Philadelphia, PA - OTA - Page 14

Okay, I'll shut up after this one. At least for awhile. But I just noticed that the Colts / Ravens game will indeed be in HD.

AND the BB game I'm watching now is also in HD.

But this HD can't compare with the HD shows I get on NJN 58.5

This just looks like regular old DT

Also, the game itself fills the screen but the commercials have black bars on each side.

Anybody have any experience with this guy on ebay who's selling instructions on how to build and set up an antenna? I'll try putting the link in here but if it doesn't work, see item 140071004183.

http://cgi.*********/BEST-HDTV-off-a...QQcmdZViewItem


It's 5 bucks and sounds like something that's do-able to me, especially after seeing some of the outdoor UHF antennas I'm finding.

He's not selling antennas, just instructions on how to go to Radio Shack and buy yourself some parts.

There's nothing magic about name brands in antennas (just like cabling). You could do the same thing by getting a plain-old UHF bowtie antenna real cheap then going up on the roof and seeing what you get. The difference is that you don't have to pay someone $$$ on eBay who's going to tell you the same thing.

If the low-end antenna doesn't work, you'll need something directional and that's where it gets a bit pricey. You can make something yourself here as well (homebrew Yagi), but you need time and materials to get it right.

Here's an example of someone comparing the Square-Shooter to a homebrew antenna http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/squareshot.htm Read the conclusions at the bottom of the article to get a perspective of what you will need to do. The reviewer is local to the Philly area.

are the bars you refer to the same bars you see during the daytime programs? (your other post) Maybe different colors but in the same position?

if so, then it's positively you watching SD over the DT station. And like i said, my SD pic on the DT channel is a lot better than directvs crappy compressed locals

Ya. Exactly. They went to black after I posted, but right after I changed the output from 480i to 1080i, I got gray bars. Then after a minute or so they went back to black and I haven't seen any more gray bars since then. They are all black again.

Changing the output doesn't make any difference since I'm using the composite output and that only outputs 480i, but I thought I'd try it for fun.

I'm still getting the (black) bars on SOME commercials (most, actually), but not on all. Some commercials have no bars (picture fills the screen).


I'm not sure what you mean by this. I don't have an HD TV -- I'm watching on a regular old analog TV. I think that's what you mean (watching on a non-HD TV), but I'm not sure. In any event, it's certainly no big thing.

Watching the Colts game in HD was pretty outstanding.

GeekGirl: I know he's not selling antennas, but I was wondering if anybody here has tried to build one of his antennas. I'll probably shoot the guy the 5 bucks and see what he has -- unless somebody here tells me not to bother wasting the Fiver.

Eagles are in a slugfest. Good game.

But now the gray bars are back during the program presently on, which is 48 Hours Mystery. Same bars, just gray. Same gray bars on commercials.

I assume the bars are a function of what's being broadcast and/or how it's being broadcast. It's either something to do with KYW's broadcasts or some kind of conflict with their broadcast and my box.

Channel 58-5's broadcast right now (which is HD) is full screen. I've never seen bars on any of the broadcasts on any of the NJN channels.

the commercials without bars are broadcasting in HD. The broadcaster is sending out the signal and you cant change it. In other words, while watching the DT station you are seeing both SD and HD stuff. However obviously you dont see all the resolutions possible with your current setup.

Okay, I know I'm long-winded but what can I say? If you don't like my blathering, don't read it.

First of all, here's a fairly interesting article on antennas - http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/squareshot.htm

I think it's circa 2004 (says at the bottom). Does anybody else think there ought to be a law requiring all articles published on the 'Net to include the DATE OF THE ARTICLE? I'm tired or reading stuff that turns out to be 5 years old and thus well outdated.

Note that he says in there: "The Square Shooter did very well, pulling in nine stations ... including the weak, hard-to-receive signal from Philadelphia PBS station WHYY on channel 55"

So it would appear that WHYY has been sending out a fairly weak signal all along.

So this morning I took my little bowtie antenna into the attic and set my Voom to aim the antenna at RF 8, which is the RF that has given me the strongest signals so far. The Voom sounds a fairly loud beep during this process which changes when the signal strength hits 85, which is the minimum required to lock a channel. So I moved my bowtie around until I heard the signal change, then set it in that position and came back downstairs to the box. Keep in mind that the bowtie is inside, and thus the building is masking the signal somewhat.

