User:Daniel Christensen/sub-pages

antenna stuff


B asically, the aerial TV antenna that was at Henry's when we bought it was a surprisingly very good one. On a good tripod, too, roughly 4 feet high. It is a 1991 and has a coaxial dipole cable connection, not a twin-lead. I turned it and stuff to see what stations and cities I could get. Rochester and Syracuse were a given; however; Rochester, even as it was "closer", was harder to receive clearly and seemed to always have some snow on certain stations. For a short while I had two aerials; one at the bottom of the ~4 foot tripod just above where it went from legs to stem. This basically got me Rochester and Syracuse good simultaneously. Then I gave the smaller aerial to my brother when he moved into a place where he no longer had cable and I was back to just the one good one. To improve the setup with just one, I took a 6 foot gray aluminum pole from a cheap shelter/shed we had at Potter that blew apart and stuck it on top of the tripod on which it fit well as the tripod is fatter until like 6 inches at the top. To secure this now 10 foot "tower", I added shrouds made of rope. One to each of three chimney's and two to the edge of the roof; 5 are on the West side from SSW to NNW and one is directly East going to a distant chimney. This setup allowed me to selectively get multiple cities around me; the farthest being a couple Buffalo stations. One located at the most extreme side of Buffalo on an island.
 * All this was during analog broadcast and I was using two old 25 foot RG-59 coax cables which often came apart and were in rough shape.
 * Rough coordinates: 42° 48′ N, 77° 6′ W

Reception
"Great" and "good" now refer to the signal strength meter readout for DTV; as opposed to snowy and clear. From my experience, DTV is better; except of course on those very iffy channels where there was just enough signal to make it out; they are not usually gotten with digital television, but they really didn't count as received stations anyway. Great are in the "green" on the signal meter; "good" are in the yellow.
 * This is an every station ever list with 2015 edits. Italics are 2015.


 * 2 (buf and 2 utica), 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 18, 20 21, 24, 28, 31, 33, 40, 43, 44, 46, 50, 51, 52 56, 68. 27 x avg. 3subs = generic 81 stations.
 * Channel 7 may conflict between the Watertown and Buffalo station.

Strength/City
Great Good
 * Syracuse: 3, 5, 9, 24, 43, 56, 68 (all)
 * Rochester: 8, 10, 13, 21, 31 (all)
 * Watertown: 7, 16, 50 (all)
 * Binghamton: 12, 40
 * Elmira: 18
 * Utica: 2 WKTV-signal strength of zero
 * Binghamton: 46
 * Buffalo: 51
 * Ithaca: 52 WNYI Daystar
 * Watertown: 7
 * Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania : 28

To get
 * 2 WGRZ-TV Buffalo; 34 Binghamton; WENY-TV 36 Elmira, 33 WFXV Utica fringe

Networks

 * ABC: WSYR-TV 9, WOKR-TV 13, WWTI-TV 50
 * CBS: WTVH-TV 5, WWNY-TV 7, WROC-TV 8, WBNG-TV 12
 * FOX: WNYF-TV 7.2 WUHF-TV 31, WXFV 33 WICZ-TV 40, WSYT-TV 68
 * Independent: WPXJ-TV 51, WSPX-TV 56
 * MyNetworkTV/The CW: WSTQ 3.2, CW-WHAM 13.2, WBPN 40.2 WNYS-TV 43
 * NBC: WSTM-TV 3, WHEC-TV 10, WETM-TV 18, WBRE-TV 28
 * PBS: WPBS-TV 16, WXXI-TV 21, WCNY-TV 24, WSKG-TV 46


 * List of television stations in New York
 * List of television stations in New York (by region)
 * List of television stations in New York (by channel number)
 * List of television stations in Pennsylvania

!!! Toronto is barely over 100 miles low terrain with several powerful CN Tower stations. Never gotten > RF 9 (much weaker but VHF) and 41 only viable high power stations, other three match Syracuse RFs. !!!

Mysteries

 * November 09, 2009; 1 AM: Channel scan picks up a no call sign 44.3 with antenna pointed east-southeast. Same as 43.1 and says My43 through digital distortion. No info in box and no base 44.1. See; WNYS-TV digital 44; something about reaching Kingston, Ontario.
 * Same adjustment as above; 1:30 AM I pick up WBRE-TV 28 from Wilkes-Barre, PENNSYLVANIA.
 * Nearly straight South (tiny East) gets 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 18, 24.
 * November 10, 2009 8:30 PM: Pointed West North West I get WPBS 16 and WWTI 50 from Watertown which should be in bloody blind spot; still no Buffalo (save for 51).
 * November 13; 3 AM: I get 12 at 91 on signal and 18 at 76 still no 34 or 36....
 * November 18; 1 AM: With new mast and old aerial; I get 16 WPBS on 87 signal strength pointed ESE.
 * November 18; 2:30 AM: got 51 ION Batavia with little aerial pointed South East. Trying Buffalo now...
 * November 19: 12:30 AM: I get WKTV 2 from Utica with the small-tall antenna pointed WEST toward Buffalo. (happens again in 2015 w/ superyagi)
 * November 19; 2:15 AM; I get WRGB-6 from ALBANY NY!!!
 * September 6, 2010: 15-3, 15-4, and 15-5 ION. Antenna on the barn

