Questions about Jax, Fla DTV

[Nick]

I'm thinking about HDTV. I may be wasting my trying to get Jax OTA from about 63 miles away here in the Golden Isles of Georgia. First I'm not even sure which, if any Jax stations are broadcasting in HD. Second, at 63 miles distance, I would have to mount one of two types of high-gain UHF antennae; either a UHF yagi or a 8-element bowtie/screen antenna, the latter of which, at +12dB, has the highest gain on the UHF spectrum, being rated at 60 miles nominal.

I'll be shooting to Jax over the roof of my one-story apartment home, 190* to the south, from the uncovered, fenced-in patio area at the back. When I first looked at the apartment, I told the apartment manager I was going to mount a satellite dish. She said as long as the pole is sunk within the confines of the patio it was ok. I didn't tell her that I was mounting two dishes (61.5/110/119) on a 12'-15' pole, with the 36" sq, 8-bay bowtie perched on top.

Any of you with fringe UHF experience, please let me know what you think of this plan. The terrain is flat (~10' above sea level) with a lot of rivers and wet marsh between here and Jax. Also, what is your opinion about, if needed, adding a signal amp at the ant. tie-on.

I know all this will be trial-and-error, but I would appreciate your ideas.

[Richard King]

Nick... You sound like you have a similar situation to mine here in Vero Beach. My NBC and CBS locals are out of West Palm Beach (no chads allowed) at a distance of about 70 miles. I have had no luck in pulling in the WPB those affiliates from here. I gave up and got cable until Dish finally added WPB locals this past summer. Let me know if you find something that works. I would like to put an antenna on a rotor to grab WPB in one direction and Orlando in the other.

By the way, you must have a nice, understanding landlord. :D

[AFH]

Nick,

I just got a HDTV this weekend and I checked with all the broadcaster in the area to see if they are broadcasting in HD and they are. It may tough to get the OTA where you live.

[AFH]

I wanted to add another note. I had a chance to watch som eHD programming on the HD stations in the market and the experience was okay. The CBS station showed the HD signal for the King of Queens but between 8:30 and 10:30 they were having problems with their HD signal. At 10:30 I was able to watch CSI Miami and it was the best looking HD program of the night. Crossing Jordan on NBC was okay but some colors were too saturated. Everwood on the WB came in HD until about 9:30 when the local WB affiliate had a problem with their HD signal.

Overall the first night was a mixed bag of results. It appeared as though most of the programming was upconverted. This weekends Auburn v. Alabama football game should look remarkedly better than the upconverted stuff.

Nick, by the way if you read this post there is a website by the name of antennaweb.org that can help you determine what type of antenna you should use based on your distance from the local stations digital antennas. I went to that site and I was able to point my antenna in the right direction so that I could receive the HD locals. The PB station will start broadcasting in HD by May 1, 2003 because they were having problems with their digital antenna.

[Nick]

AFH, congrats on your new HDTV.

Thanks for the info about Jax stations, I am very familiar antennaweb.org & have also been all over some of the antenna mfr sites looking for any good news about being able to pull a decent UHF signal out of Jax.

Shamefully, I find no HDTV info whatsoever on the Jax TV web sites I have been able to locate.

San Diego's KFMB has a complete HD primer (http://www.kfmb.com/hdtv.php) posted on their site. All HD stations should be as proactive.