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Old 13-Jul-2012, 6:54 PM   #1
wooddealer
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85 mile reception of single station...any hope?

I live in the west Chicago suburbs and receive the Chicago TV stations beautifully. However, I am also a big Green Bay Packers fan, and on the frequent occasions that the Chicago TV stations are showing the Bears at the same time as the Packers I'd have to subscribe to the Sunday Ticket via Direct TV to watch the Packers. That's too expensive in my book, so instead I'm investigating trying to receive the FOX affiliate from Milwaukee which is ~85 miles away.

WITI (Milwaukee's Fox affiliate) broadcasts on RF channel 33, so I am toying with the idea of building a Yagi antenna designed for 587 Mhz and mounting it to my chimney, about 20-25 feet off the ground. The Chicago Fox affiliate broadcasts on RF channel 31, even though the yagi is directional could it be overpowered by nearby signals?

Is this a realistic endeavor or am I wasting time? Do I need additional hardware, signal booster, or something else to make this possible? I don't care about any other stations from Milwaukee, maybe if this works I'd consider doing it again for the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee, but since most of the games are broadcast on FOX I thought that would be the smartest thing to try first.

Thanks for the advice and help.
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Old 13-Jul-2012, 7:10 PM   #2
Electron
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->ALL<- Questions and Answers about Broadcast Tv Reception and More.

Please make a tvfool radar report.

Do as the the other question askers do and Do This--> http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=4.

Use the Exact address to make the tvfool radar plot report.

Make the antenna height 25 feet.

How many Tv's are/will be connected??

Any big trees or building that are Close and will be in the way of LOS = Line Of Sight Reception??

Last edited by Electron; 13-Jul-2012 at 8:19 PM.
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Old 13-Jul-2012, 7:26 PM   #3
ADTech
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It would be a rare treat to pick up the Milwaukee stations from the 'west suburbs' of Chicago.

However, WCHU also uses channel 33 in Chicago and is likely to be at least 40 dB stronger that WITI, so there is no realistic prospect of receiving a channel 33 signal from out of the market.

Channel 46 is bracketed by full-power locals on 45 and 47 that are 50-60+ dB stronger, so it's also going to get drowned out.
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Old 14-Jul-2012, 7:51 PM   #4
wooddealer
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Thanks for the helpful advice ADTech, I'll abandon hope for now.

Electron I'll follow the forum structure better with future questions.

Thanks for the help.
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Old 16-Jul-2012, 6:38 PM   #5
wooddealer
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RF trap?

Technically speaking couldn't I construct an RF trap (filter) to block those nearby channels?

I already have an antenna setup for my existing TV/DVR, I was hoping to fold in a new single station antenna to the mix. But, assuming I could construct such an antenna and then limit it's bandwidth to a small frequency range, by use of either active or passive electronics, in principle it would work right?
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Old 16-Jul-2012, 7:15 PM   #6
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Yes, filters with very sharp cutoff frequencies are doable. Tinlee.com is a source that comes to mind. Tuned cavity filters are a likely design.

However, the problem with adjacent channel interference is that the FCC does not require any transmitter to be 'perfect'. In reality, a transmitter will produce a very small amount of signal outside it's intended frequency range. The FCC has technical standards that limit this 'spurious emission' but when there is a great difference in the strength of a local signal source and a weaker or more distant source, the tiny amount of 'off channel' signal from the more powerful station will be strong enough and in the frequency range of the weak signal... making reliable reception difficult or impossible.

The only way to cure this is to place more filtering on the 'offending' TV transmitter output. (You & I don't have a key to their transmitter building so that isn't a good option) Or, find or build an antenna that is so directional that it receives dramatically more of the desired station's signal while receiving much less from the 'offending' source(s).
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Last edited by GroundUrMast; 16-Jul-2012 at 7:18 PM.
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