Trying to pick up long range stations

[Mike1953]

Hi, here is a report from tvfool about channels in my area:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...8e0364dcdd8162

Can someone advise equipment I need to get the highest number of these channels? I am particularly interested in WALB and WFXL in Albany Georgia. I have an el cheapo amplified antenna bought for $20 from ebay on a 20' mast and am constantly having to change directions just to get the Tallahassee stations 40 miles away. Being a native Georgian, I want to hear and see some Georgia sports and news. The terrain in North Florida and South Georgia is mostly flat and I live at the coast.

I am leaning toward the Denny's double stacker with some type of amplicication and pointing it about 340 degrees but am really over my head here.

[rabbit73]

Welcome to the forum, Mike1953:

I am particularly interested in WALB and WFXL in Albany Georgia.

I don't think you will have much luck with them because they are very weak Tropo signals subject the whims of the weather, and they are blocked by the curvature of the earth that begins to affect signals at about 70 miles. If you click on a callsign in your TVFOOL report, you will see the terrain profile between the transmitter at the left and your location at the right. That black arc at the bottom of the profile is the earth.



The only solution I can think of is to have a friend in Albany stream it to you over the internet with a Slingbox.

I have an el cheapo amplified antenna bought for $20 from ebay on a 20' mast and am constantly having to change directions just to get the Tallahassee stations 40 miles away.

You shouldn't have that much trouble with them. Maybe we can do something about that if you are using one of those "150 mile" antennas; they have an internal preamp that is easily overloaded by strong signals. If you aim directly at Tallahassee and there is a problem, but if you aim away from Tallahassee and there isn't, that's overload.

[Mike1953]

Thank you for the reply. As I mentioned, this is all out of my league. I have noticed that if I point the antenna directly toward Tallahassee I get outages but if I point 30-40 degrees west I get fewer outages plus I get the Panama City stations, so you sound like you know what you are talking about. The antenna I have has a preamp built in. Guess I need to stay with what I have. Thanks again.