Philadelphia, PA - OTA - Page 113

They recently replaced their horizontally-polarized antenna with a circularly-polarized antenna and increased power slightly from 30.2 kW to 34 kW.

- Trip

Hey all. So I've just read through about 60 pages of forum talk and all I can say is that I'm in a little over my head here... but I'm determined to muddle through.

I live in South Jersey... Salem County. About 23.9 miles from all the Philly stations. I cancelled the cable today. And I'm ordering an antenna asap. We're going OTA and netflix in my house.

We can mount on the roof... we're pretty rural so there shouldn't be any interference from trees or buildings or anything.

I really need help selecting an antenna. Getting NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, and FOX are my priorities. Everything else is a bonus (though it seems like ABC might be problematic from what I am reading).

If anyone has an antenna suggestion, I'd really appreciate it. I'm just going to buy it, mount it, and learn as I go.

Thanks!
~Trish

I live just across the De/Md line near Elkton. With Directv my local channels come out of Baltimore, I wanted my Philly locals back so I installed an antenna to see how it would work. I first tried the HD Stacker with a Winegard 8780 preamp and could get channels 3,10,17,23,35,48,51,57, and 65. I know for channel 6 I need a Lo-VHF antenna. Channel 29 I can't figure out, while I was getting signal strength in the 50's and 60's for 3 and 10, 29 would always be 0. So a few weeks ago I bought a U-8000. Signal strength is better now on 3 and 10, 60's and 70's, the other channels I'm still picking up ok but 29 is still 0. Any suggestions? Would a different antenna be the solution?

Going off memory here, so I could be wrong but I believe your problem is a beef with the FCC in that they allowed MPT Annapolis to have the same RF as XTF... Yes that's right. Major stations in adjacent markets with co-channel interference. Shameful really.

You will need an antenna with a very, very narrow capture area, such as the 91xg, with line of sight to the XTF tower. That may be some serious height.

I'm in West Chester, PA. I'm about 15 miles from the transmitter towers, but I have a pretty good path to them. I've got this antenna mounted in my attic:

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...%28ANT3020X%29

I get excellent reception on everything local, including 6ABC. I do have a signal amp hooked up to it, but that's only because I split the signal off in many directions inside the house ;-} Setting this thing up was pretty easy, too. It's a lot lighter than it looks.

(Much to my surprise, I'm also picking up WFMZ out of Allentown, and some station out of Bethlehem.)

Whatever you get, make sure you get something capable of VHF-LO if you want to ensure you can get ABC on Channel 6. Just remember that Bigger Is Better, and Higher Is Better, whenever practical.

Thanks, interesting that MPT doesn't even show up on TV Fool as a channel available in my area. LOS to the XTF tower may be a problem. For the moment I will have to settle for getting the CBS afternoon and NBC Sunday night NFL games in HD. Sunday Ticket is great but it's not in HD. I may have to move back to a more rural area.

You're not really picking WFMZ up out of Allentown, you're picking up their Philly repeater on RF channel 45 which it seems they've finally gotten operational.

I've been picking up WFMZ since I mounted the antenna in summer of 2010. It's the real one ;-}
Here's my TVFool, in case you're curious:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...4bbad4efecacbc

I'm picking up WBPH and WLVT, too. I'm thinking it's a little more "Fortunate Geography" as opposed to "Epic Antenna", but I'm still pretty darned happy with the antenna ;-)

An update from Haddonfield. The $5 bowtie hanging from a suction cup in the window works well but the TiVo Premiere tuner doesn't like WHYY 12 and WPVI 6 as much as the tuner in my Samsung plasma. There was much antenna fiddling on Sunday afternoon. On Friday night we watched Grimm on NBC, on Sunday night we watched some Eagles football and Once Upon A Time. All the shows were stunning especially the "eye in the sky" camera on NBC football. I think I will have to put up a more reliable outdoor antenna before installing a second TiVo in my bedroom. Hopefully that will lock down the picture on WHYY and WPVI.

