How far can you reach???

[Jimmy J]

As the title suggests...

Just how far are you pulling in HD OTA signals??? What is your equipment...antenna, pre-amp & such? Terrain between you & towers?

Still trying to figure out if I should even attempt at getting OTA from 76 miles away.

TIA!

 

[Rick0725]

that is a hard request to ask.

everyone's conditions are different, it is not an exact science, and you also have terrain issues.

pm towerguy, he is from the area, can give you some advise, and is familiar with the area.

you would probably be better off with separates which would cost about the same as the combos you are looking at...cm3671 or hd8200p...and would perform better.

separates would be a 91 xg or cm4228 combined with a winegard ya1713 ch7-13 yagi.

 

[Jimmy J]

that is a hard request to ask.

everyone's conditions are different, it is not an exact science, and you also have terrain issues.

pm towerguy, he is from the area, can give you some advise, and is familiar with the area.

you would probably be better off with separates which would cost about the same as the combos you are looking at...cm3671 or hd8200p...and would perform better.

separates would be a 91 xg or cm4228 combined with a winegard ya1713 ch7-13 yagi.

Cool. How do I find him in order to pm him?

 

[cheddarbob]

I am guessing you are trying to get burlington? I can't really say, because antenna web is only giving me a PBS station out of Windsor for your location, on channel in analog, well, like mentioned before, it depends on your terrain, and if there are mountains between you and the transmitter, but I have pulled over 100 miles reliably with a DB8 from antennas direct, its pretty much the same as the Channel Master 4228. My Advice would be to get that antenna up as high as you can possibly get it and use a channel master 7775 pre amp if you are gonna do UHF only, I reccommend the channel master because its got the lowest noise level out of all the pre amps for consumer grade, another option that may help is stacking the antenna's, 2 channel master 4228's right ontop of eachother, do a google search on TV antenna stacking and you should be able to find some info on it, I have seen people going as far as stacking four High Gain Yagi antenna's next to eachother all acting as one to pull in those Deep Fringe stations. Just some Ideas, you are gonna want the highest gain antenna setup possible and the lowest noise preamp possible.

 

[Jimmy J]

I am guessing you are trying to get burlington? I can't really say, because antenna web is only giving me a PBS station out of Windsor for your location, on channel in analog, well, like mentioned before, it depends on your terrain, and if there are mountains between you and the transmitter, but I have pulled over 100 miles reliably with a DB8 from antennas direct, its pretty much the same as the Channel Master 4228. My Advice would be to get that antenna up as high as you can possibly get it and use a channel master 7775 pre amp if you are gonna do UHF only, I reccommend the channel master because its got the lowest noise level out of all the pre amps for consumer grade, another option that may help is stacking the antenna's, 2 channel master 4228's right ontop of eachother, do a google search on TV antenna stacking and you should be able to find some info on it, I have seen people going as far as stacking four High Gain Yagi antenna's next to eachother all acting as one to pull in those Deep Fringe stations. Just some Ideas, you are gonna want the highest gain antenna setup possible and the lowest noise preamp possible.

I was actually thinking the Albany, NY area...Zip 12201.

 

[cheddarbob]

is that your zip? or the zip of where you want to get signals from? but based on that on antenna web, you are gonna want a medium grade outdoor antenna, and it all depends on the terrian as well.

 

[Jimmy J]

is that your zip? or the zip of where you want to get signals from? but based on that on antenna web, you are gonna want a medium grade outdoor antenna, and it all depends on the terrian as well.

Nahh,

My zip is 05773. I want the stations in 12201. I've already determined that I'll need a very large directional in order to have any chance in hell.

Just gotta figure what would be best for my situation.

 

[Rick0725]

are there any antenna installers in your area? 60 mile radius,etc.

they could bring a few antennas out and see if you can receive anything. and charge a fee for time and travel.

then if something works just have them install it while they are there.

