TV station locator

[Cholly]

I can't remember the URL of the site that will give you precise directions between a TV broadcast tower and your house. I'm not talking about antennaweb or titantv. This one had a numeric name. It was something like 2600.net/broadcast, but the number isn't 2600. I once had a link to it, but have lost it in my move to NC.
Anyone know the site's name?:confused:

[akron05]

I can't remember the URL of the site that will give you precise directions between a TV broadcast tower and your house. I'm not talking about antennaweb or titantv. This one had a numeric name. It was something like 2600.net/broadcast, but the number isn't 2600. I once had a link to it, but have lost it in my move to NC.
Anyone know the site's name?:confused:

www.100000watts.com

It's now a pay site.

[Digital Madman]

check out www.tvradioworld.com

[nostar]

Maybe this link

http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp

[durl]

Here's a good link I just found the other day. You can set it up to show distances.
http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/programming/broadcast.php



www.antennaweb.org will also give you distance to towers

[Cholly]

2150.com is the one I was looking for. Unfortunately, for some reason, all the locals aren't listed, even when I expanded my search to 45 miles.
hdtvmagazine turns out to be pretty good.
As I mentioned in my query, I wasn't looking for antennaweb.org -- I've used it for several years.
One of my problems is that the various mapping services aren't up to date. DeLorme, googlemaps, yahoo and mapquest all fail to provide information on my subdivision. Their maps are all over 6 months out of date. :mad:
I used 2150.com and its associated links to pinpoint my location and confirmed it with DeLorme Street Atlas 2004 by estimating the location of my street. (Street Atlas 2006 still doesn't have my subdivision -- I checked DeLorme's SA2006 demo facility).

Ideally, I should be using an outdoor antenna, but I'm trying to stick to an indoor solution. I have an unamplified Terk (Audiovox) version of the Silver Sensor, and am able to pull in several stations with no dropouts, but the broadcast tower sites differ in direction by as much as 40 degrees (necessitating reorienting the antenna) and some are almost 40 miles away. I've tried a preamp with the Terk and a Philips amplified antenna, but neither is any better than the unamplified Terk.
I'm using this setup for a 26" widescreen HD LCD TV monitor with Accurian HD set top box in my master bedroom. Othe HD sets in the house are using Scientific Atlanta HD DVR's on Time Warner Cable. My monthly bill is high enough that I don't want to drop an extra 10 to `5 dollars a month for an HD cable box.

[William Millar]

Cholly,

I put in zip code 28273, here is your latitude: 35.159646, longitude is
- 80.896673, make sure you put the minus sign in front of the longitude # you have seven digital stations within 50 miles of Charlotte, NC. This information is from the 2150 website.

Bill

[Richard King]

What a sad situation. :( Latitude: 27.66 Longitude: -80.33
Yours is pretty sad too Cholly

[Tower Guy]

One of my problems is that the various mapping services aren't up to date. DeLorme, googlemaps, yahoo and mapquest all fail to provide information on my subdivision. Their maps are all over 6 months out of date.


You can pinpoint a new location on antennaweb by entering the nearest old street, then select the "View Steet Level Map" Icon. Once the map is displayed, you can click on your exact location, the map will recenter at that spot, and the table of signal strengths will recalculate.

[nostar]

Ideally, I should be using an outdoor antenna

Right! Probably with a rotor and mast amplifier. It looks like most of your stations are low power and in different directions.

I thought I was the only one having these problems. Misery loves company.

[Richard King]

An interesting situation for me. I am located here: Latitude: 27.66 Longitude: -80.33. According to: http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp the CBS-HD station in my DMA (West Palm Beach) is 74.42 miles away, not a good thing. Making matters even worse, it's power is only 29.5kwts and it's tower is only 955 feet tall. Another option for me would be the CBS station out of Orlando which is 79.26 miles away, but booming out at 1000kw from a tower 1693 feet high. I suspect my odds of receiving ANYTHING would be better out of Orlando than WPB? Any antenna experts out there who would know for sure, or if there is any hope at all? WPB is on Channel 13 while Orlando is on Channel 58.

[nostar]

Richard King,

I think your best bet would be 13 in West Palm.

It's High VHF(13) and travels farther than UHF(58).

It's closer.

Also, VHF requires much less power than UHF to produce the same effect, one of the reasons that they are using only 30kw.

How is the terrain? Any trees or tall structures in the area to obscure the signal?

[KKlare]

At one time (50 years ago?) the FCC limited the powers to level the VHF-UHF playing field for reception.
VHF 2-6 100kW, VHF 7-13 316kW, UHF 14-83 1000kW. UHF now only goes to 69.

These numbers seem to still match current numbers. I remember them from a book with a combo antenna trying to get stations 10-15 miles away with the weak tube UHF converters. On a good summer day some low channels 500 or more miles away could be seen in Miami.

You may also need to consider the antenna gains for UHF vs VHF, especially with specialized (UHF-only) antennas.

-Ken

[Cholly]

You can pinpoint a new location on antennaweb by entering the nearest old street, then select the "View Steet Level Map" Icon. Once the map is displayed, you can click on your exact location, the map will recenter at that spot, and the table of signal strengths will recalculate.
Yeah, I've done that. I verified the coordinates on SA2004 and 2150.com as well, even adjusting for magnetic declination. Actual coordinates are 35.116, -80.625

[Tower Guy]

An interesting situation for me. I am located here: Latitude: 27.66 Longitude: -80.33. According to: http://www.2150.com/broadcast/default.asp the CBS-HD station in my DMA (West Palm Beach) is 74.42 miles away, not a good thing. Making matters even worse, it's power is only 29.5kwts and it's tower is only 955 feet tall. Another option for me would be the CBS station out of Orlando which is 79.26 miles away, but booming out at 1000kw from a tower 1693 feet high. I suspect my odds of receiving ANYTHING would be better out of Orlando than WPB? Any antenna experts out there who would know for sure, or if there is any hope at all? WPB is on Channel 13 while Orlando is on Channel 58.

WPEC on channel 13 is actually on full power for a VHF station. There's an analog channel 13 in Tampa that may cause interference. I'd try the Orlando instead.

[nostar]

I disagreeTower Guy,

Analog channel 13 in Tampa is almost 120 due west of Richard Kings location, putting it on the side, maximum rejection, of any VHF antenna that he would be using to receive channel 13-1 digital 74 miles due south of his location.

UHF reception at 80+ miles from Orlando is unrealistic. I know I have tried.

[Richard King]

UHF reception at 80+ miles from Orlando is unrealistic. I know I have tried.You didn't make my day. :(

[nostar]

Richard King,

What's wrong with signing up with D*? I looks like you could get NBC,CBS, and Fox in HD.