Any Lakers fans in San Diego?

[DOH43]

I'm a recent Dishnetwork convert and with basketball season looming I was wondering what would be the best way to get KCAL 9 in San Diego. I've called Dish to see if I could get KCAL ala carte and they said no. I live along highway 56 and after doing some research (antennaweb, AVS forum and here) it seems OTA is spotty. I've got limited installation skills so an attic antenna is probably the furthest I can go, probably would prefer just an indoor OTA (silver sensor?). Anybody out there having good reception in my area? Would love some advice.

Duke

 

[Don_M]

Not so fast with the Silver Sensor...

KCAL-DT now operates on RF channel 43 despite its "9.1" designation, so a UHF antenna like the SS might work... for now. When the DTV transition is completed on Feb. 18, KCAL will shut down both the channel 9 analog operation and channel 43 DTV operation, and then commence digital broadcasting on channel 9. That's in the VHF-high band, which the SS doesn't pull in well.

AntennaWeb is very conservative in its recommendations. I'd like to take a look at what TVFool says -- it's more precise as well as more technical -- but, like AntennaWeb, it relies on location. Can you provide a ZIP code?

 

[DOH43]

Thanks Don_M for the response. My zip is 92129. Looking at TV fool myself it looks like all the LA channels are in the red and I'm about 100 miles away from Mt. Wilson.

Duke

 

[Don_M]

Ouch... 103.4 miles, to be exact. The attached file shows the post-transition TVFool report for your ZIP code, which is arranged in order of strongest station to weakest. Basically, the first half-dozen channels show signal strengths in rabbit-ears (or Silver Sensor) territory. From there, the signals get half again as weak with each 3-point step down the scale in the dBm column. The pre-transition report for KCAL's temporary signal on channel 47 is even worse by about 10 points. Catch my drift? You might be able to get KCAL-DT on channel 9 in four months, but only by going outside and high above your roof -- at least 30 feet, and quite possibly more. Even at that, you'll probably need an expensive single-channel antenna and a high-gain pre-amp.

Pestering the satellite provider isn't likely to get you far, either. I'll bet they consider your area to be outside the LA market. If that's the case, they can flatly refuse your requests with no fear of regulatory repercussion.

Sorry about that, amigo.

 

[DOH43]

Thanks for the assist. Although it's bad news at least I have an answer now. Might be time for league pass but for only about 30 lakers road games I don't know if it's worth it.

 

[Jim5506]

If you really need KCAL-DT from San Diego after 02/17/2009 try a Wade yagi (www.wade-antenna.com) cut for channel 9 only (about 10 dB gain) and a Winegard HDP-269 pre-amp.

Channel 9 will be bracketed by 8 and 10 in San Diego so you probably can't use a CM7777 pre-amp or it will overload.

Bang for the buck a single channel yagi is about as good as it gets.