WVER-DT 28.1 PBS RUTLAND VT 353° 15.4 9
WVTA-DT 41.1 PBS WINDSOR VT 106° 27.3 24
WNNE-DT 25.1 NBC HARTFORD VT 105° 27.2 25

these came up when I entered 1000' and may be possible...the rest at 70 miles who knows.

you will need separates though in the ya1713, cm7777, 91xg category with a cm7777

it is a guess what will work there.

 

[csmk6]

If you visit www.antennasdirect.com they have some good information about how OTA signals work and how far. They say typically that 70 miles is the max due to the curvature of the earth. That would obviously be with a roof mounted antenna. Most of your questions should be answered on their site. Hope this helps.

 

[Trevorm7]

I got over 200 miles before with a small uhf directional antenna that came with the hdtv wonder. I had it sitting on a plastic lawn chair in my back yard about 3ft off the ground.

 

[Jimmy J]

I got over 200 miles before with a small uhf directional antenna that came with the hdtv wonder. I had it sitting on a plastic lawn chair in my back yard about 3ft off the ground.

Yeah, but 200 miles over what type of terrain??? I'd be willing to bet hardly any hills or mountains let alone a tree for a dog to lift his leg on!

 

[Rick0725]

while he was smoking a boner.

 

[Jimmy J]

while he was smoking a boner.

:up

 

[gaarcham]

I'm in Clermont, FL which is straight west of Orlando by 20 miles or so. I can get Fort Myers, and West Palm Beach stations on some nights with my mini-state antenna. The WPB ones are around 180 miles I think. Of course this is at night.

 

[dodge]

OTA at Night

At Night especially during the summer when the tropo ducting gets good you can sometimes receive stuff that is over 200 away
I am 50 miles west of chicago and I have received at nite ota from
Green Bay Wisconsin
Wausau Wisconsin
Milwaukee Wisconsin
Springfield IL
Terre Haute In
and one time Indianapolis IN
It can be done when conditions are right. The same Night I have talked to an amateur radio repeater over 500 miles away in tn on 4 watts of power with my handi talkie.

 

[Cokeswigga]

I can get Los Angeles signals which are 70+ Miles away.
there is mixed terrain from here to there.

I have a winegard 9095 with NO premamp

My signal strengths are great!

 

[Jimmy J]

I can get Los Angeles signals which are 70+ Miles away.
there is mixed terrain from here to there.

I have a winegard 9095 with NO premamp

My signal strengths are great!

What is your zip & the towers zip?

 

[igator99]

As the title suggests...

Just how far are you pulling in HD OTA signals??? What is your equipment...antenna, pre-amp & such? Terrain between you & towers?

Still trying to figure out if I should even attempt at getting OTA from 76 miles away.

TIA!

Real strange for me. I can pull in a Lafayette analog station (130 miles away). I can get it regularly a little fuzzy but very watchable kind of like bad cable. I get my locals in New Orleans in HD no problem (about 40miles). I can't seem to pull in the Baton Rouge NBC HD station which I can't get in NOLA. The Baton Rouge station is about 68 miles away?

 

[Rick0725]

the user needs normal everyday advise. not ducting or out of the ordinary.

everyday I get my locals decent

50 miles north nothing
55-65 miles east 70's
70 miles west nothing
70 miles south nothing

 

[Jimmy J]

the user needs normal everyday advise. not ducting or out of the ordinary.

everyday I get my locals decent

50 miles north nothing
55-65 miles east 70's
70 miles west nothing
70 miles south nothing

Hey Rick,

Yup! I'm still at it...trying to figure out whether or not to give it a try. I spoke with the engineer at WRGB-Albany, really nice guy. I wanna say Robert??? Anyway, we spoke for a good half hour about my plight. He says I have a better shot at getting the Burlington, VT stations versus the Albany, NY stations due to terrain differences.

So, with that I'm exactly 73.4 miles to the towers atop Mt. Mansfield. If I do decide to go forward with my attempt, I'd really like to use just one antenna.

The downside to a UHF/VHF combo is that I'll lose some of the gain on the UHF side, which is really the important side as that's where most of the stations are except for one...ABC is on VHF.

I wish there was someone close to me that could lend me a 91XG for a weekend just to see what I could get.