OTA Cable -what channels do you pick up (Johnson City, Kingsport: coupon, homes)

[s_wall98]

I'm canceling cable, trying to find the right antenna and wondering what channels everyone else is picking up.
Right now (with the cheapest decent antenna I could find) I'm getting cbs, abc, fox, mytv, tnn and this tv. I can't pick up nbc or pbs and should be able to.
Are any of you using an antenna able to pick up nbc?
I'm in Johnson City btw.
Thanks

[Jim37680]

You might try using the National Association of Broadcasters "AntennaWeb" on-line tool to find the identity of the stations available at your physical address. This gives a color coded guide to identify how serious an antenna you will need to receive individual stations. Here is the link:

AntennaWeb - Home

Since you can receive the Fox channel 39.1,2 WEMT (ota 38) you should be able to get NBC 5.1,2,3 WCYB (ota 5 & ota 29) since they are under common ownership and on the same tower (but at different elevations). It can be difficult to receive the digital signal on ota channel 5 unless you have an antenna suitable for VHF channels and they can be physically large (about 5 feet wide) at the channel 5 wavelength. WCYB appears to also be broadcasting on UHF channel 29 which can be received with a much smaller UHF antenna. I don't know if the power levels are comparable on the 5 and 29 transmitters. OTA 29 may be a low power station but I can receive it here in Kingsport.

Some places in Johnson City can be at a disadvantage due to way the Holston Mountain is oriented. The bulk of the southwest end of Holston can actually block direct view of the WCYB site in parts of Johnson City (at least it did before they built the new and taller tower). WJHL 11.1,2,3 and WKPT 19.1,2,3,4 are much further to the southwest on Holston Mountain and should put a strong signal most anywhere into JC. WEPT (PBS) 2.1,2,3 (ota 41) broadcasts from down on Short Mountain near Bean Station and you will probably have difficulty on that one in JC unless you are on the high ground.

I dumped DirecTV about two years ago and have never missed it. We got tired of $90 a month for reruns, shopping channels, and sports channels we never watched. Until they develop a more customer-centric business model on bundling channels to varied tastes- I won't be back. Same goes for Dish and all the cable crowd.

[s_wall98]

That's what had me confused. I get both wemt and wjhl at over 84%. I cant imagine getting those 2 with that strong a signal and nothing showing up for wcyb. I guess I'll try out an exterior antennabefore getting too excited.
Thanks

[s_wall98]

Anyone else?

[Jim37680]

I'll add a bit more insight into this issue. Not all digital televisions (and outboard DTV converters) are created equal in sensitivity.

The present DTV system adopted in the US (called ATSC) has long been controversial and considered by many technical folks to be inferior to the digital system adopted in Europe. The problem has to do with the way the receivers process multiple reflected signals in areas of mountains and tall city canyons. Reflections arrive at the receiver shifted slightly in time and this caused the effect of very poor sensitivity and extremely critical antenna placement.

The ATSC system was developed by a group of companies called the "grand alliance" but most of the technology was developed by Zenith Corporation. Zenith was fully acquired by the Korean company called LG which has continued to refine the signal processor software through several generations. It wasn't until what I think was generation five that they got it right and started producing receiver chips with sensitivity comparable to the tuners in the old analog NTSC receivers (system used since the late 40's). The 5th generation chips were announced in 2005 but were slow to appear in LG production receivers. Some receivers on the current market may still not have anything as good as the LG 5th generation chips.

From what I have observed since then, not all receivers use the 5th and later generation chips. The HDTV market is highly cost competitive and probably up to 80% of homes feed a strong cable signal to the tuner which can do well with a "cheaper" tuner chipset. Some HDTVs really suck well at trying to suck in signals off the air and others just simply suck. I have a year old 24" Samsung T24B350 that I use here at my bench which has really impressed me with it's ability to receive signals that older equipment I have can't touch. The LG produced Zenith DTT901 and DTT901A digital converter boxes (and an identical Insignia model) also have great sensitivity. Unfortunately LG quit producing these after the US government digital converter box coupon program expired. Most of the digital converter boxes like the RCA and APEX , for example, reportedly have poor sensitivity and reliability. Radio Shack sells a converter made by Digital Stream that had a decent reputation for sensitivity (some time ago anyway).

I don't know what type of receiver you have been using but you might want to experiment with something else from friends and family before giving up on the missing channels. I think you may be out of luck on the PBS in any case due to geography.

[GingerSue]

I am also in Johnson City. I can pick up NBC with my indoor HDTV antenna, but I have to reposition it for that channel. However, I mainly watch Hulu Plus and Netflix, which I stream to my tv with my internet connection. Hulu has a lot of NBC programs.

[RGS19750]

I can pick up channel 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 any time no matter what the weather or where i point my outside antenna. When it gets cold like below freezing and tonight its litely raining and 50 degrees and my signal is jumping on and off and staying off mostlt and only getting 70 to 77 on signal strength, i blame it on wjhl's signal not being strong enough since i can always pick up channel 5 and both transmitter towers are on holston mountain. I have a 42 inch toshiba tv about 4 years old. I have seen above that most tv's do not have very good digital recievers in them..how do i know if a new tv has the best receiver in it since i use an antenna and can i file a law suite aganist wjhl for not broadcasting a signal that i can receive. I never had this problem with the analog signal even in bad weather.,i thought they were required by law to send a signal that we could receive?????
Thanks! Rgs19750

[Rangerred]

I have an amplified Mohu Leaf indoor antenna and am located in south Johnson City near ETSU. I pick up 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 5.1 , 5.2, 5.3, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4, 39.1, and 39.2. I probably tried 5 different amplified indoor antennas before finding one that would actually pick up everything available. (Do an Amazon search for this antenna as it is not available in any stores locally). It is flat and paper thin and i have it mounted on the wall in a corner of the bedroom basically out of sight with about a 40 ft. cable run through the crawlspace to the tv in the living room. Even with the long cable run I am still able to receive all of the above channels no problem. Weather can affect reception at times but I'd say 80-90% of the time there are no issues with any channel.

[s_wall98]

What networks are 2.1- 2.3?

[Rangerred]

What networks are 2.1- 2.3?

PBS, PBS World, and Create.