Do You Get Any Out-of-Market TV Signals?

[Gregg]

I find it interesting when I have friends tell me they can get one or more TV signals from another market. I have a friend in Columbia SC who, in analog days, could pick up the CBS and ABC TV stations from Augusta GA on his upstairs TV. The signal wasn't as good as the local stations. But if they were pre-empting something on the network he wanted to see, he could always tune over to the Augusta affiliate.

Another friend is a pro football fan. Some years ago, NFL games were frequently blacked out in their home market if the stadium wasn't sold out. So he put up a rooftop antenna, even though he got a great signal from the Empire State Building with just rabbit ears. He was thinking he'd get CBS 3 from Hartford, which was far enough away to not be subject to black out rules. Instead, he got Channel 3 (and 6 and 10) from Philadelphia. Not what he was expecting but it was still a chance for him to see football games not airing in the NYC market.

Are you surprised that one or more out-of-market signals come in on your TV, when it's not hooked up to satellite or cable?

 

[ssetta]

Not surprising at all. Here in the Boston area you could get most of the Providence stations back in the days of analog. You still can get them, but not as good as you used to be able to.

 

[KML0224]

Despite the proximity, I have yet to receive any digital signal from Springfield, MA. I live in southern Hartford County, CT.

 

[Mr Tony]

The only stations available to us in SW burbs of Minneapolis is KEYC 12 (CBS) and 12-2 (Fox) 75 miles down the road which I can get just fine

 

[dhett]

At night, one can pick up most of the full-power Tucson UHF stations from north Scottsdale (near the Airpark for Phoenix readers). That's a distance of nearly 120 miles. The key is the elevation of the transmitters, which sit at about 7000' above sea level. Tucson sits at about 2300' and that part of Scottsdale is at about 1200'.

 

[nathannah]

Nothing from the west on the lakeshore of central Wisconsin thanks to the Kettle Moraines; everything is either Green Bay and Milwaukee with regularity, and in the summer I get plenty of signals (this is on an indoor antenna) from Grand Rapids/Battle Creek, Lansing, South Bend, and even a couple of blips from the oddball Ion station in Ann Arbor and WXYZ in Detroit. I used to also get stations from the northern part of northern Michigan in the analog age, but since most of them are VHF or adjacent-channel to Milwaukee stations in the digital age, not any longer.

 

[fybush]

With an outdoor antenna in suburban Rochester NY, less than a mile from the Pinnacle Hill tower farm, I get fairly consistent reception of WGRZ (NBC/Antenna), WIVB (CBS), WNYO (My) and WPXJ (ion) from Buffalo and WSTM (NBC/CW), WTVH (CBS), WCNY (PBS) and WSYT (Fox) from Syracuse. I can sometimes see WKBW (ABC) from Buffalo; terrain blockage keeps me from seeing the market's PBS/Fox/CW, which are on Grand Island. Adjacent-channel issues with my locals keep me from getting reliable signals from Syracuse's WSYR (ABC, RF 17, adjacent to WXXI 16 here) and WNYS (My, RF 44, adjacent to WROC 45).

 

[rgseark2009]

I live 70mi S-SE from the Little Rock AR antenna farm at Shinall Mtn which is fringe distance for DTV but still well within the Little Rock TV market. However I receive El Dorado AR's KTVE (RF27) 10-1 (NBC) and 10-2 (FOX simulcast of KARD W. Monroe LA) just fine with a turn of the rotor. Also receive AETN's El Dorado transmitter KETZ (RF 10) 12-1, etc but programming is 100% // with KETS (RF7) 2-1, et al Little Rock. If not for KARK Little Rock AR and WABG Greenwood/Greenville MS sharing the same digital channel (RF 32), I would likely receive part-time WABG's ABC (6-1), and Fox (6-2) subchannels.

 

[charlestondxman]

Here there aren't any stations you can get any more from OOM unless you have a good antenna. WJWJ from Beaufort, a PBS (SCETV) affiliate, comes in, but that's about the only thing that comes through. Much different than radio where you can hear Savannah signals 24/7 and Jacksonville AMs every day.

