Worst Place You Have Lived for OTA TV Reception

[KeithE]

Re: Lousy reception in Maine

> 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.

I don't remember him getting any Fox station or any UHF stations at all. I'm going by my memory from when I visited him in the fall of 1989.

> By the way, did he ever receive channels 8 or 10 from
> Presque Isle?

Nope - too far away. Clinton and Presque Isle are about 200 miles apart.

 

[rwells2265]

> Even the Mississippi Public
> Broadcasting station (COL: Starkville/Mississippi State)
> didn't have good reception.

Obviously little change has been made to channel 2's facility. With Tupelo not that far away from Starkpatch, one would think a full-tilt signal from the lowest V channel would give more than a faaaaaint image through the snow. What's more, MPB's Channel 18 out of Oxford (~40 miles west from Tupelo) put nada into Lee County.

Today WCBI-4 (CBS/Columbus) and WTVA-9 (NBC/Tupelo) currently both have sticks not too far from there, allowing both stations to cover what is now one common DMA (Tupelo-Columbus). If your situation is subpar, I'd sure hate to see what it was like down there back in the '70s!!

WMAE-12 in Booneville (25-ish miles north of Tupelo) came on in 1974, the last station of the MPB network (then known as Mississippi ETV). Its signal was decent in Tupelo, but not very clear.

In that region, ABC has always been difficult to get, even with the various UHFs serving the area (WLOV-27, then WVSB, in the '80s, and now - what - channel 45?). Curiously, before 1977, when WCBI flipped to ABC primary for a couple of years, the cable systems in Columbus and Starkville imported ABC from WBRC-6 in Birmingham, despite being geographically (and culturally) closer to WABG-6 in Greenwood, Miss., also ABC.

> 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.

How good was your reception of WPSD-6 in Paducah (NBC) and KFVS-12 in Cape Girardeau (CBS)? KFVS had the tallest tower in the region (2063' AAT), and put a monster signal over what they call "The Heartland." I had an aunt who used to live in South Fulton, Tenn., right on the border with Kentucky, and her 50' antenna used to pull in KFVS pretty well.

Of course, there was also WSIL in your neighborhood, but I'm sure ABC out of Evansville was the preferred option....

 

[MikeyBos]

Re: You've all made me glad (ME TOO!)

Growing up about 30 miles north of Boston, with plain old rabbit ears, on the first floor of the house, could pick up all the following:

Boston: 2 PBS, 4 NBC, 5 ABC, 7 CBS, 25 Ind./Fox, 38 Ind., 44 PBS, 56 Ind., 68 Ind.
Worcester: 27 Ind.
Norwell: 46 Ind.
Marlborough: 66 Ind./Videos
Providence, RI: 10 NBC, 12 ABC
New Hampshire: 9 ABC Manchester, 11 PBS Durham, 21 Ind./CBS Concord, 50 Ind. Derry, 60 Ind. Merrimack
Maine: 6 NBC Portland, 8 ABC Poland Springs, 26 PBS Biddeford

I may have even forgotten one or two, with the exception of the Providence stations, all the above came in at least good and watchable without having to strain the eyes at all. The Providence stations were snowy but consistently picked them up.

> ... 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.
>

 

[Stanislav]

Re: Lousy reception in Maine

When my family lived in Vermont (1960's), we knew a family who had a cabin in the backwoods of Maine. I don't recall where it was geographically situated, but the combination of the location and the surrounding terrain limited their entire TV viewing to a slightly sub-par signal from WMTW on Mt. Washington NH. This was with a fairly lo-gain old conical antenna and twin-lead, so maybe a better antenna/height/lead situation might have done them better. But as it was, it was WMTW or nothing, except for the occasional summer skip (which they would watch solely for the programming, not for "DXing" purposes)!

 

[Bluenoser]

Re: Lousy reception in Maine

>>
> 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?).
>
Channel 4's calls back then were W04AK- it IDed on air as Waterville.

 

[can_hfx]

> 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.
>



Kennetcook, Nova Scotia


Essenially, there are 3 stations available. CBC, CTV, and Global. CBC was on 3(Halifax) and 7(Moncton) the only difference between the two was commericals and newscasts.
CTV is on 2 (Moncton),5 (Halifax) and 10 (Wolfville Relay), 5 was the best signal, 2 and 10 were decent (all 3 were identical, save for commericals)
Global is on 18 (Truro Relay) and 20 (Wolfville Relay), We got 20 in best, it was snowy but watchable (usually during the summer). This was with an antenna about 20 feet off the ground.

The cable system for the area was terristrial, you put up a small antenna and hook a box to the TV, there about a dozen channels on it at any given time (occasionally they would become unscrambled)

15 A&E
23 Mon 8:00am-Fri 6:00pm CMT, Fri 6:00pm-Mon 8:00am TMN with TV Bingo on Monday Nights
25 WUHF FOX Rochester
36 WCVB ABC Boston
41 WDIV NBC Detroit
45 WBZ CBS Detroit
49 ASN
53 TBS (this was unscrambled on and off, often for several months at a time)
57 CITV (now Global Edmonton)
62 TNN (now Spike TV)
64 Discovery Channel
67 TSN

 

[tomservo]

I know this is an old thread but I have to add my thoughts...

