On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:02:24 -0700, Bill wrote:

With a small TV antenna from Sears (like Sal, back in the mid 60s), up
5 feet above the roof (split level), on the crest of a hill (6200 feet
in Colorado Springs), I was able to DX Calgary and Edmonton.

In California we would call that hill a mountain.

Hi Bill,

No, in Colorado, mountains don't really begin before 8-9,000 feet
(with 100 peaks above 10,000 feet). Last year I was driving through
passes at 11,000 feet.

6200 feet in the Springs is basically out on the prairie on a slight
rise. The antenna thus was only 20 odd feet above average ground, and
that average ground was a slight hill of 300 - 400 feet. I had a
clear view of the front range and Denver's TV antennas were on that 60
to 80 miles north-north-west - probably just line of sight through the
Black Forest given the marginal signal. Denver, the Mile High City,
actually sits in a bowl. The generally lowest point in Colorado (if I
am not mistaken) is out on the SE corner at about 3500 feet where it
is definitely in the great plains (as you would have been for hours
driving to get there).

DX'ing here is only
north and south since I am in the central valley north of Sacramento,
but I did sometimes get Reno, Nevada. It only worked up to channel 5 and
then 6 and 7 were somewhere higher, then 8 to 13 were too high for any
DX'ing stuff. UHF barely even existed back then unless you got a
converter box, which I did not.

The TVDX was during the summer, late afternoon, on the low VHF and
lasted 20 minutes up to 90 minutes - I got to see a full movie out of
Edmonton. On other occasions I would get a long, slow flutter that I
convinced myself was from a freight train tracking along the distant
skyline. Even though the antenna was pointed towards Denver, the
Canadian cities were not particularly at the peak of the lobe.

At one time, I lived within a mile of the blast doors of NORAD in
Cheyenne Mountain. Back then they kept a free fire zone in front of
it - what with the Red Scare and all. Now the slopes are littered
with suburb ranch style homes. I guess many of those occupants are
not Heinlein fans of his "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." My chemistry
teacher used to cheer us up by saying the Ruskies would probably send
enough missiles to turn Colorado Springs into a plain of glass if
things got bad.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC