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San Francisco, CA - OTA

2M views 20K replies 1K participants last post by  jamesm113 
#1 ·
I'm thinking of upgrading to an HDTV and have some questions for those getting OTA HD in the Bay Area.


I live in Berkeley and it looks like while I get most of my networks from SF, I need to also point toward San Jose, 57 miles away, to get NBC. I've been looking at the Channel Master antennaes, but I can't tell if you have one station in the blue range and the rest in the green or yellow ranges, whether you can just point your directional antennae at the blue and pick everything else up off the rest of the antennae, or whether you'd need two directionals or one that can point in two directions.


Also, on antennaeweb, it has a column that's supposed to read "live now" for digital channels that are being broadcast, yet none of the bay area channels say "live now." Most are blank. I take it for granted that the digital broadcasts are available right? You can't get HDTV from an analog broadcast, can you, and I know that's available OTA. Also, I assume that all the digital channels are UHF, so I need to buy the antennae that can reach 60 miles on UHF to get NBC, don't I?


If I go the HD route, I'll be using Directv plus OTA, so I will need to get all the networks in HD to really make the investment worthwhile (as directv will give me either none, or only CBS HD). I'd appreciate if anyone in Berkeley, Oakland, Albany, etc. can sound off on their OTA experiences.


Thanks for the input.

UPDATE: I was asked to add the info below to my post. I now live in a hilly area in Oakland and can't get OTA reception any more. Too bad for me.


Viewers in the San Francisco Bay Area will find the following sites very useful for finding local digital stations:


Bay Area DTV - HDTV Channel List - http://www.choisser.com/sfonair.html


FCC DTV Reception Maps - http://www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/


Locate TV stations available at your address and compute expected signal strength and directions -
http://www.tvfool.com/
 
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#10,942 ·
Are there any interesting stations coming from areas other than Sutro and Walnut? I miss History, Discovery and the like from when I was getting free cable a year or so ago but I don't suppose those types are OTA.
Paul
The only basic cable channels that I know on OTA are ......QVC, Daystar, HSN, The cool tv,.... and the PBS & ION sub channels for kids.
Most of those are not on Sutro tower.

Sorry.. :eek: ...No expanded basic cable premium channels.

But... they are no longer "cable channels" .... if they are now offered over the air.:rolleyes:
I guess charging customers extra.... for QVC in the expanded cable package.... is now a thing of the past.
 
#10,943 ·
Great links on programming. I see (per rabbit ears link) the Bay Area is high on home shopping and low on movies compared to other areas. Ugh.

I'm also a big classic TV fan (because I'm old..) which is what started me moving my antenna away from Sutro for GET TV. MeTV, Antenna TV, Cozi and Works are high on my list, while my wife watches the major networks and I do for news. Watch PBS (KQED) too when I can get control of the remote during prime time hours.

All in all we get all we need from OTA, hopefully the future of OTA stays at least as good as it is now. Now if I could just get rid of this $70 a month internet/land line bill...:)

Hope to get some time this week to play with new antennas and mounting, will report back any interesting results. BTW I am building a cabin in west Marin which will be a big challenge for OTA with Mt. Tam looming large. Have a tree guy out there now climbing 200 ft. redwoods, yesterday we talked about putting an antenna on a pole rising above the trees. He says it's doable, will be my best chance at getting something.

Paul

 
#10,945 ·
Hope to get some time this week to play with new antennas and mounting, will report back any interesting results. BTW I am building a cabin in west Marin which will be a big challenge for OTA with Mt. Tam looming large. Have a tree guy out there now climbing 200 ft. redwoods, yesterday we talked about putting an antenna on a pole rising above the trees. He says it's doable, will be my best chance at getting something.
For an installation like that you'll need at least RG-11 coax and hardline would be better. RG-6 has too much loss even using a preamp.

Chuck
 
#10,946 ·
#10,947 ·
What is a 'hard line' in place of coax?
Hard line is coaxial cable but has a solid aluminum outer shield. It often has special construction for lower loss and is available in large diameters. It's bendable but not really flexible. It can sometimes be found surplus or for free from CATV installations in miscellaneous lengths. I got some old Trilogy MC2 cable from a friend. I had a hard time finding connectors for it. I have 430' of it I'm using with my TV antennas.

Here's a brochure of their latest version.

http://www.trilogycoax.com/pdf/wireless/aircell_catalog/AirCell_Catalog_Transline.pdf

Their smallest offering of 1/2" cable has 1.8 dB loss per hundred feet at channel 51.

Chuck
 
#10,948 ·
TVFool has apparently updated their database. It's now showing K03HY and KTVJ 4 in the results. The latest update must show KTVJ as being on the air, as it's listed in the OTA listing not just the pending list.

For quite a while it's been showing KPIX's translator on channel 42 on Mt. Vaca as being on the air, too. Does anyone up in the Napa Valley see a signal from it?

Larry
 
#10,949 ·
TVFool has apparently updated their database. It's now showing K03HY and KTVJ 4 in the results. The latest update must show KTVJ as being on the air, as it's listed in the OTA listing not just the pending list.

For quite a while it's been showing KPIX's translator on channel 42 on Mt. Vaca as being on the air, too. Does anyone up in the Napa Valley see a signal from it?

Larry

Sometimes I wonder about TV Fool. They now show KFTY at the new location west of Sacramento but Keith has told us it may be up to 2 years before it moves.