The second mast
The second mast is two 9.5 piece (1 19 foot) TV antenna pole and another 6 foot aluminum shed rod added together (25 feet). It is stuck down into the chimney we don't use. It is a floating chimney and has a lot of soot in it so the bottom of the pole is probably about 5 feet of the ground level. This will get me above 30 feet. It is at least 5 feet higher than the old mast. Up to 8 feet higher if I build up the chimney underneath it. The rotating part will be just the top 6 feet and it will be stayed just below that so there won't be the problem of twisting the guy-lines around the mast as there was with the old one. I am going to repair the Winegard, which is taken down off the roof right now (Nov 17, 2009) and put it on the new mast, which is actually a tower right now as it is not stayed. The first antenna on it is the smaller, older one.

With the new "mast" put up with the little old aerial hastily thrown on it I seem to be doing okay. It has expectedly worse directionality and picks up stations at random, it seems. Such as: November 18; 1 AM: With new mast and old aerial; I get 16 WPBS on 87 signal strength pointed ESE. (copied from above) Also, I got 40, 18, and 16 without 12. Oh, wait a minute; they are at like 15 on strength....
 * Update: With a slight turn to the South it diminished to about 15 on signal strength. The Winegard will be a lot more predictable, if nothing else.

When the Winegard aerial is put up on the new mast I expect to get WBRE-TV in clearly from Wilkes-Barre, PA. The new mast will have a minimum of a 5 foot height increase; with a maximum of up to 8 feet.

rabbit ear dx

 * Close to 40 ft. Two 25' RG-6 tested good, one balun, telescope fully collapsed. 3, 5, 9, 13, 16.7 ghost mid signal (~40) 18, 21, 24, 31, 43, 51, 52iffy 56, 68
 * All Syracuse 90+ @90degrees due east but 43, 56 approach green ~60%. Picked up sub-yellow 51 this way. 51 randomly popped to 60 this way ghost 23.3-8 side 51pax
 * 35+ very clear FM stations on mid-end shelf stereo. Channel separation holding back. ~25 below 98.5

Serious ant. rp.ment

8200U and 7698P seem best, latter says deepest fringe. Both 168.25 boom, 17 lbs. http://www.winegard.com/vhfuhf-antennas, latter says ''HD-7698P features 64 active elements (29 VHF and 35 UHF) for superior DTV reception performance. A 168" overall boom length offers exceptional surface area for signal capture. The HD-7698P is specifically tuned for DTV channels 7 through 69. Installation is made easy due to the light 17 lb. weight. Zinc plated steel hardware is included,'' less VHF but says specified for 7-69, don't need 50s and 60s, vhf's look cut off. Only 8200U mentions gain, seems highest at 14.2 dBi. Range acc. solidsignal is clearly best.
 * C Master: Channel Master 3671 is largest, many VHF, wide spectrum no gaps. claims 100v, 100fm, only 60u. CM5020 is most specific, perfect gaps. US150, 100mph.

600MHz super yagi
Oddities, got WPBS at ~low30s, pointed for Buffalo. No Buffalo. Also on unID'd 29 with 4 subs an nbc, likely Utica VC-2 WKTV-it is, comes in but won't pick up as 2 (VC) Sig strength bumped 70 brief, also falls to near zero w/ no adjustment same time of day, still no VC or ID. Actual transmitter 100 and chump change. Wtown maybe 110. Both are easterly with varying north, Utica little Watertown lot. Getting WUTR Utica, weaker station low HAAT, sub is an LP WPNY. WFXV Utica rf 27 (VC 33) reads at 15, wow scanned then got wasn't trying.

Thought I once got WNYB all 26 Jamestown Buffalo. Can't find here or Flickr

HAAT
/mhr /skyscrapercity /Canyon Ranch Carillion /list Mississauga /Lista de los rascacielos más altos de Miami /2014 /descents /mass vs inertia /post office /transitmiami /2000s South Florida land boom

http://www.5280.com/blogs/2006/11/28/tancredo-calls-miami-third-world-country