The signal strength (at RF 8) was just about 85+, which is a tad weaker than I was getting with my VHF antenna (88-91). So I did a scan for local channels and what do you know if NJT didn't scan in at RF 43 and a strength of 92!! Pretty impressive.

NJT is out of Trenton and according to antennaweb I'm 21.4 miles from its tower. Still, I'm getting a 92 score for it. I don't even get that high a score for NJB, which is out of New Brunswick and supposedly only 6.6 miles from me (tho' I have sometimes gotten a score of 91 for it -- but mostly 88 or 89).

According to Google maps, I'm 34.5 miles from Trenton (center city) and although that's by road, the route is pretty much as the crow flies. And I've driven it enough to know that it's a lot farther than 21 miles to center city. And although I don't know where the digital tower is, 34.5 is significantly farther than the 21.4 miles antennaweb says. In any event, it's certainly 20-30 miles (or more) away from me and in the same direction as the Roxborough antenna farm, even according to antennaweb (233°).

Now, I DO get KYW (3.1), and that's supposedly in the Roxborough antenna farm and 49.8 miles from me, according to antennaweb; although I do concede that it's right on the fringe of reception for me because sometimes it comes in and sometimes it doesn't. But mostly it does.

Google maps has me at 64.8 miles to Manayunk (about as close to "Roxborough" as I could get w/ Google maps), so if it's that far away, that's pretty impressive reception for me -- especially with a VHF antenna.

So I am encouraged. If I get a good antenna and put it outside, I should be able to get pretty much all of the Philly stations broadcasting with a decent signal strength and the appropriate PSIP and all that jazz.

Newsposter, I think I finally figured out what you've been telling me. I had gray bars on 3.1 pretty much all night last night and all morning this morning until the BB game started at 1:00, whereupon I got full screen reception. And, as you were saying, it's just an HD vs. SD thing. Anything broadcast (by 3.1) in SD has bars (don't know why some are gray and some are black) and anything broadcast (by 3.1) in HD is full screen. Zap2it confirmed that for me. Obviously, as you said, some commercials are HD and some (most) are SD.

Why I get no bars with SD broadcast by NJN remains a mystery, but I suppose there's a simple explanation. At this point, I'm more focused on getting all the digital channels I can than I am on gray or black bars. And as long as I can watch the football game this afternoon in fullscreen HD, I'm happy. Very happy.

Yea, I know I'm not really watching HD because I don't have an HD TV, but you know what I mean.

Now I have to spend even more $$ to get a new TV. Does it ever end?

But maybe the good news is that since as of this March all TV's will have to include a tuner in them, maybe non-tuner HD TV's will get cheaper? That'd be nice.

NJN programs are full screen because they are broadcast in 4:3 480i. Since you have a 4:3 screen, it fills up your TV completely. Major broadcasters like ABC, NBC, CBS affliates tend to cater to the widescreen viewers for their digital sigals. They use black or grey pillar bars for 4:3 contents to produce a WS picture. In this case, the black bars are part of the picture, so you can't remove them.

t max getting good signal is more important than a tv....if you cant get the signal, no point in getting a tv...so perfecting signal first is smart..it's what i did. I got HDtivo just for the bigger drive, never expecting to receive signal..but i did

I was wondering what happened to NJN-5 (which used broadcast HD from 8pm) because I don't get them in either CH23 or CH52. Their website (http://njn.net/digital) says they still do but I guess their in transition.

Generally speaking, reception is better in the winter with leaves off the trees than in summer. Leaves block signal. What might be happening is that during summer the leaves are acting as an attenuator and you're able to lock. When the leaves come off the trees the signal is stronger, maybe strong enough to overload your receiver resulting in no reception. I don't think I would trust the signal strength meter on a set-top box. You'd have to use a spectrum analyzer to really know for sure what is going on. Or you could try using an attenuator and see if that fixes your problem with 29.