 

[KeithE4]

At night, one can pick up most of the full-power Tucson UHF stations from north Scottsdale (near the Airpark for Phoenix readers). That's a distance of nearly 120 miles. The key is the elevation of the transmitters, which sit at about 7000' above sea level. Tucson sits at about 2300' and that part of Scottsdale is at about 1200'.

Same goes for most, if not all of the Southeast Valley, which is 20-30 miles closer to Tucson than North Snobsdale. All of the major Tucson stations are viewable except for KGUN/9, which is still on its old analog channel.

 

[dhett]

At night, one can pick up most of the full-power Tucson UHF stations from north Scottsdale (near the Airpark for Phoenix readers). That's a distance of nearly 120 miles. The key is the elevation of the transmitters, which sit at about 7000' above sea level. Tucson sits at about 2300' and that part of Scottsdale is at about 1200'.

Same goes for most, if not all of the Southeast Valley, which is 20-30 miles closer to Tucson than North Snobsdale. All of the major Tucson stations are viewable except for KGUN/9, which is still on its old analog channel.

I only can get KVOA, KUAT and KTTU from my palatial west Chandler estate, and then only at night, however, I can get all the UHFs in All-white-tukee. Surprisingly, I can even pick up Tucson's KUVE on channel 46, despite Phoenix station KDPH-LD being on the same RF channel. The spot from which I choose to DX, is where 3rd St. becomes Frye Rd. It's elevated, which helps pick up Tucson, and is shielded by a mountain from the Phoenix antenna farm, which is why I get KUVE over KDPH, despite being maybe 2 miles from the Phoenix antennas.

 

[EricStein]

At night, one can pick up most of the full-power Tucson UHF stations from north Scottsdale (near the Airpark for Phoenix readers). That's a distance of nearly 120 miles. The key is the elevation of the transmitters, which sit at about 7000' above sea level. Tucson sits at about 2300' and that part of Scottsdale is at about 1200'.

Same goes for most, if not all of the Southeast Valley, which is 20-30 miles closer to Tucson than North Snobsdale. All of the major Tucson stations are viewable except for KGUN/9, which is still on its old analog channel.

I only can get KVOA, KUAT and KTTU from my palatial west Chandler estate, and then only at night, however, I can get all the UHFs in All-white-tukee. Surprisingly, I can even pick up Tucson's KUVE on channel 46, despite Phoenix station KDPH-LD being on the same RF channel. The spot from which I choose to DX, is where 3rd St. becomes Frye Rd. It's elevated, which helps pick up Tucson, and is shielded by a mountain from the Phoenix antenna farm, which is why I get KUVE over KDPH, despite being maybe 2 miles from the Phoenix antennas.

Same in Gilbert. Except for KGUN (VHF), KHRR (which stayed at their old analog site at a lower elevation), and KWBA (their tower is 50 miles south of Tucson). It's funny because I used to receive a semi-viewable picture of KTTU-18's analog signal years ago, and its analog tower was near KHRR's (which I could never receive in analog or digital).

 

[therealjm12]

I'm glad Scott Fybush can get WTVH, Syracuse in Rochester off air because no one in Utica can get it and WTVH supposedly serves the Utica market with CBS. WTVH has actually blocked CBS affiliation for stations in Utica many times. Hopefully, sometime in the future another station will make an attempt to get CBS affilation for the market,since WTVH is just a shell of what it was. When WTVH was on analog ch 5 you could get them with a half way decent outside antenna or in some places a good indoor antenna. I think if you look at a topographic map of the Mohawk Valley you'll see it's pretty much impossible to receive a digital UHF signal from Syracuse, unless you had a huge antenna on some kind of mast.

 

[recto101]

Here in Solano County in California we get Sacramento TV signals and San Francisco TV signals due to DMA zoning.

 

[RadioDaze]

In Durham, North Carolina, my experience has been that much of the out-of-market TV we used to receive disappeared after the digital transition. The only consistent signals we get from outside the Raleigh-Durham DMA are WFMY (UHF 51/PSIP 2) from Greensboro and, WCWG (UHF 19/ PSIP 20) from Lexington (also Greensboro market). Greensboro, Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville and Wilmington siglas used to be commonplace in the analog era.

