dishnetwork white areas

[tommi o]

I hear this term used frequently in local broadcast jargon,a white area is where your can't get tv by antenna. Is there a map of the white areas in the u.s. showing these areas or is it a guess and bygolly thing? would appreciate a clarification on this point!

[scooper]

By definition, a "White Area" for a particular TV network is when the location is outside the Grade B profile of any station for that network. In practice, this usually means the location needs to be about 60-80 miles from the transmitter towers. To generate a map over the whole US of all white areas would be a very large effort - one that I'm not too sure anybody would attempt. There are some websites that can tell you if a particular location is white.

[Bob Haller]

I think its a distance from antenna and anticipated signal strength issue. A pittsburgh DMA white area is Oil city pa.

[KB]

Actually someone did do a national map. Here is a link I saw a few weeks back. I am not really sure how much good this map will do someone trying to nail down a particular location but here it is anyway.

http://home.earthlink.net/~mbfrey/shva/

[scooper]

You did notice that those maps are now 4 (almost 5) years old now ? That may very well make them not completely accurate (but you can bet that DecisionMark is keeping each station for their services up to date).

[FTA Michael]

A true white area, IMHO, is one that is far enough from every little TV station to allow NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, and PBS availability. In Colorado, for example, there are a zillion little towns where some, but not all, of the networks are available. The only true Colorado white area that I know of is in the neat old town of Creede. I'm considering a vacation home there now. :)