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Worst Place You Have Lived for OTA TV Reception

S

Stanislav

Most folks on this boards have probably had cable or satellite for quite some time. Some, though, especially the older (like me) guys might have spent part of their lives relying on over-the-air reception for their TV viewing.

So, what's the worst place you have lived for everyday (not "DX") TV reception? It might be due to any combination of geographical location, living situation (apartment/dorm/house), antenna or lack thereof, etc.
 
> Most folks on this boards have probably had cable or
> satellite for quite some time. Some, though, especially the
> older (like me) guys might have spent part of their lives
> relying on over-the-air reception for their TV viewing.
>
> So, what's the worst place you have lived for everyday (not
> "DX") TV reception? It might be due to any combination of
> geographical location, living situation
> (apartment/dorm/house), antenna or lack thereof, etc.
>

Hillsdale, Michigan. Had a set of rabbit ears and 2 wks. till they could install my cable. Got channel 10 from Jackson, MI, about 40 miles away.
Everything else (Toledo, Lansing, Detriot, Battle Creek, Ft. Wayne) was
60 miles away or further. Could kind of get the Fox station out of Toledo if I strung enough coat hangers and tinfoil around. Had a fuzzy channel 10 and fuzzier Fox 36 and that was about it!

Best reception was on top of a 400 foot hilltop in Pittsburgh. Not only got all of the locals, but all of the out-of-town signals from Johnstown, Wheeling, WV, eastern Ohio, etc.
 
I lived in Marathon, Florida. This is about 2/3 the way thru the Florida Keys.
About 50 miles from Key West and 100 miles to Homestead.

There was NO OTA TV at all.

Once in a great while you could get some fuzzy Cuban TV. The funny thing was my flatmate was going to have a baby. She bought a baby monitor and couldn't use it as Cuban Radio was broadcasting on the frequency. <P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
> I lived in Marathon, Florida. This is about 2/3 the way thru
> the Florida Keys.
> About 50 miles from Key West and 100 miles to Homestead.
>
> There was NO OTA TV at all.


Aren't there UHF translators all up and down the Keys?
 
> Most folks on this boards have probably had cable or
> satellite for quite some time. Some, though, especially the
> older (like me) guys might have spent part of their lives
> relying on over-the-air reception for their TV viewing.
>
> So, what's the worst place you have lived for everyday (not
> "DX") TV reception? It might be due to any combination of
> geographical location, living situation
> (apartment/dorm/house), antenna or lack thereof, etc.
>

Living in areas surrounded by mountains withthe TV towers located on a neighboring mountain and having to live with lots of ghosting on the TV. Thou I will admit that was from spending a couple days at a campground with a outdoor antenna on top of the RV. I imagine people living in the area have some sort of cable system to avoid the ghosting.

I was camping in Chattanooga, Tenn. Channels 3, 9, 12, 45, and 61.

-John L.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by DXer on 03/29/06 03:48 AM.</FONT></P>
 
I've lived in southern Maine twice and central Connecticut now. Old Orchard Beach, ME circa spring of 1987 was very iffy. Thanks to the s~~~load of pine trees everywhere you looked, I didn't do too well with the built-in dual monopoles on my Curtis Mathes 13" TV:

WCSH-TV (NBC) channel 6 Portland...excellent
WMTW-TV (ABC) channel 8 Poland Spring...fair to decent *
WCBB-TV (PBS) channel 10 Augusta...very snowy
WENH-TV (PBS) channel 11 Durham, NH...no better than WCBB-TV
WGME-TV (CBS) channel 13 Portland...fair to good
WMEA-TV (PBS) channel 26 Biddeford...crappy, especially with strong winds
WPXT-TV (FOX) channel 51 Portland...same problems as WMEA-TV +

* Back on WMTW-TV's original Mount Washington, NH transmitter
+ WPXT-TV is currently a WB affiliate and will be CW soon.

On the bright side, I used to get a weak signal of channels 4 and 5 from Boston about twice a week.<P ID="signature">______________
The 2006 New York Yankees...on to title #27!</P>
 
Most of Southeastern Kentucky is a challenge. Unless you're on top of a mountain there is little OTA reception. The only way for networks are received beyond the odd translator is by Cable television.



<P ID="signature">______________
The radio business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.</P>
 
My brother's ex-wife's family used to live in East Texas, where, according to him, they could only get one TV station (I'm guessing KLTV Lufkin...this was maybe 15-20 years ago).
 
