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OTA Recpetion in Southington Sucks
- Thread starter MarcB
- Start date
I used to live in New Britain CT 30 yrs ago when cable gave us a snootfull of NYC stations. No more. New britain is about 90 mi (give or take) to the NYC towers and Southington just a little bit closer perhaps 80-85. Maybe someone with a little bit of computer skills can give us the exact mileages frm the center of each town/city. Yet Southington is given the NYC locals in addition to the Conn stuff. It takes a real powerful antenna and real good elevation to get the NYC VHF's to a grade B picture at best.
But Southington is wealthier than New Britain and New Britain takes it on the chin (or elsewhere) when it comes to cable services. If I lived in New Britain I'd tell the cable company to give me the NYC locals or I'm gone so I'd be gone.
Ok I went off topic; was trying to make a point about the inequities of cable companies but unless one lives on a hill or has a monster antenna, OTA reception in both places SUCK$'s.
But Southington is wealthier than New Britain and New Britain takes it on the chin (or elsewhere) when it comes to cable services. If I lived in New Britain I'd tell the cable company to give me the NYC locals or I'm gone so I'd be gone.
Ok I went off topic; was trying to make a point about the inequities of cable companies but unless one lives on a hill or has a monster antenna, OTA reception in both places SUCK$'s.
The problem with Comcast in Berlin/Plainville (which New Britain falls under) is that none of the service area for this franchise touches New Haven or Middlesex Counties.
The distance calculator at indo.com places New Britain 92 miles from Manhattan if you were to draw a straight line. They place Southington as 85 miles, so do the math.
Southington, unlike New Britain, is a smaller town which happenes to be ringed by several larger cities, in this case New Britain, Meriden, Bristol and Waterbury. Honestly, it's not fair for me to judge the town itself, since I only pass through it on I-84 these days. As for New Britain, there's a reason we're called Hard Hittin', and it's usually not a good one. Lastly, New Britain can give you fantastic TV reception...in certain spots. Most anything from Avon Mountain is crap for me, since I'm near the bottom of Walnut Hill, which is in the same direction as Avon Mountain.
The distance calculator at indo.com places New Britain 92 miles from Manhattan if you were to draw a straight line. They place Southington as 85 miles, so do the math.
Southington, unlike New Britain, is a smaller town which happenes to be ringed by several larger cities, in this case New Britain, Meriden, Bristol and Waterbury. Honestly, it's not fair for me to judge the town itself, since I only pass through it on I-84 these days. As for New Britain, there's a reason we're called Hard Hittin', and it's usually not a good one. Lastly, New Britain can give you fantastic TV reception...in certain spots. Most anything from Avon Mountain is crap for me, since I'm near the bottom of Walnut Hill, which is in the same direction as Avon Mountain.
I thought there was some socio-economic discrimination on the part of the cable companiesin giving richer Southington all the NYC VHF's(from 85 mi ) and poorer New Britain (from 92 mi) guvnow.
That's Polish for "shit"
I'm glad KML cleared THAT up (thanks) because I had he impression that cable companies give richer consumers more for their money and that I had "balls to the wall" proof.
So my conclusion is that OTA reception sucks in both lpaces unless U live in an areas that is condusive to good reception. Much like a good part of New England. And that you get more for your cable dollar in Southington vs New Britain (which has gone from the proud theme of "Hardware City of the World" to simply "hard hittin."
New Britain fact: In a city of perhaps 80K people we had 3 people who played in the NFL from the class of 1967-68 from the 2 public high schools. That was 'hard hittin."
That's Polish for "shit"
I'm glad KML cleared THAT up (thanks) because I had he impression that cable companies give richer consumers more for their money and that I had "balls to the wall" proof.
So my conclusion is that OTA reception sucks in both lpaces unless U live in an areas that is condusive to good reception. Much like a good part of New England. And that you get more for your cable dollar in Southington vs New Britain (which has gone from the proud theme of "Hardware City of the World" to simply "hard hittin."
New Britain fact: In a city of perhaps 80K people we had 3 people who played in the NFL from the class of 1967-68 from the 2 public high schools. That was 'hard hittin."
FWIW: we had Greg Wysocki, Willie Hall and Tom Myers. Since this is a radio board sports fans can look that up if they want. The best place I know of is near the top of McClintock St off Eddy Glover Blvd. You don't need cable there. A station on just about every freq 2-12 at least,(and clear); don't know about ch 13. UHF's I don't remember. I almost had a DXasm once I had played with the TV and rotor. I even had a bit of NYC on the low VHF's aside from Boston. A friend lived there 40+ years ago w/ a rotor and I was absolutely jealous that I didn't live there.
Is DXasm a new slang word?
Is DXasm a new slang word?