PhillyGuy - Thanks much for clearing that up. Now I know (one less thing!)

enier - NJN-5 is still broadcasting it's nightly HD stuff from 8PM to Midnight. I get it on NJT out of Trenton, which is analog ch. 52 and digital ch. 43; and NJB out of New Brunswick, which is NJB analog ch. 58 and ch. 8 for digital. They show up on my box as 52.1, 52.3, 52.4 & 52.5 (the HD one) and 58.1, 58.3, 58.4 & 58.5 (the HD one), respectively, but that's just how my box displays them (as opposed to displaying them as the true UHF frequency they are broadcast at). Point being, they are still broadcasting the HD channels ( 52.5 & 58.5), and if you were (are) getting 52.1, you should be getting 52.5 (I would think). In fact, I believe my ".5" channels come in with a bit more strength than the others (don't know why).

I've never gotten analog ch. 23 (or it's digital equivalent), but I'm sure they're doing what the others are.

Check out this link for more info: http://www.njn.net/digital/

newsposter - I'm trying to remain optimistic, but I'm a natural born skeptic. I fear I'm just too far from the Philly towers to get all the Philly stuff unless and until the full transition (in 2 years) when presumably all stations will go full power on their digital. I'm going up on my roof with a spare antenna I have, which will increase the height and also eliminate the indoor signal masking effect, but the fact remains that I'm basically 50 miles out, and that's getting a tad far for digital reception.

The fact that I get KYW now gives me hope. But from my recent research, it's pretty clear to me that KYW is broadcasting at considerably higher power than the other guys. Here's another link from that antenna guy that I linked previously, along with his numbers on that -

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/antout.htm


I realize that his numbers are dependent on his location, etc. etc., but I think they pretty much represent the situation with regard to relative signal strength. Also note that the article is circa 2002 and thus outdated. But I nevertheless believe that KYW is still the powerhouse out at the farm in Roxborough. I see now that he doesn't have WCAU in there, but I think they are also relatively weak at the present time.

I'm also encouraged by the fact that when I do a scan, it pauses at several RF numbers which probably correspond to the digital channels I'd be receiving if the signal strength were a bit stronger. It never locks in at these places (but for 8, 26 and 43) but it does pause there -- as if it's trying to lock in on something. I need to record those numbers and take a look at their corresponding digital channel equivalents for me. BTW, it doesn't pause at all @ 50 (WHYY). Blows right past it, so I'm not terribly hopeful about getting that one. Especially given all the posts I've been reading from you Philly guys who aren't getting it and are practically on top of the tower but just in the wrong freaking direction (the dreaded "north and east").

I'm actually considerably closer to NYC than Philly, but I've got a "mountain" blocking me from NYC and I don't think I can get high enough to avoid that problem. Thus I get much better analog reception of the Philly stations than I do for the NYC stations.

I might also be able to get WLVT-DT ch. 39.3 (PBS ALLENTOWN), which is digital UHF 62, if they are at sufficient strength (which I doubt). They are in a different direction than the Roxborough farm, but a bit closer to me (and I think it's a clear shot).

So I need a better antenna -- and some more signal strength from the broadcasters wouldn't hurt either. If all the networks were broadcasting at KYW's present strength, I think I'd be getting them all.

Anybody know if they will be increasing their strength when the full transition kicks in -- or maybe sometime between now and then? I assume they will (?)

I'm amazed that your're able to get any of the Philly stations with an indoor antenna at a distance of 50 miles. You might be able to get WHYY and the others with an outdoor antenna - a directional UHF antenna and you would probably need a rotator as well. If you can receive analog WHYY that would be a good sign, but because of the "cliff effect" you will probably need a better antenna to get digital. With digital you either get a perfect picture or no picture. But at 50 miles an indoor antenna, even a big expensive one, in the attic is just not going to cut it - the shingles on the roof are costing you half of your signal right there, and that's before line loss on the cable down to the TV.

I think pretty much all of the Philly stations already are at full power. This is as good as it gets. Pretty much the only thing that will change in February 2009 is that the analog broadcasts will end. Plus, by then more of the content being broadcast will be in high definition (a lot of what's being broadcast by the digital stations today is standard definition).

When the FCC was figuring out how much power the new digital stations would need, they assumed an outdoor antenna mounted at thirty feet above the ground. Fifty miles away, you're definitely going to need an outdoor antenna to get anything from Philly.

The reason you're having better luck with KYW DT than the other channels may have more to do with frequency than power. KYW's digital channel is 26, where the other Philly stations are at higher frequencies. If you're using a VHF antenna, that will do a better job of receiving the lower channels. What you need is a directional UHF antenna, mounted on the roof.

