HDTV signal reception

[mr_yeti]

Hi all. I'm new to the site and to the world of HDTV. I'm in the process of buying a new HD-ready set and was wondering if the off-air signal strength/programming selection in Ozaukee County warrants the purchase of a HD decoder and antenna. I live in Port Washington and would like to know what experiences anyone else who lives nearby has had with off-air HD signals. Is it worth my time and money now, or should I hold off until the network affiliates get their stuff together?

[Gregg Lengling]

It's going to depend on whether you have an outdoor antenna and what part of PW you are in.  I'm in Cedarburg and get all the digitals in  Milwaukee (not counting FAUX6 with their peanut power antenna).  I however do have an outdoor antenna as I am right in the heart of Cedarburg, pretty wooded there.  But take a look at the map and plot down to the Milw. River and Capitol Drive and that will give you a good indication.   I would say for the most part you should get good signals (maybe even with an indoor antenna) because most of PW looks over water to the towers in Milwaukee.

I would say go for it and buy the STB, you won't be sorry as there is some really good stuff on 58's digital (and once in a while on 10's).  

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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
glengling@ameritech.net

[tschinner]

I live in Oostburg so I am probaly about 15 miles north of you.  I have a Mitsubishi 65869 with a built in DTV tuner and a roof-top antenna.  I get WTMJ and PBS-10 all of the time.  58 is iffy.

One advantage of being this far north is I can get WBAY (ABC) out of Green Bay.  This may come in handy since antennaweb.org now lists WISN-12 as Jan-03.

Hope this helps.

[Mike Sheahan]

I've been waiting for the tree guys to take down the dieing elms that were blocking my signal from chicago, and now they are down!

Unfortunately I still wasn't able to pick up a strong enough signal from any of the stations down there anyway... until tonight!

I used to have one of those flying saucer looking omni-directional antennas mounted to my Direct TV setup back in the old days.  It came with an amplifier doo-hicky thing that I would put in line between the antenna and the reciver.  

So I decided, after the lackluster response I got while trying to pull in some of those signals from down south, to try the amplifier thing with my new RS Yagi style beast of an antenna.

WOOOO HOOOO!!!  I can now get everything Chicago has to offer, as well as an NBC station out of South Bend Indiana, and a couple of stations from the other side of the lake from Grand Rapids!

Now I just hope it isn't just a freaky reception kind of night, and that they will all be there again towmarrow.

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Mits 65819
Hughes E86
My HT Page

[This message has been edited by Mike Sheahan (edited 08-25-2002).]

[borghe]

Where are you in West Allis. I'm at the southern border of Tosa and am trying to convince my father-in-law to let me put up a rooftop. Getting Chicago channels would kick nutt being that WB18 doesn't even respond to my emails (really want smallville in 1080i).

[Mike Sheahan]

I am at 90th & National.  Not at the top of a hill, it starts at about 98th street, but high enough to pickup our neighboors across the lake.

Unfortunately I am toofar down the slope to get anything west of here, and I didn't really have much luck to the north either.

I am having a blast trying to find all the stuff I can with this thing.  I was considering putting a better amplifier on the antenna, but due to the difficult location, I decided to see how this thing worked first.

I may invest the time and energy to do it right now that I have seen what it can do, and install one of the amps that go right at the antenna rather than the cheesy little thing I am using now.

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Mits 65819
Hughes E86
My HT Page

[This message has been edited by Mike Sheahan (edited 08-26-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Mike Sheahan (edited 08-26-2002).]

[Matt Heebner]

Oh dammit. With this kinda talk I am going to have seriuosly consider an antenna installation. Anyone know a cheap good installer? I would consider it myself but I dont really want to go 3 stories up on a ladder to do it. I think I will check out prices of installation first. The prospect of getting Chi-town is very cool.
Do you think I will be able to here at 60th and Wells? I am the highest point on my block at the top of the valley...3 stories high.

Matt

[Mike Sheahan]

Three stories high!  You should do great with that I would think.

Unfortunately I am going through the channels as we speak, and I am not getting them very well today.

It is really wierd.  I get South Bend Indiana's NBC digital channel 42 all day at 100%, but it looks like Chicago fades durring the day.  I was getting them this morning, but now the signals on all of the Chicago stations are too low for a picture.
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Mits 65819
Hughes E86
My HT Page

[This message has been edited by Mike Sheahan (edited 08-26-2002).]

[Gregg Lengling]

What you are getting is tropospheric enhancement.  You will find this especially later in the summer and early fall.  Morning enhancement is very common.  However it is not reliable.  You will have times get this for signals coming up or across Lake Michigan.  What happens is you have a thermal layer over Lake Michigan.  You have cool water, then a warm layer and then the cooler upper air.  This creates a duct that reflects the signal inside the layer and propogates it great distances.  This can also be a problem, as at times channel 28 from Indiana wipes out WTMJ-DT for me.  This is why TV stations run so much power, you have a very big data pipe (6MHz) and interference causes bit-rate errors and there goes the picture.  


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Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
glengling@ameritech.net