Largest Normal (non-DX) Coverage Area?

[Stanislav]

Which TV station historically had the biggest regular (no band enhancement) coverage area?

My guess is that the chief contender would have been WMTW-8 in its Mount Washington days. Their coverage area basically reached from the coast of Maine up into southern Quebec thanks to the 6288' ASL elevation. In fact, I think I've read that cable systems in southern Quebec continued to use WMTW as their ABC affiliate of choice, even long after the much closer WVNY-22 signed on from Burlington.

Are there other stations who might compete with WMTW for this title?

 

[mleach]

They may not have the largest but Philadelphia's KYW channel 3 does put a monster signal.
As far south as Virginia, even appearing on cable systems in Virginia whenever channel 3 WHSV out of Harrisonburg, VA goes off the air.

 

[fybush]

In terms of geographic coverage, the biggest-coverage TV signals should roughly parallel the biggest-coverage FM signals. That would put Santa Barbara's KEYT 3 up there, with its massive coastal coverage that stretches from Santa Barbara down into some parts of the San Diego market (even more so back before a 3 came on the air from Tijuana.)

The Mount Wilson TVs do very well, too, especially KCBS-TV with its low-on-the-dial channel 2 position and the tallest tower on Mount Wilson.

And of course line-of-sight from all those 2000-foot TV towers is mightily impressive over flat land, so stations like KVLY and KXJB in North Dakota, the Sioux Falls and Des Moines stations, and KDUH in Scottsbluff (before its old tower collapsed) enjoy a huge reach, too.

There's no TV at some of the really good FM sites - I wonder how a TV station on Mount Mitchell, for example, would do - or on Las Vegas' Mt. Potosi site.

 

[BRNout]

If you counted translators, KSL-TV in Salt Lake City would beat them all (perhaps even without). At one time, their viewing area extended from Montana to Arizona and Nevada to central Wyoming and western Colorado. Other Salt Lake stations had similar coverage, but KSL had the most translators - because of its LDS church ownership and their carriage of LDS General Conferences and other such programming. So, I'd nominate them.

 

[KML0224]

When WTIC-TV channel 61 of Hartford signed on in 1984, they boasted that they were the most powerful TV station in the country. 5 million watts sure seems like a dime-a-dozen thing these days? I believe their Rattlesnake Mountain (Farmington, CT) location reached as far north as southern Vermont if you had a good roof antenna.

 

[w9wi]

In terms of geographic coverage, the biggest-coverage TV signals should roughly parallel the biggest-coverage FM signals. That would put Santa Barbara's KEYT 3 up there, with its massive coastal coverage that stretches from Santa Barbara down into some parts of the San Diego market (even more so back before a 3 came on the air from Tijuana.)

In terms of pure theoretical coverage according to the formulas no one station stands out. Unlike FM, there are no "superpower" TV stations grandfathered in at powers above what would be allowed at their antenna height. If your transmitting antenna is more then 600m high, power is reduced to compensate. Quite a few low-band VHF stations operate at maximum power & tower height and have theoretical 47dBu service contours within 2km of 130km. Theoretical coverages for high-band stations are a bit less (around 120km) because a stronger signal is theoretically required for service. (I suspect improved receivers have wiped out that difference)

Even the famed old Mt. Washington facility of WMTW-8 had theoretical coverage only 4km greater than their current 120km.

There are a handful of Canadian stations running "too much" power but their towers are all "too short" so even the largest one (CFRN-3 at 609kW) doesn't exceed the coverage of a 100kw/600m station.

In flat areas (like that served by KVLY-11) and in tropo-prone areas like Southern California I wouldn't be at all surprised if well-elevated stations indeed cover quite a bit better than theory. As one engineer once said when comparing high-power low-antenna stations to low-power high-antenna operations, "the high power station is strong if you can get it; the low-power one is weak everywhere"...

 

[dhett]

Tucson stations have to be a candidate. At approx. 8700' above sea level, and over 6000' above the city, the signals have incredible coverage. They can be regularly received with nothing more than rabbit ears in the Phoenix metro area, nearly 100 miles away.

 

[MW_FM_DT_DXer]

Just the ones from Mount Bigelow. Tower Peak is around half as high up as Mount Bigelow, Tumamoc Hill is even shorter, and the Santa Rita Mountains are too far away.

 

[dhett]

Actually, I regularly get KOLD and KTTU from Tower Peak also (but not KHRR), but yes, I had specifically the Mt. Bigelow signals in mind. KMSB, KOLD and KTTU have their DTV transmitters on Mt. Bigelow, so KUAS (Tumamoc Hill), KHRR (Tower Peak) and KWBA (Santa Rita Mtns) are the only full-service stations whose DTV signals do not come from Mt. Bigelow.

 

[Stanislav]

I suppose we also have to mention (with a big asterisk) the old "Stratovision" airborne transmitters on chs. 72 and 76. But, of course, I was originally referring to earth-bound terrestrial transmitters. (Just though I'd bring up Stratovision, cos I know someone would have, sooner or later...)

On that tangent, I've read accounts of those lucky enough to be around back then and see the Stratovision signals. Has anyone ever seen a photo of reception of these? (A test pattern or ID slide or anything?)

 

[radiorob2.0]

I was going to mention Strotovision but Stanislav beat me to it. My nominee in this part of the country would be WLOS-TV Asheville. Their tower is located atop Mt. Pisgah, NC and service area is a whopper.

 

[KML0224]

Mount Pisgah is also the highest point east of the Mississippi River, if I'm not mistaken. That height surely helps in a large spread out market like Greenville (SC)/Spartanburg (SC)/Asheville (NC)!

 

[radiorob2.0]

Actually, there are peaks higher than Mt. Pisgah in that part of the country. Mt. Mitchell, NC is considered the highest peak east of the Mississippi.

 

[Stanislav]

Despite all that market's (Asheville-Spartanburg-Greenville) major affiliates having theoretically good coverage due to elevation, the rough terrain means that there are a lot of "shadows" where one of more of them are unwatchable. I've stayed in places up there that were not 30-40 miles from some of those transmitters, yet you couldn't get a decent signal out of those stations because you were in a "holler." A lot of multi-path with those signals bouncing around off the hills, too -- I can only imagine the fun those folks have with DTV reception!