Seattle, WA - OTA

I'm getting D-25-1 and D32 and some signal from D41 in Brier, but nothing from the major networks - ABC, NBC, CBS. I'm gonna try a better antenna and hope for the best. I wish they would boost some of the signals - i'm getting the analog portions of CBS (A7) pretty good, but nothing from D-39. Frustrating.

I am in Lynnwood (where I-5 and I-405 meet) and with the Silver Sensor pointing South-ish I am able to get KBTC (PBS Tacoma) as well. All Seattle stations are a giver. At that one antenna position I also pick up PAX and FOX/WB (13-1/13-2 from Bremerton). KCTS, WB (and FOX on DT 25) are trabsmitted from Capitol Hill. KOMO, KING, KONG, KIRO are transmitted from Queen Anne Hill. I guess you just have to try different antennas at difference positions to find the one that works. Good luck!

Hi,
I'm in North Brier, very close to alderwood mall in what appears to be a hole where signals don't reach.

I'm using a channelmaster 4221 and currently have pointed every which way from around 10' high. My neighbors would have a heartattack if I put it up on the roof.

I'm gonna try it in the attic tonight to try and grab some more channels.

Have you tried many different attennas? This is my first and, while it really beats the indoor antenna, it doesn't seem to tune in to the 3 stations I really want - ABC,NBC, and CBS - digital of course ;-)

I heard the 4221 was a good one. I never had to try that far though. I started out with Radio Shack amplified VHF/UHF and later settled with Jensen TV-920. They all worked but interference was annoying at times. The Jensen was better when I put it on a Southern window, and by closing the aluminum blind behind it, it took away the interference. I just had to have a 10' cable hanging there and to close the blind most of the times. I tried the Terk-55 outdoors and it was worse than the cheapest rabbit ear from Radio Shack. The silver sensor was my latest try and it worked wonder. It is weird that you cannot receive the stations from Queen Anne Hill given its proximity to Capitol Hill. Do you have clear sight to that direction? One solution is to move to my neighborhood. Cheers.

Are the digital signals weaker than the analog? I find that I can get a lot of analog signals coming from tacoma and seattle by adjusting the antenna. thanks for the help.

I have no ideas, sorry. But with RS and Jensen antennas I got snowy 22 (WB) and 16 (KONG). With the SS, 16 is crystal clear, 22 is a bit less. I have not tried other channels. My TU-DST52 roughly pulls in most stations at 85%, UPN at 60% and KBTC at 33%. Yes, 33% and no dropping. I did have some difficulties with CBS, try 32 (KONG), 38 (ABC) and 48 (NBC) to see if you have any luck. Does your receiver have a signal meter? Check to see if it gets but cannot lock on the signal. May be you get too much multipath? Circuit City does carry the Silver Sensor, you can borrow and try it out.

hey thanks for the help.
I'll go by circuit city and pick up a silver sensor as well as try my channelmaster in the attic. the things we do for hdtv :-)

hdnewbie,

If you care to post your nearest intersection I can plot your line-of-site to the QA towers in my topo program and see what might be in the way. I have done this for a number of people so they would know if they needed a 100' mast to clear some hill in the way. I have the 4228 antenna in north Seattle and I get very good signals on everything except the Bates channels in Tacoma. The digital signals are much weaker than a normal analog channel. Sometimes only 10% strength.

Larry

Hey larry,

i'm on a culdesac on 215th pl. sw in brier,wa 98036. The nearest intersection is poplar and vine/216th pl. I played around in the attic tonite and nothing came up. I'm gonna try a silver sensor tommorow and hope for the best. thanks for the help.

hdnewbie,

Sorry I took so long to respond - I was out of town.

Your line-of-site to QA has one large problem: 150 hill to your southwest (about 3/4 mile away). aka the Mountlake hump. 100' tower? Perhaps a helium ballon with copper wire tether? Or wait for Comcast?

sorry, it does not look good,

Larry

oh well,
i'll wait for the new Dish Network HD service. 100' antenna would be great for the neighborhood ;-) thanks anyway.

