View Single Post
  #45  
Old 12-27-2015, 01:39 PM
Jeffhs's Avatar
Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
I have a ClearTV digital antenna and a Zenith all-channel amplified antenna. They work after a fashion, receiving most local stations, but neither antenna receives channels 8 or 19 from Cleveland (local Fox/Antenna TV and CBS/MeTV affiliates, respectively). I have cable and a Roku player to receive the local TV channels, including the ones my antennas do not receive. I am located about 35-40 miles from the TV stations' towers, which themselves are in the southwestern Cleveland suburb of Parma. There are no obstructions, that I am aware of anyway, between the stations and my TV antenna.

I have been told that the reason I do not get channels 8 or 19 at all in digital is due to the fact that these stations currently transmit on RF DTV channels 8 and 10, which most indoor DTV antennas do not receive well; however, the CBS affiliate may and probably will move to a UHF channel once the DTV repack and everything else are completed, hopefully early next year. The CBS station already has a translator on channel 24, but that translator serves an area about 60 miles south of me and, therefore, does not reach my small town. I don't know why this problem wasn't addressed and corrected a lot sooner (shortly after the DTV transition), as there are many people in this part of northeastern Ohio with the same problems receiving channels 8 and 19 as I have. One other reason I cannot get the two channels I mentioned is that I live on the first floor of a two-story apartment building, and cannot use any kind of outdoor antenna.

Oh, well. Perhaps if and when channel 19 finally vacates its VHF DTV channel and moves to a UHF one (this move actually is in their plans, but to date I haven't heard or read anything regarding exactly when it will occur; probably, maybe even likely, it hinges on next year's DTV channel repack), my reception problems will be solved, and I will be able to use an indoor antenna again.

We can only hope.

BTW, VK member Old_TV_Nut in Arizona has the best of all worlds as far as TV reception is concerned, having a direct line-of-sight to the TV stations in Tucson, 33 miles distant. I guess that's one advantage of living in a flat area like that; no obstructions and, I would guess, very good reception from all the "local" channels. Here in the Great Lakes region where I live, we aren't that lucky. Receiving TV signals from a 33-mile distance may not seem that much in the West and Southwest, but here I am trying to receive TV stations that might well have restricted signal patterns. However, the Cleveland stations are supposed to cover seventeen counties in northeastern Ohio. I have a feeling that the only way anyone some distance from these stations will have to use a large antenna on a tower, and perhaps a rotor, to receive all seven stations. I remember years ago (in the late 1960s and seventies) seeing just such large antenna towers in an area 55 miles from Cleveland (I went to summer camp there as a kid), but these days with cable and all this type of elaborate antenna system may be all but obsolete.
__________________
Jeff, WB8NHV

Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.

Last edited by Jeffhs; 12-27-2015 at 01:58 PM.
Reply With Quote
Audiokarma