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South Haven, MI.......Can I get Chicago TV Stations?

T

thuender

I'm someone can help me here. I am looking to cut the cable and try to pick up Chicago TV stations at my home. My town is 78 miles across the lake to Chicago.

Will a high gain antenna with pre-amp and rotor work? ???
Does anyone have a setup that they can share and where they purchased from?
I have a metal roof. Is that going to be a problem?
I want to mount on my roof and it will be between 30-40 feet above ground?
How can I pick up Ch. 2 (WBBM) and Ch. 5 (WMAQ) with the newer types of Antennas or set up?
Will I be able to pick up the 2.1, 2.2 etc. channels?

Thank you! 8)
 
Need to know a lot more about the actual location, it;s elevation of L. Michigan level, distance inland.
Are up you on the side of a dune, like in some spots in Beverly Shores, In?
Actual antenna height is going to make or break everything in this situation.
Have you got extra $ savings from cable to pay for a tower?
 
thuender said:
I'm someone can help me here. I am looking to cut the cable and try to pick up Chicago TV stations at my home. My town is 78 miles across the lake to Chicago.

Will a high gain antenna with pre-amp and rotor work? ???
Does anyone have a setup that they can share and where they purchased from?
I have a metal roof. Is that going to be a problem?
I want to mount on my roof and it will be between 30-40 feet above ground?
How can I pick up Ch. 2 (WBBM) and Ch. 5 (WMAQ) with the newer types of Antennas or set up?
Will I be able to pick up the 2.1, 2.2 etc. channels?

Thank you! 8)
Click to expand...
Go to www.tvfool.com and enter your exact address and antenna height. I tried using a 30-ft tower and vague "South Haven" location, and found you'll need more height to overcome terrain issues.
 
South Haven Michigan will present challenges for certain stations, as some Chicago stations (along with 1 Milwaukee station) will interfere with Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo stations. The stations that will pose problems with Michigan stations are (Bold for Michigan stations): WOOD-TV & WLS-TV on RF 7, WWMT & WMVS on RF 8, & WXMI& WGN-TV on RF 19. If you do decide you want to try & get Chicago stations, you'll need a VHF-Hi/UHF antenna (channels 7-51), due to WBBM-TV being on the VHF (WLS-TV has channel 7, but they're also on RF 44). I would have that antenna completely separate from the ones you use for Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo stations.
 
When I was in Benton Harbor in the analog days, it was hard to pull in the V's without a tall antenna. The U's were not accessible. South Haven should be harder. It's really your location. When I lived in Elk Grove Village, by O'Hare, I could get analog 8 and 13 from Grand Rapids, at night, very clear with a roof top antenna.
 
Years ago, I had no trouble at all seeing WFLD-TV near Sawyer, MI on the lake, and the rest were a little more difficult but still receivable. WFLD-TV was crystal clear on a small TMK Monochrome portable with just the telescoping antenna, standing at ground level. Further inland, 20-25 miles, the analog signals all came in with rabbit ears and or bowtie. As long as you were on the west side of a hill or on top of it, there was no problem at higher elevations.

The only terrain is the curvature of the earth over the water, if you are close to the shore. After so many miles, that gets substantial though.
 
On a slightly related note, I thought I'd share the Chicago stations I used to be able to pick up in the early 1990s when I was a kid and my folks were living in Brookfield, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee. On the second floor of the house, with a basic antenna, I was usually able to pick up Channels 7, 9, 11, 50 and 66 at night. (Occasionally, I also would be able to pick up Channel 2.) Throughout the day, I almost always got a decent picture/sound out of Channel 7.

My folks also subscribed to cable, so it was fun comparing the local WGN that I was able to pick up over the air on Channel 9 to the SyndEx-proof version fed to cable systems in the early 1990s.
 
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