WLVT in Allentown is much lower power than the Philly stations. If you can get the analog 39 there's a preety good chance you can also get the digital, but otherwise not.

i just purchased new samsung 3292.i can see almost every channel ota in dt but does not seem that fox29 is not broadcasting in dt is anyone having this problem i can receive fox29 analog with fairly good signal

i am about 30 miles from roxborough and using silver series antenna .i can receive 3,6,10,23,17, and several other small channels in dt

No, an inline amp or preamp won't help if your problem is too strong of a signal. The amp will just take a signal that's already too strong and make it even stronger. An attenuator does the opposite - cuts down the amount of signal going to the receiver.

I just thought of something else you could try. If I remember correctly you said you were only about 4 miles from the towers in Roxborough. If that's the case, try this: remove the antenna connection from the receiver altogether, unbend a paper clip, and stick one end of the paper clip into where the center conductor from the antenna coax goes. Using the paper clip as an antenna, see if you can get Channel 29. If you can, then you know that your problem is pretty much definitely too much signal. Or, if the paper clip doesn't provide quite enough signal, try a small indoor antenna like the Silver Sensor.

otaguy, you da man!

If you think maybe my shingles are masking my attic VHF antenna trying to pick up UHF signals, how's about the fact that I have no less than THREE layers of shingles up there -- and need a new roof like NOW!. So when I get a round tuit, I'll be stripping those off and putting a new roof on -- if I don't die first.

Not to mention that the cable from there to here is the older thinner coax (not RG-6, I'm sure).

This particular old house was actually originally a barn (and pretty much still is, some folks would say), and is ~ 37' high to the roof peak. So I'm pretty tall. I'll try my spare outdoor VHF antenna (it's basically NOS Radio Shack that they couldn't even unload at my neighbor's garage sale, so I grabbed it off the "free" pile at the conclusion thereof), which has a bowtie on it as well, by simply putting it on the roof and running coax down and thru the window to the box, and seeing what happens.

Pretty much the only bummer in your posts to me is the fact that "pretty much all of the Philly stations already are at full power. This is as good as it gets."

I'm thinking I need some help from the tower end of things. Which it doesn't appear I'll be getting.

But we shall see.

As to WHYY, I'm thinking they're not sending the proper PSIP or PMT or PAT or whatever the hell that stuff is. That Peter Putman guy has another article about it, but I'm a bit too dense to really understand what it all means.

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages/reception_sanyo.htm

I JUST WANT MY MTV !!!!!

Couple more things -

My attic bowtie did a great job of pulling in Trenton NJT, as I said, but it won't quite pull in KYW 3.1, at least not in its current orientation. I think the signal falls just a tad too short. To see if I can get KYW with the bowtie, I'd have to re-do the procedure with the Voom tuned to RF 26 and see if I could get a "lock beep" @ that RF by moving the bowtie around. But ya know going up and down the stairs and such is kind of a pain.

KYW 3.1 has been a tad spotty since I've been doing this (which has only been a few days) and sometimes it comes in with my VHF antenna turned to Philly, and sometimes when it's turned to NYC. So yesterday after it dropped out w/ it turned to NYC (just as the game was about to start!!), I went upstairs and turned it with the TV on and stopped at the point it sounded strongest, which was midway between the NYC & Philly positions (which are basically 180 degrees apart).

Stop me if I already told you that.

Point being, that seems to be the best position. The signal strength at that point is 87-88 and that appears to be high enuff above the 85 threshold point to give me solid reception with no pixilation or drop outs or nuthin. Seems like if I leave the antenna @ either the Philly or NYC position, KYW comes in sometimes but not other times. This mid-position seems to give reliable reception of KYW 3.1

You know, the Super Bowl station? Not that it's ever worth watching.

I put my basically-new Radio Shack VHF antenna on my roof this afternoon. It's just lying near the peak and not mounted at all. It has the factory-installed bowtie on it but it's without another part of it which kinda looks like a directional UHF antenna and which I THINK was part of it, but it could be part of another one which I picked up somewhere along the way. But it looks to me like it goes with this antenna and if it doesn't, it goes with one just like it. All the plastic mounting "hardware" and aluminum parts of each look like they go together, but I'm not sure how it mounts on the main antenna if it does go with it.

It's pointed either N.N.E. or S.S.W., depending on which way it goes. The end with the longer elements, which, when extended, form an arrow shape, are at the NNE end (thus "pointing" toward the NNE).