Live in Grenada, MS in an antenna restricted neighborhood (no outdoor antennas allowed) and all I've got right now is amplified rabbit ears...

Local TBN translator on UHF is clear, local FamilyNet translator on VHF is weak. WTVA out of Tupelo is very snowy but watchable. MPB on 18 out of Oxford is decent if aimed just so. WABG Greenwood (ABC) and MPB Oxford's digital channels come in but not without a lot of dropouts... Mostly in a "get one or the other, not both" fiddle-fest with the antenna.

WABG analog? WCBI Columbus? MPB MS. State? Nothing. Dead to the world. Most FM reception is spotty in this house too for some reason... Once I leave the subdivision, it's better.

Thank goodness for DirecTV, I brought it out here from Birmingham and they let me keep my B'ham locals (in HD no less!)

 

[bpatrick]

When I was a kid and would visit my grandparents
in Chatham County, NC (dead center of the state,
not too flat, a little hilly), I could watch Channel 2
from Greensboro, 4 from Chapel Hill, 5 from Raleigh,
8 from High Point, and 11 from Durham (and the
transmitters for 5 and 11 were a good 60 miles
away). However, they couldn't get 12 from Winston-
Salem (60 miles); I asked my grandmother why, and
she said, "I'm not turning the antenna just to get
Winston-Salem." (I can get a snowy picture on 12
with the antenna and I live next door to where my
grandparents lived.) They also couldn't get 28
from Raleigh/Durham and never tried. That meant
they didn't have an NBC station (except in the
period when 11 was cherrypicking CBS and NBC).

A former girlfriend of mine, who lived in Anniston, AL,
had better luck with Atlanta stations (90 miles away)
than with Birmingham (60). She could get 40, the
Anniston station. She could get just one Birmingham
channel (6), but two Atlanta channels (2 and 5).
Luckily for her, she had all three networks; this was
in the '70s, when 2 was NBC, 5 and 40 were CBS,
and 6 was ABC. If she had that scenario today (but
I suspect she has cable), she'd be limited to ABC
(2 and 40) and Fox (5 and 6).

 

[pqgeorge]

I would have to say, Wilmington, NY (in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains) has to have the worst OTA (over-the-air) TV (and FM) reception anywhere. Here is what I was able to distinguish between the multi-multipath ghosts so prevalent up there.

2 CBFT (SRC/CBC) Montreal, QC
3 WCAX (CBS) Burlington, VT
5 WPTZ (NBC) Plattsburgh, NY
6 CBMT (CBC English) Montreal, QC
7 CHLT Sherbrooke, QC
*8 WMTW (ABC) Poland Spring, ME (when they were on Mt. Washington, NH)
9 CKSH Sherbrooke, QC
10 CFTM Montreal, QC
12 CFCF (CTV) Montreal, QC
17 CIVM (TQS) Montreal, QC
22 WVNY (ABC) Burlington, VT
24 CIVS (TQS) Sherbrooke, QC
33 WETK (PBS) Burlington, VT
44 WFFF (FOX) Burlington, VT
55 W55AI (//WVNY) Lake Placid, NY

Ironically, Wilmington, NY is the home of Whiteface Mountain (home of the 1980 Winter Olympic Games @ Lake Placid). On top of Whiteface, your radio horizon is over 100 miles. Many TV channels were 2 or 3 stations deep of signals, I kid you not. It was a great place to DX during the 1995 and 2000 WTFDA Conventions (of which I hosted). On the ground, on the other hand, to get a ghost free TV picture without cable is nearly impossible. After 2009 (NTSC sunset), good luck getting ANY "local" OTA TV.

 

[anoldguy]

I would have to say, Wilmington, NY (in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains) has to have the worst OTA (over-the-air) TV (and FM) reception anywhere

I was in Big Moose N. Y. slightly to the southeast of Lake Placid, (maybe 100 miles as the bald eagle flies & where the paved road ends) but still deep in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple years ago. I had a Casio 3" TV and a Radio Shack portable power antenna (battery powered). I could pick up two stations - WUTR -TV 20 out of Utica - about 80 miles away and WMTW-TV 8 out of Poland Springs, ME. - about 400 miles away. Both were watchable pictures, but both were ABC. I would thought I would have been able to recieve WWNY-TV 7 from Watertown but no. I know some people in the area do pick up WWNY and nothing else. You have to have a dish if you really want to watch TV in the area. As far as radio goes, several, Utica, Syracuse, and Watertown FM stations came in on my car radio. Nothing on AM that was listenable.

 

[azumanga]

17 CIVM (TQS) Montreal, QC
24 CIVS (TQS) Sherbrooke, QC

Brief correction -- these were (and still are) TeleQuebec stations. TQS is on CFJP ch.35 in Montreal and CFKS ch.30 in Sherbrooke.