Over Air TV Pros and Cons (Houston, San Antonio: live, station, radio)

[huckster]

Those roof top antennae are OK. Works pretty well for the most part. A friend of mine who would have no problems with a cable bill refuses to pay for his television viewing. Is he an eccentric?
Sure. Some stations do get faulty receptions. Fox I think. However he does live on a distinctly-high- hill top
just inside 1604 and I-10 facing the City. This may help reception.
The sixty five inch, curved screen, and latest Ultra hi-def television works off a thirty dollar antennae. As good a picture as cable provides is received, I must comment.
As for myself I must, have cable news and history channel.

[smitty12]

Originally Posted by macbillybob

That ClearStream 2V is the one I have. I still have a problem with KSAT at night. All other stations are fine.

It was the KSAT engineer who sent me a picture of the big old VHF antenna. I guess I could put one in my attic and give it a try.

I wonder if your in some kind of weird spot where at night your getting interference from another station further away on the same channel. In general signals propagate further at night.

[macbillybob]

Originally Posted by smitty12

I wonder if your in some kind of weird spot where at night your getting interference from another station further away on the same channel. In general signals propagate further at night.

Don't know. I would think I would get something on the signal meter. It reads 0. But that is an interesting idea. I have kind of written off KSAT for now. I get it on Playstation vue anyway and my wife can watch on the ABC Roku app.

I get NBC, CBS and Fox very strong but that is probably because they are UHF and KSAT is VHF.

[txtea]

Could be they lower the transmitting power at night....I know radio stations did that.
Transmitter is located over by Elmendorf. Your location makes a huge difference in reception.

[macbillybob]

Originally Posted by txtea

Could be they lower the transmitting power at night....I know radio stations did that.
Transmitter is located over by Elmendorf. Your location makes a huge difference in reception.

I realize the transmitters are SE of SA. I do also realize I am 34 miles from the major network transmitters (CBS,NBC,ABC) I get CBS NBC and Fox very strong.

I would have thought that the KSAT engineer would have confessed that they lower the power. I had a few email communications with him about this issue..

I think it is just the VHF issue.

[smitty12]

Originally Posted by macbillybob

I realize the transmitters are SE of SA. I do also realize I am 34 miles from the major network transmitters (CBS,NBC,ABC) I get CBS NBC and Fox very strong.

I would have thought that the KSAT engineer would have confessed that they lower the power. I had a few email communications with him about this issue..

I think it is just the VHF issue.

I think it is just AM radio stations that lower power, frequency matters in how much extra propagation happens at night and the needs to reduce power. This is why though even with the lower power you can often pick up AM stations from across the country at night.

[JH6]

We just moved into an apartment near i10 west.

Could not get any channels reliably on our window antenna.

When I lived 20 miles north of Austin we got like 30-40 channels.

We subscribed to directv NOW on the roku.

[Rogarven]

Is it possible to pick up Austin channels as well as SA with a OTA ?

[ged_782]

Originally Posted by Rogarven

Is it possible to pick up Austin channels as well as SA with a OTA ?

Perhaps if you mounted a deep-fringe outdoor antenna at high elevation, you could. But you would be resorting to extreme measures to pull in OTA that mostly duplicates network programming available in San Antonio by utilizing lesser measures. Even then, it might not work.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by ged_782

Perhaps if you mounted a deep-fringe outdoor antenna at high elevation, you could. But you would be resorting to extreme measures to pull in OTA that mostly duplicates network programming available in San Antonio by utilizing lesser measures. Even then, it might not work.

TV antennas are directional, so you would almost certainly need an antenna rotator, too. The rotator would point the antenna toward the city whose signals you want to receive.