Another house deep in the woods of Jersey-this time 50 miles west of NYC
 

I am totally new to OTA-thought about taking the plunge a few years ago when we lived elsewhere and I ran a TVFool report, joined the forum, but other stuff got busy and I kind of forgot about it. Now we are in a new house in a slightly different area and are recommitting to OTA because we're not happy with the service (or price) from our current satellite provider.

Here is our TVFool report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...903818abaec636

The "must have" stations are WCBS2, WNBC4, WNYW5, and WABC7 and PBS stations WNJB8 and WNJT43. Anything else would be considered gravy. Basically we are going to to be streaming all other content but just want to be able to access local networks for news and sports. What I'm wondering though is how realistic it is to expect trouble free reception through varied weather conditions, etc... The wife is an OTA skeptic, and if I can't reliably pull in the local news channels this whole project will be scuttled in favor of sticking with satellite or cable.

You may need to re-post your report link, I get a not found error when I click it. But it could be just me.

No, it's not you, Badfish740 did a copy and paste of the link which lost the center. Try this:
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...903818abaec636

He also posted his problem on another forum, where I found the complete link.
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/25-hd...j-08827-a.html

I suggest you read the posts on the other forum.

He wants to please his wife with reliable OTA reception, but it will be difficult because of his poor location.

Before I could do an analysis, I would need his exact address and the coordinates of the proposed antenna location (by PM to protect his identity).

Thanks! Figured there might be some overlap between the two.

I've edited the OP's TVFR link.

Based on the terrain profile between you and NYC, only extraordinary measures such as an unusually tall tower (100' or taller) would make some reception from NYC a plausible possibility. Aiming toward Philly has greater potential but would also require mounting a large antenna above the peaks of nearby trees.

I sent rabbit73 my address for further analysis, so we'll see what he comes back with, but I did some investigation of my own via Google "My Maps" which allows one to plot coordinates on a map (ie: My house, various transmission towers) and draw lines between them. The line of sight between my house and the Comcast building in Center City Philadelphia literally threads the needle between two 800+ foot peaks. However, the line between my house and the Roxboro towers runs right through one 800+ foot peak, so not sure how that would impact signal. We were with some friends last night that live up the mountain from us who can get OTA from Philly and NYC with ease using an antenna like this one mounted outside:

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-.../dp/B01IN2777A

They have since upgraded so my buddy loaned me his old one-I'm going to play around with it just to see what, if anything, I can receive.

https://forum.tvfool.com/attachment....5&d=1560628061

Thank you for the exact address. The summer Google aerial view shows a lot of trees around your house, but the ground photo looks more open.
I see the peak. Reception looks difficult, but not impossible.

This is an image of your report:

https://forum.tvfool.com/attachment....6&d=1560628114

This report from rabbitears.info should have a more accurate list of channels:

https://forum.tvfool.com/attachment....7&d=1560628147

https://forum.tvfool.com/attachment....8&d=1560628492

You can see you are on the fringe:

https://forum.tvfool.com/attachment....9&d=1560629031

https://forum.tvfool.com/attachment....0&d=1560629067

BadFish,

Wow you are further than me from the NYC... You can try your friends antenna and see what you get.. What I have been doing is trying different antenna's and returning them.

I do not think the broadcasting is being maintained or supported well anymore..if one drives around they will find very few houses with an antenna.

What I am doing in conjunction with my antenna thread here is negotiating with my cable co... I also tried the locast app which has all my locals for $5.50 a month.. that is cheaper than my cable co but with no closed captions yet its not the best experience.

Give some antennas a try to see what is there.. Its an interesting project..

First off, thanks very much to rabbit for all of the work on this. I think at this point I just need to get an antenna up there and start seeing what I can get. What it will come down to is what stations I can reliably pull in. I can't really justify spending hundreds of dollars on a setup that is only going to allow me to watch OTA when weather conditions are perfect or only when there are no leaves on the trees. Right now I'm in the middle of installing air conditioning in our old farmhouse-OTA will be my next project.

I think it is very unlikely that your friend's amazon antenna will pick up any of the NYC stations you desire. Your best shot at the UHF stations from that group is with an 8-bay such as the DB8e or HDB8X, or a UHF yagi such as 91XG or HDB91X. You also need a good VHF-hi antenna such as the Stellar Labs 30-2476 for WABC on RF-7. I would work on the UHF and VHF separately. So don't get a combo such as the Winegard 7698P. It is a great antenna, but is very big so your trials will be difficult. Working each band separately will make it easier to manage physically. You can get the HDB8X and the 2476 both on Amazon, so returns will be easy if they don't work. Try them as high as you can, and as far away from trees as you can. Use a temporary mounting setup in order to facilitate hunting around for a hot spot. Old-timers call it "walking the roof". Use a short length <50 ft of new RG-6 and a single TV at first. Adjust aim, X, Y, and Z positions of the antenna by just a few feet at a time, while a friend watches the TV signal. Or if you have a small portable TV hung around your neck (one with a signal meter such as the RCA-7"), you can work by yourself. You may need separate mounting locations for UHF and VHF-hi. Work systematically and don't give up. Don't worry about amplification and distribution until you find the signal. (Pre-amps cannot create signal out of thin air.)