I spent a summer in Denver 22 years ago, and, on the I-70 run, I got the bulk of Denver stations around Goodland, KS. Same for some of the stronger Colorado Springs facilities. On the way out of town, they didn’t do nearly as well. Most were gone just past Limon. Going down I-25, the Denver stations were consistent to about the Air Force Academy exit. They were listenable past that point, at least on a good car radio, but they didn’t sound local. Going the other way, Colorado Springs stations were listenable on good car radios/home stereos around the Tech Center, but, again, they definitely sounded distant.
On the TV side - Back in the Summer 1999 of 1998, I went on a trip ro Waxahachie, TX to attend the wedding of one of my brothers (That's a different story for a forum
)
Among the things I carried with me on the trip my was Ham Radio HT to work some of the repeaters down there, my Walkman to do a little Broadcast Radio DXing (Never had ANY luck with that) & my 2 inch TV to do a little Broadcast TV DXing (Wjere I had THE MOST fun). I was with Mom & Dad & we went Greyhound (Plane Tickets to DFW were too expen$ive) so we knew it was going to be A LONG trip
The Trip Down To Waxahachie
Everything was pretty boring until we left Colorado Springs. As it was around 4:00 PM, I started my Broadcast TV Dxing by watching
Star Trek: TOS on KRDO 13 (ABC). This lasted till we neared the town of Lamar, CO (I think I lost it on Channel 13 shortly before then. Little did I know at the time they had a translator on Channel 68 which used to belong to KBDI 12 (PBS in Broomfield) but as you'll see later, I discovered this on the trip back
After we left Lamar, I fell asleep till we reached one of those Blink & you miss it towns somewhere in the Oklahoma Panhandle
. Not long after that, we crossed over into Texas North of Amarillo where I started to pull in a CBS station I thought was on Channel 9 (Turns out it was
KFDA on Channel 10 in Amarillo) which was broadcasting
48 Hours at the time.
That gave me some idea what time it was - 9:30 PM CT / 8l39 OM MT
After a layover in Amarillo, we hit the road again. On the way out, I spun around the dial to see wjat was on. I think I landed on
KAMR Channel 4 which by then was broadcasting
The Tpnight Show but for a station that was supposed to be IN Amarillo, it didn't seem to be very local. I believe I also landed on
KVII Channel 7 which I'm sure was carrying
Nightline at the time, but I can't say for sure. I then landed on Channel 14 (Sorry I forget the calls now) which was carrying an episode of
Murphy Brown at the time & for a UHF station, it was VERY local. Finally before losing the Amarillo stations (And ANY TV station for the remainder of the night), I stumbled across a station on Channel 65 (Or 84 ir 66??) (Sorry I didn't catch the calls for this station) which was carrying a Talk show (If I remember right. it was
Montel Williams) & I have to say that for a high end UHF station, I was VERY impressed with its signal
In the morning, I again turned on the TV when the bus arrived in Wichita Falls. I got NOTHING but a CBS (??) station on Channel 12 (Which was UNWATCHABLE for a local station (FAR WORSE than
KAMR was the previous night as I could AT LEAST get picture AND sound there). Not long after we left Wichita Falls, I spotted this TALL tower which I KNEW was an antenna tower of some kind. This told me we were nearing Fort. Worth
ALMOST IMMEDIATELY after we got on the East side of the tower, I started spinning the dial for the DFW stations, sticking to the VHF band for some strange reason. Gpt ALL of them (Except Channels 2 & 13) as we were approaching Fprt Worth - KDFW 4 (Fox), KXAS 5 (NBC), WFAA 8 (ABC) & KTVT 11 (CBS)
Between Fort Worth & Dallas, I just parked the TV on KTVT 11 & watched it till the external battery I had finally went dead
The Trip Back Home
I didn;t do any Broadcast DXing (Of Radio OR TV) as I was talking to some local Hams on one of tghe Wichita Falls repeaters. After my conversation with them ended (By then we were West of Wichita Falls), I knew that Broadcast TV DXing wasn't going to be an option till we got to Amarillo so I instead got out my Walkman to see what I could get on that thing
There were still HOURS of Daylight & since the metal of the bus would attenuate AM signals, AM Broadcast DXing was out of the question. But there was still a question as to what was on FM that I could get. I scanned & scanned & scanned & ALL I got was some station FOR MILES was some Country station which NEVER seemed to ID itself at the top of the hour like Radio stations are SUPPOSED tro do on 93.5 as we went along U,S, 287. This station lasted MORE than HALFWAY to Amarillo
After another layover in Amarillo, I didn't pick anything up until we reached Blink & you miss it town in the Oklahoma Panhandle when I stumbled across KAKE 10 (ABC) out of Wichita, KS (Which was VERY weak but considering the distance (A bee line North of Dallas on I-35), it was most impressive to see) which was about to going to
ABC News Now for the night. This lasted until it had to give way to KKTV 11 (CBS) near Lamar (KKTV 11 had begun a repeat of
Wheel Of Fortune (A rarity for Sunday Night & Late Night in general) which I watched)
After a quick peek at what KRDO 13 (Via its Channel 68 translator) had on (Which I don't recall what it was now), I then stumbled across KOAA 5 (NBC via the Channel 30 side) which was airing the 1977 version of
King Kong which I wsatched all the way into Colorado Springs
From there, I decided to do a little REVERSE Broadcast TV DXing between Colorado Springs & Denver. I had been DXing Colorado Springs Radio & TV stations from Denver since I was a Teenager but I had NEVER done ANY Broadcast DXing pf Denver stations from Colorado Springs
With the TV still on, I started with it & spun the the dial looking for the Denver stations. THE ONLY one that came up with ANY amount of consistency was KUSA 9 (NBC). Tired & just wanting to get home ASAP, I parked on KUSA 9 & watched the news all the way into Denver
To this day, I have yet to DX any of the Denver Radio stations from Colorado Springs. Maybe one of these days, I will