Farthest tv station you have received?

danristheman

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Jan 25, 2011
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I live in Angola Indiana the farthest OTA signals I have received is Cleveland Ohio NBC, ABC, Peoria IL the CBS station, Channel A, Global, and a few French TV stations in Winsdor Canada, Cincinnati, OH, Columbus Ohio, and Indy RTV 6. This is all done through end of April to end September.

Dan Rose
 
well lets see....last year I logged KLKN in Lincoln, Nebraska from my house in suburban Minneapolis

When I lived in Duluth, MN I logged WSAW 7 in Wausau, Wisconsin. Now while that doesnt sound like much it was back in the analog days and I picked it up on rabbit ears :eek:

The cabin we use to have a huge UHF/VHF antenna setup and the wind turned it the wrong way so we got Rochester MN, LaCrosse, WI and something near Madison WI from North Central, MN
 
The furthest station I have logged are all from the analog days. From Cincinnati Ohio:

Chicago WGN
Terra Haute
Cleveland
Hundington/Charleston
Columbus
Louisville

And one time, Puebla, Puebla, Mexixo (tropospheric ducting) Lasted for several hours.
 
I have picked up stations in New Orleans from South Eastern Mississippi (right on the Bama line). Its approx 185 miles (thats driving miles, but its basically a straight shot).
 
I"d like to see this broke down into two catalogs as to stations that are received 24/7 365 days a year from the person location, at least the mileage and then stations that are only received during unusual atmospheric conditions, normally called by different names like Skip or DX. And also what antenna setup that"s being used, might prove interesting. Myself, I enjoyed it better hunting for stations before it all when digital as now it just a pain to rescan every time I move the antenna and try and find anything.
 
The furthest station I have logged are all from the analog days. From Cincinnati Ohio:

Chicago WGN
Terra Haute
Cleveland
Hundington/Charleston
Columbus
Louisville

And one time, Puebla, Puebla, Mexixo (tropospheric ducting) Lasted for several hours.

Your list is about the same from when I lived there. I did get Nashville a couple of times and Cuba and Florida during DX. I had Channel 3 from Merida, Yucatan once!
 
I picked up KGAN channel 2 in Iowa from here in north Florida one summer. :eek: That was maybe 10 years ago now. good ol' analog TV....
 
Back in the 80's when I lived in Carlsbad, New Mexico I had a large Radio Shack VHF only antenna mounted about 65 ft AGL on a guyed mast on top of the house.

With this setup I once received a station from San Francisco and in the other direction one from Orlando Florida.

Both were very clear but did not last more than 30 minutes.
 
Cleveland Ohio NBC, ABC, Peoria IL the CBS station Cincinnati, OH, Columbus Ohio, and Indy RTV 6 that i have recieved after the digital switch during the summer time. I have a 4 UHF elment vertical tv antenna with an antennacraft booster. I can pick up Fort Wayne and South Bend pretty easy all year round.

Dan Rose
 
On the east coast a duct sets up from NY down to Florida on rare occasions and many stations come in. I have not experienced this since the analog days though. I remember one time around 1990 when FM stations from Florida boomed in over the locals even on car stereos and lasted for several hours.

I would like to see reports where regular reception proves TV Fool wrong. The cases where you have negative db numbers in the report yet you can get it.
 
I"d like to see this broke down into two catalogs as to stations that are received 24/7 365 days a year from the person location, at least the mileage and then stations that are only received during unusual atmospheric conditions, normally called by different names like Skip or DX. And also what antenna setup that"s being used, might prove interesting. Myself, I enjoyed it better hunting for stations before it all when digital as now it just a pain to rescan every time I move the antenna and try and find anything.

The horizon (supposed "clear line of site) is about 62 miles for an analog tv broadcasting station. That means that at that time, unless you have a MUCH higher tv tower and antenna, (and/or the station does) it's not possible to receive a tv station 24/7 365 days much beyond that distance. Without bouncing the signal off the ionosphere that is. Now that we have so called "better" digital tv (HA!), you have even more issues, as it's pretty much "all or nothing". You CAN'T get a snowy, but viewable DIGITAL signal, which you could with analog.

Back in the mid to late 1980's, in Bridgeport Michigan, with a 55ft tower, high gain 91XG UHF antenna, and Winegard 36db gain, 1 db noise (I still have it! but I don't live in Bridgeport anymore) lna, I could routinely pick up stations from Chicago, Ohio, Canada, Pennsylvania. Snowy, but watchable. I even picked up a station from FLORIDA once! That's like 1,200 miles! For a little while at least. The Ohio station was what I was specifically aiming for, and it was 135 miles away. I could get it 95% of the time, but even with my setup, it was usually a bit snowy.
 