> > I lived in Marathon, Florida. This is about 2/3 the way
> thru
> > the Florida Keys.
> > About 50 miles from Key West and 100 miles to Homestead.
> >
> > There was NO OTA TV at all.
>
>
> Aren't there UHF translators all up and down the Keys?
>
Athens, GA, is not a good place for OTA reception unless you
have an antenna. Atlanta's VHF channels (2, 5, and 11) are
65 miles away, and you're lucky to get 11 at all; I recall that
5 always seemed to come in best, along with Ch. 4 in Greenville, SC.
One problem was Ch. 13: WLOS Asheville, NC and WMAZ Macon
tended to overlap. And forget UHF, except Ch. 34.

We always had reception problems in Kinston, NC (Greenville/
New Bern/Washington) back in the '60s. WITN/7 came in clearly,
despite being the farthest away (40 miles, but I also got WITN
in the Raleigh/Durham area); WNCT/9, the closest (25 miles), and
WCTI/12 (35 miles) were always quite snowy if you didn't have an
antenna.
 
> > I lived in Marathon, Florida. This is about 2/3 the way
> thru
> > the Florida Keys.
> > About 50 miles from Key West and 100 miles to Homestead.
> >
> > There was NO OTA TV at all.
>
>
> Aren't there UHF translators all up and down the Keys?
>
They are listed but none ever actually operated. They were run by Monroe County. The Keys are weird as the county has like 50,000 year round (half are which in Key West) but it has to support a tourist population which can bring in up 50,000 more people. So the money the county takes in is not in proportion to the population size.

Unless you had cable you were out of luck. Now they have some full power TV in Key West, but that is Spanish, I believe.
<P ID="signature">______________
Once I figured out the meaning of life....Then I forgot to write it down.</P>
 
> So, what's the worst place you have lived for everyday (not
> "DX") TV reception?

As for number of stations: Tupelo, Mississippi prior to the mid 1970s. Only one clear signal was available: local station WTWV (now WTVA) channel 9 (NBC/ABC). Back then, WCBI-4 in Columbus (CBS) didn't have a big coverage area, and the signal was at best spotty. And Miss. didn't get a PBS signal up that way until 1974.

It was never a big thing, at least in Tupelo, because their cable system was launched in 1955. Besides 4 and 9, it also brought in the four Memphis stations (100 miles to the NW).

Overall worst place? Most places in the Birmingham, Ala. suburb of Homewood. My grandparents' house on Saulter Road was nestled perfectly between Red Mountain and Shades Mountain. The TV towers are on Red, but Shades causes a terrible ghosting situation on all four local stations OTA.

BEST place for TV reception: my former in-laws' house in Seminole, Ala., between Mobile and Pensacola, practically in the shadow of all the M-P market towers. As of 1997 (last time I was there, pre-divorce *ahem*) one could pick up no fewer than seven (7) stations flawlessly with simple rabbit-ears - WEAR-3, WKRG-5, WALA-10, WPMI-15, WSRE-23, WEIQ-42, channel 44 (calls escape me). Often Panama City (WJHG-7/NBC) would come in fairly well, and Channel 13 was received -- either WMBB/Panama City or WLOX/Biloxi, depending on "which way the wind was blowing." Channel 19, PBS out of Biloxi came in sometimes, and from time to time a couple of New Orleans stations could be picked up (WWL-4 and WVUE-8).
 
> > So, what's the worst place you have lived for everyday
> (not
> > "DX") TV reception?
>
> As for number of stations: Tupelo, Mississippi prior to the
> mid 1970s. Only one clear signal was available: local
> station WTWV (now WTVA) channel 9 (NBC/ABC). Back then,
> WCBI-4 in Columbus (CBS) didn't have a big coverage area,
> and the signal was at best spotty. And Miss. didn't get a
> PBS signal up that way until 1974.
>
> It was never a big thing, at least in Tupelo, because their
> cable system was launched in 1955. Besides 4 and 9, it also
> brought in the four Memphis stations (100 miles to the NW).


It's still pretty bad. When I first moved to Starkville (25miles W of Columbus, approx. 40miles S of Tupelo) last year, I tried using an indoor rabbit ears (to try to save money) at first. Quickly got a DirecTV package because the reception on all of the stations ranged from ghosting to snowy all the time. Even the Mississippi Public Broadcasting station (COL: Starkville/Mississippi State) didn't have good reception.

Some of the best, I think I've had, was growing up in Southeast Illinois. We had an antenna that brought in really clear reception for all the stations out of Evansville, IN/Henderson, KY. Unfortunately, about 2 years after we moved into the house the antenna rusted through and collapsed. Then it was cable after that.