But the point is that some sections of both towns can provide 20 or more stations OTA and other sections might give you 1/3 as many IF you're lucky. All in all one should get the locals in just about any location with a decent antenna setup unless one is "reception challenged" because of a large hill that kills off the signal. Only solution is to move or get cable/satelite.
My sister (MA) is less than 10mi from the Ch 22 transmitter and gets a totally unwatchable picture but with this digital stuff, that may change. She is reception challenged (but only with signals coming from the E and NE. But she gets a clear as a bell Ch 30 from much farther away as she lives on a tall south facing hill.
My sister (MA) is less than 10mi from the Ch 22 transmitter and gets a totally unwatchable picture but with this digital stuff, that may change. She is reception challenged (but only with signals coming from the E and NE. But she gets a clear as a bell Ch 30 from much farther away as she lives on a tall south facing hill.
She actually lives between Southwick and Granville MA; a large east-NE facing hill precludes reseption of ch 22-40-57 and whatver else is there in the last few years. The can get a picture in 1 small area of the house that was not designed for TV w/ a 99 cent bow tie, the john! But they get great reception to thesouth, Ch 59 is city grade 50 mi away, well outside their city grade map while they can't can't get anything except for the ugliest ghosted picture from 22-40 etc from only a few miles away. So to coin a new word, OTA can either suck or can give one a DXasm depending on location/terrain.
Hopefully digital will help when they are at full power.
Hopefully digital will help when they are at full power.
vibe said:
I used to live on Washington St. in New Britain almost across from the Boy's Club back in the late 70's to early 80's and it's was a 2 floor house in back of one of your typical 3 family jobbies, with an old channel master antenna (I think it was the model that claimed "75 mile range") with rotor on it. It was on the house when we moved in, and I only added an additional 5 foot section to the mast below the rotor and of course added a new set of wires as the old ones were shot. This area wasn't exactly on a hill. In fact, to the east was flat. North was Farmington Ave. which is a hill. West is Broad Street which is also a hill. Finally, South is Walnut Hill.
Here's a partial list in channel order of what I can remember pulling in at the time on a regular basis, note that out of market (NYC, BOSTON) VHF stations came in consistently by no later than 4pm and the rest of the band depended on adjacent channels and also time of day (WMUR & WBZ) would be difficult until the signal was strong enough to get in. UHF, was similar but not as difficult. I'm not going to bother with listing the occasional DX like ch 2 WPBT in Miami as this really is meant to be local.
* = after 4pm on most days | # = usually all day, but perfect at night | @ = only after local sign-off
*WCBS NYC
*WGBH Boston
@KYW Philly
WFSB Hartford
*WBZ Boston
*WNBC NYC
#WCVB Boston
*WNEW NYC (we are talking pre 1986 here)
*WTEV/WLNE New Bedford (hard catch at times due to local FM)
*WABC NYC
*WNAC/WNEV Boston
WTNH New Haven
*WMUR Manchester
*WOR/WWOR Seacaucus
#WJAR Providence
(RARE) WTEN Albany
*WENH Durham
(RARE) WPIX NYC
#WPRI Providence
There were 3 channel 13's and none of them were strong, only rarely coming in, and that was over with the sign-on of Hartford's WRDM, they were Newark, Albany and sometimes Portland
WHCT Hartford
*WCDC North Adams (better at night)
WTXX Waterbury (not clear, much multipath)
*WLIW Garden City
WWLP Springfield
WEDH Hartford
*25 Boston (er, forgot the old call WHLL?)
WTWS (forgot when they came on)
*27 Boston (also forgot the call, WSNL?)
30 WVIT New Britain
(RARE) WSBE Providence
(RARE) WSBK) Boston
WHYN/WGGB Springfield
(WEAK) WXTV Patterson
(RARE) WGBX Boston
(WEAK) WEDY
(WEAK) WEDN
(RARE) WLVI Boston
WGBY Springfield
WTIC Hartford
(RARE)WMFP Lawrence
(WEAK)WNAC Providence (What was the old call again?)
(RARE)V66
Pretty much it, except I'm forgetting a few in the upper UHF, there was 67 & 68 in the NYC area (NJ?) also playing music videos like V66, came in more often though, and 68 in Boston on rare occasion, 25 & 31 in NYC were very difficult as well. I remember 55 on Long Island back then, but I forget if I got that in New Britain or when I first moved to Middletown, that would be about 1986? At that point I started getting some other interesting little things like ch 69 Hartford - "The Box" and same thing a few times on a boston station on ch 32.
I think I missed a few, it was pretty much anything on band in southern New England and NYC/Northern NJ area with some Philly tossed in late nights or after sign-off.
