9th Province via TV

On July 15th, I finally managed to pick up Prince Edward Island on TV via sporadic E-skip to bring my provincial total up to 9 - leaving just one more to go (British Columbia) to complete all 10. 

Due to its small size, PEI has always been a difficult VHF DX target. This isn't the first VHF DX received from PEI. I've previously heard PEI on FM in 2012, and prior to that the VOR air navaid at Charlottetown - YYG on 113.8 MHz - received back on July 22, 1995. 

I've been trying to get PEI on TV for a while now, and especially since the US digital transition in 2009. There were 2 lowband targets left in 2009 - both in the community of St. Edward and both analogue : CBCT-1 (CBC) on the now-empty channel 4 and CKCW-TV-2 (CTV) on the still-occupied channel 5 (by local CBLT Toronto). CBCT1 was shutdown by the CBC in 2012, so it was no longer a target. That left just CKCW2, but at least by then channel 5 had been vacated by Toronto. Once CKCW2 shuts down, the only remaining TV stations in PEI will be digital on channels 8, 13 and 42. Channel 8 is not impossible by E-skip or tropo - but not very likely.

What has made CKCW2 so elusive for the past couple of years has been the fact that channel 5, despite being much "emptier", is still occupied by CHRO Pembroke, Ontario. Although it is 218 miles away, it's received 24/7 - at least the audio is. CHRO and CKCW2 are on the same offset (+) and also in the same general direction. The distance to St. Edward is 793 miles.   

The morning of July 15th started off with a lowband TV opening into the Southern US. Just after 11 am, an opening to the Maritimes appeared that soon moved up into the FM band. At 12:53 PM EDT, I finally heard some audio on 5+ (81.76 MHz) punch through CHRO. It was an ad for a "Wiggles" tour with stops in Halifax, Saint John, etc. Definitely a Maritimes station. Luckily fellow CTV Atlantic station CJCB channel 4 Sydney, Nova Scotia was also in at the same time, so I could confirm that they were parallel. Finally PEI had been received on TV! Unfortunately the video was never strong enough to punch through CHRO, although it gave a good fight with strong CCI.

Thanks to the Wiggles, an Australian childrens music group, PEI was entered into the TV logbook.

  Picture © 2014 Ticket Atlantic.

TV DX PROVINCES

1  ON  1967             CBLT   6  Toronto

2  QC  1976-08-03-06..  CBOT   4  Ottawa, ON

3  SK  1977-06-05-2111  CKCK2  6  Willow Bunch

4  MB  1977-06-06-2159  CBWFT  3  Winnipeg

5  NB  1977-07-07-2145  CKCW   2  Moncton

6  NS  1977-07-07-2145  CBHT   3  Halifax

7  NL  1988-06-27-2158  CJCN   4  Grand Falls

8  AB  2013-07-03-2012  CHAT1  4  Pivot

9  PE  2014-07-15-1253  CKCW2  5  St. Edward