I can't receive Bangor area over-the-air digital TV stations

[Davelectric7]

Make shure you have good coax and on splitters or tees as short as posible you can looose over 90% of you signal in the feed in wires

[reloop]

I kissed MPBN "goodbye" when they went digital, and I still can't get 7 even 'tho I have an antenna.

2 and 5 are extremely dark and have poor sound quality.

Grrrrrrrr...

[JLynn35]

We have direct TV at our camp and are frustrated by it. When I signed up in November I was told I would have local channels by the end of the year...that did not happen...

I was finally able to get local channels out of NYC...and I get charged to get them...

Now I see that Bangor will have local Channels as of April 9th..but even though we are only 75 miles away we still will not get anything local...

I've talked to so many people...they are sorry I was given the wrong information when I signed up, but if I want to cancel it will cost me $350 dollars...

When our contract is up I will find a new provider...many people in Sherman suggest Dish Network...I'm weary to trust any of the Dish people..

[Elcarim]

We're in Calais and have DirecTv. We have the local channels. We've had that since early March. We've got WLBZ, WABI, WVII, WMEB, CW, & WFVX. Are we missing any? It's hard to know, since we just moved from TX and only know those stations.

I have learned that I prefer channel 2 news and weather here.

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by Elcarim

We're in Calais and have DirecTv. We have the local channels. We've had that since early March. We've got WLBZ, WABI, WVII, WMEB, CW, & WFVX. Are we missing any? It's hard to know, since we just moved from TX and only know those stations.

I have learned that I prefer channel 2 news and weather here.

That's all folks.

[Davelectric7]

Digital tv reception right in town is not hard to do with an outside antenna made out of a piece of coax stripping the outer jacket off about a foot . The biggest problem i found is with cheap coax , lenght and splitters. makes a lot bigger difference than the antenna. in rural areas you might not get it no matter what you do.I hate seeing people sold junk that just dosent work or cost too much.. I took my big outside antenna and just run the coax its not directional. . works good for me

[kellysmith]

Originally Posted by JLynn35

We have direct TV at our camp and are frustrated by it. When I signed up in November I was told I would have local channels by the end of the year...that did not happen...

I was finally able to get local channels out of NYC...and I get charged to get them...

Now I see that Bangor will have local Channels as of April 9th..but even though we are only 75 miles away we still will not get anything local...

I've talked to so many people...they are sorry I was given the wrong information when I signed up, but if I want to cancel it will cost me $350 dollars...

When our contract is up I will find a new provider...many people in Sherman suggest Dish Network...I'm weary to trust any of the Dish people..

Don't hold your breathe waiting for locals in Sherman from either DirectTV or DishNetwork. The FCC in all their wisdom has allotted the entire Aroostook County as part of Presque Isle's market area. Penobscot and Washington County are part of Bangor's. Until DirectTV or Dish broadcast Presque Isle's channels, there will be no option for local network channels in Aroostook. You can get "distant networks" which you speak of...they are the New York network affiliates. Become a New York Jets fan, because you will see their games on Sunday, not the Patriots. You will know what the local weather is in New York...just don't wait for them to tell you about your area. To me that's the biggest problem, no local weather will be available. It would be one thing if the Presque Isle market area included all the networks. WAGM in Presque Isle has a CBS and FOX affiliate. Nothing from ABC or NBC...in my eyes, the Presque Isle market area isn't provided local networks by WAGM if they only provide 2 of the 4 major networks...so what is the FCC protecting? I doesn't make much sense to me that Patten is in the Bangor Market Area and Sherman is in Presque Isle's. Someone should look at a map. I've sent multiple letters to our Senator's complaining of this and have yet to even get a response that they received my correspondence....but Ms Collins always seems to be protective of the Presque Isle-Caribou area, so I'm not holding my breathe.

[Davelectric7]

One problem i found with digital tv is the misinformation . 7&12 in bangor went back to VHF and i think the the others are too . People bought UHF antennas that might not be any good im in kenduskeag and i can get 6 out of portland about 45% singal strenght but not 7.1 7.2 with a UHF antenna i still like my antenna (just a piece of coax cut to lenght) better than either my UHF or UHF VHF at 35 feet . i dont have to run a rotator box . and its free i like free . sorry radio shack

[Davelectric7]

Thier is a lot of imformation on the web about antenna theory. db gain loss on coax . if walmart realy thinks they can sell a 55db gain set of rabbit ears why do a chunk of coax with 0 db gain work so much better? hehe a freind of mine had an outside antenna an a 50 foot tower and a rotator box . i took 25 feet of RG6 coax stripped a foot off the outer jacket and put it on his pourch and it work much better he ha a 100 feet of coax and a tee hooked up . Im just a local ham trying to give a tip the most retailors will never tell you. location of the antenna make a huge difference sometimes just a foot or too makes all the difference . just becare about moving an antenna to high it might not be worth the coax line loss. a much better grade of coax like (rg 11) might more than make up for a cheaper antenna the best outside antennas only have like 6 to 8 db gain you can loose much more than that in the coax

[maine4.us]

The rules of RF tend to rewrite themselves. Years ago my dad and I put up a new antenna to receive the new UHF stations, and get better reception on VHF. We worked for hours yelling to my mother in the house...."is it better worse or what". After several hours of "worse", one of the guys came loose and the mast did a huge U turn. The antenna came to rest pointing down at the ground but on top of the picnic table about 3 feet off the ground. My mother yelled...."stop, leave it right there....its perfect.".....

Multipaths, RF noise and other such things are only annoying watching analog signals, but they are death on digital signals. They keep telling me I have too strong of a signal, and that is overloading the front end of the tuner (analog talk here).....so who knows... All the HD channels that went from UHF to VHF (for what reason only the FCC knows) will most likely only be received a few miles from the tower. I lost two channels, both of which moved to VHF. In Eastport, the only channel that was watchable was MPBN and the Saint John NB stations. Now, we are without! Cable or dish is the only option.