Old Vacation TV observations from way back

[Doug Drown]

The West Forks story is amazing, but in terms of sheer number of stations 
accessed by a roof antenna, my aunt and uncle in Westminster, Mass., might 
have held the record.  Before they got cable a few years back, they could 
twirl the antenna and get 2,4,5,7,25,38,44,56 and 68 from Boston; 66 from 
Framingham; 3 from Hartford;
8 from Poland Spring; 9 and 50 from Manchester; 10, 12 and, on a good day, 6 
and 36 from Providence; 11 from Durham; 19 from Albany; 27 from Worcester; 
31 from Hanover; and, albeit snowily, 22, 40 and 57 from Springfield.  As 
you say, Who needed cable??

-Doug





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Q. George" <radiojunkie3@yahoo.com>
To: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>; "Boston Radio Interest Board" 
<boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: Old Vacation TV observations from way back


>
> --- Doug Drown <revdoug1@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> >Who can forget Marty Engstrom
>> from the mountain with the weather and his signature
>> smile at the end!
>>
>> Marty is still with us; he's been retired several
>> years.  He had a big fan
>> club, you know, and IIRC they had a celebration in
>> his honor shortly after
>> he got through.
>
> Marty was favorite for many people, for years.
> Channel 8 was always there, even south of Boston (on a
> good day).  It was fun watching Marty from the
> mountain, even 200 miles away!  What a time!
>>
>> >Even WCAX/3 from Burlington would show up from
>> time-to-time.
>>
>> I was visiting some people in West Forks, Maine, one
>> day a number of years
>> ago; West Forks is between Bingham and Jackman, on
>> the main highway to
>> Quebec City.  They lived way up on a hill.  They had
>> an antenna rotor and
>> could get both WCAX, which came in very well, and
>> CHSJ-TV in Saint John,
>> which was quite watchable but a little snowy.  The
>> two cities are close to
>> 500 miles apart.   Bangor, Sherbrooke and Quebec
>> City came in as though they
>> were next door.   -Doug
>>
>
> That's amazing!  They probably had the most variety of
> TV stations anywhere.  That I wish I could have seen.
> Then again, I took a portable color set up Whiteface
> Mountain (Wilmington, NY) and had several channels
> "three to four stations deep" on both VHF and UHF.
> Who needed cable?! ;)!
>
> -Pete
>
>
> Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
> Whitman, Massachusetts
>                           "Scanning the bands since 1967"
> radiojunkie1@yahoo.com
> radiojunkie3@yahoo.com
> ***********************************************************
>
>
> 
> ____________________________________________________________________________________
> Be a better friend, newshound, and
> know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now. 
> http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