DXing wise, we would regularly pick up either KETC-9-St Louis (PBS) or WCPO-9-Cincinatti after the local PBS station (WNIN-9-EVV) signed off as well as WDRB-41-Louisville. I think we once picked up WAAY-31-Huntsville in the early morning hours during some inclement weather.
 
> Most folks on this boards have probably had cable or
> satellite for quite some time. Some, though, especially the
> older (like me) guys might have spent part of their lives
> relying on over-the-air reception for their TV viewing.
>
> So, what's the worst place you have lived for everyday (not
> "DX") TV reception? It might be due to any combination of
> geographical location, living situation
> (apartment/dorm/house), antenna or lack thereof, etc.

St. Germain, WI, about 20 miles north of Rhinelander on the Vilas/Oneida County line, in the early and mid '70s was horrible for TV unless you had a 100' tower and a huge antenna with a rotator. My folks owned a small resort there and I ran it for them while I was in college.

We got several stations but most were snowy even with an outside (VHF-only) antenna mounted to the chimney (no 100' tower - it was about 20' high):

WBAY/2 Green Bay (CBS - now ABC) - weak but viewable unless there was skip.
WFRV/5 Green Bay (NBC - now CBS) - weak but viewable unless there was skip.
WLUC/6 Marquette (CBS/ABC - now NBC) - barely viewable unless there was skip.
WSAU/7 Wausau (CBS - now WSAW) - weak but viewable.
WAOW/9 Wausau (ABC) - viewable about 1/3 of the time and always snowy.
WAEO/12 Rhinelander (NBC - now WJFW) - The only local at the time.
WLEF/36 Park Falls (PBS) - Decent on a UHF bowtie, but it didn't come on the air until about 1975.

The Sayner (central Vilas County) translators for WSAU and WAOW on Channels 4 and 5, respectively, were about as bad as the parent stations. The one on 5 also got interference from WFRV. These went off the air sometime in the late '70s. Now the WSAW (WSAU) translator is on 57 and WYOW/34 Eagle River is on the air as a full-powered satellite of WAOW.

Our best TV reception was during E-skip openings (and there were tons of them in the early '70s). Sometimes we got better reception from Miami or Denver than we did from Wausau. :-D

But before 1975, unless I wanted a bad case of eyestrain, I had a choice of WAEO, WAEO, and WAEO. And WAEO was one of the laughable and unprofessional TV stations in the country at the time.
 
> Most folks on this boards have probably had cable or
> satellite for quite some time. Some, though, especially the
> older (like me) guys might have spent part of their lives
> relying on over-the-air reception for their TV viewing.
>
> So, what's the worst place you have lived for everyday (not
> "DX") TV reception? It might be due to any combination of
> geographical location, living situation
> (apartment/dorm/house), antenna or lack thereof, etc.

...mine was just a couple of years ago here in La Crosse. I lived in an apartment that was actually closer to WKBT/8's transmitter than their studios and offices were, but couldn't get an OTA gignal for them at all! Of course, the terrain around La Crosse -- noted for its scenic bluffs on the east side and across the Mississippi River to the west -- and the fact that WKBT's transmitter is actually about 30 miles north (to protect the Channel 8 in Moline, Illinois, and put a stronger signal into Eau Claire and Chippewa Counties) were to blame. In fact, reception of the official NBC affiliate for La Crosse, WEAU/13 Eau Claire, is non-existant here and KTTC/10, the NBC affiliate in Rochester, maintains a translator licensed to La Crosse on Channel 67...<P ID="signature">______________
King Daevid MacKenzie
WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio, La Crosse
heard weekly on http://www.radio4all.net/
"Kill Ugly Radio." FRANK ZAPPA</P>
 
> Most folks on this boards have probably had cable or
> satellite for quite some time. Some, though, especially the
> older (like me) guys might have spent part of their lives
> relying on over-the-air reception for their TV viewing.
>
> So, what's the worst place you have lived for everyday (not
> "DX") TV reception? It might be due to any combination of
> geographical location, living situation
> (apartment/dorm/house), antenna or lack thereof, etc.

DeKalb, IL, about 40 miles from Rockford and 80 from Chicago is a tricky place for reception without a rooftop antenna (many houses in the older part of the city still have tall rooftop or even tower antennas pointed towards Chicago). On rabbit ears which had real problems with VHF for some reason, I could get clear signals from only three Rockford stations (WREX, WTVO and WIFR) plus a fuzzy one from Fox affiliate WQRF. Only could get Chicago stations somewhat when tropo occurred. Luckily I only had to put up with this a couple of weeks before I could get cable.

