HD OTA topographical question

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ptech

ptech

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Mar 12, 2005
358
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Palm Coast Florida
Does anyone know of a program or a URL that would provide me a topographical chart detailing terrain between me and a local OTA tower.

I just bought a lake house in Anderson, SC 29625 and antennaweb shows I can only get two channels however I have researched and all my Greenville channels broadcast in HD OTA and they are only 35 miles away. I'm assuming that there must be a big hill between us so I would like to punch in GPS coordinates and get a topo chart. Can anyone help?

Just in case someone has the program and wants to help. Here's my house

N34 34.077 W82 43.672
 
ptech said:
Does anyone know of a program or a URL that would provide me a topographical chart detailing terrain between me and a local OTA tower.

I just bought a lake house in Anderson, SC 29625 and antennaweb shows I can only get two channels however I have researched and all my Greenville channels broadcast in HD OTA and they are only 35 miles away. I'm assuming that there must be a big hill between us so I would like to punch in GPS coordinates and get a topo chart. Can anyone help?

Just in case someone has the program and wants to help. Here's my house

N34 34.077 W82 43.672
Click to expand...

I actually found it somewhere on the FCC website. I forget how I actually found it. I might have put in the stations call letters and done a search.

Sorry but not much more help than that.

Scott
 
I can't find those topo maps right now either. But http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/programming/broadcast.php will locate the transmitters on a Google map. Using satellite or Hybrid view might help you locate any hills.

I was able to use my local county property search site. It has a view with the same satellite photos as Google maps but I can display 100' & 5' elevations, making it very easy to see there is a 900' hill right in my line of site. Hopefully, you will be luckier!
 
PeggyD said:
I can't find those topo maps right now either. But http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/programming/broadcast.php will locate the transmitters on a Google map. Using satellite or Hybrid view might help you locate any hills.

I was able to use my local county property search site. It has a view with the same satellite photos as Google maps but I can display 100' & 5' elevations, making it very easy to see there is a 900' hill right in my line of site. Hopefully, you will be luckier!
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the link. Interesting stuff there.
 
ptech said:
.....I just bought a lake house in Anderson, SC 29625 and antennaweb shows I can only get two channels however I have researched and all my Greenville channels broadcast in HD OTA and they are only 35 miles away. I'm assuming that there must be a big hill between us.....
Click to expand...
I am slightly farther away from my DTV towers and can only pickup those digital channels transmitting with at least 1000kw.

Here is your list in case the kw also matters for your location. Good Luck.

http://radiostationworld.com/locations/United_States_of_America/South_Carolina/tv.asp?m=gre

I also needed a rotor on my antenna to compensate for different channels signal reflecting differently off of hills between me and the DTV towers.
 
Last edited:
ptech said:
Does anyone know of a program or a URL that would provide me a topographical chart detailing terrain between me and a local OTA tower.

I just bought a lake house in Anderson, SC 29625 and antennaweb shows I can only get two channels however I have researched and all my Greenville channels broadcast in HD OTA and they are only 35 miles away. I'm assuming that there must be a big hill between us so I would like to punch in GPS coordinates and get a topo chart. Can anyone help?

Just in case someone has the program and wants to help. Here's my house

N34 34.077 W82 43.672
Click to expand...

Try this site: http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp Gives a great listing of your local stations by direction, distance, or channel. You must provide your longitude and latitude (the site tells you how to find yours). Provides a topigraphical map of the transmitter site, it's distance from you, it's direction, power, etc.

John
 
Google Earth (the application, not the verb) will display anywhere on earth as an aerial photo mosaic in 3D. You can download it free from earth.google.com.

Once you have Google Earth running you can zoom in on your location by typing in your address (or recognizing it on the aerial photo mosaic). Then you can tilt the camera angle to see your surroundings in 3D.

If you really prefer using a topo map, you can get a free topo Google Earth overlay for your area at http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/kml_overlay. Once you tell GPSZVisualizer your location, it will produce a custom topo overlay that you can load into GE by just double clicking the .kmz file it provides for download.

Google Earth -- will literally change the way you view the earth forever.

Talon Dancer
 
These are all awesome links and I will use them for some time to come however it's not exactly what I'm looking for. I used a program before that when you input two GPS locations, it outputs a simple graph showing your location at sea level compared to the other location at sea level and any valleys, hills, mountains etc. displayed graphically as a chart.

Thank you all for your help and I hope this additional information may ring a bell for someone as I can't remember what program I used before.

On the funny side, with the information you did provide. I found out that several stations are putting out suck low power that even people down the street from the tower probably can't receive the digital channel.
 
You would include a minus sign in front of the Longitude, not the Latitude.
 
PeggyD said:
I can't find those topo maps right now either. But http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/programming/broadcast.php will locate the transmitters on a Google map. Using satellite or Hybrid view might help you locate any hills.

I was able to use my local county property search site. It has a view with the same satellite photos as Google maps but I can display 100' & 5' elevations, making it very easy to see there is a 900' hill right in my line of site. Hopefully, you will be luckier!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link PeggyD, glad you find it useful.

- Shane
 
I live in asheville and I can tell you that antennaweb has been accurate for me as far as what I can pick up and cant. With the terrain in the area (I believe the transmitters for even the SC channels are in the mountains) it can be hard to pick some stations even 25 miles without a directional antenna.
 
Thanks everyone! with all your combined information I was able to determine whether it was worth the cost to install an OTA antenna. (you can't just return antenna's) I was worried about the mountains around me. Thankfully, most of the towers were built in the mountains and I just barely had clearance. My results,

Station signal
NBC 86
FOX 76
CBS testing
ABC testing
UPN 74
Anyone need PBS? I get at least 6 not including sub channels.
WB 9/5/06

Thank you all.
 

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