OTA Reception Observations Southington, CT

I bought my Mom a new TV for her bedroom as an early Christmas gift. (She had been hinting around that she wanted a smaller TV). As a result I inherited the 10+ year old Vizio that had been in her bedroom. I bought an antenna to use it in the office, since at the moment there's not a wire in there for DIRECTV. I havn't seen OTA TV in a couple years - since before the repack, channel sharing, etc. A couple interesting observations.

1. I cannot pick up WTNH/WCTX. Then again back in the analog days I could barely pick them up where I live in Southington.

2. CPTV - Connecticut Public Television. Now in addition to their flagship station - WEDH 24 I can pick up WEDY 65. I never was able to pick up WEDY before - Analog or digital. Also CPTV brought back the PBS Diginet Create on 24.2/65.2 - Next question. How come with WEDY the main CPTV signal is on 65.3 and CPTV Spirit is on 65.1?

3. I don't know what kind of antenna system they have, but I work at BJ's Warehouse Club on Spring Street in Southington - literally a 5 minute drive from where I live, yet WTNH/WCTX come in perfectly fine in the break room.

4. OTA is completely opposite from DIRECTV. OTA I can get Telemundo and Telexitos - 19.1 and 19.2, but Telemundo isn't on satellite. (At least not the local feed). Meanwhile on DIRECTV I get Univision and UniMas. (18 and 47). Until Channel 18 started channel sharing with Channel 47 I used to be able to pick up Univision OTA.

MarcB said:

I bought my Mom a new TV for her bedroom as an early Christmas gift. (She had been hinting around that she wanted a smaller TV). As a result I inherited the 10+ year old Vizio that had been in her bedroom. I bought an antenna to use it in the office, since at the moment there's not a wire in there for DIRECTV. I havn't seen OTA TV in a couple years - since before the repack, channel sharing, etc. A couple interesting observations.

1. I cannot pick up WTNH/WCTX. Then again back in the analog days I could barely pick them up where I live in Southington.

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both stations are sharing WTNH's frequency of RF10. VHF stations in digital have issues with indoor antennas unless you're near the tower
With the FCC repack happening some stations turned in their licenses for big $$$$ and in turn they would share frequencies with someone. In a fair amount of cases it is sister stations sharing.

2. CPTV - Connecticut Public Television. Now in addition to their flagship station - WEDH 24 I can pick up WEDY 65. I never was able to pick up WEDY before - Analog or digital. Also CPTV brought back the PBS Diginet Create on 24.2/65.2 - Next question. How come with WEDY the main CPTV signal is on 65.3 and CPTV Spirit is on 65.1?

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same as above. Both are sharing the same frequency. The reason CPTV is doing it that way is then CPTV Spirit gets must carry cable/satellite coverage as the -1 Spirit is being carried on WEDY license whereas on WEDH -1 is the main PBS station.

3. I don't know what kind of antenna system they have, but I work at BJ's Warehouse Club on Spring Street in Southington - literally a 5 minute drive from where I live, yet WTNH/WCTX come in perfectly fine in the break room.

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VHF and antenna signal in general with digital is a funny thing. All depends on placement of antenna.

4. OTA is completely opposite from DIRECTV. OTA I can get Telemundo and Telexitos - 19.1 and 19.2, but Telemundo isn't on satellite. (At least not the local feed). Meanwhile on DIRECTV I get Univision and UniMas. (18 and 47). Until Channel 18 started channel sharing with Channel 47 I used to be able to pick up Univision OTA.

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The issue with 18 is they went from a full power signal to channel sharing with a low powered station.
Telemundo and Telexitos is channel sharing on NBC's WVIT RF station. So they went from a low powered station to a full powered

Here is the list of stations in Hartford. The ones with the green banner in the RF channel portion are the ones that are sharing. H means "host" (its their channel they are using) and G means "guest" (the station that is piggybacking)
https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?mktid=36

I dont get jack over here in Wallingford.Dont get me started with the corrupt DTV change over.In order for me to get a a single channel.I got to stand on my roof with a good antenna.

The last DTV box I picked up was a Aluratex with the thumb drive DVR feature which came from Best Buy at the Meriden mall around last Christmas .I went up to Kohl's parking lot in a rainstorm up on the hill on the Wallingford/Meriden town line about a week after I bought it and did a band scan and received all the channels.The box and a small TV monitor was powered by a AC inverter doing the setup in Kohl's parkinglot.

When I got home which is southern Wallingford .I only receive channel 8 with choppy reception.


Back in the analog days I used too get most CT channels with a paper clip on the antenna leads.

I'm waiting for the time when new TVs are able to pick up ATSC 3.0, which hopefully proves to be more robust than current ATSC.

How has the transmitter work on Rattlesnake Mountain affected everyone? I know it's on the taller tower with the candelabra. That involves channel 20 (CW), 24 (PBS) and 61 (FOX).

KML-224 said:

How has the transmitter work on Rattlesnake Mountain affected everyone? I know it's on the taller tower with the candelabra. That involves channel 20 (CW), 24 (PBS) and 61 (FOX).

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At my house it's increasingly difficult to pull in 61, which is disappointing because there are some things I like to watch on Antenna TV (61.2) and reruns of Rescue 911 on Justice Network. (61.4).