As far as here in Middletown, i don't live in the same place I did when I first got here, so I don't have access to a roof antenna now, but one time with just a wire across the attic floor I pulled in WJAR and on occasion I do get 25, 27, & 56 Boston and 28 Providence. About 10 years ago, I was allowed to put up a rotor with roof antenna, but as the chiminey here was very old and weak (even though the installer said it would be fine). The following day there was a winter storm (it was early April, I didn't expect snow!) and was enough to cause the thing to crumble in on itsself and taking the antenna with it. Ironically I was up early trying to DX and was watching WCBS 2, never got to see anything else and of course the landlord will not allow any more antennas up on the roof, he never said anything about inside the roof, but that extra 10 feet and being outside does make all the difference.
DJ That's ome serious stuff and Washington St. is just 1 block E of High St. I don't remember a Boy's club; probably after my time. Was the house N of Broad ST by the meat packing plants?
In any event, it proves U can get great reception from a low lying area but a hill directly in fron of you is a killer. Our reception (on High St) was good but CH 8 was a little weak because of a church rectory and small hill that faced SW toward New Haven. But we had 40 real good and a so so Boston and Providence on ABC. We only got a very weak Ch 2 NYC and a pretty good (watchable Ch 2 Boston).
The digital stuff is gonna take from some and give to others. Much like our foreign aid policy.
In any event, it proves U can get great reception from a low lying area but a hill directly in fron of you is a killer. Our reception (on High St) was good but CH 8 was a little weak because of a church rectory and small hill that faced SW toward New Haven. But we had 40 real good and a so so Boston and Providence on ABC. We only got a very weak Ch 2 NYC and a pretty good (watchable Ch 2 Boston).
The digital stuff is gonna take from some and give to others. Much like our foreign aid policy.
DJKraze said:
1. The current Fox 25 (WFXT) was formerly WXNE.
2. Channel 27 (WUNI) was originally WSMW, and later, WHLL.
3. "U-68" and "U-67" was the local TV tandem, though I recall 67 signing off at 12 noon for some odd reason, and not 12 midnight, like 68... By the way, back then, 68's calls were WWHT, while 67 was... WSNL.
So you were in the right neighborhood. ;D
vibe said:
South of Broad St., in fact right next to Mike's Diner (it looks like a small one car garage now). That reminds me, I used to pick up a signal from the Galalga game he had in there for a short time, even saw someone play it once, that came in somewhere in the upper UHF. Also just up the street from P&V Auto parts (Now Community Health Center). The Boys club (now Boys & Girls club) has been there since the time the state bore thru downtown to put in route 72, I know it used to be on East Main st. across from NewBrite plaza.
DJKraze said:
Back on Chrsitmas in 1987, I received a Yorx AM/FM dual cassette radio with a 5" B/W TV. It had an external antenna jack. Although it's clearly meant for FM, I had a dipole antenna attached to it to see how it would act for TV. (I was using this one the first floor of the 2 story home I'm living in now.) It almost always got a weak signal of WLNE-TV channel 6 from New Bedford at any time. The furthest UHF signal I got on it in any direction? WBOC-TV (CBS) channel 16 of Salisbury, MD one summer night in 1988. Channel 17 of Philadelphia was interfering with it, as they were coming in some that night as well. Due to poor care, it pretty much crapped out on me by 1989. SIGH!
Comments from your list: Surprised to hear about your problems with WTXX-TV! WTWS-TV (IND) channel 26 of New London signed on in September of 1986. I only found it because my older brother's ancient Quasar VCR had channel 26 already preset on it's little thumbwheel tuner. We had moved back from Old Orchard Beach, ME as that preset was for WMEA-TV (PBS) channel 26 of Biddeford, ME. Chanel 64 of Providence, RI has always been WNAC-TV, since they signed on the same week as WTIC-TV in 1984. The 13" Curtis Mathes TV I had set up in my second floor bedroom (1985) picked up a snowy but color signal of both channel 55 from Long Island and channel 67 from Smithtown, NY, then a simulcast of channel 68 of Newark, NJ.
I guess this has to do with OTA reception but my parents installed a rotor on High St. (we could have gotten good reception for a bunch of stuff to the N) only because I wanted to watch the Celtics on Ch 27 Worc, about 60 mi away. Even though the station wasn't a powerhouse, we got a clear picture because of the rotor and the antenna being on top of a 3 story.
Amazing how that transmitter, which is very visible from I-290 in the Shrewsbury/Boylston (MA) stretch, seems to do quite well for signal, yet WAAF-FM 107.3 from there has been a miserable failure! Anyways, I myself, have only received the channel 27 signal here twice ever. It might be because I only have indoor rabbit ears and the antenna these days is connected to an Insignia digital converter box. (Yes, I actually own an HDTV set!)
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