Prevue Guide Forums

for some reason i dont know why but everyday ive been getting Bay area channels from San Francisco on my converter box with this new antenna i got from goodwill.

do you know why i am getting these channels everyday?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXQmL7Ez6Xw

kwest93 wrote:for some reason i dont know why but everyday ive been getting Bay area channels from San Francisco on my converter box with this new antenna i got from goodwill.

do you know why i am getting these channels everyday?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXQmL7Ez6Xw

Looking at the video, it appears that the San Fran tv stations have boosted power or set up new repeater stations to cover the East Bay area.
Was the new antenna a standard antenna with spokes or is it a "digital" antenna that is more of a boxy shape? I do know that there are certain antennas (aka smart antennas) that can boost signals electronically without positioning the antenna.

Be thankful. Here where I live, terrain prevents a digital picture from a TV station 30 miles away and Atlanta is a shade over 100 miles south and since we are in a poor part of the state, no one is willing to build repeater stations from either local market. My DTV box gets two channels, PBS and ION. That's it.

Steven

nwgatwcfan wrote:

kwest93 wrote:for some reason i dont know why but everyday ive been getting Bay area channels from San Francisco on my converter box with this new antenna i got from goodwill.

do you know why i am getting these channels everyday?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXQmL7Ez6Xw

Looking at the video, it appears that the San Fran tv stations have boosted power or set up new repeater stations to cover the East Bay area.
Was the new antenna a standard antenna with spokes or is it a "digital" antenna that is more of a boxy shape? I do know that there are certain antennas (aka smart antennas) that can boost signals electronically without positioning the antenna.

Be thankful. Here where I live, terrain prevents a digital picture from a TV station 30 miles away and Atlanta is a shade over 100 miles south and since we are in a poor part of the state, no one is willing to build repeater stations from either local market. My DTV box gets two channels, PBS and ION. That's it.

Steven

i live 100 Miles away from san francisco. my antenna is this.

Wow... That little antenna that doesn't appear to have an amplifier and it gets stations about 100 miles away.

Anyway, does this happen all day or at certain times of the day that the stations come in? Also, is the antenna on a second floor of the home or if your home is near any hills? The height of the antenna can make a difference.

I know when analog was still around there would be a few days out of the year that I would get interference from stations extremely far away. I remember seeing on the lower end of the dial (especially channels 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) KDFW in Dallas Fort Worth, WCVB in Boston, KGAN, which I believe is in the Midwest, Minnesota Public TV on ch 2. It usually wasn't clear but it was legible enough to see it. Since the DTV changeover, I haven't see anything like it happen since.

In your situation, I'm not quite sure why. I know AM signals travel great distances and FM not so much. I would hope that it continues and you can enjoy more channels for free.

Thanks,
Steven

nwgatwcfan wrote:Wow... That little antenna that doesn't appear to have an amplifier and it gets stations about 100 miles away.

Anyway, does this happen all day or at certain times of the day that the stations come in? Also, is the antenna on a second floor of the home or if your home is near any hills? The height of the antenna can make a difference.

I know when analog was still around there would be a few days out of the year that I would get interference from stations extremely far away. I remember seeing on the lower end of the dial (especially channels 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) KDFW in Dallas Fort Worth, WCVB in Boston, KGAN, which I believe is in the Midwest, Minnesota Public TV on ch 2. It usually wasn't clear but it was legible enough to see it. Since the DTV changeover, I haven't see anything like it happen since.

In your situation, I'm not quite sure why. I know AM signals travel great distances and FM not so much. I would hope that it continues and you can enjoy more channels for free.

Thanks,
Steven

i'm only getting them from 4PM-3AM everyday. all of the sacramento transmitters are in Elk Grove and the Bay area transmitters are in the outside parts of Oakland probably Antioch or Concord as it said on the signal maps, and im in a one story house so im not upstairs. the only ones that are hard to get is NBC 11,KTSF 26,TV36 and ABC 7. the clearest Station out of all of them Is KTVU FOX 2 with the most transmitted power.

That is really odd getting those channels. Before I got Cable TV in November of 1997, I used to be able to get either WOOD-TV or WZZM from Grand Rapids, MI on a clear night. Both the video and audio were staticy but you could make out the logo bug on the bottom of the screen. Back in the 1990s I had a portable AM/FM/Cassette (the type you can clip on your belt or jeans), I used to be able to get my local CBS affiliate (WWTV 9&10 News), on it. I could get WWTV no matter if I was home or at my grandparents house.

JFR_SneakPrevue98 wrote:That is really odd getting those channels. Before I got Cable TV in November of 1997, I used to be able to get either WOOD-TV or WZZM from Grand Rapids, MI on a clear night. Both the video and audio were staticy but you could make out the logo bug on the bottom of the screen. Back in the 1990s I had a portable AM/FM/Cassette (the type you can clip on your belt or jeans), I used to be able to get my local CBS affiliate (WWTV 9&10 News), on it. I could get WWTV no matter if I was home or at my grandparents house.

thats cool because in 2004 i used to live in Detroit and got CBC,CityTV and a few local Toronto Stations....and sometimes NBC 25 in Flint even though i had WDIV 4.