A New TV Antenna...and New DX

The antenna that replaced the Radio Shack VU-210XR arrived at my QTH on May 15. I ordered the Winegard HD8200U antenna direct from the manufacturer. I also ordered the tripod direct from the manufacturer several days earlier. I was able to salvage the Antenna Performance Specialties APS-9B from the tornado damage. The antenna was installed on May 18: here's the final result.

Here's another view of the antenna, this time from the ground:

The antenna was broken in the following morning with an E-skip opening into northern Mexico. A new station was added to the log with XHGV 4 Las Lajas, in the Mexican state of Veracruz. Later that evening, I came across an opening to Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. The first one I came across was WNIN 9 in Evansville. I previously logged this on channel 12 in 2008.

Later on in the evening, I would pull in two new Nashville stations. The first one was WSMV 10 (4), which is the longtime home station of noted DXer Doug Smith. The main channel was carrying an episode of "The Twilight Zone".

Their second channel carries a country music video channel with an old, familiar name: The Nashville Network.

The second new Nashville station received that night was WNPT on channel 8. I never had this station in analog format due to the fact that WSIU-TV was parked on this channel (WSIU-TV is also on channel 8 in digital format). This is channel 8.1, carrying the main program.

The "NPT" acronym stands for Nashville Public Television. Here's their second channel.

WBKO 13 in Bowling Green, KY was noted only once during the analog era. The night of May 19 was the first time I caught WBKO in digital format. This is their main channel.

This is from their second channel...Gillie Hyde is a car dealer who's Bowling Green's answer to Don Brown, Jr. (of Don Brown Chevrolet "At the Entrance to The Hill" fame).

Yes, there are digital TV stations on the VHF low band. This is WTVF, which operates on RF Channel 5. This is their second channel, "Newschannel 5 Plus".

Since that time, I've logged a new Arkansas DTV. KAFT 9 (13) Fayetteville, AR was noted on June 4, an hour after the solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse landed in St. Louis. This is the main channel during a pledge break.

On the night of June 27, I was able to double my digital TV count from Kansas. One of the stations added was WIBW-DT 13 Topeka, KS. I was able to get this video capture of KTWU 11.

As I write this, I have noted 158 digital TV stations since I started my log in September 2005. I look forward to logging more new stations as the summer progresses.