Areas with little or no OTA TV stations

[Tim from Springfield IL]

Sometimes reception can be funny. I lived in Elk Grove Village, IL on the second floor with an outdoor antenna on the roof and I could pull in Channels 13 and 8 from Grand Rapids Michigan with ease. I have no idea why those stations came in 99% of the time. And very clear to boot. I couldn't DX any other stations, but for some reason at that particular spot, 8 and 13 came in clear as a any Chicago station

I'm surprised about that reception report on Grand Rapids/Muskegon's channel 13 in Elk Grove Village, but were there also times that another but closer Channel 13 (WREX Rockford) made an appearance at your former EGV home?

 

[nathannah]

Sometimes reception can be funny. I lived in Elk Grove Village, IL on the second floor with an outdoor antenna on the roof and I could pull in Channels 13 and 8 from Grand Rapids Michigan with ease. I have no idea why those stations came in 99% of the time. And very clear to boot. I couldn't DX any other stations, but for some reason at that particular spot, 8 and 13 came in clear as a any Chicago station.

Same when I lived in Southern Maryland, channel 17 (Philadelphia) and Channel 12 (Richmond) came in clear as did all the Washington DC and Baltimore. But for outside TV stations only 17 and 12 came in consistently clear with the attached antenna on the portable TV.

So I think some areas may get TV and others not. As for digital, I live in Chicago and get zero TV station, but I'm sure if you move around the city others with the same antenna (I only have a portable Silver sensor) would get everything.

The Great Lakes basically provide 60 miles of flat 'land' in each direction to send a signal screaming across where it would usually be blocked in a Kansas City or a Louisville. I regularly get Grand Rapids and Lansing from where I am in the summer, and on good days, I even get Traverse City and South Bend. When the 'trop effect' was very good though, there were a couple times I got WEWS and WBNX's digital signals from all the way in Cleveland, Ohio. But you go west...I get nothing because of regular terrain. Very rarely will I get anything from Wausau or Madison, or even Fond du Lac.

 

[FreddyE1977]

I lived in south-central Michigan for a time and often WZZM in Grand Rapids and WTVG in Toledo
would be slugging it out on Channel 13.

 

[Markxxx]

Sometimes reception can be funny. I lived in Elk Grove Village, IL on the second floor with an outdoor antenna on the roof and I could pull in Channels 13 and 8 from Grand Rapids Michigan with ease. I have no idea why those stations came in 99% of the time. And very clear to boot. I couldn't DX any other stations, but for some reason at that particular spot, 8 and 13 came in clear as a any Chicago station

I'm surprised about that reception report on Grand Rapids/Muskegon's channel 13 in Elk Grove Village, but were there also times that another but closer Channel 13 (WREX Rockford) made an appearance at your former EGV home?

No, I never received any DX's at that location other than Channels 8 and 13. The thing that surprised me is they were there 99% of the time. It wasn't like a typical DX where you get it and it fades out and in.

When I lived in the South Suburbs of Chicago, Rockford was always a hard catch. I could catch WTHR Indianapolis, on a summer's night, in fact I got more DX from the Southeast than any place else.

The South Suburbs when I was a kid were a great place to DX TV. I didn't even have an outdoor antenna just what was on the B&W portable and in summer. I can't remember getting anything from Rockford or NW. I did manage to pull in Corpus Christi once and I even got Channel 4 from St John's Newfoundland

I can't speak of digital but with analog I think it really not only depends on your general location but your specific area in the location as well.

I remember when I set up my Colecovision incorrectly my next-door neighbor complained that she could watch me playing it on her TV. Don't know how I did that? LOL

 

[Neel]

Bishop has KBBC plus two Reno translators.

- Trip

I never understood why they consider Bishop/Mammoth area part of the Reno market. I would think it would be Fresno or something.

I live 25 miles east of LA in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains (and pretty much in the shadow of Mt. Wilson) and I get zero OTA reception with even a moderately sized antenna.

 

[vibe]

NOT a reception expert but have you moved the antenna away from mt wilson to try and get the stations through the back or side doors (bounce effect)? Or moved the areial 1 ft or 2 up or down.? There must be a "sweet spot" somewhere.
People just LOVE digital (when it works for THEM).

 

[azumanga]

Bishop has KBBC plus two Reno translators.

- Trip

I never understood why they consider Bishop/Mammoth area part of the Reno market. I would think it would be Fresno or something.

Actually, Bishop is in Inyo County, which is part of the Los Angeles market, and KBBC has a translator in Los Angeles, KNLA-LP.

While Bishop is geographically closer to Fresno than it is from LA or Reno, the Sierra Nevada Mountains are between the two cities, blocking the signals of the Fresno stations from going further eastward.

 

[BMR]

Interesting thread. In a thread I can't now find ??? I seem to remember discovering that Poughkeepsie gets very poor reception from the mainstream networks (too far north for NYC, too far south for Albany). It does have some local teleshopping and 'god' channels.



In the UK very few places of any size have no TV reception, partly due to the BBCs public service obligations and partly due to the fact that cable TV never really caught on here. The very few people who can't get over the air telly tend to use satellite TV

 

[FreddyE1977]

Interesting thread. In a thread I can't now find ??? I seem to remember discovering that Poughkeepsie gets very poor reception from the mainstream networks (too far north for NYC, too far south for Albany). It does have some local teleshopping and 'god' channels.

Reminds me of that episode of Breaking Bad where Jesse enters the ramshackle home of one of his customers and
finds a young boy planted in front of a TV set tuned to QVC. He decides to put something better on for the boy
and flips around the dial, only to find that is the only station that will come in. "That's f***ed up!" he exclaims.

 

[kc0ltv]

Some parts of rural northern Minnesota probably cannot receive any TV station OTA, at least without a tower.

 

[Markxxx]

Minnesota has a fairly good system of low power translators, when I was a wee shaver we'd go up north by Canada and there was always something on TV via a low power translator. I recall getting WTCN (Now KARE-11 Twin Cities) when it was independent on a OTA translator in International Falls.