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and I'm hoping to get some advice. I'm in the final stages of completing my HT (projector should arrive any day now). I will have a DVI input for HDTV available but I don't know which way to go:

1.) OTA: can I even get a signal? There are hills around here that may be in the line of sight. How do I find out without buying gear, setting it up and then return it if I can't receive the signals?

2.) DirecTV or Comcast: I currently have digital cable and I'm not overly impressed with the content I get for the $90 or so I pay them every month. As everybody knows - no local HD channels either and who knows when they will finally deliver. So I guess my question is if DirecTV is any better wrt content and pq?

I'm sorry in case these questions have been answered before. I tried a search but the site is so slow in response that it simply timed out.
Thanx in advance for your input!

Don Andres

Welcome to AVSForum!!

1) Check out http://www.antennaweb.org and tell us more about your specific location in the Issaquah area.

2) I gave up on AT&T Cable (now Comcast) some time ago and switched to DirecTV. I never had digital cable but my son did and it was terrible compared to my DirecTV. We also subscribe to DirecTV local channels so we can record programs on our DirecTV with TiVo receivers/PVRs.

Comcast is more likely to eventually provide local channels since DirecTV lacks bandwidth to provide local HDTV local channels in even the major markets. But if you can get OTA (over the air) HDTV with an antenna, you should.

One simple test you could try is to tune in analog channel UHF 16 (broadcasts from Queeen Anne Hill, where KOMO, KIRO, KING and KONG digital transmitters are located) and analog UHF channel 22 (from Capitol Hill, with KCTS, KSTW/KCPQ and KTWB digital). If you get a passable picture on those 2 UHF channels from your antenna, you stand a good chance of receiving most of the local digitals OTA with your same antenna. Even if the analog UHF channels have ghosts, the digital signals from the same sites will be ghost-free and better quality than you might expect, even when not broadcasting actual HD programs.

Good Luck. Ask more questions if needed. Use PM if you want. There are many Seattle area folks on the forum that have a wealth of experience to share.

Thank you, Dave. I guess I'll pick up an antenna at Radio Shack and see if I can tune into any of the channels you mentioned.

I live about 500 yards south east of the Newport Way and highway 900 intersection, up on a hill but with higher hills west of here. I checked out antennaweb.org and based on their orientation map I might have reception. I'll give it a shot.
Thanx again,

Don Andres

I have driven by that intersection many times. I am trying to picture in my mind which hill you are referring to but my old memory is not cooperating.

Do any of your neighbors have an outdoor TV antenna? If so, you might ask them what they are able to receive, although sometimes a few yards difference can make a big difference in reception.

Let us know how you do.

Larry, can you plug in 195th and 12th NW (Shoreline 98177) in your program for reception for CH 13 and 16. I am able to get 4,5 and 7 using a indoor RS bow-tie antenna. I don't understand why I can get King but not Kong, don't they use the same tower. Thanks

richmondbeach,

Your line of site to Capitol Hill looks pretty good. The path to QA hill is marginal. There is a 50 foot hill about 1/8 mile south of you that looks to be the worst problem. You may need a mast on the roof to get decent reception. I would try a good high-gain antenna first and put it up as high as is convenient for a test. I believe KONG is on QA hill but their power may be much lower than 4,5,7.

good luck,

Larry

Don Andres,

I plotted your line of sight as well. It looks pretty bad. There is an 850 foot hill about 2 miles northwest of you. I am guessing that your elevation is 300-400 feet. So you have quite a difference to overcome. I would not count on any OTA HD.

Larry

Interesting thread.... Out here in Duvall the topo maps never looked good to my installer but when they tried we got all local channels (4,5,7,9 (few variations of),11,13-1,13-2,16,22-1,22-2 etc) and even Fox from Bremerton I believe (we get 2 Fox channels in digital).