The streaming services in the TiVo are good but not great. The selection of streaming 'tween programming from Hulu is slim. Hopefully he will find more interesting shows on Netflix. Another disappointment with the TiVo Premiere is the fact that the Amazon "channel" won't access the "free" Prime content included in the Prime $80 all you can ship and watch package. Warning to prospective TiVo cable cutters, the Amazon streaming function is only for PAID content. The good news is I can still acces the Amazon Prime Content from my Sony BDP-S380 Blu-Ray player.


The Pandora music streaming is very nice. Type in an artist and the Pandora brain will assemble a playlist of that artist and similar artists. By the way the optional $40 qwerty keyboard remote is great for typing in artists name. Worth every penny. I am not sure what the bit rate of the music is compared to my terabyte worth of Apple Lossless files but the variety is much better than the music channels on FIOS. I lost track of how many times that the Classic Alternative station played Been Caught Steeling by Jane's Addiction.
An update from Haddonfield.

Cheryl and Mike:

I sit right on the Haddon Hts-Haddonfield border and have good luck with the RCA ANT751. I'm receiving 3-1, 6-1+, 10-1+, 12-1+, 17-1+, 23-1, 29-1, 35-1+, 44-1, 48-1+, 57-1+, and 61-1+. I'm also receing several Spanich channels and an all-infomercial channel that I never watch. I almost never have drop-outs or pixelation and the antenna sits above a dropped ceiling about 10feet above ground-level on the first floor. So if you can add any height to that and put it outside, it will work well.

Also, I saw reference to WFMZ's Channel 45 service in another post. As far as I know, that is not on the air yet. I emailed them a few times to ask and one of their engineers promised to inform me when it went into service. The last time I heard from them was Oct 13th and I got the following response:

The antenna is installed, coax run and the microwave link to the site is working. We are waiting for the electrician to install a 480v to 208v transformer for power.

Thank you for checking. I will email you when it is up to see how you are receiving the signal.

If and when I hear from them or I get a signal, I will post it.

I can't pick up Fox 29 out of Philly when I'm 42 miles from the transmitter but I'm getting WBOC-16 and Fox 21 out of Salisbury which is 77 miles away. The one direction I do have a good open shot is to the south, I guess that makes all the difference. That's just with a U-8000, I would like to see what a 91xg can do.

45 is on the air, but isn't very powerful. Here in Lower Bucks county, it's just on the good side of marginal, so I can imagine it isn't penetrating very far into Jersey.

TV Fool shows four receivable stations (from here in Swarthmore):
WNJS -34.1 dBm
WWSI -36.1 dBm
WMCN -43.7 dBm
WPSJ -52.7 dBm

WNJS and WMCN come in fine here.

I think WWSI is currently broadcasting from Tuckerton, not Waterford Works. Anyone know when they will have an antenna up and running in Waterford Works?

A week or two ago my DTV Pal DVR announced that it had found new channels for WPSJ but signal isn't strong enough to lock. Anyone receiving this channel? Are they on the air? Signal strength per TV Fool is strong enough but I'm not seeing anything.

Thanks for any info.

The six subchannels you list for WPSJ are what my DTV Pal DVR found - so it really is there, just not enough power for me to lock. I wonder if WPSJ is at the full power they are allowed.

You are seeing what I am seeing for WNJS and WMCN.

No sign of WWSI. I wonder what's up with that (TV Fool has them broadcasting from the same location).

I take it back. Your extract shows a construction permit for WWSI for 1000 kW. When they get that built I should be able to receive it.

Locked on WWSI for the first time just now. RF channel 49, virtual channel 62.1. It seems weaker than WMCN because WWSI kept breaking up where WMCN is solid. I'm guessing WWSI is not yet at full power.

Also earlier locked on WPSJ for a while, then it was gone again.

All these stations are in Waterford Works. I am receiving in Swarthmore about 29 miles away.

I understand Tivo can take a while to correct listings. I've written twice asking Tivo to fix thier listings so I can use them to set recordings.
Originally:
If I use the program guides or program titles to set a recording, I get a blank/null program.