I ran a ~100' length of heavy coaxial cable -- that my ex-cable company had used to run its cable from the street to me (I'm almost 200' from the street) -- from the antenna to the Voom (thru a window).

When I checked the strength of KYW, it came in at a whopping 92. NJT (Trenton) came in at 96!!

And I got a bunch of new stations. Here they are in the order in which they scanned, along with their "call numbers" and RF number (at which they scanned) and, finally, their signal strengths:

KYW-DT 3.1 26 92
ion 61.1 31.1 85
qubo 61.2 31.1 85
ionW 61.3 31.1 85
Worship 61.4 31.1 86
WPSG-DT 57.1 32 87
WYBE-DT 35.1 34 90
WNJT-DT 43.1 43 96
WPHL-DT 17.1 54 85
WPVI-DT 6.1 64 86
WCAU-DT 10.1 67 83

Don't quote me on the "call number" / RF number thing on ion, qubo, ionW and Worship stations. They scanned at 31 (I guess) and my box has them at 61.1, .2, etc. as far as what I tune to to get 'em. Similarly, I tune to 52.1 for WNJT-DT, but it scanned at (and is broadcast at) RF 43 (digital UHF 43) as we all know all too well.

You guys know more than I, so you know what I mean.

I'm VERY impressed with these results. Amazing how much 3 layers of shingles and some barn siding can suck the signal. Of course, the antenna itself might have an effect (my other one is pretty old and missing some parts here and there).

The best news in that bunch for me is WYBE-DT (35.1), which came in at a very impressive 90. I get that marginally on analog UHF (w/ my trusty bowtie) and I never dreamed I'd be picking that up. If you're familiar, it has some pretty unusual programming, some of which is quite interesting.

Note that the weakest in the bunch is WCAU at 83. I'm frankly surprised my tuner locked on it because I thought 85 was the minimum, but obviously it's not.

Now, after my initial test, I ran the cable thru an attic window cracked a bit and re-connected it at it's prior junction to the thinner coax that I'd run inside the wall years ago (and which thus comes out down here and to the box). That one isn't quite long enough to go to the indoor antenna up there, so I had previously connected this cable to it and then to the antenna and that's how I've had it for several years.

When I made that connection, I lost several points in strength. KYW went from 92 to 88 and WYBE went from 90 to 79-84 and drops out a lot and is pretty much unwatchable. I think the thinner cable is all or part of the problem, but the connector (the union thingie) might also be sucking some signal because I know those things (like splitters) go bad over time. And this one ain't new.

So tomorrow I'll run the antenna cable thru the wall where my old ex-cable company cable came in, and that will give me dynomite reception again. Then I'll figure out a mounting situation for the antenna and try turning it, etc. I should be able to get another 5-10 feet in height with no problem (other than possible lightning strikes next summer).

You might have to give up on getting WHYY channel 12. I live in center city philly, just a couple miles east/southeast of the towers, with a big rooftop antenna and get every channel perfectly EXCEPT 12. Bummer.
I keep wondering if antennaweb.com is wrong, and the tower is actually in Delaware or something. I'm sure other's would know if that were true, so it's just wishful thinking.

Hi thinman. Your post to me was timely because I was just getting ready to update my situation anyway.

I highly suspect you are correct that I am not going to be getting WHYY anytime soon. I HOPE that they are going to correct whatever the heck is going on because I think it's pretty silly that I can get what I'm getting now, but not them. And folks like you, who actually live just a few miles away, have an absolutely absurd situation. And I note that you aren't even in the forbidden "north & east" direction!

So something's going on over there and I will be emailing Mr. Shamaine N. Walker, Technology Coordinator, WHYY, Inc., 150 N. 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106 (swalker@whyy.org) pretty soon to complain AND to ask for some REASONABLE explanation as to why there's basically NO OTA digital WHYY anymore.

As to my situation, here's the full lineup of what I'm getting as things stand now (total of 20 channels):

3.1
6.1,2,3
10.1,2
17.1,2
33.1
35.1
52.1,2,3,4,5
57.1
61.1,2,3,4

Everything is pretty much rock solid at strengths of no less than 88, except for NJT (52.1,2,3,4,5), which for some reason went pretty spotty on me this morning (and continues) and is running with somewhat wild variation between very low numbers (like 12, 15) and ~88. So it comes in okay for a few moments, then either freezes or drops out altogether. But I'm not worried about that because I can easily correct that situation and get NJN whenever I want. It's also windy today and that might be part of the problem because it always seemed to be affected by weather, and particularly wind, even when I was watching it analog (w/ the bowtie).