5 only came in after fitting an antenuator on the end of the line. All are 100% on the Samsung signal meter - 5 somestimes varies from 77% to 93% to 100%

With a Samsung TS160 anyone know how I can try for channels that don't scan in strong enough? What ones am I missing?

Thank you for doing this, Larry! Too bad you got bad news for me . . .

I guess I'm stuck with Comcast, eventually they'll have local channels in HD on cable. DirecTV will probably never do that because of bandwidth limitations so I think it doesn't make much sense for me to switch.

Thanx again.

Don Andres

pdampier,

Out of curiosity, what is your nearest intersection? I would like to see what the topo profile looks like so I can give more accurate advice to people in the future.

I don't know about the '160 but on the '150 you just punch in the digital channel number on the remote (e.g. 48 for chan 4). If it can lock in on a signal at some point it adds it to the list of channels and will show up as 'available' in the favorites list. This seems to work reliably for channels that are not found during the auto scan.

pdampier

I'd be interested in your antenna hardware config. I'm in a situation where topographically it doesn't look great (172nd Ave NE and NE 42nd in Redmond), but I have had some signal blips indoor w/ a Terk55 (no comments please) just holding up towards the ceiling at the West end of the living room. I haven't tried anything attic or outdoor yet because I'm debating about buying a better antenna....

You could try 282nd Place NE and NE Big Rock Road (98019) as the intersection... My road is actually NE 138th Place but its not on many maps yet...

Let me know your findings - Quite frankly I'm amazed I get a signal let alone 100% on all locals!

Re the antenna - I'm not sure of the exact make - it was installed for me but it looks like a 4248 on http://www.channelmaster.com/pages/u1.htm

There is a pre-amp on it and as I said an antenuator on the end of the coax as the signal was coming in to strong according to the installer...

pdampier,

Your line-of-site to QA and Capitol Hill is what I have been calling "marginal". In other words, there is a large plateau east of Redmond at 600 feet and your elevation is about 430 feet. Since the plateau is 4 miles away, a small change in your elevation (i.e. a mast on a 2-story house) can make a sizable difference. When I plot the profile the line just barely clears the plateau so it is too close to call. If you have your antenna up high enough you should have a clear path to both tower locations. Are you east or west of Big Rock Road (east side is ~ 60 feet higher).

I have the ChannelMaster 4228 antenna. Works quite well considering I too have a marginal situation. I read 50% strength without any amp. I may add another 10 feet of mast at some point. I find it interesting that the chart on the channelmaster site shows your antenna as "fringe" with a range of 45 miles and mine as " ? " with a range of 60 miles! I think the '45' must be a misprint - yagi design is very good for distance.

What brand and model amp are you using?

generationxwing,

Your line of site looks awful. You are at about 100 feet and 2 miles west of you is a 500 foot hill. The towers would have to be a mile high to give you a direct path (or a 200 foot mast at your end). You are probably getting some reflections (the blips) with your terk antenna. I would not invest a lot in OTA, wait for cable or dish HD. Or, move.

quarque: Yeah I'm on the east side of Big Rock Road. My installer also called the area "marginal" - He'd had no real success in Duvall until this one... Unfortunately I don't know the make of the pre-amp that was put in...

EDIT: Forgot to mention. Antenna is mounted about 2ft above the gutter on the 2nd floor of our house. Not even above the roofline.

Yeah, that's kind of what I figured, never hurts to ask though........I can't move, just bought this place.....d'OH.

Curious what you get for the topo of an address in Bonney Lake.

241st and 123rd East
98321

I have tried 4 antenna and paid an installer another time with no success.

keithaxis,

I see no major problem at all unless I am referencing the wrong point. My topo map is a little out of date so I have to guess where your house is. It appears you are about 36 miles from QA towers so any decent antenna should work. There is nothing in the way unless you are on the downside of a valley slope nearby and perhaps you are not at the elevation I think. Would you by any chance have GPS coordinates? Do you have large trees in the way? Do you see higher ground when you look NNW?