 

[easttxtv]

My grandmother lived in the Tyler-Longview market (this was pre-digital), but for years had a cheap-crap antenna that barely picked up across the road. My mother went to live with my grandmother in her last years, and would get upset because there was no way to pick up a strong signal that would show football games. One day I surprised my grandmother with a nice Channel Master (I forgot the model, but it was one of the bigger ones they made) that I somehow got in my car (long box, it stuck out the window and I was kinda hunched due to the angle of the box). My grandmother was shocked and I think most of the rest of the family was too; my cousin and I put it up for her. She went from barely picking up KLTV/7 and KETK/56, to getting all of the Tyler-Longview stations, most of DFW, Waco-Temple, and Shreveport. It helped that she already had a hand-me-down rotor from a neighboring aunt, as the locals (as well as those in neighboring markets) are in all different directions. I don't think my grandmother realized there were so many TV stations out there.

I'm not sure how good reception is from that point since the change to digital. As for me, if I had a tall enough antenna, I might be able to pick up KTEN/10 and KXII/12 from Sherman-Denison but I'd be satisfied if I can get an outdoor antenna at all at this point; I'm having to rely on rabbit ears for now.

 

[mgsports]

Lake of the Ozarks gets almost all of Springfield/Columbia/Jefferson City,MO Stations.

 

[dave73]

From part of Lake County Indiana, it's possible to get South Bend's 5 full power UHF stations. In the analog days, WNDU on 16 & WSBT on 22 were the strongest signals, while WHME & WNIT has some of the weakest signals. WSJV was strong, but had a null toward Chicago to protect WCIU. For digital, WSBT & WSJV returned to their former analog channels for digital (WSJV had to go back since their digital channel on 58 was out of core), & WSBT is now about the strongest with WNDU being second, but their higher channel number on 42 makes it a bit more difficult. WSJV is possible too, but since they're still on the same directional pattern from the analog days (not only do they have to continue protecting WCIU on 27, but now must also protect WMAQ-TV on 29). Depending on where a person lives in Lake County Indiana will determine how well they can get the South Bend full power stations I know Lake Station, Hobart, parts of Merrillville, Crown Point, & parts of rural south Lake County can get South Bend stations with no trouble. Northern Lake County varies. I'm working on getting separate antennas put up, & looking to get some filters so that the new set of antennas only pick up the 5 full power South Bend stations: WSBT on 22 (CBS) , WSJV on 28 (Fox), WNIT on 35 (PBS), WNDU on 42 (NBC), & maybe WHME on 48 (Ind), though they have a CP to go back to 46. For those in Porter County Indiana can easily get South Bend stations, since Porter County is around 35 - 45 miles west of South Bend. LaPorte County residents not only can receive South Bend's 5 full power stations, but can also receive South Bend's 3 low power tv stations from Weigel Broadcasting: WCWW-LD on 25 (CW), WBND-LD on 39 (ABC), & WMYS-LD on 34 (MNT). Now I listed the actual channel these stations broadcast on rather than use the virtual channels that were their former analog channels (except for WSJV & WSBT, who did return to their former channels). I wish WNDU would have been able to return to 16, but because WYIN Gary, IN stayed on 17, WNDU would have had to null their signal, since South Bend & Cedar Lake, IN (WYIN's transmission site) are less than 68 miles from each other.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I'm closer to many of the Greensboro, NC transmitters than some of the Charlotte, NC ones. I'm in the Charlotte market, though, but I get one Greensboro station on my cable system. There used to be more.

When the conversion began I spent a lot more time watching shows with my indoor antennas, but I had so much trouble with that, I primarily watch the TVs that are hooked up to cable. Recording shows is almost exclusively off cable.

I'm hearing a perfect signal from one of the other Greensboro stations right now. There's something I enjoy watching on their 5:00 newscast which will be on any minute. Time to sign off.

 

[rgseark2009]

Lake of the Ozarks gets almost all of Springfield/Columbia/Jefferson City,MO Stations.

Even KRBK?