Because, the program listings correspond to:
69.1 WFMZDT (Per program guide) recording result = null
69.2 WFMZDT2 (Per program guide) recording result = null
69.3 WFMZDT3 (Per program guide) recording result = null
69.4 WFMZDT4 (Per program guide) recording result = null

The actual programs corresponded to:
69.1 WFMZ-HD "To be announced" recording result = program listed under WFMZDT
69.2 WFMZ-AW "To be announced" recording result = program listed under WFMZDT2
69.3 WFMZ-ME "To be announced" recording result = program listed under WFMZDT3
69.4 WFMZ-RT "To be announced" recording result = program listed under WFMZDT4
Tivo has changed the listings. Now only WFMZ-DT, -DT2, -DT3, -DT4 are listed. The second set of listings have disappeared. along with them is my ability to record WFMZ programming.
If I tune into WFMZ direct to the TV (no Tivo), I get:
69.1 WFMZ-HD
69.2 WFMZ-AW
69.3 WFMZ-ME
69.4 WFMZ-RT
Guessing that the new translator is involved in this.
Suggestions as to how to explain/present it to Tivo so they understand and fix listings?

The wife and I were a little disappointed with dropouts while watching Grimm last night. As I may have mentioned before the TiVo tuner seams to be a little picky with the $5 UHF bowtie antenna.

Last week I spotted the news story about a local cable system refusing to run the advertisment for the Leaf flat antenna by Mohu. Here is the story; http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/columns/...-feeds-you.php God bless the cable company. Mohu is probably getting more exposure for the Leaf from this than they would have from the advertisment.

Well in addition to the Leaf I also spotted the Wall-Tenna at Amazon. I know that every antenna works perfectly at some location but I would still love to read comments from the forum.

The $44 Leaf by Mohu http://www.gomohu.com/the-leaf-indoor-hdtv-antenna/

The $35 Wall-Tenna http://wall-tenna.com/#

I have ordered both for testing at my house. In the worst case scenario both get returned. I have a feeling that these will perform as well as the bowtie, but time will tell.

PS It was a little scary watching the CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes tributes to Andy Rooney in high definition.

Will The Antennas Direct Clearstream 2 Work Well in this situation

1. I KNOW it is uhf only as my attic is very small. I will add rabbit ears as I already have them and I am not going to pay an extra $20 for a vhf element that is not as good.

2. I will have a rotator

3. I am about 12 Miles away from the towers.

4. Here is a tv fool report for what my signals are and how strong. Will I pick up all of the green and yellow

after tvfool dot com post this suffix as this being my first post and them not allowing me to post links

?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d4bba1c2992b5ce

I'm thinking about dropping my cable subscription and trying OTA. I live in an apartment that no longer has TV antennas, so I'll need to buy an indoor antenna. I don't have enough posts to link to my TV Fool report, so I'll include it in the post right after this one.

Here's the TV Fool report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...ec12f4c96140a8

Again, is there a particular kind of indoor antenna you'd recommend?

At first I was a bit weirded out by how much your tvfool looked like mine... then I realized you were in West Chester, too (c:

The tricky thing about an apartment is, which side of the building are you on? All of the local stations are in that Slightly-North-Of-East direction, and ideally you'll want to aim an antenna right towards them. If you can do that, awesome! If not, things might get a little trickier. THEN you have to remember that WPVI-6 and WHYY-12 are VHF stations, so you'll need something VHF capable.

In my experience around here, you'll probably have no serious problems with the UHF stations. 6 and maybe 12 will be tricky. As far as an actual indoor antenna goes, I might try something as simple as one of these:

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...u=079000322467

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...or%20Only&sku=

(As for me, I've got a huge antenna mounted in my roof. Overkill? Yes. But fun!)

Thanks, TydalForce. Would an amplified antenna be a good idea?

New to the forum (and cable cutting).

About to install a Winegard 7084p on my roof (~40 ft) in Haddon Heights, NJ. I will use a 3 way splitter with about 75 ft cable run as my longest.

From what I've read, I should be fine to get all the Philly stations with that setup. However, I was wondering two things:

1. Should I get a pre-amp to ensure that my signal is strong on all three sets?

2. Is there any hope of picking up stations in NYC, Baltimore, Lancaster/Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre if I were to get a rotator and pre-amp (eg Winegard AP-8275)?

