Old Vacation TV observations from way back

[The Seacoast]

When I lived in East Boston, with a roof antenna on top of a 3 Family and
with a mast of 20' on top of that, I got the following at any time:

2,4,5,  2 channel 6's (Fall River?/Portland),7,9,10,11,12,21,23 or 24
(religious), 25, 27, 33, 38, 44, 50, 56, 58, 66, and 68.  On good skip
nights, I also got in, very well:

2-New York, 2 channel 3's-Hartford/?, 8-Poland Springs, 13-Portland, and a
snowy station from Philly

-----Original Message-----
From: David Tomm [mailto:nostaticatall@charter.net] 
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 6:48 AM
To: Doug Drown
Cc: Boston Radio Interest Board
Subject: Re: Old Vacation TV observations from way back

I grew up in Colchester, CT, a small town in the eastern part of the  
state that is about halfway between Boston and New York.  As a  
result, I was able to pull in a ton of TV stations using the rotor- 
powered roof antenna.  The locals were 3, 8, 24, 30 and 53.  Going  
due east, I got 6, 10, 12 & 36 from Providence.  Boston tended to be  
spotty, but 25, 27, 38 and 56 were regulars with 44 and 68 occasional  
catches.  2, 4, 5 and 7 were fairly reliable, but 2&4 less so with 3  
only 30 miles up the road.  22 & 40 and occasionally 57 from  
Springfield were regulars.  Then you had New York.  Spinning the  
rotor to the southwest, the VHF's came in regularly 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11  
and 13 but the UHF's didn't.  E-Skip in the summer tended to make it  
difficult to watch anything due to so many stations booming in but  
since I was a geeky DX kid back then I didn't mind a bit!

Dave Tomm
"Mike Thomas"


On Mar 26, 2008, at 11:28 PM, Doug Drown wrote:

> 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
>