Not a great story compared to some in this thread, I know, but I've lived in built-up areas of the Midwest my whole life.
 
Lousy reception in Maine

> I've lived in southern Maine twice and central Connecticut
> now. Old Orchard Beach, ME circa spring of 1987 was very
> iffy. Thanks to the s~~~load of pine trees everywhere you
> looked, I didn't do too well with the built-in dual
> monopoles on my Curtis Mathes 13" TV:

My brother lived in Clinton ME (about 10 miles NE of Waterville) in the late '80s and had similar reception problems. He had an outside antenna with a rotator which helped a bit.

Chs. 6 & 13 from Portland were snowy, 8 from Mt. Washington was fair, and the 3 Bangor stations (2, 5, & 7) were somewhat snowy but not too bad. Of the PBS stations, Ch. 10 in Augusta was good but 12 in Orono was weak. He didn't get any UHF reception at all. I'm not sure there were even any on the air in Maine at the time other than PBS Ch. 26 in Biddeford.

The WLBZ translator in Skowhegan on Channel 4 (now WGCI-LP but it had a W04?? callsign back then) came in better than its parent station on Channel 2, but they were fairly close-by as well (10 miles?).
 
Suburban Chicago had a similar problem

> DeKalb, IL, about 40 miles from Rockford and 80 from Chicago
> is a tricky place for reception without a rooftop antenna
> (many houses in the older part of the city still have tall
> rooftop or even tower antennas pointed towards Chicago). On
> rabbit ears which had real problems with VHF for some
> reason, I could get clear signals from only three Rockford
> stations (WREX, WTVO and WIFR) plus a fuzzy one from Fox
> affiliate WQRF. Only could get Chicago stations somewhat
> when tropo occurred. Luckily I only had to put up with this
> a couple of weeks before I could get cable.

When I lived in Streamwood IL (35 miles WNW of downtown Chicago) in the late '80s and early '90s, WBBM/2 and WMAQ/5 were all but unviewable on rabbit ears. The other full-powered stations were anywhere from slightly snowy (WLS/7, WGN/9 & WTTW/11) to perfect (the UHFs). None of the Chicago VHFs are allowed to run full power, while the UHFs are.

In Wauconda (west-central Lake County, 50 miles NW of Chicago and 60 miles SW of Milwaukee), all the Chicago and Milwaukee stations were snowy but viewable (even 2 and 5) on rabbit ears. In fact, the Milwaukee stations came in better than the ones in Chicago! An outside antenna with a rotator was absoluely necessary. Cable wasn't available there until 1984, and it had Chicago stations only.
 
Re: Suburban Chicago had a similar problem

Logansport, IN. Down in the valley there's really nothing. WLFI in Lafayette is about 40 miles away. Indianapolis, South Bend and Ft. Wayne are all about 80 miles away.<P ID="signature">______________
"Your right to know supersedes your right to exist"..Gary Burbank</P>
 
You've all made me glad ...

... that I grew up in Ventura, California, about 60 miles up the coast from Los Angeles.

A standard rooftop antenna about 10' higher than the roof, pointed at Mount Wilson to the southeast, got clear reception (except for electrical interference at times on the low Vs) of all seven Los Angeles VHF channels.

We never had an outdoor UHF antenna; except for the brief period in 1968-1969 that KKOG/16 was on the air and we had a UHF converter with loop antenna to receive it, we didn't have a set capable of tuning UHF until the early 1980s, and since that set was cable-ready we took down the antenna and signed up for cable.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>
 
Re: Lousy reception in Maine

> Chs. 6 & 13 from Portland were snowy, 8 from Mt. Washington
> was fair, and the 3 Bangor stations (2, 5, & 7) were
> somewhat snowy but not too bad. Of the PBS stations, Ch. 10
> in Augusta was good but 12 in Orono was weak. He didn't get
> any UHF reception at all. I'm not sure there were even any
> on the air in Maine at the time other than PBS Ch. 26 in
> Biddeford.
>

WPXT-TV channel 51 of Portland (WB now, CW soon and FOX from sign-on until fall 2001) signed on in September of 1986. Their analog transmitter was/is in Gray, up the coast from Portland.

By the way, did he ever receive channels 8 or 10 from Presque Isle?
<P ID="signature">______________
The 2006 New York Yankees...on to title #27!</P>
 
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