re: Outdoor TV antenna UPDATE

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Hell I can remember growing up here in Ponchatoula on the rare occasions the Saints were on Monday Night football we could turn the antenna the right way and pick the blacked out games on channel 13 out of Biloxi in the second half.

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Back in the 1970’s, cable systems as as far away as Golden Meadow (Callais Cable) would pull in KLFY to go around the blackout rules.

Until the early 1990’s when the NFL moved to Fox, KLFY was on Houma and Thibodaux cable systems. Still today, most Baton Rouge TV stations are available on cable in the Houma Thibodaux area.

For an odd ball cable TV market, how about Morgan City? Where you can still get your pick of Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and New Orleans TV stations. Only change has been, Fox network programming gets blocked, due to network rules.

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As a child, I learned that if I went outside and slowly rotated the antenna every few minutes the adults inside drinking beer could apparently see the football game better. That would probably be child abuse these days though.

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And who can forget standing outside during an incoming rain storm and the old man is yelling "hold it right there!"

Tyler is the man when it comes to antennas

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UPDATE I know this is weird but this past Friday afternoon and all day Saturday I could hardly pickup the channels I had scanned in on my outdoor antenna. I tried everything, recanning, moving antenna, changing cable and nothing worked. Now this morning, the day after the Garth Brooks concert I'm getting all the channels loud and clear. Doesn't make sense to me.

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Depending on your location weather can have a huge impact on your reception.

The primary times are early morning to mid morning and just after sunset. As air cools or warms, tropospheric ducts open up in the atmosphere around the Gulf of Mexico and you can catch stations from all around. Just wait until the humid of the summer time comes. It can get worse.

My best, was one time I was able to catch a station from Corpus Christi in Houma on an antenna 50 feet up. Another time, I caught a station from Little Rock, Ark. I have even caught stations from Houston at times too.

The downfall of digital is that when you have multiple stations on the same channel they can cancel each other out and make a signal that would have been full of static or ghosting be completely silent called the digital cliff.

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The end of analog TV pretty much ended catching long distance TV stations. Analog would let you see a signal through the snow and peak it in. With digital, it's all or nothing. The digital wavelengths are really short, so walls of rain and fog between the transmitter site and your house will block your signal. My best is being able to watch New Orleans TV from Watson in the early mornings and late night, but by 8a the signal is usually gone.

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Not only that, stations are starting to be really short spaced. Due to repacking to all the channels under channel 36.

Now you have full power stations that are a “mere city apart” in some areas. And you have low powers in between the full powers.

It is conceivable in a market like LA or New York City to have almost every channel occupied by either a Low power or Full power station 2-36. And in the surrounding markets, where a low power station in New York was, a full power station is occupying that space.

This youtuber has all the info you need, watch this one first and check out the other vids he has up for more info.

LINK