# Anyone in Sacramento able to receive OTA digitals from SF?



## dbdsac (Nov 17, 2003)

I reside on the east side of Sacramento County and will be installing a new UHF antenna on top of my 2-story home for my OTA Digital/HDTV stations on Thursday. The Walnut Grove transmitters are @35 miles from my home. I currently have a Radio Shack UHF Yagi antenna mounted in my garage that performs well for most channels but when I want to watch NBC it is not very stable. At first I was considering a Channel Master 4-Bay model, but then I began thinking about an 8-Bay model if it would help me pull in KTVU's digital signal (channel 56) out of San Francisco. I am a huge SF Giants fan and most, if not all of their games are broadcast on this channel. The paperwork on this antenna says it is good for only 60 miles but I believe the tower for SF broadcasts is closer to 100 miles away. Is there anyone out there living in my vicinity that can shed some first hand knowledge on this thought? Can I get SF from Sacramento? If so, do I need a rotor or will I be close enough to the line of site of both sets of transmitters?


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## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

I used to live in Carmichael before digital signals were available and even with a good antenna on a rotator, getting SF stations were hit and miss. The digital signals probably have an even shorter range. 

I wouldn't get my hopes up too high unless the SF digital stations are cranking out some good power. 

Depending on where you live, you will probably need a rotator though. The Walnut Grove towers are a little more south west from the line of site to San Francisco.


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## RJS1111111 (Mar 23, 2002)

...but I lived in the Sacramento area (Orangevale) once.
Reception from SF was hit-or-miss, as Chris says;
usually best at night, and requiring tropospheric
ducting (weather fronts) for propagation. UHF from
San Jose was often watchable, and I remember
seeing KBHK channel 44 from SF.

I'd suggest getting the best location, tallest tower,
highest-gain UHF array and mast-mounted amplifier
possible. If you manage to get a line of sight to the
Mt. Sutro tower (assuming that's where they've also
put the HD transmitters), then you should be able to
pull in reliable reception. It might cost you though.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

When I _had_ a OTA antenna active (new cable needs to be run), I was able to get channel 9 from San Francisco and channel 12 from Chico. Once, I got KTEH-54 (very snowy) with a UHF loop.

RJS111111: In order for your messages to display properly, hit the Enter key at the end of the paragraph, not at the end of the line.


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## RJS1111111 (Mar 23, 2002)

Mark Holtz said:


> When I _had_ a OTA antenna active (new cable needs to be run), I was able to get channel 9 from San Francisco and channel 12 from Chico. Once, I got KTEH-54 (very snowy) with a UHF loop.
> 
> RJS111111: In order for your messages to display properly, hit the Enter key at the end of the paragraph, not at the end of the line.


Yeah, I remember channel 12 from Chico. When the E-skip came in one summer, I saw VHF channels from the other side of the Rockies, sometimes as good as grade "B", but usually crowding each other out, back and forth.

There was also the occasional view of channel 3E from Eureka, competing with the local KCRA channel 3.

Remember Captain Sacto?


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