first week of August, which is normal. Late summer is tropo time out here, and the muggy mornings this August have been good to me. I'll keep watching through the fall, and the little winter skip season around Christmas sometimes brings a surprise.

If you DX too, I'd like to compare logs. If you live in one of these places and recognize your station from the description, write and tell me. That's the second-best kind of e-mail I get. The best kind is from somebody who tried rabbit ears for the first time and saw Texas.

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LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1999