# Harrisburg OTA



## jci-joe (Jun 29, 2005)

I live in the Mechanicsburg Area and wondered if anyone in that area has been able to get Baltimore or Philly locals with an OTA antenna? I had an omnidirectional in my old house in Hampden township and was able to get 2, 11 and 13 from Baltimore with pretty good signal. I now cannot get any of them since the recent changes in channel numbers.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Looking at Mechanicsburg in general on TVFool.com, it looks very grim. Once you get out of the local area, the signals drop to 100dB or below with edges. I'm guessing that reliable reception is not gonna happen.

An omni will not work as ALL of your out-of-market broadcast stations seem to have frequency conflicts.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Baltimore is over 60 miles from Mechanicsburg and over a couple of hills, too.

Generic TVFool report for Mechanicsburg shows signal at -19.6 for WBAL 11.1 @ 100 ft agl, not much chance of any kind of reliable reception from there.

You might try a TVFool report for youe exact address and see if any of the Baltimore stations.

WPVI ABC 6 out of Philly is 93 miles away and because it is low VHF even though at 30kW it still shows a -6.0 noise margin (@100 ft) this is also tropospheric reception and not reliable either.


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

jci-joe said:


> I live in the Mechanicsburg Area and wondered if anyone in that area has been able to get Baltimore or Philly locals with an OTA antenna? I had an omnidirectional in my old house in Hampden township and was able to get 2, 11 and 13 from Baltimore with pretty good signal. I now cannot get any of them since the recent changes in channel numbers.


Joe: 
I am near Lancaster and can get 3, 10, 17, 29, 35, 57 from Philly all OTA. Tried and tried and can't get 6 at all. No PSIP for them. Nothing. 12 is intermittent.

I think you are probably too far to get the Philly stations as that's over 100 miles.. I can get them but I am just on their fringe.

I can get a few stations from Baltimore, but I have to turn my antennas to the south (right into the WGAL/WPMT) antenna farm and the mountains they are located on. I think I could only get 2 and 13 from Baltimore and another high UHF station.


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

An aside, have you noticed WITF's OTA signal doing weird things lately? Monday night, 33.1 was off the air, although their SD feed on D* was still on.

*Update - I think I have the answer..*

WITF's new 16:9 equipment was installed last week and is now in place to allow them to show 16:9 HD programming. They may have been working on or adjusting the equipment Monday night. Still doesn't explain why D* had the WITF SD feed on the air Monday night, unless they have a fiber feed from WITF. The WITF SD feed D* would be getting would be the HD digital feed converted to SD. Strange.


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## jci-joe (Jun 29, 2005)

We have just moved to a new house and right now I have no over the air antennas. We did the comcast deal since it was best for now. I hope to get back on Dish but I don't want the antennas mounted on my roof. I will be trying some new OTA antennas to see if any will work and let you know. Thanks for the insight.


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## Jerry Springer (Jun 24, 2009)

There is nothing worse than a person that doesn't want to listen to simple logic and where I hear the same comment over and over again - where they do not want to pay the cable bill and do not want to put up a outside antenna.

The simple truth is - unless the antenna is high above the roof of the house - say 35 feet, you cannot expect much if anything from a fringe situation.

In that case, I watch television and you don't!

Sometimes we have to loose our high society ways and forget about what looks cool and go with what works.


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

Have you guys experienced some major pixilation issues today and tonite on WGAL (HD feed thru D*)? I've been monitoring WGAL OTA 8-1 on one tuner and D* supplied WGAL HD on the other tuner. The OTA feed is perfectly clean. Other channels I try are ok, too.


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## wilbur_the_goose (Aug 16, 2006)

Jerry - if I put up a 35' tower on my townhouse, I'd be lynched by my neighbors. Sure, I have the legal right to do so, but I need to live with these folks.


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

;-)

I am lucky, I have a large field behind my home. The field is outside the development, technically, so I have my 40' tower 30' from the property line. I have a $1 lease per year with the field owner.


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

Also, I've discussed the HD carriage of WLYH with the president of WHP/WLYH TV. She said they have contacted D* about carriage and hasn't gotten too far. I would imagine we may see WITF-HD and WLYH-HD added to our local lineup at some time once D12 is operational.


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