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Keep in mind that the tvfool report is only a computer simulation, and is known to be less accurate for 2Edge and Tropo signals than for LOS signals.
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Okay, that sheds some light on why I can pick up the weakest station on the TvFool list with a cheap "150 mile" $35 antenna at 25ft up with 80% reliability. Helping a friend analyze his area, I pointed out that my 99% reliable channel, although the Google Earth didn't show any signal within a few miles.
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If you look at the terrain profiles for ABC and CBS from DC you will see that there aren't any direct signals from them because of terrain interference. The signals arrive at your location with the benefit of bending from atmospheric refraction and diffraction as they pass over the peaks.
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Thanks for referencing these. I actually pull the two DC hi vhf stations at 99% reliability. Major fog, heavy rain, clear skies. And that was at 6 feet, where it's staying until spring, likely. Seeing the above images, I can't see how elevating will hurt, and should help greatly, as I though it would.
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In addition to the terrain interference, signals 82.9 miles away are blocked by the curvature of the earth. Reliable reception of signals that far away is not to be expected.
Your 7777 preamp is probably being overloaded by your strong local signals, which makes reception of weak signals more difficult. CM cautions against its use in strong signal areas.
http://www.channelmaster.com/TV_Ante..._p/cm-7777.htm
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When I tried the antenna out in this location, I did so without a preamp, and had a laptop with a Hauppauge 955q USB tuner card. The channel results with a 6ft rg6 cable into that setup yielded the same channels and reliability. I knew I had to maintain a strong signal, as it was going into a Tivo Roamio. So I placed the DVR in the bedroom, to shorten the run, and in the living room have a Tivo Mini over ethernet to stream from DVR. This has seemed to work out for me. I'm not looking at getting the most channels I can, I just want to have signal reliability. Our schedules in this house are crazy, so we rely on a DVR more than livetv.
Thank you, Rabbit73, for giving me some understanding on this subject.