Back in the mid 60s, I had the old b&w in my bedroom and playing with it and the rabbit ears one Sunday afternoon I picked up 2 stations out of LA, I was in Lubbock, Tx, lasted a few minutes but was viewable on the b&w.
In the mid 90's living outside Midland, Tx, I could get lots of stations around Texas and NM with my outdoor UHF antenna, Austin was the farthest, I did this consistently in the evening or especially in the morning before the sun started its interference. THe picture would be perfectly clear on those cool, dry mornings in the winter. Swing the antenna around and I could get San Angelo, Abilene, Wichita Falls, Lubbock, Roswell, and Amarillo.
 
The horizon (supposed "clear line of site) is about 62 miles for an analog tv broadcasting station. That means that at that time, unless you have a MUCH higher tv tower and antenna, (and/or the station does) it's not possible to receive a tv station 24/7 365 days much beyond that distance. Without bouncing the signal off the ionosphere that is. Now that we have so called "better" digital tv (HA!), you have even more issues, as it's pretty much "all or nothing". You CAN'T get a snowy, but viewable DIGITAL signal, which you could with analog.

Back in the mid to late 1980's, in Bridgeport Michigan, with a 55ft tower, high gain 91XG UHF antenna, and Winegard 36db gain, 1 db noise (I still have it! but I don't live in Bridgeport anymore) lna, I could routinely pick up stations from Chicago, Ohio, Canada, Pennsylvania. Snowy, but watchable. I even picked up a station from FLORIDA once! That's like 1,200 miles! For a little while at least. The Ohio station was what I was specifically aiming for, and it was 135 miles away. I could get it 95% of the time, but even with my setup, it was usually a bit snowy.

I have no problem getting TV stations that I want at 90 miles and that's all the time regardless of the time of year here in Iowa, but it sure helps being on the highest point in the county. I've had this setup for many years at different locations and have always had the same results. Before the great digital conversion it was even better with getting distance stations, but those well over the 125+ miles at times were sometimes questionable even with my setup before the conversion. But, now with digital it's just too hard or impossible to lock onto their signal as with my Ham II rotor even moving my array 1or 2 degrees and I'll lose the signal as my antenna array is extremely directional and really windy days make it even worse. But since moving to Iowa from Indiana the selection of available stations is really low.

Channel Master Double Boom 3617B VHF length is 194 1/2 inches
Channel Master Para-Scope 4251 UHF length 7 Feet
Both are preamped into a Blonder Tongue MUVB-56
 

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I get KEYC DT12 just fine. Its 72 miles away yet I get it constant sans a little glitch on the screen here and there but very minimal

Yes yours is a good example especially with the signal quality you talked about on your new antenna topic. I did pull up the coverage browser at TV fool for that station and your area does have some pink to dark pink squares. So you may live in one of those spots where being a few feet higher helps.

Some of the ones further down the list like KCCO at -15 would be really impressive at 100 miles
 
Back when analog was the norm. At my house, I picked up ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and PBS from Augusta, GA. I've also picked up Columbia, SC ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS. I've picked up CBS and FOX from Charleston, SC plus WCBD (ABC at the time, now NBC). I've picked up Charlotte, NC stations of CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, PBS, now defunct WB and UPN. I've also picked up some Atlanta, GA stations of FOX, NBC. I've also picked up Savannah, GA CBS affiliate. Plus I've picked up one Myrtle Beach, SC station which is CBS affiliate. The furthest I picked up was in Knoxville, TN I think and it was the ABC affiliate.
 
Yes yours is a good example especially with the signal quality you talked about on your new antenna topic. I did pull up the coverage browser at TV fool for that station and your area does have some pink to dark pink squares. So you may live in one of those spots where being a few feet higher helps.
and no booster either
Some of the ones further down the list like KCCO at -15 would be really impressive at 100 miles
no way I could get KCCO....they're 29000 watts whereas KEYC is 52000 watts....but if it wasnt so dang windy I guess I could try for gits and shiggles but I would need an amp for sure.

KCCO is just a satellite station oF WCCO here in Minneapolis (same commercials and everything) so it would be more of a "could I grab a signal: instead of a "do I need to grab the signal?"
 
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