Determining distance and direction from transmitters

[Kevin Arnold]

FYI-If you want to see how far you are from any given stations tower and what direction (and don't have the topo software) here in an online method that works well.

1. To get your own lat. and long. go to www. mapblast.com and enter your zipcode. Using the map pan and zoom until you find your location. On the top of the map you'll see the lat. and long. given but its in the wrong format. Click on it and it will change to the right format. Save it.

2. Go to www.100000watts.com  and enter the station desired in the search function. The resulting page will give the lat. and long. in the right format. Save this.

3. Go to www.indo.com/distance/  and enter the data into the applet. Note the format using the colons.

The result is the distance and direction from you to the tower. Useful for antenna choosing and aiming.

KJA

[MesaV]

That is extremely helpful, and just in time for my Madison DTV search.

[MesaV]

Well, I finally did it.  I added another 10 feet to my antenna mast and swung my CM 4221, 4 Bay bow tie, around to the west.  The Madison DTV stations were squawking loud and clear, with the exception of WMTV-DT 19 the NBC affiliate.
Question kjarnold; is channel 19 a weak signal for you in Hartland?  
Also, thanks for the direction and distance guide; I'm 64 miles from the Madison tower. My CM 4221 has a range of 45 miles, not bad, but I'm thinking of upgrading.

[Kevin Arnold]

Yes, 19 seems to be a bit weaker than the rest but it comes in fine here in Hartland. A better antenna is a good investment. Tom Weeden, chief engineer of WMTV DT is a member of this group. He may be able to tell you more.

[MesaV]

Question kjarnold;  How far are you from the Madison tower and what's the effective range of your antenna?

[Kevin Arnold]

I'm 60 miles from the Madison tower and my direction is 265 degrees. I have a Winegard antenna rated 120 miles VHF and 90 miles UHF but I'm sure thats on a mountain top looking over the Pacific.

[RobbQ]

 

Originally posted by kjarnold:
rated 120 miles VHF and 90 miles UHF but I'm sure thats on a mountain top looking over the Pacific.

lol! On a calm day with no waves?

[Tom Weeden]

 

Originally posted by kjarnold:
Yes, 19 seems to be a bit weaker than the rest but it comes in fine here in Hartland. A better antenna is a good investment. Tom Weeden, chief engineer of WMTV DT is a member of this group. He may be able to tell you more.

WMTV-DT is running about 21 kilowatts ERP from a side-mount antenna near the top of the WMTV tower.  The other Madison stations have top-mount antennas on a community tower, running 50+ kW each.  Not sure if this is a factor in Waukesha, but there is an analog LPTV station on channel 19 in Janesville running 10 kW or so (supposed to move to channel 65 but hasn't yet)...plus WGN-DT Chicago is also on 19.  Our channel is kinda crowded.

On Friday May 3rd, WHA-DT (PBS) went on the air on channel 20 in Madison.  4 DTV stations now!

--Tom W
  WMTV/WMTV-DT