Antenna to Reach 103°-105° Grey Area

[Aikavols]

Hey everyone.

I'm looking at grabbing a longer range OTA signal, but I'm not sure exactly "what" antenna will suit best for my needs. Per my TVFool report (uploaded and attached), I'm attempting to reach the signals at the 103°-105° range, which, per the report, show a distance of 65.7-68.5 miles away.

While I'd generally grab a standard 100+ Mile antenna, I'm concerned that per TVFool, it shows them all in a 'Grey' area. I should note, I haven't played with OTA for .. nearly 20 years .. so I know that many things have changed, so be gentle on responses!

The home is on a wooded lot, but I have about 3 acres to plant a mast at nearly (within respect) any required height, as long as it means ensuring obtaining these signals.

 

[. Raine]

Welcome to SatGuys, Aikavols!

Sorry to say it, but I doubt you'd receive any of the channels in the 103 to 105 degree range, they all look to be tropo, [tropospheric scatter = very bad] or 2 edge at best, [2 edge means the signal is diffracted 2 times before it gets to you, bouncing off two things in the LOS to you]. Generally anything in grey is going to be not receivable except at rare times when tropospheric ducting is going on.

 

[FTA4PA]

Getting most of those is gonna be tough if not impossible, maybe WJLA and WUSA, but most of the ones between 103°-105° are tropo reception (only received when certain atmospheric conditions are just right). Gone are the days of analog when you could still get a signal, albeit with static. With the advent of digital tv comes the digital cliff. When the signal becomes too weak you lose it altogether.
PS: Welcome to Satellite Guys!

 

[FTA4PA]

Beat me to it A Raine! Great minds think alike!

 

[Aikavols]

Thanks for the responses guys .. So, there's really no viable way of getting these signals in clearly, even with some form of booster? .. Ah, that's a sad, sad thing - but I appreciate the help!

 

[FTA4PA]

Thanks for the responses guys .. So, there's really no viable way of getting these signals in clearly, even with some form of booster? .. Ah, that's a sad, sad thing - but I appreciate the help!

Slim chance at WJLA and WUSA (2edge) but there would likely be dropouts. Since you haven't done anything OTA for such a long time I assume you have no antenna at all in place currently?

 

[. Raine]

Thanks for the responses guys .. So, there's really no viable way of getting these signals in clearly, even with some form of booster? .. Ah, that's a sad, sad thing - but I appreciate the help!

You're welcome. Not really, in your report you have the antenna height at 50', that's up there pretty high and it still looks bad! If you used just your zip code for the report then you could try using your exact address and it may make a difference, but I doubt it will. Even with a good long range antenna and a good amp, those channels probably wouldn’t come in. Sometimes you do get lucky, but I wouldn't think so with those channels.

The channels in green should come in, probably the yellow. Maybe some of the red too, with a good antenna and maybe a pre-amp.

 

[FTA4PA]

Agree. You could use either a rotor or two antennas pointed in different directions at the closer transmitters and combined. With digital reception those stations will probably have subchannels and you may be surprised at the number of channels available.

 

[Jim5506]

I triangulated your address with channels 23 and 21 and since you said you were willing to go with height necessary, I did the TVFool at 100 ft. AGL and...

Both channel WJLA and WUSA signals become 6.4 dB NM and 5.4 dB NM at that height, quite receivable with a good VHF high band antenna.

WTTG comes in at 3.7dB NM and WDCW is at -0.9 dB NM.

If you can swing a 100 ft. tower and erect it with something like a Winegard HD7698Pand a quality pre-amp, you should get 3 of the 4 nearly all the time and the 4th occasionally at night.

 

[Trip]

Having actually been to that area, let me recommend this: TRY IT ANYWAY. The Longley-Rice model that feeds FCC predictions as well as TVFool has a real issue with the mountains between Winchester and DC, even though I have received the DC signals using the equivalent of the Terk HDTVi (plus an amp) sitting in Sheetz parking lots in and near Winchester in the middle of the day.

I can't promise it will work, but I think TVFool is being very pessimistic and it's because the predictive model doesn't handle sharp mountain ridges the way it probably should.

- Trip