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Originally Posted by 1inxs
When I go to tvfool it tells me my channels are from the Salt Lake Valley. But the lines on the map are non existent for the tower tvfool lists the stations for. Every website tells me to aim my antenna through 3 mountain ranges 48 miles away to receive the digital signal. I have never tried that because I believe it is impossible. I am located at Kamas, Utah 84036.
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Entering Kamas, UT into TV Fool yields the following map.
From the looks of the terrain, it seems like the marked transmitters do have a chance of reaching the point under the marker. It doesn't seem to be showing any transmitters that are completely unreachable.
This map was for an arbitrary point in Kamas. If you use your exact address or use "satellite" view and drag the marker right on top of your house, you'll get a more precise reading for your location.
Quote:
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What antenna is recommended? What compass heading should I use? I'll be extremely grateful if the information I receive is successful in receiving DTV from the Salt Lake City, Utah broadcast area. They have many more channels than I do up here.
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The radar plot for the arbitrary point in Kamas is available at
tvfool.com...id%3d249db08b30ac21. Click the radio button next to "Post-transition: All Channels" to see a summary of all analog and digital transmitters within reach.
Note that the
FCC has intentionally focused on full power major broadcasters for this step of the
DTV transition. They have not been processing
DTV applications for translators, boosters, and other low power transmitters so that more attention will be focused on the major broadcasters and the June 12 deadline.
It is expected that a lot of the translator and booster stations will switch to digital operation at the same time or shortly after the June 12 deadline, but none of that information officially shows up as "digital" transmitters in the
FCC database. This means that you'll need to pay attention to the post-transition analog translators and boosters for now (some of them might already be digital, and others soon will be) with the expectation that some or most of them will be converted to digital over the next few months.
There are about 1,800 major broadcasters that are being scrutinized by the
FCC right now. There are about 5,300 low power transmitters in use. About 2,100 of these have already been granted permission to build digital facilities by the
FCC, but they are not subject to the same June 12 deadline. Many of them are expected to switch shortly after June 12, but the
FCC has not been strict about dates for them.
Since the
FCC still only shows these records as analog transmitters, you'll need to pay attention to the analog transmitters in the TV Fool reports until the
FCC database get updated with proper
DTV records.
In regards to the best antenna for yourself, it would be helpful to have the TV Fool analysis done for your exact location (the generic Kamas analysis might not be representative of your exact location due to all the terrain effects).
If your location is like the generic Kamas case, then it looks like most of your local stations fall into two major groupings. One group is in the north-west (about 312 degrees on a compass), and the other group is in the south (about 150 degrees). FYI, all maps are printed with "true north" orientation, while all compass readings must reference magnetic north azimuths (TV Fool provides both numbers for you). There are a few stations in other directions, but they are weaker and probably unnecessary if you can get most of your major stations from one of the stronger channel clusters.
Almost all of these transmitters are on UHF. K08IE, K10JB, K12JM, K03HQ, and K06JH are the exceptions. If you don't care or need any of these stations, then you could go with a UHF-only antenna (smaller, lighter). If you care about any of the VHF stations, then you'll need to include VHF capabilities in your setup (generally much larger antennas).
Since the stations are in two different clusters (assuming the other clusters are not that important), you can use two antennas with an A-B switch, you can use one antenna on a rotator, or you can use two antennas through a combiner. The last option reduces the signal strength across all channels, but it avoids the need to adjust anything when watching different channels (or if you have multiple TVs, or if you want to use a
DVR to record shows).
Any more specific advice will depend on your exact TV Fool analysis plus your feedback on how important any of the VHF stations are.
Cheers,
Chuck
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