I'm located in SE CT at Longitude 72.06719 Latitude 41.42852. The towers in the state that concern me are:
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Location Call Ch-A Ch-D Affl Bearing Dist
-------------------------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ------- -----
Norwich WEDN 53 45 PBS 320.5 8.17
Talcott Mnt/Avon WFSB 3 33 CBS 302.4 45.03
Rattlesnake Mtn/Farmington WTIC 61 5/31 Fox 295.9 43.89
WVIT 30 35 NBC
Waterbury WTXX 20 12 WB 277.5 49.63
Gaylord Mtn/Hamden WTNH 8 10 ABC 269.8 45.82
WBNE 59 6 UPN
New London WHPX 26 34 PAX 264.0 6.85
Of all of those stations WNTH has a full power digital signal, WFSB has a lower power digital signal, and WEDN says their digital signal will be on the air in September. WFSB, WTIC and WVIT are all having problems finding a spot for a new tower (Farmington said no to a new tower on Rattlesnake Mtn) and WTXX said not to expect a digital signal from them until May 2002.
The stations that are most important to me are WTNH (digital), WEDN (digital) and WTXX (analog and digital when available). It would be great if I could pull in WFSB's digital signal but they're at low power so I don't have a lot of hope for that, which is too bad since they're a CBS affiliate.
An alternative source for CBS-HD for me might be WBZ (channel 4 analog/30 digital) out of Boston. This
page has a
Longley-Rice map for WBZ that shows its Grade B coverage area coming pretty close to where I am. I sit on top of a hill so maybe with the right antenna I could pull it in. It's bearing is 34.8 and it's about 75 miles away.
Anyway, given the mix of VHF and UHF digital channels in the area and the fact that most of them are at least 45 miles away I think my best bet will be to use separate VHF and UHF antennas with a pre-amp. I've been unable to find a local dealer that stocks Channel Master antennas so I'll probably go with Radio Shack so that I can return them easily if they don't get the job done.
My questions are:
1) If I use a pre-amp will WEDN cause me a problem since it's so close to me (8 miles)?
2) Should I use a rotor, or would it be better/possible to use three antennas and some sort of jointenna/filter set-up as follows?
a) a VHF pointed between the Hamden tower and the Waterbury tower that would pickup WNTH's digital channel 10 and WTXX's digital channel 12 (whenever it goes on the air)
b) a UHF antenna pointed between the Waterbury tower and the Avon towers that would pick up WTXX's analog channel 20, WFSB's digital channel 33 (whenever it goes full power), and WEDN's digital channel 45 (would it come in since it's so close to me even though the antenna would be pointed approx 30 degrees away from it?)
c) a UHF antenna pointed towards Boston to pick up WBZ's digital channel 45 and maybe WHDH's digital channel 42 (since WVIT, the local NBC affiliate, isn't ready to go digital yet)
One more piece of information. When I called DirecTV about getting waivers for distant locals they told me I automatically qualified for waivers from WFSB, WVIT and WTIC. I assume this was based on a forumula (like Longely-Rice) that predicted that I would not be able to get a Grade B signal from them. I didn't get an automatic waiver from WTNH, though.
I'd rather get too much antenna than not enough so that I can minimize trips up on my roof.
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Any feedback would be appreciated, including antenna suggestions.
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-McD-
