I was having trouble receiving CH 42 because my antenna was facing the wrong direction. The signal was strong enough, but the signal quality was poor; the tuner was not able to pick it up during a scan.
As you can see, the top of the signal is not very flat, which probably indicates a multipath reflection problem. That's not surprising, because the antenna is aimed in the opposite direction and only reflections off the objects in front of the antenna are picked up; there is no direct signal from the transmitter.
I went across the street and setup a 2-bay UHF antenna, my Sadelco DisplayMax 800 signal level meter, and a CM7777 (original) preamp. I was able to get a nice scan and a stronger signal with the antenna aimed at the transmitter for CH42.
Interestingly, when I moved the antenna a few feet left or right, without changing the height or azimuth, there was a big difference in the signal strength and scan quality. This is most likely because of the tree line in front of the antenna about 200 ft away which created the non-uniform field.
I was able to get a nice scan and a stronger signal with the antenna aimed at the transmitter for CH42.
My 8-inch Audiovox TV in the car was able to pick up CH42 WCVE; the 22-inch Sony was too big to bring along.
