Seattle, WA - OTA - Page 2

NNW is a hill (2 blocks away) about 100 feet highwith many fir trees. I was curious if that was my only obstacle, which it appears it may be. I am about 550 elevation with that hill probably going to 650 feet altitude.

OK - that explains it. I had your location closer to the hill so 25 feet of elevation did not look significant. You are obviously further to the southeast. Yes, 100 feet of hill that close and so far from the towers makes it a "very unlikely" situation. You would need to get your antenna at least 75 up in the air. Of couse, then there are the trees...

I just saw in another post that some guy in Kentucky picked up brief signals from a station 1062 miles away(skip propagation), so I guess anything is possible!

trandy,

Well, I wouldn't call it awful, but perhaps "very unlikely". You would have to overcome a 150 foot rise about 1/2 mile west. Unless you can get your antenna well above the ground (50-75') you will not have a chance. Sorry.

Doing all these plots makes me wonder what OTA analog was like in Seattle (before cable). Must have been lots of people with little to no TV. I came to Seattle in '79 so it has always been cable for me until HD arrived. Luckily I am on a ridge with just barely a line to QA and CH towers. I suppose we could ask all the stations to jack up their towers another 1000 feet! That would double/triple the potential OTA audience.

quarque

9308 81st Street SW
Tacoma, 98498

I get 5 and 7 with little to no drop outs. 4 and 9 are somewhat problematic
11 and 13 are unusable. I know I have tress in the way, a water tower just to the left, but am I also fighting hills?

5 is odd where I am in Duvall. I get all the other locals rock solid no glitches at all... Just recently 5 is down to 77% and the odd break up... Must be atmospherics? Does 5 broadcast on a lower power? They are on the same Queen Anne Towers as 4 and 7 etc right?

quarque,

Hi, could you try 212th Ave and NE 10TH PL in Sammamish please?
I'm loath to buy a MyHD card and antenna until I know if there is hope! I'm hopeful as I'm reasonably high up in Sammamish, but who knows? Well, I guess you do

Many thanks,
David.

KOMO-4, KING-5 and KIRO-7 each have their own (separate) towers. All three are on Queen Anne Hill. KONG-16 also shares the KING-5 tower.

Do you get KSTW-DT over there (36-1/11-1)? In the beginning, they were focusing their limited-power digital signal toward Tacoma. So, many folks south and north of their tower are able to see their digital channel. But folks east and west would have little or no signal to work with. Perhaps they have increased their power and eliminated the directionality of their signal by now (although I have not heard so).

Yeah 11-1 comes in fine... Its just King5 and Kong16 that seem to be affected by atmospherics just recently...

I occasionally get breakups on KING-DT (5) here, east of Renton. I never see them on KOMO-DT (4) or KIRO-DT (7). I don't watch a lot of KONG-DT, but so far I have not seen the dropouts there.

I just moved to near 162nd Ave and NE 43rd in Redmond and I'm trying to pull in HDs from an antenna in my attic. I just got a Winegard PR-8800 that a friend wasn't using that I've set up, but I'm only getting channels 5 and 7 adequately. For instance, is coming in really poorly (3-6 on the signal meter out of 100). I do have a 50 foot hill about 1/4 mile away that I have to clear that has trees and houses on it, but I'm not sure that is such a big problem. I do get KIRO with an adequate signal (around 50 out of 100). I wonder if I may have too much gain? Should I try a CM4228? How can I tell if I need to use an attenuator?

If anyone wants to buy a house in Sammamish, I have one for sale with an RSDB mounted in the attic that has a line of sight to QA, and gets all stations quite well :-). If it doesn't sell soon, I may go over there and take that thing out of the attic and see if it works in the new house.

jameskollar,

you are fighting a 430 foot hill about 1.7 miles NNE and your elevation is about 260 feet. Looks very marginal.


dlinsley,

no major problems that I can see - go for it.

del47618,

you also have a 520 foot hill 2 miles west and your elevation is about 280 feet. I would call this very marginal (even "unlikely") for reliable HD.

quarque, thanks a lot for looking. I didn't realize that the bridle ridge hill was so high. I'm torn as to whether or not I should shell out $50 for a new preamp and give that a try, or just give up and wait for Comcast to offer HD. A nearby tree on public land is going to block my DirecTV view in about 2 years so I might as well start working on becoming a slave to the Comcast man.

quarque,

It looks like we will be moving (again). Could you let me know how it looks in the Fairwood area of Renton? The closest major intersection for us will be SE 184th St and SE Petrovisky Road.

