# San Francisco Channels



## ESA1178 (Dec 3, 2011)

I live in Sacramento and would love to pick up local San Francisco Bay area channels. Looking at about 80 miles away. If you don't know Sacramento, it's in a valley. I know that there are certain types of antenna for certain distances...

Any help in choosing the correct antenna would be greatly appreciated..

Mark


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

Terk has a variety of high quality indoor/outdoor antennas. Check out their website www.terk.com.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

MysteryMan said:


> Terk has a variety of high quality indoor/outdoor antennas. Check out their website www.terk.com.


Never thought I would see "Terk" and "high quality" in the same sentence.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

ESA1178 said:


> I live in Sacramento and would love to pick up local San Francisco Bay area channels. Looking at about 80 miles away. If you don't know Sacramento, it's in a valley. I know that there are certain types of antenna for certain distances...
> 
> Any help in choosing the correct antenna would be greatly appreciated..
> 
> Mark


Go to www.tvfool.com, enter your address and the height of your roof, and it will show you the stations you can get, and the ones your cannot.


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

Davenlr said:


> Never thought I would see "Terk" and "high quality" in the same sentence.


Your entitled to your opinion. I've used their antennas in the past and achieved great results.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

From 80 miles away?


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Good lord. I had trouble getting SF channels in Sacramento when they were not digital. There are plenty of folks getting them in the Sierra Foothills around Sacramento though. So maybe in the right location with the right antenna....


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## ESA1178 (Dec 3, 2011)

I have managed to find 5 OTA channels. But there are an additional 7 channels out there.
Here is my TVFOOL specs. Perhaps it might help in assisting anyone with roof antenna suggestions. Remembering that the maximum distance will be 80 miles... Thanks!

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dec126c8ee951d9


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Gonna have to screen cap it, and attach it. That link didnt work. This board has been screwing up links really bad lately.

I all fairness, the maximum distance you can expect to get on UHF is 60 miles before the curvature of the earth takes the signal into outer space. Tropospheric conditions can extend that, but those conditions are not guaranteed. For the distance you are trying to get, you need a XG91 as high as you can get it, with a good low noise preamp like a channel master 7777. I wouldnt even try to get VHF channels at that distance, since they are usually power limited... And that is assuming the SF stations actually use an onmidirectional antenna, and not one that focuses most of their power away from you.

On TVFool, in the NM(db) column, with an antenna like the one mentioned above, with that preamp, mounted at 30' on my roof, I can pick up stations with a NB(db) rating of 0 or higher. I can only get the ones with ratings <0 at night when the conditions are good. That is the column you need to pay attention to.


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## Devo1237 (Apr 22, 2008)

I used to be able to pickup some of the old analog signals from SF in Nevada City (maybe a 100 miles east of SF?). But we had the added advantage of elevation. The funny thing is we couldn't get a single Sacramento station until we added one of those plug in signal boosters. That was pre digital though, so I'm not sure what it takes these days. My guess is you'd have some serious trouble east of of Fairfield unless you have a little elevation.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

I don't know if this would be of any help, but you might get some help at the Yahoo Group HDTV-in-SFbay · The latest HDTV equipment and stations.


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## sum_random_dork (Aug 21, 2008)

It will vary as to which channels you can get, most SF channels come from Sutro Tower in SF (KGO, KTVU, KPIX, KBCW, KOFY, KQED being the main ones), then KNTV NBC comes from Mt San Bruno, and you have a mix of channles coming of Mt Diablo (although most of those channels are off the air at the moment), Fremont Peak,and a few coming out of the North Bay. If you do your best and point at Sutro you should have your best chance. The reports I have seen out of the Sac area most people have success with KGO whch is still on VHF. It really will depend on what's around you, are buildings or trees blocking any of your view etc. You will notice many changes throughout the year, the fog and wind can really play havoc on the signal coming in. I am in the East Bay and the only Sac channel I can get is KOVR CBS. I have tried and tried to get KCRA w/out any luck. Yet there are people 5 miles from me that can get almost all of the Sac area stations fine but don't have much luck with the SF stations. Your biggest issue are the hills/mtns that block the signals.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

If you take out the "amp;" in both places it occurs, the link works.

The only station from the Sutro tower that shows up in your TVFool report is KGO-DT on channel 7 at NM dB of about -3.3.

That is because VHF propigates over the horizon better than UHF does and KGO is the only VHF station there.

The report does not indicate the distance AGL at which it was generated, so you might try using the maps facility to pinpoint your location and experiment with elevation.

Edit:

I triangulated using your report and @ 35 ft KGO-DT (7.1) 7 came in at -3.8dB NM, KOFY (20.1) 19 @ -6.0dB NM, KPIX (5.1) 29 @ -6.2, KRON (4.1) 38 @ -7.7 and KTVU (2.1) 44 @ -9.1.

These are possible receivable but I would not count on a lot of signal stability.

I would use seperate UHF and VHF antennas with a CM7777 preamp to join them.

I'd use the 91XG for UHF and a winegard YA-1713 or AntennaCraft Y10-7-13 for VHF.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

ESA1178 said:


> I live in Sacramento and would love to pick up local San Francisco Bay area channels. Looking at about 80 miles away. If you don't know Sacramento, it's in a valley. I know that there are certain types of antenna for certain distances...
> 
> Any help in choosing the correct antenna would be greatly appreciated..
> 
> Mark


You're way too far away to get digital signals from SF.


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## runner861 (Mar 20, 2010)

Does anybody have any idea what SF stations would be receivable OTA in Salinas (approx 80 miles)? In the old days we could receive snowy versions on rabbit ears of channels 2, 4, and 5, and we could receive them by rooftop antenna as far south as King City (approx 120 miles). It didn't matter much at the time, since the cable system in Salinas carried most of the SF stations. Now, most of the SF stations have been dropped from cable in Salinas.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

You may also want to post this question in the Yahoo Group HDTV-in-SFbay. Since ATSC HDTV cranked up most of the Salinas Valley discussion has been about struggles with the Monterey-Salinas locals and the Watsonville repeater of KQED. I believe all of the networks are available locally since KSBW started transmitting ABC on its subchannel 2.


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