To assist anybody who cares, my location is basically at the intersection of Route 287 and 202/206 North. I'm actually in Bridgewater (Township). You can also peg my basic location to the Bridgewater Mall, which probably everybody on the planet is familiar with. The intersection of 287 and 78 is another good landmark and is only a few miles from me.

So I feel pretty confident that I am indeed ~50 miles from the Roxborough farm, as antennaweb claims, but I'm always open to correction if I'm wrong. And I'm obviously in the forbidden north & west direction from the farm.

Now, does anybody out there have any idea of the relative strength of 29.1? Otaguy? Newsman? I see a lot of folks are having trouble getting it (all much closer than I) but do I have any kind of shot do ya think? FYI, 29 is one of my strongest analog bowtie UHF stations.

So WTF with 29.1??

Back to WHYY, I'm next going to try to get 39.1 (WLVT) in it's place. The programming is essentially the same, at least as far as 12.1 goes. I'd love to be getting 12.2 & 12.3, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. Maybe I can overcome my terrain problem and get some NYC stuff, and thus maybe 13.1, etc.

T-max before you get that antenna up there permanently you might want to read up on proper grounding. You need to ground the antenna mast with big heavy wire down to an earth ground outside the house and also ground the outside conductor of the coax before it goes into the house. Here's some reading on this:

http://www.dennysantennaservice.com/1171010.html

Otherwise lightning can burn your house down.

Also for pointing the antenna - the end with the samllest elements should be pointed towards the TV stations. You can go to www.antennaweb.org for proper compass direction from where you live. Pointing the antenna accurately is crucial - a few degrees can make the difference between locking and not locking. I have a rotator on mine because I pick up stations from two different locations. Saves having to crawl around on the roof to make adjustments.

Your house must be on top of a big hill because you are pulling in stations that you aren't supposed to get. I put your location in antennaweb and at a normal antenna height it showed you getting only 2 or 3 channels. With a hypothetical 300' tower here's what it gives:

Antenna Call Sign Channel Network City State Live Compass Miles F requency
Type Date Orientation From Assignment
yellow - uhf WNJT-DT 43.1 PBS TRENTON NJ 201° 21.9 43
yellow - vhf WNJB-DT 8.1 PBS NEW BRUNSWICK NJ 86° 6.5 8
red - uhf WPVI-DT 6.1 ABC PHILADELPHIA PA 233° 50.3 64
blue - uhf WPSG-DT 57.1 CW PHILADELPHIA PA 233° 50.1 32
blue - uhf KYW-DT 3.1 CBS PHILADELPHIA PA 233° 50.3 26
blue - uhf WPXN-DT 31.1 i NEW YORK NY 88° 32.9 30
blue - uhf WMBC-DT 63.1 IND NEWTON NJ 15° 28.8 18
violet - uhf WXTV-DT 41.1 UNI PATERSON NJ 85° 34.9 40
violet - uhf WWOR-DT 9.1 MNT SECAUCUS NJ 85° 34.9 38
violet - uhf WNJU-DT 36 TEL LINDEN NJ 88° 32.9 36
violet - uhf WNYW-DT 5.1 FOX NEW YORK NY 85° 34.9 44
violet - uhf WPIX-DT 11.1 CW NEW YORK NY 85° 34.9 33
violet - uhf WCBS-DT 2.1 CBS NEW YORK NY 85° 34.9 56
violet - uhf WYBE-DT 34.1 PBS PHILADELPHIA PA 233° 50.1 34

thinman and any other Center City residents,

Do you have any tips -- which antenna, etc? I have a Radio Shack VU-90 XR (that's the huge 80" boom VHF & UHF) antenna which I mounted on my roof. I'm in Center City about 4 blocks west of Rittenhouse Square -- and I get no channels but Univision. According to AntennaWeb I should be getting quite a number of them. I have a fear that the two big condo buildings to the northwest of me are blocking the signals from the antenna farm. Anyone else have a similar problem?

thanks for helping a newbie