The new list is predicting K02QX near Morgan Hill to be 13 dB stronger than KFTY in the new location.

But TV Fool can be wildly inaccurate. It shows RF 7's KAIL in Fresno with a Noise Margin of -14.4 dB, KRNV in Reno with a NM of -25.1 dB and KGO with a NM of -32.8 dB. The only problem is that KGO is the one I receive and the other two I never see. :)

I don't think KPIX on 42 is on the air. There's no License to Cover and I bet KPIX files the correct paperwork. I also see no trace of any signal pointed to Mt. Vaca on 42. The ERP in my direction would be very low but judging from how strong the Mt. Vaca repeater on 2M is here, I would expect to see something on the spectrum analyzer.

Chuck
 
#10,950 ·
Thanks for your input, Chuck. I think TVFool is the best station list available, but it leaves a lot of be desired. I don't know where they get their updates (I presume it's from the FCC) but they have stations listed as being on the air, that are not, and some stations are listed twice at different signal levels. I find that it's accurate out to about the 35 mile point - the green and yellow areas - but beyond that it's not close to what I actually receive. KMAX and KQCA have the best signals from Walnut Grove here , but it lists KXTV, KVIE and KOVR as being stronger. KQCA is listed way down in the grey area. Both KEMO and KTLN are listed way down on my list but should be in at least the yellow area as both have solid signals all the time.

Here's my TVFool list: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id=ec2f7a311959ac

The listings in the green and yellow areas are fairly accurate, but those in the red area are no where near to being right.

Larry
 
#10,951 ·
While tuning around tonight I didn't find any signal on channel 8. KDTS 52 from Mt. Diablo is apparently off the air.

Larry
 
#10,953 ·
Kext-ld

There seems to be no limit to the game playing that LPTV is willing to attempt. The south bay is getting a new LPTV station: KEXT-LD!

Let's see if I can get this story straight. :)

KEXT-CA was analog on RF 27 on Mt. Oso with the city of license as Modesto. Back in June the station then owned by UniMas filed for a digital companion channel on RF 20. The transmitter was to be located at the KSTS site in Fremont but on a smaller tower. The proposed power was 3.6 KW aimed at San Jose. Note that the companion channel has no coverage in Modesto.

A few weeks ago KEXT-CA was sold to Central Valley TV based in Los Angeles for $5000! On August 4 the new owners filed an STA with the FCC for silent operation of KEXT-CA saying they are taking it off the air in order to build their digital station once the application for a construction permit was approved. Today the FCC approved the construction permit.

KEXT-CA did not need to be taken off the air in order to build a station on Mt. Allison. Does anyone think that KEXT-CA will come back on the air with just a year to go to the LPTV analog shutdown?

Seems to me that the final step in the game will be to change the City of License to San Jose, but what do I know?

Chuck
 
#10,955 ·
I just checked on my slingbox and it's still there along with the rest of the 66.x channels.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...rks-escape-grit-to-launch-this-summer/250840/

Two New Broadcast Networks to Launch This Summer:

ESCAPE to be First-Ever Broadcast Network for Women,

GRIT to Target Men
From "[HDTV-in-SFbay] Flurry of OTA MultiChannels"

Looks like Univision has been busy with their two Transmitters KDTV virtual 14/ RF 51 on Mount Allison and KFSF on Sutro Tower virtual 66/ RF 34:
14.1 – Univision HD
14.2 – UniMas HD
14.3 – getTV SD
14.4 – Escape SD
66.1 – UniMas HD
66.2 – Univision HD
66.3 – Bounce SD
66.4 – Grit SD
The Dot 3's and 4's are in English and you may have to use RF numbers to tune the last ones as they are working on the PSIP tables it seems for at least Escape and Grit.


Noticed that Bounce was playing the Blues Brothers Movie last night too so no lack of entertainment either!


Enjoy!


Roy
Both "Escape" and "GRIT" are Live 12:45 PM 8/12/2014

The PSIP shows "0" for both of the .4 channels.

SHF
 
#10,956 ·
Scanning doesn't bring in the two new channels yet, but if you punch in 51.4 and 34.4 you'll find them. Apparently, they haven't worked on the PSIP tables yet.

The two services start next Monday, August 18, according to the promos that they're running now. "Escape" on 51.4 (will be 14.4) is movies involving escapes from dangerous situations. Grit on 34.4 (will be 66.4) are "Movies with backbone." Both channels are letter boxed SD.
@RayGuy... I'm receiving KFSF 66 at normal strength here. Something must be affecting your reception.

Larry
 
#10,957 ·
Hard line is coaxial cable but has a solid aluminum outer shield. It often has special construction for lower loss and is available in large diameters. It's bendable but not really flexible. It can sometimes be found surplus or for free from CATV installations in miscellaneous lengths. I got some old Trilogy MC2 cable from a friend. I had a hard time finding connectors for it. I have 430' of it I'm using with my TV antennas.

Here's a brochure of their latest version.

http://www.trilogycoax.com/pdf/wireless/aircell_catalog/AirCell_Catalog_Transline.pdf

Their smallest offering of 1/2" cable has 1.8 dB loss per hundred feet at channel 51.

Chuck
Thanks Chuck.

GRIT TV from Sutro next Monday? Go Ahead, Make My Day!
 
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