Digital TV reception!

DERSEQUIM wrote:
I have heard that Digital TV Stations are not as readily available to us as the old TV Signals were? Is that true? I got on a U S Gov Website today and it showed only one station available at Birch Bay WA and None at Ocean Shores WA. We used to get the Seattle/Vancouver Locals at Birch Bay from Bellingham and Vancouver??

I'm in Ocean City, WA right now and get no digital OTA channels on my Jack antenna.

In Sequim, WA near the airport on Diamond Point I get about 14 channels, including Canadian. This includes having to change the antenna's direction to get some of them. KOMO 4 comes in good. KIRO 7 and Q13FOX can be tough to lock on.

Many television stations and communities or cooperative groups operate or operated translators (somewhat like repeaters) before the change to digital television. Due to the frequencies changes, signal propagation changes and financial considerations that came along with digital television many rural areas have lost some or all of their over the air (OTA) signals.

This issue may be compounded in the near future as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is trying to clear more spectrum for mobile communications and will be (from what I understand) incentives to give up their "assigned spectrum" for government auction to the mobile provider industry.

I am not fully aware of all the implications of the so called "repacking" of the television broadcast spectrum after these auctions but I have read there are little or no provisions for OTA translators.

I’m not very confident the issue will receive much attention as with most government issues today are generally founded in revenue issues.

Perhaps SCF JEFF will be able to shed more light on the issue as he is currently directly involved in the broadcast industry (My last gig as a broadcast engineer was fifty years ago! ? )

Two years ago we were at Birch Bay and could only get the 3 Vancouver Stations. Prior to that we got all the Seattle Stations too. Now the Gov Website only shows KVOS available. Over the Air.
Even with the Wingman I wonder what the range is.
Several Digital Home type Antennas Claim to have a Range upto 150 miles under Ideal Conditions!
Before Digital we got 4 Tuson and 6 Pheonix Stations on the Wingard at our property in Florence AZ. The Gov site shows more available on Digital. Of course, as mentioned, the Narrow Band will determine a lot as far as finding the signal
Guess we'll find out when we get there!

We spent two summers on the Oregon coast and had no TV reception of course there was none before the digital move. We also spent the spring of this year on the Gulf coast of Florida and only had 1 independent channel that came and went. Our present location in WV we have 3 channels, 2 come and go with temp changes during the day. Ticks me off when trying to watch Wheel of Fortune.

I generally don't have a problem tuning in Digital stations, both our sets have a signal strength meter and I turn the mast until I get the strongest signal. Then I do a search for available channels. We seem to get more channels than when the stations were analog. The exception is along the central California coast, so many ins and outs to block signals. We are still using the old Winegard antenna, no problem.

DERSEQUIM wrote:
I have heard that Digital TV Stations are not as readily available to us as the old TV Signals were? Is that true? I got on a U S Gov Website today and it showed only one station available at Birch Bay WA and None at Ocean Shores WA. We used to get the Seattle/Vancouver Locals at Birch Bay from Bellingham and Vancouver??

not sure what you mean by "readily available"...please explain further. every TV station in the US (and a year or so later in Canada) switched from analog to digital transmission. AFAIK none of those stations went off the air so in terms of sheer numbers there ought to be just as many stations on the air now as there were prior to the switch.

everything else being equal there is a primary difference in the propagation of analog vs. digital. an analog signal will gradually fade away the farther the receiver is from the transmitter source. the programming is still usable through this fading or 'snow' until at some point it fades out altogether.

a digital signal is either there or it's not. as a digital signal reaches it limit it will first exhibit what a lot call "pixelization" or "pixilated". the picture will freeze or become a jumbled mess of multi-colored squares or the picture will simply disappear. this pixelization can also occur when something temporarily comes between the transmitter and receiver. airplanes, trains, large flocks of birds, tree foliage, etc. all can cause pixelization. couple that with the relatively poor receivers built into today's TV sets and the fact that most campgrounds and RV parks are located in the country can really make it hard for RVers to receive a useable signal.

many of the TV stations that were assigned to VHF frequencies (channel 2-13) in the analog days switched to UHF frequencies when the analog-to-digital switch took place even though they kept their VHF channel identity.

you can do a couple of things to improve your reception of digital over-the-air (OTA) TV.

first, if you have a winegard crank-up TV antenna consider changing out the head to the newer Sensar IV head. it reportedly increases UHF reception by 100% and since many TV stations are now operating in the UHF band that would be a good thing. alternatively consider adding the Winegard Wingman to your existing winegard antenna. the Wingman consists of a plastic yagi antenna that snaps onto the existing Winegard head which helps collect more UHF signal and focuses that signal to the UHF reeiver built into the head of the Winegard antenna.

next, if the coax between your RV's antenna and the roof connector is more than 5-6 years old consider replacing it. coaxial cable will break down over time resulting in deteriorating performance. also, the connectors at each end are notorious for allowing moisture to seep into the cable causing further problems.

lastly, if your RV space is seasonal consider mounting a residential style TV antenna onto a piece of mast and getting that antenna as high in the air as possible. the higher the antenna the better.

good luck.

No matter where I have parked I have always had no less than 10 stations. All the local channels, plus the 4 standard PBS channels and on Sunday 6 additional religious stations! :W

Key is to rescan for channels every time you change locations AND after each time you inch the antenna for better reception. Key word 'inch'. Before digital all you had to do was spin the RV antenna and you were good to go. Not with digital you have to inch it ever so little to tune it in for digital.

Don't know about your area but tons of the digital stations are available in So Cal.