I'll send my tv fool report after I get 3 posts (to prove I'm not a spammer)

I generally don't like amps on antennas unless you know you need one. I have a distribution amp on my current antenna cuz the wiring is split off all over the house. I used a pre-amp on a DB2 I used when I lived in Broomall, because I had an odd angle to the antenna and needed that extra bit of help. But if you don't need the amp, I fear it'll cause more problems for you in the long run. (Note the heaping spoonful of uncertainty in my answer...)

If you go with an amplified antenna, see if you can find one where the amp can be turned off.
The simple indoor antennas are cheap enough you can try one that's without an amp first, then get a second one with an amp (or vice-versa). Maybe buy one from a local retailer so you can return it, if you can find a decent enough model at someplace like Sears or Radio Shack, etc.
You could also go with an unamplified antenna, and then tack on a separate amplifier, but that might be *too* powerful, and would probably be at least as expensive as buying a second antenna anyway.

follow-up thoughts:

1. Take a paper-clip, unfold it, and stick it in the coax jack of your TV. Do a channel scan. See what you get. You probably won't get VHF, but what you get for UHF might surprise you. If you get a pretty decent signal with a paper clip, you probably won't need an amplified antenna
2. If you have any old "rabbit ears" antenna laying around, try 'em out. An antenna is an antenna (there's no such thing as an "HD Antenna"; that's just marketing). You might have something in your junk drawer that'll work just fine.

My location is different, but I live in a challenging environment so I thought I'd share:

I'm in a Center City highrise, full of multipath, brick walls, metal studs, no line of sight to the towers, etc. I got an amplified Terk indoor antenna and have perfect reception of all locals UHF and VHF, including 6, 23, and 69. (And also perfect reception of all HD Radio channels if that interests you).

http://www.terk.com/#/indoor_tv_ante..._non_amplified

New station WWJT-LD locked for the first time today. Station is on RF 48, virtual channel 7. Four subchannels, all displaying test patterns as of this morning. 7-1 shows WWJT Channel 7 test pattern, 7-1, 7-2, 7-3 all showing color bar test patterns. No audio on any of the subchannels yet.

I have been in and out of town for the past two weeks. Both flat antennas arrived and last night I tried a quick test. Very strange results. Before trying the new antennas I wrote down the signal strenth with the existing bowtie.

The I hooked up the Leaf and ran the tuner search. The Leaf appeared to work about as well as the bowtie.

Without rescanning I disconnected the Leaf and connected the Wall-Tenna. I got the same soso reception. So I reconnected the Leaf and began to experiment with the orientation. At one point I had only the Leaf connected to the TiVo and against the directions advice it was rotated 90 degrees. At the same time the Wall-tenna wall flat against the window, not connected to anything, and the signal strenght numbers went throgh the roof. CBS-3 peaked out at 94 and even WPVI-6 and WHYYY 12 hit the high sixties. I wrote the numbers down at home. I thought I had a grand slam and removed the Wal-tenna from the window sill and boxed it up. When I returned to the couch WHYY disappeared and WPVI was unwatchable.

Some how the Wall-Tenna was interacting with the Leaf. Any comments?

Last night I switched out the Leaf for the Wall-Tenna. I also added some Velcro dots to the mix so I could quickly experiment with placement.

First up I connected the Wall-Tenna to my Samsung plasma's tuner. While my Samsung does not have a strength meter it appears to have a much easier time with WHYY-12 and WPVI-6. Both channels exhibited zero breakup with the Wall-Tenna. For the next experiment I lowered the Wall-Tenna about 18" to the bottom half of my window and reconnected it to the TiVo. I rescanned the channels and found success. WHYY-12 and WPVI-6 were clear and stable. I'll take a clear and stable picture on MOST channels over picking up ALL the channels the way the Samsung's internal tuner does.

The next test will be to log the channel strength from the Wall-Tenna and try the Leaf in the lower position. I am going to leave the Wall-Tenna in place while I TiVo Grimm on WCAU-10. It will be very interesting to see if the dropouts from Grimm are still present.