Thanks,

Andy

Andy,

We live in Fairwood West (west of 148th Ave SE and the golf course) and I get everything from Seattle, Gold Mountain and Bellevue. It sounds like you will be a bit further east than us. Reception is good here with a $20 yagi UHF only antenna from RatShack. Mine is aimed to just barely bring in Gold Mountain (KCPQ) to the west and Tiger Mountain (I think that's where they are) to the east for PAX and ShopNBC (although I don't watch them). I have no reception of KBTS (PBS 28, DT 27) from Tacoma and don't feel I need it with KCTS available.

Thanks Dave. I actually have the same Radio Shack antenna as you, but its been gathering dust since I'm in a reception black hole right now. I don't really care about PAX or ShopNBC, so that should make it a bit easier.

Is your antenna in the attic or on the roof?

My UHF antenna is on the roof, about 5 feet above the peak and about 5 feet below my VHF antenna, which now days is only used if all else fails (DTV, DirecTV locals and basic cable). I tried several indoor antennae and none of them got me a usable signal, including the Silver Sensor. I think I needed to get above the small upward grade and trees between me and Seattle.

Andy,

Your line of sight looks excellent - not even close to a problem with QA or CH towers. You may have trouble with stuff in Tacoma.

Larry

Thanks, good to hear. When you say Tacoma, are you including the stuff on Gold Mountain in Bremerton?

I have no trouble with Gold Mountain from here. I suspect he means KBTS, the Tacoma PBS station.

I also get KSTW fine. They are a Tacoma licensed station but their transmitter is on Capitol Hill along with KCTS and KTWB.

Let us know how well you do with reception when you get moved in.

I can live without KTBS. My only requirements are KOMO, KING, KIRO and KCPQ. Anything else is pure gravy.

Thanks to both of you Larry and Dave for your help.

Funny how we've got all the work to do in packing and planning the move and I'm worrying about my HD reception and whether to keep cable or go back to DirecTV!

I should have had the foresight to worry about my OTA as well as DirecTV...*sigh*

Oh well, moving is easy, getting HD isn't.

I live in Montlake right at the base of Capital Hill (19th and Blaine if you'd like to look it up Larry)...

I have a Terk TV35 mounted on the roof and I get KIRO reasonable strong (bounces between 70-85), and the WB/Fox off the hill (22-1, 22-2), but nothing else. I'm guessing I'm out of luck to get more, but if anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. Its frustrating to live so close the the antennas and still not be able to pick up the channels.

I understand. The last time I moved (only a year ago, long story), I moved from a house with almost perfect reception of everything to one in Issaquah that could only get KCPQ. I didn't plan this move for OTA HD, but it is a nice bonus.

jamesmil,

Your LOS to QA hill and anything outside Seattle looks very marginal (unlikely). But to Capitol Hill you should be OK. Hope you can survive on 2 channels. You are in quite a low spot there. But hey, the arboretum is close!

Larry

drewba,

I think real estate agents and the MLS need to start giving an OTA rating for each house! It is starting to become important to many people.

Larry

I am all for that!

I am hating the fact that I'll have to deal with Comcast just to get my local HD's.....

Thanks for all the work though Larry!

jamesmil,

Have you tried the Zenith Silver Sensor Indoor Antenna? I live in West Seattle and have perfect reception of all locals with it. I tried the Terk TV-55 plus others and now believe what most on this forum say that all Terk's are bad news. Quarque has a good point about your low spot. It might be worth a try with the Silver Sensor though. You can pick one up at Sears for $39.99 and good return policy. Hope this helps!!

Could someone list the coordinates for each of the towers in Seattle and some information on reception? I have a copy of Delorme TopoUSA and can easily do profile maps from my house to the towers.

I had poor luck picking up OTA VHF when we first moved to the house using an attic antenna, so I'm not expecting much better with OTA HDTV. I wouldn't mind seeing what is possible though.

http://www.antennaweb.org obviously knows the location of the towers, but it doesn't show them on their information page.

alex

Here are the transmitter sites you are looking for:

http://www.100000watts.com/tv/SEA.html