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Old 21-Feb-2011, 6:45 PM   #5
mtownsend
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 632
Please generate a TV Fool report for your location and then post the URL for it back here. You can also use the Interactive Maps feature (link) to make sure you are analyzing the correct location for your home. This will tell us how much signal is coming from these distant transmitters and what other repeaters/translators might be nearby.

If your only antenna is a Channel Master 4228, then it should not be possible for you to be picking up VHF stations from so far away. The CM 4228's gain on channel 7 is probably around -2 dBd because it's really designed for UHF reception only. With such low gain, it just seems unlikely to be picking up a signal on channel 7 from 88 miles away.

Reception from 200 miles away is also a rare event (unless you happen to live on a very tall mountain). The curvature of the Earth usually gets in the way beyond 60-80 miles, so signal levels are usually extremely weak at distances of 200 miles.

Cleveland's channel 5 is probably WEWS, which broadcasts on real channel 15 and uses virtual channel mapping to show up as channel 5.1. Long distance reception is sometimes helped by the right atmospheric conditions, with the best opportunities usually happening in the evenings after a clear and sunny day.

Another factor that make long distance reception difficult is that the same channel is used by multiple broadcasters in different cities. It is often difficult to receive a channel from 200 miles away because at that range you are dealing with multiple signals interfering with each other, and you'll need the right combination of circumstances to pick out a clean signal from one of those transmitters while avoiding interference from the others.
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