shotinthedark

Don_M

Welcome! You'll need to provide a ZIP code so we can look up general signal conditions. Turns out there are two townships named Monroe in New Jersey -- one in Middlesex County (south of NYC), the other in Gloucester County (south of Philly). Nailing down distances to the two markets will provide a starting point for solving this riddle.

bicker

I used to live in southern Middlesex County, and my father lives in Ocean Country. We weren't able to get decent reception over-the-air from either location. We got the local public television station from Trenton, but that was it.

GregCoben

I found out quite by accident that Fox and MyNetworkTV affiliates share the same frequencies, as a consequence of Fox buying the MyNetworkTV stations a few years ago (which I didn't know). So DTV Channel 5-1 is the New York Fox station and Channel 5-2 is the New York MyNetworkTV station. Likewise, Channel 9-1 is the New York MyNetworkTV station, and Channel 9-2 is the New York Fox station. Same feeds, except that 9-2 is full screen and 5-1 is letterbox. So if you can't get Fox on one, try the other.

Piggie

Welcome to the forum Greg!

We still need to know where shotinthedark lives, which Monroe. We don't know if he is closer to NYC or Philly or neither. Both Fox/MyN stations in NYC are UHF and might not get to his house, depending on which Monroe is his.

We need your zip code shotinthedark to keep helping.

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.

Don_M

Based on his description, my hunch is that it's Middlesex County, but we need his input to be certain.

shotinthedark

my zip is 08831

shotinthedark

Since FOX ownd My9 I tried that already. But Channel 9 is also unreceivable.
Its like I live in limbo between ranges.

Piggie

Glad you gave us the zip, I was on the wrong Monroe, somewhere south of Easton, NJ.

Now to your antenna.

How high off the ground is it about?

Do you have a rotor?

Do you know if you have any amplifiers in the system?

Do you have any splitters going to more than one room even not hooked up but going through a splitter?

__________________
The more I understand, the less I know.

Don_M

Here's a link to a ZIP code-based TVFool report for 08831. IIRC, that's a fairly flat area (partial disclosure: grew up in Morris County ; number of years elapsed since then shall remain undisclosed ). The ZIP's land area should be compact, so this should be somewhat valid.

Almost all of those stations in green are from NYC (38 degrees, 38 miles), which should be an easy get with any decent all-channel antenna above the roof; Philly (246 degrees, 48 miles) is a bit more difficult, but by no means impossible with a roof antenna. The usual suspects are: Either some component of the system (antenna, downlead cable, splitter, etc.), or combination of them, has worn out from weathering or age; an amp is needed due to the number of sets running off the antenna; or there's too much amplification for one or two sets.